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Posted
10 hours ago, HenryJames said:

 

we actually run a trade surplus with Brazil, so according to Trump's fucktarded logic they should be entitled to tariff the US. But in a shock to everyone, I'm sure, he throws out 50%.

Quote

U.S. total goods trade with Brazil were an estimated $92.0 billion in 2024. U.S. goods exports to Brazil in 2024 were $49.7 billion, up 11.3 percent ($5.0 billion) from 2023. U.S. goods imports from Brazil in 2024 totaled $42.3 billion, up 8.3 percent ($3.2 billion) from 2023. The U.S. goods trade surplus with Brazil was $7.4 billion in 2024, a 31.9 percent increase ($1.8 billion) over 2023.

 

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Posted

At this point, I'm convinced that these tariff letters (and really anything he can sign his name to) are just endorphin releases for Trump.  If he's feeling down, he gets someone to create an executive order or a tariff letter or whatever, he signs his name with multiple sharpies and great flourish, and immediately he feels better.

 

 

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Posted

The only thing we have going for us right now is that people who are fine with a dictator usually insist on a competent dictator.

Trump with no one to provide guard rails is such an incompetent buffoon that our economy and relationships with former allies will be fucked up so catastrophically that people will think fondly of the Joe Biden robot.

American should get used to being thought of as asshole leopards once they get outside of the USA.    It will take decades for the world to forgive us for this shit show that is the Trump administration (which is doing its best to destroy the world’s economies). 

 

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Posted
14 hours ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

At this point, I'm convinced that these tariff letters (and really anything he can sign his name to) are just endorphin releases for Trump.  If he's feeling down, he gets someone to create an executive order or a tariff letter or whatever, he signs his name with multiple sharpies and great flourish, and immediately he feels better.

 

 

35% tariff in three weeks ...

gif.gif

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Posted
11 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

The only thing we have going for us right now is that people who are fine with a dictator usually insist on a competent dictator.

Trump with no one to provide guard rails is such an incompetent buffoon that our economy and relationships with former allies will be fucked up so catastrophically that people will think fondly of the Joe Biden robot.

American should get used to being thought of as asshole leopards once they get outside of the USA.    It will take decades for the world to forgive us for this shit show that is the Trump administration (which is doing its best to destroy the world’s economies). 

 

The right wing propaganda machine is very strong. I thought his disastrous buffoonery in 2017-2021 woke people up but I was very wrong. He could destroy the economy, isolate us diplomatically, get us into war, collapse our population, and destroy government services and people will still think he is great. 

I appreciate the Leopards eating Faces thread but really it is all cope. We cannot deal with the fact we are a loser nation of brainwashed idiots, so well tell ourselves they will come around. They won't. At least not any time soon.

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Posted
50 minutes ago, Valmy77 said:

The right wing propaganda machine is very strong. I thought his disastrous buffoonery in 2017-2021 woke people up but I was very wrong. He could destroy the economy, isolate us diplomatically, get us into war, collapse our population, and destroy government services and people will still think he is great. 

I appreciate the Leopards eating Faces thread but really it is all cope. We cannot deal with the fact we are a loser nation of brainwashed idiots, so well tell ourselves they will come around. They won't. At least not any time soon.

No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.

-Mark Twain 

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Posted
1 hour ago, Valmy77 said:

The right wing propaganda machine is very strong. I thought his disastrous buffoonery in 2017-2021 woke people up but I was very wrong. He could destroy the economy, isolate us diplomatically, get us into war, collapse our population, and destroy government services and people will still think he is great. 

I appreciate the Leopards eating Faces thread but really it is all cope. We cannot deal with the fact we are a loser nation of brainwashed idiots, so well tell ourselves they will come around. They won't. At least not any time soon.

I guess we'll see what happens when the bird flu mutates into something transmissible from human to human.  Hopefully we're able to pull together an mRNA vaccine in short order, and at that point we'll see if these idiots stick to their guns.  With a mortality rate of ~50%, that might end up addressing the issue rather quickly.

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Posted (edited)

IMG_4902.thumb.png.0c4fc0a9a4fb158ff82f0a042b88cfd0.pngIMG_4903.thumb.png.df288c2aa985d25fe336838ead6be479.pngIMG_4904.thumb.png.c8ee9376ec7ced50c12ea7303dac7c45.pngIMG_4905.thumb.jpeg.eead03a4c74157de81cb507220f8e61f.jpegIMG_4906.thumb.jpeg.f38ff3a021fd2be8a2ad4e063d8bb0c0.jpegIMG_4907.thumb.jpeg.0b2a9c112b4663d51d54a71e5ac9ff07.jpegIMG_4908.thumb.jpeg.3a24f09d8f58ab9fab91e28f7c993d11.jpegIMG_4909.thumb.jpeg.cd3df7784f57081cacbf6990cc3ba7b8.jpegIMG_4910.thumb.jpeg.df4c6b106b9cdd7d1d953e1e4f08a6d0.jpegIMG_4911.thumb.png.af23b7820a2e2f45d8ffb6029501a2e9.pnghIMG_4904.thumb.png.c8ee9376ec7ced50c12ea7303dac7c45.png

IMG_4912.thumb.jpeg.f436eb5d86cb41c9c68ed6c9b16b558f.jpeg

 

I think I duped one of the images, but as politico is a pay site and would not let me copy the text I wanted folks to be able to read it anyway

Edited by Gatorubet
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Posted
On 7/11/2025 at 12:28 PM, Post Oak said:

No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot.

-Mark Twain 

Mark Twain never said this, but there’s no amount of evidence that would persuade you of that

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Posted
2 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

IMG_4902.thumb.png.0c4fc0a9a4fb158ff82f0a042b88cfd0.pngIMG_4903.thumb.png.df288c2aa985d25fe336838ead6be479.pngIMG_4904.thumb.png.c8ee9376ec7ced50c12ea7303dac7c45.pngIMG_4905.thumb.jpeg.eead03a4c74157de81cb507220f8e61f.jpegIMG_4906.thumb.jpeg.f38ff3a021fd2be8a2ad4e063d8bb0c0.jpegIMG_4907.thumb.jpeg.0b2a9c112b4663d51d54a71e5ac9ff07.jpegIMG_4908.thumb.jpeg.3a24f09d8f58ab9fab91e28f7c993d11.jpegIMG_4909.thumb.jpeg.cd3df7784f57081cacbf6990cc3ba7b8.jpegIMG_4910.thumb.jpeg.df4c6b106b9cdd7d1d953e1e4f08a6d0.jpegIMG_4911.thumb.png.af23b7820a2e2f45d8ffb6029501a2e9.pnghIMG_4904.thumb.png.c8ee9376ec7ced50c12ea7303dac7c45.png

IMG_4912.thumb.jpeg.f436eb5d86cb41c9c68ed6c9b16b558f.jpeg

 

I think I duped one of the images, but as politico is a pay site and would not let me copy the text I wanted folks to be able to read it anyway

OMG dude.....

Spoiler

President Donald Trump this week again extended a deadline for levying tariffs on dozens of countries until the end of the month. This time, the president’s allies insist he means it.

Between the president’s growing impatience with the plodding pace foreign governments are taking and a broader fear about the Wall Street TACO meme suggesting “Trump Always Chickens Out,” Trump insiders privately maintain that it would make little sense — politically or from a policy standpoint — for the president to offer any additional grace, according to four people familiar with those internal discussions, granted anonymity to discuss them.

“On Aug. 1, it’s all kicking in,” said Steve Bannon, former White House chief strategist during the first Trump administration. “I’m sure he’s told [Treasury Secretary] Scott [Bessent], ‘There’s no more TACO.’”

Many foreign officials are taking the deadline equally seriously, according to four other people with knowledge of foreign governments’ views of the deadline, granted anonymity to discuss them.

Countries have little choice but to take Trump at his word, looking to appease the president in order to avoid the global economic turmoil that could ensue if he follows through on his many tariff threats — particularly after his April 2 plan rattled world markets and his hefty tariff rates on China in May sent a shock through the supply chain.

While holding firm to the newest deadline could bring the latest phase of tariff discussions to a close, it’s unlikely to be the conclusion to the administration’s trade saga, with industry-specific tariffs on the horizon. Trump is also apt to use tariffs as leverage for everything from getting governments to increase defense spending to having them abandon legislation he considers harmful to U.S. interests.

The president on Monday signed an executive order delaying steep tariff rates from taking effect on nearly 60 trading partners — from July 9 to Aug. 1. The three-week extension gives the administration time to finalize framework agreements with trading partners that are close to the finish line, including India and the European Union, while pressuring others, like Japan and South Korea.

It was the president’s idea to extend the deadline for the trade talks, according to three of the four people familiar, although a White House official said he consulted top lieutenants, including Bessent, in making his decision.

“Bessent is a financial guy. Financial guys are interested in closing deals,” said one of the four people familiar. “And so Bessent liked the strategy the president himself came up with because he thought it was going to help them achieve the goal.”

Trump’s impatience is decades in the making. Since the 1980s, he has fumed about other countries taking advantage of the U.S. on trade, and reciprocal tariffs, as he calls them, were a way to settle the score. But after three months of negotiating, his administration has little to show for its efforts: The U.S. has reached a deal with the U.K., but Vietnam has yet to formally accept a key part of an agreement the U.S. says it has reached with the country; and the U.S.’s “deal” with China is only a framework to continue trade talks.

“If there’s two issues that define Donald Trump, it’s immigration and tariffs … With respect to tariffs, it’s all simple. It comes down to simple fairness — that the United States is the greatest market to have access to, and there’s a sense that we are giving away complete and unfettered access,” said Sean Spicer, who served as press secretary during Trump’s first term. “What I think largely is misunderstood is people focus on deadlines and dates as opposed to results.”

Still, substantive trade deals are at odds with Trump’s effort to erect a tariff wall around the U.S. that will lure back domestic manufacturing and boost revenue. And any deal to significantly lower another country’s trade barriers may require concessions from the U.S. so both countries can sell the deals to their constituents as a win.

But the president’s use of tariffs as a cudgel has forced countries to the table, even those that were originally resistant to making concessions.

After months of talks with the U.S., the European Union is finally dropping plans to levy a tax on digital companies, an important win for the U.S. and a concession that may give the EU a boost as it enters the final stretch of trade talks. The bloc is confident that it will achieve an agreement ahead of the Aug. 1 deadline.

“I think we will have some framework agreement before [Aug. 1],” said an E.U. official, granted anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations said.

The extension also offers time for countries to finalize deals with the Trump administration. Trade talks with South Korea were, for instance, were delayed because of the country’s election, and the additional three weeks may give the two countries time to finalize a framework agreement. The U.S. in a recent letter put Canada on a similar timeline as countries facing reciprocal tariff rates, a decision Canadian officials were happy with, even as the U.S. threatened to bump the tariff rate on the country to 35 percent.

Still, the chaotic rollout of his tariffs over the past four months — and Trump’s wielding of tariff rates as bargaining chips rather than policy positions — has some trading partners skeptical that Aug. 1 is a hard deadline. They suspect he will backpedal over concerns about the market-roiling effects of higher tariffs and the threat they’ll pose to his administration’s efforts to temper inflation.

“Rather than the tariffs actually being imposed Aug. 1, the U.S. will come up with another excuse and postpone again,” predicted a Washington-based diplomat granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of their comments.

The daunting bureaucratic challenges the administration faces to ink bilateral trade agreements with so many countries at once is also fuelling doubts that the latest deadline will hold.

“There’s just not enough time for the negotiations and it’s also extremely difficult to come up with deals that satisfy Trump without sacrificing our own economy,” said a foreign official granted anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak on the record.

As part of the talks over reciprocal tariffs, Trump wants countries to adopt anti-China provisions that could provoke Beijing to retaliate. But those countries also worry that Trump could give China a better deal in talks with Beijing, which face an Aug. 12 deadline, leaving them at a competitive disadvantage.

“It’s very hard to kind of walk through all this and to navigate and to figure out how it’s all going to come together and how these different pieces are going to impact you,” said Wendy Cutler, a former senior U.S. trade negotiator, said during a discussion on Friday hosted by the Washington International Trade Association, a group for trade policy professionals.

 

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Posted

 

 

26 minutes ago, speed817 said:

OMG dude.....

Thanks speed. My iPhone cut and paste would not let me copy the politico article text.  It happens.   I wasn’t sure if politico had disabled the cut and paste feature - or my phone was acting up - but I thought it was an interesting article.

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Posted

Spent some time this week with someone who visited just last week with senior people in the Japanese trade delegation.
While the advice to them is “give him meaningless concessions that you don’t intend to keep,” the japanese can’t work that way. They’re mostly counting on TACO.

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Posted
5 hours ago, Gatorubet said:

 

 

Thanks speed. My iPhone cut and paste would not let me copy the politico article text.  It happens.   I wasn’t sure if politico had disabled the cut and paste feature - or my phone was acting up - but I thought it was an interesting article.

https://archive.ph/ is your friend

Posted
42 minutes ago, HenryJames said:

 

Supreme Court when this tariff is contested (obfuscated by 60 pages of bullshit in their opinion):

leonardo-dicaprio-shrug.gif

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Posted
On 7/11/2025 at 11:37 AM, Valmy77 said:

We cannot deal with the fact we are a loser nation of brainwashed idiots, so well tell ourselves they will come around. They won't. At least not any time soon.

Which is why we are cheering for the leopards to get their fill.

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Posted
1 hour ago, Gap03 said:

Supreme Court when this tariff is contested (obfuscated by 60 pages of bullshit in their opinion):

leonardo-dicaprio-shrug.gif

That the courts haven't already shutdown the faux emergency rationale is disappointing to say the least

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Posted
On 7/10/2025 at 7:33 AM, Blotto said:

we actually run a trade surplus with Brazil, so according to Trump's fucktarded logic they should be entitled to tariff the US. But in a shock to everyone, I'm sure, he throws out 50%.

 

This, I think, is proof positive that Trump isn't playing some kind of 4d chess or have some vision, however unlikely, of trade surpluses, weakened dollar, and low interest rates.

He is simply lashing out at countries he thinks have been "unfair" to us in some way.  Or to him or his interests.

Posted

The first major wave of tariffs on Liberation Day seemed to at least follow Trump’s own dumbass flawed logic regarding trade deficits. Yes, they were completely ridiculous, but there was a method to the madness, even if most reasonable people disagreed with the method.

These newer tariffs seem completely arbitrary and punitive. We have now progressed to Trump lashing out at countries because he is frustrated the world didn’t line up to make deals with him. When Bessent is acknowledging the TACO nickname, it’s obvious that Trump himself is aware, and this time he will want to shake that label.

Didn’t Canada make a trade deal with Trump a couple months ago? And now they have a fresh 35% tariff to show for it. Why would anyone make a deal with him?

I don’t know where we go from here. It’s wild that the stock market hasn’t imploded.

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Posted
12 minutes ago, wild_turkey said:

I don’t know where we go from here. It’s wild that the stock market hasn’t imploded.

This is shocking to me too. The market is just shrugging off incredibly destructive economic policies because they think POTUS is full of shit. Even the baseline 10% across the board tariffs from the initial crawl-down from Liberation Day would be painful to the economy, but this current round of insanity doesn't move the needle at all? 

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Posted
Quote

Markets had dismissed tariff risks under the assumption that Trump would follow an earlier pattern and back off, in what became known as the so-called TACO trade. That allowed stocks to reach new record-high territory recently, marking a stunning rebound from the collapse triggered by his “Liberation Day” reciprocal tariffs in April. But Trump has seized on those very same stock market highs to justify pressing ahead with his aggressive tariff rates. “I think the tariffs have been very well received. The stock market hit a new high today,” he told NBC News on Thursday.  He also suggested a baseline rate of 15%-20%, higher than the current level of 10% across the board. That came as he continued to unveil letters to U.S. trading partners throughout the week, laying out tariff rates they will face by Aug. 1 if no trade deals are reached. On Saturday, he threatened the European Union and Mexico with 30% rates.

Quote

While the letters are largely seen as a negotiating tactic, stocks have pulled back from their all-time highs as doubts about the TACO trade start to creep in. “Markets appear to believe that Trump will again back down,” Capital Economics said in a note on Friday. “We are not so sure.”

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Posted

And once the EU puts a 30% tariff on America for Trump‘s unilateral bullshit tariff letter, then Trump will pull away from the Ukraine deal, because EU = bad!!! Trump SMASH!!!!

He is too stupid to parse out that there can be more than one good or bad aspect of any particular ally for our national interests at the same time.

The toddler will just get mad and throw a fit at the world.   Which concerns me, because if of all the countries of the world got together and said fuck the US, let’s trade with each other more, that might be -ahhhh- not good.

 

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Posted
8 minutes ago, Gatorubet said:

because if of all the countries of the world got together and said fuck the US, let’s trade with each other more, that might be -ahhhh- not good.

Dude.  That's already happening, and it's irreversible.

Remember how European countries got too lackadaisical and too dependent on cheap Russian gas, then Russia made it plain that it's an unreliable, maniacal, dangerous trading partner?  And those countries did a shitload to disentangle themselves as much as possible from the Russian gas trade?

Yeah.  Those lessons also apply to the US and everything we trade in.  The more dependent you are on trade with the US, the more vulnerable you are to American malevolence and batshittery, which we have max-full levels of these days.  The smart strategy is disentanglement to the extent possible.  Other countries may not be geniuses, but they're smart enough to have figured that out.

The US is going to find itself at a long-term trade disadvantage, entirely of our own making.  It's too late to stop it. We've demonstrated that we are dangerous and untrustworthy.  Not because Trump is our president, but because we ELECTED him to be our president, and a sizable percentage of our population SUPPORTS this idiocy.  We are too dangerous and untrustworthy to be treated as a trusted trading partner, so we won't be any longer.

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Posted
3 minutes ago, WBT said:

The market doesn't believe he'll follow through.  If he does there'll be a big drop again.

if it’s 10 or 20%, they’ll still be a big impact.   I have a friend who sells construction stuff, including a lot of steel and aluminum to the Caribbean, and he says he can’t keep up with the daily increased prices.

Every day I listen to Bloomberg and those assholes are talking about the mag 7 and equity markets going up as if none of this was happening. Blows my mind.   

 

Posted
10 hours ago, Brisketexan said:

The US is going to find itself at a long-term trade disadvantage, entirely of our own making.  It's too late to stop it. We've demonstrated that we are dangerous and untrustworthy.  Not because Trump is our president, but because we ELECTED him to be our president, and a sizable percentage of our population SUPPORTS this idiocy.  We are too dangerous and untrustworthy to be treated as a trusted trading partner, so we won't be any longer.

This is how I would view it from another country. Why the fuck would we want to deal with the meth-addled psychopath when we can get a similar, if not better deal, from more stable sources?  Being the loudest, craziest asshole in the room may be what he learned from Roy Cohn, but when your bullshit has been on display on the world stage for a decade (or multiple decades if we are talking pre-Presidential times), then MOST* people are wise to the con. 
 

*Clearly not our own people, but most world leaders anyway. 

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