Day: January 9, 2025

TARIFFS? What Tariffs?

During the campaigns there was some mention about bringing jobs back to the US and tariffs would be that vehicle.

Many promises were made on the trail to his many screaming angry mobs and tariffs were the major jest of those promises….

After the election which he won he threatened China, Canada, Brazil, Mexico and others with the imposition of tariffs on there exports to the US….all of which will raise prices on the working class it would be like a tax on stupid.

But recently there has been possible cracks in his stand…..

Trump is caving on tariffs, and he isn’t even president yet. I’ve argued previously that the interests of the business lobby and the rich would likely take greater precedence in Trump’s second term than they did in the first. But even I didn’t anticipate that Trump would surrender on the policy dearest to his heart before Inauguration Day.

The Washington Post headline was comically euphemistic: “Trump Aides Ready ‘Universal’ Tariff Plans—With One Key Change.” Such soft-pedaling didn’t fool the markets. News of Trump’s retreat prompted a favorable response Monday morning on Wall Street, with the struggling bond market rallying briefly and the overvalued dollar falling against other currencies. These moves reflected fleeting optimism that Trump’s economic policies would not be as disastrous as feared.

But that favorable response quickly reversed after Trump stated on Truth Social that the Post story “incorrectly states that my tariff policy will be pared back. That is wrong.” For good measure, Trump labeled the story, by the Post’s excellent Jeff Stein, “Fake News.” This well-worn phrase is, typically, Trump’s “tell” that a news story that irritates him is quite accurate, but the markets weren’t subtle enough to register that.

Trump campaigned on a pledge to impose across-the-board tariffs of 10 to 20 percent on all imports. Everybody except Trump, including his economic team, recognizes that this would be ruinous for the economy, raising prices (Kamala Harris was quite right to call the tariff proposal a national sales tax) and provoking retaliation from the roughly 200 countries with whom the United States trades.

https://newrepublic.com/article/189896/trump-already-caving-tariffs

Interesting, yes?

If he actually caves on the tariffs thing how many of his other horrible ideas will he do so as well?

Will any of his masses actually notice that he is waffling?

Just a thought.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

WTF? Greenland?

Before this situation gets swept under some rug…..

My regular visitors know that I am writing about Trump’s ‘big’ foreign policy statement about Greenland….it appears that he wants Greenland bad….so bad that he would consider US military force to acquire it.

He even sent one of his larva on an unofficial visit to the island…..

The eldest son of President-elect Trump arrived in Greenland on Tuesday for a private visit that heightened speculation that the incoming US administration could seek to take control of the mineral-rich Danish territory. (In a Tuesday news conference, President-elect Trump did not rule out the possibility of military action.) The Danish state broadcaster reported that Donald Trump Jr.’s plane landed in Nuuk, capital of the vast and icy Arctic territory. Local media broadcast footage of him walking across a snowy tarmac.

Greenland’s government said Trump Jr. was visiting “as a private individual” and that Greenlandic representatives wouldn’t meet with him. Trump Jr. is in Greenland for a day trip to shoot video content for podcasting. Mininnguaq Kleist, permanent secretary for the Greenland foreign affairs department, told the AP that Trump Jr. would stay for about four to five hours. The visit nonetheless had political overtones. The president-elect recently voiced a desire—also expressed during his first presidency—to acquire the territory in the Arctic, an area of strategic importance for the US, China, Russia, and others.

“I am hearing that the people of Greenland are ‘MAGA.’ My son, Don Jr., and various representatives, will be traveling there to visit some of the most magnificent areas and sights,” the president-elect posted on Truth Social on Monday night. “Greenland is an incredible place, and the people will benefit tremendously if, and when, it becomes part of our nation,” Trump continued. “We will protect it, and cherish it, from a very vicious outside world. MAKE GREENLAND GREAT AGAIN!”

Since the acquisition of Greenland would mean a direct confrontation with a valued ally why is Greenland so important to Trump?

But he also wants to strike his largest ever real estate deal because Greenland is “massive”, he “loves maps” and because he is very, very stubborn.

…

Unlike all hard-nosed negotiators, Mr Trump doesn’t take no for an answer and took the chance of naming his ambassador to Denmark to revive the demand this weekend.

As his son Donald Trump Junior arrived for a visit to Greenland, Mr Trump declared: “I am hearing that the people of Greenland are ‘MAGA’.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/us/politics/2025/01/07/donald-trump-buy-greenland-denmark-minerals-security-space/

This is an absurd pronouncement….but then look who we are talking about.

Even our most loyal allies have something to say….

European leaders are taking President-elect Trump’s remarks about acquiring Greenland for the US very seriously. On Wednesday, the day after Trump said he wouldn’t rule out using military force, officials in Germany and France warned the president-elect against threatening Greenland, the BBC reports. “The principle of the inviolability of borders applies to every country—regardless of whether it is east of us or to the west—and every state must respect that, regardless of whether it is a small country or a very powerful state,” said German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, per the Guardian.

Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s foreign minister, said “there is obviously no question that the European Union would let other nations of the world attack its sovereign borders.” He said that while he doesn’t believe the US will invade Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of fellow NATO member Denmark, the remarks show “we have entered an era that is seeing the return of the law of the strongest.” Barrot said European Union countries “must wake up, build up our strength.” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that “the idea expressed about Greenland is obviously not a good one,” the AP reports. “Maybe more important, it’s obviously one that’s not going to happen,” he said. “So we probably shouldn’t waste a lot of time talking about it.”

Danish officials, however, are taking the remarks very seriously, CNN reports. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Wednesday that the country is “open to a dialogue with the Americans on how we can possibly cooperate even more closely than we do to ensure that the American ambitions are fulfilled.” Greenland’s prime minister, Mute Egede, met with the Danish king on Wednesday, the Guardian reports. A day earlier, he said, “Greenland belongs to the people of Greenland. Our future and fight for independence is our business.”

What is this senile old fart’s game?

While we are at it the idea being floated that the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the Gulf of America…..

Can the US unilaterally rename it the body of water?

President-elect Donald Trump is once again mulling a major, long-shot global grab — like pondering the “absolute neccessity” of America’s purchase of Greenland — ahead of his upcoming administration.

Now Trump is tossing around the idea of changing the Gulf of Mexico to the “Gulf of America.”

The nations with the most “control” over the gulf are the U.S., Mexico, and Cuba, and for years have shared the body of water. The gulf serves as an important center of economic activity, including fishing, electricity generation, and shipping.

Why does the gulf bear Mexico’s name? It’s actually not a reference to the modern state of Mexico, but rather to a Native American city bearing the same moniker, and it has borne that name for more than 400 years.

Despite the fact that the gulf is shared by multiple nations, Trump recently said that the US does the “most work” on the gulf, and insisted that the body of water should bear America’s name “because it’s ours.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/can-trump-rename-gulf-of-mexico-b2675496.html

+++I am sorry to put it this way but I can think of nothing else+++

Has this old fart lost his fucking mind?

If this is any indication how the next 4 years will be then this country is so fucked.

Could this be a diversion?

Or is this egotist that fucking arrogant?

What will any of this do to help the struggling families that voted for this moron?

Questions that need answer….but will they be forthcoming?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”