The Trump Presidency

[JayUtah]

...his whole Twitter fiasco is nothing more than a puppet-show on stage whilst the truly nefarious deals are being done in the shadows of the wings.

Agreed.  It looks like the Republican strategy is to allow Trump to distract the media while the Republican establishment hands the country back to the corporations and banks.

[Glom]

But really what we need to discuss with such learned company is was the Louisiana Purchase a case of executive overreach?

[JayUtah]

But really what we need to discuss with such learned company is was the Louisiana Purchase a case of executive overreach?

Not according to Madison, who placed it squarely within the power of the Executive to negotiate treaties.  But ssssh! or else Trump will want to build another couple of walls and make France pay for them.

[ka9q]

I've read that tourism as an industry is taking a serious hit.

Me too. And it's really quite ironic, give that it's a major export industry. Many not in percent of our GNP, but certainly large in absolute dollars per year.

And not just tourism either. International business travelers are rightfully afraid to come to the US. If I were organizing one of the big international meetings of Internet engineers I used to attend, I would probably agree that the ones normally held in the US should be moved to Canada for the time being. They've often been held in Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal and I'm sure the Canadians would welcome the extra business.

I like to say that higher education is one of this country's most important exports, given how many foreign students you see at almost any university. The rest of the world has always looked to the United States as the world leader in advanced education, basic and applied research and market creation, and they try to send us their best students. That's something we have every right to be proud of. Yet Trump is happily dynamiting all that in the ironic name of "making America great again". Ugh. He has absolutely no idea what made this country great in the first place.

[ka9q]

Speaking of higher education, everybody knows there's a strong correlation between support for Trump and the lack of a college degree. I think I know why this is, and it's not the extra education per se.

It's that many young people meet foreigners -- lots of 'em -- for the very first time when they go to college. When I was a Cornell undergrad in the 1970s, I had fellow students from practically every country in the world, but especially (pre-revolutionary) Iran, China and India. You quickly accept them as fellow students who just happen to look a little different and speak English a little differently (although that part could be a problem).

Many people without the benefit of a college degree, especially those who grow up, go to public school and live their entire lives in rural areas, never get that opportunity. And so they (can be made to) fear those they do not know.

[ka9q]

Not according to Madison, who placed it squarely within the power of the Executive to negotiate treaties.  But ssssh! or else Trump will want to build another couple of walls and make France pay for them.

Hey, the German comedian Jan Böhmermann points out that Germany also built a big, beautiful wall and they even made the Russians pay for it!

[Peter B]

Speaking of higher education, everybody knows there's a strong correlation between support for Trump and the lack of a college degree. I think I know why this is, and it's not the extra education per se.

It's that many young people meet foreigners -- lots of 'em -- for the very first time when they go to college. When I was a Cornell undergrad in the 1970s, I had fellow students from practically every country in the world, but especially (pre-revolutionary) Iran, China and India. You quickly accept them as fellow students who just happen to look a little different and speak English a little differently (although that part could be a problem).

Many people without the benefit of a college degree, especially those who grow up, go to public school and live their entire lives in rural areas, never get that opportunity. And so they (can be made to) fear those they do not know.

That's certainly the impression I get from some of the more frothy-mouthed Trump supporters on Unexplained Mysteries - their fear of Muslims is so visceral and hysterical I find it easy to believe they've never actually knowingly met one. I'd suggest that they chill out and go have lunch at their local Turkish restaurant or Lebanese take-away, but then I wonder whether they actually have such treasures where they live...

And the irony is, you go to a Turkish restaurant here in Australia, and they're so strictly Islamic they serve wine and offer Christmas banquets... 

And another thought - if you want to see a crowd of 100,000 fanatic Muslims: go to the cricket in Pakistan or Bangladesh, rather than the mosque. I'm not going to say I'd feel safe at a cricket match in Karachi in a crowd that big, but I don't think I'd be at risk from religious violence.

[Peter B]

Just to add to my previous point about Pakistani cricket crowds, it's worth looking at the player lists for the five teams in the Pakistani Super League (the local competition of the short-short version of cricket - Twenty20): http://www.espncricinfo.com/pakistan-super-league-2016-17/content/squad/index.html?object=1075974

Even those who know nothing about cricket will see that all five squads have a decent number of black (West Indian) and white (English, South African, Australian and New Zealander) players. What's not so obvious is that most teams also have one or two Sri Lankan players as well, and for one club their captain is a Sri Lankan. Sure, I don't think there's a single Indian player there, but the cosmopolitan nature of the teams should be pretty obvious: the fans and the organisers want good players, not just good Pakistani players.

And while most of the games in the comp were played in the UAE, the final was played in Lahore in front of a crowd of 22,000 very excited Pakistanis.

[gillianren]

It isn't even just meeting foreigners.  It's meeting anyone who is not just like you.  I would suspect that, in many places, college-educated people are the ones most likely to have met black or Hispanic people, to have met people from multiple socioeconomic strata, to have met essentially anyone who lives a different lifestyle.  It's why I get so deeply annoyed at the concept of a "liberal bubble" coming from people where 90% of the population is the same ethnicity, religion, and class whose families have all lived in the same place for five generations.

[ka9q]

There's an old Vulcan proverb: Only Nixon can go to China.

I thought it was an old Klingon proverb.

[Glom]

There's an old Vulcan proverb: Only Nixon can go to China.

I thought it was an old Klingon proverb.

No it's Vulcan. You must be thinking of revenge is a dish best served cold.

[gwiz]

I like to say that higher education is one of this country's most important exports, given how many foreign students you see at almost any university. The rest of the world has always looked to the United States as the world leader in advanced education, basic and applied research and market creation, and they try to send us their best students. That's something we have every right to be proud of. Yet Trump is happily dynamiting all that in the ironic name of "making America great again". Ugh. He has absolutely no idea what made this country great in the first place.

We've got a similar situation in the UK, foreign student numbers down since the Brexit vote and also, apparently, fewer UK students going to European universities.  This cutting off of links puts all the rhetoric about the UK going to be a great global player into perspective.

[Dalhousie]

I've just cancelled a visit to the US, it was only a short stop over to present at a conference.  Must too much of a potential hassle for this Malaysian born research to cope with.

[twik]

I think that's a shame. However the Trump presidency is so determinedly anti-intellectual that they probably think fewer foreign academics entering the country is negligible at worst and an achievement in "purity" at best.

[Glom]

Two weeks till I travel. If I survive, I will report on how I got on, most critically that I survived. That Iraq is no longer on the naughty step may make things easier.