travo said:So nazis were marching at our state capitol today. 😡 Of course the cowards covered their faces.
There is a shopping center about 6 mi from me, kind of on the edge of Orlando right before the swampy area where no one really lives except the meth heads begins. We have Nazi protesters there about twice a year. Honest to God, I'm shocked there has been violence in their direction, as that area of town is very racially diverse.
Although on a slightly happier note, that same area is now getting used for anti Trump and musk protesters.
https://youtu.be/k6LHjYTHvJA?si=5OCZw9HNxNkxuwAI
Did you guys see JD Vance getting sassed in Vermont as he tried to go skiing?
They lined up on the road with signs:
"JD VANCE ski's in jeans"
"JD VANCE uses fake syrup"
Etc.
He was also accosted on the slopes, I think someone may have knocked him over too.
Now the UK Chancellor is cutting welfare.and benefits. For the past decade as the opposition party they shit all over the government whenever they cut welfare.
Now they're doing the same, while upping defence spending.
I watched the Zelensky thing on shitty Hong Kong hotel TV which had such poor bandwidth it looked like either an acid trip or an AI video. I then watched Australia win the youth Asian Cup, and just assumed I'd fallen into the Space Oil Drug trap posters and bilboards everywhere were were advertising (I assumed they were ads, because Space Oil Drug sounds pretty fucking cool). But apparently both events were real, and the ads were actually a warning! What a wacky world we live in.
gamingeek said:Please take the ferry to Lantau island, Nong ping 360 and buy me the miniature cherry blossom souvenir, sealed in glass.
I will next time I'm there! I need to go back to buy myself a bus keyring. They were out of stock. 
For the upcomming Climate Summit in Brazil a part of the rainforrest was cut down to make room for a new highway so participants can easily reach the conference. The irony!
lol.
The funniest part is actually the "journalist" removing himself from the group as soon as he discovers it's (allegedly) real.
So, these tariffs are absolutely hilarious. I'm curious what everyone thinks their goal is. Here are some of my hypothoses:
1. Come up with a new standard for international currency; they're destroying the present one, which has been a right-wing goal for God knows how long but no one has had the balls to do it, because the current one has been great for rich people...the only problem is, replace it with what? Bitcoin? 
Then again, it could just be a post-modern Nixon pastiche. Other than taxes, Breton-Woods wasn't really replaced with any easily definable thing, come to think of it.
2. Buy the dip. I mean Cheney and co. happily slaughtered thousands of 'Muricans and probably over a million savages just so they could be slightly richer, so why the fuck not?
3. Just to spite me, because these tariffs are likely to increase inflation.
4. Its stated goals: return manufacturing to America...but how? Who the fuck is going to finance that? Certainly not the companies manufacturing "American" products overseas, and certainly not the American government which wants to transform imaginary debt into real wealth for redistribution to kleptokrats. And what happens in the decades that it takes to do that? Perhaps all the blue collar workers will have starved by that point anyway. Just as importantly, who is going to buy them for that matter, if they somehow did? Outside of some luxury goods, American-made products simply suck; and the only massively successful American luxury goods (iPhones, for example), are all manufactured in countries who know what the fuck they're doing!
5. North Koreanise the USA by making everyone in the world hate it while removing the incentive to pretend they don't through trade. Thus, in a globally isolated America whose beef ships are being sunk off the coast of Australia by Chinese subs (hopefully someone will have nuked their inteligence nest, as well), Trump can become its glorious leader until he dies. But will he even live long enough to survive his normal term?! Actually there is one thing America is good at making: weaponary, even if none of it can compare to the humble AK-47 or Hilux. So a war time economy may actually be a great way to feasibly increase the manufacturing capibilities of America. And obviously there's no better time to be a leader than during a war!
6. Covid nostalgia. Let's be honest, crises are fun.
7. Antisemitism. He's supporting BDS!
8. A little from column a to g.
9. scare the world hard enough as to have a strong position to start negotiating.
That and some of option 2. I also think he and his governmental bubble truely think it's a great idea despite alienating basically the whole world, including at least half of their own citizens. Perhaps that's the real reason why Trump built his wall. To keep people from fleeing to Mexico.
edit: I also can't help but compare this to the premiership of Liz Truss in the UK. She had similarly extreme views on economics, but at least the UK was sane enough to give her the boot after 6 weeks.
SupremeAC said:9. scare the world hard enough as to have a strong position to start negotiating.
That and some of option 2. I also think he and his governmental bubble truely think it's a great idea despite alienating basically the whole world, including at least half of their own citizens. Perhaps that's the real reason why Trump built his wall. To keep people from fleeing to Mexico.
edit: I also can't help but compare this to the premiership of Liz Truss in the UK. She had similarly extreme views on economics, but at least the UK was sane enough to give her the boot after 6 weeks.
Makes sense, but it seems so absurd on the face of it (I don't think spitting at someone is a good way to start bargaining?) it didn't even cross my mind!
I assume they were not wearning N95's?