Donald Trump

[stylofone]

...to add to that somewhat emotional outburst above...

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... y-shock-us

Focusing on the fucking share market is completely confusing the resistance, imo. We (as in anti-fascists world wide) are being distracted. The share market might well recover, the US economy may begin to thrive sooner than many predict. This is not the right issue to focus on, i'm beginning to think.

I do get that it's encouraging for the mid-terms (assuming they happen and are fair and free) and that maga will almost certainly lose the house, but fascism doesn't need parliaments. And 'we' do not need the support of people who are all in for maga on every other issue....but not tariffs and a falling share market.

Articles like that make my head hurt. I've also been punishing myself today reading about the unusual moves in the bond market and how a financial crisis could ensue, but I don't understand much of it.

My reaction to all this is instinctive. I kind of love chaos, and I hope that it will soon explode and Trump will finally get his comeuppance and end up with a similar legacy to Nixon. Also if there is damage to the world economy along the way I can also see that it could have good side effects, for example if factories close and consumption falls it would be good for the environment.

[pipbarber]

And in news from the Unhinged Stupitopia of America, they're going to “make America’s showers great again”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... tive-order

Brilliant move! Can't argue with it, obviously. Although, could perhaps someone grab a qualified plumber to just ensure that the showers the dear leader uses are super high pressure, and just leave it at that? Nah...silly idea...sorry.

[stylofone]

And in news from the Unhinged Stupitopia of America, they're going to “make America’s showers great again”

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... tive-order

Brilliant move! Can't argue with it, obviously. Although, could perhaps someone grab a qualified plumber to just ensure that the showers the dear leader uses are super high pressure, and just leave it at that? Nah...silly idea...sorry.

For my sins in a former life I got to hear a lot of Trump's "speeches" at his rallies in 2016. I was also driving and listened to his rambling weirdness on "liberation day" last week.

In the old speeches he would complain about conservation measures including efficient shower heads. He also didn't like compact fluorescent light globes which he said were very dim. He didn't seem to know that they were superseded by LEDs which are brighter and use less power again.

One notable thing about last week's speech was when he called on one of his cabinet members to say a few words, and all the lackey had to say was how brilliant Trump is, for announcing all this gibberish which was worked out on the back of an envelope. It is so bizarre to be witnessing this real life version of "The Emperor's New Clothes". The arse-licking is at extraordinary levels.

It's only two days since he was asked if the pain in the markets would make him change course, and he responded "your question is so stupid". Now the pain in the markets has made him change course, it reinforces the stupidity of his answer. Actually his answer was sexist, he usually reserves such comments for women journalists.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-amer ... 5lpql.html

[pipbarber]

Well there is a possibility, in defiance of Hanlon's razor, that Trump is cashing in on the wild market swings that he creates. One would assume such a thing is traceable though, given we are dealing with public companies and the market has some small measure of transparency. But it'd be easy. Short the market and then announce tariffs on everyone, sell the position, then go long and announce a 3 month delay on implementation of tariffs - rinse and repeat.

Just to clarify, i'm not suggesting some conspiracy theory here, i have no idea if he and they are doing this, in point fact my general starting position is that they're all a bunch of under-educated dipshits that make shit up as they go along and haven't any forward planning at all. Nevertheless, i hope someone is keeping track of options markets and wherever 'shorts' and 'longs' are exchanged, just to be sure.

[stylofone]

Well there is a possibility, in defiance of Hanlon's razor, that Trump is cashing in on the wild market swings that he creates. One would assume such a thing is traceable though, given we are dealing with public companies and the market has some small measure of transparency. But it'd be easy. Short the market and then announce tariffs on everyone, sell the position, then go long and announce a 3 month delay on implementation of tariffs - rinse and repeat.

Just to clarify, i'm not suggesting some conspiracy theory here, i have no idea if he and they are doing this, in point fact my general starting position is that they're all a bunch of under-educated dipshits that make shit up as they go along and haven't any forward planning at all. Nevertheless, i hope someone is keeping track of options markets and wherever 'shorts' and 'longs' are exchanged, just to be sure.

I tend to think not Trump himself, but the unethical contortions of his milieu make it highly likely that someone is cashing in.

At the same time, Trump clearly had it on his mind, because he blurted it out for everyone a couple of hours before his handbrake turn announcement.

insider.png (134.23 KiB) Viewed 270 times

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-10/ ... /105158964#

[stylofone]

Mad King Donald can hurt China, but he hurts the US more. I note that it's not only Americans who have bought massive tonnage of useless unrepairable crap from China. I enjoy doing casual surveys of the number of houses where the multiple cars are parked outside because there's no room in the garage which is filled with consumer junk. A big difference is that we sell China the raw materials to make the junk it sells on to everyone, not just back to us.

It is necessary to stop making, selling, buying, storing and discarding junk, but that doesn't seem to be the main issue at the moment.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-11/ ... /105155856

[stevebrooks]

Well there is a possibility, in defiance of Hanlon's razor, that Trump is cashing in on the wild market swings that he creates. One would assume such a thing is traceable though, given we are dealing with public companies and the market has some small measure of transparency. But it'd be easy. Short the market and then announce tariffs on everyone, sell the position, then go long and announce a 3 month delay on implementation of tariffs - rinse and repeat.

Just to clarify, i'm not suggesting some conspiracy theory here, i have no idea if he and they are doing this, in point fact my general starting position is that they're all a bunch of under-educated dipshits that make shit up as they go along and haven't any forward planning at all. Nevertheless, i hope someone is keeping track of options markets and wherever 'shorts' and 'longs' are exchanged, just to be sure.

I tend to think not Trump himself, but the unethical contortions of his milieu make it highly likely that someone is cashing in.

At the same time, Trump clearly had it on his mind, because he blurted it out for everyone a couple of hours before his handbrake turn announcement.

insider.png

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-04-10/ ... /105158964#

Yeah well, when you see someone who has never ever purchased stocks before suddenly splashing out money to buy stocks minutes before the pause is announced. The problem with Trump on twitter and the pause is no-one knows whether to believe him or not, so do they buy or not? it would be the second time it was announced, is it true this time, is it false? Who fucking knows. Most of them don't buy, but then he can claim it wasn't just to enrich his buddies because he told everyone to buy over a public social network. But if you are one of his insiders you KNOW he's not kidding so splash out, for the first time ever buy stocks;

https://imgur.com/gallery/how-bizarre-ZtK543f

[stylofone]

"Mad king Trump" isn't just a nickname now, it's today's headlines.

indinsane.png (69.02 KiB) Viewed 199 times

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 30989.html

[stevebrooks]

Chine done retaliating because, well, there's no point!

At this point the numbers are so mind bogglingly high that Beijing’s commerce ministry has said they have no “practical significance in economics”.

Essentially they have more than doubled the price of iphones and ipads, no-one is going to buy a top of the line ipad if the price is now $4,500, having a 145% tariff is effectively the same as just banning it, nobody is going to buy it, nobody is going to import it. Say you import 100 iphones with 145% tariff, they sit there hardly selling because they are so expensive, but you still have the stock so if you wait long enough someone desperate enough will eventually buy them, then Trump dumps the tariffs. You now have iphones you paid 145% tariff on competing against iphones with say 20% tariff, you have to sell at a dead loss because they aren't going to give you back the tariff money, so what you do is you simply don't import any and hope the tariff mess gets sorted before you go broke. So essentially a tariff that high is the same as a ban on imports, and higher tariffs aren't going to do anything at all.

Of course there's still the essential stuff that people have to buy, that's not going away, only the extra's, the luxuries, the spending money for fun stuff, that stops as far as Chinese goods are concerned. So yes there is no economic sense for tariffs this high or higher, it's essentially a ban. Now you say maybe the idea is to drive manufacturing of iphones to the US. It's been estimated that the cost of manufacturing iphones in the US would actually result in a higher retail price than the tariffs are causing, so that's a no, no-one is going to spend billions building a factory to make phones no-one will buy. Trump has essentially killed Apple sales in the US, and they aren't going to bring manufacturing to the US because they can still sell Chinese made iphones worldwide, so stupidity compounded here, the tariffs essentially achieve nothing in the end.

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... cf73525d4b

[stylofone]

Chine done retaliating because, well, there's no point!

At this point the numbers are so mind bogglingly high that Beijing’s commerce ministry has said they have no “practical significance in economics”.

Essentially they have more than doubled the price of iphones and ipads, no-one is going to buy a top of the line ipad if the price is now $4,500, having a 145% tariff is effectively the same as just banning it, nobody is going to buy it, nobody is going to import it. Say you import 100 iphones with 145% tariff, they sit there hardly selling because they are so expensive, but you still have the stock so if you wait long enough someone desperate enough will eventually buy them, then Trump dumps the tariffs. You now have iphones you paid 145% tariff on competing against iphones with say 20% tariff, you have to sell at a dead loss because they aren't going to give you back the tariff money, so what you do is you simply don't import any and hope the tariff mess gets sorted before you go broke. So essentially a tariff that high is the same as a ban on imports, and higher tariffs aren't going to do anything at all.

Of course there's still the essential stuff that people have to buy, that's not going away, only the extra's, the luxuries, the spending money for fun stuff, that stops as far as Chinese goods are concerned. So yes there is no economic sense for tariffs this high or higher, it's essentially a ban. Now you say maybe the idea is to drive manufacturing of iphones to the US. It's been estimated that the cost of manufacturing iphones in the US would actually result in a higher retail price than the tariffs are causing, so that's a no, no-one is going to spend billions building a factory to make phones no-one will buy. Trump has essentially killed Apple sales in the US, and they aren't going to bring manufacturing to the US because they can still sell Chinese made iphones worldwide, so stupidity compounded here, the tariffs essentially achieve nothing in the end.

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... cf73525d4b

Things are moving so quickly and I have no idea how they are going to play out. In particular the timing: how long before inventories are exhausted and the shelves are empty? How long before the businesses that have nothing to sell go broke and everyone loses their jobs? How long before inflation starts rising again, economic growth slumps forcing more business failures and job losses? How long before Trump voters and apathetic non-voters join the dyed-in-the-wool Democrats in protests? Maybe sooner than we think.

In my optimistic imagination, I see it as the downfall of Trump. The scary thing, is what distraction he will use to survive the fallout, e.g. starting a war?