Category Archives: mexico
Hugs Not Stopping Bullets
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador won election on a campaign of retreat from the war on drug cartels. HIs campaign pitch was “hugs, not bullets:”
Wall Fall
Click Nancy to enlarge image.
Pelosi’s a pro at politics. Trump, not so much. He ended the government shutdown for 3 weeks and got nothing in return but a promise to negotiate a wall Democrats don’t want and have no incentive to build. President Trump offered to take the blame for the shutdown and Nancy was glad to give it to him. Hard. His base is bummed.
“[Speaker Nancy] Pelosi ordered everything off the menu and left Trump hanging with the bill,” one Trump ally texted.
Real Oval Office Guests
Public Political Bickering
Pelosi and Schumer visited Trump and Pence in the Oval Office. At least I think Pence was visiting. He was plastered silent and motionless into a chair.
After the photo-op no one shooed the press away. So they stayed. This was more transparency than Nancy could bear and she kept asking them to leave. But they stayed anyway and recorded the four – okay, three – of them bickering about five billion dollars for the Mexican wall.
No one asked the Mexicans to cough up the cash, but the president said he would be proud to shut down the government until he gets the money from Congress.
Republican Senators later did some public political bickering of their own and backed away from Trump’s threat, but The Donald got the last word.
Trump Base Battle
Click the image to enlarge
The economy is booming but the Trump base is taking a hit.
GM is shutting down Chevy Cruze production at its 6 million square foot Lordstown plant. And Reason says the billion dollar cost of steel and other tariffs might have something to do with it. Steel workers are an important part of the Trump base. So are autoworkers and 1400 of them are about to lose their jobs.
Trump Base
“The U.S. saved General Motors, and this is the THANKS we get!,” tweets Trump.
Kevin Williamson at NR says it was dumb to bail out GM in the first place. American carmakers can’t compete on sedans with the likes of Honda or Audi. But they’re good at making trucks and SUVs people like. They should have focused on that sector long ago, he says. But we “paid them not to.”
Electric cars too. NPR reports the government subsidies electric cars to the tune of a $7,500 tax credit for buyers.
So now GM will focus on what it’s good at. In Mexico.
