South Africans dodged a bullet from the United States

Pretty silly analogy IMO. The US imports numerous critical raw materials from SA. That would be like starting a trade war with Canada. Oh, wait...

Google:
Critical raw materials like platinum and specific minerals remain largely exempted from recent US Section 301 tariff actions because they cannot be produced domestically in sufficient quantities.
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Don't be fooled, a lot of things we take for granted are connected to the US. If they do sanction SA, this country is dead. You won't be able to use your credit card, most of the apps and software that businesses relay on to operate will not work, etc.

This is why Europe has realised they need to start doing something about their dependence on things that can be disabled at the switch of a button. SA is much worse off than Europe!
 
The targeted sanctions were bad enough, thanks.

Let's not pretend they had no impact.
 
Gordon_R said:
Pretty silly analogy IMO. The US imports numerous critical raw materials from SA. That would be like starting a trade war with Canada. Oh, wait...

Google:
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Problem is Tr0mp is a complete loose canon, his decision making at the best of times is based on his despotic narcissism and what beneifits the US economy ultimately... short to medium term whilst he's in power....
 
MirageF1 said:
Problem is Tr0mp is a complete loose canon, his decision making at the best of times is based on his despotic narcissism and what beneifits the US economy ultimately... short to medium term whilst he's in power....
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His decisions are entirely based on his own bank account to be clear. There has probably never been a more corrupt US president
 
Gordon_R said:
Pretty silly analogy IMO. The US imports numerous critical raw materials from SA. That would be like starting a trade war with Canada. Oh, wait...

Google:
Click to expand...
I'd be careful there.

Unless South Africa explicitly bans the sale of platinum to the USA, nothing will change. And even if such sanctions were imposed, the channels would just change for acquisition and we'd need to question the efficiency of out ability to police the actions of buyers. We've saw the efficiency of sanctions in the 70's and 80's where we had access to things that we supposedly never had. Russia and titanium. ME oil etc.
 
MirageF1 said:
Problem is Tr0mp is a complete loose canon, his decision making at the best of times is based on his despotic narcissism and what beneifits the US economy ultimately... short to medium term whilst he's in power....
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Except this did not start with Donnie, rather a bipartisan drive. While the latest support was predominantly Reps for obvious reasons, quite a few Dems crossed the floor in support of it.
 
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:
Except this did not start with Donnie, rather a bipartisan drive. While the latest support was predominantly Reps for obvious reasons, quite a few Dems crossed the floor in support of it.
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Well we all know as far as the avg Yank is concerned, they are the ENTIRE world....everyone else is at their beck and call anmd Gd help you if you don't beg for their business!!

P.S i'm no Chino-Russo-N.Korean-Iran axis lover, but at the same time the US must stop it's *****n arrogant, bully boy tactics to any country/org/company who doesn't tow THEIR line...

Ultimately I see it backfiring spectacularly, sooner than later...there's only so much it's so called partners and allies will put up with! Europe/Canada want nothing to do with most of Trump's self serving policies, can you half blame them!

Having said all that,Europe are too soft on everything and refuse to act when it's necessary...a disaster unfolding b4 our eyes daily...
 
An interesting post ...

MirageF1 said:
Well we all know as far as the avg Yank is concerned, they are the ENTIRE world....everyone else is at their beck and call anmd Gd help you if you don't beg for their business!!
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Americans have always been like that. "The worst enemy you can have is an American friend"?

MirageF1 said:
P.S i'm no Chino-Russo-N.Korean-Iran axis lover, but at the same time the US must stop it's *****n arrogant, bully boy tactics to any country/org/company who doesn't tow THEIR line...
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Yes an no. South Africa is an interesting country. Some of it's population is westernized, subscribing to western values. Other are tribal, other subscribe to other values. South Africa would be best served by staying in neutral in international politics, not only economically, but also for the sake of it's own people. I was listening to Roelf Meyer this weekend, also mentioning it. Of course, that did not happen. Some of out politicians decided to taunt the US. Other politicians dragged us into a spat of giants. Sometimes I don't think they realize how small and inconsequential we are. We as a country cannot afford it. Our leaders lack the smarts.

MirageF1 said:
Ultimately I see it backfiring spectacularly, sooner than later...there's only so much it's so called partners and allies will put up with! Europe/Canada want nothing to do with most of Trump's self serving policies, can you half blame them!
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I believe the US is a civilization in decline. Some of it's due to stupidity, some of it by enemies of the US. Once again you give Donnie too much credit. The trans-atlantic economical wars between the US and EU has been going on for a while. Think of Oracle buying MySQL. The EU was blocking it. It took high level delegations from the US to go visiting the EU and give assurances so it could happen. The GDPR on the net itself has it's origins in this war. Think of the EU regulators regularly going at shytes like Google, Microsoft etc. Yet the EU have their own bad boys and not much is done about them.

MirageF1 said:
Having said all that,Europe are too soft on everything and refuse to act when it's necessary...a disaster unfolding b4 our eyes daily...
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The EU is a disaster. The EU Union has done Europe no favours either.
 
All summed up ultimately by this expression.

Global hegemony... US vs EU vs China.
 
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