President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[Topper]

I don't think anyone can weigh in on this as his policies are very undefined at this point. I like many of his objectives, so there's that. I get the impression he's just spitballing at the moment (we've been given multiple ways of financing The Wall just in the past 24 hours). Rather than conduct Policy by Tweet, I'd like him, his staff and his cabinet to go behind closed doors for awhile, come up with a comprehensive plan/policy, and present it to us, "Here's what we're gonna do..." Perhaps I'll pee all over it then, but for now, who knows?

His style is certainly pee-worthy, but I am just hoping there is actually a plan or people capable to devising a plan with a possibility of making some of it work.

Back in the day, I remember whiz-boy David Stockman making it all look so easy. Who did Trump nominate for OMB btw? Mick Mulvaney of SC. I don't much about him.

[Commando]

If you trust Kathleen Newland at the Migration Policy Institute's numbers, 3 out of 784,000 refugees in the US from 9/2001 to 10/2015 have been arrested for planning terrorist activities.

http://www.migrationpolicy.org/news/...are-not-threat

I know about that. There were 2 brothers from Iraq, I believe, (and one other translator I believe, also from Iraq?)who were busted for trying to contact somebody they knew who had Al Quaeda ties or something. That's as far as they got and they provided plenty of mileage for the anti-refugee crowd. And that's a wayyy smaller percentage than 71 had speculated. Also, no casualties.

[Commando]

I think you are reading me wrong. I have concern. I hope and pray your analysis of no worries proves correct. I will be even more comforted when I hear the secretaries of defense, homeland security and the CIA agree with you, which they may.

I'm not reading you one way or another as far as your character goes. I do assume you and others are somewhat unfamiliar with Syrian culture, what a proud, dignified people they are, and what's going on there. We would all be selling possessions to help those people escape that nightmare we can't even start to fathom, if we were appropriately engaged. It's all too easy to be aloof and certainly I'm no exception. I'm really proud of the way the Church has taken the reigns on how to treat refugees. This whole terrorist scare is just that.

[Topper]

I'm not reading you one way or another as far as your character goes. I do assume you and others are somewhat unfamiliar with Syrian culture, what a proud, dignified people they are, and what's going on there. We would all be selling possessions to help those people escape that nightmare we can't even start to fathom, if we were appropriately engaged. It's all too easy to be aloof and certainly I'm no exception. I'm really proud of the way the Church has taken the reigns on how to treat refugees. This whole terrorist scare is just that.

I don't know much, if anything about the current Syrian culture. Did the Baathist regime impact its traditional culture significantly over the past 50 years?

[wuapinmon]

https://www.engadget.com/2017/01/26/...ource=Facebook

[Moliere]

Jane's law is real.

"The devotees of the party in power are smug and arrogant. The devotees of the party out of power are insane."

Ain't that the truth. Now lefties are all up in arms about the 20% import tax thing because they think it will just be passed on to US consumers (they are correct), yet they didn't think that would be the case with the Obamacare taxes nor with the $15 minimum wage hike. It's funny how being out of power makes you all of the sudden remember the principles of economics and being in power makes you forget them


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[imanihonjin]

which they would pass on to American consumers. Then American suppliers of the same product would gladly raise their prices as well just because they can. Then Mexico can respond by sticking tariffs on our products. Trade war = everyone loses.

I believe that this 20% would be on remittances made by individuals in the US to friends and family in Mexico. So I am not sure how those individuals can pass that cost on to American consumers. Also, I suppose Mexico could place the same time of remittance tax on money coming from individuals in Mexico to friends and family in the US, but I don't think it is going to have the same effect.

Nearly $25B in remittances were sent in the first 11 months in 2016. Sure a tax on remittances would decrease the amount of funds being sent but even if it cut it in half you could pay for the the wall in 4 years.

I have no idea if this would be a good idea or not, but it without question that $25B leaving the US and being sent to Mexico and thus not cycled hear in the States is drain on our economy for which we literally get nothing in return. I wouldn't mind seeing this issue fleshed out a bit more.

[BlueK]

I believe that this 20% would be on remittances made by individuals in the US to friends and family in Mexico. So I am not sure how those individuals can pass that cost on to American consumers. Also, I suppose Mexico could place the same time of remittance tax on money coming from individuals in Mexico to friends and family in the US, but I don't think it is going to have the same effect.

Nearly $25B in remittances were sent in the first 11 months in 2016. Sure a tax on remittances would decrease the amount of funds being sent but even if it cut it in half you could pay for the the wall in 4 years.

I have no idea if this would be a good idea or not, but it without question that $25B leaving the US and being sent to Mexico and thus not cycled hear in the States is drain on our economy for which we literally get nothing in return. I wouldn't mind seeing this issue fleshed out a bit more.

20% tax on goods imported from Mexico is what his press secretary originally said. Something like that would definitely be added to the price of the product when it hits the shelves. Now they're throwing other ideas out there to see what sticks. I don't think any new tax idea is going anywhere. At least I hope not. The only thing I could support would be tossing out the entire tax code, including payroll/SS and medicare taxes and replacing it with the fair tax.

[imanihonjin]

20% tax on goods imported from Mexico is what his press secretary originally said. Something like that would be added to the price of the product when it hits the shelves.

Okay, but your response was posted to my posting of this article, which is an article about the remittances.

http://money.cnn.com/2017/01/25/news...ttances-trump/

[byu71]

I remember in the hearings for Mnuchen he was accused of being a forefiture king. One particularly troubling case was that of a 90 year old woman being foreclosed on for 27 cents. I remember thinking how could that happen. Ridiculous for the bank and also even a stranger would give her the 27 cents.

Someone researched into this and found in fact she was never was did lose her house to foreclosure. I wonder how prominently the Times will correct their story and if Mnuchen will get an apology from the Senators that drilled him on this.

I haven't followed him much and for all I know maybe he isn't fit to be the Treasury Secretary. I can also see how though some really decent people forgo getting into politics. Hard to recover from false accusations.

Everyone knows how I feel about the MSM, so it isn't any surprise that I do consider the MSM an opposition party to the Republicans.

[BlueK]

We need to build a wall up north also to keep those crazy Canadians out. They could be walking around our country illegally and no one would know because they usually look like most of the rest of us. That's why I think they're even more dangerous than our neighbors from the south. America First!

[byu71]

We need to build a wall up north also to keep those crazy Canadians out. They could be walking around our country illegally and no one would know because they usually look like most of the rest of us. That's why I think they're even more dangerous than our neighbors from the south. America First!

I am always learning something new. Do you think because they are white that is why this has been hidden from most of us? I guess socialism isn't working as well as some have led us to believe and that may be why the press hasn't given extensive coverage of the problem.

[BlueK]

I am always learning something new. Do you think because they are white that is why this has been hidden from most of us? I guess socialism isn't working as well as some have led us to believe and that may be why the press hasn't given extensive coverage of the problem.

You probably have to be paranoid personality like Trump to understand my point. Also, maybe you've never lost a job to a Canadian before so you don't understand the immense pain these terrible foreigners cause.

Maybe I need to practice my satire writing skills.

But since you brought socialism into the discussion, traditionally it's the socialists who like protectionism, and hyper restrictive immigration laws fall under the category of protectionism. I'm not a socialist. I'm opposed to that stuff.

[byu71]

You probably have to be paranoid personality like Trump to understand my point. Also, maybe you've never lost a job to a Canadian before so you don't understand the immense pain these terrible foreigners cause.

Yea, I probably should have just let your post stand on it's own. I have been lucky in life and haven't lost a job to anyone in my life. The parent company I work for is a Canadian company.

Now I do have a relative who lost his business because of undocumenteds, but I will have to ask him if they were Canadians. I don't feel bad for him though because he has a much better situation now anyway.

[BlueK]

Yea, I probably should have just let your post stand on it's own. I have been lucky in life and haven't lost a job to anyone in my life. The parent company I work for is a Canadian company.

Now I do have a relative who lost his business because of undocumenteds, but I will have to ask him if they were Canadians. I don't feel bad for him though because he has a much better situation now anyway.

My wife works in healthcare administration at a hospital and told me about the frustration of fellow manager there who has to let a really qualified and successful nurse go in a few months because her visa has run out and she must return to India now. Everyone loves this nurse and she's great at what she does and is specialized to the point that it will be costly to replace and retrain someone else to take her position. But the law is the law. The only way she would be allowed to stay is if they can show there is no one from this country available to replace her. The problem is that the law doesn't say it has to be someone with a comparable level of skill or experience. If they can find any entry level nurse from this country it means the foreigner has to go home. Sorry, but I think that's idiotic. It's not good for that hospital or the patients, and it's not like nurses from this country can't find work. US immigration law the way it is right now is pretty stupid.