sunnykerr

Well, import and export is usually a matter of access and price. We import so much from China because it's cheaper to do that than to make it at home. The United States sells a lot of cars, weapons, movies, etc. abroad. (Again, I'm not super familiar about the details.)

Don't regret voting Independent, Kim. The important thing is that you voted. That's what matters. Trump may be doing his level best to get whatever he can out of the U.S. economy for his own ends, but he can't screw it up irrevocably. Look at what happened under George W. Bush's administration. He inherited a billion-dollar surplus and left a trillion-dollar debt to his successor, and it's still okay.

Of course, there are still boneheaded decisions to make: Firm founded by KGB spy to guard US Moscow embassy

There You'll Be

I'm not sure about the details either, but I know a lot of the stuff I find is Made In China. I don't find much that says Made in USA. It only makes financial sense to import cheaper. I didn't even think of movies and stuff like that, that we export.

Speaking of trade-again, the USA is not involved in another new agreement https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/11/b...tpp-trade.html

I keep forgetting that Trump's financial disasters can't last forever. That we will survive, and recover. I'm more worried about relationships that will be broken with other countries. I don't know how you rebuild all of that, but, I suppose it's possible.

"Spy" and "guard" should not be in the same sentence. I don't understand what all of that means, but none of it makes sense to me.

canflam

Seattle elects first lesbian mayor

Congrats to her. It's Seattle's first mayor that's a woman since the 1920's. Washington went even more Democratic this election with other results. Well done by Northram beating Gillespie in the Governor race in Virginia. Any election results this year tick out to you?

Here's another interesting 1:Ravi Bhalla wins Hoboken mayoral election days after flyers label him terrorist

sunnykerr

^ The electoral results I was interested in came out last week, so that's when I mentioned them on here.

Kim, have you seen the reporting on the possible goal of Russian involvement in the presidential election? It seems the take away was that Putin was after the destruction of NATO, the Eurozone and other international accords that could present resistance to Russia, basically.

I'm guessing the TPP was on that list. Mind you, Canada hasn't ratified the agreement yet either. Trudeau wants more negotiations before he ratifies it.

Trump's whole agenda seems to be destroying everything and taking what he can for himself. So that can't last forever.

There You'll Be

Yeah, I've seen a lot of things about that. Putin put the right puppet into office to accomplish every single thing he wanted done. I'm sure he knew that, though. Unfortunately, Putin is a very smart and driven man when it comes to getting what he wants.

I didn't know Canada wasn't already in. What do you think the chances are that Trudeau will get the deal he wants? Is he willing to negotiate?

Yeah, it can't last forever, I just hope the damage can be undone in a reasonably quick amount of time.

I've realize we have a huge problem with this Putin/Trump regime-everyone is so partisan on this that they are forgetting the real issue-Russia has hacked our democracy, and will do it again, and again. That needs to be a non-partisan issue, and has to be solved, and fought against.

sunnykerr

Part of the problem with the Russian involvement in the election is that they went out of their way to pit Americans against each other over issues like immigration, health care, Black Lives Matter, religion, etc.

So Trump's government's refusal to do anything about it problematic, but there is a larger problem if Russia is being allowed to manipulate you all that way. Because that's the only way it won't end with Trump.

Canada will be in the TPP. I have no doubt about that. But Trudeau either wants to make it look like he's looking out for Canadian interests or he's actually looking out for Canadian interests. We have a habit in this country of letting our "friends" take whatever they want from us and not really fighting to have a better end of the deal. So I think he's trying to make sure we're entering that agreement with a strong-but-fair position.

There You'll Be

They greatly achieved what they were after. No one seems to care on the alt-right, because they "won". People are saying "they only spent a small amount on ads on Facebook, and Twitter. Problem is, those were shared many millions of times.

I hope someone in the government has a clue on how to fight the manipulation, but right now, it seems like they don't even want to admit it happened, when it's been proven it has. It will, as you said, not end with this election.

Also, what about all the other countries they may infiltrate? How many countries are they going to do this too, aside from us and their own?

That's awesome that he's doing that, concerning the TPP, despite his motivation. At least you will have more of your interests protected.

sunnykerr

Well, I don't know how social media works, but I'm guessing the ads don't cost as much and, if Russia was as involved as it seems, no one on the U.S. side had to spend that much. Russia was ready to do most of the investing, since they were pursuing their own goals and, you know, it was worth spending money for them.

See, the thing is Russia doesn't need to necessarily invade countries nearer home to have its influence felt. The USSR isn't that long ago. I know less than nothing about who in that region might still be connected to that era, but it's not hard for me to believe that many people in Eastern Europe might still be connected to Russia, one way or another.

And, not for nothing, but Russia has already backed Turkey's Erdogan pretty strongly. So that's one way Russia is involved in the region.

Meanwhile, Trump has named his new health minister and it's Alex Azar, who held that job in the George W. Bush administration, so at least he's got experience, but has also been a pharmaceutical industry CEO when not active in government. So Trump's assertion that Azar will help move forward cheaper medications seems... well, unlikely. Who knows? I certainly hope I'm wrong. But it would be the first time in the history of the world that a pharma industry CEO pushes for cheaper medications, wouldn't it?

There You'll Be

Guess what-they payed in rubles! Yet Facebook claims they didn't see anything odd about that.

Did you see that Russia, an ex-KGB officer, is in charge of the Russians now protecting the US Embassy in Moscow? It was a no bid contract, after they kicked out half of the US security. Trump really has handed us to them.

I didn't realize so many places were still involved with Russia. It never occurred to me, other than ex-Soviet countries. I also didn't know they were involved with Turkey at all. Is Erdogan a person?

I'm guessing we won't see cheaper medications with Azar. As you said, though, he has experience, so who knows. So far I believe he's the only new person appointed who has experience, so I'm willing to give him a chance.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/11/14/sena...e-mandate.html Since the GOP couldn't accomplish the Repeal and Replace of the ACA, they're hiding it in the Tax reform (cut) plan. That's nothing new, we already knew that, but it's all. now, so that corporations will get permanent tax cuts.


ETA-I'd definitely try this gene altering U.S. scientists try gene editing inside a person for the first time, aiming to cure a disease - Chicago Tribune

canflam

Thanks for posting this news. What did you think of Jeff Sessions testimony yesterday? It seems to me it showed how little Trump cares about the truth. I've had enough with both those guys.

Duterte on Trudeau's concerns: 'I only answer to the Filipino, I won't answer to any other b******t'

sunnykerr

Thanks for posting about that. What did you think of Jeff Sessions' testimony? I didn't even know he was doing that.

Kim, I posted a link to that story about the ex-KGB spy-started agency being given that job. As you rightly pointed out at the time, it seems weird to have "spy" and "guard" associated with each other. But, and speaking of Duterte, Trump likes dictators. Not North Korea's, but then Trump also likes people who could do him damage and picks on the ones who have no way to fight way credibly.

Erdogan is Turkey's President or Prime Minister... I'm never sure which goes where, but he's the leader of Turkey, basically. And, under his reign, that country's undergone a lot of pretty radical changes. For all that it's always been a pretty Muslim country, it used to be a lay country. Meaning there was no state religion. Not so any more. All thanks to Erdogan.

If you're looking for "lite" news stories from outside the United States, here are a few that may (or may not) interest you:

Macron warns Europe not to rebuff Trump and Putin Of course, Macron's a businessman and Russia and the U.S. are big clients of France, particularly in terms of weapons. But it wouldn't suck to have a rational person trying to maintain a balance.

UK cyber-defence chief accuses Russia of hack attacks See, told you the U.S. was far from their only target.

EU citizens keep immigration rights in UK, court rules If this stands, it would mean that UK residents who have EU citizenship (for instance, Italian citizenship as well as UK citizenship) wouldn't be forced to leave their non-UK-citizen spouse/family behind post-Brexit.

Australia dual citizenship: Jacqui Lambie latest lawmaker to go Apparently, you can't be in government in Australia if you have a passport from another country. So they've been "cracking down" on members of parliament who hold Australian citizenship (which I assume you would need to hold office) as well as citizenship from another country.

Ancient Peruvian mural at Ventarrón destroyed in fire It survived 4500 years, only to be taken down by a fire.

Canada and Mexico cold to U.S. using TPP to make progress in NAFTA See, another reason to have zero doubt that Trudeau will ratify the TPP at some point.

B.C. First Nation says it has created world-class oil spill response plan It's a great idea that is simple and makes sense. It could also potentially prevent a lot of environmental damage from happening, but it's a First Nation bringing it to the table and it would cost an initial investment of $110 million. So it'll never happen.

canflam

Well I didn't watch his testimony as I'm tired of hearing him talk about his lack of memory which he seems to do in those cases. It's ridiculous how he'll say something in testimony months ago & then forget about it.

There You'll Be

Sunny, I'm sorry! I totally forgot we'd talked about the KGB news.

Thanks for explaining who Erdogan is.

Macron makes some sense, but as you said-him being a businessman kind of shows what his interests may be. Did you see that France is, along with Germany, the UK, picking up the tab for the US not contributing to fighting Climate Change? At least the rest of the world cares about the Earth and people. France and UK vow to make up for Trump's withdrawal of climate change funding | The Independent

It would be nice if countries could come together to fight cyber warfare, but with Trump in bed with Putin, I don't see us joining in. Do you think that the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) will work without us helping?

I wouldn't blame Canada or Mexico one bit for going on without the US and NAFTA agreements. I hold out very little hope that our government is willing to compromise.

That is amazing to me-that BC has come up with that oil spill plan. Talk about common sense, and being at the lead of the pack in preparedness.

Okay, don't worry about responding to everything I commented on, but I do have a question-what exactly are they trying to accomplish with Brexit? Like, how will it affect the people there?

canflam

Brexit: All you need to know about the UK leaving the EU

So they also had campaigns to stay or leave & in last year's referendum 51.9% voted to leave the European Union. It's important to remember that England has had a complicated relationship with Europe. In 1988, P.M. Margaret Thatcher said in 1 of notable quotes that ''We have not successfully rolled back the frontiers of the state in Britain only to see them reimposed at a European level.'' It seems ''Brexit'' was a long time coming.

sunnykerr

Plenty of people opposed Brexit. It wasn't a landslide vote by any means.

Kim, basically, and this may sound familiar, an argument was made that the inability to control the inflow of immigrants was a burden on the UK's economy. And, you know, enough people bought it to get the "Leave" vote a win. It's pretty problematic for the UK, because its economy is thightly wound with the EU, so leaving is by no mean to the advantage of the UK.

As to how it will affect UK citizens... think of it this way. It's like if Ohio left the United States and became its own country. What happens when you cross the border into Ohio? How do you police that border? How do you tax someone who works in Ohio, but lives in whatever state is next to it? How do businesses make agreements with the rest of the country now that their part of it has officially left it and left whatever framework was in place?

It's a lot of unknowns right now because it's closing the door on decades of work and cooperation. The "fun" part is how Northern Ireland is part of the UK and the rest of the island isn't. Northern Ireland voted overwhelmingly to "Remain," but now their lives are about to get very complicated.

The thing about Macron is that he's an unknown quantity. He didn't get elected in connection to a party, so his allegiances are undefined. Fortunately, I doubt he's about to bend too far to appease Trump or anyone like him. He's savvy enough to understand the need to work with people he doesn't like, though.

What's the NCSC supposed to be doing that would help? I'm not too familiar with its mandate.

I doubt we and/or Mexico will take too strong a position with the U.S., but I think it's a good idea to work together. Can't hurt, anyway.