Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 16:05
VIEWED: 185382
PAGE 18 of 479
The End of North America
Trump pulls the trigger on tariffs
Trump is Moe. Mexico and Canada are Larry and Curly. Click the link to see the Three Stooges:
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,
fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F29336b1d-0233-4d50-989a-d1e25c2b7a0f_460x276.avif
Paul Krugman / Jan 31, 2025 at 4:27 PM
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-end-of-north-america
I’ve been saying for a while that markets were far too complacent about Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico, believing that he wouldn’t follow through because it’s such a stupid, self-destructive idea. As I wrote on Jan. 22,
[S]o far markets have shrugged Trump’s tariff threat off, apparently in the belief that he won’t follow through. But why not? Economists would, if he asked, tell him that high tariffs on neighboring nations closely integrated with the United States will do major damage; businesspeople would say the same thing. But if Trump wants your opinion, he’ll tell you what he wants it to be.
I believe that the only thing that might dissuade him from destructive policies would be a severely adverse market reaction — which means that the lack of such a reaction, based on the belief that he won’t really do it, greatly increases the probability that he really will.
And he really did. The New York Times reports,
President Trump plans to move forward with imposing stiff tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China on Saturday, in an attempt to further pressure America’s largest trading partners to accept deportees and stop the flow of migrants and drugs into the country.
In a news briefing on Friday, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said the president would put in place a 25 percent tariff on goods from Mexico, a 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada and a 10 percent tariff on goods from China.
Ms. Leavitt said the president had chosen to impose tariffs because the three countries “have all enabled illegal drugs to pour into America.”
“The amount of fentanyl that has been seized at the southern border in the last few years alone has the potential to kill tens of millions of Americans,” she said. “And so the president is intent on doing this.”
The tariffs are likely to initiate the kind of disruptive trade wars seen in Mr. Trump’s first term, but at a much larger scale.
I think you have to see “fentanyl” in this context as the equivalent of “weapons of mass destruction in the runup to the invasion of Iraq. It’s not the real reason; Canada isn’t even a major source of fentanyl. It’s just a plausible-sounding reason for a president to do what he wanted to do for other reasons — George W. Bush wanted a splendid little war, Donald Trump just wants to impose tariffs and assert dominance.
Also, although I’m not sure such things matter anymore, what’s the legal basis for these tariffs? U.S. trade law gives the president huge discretion to impose tariffs, but only for a specific set of reasons: economic injury from import surges (Section 201), national security (Section 232), unfair foreign competition (Section 301), dumping — sales below costs. Drug smuggling, especially imaginary drug smuggling, isn’t on the list.
The president can impose tariffs much more broadly if he declares a national economic emergency. But has he done that? Does 2.6 percent inflation and 4.1 percent unemployment sound like an economic emergency to you? And even if Trump gets around to declaring an economic emergency, what does fentanyl have to do with it?
As far as I can tell, there’s a real possibility that Trump’s new tariffs will face a court challenge, and that he will lose. I’m not an expert on trade law, but I do know a bit, and this looks flatly illegal to me.
But even if these tariffs are blocked, or Trump finds some way to declare victory and call them off, the damage will be immense.
As I wrote the other day, in the three decades since NAFTA went into effect, North Ameri
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Nobody cares what Paul Krugman thinks.
He hasn't had a correct prediction in 20 years.
Also, unchecked drug smuggling from the wide open southern border is all Trump needs to call an emergency. Nobody will challenge this because nobody can challenge this.
Enjoy your weekend.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Fentanyl is the Trumptards' drug. Trump wants to preserve his base by keeping the most worthless Americans alive and voting. Most of America's problems with drugs and drug cartels could be fixed by making drugs legal, which would destroy the high prices cartels can charge while, simultaneously, ridding America of drug-taking Trumptards. Making gluttony, tobacco, and alcohol legal has been very helpful in ridding America of older Trumptards who are likely to vote. Making all drugs legal would speed up the process by killing them at a younger age. Trumptards are unlikely to listen to experts telling them drugs are bad since they don't listen to warnings about tobacco, for example. Trumptards feel that "freedom" means to live and die stupidly.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nobody cares what Paul Krugman thinks.
He hasn't had a correct prediction in 20 years.
Also, unchecked drug smuggling from the wide open southern border is all Trump needs to call an emergency. Nobody will challenge this because nobody can challenge this.
Enjoy your weekend.
Would making drugs legal destroy drug cartels?
It would create a significant problem for the cartels. They would lose much of their income.
https://www.google.com/search?q=would+making+drugs+legal+destroy+drug+
cartels%3F
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Fentanyl is the Trumptards' drug. Trump wants to preserve his base by keeping the most worthless Americans alive and voting.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Nobody cares what Paul Krugman thinks.
He hasn't had a correct prediction in 20 years.
Also, unchecked drug smuggling from the wide open southern border is all Trump needs to call an emergency. Nobody will challenge this because nobody can challenge this.
Enjoy your weekend.
You really are losing your mind, aren't you?
I think you need to call a suicide hotline.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:It is a certainty that I will continue beating up Trumptards, ones like Rush Limbaugh, rewarded the medal of freedom from Trump because he would die from tobacco, or my fat Trumptard neighbor who died of gluttony (diabetes killed him), or the Trumptard neighbor who was killed by her son, also a Trumptard who was arrested by Baytown's police for drug possession. Trumptards are killing themselves without admitting that "freedom" to do as they please is incompatible with health and longevity.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You really are losing your mind, aren't you?
I think you need to call a suicide hotline.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
6ix, you have several markers for an early death: alcohol, tobacco, diabetes, and paranoia or all around mental dysfunction. Quoting you:
Quote:http://fireflyfans.net/mthread.aspx?bid=18&tid=65104&mid=12110
Wouldn't take much for an A.I. to kill me if it wanted to. It could just hack into my insulin pod and give me 50 units and I'd be dead within hours, likely unable to do anything in time to save myself by the time I noticed something was very wrong since my brain would probably just flip off like a light switch with a dose like that.
78#1211078
Trumptard "freedom" means doing whatever stupid thing pleases them, with consequences ignored.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Obviously, 6ixStringJack won't understand that Trump is showing mental illness in the way he handled a tragedy. Nevertheless, Trump is nuts:
Trump Takes Questions From Reporters At Briefing After Plane-Helicopter Crash
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:It is a certainty that I will continue beating up Trumptards
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
You really are losing your mind, aren't you?
I think you need to call a suicide hotline.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
We're wondering when you're going to start.
Your existence here has been nothing but an embarrassment to you and to your cult.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
(6ixStringJack, Trump can extort $10 billion from Paramount. The Winds of Change are blowing.)
Paramount may reportedly settle Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against CBS so his administration doesn’t try to block its planned merger with Skydance
By Alena Botros | January 31, 2025 at 12:55 PM CST
https://fortune.com/2025/01/31/paramount-trump-cbs-60-minutes-settleme
nt-skydance-merger/
Donald Trump sued CBS for its “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris days before his Election Day victory. Now, CBS’ parent company Paramount is in talks to settle, according to the New York Times. If it does settle, that would make it the third mega media company to do so in a matter of months.
During her presidential run, Kamala Harris sat for an interview with “60 Minutes” that aired in October on CBS. It was not a live broadcast. Then, her rival Donald Trump sued CBS for $10 billion in damages, accusing it of deceitful editing. CBS and “60 Minutes” said the claims were false. That was before Trump won the election and returned to the White House.
Now, CBS’s parent company Paramount is reportedly in talks to settle with Trump, according to the New York Times. Discussions between their representatives are underway, three people with knowledge of the talks told the outlet.
Paramount executives reportedly think settling would keep the Trump administration from blocking or delaying its planned multibillion dollar merger with Skydance, several people with knowledge of the matter told the publication. Paramount and Skydance reached a deal to merge in the summer, but there has been some opposition. Skydance is an entertainment company run by David Ellison, son of Oracle’s billionaire cofounder Larry Ellison.
The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that executives were holding internal conversations about settling, citing people familiar with the matter. Executives at both companies reportedly think Trump’s problem with CBS would make the review process for the planned merger harder, per the Wall Street Journal. To be clear, no deal has been reached and such talks don’t always result in a deal.
Paramount did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Still, Paramount’s controlling shareholder and chair Shari Redstone is in favor of settling, according to two people with knowledge of her thinking, per the New York Times. Paramount was founded by her father, Sumner Redstone. The merger would end the Redstone family control, but it wouldn’t come cheap. Shari would benefit from the sale of her stock.
Whatever happens, the news comes less than two months after Disney reached a settlement with Trump in his defamation case against ABC News and its anchor George Stephanopoulos. Stephanopoulos said on air that Trump had been found civilly liable for rape — but really, Trump had been found liable for sexual abuse. The company agreed to donate $15 million to Trump’s future presidential foundation and museum and an additional $1 million for his legal fees. ABC News and its star anchor would publish a statement saying it regretted the remarks made about Trump.
Separately, the Wall Street Journal recently reported that Meta agreed to pay about $25 million to settle a lawsuit from four years ago. Trump filed the suit after the company and its chief executive Mark Zuckerberg locked his social-media accounts following the Jan. 6 riot; $22 million from the settlement would reportedly go toward Trump’s presidential library and the rest to legal fees, but Meta wouldn’t admit wrongdoing.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
The tariffs that President Donald Trump said he’ll impose Saturday on imports from Canada, Mexico and China would reignite inflation and deal a significant blow to an economy that has been chugging along, economists said.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2025/02/01/trumps-tariffs-economy
-effects/78100179007/
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
President Trump's planned tariffs could effectively tax the average U.S. household an extra $830 this year, an analysis from the nonpartisan nonprofit Tax Foundation finds.
By the numbers: The foundation estimated Friday that Trump's proposed 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, as well as 10% tariffs on China, would shrink the economic output of the U.S. by 0.4% and increase taxes by $1.2 trillion between 2025 and 2034.
https://www.axios.com/2025/01/31/trump-tariffs-mexico-canada-taxes
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME