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U.S Presidential Election

tigerdell

Hope springs infernal
Mar 29, 2014
4,546
5,154
Does the article discuss the locking up of people at the border?
Families were separated, children kept away from parents and then the parents were deported.
And now they cant reunite them, i guess thru lack of paperwork. So there are children who are permanently without their parents.

It was the worst action of the trump administration in my opinion.
Unpardonable
 
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AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
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Trump’s record on the economy is strong

“Amazing by any standards” was outgoing president Donald Trump’s summation of his administration’s achievements when he departed the White House.

Putting aside the characteristic exaggeration, his four years in office notched up significant achievements, arguably more than his predecessor, Barack Obama, who had twice the time.

Trump ended his tenure the most unpopular president in history, denying the clear result of the November US election and facing accusations of inciting violence. But for typical Americans, his presidency was a relatively prosperous period until COVID struck.

The new White House staff quickly took down a long document their predecessors had put together on the outgoing administration’s achievements.

Some of them were controversial, such as building 650km of wall with Mexico and moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, but many were unambiguously good, if rarely reported by a media which largely disdains Trump.

The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 per cent on his watch, a level unimaginable in Australia and the lowest in the US since the 1960s.

Incomes of ordinary American households, perhaps the most important metric of all, had stagnated for decades, but they increased by $US6000 ($7750) over Trump’s tenure, more than five times as much as they had under Obama.

Moreover, these gains were greatest among black and Hispanic Americans, who earn the least.

Prescription drug prices fell nearly 10 per cent, the first decline in half a century, while the typical US household save $US2500 a year on electricity and petrol.

Remarkably, 56 per cent of Americans, even in October, told a Gallup poll they were better off than four years previously.

Joe Biden’s challenge will be to maintain these trends, which stand out amid the ongoing stagnation of real incomes in Europe — and, indeed, in Australia.

Abroad, Trump didn’t launch any wars, and brokered a peace deal between Israel and Arab states; and the meeting with North Korea’s leader and tearing up the nuclear deal with Iran haven’t turned out to be the disasters many expected.

Few experts expect Biden to substantively alter the tough line Trump took on China.

Inequality, the bane of US society, even declined. “The share of total wealth held by the bottom half of households increased, while the share held by the top 1 per cent decreased,” the former White House noted.

It was the virus that finished off Trump, not the Democrats, or even Trump’s own repulsive personality. Until the pandemic struck, if not great, America was better, at least. The vast bulk of people don’t care for the political “narratives” constructed by the media and political elites, they simply want higher wages and cheaper goods and services, and to get on with their life.

Biden is now working furiously to “defeat” the virus that ensured his victory.

His first flurry of executive orders included mask mandates for federal property and interstate travel, and new quarantine rules for arrivals in the US.

Tough rules in Europe haven’t stopped renewed outbreaks. The relationship between individual US states’ public health measures and their COVID-19 outcomes is weak, putting it generously. North Dakota mandated masks early; South Dakota didn’t, yet the trajectory of the virus has been similar in both. California locked down early and hard, yet is doing worse than Florida, which didn’t.

Governments might have less control over the path of the virus than they, and voters, think.

Based on what happened last year in the northern hemisphere, the coronavirus is likely to retreat when the winter passes — a phenomenon that many in Biden’s America will attribute, no doubt, to face masks and a more “caring” administration.

In any case, the perception that Trump’s record on COVID-19 was uniquely disastrous is unfair.

The US has “done better” (in terms of having fewer lives lost per capita) than France and the UK, for instance, whose governments have not been criticised anywhere near as much.

The US has conducted almost 300 million tests, more than the EU countries combined. The Trump administration introduced a travel ban on Chinese arrivals around the same time as Australia did. It increased production of ventilators, hospital beds and masks dramatically.

And despite being ridiculed in the middle of last year for claiming a vaccine was imminent, Pfizer and Moderna developed one in nine months, five times faster than any previous US vaccine.

Trump’s initial instinct to play down the severity of COVID-19 might even be come to be seen as a more rational strategy, from the point of view of overall wellbeing, than deliberately scaring the daylights out of everyone at huge social and economic cost.

Trump didn’t have much control anyway. As Australians are now well aware, in a federation the national government does not always get its way. The US states are even more independent, both financially and constitutionally, than ours. Texas has more people than Australia.

Biden should be careful not to derail the rapid US recovery. In the third quarter of last year, the US economy grew at an annualised rate of 33 per cent: the most rapid GDP growth ever recorded. More than half the jobs destroyed by lockdowns have come back.

Politically, Trump is an easy act to follow. Economically, Biden has more of a challenge.

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tigerman

It's Tiger Time
Mar 17, 2003
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I get a lot of joy from the fact that Trump who used lies and conspiracy theories to get elected in 2016, leaves the White House with his legacy in ruins because of his stupid lies and conspiracy theories.
He will be forever remembered by his rabid fans rioting at Capitol Hill, incited by his lies that the election was stolen from them.
Trump used conspiracy theories to great effect, but in the end conspiracy theories bit him on the arse, the Capitol Hill riot will forever tarnish his record.
Karma is a *smile* :mhihi
 
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mrposhman

Tiger Legend
Oct 6, 2013
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Who wrote that tripe? The US unemployment rate stands at 6.7%, for starters.

To be fair they were commenting on pre-pandemic. The rhetoric in that article is that the economy was prospering and was derailed by Covid which is a relatively fair assessment. How Trump dealt with Covid was a disaster but the 3.5% rate was certainly achieved in the 1st quarter of 2020. It was also the lowest rate achieved in the US since the 50's.

 
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AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
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To be fair they were commenting on pre-pandemic. The rhetoric in that article is that the economy was prospering and was derailed by Covid which is a relatively fair assessment. How Trump dealt with Covid was a disaster but the 3.5% rate was certainly achieved in the 1st quarter of 2020. It was also the lowest rate achieved in the US since the 50's.


"Things were going great for Trump, until they went badly".

Unfortunately for Trump you have to look at his presidency as a whole. The economy continued its upswing under Obama and Trump kept that going, or rather America did. I don't need to go over all the disasters from last year again, but by ignoring the virus and trying to keep the economy open at all costs Trump made things much worse than they should have been.

Biden will get a nice kick in his statistics as covid is brought under control and the economy continues to recover - is that fair? Maybe not, but that's how it goes. Ultimately leaders are judged on their total record, not how things were when everything was going well.
 

mrposhman

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Oct 6, 2013
17,849
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"Things were going great for Trump, until they went badly".

Unfortunately for Trump you have to look at his presidency as a whole. The economy continued its upswing under Obama and Trump kept that going, or rather America did. I don't need to go over all the disasters from last year again, but by ignoring the virus and trying to keep the economy open at all costs Trump made things much worse than they should have been.

Biden will get a nice kick in his statistics as covid is brought under control and the economy continues to recover - is that fair? Maybe not, but that's how it goes. Ultimately leaders are judged on their total record, not how things were when everything was going well.

Yes I agree with that and his handling of the pandemic (or lack of handling) was a disaster for the US. Not withstanding that, none of the other presidents in 100 years have had to deal with something like Covid. It doesn't advocate for him failing to act, but clearly would have an effect on things like unemployment statistics probably harsher than it should be.

I'm happy Trumps gone, so don't take this as a Trump like post. I can't stand the guy and I know how he handles things that don't go well, he goes off crying to a higher power. I know that for a fact based on 1 of his golf courses in Scotland which is about 2 or 3 miles from my dads house. The corruption that should have been exposed, has had a massive detrimental impact to the localised area (the reason it was rejected by the local government).

The recovery pre Covid should have some allowance but for Trump, the last year of his presidency will absolutely be his legacy as the 45th president of the US.
 

AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
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Yes I agree with that and his handling of the pandemic (or lack of handling) was a disaster for the US. Not withstanding that, none of the other presidents in 100 years have had to deal with something like Covid. It doesn't advocate for him failing to act, but clearly would have an effect on things like unemployment statistics probably harsher than it should be.

I'm happy Trumps gone, so don't take this as a Trump like post. I can't stand the guy and I know how he handles things that don't go well, he goes off crying to a higher power. I know that for a fact based on 1 of his golf courses in Scotland which is about 2 or 3 miles from my dads house. The corruption that should have been exposed, has had a massive detrimental impact to the localised area (the reason it was rejected by the local government).

The recovery pre Covid should have some allowance but for Trump, the last year of his presidency will absolutely be his legacy as the 45th president of the US.

Yep, agree with most of that Posh... although I reckon the Great Depression and WWII were more significant than Covid.
 

tigerman

It's Tiger Time
Mar 17, 2003
24,150
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Yep, agree with most of that Posh... although I reckon the Great Depression and WWII were more significant than Covid.
The Spanish flu was very significant too, it's estimated to have killed 675,000 Americans.......including Trump's Grandfather.
But Trump didn't care about that, even though both he and his father got their their leg up in life because of him. It is said he was worth nearly $600,000 US when he died in 1918.
 

mrposhman

Tiger Legend
Oct 6, 2013
17,849
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The part that caught my eye was the 'typical US household saved US$2500 on petrol and electricity'.

That's either a huge percentage cut or the amount Americans pay for those things is many times what Australians do.

Would love to see the breakdown of that. They have for a long period of time had a significantly cheaper petrol price than Australians (taxes are way cheaper on fuel than in Australia) and I don't think from memory (I had a house there) that their electricity wasn't all that expensive. I struggle to see how they could save US$2500 on those 2 unless consumption has dramatically declined.
 

AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
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The Spanish flu was very significant too, it's estimated to have killed 675,000 Americans.......including Trump's Grandfather.
But Trump didn't care about that, even though both he and his father got their their leg up in life because of him. It is said he was worth nearly $600,000 US when he died in 1918.

Yeah, Spanish flu falls within 100 years of Trump's presidency.
 

mrposhman

Tiger Legend
Oct 6, 2013
17,849
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Yep, agree with most of that Posh... although I reckon the Great Depression and WWII were more significant than Covid.

Fair call particularly on the Great Depression. I don't see any stats going back that far, most seem to start from 1948. In terms of WW2, unemployment certainly wasn't high during the war, it was all hands on deck to manufacture weapons.
 

AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
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Fair call particularly on the Great Depression. I don't see any stats going back that far, most seem to start from 1948. In terms of WW2, unemployment certainly wasn't high during the war, it was all hands on deck to manufacture weapons.

yeah, completely different scenario, I agree. Imagine a leader as weak and ineffectual as Trump during a world war.
 

mrposhman

Tiger Legend
Oct 6, 2013
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yeah, completely different scenario, I agree. Imagine a leader as weak and ineffectual as Trump during a world war.

Yep imagine someone like that. I give you Neville Chamberlain. There are a lot of similarities between Chamberlain and Trump. This is a good article from the NYT that shows how ineffectual Chamberlain was, and there are so many things that he did that sound just like Trump.


"The British people, meanwhile, knew virtually nothing about the deplorable state of British rearmament or their government’s behind-the-scenes activities. Using tactics that have striking resonance today, Chamberlain and his men badgered the BBC and newspapers to follow the government’s lead on appeasement, restricted journalists’ access to government sources and claimed that critics of Chamberlain’s policies were disloyal to him and to Britain. Most of the news media did what the prime minister demanded. The BBC barred Winston Churchill and other opponents of appeasement from the airwaves, while newspaper editors refused to print articles on Britain’s unpreparedness and letters to the editor critical of the government’s concessions to Germany.

Bolstered by his Conservative Party’s huge majority in the House of Commons, Chamberlain also worked to crush dissent in Parliament. “To question his authority was treason: to deny his inspiration was almost blasphemy,” recalled Harold Macmillan, the future prime minister and one of a small band of Conservative M.P.s who, like Churchill, strongly opposed appeasement. The Conservative Party, in its efforts to silence Chamberlain’s parliamentary opponents, was “even stronger than the Nazi party machine,” a member of Chamberlain’s cabinet commented. “It may have a different aim, but it is similarly callous and ruthless.”"

Anything not going along with what Chamberlain wanted was essentially fake news.

Massive difference between Chamberlain and when Churchill took over.
 
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AngryAnt

Tiger Legend
Nov 25, 2004
27,017
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Yep imagine someone like that. I give you Neville Chamberlain. There are a lot of similarities between Chamberlain and Trump. This is a good article from the NYT that shows how ineffectual Chamberlain was, and there are so many things that he did that sound just like Trump.

Yes - similar types of showpieces like the "Peace in our time" stunt. Trump did the same with Kim Jong Un - big summits, lots of publicity, nothing was signed, and Kim went back home and kept on building and testing nukes.
 

tigerman

It's Tiger Time
Mar 17, 2003
24,150
19,618
The Australian's economics editor, Adam Creighton, wrote it.

He's about to become that s..t rag's US correspondent.
Sounds like a real spanker.
Anyone "drawing on work" of a guy with the name of Robert Pindyck can't be taken seriously :)

"Creighton is regarded as holding generally conservative views and has been described by Jason Wilson of The Guardian as an "arch-neoliberal",[6] though Creighton contests this definition and describes his views as "old DLP Labor sprinkled with a bit of libertarianism".[7] He opposes increased action on climate change by the Australian government and has warned of the lack of precision of climate and economic modelling, drawing on work by economist Robert Pindyck.[8]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, as the economics editor for The Australian, Creighton has been an ardent critic of government-implemented lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19[9][10][11][12][13] and has praised Sweden's less restrictive approach to slowing the spread of the virus.[14] Creighton's defence of the Swedish government response to the COVID-19 pandemichas drawn criticism from other sections of the media, with Crikey's Guy Rundle claiming that Creighton's columns were "a compendium of false comparisons"[15] and The Guardian's Jason Wilson writing that Creighton's claims were "flatly contradicted by published epidemiological research".[16]

Creighton has referred to strict lockdowns as an affront to personal liberty and reflective of what he calls "health fascism".[17] In April 2020, Creighton signed a joint letter with several dozen other signatories from academia, business and media calling for a scaling-back of Australia's lockdowns by May."


 
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DavidSSS

Tiger Legend
Dec 11, 2017
10,521
17,873
Melbourne
Sounds like a real spanker.
Anyone "drawing on work" of guy with the name of Robert Pindyck can't be taken seriously :)

"Creighton is regarded as holding generally conservative views and has been described by Jason Wilson of The Guardian as an "arch-neoliberal",[6] though Creighton contests this definition and describes his views as "old DLP Labor sprinkled with a bit of libertarianism".[7] He opposes increased action on climate change by the Australian government and has warned of the lack of precision of climate and economic modelling, drawing on work by economist Robert Pindyck.[8]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, as the economics editor for The Australian, Creighton has been an ardent critic of government-implemented lockdowns to curb the spread of COVID-19[9][10][11][12][13] and has praised Sweden's less restrictive approach to slowing the spread of the virus.[14] Creighton's defence of the Swedish government response to the COVID-19 pandemichas drawn criticism from other sections of the media, with Crikey's Guy Rundle claiming that Creighton's columns were "a compendium of false comparisons"[15] and The Guardian's Jason Wilson writing that Creighton's claims were "flatly contradicted by published epidemiological research".[16]

Creighton has referred to strict lockdowns as an affront to personal liberty and reflective of what he calls "health fascism".[17] In April 2020, Creighton signed a joint letter with several dozen other signatories from academia, business and media calling for a scaling-back of Australia's lockdowns by May."



So just your usual run of the mill neo-liberal fundamentalist writing for the Murdochian.

DS
 
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