Trump's tariff wars...long post.

[Agent 00Soul]

36 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Egg prices are rising when Trump said he would reduce them on day one! I don't think that will pass unnoticed.

 

They are blaming it on Biden.  Just this morning I was reading an article on PlanetF1.com about racing and the first person who left a comment in the have your say section at the bottom was someone who said they looked the article's author up on Wikipedia, found out she is a Democrat, and then essentially tried to shame her by saying her vote for Kamala helped perpetuate the egg price crisis.  I just went to look it up, but the moderators of PlanetF1 have taken the comment down.

[tegs07]

The great negotiator is playing a blinder. Ukraine started the war, Zelenski is a dictator, Ukraine can’t join NATO, no US backstop, Ukraine has to cede territory, Russia holds all the cards, an inexperienced team facing veteran diplomats with decades of experience. I think we know the outcome. Hopefully the time it takes for Russia to re-arm and it’s economy to recover will see Trump exposed as a complete failure on the domestic and world stage and a new president.

 

Edit: It also appears to have slipped his mind that Russia is China’s biggest ally. Being attacked on 2 fronts would hardly be the best strategic decision. Europe does matter!

Edited Thursday at 08:54 by tegs07

[peteb]

5 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

The great negotiator is playing a blinder. Ukraine started the war, Zelenski is a dictator, Ukraine can’t join NATO, no US backstop, Ukraine has to cede territory, Russia holds all the cards, an inexperienced team facing veteran diplomats with decades of experience. I think we know the outcome. Hopefully the time it takes for Russia to re-arm and it’s economy to recover will see Trump exposed as a complete failure on the domestic and world stage and a new president.

 

Do you still think that Central European countries will continue to trust America more than China? 

 

[tegs07]

5 minutes ago, peteb said:

 

Do you still think that Central European countries will continue to trust America more than China? 

 

I think we need to separate out trade vs security. Trade no, security yes.

[prowla]

11 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

The great negotiator is playing a blinder. Ukraine started the war, Zelenski is a dictator, Ukraine can’t join NATO, no US backstop, Ukraine has to cede territory, Russia holds all the cards, an inexperienced team facing veteran diplomats with decades of experience. I think we know the outcome. Hopefully the time it takes for Russia to re-arm and it’s economy to recover will see Trump exposed as a complete failure on the domestic and world stage and a new president.

 

Edit: It also appears to have slipped his mind that Russia is China’s biggest ally. Being attacked on 2 fronts would hardly be the best strategic decision. Europe does matter!

 

China must be laughing their socks off - Trump's endorsement of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Israel's decimation of Gaza is a green light for China to go ahead with their aspirations in Taiwan.

 

[peteb]

Just now, prowla said:

 

China must be laughing their socks off - Trump's endorsement of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Israel's decimation of Gaza is a green light for China to go ahead with their aspirations in Taiwan.

 

 

Quite frankly, I don't think that China is going to do anything at the moment to distract attention from the West tearing itself apart! 

 

[Agent 00Soul]

16 hours ago, kodiakblair said:

Maybe he'll get lucky and as the joy fades another pandemic will come along to distract his folk, they'll be too busy dying to see what a complete and utter f##k up he is 🙂

 

It didn't happen last time.  His response to Covid-19 was awful and the USA wracked up a massive bodycount.  His followers dug in and doubled-down rather than turn against him.  They also made common cause with the New Age health community and the anti-vaxxers which tended to be on the left until this point but became massively MAGA and still are.  So he actually got a new base for the future.  Canadian political analyst Naomi Klein refers to that kind of shift as "diagonalism."

[TimR]

18 minutes ago, Agent 00Soul said:

 

It didn't happen last time.  His response to Covid-19 was awful and the USA wracked up a massive bodycount.  His followers dug in and doubled-down rather than turn against him.  They also made common cause with the New Age health community and the anti-vaxxers which tended to be on the left until this point but became massively MAGA and still are.  So he actually got a new base for the future.  Canadian political analyst Naomi Klein refers to that kind of shift as "diagonalism."

 

A lot of the MAGA faithful are begining to find out that what they voted for to happen to 'other' people is actually happening to them. 

[Buddster]

One thing I find puzzling, is that the USA has always been anti 'commie', Reds under the bed, McCathy outting alleged commie sympathisers, etc etc. Yet here we have a man siding with Putin/Russia, and from what I can read on X and American media, no reaction whatsoever. In fact, Ukraine is all Natos/Biden's fault in the first place. 

Why no comment (from the right anyway) about Trump sucking up to Russia, Americas historical enemies. 

[mowf]

1 hour ago, TimR said:

 

A lot of the MAGA faithful are begining to find out that what they voted for to happen to 'other' people is actually happening to them. 

"I never thought leopards would eat MY face," sobs woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party.

[peteb]

1 hour ago, Buddster said:

One thing I find puzzling, is that the USA has always been anti 'commie', Reds under the bed, McCathy outting alleged commie sympathisers, etc etc. Yet here we have a man siding with Putin/Russia, and from what I can read on X and American media, no reaction whatsoever. In fact, Ukraine is all Natos/Biden's fault in the first place. 

Why no comment (from the right anyway) about Trump sucking up to Russia, Americas historical enemies. 

 

I think that people are struggling to realise that the world has fundamentally changed. Putin is now an authoritarian far-right dictator, rather than an authoritarian communist dictator. The difference between the far-left and the far-right has always been a lot less than that with centrist political positions. Of course, in the current social media dominated world, when you get accused of doing something bad, you just say that it was all your opponent's fault (no matter how ridiculous that argument may be) and double down every time someone says that you are talking nonsense.  

 

Trump is currently tearing down the pillars of American democracy and replacing them with a structure led by an oligarchy that will be sufficiently beholden to him to ensure that he doesn't go to prison. Americans may come to their senses in a few years and vote in a completely different political leadership, but their power will be limited and will be insufficient to reverse Trump's new regime. In the past few days, Trump has undermined NATO to the extent that it is now fatally weakened. America is now, at best, an unreliable ally and at worse, a threat to western democracies. 

 

A lot of Americans who voted for Trump will badly lose out, but it's too late for them now - he doesn't need them anymore! Of course, a large percentage of them will keep cheering him on, no matter how much they will suffer. 

 

Edited Thursday at 12:45 by peteb

[chris_b]

2 hours ago, TimR said:

 

A lot of the MAGA faithful are begining to find out that what they voted for to happen to 'other' people is actually happening to them. 

 

It beggars belief, but there is no reality in MAGA world.

 

The "MAGA faithful" are in total denial, as are all cult members. When they are without medical care and social security, unable to afford the massive sales tax and can't afford to educate their kids or buy food, and Musk has turned the US Government into Musk Inc and put tens of thousands of Americans out of work, everything will still be Biden's fault and Trump will sort it all out!!

[Agent 00Soul]

21 hours ago, Buddster said:

One thing I find puzzling, is that the USA has always been anti 'commie', Reds under the bed, McCathy outting alleged commie sympathisers, etc etc. Yet here we have a man siding with Putin/Russia, and from what I can read on X and American media, no reaction whatsoever. In fact, Ukraine is all Natos/Biden's fault in the first place. 

Why no comment (from the right anyway) about Trump sucking up to Russia, Americas historical enemies. 

That hasn’t been the case for a while. Haven’t you seen the photos of the guys at the MAGA rally in the first term wearing T-shirts that say something like “I’d rather be ruled by Russia than the Democrats!”.

 

Edited yesterday at 08:22 by Agent 00Soul
Fixed quotation

[Agent 00Soul]

41 minutes ago, peteb said:

A lot of Americans who voted for Trump will badly lose out, but it's too late for them now - he doesn't need them anymore! Of course, a large percentage of them will keep cheering him on, no matter how much they will suffer. 

 

that will probably take a generational shift. Basically the road that took us to this point but in reverse. Although it’s harder to displace authoritarians due to their police apparatus. But the overthrow of the Latin American dictatorships in the 1990s and 2000s shows it can be done when a tipping point is reached. But that takes decades usually. 

[chris_b]

8 minutes ago, Agent 00Soul said:

. . .the overthrow of the Latin American dictatorships in the 1990s and 2000s shows it can be done when a tipping point is reached. But that takes decades usually. 

 

Weren't they overthrown with the covert help of the US and their very bad economies? Over the years bad economies, including hundreds of thousands starving to death in Russia, China and North Korea didn't bring about a tipping point in those countries. Own the military and you're a dictator for ever, and you can guarantee that's at the top of Trump's To Do list.

 

There is no right wing any more only Trump's MAGA Republican party. Why anyone would vote for dictatorship rather than Kamala Harris, beats me. Haven't they heard of tactical voting? Anyway, there is no alternative for the anti-Democratic voters, so they behave like turkeys voting for Christmas.

[chris_b]

A couple of interesting interviews on Times Radio. . . .

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9h7QbwPjaw

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CUMDP_GR54

 

[Agent 00Soul]

36 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Why anyone would vote for dictatorship rather than Kamala Harris, beats me. Haven't they heard of tactical voting? Anyway, there is no alternative for the anti-Democratic voters, so they behave like turkeys voting for Christmas.

I wouldn’t do it myself, but I’m not surprised. As I mentioned in a previous post, I lived in the US for decades and since around 2000, I would say the standard of living has dropped a little bit every year.  It’s really noticeable now. Even the middle-class NYC suburb I lived in as a teenager now has roads that haven’t been repaved in years (I imagine it’s like driving on the moon.) and street lamps haven’t had their bulbs replaced. Visiting the US now is like when I visited Mexico or Brazil when I was a kid.  It’s no wonder people have been radicalised.  They were ready for a strongman to step in and say only he can fix things. Textbook.

 

Edited Thursday at 14:04 by Agent 00Soul

[Count Bassy]

On 16/02/2025 at 13:18, Russ said:

, and, if the UK gets the Tempest II project off the ground (along with Italy and Japan) then we’ll have a proper sixth-gen fighter of our own and won’t need the Lightning II any more. 

 Was this intentional? If so 😄. If not then it's still 😄.

[chris_b]

32 minutes ago, Agent 00Soul said:

. . . . It’s no wonder people have been radicalised.  They were ready for a strongman to step in and say only he can fix things. Textbook.

 

 

I get it. They were ready for the message they wanted. Trump gave them nothing but lies and because that's what they wanted to hear they lapped it up. Doesn't excuse the Republican states trying to fix the rules and laws to prevent a fair election in the future.

[TimR]

There are Senate elections in 2026 which could switch the balance to Congress.

 

Congress are already making it difficult for some orders to be executed, but that's not mainstream news.

[Cato]

Never thought I'd say this but I'm considering boycotting US goods.

 

I wasn't too bothered about the tariffs or even the open hostility from the new administration towards America's long term alllies but this Ukraine debacle has crossed a line.

 

I don't think I can bring myself to buy another US guitar while Trump is in office.

[MrDinsdale]

10 minutes ago, Cato said:

Never thought I'd say this but I'm considering boycotting US goods.

 

I wasn't too bothered about the tariffs or even the open hostility from the new administration towards America's long term alllies but this Ukraine debacle has crossed a line.

 

I don't think I can bring myself to buy another US guitar while Trump is in office.

I get the sentiment although I imagine most of the American pedal builders etc I like feel the same way about Trump and his policies.

 

I'm certainly not getting a Tesla now though (not that it was on the cards before)

[Cato]

9 minutes ago, MrDinsdale said:

I'm certainly not getting a Tesla now though (not that it was on the cards before)

 

I have been wondering how far Tesla sales have to fall in Europe before the board realises that maybe Musk going out of his way to alienate the demographic most likely to buy an electric car might be a problem.

[Steve Browning]

27 minutes ago, Cato said:

 

I have been wondering how far Tesla sales have to fall in Europe before the board realises that maybe Musk going out of his way to alienate the demographic most likely to buy an electric car might be a problem.

I think that nothing we can do (by boycotting) would have any effect at all - aside from the symbolism. These guys are so wealthy that they are entirely immune from the effects of any action we might take collectively.

[peteb]

30 minutes ago, Cato said:

 

I have been wondering how far Tesla sales have to fall in Europe before the board realises that maybe Musk going out of his way to alienate the demographic most likely to buy an electric car might be a problem.

 

The trouble is that Musk is the Tesla brand. If he was to sell his shares, or the board were to try and oust him, the share value would plummet! 

 

It's a problem that Musk has personally. On paper he is the richest man in the world, but if he were to try and realise any of the value he has tied up in those stocks, the value would drop drastically! 

 

Edited Thursday at 16:55 by peteb