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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 3:32 PM, Goredho said:

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what it is.  There is an unseen/unspoken motive involved with wanting to send the world into a recession if not depression.

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It's easier to snatch more power when there's chaos and fear. Trump's entire modus operandi is chaos and fear.

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Posted

The dollar is taking a big shit, too.  Yesterday, I could buy a GBP for $1.29, today it's $1.31 and climbing.

There's literally nothing about this new "trade policy" that isn't the most simplistic, stupid, harmful idiocy.  All of it.  Across the board.

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 3:45 PM, Huckleberry said:

Honestly the rest of the world needs to retaliate and then not lower theirs when Trump caves. It would absolutely suck for us but we're the country with a dipshit leader who needs to be taught a lesson. And just one major EU leader needs to have the guts to float the idea of the USD no longer being the reserve currency. 

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100%

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 3:45 PM, Huckleberry said:

Honestly the rest of the world needs to retaliate and then not lower theirs when Trump caves. It would absolutely suck for us but we're the country with a dipshit leader who needs to be taught a lesson. And just one major EU leader needs to have the guts to float the idea of the USD no longer being the reserve currency. 

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help GIF

Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 3:50 PM, Captainant said:

It's easier to snatch more power when there's chaos and fear. Trump's entire modus operandi is chaos and fear.

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And people who have suddenly become have nots through a financial collapse become amenable to working on the terms the haves dictate as a matter of survival. 

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 3:45 PM, Huckleberry said:

Honestly the rest of the world needs to retaliate and then not lower theirs when Trump caves. It would absolutely suck for us but we're the country with a dipshit leader who needs to be taught a lesson. And just one major EU leader needs to have the guts to float the idea of the USD no longer being the reserve currency. 

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Disagree, I think those penguins from the Heard and McDonald Islands are ready to make a deal.

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Posted

Yeah the Jesus doll guy has it right. There is a sentence I thought I would never type.

I am not free trader by any stretch but tariffs need to be limited and targeted to protect certain industries not just blanket tariffs on everything from certain countries...or the whole world in this case.

Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 3:12 PM, gsoda3 said:

Listen to this podcast.  Lutnick comes off as the mastermind behind the tariffs, DOGE, getting Elon to volunteer, and a number of other Trump administration policies. Oh and he idolizes Trump.

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Under no circumstances should anyone recommend the fucking All In podcast to anyone else.

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Posted (edited)
  On 4/3/2025 at 4:31 PM, Gourmand said:

relevant post from r/austin

 

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The number of small businesses that are flat-out going to be killed dead promises to be staggering if these tariffs last more than 30 days.  Seriously, if you asked economists to develop a plan to kill as many small businesses as possible, that plan would include a tariff policy that looks like Trump's (oh, who am I kidding....even the greatest economists in the world couldn't come up with/imagine a policy that fucking absurd).

We're going to manage to brutalize 1) the stock market, 2) employment, 3) inflation, 4) small business viability/ownership, and 5) the strength of the dollar in one fell swoop.  While....not appreciably adding manufacturing jobs or revenue in offset.  All while trying to re-create an imaginary "utopia" from over 100 years ago, when the world, the global and US economy, and pretty much fucking everything was completely different.  Shit, at this point, I am truly and genuinely surprised that we haven't seen some economic model and plan describing how the overall American labor force produced a greater output to labor cost ratio from 1776 to 1865 than we've seen since, so we should reinstate those labor policies.

This is pure "repeatedly shooting ourselves in the dick" territory.

Edited by Brisketexan
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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 4:39 PM, Brisketexan said:

The number of small businesses that are flat-out going to be killed dead promises to be staggering if these tariffs last more than 30 days.  Seriously, if you asked economists to develop a plan to kill as many small businesses as possible, that plan would include a tariff policy that looks like Trump's (oh, who am I kidding....even the greatest economists in the world couldn't come up with/imagine a policy that fucking absurd).

We're going to manage to brutalize 1) the stock market, 2) employment, 3) inflation, 4) small business viability/ownership, and 5) the strength of the dollar in one fell swoop.  While....not appreciably adding manufacturing jobs or revenue in offset.  All while trying to re-create an imaginary "utopia" from over 100 years ago, when the world, the global and US economy, and pretty much fucking everything was completely different.  Shit, at this point, I am truly and genuinely surprised that we haven't seen some economic model and plan describing how the overall American labor force produced a greater output to labor cost ratio from 1776 to 1865 than we've seen since, so we should reinstate those labor policies.

This is pure "repeatedly shooting ourselves in the dick" territory.

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BUT THE PRICE OF BACON UNDER BIDEN!!!

Posted

Is it seriously the policy now that the US exports to Cambodia should equal imports from Cambodia? Is the US supposed to start making cheap t-shirts at slave wages instead of just buying them from overseas? Is the republican party now against free trade? I seriously cannot comprehend the party from top to bottom just going along with this after decades of being full blown proponents of globalization. 

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 4:49 PM, 'stache said:

Is the republican party now against free trade? I seriously cannot comprehend the party from top to bottom just going along with this after decades of being full blown proponents of globalization. 

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The Republican Party is for whatever random thing it decides to be for at that particular moment. It plays political Calvinball, which is why I find the idea of finding common ground with them in general such a fool's errand.

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Posted (edited)
  On 4/3/2025 at 11:37 AM, WBT said:

Nobody, trump is just this stupid

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Well, I think his ultimate goal, which is idiotic, is to replace income tax with tariffs.  That's why he thinks the Gilded Age was so great, no income tax.

So much of this shit boils down to income tax.  It's really what the oligarchs want, it's what his moron voters really want.  All this small government and efficiency shit boils down to "I don't wanna pay taxes."

Edited by TwiceHorn
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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 4:49 PM, 'stache said:

Is it seriously the policy now that the US exports to Cambodia should equal imports from Cambodia? Is the US supposed to start making cheap t-shirts at slave wages instead of just buying them from overseas? Is the republican party now against free trade? I seriously cannot comprehend the party from top to bottom just going along with this after decades of being full blown proponents of globalization. 

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maybe they can buy some military hardware? it doesn't seem like Europe is going to want to purchase it going forward

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 4:28 PM, wildcat09 said:

Under no circumstances should anyone recommend the fucking All In podcast to anyone else.

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Not asking you to enjoy it- where else has he spoken for so long in such an unfettered manner? Opinions need to be rooted on knowledge and sometimes you gotta dig through things you don't like to get to it.

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 4:54 PM, TwiceHorn said:

Well, I think his ultimate goal, which is idiotic, is to replace income tax with tariffs.  That's why he thinks the Gilded Age was so great, no income tax.

So much of this shit boils down to income tax.  It's really what the oligarchs want, it's what his moron voters really want.  All this small government and efficiency shit boils down to "I don't wanna pay taxes."

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Reagan's dream: shrink the government to such an extent that Americans have no choice but to turn to the private sector for everything.

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 5:12 PM, David Dennison said:

Reagan's dream: shrink the government to such an extent that Americans have no choice but to turn to the private sector for everything.

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Well, I think Reagan's dream had more to do with deregulation than taxes, per se, but it's kind of six of one half a dozen of the other.

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 4:49 PM, 'stache said:

Is it seriously the policy now that the US exports to Cambodia should equal imports from Cambodia? Is the US supposed to start making cheap t-shirts at slave wages instead of just buying them from overseas? Is the republican party now against free trade? I seriously cannot comprehend the party from top to bottom just going along with this after decades of being full blown proponents of globalization. 

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It really is the damnedest thing

Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 5:13 PM, TwiceHorn said:

Well, I think Reagan's dream had more to do with deregulation than taxes, per se, but it's kind of six of one half a dozen of the other.

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Point taken, but those top tax brackets sure did look different after he left office.

 

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 5:15 PM, WBT said:

It really is the damnedest thing

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What it is, other than Trump's fever dream, is the way to drive manufacturing back to the US in the least intrusive (government involvement in business and labor) way possible.  Cass acknowledges that tariffs alone will not do this.

Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 4:06 PM, Goredho said:

And people who have suddenly become have nots through a financial collapse become amenable to working on the terms the haves dictate as a matter of survival. 

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It's important to remember, in this situation, that unions built the middle class, and now we hate them. 

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 4:54 PM, TwiceHorn said:

Well, I think his ultimate goal, which is idiotic, is to replace income tax with tariffs.  That's why he thinks the Gilded Age was so great, no income tax.

So much of this shit boils down to income tax.  It's really what the oligarchs want, it's what his moron voters really want.  All this small government and efficiency shit boils down to "I don't wanna pay taxes."

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Which makes sense actually (and credit to you, you are the first I've heard suss this out and say this) because my first gut response to the question of "how can I manage my life and navigate this crap in an optimal way" was to land on the answer of tightening up my consumption and making my family tighten up on consumption in the short term as things go to hell.

When you don't have an income tax what you have is a de facto consumption tax. I've got some of that bad "I don't wanna pay taxes" blood in me that goes generations deep so I like the idea in some ways, but also it's unrealistic and too simplified in a very complex reality for this to work.

Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 1:54 PM, immamac said:

This is where everyone keeps being confused. Trump can't read. His IQ is seriously probably in the 70s, he's barely functional. 

Everyone around him this time are all full blown retards. This is what complete stupidity looks like, everyone keeps trying to explain it away as evil, no these people are just complete morons. 

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I remember years ago reading that Charles Barkley had become friendly with right-wing broadcaster Michael Savage.  Somebody asked Barkley about him.  Charles said "Michael's one of those guys that's really, really, smart, that's still a dumbass"

  On 4/3/2025 at 4:20 PM, 6th Street said:

Disagree, I think those penguins from the Heard and McDonald Islands are ready to make a deal.

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they don't hold any cards.  Because they have no hands.

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Posted
  On 4/3/2025 at 5:53 PM, Horn Dog said:

Toy Joy is still around?   Used to hang out there when it was at 29th and Drag.   Haven't thought about that place in years.

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They were forced out of that location years ago iirc and relocated to Burnet just south of the Allandale HEB.

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