What has Trump done now?

[facthunter]

Mafia Boss of the world.  Tariffs are just like extracting protection Money. Nev

[old man emu]

This is frightening for the possibility that teh republicans will be tossed out. Just watch the first two and one half minutes.

 

[old man emu]

2 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Tariffs are just like extracting protection Money.

Except that it's your gang that pays it, not the bloke being muscled.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Agree, except the demand of the goods of the muscled are likely to drop or their margins are,which affects their profitability, even if they spend money finding other markets

[facthunter]

People don't like being taken for suckers by those who unilateraly break agreements Touting some hairbrained tariff wall will  reduce taxes for all Americans ,disregarding any damaging effect to the rest of the world that Dazzling Don doesn't give a Damn about. He uses these penalties to get back at people he doesn't like. Cheap stuff into the USA keeps THEIR prices down internally. Who with 1/2 a brain would knock back COPPER at low prices?  Loves having people COMING to HIM when HE thinks HE holds ALL the CARDS CREEP. and a $#!t for Brains Person....Nev

Edited 15 hours ago by facthunter

[red750]

https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/world/outrage-over-crooked-move-that-would-keep-trump-s-republicans-in-power/ar-AA1JClWa?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=8998bb021acf440ea38d5f0f979cb6f2&ei=117

[Jerry_Atrick]

11 hours ago, facthunter said:

People don't like being taken for suckers by those who unilateraly break agreements Touting some hairbrained tariff wall will  reduce taxes for all Americans ,disregarding any damaging effect to the rest of the world that Dazzling Don doesn't give a Damn about. He uses these penalties to get back at people he doesn't like. Cheap stuff into the USA keeps THEIR prices down internally. Who with 1/2 a brain would knock back COPPER at low prices?  Loves having people COMING to HIM when HE thinks HE holds ALL the CARDS CREEP. and a $#!t for Brains Person....Nev

Of course no one likes to be taken as a sucker, etc. However, Chump doesn't care. Whether done diplomatically or not, the bottom line is that the side that has the most power in an materially asymmetric relationship will always get the better outcome In dimplomacy, often the outcomes are the same - if you have the levers of power well over your counterparty, you are going to win. It has been like this always. The difference is Chump isn't diplomatic about it at all. He has no issue telling the world he is going to use the same levers.. he publicly rather than privately threatens. The bullying tactics are part of him, like they are in many. 

 

Tarrifs ensure the US taxpayer pays more tax.. The importers pay the tarrifs, not the exporters. Either they take a hit or they pass it on. Either way, it is the US that pays the tax. It is there for one reason and one reason only.. Making the wealthy wealthier. Those big tax breaks to the wealthy are not going to pay for themselves in a developed economy. 

 

Getting back to Chump and his antics, and why he remains popular relative to the deomocrats. And I think it is in the culture of the people. Americans like the hollywood BS.. Everything is brute force with them. Die Hard, etc. I remember when 9/11 happened there were people wondering whee the real Die Hard shoot-em-up law enforcers were. You only have to look at the reaction in the aftermath where people were seriously calling for pilots to wear guns.. Look at their law enforcement (sadly, some of it has spilled into Australia) compared to the unarmed bobby. 

 

The other thing is that America epitomises selfishness. It's al me me me me me me me me me. They could not care about what anyone outside America thinks. I seriously think that most people who live in America think the rest of the world is a third world backwater, anyway - at least those that haven't ventured anywhere else. And there's a lot of them. So Chump shafting the world is seem as power, being tough and brutish.. which is what they want. We call him dumb, but he plays his audience very well. And only they get to votet him in. And yeah, you can argue that he was voted out, but he was voted in after the democrats fixed the economy and their foreign relations after the first bout of Chump.  And this time he was ahead in the popular vote and took both houses!

 

The yanks do not care. Like everyone else, it is "what is in it for me?" A lot of them were convinced the crap he is doing is better for them when iut is worse at every level.. 

 

I still love the US, but I no longer preference by spending on US products over Chinese (yes, I know US brands are largely manufactured in China, but at least some of the profit went back). I am more inclined to buy non-US brands in may things. And although I won't use Temu nor Ali-Baba, I no longer spend as near as much as I used to on Amazon. I use Mistral LLM AI over Chat GPT. I have made my decision with my wallet.