• lennybird@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    As an American, I’m rooting for Canada.

    But this all feels very by design of Putin to fracture US alliances.

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      1 month ago

      I honestly think Putin is too busy throwing millions of young citizens into his meat grinder to give a shit about the USA at this point.

      • Dashi@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        You would be surprised what people have time to think about while browsing their phone on the throne.

        If you think Ukraine consumes 100% of his thoughts then you are not giving puttin enough credit. He isn’t infamous because he is dumb, he is infamous because he is cunning, underhanded, and brutal in what he does.

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      1 month ago

      I’m so upset at my Canadian family members who supported Trump.

      I got an uncle who was constantly saying he supports trump cause he’ll “run the country the country like a business” - i don’t think either trump or him actually understand business all that well.

      I hope Canadian-European relations get stronger, and hopefully Canadian-American relations will be rebuilt once this fucker is gone

      • billwashere@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        Does your uncle realize trump was able to bankrupt a casino? Where they can can almost literally print money. And not just one, but three of them. This man is literally one of the most inept businessmen I have ever seen.

          • anomnom@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month ago

            But he looked smaaaat on the apprentice. That’s all the fucking morons who support him seem to remember about Trump.

          • ricketyrackets@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            This is the most accurate statement. There’s a reason why Trump wants Greenland, Canada, and Panama. Russia also wants all these. Wants free reign to move their boats and military through these areas and to be able to use the Panama Canal again.

            The more I see all the stuff going on here, the more I am coming to realize that the orange taintstainy is just a Putin muppet puppet.

            Everything this man does seems to appease Russia.

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        1 month ago

        That’s the fallacy that I thought was learned back with Ross Perot. You don’t run a country like a business. It’s a government.

        • aname@lemmy.one
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          1 month ago

          How was it learned and when. Where I can lear more? Wikipedia didn’t have any clear answers

        • jballs@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          I’m pretty sure that people who say they want to “run the country like a business” just think it sounds good but haven’t put 2 braincells worth of thought into it. Businesses exist to make money. Government exists to serve citizens.

          Do you want firefighters showing up to your burning house and asking for a credit card before they put out the fire? Or maybe have the post office decide that it’s not profitable enough to service entire states? The whole idea is moronic.

          • jaybone@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            Also the USPS is too busy delivering papers full of ads and junk mail, rather than investigating mail theft.

          • MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
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            1 month ago

            I mean, America already charge their citizens for healthcare, so they’re not that far off from your hypothetical

          • SkyeStarfall@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 month ago

            And it’s dumb, because, in the end, where is all that profit supposed to go?

            The answer obviously is, to improve the country and the quality of life of its citizens, so we’re back to square one anyway

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        “Run the country like a business” is the dumbest thing ever. If the government was run like a business they’d raise taxes because what business doesn’t want to increase revenue? There would also be an open door immigration policy, because what business turns away potential customers?

        Personally I want the government run like a non-profit organization whose goal is to make my life better, but that’s just me.

      • sibachian@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        i’m still waiting for an explanation on how running anything like a business is objectively a good thing.

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        I’m up in the middle of nowhere Ontario in the north surrounded mostly by trees and lakes and not even remotely close to anything American … but yet I still have a few friends and family who love your dumb orange beanbag president.

        I don’t understand the pull that this idiot has on people or the millionaires and billionaires that pour their money into him for some god forsaken reason.

        • stoy@lemmy.zip
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          It is actually perfectly simple.

          Mr. Trump gives people easy answers to extremely complex problems, the fact that he is rich means that people just assume he is right about it.

          People want easy answers that don’t blame them, Trump has perfected the style of of talking where he is ambiguous enough that people fill in the blanks themselves.

          It is classic fascism speech.

      • gramie@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        Do you tell him that Trump has filed for bankruptcy six times with his companies? What does that say about his business acumen? How often has your uncle filed for bankruptcy?

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          That doesn’t work. The hardcore Trump supporters think bankruptcy is a genius life hack to get out from having to repay debts.

          They actually believe it’s smart to borrow money, hide them in other businesses and personal accounts, then declare bankruptcy to keep the money. To the rest of the world, that’s called “embezzlement.”

      • spooky2092@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        1 month ago

        he supports trump cause he’ll “run the country the country like a business”

        THIS MOTHERFUCKER BANKRUPTED A CASINO.

        People say they want him to run the country like a business, but that man bankrupted a money printing machine, probably because he was doing all kinds of illegal shit and didn’t actually run his business like a business. Why would he run a money printing country any different than his money printing business.

        My dumbass uncle feels the same way as yours, and I have to bite my tongue so after to remind him that he and trump have something in common: they both embezzled from their company until it died.

      • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        The “run government like a business” crowd gets to me. I’d like to see business run like a government. Owned and controlled by the workers.

        • frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          It’s one of the dumbest perspectives I’ve heard that continues to irk me. Why the fuck would you want something that’s supposed to do X to do Y instead?

      • group_hug@sh.itjust.works
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        1 month ago

        He will run the country like he does all of his businesses; into the ground.

        He even failed at running a casino. Except this time he will likely be burying thousands of Americans along with the country.

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        1 month ago

        My mum last night on text.

        “We’ll see what shithead Trump retaliates with tomorrow. The only way to stop the maniac is with a bullet!”

        “Have you noticed how shithead has not left the White House since he was sworn in?”

        “Trudeau is doing a great job!” (Referring to the presser)

        I’m glad I don’t have your family OP

        Edit - for the kids out there my mum is 74. She’s a baby boomer. Some of them are good people. They are not well off. I told my parents with the tariffs coming if they find themselves struggling to let me know because I will help in any way I can.

    • nutsack@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      both Canadian and American retirement portfolios will suffer. i don’t know why anyone would root for such a thing at all

    • Shezzagrad@lemmy.ml
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      Yes, it’s Putin who’s totally controlling trump and making him do tarrifs. After all, Putin leads hamas, putin did 9/11, putin killed millions in Iraq, Putin killed millions the middle east, Putin’s funding UAE and Israeli genocides against Sudan and Palestine How peaceful the world would be without Putin /s

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          Then the focus will be another, “world peace” to America to the west is when their elites can do whatever they could ever dream of at the cost of the entire earth, it’s people and animals exploited.

          Putin now, then Palestinans, then Panama, then Canadians, the gays, dei, muslims, socialist, leftist, woke, so on and so forth until everyone is dead but America gets all the toys they could ever play with. Your nation and your propaganda is a joke. Putin is awful, but he’s undeniably done less damage in this entire years as leader of Russia than America in 2 terms

      • lennybird@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        mUH wHataBoUTiSm. I’m shocked this user is from .ml

        Shocked, I tell you.

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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          No he is dead on. The US has been shooting itself in the foot for decades in order to murder little brown kids.

          The only way your argument makes any sense is if Russia ordered Biden to commit genocide and throw the election. The DNC decided to run a geriatric against Trump. They are no smarter or better than the Republicans.

          • lennybird@lemmy.world
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            1 month ago

            More wHataBoUTiSm from another .ml account.

            Again, just shocked. Tu quoque fallacy at its finest.

            • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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              1 month ago

              So you believe the Democrats corruption and incompetence is natural and AIPAC has nothing to do with it. But the Republicans corruption is POOTIN!

              Meanwhile the first person Trump invites is Netanyahu.

              If someone said the same things about Israel controlling the US as you are saying about Russia, ignoring that the links to Russia are far far smaller, you would call them an anti Semite.

          • Shezzagrad@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            I didn’t want to believe it, but .world and Reddit powermod user overlap must be real high. They all are like a hivemind of “making fun of tankie” aka the liberal version of “woke”

            • dx1@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              The mods are sure acting like reddit mods. They’re already the self-appointed arbiters of truth.

              • Shezzagrad@lemmy.ml
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                That too somewhat, but I ment more .world users, it’s the only place and the only type of users who actively fight on the wrong side and bring up Reddit arguments and the worst of reddit behaviour into Lemmy

                • dx1@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  Seeing the same. Not that many different users either, just really vocal.

          • btaf45@lemmy.world
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            The DNC decided to run a geriatric against Trump.

            They didn’t decide shit. Only politicians decide whether they wish to run or not. The DNC literally does not have the power to chose who runs and who doesn’t. You know the DNC is not a person right? The DNC is literally made up of the primary delegates elected by the voters, who then choose a new executive committee every 4 years. Did you put yourself forward as a potential delegate? Stop blaming the DNC for the choices made by the voters.

        • Wrrzag@lemmy.ml
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          How is this whataboutism? They only pointed out that the US has a long history of doing shitty things without being controlled by some foreign actor. It’s perfectly plausible that Trump is doing shitty things because he thinks he will personally gain something out of it, without anyone pulling his strings. He just doesn’t care if the rest of the country goes up in flames.

        • dx1@lemmy.world
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          It’s not whataboutism. He’s pointing out the empire has been going far longer than anything having to do with Trump. I’m apparently not allowed to discuss anything else about that here though, because the mods know the absolute truth about all things and will decide what ideas are allowed to be spoken.

    • LemmyThinkAboutIt@lemm.ee
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      I just hope Canada, Europe and Mexico unite and start working closely together. Fuck the USA under Musk (trump). Together we are strong. Much stronger than individually.

      Feels bad to say but the USA haven’t been a reliable partner since the first time they elected Trump. Who knows what they’ll stand for in 4 years? A normal person or a complete lunatic that has already disassembled the legal structures few days after getting into office? Hard to know. Very unreliable and extremely concerning.

      I cant believe americans are letting this happen while sitting by idly.

      I can’t think of a single alliance in history that went from unbreakable to garbage within three weeks because of the whims of one person that should honestly be „dealt with“ before it’s too late.

      Writing this as a German with rather conservative views.

  • SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world
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    Someone explain why he is going after Canada? The US has benefitted from having the safest borders in the world and this dolt wants to jeopardize that.

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    If this escalates, wait until Canada decides to stop buying US made weapon systems. It will be expensive and time consuming to retrain, but the US is not a reliable defense partner under the neo-Nazi GOP. The US MIC must see the writing on the wall.

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    So from the conservative viewpoint, what is the rationale for the tariffs? Are people really supposed to believe it has something to do with fentanyl? Like do conservatives actually believe that or is there some other narrative besides Donald Trump is looking to flex his power?

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      For the most part it’s not getting the kind of attention you might expect, they are seeing this as all “part of the plan” and celebrating their great trade-warrior leader punishing the “bad guys” and the white house has deliberately withheld a LOT of the information about what’s going on. Most of the breaking stories we’ve gotten have been from foreign press. We didn’t even hear the tariff schedule until fucking France media issued stories.

      There is not going to be the satisfaction we all hope for, not until there’s literally a new dust-bowl as we get ravaged by a new great depression, which as bad as it could be, might be our only hope for a more balanced political system going forward. I hate that these clowns have made me into an accelerationist but here are.

    • pacology@lemmy.world
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      Back in 1890, there was no income tax. The federal government was funded through tariffs. With the upcoming rewrite of the tax code, the current administration needs new revenue, and trariffs are one of the few the president cab levy unilaterally.

      • PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee
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        Tariffs are essentially a shitty sales tax. I’ve read it described as a way to switch the US federal funding from I come tax to a hidden sales tax.

        The revenues will also be much much lower, which is why they need to eliminate every federal bureau.

    • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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      It’s not conservatism, it’s fascism. The strongman says jump and those loyal to him say “how high?” even when he’s being stupid. There is no analysis of Trump’s actions or why people go along with it beyond that.

    • rabber@lemmy.ca
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      Yeah I’m confused because this is going to ruin American billionaires. Doesn’t maga worship billionaires?

      • nomy@lemmy.zip
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        1 month ago

        If you have the money to ride it out you can buy the country for pennies on the dollar.

        • Dumpdog@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          I had to chuckle about this comment. I said that same thing in a rant to family and friends last night including using the words “for pennies on the dollar”

    • kava@lemmy.world
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      or is there some other narrative

      I believe a couple different things

      a) he’s intentionally weakening the US economy to both weaken establishment institutions and spread mass discontent. he wants people nice and angry and fearful for the future. so when he takes more extreme actions later on, it doesn’t seem as bad. also he’s probably preparing for some sort of riot movement that includes political violence in the next couple years. as the establishment gets weaker, he’ll be in a better position to essentially ignore them. so for example Supreme Court says something unconstitutional? Maybe he just ignores it and enforces his will regardless

      b) in the near future we may see a serious decoupling of the US economy from the world. maybe it’s due a planned war or some other circumstance and this is in preparation for that. tariffs tend to cut off the economy from the outside world. it’ll hurt less later on if we do some of it now

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    Wouldn’t a subsidy or tax incentive for things produced domestically be a more beneficial way to combat tariffs?

    • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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      How so? These would increase demand for things produced in Canada, not really harm America. These are retaliatory tariffs, so the latter is the point here.

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        Correct me if I’m wrong, but for things that are made in both Canada and the US, if you increase demand for the version made in Canada, your country benefits, while hurting the US, since less is sold, so less money earned. Citizens are the ones paying tariffs anyway

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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          The thing is: It’d be too roundabout to have the desired effect or message. Subsidies and tax incentives are good tools for strengthening your economy and lessening your dependence on exports, but they’re not really going to create the kind of sharp downward curve on sharesholders’ graphs that’d be considered retaliation.

        • Carload834@lemmy.ca
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          One problem is that a lot of manufacturing has left Canada. So, with an increase in demand for Canadian products, it would take a while to ramp up production. Most likely what will happen is that we would just import more from other countries (most likely China). And, then, much like what happened after the government injected cash into the economy during the pandemic, we’ll suffer more inflation than what is healthy for Canada.

          If we had the manufacturing capacity to be self sufficient (oil refinement and gasoline production is a big one that we let USA do), then your idea might work.

          However, I don’t think that Canada’s purchasing power (on an individual consumer level) is strong enough to put a dent into USA manufacturing sales… Our population is only approx 1/10th that of the USA.

      • Jack Hughman@lemm.ee
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        Whatever happened to the good old days where rulers would simply abdicate their position and plunge their land into chaos 😡

        • rabber@lemmy.ca
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          An interim leader could have been chosen but it would have been disastrous at this point in time.

          We also have a very different political system compared to the US.

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      He announced he’ll resign as Liberal leader as soon as the Liberals choose a new leader. That could take weeks or months.

  • Kaput@lemmy.world
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    Personnaly I would put a mirror tarrif. Tax the stuff going out to USA. Canadian economy will slow down, don’t make life more expensive for Canadians. And that way Americans might notice it faster if they pay 50 percent more.

    • PhAzE@lemmy.ca
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      The problem here, specifically, is that once imported items go up in price, there needs to be regulations that blocks local manufacturers from just upping their prices to match. Otherwise the imported items are still a viable purchase and tariffs will not work as a counter measure.

  • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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    1 month ago

    The Trump administration says it put the tariffs in place to force China, Mexico and Canada to stop the spread and manufacturing of fentanyl, in addition to pressuring Canada and Mexico to limit any illegal immigration into the United States.

    Can anyone else see any actual logic to this? Do the Trump Republicans really believe this, or are they just saying it? What do they really want to achieve, apart from Trump being able to see himself as a tough guy?

    • Maple Engineer@lemmy.world
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      Trump is still butt hurt about world leaders, especially Justin Trudeau, laughing at him and making fun of him behind his back. The tarrifs are a way to generate funds to pay for tax breaks for the rich. It will also allow American companies to raise prices, and profits, without the cheaper Canadian products and with less supply so more demand. It’s a bit of him being a bully, a bit of revenge, but mostly, like everything else he is doing, it’s about allowing the wealthy to loot the country bankrupt while burning the thing to the ground and enriching himself.

    • Bone@lemmy.world
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      It’s just a special operation to route out Nazis. It’s 15 cases going down to 0. It’ll be gone by Easter.

    • ShadowRam@fedia.io
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      These tariffs are a way for Trump to tax his population so he can fund whatever he pleases. And the majority of his population don’t even understand this 25pct tax is going from their pocket straight into his.

    • empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      A. Enact sales tax on poor people so that they can fund further corporate tax cuts
      B. Ruin relationships with the closest American allies as that is a net benefit for geopolitical rivals like Russia, who Trump is demonstrably in bed with
      C. Market value collapse let’s all the rich cronies that have crawled up Trump’s asshole buy out what’s left of America’s assets at fire sale prices. 10 richest men doubled their wealth during covid. They want that to happen again.

    • breakfastmtn@lemmy.ca
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      There’s no logic to it at all. It’s absolutely not about that.

      Almost no fentanyl is getting into the US from Canada. A vanishingly small amount of illegal immigration occurs through the Canadian border.

      It’s just fascism and imperialism.

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        The majority of fentanyl being smuggled into America is being smuggled in by American citizens. It’s not like cocaine or cannabis. You can smuggle a huge amount of fentanyl in a tiny bottle. Why risk sending it with an undocumented person?

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        One would think there would be some talk about precursors… But nope just tax it 25 % that will be sure to get producers to stop. Pure idiocy

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      They have to say this in order to get around the provisions in the free trade agreement HE signed last time he was in office.

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      It feels like he’s trying to accomplish the kind of hostile take over you see in business. That doesn’t really work with a country though…

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      1 month ago

      Saw a policy expert say it’s a mixture of 3 things really:

      1. Trump likes to blame outsiders for problems and this is well received by his loyal base and gives off strongman vibes
      2. long term plan to switch from income tax (scales the more you earn) to consumption taxes (the poorer you are the more you pay for for consumption, relatively speaking) which benefits the rich at the expense of the poor. this wealth transfer is easier to sell when the populace is focused on outsiders
      3. Trump doesn’t understand basic economics

      source: https://youtu.be/2I1L1fXaYDs?feature=shared

      • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        Tarrifs get paid to the Treasury, the Treasury is getting controlled by Musk and Trump, they can take whatever they want from those funds. Whos going to stop them? The Supreme Court takes bribes which can come from the same pot.

        He just needs to keep a bit of support until all angles are secured. So he just spreads lies and blames everything on people here illegally to keep people pitted against each other. The largest source of illegals in this country is from overstaying Visas, the thing they are expanding to higher numbers… Aka more people to keep blaming shit on while putting on a show of deporting the ones that are already here.

        Honestly doesn’t look like they’ll need much time to accomplish it.

        • 4z01235@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          I swear he wants to bring aristocracy to the US

          He wants to further entrench the oligarchy, I think. And it seems to be working.

        • Peppycito@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          Did you hear his inauguration speech? Where he lamented the poor downtrodden billionaires who were now homeless because of the fires in LA?

      • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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        They absolutely want to implement a national sales tax. They’ve been talking about it for a very long time and now they have the power to do it. And it’s very much a “fuck the poor” policy.

      • superglue@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 month ago

        Lol on the switch from income tax. I haven’t heard a peep about that since before the election. Everything is just going to cost more now and I’m still going to be paying income taxes.

        • takeheart@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          p 698 of project 2025 document:

          The federal income tax system heavily taxes capital and corporate income and discourages work, savings, and investment. The public finance literature is clear that a consumption tax would minimize government’s distortion of private economic decisions and thus be the least economically harmful way to raise federal tax revenues.

          more riches to capital and corporations, consumers will pay for it. it’s all in there

      • IninewCrow@lemmy.ca
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        1 month ago

        Or they are just thinking of a quick cash grab … gut the system and get as much wealth out of everything and everyone as fast and as much as possible … let it all crash then abandon everything with all their money and let someone else fix everything.

        • takeheart@lemmy.world
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          I think in that scenario it’s more likely that they would “buy the dip” then that they would up and leave. Some of the billionaires also want to found their own techno-fashist fiefdoms. This could be a good catalyst for that.

    • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      I’mma let you in on a secret: Fentanyl basically is only a meaningful threat to addicts who don’t know what they were taking. And if we actually cared about them, we would pump a fraction of a percent of our military budget into rehab and therapy to help them kick the habit and put narcan (sp?) in every emergency first aid kit right next to the defib. Beyond that, it is just an excuse for why a cop beat his wife or murdered a black kid.

      As for what they ACTUALLY want to achieve? Saw an analyst hypothesize (on bluesky) that the real goal was the 10% tariffs. Put those on and drop them after vague claims of getting something in return (comparable to South America… fucking earlier this week?). It makes trump look “hard on China” while destabilizing relations between North America and later NATO. And it would result in basically every company jacking up their prices to pass that on to the consumer and then never lowering them because capitalism.

      End result? increased profits for the oligarchs who jacked up their “made in America” products even more than the 10% they were now paying on materials and components.’

      As for this? I don’t like seeing my retirement funds go down the toilet (and am not optimistic they are ever coming back up this time) but fuckin’ a. Burn it to the ground. It will hurt the little guy but it will hurt the 0.0000001%ers even more. The world is going to be on fire and have no water by the time I am eligible to take cash out of my 401k without penalties anyway.


      That said? I assume he wants his base to believe the reason why groceries are still expensive is because Canada and Mexico just love fentanyl so much and they hate America. And his base will eat it up while the same useful idiots make sure the left is united against the Democrats (who do fucking suck but…).