Tariffs Catch-All

  • Thread starter Thread starter BubbaOtis
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies: 3K
  • Views: 62K
  • Politics 
We've now lived through the trade war version of the First Gulf War.

Saddam invaded Kuwait; Trump tariffed the world. In both cases, the world's countries focused their attention on the wrong doer and it took barely any effort to dislodge the reckless idiot who provoked the whole conflict. Just as Saddam had nothing but wreckage to show for his Kuwait invasion, so too does Trump have nothing to show for his disruption of world trade. He has alienated the world, created massive boycotts on American goods that will last for a long time, and gotten zero benefits from it.
 
Are we still celebrating "liberation day"? Asking for a friend...
It was all a facade... a dog & pony show. He was never going to maintain his idiotic tariffs because he knows it would crash the economy. The first ships, with the 145% tariffs, hit the docks last week, I believe. Something had to be done to prevent that from continuing.
 
It was all a facade... a dog & pony show. He was never going to maintain his idiotic tariffs because he knows it would crash the economy. The first ships, with the 145% tariffs, hit the docks last week, I believe. Something had to be done to prevent that from continuing.
Trump doesn't know shit past what the last person in front of him told him.
 
Here I was getting all excited about Trump's promise to bring back all manufacturing to the U.S., creating so many big, beautiful jobs the likes of which you wouldn't believe, and eliminating income taxes, and then the big orange buffoon goes and surrenders to the Chinese.

Promises made, promises NOT kept!!!
 
It was all a facade... a dog & pony show. He was never going to maintain his idiotic tariffs because he knows it would crash the economy. The first ships, with the 145% tariffs, hit the docks last week, I believe.
No, he didn't know it would crash the economy. He thought we were going to be greeted as liberators. He genuinely thought it was going to be the precursor to some golden age. It was only when the bond market almost imploded that he woke up to reality.

You keep insisting, against all evidence, that Trump is something other than what he so obviously is: an uneducated dumbass without any ability to rationally evaluate policy in any capacity.
 
That's literally why he put or supported amateurs and shamateurs in every branch of government, news and business that he possibly could? The less expertise and professionalism are respected, the better it makes him look. Well, until you look behind the mirror and see the utter incompetency. How can you call yourself a businessman and you run several casinos into the ground? I didn't think that was even possible. One, maybe with some serious bad luck.
 
Here I was getting all excited about Trump's promise to bring back all manufacturing to the U.S., creating so many big, beautiful jobs the likes of which you wouldn't believe, and eliminating income taxes, and then the big orange buffoon goes and surrenders to the Chinese.

Promises made, promises NOT kept!!!
Maybe China will make us its 24th province.
 
No, he didn't know it would crash the economy. He thought we were going to be greeted as liberators. He genuinely thought it was going to be the precursor to some golden age. It was only when the bond market almost imploded that he woke up to reality.
Or all of that bloviating was just part of the facade. If he convinces the world that he truly believes tariffs are a great thing and are going to make the country rich, that just adds to the motivation for them to come to the table, does it not?
You keep insisting, against all evidence, that Trump is something other than what he so obviously is: an uneducated dumbass without any ability to rationally evaluate policy in any capacity.
He's a dumbass, a narcissist and painfully impulsive, but he also has a method to his dumbassness, narcissism and impulsiveness which involves misrepresenting a lot of what he actually intends to do.
 
Or all of that bloviating was just part of the facade. If he convinces the world that he truly believes tariffs are a great thing and are going to make the country rich, that just adds to the motivation for them to come to the table, does it not?

He's a dumbass, a narcissist and painfully impulsive, but he also has a method to his dumbassness, narcissism and impulsiveness.
Maybe, but does he have a goal other than to wallow in those? I haven't seen a single thing he's done worth the chaos he's sown.
 
Or all of that bloviating was just part of the facade. If he convinces the world that he truly believes tariffs are a great thing and are going to make the country rich, that just adds to the motivation for them to come to the table, does it not?

He's a dumbass, a narcissist and painfully impulsive, but he also has a method to his dumbassness, narcissism and impulsiveness which involves misrepresenting a lot of what he actually intends to do.
For them to come to the table for what? He has been asked a thousand times what the end goal is and he hasn’t been able to articulate any.
 
Maybe, but does he have a goal other than to wallow in those? I haven't seen a single thing he's done worth the chaos he's sown.
As it pertains to tariffs, no, none of this was worth it. I absolutely agree with him that more tariffs on Chinese goods is warranted and there are better and worse ways to implement higher tariffs. He, as he is known to do, picked one of the more idiotic ways.
 
Is this real optimism or making hay while the sun shines?
Here's where I am.

1. Trump cannot be trusted. Everything he says is almost certain to be a lie.
2. Trump will do literally anything that he can spin the decrepit reality as a positive for his gullible, disinformed base.
3. Trump does not care about the future, or the world, or anything other than what's in his personal best interest at the moment.
4. Trump is MASSIVELY interested in his and his family's financial worth, so he will do things occasionally that also benefit those who are invested in the equity and/or real estate markets.
5. If you imagine the stereotype of the person who's likely to be sitting three tables away from Trump at a Mar-a-Lago dinner, THAT'S who will benefit the most from the next 3.75 years. That person will make absolute bank. For the rest of us, who knows? We might as well have Bozo the Clown in the Oval Office. The results would be the same.
 
Or all of that bloviating was just part of the facade. If he convinces the world that he truly believes tariffs are a great thing and are going to make the country rich, that just adds to the motivation for them to come to the table, does it not?

He's a dumbass, a narcissist and painfully impulsive, but he also has a method to his dumbassness, narcissism and impulsiveness which involves misrepresenting a lot of what he actually intends to do.
How has that worked for him, having them "come to the table"? Trump is in his second term in office. What deals has he achieved? What happens is this:

Trump: Tariffs will make them negotiate.
Other countries: We just want you to remove your unilateral tariffs. We're not giving you shit.
Trump: Done! Win win for me!

The only thing Trump knows how to get is "purchase commitments." That's what he's always trying to do. Make the other countries buy an insignificant amount of goods from us. That accomplishes nothing. It's barely even profitable, since what's being purchased would be sold elsewhere and so maybe there are a few incremental gains. Maybe the purchase commitment of $5B in US beef will generate $100M in profit for America. And everything that happened to get to that point costs 10-100x times that. And that's assuming the purchase commitment is honored, which it rarely is.

There's a reason why purchase commitments are not an important part of trade law, trade negotiations or trade policy. They are one-time pot sweeteners, like getting 10% off your first purchase at Best Buy when you get a Best Buy card. They can be profitably used to start a trade relationship, but that's not how Trump is using them. He's thinking that they are the end goal in themselves, which is why we are in a recession now and $5B in commitments will do jack shit.
 
For them to come to the table for what? He has been asked a thousand times what the end goal is and he hasn’t been able to articulate any.
To have better trade balance with other countries, presumably to help, at least in part, US manufacturing. It's something that Obama pointed out years and years ago... There are a ton of Japanese made cars being sold in the US and virtually no US made cars being sold in Japan.
 
Were you worried about Biden's mental status ?

Trump says "hold my Adderall "

 
Back
Top