Chomsky on Trump

[Lat-Literal]

Precisely, as well as the impossibility of planning for public infrastructure when the numbers arriving, and their destination, are unpredictable - as was shown in the post-2004 period where the government hopelessly underestimated the numbers. And it doesn't take into consideration the denuding of skilled labour from poorer countries which desperately need it. It does beg the question why unrestricted immigration is to be preferred to controlled immigration which operates in most countries in the world.

To me the EU now represents the realisation of several paradoxical self-inflicted wounds. Free movement which was in part intended to bring the peoples of Europe together has brought division among many of those peoples. Open borders has brought insecurity. Monetary union which was intended to bring the economies of the different countries closer together has intensified the differences, as well as bringing high unemployment, stagnant growth and crushing public debt to the south. Though ostensibly a promoter of democracy, the EU in reality negates democratic pluralism in its own institutions: no popular democratic vote can either remove its executive or fundamentally alter the nature of policy, in contrast with what can happen in nation-states. And political union, which still remains the stated ultimate objective of the EU, could only conceivably result in nationalist and populist upheavals compared with which the current populism would seem like a breeze. And perhaps the final paradox is that the defacto hegemon in an organisation originally created in part to prevent the future hegemony of Germany in Europe, is - Germany.

Four of these five points did not apply before 1990 and three did not apply before the mid 2000s. It is no coincidence that Mr Farage joined UKIP c 1991 - he and many like him had always been opposed to the European initiatives even when there was no good reason to be so. The re-unification of Germany which so troubled Mrs Thatcher on the quiet was the trigger for their politics. Open borders - well, they only became a problem with expansion east which was built on historical German concerns about the Russians - I believe Mrs Merkel considers Mr Putin "unhinged" but it is very much more - and neoliberal/neoconservative impulses in America to turn the Russian borders into a new iron curtain. The main problem with monetary union? That is it is so linked to the fate of the United States. Consequently, it was an American crash which led to most of the EU's economic difficulties.

One of the things that has been most striking during this period is just how influential the United States remains in terms of Europe and its prospects. Mr Gove was asked recently whether it was somewhat ironic that having argued against the worst aspects of American big business in the Brexit debate he was overjoyed that this country was now electing to be much closer to that very business. His garbled answer was that it wouldn't be an opaque Davos sort of arrangement but a different, more constructive sort of arrangement. So there you have it - it's one American big business led economy in the EU and another but same American big business led economy outside it. Britain first? No, Britain shrinks.

The EU did none of us any favours with its never ending expansion, nor its lack of transparency on its accounts, nor in terms of the limited accountability you mention, nor its failure to be flexible when one of the worst Prime Ministers in our history was unable to get a sensible deal before June 2016. The worst of it, though, was its partial abandoning of European social democratic ideals for a Friedmanite dream with the emphasis on dream. Britain was finally able to pay off its war debt to the US in the early 2000s - yippee, we're free, yes? No actually the story was barely a footnote in the broadsheets possibly because the American led media ensured it. Oh yes, and it avoided joining the Euro. Now it is "breaking free" by becoming alternatively intertwined. The timing is absolutely lousy, of course, for we had only just started to recover from that crash of 2007/8. The election of Mr Trump promises close ties with a version of America that will give even less of an inch than it did before. I am hearing little about what the British produce or could produce when the going gets tough. A start might be to say cheerio to Starbucks and companies of that kind so that cheap British coffee shops can fill the vacuum while also paying taxes.

[P. G. Tipps]

The Simple Truth ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38737964

Ms Gina Miller is certainly one formidable and impressive lady.

[french frank]

That said on 'despicable politicians', I had an email from Unlock Democracy yesterday saying that after the last ruling they had petitioned Lord Chancellor Liz Truss to stand up for the judiciary, after the attack on them in the populist press. So they considered this an improvement on her previous performance:

"Our independent judiciary is the cornerstone of the rule of law and is vital to our constitution and our freedoms. The reputation of our judiciary is unrivalled the world over, and our supreme court justices are people of integrity and impartiality."

The reason for this 'change' is that they were expecting to lose the case and it was one eventuality they had prepared for - the brief (non-amendable?) Bill.

The Simple Truth ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38737964

Ms Gina Miller is certainly one formidable and impressive lady.

[ahinton]

The Simple Truth ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38737964

Ms Gina Miller is certainly one formidable and impressive lady.

Well, she stuck to her guns, without doubt, yet one of the more significant problems now is that the Supreme Court has ruled that neither the Scottish nor Welsh nor Northern Irish administrations will have the right to be involved in discussions of what might follow; I do not know if there is a right of appeal to the Supreme Court itself (there is, after all, no higher Court in the land) but, if not (or if there is but the exercise of it fails, I wonder if any or all of those three administrations might have a right of appeal to the European Court of Justice. If the answers to all of these are in the negative, one might anticipate the spectre of independence making its presence felt once again, especially in Scotland. If indeed that does happen - and since this thread is about Trump - I cannot help but wonder if Theresa May, fearful of this, might seek his wise advice, when she meets with him later this week, as to whether and/or how best to go about having a wall built between England and Scotland and trying to force the Scots to pay for it...

[Lat-Literal]

Rather than all the current argy-bargy, the British public would be better served by facts. Those are the one thing that have been consistently missing. For example, America is Britain's top trading partner. Our top exports are cars, gold, crude petroleum, refined petroleum and packaged "medicaments". Our top imports are cars, crude petroleum, refined petroleum, packaged "medicaments" and computers. Did you read that correctly? Yes. Astonishingly, four of the five are the same. The only difference is that we are sending gold for computers. This is incredible to me, not least because I didn't think that we had any gold left but then I suppose it was silver that Macmillan was once lamenting the loss of.

Elsewhere, all three potential leaders of France including the front runner Ms Le Pen have now signalled that they want harder borders. Be in no doubt that the bookies' favourite Mr Fillon is serious about this matter on the grounds that he has made his position known by Tweet. One wonders to what extent those who still believe in Britain's EU membership would be willing to compromise as the EU abandons one by one most of its core principles. Would membership still be supported if all of them fell? How does this work exactly?

[ahinton]

Rather than all the current argy-bargy, the British public would be better served by facts. Those are the one thing that have been consistently missing. For example, America is Britain's top trading partner. Our top exports are cars, gold, crude petroleum, refined petroleum and packaged "medicaments". Our top imports are cars, crude petroleum, refined petroleum, packaged "medicaments" and computers. Did you read that correctly? Yes. Astonishingly, four of the five are the same. The only difference is that we are sending gold for computers. This is incredible to me, not least because I didn't think that we had any gold left but then I suppose it was silver that Macmillan was once lamenting the loss of.

"True", of course, but we're now in a post-truth fake news society now, aren't we? - one consequence of which is that people tend to be less willing to believe what actually is true than once they were.

Elsewhere, all three potential leaders of France including the front runner Ms Le Pen have now signalled that they want harder borders. Be in no doubt that the bookies' favourite Mr Fillon is serious about this matter on the grounds that he has made his position known by Tweet. One wonders to what extent those who still believe in Britain's EU membership would be willing to compromise as the EU abandons one by one most of its core principles. Would membership still be supported if all of them fell? How does this work exactly?

Possibly by witnessing UK throwing vast sums of irrecoverable money that its taxpayers can ill afford to negotiate its possible departure from an EU that might well be on the way to effecting its own demise, only partially encouraged by last year's UK opinion poll result, so that, at the end of it all (if there is such an end), it will all have been wasted because there's no longer an EU for UK to leave (or at least won't be one for very much longer). What that that might do to the economies of the various current EU member states in terms of how any of them will thereafter be able successfully to negotiate trade deals with non-ex-EU states is anyone's or no-one's guess, I guess.

[Lat-Literal]

"True", of course, but we're now in a post-truth fake news society now, aren't we? - one consequence of which is that people tend to be less willing to believe what actually is true than once they were.


Possibly by witnessing UK throwing vast sums of irrecoverable money that its taxpayers can ill afford to negotiate its possible departure from an EU that might well be on the way to effecting its own demise, only partially encouraged by last year's UK opinion poll result, so that, at the end of it all (if there is such an end), it will all have been wasted because there's no longer an EU for UK to leave (or at least won't be one for very much longer). What that that might do to the economies of the various current EU member states in terms of how any of them will thereafter be able successfully to negotiate trade deals with non-ex-EU states is anyone's or no-one's guess, I guess.

On 1, yes - and I hadn't thought about this before but it could be argued that (a) fake news in order to blossom needs a vacuum and (b) that the vacuum in this "information age" has been about facts in the public domain being replaced by stances and attitudes. On 2, I have no comment because I didn't - and don't - like any of the options that have been presented to us. However, it would have been sensible for Britain to have decided whether to leave the EU second rather than first. Good strategists would have seen how one of the other countries fared with any punishment dished out but then UKIP were chomping at the bit and the Tories needed to win an election. Incidentally, during the seven months since the referendum, what has the Government done to make the future manufacturing of British computers a key priority? It's clearly important and we haven't been told a thing.

[P. G. Tipps]

Rather than all the current argy-bargy, the British public would be better served by facts. Those are the one thing that have been consistently missing. For example, America is Britain's top trading partner.

Facts, taken in isolation from even more relevant others, can themselves be misleading ...

Here's a couple of rather more relevant facts ...

Percentage of UK Exports (Latest Annual Figures, 2015):

USA .. 14.5% of Total.

EU .... 53% of Total.

It is quite astonishing that so many in the UK apparently believe it is worth risking a SINGLE market which takes over half our products, by virtually telling that market it must abide by our new terms or get stuffed, and then going to see Trump & Co in the hope (probably hopelessly misplaced) that we might be able to sell a few more goods in his new 'America First' land?

I sometimes have to pinch myself that any of this is actually happening it is so ridiculous ... no wonder the rest of the world (apart from Trump, of course) thinks the British are completely bonkers!

[ahinton]

On 1, yes - and I hadn't thought about this before but it could be argued that (a) fake news in order to blossom needs a vacuum and (b) that the vacuum in this "information age" has been about facts in the public domain being replaced by stances and attitudes.

True, although one might also argue that the "vacuum" manifests itself in the vacuity of some of those portrayed by at least some of that fake news.

On 2, I have no comment because I didn't - and don't - like any of the options that have been presented to us. However, it would have been sensible for Britain to have decided whether to leave the EU second rather than first. Good strategists would have seen how one of the other countries fared with any punishment dished out but then UKIP were chomping at the bit and the Tories needed to win an election. Incidentally, during the seven months since the referendum, what has the Government done to make the future manufacturing of British computers a key priority? It's clearly important and we haven't been told a thing.

Agreed on all counts. If other Court cases (which could possibly include but will doubtless not be limited to any or all of the other three UK administrations appealing to the Supreme Court or taking their respective cases to the ECJ) become further spanners in the non-works, the entire A50 / negotiations edifice might begin to collapse in any event. Even had UK waited for another EU member state to try to leave EU before embarking on such a project itself, it should still never have been subjected to referendum; what, after all, do we have (and fund) Parliament for?...

[ahinton]

Facts, taken in isolation from even more relevant others, can themselves be misleading ...

Here's a couple of rather more relevant facts ...

Percentage of UK Exports (Latest Annual Figures, 2015):

USA .. 14.5% of Total.

EU .... 53% of Total.

It is quite astonishing that so many in the UK apparently believe it is worth risking a SINGLE market which takes over half our products, by virtually telling that market it must abide by our new terms or get stuffed, and then going to see Trump & Co in the hope (probably hopelessly misplaced) that we might be able to sell a few more goods in his new 'America First' land?

I sometimes have to pinch myself that any of this is actually happening it is so ridiculous ... no wonder the rest of the world (apart from Trump, of course) thinks the British are completely bonkers!

Agreed - except that even Trump might add himself to the list of those who think that the Brits are completely bonkers after he's met Ms May on Friday...

[Lat-Literal]

How high does a wall have to be to prevent people flying from Mexico to Vancouver and walking 24 miles into Washington state?

[french frank]

How high does a wall have to be to prevent people flying from Mexico to Vancouver and walking 24 miles into Washington state?

How long would a wall have to be between the US and Canada?

[Lat-Literal]

How long would a wall have to be between the US and Canada?

5,525 miles.

Luckily, 2,475 miles can be deducted from that total if no planes are permitted between Mexico and Northern Canada close to Alaska.

52% of all citizens in the Vancouver area only speak English as a second language.

Consequently, spotting ambitious Mexican immigrants could prove a little difficult.

President Trump was looking tired in his first interview. He is discovering that politics is not as easy as business. For all of our sakes, he needs some sleep. And if he had any sense, he would decide in week two to shorten the two year electoral process which is plainly ridiculous. Mrs Clinton would have had similar problems after such a marathon.

[vinteuil]

.

... and a Wall around Hawaii to prevent anyone landing.

[ahinton]

5,525 miles.

Luckily, 2,475 miles can be deducted from that total if no planes are permitted between Mexico and Northern Canada close to Alaska.

52% of all citizens in the Vancouver area only speak English as a second language.

Consequently, spotting ambitious Mexican immigrants could prove a little difficult.

President Trump was looking tired in his first interview. He is discovering that politics is not as easy as business. For all of our sakes, he needs some sleep. And if he had any sense, he would decide in week two to shorten the two year electoral process which is plainly ridiculous. Mrs Clinton would have had similar problems after such a marathon.

The Canadian wall situation (even though it seems not to have been mentioned in Trumpland yet) is a very different ball-game, not only because there'd need to be two walls but also because the purpose of the Mexican one is to keep Mexicans out and so one would presume that, just as Trump wants to restrict immigration from 7 Middle East countries and as a consequence would probably seek to deport at least some people from those countries who already live in US, any Canadian wall would presumably be not only to keep Canadians out but a symbol of a desire to repatriate at least some Canadians who already live in US (I daresay Marc-André Hamelin would be watching his skin were such a prospect to risk rearing itself).

It remains to be seen what the entire strategy (if ever there becomes one that could be or is enacted) in respect of immigration and repatriation might be and what effects might result from it; US has immigrants from so very many countries that it could spiral into even more unwieldy and improbable aims than just dealing with a handful of Mexicans and people from those Middle Eastern states. I think that the only certainties - rather as with Brexit - are uncertainty, instability, acrimony and impracticality all of which would inevitably rebound on New America as well as other affected countries; Trump will make America grate again, without doubt.

All that said, I cannot help but wonder if the Mexican bridge nonsense is just a distraction from what would surely be the far cheaper Bering bridge/tunnel from Wales in Alaska across to Little Diomede (USA), Big Diomede) Russia) and thence to Lavrentiya...