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Banana tariffs.

Callen said:
You OK with Trump imposing a National Sales Tax on American businesses and consumers?
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I'm not really a fan of tariffs on bananas to be honest. But at this point I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
 
forn said:
I'm not really a fan of tariffs on bananas to be honest. But at this point I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
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That wasn't my question but I get why you won't answer.
 
Callen said:
That wasn't my question but I get why you won't answer.
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You're asking about the Constitutionality? The president can apply retaliatory tariffs to other countries.
If you're claiming what Trump is doing is illegal, which I disagree with, work it out in the courts.
 
forn said:
You're asking about the Constitutionality? The president can apply retaliatory tariffs to other countries.
If you're claiming what Trump is doing is illegal, which I disagree with, work it out in the courts.
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They aren't retaliatory nor are they to protect an industry. For example the UK has no tariffs and yet Trump imposed 10% on them. You yourself said that these tariffs were just to get money for the government. Anyhow, I realize that if Trump does it then it's OK.....so not a lot of sense talking about it. Enjoy your autocracy because that is where you are headed.
 
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multivita-man said:
I mean, they put tariffs on literally everything and said they'd figure it all out later.



Yes, because the average voter is and doesn't really understand what they're voting for anymore. We're influenced by highly-addictive technologies that influence how we think, to the point where we don't think at all or don't know how or what to think.
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I have never had social media. Aside from this anonymous site.

Because I understood that his was going to happen from the start.
 
Callen said:
Anyhow, I realize that if Trump does it then it's OK.....so not a lot of sense talking about it. Enjoy your autocracy because that is where you are headed.
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If we end up in an autocracy, it will have been a cooperative effort by Republicans and Democrats. They've been pushing more power for the executive branch with each president we've had.
 
forn said:
I'm not really a fan of tariffs on bananas to be honest. But at this point I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.
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Your not losing sleep doesn’t make tariffs on bananas any less stupid or inflationary. The topic is the economic shooting in the foot that such tariffs are. Your lack of concern doesn’t change that nor does it matter that you don’t care. That is your problem.
 
devildavid said:
Your not losing sleep doesn’t make tariffs on bananas any less stupid or inflationary. The topic is the economic shooting in the foot that such tariffs are. Your lack of concern doesn’t change that nor does it matter that you don’t care. That is your problem.
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You guys are hilarious. I agreed with you that I don't really like tariffs on bananas, but that's never enough for the left, you're still unhappy. But no, a 20 cent increase on a pound of bananas isn't going to break my budget. And the most recent inflation rate (for May) was 2.4%, which is not an alarming rate.
 
What if...? said:
I have never had social media. Aside from this anonymous site.

Because I understood that his was going to happen from the start.
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AI is going to make worse -- potentially much worse. Look at how people already copy something from ChatGPT or Co-Pilot and post it here, thinking that it's a source. I mean as far as AI goes, those are generally engineered in ways that seem responsible -- for now. But I don't trust Meta or Grok (Elon/X) at all. Those products are going to be a reflection of their owners' ethics, and Zuckerberg and Musk have none.
 
multivita-man said:
AI is going to make worse -- potentially much worse. Look at how people already copy something from ChatGPT or Co-Pilot and post it here, thinking that it's a source. I mean as far as AI goes, those are generally engineered in ways that seem responsible -- for now. But I don't trust Meta or Grok (Elon/X) at all. Those products are going to be a reflection of their owners' ethics, and Zuckerberg and Musk have none.
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There’s a program on Netflix, I think, called “The Social Dilemma”. It’s kinda cartoon-ey, but the people interviewed are the people who built Facebook etc. and it is clear they didn’t realize how it was going to be used and abused. Like the show is an attempt at correction.

The guy who wrote the original algorithm for Facebook, for example, advised against following links. As they are designed to lead your attention somewhere someone paid to take it.

That show MAGA. was made. There are contracts and receipts for it.
 
Rexedgar said:
Lutnick is such an ass. I don’t understand how he was a successful businessman.
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Perhaps you aren't getting that many in business leadership roles are assholes, many of which barely understand what they are doing.

A certain percentage of those will succeed anyway.

It's something many who work in corporate America seem to have direct knowledge of but still don't seem to be able to process.
 
Ikari said:
We do have some banana production, it's just very minimal and could never satisfy demand.
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But we have bananas grown in the US...

Who elects a dumb dumb that says we don't build bananas in the United States? Literally how are they that dumb?
 
I guess Trump is trying to turn America into a......banana Republic.

lol
 
forn said:
Now you've moved the goalposts. Before, you were claiming he was stupid because he didn't know that bananas weren't grown in America. Now you're saying he's stupid because there are more poor people than wealthy. It's true, no matter what Trump does, the Democrats will hate on him for it.
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Trump is stupid about everything.
 
forn said:
No thanks, I don't like calling other people stupid.
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You overestimate trump at everybody's peril.

Countries have been avoiding tariffs ever since the Great Depression. The consensus is clear - general tariffs are a dumb idea, and harmful for all involved. Everybody knew it. Everybody learned about the Smoot-Hawley tariffs in high school. But once the objectively undereducated trump lands on tariffs as a policy, now people are giving the idea of tariffs some credence that they still don't deserve.

trump got rid of everyone that might have held him back from his dumb ideas. There isn't a smart person in his cabinet willing to stand up and say, "Don't do that, it would be a mistake." Heads would roll.
 
JohnfrmClevelan said:
Countries have been avoiding tariffs ever since the Great Depression. The consensus is clear - general tariffs are a dumb idea, and harmful for all involved. Everybody knew it. Everybody learned about the Smoot-Hawley tariffs in high school. But once the objectively undereducated trump lands on tariffs as a policy, now people are giving the idea of tariffs some credence that they still don't deserve.
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And yet the vast majority of countries use tariffs. They can be useful and they have a place. Having said that, I don't think Trump ever intended most of his tariffs to remain in place, but rather to serve as a starting point for negotiations. I do think he intends some to remain in place however.
 
forn said:
And yet the vast majority of countries use tariffs. They can be useful and they have a place. Having said that, I don't think Trump ever intended most of his tariffs to remain in place, but rather to serve as a starting point for negotiations. I do think he intends some to remain in place however.
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Some small, well-targeted tariffs are useful to protect domestic industries, sure. That's not what trump did/is still doing. He placed tariffs on uninhabited islands, for crissakes. And he used a completely ridiculous formula when he came up with his numbers.

Even looking at what trump did in the most generous light, he has already done a lot of damage. There was no need to slap large tariffs on the whole world at once, and certainly not on our closest allies and trading partners. He lied about who pays tariffs. He lied about tariffs' effects on prices. I don't understand how anybody can look at what he did and see some kind of negotiating masterpiece.

This is all easily explained, though. trump is a moron, knows nothing about economics, and has a fragile ego that can't take criticism.

His stance on Ukraine is best explained by a few things we all know: Russia helped him win the 2016 election, he admires Putin, Zelensky makes him look weak, and he's still upset that Zelensky wouldn't help him dig up dirt (or create dirt) on Biden.

trump is a pretty easy read. I'm amazed at how many people just get him completely wrong.
 
JohnfrmClevelan said:
This is all easily explained, though. trump is a moron, knows nothing about economics, and has a fragile ego that can't take criticism.
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Why do you find it necessary to call someone a moron in every post? Either you are calling Trump stupid, or his supporters uneducated. It's not very good grounds for a civil discourse.
I can't say I like the way Trump has approached these tariffs altogether, but I'm willing to wait and see what happens with them, which will take a good while yet. They certainly haven't yet resulted in a complete and utter collapse and skyrocketing inflation like so many Democrats predicted.
 
forn said:
Why do you find it necessary to call someone a moron in every post? Either you are calling Trump stupid, or his supporters uneducated. It's not very good grounds for a civil discourse.
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Neither is pretending that trump is competent. We have already seen him for four years. If my calling trump a moron bothers you that much, show me some evidence that he's the stable genius he claims to be.

forn said:
I can't say I like the way Trump has approached these tariffs altogether, but I'm willing to wait and see what happens with them, which will take a good while yet. They certainly haven't yet resulted in a complete and utter collapse and skyrocketing inflation like so many Democrats predicted.
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Well, he earned the nickname Taco Don because he does chicken out. On-again-off-again tariffs are probably just another genius negotiating tactic that we mere mortals can't fully understand.
 
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