Funny how the original tweet fits Tesla to a “T.”Imagine running the country so poorly that you send the entire stock market into a free fall. pic.twitter.com/g0ArVmR9sU
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 5, 2025
Adventus
"I would like to say 'This book is written to the glory of God', but nowadays this would be the trick of a cheat, i.e., it would not be correctly understood."--Ludwig Wittgenstein
"Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards."--Soren Kierkegaard
Saturday, April 05, 2025
If The “T” Fits
Screams On The Intertoobs Are The Worsted
Coming back to this. It's not just the biggest tax hike in modern history. It was carried out unilaterally by the President (with no approval by Congress), & it's blatantly illegal.Yeah, I thought that’s where this was going:
This needs to be a central part of Democratic messaging. It's King George III shit. Democrats need to act like it.
Again, Trump’s deliberate attempt to damage the US economy is also blatantly illegal. If only the Framers had thought of a mechanism for addressing such conduct….Impeachment? Are you joking? When has that ever worked?
🍒 🥧
JMM brings the East Coast perspective:
It's critical for people to be active, getting organized at the state level not just in conventional political ways but also to operate within and buttress their state govts for Trump's coming onslaughtWelcome to Texas:*
The Lege is in session and likely to pass public funding for private schools. The same disastrous program tried at the end of the last century. But that’s okay: history is insulting to white people, so we don’t teach that anymore.Liar Greg Abbott says he has refused to set a special election to fill the seat of recently diseased Democratic Rep. Sylvester Turner because he says Harris County doesn’t do their elections properly. pic.twitter.com/JJvWszuHW3
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 5, 2025
🐧
“The WH was simply demanding lists of concessions, according to one foreign diplomat deeply involved in the conversations. The diplomat said Trump officials wanted regulations and other barriers to be wiped away to boost US goods and services being sold abroad.”…
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 5, 2025
Trump:Sucks to be you, small businesses pic.twitter.com/wqiuVxZiOd
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 5, 2025
China has been hit much harder than the USA, not even close. They, and many other nations, have treated us unsustainably badly. We have been the dumb and helpless 'whipping post,' but not any longer.New York Times Pitchbot:
We are bringing back jobs and businesses like never before. Already, more than FIVE TRILLION DOLLARS OF INVESTMENT, and rising fast! THIS IS AN ECONOMIC REVOLUTION, AND WE WILL WIN.
Tariffs will be lifted on penguins who agree to be completely white.Also, too , as well:
by Stephen Miller
Tariffs will be lifted on penguins who surrender their eggs to the US market.I’m disappointed no one is asking the White House about the tariffs on penguins. Really undermines credibility on the “$5 trillion,” (which has no credibility anyway), or just anything the White House has said since Wednesday (but I repeat myself).
by Howard Lutnick
Talked to a business friend deeply involved in CEO world, knows Trump and Scott Bessent. Calls Trump “a drunk driver taking the economy off the cliff into a needless recession,’ says Bessent told him he agrees. Predicts “he’ll be the shortest tenured Sec of Treasury in history.”
Friday, April 04, 2025
🍻
Indeed, who would?Moore: I have lost a lot of money, a lot of people lost a lot of money in the past week. But I'm here to tell you things will get better. Trump will win. I would never bet against this president pic.twitter.com/zfWWvzSYYH
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 5, 2025
UK: Brexit is the biggest act of economic self harm any country will ever perform
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) April 4, 2025
USA: Hold my beer... pic.twitter.com/x3PcvPpFi9
“In Order To Save The Village, We Had To Destroy It”
Trump isn’t wrecking the economy, he’s saving it because:
—the world is ripping America off.
—trade deficits are actually taking coin out of our coffers (it’s really not clear if he thinks this is a subset of the world ripping us off, or a wholly separate way we’re being screwed. Probably both and a little bit of neither. We’d have to ask the spiders.).🕷️
—Biden did it. Trump is just saving us from Biden’s deadly economy.
—Powell did it by not lowering interest rates.
—Wall Street did it by misunderstanding what Trump is doing.
—the world did it by misunderstanding what Trump is doing.
Whatever the explanation, the end is always the same. Trump is not responsible for what Trump does, unless he succeeds. Trump cannot fail, he can only be failed. And when he fails, it is never, ever his fault.
Some observers (per “Washington Week”) think the state of the market is already making Trump reconsider. That sounds right. Like all bullies, he’s good at talking tough, and terrible at taking responsibility. So he’ll try to end it, because he can’t stand it.
It’s as inevitable as sunrise.China restricting exports of rare earths is the thing that’s going to cause Trump to cave on China while declaring victory.
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 5, 2025
Who doesn’t think Trump will declare victory and ignore the countries saying that wasn’t the agreement? He certainly won’t let the tariffs run until Christmas.Rep. Rulli: "We're gonna go into the fall with full thrusters. The president is gonna renegotiate all these different tariffs that are going on throughout the country, and we could have the greatest Christmas probably in 100 years in America." pic.twitter.com/IBDJYnEn2H
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 4, 2025
The Mad King Is Proud Of It
Turns out it was “C)”.
I am assured Trump posted this himself .Corrections
So the point of the tariffs is?FOX BIZ: The Dow in correction. It loses the third most points in history.
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 4, 2025
*cuts to Kudlow*
KUDLOW: Alright, the stock market's tariff tantrum continues, but you know? Key countries around the world are lining up to negotiate with President Trump. How about that? pic.twitter.com/YcFT3lNggl
I think he meant to put that in the present tense. ‘Cause nobody can be that delusional. Right?Miller: We had an economy that was in a state of calamity and catastrophe. pic.twitter.com/Pvcqn0j904
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 4, 2025
Well, maybe I’m wrong.😑HUNT: Is this Donald Trump's economy now?
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 4, 2025
BURCHETT: Well, I don't know that I'd call it that
HUNT: Really? pic.twitter.com/fACm8vqUuI
The factory will open in just a few months, and AI and robots will take care of everything. And by then we can train high school kids to maintain the robots. Those kids’ll work cheap.Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer says Trump wants to onshore garment factories from Vietnam and Cambodia to the United States pic.twitter.com/qwMktPCMxK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 4, 2025
BREAKING: Dow drops 2,200 points, S&P 500 loses 10% in 2 days after China retaliated with new tariffs on U.S. goods, sparking fears Trump has ignited a global trade war that will lead to a recession.See? Nothing to worry about.
“A sharp rise in trade-war intensity sent Wall Street spiraling Friday, pushing the Nasdaq into a bear market denoting a 20% decline from its peak. … The marketwide toll from the two-day tariff rout surged to a record $6.4 trillion.”Joe Biden ruined all of those.
Chess? Is There A Board? Is it A Game?
Established: Trump is a complete idiot.
Jonathan Chait: "Asked by reporters whether he planned to negotiate the tariff rates, the president said, 'The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have.'"But negotiations mean tariffs are subject to change. Can’t invest in factories and workers if tariffs aren’t going to block access to cheaper labor in foreign markets basically in perpetuity. So:
Trump on Truth Social, "TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE.” See? , says Trump. I understand the concept of “perpetuity.”
Chait: "Once you’ve said you might negotiate the tariffs, nobody is going to believe you when you change your mind and say you’ll never negotiate."
Two hours later, Trump announced a negotiated agreement with Vietnam.
Chait concluded that Trump's original plan, even if executed perfectly, was "not a good one by any means." But that plan is now "botched" and the future of American trade remains uncertain.Trump is an empty bag of wind with a head full of spiders. He is no more capable of rational thought than a drug addicted spider monkey, and no more strategic than a two year old who has not yet figured out the cause and effect of tantrums. The fact that anyone still thinks he must be capable at something is just proof you can fool enough people enough of the time to get away with being a complete moron in any job you can get someone to give you.
Can We Declare Charlie Kirk A…
..."criminal, foreign illegal, or gang member”? Seems to be all it takes.This is the most disingenuous talking point that only MAGA is stupid enough to fall for.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 4, 2025
🙄 pic.twitter.com/8M5CCtQFoB
“ALL IS WELL!”
The GOP senators are concerned.The thing is a few months to do what? Negotiate tariffs? Trump says he never will. And there's not a country on Earth that would trust him anyway. Plus the political imperatives for foreign pols is to stand up against Trump. Caving to Trump will be political suicide https://t.co/30woqOUUz5
— Armando (@ArmandoNDK) April 4, 2025
Ron Johnson: "I'm certainly concerned about what's happening right now in the markets, and I hope the administration is looking at it as well." pic.twitter.com/VnPghC51HY
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 4, 2025
The market has lost 8% of its value in just two days, but hey! GOP senators are concerned about it! And they’ll let you know if they get more concerned!😦Ron Johnson: "What's also indisputable is the markets are down about 8% in just two days, and I'm getting all kids of reactions from businesses, farmers in Wisconsin that are highly concerned about what's happening. Those are the facts ... it's a bold, risky move." pic.twitter.com/vTnDWs9Wcp
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 4, 2025
And Ahab continues his pursuit of the white whale…as Fox Business pleads with Trump to back off his self-destructive tariffs, Trump posts that "MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE" pic.twitter.com/lKtiZvjXAV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 4, 2025
“HANK TOUGH”*
Yesterday the market wasn’t low enough. It’s gotta get worse before it gets disastrous.
Who is this elusive Hank Tough he speaks of? pic.twitter.com/h3XMEgcbLg
— James Liddell (@LiddellWrites) April 4, 2025
According To Howard Lutnick…
...AI’s going to replace all those jobs.There were already 570,000 open manufacturing jobs in March 2025.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 3, 2025
Where are all these people going to come from to fill Donald Trump's fantasyland of a manufacturing renaissance?
Go man those assembly lines, MAGA.
Chop chop.
Thursday, April 03, 2025
When A Cat Is Smarter Than The Secretary of Commerce*
Three examples of why Trump's tariffs will raise the price of domestic products:
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) April 3, 2025
1.
Imagine you make wine in California. The prices of all imported wine is about to go up significantly because of the tariffs?
What do you do to your prices? You increase them, just by less
Lagniappe:3.
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) April 3, 2025
You grow bananas. Previously you exported them to the US, the world's largest importer of bananas. They're going to be hit by a Trump Tariff. You can send them somewhere else instead where there will be a much lower tariff.
What happens to the price of American grown bananas…
The US stock market: 📉 pic.twitter.com/Jv7gaAgQak
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) April 3, 2025
To my friends in the US: I'd send you my sympathies but your President would make you pay to receive them https://t.co/coYTm2phk0
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) April 2, 2025
S.H.I.T.
Meanwhile, in Presidenting:After crashing the stock market, Trump is now in FL for the rest of the week hosting the Saudi-owned LIV golf league at his course. pic.twitter.com/EjWNk6QryN
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 4, 2025
Hell, he worked hard getting ready to tank the markets yesterday. He compared it to surgery. And he had to wait ‘til the markets closed down shit would hit the fan today while he wasn’t there to get spattered. He deserves to start the weekend on Thursday, right?A man’s gotta have a code. Trump’s code is that the Saudis are paying him millions to host the golf tournament, so that’s where he is. pic.twitter.com/3hd5Ay8OiA
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 4, 2025
The DOW today looks like a coyote ate and then vomited it off a cliff.They underreacted because they still think he’s going to reverse them in a few days. Wait until they realize he isn’t. pic.twitter.com/zhN6gVQ5kv
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 4, 2025
These are not economic indicators. But they indicate the”money people” think business is going to be bad, so get out ahead of it.Donald Trump now holds the record for the largest single point drop in a day on the Nasdaq after it lost 1050 points today.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 3, 2025
He beat his own record of 970 points during the pandemic.
Bravo.
🙄 pic.twitter.com/dKlMIpSMJc
Maybe they’re on to something.Elon Musk has lost $110 billion so far this year as a result of Tesla stock tanking.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 4, 2025
Including $11 billion just today because of Donald Trump's tariffs.
Couldn't have happened to a more deserving guy!
🍿
AI Is Magic 🪄
And will solve all our problems and allow us to send all the brown people away.Lutnick: The operation has happened, the patient is in bed and starting to recover.. we just had to wait for the AI technology boom to be here now to let us compete with all the cheap labor all around the world pic.twitter.com/uHbfTOM0q3
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 4, 2025
I Dunno….
Having read just Martin Chuzzlewit and considered the isolationism only overcome by Pearl Harbor, I think jingoism, ignorance of the world, and rank stupidity are as American as greed, xenophobia, and racism.
What Dickens saw in 19th century America is what I’ve seen in 20th and 21st century America. What I’ve learned of the intractability of culture (think of it as an almost immovable object akin to genetics and family traditions combined) convinces me the relatively international nature of American governance (“international” meaning Europe and the concerns of European nations; Vietnam, hem hem. And don’t make me stop this car and explain to you the French connection there!) after WWII until Trump was always the exception (aberration), that proved the rule.
The rubber band snapped back, to put it bluntly. What is Stephen Miller after, if not to purge the country of all the people not here (as in, not acknowledged), in the 1950’s? What a lot of white men are still taught to want, long after the Civil Rights movement is an historical monument and Obama’s election proved we aren’t racist anymore anywhere in America. Trying to return to a status quo we shouldn’t want at all, IOW.
I heard a fired government employee interviewed today’s who said she was told the point was to eliminate any sign or suggestion of DEI and accessibility. As I said, Trump’s been told the ramps in the White House are historic (built for FDR), because if he knew they were required by the ADA, he’d want to tear them out. Civil rights are only for able-bodied white men who like Trump. They are the only people who deserve them. The way the Founding Fathers meant. Really.
But lots of people like to think that way, about their friends. At least enough people to think Trump is worth…something.
I don’t think he’s worth the paper these thoughts are printed on. I mean, as a public servant; or anything other than another old rich man, for whom I have no real responsibility or concern. I don’t wish him ill. I just don’t wish him to be POTUS.
Which is about all I can really do to oppose him, especially considering I’m highly unlikely to see my representatives in Congress being Democrats in, we, my lifetime.
Dese are de conditions dat prevail.
He Means $5 Million Paid To Him
A reminder he put tariffs on two volcanic islands and a joint U.S./U.K. military base. He’s waiting for all three to call to negotiate.My god https://t.co/KxN9bTeu4B
— MeidasTouch (@MeidasTouch) April 3, 2025
Saying it does not make it so:Reporter: How long will it take to get manufacturing -- American manufacturing to where you would like to see it?
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
Trump: Well, let's say it is a two-year process.. pic.twitter.com/BT1Fkqckjc
Operators are standing by. This is a free call.There were already 570,000 open manufacturing jobs in March 2025.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 3, 2025
Where are all these people going to come from to fill Donald Trump's fantasyland of a manufacturing renaissance?
Go man those assembly lines, MAGA.
Chop chop.
And his presentation of the basis for the tariffs was aptly described as:Donald Trump now holds the record for the largest single point drop in a day on the Nasdaq after it lost 1050 points today.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 3, 2025
He beat his own record of 970 points during the pandemic.
Bravo.
🙄 pic.twitter.com/dKlMIpSMJc
"It’s hard to state just how nonsensical that actually is," he wrote. "You might as well divide the numbers of apples in your kitchen by the number of bagels and use it to calculate your mortgage rate. To criticise it on political or economic grounds is too generous. It operates below the level of rational thought."I mean:
Mr. “I will end the Russia/Ukraine war in a day,” who told Zelensky he had “no cards,” hasn’t even persuaded Putin to accept a 24-hour ceasefire. Trump has always operated below the level of rational thought. If he ever rose to the level of rational thought his brain would be starved of oxygen, and it would kill him.Trump: Europe has not been successful dealing with Putin, but I think I will be successful. pic.twitter.com/cZmwnN7h0P
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
Same metaphor, earlier that same day. The man has spiders where his brain should be. They have control of his arms and legs and mouth, and they are having a dandy time.Reporter: The markets are way down…
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
Trump: I think it’s going very well. It was an operation like when a patient gets operated on and it’s a big thing. The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to boom. The country is going to boom. pic.twitter.com/UqcRWPOrOp
What does The Donald care?The value of the U.S. dollar has fallen by −1.55% in the past 24 hours.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 3, 2025
MaKE aMERiCA GrEAt AgAiN.
🙄
As Americans' 401(k) and retirement accounts plummet, Donald Trump jets off to go to Saudi Arabia's LIV golf dinner and tournament at his Doral golf club before heading to Mar-a-Lago.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 3, 2025
Does MAGA even care that the Saudis are funneling money to Donald or nah? pic.twitter.com/7rmqof3ytY
The Metaphor…
... is 19th century pre-modern medicine, when the patient (in 19th century literature, anyway) always got worse until “the fever broke,” and then they were going to get better.Trump on Market Crash: Well, I mean, it is to be expected, this is a patient that was very sick. We inherited a terrible economy. pic.twitter.com/jTky1sICVz
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
And His Eponymous Company Was Nailed For Massive And Pervasive Fraud
So, let him run country like a business.Don’t worry, we’re in good hands.
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 3, 2025
Trump owned an airline, casinos, a university, and a football team and all were hugely successful.
It’s going well.I'm sitting here laughing that Republicans spent all that time trying to "save" appliances under Biden, and Whirlpool had to lay off around 650 workers because of Donald Trump.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 3, 2025
🤦♀️
Seeing? Nothing to worry about….Lutnick: "Let Donald Trump run the global economy. He's knows what he's doing. He's been talking about it for 35 years. You gotta trust Donald Trump in the White House ... it's broken. Let him fix it ... Let Donald Trump fix the American economy." pic.twitter.com/QhPA3DG0LC
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 3, 2025
Howard is the obtuse simpleton that Wall Street folks told me he wasWhat was your first clue?
“This might be the single stupidest thing any of us will ever see,"
The best commentary on what Trump did yesterday; and, of course, it’s British. Also, of course, it’s behind a paywall, so this is as much as I’ve got.
“This might be the single stupidest thing any of us will ever see," Dunt argued. "It is stupid in every way: presentationally, intellectually, politically, methodologically, morally and of course economically. The word stupid doesn’t really suffice for the full level of idiocy we’ve now reached."And Congress is just hoping if they hide long enough, this will all go away.
Dunt found himself particularly appalled by the chart that Trump showed that contained wildly inflated figures about the tariffs foreign nations slap on American products.
"It looked like something out of US daytime television – those garish cheaply produced shows where you can win a cash prize if you spin a wheel," he remarked. "You half expected a showgirl to appear behind the American flags, draped over a tariff quota rate. That’s what he is really: a cheap knock-off daytime TV presenter."
As if that weren't bad enough, Dunt continued, "The numbers on the chart were pure gibberish."
In fact, the numbers on the chart were so far from reality that Dunt struggled to come up with the words to adequately describe them.
"It’s hard to state just how nonsensical that actually is," he wrote. "You might as well divide the numbers of apples in your kitchen by the number of bagels and use it to calculate your mortgage rate. To criticise it on political or economic grounds is too generous. It operates below the level of rational thought."
R.U.R 🤖
Seeing a lot of people hammer Lutnick for his comments on American v European beef. 🥩 (You could look it up.)Lutnick: Tradecraft is going to come back to America. High school educated workforce is going to get trained to do robot mechanic pic.twitter.com/500F4NwLv4
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
Close, But Not A Cigar
Sen. Murphy’s analysis is sound: Trump wants control of lawyers, universities, government agencies, and businesses. He gains the latter through tariffs. Consider the position of Apple, whose iPhone is set to cost 50% more because it’s made in China. What choice do they have but to appease Trump and seek a waiver, if only because shareholders will demand it?11/ The tariffs aren’t economic policy. They are political weapons.
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 3, 2025
But as long as we see this clearly, we can stop him. Public mobilization is working. Today, a few Republicans joined Democrats to vote against one set of tariffs.
The people still have the power.
There is no general “economic emergency” that provides the statutory justification for global tariffs; if anything can be justified on national security grounds than everything can be justified on national security grounds; and if everything can be justified on national security grounds: Danger.
Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Newt’s An Historian, You Know
He also knows a lot about losing power.Gingrich: Make sure that you actually start shifting the tax burden back onto tariffs. Prior to 1913 when they passed the income tax, tariffs were the
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
primary source of revenue… Trump is actually returning us to a very successful American model pic.twitter.com/pmDeddre3M
But Susan Collins never said Newt had learned his lesson.Paul: When McKinley, most famously put tariffs on in 1890 ,they lost 50% of their seats… In the early 1930s, we lost the house and senate for 60 years. So not only bad economically, they are bad politically. pic.twitter.com/IjWI8upCgK
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
I hesitate to say the campaign ads write themselves, but if Newt’s for it, it’s a certain loser.Phillip: The WSJ says: Trump is saying that there will be no tariff exemptions, but watch that promise vanish as politicians, including Mr. Trump, see exemptions as a way to leverage campaign contributions from businesses. Liberation day is buy another yacht day for the swamp pic.twitter.com/81sK5wIhTo
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
😑
And the GOP is with him all the way!
Susan Collins trying to have it both ways here. But critical point, EVERY House GOP but one voted in the "CR" to further tie their own hands to prevent themselves from getting in Trump's way when he started TariffgeddonDems gotta do more about this than Cory Booker’s filibuster.
OTOH, they might just have to stay out of the way.Lutnick: "Donald Trump understands America. He understands American workers, and he understands national security. And thank goodness he's gonna protect us." pic.twitter.com/b7niLIFseC
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 3, 2025
(“Global governments”?) Except Americans found out during Covid they didn’t want to do shit jobs for shit pay (and wages in Taiwan and Korea were much cheaper). Houston hasn’t had reliable garbage service since Covid. I don’t know what those former workers are doing, but they aren’t driving garbage trucks, and nobody else is picking up the slack.Lutnick: "What's happened to the world is the global governments have backed taking our factories away from us. I mean, there's nothing about Taiwan that they should be making semi-conductors. There's nothing about Korea that they should be making all the appliances." pic.twitter.com/YtNob5FpBD
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 3, 2025
It's also important to understand that the tariff rates that foreign countries are supposedly charging us are just made-up numbers. South Korea, with which we have a trade agreement, is not charging a 50% tariff on U.S. exports. Nor is the EU charging a 39% tariff. pic.twitter.com/hQriooZdBl
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) April 2, 2025
Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us.
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) April 2, 2025
So we… https://t.co/PBjF8xmcuv
Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us.Probably true. Jeebus, even “Idiocracy” wasn’t this bad. Although I’d pay good money to see Bessent on camera trying to explain it away. Or maybe just get him to explain how we’re “subsidizing Canada” to the tune of $300 billion a year.
So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is.
History On Repeat Really Sucks
Trump continued, "It took years and years to get out of that depression, far longer than even FDR — had that office right over there for a long period of time. The ramp system, it's rather intricate, was built because of him. And every time you walk up, you think of him. And he did a great job in many ways — but it lasted long beyond his terms, as you know. But it's not too late any longer, and we're going to start being smart, and we're going to start being very wealthy again."The White House was gutted and rebuilt between 1948 and 1951. I’ve seen movie sets (in movies of the period) showing FDR’s White House. It looks nothing like the interior of the modern White House.
Blimey. What have Reunion and Norfolk Island done to annoy the Mango Mussolini? #TrumpTariffs pic.twitter.com/hmhf0rqJiq
— anthony vickers (@untypicalboro) April 2, 2025
It’s a Norwegian peninsula. So he effectively put lower tariffs on Baja California than on Mexico (actually he probably did that, too).Excuse me, Svalbard? https://t.co/VuvCfGeqaU
— Shashank Joshi (@shashj) April 2, 2025
Probably because he wants hamburger manufacture to return to America.We put tariffs on Heard Island and McDonald Island, and no one lives there lmao pic.twitter.com/i3YTlXxWzL
— Hayden (@the_transit_guy) April 2, 2025
Shhh!! 🤫 Nobody tell him!Donald Trump put a 10% tariff on Heard and McDonald Islands near Antarctica...
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 2, 2025
Where they don't have any inhabitants?
What a f'n idiot. pic.twitter.com/OiJgyGdtyM
Called it!!!Lutnick: McDonald's tried to bring in French fries and they wouldn't let them take the French fries because they said they couldn’t prove the origin of the potato now that is the definition of a trade barrier. pic.twitter.com/TvsdA9BDEY
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
Damned kids gotta be good for something, and keeping rich people’s robots working is good enough for ‘em!Lutnick: Tradecraft is going to come back to America. High school educated workforce is going to get trained to do robot mechanic pic.twitter.com/500F4NwLv4
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
Very hard to say just what will happen. (But didn’t Trump just say it’s a tax we don’t have to pay? Sounded real simple then.)Collins: Prices will go up for Americans in the short term?
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
Bessent: They could they don't have to… businesses don't have to pass them on or the producers in the other countries can eat the tariffs.. it’s a very complicated calculus pic.twitter.com/ZE3R9oeQfZ
Pre-industrial America when the “global economy” was slavery and then cotton (relying on slave labor) is maybe a NOT the go-to you’re looking for.Collins: And on the 10% of all imports across the board, that's that baseline on all countries. You've said before that that tariffs should be used strategically. How would what is the strategy in that. What is the ultimate end game.
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
Bessent: Well, I've said that that's one use… pic.twitter.com/OEBHNT5oN5
So, we can retaliate (Trump), but they should know better?Bessent: Don't immediately retaliate. Let's see where this goes. Because if you retaliate, that's how we get escalation pic.twitter.com/dgrrgzfb7f
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
Where we are is imposing tariffs on uninhabited islands and islands of 20,000 population, and a 5% lower tariff in a Norwegian peninsula than on the country of Norway. Which is like Norway imposing tariffs on America, but a lower tariff on Florida. In other words, we’re at the mercy of a bump brain who makes George III and Mad Ludwig of Bavaria look like King David and Solomon.Collins: I imagine some of these countries are going to call and try to negotiate this. Is that an option for these countries over the next few days, or what is the white house's mindset on that?
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 3, 2025
Bessent: Well, I think the mindset is let's just see where we are and then we'll… pic.twitter.com/Czr17LmcqT
And history on repeat really sucks.Trump: the Great Depression wouldn’t have happened “if they had stayed with the tariffs.”
— Lucas Holtz (@LucasHoltz__) April 2, 2025
Reality:pic.twitter.com/dkCo6TpjsY https://t.co/eJrK0gITKy
Ladies And Gentlemen, The President of the United States
Not even close. The ballpark is 100 miles in the wrong direction.Trump: Likewise an old-fashioned term that we use groceries, it's an old-fashioned term, groceries.
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
A bag with different things in it pic.twitter.com/XhtrwUVeLn
His credibility is in that ballpark, too.Trump: If the Democrats got in, the entire economy would collapse pic.twitter.com/tWXuVue7kQ
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
Tariffs are going to cure bird flu and bring the dead chickens back to life and flood the market with eggs in time for the celebration of Our Lord’s resurrection?Trump: "They were saying that for Easter, 'Please don't use eggs. Could you use plastic eggs?' I say, we don't want to do that." pic.twitter.com/QnfgOsE7uW
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 2, 2025
There. That’s what it’s all about.Trump: I think you will remember today, it will be a day that hopefully you look back in years to come and say he was right, this turned out to be one of the most important days in the history of our country pic.twitter.com/sM69IrH2HQ
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
See?Trump leaves the stage but is guided back to sign the executive orders pic.twitter.com/vhpxNNLBMa
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
Well, I Guess I Didn’t Miss It
Now if the Senate just does their job….Trump: In a few moments I will sign a historic executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world. This is one of the most important days in my opinion in American history pic.twitter.com/dmto6X5B9F
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
As the late Gene Hackman put it (as Lex Luthor) in the first “Superman” movie: "It's amazing that brain can generate enough power to keep those legs moving.")Trump: In a few moments I will sign a historic executive order instituting reciprocal tariffs on countries throughout the world. This is one of the most important days in my opinion in American history pic.twitter.com/dmto6X5B9F
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
So this is okay then?Trump: Now it is our turn to prosper and in so doing, use trillions and trillions of dollars to reduce our taxes and pay down our national debt and it will all happen very quickly pic.twitter.com/rJqTAoQpPc
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
And Elon can go home and DOGE can put everything back where they found it and RFK, Jr. can yell “APRIL FOOL’S!” because this is how you fix the deficit? With moonbeams and fantasies?The Senate budget raises the debt by $5 trillion.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 2, 2025
The House budget raises the budget by $4 trillion.
Republicans and DOGE are a total farce when they screech about the debt.
Liberation!
Is Stephen Miller going to deport to El Salvador if they come, because they are brown and terrorists?Oh.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 2, 2025
Donald Trump is in talks with the Taliban?
Is he going to try to invite them to Camp David again?
🙄
Says The Guy Who Would Take A Chainsaw To The Chessboard
♟️Pathetic cope from Elon Musk after Wisconsin gave him the bird and elected Susan Crawford.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 2, 2025
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/DRkQq9u2WE
“Extended Service”?
There are 46,000 Cybertrucks on the road, all of which are subject to recall because of bad glue…. And yet some are undergoing “extended service”?Can’t blame the libs for this. https://t.co/iwYZrgxSOy pic.twitter.com/O21yVGZssq
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 2, 2025
I know the Nazi thing is getting all the attention, but Tesla’s are basically computers on wheels. And as I understand it, they haven’t changed their battery technology, and the “self-driving” car that doesn’t (still) exist is based on cameras when everyone else as gone to LiDAR (my Volvo has a lane keeping feature meant to keep you from drifting. It works from a camera that sees the lane dividers. I bough it during Covid.).Tesla sales in the U.S. have dropped 13% in Q1 to the lowest levels since 2022.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 2, 2025
I love this for Elon Musk.
🍿
And This Is A Surprise…
The New York City-based firms have thus far conducted themselves cravenly and disgracefully....because?
I Was Assured Trump Would Defy All Court Orders And Laws
So...? 🤷🏻♂️Trump says Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, and Susan Collins are being “unbelievably disloyal” for introducing a bill to reverse his Canada tariffs. pic.twitter.com/UZEjLnKLqB
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 2, 2025
Tuesday, April 01, 2025
If, On The Other Hand….
…you want to go through the looking glass:
Peter Thiel ally Curtis Yarvin recently accused the Trump administration of failing to understand that “regime change”, requires that “Every existing institution of science” be “fully cremated” & replaced w/ a “new scientific establishment.” Soon after, RFK Jr guts HHS & announces a new division 1/That post is part of a 21 post thread laying out an argument that Thiel is behind all this:
The Rockbridge Transition Project will create a ‘government-in-waiting’ with the people & plans to staff the next Republican Administration. The goal is to be ready to govern effectively…from day one.“—Rockbridge Network 2021 Budget (Thiel & Mercer reportedly back Rockbridge.) 1/ #Project2025Wheels within wheels, IOW. Gabbard and Vance are connected to Thiel, after all.
Copium, Wisconsin Edition
The real story of these three elections is that money doesn’t determine outcomes. No doubt it matters, but it isn’t determinative.Cooper: Do you think this was a referendum on Musk?
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
Jennings: I think the Schimel campaign was really struggling, both financially and just in terms of traction before Musk got involved. He may have actually, you know, given whatever boost he had late pic.twitter.com/gIu1Sjy68W
Walker: You’ve got George Soros and Pritzker and Reid Hoffman and all these billionaires who've spent far more than Musk did pic.twitter.com/CxOcqjW1KU
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 2, 2025
It’s a fair cop.He wore the cheesehead hat in WI. Spent $20 million. Paid people to sign petitions. Paid people to canvas. Did million dollar giveaways. A rally. TV interviews. But I guess people in Wisconsin didn’t appreciate an oligarch trying to buy their civil liberties. pic.twitter.com/8BaWkNIzm0
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 2, 2025
King-making is HARD!Schimel lost. pic.twitter.com/G2rpMBMtgG
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 2, 2025
Game over, man! Game over!I guess western civilization is over now. pic.twitter.com/7zlOpGJy5y
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 2, 2025
That’s going to be the gift that keeps on giving. I mean, if they don’t lose, they can’t complain about it.You do realize they are going to say Wisconsin was rigged, right?
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 2, 2025
“There Is No Habitation For A Man To Live There…”
“…and the king of that country is the fierce Greenland bear “
Three people with knowledge of the matter told The Washington Post that the White House took steps in recent weeks to attempt to determine the cost of Greenland becoming a U.S. territory. That includes how much the government would have to spend to provide services for its roughly 58,000 residents and how much it would cost to maintain should it be acquired, according to the report.Set aside Congressional approval of this nonsense (do we really need a larger, colder Puerto Rico? I mean, I assume we’re never giving Greenland two senators and a representative), I thought we were trying to cut spending? Is that only for Americans? Greenlanders we can give more too (and yes, Puerto Rico has entered the chat).💬 Let’s sell that one when Elon’s statutory 130 days has expired. Should make people not miss him, anyway.
Additionally, the Trump administration is looking into any potential revenue that could be earned from the massive island's natural resources.
Under consideration is having the U.S. try to offer Greenlandic people a better deal than Denmark, which subsidizes services at about $600 million a year, according to the report.
“This is a lot higher than that,” one official familiar with the plans told the Post. “The point is, ‘We’ll pay you more than Denmark does.’”
Waste, Fraud and Abuse
The same judicial trickery that enforced your offer to buy Twitter? Or the judicial trickery that blocked Tesler from paying you an unseemly bonus for riding the wave of a meme stock as you drive your public company into the ground?Musk: They are trying to stop the will of the people through judicial trickery. There’s a huge problem with activists who are politicians in judges robes. It’s undermining the integrity of the legal system. These fake judges should be ashamed pic.twitter.com/ghP2B5UhYf
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 1, 2025
Sounds like you want some judicial trickery for yourself.Musk: Yes, these are serious crimes where the organizers and pushers of mass violence will go to prison for a very long time. pic.twitter.com/nHoxGsHSA9
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 1, 2025
That, too. And you know this takes more than tweets and interviews to make it happen, right?Musk: What we have to get to are the people that are organizing and paying for these attacks and protests. That's who we really need to go after.. We need to go after the generals. We’re coming for them pic.twitter.com/1iBz2EVtpL
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 1, 2025
But At Least The Price Of Eggs?
Thousands of the best experts at FDA, NIH, and all across HHS are being terminated right now.
— Craig Spencer MD MPH (@Craig_A_Spencer) April 1, 2025
These are the people who make sure the medications you and your children take are safe.
These are the people who perform and oversee research on cancer, infant health, and so so so…
Thousands of the best experts at FDA, NIH, and all across HHS are being terminated right now.One step forward, five steps back.
These are the people who make sure the medications you and your children take are safe.
These are the people who perform and oversee research on cancer, infant health, and so so so much more.
These are the people who make sure new devices that physicians and patients use are effective.
These are the people who keep workers safe on the job and help prevent devastating injuries for workers all around the country.
These are the people who track what drugs and medications are experiencing shortages so we can adapt.
These are the people who help tackle HIV and other infectious diseases, asthma, lead poisoning, and everything else that makes many Americans sick.
And now, thousands of them are gone.
There is no way this makes Americans healthier.
We will regret this.
STAT News reports that about twenty-five percent of the entire HHS workforce is expected to be eliminated:We will learn from this that not everything is about the price of eggs in presidential elections, right?
“As of last week, it was estimated that the FDA would take the biggest cut, losing roughly 3,500 employees, or about 19% its workforce, followed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which was expected to lose … about 18% of its staff. The National Institutes of Health was projected to lose about 1,200 employees, or about 6% of its workers.”
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who served as FDA Commissioner during President Donald Trump’s first administration, did not appear to directly address the firings, but chose the day they are happening to warn about the destruction of the ecosystem that works to create new drugs, which includes HHS agencies like the FDA and the NIH.
“Twenty-five years ago, it was common to hear complaints about a ‘drug lag’—the perception that Europeans routinely enjoyed medical advances years before their American counterparts. Through a generation of congressional actions, investments in expertise and hiring, and careful policymaking, we built the FDA into the most efficient, forward-leaning drug regulatory agency in the world—and established the U.S. as the global center of biopharmaceutical innovation. Today, the cumulative barrage on that drug-discovery enterprise, threatens to swiftly bring back those frustrating delays for American consumers, particularly affecting rare diseases and areas of significant unmet medical need.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy, you violated the Hippocratic oath when you supported RFK Jr.'s nomination and you own this—and all the horrific consequences to come. pic.twitter.com/C0PWDUnDjD
— David Corn (@DavidCornDC) April 1, 2025
“401K People”?
Harris Faulkner on how Trump should talk to "401k people" worried about tariffs hurting them: "Look, when this nation used to go to war, people in this country would support the war effort with their materials at home and making things for weaponry. We have to do 100% buy in over… pic.twitter.com/6bXgRqszby
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 1, 2025
Do they live in flyover country?
Harris Faulkner on how Trump should talk to "401k people" worried about tariffs hurting them: "Look, when this nation used to go to war, people in this country would support the war effort with their materials at home and making things for weaponry. We have to do 100% buy in over this bumpy period."And we have to do this because the non-401K people need a really big tax cut?
Is this the way to the tax cut? That 401K people won’t get?The Atlanta Fed now estimates Q1 GDP dropped to -3.7%, down from its previous estimate of -2.8% on March 28th.
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) April 1, 2025
This isn't "winning," MAGA.
This is Donald Trump's failed economic policies in action.
🤦♀️
Why Nobody Calls Professors At Ivy League Schools “Coach”
Tuberville: “We built China - the American taxpayers. We built the Middle East. We built Europe. So now it’s time they help us build back our country after we’ve helped them so much, and that happens to be with tariffs.” pic.twitter.com/PYDOTyf7ed
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) April 1, 2025