The Trump Presidency - Part 2

nimic said:
Tariffs will make importing less profitable, thus incentivizing domestic production and strengthen American industry. In theory. In practice it's probably just going to lead to higher prices for everyone.

Tariffs aren't completely unprecedented, though. Many countries do have tariffs. It's just the trade war aspect here which is particularly counterproductive.
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Thanks! But doesn't America relies heavily on imported parts too? It will drive prices up for their own people too?
 
nimic said:
Tariffs will make importing less profitable, thus incentivizing domestic production and strengthen American industry. In theory. In practice it's probably just going to lead to higher prices for everyone.

Tariffs aren't completely unprecedented, though. Many countries do have tariffs. It's just the trade war aspect here which is particularly counterproductive.
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That'd make sense if the gap between foreign manufactured good and US manufactured goods was small. It isn't though, and the cost of tariffs will be split between customers, suppliers and manufacturers, so everybody loses. Obviously they'll both try to shift as much cost as possible to consumers, but that will also come at a cost of reduced demand and lower purchasing power, which is going to hit back.
 
Basic tariff economics:

Winners: Domestic producers in the protected industries, and the state (or, whoever gets the money from the increased tax income).

Losers: Foreign producers, consumers.

Tariffs are always net negative for the foreign countries. For countries imposing the tariff, it's typically net negative (as in, consumer loss is bigger than producer + government gain), but for large economies it can give net gains. Retaliatory tariffs will throw a wrench in that, though.
 
Vance just made a speech on behalf of Zuckerberg and Musk at the MSC.
 
Dans said:
Vance just made a speech on behalf of Zuckerberg and Musk at the MSC.
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Speaking with unusual directness to some of the US' closest allies, he added: "And perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom, where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons, in particular, in the crosshairs."

Mr Vance criticised the country for the jailing of 51-year-old Adam Smith-Connor - who was imprisoned for breaching a safe zone around an abortion clinic in Bournemouth.

"After British law enforcement spotted him and demanded to know what he was praying for, Adam replied simply, it was on behalf of the unborn son he and his former girlfriend had aborted years before," Mr Vance said.

The conviction was not related to Smith-Connor's thoughts while he was in the safe zone.

He then went on to talk about "safe access zones" in Scotland - a 150m wide area outside abortion clinics to stop anti-abortion campaigners leafleting, holding vigils, or showing graphic images to people near the sites.

https://news.sky.com/story/jd-vance...urope-over-free-speech-and-democracy-13309240
 
Free Speech, free speech, free speech (unless of course its anti-israeli).
and dismissing the notion of disinformation in elections...wow.
that speech by Vance could have easily been written by the Kremlin. probably was,
 
Redplane said:
This kind of shit is the scariest to me. They've become so emboldened that the law is being used to threaten and kill dissent while saying it is not relevant as long as you tow the line.
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it's all in the open (i don't know if you've seen the resignation story too)

 
berbatrick said:
it's all in the open (i don't know if you've seen the resignation story too)

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Ffs.

Think about it in these terms as well: New Yorks GDP is roughly the same as South Korea or Canada (yes, just the NYC metro by itself). Now put that in perspective of Trump and co basically having taken over the reins of a country like that. That's how fecked up it is.
 
These schrodinger checks and balances of american democracy have been amazing to watch.
 
nimic said:
Tariffs will make importing less profitable, thus incentivizing domestic production and strengthen American industry. In theory. In practice it's probably just going to lead to higher prices for everyone.

Tariffs aren't completely unprecedented, though. Many countries do have tariffs. It's just the trade war aspect here which is particularly counterproductive.
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Higher prices, lower quality and creating future inefficiencies. Tariffs should only be used to protect key products which a country should not be over reliant on exports in case of shortage/war. We so that in medical PPC during COVID. now with semi conductors, also food.

This tariffs are used for negotiating bargain but also because the world is gearing towards conflict
 
Redplane said:
Ffs.

Think about it in these terms as well: New Yorks GDP is roughly the same as South Korea or Canada (yes, just the NYC metro by itself). Now put that in perspective of Trump and co basically having taken over the reins of a country like that. That's how fecked up it is.
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Modi is far more popular personally than Trump, and his party has organisational advantages the Republicans don't, but one of the ways he has consolidated his rule in every state is using the central government's investigative agencies - our equivalent of the FBI, sometimes, but more often than that, a tax enforcement agency - to target every opposition politician. Either they end up in jail, or they switch parties and the cases go away. This has happened so many times in so many states I can barely remember a third of them. In my state, he was so successful he split two of the opposition parties in half...and the bigger halves are now allied with him, and now carry the name of the party they came from. In the constituency where I used to live, the (winning) candidate openly said that he was loyal to his party's leader, but went with the split party faction because of cases against him and his son.
 
I see that, courtesy of Vance, America are now back to walking into others people's homes, dragging shit on the carpets, and telling people what to do again.
 
Mr Pigeon said:
I see that, courtesy of Vance, America are now back to walking into others people's homes, dragging shit on the carpets, and telling people what to do again.
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I mean, we never really stopped doing it, but now we'll just look you in the eyes as we do it and then tell you it's for your own good.
 
What a lame coward and loser, picking on small countries like Canada, New Zealand, Panama and Greenland.
 
At least Vance's trainwreck of a speech received almost no applause and a few clips of people shaking their heads in dismay. I really hope Europe can find a way to unite more and reject the far right incursion into the West. The world needs a strong, united Europe with the US going so crazy for the next four years.
 
oneniltothearsenal said:
At least Vance's trainwreck of a speech received almost no applause and a few clips of people shaking their heads in dismay. I really hope Europe can find a way to unite more and reject the far right incursion into the West. The world needs a strong, united Europe with the US going so crazy for the next four years.
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That ship has already sailed, it's already there and growing
 
Mr Pigeon said:
I see that, courtesy of Vance, America are now back to walking into others people's homes, dragging shit on the carpets, and telling people what to do again.
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He has obviously been taking lessons on diplomacy from his boss..... Elon Musk.
 
Red in STL said:
That ship has already sailed, it's already there and growing
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True, but its not nearly as far along as it seems it is in the US but I guess with how quick the US shift from 2020 to 2024, thats possible in Europe too. Frightening though tbh and I still have to hold out some hope that it won't happen there (maybe mostly for my own mental health).
 
That Vance speech was a fecking outrage. If there isn't vociferous pushback then the whole continent can hang it's head in shame.
 
oneniltothearsenal said:
True, but its not nearly as far along as it seems it is in the US but I guess with how quick the US shift from 2020 to 2024, thats possible in Europe too. Frightening though tbh and I still have to hold out some hope that it won't happen there (maybe mostly for my own mental health).
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It's probably going to get much worse before it gets better, I don't think it will get as bad as the US but far-right parties got a massive increase in support in the European Elections at the tail end of 2024 and far-right parties are looking like they'll do very well in the upcoming French and German elections
 
KirkDuyt said:
Think within the dumb/evil categories within the GOP he's more evil than dumb.
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Yeah I'd even argue he s quite intelligent. Which is more dangerous in a way. People shouldn't forget he was basically hand selected by the Project 2025 folks and the heritage foundation, and then realize why.

As far as the rise of the right of Europe- somewhat unfortunately introducing a sense of more national pride on the left to counter threats by the US may be a way to help prevent that impact to a degree.
 
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moses said:
That Vance speech was a fecking outrage. If there isn't vociferous pushback then the whole continent can hang it's head in shame.
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It was exactly that. Both shocking and embarrassing for someone in his position. And quite frankly stupid. Not even Boris Johnson would have said anything as ridiculous.
But who is going to pushback.
And would it make any difference.
 
Sarni said:
It's just flexing though. China has less than 500, there's no reason for US/Russia to have 5000+.
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China is increasing their nuclear capabilities though.

It is dumb anyway. But better than during the peak, when both the US and the USSR had tens of thousands of nukes.
 
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