It’s madness. Trump blustered at president Enrique Pena Nieto of Mexico.
The phone call between the leaders was intended to patch things up between the new president and his ally. The two have had a series of public spats over Trump’s determination to have Mexico pay for the planned border wall, something Mexico steadfastly refuses to agree to.
You have a bunch of bad hombres down there,Trump told Pena Nieto, according to the excerpt seen by the AP.You aren’t doing enough to stop them. I think your military is scared. Our military isn’t, so I just might send them down to take care of it.
No, Mexico isn’t going to pay for your stupid, ineffective, idiotic wall. They’re not as dumb as Trump voters. Trump is basically asking Mexico to pay for his ridiculous campaign promises that demonized their entire country.
Trump is threatening to use our military in an invasion of Mexico to extort billions of dollars out of them. How is this not criminal? Why aren’t officials of both parties sending representatives to drag this guy out of the oval office and begin impeachment proceedings right now?
He’s also threatening to begin a trade war with Mexico, imposing a 20% tax on imports. This action would be catastrophic for the economy of both countries; even if it did us no harm, does he think devastating the economy of Mexico would reduce illegal immigration? Does he seriously believe that wrecking Mexico, as we did to Iraq, would be advantageous to us? Is he so delusional that he could possibly believe invading Mexico would improve support for Republicans by Hispanic Americans?
I’ve always felt that Mexico was our friend, our trading partner, a valued part of our North American community. I cannot believe that we would rough them up with our military just because an incompetent tyrant here wants a symbolic victory for his dumbass supporters, but apparently that’s what the Republicans want to allow.
As long as they see Donald Trump as a rubber stamp for their legislative wishlist, they’ll put up with anything he does. I don’t see any impeachment attempts until at least 2019, assuming the Democrats take back the House.
If he was really concerned about the problems caused by the Mexican drug cartels (and they are pretty serious) then there’s a simple solution for that – end the ridiculous “war on drugs” and adopt sensible, humane drug policies that take away the cartels’ raison d’etre. There’s a reason Chicago was full of gangsters during the prohibition era, after all, and quickly stopped being full of gangsters when it was over. It’s not as if the Mexicans haven’t been making precisely that case for years either.
But of course he isn’t going to do that, because to him and his ilk the only solution to any problem is to attack it with a club. There’s a certain strand of the conservative, authoritarian mindset that seems to abhor solutions that involve anything but outright violent retaliation against something.
Re 2
that suggests starting a rumor that Trump owns a cartel of Drugs so wants to maintain the drug war to keep prices sky high ?
From now on, could he be just called Fuckface Von Clownstick?
Drumpfh was mad because his M.D. told the NYT he prescribed one of those hair loss drugs and also something for one of those gross skin condition.
Probably explains the weird hair and the orange “aura.”
s/
bald retired union guy
Concerning his taking Finasteride.
Does finasteride prevent prostate cancer? No — it just prevents you from knowing that you have it, says Patrick C. Walsh, M.D.,
Do you think it is aware of this?
Impeachment? Maybe someday. On the positive side it would rid us of a lunatic who heads a Republican controlled government. But in his place we would have a very capable and experienced politician with similar far–far- right political and social views, also at the head of a Republican government.
I would worry similarly about that!
I think the Repubs would like to wait to impeach 45 until 2 years in, so Pence we will get the maximum 10 years in office.
csvoy @4: I’m still torn between Little Mittens and Incitatus’ Rear End.
Cathy F could be right, about the Republicans wanting Pence to get the maximum time in office, but it can’t have escaped their attention that Trump doesn’t care about rules, protocol, or becoming a respected member of the Republican party. He also has a hair-trigger temper and likes to see his ‘underlings’ fight each other.
Trump’s not just embarrassing, he’s dangerous. If he screws up too much he could seriously damage the credibility of the Republicans among that small but critical group of folks who could lean either way. Or, of course, he could go nuclear and start WWIII. There might be some objections or concerns about that.
The new German minister of foreign affairs is on his way to pay his US colleague a visit.
German Tagesschau headline: In Search of Reason
Old adage: Alas poor Mexico. So far from God, so close to the United States.
I rather suspect that Pena Nieto was too diplomatic to tell Trump that unilaterally sending troops into Mexico would be an act of war.
Methinks we have a solution.
The Daily Mash: ‘Legally I can kill him’, Queen confirms http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/
“THE QUEEN has confirmed that if President Trump makes a state visit, she can kill him with a sword and nobody can touch her.”
Is anyone else reminded of the president in Harrison Bergeron? For those who haven’t seen it: https://youtu.be/XBcpuBRUdNs?t=1h1m20s
Watch the whole thing if you haven’t!
PZ wrote: “Trump is threatening to use our military in an invasion of Mexico to extort billions of dollars out of them. How is this not criminal?”
It’s not criminal because it’s an act of war. Different category.
@12 whheydt — and what could possibly go wrong? The cartels are impotent and defenseless, and China has no arms to sell. Besides, the Mexicans would never be smart enough to think of digging tunnels.
@Cathy F #8:
Maximum 10 years? Sounds like a federal sentence. I’m just not sure who for.
@Joel #15
Wars of aggression and the threat of war are crimes against peace under the UN charter:
Art.2, para.3
” All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.”
para.4
“All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.”
Trump’s just taking lessons from a century ago, when we frequently invaded Mexico.
Now, while you’re (and the press is) paying attention to that, what is he doing with his other hand?
As for his mythical tax, what would a 20% tax do with off season fruits and vegetables?
Of course they could make Mexico pay for “the wall.” If they can make the Europeans sit still for ginning up a nuclear war in their backyard, then “the wall” should be child’s play. Threatening to cut them off from SWIFT would do it, and there are any number of other financial weapons at their disposal. The stuff they have talked about is penny-ante compared to what they *could* do. Just ask the Iranians. (“They” being the 1%; Wall Street, the Pentagon, or whatever axis of Deep State powers is currently in the ascendent, and using Trump as a studio prop).
I expect “the wall” is just a sop to the hillbillies that got Trump elected, something that can be discussed for years as a live possibility without actually having to do very much. That might keep your incipient insurrectionists pacified for a few more years. Which, I imagine, is enough time to finish the looting and lear jet to safety in New Zealand or Patagonia. Just in time to watch the show.
Next four years are going to be interesting. Will The Donald beat Harding and Buchanan and become USA’s worst president in history? The tense will become breathtaking.
I fucking hate this bullshit. Trump has made it very clear that he was serious; he is doing everything in his power (and quite a bit that technically is not in his power) to carry out his promises. The wall is not. a sop; the regime will do whatever it can to get it built.
The only hope for the next four years is that the goppers in Congress grow a spine. I am not optimistic.
Right until those hillbillies realize that when the cities pay that 20% duty, plus “expenses” on their fruits and vegetables, those oversized SUV tires, mud vehicle tires, truck parts and their farming chemicals and fuel also skyrocket, as the city dwellers raise their rates to cover their increased expenses.
Driving a greater divide between the rural and urban portions of the nation.
If he even lasts four years. An ever increasing number of Fortune 100 corporations are getting increasingly angry at their employees being not allowed to come back into the USSA.
It’s lovely seeing progressives rediscover the benefits of free trade. We need more free market liberalism to counteract fascist protectionists like Trump.
More like “dipshitplomacy.”
As an ex-pat American, Trump makes me hopeful.
He is showing the people of the world’s Social Democracies the true face of Conservatism. When Obama was in office the US was a Shining Beacon of Prosperity. A Lamp of Progress and Profit Showing the Path to Success. (Keep in mind that out here the US is known only through it’s TV shows and news programs.)
Now people are beginning to get a clear view of what’s under the mask. It’s all anecdotal, but the people I talk with every day are already shocked, and are quickly becoming openly appalled. Trump’s treatment of other World Leaders is becoming a main topic of conversation, and most of the conversations center around the current Conservative Party Prime Ministers and how they’d “…bloody well better stand up to that Orange Bastard!”.
And they’re not. And people are noticing. And starting to worry that what’s happening in the US is what their government has planned for them.
I’m hopeful the backlash is building out here and the Social Democracies of the world will pull themselves back from the brink before the US drags us all down with you.
As an ex-pat American, Trump terrifies me. He is showing the people of the world’s neonazi movements that they can win election by being openly awful.
With luck, many places will succeed at fighting off the neonazis and similar reactionary movements. But some places will fall the other way. Quite a number of medium to large countries have been falling to authoritarian tendencies in the past 10 years, reversing the trend of the previous ten years towards democratization.
I can’t tell whether you are serious, but whether or not, the point needs answering. “Free trade” for the past few decades has meant trade deals that benefit big business and the rich at the expense of most of the population, and the environment. It is one of the factors that has enabled the rise of fascism 2.0. We need negotiated fair trade, designed to decrease inequality both between and within nations, and to protect the environment – above all, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as fast as possible. The nugget of truth in your observation – again, whether or not you were serious – is that much of the left still hasn’t grasped that the threat of neoliberalism is fading, as the right switches from “free market” dogma to authoritarian nativism.
while I agree that the current international trade environment and the agreements are hardly optimal and do not recognize the importance of the rights of labor nor the health of the environment, I do not believe that DJT will negotiate or re-negotiate anything better on those issues in fact I would put even money that his deals would be worse on those .
uncle frogy
Numerobis #28.
I see it the other way. When the insanity of the US extreme right was not front and center of the US media’s presentation to the rest of the world, it was possible for those other countries to fall into authoritarian tendencies because the image being presented implied those tendencies worked to make the US more prosperous.
Now however, those countries who were tending to the Right are seeing the true end-game of those policies and populations who once looked at America with the attitude of “I want that!” are now reeling back in a jarring “WTF????” moment.
By their very ham-handedness, the American extremists have blown their cover and the ugliness is repulsing people who were before enamored of the false image being presented.
Just curious, and I’m certainly not asking you to doxx yourself, what system of government do you live under? I live under a Westminster Parliamentary System with MMP voting, so my government is an “ok” representation of my nation’s actual population. The vote here doesn’t have to shift very much for the Left to regain control, and revoking old laws is a quick process. That may do a lot to colour my view of the situation.
KG@29: No, I mean free trade. No tariffs, no subsidies. Trade between someone in the US and someone in Nigeria has the same restrictions as trade between someone in Los Angeles and someone in San Francisco. Aiming for negotiated fair trade just ends up crippling third world economies that can’t afford it.
I’m not a fan of those great big trade agreements, mainly because of all the other restrictions that get added back in (for instance, the TPP had terrible and unnecessary intellectual property clauses). The best way to do it in my opinion is for the rich countries to declare unilateral free trade. Something like this:
1) We will have no tariffs or other barriers to imports of anything from anyone.
2) All imported products and services will face exactly the same regulation as domestically produced goods and services.
3) You can do what you like.
I live and work near the border. One of my coworkers live in Mexico and some Mexicans are saying they could start letting Central Americans come North. Right now Mexico deports twice as many Central Americans caught crossing the Southern border than America catches and deports. They could open the flood gate of immigrants.
No nation has ever industrialised without the use of tariffs to protect nascent industries. As for your suggestion of the end of subsidies, and unilateral declarations by rich countries, nice idea, I’ll ask the next squadron of pigs I see zipping past my window when they think it might happen.
kevskos,
When the EU authorities were bullying the Greek government into adopting “austerity” on behalf of big (mostly German) banks, I thought the Greeks should threaten to offer anyone who wanted Greek citizenship – which would automatically have given them the right to live and work anywhere in the EU. Maybe they did and got told: “Do that and we’ll find some way of chucking you out of the EU, or failing that, bomb you to fuck.”