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Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

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Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#781

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem we have today is that the one runaway branch has support from at least one of the branches meant to act as a check on power (the legislative). Congress should be stepping in if the president is overstepping his legal authority, or if they wish to reduce his legal authority. The Republican party has control of Congress and our political system has devolved into a game of blind faith in your team, neither p…

>neither party is willing to go against their president in a meaningful way. So, what's going on is that Donny himself has all the money. Not personally, but his various election funds have more than than the rest of the Republicans combined. Obama has a similar set-up back in 2012, but not nearly as disproportionate as Donny has. Republicans can't go against Donny without risking a primary opponent funded by Donny t…

I don't know enough about the republican party's campaign finances to know whether Trump controls most or all of it. Even if he does, though, it doesn't have to work that way.

Congress has a duty to uphold the constitution, not to play political money games. The fact that they aren't willing to is a large part of why we're in this mess.

What we need are leaders that actually have principles they're willing to fight for, and ultimately that still rolls further down hill to the voters who have collectively created these incentives.

When Ron Paul was still in office lobbyists learned to not even bother talking to him. Agree or disagree with him, the man had strong views of how governments should work, was clear about those views to his electorate, and stood by them consistently. We need more of that.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#782
post #779

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The legislative branch can pass a law requiring enforcement, likely within some specified parameters or timeline. If that passes and is constitutional, the courts could be tested and uphold the law.

Uphold the law ... how? Who actually does it? The courts can write as many orders as they want, but if they're ignored, they're powerless.

And that would be the point when congress impeaches the president for dereliction of duty.

The system is surprisingly simple, it just requires leaders willing to actually uphold it.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#783

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was thinking that the US marshals need to be the enforcement arm of the courts. But I am not sure if that would help much in the current situation. Maybe police and federal enforcement agencies should be solely under Congress? At least then senior people can actually get fired for obeying unlawful orders from the executive.

Congress already have the Capitol police which they could have arrest anyone they think committed a felony in any jurisdiction and have top jurisdiction in DC and any government building within it.

And I'm of the opinion that the capitol police should be limited only to acting as a security force for the Capitol itself. They shouldn't be enforcing anything beyond building security.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#784
post #779

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uphold the law ... how? Who actually does it? The courts can write as many orders as they want, but if they're ignored, they're powerless.

And that would be the point when congress impeaches the president for dereliction of duty. The system is surprisingly simple, it just requires leaders willing to actually uphold it.

Ok, but (a) they won't, and (b) if they do, who carries out the actual removal of the president from power? ... oh, right, the executive branch, again. Oops.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#785
post #670

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It tainted civilization, at the very least America! I regret to inform you that america is not and has never been a unique snowflake. An important player in the world, sure, but one that has long been obsessed with the notion that it is special in some way, and it's just not true. Every country is at risk of going batshit crazy, and it's always been disturbing how americans seem the truly believe they are immune, b…

FYI: I am not American. I feel Fremdscham, but the transitive relation is implied in my comment. Politicians in my country are just as corrupt (e.g. Friedrich Merz doing marketing and legislative favors for McDonalds), but for the plurality of our political system, they still have to act decent to some degree. For now. There is another quality to what's happening in America right now. I can only explain the things Tr…

I want to be careful about how I frame this, because I don't want to make it sound like Trump or AfD don't have agency and can't be held responsible for their own actions. But if you're curious what it is that enabled both cults, the answer is pretty clear: there's significant popular demand for harsh immigration restrictions, and in much of the West only crazy far-right parties are willing to listen to it. The Danish political establishment successfully defused the far right by moderating heavily on immigration, and I don't think it's too late for other countries to accomplish the same.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#786

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think EU will be fine, it really depends on how much the US cares about advancing Russian interests. Long game, the UK may transform into being a sort of vassal of the US, assuming it survives as an entity. The EU interest may align more with China. If the US is de-empathizing NATO, they need a counterweight to the Russia/US axis. It's the end of pax americana, and the future is more uncertain.

Or this is maximum negative emotionally charged sentiment and 5 years from now won't look all that much different. It is really that you should just read what Peter Zeihan says and know that is exactly what is not going to happen.

Disrupting global alignment creates risks and unpredictability. Especially when driven by a cult of personality. Things that had 1% probabilities in 2010 will have 25% probabilities on 2030.

Zeihan lives in a 1960 worldview - oceans are not a meaningful barrier now as space and nuclear technology proliferates.

Withdrawal from the world was stupid in 1920 and doubly so now. There’s a lot of magical thinking that humans who live in places that aren’t in North America lack the ability to think or plan.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#787

Since last night, anyway. The people who make shipping work are frantically trying to keep up. One of the biggest customs brokers posts updates twice a day on weekdays. Last update 4 PM Friday, so they haven't caught the biggest reversal. If tariff rates change while in transit, the bond paid before the item was shipped may now be insufficient. So the container goes into storage (where?) until Customs and Border Prot…

So does the trump tarif noise average out to something you can plan with ?

No

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#788

The 145% tariff is so absurd I wouldn't be surprised to see cheap chips glued to the item to exploit the exceptions. "Oh yeah, that's not a shoe: it's the protective case for an ESP32 WiFi router".

Nathan Fielder was ahead of things calling smoke detectors instruments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3x87jemLFyo

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#789
post #722

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This aestheticization of factory jobs is something I've noticed to be driving the New Right's worldview. It's not dissimilar to and no less dangerous than the aesthetic fixation on the agrarian economy of Mao and Pol Pot. Frankly, no, sweatshops are not important to the cultural fabric of a country. The US has problems with housing affordability, with medical costs, and with service sector costs emerging from Baumol'…

Tech bros who are frustrated with their job fantasizing about doing "real work". An entire generation has grown up without assembly lines so it is easy to mystify it. People in Vietnam don't enjoy making Nikes but it is better than what came before: subsistence farming. But the Vietnamese factory worker trying to send their kids to university too.

Manufacturing employment plummeted in the US after the 90s.

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/manemp

Lots of people remember the 80s and 90s being better times with quality manufacturing employment without romanticizing the past. To this day multiples of the “information” sector are employed in US manufacturing.

Re: Trump exempts phones, computers, chips from ‘reciprocal’ tariffs

#790

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>neither party is willing to go against their president in a meaningful way. So, what's going on is that Donny himself has all the money. Not personally, but his various election funds have more than than the rest of the Republicans combined. Obama has a similar set-up back in 2012, but not nearly as disproportionate as Donny has. Republicans can't go against Donny without risking a primary opponent funded by Donny t…

I don't know enough about the republican party's campaign finances to know whether Trump controls most or all of it. Even if he does, though, it doesn't have to work that way. Congress has a duty to uphold the constitution, not to play political money games. The fact that they aren't willing to is a large part of why we're in this mess. What we need are leaders that actually have principles they're willing to fight f…

Their point is that without concerted effort the elected officials will follow Trump as long as elections in red states align with Trump's political funding

> Congress has a duty to uphold the constitution, not to play political money games

Those political money games will filter out opposition in congress as long as Trump is able to have yes men elected into congress

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