I know a lapsed Catholic who went on a class trip to Mexico City in the 60’s and was disgusted by all the brown people crawling around on their knees in the plaza in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral. Trails of blood, distressed people crying and hurting themselves… gruesome. For a sensitive young man who thought of his faith as something sublimely intellectual and beautiful, a religion designed for philosophers and aesthetes, it was an ugly realization. He still gets mad when he talks about it “why didn’t those goddamn priests put a stop to it? FUCKING JESUITS!”
This really is some top-tier sovereign citizen level bullshit. I honestly wouldn't be surprised to hear that some of these illegals are trying the "I'm just a traveler" defense while claiming they're legally a boat under maritime law.
I have some musings on the tariff situation based on stuff I've noticed at work as of late. To reiterate: I am not a licensed customs broker, nor am I an attorney-in-fact who writes customs entries on behalf of a freight forwarder. I'm simply adjacent to the process, and want to share some things I've witnessed on the job.
The 10% IEEPA-Reciprocal tariff has a much larger impact on global trade than you might expect. It's easy to say "10% tariffs on all shit coming in," but you never quite prepare yourself for the customs duty until it smacks you square in the face. In a previous post, I briefly touched upon the United States Harmonised Tariff System. This colossal tome of terse numerical codes outlines almost every conceivable class of commodity in existence, assigns them a numerical code, and then specific subheadings outlining the duties owed to US Customs (if any). It's not necessarily something would consciously think of, but there are exemptions outlined in the USHTS and that can happen for any number of reasons (i.e. return parts for repair, returned goods, ATA Carnets for temporary import and export of high value goods, free trade agreements, and so on).
I bring all of this up to point out that I've seen customs duties applying on shipments that I never once saw a duty on previously. Cargo once duty-free because of certain free trade agreements* is now carrying a 10% duty. This isn't the case for all stuff coming to the USA for the import process; exemptions for stuff like return goods for repair and ATA Carnets are still duty-free, as are other classes of cargo I'm not entirely aware of. Even so, it's kind of a 'shake your head to see if you read that right' moment to see $XXX,YYY in total duties and fees.
What's often lost upon people focusing so heavily on tariffs is that they're ignorant of the fact that other fees are still due to US customs. They often scale in percentages relative to value of shipment and/or duties owed. Harbour maintenance fees, merchandise processing fees, among others that I can't immediately think of. Hypothetical shipment of $10,000 would be subject to $1,000 in duties, but also .3464% (that's 0.003464 in decimal) in a merchandise processing fee. So theoretically, $1,034.64 in duties are owed on this extremely simplified example. That's all well and good in shipments that are relatively low in value, but you're gonna be paying out the ass if you're importing large quantities or something of high value.
If you're importing $1,000,000 worth of of goods, you're gonna owe $100,000 in duties, and $346.4 due in merchandise processing fees, plus other odds and ends I can't even explain because I don't even know them that well. Nevertheless, you're gonna be owing anywhere between 5 to 6 figures. Private credit between forwarder and importer do have limits, and there are some arrangements where the the importer will pay the duties and fees through ACH, while paying the forwarder for everything else. These aren't many small enterprises absorbing such large duties, but there are medium-to-large enterprises that will be absorbing the brunt of the impact.
Here's another thing that most people aren't privy to: there are payment processors for logistics companies like PayCargo and SprintPay (Powered by CargoSprint, not the defunct mobile carrier) that can allow customers, forwarders, vendors, and truckers pay one another for their invoices, but those payments are just taken out of a much larger credit line that the payment processor provides you. Sure, your credit limit on those processors could be $20,000 to more than $100,000, but you still need to make sure that Accounts Payable at your office pays the full amount back within 30/45/60/90 days depending on the NET terms.
We've been made to think that high tariffs will hurt the average jack-off trying to get through life. It's certainly true to an extent, but the impact I've seen is mostly limited to industrial cargo. Sure, the textiles, food, pharmaceuticals, and other such consumer goods will definitely see some price hikes because of tariffs. Having said that: how much will the import of valves, gears, rotors, injection-moulded plastics, scientific analysis instruments, medical samples, semiconductor wafers, petrochemicals, and so on directly impact the consumer? Odds are that most of them probably won't.
Here's a plain and simple fact: the amount in duties and fees collected by US Customs went up by a huge margin in recent months. This is money that the federal government will ultimately collect from everyone who wants to import cargo. It turns out that no one is fucking stupid enough to play games with the federal government, despite all the histrionics in public discourse. People joke about the IRS being like a ruthless mafia that wants all of your money, legal or illegal, but they pale in comparison to the fear that medium-to-large businesses, even super-mega-ultra-max conglomerates have of US Customs. If they're owed money, they'll make damn sure they get it one way or other other. If you fuck up, you'll quite literally pay the price.
You never want to be on the receiving end of a customs violation, a penalty, fines, or anything of that sort. Beyond being a huge black mark upon your clout as an importer or a forwarder, they also carry significant consequences on how you operate. That's why all these enterprises and industries, regardless of size or scale, are making damn sure to cross all their t's and dot their i's. More money is flowing to federal coffers. and it's from commercial pockets. This is the type of wealth transfer that makes sense! You're no longer focusing purely on individuals and their personal wealth, taxing businesses, or anything like that. Instead, you're drawing from commercial pockets under pain of Teddy Roosevelt's giant stick!
Forget the DOGE Dividend, I wanna see a Duty Dividend! If I'm gonna get a stipend of surplus wealth that the government refunds to us, it's far more likely to happen because of newfound duties that were collected than cost savings from gutting the federal bureaucracy and weeding out decades of institutionalised corruption.
*Asterisk because there are tons of exceptions.
The problem is that shit's always changing so fast nowadays because of volatile political situations and international negotiations. You don't expect 46% duties on Vietnamese shipments, followed by a reduction to 10%, followed by exemptions for stuff already covered in existing free trade agreements to all happen within the same month, let alone the same two-week stretch of time. Stuff outlined in the USMCA remains duty-free unless otherwise otherwise declared at the time of writing the entry, as an attested example based on recent headlines. I shit you not, importers, exporters, and forwarders everywhere are dealing with slowed customs releases because the customs brokerage software can't update fast enough (regardless of implementation and provider). That means trade compliance teams and entry auditors are doing double time to make sure their entries are correct, that customs gets what it's owed, and that no fines or penalties get incurred if a mistake is caught X amount of time later and wasn't corrected.
I can personally attest to seeing the 10% IEEPA-Reciprocal tariff applying on cargo exported from Korea that once had no duties due to the US-Korea Free Trade Agreement. It must be emphasised that duties can be incurred for a myriad of reasons: 10% IEEPA-Reciprocal superseding some free trade agreements but not others, specific cargo once exempted under X arrangement but now being dutiable under Y provision, different class of cargo imported relative to what I saw exported previously, actual customs entry errors where the wrong HTS code was provided and that resulted in duties applying when they shouldn't have, the list goes on and on and on. The point is: international customs is really fucking convoluted, and there's always a million reasons why shit can happen..
I don't doubt that the federal government will get more money, but it's infuriating to see such volatility in tariffs because it fucks with the amount of money that US Customs will actually collect. One of the greatest opportunities that emerged on the outset of the second Trump trade war is the chance to prove that duties are a viable revenue stream that can, and should be utilised to its fullest power. Fuck romanticising the turn of the century, the years before an income tax, and all that other stuff I only know about from textbooks and online discourse. If we're able to force big business to "pay their fair share," it's much more worthwhile to make them pay during the goddamn workday! That's only possible if the volatility settles down and we can actually see how much US Customs can collect after all's said and done.
For a sensitive young man who thought of his faith as something sublimely intellectual and beautiful, a religion designed for philosophers and aesthetes, it was an ugly realization.
Gavin Newsom agreed to assist ICE in the deportation of an illegal spic that killed some people in a DUI crash. That's kinda something, even if it is just for political capital. Link Archive
They keep saying these things and I don't think they realize how insane it sounds. No one's going to vote for a party whose first priority would be to undo 4 years of progress and arrest everyone they don't like.
Not quite as he hates fags (another reason to draw away from the Church), is happily married, and accurately ID'd Fuentes as a "nasty little homo" when I showed him one of his clips. Awesome old man.
along with some conceit that "An immigration or administrative warrant is *not* a judicial warrant. You are not obliged to obey it. Indeed, you can let the person out the back door."
This is due entirely to immigration. The Roman Catholic Church loses more members than it gains new members. 33% of the Catholic Church in the USA is Hispanic, up from approximately 0% in 1920.
Overall, Catholicism is one of the fastest-declining traditions in America when we adjust for immigration, losing 800 members for every 100 new members:
i still want to know who is supposed to benefit. i really hope our society isnt dying solely because some faggot bean counter actually thought you could just interchangeably import whoever to fill the gaps in the population numbers. "jews" i dont even fucking see how they benefit unless theyre so fucking stupid that they think the world being filled by browns who hate them makes them better off because they think they can outsmart them by making hollyjew flops.
I think it’s like a mixture of the big three answers.. like some people are just ideologues and quite literally think they’re importing future voters, and then they believe they have a deal with the big corps to provide cheap labor.
Then I’m sure you have some corps who just want cheap labor for real.
THEN there’s like Soroses and Gateses who want to be immortal and control the planet utterly, and they just want society to be too fragmented to resist them
One of the weird things about boomers is they constantly pine for the peace and prosperity of the good old days but they get very angry when you point out that the main difference between our current year dystopia and the good old days was a 90% white country.
In 1920 Hispanics were usually classified as White. Masses used Latin for services, so there would not be a Spanish mass.
Where did you find data showing zero percent Hispanics in churches during the early 20th century? Spain notably built churches and missions in the US Southwest.
was disgusted by all the brown people crawling around on their knees in the plaza in front of the Metropolitan Cathedral. Trails of blood, distressed people crying and hurting themselves… gruesome.
One of the weird things about boomers is they constantly pine for the peace and prosperity of the good old days but they get very angry when you point out that the main difference between our current year dystopia and the good old days was a 90% white country.
Are you psychic? Some sort of Sixth Sense chat with the dead kind of guy? Those are some real OG boomers you're talking to. The US hasn't been 90% white for well over 300 years.
Are you psychic? Some sort of Sixth Sense chat with the dead kind of guy? Those are some real OG boomers you're talking to. The US hasn't been 90% white for well over 300 years.
