[worry]

QuickTidal, on 23 May 2025 - 01:20 PM, said:

collective good

This is exactly why they are being assailed.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Just when it seemed like Trump might have had a change of heart, and had suddenly started putting forth one good policy after another... Bruce Springsteen had to go and be mean to him.

So now it's back to Mad King Trump... 50% tariff on the EU, 25% tariff on iPhones and all smartphones not made in the US, etc. etc. Because he woke up on the wrong side of his head... so distraught was he over the Boss's spite.

Seriously IDK what was inspiring that brief period of good policy proposals. Some new advisor had his ear perhaps?... Did he think it would somehow help his tax bill pass?

[Tsundoku]

Interesting. I'm sure it will still be OK to shoot up a primary school though.

Could watching porn soon make you a criminal?
Despite Trump having graced the pages of Playboy multiple times in the past, he now wants you to stop watching porn. Here is why.

https://www.news.com...cc237b210bcd950

[QuickTidal]

So the tariffs are gone. Likely permanently. The Court of International Trade ruled against Trumps ability to use tariffs.

And for those who worry about how the courts can't 'enforce' this - (becuase this MFer has trampled over every court order he''s seen)

This is a different and reverse enforcement situation.

The court doesn't *need* to enforce anything - this verdict in and of itself removes any legal obligation on the behalf of importers to pay the tariffs.

So it would be up to *Trump* to try to force giant corporations with huge legal teams to pay tariffs even though they don't have to, according to the court order. They're not going to do that - their asses are legally covered now, so they just won't pay.

Now, another question now is whether the government going to have to re-pay illegally collected tariffs?

I bet the corporations would *love* that, because while they had to pay the tariffs, they passed the cost on to consumers. So there would actually be no legal obligation for corps to pay that back to their customers, but they'd still get the money back that they paid the government.

Also - if the budget presented in the currently passed budget bill relied on tariffs to provide the 'tax cuts', it would give the senate an even bigger reason to reject it.

Trumps going to throw a fit, but who cares. Oh and Musk has left the Trump Admin officially now, and interviews with him show we broke his spirit. Good.

In a long few months of shit, it's a good day.

[amphibian]

The details of how Musk "left" (I don't believe he's actually abandoned much power and he has surely kept a structure to come back when the while strikes) are absolutely insane.

Stephen Miller and his wife Katie have been in a polycule type deal for a while. Katie has been spending time with Musk as part of that. Katie has now left govt work to go be with Musk and Stephen is real mad about it. This is credible enough that the NY Times is reporting/writing on some of this and the rest is easily found online from fairly credible journalism platforms.

[QuickTidal]

amphibian, on 29 May 2025 - 12:14 PM, said:

The details of how Musk "left" (I don't believe he's actually abandoned much power and he has surely kept a structure to come back when the while strikes) are absolutely insane.

Stephen Miller and his wife Katie have been in a polycule type deal for a while. Katie has been spending time with Musk as part of that. Katie has now left govt work to go be with Musk and Stephen is real mad about it. This is credible enough that the NY Times is reporting/writing on some of this and the rest is easily found online from fairly credible journalism platforms.

Not that Musk is something to look at, but Miller was batting far above his weight with her from a looks perspective. He looks (and acts) like grown up Caillou.

And knowing what evil garbage humans both men are personality-wise , she's likely there for power and prestige and that's it. I hope they get into a physical altercation over it.

[Cause]

amphibian, on 29 May 2025 - 12:14 PM, said:

The details of how Musk "left" (I don't believe he's actually abandoned much power and he has surely kept a structure to come back when the while strikes) are absolutely insane.

Stephen Miller and his wife Katie have been in a polycule type deal for a while. Katie has been spending time with Musk as part of that. Katie has now left govt work to go be with Musk and Stephen is real mad about it. This is credible enough that the NY Times is reporting/writing on some of this and the rest is easily found online from fairly credible journalism platforms.

Im not 100% fluent in Incel speak but Ill try my best.

So the world is going to hell because Stephen 'Soyboy' Miller got Cucked by Elon musk.

[Mentalist]

QuickTidal, on 29 May 2025 - 11:56 AM, said:

So the tariffs are gone. Likely permanently. The Court of International Trade ruled against Trumps ability to use tariffs.

And for those who worry about how the courts can't 'enforce' this - (becuase this MFer has trampled over every court order he''s seen)

This is a different and reverse enforcement situation.

The court doesn't *need* to enforce anything - this verdict in and of itself removes any legal obligation on the behalf of importers to pay the tariffs.

So it would be up to *Trump* to try to force giant corporations with huge legal teams to pay tariffs even though they don't have to, according to the court order. They're not going to do that - their asses are legally covered now, so they just won't pay.

Now, another question now is whether the government going to have to re-pay illegally collected tariffs?

I bet the corporations would *love* that, because while they had to pay the tariffs, they passed the cost on to consumers. So there would actually be no legal obligation for corps to pay that back to their customers, but they'd still get the money back that they paid the government.

Also - if the budget presented in the currently passed budget bill relied on tariffs to provide the 'tax cuts', it would give the senate an even bigger reason to reject it.

Trumps going to throw a fit, but who cares. Oh and Musk has left the Trump Admin officially now, and interviews with him show we broke his spirit. Good.

In a long few months of shit, it's a good day.

I wonder how that'll push the bond market.
On the one hand, institutional stability.
On the other hand, negative tariff income means the budget will be even more broken, which should push interest further up.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

QuickTidal, on 29 May 2025 - 11:56 AM, said:

So the tariffs are gone. Likely permanently. The Court of International Trade ruled against Trumps ability to use tariffs.

And for those who worry about how the courts can't 'enforce' this - (becuase this MFer has trampled over every court order he''s seen)

This is a different and reverse enforcement situation.

The court doesn't *need* to enforce anything - this verdict in and of itself removes any legal obligation on the behalf of importers to pay the tariffs.

So it would be up to *Trump* to try to force giant corporations with huge legal teams to pay tariffs even though they don't have to, according to the court order. They're not going to do that - their asses are legally covered now, so they just won't pay.

For any who haven't seen the news yet, the appeals court has put a pause on the repeal, so the tariffs are still in effect. The tariffs are most likely going to remain in effect throughout the appeals process, with the Supreme Court having the final say. (If the appeals court changes its mind about allowing the tariffs to remain in effect during appeal, Trump will file an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. Wouldn't it make more sense to determine whether something is constitutional or not before letting Trump do it? IMO yes, but the current Supreme Court seems more sympathetic to the argument that that would excessively impede the executive branch's ability to govern competently.) Here's hoping one of the Trump appointees defects again.

But---assuming they do remain in effect during the appeals---Trump will almost certainly try his time-tested tactic of dragging court proceedings out as much as possible. With assistance from Alito and Thomas.

Even if the Supreme Court eventually rules against them, Trump has several legally well-established methods for unilaterally imposing tariffs:

Quote

Federal law allows Trump to impose tariffs of up to 15% for up to 150 days in situations where imports exceed exports to a degree deemed a crisis.

He could also use a legal provision called Section 232 to impose industry-specific tariffs following an investigation into how imports affect national security, as he's recently done with steel, aluminum, vehicles, and auto parts.

And then there's Section 301, which allows the president to investigate a country for abusive trade practices—a rule he leveraged to put tariffs on China during his first term.

https://www.morningb...5c1c24ba1abe64f

The section 232 sectoral tariffs would require a period of investigation and public commentary before implementation, but it's been suggested that Trump could start by using the 15% tariff for 150 days and then transition to sectoral tariffs or tariffs justified by Section 301.

Mentalist, on 29 May 2025 - 05:59 PM, said:

I wonder how that'll push the bond market.
On the one hand, institutional stability.
On the other hand, negative tariff income means the budget will be even more broken, which should push interest further up.

There's also this provision in the tax bill:

Quote

increasing tax rates for individuals and companies from countries whose tax policies the US deems "discriminatory." This includes raising tax rates on passive income, such as interest and dividends, earned by investors who are potentially sitting on trillions in American assets.

[...] If signed into law, it would further drive away foreign investors at a time when their once ironclad confidence in Treasury bonds and other US assets has already been shaken by Trump's erratic trade policies and the nation's deteriorating fiscal accounts.

[...] Among those potentially affected: institutional investors including sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and even government entities, as well as retail investors and businesses with US assets.

[...] The provision amounts to "weaponization of US capital markets into law" that "challenges the open nature of US capital markets by explicitly using taxation on foreign holdings of US assets as leverage to further US economic goals,"

"We see this legislation as creating the scope for the US administration to transform a trade war into a capital war if it so wishes, a development that is highly relevant in the context of today's court decision constraining President Trump on trade policy."

Section 899 takes aim at countries including Canada, the UK, France and Australia that impose "digital services taxes" on large technology companies such as Meta Platforms Inc. The clause also targets countries using provisions in a multi-country deal for minimum corporate taxes.

[...] While some are skeptical if the Section 899 would survive on concern it would dampen foreign investment into the US, Signum Global Advisors predicts it will likely remain in the final version of the reconciliation package, in part because it has broad Republican support.

https://finance.yaho...-195608308.html

[Edit: even with section 232 sectoral tariffs Trump can still grant some countries exemptions or lowered rates---as the Trump administration already did for the UK trade deal, lowering the tariff on cars from the UK to 10%.]

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 30 May 2025 - 12:14 PM

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

So since it turns out Trump actually can grant individual countries reductions on section 232 industry-specific sectoral tariffs, he could effectively reconstitute his country-wide tariffs by tariffing every industry/sector---with the judgment that each industry/sector tariff is justified on "national security grounds" being left by the Supreme Co(U)r(u)pse to the discretion of President Dictator. It would take time though---not sure to what extent in practical terms the industry/sector-specific tariff investigations and commentary periods could be simultaneous, or whether the Supreme Court would try to hold the "investigations" or "national security" justifications to any standards whatsoever. Like would they let Trump appoint some random janitor to "investigate" a given industry and come up with some absolute bullshit as the "national security" reason?

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Quote

Trump Shares Unhinged Conspiracy Theory That Biden Is a Robot Clone

[...] The post reads, "There is no #JoeBiden - executed in 2020. #Biden clones doubles & robotic engineered soulless mindless entities are what you see. Democrats dont know the difference."

https://www.thedaily...aced-by-clones/

Told you so!

(Kidding... but seriously, in the future attempts at something similar will very likely happen. This post strongly implies that Trump's taking it into consideration.

Is Musk already busy forging the Cyber-Trump's robot bodies and rings neuralinks of power ἀποκαλυφᾰ́μενος?... Is Putin already preparing robot "clones" of himself that use more or less AI to replicate his sterling personality and uber-sober ethics?... For he can't let the march of Progress stop with his (old) flesh... so onward Christian slaughterbots!)

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 01 June 2025 - 12:47 PM

[Tsundoku]

At 4 months and a bit, Elon lasted about 3 months longer than I thought.

Elon Musk lashes out as he digests his ‘betrayal’ at the hands of Donald Trump’s circle
Amid a flurry of furious tweets from Elon Musk denouncing his own ally, one piece of language was particularly telling.

https://www.news.com...c8163dc74224392

[Tiste Simeon]

Eh, he got his billions in contracts, he got to mine every database for data, he got to shut down any agency that was investigating or regulating any of his companies. Now he has rinsed the US for what he wants he's doing damage control on his image because he is such a desperately insecure and pathetic person that he needs people to love him.

That being said, if he wants to concentrate his petty ridiculous immaturity a d obscene wealth towards infighting and taking down the Republican party, feel free to come round and watch with me I have popcorn and comfy chairs!

[QuickTidal]

Tiste Simeon, on 05 June 2025 - 10:03 AM, said:

Eh, he got his billions in contracts, he got to mine every database for data, he got to shut down any agency that was investigating or regulating any of his companies. Now he has rinsed the US for what he wants he's doing damage control on his image because he is such a desperately insecure and pathetic person that he needs people to love him.

That being said, if he wants to concentrate his petty ridiculous immaturity a d obscene wealth towards infighting and taking down the Republican party, feel free to come round and watch with me I have popcorn and comfy chairs!

https://tenor.com/en...ken-gif-9562555

[Tiste Simeon]

The escalation of the complete meltdown of Trump and Musk against each other is utterly delicious and I'm here for it. It's now being referred to as the breakup haha

[HoosierDaddy]

I mean... the house is burning down. Schadenfreude is all we have left.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Quote

"The easiest way to save money in our Budget, Billions and Billions of Dollars, is to terminate Elon's Governmental Subsidies and Contracts," Trump wrote to his social media site.

Tesla's shares fell as much as 18% on Thursday, extending earlier losses after Trump floated ending Musk's federal relationships.

[...] Later, Musk responded "yes" to a Twitter user's suggestion Trump be impeached [...]

"Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!" Musk wrote.

https://finance.yaho...-203819253.html

Probably still too soon for Musk to replace Trump with one of his Cyber-Trumps...

[Lady Bliss]

The Republicans will cave. I bet he has things on most of these guys.

[Cause]

Lady Bliss, on 06 June 2025 - 01:22 AM, said:

The Republicans will cave. I bet he has things on most of these guys.

JD Vance is either a nobody or an absolute Machiavellian genius!

[Macros]

Pass the popcorn!