Trump threatens new tariffs on China as U.S. mulls retaliatory action over virus

[Stargeezr]

Trump also has those heavily armed people who barged their way into their

state legislature.  What a wonderful bunch, made me wonder how many of them 

will be on their backs in a hospital in 2 or 3 weeks. I am hoping that the virus

loses steam over the Summer. Maybe 2021 will be a better year, I have already

concluded that 2020 is one for the history books.

Geezer

[daveAustin]

3 hours ago, stevenl said:

And others will blame China and put a big part of the blame at the botched responses from Trump and Johnson.

Do find it cringeworthy with throwaway comments mentioning Johnson in the same breath as Trump. They are not the same, while Johnson was damned if he did, damned if he didn't over the virus. Whatever measures they took, New York and London would always have been hit hard by virtue of being very heavily visited and big business. But all this is immaterial and after the fact anyway; the onus is 100% China.

[Sujo]

Blame your own govt for the havoc. They were warned and didnt take it seriously.

[skytrooper70]

I doubt that more tariffs do anything other than increase US consumer prices, for goods from China. Besides, China just finds 3rd country outlets for its exports, which are imported into US, from that other country. If trump really wanted to punish Beijing, he should insist that, before US resumes funding WHO, Taiwan be re-admitted/recognized at WHO (Beijing has blocked Taiwan's membership). Also, he could ask the same of the UN and its sub-organizations, as the US foots a large part of the UN's funding.

 

This would irk Beijing and not give it any wiggle room (a la tariffs) to avoid these US actions. Just make it a quid pro quo, for Beijing to grant full disclosure, on COVID-19.

[KhaoYai]

The sooner the US gets rid of this idiot, the better. His comments and actions during the almost 4 years he's been in office have ridiculed America as a nation and created havoc in the rest of the world yet he's still there.  It doesn't seem to matter what stupid statement he makes, what crazy law he passes or what world convention he pulls out of or criticises - he gets away with it. He calls criticism 'fake news' tells reporters they are liars, fires anyone who says something he doesn't like and insults world leaders and organisations - yet he's still there.

 

I'd like to think that's simply because of loyalty but surely even that has a limit? Viruses can start anywhere - H1N1 started in the US but I don't remember anyone suing the US over it. A rational man would realise that China would not dare start this virus deliberately and put their own people or their economy at risk. They may have played it down in the early days and whilst, if correct, that's wrong, many countries would have done exactly the same until it was clearly a serious long term threat.

 

Trump's latest war of words with China is nothing but a way to deflect media criticism about his lack of timely action and general playing down of the Corona Virus situation at the beginning, which it would appear, has lead to the deaths of thousands of Americans. The only thing he's interested in is getting re-elected, I think he'll take it very hard if he's kicked out.

 

Its hard to try to understand the US people's mindset on Trump but in a reasonable country, he'd do far better with public opinion if he rolled up his sleeves and got stuck in to sorting his country's medical crisis out - almost 65,000 deaths at the time of writing and all he can do is engage in a verbal spat with China and suggest people inject disinfectant.

 

I found it hard to believe that Trump was ever elected but it was explained to me that it had more to do with his opponent than his qualifications for the job. If he's returned to office in November - well, then the US will have completely lost the plot. What does he have to do, just how far does he have to go before his supporters see the light and desert him?

[yogi100]

On 5/1/2020 at 3:49 AM, Tug said:

Ahhhh you are assuming or perhaps stating that China let the virus out on purpose?that sir is an act of war the virus originated in the wuhan market it sucks it’s a bad thing but I don’t think it was done on purpose that beeing said working together to rid ourselves of this scourge is much more appropriate this accusation of China unleashing it is unconstructive to put it mildly and blindingly (unproductive)

How do you know that the virus originated in the market?

 

You do not know that any more than you don't know if it started in a laboratory in Wuhan.

 

They have had food markets in China as long as we've had them in Europe. Why have they not had such viruses originating in their food markets before.

 

It's all too convenient for the Chinese government to claim the source of the plague is a food market.

 

And not the local laboratory that is involved in chemical warfare, the equivalent of the UK's Porton Down, a top secret research institution where scientists experiment with biological weapons that can kill millions of people if ever called upon to do so.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by yogi100

[mtls2005]

I'm still not conviced that trump understands "tariffs", and who pays them?

 

Suing China? Good luck.

 

Reneging on debt? Yeah, that'll work. Not.

 

According to many reports, we knew about this virus in November. And wasted 3 ~ 4 months ignoring it. That's on us, not China. Anyway, it was just 15 people, and was supposed to go down to zero, so there's that.

 

 

 

 

 

[yogi100]

10 hours ago, KhaoYai said:

The sooner the US gets rid of this idiot, the better. His comments and actions during the almost 4 years he's been in office have ridiculed America as a nation and created havoc in the rest of the world yet he's still there.  It doesn't seem to matter what stupid statement he makes, what crazy law he passes or what world convention he pulls out of or criticises - he gets away with it. He calls criticism 'fake news' tells reporters they are liars, fires anyone who says something he doesn't like and insults world leaders and organisations - yet he's still there.

 

I'd like to think that's simply because of loyalty but surely even that has a limit? Viruses can start anywhere - H1N1 started in the US but I don't remember anyone suing the US over it. A rational man would realise that China would not dare start this virus deliberately and put their own people or their economy at risk. They may have played it down in the early days and whilst, if correct, that's wrong, many countries would have done exactly the same until it was clearly a serious long term threat.

 

Trump's latest war of words with China is nothing but a way to deflect media criticism about his lack of timely action and general playing down of the Corona Virus situation at the beginning, which it would appear, has lead to the deaths of thousands of Americans. The only thing he's interested in is getting re-elected, I think he'll take it very hard if he's kicked out.

 

Its hard to try to understand the US people's mindset on Trump but in a reasonable country, he'd do far better with public opinion if he rolled up his sleeves and got stuck in to sorting his country's medical crisis out - almost 65,000 deaths at the time of writing and all he can do is engage in a verbal spat with China and suggest people inject disinfectant.

 

I found it hard to believe that Trump was ever elected but it was explained to me that it had more to do with his opponent than his qualifications for the job. If he's returned to office in November - well, then the US will have completely lost the plot. What does he have to do, just how far does he have to go before his supporters see the light and desert him?

A lot of people hate Trump because he's a relief from politically correctness. He tells things as they are and how many others see them especially immigration issues. Liberals hate that.

 

I saw the 'disinfectant' speech and he did not simply suggest people inject it.

 

He suggested scientists look at a way of enabling folk to absorb it into their systems in a similar way to how hospital air conditioning units use chemicals to purify the air they send out. People in hospitals then breath that air.

 

That air reportedly then helps kill germs that may be present in the atmosphere.

 

Any Americans who reckon they took him seriously and considered drinking it should be locked up immediately in the nearest institution for their own good. Not even British citizens are that stupid.

 

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by yogi100

[4MyEgo]

America is a master at deflecting, different President, same cause.

 

Did you know that the first person infected with the "Spanish" Flu was reported in Kansas....read on.....

 

https://time.com/5807376/virus-name-foreign-history/

[Gweiloman]

30 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

A lot of people hate Trump because he's a relief from politically correctness. He tells things as they are and how many others see them especially immigration issues. Liberals hate that.

 

I saw the 'disinfectant' speech and he did not simply suggest people inject it.

 

He suggested scientists look at a way of enabling folk to absorb it into their systems in a similar way to how hospital air conditioning units use chemicals to purify the air they send out. People in hospitals then breath that air.

 

That air reportedly then helps kill germs that may be present in the atmosphere.

 

Any Americans who reckon they took him seriously and considered drinking it should be locked up immediately in the nearest institution for their own good. Not even British citizens are that stupid.

 

 

 

 

A lot of people hate Trump because he’s a vile, deplorable character. He’s a school ground bully, a liar, narcissistic, corrupt individual with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. His very personality grates on anyone who is half decent. 
 

And yes, there are some American citizens that are even more stupid than some Brits. 

Edited May 2, 2020 by Gweiloman

[stevenl]

28 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

A lot of people hate Trump because he's a relief from politically correctness. He tells things as they are and how many others see them especially immigration issues. Liberals hate that.

 

<snip>

 

 

 

 

With him being up to almost 20,000 lies I really can't understand people saying 'he tells things as they are'. he is not, nobody lies as much (and as bad, he gets caught out all the time but just ignores that) as Trump.

 

Not just liberals, many people hate liars.

[simple1]

10 hours ago, skytrooper70 said:

I doubt that more tariffs do anything other than increase US consumer prices, for goods from China. Besides, China just finds 3rd country outlets for its exports, which are imported into US, from that other country. If trump really wanted to punish Beijing, he should insist that, before US resumes funding WHO, Taiwan be re-admitted/recognized at WHO (Beijing has blocked Taiwan's membership). Also, he could ask the same of the UN and its sub-organizations, as the US foots a large part of the UN's funding.

 

This would irk Beijing and not give it any wiggle room (a la tariffs) to avoid these US actions. Just make it a quid pro quo, for Beijing to grant full disclosure, on COVID-19.

Would it be a good first step for the USA to official recognise Taiwan?

[riclag]

19 hours ago, Mac98 said:

Trump saw this coming, he was warned, yet he did nothing. Case closed.

Nonsense!

Please sources !What did Mr. Trump see coming ! Was it the virus that his top advisor fauci claimed early on that the USA shouldn't feel threaten about!

 Jan 21, Fauci: "Well, you know, obviously, you need to take it seriously and do the kinds of things that the CDC and the Department of Homeland Security are doing. But this is not a major threat [emphasis added] for the people of the United States, and this is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about."

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/04/09/the_coronavirus_trumps_medical_advice_was_contradictory_inconsistent_--_and_wrong_142898.html

Edited May 2, 2020 by riclag

[simple1]

13 minutes ago, riclag said:

Nonsense!

Please sources !What did Mr. Trump see coming ! Was it the virus that his top advisor fauci claimed early on that the USA shouldn't feel threaten about!

Fauci: "Well, you know, obviously, you need to take it seriously and do the kinds of things that the CDC and the Department of Homeland Security are doing. But this is not a major threat [emphasis added] for the people of the United States, and this is not something that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about."

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/04/09/the_coronavirus_trumps_medical_advice_was_contradictory_inconsistent_--_and_wrong_142898.html

Unfortunately there has been a fair amount of politically motivated misinformation concerning Fauci; refer below. If factual when was the statement made & when did Fauci update his advise? Did trump promptly act on Fauci's updated advice?

 

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/13/deanna-lorraine/tweet-amplified-trump-misleads-faucis-late-februar/

Edited May 2, 2020 by simple1

[Neeranam]

On 5/1/2020 at 6:20 AM, webfact said:

threatened his chances of re-election in November.

how so? He will definitely be re-elected as there is nobody better for the job in the Democrat party.

[riclag]

19 minutes ago, simple1 said:

When was the statement made & when did Fauci update his advise? Did trump promptly act on Fauci's updated advice?

Jan 21,  No threat to the USA!

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2020/04/09/the_coronavirus_trumps_medical_advice_was_contradictory_inconsistent_--_and_wrong_142898.html

Feb 29,

https://www.today.com/video/dr-fauci-on-coronavirus-fears-no-need-to-change-lifestyle-yet-79684677616

Edited May 2, 2020 by riclag

[yogi100]

No one had a clue about what was about to happen!

 

Most Westerners including myself considered it to be a form of influenza. We downplayed it.

 

Few people suspected it could be man made!

 

It was not until the deaths in Iran, Italy and Spain began hitting the news that we began to get alarmed. Even then we were not aware that there were hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers in these three countries.

 

Nor of the fact that many of these workers went back to their homeland for their New Year celebrations and brought the plague back with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by yogi100

[ChouDoufu]

oil at $10, fracking dead or dying, worst unemployment since the great depression, negative gdp, trillions in stock equity lost, $30 trillion in debt, world economy in the toilet.........

 

"hey!  i got great ratings last year with my trade war!  even better than the final episode of the bachelor! what if i do another trade war!  that'll show sleepy joe!"

[ChouDoufu]

1 minute ago, yogi100 said:

No one had a clue about what was about to happen!

 

Most Westerners including myself considered it to be a form of influenza. We downplayed it.

 

It was not until the deaths in Iran, Italy and Spain began hitting the news that we began to get alarmed. Even then we were not aware that there were hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers in these three countries.

 

Nor of the fact that many of these workers went back to their homeland for their New Year celebrations and brought the plague back with them.

 

wuhan was the epicenter.  our government was preparing daily intelligence briefings for our congressional and white house overlords.  one group was tweeting it'll go away soon, the other selling their stocks while telling us we were prepared.

 

the us has a consulate in wuhan, staffed with spies, and a rooftop loaded with the latest crypto gear.  we were not blind.  when the chinese began dumping truckloads of dirt on access roads to quarantine the city, there still were no official cases in the usa.

 

later, when the virus did enter the us, the cdc were still telling us masks were not needed and the leader of the free world was saying we'd be at zero soon.

[yogi100]

17 minutes ago, ChouDoufu said:

 

wuhan was the epicenter.  our government was preparing daily intelligence briefings for our congressional and white house overlords.  one group was tweeting it'll go away soon, the other selling their stocks while telling us we were prepared.

 

the us has a consulate in wuhan, staffed with spies, and a rooftop loaded with the latest crypto gear.  we were not blind.  when the chinese began dumping truckloads of dirt on access roads to quarantine the city, there still were no official cases in the usa.

 

later, when the virus did enter the us, the cdc were still telling us masks were not needed and the leader of the free world was saying we'd be at zero soon.

Why then did these spies in said consulate not tell the world via their government what was about to happen?

 

Surely it would have been their moral and humane duty to have done so.

 

Unless of course they themselves had little idea of what was about to happen. Just like the rest of us in the free world including Trump and Johnson.

 

BJ even caught the disease and nearly died! That shows how much he knew about it!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 2, 2020 by yogi100

[Sujo]

9 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

Why then did these spies in said consulate not tell the world via their government what was about to happen?

 

Surely it would have been their moral and humane duty to have done so.

 

Unless of course they themselves had little idea of what was about to happen. Just like the rest of us in the free world including Trump and Johnson.

 

BJ even caught the disease and nearly died! That shows how much he knew about it!

 

 

 

 

 

WHO informed everyone in december. A repub senator even told the admin and was laughed at.

[ChouDoufu]

1 minute ago, yogi100 said:

Why then did these spies in said consulate not tell the world via their government what was about to happen?

 

Surely it would have been their moral and humane duty to have done so.

 

Unless of course they themselves had little idea of what was about to happen. Just like the rest of us in the free world.

they did their duty.  they reported to their government thru their official chain of command.  it was our government that apparently decided not to act in time.

 

you'd think the us evacuating a consulate and all citizens at the end of january might be an indication all is not well.

[Gweiloman]

47 minutes ago, Neeranam said:

how so? He will definitely be re-elected as there is nobody better for the job in the Democrat party.

Actually, any idiot would be able to do the same job. It’s hard to imagine that it could be worse. Heck, my dog (that sleeps all day) would probably do better (because she will just keep silent).

[riclag]

1 hour ago, mtls2005 said:

I'm still not conviced that trump understands "tariffs", and who pays them?

 

Suing China? Good luck.

 

Reneging on debt? Yeah, that'll work. Not.

 

According to many reports, we knew about this virus in November. And wasted 3 ~ 4 months ignoring it. That's on us, not China. Anyway, it was just 15 people, and was supposed to go down to zero, so there's that.

 

 

 

 

 

Nonsense ! Sources please,

fauci says otherwise just by his downplaying  of it in January !

And his interview on 4/12

Fauci said China lacked transparency and disseminated  disinformation!

What is it with the left,it seems they imop are spreading false hoods instead holding china responsible for billions of dollars and hundred's of thousands lives!

 

[Sujo]

32 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

No one had a clue about what was about to happen!

 

Most Westerners including myself considered it to be a form of influenza. We downplayed it.

 

Few people suspected it could be man made!

 

It was not until the deaths in Iran, Italy and Spain began hitting the news that we began to get alarmed. Even then we were not aware that there were hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers in these three countries.

 

Nor of the fact that many of these workers went back to their homeland for their New Year celebrations and brought the plague back with them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is not man made so stop with the conspiracy. Even trumps own agencies say its not man made.

 

The US didnr get it from the chinese, they got it because trump allowed flights in from europe.

 

 

[Sujo]

1 minute ago, riclag said:

Nonsense ! Sources please,

fauci says otherwise just by his downplaying  of it in January !

And his interview on 4/12

Fauci said China lacked transparency and disseminated  disinformation!

What is it with the left,it seems they imop are spreading false hoods instead holding china responsible for billions of dollars and hundred's of thousands lives!

 

Your own govt is responsible. WHO gave them the highest possible alert in december, but trump ignored it.

[simple1]

13 minutes ago, yogi100 said:

Why then did these spies in said consulate not tell the world via their government what was about to happen?

 

Surely it would have been their moral and humane duty to have done so.<SNIP>

 

trump was warned by US intelligence, but dismissed the advice.

 

https://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/us-intelligence-coronavirus-pandemic-by-kent-harrington-2020-04

[ChouDoufu]

3 minutes ago, Sujo said:

Your own govt is responsible. WHO gave them the highest possible alert in december, but trump ignored it.

not sure i'd agree.  they did make an announcement, but i'm not sure i'd classify it as the highest possible alert.  it wasn't until the end of january (i think) that they issued the worldwide pandemic alert.  i'd have to google the actual text and dates to say for sure of course.

 

the who did announce at their jan 14 press briefing there was 'limited' human-human transmission, and a few days before that were sending guidance to regional directors and national health organizations on transmission potential and containment procedures.

 

and it's not like the who is some foreign, alien cabal.  the usa is a member and shares information.   we've got our own cdc - they monitor health developments worldwide as well.

[metisdead]

A post using a TDS trolling comment has been removed.

 

A post using trolling representations of the Democrat party and the Republican party has been removed. 

[riclag]

The left talking point on the POTUS dismissing some in a agency  in china and was the cause of Mr. Trumps lack of responsibility is another foolish narrative Enter the  head of the infectious disease ,fauci again ! 

fauci's no threat to the USA and his claim that it was contained in china debunks that narrative! Fauci attended many closed door briefings and still said

"Fauci reiterated that the covid-19 "isn’t something the American people need to worry about or be frightened about"

because, at the time, it was centered in China and the U.S. could screen travelers from that nation".

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/29/steve-bannon/did-fauci-tell-us-not-worry-about-coronavirus/

  Enter the ban on China 

Edited May 2, 2020 by riclag