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The Trump Tariffs thread

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VRAMdemon said:
“As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”

― H.L. Mencken, 1920.
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An interesting man. Skimmed his wiki page - he seemed not to believe in Democracy, but was an Elitist. Perhaps his comment above should be understood in this context.
 
RnR_au said:
An interesting man. Skimmed his wiki page - he seemed not to believe in Democracy, but was an Elitist. Perhaps his comment above should be understood in this context.
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I'm not sure he's wrong. In fact, I know he isn't wrong, but I don't know what you'd replace it with. Almost every form of government sucks when you get above a certain population size. Democracy may be the least bad option. A good king is best of all, but good kings are pretty rare.
 
lxskllr said:
I'm not sure he's wrong. In fact, I know he isn't wrong, but I don't know what you'd replace it with. Almost every form of government sucks when you get above a certain population size. Democracy may be the least bad option. A good king is best of all, but good kings are pretty rare.
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Might be fair to say it was doing better* before Citizens United, it has the same weak point as most systems, corruption.

*I will pistol-whip the first one** of you assholes that chooses to interpret this as me saying it was "doing perfectly well".

**Maybe the second one too, depending on mood
 
nakedfrog said:
it has the same weak point as most systems, corruption.
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That's kind of what I was getting to with population size. You have a bad tribal chieftain, you just kill the fucker and get a better one. Everybody has a good idea of what's going on, and can easily tell when the leader is failing. Size makes it harder to see exactly what's happening. Smoke, mirrors, and a lack of education hides a lot of sins.
 
lxskllr said:
That's kind of what I was getting to with population size. You have a bad tribal chieftain, you just kill the fucker and get a better one. Everybody has a good idea of what's going on, and can easily tell when the leader is failing. Size makes it harder to see exactly what's happening. Smoke, mirrors, and a lack of education hides a lot of sins.
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The mistake in our system was Congress limiting the size of the House of Representatives. By doing this they all but guaranteed gerrymandering was going to be a thing. Once politicians start picking their voters, corruption and a lack of representation along with distrust in our institutions and the democratic process start happening.

The other mistake which imo was harder to foresee and has led to some really bad results for the US (although I’m sure some could argue correlation does not equal causation) was creating an electoral college and one that left it up to the state and to political parties to designate who becomes a member. This, like capping the number of House representatives, naturally leads to a feeling of one’s vote not mattering and a withdrawal from the Democratic process.

Lastly, although the founding fathers spoke about money’s influence and shared their concerns about it, they didn’t put in any safeguards to limit its impact.

IMO those three things are the basis for which our system was weakened and all other issues can stem from.
 
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ivwshane said:
The mistake in our system was Congress limiting the size of the House of Representatives. By doing this they all but guaranteed gerrymandering was going to be a thing. Once politicians start picking their voters, corruption and a lack of representation along with distrust in our institutions and the democratic process.

The other mistake which imo was harder to foresee and has led to some really bad results for the US (although I’m sure some could argue correlation does not equal causation) was creating an electoral college and one that left it up to the state and to political parties to designate who becomes a member. This, like capping the number of House representatives, naturally leads to a feeling of one’s vote not mattering and a withdrawal from the Democratic process.

Lastly, although the founding fathers spoke about money’s influence and shared their concerns about it, they didn’t put in any safeguards to limit its impact.

IMO those three things are the basis for which our system was weakened and all other issues can stem from.
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Notice how all of this has accelerated since the SCOTUS ruling on Citizens United?
 
Indus said:
I think it's time to retitle this thread:

Trump's purposeful dismantling of the American economic empire in real time

The system might have been broken but it served us well and needed fixing. The ones who should be policing and strengthening the guardrails should be in the firing line. Oh noes, sorry, currently the same people who are smashing through them with monotonous regularity.

And our trading partners's simple approach is:
South Korean tactics in trade negotiations with the US.

‘Praise Trump and speak simply’

Meanwhile even Wall Street is now betting that America will be nobody soon and want to get into bigger future markets.

www.yicaiglobal.com

Morgan Stanley Becomes First US Firm to Sell Panda Bonds

www.yicaiglobal.com

And where's the MAGAtards who were chirping about the stock market a few months ago have gone remarkably quiet recently.. S&P only 5% up on the year.. The days of American stock market overperformance might be numbered especially as tariffs start to hit and Americans get stuck with the tab for tariffs.
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How we doing?
 
Paratus said:
Great!
View attachment 138012


Layoffs and firing worst since 2009
www.cnbc.com

Layoffs in January were the highest to start a year since 2009, Challenger says

With the recent narrative centering on a no-hire, no-fire labor market, the data suggests that the layoff part of the equation could be stepping up.
www.cnbc.com www.cnbc.com

Public says housing too expensive. Trump says it needs to be more expensive

Loading…

www.nytimes.com
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I think I ate a steak about 8 months ago, it was prime from Costco, and it wasn't that good. Fn chuck is almost $6@lb , even at Winco. Damn Biden!
 
hal2kilo said:
I think I ate a steak about 8 months ago, it was prime from Costco, and it wasn't that good. Fn chuck is almost $6@lb , even at Winco. Damn Biden!
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Went to lunch with some new coworkers at a local BBQ place. Got one of their sandwiches:
  • Pulled pork
  • spicy sausage
  • peppered bacon
  • melted cheddar cheese
  • jalapeño cheese bun.
With 2 sides it was $22 - what the actual fuck. (Was still really good but I swear it was $10 cheaper 18 months ago.)
 
Paratus said:
Went to lunch with some new coworkers at a local BBQ place. Got one of their sandwiches:
  • Pulled pork
  • spicy sausage
  • peppered bacon
  • melted cheddar cheese
  • jalapeño cheese bun.
With 2 sides it was $22 - what the actual fuck. (Was still really good but I swear it was $10 cheaper 18 months ago.)
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Likely was.
 
Living every day hoping the USA fails so your hateful ideology lives. It has to be exhausting to be filled with so much projection and hate. I am so glad I live in the greatest country in the world and things are going so well, in spite of the slim minority of degenerates posting on this thread. God bless America and God bless OUR President, Donald J Trump.
 
Sportsshooter said:
Living every day hoping the USA fails so your hateful ideology lives. It has to be exhausting to be filled with so much projection and hate. I am so glad I live in the greatest country in the world and things are going so well, in spite of the slim minority of degenerates posting on this thread. God bless America and God bless OUR President, Donald J Trump.
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It is failing. That is what we are trying to get you to understand.
 
lxskllr said:
I'm not sure he's wrong. In fact, I know he isn't wrong, but I don't know what you'd replace it with. Almost every form of government sucks when you get above a certain population size. Democracy may be the least bad option. A good king is best of all, but good kings are pretty rare.
Click to expand...
Yea but good kings die and then you get Joffrey.
 
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Sportsshooter said:
Living every day hoping the USA fails so your hateful ideology lives. It has to be exhausting to be filled with so much projection and hate. I am so glad I live in the greatest country in the world and things are going so well, in spite of the slim minority of degenerates posting on this thread. God bless America and God bless OUR President, Donald J Trump.
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Opening scene in Ideocracy 2.0
 
Sportsshooter said:
Living every day hoping the USA fails so your hateful ideology lives. It has to be exhausting to be filled with so much projection and hate. I am so glad I live in the greatest country in the world and things are going so well, in spite of the slim minority of degenerates posting on this thread. God bless America and God bless OUR President, Donald J Trump.
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I guess you haven't been traveling outside US?
 
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