Ten Tariff Questions Never Asked
Posted By: Moritz55, 4/12/2025 2:51:26 AM
1. President Donald Trump's so-called "trade war." Many call the American effort to obtain either tariff parity or a reduction in the roughly $1 trillion trade deficit and 50 years of consecutive trade deficits a "trade war." But then what do they call the policies of the past half-century by Europe, Asia, China, and others to ensure asymmetrical tariffs, pseudo-health and security trade restrictions, and large surpluses? A trade peace? Trade fairness? 2. Do nations prefer surpluses or deficits? Why do most nations prefer trade surpluses and protective tariffs? Are Europe, Asia, China, and others stupid? Are they suicidal in continuing their trade surpluses and protective or asymmetrical tariffs?
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After finding $382 million in fraudulent unemployment payments since 2020, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) identified California, New York and Massachusetts as the primary culprits. The three Democrat-led states accounted for $305 million in improper claim payments, DOGE said Thursday.
The group added that California also accounted for 68% of the benefits that were dispensed under former President Joe Biden to parolees identified by federal authorities as being on the government's terrorist watchlist, or who had criminal records. California, New York and Massachusetts all have a Democratic trifecta — meaning Democrats control the state House, Senate and the governor's office.
Ten Tariff Questions Never Asked
8 replies
1. President Donald Trump's so-called "trade war."
Many call the American effort to obtain either tariff parity or a reduction in the roughly $1 trillion trade deficit and 50 years of consecutive trade deficits a "trade war." But then what do they call the policies of the past half-century by Europe, Asia, China, and others to ensure asymmetrical tariffs, pseudo-health and security trade restrictions, and large surpluses?
A trade peace? Trade fairness?
2. Do nations prefer surpluses or deficits? Why do most nations prefer trade surpluses and protective tariffs?
Are Europe, Asia, China, and others stupid? Are they suicidal in continuing their trade surpluses and protective or asymmetrical tariffs?
Many have suspected that Dr. Jill Biden played a key role in saving the country by facilitating Donald Trump's long-awaited return to the White House. Many have assumed the former first lady (and acting president of the United States) was possessed of an insatiable lust for power, which drove her to insist that her enfeebled octogenarian husband, Joe Biden, run for reelection. The ill-advised decision nearly destroyed the Democratic Party when Biden's cognitive impairment became impossible to ignore. It forced the party to rally around Kamala Harris, the most incompetent presidential candidate since Hillary Clinton, all but ensuring that Trump would win a second term
It’s time for Wall Street to get a grip.
The Trump tariff policies are a calculated gamble that the threat of tariffs can fundamentally remake the global economy and retilt it in the direction of the United States — and away from China and other beggar-thy-neighbor countries.
But whether they work or not, Wall Street elites have convinced themselves that these tariffs are worse than the pandemic that stopped the entire economy, or the 2009 economic crisis that put 10 million people out of work. And so far, nothing has happened. It’s all speculation about what could happen.
‘Hands Off’ Irony Is Lost On The Left
7 replies
We were bemused at the Orwellian doublespeak of the weekend protests, which were waged under the banner of “hands off.”
Hands off? What the protesters really want is for the government to keep its hands on – on our throats choking out our freedoms and in our pockets stealing our money.
Naturally, the protesters describe themselves as “defending democracy” and the current situation a “crisis.” What else is new?
But this particular effort – reported by most of the press to be “massive,” encompassing, said CNN, “scores of people” (20s of people?) – was more mindless than usual.
Two strange phenomena now characterize the political landscape. One, opposition to the Trump administration’s initiatives has reached a near-unprecedented fever pitch. The frenzy is manifested in strange ways. At the bottom end, there is an epidemic of street terrorism, including the keying of Teslas, bullying their owners, firebombing dealerships, or vandalizing charging stations. All that is mostly the logical but dirty reification of those in the media and the Democrats who brand Elon Musk as a foreign-born counterfeit citizen and a disloyal un-American foreigner, thus deserving to be “taken down,” in the words of Rep. Jasmine Crockett.
“We should replace our piece of crap Constitution.”
Those words from author Elie Mystal, a regular commentator on MSNBC, are hardly surprising from someone who previously called the Constitution “trash” and urged not just the abolition of the U.S. Senate but also of “all voter registration laws.” But Mystal’s radical rhetoric is becoming mainstream on the left, as shown by his best-selling books and popular media appearances.
There is a counter-constitutional movement building in law schools and across the country. And although Mystal has not advocated violence, some on the left are turning to political violence and criminal acts. It is part of the “righteous rage” that many of them
Trump’s Multipronged Tariff Strategy
0 replies
After being criticized for saying in an October speech to the Chicago Economic Club that “‘tariff’ is the most beautiful word in the dictionary,” Donald Trump puckishly acknowledged his critics had a point about his priorities. “Let’s put God number one. Let’s put religion number two. Love, I don’t know, we gotta put that number three, I guess, right? And then it’s tariff, because tariffs will make us rich as hell!”
Not everyone shares President Trump’s faith in tariffs, notably the stock markets. The aggregate value of U.S. securities traded on U.S. exchanges is some $6 trillion lower after “Liberation Day,” as the administration’s calculation of the amount
If Trump’s Tariffs Work, It Will Be Epic
8 replies
We have no doubt that Leavitt’s prediction will come true. Whether it’s remembered for being a success or as Smoot-Hawley 2.0 remains to be seen.
“It is going to work,” Leavitt said. “And the president has a brilliant team of advisers who have been studying these issues for decades.”
That’s a bit of an odd boast, given that the economists who have been studying tariffs and trade policy for decades had long ago decided that tariffs are a sledgehammer approach that rarely work as intended, that they are a wildly expensive way to create jobs, don’t spur economic growth, protect uncompetitive U.S. firms, and are an ineffective diplomatic tool.
On April 2nd, President Donald J. Trump did something no other modern president has had the spine to do. He declared “Liberation Day” and slapped sweeping tariffs on the very nations that have been gutting the American economy for decades. A 10 percent universal tariff across all imports. Targeted, punitive tariffs up to 34 percent on bad actors like China. And guess what? We should be furious—not at Trump—but at the spineless presidents before him who let things get this bad in the first place. Let’s be clear: these tariffs didn’t start a trade war. They responded to one.
Markets worldwide, and in the United States, took a tumble on Thursday, the first full day of trading following President Trump's tariff announcement. However, beneath the generally negative coverage in the media, there were numerous bright spots.
GM said it had decided to hire more temporary employees at its Ft. Wayne, Indiana, plant to expand production. The Rose Lawn gathering included several auto workers who cheered Trump in anticipation of better conditions for the auto industry in the coming months.
The Biden dam breaks
8 replies
During much of the last administration, and especially in its final year, the president of the United States suffered serious cognitive impairment. It wasn’t a secret — 81-year-old Joe Biden frequently had senior moments during public events. What was striking about the situation was that Biden’s staff, fellow Democrats, and allies in the media insisted that he was in good shape and sharp mentally when he obviously wasn’t.
The situation exploded on June 27, 2024, when Biden met rival Donald Trump for their first and, as it turned out, only debate. You know the story. Biden was so out of it that Democrats scrambled
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Democratic strategist James Carville said Thursday on NewsNation’s “Cuomo” that the SAVE Act, a bill requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, was “totally unnecessary.”
Carville said, “Well, let’s start with a massively unnecessary idea. There has been study after study, and I mean a lot of studies and good studies, that say that the amount of fraud in American elections is almost undetectable. We’ve looked for that, failed. So you ask yourself, if somebody — if an elderly person, doesn’t have a driver’s license or a married person takes a husband’s name, which my wife chose not to, but other people do, that’s people’s own
Let’s be frank.
While it’s common to indulge in a hot dog at a baseball game, a new poll reveals that most Americans do not know that the tubular meat may be one of the wurst things for their health.
“Tens of millions of Americans could eat hot dogs this baseball season, but most of them are unaware that doing so raises their risk of colorectal cancer and other diseases,” said Noah Praamsma, a nutrition education coordinator for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which conducted the poll.
Representative Jasmine Crockett (D-TX) said Thursday on MSNBC’s “All In” that it was “beyond wild” fact that no one is questioning President Donald Trump’s “mental acuity or fitness to serve.”
Crockett said, “When we start to talk about these tariffs, these tariffs are not limited to any one type of people. It’s not limited to Democrats, Republicans or Independents. It’s not limited to urban or rural. We know for a fact if we look back just at his last administration, what it did to the soybean farmers, right. And we ultimately ended up having to give them money to supplant the fact that they lost so much money.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued a warning to all workers in the United States, proclaiming during a town hall that the jobs currently filled by employees around the country are not going to be there in the next decade.
“I want everybody to think about this. Most people — we have millions of federal employees. Most people are not federal employees. And I think many people are saying, ‘Wow, that’s outrageous. I really feel for these federal employees thrown out on the street,’” Sanders said during the Wednesday night town hall moderated by CNN host Anderson Cooper.
“But I want you to think about this. If Musk
Hillary Clinton Roasted For Claiming GOP
Bill ‘Threatens’ Voting Access For
Married Women 19 replies
Bill ‘Threatens’ Voting Access For
Married Women 19 replies
On Thursday, failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton faced blowback for claiming a GOP bill “threatens” voting access for millions of married women.
Clinton, who is also a former United States senator and first lady, reacted to the House passing the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, which aims to require individuals to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in elections for federal office.
“Update: The House just passed the Republican voter suppression measure that threatens voting access for millions of Americans, including 69 million women whose married names don’t match their birth certificates,” Clinton said. “Make sure your senators know you expect them to stand against it.”
An Australian comic has canceled a trip to the U.S. after claiming legal advice warned she could be stopped at the border due to her previous jokes about President Donald Trump’s administration.
Stop laughing, she’s serious.
The Guardian reports Alice Fraser, who has appeared on Australia’s national broadcaster ABC and the BBC, was due to head to New York in May to promote her new book, A Passion for Passion: A Delirious Love Letter to Romance.
According to the outlet, the stand-up planned to apply for an O-1B visa, which permits comedians to live and work in the U.S. if they demonstrate “extraordinary ability” in the arts.
Pituffik Space Base commander Space Force Col. Susannah (Susan) Meyers was relieved of command Thursday after a report by Military.com that she had sent a base-wide email to personnel at the Greenland base after a recent visit by Vice President J.D. Vance distancing herself from President Trump’s national security policy on Greenland. Meyers had assumed command last July of the 821st Space Base Group at Pituffik.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted the announcement by Space Force of Meyers being relieved of command within hours of the report by Military.com.
Parnell: “Actions to undermine the chain of command or to subvert President Trump’s agenda will not be tolerated at the Department of Defense.”
Prince Harry’s security woes appear to be taking an emotional toll on the royal. As the legal battle over his right to police protection in the U.K. intensifies, Harry’s concerns about his safety have been brought to the forefront. [Snip] While Harry fought for security to protect his family in the U.K., his wife enjoyed a night out in New York City. The Duchess of Sussex arrived in the Big Apple in a four-vehicle motorcade. An unmarked NYPD car accompanied Markle on her 1.5-mile journey, as she grabbed dinner at the Polo Bar in Midtown Manhattan with friends before heading to the Broadway production of "Gypsy"...
China announces countermeasures by raising
tariffs on US goods from 84% to 125% from Saturday 17 replies
tariffs on US goods from 84% to 125% from Saturday 17 replies
China announced countermeasures by raising tariffs on U.S. goods from 84% to 125% starting Saturday.
The U.S. and China have escalated a new trade war by raising tariffs even as U.S. President Donald Trump hit a pause on tariffs for other countries. China notably had said it would fight the American tariffs with its own countermeasures, calling Trump’s actions “economic bullying,” which led Trump to retaliate by continuously hiking up tariffs this week.
Trump’s universal tariffs on China total 145%. When Trump announced Wednesday that China faced 125% tariffs, he did not include a 20% tariff on China tied to its role in fentanyl production.
Federal Judge Blocks Trump Administration
From Deporting Immigrants From These Four Nations 16 replies
From Deporting Immigrants From These Four Nations 16 replies
A federal judge will block the Trump administration from ordering Cuban, Haitian, and Venezuelan illegal immigrants.
This development comes amid several court battles over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and could be a temporary setback to the administration’s efforts to deport illegal immigrants and asylum seekers.
From The Associated Press:
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said she would issue a stay on an order for more than 500,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans to leave the country, sparing them until the case advances to the next phase. Their permits were to be canceled April 24.
During a hearing, Talwani repeatedly questioned the government’s assertion that it could end humanitarian parole for the four nationalities.
One thing Americans can be sure of: At any given time, somewhere out there, a government decision-maker is finding new and inventive ways of flushing your hard-earned cash.
The latest: Government watchdog OpenTheBooks found that the feds spent an eye-popping $4.6 billion on new furniture and decorations for government buildings since October 2020, even though only half the federal workforce was consistently showing up for work in person as of last year.
In 2023, the Government Accountability Office found that 17 of 24 federal agencies used 25% or less of their headquarters’ buildings.
Left Has a Meltdown After White House
Moves Pic of Obama, Replaces It With Much
More Powerful One 15 replies
Moves Pic of Obama, Replaces It With Much
More Powerful One 15 replies
What would the left do if they weren't screaming about something?
They could be celebrating the rescue of an American Ksenia Karelina, who had been wrongfully detained by the Russians -- until the Trump team got her out. Or inflation dropping to its lowest point in four years.
But instead, Friday's meltdown involved portraits at the White House.
The White House announced the addition of this powerful moment when President Donald Trump -- after being shot in the ear -- stood up amid the Secret Service agents and shouted, "Fight, fight, fight!"