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 37 of 479
The Emperor’s New Tariffs
Trump is throwing a tantrum, but the damage will be real
By Paul Krugman | Feb 12, 2025
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-emperors-new-tariffs-small-ugly
Many people expected Donald Trump to begin a global trade war soon after taking office. Many people in business, however, believed that after all the huffing and puffing he wouldn’t actually impose much in the way of tariffs.
What we actually have so far is Schrödinger’s trade war: Is it alive? Is it dead? Yes.
It’s hard to believe that just last week Trump seemed dead set on imposing 25 percent tariffs on Canada and Mexico, with similar tariffs likely soon against other trading partners. Then, suddenly, he put the whole thing on ice for 30 days. Trump tried to spin it as a victory, claiming falsely that he had won big concessions from our neighbors. But if you looked at what they actually agreed to — basically nothing they weren’t doing already — it was an ignominious retreat.
So is it over? No. This week Trump announced that he was imposing tariffs after all, but only on steel and aluminum.
Before we declare that the trade war is on again, however, there are three things you need to know. First, these tariffs are a much smaller deal than what Trump seemed about to do last week. Second, while they’re small, they’re ugly. Third, as an economic policy they are really, really stupid.
About the size of this week’s tariffs: Steel and aluminum are obviously crucial materials for the modern economy, and a major cost for some industries. But they’re a relatively small share of total imports:
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis
More at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-emperors-new-tariffs-small-ugly
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
An eerie prophecy of Trump’s second term — from 1998
Philosopher Richard Rorty predicted that someone like Trump might bring back public cruelty.
by Zack Beauchamp | Feb 12, 2025, 6:00 AM CST
https://www.vox.com/on-the-right-newsletter/399352/marko-elez-elon-mus
k-jd-vance-richard-rorty
Marko Elez, a staffer at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Oversight, operated an anonymous X account that spewed out-and-out race hatred. He called on Americans to “normalize Indian hate,” said “you could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” and proudly declared that “I was racist before it was cool.”
After the Wall Street Journal outed Elez on Thursday, he resigned. By Friday afternoon, Musk reinstated him at the behest of Vice President JD Vance. “To err is human, to forgive is divine,” Musk posted on his platform.
Yet forgiveness requires contrition, and there’s no evidence Elez has any. He has not publicly apologized or even repudiated his ugly comments. In Trump’s America, you can engage in this kind of publicly performed cruelty without any real consequence.
This, for some, is actually the point of voting for Trump. New York’s Brock Colyar attended a swanky Trump party where one attendee said he voted for Trump because, in Colyar’s paraphrase, “he wanted the freedom to say ‘f**got’ and ‘r****ded.’” An anonymous “top banker” recently told the Financial Times that they felt “liberated” after Trump’s win because “we can say ‘r***rd’ and ‘p***y’ without the fear of getting canceled.”
The new ethos of cruelty reminded me of a passage in the philosopher Richard Rorty’s 1998 book Achieving Our Country. Warning of the rise of a right-wing American strongman in the not-too-distant future, Rorty predicted that such a political shift would also herald an alarming new cultural era:
Quote:Much more at https://www.vox.com/on-the-right-newsletter/399352/marko-elez-elon-mus
One thing that is very likely to happen is that the gains made in the past forty years by black and brown Americans, and by homosexuals, will be wiped out. Jocular contempt for women will come back into fashion. The words ‘n****r’ and ‘k*ke’ will once again be heard in the workplace. All the sadism which the academic Left has tried to make unacceptable to its students will come flooding back. All the resentment which badly educated Americans feel about having their manners dictated to them by college graduates will find an outlet.
k-jd-vance-richard-rorty
Free download of Richard Rorty's Achieving Our Country from the mirrors at https://libgen.is//search.php?req=Richard+Rorty+Achieving+Our+Country
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
In a passage that was widely cited after Trump’s political victory in 2017, Rorty describes a series of events that sound eerily familiar:
Quote:The rise of this strongman, Rorty predicts, is what will cause “sadism” to start “flooding back.” His election on a platform of vicious cultural warfare encouraging those people who were never comfortable with a more diverse America to start once again openly performing cruelty.
Members of labor unions, and unorganized unskilled workers, will sooner or later realize that their government is not even trying to prevent wages from sinking or to prevent jobs from being exported. Around the same time, they will realize that suburban white-collar workers — themselves desperately afraid of being downsized — are not going to let themselves be taxed to provide social benefits for anyone else.
At that point, something will crack. The non-suburban electorate will decide that the system has failed and start looking for a strongman to vote for — someone willing to assure them that, once he is elected, the smug bureaucrats, tricky lawyers, overpaid bond salesmen, and postmodernist professors will no longer be calling the shots.
Rorty saw that the post-Civil Rights consensus in favor of social equality was far thinner than many expected. Not only did he foresee such a future, but he saw the precise vehicle through which it could be cracked — a right-wing demagogue who claimed to stand for the people against the liberal elites.
https://www.vox.com/on-the-right-newsletter/399352/marko-elez-elon-mus
k-jd-vance-richard-rorty
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
Interesting parallel between USAID and the "Federal" Reserve
Quote:
Just like everything else in today’s Orwellian ‘upside-down’ construct—where the term “democracy” is casually tossed about to describe repression of dissenting voices, “peace” used to describe funneling more weapons to overt Nazi and apartheid regimes [Israel, Ukraine] —similarly “independent media” had described what was effectively an almost entirely government funded operation...
In short, USAID uses the same cloak of ambiguity as the ‘Federal’ Reserve to conceal true operating motives.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/usaids-demise-sparks-dizzying-acce
leration
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:
Originally posted by Brenda:
Six, you really can't lay all the world's ills at the feet of Liberalism.
Going back in time, Liberalism started allowing girls to go to school.
Liberalism, known today as the "social safety net" allowed both Canada and the USA to pull ourselves out of the Great Depression. The programs weren't perfect but they allowed people to feed themselves and clothe themselves and have a roof over their heads.
The Allies after WWII helped rebuild the western half of Germany. The US helped rebuild Japan.
Liberalism allowed in the 50s for women to work for themselves and not just stay at home with children.
Liberalism in the 60s allowed this line from your constitution, "That all men are created equal." to actual mean something.
Liberalism allows your brother with some help to live on his own and not be in an institution.
Liberalism allows you now to live how you like.
I don't have a problem with what Liberalism was.
I have a problem with what Liberalism has come to.
They've thrown away the concept of Equal Opportunity and swapped to outright racism and sexism trying to enforce Equal Outcome.
They've forced women to have to shower with dudes and their big ole dicks flopping around the locker rooms, when the dudes aren't outright destroying these girls in sports.
They forced everyone to get an experimental jab that we've only begun to see the negative repercussions of.
They give trillions of taxpayer dollars to everybody except for the Americans that pay the taxes.
They call everyone Nazis who don't agree with them on any topic.
Meanwhile, while the quality of life for everyone continues to disappear because of their policies, they keep pushing all these unpopular things and nobody can afford anything outside of the bare necessities. And even that's not true when the collective US Credit Card Debt is now well over $1 Trillion.
We're done with Liberalism. Liberalism is dead. The Liberals killed it.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
I think what Trump is doing is "testing" the various national leaders. He proposes something outrageous and observes what he can get away with.
Justin Trudeau folded.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum put up a little bit more of a fight.
Jordan is (publicly) threatening war and refusing to take ethnically cleansed Palestinians (altho what's being said in private may be different.)
Egypt is quiet.
Russia has said "Nyet" but is still willing to talk.
China imposed counter- tarrifs on LNG, oil and farm machinery, started anti-trust investigation on Google, and is blocking exports of five rare earth metals that USA depends on https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/what-are-five-new-critical
-metal-exports-restricted-by-china-2025-02-04/ to the USA, while calling for negotiation.
Denmark is insisting it will not sell Greenland.
Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ refused to increase oil production.
Panama was pressured into ending its BRI contracts with China (There was only one left supposedly) and to (reportedly) waive transit fees for the USA.
India and Brasil indicated they won't pay attention to Trump's threatened secondary sanctions on Russian energy (altho push hasn't come to shove, yet.)
*****
In other words, Trump is causing a lot of chaos and seeing which pieces fall, which stand firm, and which ones wobble.
Not IMHO the best way to represent American interests. A problem with bullhorn diplomacy is, if you make a Big Public Deal about a particular settlement and fail, it's a very public black eye.
And, it coalesces resistance.
I think Trump is blitzing other nations like he's blitzing the Executive branch. The difference is that Trump has a lot of authority over his own fiefdom (altho not unlimited. Limits will be contested in the courts.) but only as much influence over other nations as he can economically or financially impose. Supposedly, Trump is not for using the military.
-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:Trump’s purge of public health data
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I don't have a problem with what Liberalism was.
I have a problem with what Liberalism has come to.
They've thrown away the concept of Equal Opportunity and swapped to outright racism and sexism trying to enforce Equal Outcome.
They've forced women to have to shower with dudes and their big ole dicks flopping around the locker rooms, when the dudes aren't outright destroying these girls in sports.
They forced everyone to get an experimental jab that we've only begun to see the negative repercussions of.
They give trillions of taxpayer dollars to everybody except for the Americans that pay the taxes.
They call everyone Nazis who don't agree with them on any topic.
Meanwhile, while the quality of life for everyone continues to disappear because of their policies, they keep pushing all these unpopular things and nobody can afford anything outside of the bare necessities. And even that's not true when the collective US Credit Card Debt is now well over $1 Trillion.
We're done with Liberalism. Liberalism is dead. The Liberals killed it.
Collateral damage from Trump’s war on “DEI.”
By Dylan Scott | Feb 12, 2025, 7:30 AM CST
https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/399319/trump-cdc-health-data-remove
d-obesity-suicide
In the initial days of the Trump administration, officials scoured federal websites for any mention of what they deemed “DEI” keywords — terms as generic as “diverse” and “historically” and even “women.” They soon identified reams of some of the country’s most valuable public health data containing some of the targeted words, including language about LGBTQ+ people, and quickly took down much of it — from surveys on obesity and suicide rates to real-time reports on immediate infectious disease threats like bird flu.
The removal elicited a swift response from public health experts who warned that without this data, the country risked being in the dark about important health trends that shape life-and-death public health decisions made in communities across the country.
Some of this data was restored in a matter of days, but much of it was incomplete. In some cases, the raw data sheets were posted again, but the reference documents that would allow most people to decipher them were not. Meanwhile, health data continues to be taken down: The New York Times reported last week that data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on bird flu transmission between humans and cats had been posted and then promptly removed.
Much more at https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/399319/trump-cdc-health-data-remove
d-obesity-suicide
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
Maybe you shouldn't have fucked around.
Now you're finding out.
The world you thought you were living in 6 months ago doesn't exist.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME
Quote:6ix, do you remember how the Confederates were convinced to free the slave workforce? 6ix, the persuasion wasn't verbal because the Confederates would not listen to words. Do you remember how the Nazis were persuaded? Again, not with words because the Nazis would not listen. How about the Japs? Japs couldn't comprehend English, so no words, but firebombs followed by A-bombs. 6ixStringJack, you and Trump are not listening. You will regret that you didn't listen carefully while there were still years to save yourselves.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Maybe you shouldn't have fucked around.
Now you're finding out.
The world you thought you were living in 6 months ago doesn't exist.
Trumptards think they winning now, but the Confederates, Nazis, and Japs thought they were winning for years and years before the wordless truth got to them.
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:6ix, do you remember how the Confederates were convinced to free the slave workforce?
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Maybe you shouldn't have fucked around.
Now you're finding out.
The world you thought you were living in 6 months ago doesn't exist.
Nah. I wasn't alive back then.
I know what some old lady told us happened in history books that change every 5 years, under a strict curriculum that the Department of Education has been forcing to be taught nationwide for the last 50 years.
Quote:
6ix, the persuasion wasn't verbal because the Confederates would not listen to words. Do you remember how the Nazis were persuaded? Again, not with words because the Nazis would not listen. How about the Japs? Japs couldn't comprehend English, so no words, but firebombs followed by A-bombs. 6ixStringJack, you and Trump are not listening. You will regret that you didn't listen carefully while there were still years to save yourselves.
*Gasp!*
I'm terrified, dude.
Please. Oh please no. Please don't send the Soy Pussy Cuck Brigade after me.
Quote:
Trumptards think they winning now, but the Confederates, Nazis, and Japs thought they were winning for years and years before the wordless truth got to them.
You and your opinions became completely irrelevant overnight.
Just like I told you they would.
How does it feel?
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
NOTIFY: Y | REPLY | REPLY WITH QUOTE | PERMALINK | TOP | HOME