White House aides right now offering no explanation for why President Trump believes he can “hereby order” American companies to do anything. Also, officials have no information about what the president may or may not be announcing this afternoon, per his Tweet. https://t.co/QbGwBnfduE
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) August 23, 2019
when you're running for reelection on the great economy and whoops it isn't working out so well –> https://t.co/YrMyPbW49i
— Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) August 23, 2019
You can definitely tell that the White House thinks this will be received well, given that Trump waited until after markets closed https://t.co/GFoYtV9xWM
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) August 23, 2019
Little known fact: the president of the United States may be unable to hereby order private companies to do anything but the chosen one and the King of Israel do actually have that authority so the joke is on us.
— Tom Wright (@thomaswright08) August 23, 2019
If Obama had done any *one* of the bat-crap crazy things POTUS did just *today*, the Republicans would have lost their shit. McConnell would be waving the Constitution around and Tom Cotton would be getting into camo and waiting for the Red Guards to storm Little Rock. https://t.co/SbAgNrg9Zr
— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 23, 2019
Trump: Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn!
Trumpalos: lol losers he's just doing it to get a rise out of u and also he's objectively right if you weren't biased you'd see Cthulhu DOES wait dreaming this is how you get Trump
— HerebyOrderedHat (@Popehat) August 24, 2019
#Russia's state TV: Dep. Dean of World Politics at Moscow's State University:
"Unfortunately, Trump didn't reach the level of Abraham Lincoln & didn't drive the U.S. to civil war. That's sad. Hopefully, he'll become Herbert Hoover and at least drive them into a Great Depression." pic.twitter.com/rc5I9UYXxZ— Julia Davis (@JuliaDavisNews) February 11, 2018
The only good news is Trump will do something horrifically embarrassing at G7 this weekend to distract from his trade war before the markets open on Monday.
— Schooley (@Rschooley) August 23, 2019
dmsilev
Pfft. Trump only got into Miskatonic U because his Shoggoth father pulled some strings.
feebogd
Between Boris and Trumpov this G7 summit is going to be a shitshow. Macron looks like he had that smile surgically implanted on his face.
Spanky
Dude! It’s only 2019! He’s still got 17 months in office!
(Apologies if this triggers anyone.)
AThornton
So will the Federalist Society lose their shit about this non-constitutional expansion of Executive Power?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH(pauseforbreath)HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Spanky
What’re the odds on the US leaving the G7 before Monday?
Spanky
Why does the MSM still do this? Do they think their consumers don’t know this is all show?
randy khan
Trump apparently has a theory that the Emergency Powers Act lets him do this. I would guess that the courts would disagree, but more to the point, just imagine how all those Republican CEOs would react if he really tried to cut off trade with China completely.
patrick II
Among other things, Trump has no concept of time and interoperability. American companies and Chinese companies have spent years building up the complex system of manufacture and support that exists between us. And while I have sympathy for the idea of bringing jobs home, it won’t be tomorrow. Plants will not be rebuilt tomorrow. Roads, electrical grids, appropriately educated workforce will not be rebuilt tomorrow. Throwing a tariff on a country as intertwined as we are with China is not something you change quickly. Certainly not before the next election. At some level, he realizes that, but he can’t back away from his only trick (tariffs are easy) without appearing a coward, and he can’t keep upping the ante because, in the short term, there is no solution that can happen before the election. And with those two contradictory facts, both intrinsic to who he is, he is going nuts.
scav
prufrock
@patrick II: Are we’re sure he realizes it? He seems about as aware as Veruca Salt.
germy
It's about time we had a businessman running this country.
Redshift
@scav: Trump parody fail. Forgot to have the economists calling him “sir.”
Duane
It’s as if he wants to destroy the country. His Russian puppet masters certainly do.
M31
also, fuck that Russian guy — Lincoln didn’t drive the US to civil war, slaver traitors did
scav
@Redshift: I thought the obvious flaw was that he let an unsanitized person’s lips approach his being.
Elizabelle
Saw a photo of Trump and Macron lunching together, Trump with the “don’t touch me” look.
I felt so badly for Macron. No one should have to deal with our Cheater in Chief on that level.
Baud
@AThornton:
Libertarians are on holiday it seems.
Redshift
@patrick II: I was hearing some coverage of the tariffs yesterday, and they were at least clear that it’s a disaster and everything Trump claims is false, but it was infuriating how they still keep trying to shoehorn all of this into some kind of normal “negotiation.”
The actual negotiators can’t succeed because every time they get close to a deal, Trump declares it’s “unfair” and blows it up. Why isn’t this too obvious to ignore? Trump and his “America First” idiots started this thinking they could get capitulation and “win.” If he can’t get that, he i wants a fight more than he wants any “deal.” The Chinese are certainly smart enough to see this, even if our pundits aren’t
Redshift
@scav: Hmm, interesting. He definitely wouldn’t let them do it, but would he lie about them doing it? I can’t recall if he’s ever tweeted something like that.
Lapassionara
@Baud: They’re in mourning.
Sloane Ranger
It may have been at Raw Story but I read an article that said that what is really getting to Trump is that he was planning to rub the other G7 leaders noses in how great the US economy was doing compared to theirs.
In his imagination, this would earn him the personal respect and admiration from them he craves and allow him to threaten and bully the other leaders into doing what he wanted e.g. tear up the Iran Treaty.
Not sure if there’s any truth to this. I read another story somewhere else that he didn’t want to go at all as he doesn’t agree with multi lateral meetings.
I suppose it’s possible both are true.
MattF
Word of the day: decompensate.
NotMax
“G7 is so dull. If we rename it 38D people would pay attention. Lots of people have told me they agree with me about that and I hereby order it done.”
Dorothy A. Winsor
I hope so!
debbie
@Redshift:
Trump’s problem was that he was sure his first announcement of tariffs would bring instant international capitulation. He didn’t bother with a strategy or even a back-up plan, and he’s just now realizing there are bigger and meaner bastards in the world than he.
MattF
@Sloane Ranger: There’s various things he doesn’t want to hear, e.g., ‘The Russians are still in Crimea’, ‘Trade wars aren’t so easy to win’, or ‘Greenland is not for sale’— and there’s a good possibility that he’ll hear all these things. Also, I’m feeling a sort of instinctive revulsion towards the prospect of a meeting between Trump and Johnson.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Who talked Trump into that electric blue tie?
AThornton
@Baud:
Libertarians get plumb tuckered out pulling themselves up by their bootstraps during the week. So they need their rest.
debbie
@Sloane Ranger:
Pity is that what is not getting to Trump is that he fucked it up with his own big, fat mouth.
NotMax
@debbie
Yup. He thought Risk was a game meant to be played solo.
Brachiator
@patrick II:
Very true. But Trump doesn’t understand this, nor does he care. He is a simple minded child as far as this goes, who thinks he can have his way just by asserting his will.
Or ever. It’s a global economy, and the US is just one of many players. Countries have to maximize their advantages rather than try to recreate some misremembered past. The UK is going through similar anguish in the vain hope that BREXIT might see the resurrection of the former empire.
NotMax
@debbie
Color coordinated to match Ivanka’s unmentionables? //
MattF
@NotMax: TMI. If something is unmentionable, you don’t mention it.
scav
@debbie: That wouldn,t happen to be a blue-screen shade would it? It lookes remarkably flat as is. . .
Mary G
I’m rooting for Angela Merkel to just haul off and slap him when he acts up. You know he will.
trollhattan
@Mary G:
Clubbing him with a 1-liter beer mug, full, would be a lovely thing to behold, savor, etc. I won’t even bemoan any spilt beer.
Brachiator
@AThornton:
Nope. I recently wrote this about Trump’s approach to power.
I could have added that right wing pundits and think tanks back Trump even though his actions violate everything they supposedly believe about overreach of executive power.
The only conservative who has consistently blasted Trump is George Will, who also has a book out about conservative values. Unfortunately, Will’s criticisms are stale and fussy and underestimates the damage that Trump is causing.
ETA. And I promised myself that this would be a Trump free Saturday.
Sloane Ranger
@MattF: Actually that’s the thing I’m interested in seeing. Johnson is currently trying to reassure wavering Tory MP’s that he is genuinely trying for a deal with the EU in order to avoid a vote of no confidence (remember it will only take 1 Tory defection for such a vote to succeed) so he can’t upset Merkel and Macron too much, but, on the other hand, he wants to keep Trump sweet in the hope of a trade deal.
I want to see how he tries to thread the needle.
Brachiator
CNN is sniffing it out:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/24/politics/trump-china-trade-war-emergency-economic-powers-act/index.html
MattF
@Brachiator: In fact, there are various conservatives who criticize Trump— I wouldn’t even put George Fucking Will in the forefront of that group.
Suzanne
@Brachiator:
Those are the best Saturdays.
I wonder if I will ever feel that young and carefree again.
James E Powell
@MattF:
True. It’s been many years since anyone cared what George Will has to say. But this is the world he worked very hard to bring about.
catclub
@Sloane Ranger:
trump knows one thing, if the UK drops out of the EU, any trade deal the UK makes with the US will HEAVILY favor the US. In this he is actually working in the interests of the US. [Yes, I know that favoring brexit overall is not working in favor of the US long term interest.]
Frankensteinbeck
@Brachiator:
Trump can believe what he likes. He has a bureaucracy he can tell to set tariffs and they’ll do it by default until ordered not to by someone else. That default doesn’t exist here. While odious, the current Supreme Court is not actually a rubber stamp, and if he even CAN get this to SCOTUS they’re highly unlikely to approve it. I personally think the companies will shrug and this will drop down the memory hole.
JPL
@Sloane Ranger: Johnson might have difficulties with trump because trump could care less about Boris’ biggest concern which is the Amazon fires.
Brachiator
@MattF:
Really? Most of what I’m seeing from conservatives is “We really like what he’s doing; we just wish he would shut up and be quiet about it.”
Ruckus
@debbie:
He knows. He will never, ever admit it, but he knows. He’s used to stepping on his dick, in golf shoes, you’d think he likes it by how often he does this. What never has and never will get into him is that it isn’t the rest of the world that’s the problem, it’s that it’s always him, Always. Him.
James E Powell
@Brachiator:
And the related “Sure, Trump is a clown and an embarrassment but the Democrats are even worse and hate America!”
Sloane Ranger
@catclub: Ah, that’s undoubtedly true where other, lesser nations are concerned but. his mother was Scottish and he really admires the Queen so it will totally be different for us.
A Brexiteer//
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
Redcoats and muskets? How quaint.
American conservatives have exactly the same concept. They want a full mega church on every corner and all POC on plantations picking cotton. And all the money in republican banks.
Outdated ideas that were bad when they were the way shit was are still bad.
The Dangerman
The really scary thing is, if there were a serious international incident (sure, there are problems, but nothing HOOOOGE), Trump would just go sit in the corner and fill his pants. It’s no longer the Peter Principle; it’s the Trump Principle (certainly NOT the Trump Peter Principle).
trnc
I almost never refer to DT by his full name because I have always believed he is He Who Must Not Be Named. Although, in all fairness, Obama led the way on that (“her opponent”)..
Kelly
@The Dangerman: The Trump Peter Principle is Trump will always step on his peter.
Ruckus
@Brachiator:
From where we are to a trump free Saturday will take a while.
Very fucking unfortunately.
Because while the republicans have become much more open about their goals because of trump saying everything out loud that doesn’t mean we have to go along. And like always, a sewer spill of this magnitude takes a long time for the stink and rot to be cleaned up.
hells littlest angel
Pardon the pedantry, but if you’re on the Titanic, it really doesn’t matter if your ticket is one-way or round-trip.
Brachiator
@Frankensteinbeck:
I personally think the companies will shrug and this will drop down the memory hole.
zhena gogolia
@hells littlest angel:
Haha, that gave me pause as well.
Ruckus
@Kelly:
With golf spikes on. He’s not nothing, he’s stupid and sadistic.
Not admirable traits in a president but ya gotta go with what ya got.
Brachiator
@Suzanne:
Well, I can’t have a totally Trump free Saturday. But I think I am done with Trump and the Internet for the rest of the day.
patrick II
@MattF:
Rick Wilson is the sharpest and funniest of them. He cuts with a Very sharp knife. Among the MSNBC talking heads Nicolle Wallace was the first to talk frankly about Trump as someone who is not totally sane. And of Course Jennifer Rubin at the Post.
when I see them I wish we had more democrats who were as acerbic and frank.
MattF
@Brachiator: Charlie Sykes’ ‘Bulwark’ Podcast has been on the air for a while, and the guests are generally uniformly conservative and anti-Trump. They certainly believe themselves to be beleaguered, but they certainly exist.
Ruckus
@catclub:
trump has never worked in his or anyone else’s long term interest. It’s why he’s such a fuck up. His outlook ends at the next business or lawyer meeting. He wants long term for people to adore him, but has never given anyone any reason not to despise him.
Mike in NC
Washington Post reported that Fat Bastard would be arriving at the G-7 with a “list of grievances”. Apparently the fucker’s entire life has been based on grievances.
Jay
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
There’s a colorable argument that regime of Agent Orange is a revenge tragedy in its final act, since his entire life has consisted of perceived slights.
patrick II
I have no idea how he thinks Apple would still be a functioning company if they stop dealing with China. Not only do they make much of their product in China, it is also a large market for them where an Iphone is o prestige purchase.
I don’t know how much Boeing sells there, but I will guess a lot. Combine that with Killing Boeing’s Iran deal and Boeing’s falling airplane problem it could be real trouble.
But by all means, hereby order them to stop doing business with China. I am sure the devastation of two major American companies will do no harm to the American economy.
catclub
@Mike in NC:
What do you expect if you grow up the favored son a near billionaire? Its a hard knock life.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
I’d say that’s 100% true. His main grievance is that no one will bow down and give him all the money for being the greatest human being ever.
He’s not a realist.
MattF
@patrick II: Yeah, but Apple and Boeing don’t mine coal, so they don’t count.
prostratedragon
@trollhattan: Lately I’ve been thinking that the Pigmeat Markham revival is long overdue.
thalarctosMaritimus
@catclub: when I lived in Cambridgeshire, I got to hear from English people about the Lend-Lease experience.
It’s safe to say that the version taught in American history books is not at all reflective of what it was like for the British.
Ruckus
@patrick II:
Unless it’s changed very recently Boeing has parts built in China, as well as 737s being finished there.
Yarrow
@JPL:
Huh? Boris doesn’t care about the fires in the Amazon. He may have been shamed into giving lip service to caring, but that’s all it is. From this article:
Taken out of context. Uh huh.
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I think the joke is that in France, thumbs up means “in your ass, MF”…
I know for sure that it means that in many cultures, not positive about the dock workers of France.
Yarrow
@patrick II: Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, met with Trump recently to talk about how the China tariffs will affect Apple’s competitiveness. Doesn’t look like their chat had a big impact.
germy
Wait until he gets tired of Melania. He’ll stand across the room from her, point his short index finger and intone “I divorce thee, I divorce thee, I divorce thee…..”
And the marriage will be officially dissolved.
Ruckus
@Yarrow:
Chat went like this.
Cook: Your tariffs will kill our company that does billions of business around the world yearly.
trump: How much will you pay me to change this?
Cook: Are you out of your fucking mind?
trump: What do you mean?
Gravenstone
@Brachiator: So some jackass actually had to brief him about this law, because no way in Hell does he know it exists otherwise. Which sycophant has that level of actual understanding?
Brachiator
@Mike in NC:
Can’t he just save this shit for Festivus?
germy
@Brachiator: Every day is Festivus with this administration.
J R in WV
@thalarctosMaritimus:
A somewhat tantalizing comment, devoid of actual information. What did you really learn, past the factoid that some books may be incomplete?
JPL
@Yarrow: lol When he departed his plane in France, he gave strong lip service to the Amazon and the climate crisis. He must really be trying to suck up to members of the E.U.
JMG
All the CEOs of the affected companies have to do is tell Mitch McConnell they’ll be raising all the money they can for his Democratic opponent in 2020, and for every other Democratic Senate candidate, and Trump’s order will vanish within an hour.
Gravenstone
@patrick II:
Add to that damn near every chemical and pharma company on the face of the earth. So many raw materials are outsourced to China or India. And no way can the latter fill in for losing access to the former.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Yarrow:
You mean Tim Apple.
RandomMonster
@hells littlest angel:
Except that you spent less on the one-way!
Litlebritdifrnt
What I find amusing is that Twitler “ordering” US companies to come up with alternatives to China, like they can suddenly invent a new country to do business with.
germy
@Litlebritdifrnt: Russia!
germy
Good comment from over at LGM:
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2019/08/a-world-of-fortress-economies
FelonyGovt
@Ruckus: My Rep, Ted Lieu, knows people are sick to death of Trump. This was in his latest email:
Let’s face it: You don’t really want to hear about each and every bit of news coming out of Washington. Your in-laws are in town, or maybe you’ve got a vacation to plan, or a big upcoming presentation at work you’d rather be focusing on. But instead, you’re glued to the news, because you know that with Donald Trump as president, anything can happen. It’s exhausting — but if we all work together to defeat Donald Trump, we will never have to think about Donald Trump again.
Another Scott
@patrick II: But Donnie’s idea of a great US economy is straight out of Soviet 5 Year Plans: 1) Being the #1 producer of steel ingots with ever increasing production, and 2) Being the #1 producer of coal with ever increasing production.
He tolerates Apple and Tim because Tim has a lot of money and hasn’t been antagonistic. But he doesn’t care about the company. His brain is too broken to understand the US has moved on from the days of Carnegie and Vanderbilt… (The PRC has produced more steel than the US since 2000, and they’re the biggest coal producer by a large margin as well.)
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Litlebritdifrnt:
England.
prostratedragon
The WaPo today writes about the tariff effects more generally, and a little about whether the authority to hereby order this by President Never-met-a-political-risk-he-didn’t-like actually exists. I don’t think businesses are disregarding this, though their response might have something to do with their size and how much they have sunk into China.
germy
@FelonyGovt:
There’ll be history books to be written. Documentaries. Cautionary tales. We can never let this happen again. Not sure if forgetting will help.
Doc Sardonic
@germy: Actually, the divorce wouldn’t be official until he throws dog poop on her shoes, and we know the germaphobic fucker isn’t going to do that. He will probably order Barron to do it.
jc
Trump keeps showing that words have no meaning to him. It’s all just about hogging headlines, cynically controlling the narrative. All Democrats should be loudly asking: why would anyone want to do business or discuss policy with someone who is fundamentally unfit and untrustworthy?
Ruckus
@FelonyGovt:
Ted is wrong. This mess will take a long time to clean up. And we probably won’t have the necessary time because too many people have a totally unrealistic concept of the country, the government and the press. trump is the indicator and instigator of the mess. He didn’t start it, he won’t finish it off, it will have to be dealt with for years.
patrick II
@Brachiator:
I don’t think maximizing our advantage and having more jobs at home are mutually exclusive. But that is a topic for another time.
Litlebritdifrnt
@?BillinGlendaleCA: LOL like tiny England is a replacement for a market the size of China! (I know you were joking). But seriously, increasingly Chinese people have disposable income, which they like to spend. Whether it is on vacations abroad (Disneyland anyone?) to high end electronics, they have got money to spend and they are going to spend it.
mrmoshpotato
Why Dump believes? A:Because he’s a Soviet shitpile.
What he may announce? A: MY DADDY VLADDY SAID I COULD HAVE AN AUTHORITARIAN KLEPTOCRACY TOO! and I’ve been sucking the Kremlin’s ass since 1987!
Matt McIrvin
@Ruckus: The mess will last long enough that it will largely be blamed on the next Democratic administration, contributing to the election of the next Republican one after that.
Yarrow
@FelonyGovt:
I get where Ted Lieu is coming from but I don’t think that’s a great email. I mean, your in-laws are in town? LOL. Maybe people would rather think about Trump than visit with their in-laws. And this bit:
As Ruckus said, this mess is going to take years to clean up. There will be books, movies, TV shows, and thousands of studies done about this era. Going forward, all any country or business has to say is, “Yeah, but Trump…” when we want them to trust us again. We’ll need to put in safeguards so this kind of thing can’t happen again and we’ll need to get rid of the enablers. It’s going to be a long process.
This idea may be good short term politics – “elect Dems and you never have to think about Trump again” sounds great – but it’s not what’s needed. Pretending it is is a recipe for disaster down the road when we need some version of a Truth and Reconciliation commission and people are like, “Trump was so last year” and they want to move on.
mrmoshpotato
@germy: She’s birther trash like him. Good luck until he’s in jail, prison, hanged or thrown into a lava lake.
(Fuck you autoincorrect. northern is not birther.)
Jay
debbie
@Ruckus:
I disagree. I have endured Donald Trump since 19-goddamn-78. His overbearing, over-confident demeanor is a true reflection of his heart. He has never had even a nanosecond of doubt about himself and his excellence. What else could have made him think he could run an entire country?
debbie
@Litlebritdifrnt:
Or that the president would think any businessperson would walk away from the next largest economy!
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
What kind of university department dean talks like this? He’s a fucking academic. I know reactionaries have existed in such positions before but come on! And what a moron for thinking Lincoln was the one who drove the US to civil war. It was the Southern slaver states who did. Where’d he get his degree a Cracker Jack box?
And honestly, I get the feeling this guy wouldn’t have a problem with race-based chattel slavery. Aren’t some Russians notorious racist against black people and have some truly bizarre beliefs about them?
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: Good on them.
Jay
Jay
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
The guy is trolling the US.
debbie
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
It’s kind of the reverse of the bullshit fed to me about the USSR when I was in school. I’m telling you, Khrushchev had horns!
trollhattan
@debbie:
Yeah, some goddamn “New York golden boy real estate developer lifestyle maven, etc.” national media onslaught began in the ’70s and he reeked of skeevy from the start. I suppose he presented an ironic counterpoint to New York’s impending failure as memorialized by the Daily News: “Ford to City: ‘Drop dead'”
New Yorkers have known not to trust that family for half a century. Somebody didn’t listen.
trollhattan
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
My exact response on first reading that quote. It seems as though all the Russians are in on the destabilize-the-west scam.
Yarrow
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??: One who has perhaps been shown the kompromat on him and is saying what needs to be said to keep it quiet. Or saying it to protect his family from harm.
Yarrow
@debbie: He’s a narcissist. He’s a combination of unjustified overconfidence and insecurity and shame. Ruckus is right that at some level he knows. He just has the ability to ignore it most of the time until he’s faced with the truth that he’s not all that great. Then he goes into the narcissist shame spiral until he figures his way out of that and the cycle begins again.
Jay
TS (the original)
@Sloane Ranger:
He doesn’t want to go. Outside of his golf courses he is uncomfortable going anywhere. Anything the media says about why – is the media defending the fact that trump is a moron who eats fast food & plays lousy golf.
Jay
Ken
@MattF:
Visions of the two of them fusing together and growing exponentially like the Blob?
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Jay:
I figured that. I just think there’s something very nihilistic about this. What he said is a total insult to the millions of human beings who were enslaved and tortured for hundreds of years. These same enslaved people fought for their own freedom in that civil war he intentionally gets wrong
@debbie:
Yeah. It’s very stupid.
@trollhattan:
As @Yarrow: says, it’s possible he was forced into making this appearance.
Jay
TS (the original)
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
What I heard was a foreign national making a snarky statement about what trump is doing and how it will bring down his economy. It was reflecting what happened on the watch of different presidents – regardless as to how or why such things happen. Taking it to the lengths you have is misunderstanding the whole reason for the statement – Russians calling out trump on being stupid.
Omnes Omnibus
@??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??:
For one thing, he is not an American academic.
Jay
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
Normay!
Jay
Barry
@patrick II: ” Plants will not be rebuilt tomorrow. Roads, electrical grids, appropriately educated workforce will not be rebuilt tomorrow.”
And the GOP is solidly against rebuilding infrastructure, so that’s f-ed to the f-ed power.
thalarctosMaritimus
@J R in WV: The quality of what was delivered was not always what was promised, and the terms were so steep that it took until 2006 to finally pay it off.
I remember Lend-Lease being mentioned in history class as just short of unalloyed altruism on our part. Instead, it was sometimes shoddy materiel and exorbitant loans, which actually does sound more plausible.