Trollheart

I just never understand America. No member of the govt here or in the UK or I imagine in Europe could go do something that is against the wishes, orders or without the sanction of the top guy and not get into trouble, yet Pelosi can go against her boss and do what she likes, even if it rattles the sabre? Or is Biden allowing her to do it as a sort of plausible senility, sorry deniability?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Frownland

I'm sure Biden absolutely hates how this event is uncritically promoting the government's view of the annexation of Taiwan and general Chinese aggression as a pressing issue.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

Trollheart

Dammit! My sarcasm detector just blew up! Not sure if you're being sarky, though I think you are, but if so, not quite sure what you mean. Duh.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

music_collector

We've been neighbours for so long, yet we still don't understand them. We're like the Looney Tunes cartoon with the little dog that follows around the big tough dog, hoping to be friends.

I remember when Obama was president. Trudeau so desperately wanted to be his friend. I don't blame him though. Politics aside, Obama seemed like a pretty cool guy, one you'd want to have a beer with.

The Batlord

Obama wouldn't have a beer with anyone not famous.

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music_collector

That's ok. I have more than enough beer in the refrigerator.

SGR

Just a guess, but Biden called on Congress to pass the CHIPS Act (which he's expected to sign next week) in his State of the Union address. He wants to subsidize domestic chip manufacturing. Taiwan currently provides the vast majority of US microchips. Pelosi's trip could be a way to reassure Taiwan that we're not planning on abandoning them in business relations or arms sales, and by Pelosi not backing down after vague Chinese threats, it also bolsters trust in other alliances of the US with foreign countries that involve arms deals and business relations that may be under threat by other large powers. As it stands, to my knowledge, the US is under no obligation to defend Taiwan in the case of a Chinese military takeover, but it's not off the table. It would have to be approved by Congress though.

In short, my understanding of the motives for her trip, geopolitical advantages.

music_collector

Yeah, that makes sense. Biden campaigned on a "buy/produce local" type mandate, didn't he?

SGR

Sort of, he did mention it before being elected and there has been movement on it. I don't remember it being a big part of his campaign promises, but I could be wrong. Here's more on the latest on that, it's all basically refinements and/or additions to Hoover's 1933 "Buy American Act" - there's a lot of caveats and exceptions though.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...e-all-product/

Perspective from an American: I'm all on board with this, but I wouldn't want it taken to an extreme. The reason so many US consumer goods are cheap is because we can import them for a much lower cost than we can manufacture them domestically. But certain essential goods, like medicine and microchips need to have a strong domestic production base, because if they don't, then you find yourself in a difficult situation when the supply chain is completely disrupted by something unexpected like the pandemic. We saw that, for example, with medicines during the pandemic. The vast majority of the US's pharmaceutical imports are sourced from China. There was a lot of talk of decoupling from China during the pandemic - again, it would be unwise to do so to an extreme, but bolstering our domestic production base for some of these products seems like a prudent thing to do.

jwb

didn't he literally have a beer with that cop that harassed that black professor who he thought was trying to break into his own home?

CV, you know what you need to do bud