US US Politics General 2: Hope Edition - Discussion of President Trump and other politicians

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Should be a wild four years.

Helpful links for those who need them:

Current members of the House of Representatives
https://www.house.gov/representatives

Current members of the Senate
https://www.senate.gov/senators/

Current members of the US Supreme Court
https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx

Members of the Trump Administration
https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/

 

[Amelia Troonheart]

I'm not sure where I stand on the free trade. On one hand, I really like the idea of being able to buy the best products from across the globe, but on the other, some posters in this thread have made a very strong case for protectionism.

I don't see why we can't have a mix.
Once the trade deficits are addressed and we have a cleaner slate, start looking at what makes sense for us to produce and what doesn't make sense or isn't realistic.
E.g. we don't have a ton of places we can grow coffee except for Hawaii, so looser trade on that makes sense as it doesn't threaten a potential American industry.
We're completely capable of building cars here, so that industry should be protected especially because there's a big market for cars in the US given the size.
We want to build computer chips, tech, and AI for security reasons so that should also be protected and producers encouraged to set up shop here.
Maybe we want to restart some industries like cotton given a huge swath of the southern US can be used for it and we just need some factories.
Cockblock China on everything possible because they suck.
Cockblock everyone who doesn't want to address trade deficits or sky high tariffs or other refusal on American goods that isn't sensible.
Cockblock countries in the EU who don't align with our policies e.g. terrorizing their citizens and lack of free speech.

Given Trump is a business guy I doubt he would do completely one way or completely the other but some mix based on the strengths and weaknesses of the US and to reduce economic vulnerabilities.

 

[Quiet Guy]

Unfortunately you can meet them in Us Politics General 2.

Just mock them. It's not like you have to actually be same room as those Europoors, besides isn't that something they're useful for? Isn't laugh at idiots what a lot of Kiwi Farms is about?

Except Otterly. She's one of the good ones.

 

[spiritofamermaid]

example

Are freight forwarders dropshippers?

Also thank you for that btw, was a very informative post and I could tell you tried to make it as non technical as possible.

 

[Not Really Here]

Posters in the Musk thread are saying that The Muskrat has forgotten his place by going against Trump like this. I suppose it makes sense - it's his thread, so the posters there hate him, but I think they are misreading the situation.

Niggas be oscillating between "President Musk" and "Musk is going to be fired by Trump" like quantum states. 6 months to do a standard corporate downsizing is more than enough time for Musk, Twitter took him what, a week? I'm starting to feel bad for the hugboxers, they're getting gaslit into the nuthouse.

 

[spiritofamermaid]

how is spending tons on elections and trump doing a million things complacency

Talking about the republicucks and Rs not realizing that people voted for Trump and MAGA, the R next to his name was merely a coincidence.

 

[COME ON OUT YOU RAPIST]

I think it's funny to see prices raise on things that are in no way related to tariffs. Much like covid, the real danger in any of this is people trying to take advantage of other peoples' sensationalism and fear.

 

[Potatoherder]

It's so predictable that lolbertarians are all screaming about tariffs only for the tariffs to bring actual free trade they claimed they wanted all along. Of course they will claim they were always in support of them. Almost like they exist to prevent real progress.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

I think it's funny to see prices raise on things that are in no way related to tariffs. Much like covid, the real danger in any of this is people trying to take advantage of other peoples' sensationalism and fear.

Retail is probably making a ton of money right now because of all the fear mongering and increased demand.

 

[Can of Bread]

I believe the desire to decouple the US and China is mutual at this point. The last 5 years showed America how perilous it is to rely on a foreign rival for so many vital goods. As for China, they know what happened to Russian assets owned overseas can easily happen to them if relations get too frosty, or western governments find a justification. Both would benefit from isolating themselves from each other.

I'm actually not sure how much China wants to decouple at this point. It's more or less a race against the clock for them, to get enough internal political and economic stability to not implode upon decoupling. There's also a hard-cap on this, in that the U.S. economy will eventually implode, itself, if it doesn't decouple. The main question is: how stable is China, and can it come out of a decoupling without any issues. It's hard to gauge because the actual internal situation in China is impossible to see. They keep a lot of data hidden, and they propagandize a lot. However, that doesn't mean that they aren't in a good spot. It just means we won't know until shit happens and we see whether China is left standing.

Niggas be oscillating between "President Musk" and "Musk is going to be fired by Trump" like quantum states. 6 months to do a standard corporate downsizing is more than enough time for Musk, Twitter took him what, a week? I'm starting to feel bad for the hugboxers, they're getting gaslit into the nuthouse.

It's not like they aren't used to narrative whiplash. The Muller shit, the Biden-to-Harris nomination, to-mask-or-not-to-mask, etc.
It's really easy to oscillate your narrative when you have no moral foundation.

 

[VeteranOfTheRetardWars]

I regret to inform you that the worst part about the remake is that it does not even include the mechanical hound

The Hound is literally the most badass robot ever made in sci-fi.
All the other ‘Policebots” in fiction ain’t got shit on the Hound, it’s a robot K-9 unit you’re fucked if it’s after you.

 

[browserbowser]

It's so predictable that lolbertarians are all screaming about tariffs only for the tariffs to bring actual free trade they claimed they wanted all along. Of course they will claim they were always in support of them. Almost like they exist to prevent real progress.

Quick tip: much as 'diversity' means 'non' or 'anti' white, 'free trade' just means globalism.

 

[spiritofamermaid]

Tom Homan

There was a hashtag trend a few years ago on Twitter of people who were openly saying they were undocumented and graduated college, holding up their diplomas. I remember 4chan having lots of fun reporting everyone posting with that hashtag to ICE.

 

[Glowing In The Streets]

Isn't it tragic that kids and Nintoddlers all over the world exclusively play games on an imported Japanese Nintendo Switch?

The switch is not even made in japan, its a vietnamese/chinese product
the japanese are not folding the circuit boards one thousands times
No honol, no gloly

just build a factory in America and skip the tariffs

 

[Eekum Bokum]

Some of you guys want to split off every topic that passes through the news cycle.

Tariffs are the biggest topic in American politics right now, and there would be no future for a tariff thread once people have this out of their system.

Also a lot of people legitimately have no idea what to expect to come from it, so there’s genuine interest in reading some of our autistic back and forths.

Since the protest shit happening today is largely in response to the tariffs, what would we be talking about if we couldn’t talk about the tariffs? Infrastructure in Albuquerque?

I know, I know it's just been like 100 pages of economics talk and I just find it very boring. Like the actual ins and outs of the tariffs is very boring to me, the TDS coming from it though is entertaining.

 

[The Ugly One]

The problem is I can 100% see him making the opposite deal. Bring all the street shitters over so the corporations can keep their slave labor for the trade off of moving operations to the US

Yeah because Trump has really established himself as the 'infinite cheap foreign labor' President, dingus.

 

[oh no its pipkun]

Isn't it tragic that kids and Nintoddlers all over the world exclusively play games on an imported Japanese Nintendo Switch? Where is the competing American-made Hicktendo Moonshine with Jazz Jackrabbit 4?

there's the steam deck. It's made in china because all the factories that make all the parts are close by. But it's got an American OS and games. It's got 50% market share of PC Handheld market.

 

[Dread First]

Are freight forwarders dropshippers?

Also thank you for that btw, was a very informative post and I could tell you tried to make it as non technical as possible.

Not necessarily. Forwarders can handle drop shipments for specific customers from certain origins, but more often than not, they handle business for medium to large scale commercial enterprises. You can have something simple like a run-of-the-mill life science laboratory in New England requesting a quote for injection moulded plastics coming from Shenzhen to something far more intricate like a Japanese pharmaceutical company shipping out vaccine samples to their American laboratory for evaluation purposes, or a European manufacturer of gears, valves, and rotors shipping stuff out to their American distribution team. The nature of the shipment does have an impact on how the forwarder will handle it, but more often than not, you're really just dealing with distinctions between general cargo, hazardous/dangerous goods cargo, and perishable cargo.

Drop shipments nowadays have become the domain of Chinese e-commerce platforms like Temu, Shein, and AliExpress. Margins for most forwarders can be surprisingly thin, and while e-commerce shipments are great to inflate your monthly cargo volume reports, the profits can be next-to-nonexistent. E-commerce business was much more commonplace between 2021-2022, but the Dynamic Zero policies in China curtailed a lot of that demand. The supply chain for e-commerce platforms like Temu, Shein, and AliExpress are highly volatile and not necessarily something that most forwarders would want to get involved with, especially with the recent tariff madness and the closure of the "de minimis" provision for China and Hong Kong coming soon.

 

[Mr. Manchester]

I've been busy enjoying my weekend but from what I haven't heard of any of those protests getting out of hand or inconveniencing anyone. This is ideally how protests should go, simply an idea presented and people showing up to support it. Not burning down fucking cities and attacking people with bike locks. Why weren't they like that though?

I think they know. They know the minute they step out of line Trump is going to shove his boot up the ass of every nig and drug addled communist that decides to fuck shit up. Thing about these peaceful protests is that when you present an idea to the marketplace of ideas and that idea is a morbidly obese illegal immigrant talking about how she's gay and how she's got it rough, people aren't going to buy it.

 

[(°▽°)]

you got a loicense for dat dere printer m8? Yew dew? Gud awn ye! But, Oi, it looks loike yoos be needsings and electricity loicense. Big whup, you forgots yous loicense loicesns toos. Whuzzats? yous actually printings figgereens witde printur? You fohgot yous plastics loicense... Yu's a real scrowder! Wes gonna have to breng you in!

Don't show up to a loicense fight unarmed.

 

[IAmNotAlpharius]

I'm actually not sure how much China wants to decouple at this point. It's more or less a race against the clock for them, to get enough internal political and economic stability to not implode upon decoupling. There's also a hard-cap on this, in that the U.S. economy will eventually implode, itself, if it doesn't decouple. The main question is: how stable is China, and can it come out of a decoupling without any issues. It's hard to gauge because the actual internal situation in China is impossible to see. They keep a lot of data hidden, and they propagandize a lot. However, that doesn't mean that they aren't in a good spot. It just means we won't know until shit happens and we see whether China is left standing.

Never underestimate their ability to tolerate the suffering of their people.