US

[Booney]

Agree to an extent. It’s becoming harder and harder to distinguish what is the truth or not, due to the proliferation of social media. The way the ‘social media algorithm’ reinforces people’s biases just makes the problem worse, and people start believing the bubble they end up in.

Ultimately though, people tend to be lazy and are disinterested in politics, and tend to believe the lies and ‘us vs them’ antagonism that Trump cultivates and thrives on.

We’re becoming stupider as time goes by, and the US has greatly accelerated this phenomenon.

It's probably worse in the States, where they've got FOX News sprouting all the pro-Trump rhetoric, so the general unwashed would be thinking "it must be true, it's on the news"

Thus is his genius and his stupidity, spent 4 years talking about Fake News and now nobody knows what is fake and what is real and he can march along with his band of merry oligarchs doing whatever the f*ck he likes.

The most troubling aspect for me is his treatment of anyone who dared cross him, but then again that's what weak minded people do, attack what they don't understand.

[Dutchy]

Listened to a high level economist yesterday, while most of it went over my head, he believes the tariffs are solely focused on China and reducing their influence in the world, if this doesn't happen then Taiwan is under huge threat and the US is sick of being the big brother for everyone and having to help out. Trump puts tariffs on Canada/Mexico, but then agrees to remove them if those countries place tariffs on China.

Either way Trade is going to slow and so is the global economy, not sure thats a good thing for us down here.

[dedja]

Agree to an extent. It’s becoming harder and harder to distinguish what is the truth or not, due to the proliferation of social media. The way the ‘social media algorithm’ reinforces people’s biases just makes the problem worse, and people start believing the bubble they end up in.

Ultimately though, people tend to be lazy and are disinterested in politics, and tend to believe the lies and ‘us vs them’ antagonism that Trump cultivates and thrives on.

We’re becoming stupider as time goes by, and the US has greatly accelerated this phenomenon.

Are we though.......i find i just cant deal with the murky grey and the feeling you get when your feel like every word you are being fed is bullshit.

I've tried in recent times to get more involved but the wealth of information overwhelms.

Working in the fitness industry we see this all the time with information regarding dieting, carbs are bad, carbs are good, do this exercise 8 times, do it 9 times. Most of our consults are based around trying to create some clarity for the average punter who wants to lose a bit of weight, feel a bit better, and run a bit further than they can now. But the sheer force of information out there sees so many people give up.

That was my point … it actually requires a lot of time to keep up, and IMO most people have given up trying, so hence the term ‘lazy’.

I’m usually all over anything political, but I rarely follow Aus Federal politics anymore, although more so at the state level. I took a break from the US circus but it’s hard to avoid it when it saturates the news cycle.

The same can be said for sports reporting … there so much crap reported now in F1, Supercars, etc that it’s hard to find any that are reputable.

[dedja]

Listened to a high level economist yesterday, while most of it went over my head, he believes the tariffs are solely focused on China and reducing their influence in the world, if this doesn't happen then Taiwan is under huge threat and the US is sick of being the big brother for everyone and having to help out. Trump puts tariffs on Canada/Mexico, but then agrees to remove them if those countries place tariffs on China.

Either way Trade is going to slow and so is the global economy, not sure thats a good thing for us down here.

Trump isn’t playing 4 dimensional chess, he genuinely believes that tariffs will generate vast income and has little downside, because he’s an imbecile and has no idea how they work. He also thinks that placing tariffs on any country will make them subservient to him because they’ll be afraid of the consequences, but Canada are kicking it in his face, at least for now.

The most disturbing thing is that there is little blowback in the US by the financial community, but as I stated earlier, they’re too scared to cross Trump for fear of repercussions, so just sit there quietly when they know it will be a disaster.

[Booney]

Listened to a high level economist yesterday, while most of it went over my head, he believes the tariffs are solely focused on China and reducing their influence in the world, if this doesn't happen then Taiwan is under huge threat and the US is sick of being the big brother for everyone and having to help out. Trump puts tariffs on Canada/Mexico, but then agrees to remove them if those countries place tariffs on China.

Either way Trade is going to slow and so is the global economy, not sure thats a good thing for us down here.

Not a good thing for anyone. He's under the impression manufacturing will move back into the US and that'll save the country.

The unemployed will suddenly take up menial work for minimum wage, global corporations will close down existing billion dollar plants, pull them to pieces and send them to the US.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tTL5FFaJa3Q

[dedja]

When Trump placed tariffs on China last time, all that happened was that some companies moved their Chinese manufacturing to Taiwan or other countries where they already had a presence, not setup shop in the US.

Like Australia, manufacturing is generally too expensive to be viable in the US, and even if it was somehow viable (again, it isn’t), the it would take years to setup.

Remember, this is the bloke who gets all of his merch made in China, so obviously that helps the Make America Great Again cause.

[Booney]

India and Sri Lanka were the beneficiaries to some extent and now textiles coming out of African manufacturing facilities owned by China are churning out some of the cheapest materials on the market. Classic Trump, doesn't think anyone ( Chyna ) is as smart as he is. He's a dumb arse.

[whufc]

Listened to a high level economist yesterday, while most of it went over my head, he believes the tariffs are solely focused on China and reducing their influence in the world, if this doesn't happen then Taiwan is under huge threat and the US is sick of being the big brother for everyone and having to help out. Trump puts tariffs on Canada/Mexico, but then agrees to remove them if those countries place tariffs on China.

Either way Trade is going to slow and so is the global economy, not sure thats a good thing for us down here.

Trump isn’t playing 4 dimensional chess, he genuinely believes that tariffs will generate vast income and has little downside, because he’s an imbecile and has no idea how they work. He also thinks that placing tariffs on any country will make them subservient to him because they’ll be afraid of the consequences, but Canada are kicking it in his face, at least for now.

The most disturbing thing is that there is little blowback in the US by the financial community, but as I stated earlier, they’re too scared to cross Trump for fear of repercussions, so just sit there quietly when they know it will be a disaster.

If my understanding of tariffs is correct eg

1. China sends TV to a USA shipping dock
2. The american collecting the TV then pays the tariff to the government official there.
3. The amount paid is then transferred/funnelled whatever word you want to use to the USA government.

If that is a dumbed down but correct terminology of how tariffs i just cant believe Trump cant understand that concept. Its not actually possible

[Booney]

Listened to a high level economist yesterday, while most of it went over my head, he believes the tariffs are solely focused on China and reducing their influence in the world, if this doesn't happen then Taiwan is under huge threat and the US is sick of being the big brother for everyone and having to help out. Trump puts tariffs on Canada/Mexico, but then agrees to remove them if those countries place tariffs on China.

Either way Trade is going to slow and so is the global economy, not sure thats a good thing for us down here.

Trump isn’t playing 4 dimensional chess, he genuinely believes that tariffs will generate vast income and has little downside, because he’s an imbecile and has no idea how they work. He also thinks that placing tariffs on any country will make them subservient to him because they’ll be afraid of the consequences, but Canada are kicking it in his face, at least for now.

The most disturbing thing is that there is little blowback in the US by the financial community, but as I stated earlier, they’re too scared to cross Trump for fear of repercussions, so just sit there quietly when they know it will be a disaster.

If my understanding of tariffs is correct eg

1. China sends TV to a USA shipping dock
2. The american collecting the TV then pays the tariff to the government official there.
3. The amount paid is then transferred/funnelled whatever word you want to use to the USA government.
4. The american collecting the TV passes that cost onto the dumb f*ck consumer who believe the orange idiot

If that is a dumbed down but correct terminology of how tariffs i just cant believe Trump cant understand that concept. Its not actually possible

Correct(ed).

[dedja]

Not that the Republican lead Congress would get in his way, but Trump can do whatever he wants with tariffs as constitutionally, he has the power to do whatever he wants via Executive Orders without the consent of Congress.

You would think that at least the House gets flipped at the mid-terms, but that’s not taking into account the imbecile factor of their electorate. If that does happen, then at least they can put some brakes on some of his other crazy stuff. That said, it still gives him plenty of time to wreck the joint in the next 2 years.

[MW]

When Trump placed tariffs on China last time, all that happened was that some companies moved their Chinese manufacturing to Taiwan or other countries where they already had a presence, not setup shop in the US.

Like Australia, manufacturing is generally too expensive to be viable in the US, and even if it was somehow viable (again, it isn’t), the it would take years to setup.

Remember, this is the bloke who gets all of his merch made in China, so obviously that helps the Make America Great Again cause.

When Trump first came to power and put tariffs on China, we moved our production from China to Thailand for this reason for products solely for North America market. Now with what seems like tariffs on all countries coming, we are likely to move it to USA so for our small sample size, it is working. The benefit for us though is we have production in USA already so the start up time and cost is small, but if you had to start from scratch it is costly and timely.

[Booney]

When Trump placed tariffs on China last time, all that happened was that some companies moved their Chinese manufacturing to Taiwan or other countries where they already had a presence, not setup shop in the US.

Like Australia, manufacturing is generally too expensive to be viable in the US, and even if it was somehow viable (again, it isn’t), the it would take years to setup.

Remember, this is the bloke who gets all of his merch made in China, so obviously that helps the Make America Great Again cause.

We moved our production from China to Thailand for this reason for products solely for North America market. Now with what seems like tariffs on all countries coming, we are likely to move it to USA so for our small sample size, it is working. The benefit for us though is we have production in USA already so the start up time and cost is small, but if you had to start from scratch it is costly and timely.

If you haven't watched the link I posted it's worth doing so. The know how, the engineering, in the US isn't there to support manufacturing anymore.

They sold out on that 50 years ago in return for global security.

[Jimmy_041]

The next US election will be simple. If the red blooded population are feeling better off over the next 4 years, cost of living is down, employment rate is low etc etc then Republicans win regardless of the spin or who will lead them. If it goes the other way and the US economy is destroyed, and cost of living skyrockets with the tariffs and employment rate does not improve or gets worse, the same people who voted Trump in will turn on him just as quick.

He cannot be re-elected after this term

22nd amendment

[dedja]

When Trump placed tariffs on China last time, all that happened was that some companies moved their Chinese manufacturing to Taiwan or other countries where they already had a presence, not setup shop in the US.

Like Australia, manufacturing is generally too expensive to be viable in the US, and even if it was somehow viable (again, it isn’t), the it would take years to setup.

Remember, this is the bloke who gets all of his merch made in China, so obviously that helps the Make America Great Again cause.

When Trump first came to power and put tariffs on China, we moved our production from China to Thailand for this reason for products solely for North America market. Now with what seems like tariffs on all countries coming, we are likely to move it to USA so for our small sample size, it is working. The benefit for us though is we have production in USA already so the start up time and cost is small, but if you had to start from scratch it is costly and timely.

No idea what industry you’re in but you’ve hit the nail on the head … if companies already have manufacturing facilities in the US then they may increase their presence there, but for those that don’t, it’s unlikely that they would.

They also have to factor in that Trump will be gone in less than 4 years, so is it really worth the investment when things could change after he goes. Then you have the fact that he changes his mind 8 times a day so it’s nigh impossible to plan any investment with so much uncertainty.

[whufc]

The biggest fear i have / see with Trumps presidency is the extortion for security. Thats not my understanding of how allies/friends work.

Imagine the day China knocked on our doors and Trump pretty much extorts us for their support, so we end up in a damned if we do / damned if we don't scenario. Would be a scary place to be in.

With Trumps unpredictability our leaders have to be having some discussions around how self-sufficient and independent we can make ourselves.

Easy to say 'he wouldn't do that to us' but everything is a business deal to Trump.

[dedja]

The next US election will be simple. If the red blooded population are feeling better off over the next 4 years, cost of living is down, employment rate is low etc etc then Republicans win regardless of the spin or who will lead them. If it goes the other way and the US economy is destroyed, and cost of living skyrockets with the tariffs and employment rate does not improve or gets worse, the same people who voted Trump in will turn on him just as quick.

He cannot be re-elected after this term

22nd amendment

He can’t be re-elected, but, far from me to play the conspiracy theorist, it is possible for another Republican to be elected President with him as VP, then resign straight away to give him the reigns again. Likely? Hardly, but the ‘loophole’ is there.

Putin has used similar means to stay in power when Russia initially had limited Presidential terms.

[dedja]

The biggest fear i have / see with Trumps presidency is the extortion for security. Thats not my understanding of how allies/friends work.

Imagine the day China knocked on our doors and Trump pretty much extorts us for their support, so we end up in a damned if we do / damned if we don't scenario. Would be a scary place to be in.

With Trumps unpredictability our leaders have to be having some discussions around how self-sufficient and independent we can make ourselves.

Easy to say 'he wouldn't do that to us' but everything is a business deal to Trump.

Expect nothing less from a chronic grifter. He’s completely transactional with no emotional intelligence (ie pathological), so it’s normal behaviour for him. With no guard rails around him that’s exactly what he’d do.

[whufc]

The biggest fear i have / see with Trumps presidency is the extortion for security. Thats not my understanding of how allies/friends work.

Imagine the day China knocked on our doors and Trump pretty much extorts us for their support, so we end up in a damned if we do / damned if we don't scenario. Would be a scary place to be in.

With Trumps unpredictability our leaders have to be having some discussions around how self-sufficient and independent we can make ourselves.

Easy to say 'he wouldn't do that to us' but everything is a business deal to Trump.

Expect nothing less from a chronic grifter. He’s completely transactional with no emotional intelligence (ie pathological), so it’s normal behaviour for him. With no guard rails around him that’s exactly what he’d do.

Yep you could give the USA a trillion $$$ right now for their security but the moment their support was needed Trump would see it as another transactional deal and opportunity to take even more and play both sides of the ledger.

[mighty_tiger_79]

Since Joe took over after Don was dumped last night time, did we do anything to safeguard ourselves against Don?
Or did our lot in Canberra think he'd never get back in?
Could they have done anything?

[dedja]

Since Joe took over after Don was dumped last night time, did we do anything to safeguard ourselves against Don?
Or did our lot in Canberra think he'd never get back in?
Could they have done anything?

Surely the answer is obvious?