| Happy Trump Tariff Day 06:19 - Apr 2 with 2410 views | gtsb1966 |
or Liberation day whatever the orange narcissist calls it. Still at least it will keep the Express and Mail happy. I can see the headlines tomorrow blaming the government. |  | | |  |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 08:16 - Apr 2 with 1953 views | DJR |
Changing tack slightly, very sad to hear on the World Service this morning that 3 US aid workers are finally on their way to Myanmar five days after the 'quake.
Christian country? My ass! [Post edited 2 Apr 8:16]
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 08:30 - Apr 2 with 1922 views | Churchman |
They need to be worried.
However, the few Americans who know the rest of the world actually exists can take warming comfort by the artificial fireside with the knowledge that the great man’s tariff actions will make their enemies such as the EU and U.K. a lot poorer. As long as they are not quite as poor it means they win and America is great again! Yay.
However, I couldn’t care a less about how our enemy’s people feel. They voted for authoritarianism so suck it up. What bothers me is what is happening here. What is Starmer doing? It seems to me he’s in danger of falling between two stools. I see why he’s toadying to Trump in the hope of not getting butt f’d too much, but the danger is two fold.
Firstly Starmer looks weak. The more he tries grovelling reasonable man approach, the less it’ll work in my view. Give a bully half your pocket money in the hope he will leave you alone and he will take the rest.
On the other side, where is the support for a commonwealth country in Canada and our biggest trading partners in the EU? We are hardly going to improve trade relations with either when we look so weedy and duplicitous. They should be the priority, not the US which has betrayed its former friends and in many ways itself.
Maybe Starmer is playing a canny game behind the scenes. For the sake of livelihoods here I hope so but given nine months of this government to date, I’m not confident. |  | | |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 08:32 - Apr 2 with 1896 views | Churchman |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 08:16 - Apr 2 by DJR |
Changing tack slightly, very sad to hear on the World Service this morning that 3 US aid workers are finally on their way to Myanmar five days after the 'quake.
Christian country? My ass! [Post edited 2 Apr 8:16]
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They’re probably only going there to poke around to see what they can steal.
Edit: and will reclaim extortionate expenses for the trip off Myanmar [Post edited 2 Apr 8:34]
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 08:56 - Apr 2 with 1807 views | Ryorry |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 08:30 - Apr 2 by Churchman |
They need to be worried.
However, the few Americans who know the rest of the world actually exists can take warming comfort by the artificial fireside with the knowledge that the great man’s tariff actions will make their enemies such as the EU and U.K. a lot poorer. As long as they are not quite as poor it means they win and America is great again! Yay.
However, I couldn’t care a less about how our enemy’s people feel. They voted for authoritarianism so suck it up. What bothers me is what is happening here. What is Starmer doing? It seems to me he’s in danger of falling between two stools. I see why he’s toadying to Trump in the hope of not getting butt f’d too much, but the danger is two fold.
Firstly Starmer looks weak. The more he tries grovelling reasonable man approach, the less it’ll work in my view. Give a bully half your pocket money in the hope he will leave you alone and he will take the rest.
On the other side, where is the support for a commonwealth country in Canada and our biggest trading partners in the EU? We are hardly going to improve trade relations with either when we look so weedy and duplicitous. They should be the priority, not the US which has betrayed its former friends and in many ways itself.
Maybe Starmer is playing a canny game behind the scenes. For the sake of livelihoods here I hope so but given nine months of this government to date, I’m not confident. |
Surely he has just biding his time until he hears what T.rump has to say later today, which no one in the world will have been able to second guess since he probably only decided what that was going to be when he opened his mouth. |  |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:00 - Apr 2 with 1789 views | blueasfook |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 08:56 - Apr 2 by Ryorry |
Surely he has just biding his time until he hears what T.rump has to say later today, which no one in the world will have been able to second guess since he probably only decided what that was going to be when he opened his mouth. |
It's all part of Trump's "America first" policy. He wants Americans driving American cars, putting their XXXL t-shirts in American-made washing machines, watching the God Channel on an American TV etc... Problem with that is American-made cars are sh1te. |  |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:00 - Apr 2 with 1772 views | DJR |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 08:30 - Apr 2 by Churchman |
They need to be worried.
However, the few Americans who know the rest of the world actually exists can take warming comfort by the artificial fireside with the knowledge that the great man’s tariff actions will make their enemies such as the EU and U.K. a lot poorer. As long as they are not quite as poor it means they win and America is great again! Yay.
However, I couldn’t care a less about how our enemy’s people feel. They voted for authoritarianism so suck it up. What bothers me is what is happening here. What is Starmer doing? It seems to me he’s in danger of falling between two stools. I see why he’s toadying to Trump in the hope of not getting butt f’d too much, but the danger is two fold.
Firstly Starmer looks weak. The more he tries grovelling reasonable man approach, the less it’ll work in my view. Give a bully half your pocket money in the hope he will leave you alone and he will take the rest.
On the other side, where is the support for a commonwealth country in Canada and our biggest trading partners in the EU? We are hardly going to improve trade relations with either when we look so weedy and duplicitous. They should be the priority, not the US which has betrayed its former friends and in many ways itself.
Maybe Starmer is playing a canny game behind the scenes. For the sake of livelihoods here I hope so but given nine months of this government to date, I’m not confident. |
Yes, even though it could be said to be each man to his own, I would feel it rather duplicitous if we ended up in a better position than our EU and Canadian friends.
And leaving that aside, a weakened EU will impact us economically anyway.
And don't forget the maxim "United we stand, divided we fall". | | | |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:04 - Apr 2 with 1736 views | Ryorry |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:00 - Apr 2 by blueasfook |
It's all part of Trump's "America first" policy. He wants Americans driving American cars, putting their XXXL t-shirts in American-made washing machines, watching the God Channel on an American TV etc... Problem with that is American-made cars are sh1te. |
I know. | |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:05 - Apr 2 with 1720 views | Ryorry |
Other worms are also turning -
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:11 - Apr 2 with 1669 views | BloomBlue |
Tariffs can actually work, if the aim is to break jobs to the US, which is why Trump jumped on the Hyundai/ Kia news last week about moving some manufacturing to the US.
The problem is Trump is expecting to see all of that happening within 6 months, whereas in reality it will be more like 6 plus years. However Trump also doesn't care how many countries/companies go bust to get to that stage of moving everything to the US.
As I've said before, this is simply going back to the US before WWII. The US was focused purely on the US, especially after WWI, they truly weren't interested in the UK or Europe. Roosevelt was OK to help support the fight against the Nazis but wasn't prepared to get fully involved in terms of sending in troops, it was Europe's fight not America's. It wasn't until Hilter made the strange decision to declare war on America that Roosevelt didn't have a choice he had to declare war on Germany. Although it was always framed as America joing the fight for freedom / democracy in Europe. America was very inward looking during that period, Trump is following that same route without understanding the world economy has changed. |  | | |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:16 - Apr 2 with 1651 views | StokieBlue |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:11 - Apr 2 by BloomBlue |
Tariffs can actually work, if the aim is to break jobs to the US, which is why Trump jumped on the Hyundai/ Kia news last week about moving some manufacturing to the US.
The problem is Trump is expecting to see all of that happening within 6 months, whereas in reality it will be more like 6 plus years. However Trump also doesn't care how many countries/companies go bust to get to that stage of moving everything to the US.
As I've said before, this is simply going back to the US before WWII. The US was focused purely on the US, especially after WWI, they truly weren't interested in the UK or Europe. Roosevelt was OK to help support the fight against the Nazis but wasn't prepared to get fully involved in terms of sending in troops, it was Europe's fight not America's. It wasn't until Hilter made the strange decision to declare war on America that Roosevelt didn't have a choice he had to declare war on Germany. Although it was always framed as America joing the fight for freedom / democracy in Europe. America was very inward looking during that period, Trump is following that same route without understanding the world economy has changed. |
They didn't work in the first term, there is no reason to think they will work now.
The cost base difference of manufacturing in the US versus current manufacturing locations is just too great even with tariffs. Companies also have to consider that if the tariffs disappear they will be at a huge disadvantage at their US manufacturing bases.
That's before we tackle the fairly large assumption that Americans want to do these jobs.
SB |  | | |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:22 - Apr 2 with 1610 views | DJR |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:16 - Apr 2 by StokieBlue |
They didn't work in the first term, there is no reason to think they will work now.
The cost base difference of manufacturing in the US versus current manufacturing locations is just too great even with tariffs. Companies also have to consider that if the tariffs disappear they will be at a huge disadvantage at their US manufacturing bases.
That's before we tackle the fairly large assumption that Americans want to do these jobs.
SB |
It has also been pointed out that modern day factories don't have the thousands of workers that they would have had at one time due to advances in technology. | | | |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:33 - Apr 2 with 1563 views | ElderGrizzly |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 08:30 - Apr 2 by Churchman |
They need to be worried.
However, the few Americans who know the rest of the world actually exists can take warming comfort by the artificial fireside with the knowledge that the great man’s tariff actions will make their enemies such as the EU and U.K. a lot poorer. As long as they are not quite as poor it means they win and America is great again! Yay.
However, I couldn’t care a less about how our enemy’s people feel. They voted for authoritarianism so suck it up. What bothers me is what is happening here. What is Starmer doing? It seems to me he’s in danger of falling between two stools. I see why he’s toadying to Trump in the hope of not getting butt f’d too much, but the danger is two fold.
Firstly Starmer looks weak. The more he tries grovelling reasonable man approach, the less it’ll work in my view. Give a bully half your pocket money in the hope he will leave you alone and he will take the rest.
On the other side, where is the support for a commonwealth country in Canada and our biggest trading partners in the EU? We are hardly going to improve trade relations with either when we look so weedy and duplicitous. They should be the priority, not the US which has betrayed its former friends and in many ways itself.
Maybe Starmer is playing a canny game behind the scenes. For the sake of livelihoods here I hope so but given nine months of this government to date, I’m not confident. |
Other good news from America, is Cheeto President lost his Musk-enabled financially doped race to get a Supreme Court judge in Wisconsin.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/02/wisconsin-supreme-court-election
Talk in the US of Musk cancelling the $1m payments to those who 'helped' to try and win the seat too. |  | | |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:35 - Apr 2 with 1557 views | peterleeblue |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 08:16 - Apr 2 by DJR |
Changing tack slightly, very sad to hear on the World Service this morning that 3 US aid workers are finally on their way to Myanmar five days after the 'quake.
Christian country? My ass! [Post edited 2 Apr 8:16]
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Indeed.
Vance is a devout Christian apparently.
Not sure where in the bible it talks about bullying the oppressed.
Still - visit the confessional - "Say 2 Hail Mary's and 3 Our fathers" - 10 dollars into the offering plate and all's good to go. |  | | |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:35 - Apr 2 with 1558 views | ElderGrizzly |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:00 - Apr 2 by blueasfook |
It's all part of Trump's "America first" policy. He wants Americans driving American cars, putting their XXXL t-shirts in American-made washing machines, watching the God Channel on an American TV etc... Problem with that is American-made cars are sh1te. |
Trump made a call to US car manufacturers to ask them not to raise prices as it would show that tariffs were hurting American businesses.
Bullsh*t Barbie didn't like it when a journalist learnt of this 'private' conversation and called her out on it at yesterday's press conference.
[Post edited 2 Apr 9:40]
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 10:19 - Apr 2 with 1429 views | Guthrum |
More than just encoraging. When Musk said it could decide the future of the USA, he wasn't exaggerating.
The up-coming reditricting of a state in which the boundaries are already drawn somewhat in favour of the Republicans could have a decisive impact on which side it falls in elections and, as a significant swing state with 10 Electoral College votes, potentially the destination of the Presidency.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will be the ultimate arbiter of how that redistricting goes. |  |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 10:21 - Apr 2 with 1420 views | giant_stow |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 10:19 - Apr 2 by Guthrum |
More than just encoraging. When Musk said it could decide the future of the USA, he wasn't exaggerating.
The up-coming reditricting of a state in which the boundaries are already drawn somewhat in favour of the Republicans could have a decisive impact on which side it falls in elections and, as a significant swing state with 10 Electoral College votes, potentially the destination of the Presidency.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court will be the ultimate arbiter of how that redistricting goes. |
thanks chaps - some good news at last! |  |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 10:23 - Apr 2 with 1412 views | Guthrum |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:11 - Apr 2 by BloomBlue |
Tariffs can actually work, if the aim is to break jobs to the US, which is why Trump jumped on the Hyundai/ Kia news last week about moving some manufacturing to the US.
The problem is Trump is expecting to see all of that happening within 6 months, whereas in reality it will be more like 6 plus years. However Trump also doesn't care how many countries/companies go bust to get to that stage of moving everything to the US.
As I've said before, this is simply going back to the US before WWII. The US was focused purely on the US, especially after WWI, they truly weren't interested in the UK or Europe. Roosevelt was OK to help support the fight against the Nazis but wasn't prepared to get fully involved in terms of sending in troops, it was Europe's fight not America's. It wasn't until Hilter made the strange decision to declare war on America that Roosevelt didn't have a choice he had to declare war on Germany. Although it was always framed as America joing the fight for freedom / democracy in Europe. America was very inward looking during that period, Trump is following that same route without understanding the world economy has changed. |
Indeed the US tacit support for the UK in 1939-41 was highly transactional and anchored mainly on the personal relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt (many even of the latter's administration being strongly opposed). | |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 10:49 - Apr 2 with 1320 views | Guthrum |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:35 - Apr 2 by peterleeblue |
Indeed.
Vance is a devout Christian apparently.
Not sure where in the bible it talks about bullying the oppressed.
Still - visit the confessional - "Say 2 Hail Mary's and 3 Our fathers" - 10 dollars into the offering plate and all's good to go. |
A very different tradition to what we have in the UK, where Evangelical Christianity was (historically*) mostly associated with causes like the abolition of slavery (Wilberforce), prison reform (Fry) and restricting child labour (Shaftesbury). It was also in opposition to the more socially conservative Catholic and Anglo-Catholic traditions.
In the US, its heartland was in the South, an area of deep social conservatism. Thus it has taken on that flavour, allying itself with other traditions such as Catholic anti-abortionism. In addition, it has been co-opted as a badge by the (also socially conservative) unrestrained business lobby, because it get them votes, in return for money.
* With its wealth and online reach, US-style right-wing Evangelicalism is invading and taking over the British version (sadly, in my view). | |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 10:54 - Apr 2 with 1280 views | Guthrum |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:22 - Apr 2 by DJR |
It has also been pointed out that modern day factories don't have the thousands of workers that they would have had at one time due to advances in technology. |
They're not doing it for actual workers' jobs, but for the optics of "bringing manufaturing back to the USA". I'm pretty sure it will make no difference whatsoever to investor wealth creation (tho there may be some money - backhand or otherwise - to be made from those wanting to open factories). | |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 10:57 - Apr 2 with 1271 views | Guthrum |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 09:00 - Apr 2 by blueasfook |
It's all part of Trump's "America first" policy. He wants Americans driving American cars, putting their XXXL t-shirts in American-made washing machines, watching the God Channel on an American TV etc... Problem with that is American-made cars are sh1te. |
And more expensive than the alternatives. Particularly when they have to pay extra to import raw materials and parts from abroad. | |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 11:00 - Apr 2 with 1261 views | Oldsmoker |
Trump says the Tariffs are to force companies to relocate to the USA and produce stuff there.
If that does happen, then Trump doesn't get any money from tariffs 'cos there's no longer a need to import stuff.
It's a cash grab, nothing more. |  |
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| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 11:14 - Apr 2 with 1177 views | Churchman |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 10:23 - Apr 2 by Guthrum |
Indeed the US tacit support for the UK in 1939-41 was highly transactional and anchored mainly on the personal relationship between Churchill and Roosevelt (many even of the latter's administration being strongly opposed). |
US support was very limited. There was plenty of support for the Nazis in Germany and Roosevelt stood for an election late 1940 the result of which was by no means certain. I’m not sure FDR liked or trusted Churchill any more than anyone else did, bar a few.
But for Germany feeling it had to declare war on the US (it thought war with America was inevitable and the treaty with Japan obligated them), the US would never have entered the European war. People like JFKs father advocated closer ties with Germany and loathed this country.
Certainly, what aid was supplied was limited, grudging and a lot of it over priced rubbish. The crucial stuff (bought and paid for handsomely) was food and fuel. High octane fuel for fighter aircraft was very important in the BofB and made a difference. The other big impact was private deals (transactional basis) done with private companies.
In particular, Lockheed for the excellent Hudson and Packard for licence built Merlin engines. Ford was offered the opportunity to build them but Henry said nah, not for us. It cost Fords a fortune. The contract went to a small car manufacturer Packard who did an amazing job producing perfect aero engines right from the off. Something nobody thought they’d be able to do.
The other private deal done was with the small aircraft maker North American. A contract with them resulted in the superlative P51 Mustang. A bit limited to start with, its performance went through the roof when the airframe was mated with the Merlin engine. Packard and the US govt made a fortune from that. | | | |
| Happy Trump Tariff Day on 12:00 - Apr 2 with 1086 views | redrickstuhaart |
We must all highlight the dishonest information and narrative Trump and his cronies are setting out on this stuff, as loudly and consistently as possible. He claims that there is some huge unfair imbalance and that the US is being taken advantage of. He claims that they are subsidising Canada in the sum of £200b a year. He claims, dishonestly, that its about Fentanyl (which he has dropped- but only raised because such an emergency allows him to bypass the legislature.
Crucially:
A trade benefit is not a subsidy. If I buy a sandwich from the CoOp, they come away with £3 and I come away with a sandwich worth £3. I have not subsidised them, even though I buy things from them without them ever buying things from me…
His figures are dishonest. The UK has a broadly even trade balance with the US. The supposed imbalance with the EU is vastly smaller than he claims when you include services (which is clearly appropriate). Once they are included, the imbalance is about 50b. In an economy worth 30,0000 billion. It’s a trifling amount.
The Canada point is nonsense. Once again, even if you look at the deficit (NOT a subsidy…) its nearer 40b than 200b as claimed.
In fact, it is the US that has the huge advantage. The US has more than 5 times as many consumers as the UK And yet we import approximately what we export to them. Surely, one would expect 5 times as many consumers to import 5 times as much stuff? The fact that the balance eis even shows a massive imbalance given the difference in consumers.
The US is wealthier than the countries it is dealing with. Its people have more to spend and can be expected, therefore, to import more than they export to countries with smaller populations and less buying power. The small deficit suggests a massive imbalance IN FAVOUR of the US. |  | | |
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