Yesterday (6/18/18) I finally got some time to read some articles and see what's been going on with....whatever this is that's passing as "government" and "leadership" in the USA. I was sickened by the photos of the cages that separated families of "illegal immigrants" are being kept in. I can't help but feel it's only half a step away from similar situations that Native Americans and African Americans and Japanese Americans and European Jews have faced throughout history. Internment camps, ghettos, whatever you want to call it. It's depressing (to put it lightly) that this is the direction our country is returning to. I'm not sure what to really say about this situation, since it's a developing situation and I'm not equipped with all of the facts. What I can say is: this internment is wrong. Morally wrong. It's the product of a basic lack of humanity. It's, in my opinion, anti-American. You can't go around claiming to be the moral compass of the world when you're a country that keeps Latino/Latina people in cages, or shoots people of African descent on sight for holding a phone, or partakes any of the other human rights issues we're dealing with at this moment in time in the United States. It's sad and pathetic that this is the moral and ethical direction our government and population have chosen to take.
As for the tariff situation: this is probably the worst path (from a strictly economic point of view) that our government can pursue. Obviously this jeopardizes, most likely damages, diplomatic ties with allies. It's a path that also has the potential to ravage our economy. We live in a global society, with a global economy, now. This is NOT how you protect American economic interests. There will be larger repercussions than just increases of tariffs on American goods. We should never forget that America is in massive debt to a number of countries, and if they decide to cash in on that debt.... that's not good. If our allies decide to pull their business out of America.... that's not good. If their banks decide to stop working with our banks...that's not good. America can't afford to be an economic island. America canNOT succeed as an economic island in the modern world. I think (as others do) that taking this path can lead to an economic disaster that would e closer to the Great Depression that the recession of 2008.