Did Trump really try to solve a problem that doesn’t exist?

[msc545]

https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-plan-to-restrict-mail-voting?utm_source=sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=majorinvestigations&utm_content=feature

[WhiteSteve]

That’s kind of my whole issue with MAGA: they run on imagined issues that don’t exist in reality, or at best, they badly exaggerate and/or mischaracterize them.

Trans women in sports? Non-issue

The “wide open” border? Complete mischaracterization and exaggeration, of both numbers and consequences

Election fraud? No issue existing prior to any of this.

This is all completely made up shit that they’ve somehow whipped half the country into an illogical frenzy about, with disastrous results, both tangibly and in just in our national culture. This phenomenon will be studied for CENTURIES, and sadly, probably strategically borrowed from by other bad political actors in the future, maybe here again, or elsewhere in the world.

But they look us in the eyes, DEAD SERIOUS, and tell us WE’RE the delusional ones. I’ve honestly just never seen anything like this, not on this broad of a scale.

[MrChinaski]

There was a real problem. He really lost to Biden. The solution was to claim the election was stolen.

Didn't you get the memo?

[msc545]

Well, he couldn't really admit that he actually lost to Biden now. Could he?

[Anonymous]

Honestly, I wouldn't say the problem didn't exist at all. There were real concerns about trade deficits, manufacturing jobs and foreign trade barriers. But I do think Trump took those problems and treated them as if broad tariffs were the obvious answer, and that's where I have doubts.

So for me, it's less there was no problem and more **was this really the right way to solve it?**

[WhiteSteve]

Just a little insight about trade deficits that you may or may not be aware of; no venom😊….

The thing to remember is that it’s not necessarily inherently bad to have a trade deficit. Sometimes that’s just kind of the nature of the relationship, and that’s ok.

As an example: take the African island nation of Madagascar. I don’t have all the exact numbers in front of me, forgive me; but Madagascar supplies something like 80% of the world’s vanilla. They just have an ideal climate for it, so they’re something of a banana republic, or I guess in this case, a vanilla republic. It’s a very significant portion of their export numbers.

So…. here’s America, and we like vanilla flavored stuff, and the extract goes into all manner of sweets. We’re a buyer. And we’re huge. So Madagascar is going to be getting a lot of incoming money. That’s the easy part.

Where you have to think a little more critically, is that Madagascar is super poor. Their average citizen lives off of the equivalent of $2.15 USD per day. They’re not going to be buying MacBook laptops and Ford F-150s; these people are barely surviving. They’re not just not importing things from America to be assholes; they literally can’t afford our stuff. Any products they get will be locally made, or some super cheap product that China or Vietnam or something will sell them. There’s just no market for American goods there due to extreme poverty.

So that’s going to result in a perceived “trade deficit.” But there’s really nothing to be done about it, except quitting vanilla, haha.

[WhiteSteve]

Is the same principle applicable to CHINA? Maybe that’s a better place to focus our efforts. But even some of these other countries we don’t immediately think about in Europe or elsewhere…. like how many Belgian goods are we REALLY importing? Some fancy beers, maybe some other kind of food product, but like…. i would never expect to be selling MORE to a country so much smaller than us, and with such a limited amount of goods we need for them.

America has an economy, like anywhere else; but we are not meant to be a for-profit business. The cringiest thing I hear from Trump supporters is when they reference him being some great businessman, and “he’ll run America like a business.” NEVER DO THAT, lmao, for myriad reasons I won’t even waste our time detailing. But must saying that the economy isn’t just some business’ balance sheet. You don’t have to “win” the exchange with most countries. It’s not like that.

Trump has also been dishonest in his characterization of a lot of these “bad trade deals.” I can’t keep up with the thousands of nonstop shenanigans from these guys, so stuff from a year and a half ago is a little fuzzy for me. But he had something having to do with Canada, and like dairy, or milk specifically…. something like that. I just remember that he was bellyaching about how unfair it was that they limit the amount of American milk they’d buy, something along those lines. But what we weren’t told is that there was just some kind of clause in the deal that mandated that Canadian milk production or sales had to reach some threshold before American milk could be purchased…. something in that vein, that’s just a common sense protection for your own farmers/ranchers that we’d demand of our own government. So I’m not mad at Canada for that.

I don’t know, just a few thoughts I thought might shed a little light. Take ‘em or leave ‘em✌️

[DryGermanGuy]

That idiot Trump doesn't even know what a trade deficit is! He thinks it means that the United States or American companies are losing money!

[duntoldya]

Ah so we're moving from "It's not happening" to "It's happening but it's no big deal"

[msc545]

Can you please explain what you're talking about?

[Sevenpointfive]

he breaks things to exploit them. that's all it is.

[jshm2]

No. He tried to steal the election - again,

[Just_Ken]

Mail in voting should be banned. Dead people shouldn't be allowed to vote.

[shish_kebab]

That seems kind of racist against dead people.

[Just_Ken]

@shish_kebab I suppose. Why shouldn't general custer a civil war vetrean be prevented from mailing his vote in from the other side with a thankyou gor your service lol

[shish_kebab]

It seems like the Democratic thing to do.

[msc545]

If that actually happened, it might be worth worrying about if it happened in any quantity. But it doesn't. The real reason that Trump wants mail-in voting banned it's because he wants as much voting as possible, made as difficult as possible so that people will not vote against him or his interests. In the US. We do not suppress voting like that for political reasons.

[shish_kebab]

If voting was made harder it would be made harder for both sides. Besides, last go round I got three mail-in ballots sent to me, none of which were mine.
My ballot came the next day.

[Just_Ken]

That sounds like the voter id argument. Basically you are saying people are too lazy to vote.

[shish_kebab]

Ken, also some Democrats can figure out how they get ID. So there is racism involved.

[msc545]

It's not a question of lazy. It's a question of practicality and finances. Turns out interestingly enough that right-wing voters tend to be a lot better off financially than left-wing voters and God forbid we have left-wing voters actually vote. They might vote against Republicans. Quite a bit in fact. Can't have that. Can we? Go check out how much it costs to get a passport if you don't have one and then think about whether or not you would be willing to pay for a passport if it meant missing a few meals.

[MrChinaski]

If Mitch McConnell can be a senator I don't see why his dead brethren should be disenfranchised.

[Just_Ken]

You litteraly can't do anything as a US citizen so its what is called a MOO point.

[msc545]

they Don't vote. It's just a lie.

[Alex-Snow]

The idiot is trying everything possible to interfere with the midterms be3cause he is scared.

[NathanDavis]

more like... he creates issue and problems, where there are not so much, or none, lol

[Snakeyes7]

If it's not a problem then what's the harm in banning it anyway?

[msc545]

The harm is that the methods used to ensure supposedly illegals won't vote. Also keeps many many legal people from voting as well. That is the harm and that is the point.

[Snakeyes7]

As they shouldn't be either. Only citizens should be allowed to vote.

[msc545]

You don't seem to understand that it also keeps citizens from voting.