Mastodawn

Laffy Feb 10, 2025

#TrumpTax
“When #Trump imposed #tariffs on 6.4 billion euros of #EU steel and aluminium imports in 2018 the EU hit back with its own duties on 2.8 billion euros of U.S. products.

The EU tariffs targeted U.S. steel and aluminium, but also products concentrated in states that had voted for Trump, such as bourbon whiskey from Kentucky, motorcycles from Wisconsin-based Harley Davidson and orange juice from Florida”
- https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tariffs-updates-trump-set-out-new-metals-tariffs-2025-02-10/

Laffy Feb 10, 2025

2/ EU will 'replicate' any tariffs imposed by US: French foreign minister— AFP

Hikory1 Feb 10, 2025

@GottaLaff Trump is such a dummy [edit: or he's preparing us for a militaristic vision of some kind]. Tariffs are a weapon of trade war, employed only in a situation where your opponent relies on your goods but you don't rely on theirs. It's a finishing move, used to force them to accept a deal or to starve them of the goods as a preface to actual war.

The market is global. It is too tightly bound together to be playing with weapons like this. We all rely on each other. Ultimately, all this does is weaken the US, strengthen our competitors, and piss everybody off.

John Meadows Feb 10, 2025

Well put!!

Laffy Feb 10, 2025

@Jgmeadows @Crow Boosted

Woozle Hypertwin Feb 10, 2025

@GottaLaff @Jgmeadows @Crow

There's got to be a name for this kind of move -- it's "playing to the base", but that doesn't really convey it for me.

What he's doing, as far as I can see, is creating an imaginary solution to an imaginary problem, so he can take credit for making it go away -- and his base will accept that but reject the idea that he is somehow responsible for the resulting price increases because they are just amazingly gullible (for which I blame the right-wing destruction of public education, but that's another rant).

I mean, I can hope they finally see through him, this time, but they've had so many opportunities already and yet here we are.

Isaac Ji Kuo Feb 10, 2025

@woozle @GottaLaff @Jgmeadows @Crow I think that quintessentially, Trump and all the other Republicans have swallowed the Kool Aid. They no longer believe in ordinary rules of cause and effect.

The base white supremacist mindset is that evil isn't what you do, evil is what you are. Brown people are evil. Homosexuals are evil. Race traitor white liberals who consider brown and homosexual people to be people are also evil.

Everything evil is caused by someone evil.

1/2

Isaac Ji Kuo Feb 10, 2025

@woozle @GottaLaff @Jgmeadows @Crow Ordinary people don't take this to the ultimate conclusion, but Trump and the Republicans have evolved to that ultimate conclusion:

Anything "bad" must be the fault of evil wokeness/DEI/socialism (all synonyms for non-white people, LGBT+ people, and the evil traitors who consider them to be people).

This is a complete disconnect from the normal world view of cause and effect. If it's bad, it can't be because of the actions of a white supremacist.

2/3

Isaac Ji Kuo Feb 10, 2025

@woozle @GottaLaff @Jgmeadows @Crow And so, this complete disconnect between cause and effect means that they can never consider the possibility that these tariffs could cause something bad. If something bad does happen, it's because of non-white people (i.e. "woke" or "DEI" or whatever).

The ultimate conclusion is to do whatever feels good being racist and sexist and generally white supremacist bigoted, without any regard to consequences.

3/3

🐦‍⬛Feb 10, 2025

@woozle @GottaLaff @Jgmeadows that speaks to one interpretation of his intentions, perhaps.

But the end result is that the competitors are strengthened and the US is weakened, and tensions are increased, which may also be his intent.

I've found that an abuser's intentions, when the results of their actions are harmful, might as well be the worst case scenario and never the best. The results may not end up being the worst case, but it likely isn't far off.

Based on his actions, I predict we will see a huge military ramp-up as "the rest of the world is against us" because they "won't take a good deal." Like H!tler with his hissy fit about the Rhineland as a prelude to outright war on Europe.

Maybe it won't be that bad, but it could, and so we must prepare for it and act accordingly.

Woozle Hypertwin Feb 10, 2025

@Crow @GottaLaff @Jgmeadows

Yeah, that does seem rather more plausible. I was trying to think of how this would benefit P2025 Gang and all I could come up with was "playing to the base" -- but that felt a little hollow, because all of this so far has felt very carefully planned -- chaos, yes, but by design.

John Meadows Feb 10, 2025

@woozle @GottaLaff @Crow The arsonist being a hero by putting out the fire they started.

Woozle Hypertwin Feb 10, 2025

@Jgmeadows @GottaLaff @Crow

...which is a level up from the more common "putting out the fire that you allowed to start by ignoring the warnings of countless people telling you that a fire was going to start if you didn't do something -- with a list of suggested actions included, which you dismissed as 'woke DEI mind-virus propaganda' or whatever".

SueDiOh Feb 10, 2025

@Crow Everything trump does weakens us. Everything. His whole life, he has never done good for anyone else.

Stoneface Vimes Feb 10, 2025

@Crow @GottaLaff but, but, surely! He's a top businessman. Surely this is the man who had the art of the deal ghost written for him? Surely he knows what he's doing...oh, wait...

Inc Hulk 🧪Feb 10, 2025

@Crow @GottaLaff News is that Canadian shops have piles of unsold USA goods, and are only selling Canadian, Mexical or EU goods as people won’t touch USA stuff. The same will happen elsewhere, USA goods (like Swastikars) will stay in storage, unsold. Rightly so!