1 hour ago, Trurl said:

I guess America First makes us stronger financially

How does it do that?

58 minutes ago, CharonY said:

a way that is a more accurate reflection of what the Trump government means. Not a strengthening of the US based on objective metrics. Rather, a strengthening of white America. It was discussed at length during Trump's first presidency whether his affinity to white nationalism was a means to galvanize his base, or whether he would actually enact related policies. And now we have an answer to that.

 

Never was much doubt 47 & Co. was going to amp up the white nationalist narratives in order to build support for such policies.  Just recently he was attacking South Africa, accusing the black majority of discriminating against and killing white people, and warning that it could happen in the US.  Scanning the news this morning I saw he has kicked out the SA ambassador and (as usual in the past few weeks) shredding our relationship with a country we were on friendly terms with.  Here's a snip from the NYT a couple days ago...

Quote

To hear President Trump and some of his closest supporters tell it, South Africa is a terrible place for white people. They face discrimination, are sidelined from jobs and live under the constant threat of violence or having their land stolen by a corrupt, Black-led government that has left the country in disarray.

The data tell a different story. Although white people make up 7 percent of the country’s population, they own at least half of South Africa’s land. Police statistics do not show that they are any more vulnerable to violent crime than other people. And white South Africans are far better off than Black people on virtually every marker of the economic scale.  (by John Eligon, in NYT, 3/15.)

Shameless lies, race-baiting, and stoking fears of race war.  Just another Monday.  The 47 administration has abandoned all pretense of caring about all Americans or wanting a genuine meritocracy.  

Well I think making changes to the way the U.S. economy works for a complete overhaul could mean more manufacturing but it can also fail and cause disaster. But every time Trump changes the U.S. economy he forces the rest of the world’s countries to change theirs.

10 hours ago, Trurl said:

Well I think making changes to the way the U.S. economy works for a complete overhaul could mean more manufacturing but it can also fail and cause disaster. But every time Trump changes the U.S. economy he forces the rest of the world’s countries to change theirs.

Indeed, and the rest of the world will evolve a work-around.

14 hours ago, Trurl said:

Well I think making changes to the way the U.S. economy works for a complete overhaul could mean more manufacturing but it can also fail and cause disaster.

There is a reason why almost all economists warn against tariffs and trade wars. Moreover, one can look an analysis of the tariffs imposed during the first Trump administration. Regarding manufacturing:

https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-trade-war/

Quote

A February 2018 analysis by economists Kadee Russ and Lydia Cox found that steel‐consuming jobs outnumber steel‐producing jobs 80 to 1, indicating greater job losses from steel tariffs than job gains.

[...]

In December 2019, Federal Reserve economists Aaron Flaaen and Justin Pierce found a net decrease in manufacturing employment due to the tariffs, suggesting that the benefit of increased production in protected industries was outweighed by the consequences of rising input costs and retaliatory tariffs.

[...]

A January 2024 study by David Autor and others concludes that the 2018–2019 tariffs failed to provide economic help to the heartland: import tariffs had “neither a sizable nor significant effect on US employment in regions with newly‐protected sectors” and foreign retaliation “by contrast had clear negative employment impacts, particularly in agriculture.”

 

There is no evidence to believe that this time around things won't be even worse.

D Trump wants to bring 'manufacturing' back to the US, and his idiotic supporters believe that will make America richer.
Tell me what company is going to set up shop in the US, when Americans will refuse to work for less than $40/hr, and they have to charge customers $30 for a pair of socks which you can get, imported from India, at Walmart for $3 ?
No-one will; the importer will pay the duty/tariff, and pass it on to the consumer at the higher price of $10.
( or, they'll just be manufactured robotically, and you still won't have American jobs )

Or did you get educated about tariffs at the same school as C Levitt, the WH Press Secretary ????

 

DEI is not dividing America; stupidity is.
Some are much, much stupider than others.
The much more stupid ones believe everything they are told by D Trump, and think that all the shit this president is doing will only affect others and not themselves.
The other half, who have some intelligence, think that things will fix themselves, someone else will do it and they don't need to vote for responsible politicians.

I'm not sure which group the people that think DEI is the cause of all this, fall into.

Edited March 18Mar 18 by MigL

4 hours ago, MigL said:

I'm not sure which group the people that think DEI is the cause of all this, fall into.

It's the same logic wife beaters employ.

"Oh if she hadn't made me mad, she wouldn't have a black eye."

"Oh if you hadn't hired a black women, hadn't let in those Mexicans and not had any business dealings with Jews, I wouldn't have had to create a new Reich or enable and arm the neo Nazis!"

On 3/17/2025 at 6:55 PM, TheVat said:

Never was much doubt 47 & Co. was going to amp up the white nationalist narratives in order to build support for such policies.  Just recently he was attacking South Africa, accusing the black majority of discriminating against and killing white people, and warning that it could happen in the US.  Scanning the news this morning I saw he has kicked out the SA ambassador and (as usual in the past few weeks) shredding our relationship with a country we were on friendly terms with.  Here's a snip from the NYT a couple days ago...

Shameless lies, race-baiting, and stoking fears of race war.  Just another Monday.  The 47 administration has abandoned all pretense of caring about all Americans or wanting a genuine meritocracy.  

Oh and don't forget Musk claiming "Mandela wouldn't have wanted this." In regards to their stupid claims about SA. How much reality warping are they going to employ? Now Nelson Mandela was a fascist and Hitler a communist? It would be laughable of so many people weren't eating it all up as gospel.

The planning department in the city of Stockholm - the capital city of Sweden - has received a letter from the US government demanding that it end its diversity, equality, and inclusivity (DEI) programs within 10 days.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/us-demand-stockholm-antidei-embassy-b2746859.html

France has also been hit with a similar demand according to other sources. The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reports that the letter came from the US embassy, and it said that  every organisation doing business with the US government must sign a contract within a few days and agree to end their  DEI programmes.

Jan Valeskog, Stockholm's vice mayor for City Planning and  Sports calls the letter completely bizarre, and says that it will be ignored. He points out that it is in fact the US embassy in Stockholm that needs the city planning office, not the other way round

“If the US terminates its relationship with the city planning office, the embassy will have difficulty obtaining a building permit if they want to rebuild for example. That’s their headache, not ours”.

If the US state department still has any staff left who can understand Swedish, then they may shortly become better acquainted with some of the more colourful and pithy idioms of that  language e.g  —>

"Du har inte alla hästar hemma" -   (you don’t have all the horses at home)

“Dummare än tåget — (dumber than a train)

“Fan ta dig”  - (go f**k yourself).

Edited May 9May 9 by toucana
corrected typos in p1 and p3 - Valeskog, Stockholm's etc.

If we weren't contemplating civilizational death over here, this would be pretty funny.

My grandpa, who emigrated from Karlshamm, might have said,

"din skitstövel."

A little while back the US sent orders out to European companies (including French and German) demanding an and to DEI programs, which clashes with national and European standards. It is a bit funny, as for example in Germany DEI initiatives are basically just getting started whereas they have been common in the USA for a while.