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Originally about tariffs and watches ... now just political rambling

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140dave
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I can’t believe I am participating in this garbage fire thread more than the watch I posted but…

The interview I saw, he didn’t say Americans would be screwing in the tiny screws, he said we would maintain the robots that do the screwing. We lube and prep them to screw, we become robot fluffers. (Paraphrasing JS)
 
pdxleaf
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arturo7 arturo7
Politics has become like sports.

Our team is great, you're team sucks.

Eyes closed, ears covered, mouth open.

Open mind? Critical thinking? Applying reason? Nope. Nope. Nope.
It's worse than that. It's more like a cult. But let's not pretend both sides are just as bad.

It's also more deadly. A man and father who is legally in the USA is snatched off the street and sent to a prison in El Salvador. The Supreme Court upholds a court order to return the man and the Trump administration says no.

The Trump administration remove 381 books from the Naval Academy. The list also includes “Memorializing the Holocaust,” Janet Jacobs’s examination of depictions of women in the Holocaust, and “How to Be Anti-Racist” by Ibram X. Kendi. Also listed are “The Making of Black Lives Matter,” by Christopher J. Lebron; “How Racism Takes Place,” by George Lipsitz; “The Fire This Time,” edited by Jesmyn Ward; “The Myth of Equality,” by Ken Wytsma; studies of the Ku Klux Klan, and the history of lynching in America.

The DOJ is prosecuting individuals who Trump considers his personal enemies. He has disallowed law firms access to federal courts and contracts. (Imagine the outcry if Obama attempted this.)

Trump administration is actively attempting to erase history and persecute the opposition, while ignoring the law. This is not both sides are just as guilty and equally at fault. In my opinion.
 
Dan S
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YY77 YY77
Further proof there is no plan;

Screenshot_20250412-171252.webp
Oh there's a plan, somebody is making money. As cash and favors change hands, we may see more exemptions.
 
gatorcpa
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Dan S Dan S
As cash and favors change hands, we may see more exemptions.
I would love to see the cell phone logs of the people present in these meetings immediately after they ended. I suspect you would see a lot of logins to online financial accounts and calls to stockbrokers.

Trump making public announcements shortly thereafter gives them some cover from insider trading prosecution. By then, the trades have been locked in.

The Golden Rule really is that "He who has the gold makes the rules".
gatorcpa
 
ErichPryde
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pdxleaf pdxleaf
The Supreme Court upholds a court order to return the man and the Trump administration says no.

"Facilitate, not affectuate," is in some ways one of the scariest phrases I've heard in a while
 
arturo7
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pdxleaf pdxleaf
It's worse than that. It's more like a cult. But let's not pretend both sides are just as bad.
Both sides are absolutely just as bad. The reference was to the general public, not the pols.

Maybe re-read the comment and the comment that was quoted?
 
vintage hab
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Mtek Mtek
Gov Whitmer was just at that Snowy White House, praising the tariffs. Televised too, so the geriatric limousine liberals (msm only viewers lol) could watch. Imagine, one of the more progressive Dems doing such a thing.
“Tariffs need to be used like a scalpel, not a hammer,” Ms. Whitmer said in Washington, at an event space near the White House. “Unfortunately, it’s unclear how this is going to strategically benefit the American economy or the American consumer. And I think that’s the big problem.”

I’d hardly call that “praising”.
 
ErichPryde
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arturo7 arturo7
Both sides are absolutely just as bad. The reference was to the general public, not the pols.

Both sides have factions that are "bad." But that doesn't mean that both sides are just as bad. We can, and should, and even do, rate "bad things" in a hierarchy of "badness." We don't always get it right, but some actions are criminal and others are just ugly.

@gatorcpa said:
"If we really knew the truth about most things, we would not buy or vote for them."

And this for me kind of goes into the same category. It is our job to understand that most actions have a downside somewhere. It is our job to rank those downsides and make decisions anyway. that's part of intellectual honesty. Good management demands it. Justice is a condition in which everyone is very slightly unhappy but ok.

these variations of "it's all bad therefore it doesn't matter" don't help solve the problem, and whether or not they directly contributed to how acceptable obvious corruption has become well, I suspect strongly that's part of the reason.
 
Dan S
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ErichPryde ErichPryde
these variations of "it's all bad therefore it doesn't matter" don't help solve the problem
Not only doesn't it solve the problem, it's a deliberate strategy of obfuscation, e.g. equating an anti-Israeli demonstration with a violent insurrection attempting to overthrow election results.
 
Porteroso
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We are off the rails aren't we.

I am still hoping that the reciprocal tariffs won't ever go into effect. I assume the tariffs on China will stay, and that will be bad enough. The 90 day reprieve seems a signal that they are wanting to negotiate. I'm hopeful that's the case.
 
ghce
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Porteroso Porteroso
We are off the rails aren't we.

I am still hoping that the reciprocal tariffs won't ever go into effect. I assume the tariffs on China will stay, and that will be bad enough. The 90 day reprieve seems a signal that they are wanting to negotiate. I'm hopeful that's the case.

At this stage of the farce I am very hopeful that the tariffs will come into effect, at that stage the rest of the world will call Trumps bluff with tariff free trade for everyone but the US. The results of that outcome will be painfully obvious to the long-term viability of the US.
 
TimeODanaos
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vintage hab vintage hab
“Tariffs need to be used like a scalpel, not a hammer,” Ms. Whitmer said in Washington, at an event space near the White House. “Unfortunately, it’s unclear how this is going to strategically benefit the American economy or the American consumer. And I think that’s the big problem.”

I’d hardly call that “praising”.
I think the poster and I are on the same side, so thanks. But this Ms Whitmer (sorry, no idea...) intrigues me. Her magisterial obliqueness would make a British mandarin proud. But on the other hand, her characterisation- "the big problem" - is fairly parochial, insular, blinkered, self-absorbed and short by an order of magnitude as well, unfortunately.
 
watchyouwant
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gatorcpa gatorcpa
Not from this Floridian. I have some names for him that cannot be printed here.
gatorcpa

Ohhh..., you can't print Uneducated , outright stupid Idiot ? Really ?Is it THAT Bad ?
 
pdxleaf
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arturo7 arturo7
Both sides are absolutely just as bad. The reference was to the general public, not the pols.

Maybe re-read the comment and the comment that was quoted?
I understood your point and don't disagree that there is a Tribalism mentality on both sides. But the way Republicans (general public and the politicians they elected) are prostrating at the feet of this administration is not matched by anything from the Democrats.
 
Porteroso
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ghce ghce
At this stage of the farce I am very hopeful that the tariffs will come into effect, at that stage the rest of the world will call Trumps bluff with tariff free trade for everyone but the US. The results of that outcome will be painfully obvious to the long-term viability of the US.
The fact is, the U.S. is 30% of the world economy. Doing without it is not an option for many. Trump talked about free trade in his first term, and world leaders laughed at him. It does seem like waving a stick at the world, but it will hopefully work. If it doesn't, everyone will suffer. Can't imagine wanting that.
 
Porteroso
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pdxleaf pdxleaf
I understood your point and don't disagree that there is a Tribalism mentality on both sides. But the way Republicans (general public and the politicians they elected) are prostrating at the feet of this administration is not matched by anything from the Democrats.
It is shockingly similar to many Democrats during Obama's terms. He transcended politics and was a religious figure to many.
 
gatorcpa
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watchyouwant watchyouwant
Ohhh..., you can't print Uneducated , outright stupid Idiot ? Really ?Is it THAT Bad ?
He is neither “uneducated” (went to Yale Law School), nor a stupid idiot. It is not easy to be elected governor of a large and diverse US state.

I’m trying to stay away from his political leanings here.
gatorcpa
 
kkt
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texasmade texasmade
The tariffs are going to make groceries much more expensive for them.

Speaking of that...I thought we were going to have $1.50 gas and cheap eggs as soon as Trump took office. That's what he promised.
And we're deporting lots of the people who harvest our food crops and work in our meat packing plants. Not only have food prices not come down at all, but they will continue to increase, especially if the tariffs are imposed as threatened.
 
kkt
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TimeODanaos TimeODanaos
Exactly. 'Murica never needed to become great again, it has prospered mightily for decades from the system it built which American boys and others shed blood for, and which Deng Xiaoping rightly imported to China. The relative poverty of the American poor has not arisen because sneaky foreigners have "looted and pillaged"* their land. All that wealth must have gone somewhere else...

Btw, I was recently in Europe and Asia, and *the schoolyard abuse is really starting to cut through with friends and allies. Even the camaraderie of anglophones overseas you get between strangers in hotels and airports is definitely breaking down, as Canucks and Brits shuffle along the bar to avoid unwelcome maga entanglements. Sad. (So sad.)
I didn't notice that happening a couple of weeks ago in Denmark with long layovers at Heathrow. People were friendly. Of course we weren't wearing anything as obvious as red hats. Maybe we were passing for Canadian or British.
 
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