Yes. When I heard about this earlier today, all I could think of was: he sounds like a mob boss. He's John Gotti without the nicely-tailored suits and great hairstyling. "Nice country you've got there. Would be a shame if something happened to it."
MR.PASCAL..If HE is an idiot why is he calling all the shots around the world?..Don't under estimate the enemy..Forget his hair..The real issue is how are WE going to protect our DEMOCRACY?
A bull in a china shop may be busting things up, but you couldn't call it calling the shots. It's a rampage.
Everyone outside of America knows Trump is an idiot and a bully-boy. Few do not understand he's a pathologically narcissistic liar.
Most of the rest of the World is humoring him while they decide how to handle him. It won't be pretty, the outcome of this economic war the idiot is waging in our name. And for the likes of Putin, he's what is called a "useful idiot". Look it up.
We are not faced with the task of protecting democracy, we are faced with restoring it.
Small potatoes in comparison to what they have planned for America going forward in the next 4+ years..Look what they've achieved in his first 6 months..Lets wake up, lets get real..Forget his hair..Let's get ready to fight for our DEMOCRACY
I do suspect he brings members of Congress into line by making private threats in addition to public suggestions that he'll have a super-MAGA primary their ass. That's pretty gangster-like, I think.
Trvmp is a punk. What slays me is all the people who prop up all his hateful ideas, scams, grifts, and strange, doddering utterances. There's something going on that we can all see (we do see it, right?) but somehow cannot identify. Bits and pieces are identified, but the ball of fire that should engulf them all is somehow smothered. What I really hate is that it is going to get worse before it gets better.
His lack of grammatical knowledge is one thing but is there no one who is editing his correspondence? Drives me crazy and I was an English professor who liked teaching rules as a means of knowing when to break them. But this is high level business/government correspondence that looks like a stupid tweet. Not the first I’ve seen.
He's made a point of surrounding himself with people who are pure sycophants, and also not too smart (and also have no moral compass). I think he hates to have to deal with anyone who is smarter than he is (which is almost everyone who graduated from high school in the US).
So true. His level of ignorance continues to astound, as if a grade schooler who requires remedial help somehow stumbled into the presidency. Notice how he tries to back his way out of this display of obliviousness with a bad joke about his own illiterate sycophants: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/africa/trump-praises-liberian-president-latam-intl
I once had to deal with a CEO who seemed to have the same problem. A very smart person, and I had a part in hiring her, due to my position in the Board's search committee. But I suspect that when she broke off with our law firm, which we'd worked with and was the best in its field, she was reacting to needing to deal with the extraordinarily smart head of the firm, name withheld (but his initials were L S).
His rube supporters won't understand that Brazil will ignore him as their farmers have increased their exports to China from 60% to 80% since his first administration, which I was informed of from my farmer-brother. It's one thing to emotionally appeal to a demographic losing its population & privilege for oligarch gain, but quite another to read of another world leader who humiliates him while murdering dissenters in Great Britain and depleting his own young population through war to quite possibly become a vassal state to China, also experiencing demographic decline. Its rival India and Africa have growing populations, according to a global demographic report put out by Bush Jr.'s presidential library.
What is incomprehensible to me is why the president delivers policy through trash social media rather than through official diplomacy. Or does he do both?
It seems more like a strange hybrid of a two year old in need of a nap and a snarky 13 year old. It’s never just one developmental stage they should have passed through decades ago.
At last count, I think Rubio's got four or five different jobs. He's even the acting head of the National Archives and Records Administration.
This isn't to excuse him, because no human has ever willingly given up their dignity and spine faster than he has, but Rubio may not have even known about this beforehand.
As a practical matter, I think there may have been a court case during Trump 1.0 about this, and the court held that Trump's tweets were official records because he was making policy via Twitter. So it's legal...which has ultimately been a double edged sword for Trump because lawyers have been able to use his unhinged rants against him and DOJ in court.
If I only had a dollar for every time David Muir on ABC World News Tonight opened the broadcast with a statement about what Trump said that day on Twitter. I couldn’t take it anymore so I stopped watching and left Twitter.
I can imagine a tiny office in the basement of the WH staffed by attendees to Trump University not covered by the Bigeley Lawsuit. Steel desks and rolling chairs out of some warehouse for Post-Koreans military furniture. All dressed for success, laptops connected on Starlink, and trained to write like Trump. Modern day clones, industriously piecing together scraps of verbal and big-marker scrawls or Truth Social emissions onto high quality valum with the accidental spark of proper English returned to the Orangeone for transmittal through diplomatic channels and pouches to correspondents and world leaders on behalf of our once great kumquat nation. Just imagine what these could-have-attended-a-real-institution-of-high-education-wanabees will put on their resume once their indenture is remitted to the Trump family aka corporation?
Does one really believe any of his syncophants would edit him? I doubt he knows what editing is, being a "stable genius." How far this country has fallen.
To my limited knowledge, even these tariffs are not law until its published in the Federal Register. It’s likely that it will be edited & proofread by someone with legal training, otherwise it will create so much problems for legal interpretation that it could render the tariff unenforceable.
Then again, that might be the point: all theatre, no substance.
It drives me crazy too and I can’t claim anything close to the education, credentials and professional experience that you have. I put the Merriam Webster app on my iPad’s Home screen so that I can quickly look up words I don’t know or know well. There‘s no excuse for the extremely poor grammar and punctuation in writings that represent our government and that are shared around the world. It’s horrifying!
I'm continually amazed by people who don't realize a HUGE percentage of human beings are AWFUL. They see themselves in Trump, and they have at least some of the same narcissism. They are racist & misogynist, like him. They love the idea of extreme power, and the ability to get away with just about any crime. He and they are examples of why Twain wrote "Man is the lowest animal," and referred to "The Damned Human Race."
The second Trump administration has resulted in my realizing that many people, including him and everyone in his administration, are evil. I used to think that they were merely stupid, ignorant, misguided, fanatic, uncaring, and so forth. But a desire to do evil -- to gratuitously hurt and kill people -- is the only explanation for their killing 14 million people who depend on USAID, for kidnapping people and shipping them off to be tortured, for killing people by taking their health insurance from them, for making children go hungry, and so forth. And don't tell me that they're doing any of this to make billionaires richer, because they'd make billionaires richer even if they didn't do these evil acts; it's not as if they care about the deficit. They're doing evil because they get a kick out of it.
The congressional Republicans are equally responsible for every evil in which Trump engages, because they could stop him by impeaching and convicting him. But I don't think that most of them are doing evil because they get a kick of it. They've simply decided that not being primaried is worth allowing 14 million deaths and the other evils Trump is committing. Why they care about not being primaried when they've relinquished all their power anyway is another matter.
“Why they care about not being primaried when they've relinquished all their power anyway is another matter.”
This is the most important question. Generally they tend to be wealthy, many are eligible for Medicare so they don’t need to keep “working” to retain health insurance coverage, and they keep a lot of Congressional perks after leaving office. So why are formerly moderate Republicans (e.g. Lisa Murkowski) insisting on staying on when they have emasculated the institution and have approved disastrous legislation like OBBA? I suspect it’s because it’s become a social club for them and they would be lonely without it, but that’s not Congress’s purpose.
That’s the only consolation about this: the catastrophe that he’s ignited will also affect him and his cronies.That’s how most of us sitting on the melting iceberg (and our neighbours) feel. I suppose schadenfreude is to be preferred over despondency. Sigh; what a time in which to live.
I don't think he has the focus to write a text that long, but it definitely has his style. My guess is his staff has been using a LLM to write letters in Trumpese.
So true. Republicans to a congressperson are Trumpists, practicing Trumpism. We should call it that. No one called people in Germany "Germans" in 1943.
I loved looking at that graph. Trump is a fool and has no trade leverage over Brazil. I assume Brazil exports agricultural products to China and Europe. It is probably happy about the trade war because any reciprocal tariff gives it an advantage over the US.
good point about ag-i think Brazil is overtaking the u.s. in soybean exports to China,and maybe other ag products as well-and many,probably most,of those farmers/corporations voted for trump
Before Trump 1.0, we had the best quality (and still do) at the lowest price. Then came the tariffs. China switched to buying from Brazil. This left our farmers with tons of soybeans going nowhere. Without China's demand, the price of soybeans fell. Farmers were getting pennies on the dollar. Trump had to bail them out. He calls it a reward for their patriotism. Unfortunately, those trade relationships won't come back. Trump destroyed the market. He made a token win by getting England to buy from us. They imported a fraction of what China bought. It is all smoke and mirrors.
The US allows a lot of chemicals that many countries do not allow. So many countries — including most of those in Europe — cannot buy most US agricultural products without breaking their own laws.
For example: essentially all non-organic US soybeans contain glyphosate — RoundUp™. This is not allowed in Europe, where it is recognized as the carcinogen that it is.
Another example: Trümp has been whining about Canadian "unfair" restriction of US dairy products. But Canada does not allow milk to contain bovine growth hormone and other hormones that are fed to US dairy cattle to force them to produce more milk. Most milk from the US is legally non-admissible into Canada!
(Incidentally, Canadian dairy cows live over two years longer than US dairy cows. I know this because I ran a micro-dairy for fifteen years in Canada. http://EcoReality.org)
Now, *you* may think that glyphosate in soybeans and corn is okay, or that BGH in milk is okay, but that's not at all the same as entire governments saying it is *not* okay.
The very definition of a government includes allowing or not allowing people and products to cross your border if you deem them unsafe or unhealthy.
Trümp wants to "dumb down" the entire world to US corporate-written standards. The US has the lowest food standards in the industrial world!
Only the big corporate, well connected ones received subsidies after their markets in China were destroyed. Small farmers were left to suffer. They still support Trump. The power of propaganda is amazing.
It's not really propaganda IMO, it's racism and bigotry. The "economic" rationale is the lie Trump voters say publicly, and may even tell themselves privately. But they do that to avoid having to confront the fact they're awful people who voted for Trump because he hates the same people they hate. They've voted for Republicans for years for the same exact reason.
The difference is many of them couldn't win, and of those who did, Trump's the first one not only willing but eager to break the rule of law and our entire democratic system of government to harm people his voters hate.
Having said that, I guess maybe the propaganda from Faux Noise, and the pulpit, has successfully convinced his voters they're good, Christian, people.
With tariffing every industrial input, Trump might well get Brazil’s GDP above the US’s.
The game plan came from Viktor O. He did all that in a $19K per capita Hungary. For the plan to work here, maybe we need to be an economic basket case.
Well, I often wonder how he passed any class ever because he doesn’t seem to ever read and has not mastered the rules of capitalization and punctuation that most people start learning in the third grade.
In all seriousness, I don’t think tariffs are a matter of economics for him, but a tool of extortion and blackmail. He likes to find ways to give himself leverage over others.
Absolutely. It's POWER. I can see him almost strutting around his bedroom at the WH, grinning as he thinks about how 'strong' he appeared to be today, how he has the entire world under his heel. Psychopathology - his narcissism blinds him to all else.
The thing about capitalizing words that don't require it in English, makes his writing look Germanic. He is, of course, Germanic on his father's side, and clearly admires Hitler. So I think he's consciously or unconsciously copying how the Germans do things.
Ya know, if he did that it might be the one thing his followers would rebel against. They're proud of not knowing a language other than English and not traveling widely. If Trump posted in Fraktur, or even modern German, it would indicate he knows something.
After all, these are the same people who think schools should stop teaching Arabic numerals.
? I hadn't heard about a movement to replace our Hindu-Arabic system with some better one - Roman perhaps?(Ha ha) I presume the idea is to get rid of any credit to those A-rabs, but I wonder what their proposal would be.
That’s the mistake the financial and business community make. He like tariffs because of the unilateral power they give him. The trade and economic arguments are just a diversion. Each industry that depends on free trade will have to pay Trump off to remove the tariffs.
It's not actually a unilateral power, though. He can, hypothetically, set tariffs based on economic emergencies. That is at least a fig leaf he's tried to maintain. But there is not even the tiniest seed of an argument a tariff on Brazil over Bolsonaro would be legal, and I imagine some administration lawyers were really pissed when they heard about this development.
Trump has grossly abused these laws that are based on economic emergencies. He imposes tariffs for almost any reason or no reason at all. The courts should stop that. They stopped Biden from forgiving student loans and he actually had a law that permitted him to do it.
The entire tariff thing came from Ron Vara, an "expert" cited by Convicted Felon Cat Meat's trade advisor Peter Navarro as a key source for his most important economic theories.
Trümp asked his son-in-law Jared Kushner to find him a trade advisor who would help him in the economic war with China.
Jared went to Amazon.com, typed in "China death" and it hit Navarro's book "Death by China". Without even reading it, Jared called Navarro and asked him if he wanted to be Trümp's trade advisor.
Incidentally, "Ron Vara" doesn't exist. It's an anagram of "Navarro".
This is from a Rachel Maddow story. Sorry I don't have the link handy.
I honestly do not believe that the Kushners and the Trumps are that dumb. However, they're like a scrappy bunch of NYC outer-borough types that usually rise to Wall Street from their blue-collar immigrant backgrounds and think that the fly-over country types and others not in on their scam are. If that story is actually true, OMG, the whole world has to be laughing at us as a bunch of chumps. It does make sense, since Trump never expected to be elected in 2016 and just used it as a PR ruse to reinvigorate interest in his failing reality tv, according to published sources. Now he is as ignorant as he thought the US public was/is, while being played by everyone else using him to loot our treasury for their benefit. Was it Tony Robbins, inspirational speaker/author, who said that the easiest people to sell to are successful saleswo/men themselves?
Before I saw your numbers, I imagined that China was the biggest market for Brazilian goods. The EU is also big for them. Trump is the mouth that roared.
watch out - you will be !!! 50% tariff = likely 50% or higher cost of coffee in the supermarket, or in Starbucks. Remember - T's tariffs are paid by those importing into the US, not by the Brazilians.
totally off-topic .... anyone tried Cafe Ginseng? ie - coffee blended with ginseng spice? Common in S.Italy . Absolutely glorious scent & flavour. I just binge on it when I travel there. Sometimes available online for home prep.
As distasteful as it is, everyone who believes in democracy needs to read Curtis Yarvin, or some of the excellent critical essays written about him & his cronies in the past 1/2 year. You will find that it clarifies tremendously the motivations & beliefs of this pack of wolves in DC - from Vance thru Miller thru Vought and T himself. A truly scary slice of humanity - will astound you. Makes naked the goals of their authoritarian project & will spur you to action. Get out there on July 17 & rally for democracy, and take every friend you have along with you, before ts too late.
If Trump kicked the bucket I think we’d still be in a horrible shape for the rest of the term with Vance. But also think without trumps cult of personality, he would have a hard time winning an election. Even people on the right don’t like him.
but Vance does not have the blind (and angry) devotion that Trump does, so it may be possible to wean some MAGAts off him in a way not possible with Trump himself. The spell may wear off more quickly.
I disagree! V is more intelligent & deliberate & tied into the white Christian nationalist movement than T - so more dangerous, despite the lack of a cult following. See my post above re: Curtis Yarvin. Anyway, neither he nor T matter much - its the movement and the exercise of the project that's important. Like an iceberg - only a small portion is visible (T, V, Miller, et al) but there are big & powerful & determined forces underneath.
True, but Couchboy Hillbilly has the personality of iceberg lettuce. Actually, iceberg lettuce has much more personality. A better analogy would be a wet dish rag.
If I were a trade rep from another country contemplating how to deal with Trump's tariff threats to my country, I would consider this letter to Brazil carefully when planning my approach. It brings to the forefront what's been underlying Trump's actions all along--rather than an advancing a coherent economic vision, tariffs are tool for personal vendetta, power grabs, and punishment. So there's probably very little sense in negotiating with the US in good faith. Unless you can match Trump hit for hit, better to look elsewhere for substantive trade relationships in the future.
What would happen if all the nations of the world gathered together & decided to simply IGNORE his threats, didn't try to negotiate, for reasons of sovereignty & willingness to take a longer-term vision and just let his threats go unanswered. Form a 'no-tariffs' alliance & realigned their trade partnerships among themselves. Would it paralyse T, make moot his threats, make him back off, damage the US economy so severely that he is forced to back off??? What other responses are possible, viable?? (ie - NOT give in within hours, shamefully, like Carney here in Canada did when T demanded our TAX POLICY -on US digital providers- be changed in accordance with his wishes)
The problem with that scenario is there have been very few politicians who have ever taken a longer view of anything. For most politicians "long term" is the next election. They're addicted to polls, and depending on campaign finance laws, what their big $ donors want most of all. In other words, their own political survival is paramount.
What may be interesting to see is if multiple politicians who attempt to appease Trump start losing elections.The Japanese have, reportedly, stonewalled the US on rice because they're facing an election soon and domestic rice production is naturally very important to voters in rural Japan. If the government gives in to the US on this issue, they think they're going to lose power...and they're probably right.
The crazy comes so fast I haven't had time to read about the digital tax issue in Canada. Is it popular with voters?
Sorry, I wrote that part badly. You're right, it's about national pride more than just economics. I can't recall the exact article I read 2-3 days ago, but this one written by AFP News sums up the issue nicely.
PM Ishiba's party lost their majority in the lower house of the National Diet in October 2024. Elections for the upper house are on July 20. "Almost all" of the rice consumed in Japan is grown domestically. Rice only accounts for 0.37% of American exports to Japan. Economically, they could double the amount of rice they import from the US. The problem for PM Ishiba and his party is it would be seen as a national humiliation, and apparently Ishiba's not too popular in the first place.
This is an important factor for politicians, and definitely not unique to the Japanese. One of the reasons Trump won is he convinced his ignorant voters that the rest of the world was "taking advantage" of the US economically. It wasn't, and isn't, true. but that doesn't matter. He convinced his voters they needed to elect him to "fix" this (false) national humiliation.
MERCOSUR and EU are actually finalising a trade deal that was kept away for ages, but now to protect their economies from the US and Trump, they are looking to get that wrapped up.
initiatives like that bubbling up all over the world right now - need to expand those efforts & solidify them ASAP - there's gonna be some economic pain as a result, as adjustments are made, but far less than if we all give in to the US demands
Agree. Trump does not care that he doesn't understand how tariffs work or that he is destroying the US and global economy at the same time. He knows that bullying makes him feel good, and no further reason or explanation is needed. Only the Republicans can stop him, and they just passed their political death warrants. This is what crazy is and what crazy does. It where we are and there no denying it. Bracing for a hard landing unless and until the Republican Congress steps up and takes charge. That won't be soon
Bolsonaro attempted to overthrow an election just like Trump. Brazil with it's democracy intact after the attempt promptly took Bolsonaro to court and their Supreme Court banned him from seeking elective office for 8 years and is now holding him accountable for the attempted coup.
Whereas in the U.S. the Justice Department was slow in bringing charges. Then the conservative Roberts' Supreme Court majority delayed ruling on whether Trump could be held accountable and then fecklessly granted him some type of immunity.
And now we watch the rapid dissolution of our once great democracy. (it only took 6 months)
And Ice's, (Trump's SS), funding from the BBB is going to make today's kidnappings look like child's play. From our economy to our freedoms; we are so screwed. We should all be terrified.
No, we shouldn't be terrified. We should be enraged 🤬🤬🤬
It's a great reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
The next nationwide rally is July 17. Be there or be square!
We need 3.5% of the population, or around 12,000,000 people to be present. So bring all your friends and families. Spread the word as far and wide as possible. Let's all get out there with a Howard Beale spirit and yell "We're as mad as hell, and we're not gonna take it anymore!".
When enacting laws to establish emergency alert systems comes too late it's the fault of a government that doesn't hold up the health and safety of the public as its primary function.
The Texas Governor and Legislature, in their zeal to run our once great state like a business, eclipsed its role in legislating in the interest of the public health and safety of the populous.
When the government runs "profitably" the general public doesn't get a refund on taxes collected. They just get a reduction in safety.
The neglect of public safety legislation freed up
more money for the ironically named Rainy Day Fund. No amount from that huge fund could ever make up for the lives lost.
People forget that government functions for the benefit of the people. The republicans have told people the government is a waste of money with no benefits. They believe rules are constraints not guardrails to benefit a society. Dystopian beliefs are dangerous
I agree there should have been a better warning system in place. However, it's shocking that these kids' camps were built so close to real rivers - and rivers always flood eventually. They'll have to put a lot of thought into warning sirens - the ones in my area are for tornado threats mostly, and they aren't even intended to be loud enough to wake anyone up. They are to warn pedestrians and drivers to find shelter.
Camp Mystic has been around for 99 years with no catastrophic flooding. I think we can forgive people for being a bit complacent about flooding, especially in an area where there are frequent flash flood warnings that turn out to be nothing. Do I think the legislature will actually do something to fix the notification problem? Nope. Based on the bare minimum they did to resolve electrical grid issues after a winter storm froze about 200 Texans to death I think they have an established track record that speaks for itself.
It's been thought through by the same weather service professionals fired by DOGE. They reported it to Texas authorities in time to craft legislation.
In the last session TX House Bill 13 was voted down by the TX Legislature. It addressed early warning systems in addition to other issues.
A local Hill Country Commissioner’s Court recently turned down a local early warning alarm system because it would cost too much, $50K, and locals complained it would be too noisy.
One frequently photographed scene was that of an high and dry apartment complex apparently built above the 100 year flood line. This was probably at the insistence of the money lenders for the construction rather than local building codes.
Trump has no legal right to enact tariffs. The GOP congress has not stopped him because they are absolutely feckless, and all those other words like it, supine, spineless, obsequiant, etc. They're so bad that "doing a Thune and Johnson" will in the future mean folding without a fight.
Congress has a specific solution to the problem of presidents failing to enforce the laws, etc. Impeachment. It takes about 11 GOP senators and a handful of GOP congressmen to do it. At this point, the Dems, feckless as they are, aren't the problem.
I wondered why Brazil is now requiring visas for people from the US. Now I know. We have a trip planned for January. We will pray that it comes to pass.
The visa requirement for US citizens was suspended by Brazil in 2019. It was reinstated as per April 10, 2025. This decision is based on reciprocity, Brazilian citizens always needed a visa to visit the US. (Maybe by waiving visa requirements Brazil hoped to be admitted in the US Visa Waiver Program?)
The newly enacted visa requirement applies to Canadian Citizens too. The requirement was waived from 2019 till now.
Countries want more information from people intending to cross their border(s).
Canada now requires from US Green Card holders entering, that they show passport and Green Card (since 2022). It requires people from visa-exempt countries to have a valid eTA (electronic Travel Authorization) if they arrive by air (since 2015/16).
I have a certificate that I am not a witch. Oddly, I have never been asked to show it.
The other day I read in a mainstream financial media that several European countries are replacing old US-produced Hercules military freight planes with Embraer military freight planes produced in Brazil.
The Brazilian President's response was, to put it succinctly, "Pound sand, Trump!". From the NYTimes story: "Mr. Lula had quickly fired back. “I think it’s very wrong and very irresponsible for a president to be threatening others on social media,” the Brazilian president told reporters on Monday. “People have to learn that respect is a good thing.”
He added about Mr. Trump: “He needs to know that the world has changed. We don’t want an emperor.”
Lula also said a few other things that either enraged the wannabe fuhrer or he may never comprehend, among them:
1- Brazil has laws and Brazilians have to respect them.
2- Brazil has owners and they are the Brazilian people.
My note: Lula never got a father to buy him a diploma (he quit second grade to work and help his family). Look at his achievements for Brazil, by any objective social-economic measure (GDP, Gini coefficient, etc) I can find, Lula's helped the Brazilian economy. How about the wannabe fuhrer?
Thank you for reporting this. Of course, Brazil was actually ruled by an "emperor" in part of the 19th century. Otherwise I would have thought he was exaggerating T.'s ambitions a little.
It's a little-known fact (pardon me for almost sounding like T-p) that Brazil was even slower to abolish slavery than the USA - BUT the emperor once went on a trip to Portugal and left his daughter in charge, and she started a program to do away with slavery. And according to what I've read, it started so well that she changed her mind and freed them all at once, ahead of schedule. The Brazilians didn't have a civil war about it, but went on a nationwide drunken orgy. (Of course, how white you are can still count there - nobody's perfect.)
Gangsterism. I don't think he knows any other way.
Yes. When I heard about this earlier today, all I could think of was: he sounds like a mob boss. He's John Gotti without the nicely-tailored suits and great hairstyling. "Nice country you've got there. Would be a shame if something happened to it."
He's a mob boss wannabe. Gotti was far more competent.
There's the difference. Good point. Trump is an actual idiot who looks and acts the part. Gotti was never so undignified.
MR.PASCAL..If HE is an idiot why is he calling all the shots around the world?..Don't under estimate the enemy..Forget his hair..The real issue is how are WE going to protect our DEMOCRACY?
A bull in a china shop may be busting things up, but you couldn't call it calling the shots. It's a rampage.
Everyone outside of America knows Trump is an idiot and a bully-boy. Few do not understand he's a pathologically narcissistic liar.
Most of the rest of the World is humoring him while they decide how to handle him. It won't be pretty, the outcome of this economic war the idiot is waging in our name. And for the likes of Putin, he's what is called a "useful idiot". Look it up.
We are not faced with the task of protecting democracy, we are faced with restoring it.
Spam bot whack-a-mole. Reported.
OK. John Gotti without the nice suits, great hair and smarts. :)
trump doesn't have "great hair." It mostly resembles A dead orangish ferret.
Road kill.
lol 😺
I think it looks like a mat of lint from the clothes dryer.
Trump makes his $5K suits look bad.
The Corleones were more interesting
Small potatoes in comparison to what they have planned for America going forward in the next 4+ years..Look what they've achieved in his first 6 months..Lets wake up, lets get real..Forget his hair..Let's get ready to fight for our DEMOCRACY
so true..but stupid does have all the power :(
Unfortunately, this is the case - for now.
I can read your entire comment now! Good stuff!
I do suspect he brings members of Congress into line by making private threats in addition to public suggestions that he'll have a super-MAGA primary their ass. That's pretty gangster-like, I think.
Reminiscent of J Edgar Hoover, the :Most Powerful Man in Washington" during his lifetime.
"We DO have the Epstein tapes, so don't cross me, unnerstand?"
I'm sure that's a concern for them, but they also know his name is plastered all over it, so he can't really hang that over their heads.
100% homegrown criminal gang leader.
Trvmp is a punk. What slays me is all the people who prop up all his hateful ideas, scams, grifts, and strange, doddering utterances. There's something going on that we can all see (we do see it, right?) but somehow cannot identify. Bits and pieces are identified, but the ball of fire that should engulf them all is somehow smothered. What I really hate is that it is going to get worse before it gets better.
Chump is a punk, sound bite for a tshirt.
A historian friend of mine once defined fascism as “post-feudal capitalism with mafia characteristics”. He’s not entirely wrong.
He's definitely a mafioso type - though I assume that most actual Mafia bosses are smarter than Chump.
Crazy. Demented. And damn near illiterate.
His lack of grammatical knowledge is one thing but is there no one who is editing his correspondence? Drives me crazy and I was an English professor who liked teaching rules as a means of knowing when to break them. But this is high level business/government correspondence that looks like a stupid tweet. Not the first I’ve seen.
He's made a point of surrounding himself with people who are pure sycophants, and also not too smart (and also have no moral compass). I think he hates to have to deal with anyone who is smarter than he is (which is almost everyone who graduated from high school in the US).
That's not a problem with his current Cabinet
So true. His level of ignorance continues to astound, as if a grade schooler who requires remedial help somehow stumbled into the presidency. Notice how he tries to back his way out of this display of obliviousness with a bad joke about his own illiterate sycophants: https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/09/africa/trump-praises-liberian-president-latam-intl
I once had to deal with a CEO who seemed to have the same problem. A very smart person, and I had a part in hiring her, due to my position in the Board's search committee. But I suspect that when she broke off with our law firm, which we'd worked with and was the best in its field, she was reacting to needing to deal with the extraordinarily smart head of the firm, name withheld (but his initials were L S).
His rube supporters won't understand that Brazil will ignore him as their farmers have increased their exports to China from 60% to 80% since his first administration, which I was informed of from my farmer-brother. It's one thing to emotionally appeal to a demographic losing its population & privilege for oligarch gain, but quite another to read of another world leader who humiliates him while murdering dissenters in Great Britain and depleting his own young population through war to quite possibly become a vassal state to China, also experiencing demographic decline. Its rival India and Africa have growing populations, according to a global demographic report put out by Bush Jr.'s presidential library.
What is incomprehensible to me is why the president delivers policy through trash social media rather than through official diplomacy. Or does he do both?
I find that unnerving too. It feels like children are running things from middle school.
It seems more like a strange hybrid of a two year old in need of a nap and a snarky 13 year old. It’s never just one developmental stage they should have passed through decades ago.
The Little Rascals making movies in Spanky's garage.
At last count, I think Rubio's got four or five different jobs. He's even the acting head of the National Archives and Records Administration.
This isn't to excuse him, because no human has ever willingly given up their dignity and spine faster than he has, but Rubio may not have even known about this beforehand.
As a practical matter, I think there may have been a court case during Trump 1.0 about this, and the court held that Trump's tweets were official records because he was making policy via Twitter. So it's legal...which has ultimately been a double edged sword for Trump because lawyers have been able to use his unhinged rants against him and DOJ in court.
"lawyers have been able to use his unhinged rants against him and DOJ in court."
But the Supremes gave him a "get out of jail free" card for anything he does as President.
So legally, he can do no wrong. At least nothing he can be legally held to.
Social media serves as a source of red meat for his base of modern-day, medieval peasants.
No diplomat worth his salt would agree with such text. It is against all and any diplomatic tradition.
He just let's Miller and Vought handle it officially.
If I only had a dollar for every time David Muir on ABC World News Tonight opened the broadcast with a statement about what Trump said that day on Twitter. I couldn’t take it anymore so I stopped watching and left Twitter.
This is a result of Trumpkopf insisting that he be the smartest man in the room.
Is that the same as scheisskopf?
"Scheißkopf" is appropriate as is "Arschloch."
Yes, but only the lower case word, not the character who torments Yossarian.
Still waiting for someone to leak his school transcripts, if they exists at all.
I'm sure by now he's paid someone to make them "disappear", along with his Wharton transcript.
i was thinking about editor too and came to conclusion that it goes like:
1. tweet length missive
2. handed to whoever "edits" as evidenced by "rectify grave injustices" is totally above his intellectual pay grade
3. is presented back to him for final approval during which he argues to keep the facebook boomer stylistic capitalizations etc
4. handed back
5. sent
I can imagine a tiny office in the basement of the WH staffed by attendees to Trump University not covered by the Bigeley Lawsuit. Steel desks and rolling chairs out of some warehouse for Post-Koreans military furniture. All dressed for success, laptops connected on Starlink, and trained to write like Trump. Modern day clones, industriously piecing together scraps of verbal and big-marker scrawls or Truth Social emissions onto high quality valum with the accidental spark of proper English returned to the Orangeone for transmittal through diplomatic channels and pouches to correspondents and world leaders on behalf of our once great kumquat nation. Just imagine what these could-have-attended-a-real-institution-of-high-education-wanabees will put on their resume once their indenture is remitted to the Trump family aka corporation?
It would probably be easy to for an AI program to replicate.
Nailed it.
Does one really believe any of his syncophants would edit him? I doubt he knows what editing is, being a "stable genius." How far this country has fallen.
ask yourself if he could string together certain sentences, e.g. "rectify grave injustices", "goods transshipped (TRANS?!) to evade [...]"
To my limited knowledge, even these tariffs are not law until its published in the Federal Register. It’s likely that it will be edited & proofread by someone with legal training, otherwise it will create so much problems for legal interpretation that it could render the tariff unenforceable.
Then again, that might be the point: all theatre, no substance.
It drives me crazy too and I can’t claim anything close to the education, credentials and professional experience that you have. I put the Merriam Webster app on my iPad’s Home screen so that I can quickly look up words I don’t know or know well. There‘s no excuse for the extremely poor grammar and punctuation in writings that represent our government and that are shared around the world. It’s horrifying!
You are way ahead of T already!
That IS the edited version. Gawd 'elp us all!
Agree. It is written like a student from early junior school. Then again, his ideas/“policies” are too so I guess there is some consistency!
Appealing to the MAGAs. He is performing for them but it is morphing into really crazy!
True but my gosh he’s writing to a very sophisticated audience. So embarrassing!
This was my initial reaction, too. But I think Tyler Sales, who has responded below, got it right.
It’s hard to believe donnycon actually wrote something that long. It would be very easy to imitate his terrible grammar and writing style.
Yes he is. So what’s the excuse for all his followers?
I'm continually amazed by people who don't realize a HUGE percentage of human beings are AWFUL. They see themselves in Trump, and they have at least some of the same narcissism. They are racist & misogynist, like him. They love the idea of extreme power, and the ability to get away with just about any crime. He and they are examples of why Twain wrote "Man is the lowest animal," and referred to "The Damned Human Race."
The scales are falling from my eyes. I hate this new knowledge, even though I had a misanthropic tendency anyway.
The second Trump administration has resulted in my realizing that many people, including him and everyone in his administration, are evil. I used to think that they were merely stupid, ignorant, misguided, fanatic, uncaring, and so forth. But a desire to do evil -- to gratuitously hurt and kill people -- is the only explanation for their killing 14 million people who depend on USAID, for kidnapping people and shipping them off to be tortured, for killing people by taking their health insurance from them, for making children go hungry, and so forth. And don't tell me that they're doing any of this to make billionaires richer, because they'd make billionaires richer even if they didn't do these evil acts; it's not as if they care about the deficit. They're doing evil because they get a kick out of it.
The congressional Republicans are equally responsible for every evil in which Trump engages, because they could stop him by impeaching and convicting him. But I don't think that most of them are doing evil because they get a kick of it. They've simply decided that not being primaried is worth allowing 14 million deaths and the other evils Trump is committing. Why they care about not being primaried when they've relinquished all their power anyway is another matter.
“Why they care about not being primaried when they've relinquished all their power anyway is another matter.”
This is the most important question. Generally they tend to be wealthy, many are eligible for Medicare so they don’t need to keep “working” to retain health insurance coverage, and they keep a lot of Congressional perks after leaving office. So why are formerly moderate Republicans (e.g. Lisa Murkowski) insisting on staying on when they have emasculated the institution and have approved disastrous legislation like OBBA? I suspect it’s because it’s become a social club for them and they would be lonely without it, but that’s not Congress’s purpose.
Well, it's about time!
Crazy, demented and damn near illiterate.
And addicted to nonstop online entertainment.
They know not what they are really facing …..
Like all cultists.
Unfortunately whatever befalls the cultists will hit us all.
Actually, it's the inverse, everything that hits us will hit them too. It's the whole FAFO thing. They will soon be finding out.
That’s the only consolation about this: the catastrophe that he’s ignited will also affect him and his cronies.That’s how most of us sitting on the melting iceberg (and our neighbours) feel. I suppose schadenfreude is to be preferred over despondency. Sigh; what a time in which to live.
Not near illiterate actually illiterate
I don't think he has the focus to write a text that long, but it definitely has his style. My guess is his staff has been using a LLM to write letters in Trumpese.
Utterly illiterate. Why are you giving him Elbow Room? 🤯
I mean. Doesn’t he Know How To Write? What a Loser.
Yes the random capitalizations suggest illiteracy.
No… he’s completely illiterate.
What a bleeping embarrassment Trump and his ENTIRE Republican party are to our nation.
a criminal disgrace that needs to be addressed.
I think you misspelled "addressed" - it should be REMOVED!
And that Republican party mostly deep down feels the same, but they just end up looking at the ground and muttering, "Whatever you say, Boss."
You think?
Yep. Except the astoundingly dumb ones: MTG, Boebert, Tuberville, + others w/<100 IQ pts.
Hmmm... how many does that leave other than Massie, Fitzpatrick and Murkowski?
So true. Republicans to a congressperson are Trumpists, practicing Trumpism. We should call it that. No one called people in Germany "Germans" in 1943.
I loved looking at that graph. Trump is a fool and has no trade leverage over Brazil. I assume Brazil exports agricultural products to China and Europe. It is probably happy about the trade war because any reciprocal tariff gives it an advantage over the US.
good point about ag-i think Brazil is overtaking the u.s. in soybean exports to China,and maybe other ag products as well-and many,probably most,of those farmers/corporations voted for trump
Before Trump 1.0, we had the best quality (and still do) at the lowest price. Then came the tariffs. China switched to buying from Brazil. This left our farmers with tons of soybeans going nowhere. Without China's demand, the price of soybeans fell. Farmers were getting pennies on the dollar. Trump had to bail them out. He calls it a reward for their patriotism. Unfortunately, those trade relationships won't come back. Trump destroyed the market. He made a token win by getting England to buy from us. They imported a fraction of what China bought. It is all smoke and mirrors.
"we had the best quality (and still do)"
That is simply not true.
The US allows a lot of chemicals that many countries do not allow. So many countries — including most of those in Europe — cannot buy most US agricultural products without breaking their own laws.
For example: essentially all non-organic US soybeans contain glyphosate — RoundUp™. This is not allowed in Europe, where it is recognized as the carcinogen that it is.
Another example: Trümp has been whining about Canadian "unfair" restriction of US dairy products. But Canada does not allow milk to contain bovine growth hormone and other hormones that are fed to US dairy cattle to force them to produce more milk. Most milk from the US is legally non-admissible into Canada!
(Incidentally, Canadian dairy cows live over two years longer than US dairy cows. I know this because I ran a micro-dairy for fifteen years in Canada. http://EcoReality.org)
Now, *you* may think that glyphosate in soybeans and corn is okay, or that BGH in milk is okay, but that's not at all the same as entire governments saying it is *not* okay.
The very definition of a government includes allowing or not allowing people and products to cross your border if you deem them unsafe or unhealthy.
Trümp wants to "dumb down" the entire world to US corporate-written standards. The US has the lowest food standards in the industrial world!
Canada is now selling more agricultural products to China, as a result of the US tariffs.
And more market destruction with the defunding of USAID.
They did, even after Trump destroyed the Ag exports to China in his first term. Trump turned a huge swath of American farmers into welfare queens.
Trumpkopf himself is the biggest welfare queen of them all. Without all the graft, he'd be destitute.
Only the big corporate, well connected ones received subsidies after their markets in China were destroyed. Small farmers were left to suffer. They still support Trump. The power of propaganda is amazing.
It's not really propaganda IMO, it's racism and bigotry. The "economic" rationale is the lie Trump voters say publicly, and may even tell themselves privately. But they do that to avoid having to confront the fact they're awful people who voted for Trump because he hates the same people they hate. They've voted for Republicans for years for the same exact reason.
The difference is many of them couldn't win, and of those who did, Trump's the first one not only willing but eager to break the rule of law and our entire democratic system of government to harm people his voters hate.
Having said that, I guess maybe the propaganda from Faux Noise, and the pulpit, has successfully convinced his voters they're good, Christian, people.
But they still voted for him again in 2024 (& probably in 2020 as well).
Yes TRUE! I have relatives who export soybeans and know!
With tariffing every industrial input, Trump might well get Brazil’s GDP above the US’s.
The game plan came from Viktor O. He did all that in a $19K per capita Hungary. For the plan to work here, maybe we need to be an economic basket case.
Sorry, sane washing comes at you fast these days.
Hungary is one of the poorest countries in Europe.
Not for Orban and his oligarch friends.
How did Trump EVER get a high school or college passing grade in economics? Lucky he had a wealthy and indulgent father.
Well, I often wonder how he passed any class ever because he doesn’t seem to ever read and has not mastered the rules of capitalization and punctuation that most people start learning in the third grade.
In all seriousness, I don’t think tariffs are a matter of economics for him, but a tool of extortion and blackmail. He likes to find ways to give himself leverage over others.
You’re right: tariff = weapon. The other NYC crime families had to make do with guns and garrottes.
Absolutely. It's POWER. I can see him almost strutting around his bedroom at the WH, grinning as he thinks about how 'strong' he appeared to be today, how he has the entire world under his heel. Psychopathology - his narcissism blinds him to all else.
The worst part is his narcissism blinds him to the reality that everyone else thinks he looks weak and buffoonish. Not to mention an imbecile.
his base doesn't-they think he's a god-sent genius and that's what counts with him
The thing about capitalizing words that don't require it in English, makes his writing look Germanic. He is, of course, Germanic on his father's side, and clearly admires Hitler. So I think he's consciously or unconsciously copying how the Germans do things.
I guess we don't expect him to use Fraktur (black-letter Gothic) in his social media posts.
Ya know, if he did that it might be the one thing his followers would rebel against. They're proud of not knowing a language other than English and not traveling widely. If Trump posted in Fraktur, or even modern German, it would indicate he knows something.
After all, these are the same people who think schools should stop teaching Arabic numerals.
? I hadn't heard about a movement to replace our Hindu-Arabic system with some better one - Roman perhaps?(Ha ha) I presume the idea is to get rid of any credit to those A-rabs, but I wonder what their proposal would be.
His megalomanic signature sort of resembles Gothic
Capitalizing nouns. But he capitalizes other words too. It’s kind of random.
That's interesting....something that I didn't know, not that I know a lot.
He also capitalizes adjectives. He thinks that Important Words should be capitalized.
That’s the mistake the financial and business community make. He like tariffs because of the unilateral power they give him. The trade and economic arguments are just a diversion. Each industry that depends on free trade will have to pay Trump off to remove the tariffs.
It's not actually a unilateral power, though. He can, hypothetically, set tariffs based on economic emergencies. That is at least a fig leaf he's tried to maintain. But there is not even the tiniest seed of an argument a tariff on Brazil over Bolsonaro would be legal, and I imagine some administration lawyers were really pissed when they heard about this development.
Trump has grossly abused these laws that are based on economic emergencies. He imposes tariffs for almost any reason or no reason at all. The courts should stop that. They stopped Biden from forgiving student loans and he actually had a law that permitted him to do it.
The entire tariff thing came from Ron Vara, an "expert" cited by Convicted Felon Cat Meat's trade advisor Peter Navarro as a key source for his most important economic theories.
Trümp asked his son-in-law Jared Kushner to find him a trade advisor who would help him in the economic war with China.
Jared went to Amazon.com, typed in "China death" and it hit Navarro's book "Death by China". Without even reading it, Jared called Navarro and asked him if he wanted to be Trümp's trade advisor.
Incidentally, "Ron Vara" doesn't exist. It's an anagram of "Navarro".
This is from a Rachel Maddow story. Sorry I don't have the link handy.
Oh my! Meritocracy in action, I see
I honestly do not believe that the Kushners and the Trumps are that dumb. However, they're like a scrappy bunch of NYC outer-borough types that usually rise to Wall Street from their blue-collar immigrant backgrounds and think that the fly-over country types and others not in on their scam are. If that story is actually true, OMG, the whole world has to be laughing at us as a bunch of chumps. It does make sense, since Trump never expected to be elected in 2016 and just used it as a PR ruse to reinvigorate interest in his failing reality tv, according to published sources. Now he is as ignorant as he thought the US public was/is, while being played by everyone else using him to loot our treasury for their benefit. Was it Tony Robbins, inspirational speaker/author, who said that the easiest people to sell to are successful saleswo/men themselves?
I didn't make this up!
Scroll to 6:30
https://www.thewrap.com/trump-tariffs-plan-origins-explained-rachel-maddow/
As you know, capitalization is rampant in newspaper headlines, chevrons, and internet article captions. I don't think he ever reads past that point.
I guess tariffs beat waking up to a horse head in your bed . . .
Indulgent? I’m uncertain that’s fair assessment of Papa Trump. Both our prez and veep were traumatized children.
And they have nuclear codes.
:-(This really need a button labelled, "I don't like, but I agree with you.")
Somebody got paid off.
Which is where the monster was created…entitled from the crib…
He has no trade leverage over pretty much all of the countries he's trying to strongarm.
Yes, but the crazy coot thinks he has! He is also a very slow learner...
However, that assumes that he learns in the first place.
They’ll find markets, just as the Soviets found markets for their grain in the late 70’s.
Canada is quickly doing just that right now.
Before I saw your numbers, I imagined that China was the biggest market for Brazilian goods. The EU is also big for them. Trump is the mouth that roared.
The traditional expression is "the mouse that roared" but your version works too 🤣
I was making what is clearly a shitty pun.
It is an excellent pun!
Yes, it was:-)
Lol .. I was about to amend to Trump is the mouth that farted.
I got it.
I think it was deliberate... he is clever guy!
I’m sure that was an intentional play on that line from…. Where?
The Mouse That Roared, a British film from the 50s where the leader of a tiny country invades NY in order to get foreign aid.
Old Peter Sellers movie from the ‘60’s. “The Mouse That Roared”. Check it out. Hilarious.
Nonetheless, time to start to detox from your coffee addiction...... Who can afford a $10-15 dollar cuppa....
Who the hell spends that?
watch out - you will be !!! 50% tariff = likely 50% or higher cost of coffee in the supermarket, or in Starbucks. Remember - T's tariffs are paid by those importing into the US, not by the Brazilians.
I drink my coffee at home. Only espresso, which no one around here knows how to make well.
Time to start roasting up the hickory...
totally off-topic .... anyone tried Cafe Ginseng? ie - coffee blended with ginseng spice? Common in S.Italy . Absolutely glorious scent & flavour. I just binge on it when I travel there. Sometimes available online for home prep.
That's interesting. I have not tried but know that US ginseng is found in the Appalachian region, and is supposed to be quite good.
Will we survive for 3.5 more years. Hoping his age catches up with him.
Then you'll get Vance. Trump -- hard to believe -- may actually be the lesser of two evils.
But JD doesn’t have the cult following of the 🍊💩.
No...he's a member of the Thiel/Yarvin cult.
As distasteful as it is, everyone who believes in democracy needs to read Curtis Yarvin, or some of the excellent critical essays written about him & his cronies in the past 1/2 year. You will find that it clarifies tremendously the motivations & beliefs of this pack of wolves in DC - from Vance thru Miller thru Vought and T himself. A truly scary slice of humanity - will astound you. Makes naked the goals of their authoritarian project & will spur you to action. Get out there on July 17 & rally for democracy, and take every friend you have along with you, before ts too late.
re: Yarvin - Robt Reich has a brief critique in his Substack today (Jy10)
True, but that represents a tiny fraction of the MAGA cult. Really tiny. But they are super rich. That's the big danger.
If Trump kicked the bucket I think we’d still be in a horrible shape for the rest of the term with Vance. But also think without trumps cult of personality, he would have a hard time winning an election. Even people on the right don’t like him.
Why would anyone expect any of Trump’s minions to act any differently. They all see what his behavior have brought to the oligarch.
Wonder if he can threaten as effectively.
Vance is the evil of the two lessers.
but Vance does not have the blind (and angry) devotion that Trump does, so it may be possible to wean some MAGAts off him in a way not possible with Trump himself. The spell may wear off more quickly.
I disagree! V is more intelligent & deliberate & tied into the white Christian nationalist movement than T - so more dangerous, despite the lack of a cult following. See my post above re: Curtis Yarvin. Anyway, neither he nor T matter much - its the movement and the exercise of the project that's important. Like an iceberg - only a small portion is visible (T, V, Miller, et al) but there are big & powerful & determined forces underneath.
True, but Couchboy Hillbilly has the personality of iceberg lettuce. Actually, iceberg lettuce has much more personality. A better analogy would be a wet dish rag.
Oh it will! Couchboy Hillbilly has all the charisma of seaweed.
As they say we're in deep Kimchi
Vance hasn't a chance. Who's gonna vote for a couch molester?
Actually, a little over one year. Blue Tsunami 2026! ✊✊✊
You assume normal elections.
Not necessarily, just an overwhelming one. The ones who stayed home in November 2024 are going to come out in droves.
Consider; Trump creates an “emergency” then cancels elections. It doesn’t matter if the non-voters suddenly decide to vote. Too late.
The backlash will be >massive<.
That is my hope. What’s more likely is voter suppression, tampering with results, or endless challenges by MAGA losers to cause chaos.
The damage was already in final stages of disaster the day he took oath of office to enrich himself!
If I were a trade rep from another country contemplating how to deal with Trump's tariff threats to my country, I would consider this letter to Brazil carefully when planning my approach. It brings to the forefront what's been underlying Trump's actions all along--rather than an advancing a coherent economic vision, tariffs are tool for personal vendetta, power grabs, and punishment. So there's probably very little sense in negotiating with the US in good faith. Unless you can match Trump hit for hit, better to look elsewhere for substantive trade relationships in the future.
What would happen if all the nations of the world gathered together & decided to simply IGNORE his threats, didn't try to negotiate, for reasons of sovereignty & willingness to take a longer-term vision and just let his threats go unanswered. Form a 'no-tariffs' alliance & realigned their trade partnerships among themselves. Would it paralyse T, make moot his threats, make him back off, damage the US economy so severely that he is forced to back off??? What other responses are possible, viable?? (ie - NOT give in within hours, shamefully, like Carney here in Canada did when T demanded our TAX POLICY -on US digital providers- be changed in accordance with his wishes)
The problem with that scenario is there have been very few politicians who have ever taken a longer view of anything. For most politicians "long term" is the next election. They're addicted to polls, and depending on campaign finance laws, what their big $ donors want most of all. In other words, their own political survival is paramount.
What may be interesting to see is if multiple politicians who attempt to appease Trump start losing elections.The Japanese have, reportedly, stonewalled the US on rice because they're facing an election soon and domestic rice production is naturally very important to voters in rural Japan. If the government gives in to the US on this issue, they think they're going to lose power...and they're probably right.
The crazy comes so fast I haven't had time to read about the digital tax issue in Canada. Is it popular with voters?
I don't think voters care much except in a "Americans can't tell us what to do" sort of way. A party is unlikely to win an election on it.
Sorry, I wrote that part badly. You're right, it's about national pride more than just economics. I can't recall the exact article I read 2-3 days ago, but this one written by AFP News sums up the issue nicely.
https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250710-japan-s-sticky-problem-with-trump-tariffs-and-rice
PM Ishiba's party lost their majority in the lower house of the National Diet in October 2024. Elections for the upper house are on July 20. "Almost all" of the rice consumed in Japan is grown domestically. Rice only accounts for 0.37% of American exports to Japan. Economically, they could double the amount of rice they import from the US. The problem for PM Ishiba and his party is it would be seen as a national humiliation, and apparently Ishiba's not too popular in the first place.
This is an important factor for politicians, and definitely not unique to the Japanese. One of the reasons Trump won is he convinced his ignorant voters that the rest of the world was "taking advantage" of the US economically. It wasn't, and isn't, true. but that doesn't matter. He convinced his voters they needed to elect him to "fix" this (false) national humiliation.
The digital tax — to be paid by big tech companies—was never implemented. I don’t even know what it was about.
MERCOSUR and EU are actually finalising a trade deal that was kept away for ages, but now to protect their economies from the US and Trump, they are looking to get that wrapped up.
initiatives like that bubbling up all over the world right now - need to expand those efforts & solidify them ASAP - there's gonna be some economic pain as a result, as adjustments are made, but far less than if we all give in to the US demands
I believe we are seeing that very thing now.
Agree. Trump does not care that he doesn't understand how tariffs work or that he is destroying the US and global economy at the same time. He knows that bullying makes him feel good, and no further reason or explanation is needed. Only the Republicans can stop him, and they just passed their political death warrants. This is what crazy is and what crazy does. It where we are and there no denying it. Bracing for a hard landing unless and until the Republican Congress steps up and takes charge. That won't be soon
Mafia diplomacy
WANNABEE Mafia diplomacy. He's cosplaying a mob boss...badly.
Bolsonaro attempted to overthrow an election just like Trump. Brazil with it's democracy intact after the attempt promptly took Bolsonaro to court and their Supreme Court banned him from seeking elective office for 8 years and is now holding him accountable for the attempted coup.
Whereas in the U.S. the Justice Department was slow in bringing charges. Then the conservative Roberts' Supreme Court majority delayed ruling on whether Trump could be held accountable and then fecklessly granted him some type of immunity.
And now we watch the rapid dissolution of our once great democracy. (it only took 6 months)
And Ice's, (Trump's SS), funding from the BBB is going to make today's kidnappings look like child's play. From our economy to our freedoms; we are so screwed. We should all be terrified.
No, we shouldn't be terrified. We should be enraged 🤬🤬🤬
It's a great reminder of the imperative that we continue to Rise! Resist! ✊✊✊
The next nationwide rally is July 17. Be there or be square!
We need 3.5% of the population, or around 12,000,000 people to be present. So bring all your friends and families. Spread the word as far and wide as possible. Let's all get out there with a Howard Beale spirit and yell "We're as mad as hell, and we're not gonna take it anymore!".
https://substack.com/home/post/p-166495524
When enacting laws to establish emergency alert systems comes too late it's the fault of a government that doesn't hold up the health and safety of the public as its primary function.
The Texas Governor and Legislature, in their zeal to run our once great state like a business, eclipsed its role in legislating in the interest of the public health and safety of the populous.
When the government runs "profitably" the general public doesn't get a refund on taxes collected. They just get a reduction in safety.
The neglect of public safety legislation freed up
more money for the ironically named Rainy Day Fund. No amount from that huge fund could ever make up for the lives lost.
People forget that government functions for the benefit of the people. The republicans have told people the government is a waste of money with no benefits. They believe rules are constraints not guardrails to benefit a society. Dystopian beliefs are dangerous
ummm... lawlessness. "Don't tell me what to do", "I'll see you in court", "whoever has the most money wins"; in other words, high Trumpian Culture
I agree there should have been a better warning system in place. However, it's shocking that these kids' camps were built so close to real rivers - and rivers always flood eventually. They'll have to put a lot of thought into warning sirens - the ones in my area are for tornado threats mostly, and they aren't even intended to be loud enough to wake anyone up. They are to warn pedestrians and drivers to find shelter.
Camp Mystic has been around for 99 years with no catastrophic flooding. I think we can forgive people for being a bit complacent about flooding, especially in an area where there are frequent flash flood warnings that turn out to be nothing. Do I think the legislature will actually do something to fix the notification problem? Nope. Based on the bare minimum they did to resolve electrical grid issues after a winter storm froze about 200 Texans to death I think they have an established track record that speaks for itself.
I read there were fatalities in a 1987 flood.
It's been thought through by the same weather service professionals fired by DOGE. They reported it to Texas authorities in time to craft legislation.
In the last session TX House Bill 13 was voted down by the TX Legislature. It addressed early warning systems in addition to other issues.
A local Hill Country Commissioner’s Court recently turned down a local early warning alarm system because it would cost too much, $50K, and locals complained it would be too noisy.
"Leading" from behind.
One frequently photographed scene was that of an high and dry apartment complex apparently built above the 100 year flood line. This was probably at the insistence of the money lenders for the construction rather than local building codes.
Excellent!
Evil, megalomaniacal, and written like a high school sophomore trying to sound articulate. What an embarrassment to the USA.
He's The Buffoon in Chief.
Reading his letters and Truth Social posts makes me long to read e.e. cummings poetry.
oooo!!!! that's drastic!!!! <grin>
candy is dandy
liquor is quicker
Trump is not
Trump’s privilege to enact tariffs should be reclaimed by Congress!
Congress is too busy rolling over and showing its belly.
I know a cute dog that does this. Trump is no cute dog
And neither is congress. But, they're rolling over and tucking their collective tail between their legs.
Trump has no legal right to enact tariffs. The GOP congress has not stopped him because they are absolutely feckless, and all those other words like it, supine, spineless, obsequiant, etc. They're so bad that "doing a Thune and Johnson" will in the future mean folding without a fight.
Trumpkopf does a lot of things with no legal right. He just ignores the law.
Well, if it is illegal for him to enact tariffs, it's pointless to blame the "GOP congress" because they are complicit! And the Dems?
Congress has a specific solution to the problem of presidents failing to enforce the laws, etc. Impeachment. It takes about 11 GOP senators and a handful of GOP congressmen to do it. At this point, the Dems, feckless as they are, aren't the problem.
Kind of like being a “skadden” about law firms capitulating in advance!
ReClaimed! If not, they will be held primarily responsible.
I wondered why Brazil is now requiring visas for people from the US. Now I know. We have a trip planned for January. We will pray that it comes to pass.
Be sure you can come back (if you want). I’ve read that you should only take a burner phone as Customs could search your phone for anti-trump content.
Thanks. We'll take an old flip-phone.
What about computers?
It is about diplomacy: reciprocity.
You needed a visa a decade ago when I used to go down there for work.
I needed none when I went down there two years ago on a photo workshop.
The visa requirement for US citizens was suspended by Brazil in 2019. It was reinstated as per April 10, 2025. This decision is based on reciprocity, Brazilian citizens always needed a visa to visit the US. (Maybe by waiving visa requirements Brazil hoped to be admitted in the US Visa Waiver Program?)
Thanks.
Me too
For tourism a visa was not necessary when I went there years ago - but then I'm a Canadian so that might make a difference
The newly enacted visa requirement applies to Canadian Citizens too. The requirement was waived from 2019 till now.
Countries want more information from people intending to cross their border(s).
Canada now requires from US Green Card holders entering, that they show passport and Green Card (since 2022). It requires people from visa-exempt countries to have a valid eTA (electronic Travel Authorization) if they arrive by air (since 2015/16).
I have a certificate that I am not a witch. Oddly, I have never been asked to show it.
You will be very much welcome. Your president, however, not so much.
The other day I read in a mainstream financial media that several European countries are replacing old US-produced Hercules military freight planes with Embraer military freight planes produced in Brazil.
It is true. Embraer is one of the jewels of the country’s industry.
We can only hope Brazil shows us the way to put país over partido.
The Brazilian President's response was, to put it succinctly, "Pound sand, Trump!". From the NYTimes story: "Mr. Lula had quickly fired back. “I think it’s very wrong and very irresponsible for a president to be threatening others on social media,” the Brazilian president told reporters on Monday. “People have to learn that respect is a good thing.”
He added about Mr. Trump: “He needs to know that the world has changed. We don’t want an emperor.”
Lula also said a few other things that either enraged the wannabe fuhrer or he may never comprehend, among them:
1- Brazil has laws and Brazilians have to respect them.
2- Brazil has owners and they are the Brazilian people.
My note: Lula never got a father to buy him a diploma (he quit second grade to work and help his family). Look at his achievements for Brazil, by any objective social-economic measure (GDP, Gini coefficient, etc) I can find, Lula's helped the Brazilian economy. How about the wannabe fuhrer?
Thank you for reporting this. Of course, Brazil was actually ruled by an "emperor" in part of the 19th century. Otherwise I would have thought he was exaggerating T.'s ambitions a little.
It's a little-known fact (pardon me for almost sounding like T-p) that Brazil was even slower to abolish slavery than the USA - BUT the emperor once went on a trip to Portugal and left his daughter in charge, and she started a program to do away with slavery. And according to what I've read, it started so well that she changed her mind and freed them all at once, ahead of schedule. The Brazilians didn't have a civil war about it, but went on a nationwide drunken orgy. (Of course, how white you are can still count there - nobody's perfect.)
That’s good to hear! Thanks.