All Trudeau needs to do is implement a reciprocal tariff that also increases by like amount. Boom, now you have an infinite tariff loop and a single transaction in either direction is enough to create infinite GDP.
Checkmate, economists.
Ya honestly Trump is so fucking stupid that it’s starting to feel like he’s doing a bit. Like is he mocking his own supporters at this point? I think the world needs to respond to trump with something exactly like this. Infinite tariff loop is actually a policy I would support unironically.
Well his first though after he clashed with Zelensky was “That will be great television”
Sound to me like he is just thinking in tv drama plotlines, but unlike on tv you can’t just cancel a show when everything goes to shit …
No, it’s because he has got orders to make a spectacle so he just says what he thinks, that it’s gone on for x minutes now time to enact the ambush, then he comments on the “great television” because he has accomplished the oligarchy’s mission to stage this farcical peace talk.
Long before you get to 100%, everybody stops buying it. Zero times anything is zero.
They can go above 100% too. Canadian chocolate bar $420.69 when?
yeah, but 0 times infinite is undefined, so who knows what’ll happen ;)
Is it though? Wouldn’t 0 times infinity still be 0?
Nope, look it up, it’s undefined.
You can define things that boil down to 0 x infinity that equal anything you like. It’s undefined and is dependent on context. Infinity isn’t this one number, it’s a concept that encompasses a lot of things, and the way you achieve an infinity matter.
Isn’t it anything divided by 0 is undefined? Granted, I only have a more or less intermediate level of math, but I was always taught that multiplication by zero is always zero. But then again, zero is weird and can break my brain just as much as infinity does.
Indeed, any number multiplied by 0 is zero, but infinity is not a number.
So then it starts to depend on what the 0 actually means, and what the infinity actually means, and depending on the context 0 x infinity can be all kinds of things.
Or a black market forms
I love seeing that video of a journalist asking trump about what he said about some tariffs and him responding “I think the other countries pay them”. He truly doesn’t know how they work.
How dare you insult Trump. Next insult, and you’re gonna get tariffed!
In all fairness, a fringe economist told him that. Navarro still hasn’t been able to successfully explain to anyone why tariffs won’t raise prices. He gets as far as “they can’t raise tariffs on the largest market in the world” as if there weren’t high tariffs on the us before.
Not to mention the “Governor Trudeau” extra-dumb.
God I hate politics-by-Twitter. I’m appalled that the US is turning into a fascist country, but I’m even more appalled by how pathetic, puerile and trashy the US’ new fascist overlords are. At least Hitler dressed in Hugo Boss and made speeches that enthralled people: MAGA dresses like tramps, Steve Bannon-stylee and bullies other countries like kids on the playground.
I think this is Truth Social with is worse than Twitter somehow.
Twitter and Truth Social are two subtly different flavors of fascist excrement.
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Truth Social - all Nazi all the time Xitter - Nazi friendly and “centrist” (closet Nazis)
No, Twitter is worse IMO. Truth social has always been a steaming pile of shit that non-fascists avoid. Twitter used to be viewed in a positive light and a lot of organizations and governments still use it as a communication medium - sometimes an exclusive communication medium.
Twitter used to be viewed in a positive light
It never was though. Studies always showed that it increase anxiety in the users. Hell, I’m trying to use Bsky to support artists trying to move away from twitter and the while it’s not too bad, the character limit is forcing me to simplify my thoughts to the point that they’re no longer specific enough not to create new conflict. Is this how twitter always was?
Twitter was awesome pre-2015 then something happened…can’t quite figure out what brought a bunch of assholes to the platform…hmm…
And if you feel forced to simplify your thoughts to fit the character limit, you’re simply using the wrong service
Partially coincidental but
(Found this yesterday because the same organization mirrors the president’s “Truths”)
Mastodon limits to 500 by default. Alternatives like misskey and pleroma are usually 5k or unlimited
Well, the person I’m commenting under is using the wrong service. But it’s easier to simply not comment or even “engage” in anyway then it is to get into arguments because of a miscommunication.
I considered Twitter as one of the horsemen of the apocalypse, and that was years before musk bought it.
It depends on what you mean my positive light but generally I would say you’re wrong. Twitter had a dedicated fan base well into this decade and was where every business and personality had an account for a reason. Yes people knew of negative social media effecta but Twitter definitely had a fairly wide spread cult following.
where every business and personality had an account for a reason
to sell shit
Also, it seems weird to say a mainstream social media platform cult following.
it seems weird to say a mainstream social media platform cult following.
I agree the word choice is a bit odd. I meant in the sense that Twitter had a dedicated userbase that used it a lot and sort of glorified it. You weren’t talking with your friends or posting online, you were “Tweeting at your mutuals”. The most succinct way I could put it was “cult”, in the same sense that movies and TV have “cult” followings: a dedicated group that enjoys and bases some part of their personality around it.
“Cult following” refer to fanbases for obscure media, like Wraith or Ice Pirates. Star Wars does not have a Cult following.
That shows clearly that these tariffs are there to distract (yes it they hurt Americans, Canadians and Mexicans, but he doesn’t care) to make media stop talking about Ukraine.
And ukraine is there to distract from tax cuts, and tax cuts and there to distract from the lost of medicare and the lost of medicare is there to distract from them stealing everything, etc etc
maybe, just maybe, they are just dumb and evil
There’s still a difference between the severity of some of these things.
With the right leadership America could undo tariffs or the anti-DEI stuff or even drastically redistribute that stolen wealth with the stroke of a pen. The damage to America’s alliances could be repaired over time, especially if they show broad commitment to reforming. These things suck and will hurt but are fixable.
You can’t sign a piece of paper to unfuck Ukraine, or restore gutted institutional knowledge or depose hereditary president-for-life Trump Jr.
I’m betting on more evil than dumb but I can be incredibly wrong.
Trump is dumb. Thiel, Miller, and Yarvin are evil.
Sony forget that the tax cuts actually increase taxes for most working class Americans by $3k a year.
It is all to distract from the dismantling of any apparatus that could block his next attempt to stay in power forever.
This is all misdirection.
The fact that they’re not even good at being evil somehow pisses me off even more at the whole situation
To be fair, the nazis were pretty fucking stupid too. The evil-cool, machine-like, storm trooper aesthetic they’re known for is cultivated, at least by a significant portion, by nazis overseas that wanted them to be likeable.
Some of it is cultural momentum, for sure. I also like Storm Troopers. But nazis really like Storm Troopers.
Yeah, I remember watching speeches by Hitler back when I was in school. I didn’t understand German so I didn’t know what he was saying, but I could at least appreciate that the Nazis knew how to project power and competence.
I always understood the fascist aesthetic to be something very macho, very serious-seeming, etc. I always thought the idea was that you had an incredibly charismatic strong-man leader who had all the answers. And, given that, I could understand how people could be taken in.
But, the MAGA aesthetic is so ugly. Their rhetoric is so unserious. Their leader is so old, fat and caked in orange makeup, and he sounds like an absolute moron. The people attending the rallies do comical things like wearing diapers. And yet, half the US looks at that and thinks: yeah, I’ll vote for them.
And then there’s Elon Musk. Every time he opens his mouth it’s less and less believable that anything he ever did was the result of skill or competence. Any time he talks about programming or system administration it’s clear he has no fucking clue what he’s talking about. When he talks about gaming he claims he’s one of the top players in the world, and yet it’s obvious he’s barely played the games involved. But, apparently Americans are so brainwashed that being rich means you’re “a genius”.
I hated George W. Bush, but at least I could understand how some people found his schtick endearing. I could understand how he harnessed people’s fear and hate and turned it into support for his “war on terrah”. But, with Trump my opinion of Americans has gone down to the lowest level ever. This is what works for you? Really??
Not to mention the “Governor Trudeau” extra-dumb.
Trudeau is probably above that, but it would be mildly amusing if he started calling Trump “comrade Trump” or maybe “vice-president Trump”
He called him “Donald” and republicans/maga are outraged!!! lol
We should all be calling him by his real name, “VP Krasnov”.
ETA: and “Murca” is now glorious “KRASNOVIA”
God I’m exhausted.
At this point, we just need to cut it all off completely. Oil shipments, electricity, lumber, aluminum. All of it.
I know that that’s a hard ask for those industries that are affected, and if it means the federal goverment has to temporarily raise the deficit in order to subsidize those industries it’ll be crazy expensive and inflation will shoot up. But I’m convinced that that would be only a short amount of time that that would actually be needed.
Let the United States go one week without our stuff. 100%…fuck 'em. They’ll last one week. Maybe two. And when they quit their bullshit, make it clear that we are diversifying our business partners making it easier to pull it from them again anytime they let Trump open is fucking mouth.
Hold our resources hostage against them.
I mean, if we play all our cards at once, we have no cards left for the next thing, and in the process that might raise enough American political will to invade for real.
It should be and I think is all on the table, though, and I have no problem with it if they want to escalate, because we also need to raise political will to sever our ties for good.
we have no cards left for the next thing,
That’s the game, he’s bleeding you for cards.
If he’s going to attack you, he’ll bleed you first. There is no appeasing him permanently.
We have a deep deck (which is part of why playing the whole thing at once would be kinda nutty). Like every day someone mentions a new way to screw with them I hadn’t thought of. Cutting off power, cutting off water, taking their stuff and not paying, ignoring their intellectual property, cutting off Alaska…
Nobody is talking appeasement anymore, even Danielle Smith is getting muted about it. The question is how to help Trump ruin himself the best, politically and economically.
Who gives a damn about the deficit. When did that ever really matter?
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Economical MAD is not the answer here. It’s a very complex subject that is difficult to solve.
It’s a very complex subject that is difficult to solve
In a sane world, I agree with you. But we’re dealing with a man who himself doesn’t realise its complexity and only understands strategies that are “blunt and absurd”.
We can use as nuanced and soft-toed strategies all we want and he’ll never get it through his orange head.
Yes, we’re dealing with a madman. You’re suggesting we act just like him. No, harming more people voluntarily is not the answer.
(not canadian, or american; take that as you will)
not acting like him: acting in retaliation with measures that hurt the US more than canada… things like IP and copyright protections, digital services, etc
his blanket measures don’t take into account trade that’s largely beneficial to US companies - they’re stupid blunt instrument crap because thought is too hard… trump hurt himself in his confusion
retaliating in precise ways can extract value from the US without harming the canadian economy nearly as much
As I saw someone link yesterday, John Bolton (noted warmongering piece of shit) said he was in the room during Trump round one when people were trying to explain tariffs to him. Bolton says he was unable to comprehend.
absolutely… and in those hands they can still be a damaging weapon, but they’ll never be as powerful as someone who knows how to wield them correctly. brains can win, or at least provide a formidable fight… but no matter what, both sides will feel pain
It’s not Mutually Assured Destruction though. It’s not even retaliatory. If Canada were to immediately stop all exports to the US and pivot to an EU/China based economy the fallout would disproportionately affect the US. The key to this is that Canada is the smaller and more insular trading partner.
Case in point
The destruction is mutual, but not assured and total (total just didn’t make it into the acronym). Nuclear war isn’t a good analogy.
Basically, do we want to continue relying on the US, or not? Not doing so has a cost, but we might not have a choice. Canada can survive without the US, if in a slightly poorer form.
Canada still has decent friends to trade and work with. Can’t say the same for the Fascist States.
I worry that Canada will not be able to export efficiently due to lack of port infrastructure, especially on the Pacific Coast. Massive industrial ports are expensive and take years to bring online.
Y’know, if you’re willing to make a few small concessions on who is ultimately in control of your country, I know this great authoritarian dictatorship that’s been investing in new port infrastructure projects all around the world.
Yes, me too. It’s really hard to find information on how much extra capacity there is, although I’ve seen indications it’s not zero.
All this could have been avoided if one guy had slightly better aim.
People were thinking about that probably a lot in the 30s and 40s
Time travelers can’t do anything right…
I think about this a lot actually. So close
The guy had a pretty good aim. It was down to luck.
I think the shittier part of this is that if that whole thing hadn’t happened, Trump might have not won. He got the best PR of his whole campaign during that one minute.
Eh he was gonna win whether or not that happened. It helped his image certainly, but he was already well on the way to winning and Biden was already increasingly unpopular.
If the guy actually shot him we probably would have been okay though cuz I don’t think Vance has the same pull with the Maga base
lol ours is retaliatory but theirs are reciprocal?
Eat shit asshole.
This guy doesn’t even understand those words. They’ve got someone writing his tweets now.
Seems like it. It’s not all in caps and misspelled. Can’t even claim it’s AI because at least it would try to duplicate him
He definitely has handlers writing his tweets. There was an analysis last time, coherent posts were written from an Android phone (the handler), rambling posts in all caps from an iPhone (Trump).
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Eh I deleted the comment because it can be taken horribly out of context, but what I meant was my ADHD medication gives me really weird thoughts late at night. But hey, I prefer weird thoughts to the depressing shit I think about without it.
It hurts itself in its confusion
He may be dumb but not as much as the people who voted for him
My coworker loves Trump loudly and obnoxiously. But she’s mad about the tariffs and votes for the NDP here, but says he’s “doing good things for his country”, but can’t identify what. She doesn’t know anything about weaponized disinformation, Russian troll farms, or dark money, and I very gently explained these things to her today, and saw this dim light turning on behind her eyes. So many people don’t know how badly they’ve been suckered by weaponized disinformation and dark money.
In 6 months, he’s going to be talking about how Canada started this trade war.
He’s basically saying it now. He is calling his current tariff “reciprocal”.
the classic American strategy of preemptive reciprocation
“Preemptive Reciprocation” I love it 😝
“It all started when he returned my punch…”
Premature reciprocation
Weapons of mass devaluation
Six months? At this pace I’m expecting tomorrow.
In 6 months the trade might drop from trade war.
Trump has already blamed Canada, along with every US ally, for “taking advantage” of the USA. Not so fun fact, these are the very same trade deals that Trump signed during his first term.
They be talking about it for years. Kinda like how ‘Lost Cause Confederacy’ idiots call it “the war of Northern Aggression” even though it was started by the confederates shooting at an American fort.
He hasn’t already?
I’ve already seen (USian) conservatives claiming that
That’s only if he’s still breathing in 6 months
He’s probably already saying this.
Bankrupting his country like he did with all his businesses, including a casino. Notoriously difficult to bankrupt.
3 casinos.
Also barred from running charities because he stole from kids with cancer, wasn’t it?
Yes, he’s banned from running charities. But not just him. His whole family is banned because they were all in on it.
Sadly it would probably have been way better for the world if they had stuck to defrauding kids charities. Its my belief that capitalism keeps evil people busy amassing money and fighting each other in the business sphere, rather than doing worse to amass power and influence.
Don’t forget his secondary handler FElong and how he tanked Twitter.
Governor? It’s he really referring to the Canadian prime Minister as though he is the governor of a state? And they said Biden was losing his grasp on reality.
Biden was
This isn’t trump not understanding the concept of a governor. This is him stating multiple times over and over that he wants to take over Canada.
The same way Putin knew it wasn’t a special military operation but an invasion. The language matters
Probably but I don’t think we’ve had an actual doctor come to any conclusion and probably won’t until he’s dead. Barring that Trump does the same shit but instead of freezing he just goes full word salad. It also seems like he’s having some pretty severe mobility issues.
Yeah that’s still fucking dumb because it’s not a state. You don’t call the car you want to buy “your car” because it just isn’t.
Well no, Putin couldn’t openly declare war without forcing Europe to get involved, if they claim it’s anything else we’ll that’s more grey.
He’s using serious channels and conventions to deliver deeply unserious ultimatums in order to consolidate attention and create confusion. He will do the same exact thing as the tariffs if it gets to a point of actual mobilization.
“Trump withdraws troops from Canadian border for fifth time this month”
And while everyone is reeling and scared and wondering what the fuck will happen tomorrow, Elon and his little cronies are literally hauling cash out the back door.
I see nothing to make me believe he is not serious.
Well he might seriously get us into a literal war with our neighbors, but it’s not because he gives a shit about politics or international anything. He’s doing a cash-grab right now with and for his donors and sponsors and his family. He is not serious about anything he says because he’s not telling anyone what his actual motivations are.
Serious in this context doesn’t mean “not joking” but rather means “with a real intention of affecting political change.”
I’m not convinced he’s not serious about what he says. I assume everything is a trial balloon. But more importantly, his entire cabinet nods along to his words and the media does not push back.
No one said it wasn’t, you’re taking offense to things that were never said.
At the top of this thread you were implying that Trump referred to the Canadian prime Minister as governor because he was losing his grasp on reality.
No. Trump is fully lucid when he explicitly threatens Canada.
Fanciful wishes are a loss of reality. Someone who thinks they are king is not likely to be sane in this day and age.
Yes he did, however this is just wishful thinking and talking shit. You know the general purview of the mentally unfit.
Until the 25th amendment is enacted, the orders of a sane president carry as much weight as those of an insane president.
You do if you want to steal said car and then turn around and tell everyone that it was actually yours to begin with
We know its a lie. He knows it’s a lie. Probably even the idiots who vote for him know its a lie. But if you say a lie enough times and people don’t tell you to fuck off, it becomes the truth.
The same way that people are taught that the american civil war was fought for states rights, not slavery, when we know that most of the states seceded because of slavery
No because it that situation you still did the thing, here he’s just playing about prosperity gospel shit where of you just believe it’ll happen.
It doesn’t though, that only works on very specific things that aren’t as easily disproven by something like the existence of an entire country.
No one is taught that in school, parents say that shit.
Man Palestine was an entire country up until 1947 and now you find people.saying that it never existed and was always Israeli land.
These lies do work, and they are used as justification after the fact. Again, very similar to how Putin also said Ukraine wasn’t really a country and was part of Russia.
Well no. Mandatory Palestine which specifically was not a country… Wasn’t a country.
It’s an effective lie because it includes hints of truth.
But it is literally the truth. Even Mandatory Palestine wasn’t “Palestine” as in “Free Palestine!” More importantly it’s irrelevant to Canadian sovereignty.
Honest question, although I don’t expect an answer, more food for thought. Should Canada invest more into our domestic defence industry? How picky should we be about who we sell weapons to? How about who we do business with? I think the answers will vary based upon how seriously you take Trump’s “jokes” about annexation, and there is certainly going to be lots of disagreement, but this is something we all should consider.
Another more pertinent consideration, how important is a politician’s commitment to Canadian sovereignty? I’ve been reflecting on this since Doug Ford won the Ontario election again, and contrasting him to Pierre Poilievre. I don’t know what your political preferences are, but would you consider Canadian sovereignty more important than say, education? What compromises and how much sacrifice is acceptable for continued sovereignty?
I’m sorry if I come across as aggressive, but Canada is getting knocked down a step on the metaphorical Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs for Nations. Certainly I support more trade with the EU and our CANZUK brothers. But what about China? I support Taiwan’s continued existence as whatever it is, but should we deepen trade ties with China if it helps support Canadian sovereignty? If so, how much?
It’s still early days, but we have to get our heads in the game. Again I don’t know your political inclinations, but I’m pretty sure for me, if you support Canadian sovereignty, than right now we’re allies no matter what else. For me there are limits on my questions above, but I don’t know where they are, they’re pretty far out. I’ll row on the left or right side of the boat, I don’t care so much right now so long as we are all rowing together.
I noticed Trump on his speech last night mis-spoke and paused for a split second then kind of half way changed the message to make his error a non error in the “new message”
August 24 isn’t that far away
It’s deliberately disrespectful. He has said that Canada should become a US state. This is convicted felon Trumps way to belittle both PM Trudeau and the sovereign nation of Canada
The funny thing is this is Trump’s way of trying to insult Canada and our PM, but he comes off sounding like an idiot who doesn’t know Trudeau’s proper title.
Like, come on USA. Your grandfather is wandering down the street with his pants off again. Can you come get him?
Can you come get him?
I don’t think we can. Not yet anyway. Cut off the power and throw enough tariffs to piss off US corporations we might be able to get people out in the streets.
That doesn’t make it less stupid and fanciful and that was my point dude.
Speech from Trudeau gave me “we’re at war” vibes.
It’s incredible at which speed things are falling apart.
They’re only falling apart because trump took a wrecking ball to them.
Ok it’s starting to feel like a game now. Can we cause American hyperinflation by a targeted tariff feedback loop?
Or like the sort of thing a hostile foreign government might really want to have happen to the US…
Good thing we have agent Krasnov at the helm.
No, because Canada’s economy will collapse long before the US economy if each side just keeps increasing tariffs. What Canada needs to do is make things cheaper for Canadians, not more expensive.
Take any law related to US intellectual property and decriminalize that.
Violating the copyright on Hollywood movies? Go for it. No charge.
Something you want to do is covered by a patent held by an American? Do it, you won’t be prosecuted.
Want to bypass DRM on a tractor, a printer, an iPhone, sell or give away tools to allow anybody else to do it? Feel free.
The biggest advantage of this approach is that if the US did the same thing with respect to Canadian IP, they’d have so much less to work with. The US has geared its economy towards producing IP, and then used trade deals to demand that other countries respect that IP or the US will put tariffs on their stuff. Well, clearly the US isn’t holding up its end of that bargain, so fuck 'em.
The only difference is we’re putting tariffs on things that we can source elsewhere vs the blanket tariffs from the states. But I agree we should also do all the IP stuff you mentioned.
Tbh, I’ve been pondering just how regulated organized market manipulation is nowadays. With the market going through “corrections” because of tariffs and the FCC being completely defanged, a large group of organized retail investors have the opportunity to get up to some pretty funny business.
If by “funny business” you mean raise prices on products that don’t actually have tariffs on them, then it’s a safe bet that yeah, there’s going to be some funny business.
Just take something we import very little and slap a -200% tariff
-200%? The US government pays you 200% of what the import is worth?
Canada should add a 100% tariff on USA crude oil that we import (Canada import 0 I guess) and with trump reciprocal thinggy, automatically crude oil from Canada to USA would have a 100% tariff on it lol
Fucked up Beyond All Repair.
