What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Valmy]

Harvard has learned from Columbia's experience. There is nothing to be gained from trying to work with Trump's thugs. You have to give up the money to protect your institutional independence.

[Syt]

Panama opposition party accuses US of 'camouflaged invasion'

I suppose this is what we'll get here if Poilièvre is elected.

I hope Denmark can reinforced Greenland with friendly Euro troops.

Pulling their own Crimea, maybe?

[Crazy_Ivan80]

Yeah plus they are blocking rare earth metals to the US. The plan is to let the full effect of the tariffs hit US consumers and businesses and outgrudge Trump. 

I thought it was a blocking of export for everyone, not just the US.

edit: in any case, the autocracies are making their play for world dominance. And they're likely to get it.

[Norgy]

I think it's hard sympathise with El Salvador's leadership. But yes, chaos pre-dates the Ukulele. A lot of it caused by death squads targeting leftists or suspected leftists.

[The Minsky Moment]

Don't tell me what to think or feel.

You can feel whatever you want, but fascism is fascism, it never merits sympathy.

Every fascist regime traces its origin to chaos or dysfunction that predates them and that they exploit.  It may explain why people turn to them, but it's never a justification.

[Tamas]

While I have no doubt the El Salvador regime has already turned nasty and will get far worse, you guys are doing a very familiar first-world high-horse thing here (well, except for BB).

I was under the impression that El Salvador being a gang war utter hellhole in the past was not up for debate. It's easy to sit in the US or Canada and demand that a fucked up dump like that adheres to high-level human right principles and refuse the lure of fascism. I mean, YOU have failed in refusing the lure of fascism.

Those people there were living in a de-facto warzone. It's downright arrogant to say that there is no way their "zero tolerance" approach was something that could had been seen as a genuine improvement to citizens' safety (and thus validating BB's "initial sympathy" comment).

I am not saying you are wrong to condone El Salvador, what I am saying is that perhaps you should climb down that high horse for a moment and don't gang up on BB for having more empathy than you in analysing how locals might had felt about the proposal of not having to judge gang war bullets anymore at the price of seeing people rot in prison.

[HVC]

While I have no doubt the El Salvador regime has already turned nasty and will get far worse, you guys are doing a very familiar first-world high-horse thing here (well, except for BB).

I was under the impression that El Salvador being a gang war utter hellhole in the past was not up for debate. It's easy to sit in the US or Canada and demand that a fucked up dump like that adheres to high-level human right principles and refuse the lure of fascism. I mean, YOU have failed in refusing the lure of fascism.

Those people there were living in a de-facto warzone. It's downright arrogant to say that there is no way their "zero tolerance" approach was something that could had been seen as a genuine improvement to citizens' safety (and thus validating BB's "initial sympathy" comment).

I am not saying you are wrong to condone El Salvador, what I am saying is that perhaps you should climb down that high horse for a moment and don't gang up on BB for having more empathy than you in analysing how locals might had felt about the proposal of not having to judge gang war bullets anymore at the price of seeing people rot in prison.

[Valmy]

Well I do think it says something that El Salvador, Saudi Arabia, and Hungary seem to be our only friends these days. No shade on how El Salvador got into its position, I am not sure why but I have the sinking suspicion US foreign policy contributed somehow.

We are basically similar countries to those now. At least in Washington DC.

[Tamas]

And you, sorry

[The Minsky Moment]

I am not saying you are wrong to condone El Salvador, what I am saying is that perhaps you should climb down that high horse for a moment and don't gang up on BB for having more empathy than you in analysing how locals might had felt about the proposal of not having to judge gang war bullets anymore at the price of seeing people rot in prison.

Sympathy for the people, sure.

Sympathy for Bukele, never.  Won't cut off my horse's legs to accommodate that position.

[The Minsky Moment]

At the risk of losing oxygen to my head from the towering heights of my enormous equine mount, I'll venture a few facts into the discussion:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/696152/homicide-rate-in-el-salvador/

The homicide rate reached a peak of 103 per 100K inhabitants but had fallen to 36 by 2019 when Bukele was elected.

That is, in absolute terms most of the reduction occurred before Bukele took office and the trend was already well entrenched.

[Syt]

But that's not surprising. There's a well documented trend of e.g. violent crime going down in countries but due to media coverage people believing it's getting much much worse.

[Zanza]

China has allegedly instructed it's airlines to refuse delivery of Boeing aircraft.

[HVC]

At the risk of losing oxygen to my head from the towering heights of my enormous equine mount, I'll venture a few facts into the discussion:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/696152/homicide-rate-in-el-salvador/

The homicide rate reached a peak of 103 per 100K inhabitants but had fallen to 36 by 2019 when Bukele was elected.

That is, in absolute terms most of the reduction occurred before Bukele took office and the trend was already well entrenched.

36 is still insanely high. It's at 2 now.

[Gups]

Harvard has learned from Columbia's experience. There is nothing to be gained from trying to work with Trump's thugs. You have to give up the money to protect your institutional independence.

Absolutely. All that bollocks about Turmp being transactional. He's a bully, pure and simple and there's no point in appeasing him.

I feel like the initial aura of untouchability is slipping. The tariff fiasco may have been good for the world after all.