Current or modern politics in the United States

[Faceman675]

Originally Posted by Brian249x

....

At 69, I am retired and freely acknowledge that I am frequently wrong. As a person with chronic depression, I am often prone to assume the worst case scenario.

That being said, it is still relatively early in the Trump administration and I believe that his latest actions vis-a-vis trade, Jerusalem, and Iran are extremely ill advised.

Finally, Faceman675, something has been bothering me for some time. Do you actually have permission from the trustees of UCLA to use their logo to promote your political views and nude photography?

I'll work backwards. My avatar and signature pic I stitched from a counted cross stitch pattern booklet that included a chart that showed what color embroidery floss for the NBA NFL and over 100 colleges. I have had it since I was in 6th grade. I dont believe either image is a copyrighted logo, UCLA is in block letters not their copyrighted script. I might be wrong. Worst case they send a cease and desist order. I love UCLA athletics and thats not just Football & Basketball. Being a Bruin fan is like being a Trump supporter, I get so tired of winning I'm sure they would love that comparison

As for trade we have gotten our asses handed to us for decades. "Free" trade is only free if it is free for both trading partners. I think Trump might surprise you.

Jerusalem IS the capital of Israel. Since 1995 it has been the stated policy of the US govt; including POTUS Clinton Bush & Obama, to move our Embassy to Jerusalem. Trump just had the balls to do it. I wish they had waited a bit so the annual Hamas protests against the creation of the modern state of Israel could not be blamed on the move. I believe it was the right thing to do.

Th Iran deal was predicated on an UN resolution which prohibited Iran from developing and testing missiles. By violating the UN resolution Iran violated the deal. Iran also entered the deal on false pretenses claiming they never had a nuclear weapons program. Thanks to Israel we know that they just shelved their program so that once Obama's deal expired in 2025 they could pick up right where they left off. The Obama/Kerry deal would have been more accurately called "Iran's pathway to the Bomb."

I am sorry to hear of your depression. I have on two occasions fought severe bouts of depression. For me it passed in a relatively short time, I think I was lucky. Don't know how I would have managed had it last longer.

[Arturo2nd]

Originally Posted by Faceman675

As for trade we have gotten our asses handed to us for decades. "Free" trade is only free if it is free for both trading partners. I think Trump might surprise you.

Jerusalem IS the capital of Israel. Since 1995 it has been the stated policy of the US govt; including POTUS Clinton Bush & Obama, to move our Embassy to Jerusalem. Trump just had the balls to do it. I wish they had waited a bit so the annual Hamas protests against the creation of the modern state of Israel could not be blamed on the move. I believe it was the right thing to do.

Th Iran deal was predicated on an UN resolution which prohibited Iran from developing and testing missiles. By violating the UN resolution Iran violated the deal. Iran also entered the deal on false pretenses claiming they never had a nuclear weapons program. Thanks to Israel we know that they just shelved their program so that once Obama's deal expired in 2025 they could pick up right where they left off. The Obama/Kerry deal would have been more accurately called "Iran's pathway to the Bomb." (I believe that whatever source you are using has mislead you. The Israel "information" predates the agreement.)

I am sorry to hear of your depression. I have on two occasions fought severe bouts of depression. For me it passed in a relatively short time, I think I was lucky. Don't know how I would have managed had it last longer.

The United States economy runs on free trade. Our trading partners have been forced to provide us with trillions of dollars of goods and capital to finance our deficits. They are extremely unlikely to be repaid. This is NOT to say that we should continue to allow China to pilfer our research and advanced technology. That is a seperate issue that has been allowed to fester for too long.

IMO the United States government would be well served to stop confusing Israel's interests with its own. Israel has never hesitated to compromise the United States to advance its own agenda.

The missiles were not included in the agreement. That may have been a mistake or an oversight, but also offered an opportunity for expanded negotiations. Remember that Iran has been disappointed in the relatively meager economic boost it has received from the deal. Mr. Trump also does not seem to have appreciated the benefit to us of empowering Shiite Iran to divert Sunni hostility away from us. Once again, we are seen as enemies of Shiites while Sunni al-Qaeda, ISIS, and Talibans continue to attack us. We now see Iran expanding trade with China, India, and Russia. We also see more movement away from the U.S. dominated international finance network and into the new banking and financing structure created by Brazil, China, India, Russia, and South Africa to avoid our continuing domination. We will have a real crisis when alternative reserve currencies emerge and it becomes much harder to sell the bonds to finance our deficits.

Even worse, Trump's renouncing all of these treaties should make anybody else negotiating with us extremely reluctant to sign off on a new deal. North Korea is already backing off. Mexico and Canada are refusing to make concessions for NAFTA. Europe and China are enacting new sanctions. A DACA deal, immigration reform, and the border wall can't get done because Trump keeps changing the terms of deals. We have lost complete credibility because Iran has been in compliance with the deal.

Thank you for your concern. The past few years have been very difficult. Were it not for a large and loving family. I would have chosen to leave already.

[Arturo2nd]

I stumbled across this article. While looking at the maps it occurred to me that one's perception of immigration issues and political stances regarding solutions might be heavily influenced by where a person lives on this map.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graph...=.7ed06e147bcf

[Roubignol]

Originally Posted by Brian249x

The United States economy runs on free trade.

1) Two friends of mine told me that when they reached the borders of California, they had to dump all the fruits they had in their car.

Was is because of sanitarian purpose or protectionism ?

2) When I went on Ebay, I remember having read that California get proper taxes.

[SanteeFats]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

1) Two friends of mine told me that when they reached the borders of California, they had to dump all the fruits they had in their car.

Was is because of sanitarian purpose or protectionism ?

It is an attempt to restrict invasive insects and possible plant diseases from coming into the state.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by rodak

Key word.. Attempt

Here in Ohio it is unlawful to transport fire wood from one county to another.
Because of the emerald ash borer beetle.
Even though this beetle has been discovered in all 88 counties of the state.

Are any measures being taken to eradicate the beetle? Imagine your disappointment if you have just spent time and money eliminating the beetle infestation in your own country and then some idiot brings new beetles in with a load of firewood from another county.

[Roubignol]

Originally Posted by scoundrel

Are any measures being taken to eradicate the beetle? Imagine your disappointment if you have just spent time and money eliminating the beetle infestation in your own country and then some idiot brings new beetles in with a load of firewood from another county.

That's a terrible problem today.
Two weeks ago, we received a small booklet presenting all the invading species coming from other continents.
Following this book, I've found one Chinese tree and one American tree and one South American plant in our neighborhood.

I spoke with a female neighbor who get an American Sumac in her garden and showed her the booklet. She told me: "But this tree was a gift of my aunt, it get such beautiful red leafs in autumn."

That's one among the most challenging problem caused by globalization.
As examples among hundred of others, Asian hornet destroys European bees, Asian varroa too, Argentinian ants are destroying Southern European ants, Suzukii flies damage European wineyards since about 10 years....
Some American bats almost disappeared from the Eastern coast of USA because of a pest brought by a scientist or a tourist, etc....

Human markets are highly damaging ecosystems.

[TheBare]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

1) Two friends of mine told me that when they reached the borders of California, they had to dump all the fruits they had in their car.

Did they call them homophobic ??

[bowlinggreen]

Originally Posted by xyzde69

That's a terrible problem today.
Two weeks ago, we received a small booklet presenting all the invading species coming from other continents.
Following this book, I've found one Chinese tree and one American tree and one South American plant in our neighborhood.

I spoke with a female neighbor who get an American Sumac in her garden and showed her the booklet. She told me: "But this tree was a gift of my aunt, it get such beautiful red leafs in autumn."

That's one among the most challenging problem caused by globalization.
As examples among hundred of others, Asian hornet destroys European bees, Asian varroa too, Argentinian ants are destroying Southern European ants, Suzukii flies damage European wineyards since about 10 years....
Some American bats almost disappeared from the Eastern coast of USA because of a pest brought by a scientist or a tourist, etc....

Human markets are highly damaging ecosystems.

What I bolded is unfortunately very true.

Foreign mussels are messing up our Great lakes due to ocean-going ships that can now get in via the St. Lawrence:

http://www.mlive.com/environment/ind...nsforming.html


Then there is kudzu in the South, which was deliberately introduced:

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/...ast-of-the-us/

To say nothing of that bane from England, the common starling, which is now everywhere, and shits all over everything.

Somebody brought those over on purpose too. How very nice of them.

[Dr Pepper]

Originally Posted by bowlinggreen

What I bolded is unfortunately very true.

Foreign mussels are messing up our Great lakes due to ocean-going ships that can now get in via the St. Lawrence:

http://www.mlive.com/environment/ind...nsforming.html


Then there is kudzu in the South, which was deliberately introduced:

https://www.thevintagenews.com/2017/...ast-of-the-us/

To say nothing of that bane from England, the common starling, which is now everywhere, and shits all over everything.

Somebody brought those over on purpose too. How very nice of them.

No different down here in NZ-I hope the hottest seats in hell are reserved for the twerps who introduced rabbits, gorse, possums, goats, deer and mustelids into New Zealand.....in comparison, blackbirds,starlings, thrushes and sparrows are minor irritations...