Donald Trump

[stevebrooks]

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?

Well he has a choice hasn't he, the places he has threatened to take over. Panama, Greenland, Canada, however I hear Iran is on the firing line at the very moment with talks between Israel and the US.

As for imports, word has it that cars are piling up so quickly on the US shipping docks there soon won't be room for them, but the companies importing them are not processing them so they don't have to pay the tariff. Apparently they can keep there sitting there as long as they want, well as long as there is room, but the next step is bonded warehouses, tens of thousands of imported vehicles just sitting in warehouses waiting for Trump to remove the tariffs. I can't see this being good for US car manufacturers, I mean they pay tariffs on parts they need for their own vehicles at the moment, making them more expensive, if Trump drops the tariffs, even only temporarily, the market is suddenly flooded with tens of thousands of cheaper imported cars. It seems to me the US car industry is doomed no matter what they do now!

But yes, it's surprising how a good war can swing public opinion, it's surprising how a bad war can also. He might get away with Panama, that might prove popular, Greenland is simply out of reach, he's dreaming there, and if he picked Canada that will be his end I am thinking, no-one in the US wants the US to invade Canada!

[stevebrooks]

Back down after back down. He's destroyed the US markets for nothing, the Trump admin has now exempted phones, chips and computers from the Chinese 145% tariffs lol. So not only has he destroyed the economy and put many businesses out of business, he's shown how weak he really is. Starting from a position that these tariffs were not negotiable and permanent a few weeks ago, they have dropped tariffs and put in exemptions all over the place! What a shit show the last few weeks have been, and all for nothing!

Well maybe not for nothing, it has shown the world that they can no longer rely on the US to be the stable economic power and reliable and steadfast ally it has been since WW2, and maybe that's a good thing in the end!

[stevebrooks]

After the gutting of the Social Security Administration and the closing of 90% of field offices public communications from the Agency to the elderly, infirm, disabled, poor and destitute, homeless and all other customers has now been shifted exclusively to X. So if you are poor, elderly and disabled without enough money to purchase a smart phone or computer, or no longer have the capacity to use computers and smartphones, you have Parkinsons maybe and don't have the manual dexterity to do so, you are officially fucked!

https://imgur.com/gallery/favoring-one- ... ng-Yq8P85G

[pipbarber]

Well maybe not for nothing, it has shown the world that they can no longer rely on the US to be the stable economic power and reliable and steadfast ally it has been since WW2, and maybe that's a good thing in the end!

Yes, this particular government is completely unreliable, unstable and economically incompetent but what they are demonstrating is that the US political/cultural system itself is the real problem and that even if maga get wiped off the political map at the next election there's no guarantee they, or something even worse, won't win the election after that. Obviously doing short term business with the US is next to impossible right now, but so are long term deals, enter them at your own peril. How's aukus looking these days?

[stevebrooks]

Well maybe not for nothing, it has shown the world that they can no longer rely on the US to be the stable economic power and reliable and steadfast ally it has been since WW2, and maybe that's a good thing in the end!

Yes, this particular government is completely unreliable, unstable and economically incompetent but what they are demonstrating is that the US political/cultural system itself is the real problem and that even if maga get wiped off the political map at the next election there's no guarantee they, or something even worse, won't win the election after that. Obviously doing short term business with the US is next to impossible right now, but so are long term deals, enter them at your own peril. How's aukus looking these days?

Pretty sure Aukus us dead;

Australia faces a previously unreported 2025 deadline to pay the United States $2 billion to assist with improving its submarine shipyards. The Trump administration has asked for more funding, Marles said in March.
Consternation is growing in Washington that Australia's reluctance to even discuss using the attack submarines against China means that transferring them out of the U.S. fleet to Australia would hurt deterrence efforts in the Indo Pacific, according to experts and documents.

US is already asking for more money, they don't trust us, well the feeling there is mutual I can assure them of that. Pretty sure the UK is getting cold feet as well. I mean seriously if the US isn't willing to help the Ukraine, where they had agreements to assist in case of Russian aggression, could they possibly trust the US to come to thier aid? The fact is under the current administration you simply can't trust them to fulfill their part of any agreement not matter what it is!

[stevebrooks]

Yeah I know some of you are heading to the US, my recommendation is....don't, read this.

No wrongdoing, nothing on his social media or phone, he booked a 15k cruise leaving from Miami, was detained in New York and questioned for 8 hours, they decided, I kid you not, that he took "an unusual route" to get to the US. He booked the cheapest route to get to the US and that that took him through Asia. That's it, that's all they had to say, he was sent back to Australia and missed his cruise.

https://imgur.com/gallery/tourism-us-he ... ro-84dPdnF

[stevebrooks]

Ah yeah, just when you think things couldn't get more stupid:

The United States could capitalize on the increased value of its gold to purchase bitcoin as another reserve asset, a White House official has suggested.

https://www.mining.com/us-could-use-gol ... cial-says/

[stevebrooks]

Yeah that's all crystal clear...as mud....:

“The notice that went out on Friday night saying electronics, a wide range of electronics - including smartphones, including components used to make microchips - that these are now exempt from the reciprocal tariffs. Why that move?” Jon Karl, a host for America’s ABC News, asked Mr Lutnick.

“Those products are going to be part of the semiconductor sectoral tariffs, which are coming,” Mr Lutnick responded.

“OK. So you’re saying the big tariffs on things like smartphones and laptops, all those iPhones built in China, those tariffs are temporarily off. But they’re going to be coming right back on, in another form, in a month or so?” Mr Karl asked.

“Correct. That’s right,” said Mr Lutnick.

“Yesterday the White House released a list of electronics that would be exempt from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs,” said Peter Schiff, chief economist at Europac.

“But today, Howard Lutnick said the reprieve is only temporary, as those goods will soon be hit with new tariffs targeting a broadly defined semiconductors category. Insane!”

A couple of hours after Mr Lutnick’s TV interview, Mr Trump himself chimed in on social media – and insisted there was “no exception announced on Friday”.

“There was no Tariff ‘exception’ announced on Friday. These products are subject to the existing 20 per cent fentanyl Tariffs, and they are just moving to a different Tariff ‘bucket.’ The Fake News knows this, but refuses to report it.

So are we all clear now, you can start ordering your stock for easter sales and good Friday sales, except you have no idea how much they are going to cost you and how much you should advertise them for, or even if you should bother putting orders in, maybe you should just sit tight and hope some assassinates Trump and everything goes back to normal, but then you will have Vance in power, yeah that will be entirely normal right?

https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy ... 97dcddc79f

[stevebrooks]

And here we are. The Supreme Court ruled 9/0 that the Trump administration must facilitate the return to the US of the man wrong sent to El Salvador to rot in prison, at the US expense I might add since they are paying El Salvador to keep these prisoners in prison. The Trump admin response?

The Trump administration has doubled down on its argument that it is not required to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison last month.

So they are directly defying a US Supreme Court order. If the US Supreme Court sits there and does nothing about this the US is over as far as the rule of law is concerned, it's Trump's law, in fact no law at all, the Trump admin has already outed sending US citizens to overseas prisons.

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... 43099aaa8b

[two dogs]

And here we are. The Supreme Court ruled 9/0 that the Trump administration must facilitate the return to the US of the man wrong sent to El Salvador to rot in prison, at the US expense I might add since they are paying El Salvador to keep these prisoners in prison. The Trump admin response?

The Trump administration has doubled down on its argument that it is not required to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador’s notorious mega-prison last month.

So they are directly defying a US Supreme Court order. If the US Supreme Court sits there and does nothing about this the US is over as far as the rule of law is concerned, it's Trump's law, in fact no law at all, the Trump admin has already outed sending US citizens to overseas prisons.

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... 43099aaa8b

What I find unfathomable is, even if a deportation is legal (in the sense that the deportee has been afforded the due process rights "enshrined" in the U.S. Constitution), how in the fuck can a Venezuelan gang member, for example, be deported to El Salvador, a country that's not their country of origin, let alone a prison in that country?