Again, AP, you can’t simply let Trump’s characterization of NAFTA stand without somehow noting that it’s nonsense, JFC. That’s malpractice. It’s worse than making things falsely equivalent. It’s not even mediocre.
That said, OMG, thinking this nothingburger retread agreement is a big deal and the initialism has a “nice ring” to it. Sometimes what strikes you as the worst is simply what a dope he is.
Yeah as far as i understand this is NAFTA but with some minor tweaks that he is renaming and pretending its a big difference.
It’s exactly what Obama told him to do with the ACA—just rename it and take credit for it. He’s just the biggest fakeass con-man in history.
Bleeping AP, can you not include even a single line about how the new deal is different from the old deal or what the negotiations that led to the last-minute agreement were about?
They were pretty reliably superficial 30 years ago but still more or less competent. This is just pathetic. Sheer sloppy laziness.
It might help if TPM offered another perspective. Others have chimed in about this latest con job.
It’s bad enough that PR and spin are the only things Trump cares about, but it’s truly sad that he’s so terrible at it. No, dude. USMCA doesn’t have a nice ring to it. This only makes sense if you think the biggest problem with NAFTA was that it was easy for opponents to pronounce and just want to confuse everyone.
But in no case will his supporters actually like this. At best, they’ll proclaim this a victory because liberals aren’t happy while refusing to look at the details and will eventually blame Democrats once it doesn’t fix anything; just like they’ve been doing for decades. But if any of his supporters bother learning the details, it’ll just get added to the secret complaints they’ll never admit they have until after Trump leaves office and Limbaugh proclaims that he was a liberal the whole time.
Donnie has totally lost it…
Trump Today: President suggests quotas could replace steel tariffs as he claims to have ‘compromising’ material on senator
Mexico helped Trump to put pressure on Canada to advance his dairy obsession.
Mostly the key part is the new name. If it’s NAFTA with a few revisions, it’s no longer NAFTA.
While defending his Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Trump said he’d seen an unnamed Democratic senator in “very, very had situations” that were “compromising.” Asked the name of the senator, Trump said “I think I’ll save it for a book like everyone else.”
Worked on Lindsey Graham, didn’t it.
It is a good deal because USMCA has a ring to it?
Sounds like a rush deal for the midterms to me.
Great. He mended his relationship with Mexico. This is good news. I look forward to reading what Mexico’s payment schedule will be on the wall.
If Obama told him not to do that, Trump might’ve done it
While we all obsessed with the Kavanaugh circus, Trump rolled back another Obama regulation. Trains hauling oil and flammables will not have to retrofit the Civil War era brakes to faster ECP:
U.S. trains rely on pneumatic braking technology first invented in the 1860s, in which continuous air pressure linked from the front of the train keeps a brake from engaging on wheels on each car. When an engineer applies braking, it can take several seconds for pneumatic pressure to drop to the end of a 100-car train, and trains can be longer.
Electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) brakes still use air pressure, but each car has an individual braking control which receives an electronic signal simultaneously, reducing the danger of derailment when cars slam into the preceding ones before braking themselves.
Why force plutocrats to spend a nickel when the only thing at risk is human life and the environment?
And there is no analysis of the terms of the trade deal itself or its effect on trade, labor and other impacts.
Whole lotta cheerleading though.
Here is a great link that goes into detail on the changes:
" Trump and other critics said it encouraged manufacturers to move
south of the border to take advantage of low Mexican wages, costing
American jobs.’
But made no mention of off-shoring corporate assetts, tax-loopholes, business pass-throughs and executive wages that reward companies for closing american plants.
AP
best comment today