12: the on again, off again way that Trump has threatened and applied (and will no doubt continue to adjust) these tariffs have presented him and his cronies many opportunities to ‘pump and dump’ stocks. Should make billions.

Or bet stocks will fall and then make them.

He (they) can make lots of money from this.

Important

He's doing master's bidding

that they understood Trump's psychology. he wants to be seen as the power, the one you have to go crawling to.

Discussion on Australian news yesterday.

some plans can be made to do something about it, the people know what's going on, they pressure their representatives, the media might even report it here or there. Also our (former) allies are helping us by shunning this entire fiasco. This has been a blitzkrieg for some reason. If Trump had done this slowly it's possible few would have noticed, but this is shock treatment.

Nonetheless, BlueSky is not exactly something seen by all, so work must be done.

It seems like this situation will start causing harm quickly.
Seems like one swift way to block most of the devolution would be for other countries to start sanctioning or fully banning future business with companies that and business leaders that play ball here.
If bezos buys trump coin to ease china sanctions, great for him. Sanction amazon in your own country. If amazon can pay into trump's coffers, they can pay Canada or France too.

Republicans would not impeach him if he declared the Constitution null and void and declared himself king. He could then issue his own charter for the US, most of which has already been written by the Heritage Foundation as Project 2025.

I’m not sure we should be hoping for his impeachment because Vance could be even worse. He is totally in the pockets of the tech billionaires and the Heritage Foundation nihilists. And all they plan to create is an oligarchy ruled by wealthy white men whose religious views belong in the 1800s.

I fear we are in for a rough four years with no idea what will be left standing and what will be destroyed beyond repair for generations to come. Our scientific community comes to mind. Established scientists are taking jobs in Canada and other countries, but many fewer younger scientists and doctoral students are being trained because there is no money. One commenter to a NYT piece said no problem, the billionaires will simply step up and fund private research, which is a problem. They will fund no basic research that the NIH funds, only the research they can monetize. We are losing a decade at least of future scientists.

my profession

We need the other countries to cease all business and trade with companies that kneel to trump. Let those companies be stuck with only doing business in the US, and we have active lists of who they are and we will also refuse to do business with them. Therefore, show all the loyalty you want to trump, but your business will fail miserably as a result. Everything trump touches dies, and that will not be changing any time soon.

Someone's been whispering in Trump's ear to prop up his obsession with tariffs but this is the real play

Chris Murphy is one of the best that we have. Smart guy.

I got to head over there. Great splainin!

Hear the people sing. Clear, concise explanation.

No taxation without representation. With tariffs and pardons he claims a kings power.

Excellent job, Senator Murphy. Let’s hope this message gets out there.

Thanks for posting, sop!

And force the American people to their knees in front of him.

go down first. Corporations will fill the vacuum.

Last edited Thu Apr 3, 2025, 09:12 PM - Edit history (2)

Yes, 47 undoubtedly recognizes his tariffs can be leveraged to bring the powerful to heel, but I don't think that is what is driving his obsession with them.

47 is simpleminded. Taxing great wealth and income to benefit the common weal is an affront to him. His obsession with tax cuts is driving his obsession with tariffs. To him, tariffs represent massive federal revenue. That's all. He has no vision of using tariffs as economic policy. He just sees dollar signs. He views the federal government coffers as the president’s personal piggy bank from which he can dole out benefits to those he sees as peers (other rich guys). That's it. He doesn't care what it does to the economy. In his head, any loss in GDP is just being sucked into the federal coffers. Then it's "his" money to hand out in massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

The worthwhile people (those with great wealth) must keep “their” money (never mind they couldn’t make that money without the support of the public sector, educated workforce, infrastructure, and on and on). No one and nothing else matters.

In his pea brain, the fact his tariffs probably represent the most massive and regressive tax increase in history is a feature, not a bug.

I think he has the same view toward the so-called "savings" from decimating the executive branch. Never mind that the operations of executive agencies represent a very small fraction of the federal budget (don't know who coined it, but from a budgetary perspective, the U.S. government is basically an insurance company with an army). He doesn't care. He sees dollar signs. It’s “his” money and he is absolutely confident “his” Congress with go along with whatever he wants to do with it.

in our current reality and who's really calling the shots.

So, who is behind this? Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation? This is damn scary, people.

he could appoint an ‘heir’ to the throne.

Relevant to the current situation.

Knees before him, begging him to deal with them, when they wouldn't before. It's worldwide extortion.

Which they are so broke, not sure they have money to buy their way out of tariffs

He creates problems which he can then solve for praise or money.

The United States of America is under attack by domestic enemies.

I'd like to see that. He's a really great Senator and should be supported by all good Dems.

These tariffs are the tool of a despot, the purpose of which is to compel obedience to his demands.

I wonder where he gets that idea from?

-- Mal

the WH? It doesn't seem practical except for a few special insiders. That means the vast majority of businesses are screwed

…he and many are missing what I thing is a slightly bigger picture item: helping Putin.
Russia got no tariffs despite a substantial trade imbalance. Given the enormity of TSF tariffs move, I consider it a huge tell that Russia was spared. Even the penguins got tariffed but not Russia. Add this to all his other pro-Putin moves, the specter of SERIOUS kompromat raises its ugly head once again. And not just with TSF but all the other politicians who once rightly castigated TSF then switched sides abruptly. This includes any number of the current maga Kongress rats, 2/3 of Scotus, but also Manchin, Sinema, and now Fetterman, and I wouldn’t necessarily exclude Schumer and others. I suspect Putin’s got TSF by the neck and kompromat shit flows downhill fast in the digital era. When TSF says, “Russia, Russia, Russia,” he means it.

To me, this pulls it all together.
YMMV.