"Beware the demagogues ready to declare a trade war against our friends"

[Jonathan Whatley]

The record is clear that when America's total trade has increased, American jobs have also increased. And when our total trade has declined, so have the number of jobs.

Part of the difficulty in accepting the good news about trade is in our words. We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war, for one side to win, the other must lose. But commerce is not warfare. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries. There are no losers, only winners. And trade helps strengthen the free world.

Yet today protectionism is being used by some American politicians as a cheap form of nationalism, a fig leaf for those unwilling to maintain America's military strength and who lack the resolve to stand up to real enemies – countries that would use violence against us or our allies. Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies. We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends -- weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world – all while cynically waving the American flag.

Ronald Reagan, 1988. (The quoted passage starts at 2:44.)

[lemma]

The record is clear that when America's total trade has increased, American jobs have also increased. And when our total trade has declined, so have the number of jobs.

Part of the difficulty in accepting the good news about trade is in our words. We too often talk about trade while using the vocabulary of war. In war, for one side to win, the other must lose. But commerce is not warfare. Trade is an economic alliance that benefits both countries. There are no losers, only winners. And trade helps strengthen the free world.

Yet today protectionism is being used by some American politicians as a cheap form of nationalism, a fig leaf for those unwilling to maintain America's military strength and who lack the resolve to stand up to real enemies – countries that would use violence against us or our allies. Our peaceful trading partners are not our enemies; they are our allies. We should beware of the demagogues who are ready to declare a trade war against our friends -- weakening our economy, our national security, and the entire free world – all while cynically waving the American flag.

Ronald Reagan, 1988. (The quoted passage starts at 2:44.)

It's funny to see the Republicans still pretending to admire Reagan when he would be branded as a RINO if he were politically active today.

[origamishuttle]

[LevelUP]

This is how quick Trump will TARIFF your ass!

https://www.tiktok.com/@leoabreu703/vide...9037637934

[NotJoeBiden]

This is how quick Trump will TARIFF your ass!

https://www.tiktok.com/@leoabreu703/vide...9037637934

Love having to pay additional taxes to make up for tax breaks for the rich.

[freeloader]

Reagan believed in the United States and loved this nation. I think he was misguided in some of his beliefs and his own bigotry and hatreds sometimes got in the way, as with his handling of the AIDS crisis. But today’s Republicans are just different. I am speaking of the politicians at least, not necessarily the rank and file Republicans.  I think most people who voted for Trump and most red hats probably love this country and think Trump is going to help restore the country for them.  The people who are actually red pilled though, they are something different. 

Unfortunately, their champion made a deal with the devil (or a series of devils) to win re-election. He allied himself with Musk, Thiel, and a group interested in the destruction of the United States. It is fortuitous, of course, that in the short run their vision largely coincides with the Heritage Foundation. So, we have Musk illegally seizing control of the government’s pay and personnel systems and the same time that Trump is illegally firing civil service personnel and working daily to remove any semblance of checks and balances.    

I don’t really think Trump cares much about the United States one way or the other. He cares about himself, his legacy, and to a lesser extent his children. If he is remembered as the last American President and as the person who ushered in the post-nation state political order of techno states run by billionaire oligarchs, he would probably be pretty happy with that. What better way to “own the libs” than ending all liberalism, aka, democracy?

[LevelUP]

This is how quick Trump will TARIFF your ass!

https://www.tiktok.com/@leoabreu703/vide...9037637934

Love having to pay additional taxes to make up for tax breaks for the rich.

Find me something on Amazon that will go up in price, that I want to buy, and maybe I'll start caring about tariffs.

[Jonathan Whatley]

This is how quick Trump will TARIFF your ass!

https://www.tiktok.com/@leoabreu703/vide...9037637934

Now here come immediate retaliatory tariffs. Next are price increases, shortages, and layoffs.

(Berserk manga adapted by Redditor Calimero_Bleu.)

[LevelUP]

What better way to “own the libs” than ending all liberalism, aka, democracy?

America doesn't have a democracy. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say the word democracy.
|

I think most people who voted for Trump and most red hats probably love this country and think Trump is going to help restore the country for them.  

Like it or not, Trump supporters are 100% happy with Trump in his first week.

1. Border crossings are down 95%.
   
   
2. Trump got rid of "criminals first" policies, and ICE is arresting illegal immigrant criminals—a policy that 87% of people support.
   
   
3. He almost single-handedly saved TikTok, which 170 million Americans use. Young people love their social media so much that most would rather give up their right to vote than lose access to it.
   
   
4. He helped broker a peace deal for the Israel-Palestine war.
   
   
5. He is on pace to start cutting government spending and regulations through DOGE.
   

Supporters also approve of his based cabinet picks.



The dishonest media

The media is dusting off its 2017 playbook, but it will take more than dishonest tactics such as hyperbolic language, lies by omission, and logical fallacies to turn people against Trump. The media tactic of throwing as much mud at the wall as possible and hoping that something sticks isn’t going to work in 2025.

You can shoot the messenger, but I'm just reporting the news.

[Jonathan Whatley]

What better way to “own the libs” than ending all liberalism, aka, democracy?

America doesn't have a democracy. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say the word democracy.

From American Legal History to the 1860s by Richard Keyser:

during the eighteenth century the terms “democracy” and “republic” were used rather interchangeably in both common and philosophical usage. [...]

In The Spirit of the Laws (1748) Montesquieu had distinguished three kinds of governments: republican, monarchic, and despotic. Republican governments were of two kinds: “When, in a republic, the people as a body have the sovereign power, it is a Democracy. When the sovereign power is in the hands of a part of the people, it is called an Aris­tocracy.” But Montesquieu also insisted that “It is in the nature of a republic that it has only a small terri­tory: without that it could scarcely exist.”

From Aristotle to Montesquieu, political philoso­phers had no place in their classifications for represen­tative democracy. It was simply an unknown species, one yet to evolve. In November 1787, however, only two months after the Philadelphia convention had ad­journed, [signer of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution] James Wilson had already updated the older classifications:

"The three species of governments … are the mon­archical, aristocratical and democratical. In a monarchy, the supreme power is vested in a single person: in an aristocracy … by a body not formed upon the prin­ciple of representation, but enjoying their station by descent, or election among themselves, or in right of some personal or territorial qualifications; and lastly, in a democracy, it is inherent in a people, and is exer­cised by themselves or their representatives …."

"Of what description is the Constitution before us? In its principles, Sir, it is purely democrati­cal"

We have these choices in Montesquieu's and Wilson's usage contemporary to the founding: that a government is a democracy (a form of republic and electoral government), aristocracy (another form of republic and electoral government), monarchy (a monarchy might also be limited with democratic or aristocratic bodies holding power), or despotism.

ICE is arresting illegal immigrant criminals—a policy that 87% of people support.

This, arresting and deporting undocumented immigrants with criminal records, occurred under every president and is supported by both parties. The act on its own of being an undocumented immigrant is not criminal, though it is a civil violation.