Donald Trump

[stylofone]

All trade talks with Canada cancelled, new tariffs incoming, who couldn't have predicted that?

His huge ugly bill is going to the senate. I imagine the tax cuts will excite the stock market, pushing it to an irrational high. Then the tariffs and inflation and the business closures and labour shortages and a wave of sickness will all peak and bring it crashing down.

Another possibility is that late capitalism will just jettison the poor, burn their bodies like so much fossil fuel, and keep powering on.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/north-amer ... 5may6.html

[stevebrooks]

Barricades going up again, big events incoming, rumour has it Trump is going to get rid of Jerome Powell and put a bootlicker in who will immediate drop interest rates to 1% as he recently demanded, or they could be scared of the "no kings" day coming up on July 4th.

Everybody get ready for more unrest basically.

https://imgur.com/gallery/popular-theor ... ll-DbZP9VP

[stevebrooks]

We all know Trumps bill has passed, a sad say for Americans who didn't vote for him, and for many who did, although it's hard dragging up sympathy for them! But it's just getting worse as his brain deteriorates even further. In recent interviews he has talked about sending even US citizens to third world hell holes, and now Musk is in his sights, he's moving to remove any challengers to his power in the typical fascist manner:

This time, it’s explosive.

“Elon would probably have to close up shop and head back home to South Africa,” Trump quipped as their war of words flared again this week.

It's fucking words, you can't strip someone of their citizenship and deport them because of words, first amendment etc? Oh sorry that no longer applies right, as long as it is an official act Trump can't be prosecuted or brought to heel by anyone now.

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... fd3b78b339

He's even lost the mad right wing branch of support, Joe Rogan is going crazy, oh well off to Alligator Alcatraz for him I guess!

One is the targeting of migrant workers. Not cartel members, not gang members, not drug dealers. Just construction workers. Showing up in construction sites, raiding them. Gardeners. Like, really?”

The response?

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin refuted their assertions.

“The official data tells the real story: an overwhelming majority of ICE arrests were criminal illegal aliens with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges.

Further, many illegal aliens categorised as “non-criminals” are actually terrorists, human rights abusers, gang members and worse — they just don’t have a rap sheet in the US.

This deceptive “non-criminal” categorisation is devoid of reality and misleads the American public.

Now apart from the fact that these sorts of people don't go out and do things like roof tiling, I mean terrorists working on your roof? Sure, no the terrorists in the US today seem to be white male office workers, but lets not categorise everyone with the same brush. But the fact is if you make entering the country and working without documentation a crime then yes every single person they pick up is a criminal, but then you can extend that down the line whenever you want to whoever you want, homosexuality a crime now? Yes lets ship them off to Somalia, Tax cheating? Sure, lets get rid of them, except the rich ones, they are ok, just the poor ones!

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... 80a418103e

Expect legislation criminalizing criticizing the President to be put before congress any day now!

[pipbarber]

The ghastliness of the situation in the US is overwhelming and probably as a consequence i find myself thinking...great, let it rip, maybe it'll immunise the rest of us from this unregulated neoliberalism, kleptocracy and straight up fascism. But maybe it won't. The adjacent-left parties seem to me to be so lost and clueless they're pretty much just a bunch of deers in gigantic headlights right now. We're completely broken.

[stylofone]

Timothy Snyder chooses his words wisely, warning that the "death bill" as he calls it, enables the US government to establish concentration camps where slave labor will be on offer for US companies:

CEOs should now, this summer, this month, next week, sign a pledge not to use labor from concentration camps. It could be as simple as that: "On behalf of my firm I promise not to use labor from concentration camps nor to cooperate with any firm that does."

I can hear the first objection: "it's too soon." If this is not done now, some Americans companies will start using slave labor from concentration camps, and then others will claim that they must do so as well so as not to lose competitiveness or shareholder value or something. The appropriate euphemisms will be found, and all will soon seem normal. But everything will have changed. We will all be implicated. And we will all be more vulnerable.

The second objection: "it's politics." Yes, it is. The creation of a network of concentration camps is indeed politics. It is a politics, among other things, designed to draw businesses into a fascist order by normalizing dehumanization. It is a politics that creates incentives for ever wider groups of people to be excluded from legal protection, on the logic that this needed for economic growth. If there is no learning from the past, if there is no statement of principle, then cheap labor will corrupt companies and their shareholders, and indeed their consumers.

https://snyder.substack.com/p/concentration-camp-labor

Of course there's also deprivation for the poor, and destroying the environment. Economic mayhem seems like a minor issue, but it is still remarkable to behold. This article, about the trashing of renewable energy, is also a good one.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/20 ... s-economy/

[stevebrooks]

The deals are done, the letters are sent, detailed and comprehensive trade agreements they aren't. For instance Laos just got a flat 40% tariff from the US on all goods sent to the US. Now Laos has very little to send to the US, in fact electricity is its main export, yeah you can see the problem right there if course.

These are apparently the deals, Japan has been sent a letter, Korea has been sent a letter, they are almost identical except for the tariff amount, I can't see this being useful at all. Oh yes and threats to increase the tariff if the tariffed countries applies reciprocal tariffs, so his deals are not so much deals as they are demands and threats!

[stevebrooks]

Trump is blaming Biden for the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, bizarre as that might seem, not Putin's fault at all apparently!

“We’re trying to help out with a Biden-created monster, this whole thing that’s happening with Russia and Ukraine,” Mr Trump claimed.

“And I’m not happy with President Putin at all, but this is something that would have never happened if I were President,” he added.

So why doesn't he put a stop to it? Oh yes he is trying, by stopping arms shipments to the Ukraine, probably hoping Putin will finish taking over quickly so he can claim he fixed it!

Mr Trump also announced the US will send additional weapons to Ukraine, saying the nation is “getting hit very, very hard”.

Curious then that the Pentagon has just held up the latest shipment to the Ukraine, what's that all about then? Are these just sound bites for the MAGA base?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a pause in sending a shipment of missiles and ammunition to Ukraine amid concern about the U.S. military’s stockpiles, according to two defense officials, two congressional officials and two sources with knowledge of the decision.

That was 6 days ago, now suddenly they are sending more? Who do we believe the liar and felon or...well, the liar and alcoholic?

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... 0cf8462cdf

[stylofone]

Trump is blaming Biden for the Russian invasion of the Ukraine, bizarre as that might seem, not Putin's fault at all apparently!

“We’re trying to help out with a Biden-created monster, this whole thing that’s happening with Russia and Ukraine,” Mr Trump claimed.

“And I’m not happy with President Putin at all, but this is something that would have never happened if I were President,” he added.

So why doesn't he put a stop to it? Oh yes he is trying, by stopping arms shipments to the Ukraine, probably hoping Putin will finish taking over quickly so he can claim he fixed it!

Mr Trump also announced the US will send additional weapons to Ukraine, saying the nation is “getting hit very, very hard”.

Curious then that the Pentagon has just held up the latest shipment to the Ukraine, what's that all about then? Are these just sound bites for the MAGA base?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered a pause in sending a shipment of missiles and ammunition to Ukraine amid concern about the U.S. military’s stockpiles, according to two defense officials, two congressional officials and two sources with knowledge of the decision.

That was 6 days ago, now suddenly they are sending more? Who do we believe the liar and felon or...well, the liar and alcoholic?

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-ame ... 0cf8462cdf

Netanyahu has nominated Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize. It's a shame there isn't a Violent Death-Mongering Clusterfucker Prize they could give Trump instead, but just NOT giving him the peace prize will be enough. If they give it to anyone other than Trump the Nobel committee will still be declared a bunch of woke communist extremists, and Trump will increase tariffs on Norway to one million percent.

[stevebrooks]

Ah yes Albo, this is what you get for sucking up to Trump, sweet fuck all and a big slap around the face. C'mon guys, it really is time to break ties with the US, we've lost enough money on the AUKUS agreement, if you think we are ever going to get nuclear subs while Trump and his cronies are in office you're dreaming. If he loses the next election it's very likely the last thing he will do is try and nuke the incoming guy by tearing up every agreement he can get his hands on, a toddler tantrum, and if he does stay in as dictator he will take our money and give us nothing!

President Donald Trump has threatened to introduce 200 per cent tariffs on pharmaceuticals – one of Australia’s biggest exports to the US.

He also unveiled plans for a 50 per cent tariff on copper — a move that is expected to smash big Australian miners like BHP and Rio Tinto.

https://www.news.com.au/world/meaningle ... 4deb93fb32