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Discussion » Questions » Life and Society » Please list Five ( 5) ways Trump has negatively or positively affected your day to day life? Seriously.

Please list Five ( 5) ways Trump has negatively or positively affected your day to day life? Seriously.

Posted - November 23, 2019

Responses


  • 17364
    Seriously, why don't you ask about your country's leaders?
      November 23, 2019 9:03 PM MST
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  • Seriously, I was trying to ask questions about my country,  but this is an American site, so none of you give a faak. This post was edited by my2cents at November 24, 2019 3:51 PM MST
      November 23, 2019 9:05 PM MST
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  • 46117
    I wanna try you.  When I introduce a subject that no one knows a thing about, I don't yell at them.  I show them the topic.  With a site and a video.  Then if they say something stupid about it, then I YELL AT THEM.  Try that. I will answer.  Or don't you want serious answers? 
      November 24, 2019 9:13 AM MST
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  • 19942
    I think it's less that people aren't knowledgeable about your country's affairs than that they don't give a faak.  
      November 24, 2019 3:52 PM MST
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  • 4631
    If we asked questions about our country's leaders, would any of the Mugs US citizens answer?
    I'll try it and see what happens.
      November 25, 2019 4:49 PM MST
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  • 4631
    Here in Australia, the effects on my life are indirect but felt nonetheless.

    It's subtle and complex.

    I'm not sure how many Americans would have an interest in something so distant from their lives.

    Australia lives as an unofficial colony of America, heavily under its political, military, economic and cultural hegemony.
    We have 24-hour live feed of your news services - the full spectrum of all channels.

    At the moment, we have a right-wing government in power at the Federal level and in most of the States.
    It's a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party - typically called the NLP for short.

    The main influence from Trump and his Republicans is that they encourage our conservatives to move further right, especially in terms of business and financial strategies, taxation and law.
    Our country has drifted around 5 -10% to the right over the last 30 years, though it's still a fair bit stronger in public utilities than the U.S.

    Some of our more conservative religious groups are trying to push their morals into public law. One faction within the current right-wing government is strongly in favour of this. But opinion in the party is divided, close to 50-50 - maybe slightly against the fundamentalists, puritans and creationists.
    Though quite strong enough to have influence, they are outnumbered by Australians who prefer the government to keep its nose out of religion and religious issues. Across the entire electorate, the believers in non-sectarian and secular freedoms have a clear majority. They're a mix of libertarians, agnostics and atheists, and the majority of religious people who value freedom of faith and conscience.
    This has been a big fight about whether gays can marry, whether religious schools can refuse to employ gay teachers, whether religious hospitals can refuse to employ gay doctors, paramedics and nurses, and whether businesses have the right to refuse gay customers or clients.
    It's also impacting on the laws around abortion, the definitions of rape and domestic violence, the rights of parents and children in divorce, early childhood education and costs, and women's rights to equal opprtunities and pay in the workplace.
    Interestingly, the harder the religious right pushes to enforce their agenda on the larger society, the more ground they are slowly losing - because the majority of Australians really don't want to see such limitations and injustices imposed on them. 
    To try to put some perspective on it, I'll try to fill out the background a bit.
    In the 2016 census 52.1% of Australians classified themselves as Christians - although most of these are Christian in name only - funerals, weddings, that sort of thing - not specially devout. 22.6% identified as  Catholic and 13.3% as Anglican. Another 8.2% of Aussies identify themselves as followers of non-Christian religions: Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Aboriginal lore, etc.
    A 2012 poll by Win-Gallup International found that 48% of Australians claimed no religion, of which 10% declared themselves "convinced atheists". Australia placed in the bottom 14 for religiosity and in the top 11 for atheism.

    Trump is building a new US naval base near Darwin. It is intended as a warning to China not to have too many ambitions about further colonisation of the South China Sea.
    This has both positive and negative effects for Aussies. We too don't want to see China becoming more aggressive and possessive in the South, partly because of the likely negative results for our trade with South-East Asian countries, and partly because it would restrict the freedom of maritime routes. So the base could be seen as positive in a protective sense.
    In another way, it's negative, because every increase of America's power in Australia tends to undermine our own independence and freedom. In particular, it tends to push our politicians further to the right in terms of capitalism, conservatism, privatisation, and cut-backs to services for the poor. 

    Our conservative politicians come in a wide spectrum:
    the Liberals (in Australia that's the name of the middle-right wing party),
    the Nationals (right),
    and One Nation and the Shooters, Fishers & Farmers (ultra-far right).
    All of them are intensely interested in Trump.
    In general, they like many (but not all) of his ideas and policies, but not his methods or style.

    One of the Trump things our right-wing hated was Trump's backing out of the Pacific Trade Agreement originally brokered by Obama.
    The agreement required certain changes to local laws.
    We would have been required to pass laws that prevented environmental protesters from blockading mining and from campaigning for boycotts of secondary businesses necessary to the support of mining. (My lot, the Greens, are dead against such laws.)
    Eventually, the Pacific Trade Agreement was signed by all Pacific rim countries except the US. The laws were changed to some degree, but the high court blocked the laws against protesters and boycotts on the grounds that it infringed the constitutional right to political freedom of speech.
    Nevertheless, several laws on foreign ownership of Australian freehold land were loosened. This has a negative effect for our agricultural production and our trade balance.

    Theoretically, Trump's trade policies could have benefitted Australia.
    20% of Australia's trade is with China. It's our single biggest trading partner - very profitable for our biggest primary producers (mining and farming). But the size of this market also makes us extremely vulnerable to any up- or downturns in China's trade with is.
    When Trump imposed tariffs on China's products, that had an immediate positive effect for Australia. China became keen to sell far more of its products here because we impose no tariffs. It meant we got an influx of much cheaper product.
    In practice, it hasn't worked out too well for our importers. Consumer confidence and spending is the lowest its ever been due to low wages growth against increasing costs of electricity and fuel. Hardly anyone is buying the Chinese goods.



    This post was edited by inky at November 26, 2019 3:57 PM MST
      November 24, 2019 12:01 AM MST
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  • 46117
    That is truly insightful and chilling, book, but remember, it lowered income taxes.    This is what determines your right wing advancing and crushing all that is really sacred. This post was edited by my2cents at November 25, 2019 1:57 PM MST
      November 24, 2019 9:36 AM MST
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  • 6988
    Trump reduced everyone's income taxes, including mine. 
      November 24, 2019 12:39 AM MST
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  • 5391
    And ran up the budget deficit by a trillion dollars. Not so long ago, raging against the deficit was a Republican position. 
      November 24, 2019 7:21 AM MST
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  • 44173
    Dang...you beat me to it.
      November 24, 2019 8:28 AM MST
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  • 6988
    And then suddenly, Toledo now has a rather stiff income tax. I have to pay into that! I wish they would do a better job on the condition of the streets. I mean, shouldn't we get something tangible out of the deal? 
      November 24, 2019 9:08 AM MST
    3

  • 46117
    And then NOW?  ARE YOU GOING TO WAKE UP AND SEE THAT IT WAS A ONE-TIME CON JOB THAT COSTS BILLIONS that we HAVE TO PAY BACK????
      November 24, 2019 9:39 AM MST
    1

  • 44173
    None of my income is taxed here as it is retirement income. I work a part time job in Maumee, but don't earn enough for it to be taxed.
      November 24, 2019 12:03 PM MST
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  • 46117
     I pay the same as when Obama was in office.  Thank you.  And I would rather pay DOUBLE the amount to get this menace ousted.  He has bankrupted so many areas that he promised to protect. This post was edited by my2cents at November 25, 2019 1:43 PM MST
      November 24, 2019 9:06 AM MST
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  • 6988
    My tax bill WAS cut, and I am in the middle income bracket. This post was edited by my2cents at November 25, 2019 1:44 PM MST
      November 24, 2019 9:13 AM MST
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  • 19942
    No, not everyone's.  In the entire 56 years I've been working full-time, I have never owed more than $500 when I filed my taxes and, because I claim -0- for withholding, I almost always get a refund.  This year, I had to pay $3200 - more than if you added up all the times I had to pay over 56 years, so don't tell me I benefitted from Trump's tax plan.  
      November 24, 2019 3:55 PM MST
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  • 7280
    Not everyone's actual tax bills.
      November 24, 2019 5:18 PM MST
    1

  • American here.
    Trump hasn't really affected my life in any way. Good or bad. This post was edited by Benedict Arnold at November 26, 2019 5:59 AM MST
      November 24, 2019 1:49 AM MST
    7

  • 46117
    Trump has put in place judges that determine your every freedom.  They are on the right.  They are there to protect one person.  And that person is not you.  Trump has bankrupted many areas he swore to improve by ignoring their plight.  He starved Puerto Rico and he killed our allies.  These are things that allow you to sit your butt down on land that TRUMP is trying to destroy and give to RUSSIA. This post was edited by my2cents at November 25, 2019 1:45 PM MST
      November 24, 2019 9:09 AM MST
    3

  • "Trump has put in place judges that determine your every freedom."

    Every President does that if when the SC has an opening.  None have been out there with people like me in mind.
      November 24, 2019 9:57 AM MST
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  • 46117
    Pancreatic Ruth has you in mind.  A dying breed.  
      November 24, 2019 10:01 AM MST
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  • No, no she doesn't. 
      November 24, 2019 10:21 AM MST
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  • 46117
    Yes, yes she does. She is a kind-hearted Jew person.

    She is the second female justice (after Sandra Day O'Connor) of four to be confirmed to the court (along with Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, who are still serving). Following O'Connor's retirement, and until Sotomayor joined the court, Ginsburg was the only female justice on the Supreme Court. During that time, Ginsburg became more forceful with her dissents, which were noted by legal observers and in popular culture. She is generally viewed as belonging to the liberal wing of the court. Ginsburg has authored notable majority opinions, including United States v. VirginiaOlmstead v. L.C., and Friends of the Earth, Inc. v. Laidlaw Environmental Services, Inc. This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at November 24, 2019 10:28 AM MST
      November 24, 2019 10:24 AM MST
    0

  • She doesn't have people like me in mind, nor do I really care for her.

    The question was regarding if my life has changed good or bad because of Trump.  The answer us no.  Nothing in my life has really been affected by it.  Sorry, but it hasn't. It doesn't mean I think he's great, it just means it hasn't had much of an impact on anything in my life really. Other than being annoyed and finding it difficult to get news that isn't about him.
      November 24, 2019 11:01 AM MST
    4