
Well, I never ...
... thought those leopards would eat my face.
US President Donald Trump has delivered on his campaign promise to introduce tariffs, by slapping a 25 percent duty on imports from Canada and Mexico, and an extra ten percent impost on goods from China. Industry groups quickly responded by saying this is not a great idea. Trump announced the tariffs in a Saturday executive …
Well, well, well.
Action: Agressive meglamaniac threatens large part of its trading partner's with punative tarrifs.
Reaction: leaders in the threatened countries get on the blower (phone) to each other and semi-coordinate their response.
Leaders in as yet unthreatened countries get very nervous, ramp up contingency planning and make sure lines of comunications are open to alies and others.
The populations in the threatened countries buy local ie non USA products. Once established this will have a long tail from which the US will take some time to recover from.
Everyone looks to trade with non US markets.
The US is picking a fight with the 2 major trading blocks, namely the EU and China and its two largest neighbours, Mexico and Canada plus waving its big stick in the direction of the rest of us.
How is this going to end well for the US?
Its not like the US created this situation in the first place with things like NAFTA that immediately allowed US megacorps to offshore manufacture to lower wage areas and continue to sell their products at full price... oh wait, it did! And the great and powerful Grand Cheeto signed an updated NAFTA in 2019 continuing the arrangement.
"And the great and powerful Grand Cheeto signed an updated NAFTA in 2019 continuing the arrangement."
...and then reneged on almost before the ink was dry. This is why no one trust him. Even in a deal where he claims a "win", there's no way anyone will trust him to stick to it.
"How is this going to end well for the US?"
I don't know but expect we jointly fear the worst (as do a lot of hedge funds). I do wonder how likely these other governments are to stand their ground against the shouty orange idiot. If they concede something then potentially the tariffs get lifted, and Cheeto man gets a win. How likely are they to concede? Europe has no competent and assertive leadership (either at EU or major country level), so faced with US tariffs on German and Swedish vehicle exports, Italian engineering, and whatever it is the Nordics export, I'd reckon that the EU is going to look to announce retaliatory tariffs, but fairly quickly offer concessions rather than fight, the same with Canada and Mexico.
Last time around, the EU hit back with relatively smart tariffs aimed at creating maximum hurt in relevant red states.
We have now had 4 more years to prepare, and the power of the EU is in trade.
However, I would like to see a request for compensation for the US created refugee situation (middle east).
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Indeed, never.
The Very Stable Genius already "paused" the tariffs for both Mexico and Canada before they even started.
He got the biggest win. Canada will send military to the northern US border to stop miniscule amounts of illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling into the USA.
It shows again that the all it takes to pacify the Very Stable Genius is to kiss his ring and declare him the winner. Nothing substantial needs to be done.
"He got the biggest win. Canada will send military to the northern US border to stop miniscule amounts of illegal immigration and fentanyl smuggling into the USA."
Actually we probably want them there anyway -- to guard against the new "Fenians" in light of the idiotic "51st state" nonsense the Grand Cheeto has been spouting. There will certainly be a few patriotic morons who take him seriously and act on it.
No interaction is any good without personal profit. Trump is merely creating a mechanism for enriching God's chosen leader, Trump (Read your Trump Bible). Pressure will mount from US, Mexican, Canadian and Chinese businesses to appease the anointed one resulting in a sufficient purchase of $Trump and $Melania meme coin. This will probably get things sorted before US inflation results in revolution.
Canada seems to have become far more united than BOJ (Before Orange Jesus). Even the normally right wing Premier of Ontario is in line with their Prime Minister and against Trump. The far right Pierre Poilievre is against Trumpo and his crooks.
Now Trump is saying the the UK is 'Out of Line' and will probably be subject to tariffs (along with the EU).
TBH, I can't think of a thing (other than those apoligies for biscuits called Oreo's that are made with High Fructose Corn Syrup, evil stuff) that I see that is made in USA.
Sure, I see a few Ford Mustang Mach-E's on the road but they come from Mexico and a few Dodge or Ram pickups. We don't take their GMO crops or Hormone laden Meat but what else?
Going the other way?
Cars. Mini's, and a few Bentley's and Rollers and that's it.
Aero Engines and Whisky.
As far as I'm concerned, Trump can go to hell. He is hell bent on making the USA a Fascist state. I wonder how long it will be before he starts to lock up his political opponents in Gitmo? I give it six months at most.
Where is our political leadership? fast asleep as usual.
Those exports, mostly luxury items and Yooropeean so they have the cachet that US goods have never quiteamaged to achieve and will be in demand among those who want to show off how classy their money is.
One of the prices of a post Brexit trade deal with the US is the lowering of UK food standards to allow the garbage they call food into our market, another is the opening of the skirts to allow them to buy our healthcare.
If our market gets flooded by poor quality USA "food" I reckon our obesity crisis will balloon. /badumtish
Seriously, lets get away from this jackass and focus on our nearest and largest trading partners.
He's right on one thing though. Some greater focus on European military strength is required in the face of Putin/others.
Some greater focus on European military strength is required in the face of Putin/others.
You aren't really swallowing that hawkish propaganda nonsense which simply seeks to move more money from people's pockets to the industrial military complex are you?
Russia has been fighting in Ukraine for three years and still only occupies 20% of their land, and that includes Crimea which they took back in 2014.
The bullshit that, if Putin and Russia are not defeated, Europe will fall is complete nonsense. Maybe one day, but not any time soon.
China is more likely to take the west by playing 'bestest pals' as Trump assaults American allies with economic warfare than through invasion.
> "One of the prices of a post Brexit trade deal with the US is the lowering of UK food standards"
The massive deal that Brexiteers assured us all would be a piece of piss, yet which hasn't happened yet? The one where- if the UK wants it- Trump will use the imbalance of power to bully, threaten and impose a shitty deal that makes the UK supplicant?
A situation those same Brexiteers put the UK in with their risible assumption that it held all the cards and would be the one doing the pushing around when we went it alone, when it was obvious the reverse was true and- as has predictably happened- the UK, now isolated, vulnerable and desperate for that deal which still hasn't materialised is the one in the position of weakness.
Even if the UK gets a "deal", we've seen that the UK- like America's other "friends" and allies- will be screwed over by Trump sooner or later regardless.
There's no point in pandering to Trump and the US under him. You stand up to bullies like that, and if that means more solidarity with the EU rather than making ourselves a weak and isolated target, then so be it.
Premier of Ontario
I was reading this morning that the provincial govt owns the single liquor wholesaler which after current stocks of US alcohol runs out won't restock.
Australasia hasn't yet felt the warmth of this Trump "tough love†" but even if it doesn't happen overnight, I am sure it will happen. The inconvenient truth the balance of trade with AU is very much in the favour of the US is an irrelevant detail to the blithering idiots that Americans have seen fit to surrender their nation and sanity.
I understand America doesn't have monopoly on nutjobs as a house in the neighbourhood is displaying signage with the orange jobbies' mug and the words "take back America." I'll be buggered but I am fairly confident His Majesty King Charles, as daft as might have once seemed, really doesn't want augment his dominions with another 50 states chock full of fractious lunatics. As the King famously said "I am not that stupid."
I suspect the householder is actually a cowardly American too frightened to live in the America that he strived to create. Or another #@$! deranged South African émigré.
I can see both Australia and Mexico being able to capture the Canadian market for fruit and vegetables‡ that until now America supplied. Australian and New Zealand wines are as good as the Californian products if not better and there are some pretty decent South American vineyards too.
† in this context perhaps I mean "rough trade."
‡ indicative of this idiocy is that AU imports significant quantities of cherries, table grapes, citrus and other produce from the US during the local off season.
I imagine it would not take too long to find non-US countries for all involved to either source current imports or else sell current exports. I am not aware of any raw material which is unique to the US and with very little effort agreements could be in place which would exclude them and help them balance imports/exports...at 0
I think companies will find out quickly that the cheapest and easiest way to solve the Tariff-crisis will be to move funds into the possession of the Felon-in-Charge.
Note that the value of his cryptocoin(s) alone have, as of today, approximately quadrupled his wealth (on paper).[1] But I suppose he wants to become the wealthiest person on earth so at some point, he will have to fleece the oligarchs like Putin did. [2] I am wondering whether these oligarch are taking precautions?
[1] Current price $18.22
[2] https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2022/03/29/1088886554/how-putin-conquered-russias-oligarchy
NPR, read is while it still exists
I wrote:
"I am wondering whether these oligarch are taking precautions?"
Actually, I must admit that, deep down, I already knew the answer. Here is a Threads post that formulates the answer quite well:
https://www.threads.net/@pojala/post/DFlWevxMmor
Silicon Valley billionaires want Vance as president.
Peter Thiel gave Vance that fake VC job and paid for his very expensive Ohio senator campaign. He’s their made man.
The tech oligarchs are willing to kiss Trump’s ring in the meantime, but they probably calculate a >50% chance of Trump either dying in the next four years, or being forced out via 25th Amendment. And then their Vance investment will really pay off
The question is, will the former Putschist preempt them by getting rid of the VP? He got a license to kill from the SCotUS.
If that's really their plan, they've shot themselves in the foot by letting Vance be VP. He'll be ineradicably tainted now by his association with this administration, just like Mike Pence was before him.
It's something that happens to everyone who makes a deal with Trump. First thing he does, he makes sure everyone around him is as dirty as he is.
"I imagine it would not take too long to find non-US countries for all involved to either source current imports or else sell current exports. "
I wish that were so, but I fear it is a misplaced confidence. There certainly are some trade substitution opportunities, but few where they count. Until now the US has been a wealthy, massive, largely homogenous market that's very open to trade. I doubt we will find any new markets that singularly or collectively offer similar attributes, willing to pay similar prices, nor will you find much in the way of good reciprocal fit, eg Where in the world has the money and the population to buy the $25bn of expensive German cars that previously went to the US? Who wants to buy the $28bn of Canadian timber that the US takes/took? Most other trade opportunities are already being traded with as far as those countries government's, economy, and needs allow.
The US has Europe over a bit of a barrel. Germany is importing quite a lot of US sourced LNG after the nordstream pipeline went ka-boom. And Germany sorta sealed its fate as a huge gas importer as it got a cheap deal from the roosians and then closed down all its nuclear plants. Trump knows full well that Europe f-ed up.
> Germany is importing quite a lot of US sourced LNG after the nordstream pipeline went ka-boom
Which is why some conspiracy theorists believe Biden was behind its destruction.
Blaming Putin, having Europe turn on Russia, inflicting severe economic harm, securing dependency on US imports, diminishes European power, guarantees American dominance.
"Which is why some conspiracy theorists believe Biden was behind its destruction."
Its not like Biden publicly said he would stop nordstream 2 coming on line. What the heck has the US got to do with a pipe between two unrelated countries that doesn't go near any US territory or interest?
And as you say, what better way to get Germany off the fence.
We buy a lot of services. We buy Netflix and Disney+, Amazon Prime and Apple TV+ and most companies have M365/Azure, AWS or GCP subscriptions.
We also buy iPhones, Fords and Teslas and we eat at McDonalds and drink at Starbucks.
Ideally, we should be cutting back if not cancelling - but it isn't always easy.
The Tesla's that we buy either come from Germany or China. Very few AFAIK come from the USA
Again AFAIK, no Apple kit is made in the USA. It comes from China, India and places like Vietnam.
Ford? They are still 'Fix Or Repair Daily' in my book. The last Ford I had (Capri) went through three alternators in a year. I sold it before a 4th went phut.
By all means boycott McD's, Starbucks, Amazon, MS and Netflix/Disney.
Almost all of the examples of "US products" we consume in EU and/or UK are sold to us via their EU and UK subsidiaries, usually based in Ireland or Luxembourg for tax reasons. Even the IT hardware from US companies is made in the far east and sold to us via their EMEA divisions and the kit never touches US soil. The real concern is EMEA prices rise to cover their loses in the US when importing their HP and Dell kit into the US for sale from China.
How are these values measured?
https://www.worldstopexports.com/us-most-valuable-imports-exports-with-the-eu/
Supposedly the EU imports over $6 billion of smartphones from the US:
And $5.8 billion of computers.
It is a very good question as to just how many of those items actually touched US soil. Can your iphone 37 be classed as a US export if it came direct from Foxconn and your money went to Apple's EU subsid?
Not sure how the EU imports $14bn of cars. Does BMW USA or VW USA export back home? We're certainly not buying US brands. Or do they count everything under Stellantis?
So this is the fun thing, cane sugar used in 'mexican pepsi' actually gets broken down by other ingredients in said soft drink into basically the same basic sugars as you get from HFCS. So the end result that you drink is really no different.
Maple syrup just tastes FAR nicer than HFCS based 'pancake syrup' and doesn't leave a chemical aftertaste. Although that slightly ick taste brings back memories from days long gone travelling the US when I was a kid.
The main complaint with HFCS is that the US food industry puts it in absolutely bloody everything they can! The corn growers and refiners have a lot of power in the US so everything either has to use corn ethanol or HFCS.
"HFCs is only about 50% fructose. "
I understand that the stuff in American softdrinks is 55% fructose. Fructose is said to be sweeter than sucrose or glucose. Hence it's popularity as a cheap way to get sweeter soft drinks. Not everyone likes the taste it seems.
Fructose is metabolized differently from glucose. Ingesting too much fructose gives you gas (and cramps) and is a strain on your liver.
As far as I understand the HFCS issue, it is the sheer amount of fructose consumed that could lead to health problems, not the fact that it's from HFCS.
Since the body converts the various sugars to glucose, I never understood why some formulations are worse than others
Comes down to glycaemic load (GL) rather than glycaemic index (GI).
GI is a measure of how much carb is in the food (including suger which is just a simple carb)
GL is a measure of how quickly your body can break the carb down to turn it into glucose for the body to use.
So table sugar (sucrose) is actually better than fructose (it's a more complex sugar - glucose, fructose, sucrose eyc etc) because it takes the body longer to break it down (although the breakdown does release some glucose during the first phase).
So brown rice has a much lower GL than white rice, proper granary bread has a lower GL than white bread etc etc - and for a T2 diabetic (like moi) both GI and GL are important.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glycemic_load
https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diet/glycemic-load.html
(PS: yes - I've spelt 'glycaemic' the old fashioned way - yes, I'm old)
Hahahaha the US population ain't going to do shit. The people smart enough to see the set-up don't have the means to fight this and the "2A absolutists" think they have a place in the new order suppressing those people.
For all the yap, MAGA Americans will turn in their guns and eat bugloaf so long as their Republican representative blesses it as "not woke" first.
I kinda like to imagine a world where all the targeted countries take Trump at his word, and simply order an immediate and total embargo on all trade to and from the USA. Give all US citizens 24 hours to leave their respective countries, then just close the borders (including airspace) completely.
Yes it would hurt, but it would make Trump look like a complete idiot, and that's worth something.
I realize it's not possible because banking, but if Mexico and Canada aren't working right now to wean themselves off that dependency they're both dumber than I take them for. (China probably has the capability already.)
Banking is not my specialist subject so I do not know what is required to make payments independent of the USA. I strongly recommend someone finds out how to do it immediately. A big part of the reason Musk became president was to create the bank of X. To make that work he needed to circumvent all US banking regulation (tick) and make use of X for all payments mandatory (inevitable).
Some Americans seem to think think they have reached the point where bribery has been legalised. They are past that and it is now mandatory. Last time the conduits for bribery were Trump hotels and adverts on Truth Social. The new route is to advertise on X or else. I hope our existing anti foreign bribery laws cover adverts on X.
One move I did not expect was for Musk to directly control delivery of news of accidents. Perhaps Tesla's Full Self Driving (no driver attention required) really will be released this month. I did expect the crackdown on non state-controlled media.
"Yes it would hurt, but it would make Trump look like a complete idiot, and that's worth something."
No. It would give Trump a chance to blame somebody - everybody - else. The sensible thing would have been to do nothing at all, let the increased prices take their toll with nobody to blame but himself. Now he can point to all these other countries being nasty to the poor old US.
Nobody imposes tariffs on other countries. They impose them on their own residents who buy the products of those other countries. Governments allegedly imposing tariffs on the US should remember that. But hysteria is catching.
but if Mexico and Canada aren't working right now to wean themselves off that dependency they're both dumber than I take them for. (China probably has the capability already.)
Since Trump 1.0, China has been working very hard to offshore their manufacturing - they've moved a lot of it out to places like India, Vietnam and Cambodia. So the raw materials and management get sent from China then the locals get used as cheap (even compared to China) workers to make stuff.
And Trump et. al. are too dumb to look past the headlines. And let's not forget the hypocrisy of all those MAGA hats/flags/stickers all made in China.
...I mean really! They are quoted as saying “As these actions are implemented, it is essential to bring industry and stakeholders to the table to help the government reach its desired result, limit unintended consequences, and develop a holistic and successful trade policy approach,”
As if they are blind to the fact that the desired result is the dismantling of Democracy in the Western Hemisphere. We The People have forgotten the past and We will pay the price for it.
"borders on the lunatic."
Only "borders"? Some might argue with that.
Also, he is a man immensely proud of passing the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test, but never released the actual results.[1]
To be able to interpret the monumental achievement it is to pass this MoCA test, you should try it yourself (does not take much time):
https://geriatrictoolkit.missouri.edu/cog/MoCA-8.3-English-Test-2018-04.pdf
[1] https://www.businessinsider.nl/trump-cognitive-test-how-to-take-moca-2020-7?international=true&r=US
"I'm not sure it's working."
Do you believe the Stablest Genius in History when he says he passed (Aced) the test? [1]
Do you believe anything he says? Would you buy a bridge or crypto investment from him?
[1] He did not release his actual results.
Same dilemma as Julius Caesar faced.
Caesar's dicatorship lasted a couple of years after the defeat of Pompey before his opponents, including some of previous supporters, removed him from the political scene
sic semper tyrannis
I am curious (but not sufficiently curious to really research it), what the US trade balances looks like when (digital) services is taken into account.
The amount of money that amazon alone brings in is mind-boggling. However, creative accounting in order to avoid handing any of it to the IRS may be keeping that number artificially low.
Also, I think it is high time that arms exports should be balanced. The US should import just as much for weapons as it exports.
"I am curious (but not sufficiently curious to really research it), what the US trade balances looks like when (digital) services is taken into account."
Well, this is the total trade balance. Including digital services, Ireland stands out as having a truly disproportionate trade balance with the US. Obviously that's people like Microsoft, Dell, Apple, but the interesting thing is the direction of that imbalance - Ireland exports $82.5bn of goods and services from Ireland, but only exports $16bn to Ireland. Wonder if the Orange Felon will impose tariffs on Ireland?
https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/Country/USA/Year/LTST/TradeFlow/EXPIMP/Partner/by-country
> Ireland The US exports $82.5bn of goods and services from Ireland, but only exports $16bn to Ireland
FTFY (as the link seems to confirm that's what you meant).
Also, I'm guessing that the apparently imbalanced figures might have some connection to the widespread use of Ireland as a low-tax haven where profits from business conducted elsewhere in the EU are deemed to have been "earned" there, rather than the "true" amount Ireland actually exports to the US?
Digital Services won't show up as US trade in most regions they are sold through a local registered subsidiary or a tax haven registered one. AWS is Luxenberg registered for EU and UK, I remember my UK account being billed by AWS Luxenberg. Microsoft Google are no different.
The US IRS is not going to see any of those subsidiary's profits. They will be held offshore until the US offers a tax cut incentive to bring them back.
"Digital Services won't show up as US trade in most regions they are sold through a local registered subsidiary or a tax haven registered one. AWS is Luxenberg registered for EU and UK, I remember my UK account being billed by AWS Luxenberg. Microsoft Google are no different."
I'm afraid you're incorrect, Services will show up, because regardless of whether profit is repatriated, global sales are consolidated at country level for tax and trade purposes, but then by the ultimate owning corporation as part of its accounting. If you or I buy a Microsoft Office subscription in the UK, and that's channelled through the Irish Republic to minimise corporation tax, that sale will still show up in Microsoft Corporation's accounts, and as a US export.
I think you're mistaking the cash position, where you rightly spot that US corps hoard foreign earned cash abroad in the expectation of the US reducing tax on repatriated earnings, but that has near enough zero relevance to either the corporate P&L, or the trade calculations.
The latter states the tariffs are needed “to hold Mexico, Canada, and China accountable to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.”
Isn't is Americas job to control who and what comes into its country via the borders it has with other countries? it not like Mexico and Canada are giving 'illegal immigrants' fake US passports a box of fentanyl and a map to secret tunnels to cross the border.
Isn't it the US medical doctors prescribing a sh*tton of drugs that created the opioid crisis in the first place because of rampant capitalism (pharma companies essentially being allowed, nay encouraged for the shareholder value, to bribe said MDs) and a pretty sh*tty health care system?
Ah, but it is soooo easy to just blame somebody else for your shortcomings.
"rampant capitalism"
Actually cronyism. The pharma company convinced the FDA that oxycontin was 'not that addictive' (and the FDA director at the time ended up working for Perdue!) and then gave doctors 'incentives' to prescribe it.
And at the same time McKinsey's were working for Perdue to help them get oxycontin to a larger user base AND working for the govt consulting on regulations for opioid painkillers.
"If left to it's own devices capitalism will tend towards monopolies and corruption."
Monopolies and corruption are also key players in socialism and its many variants. I recall much dislike of the kulaks once upon a time and in more modern time the use of the term 'petite bourgeoisie' to attack small business owners.
"If left to it's own devices capitalism will tend towards monopolies and corruption."
Corruption occurs everywhere whether it be under capitalism, Socialism, Communism or more loosly organised libaterian/anarchistic regiems.
Monopolies occur when organisations in a particular market or activity get large and don't fear their competitors resulting in the organisation getting lazy and moribund. This can be in private or public sectors, under Communism or Capitalism etc.
Some countries are better than others at mitigating the effects of these tendancies.This is often refered to as "RED TAPE" and is seen as BAD by those who would rather there were less restrictions and scruteny of their activities.
Mismanagement of pain is the heart of the opoid crisis. Opoids are good for short term use in certain cases but prescribing for long term use was asking for trouble. Patients expectations that they should get what they ask for(encouraged by direct-to-consumer advertising) may have played a part - no doctor wants to lose a paying patient, and a patient looking for a fix will be happy to shop around.
The root cause is that the medically preferred treatments, surgery, physical therapy and/or rest, were more expensive than prescribing opioids. Also for the employer/employee as sick leave seems to be "discouraged" in the US.
Together with a insurance system that prioritizes cheap and dead over healthy and effective this lead to a preference for opioids and disposable employees.
So Trump has stolen the coveted or perhaps that should be covfefed prize from Brexit.
I don't think countries on the receiving end should automatically respond with reciprocal tariffs as that would just add to inflation... they should just work on strengthening trade links between each other.
The Stablest Genius in Human History must ALWAYS WIN. He is FAMOUSLY known for saying (shouting):
“We’re Going to Win So Much You May Even Get Tired of Winning”
I really believe the citizens of the US will grow tired of WINNING these HISTORIC contests rather sooner than later.
Trump will be gone in four years. I suspect his reality distortion field will die with him.
The bad news is, he's shown how it's done, it's only a matter of time before someone else - possibly someone even quite competent - figures out how to imitate it. (Like Musk took his lessons from Steve Jobs.)
I really believe the citizens of the US will grow tired of WINNING these HISTORIC contests rather sooner than later.
Wait until Musk (or one of his little infestations) manages to screw up the US Government payment system and the military stop being paid. You can only live off wild-eyed patriotism for so long..
The problem isn't just Trump, it's the people who believe him and believe in him. If it goes to shit for the average US family, rising inflation, job losses, zero heath care, expensive everything, then Trump will find someone else to blame and the believers will blame them and build Trump's pedestal even higher. And when Trump runs out of people to blame then I believe that the next chapter in the playbook is titled "Go to War".
There is a very long history of "Turkeys voting for Christmas".
When you look around in the US, you will find scores of people who have voted time and again for candidates who had a long track record of acting against their voters interests at every opportunity.
Like, it has been asked what Ted Cruz has actually done for Texas? [1] It seems there is no answer. But he is well know to go travel to a sunny holiday trip during the Texas Freeze (but had to return/not leave because of the bad publicity) Still, he gets voted in again and again.
These voters often seem ill-informed. The reports of elderly activists shouting or carrying signs saying words along the lines of "Keep your government hands off my Medicare" are a well published example of such ill-informed voters. But these people simply believe what they want to believe, contrary to all the readily available evidence. [2] So they are responsible for their opinions.
[1] https://www.citizen.org/news/what-has-sen-ted-cruz-really-done-for-texans/
[2] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/get-your-goddamn-governme_b_252326
"These voters often seem ill-informed"
Most voters are ill informed. The public at large pays little attention to politics and to policies. They either vote because they've been conditioned to believe their chosen party is the only choice, or because they are swayed by what limited information their choice of press (inc social media) feeds them. Obviously there's an element of conditioning in the latter because there's few if any unbiased press sources.
He already had a "renegotiation" of NAFTA in his previous administration. So presumably, he made a bad deal. Except he doesn't make bad deals, we're told.
So there's just a chance it isn't over anything at all and he simply wants to sign essentially the same agreement again - if it's significantly different noone is going to believe he'll stick to it anyway - and claim an enormous victory over Canadia and Texmexaco as a diversion while his minions get on with the sacking (in both senses) of the American government.
One wonders how many members of these "industry groups" actually voted for him, even though he explicitly said he was going to do this. Quite a high percentage is my guess. In which case they got what they asked for, so they should spare us their special pleading now that the completely foreseeable consequences of their own actions have arrived.
Felony,
Felony,
Felony,
Constitutional crises,
Constitutional crises,
Constitutional crises,
High Treason,
High Treason,
High Treason,
You are at war people. Whether you want to be or not. It does not matter.
The world has been taken by evil, and evil is very, very powerful. You are surrounded and out gunned. The very foundation of life has been compromised. Everything that you knew to be true is gone. There are no more laws.
You are going to have to fight. You are going to have to go underground and organize. GET YOUR CHILDREN off the internet. Educate them in the very least.
You are going to have to break these MFers. You are going to have to take their money away. Writing a letter and walking in the streets is only going to empower them more. Going on social media is only going to empower them more. Stop going to their restaurants, stop buying at their shops, and stop investing in their criminal acts. Only click links that tell the truth.
You have to realize that you are fighting Russia, China, Nkorea, saudi arabia, and you are also fighting the enemy within. You are being manipulated and played by X, Google, Open AI, META, and your own government.
You are being bought, sold, and data based.
You were warned. You have been told. You see it with your own eyes, and hear it with your own ears.
Reddit now looks exactly like x and truth propaganda. They are probably all being fed through the same servers. You are fuc*ed, in a very bad way. Don't say "it can't happen." It can and it is.
God give us the strength of your holy light to prevail against the darkness that surrounds us.
reddit is owned by a maga, and collects for open AI.
The only reason it is still open is because it wants you to continue to post.
BTW, the "felon in charged" just announced he is making the US dollar into a crypto currency.
America is D.E.A.D.
You voted for the death of America. Now you literally get to gamble it away, while the EU has the most powerful currency, and China not far behind.
If this was the real world, This traitor would get 30 years in The Hague.
You end up with just States in America
Which promptly splits into the United Democratic State of America [1] and The Real USA [2]
[1] Ruled over by President For Life Trump and his anointed successor, DJT Jr (who will then get offed in a succession battle by the youngest son).
[2] The West Coast states, Great Lakes states and the Eastern Seaboard States.
Since 'de minimis' exemptions are gone too, we should expect to start seeing stories about even longer queues at US border passes with Canada/ Mexico and Customs officials nickel and diming people that return from drives into Canada (or Mexico) just for daily/weekly shopping trips.
25% customs tariffs on a shopping bag full of frozen canadian steaks are enough to spoil an appetite.
Also the removal of the 'de minimis' exemption means that all shopping delivered into the United States from international sellers on eBay / Amazon / Aliexpress / Temu / Shein / etc. is now subject to those tariffs too, even packages worth less than 10 dollars.
"Also the removal of the 'de minimis' exemption means that all shopping delivered into the United States from international sellers on eBay / Amazon / Aliexpress / Temu / Shein / etc. is now subject to those tariffs too, even packages worth less than 10 dollars."
Now there's one thing people should be celebrating. Yes, it means your cheap Chinese tat will cost more, and possibly take longer to reach you, but a staggering $40bn+ of Chinese exports enter the US annually under the de minimis exemptions. And it's through small, duty-exempt shipments that all manner of dodgy stuff gets through your border, be that unsafe products, products that are avoiding duties that should be paid, drugs, illegal weapons, illicit archaeological items, products derived from protected species, etc.
If they get processed at all. Even when duties are imposed, we are talking about government workers who are as likely to push that last bin of packages through without doing any paperwork at the end of the day than spend so much as five minutes overtime doing it properly.
correct.. and they are just as likely to impose the maximum tariff / fees without checking, just to cover their behinds ...
Another key piece of information here is the volume of 'de minimins' shipments - almost 94% of shipments imported in the USA in 2023 were such packages (there are no proper statistics, yet, for 2024)
https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/06/lawmakers-stakeholders-coalition-against-de-minimis-import-loophole.html
quote from the CBP, about 2023: "No less than 94% of all import transactions now enter the U.S. through de minimis rules [...]"
...and since Customs usually complain of being short-staffed, that means they barely only have workers to assess *at best* 10% of the packages coming in... (again, using year 2023 volume numbers)
This probably means we should expect to see a 900% ( not a typo! ) = nine times increase in the number of customs employees that are needed if the mandatory target is to process, inspect and assess tariffs on ALL packages - but it is not realistically possible to increase the number of employees practically overnight, just to handle this.
(comment icon: d'oh.. i so wish we would have an icon for Austin Powers' Dr. Evil pinky here... )
This probably means we should expect to see a 900% ( not a typo! ) = nine times increase in the number of customs employees that are needed if the mandatory target is to process, inspect and assess tariffs on ALL packages - but it is not realistically possible to increase the number of employees practically overnight, just to handle this.
Or, more likely, huge warehouses of imports, gently rotting away while awaiting processing. I know, if I were an endangered Federal employee, I'd not be working any sort of overtime given that I could be dismissed anyway on the whim of my Trumpist Commissar.
Trump is so unbelievably stupid he actually thinks he can use tariffs to hurt Canada's economy sufficiently that they'll be forced to become the 51st state. Instead he has Canadians united in hating him, even a lot of the ones who wish they could have someone like him as PM. Normally polite Canadians booed the US national anthem during a hockey game over the weekend, and I don't blame them one bit.
Of course stuff like that and the retaliatory tariffs will upset Trump so he'll likely increase the Canada tariffs thinking that will force their hand. They'll just increase theirs to match. He's going to be forced to back down in the end, and be humiliated. It will be a wonderful thing to see!
What I don't understand is how Canada only gets to be the 51st state. It's 10 provinces, each of them as big as many US states - it should be states 51 to 60, with Greenland as the 61st.
'Course, the reflection that at least 9 of those 11 new states would be rock-solid Democratic might be causing him to divert discussion away from that line.