Welcome to day 9,000 of the Trade War. Wait, you’re saying it’s only been like five weeks and that most of the big stuff doesn’t even hit until tomorrow? I’m not sure I believe you. Let’s just say you’re right, and this has only just begun, even if it could end just as quickly.
The Morning Dump is about cars, and what it looks like this morning is that America is going to get fewer cars. Domestic production will drop, imports will drop, and that doesn’t assume a recession or any other damage. So far, I’ve been focused on what President Trump is doing. Now that it’s a little clearer, I want to talk about how the world is responding.
First, Audi is holding up cars in various ports. This is a response to the new tariffs, and Audi plans to let consumers know exactly why their car got more expensive by weaponizing a laminated piece of paper. That’s one way to do it. The other way is to just stop bringing cars in altogether, which is the plan for Lotus at the moment.
This isn’t to say that individual countries or blocs don’t want to cut a deal, it’s just not clear what kind of deal will actually be acceptable, as both the EU and Vietnam seem to be offering zero tariffs on exports, and they’re not getting anywhere. The response to all of this from President Trump’s good pal Elon, or at least Elon’s brother, is that all of this is not particularly smart.
A ‘Worst-Case Scenario’ Is North America Loses 1.8 Million Cars This Year
An analysis of the global car car market by our friends over at media agency/analysis firm Telemetry Insights shows the complete range of options over the next few years, which is highly dependent on the outcome of the trade war, whether or not we enter a global recession, and how closely various countries want automakers to stick to C02 targets.
This report was written by Sam Abuelsamid, who also contributes regularly here, and takes stock of all the potential inputs and outputs at play. Just focusing on Canada and the United States, there’s quite a variance in the forecast.
In the best-case scenario where a full trade war is averted, overall sales are only projected to grow to about 20.1 million units with a 1.1% CAGR. Within that, despite the pushback against climate activities and BEVs from the Trump administration, electrified vehicle sales are projected to continue growing and taking share away from ICE vehicles. BEVs are projected to grow at 13.5% to 6.3 million units, while EREVs increase 49% to 1.16 million vehicles, overtaking PHEVs from about 2032.
In a worst-case scenario for trade with dramatically higher consumer prices, North American sales could be more than 1.8 million units lower in 2025 and remain well below the base case all the way through 2035. In this scenario, 2035 sales would only be about 17.9 million units. This assumes continued high rates of inflation, interest, and unemployment through much of the forecast. Even in this scenario, BEV sales are expected to increase in share and volume, reaching over 4 million units by 2035 with a 13.4% CAGR, while ICEs drop by 4.8% annually.
A drop of 1.8 million units across Canada and the United States would be a huge hit to automakers, especially if they can’t raise prices significantly. It’ll also likely exacerbate our issue with a lack of used cars.
How Audi And Volkswagen Are Fighting Back
A word journalists in this industry frequently use is “Monroney.” I’m not sure how many regular people know what a Monroney is, so I’ll explain it a little. I love this word. You’d call a Monroney a “Window Sticker.” We call it a Monroney because it sounds cool.
The etymology of this term is easy to track because it’s named for former Oklahoma Senator Mike Monroney. He was the one who helped write and pass the labeling act that required window stickers on cars to protect consumers from hidden fees and the like. He was also a strong opponent of McCarthyism and a supporter of Civil Rights.
All sorts of stuff has been added to the Monroney over the years, and now there’s going to be a new one. Audi doesn’t make any of its cars in the United States, making it a prime tariff target, and it’s holding up its cars in ports. Not because they’ve got tariffs on them (in theory, many of these vehicles do not). It’s to add something special to each car:
To identify cars and light trucks not subject to additional U.S. tariffs beginning April 3, those vehicles will display a $0 option code for a “No Added Import Fee” on the invoice, the memo said. All vehicles in dealership stock as of April 3 have been marked with the inventory comment ― “No Added Import Fee.”
Volkswagen of America on April 2 told dealers it plans an import fee to be added to the destination charge on vehicles assembled outside the U.S. The fee will be calculated and determined in coming weeks, the VW memo says.
This is quite clever. It’s one thing to abstractly hear about a tariff, it’s another thing to see the costs specifically listed out. It’s hard to do this with, say, a carton of eggs. It’s even more difficult with gas to pinpoint exactly why it is or isn’t more expensive. This is far more cut-and-dry, and people are trained to look at the window sticker.
Will Lotus and other automakers follow? The automaker has suspended all its imports of the Emira to the United States, which is a bummer, because the Emira is good.
EU And Vietnam Offer Up 0% Tariffs, Get Rejected
Vietnam was a big winner in the last round of anti-Chinese tariffs as the country was able to absorb a lot of that production. Fearing a threat to its global trade, Vietnam reportedly told the United States it would be willing to lower its own import duties to zero. According to President Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro, via CNBC, that wasn’t enough.
“Let’s take Vietnam. When they come to us and say ‘we’ll go to zero tariffs,’ that means nothing to us because it’s the nontariff cheating that matters,” Navarro told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The examples of “nontariff cheating” cited by Navarro included Chinese products being routed through Vietnam, intellectual property theft and value-added tax on goods, which Trump has criticized as hidden trade barriers.
I’m not a trade expert, so my calling balls-and-strikes is not worth much, but the argument that Chinese firms are using other countries to get around higher tariffs seems to have some basis in reality. The Value-Added Tax (VAT) argument is a lot harder to understand, though, as that’s simply how some countries fund their own governments.
If a VAT is only applied to imported goods, then that’s essentially a tariff. If a VAT applies to domestically produced goods and foreign ones, then that’s just a tax like anyone else has. The insistence on removing that seems kinda weird to me.
The European Union, for its part, is also looking to remove all industrial tariffs if the Trump Administration is willing to play ball. From Politico:
The EU has offered the United States a “zero-for-zero” tariff scheme, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Monday, seeking to avoid a tit-for-tat trade war.
“We have offered zero-for-zero tariffs for industrial goods as we have successfully done with many other trading partners. Because Europe is always ready for a good deal. So we keep it on the table,” she told a press conference alongside Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre.
The U.S. and EU came close to scrapping industrial tariffs a decade ago in their discussions of the TTIP — the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership — that was ultimately scuppered by Trump in his first term.
What’s interesting here is that the EU only imposes an average 1.6% tariff on non-agricultural products from the United States, though there is a 10% tariff on cars. While the EU wants to deal, it’s also retaliating. The country’s first tariffs went into effect this week and include Harley-Davidsons, beef, soybeans, chewing gum, and peanut butter. According to the Wall Street Journal, Kentucky Bourbon and California wine were removed after the senators from those states backed a reversal of tariffs.
For the moment, Navarro seems intent on keeping these tariffs as well.
Kimball Musk And The R-Word
Mmm.. Celebrating causing China’s stock market to go down, by causing our own stock market to go down?
Maybe this is why Trump brought back the R word. https://t.co/uTBXwDry74
— ???????????????????????? ???????????????? ???? (@kimbal) April 7, 2025
Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s brother serves on the board of Tesla, wears a cowboy hat, and acts as a sort of hype man for his brother. So the tweet above (linked here) is interesting. Responding to President Trump, Musk is complaining about the crashing of the stock market that has happened over the last few days (although the market is up right now).
This is interesting because Kimbal is seen mostly as a mouthpiece for his brother, who opposes trade barriers. Oh, wait, it’s accelerated. Navarro called Musk an “Assembler” instead of a Manufacturer, and this is how Musk responded:
Tesla has the most American-made cars. Navarro is dumber than a sack of bricks. @IfindRetards @RealPNavarro https://t.co/gECgtZt5Sc
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 8, 2025
So I guess this battle isn’t slowing down any time soon.
Actually, I just reread the tweets being sent here. This sucks. I try not to editorialize in this way, but using the R-word like this is just mean-spirited and childish. It’s the Internet and Elon Musk is the richest man in the world, so he can say whatever he wants, but that’s kinda more reason why he should try to do better. Who is impressed by this?
If you are in a position of power and Elon Musk certainly is, then that power comes with some responsibility. Or at least it should. And if you model this kind of behavior for your millions of followers, you’re saying it’s ok to pick on those who are less powerful and cannot easily defend themselves.
It is not ok. It is not cool. It doesn’t make you edgy. It makes you sound like an asshole.
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
I would buy the argument that “There She Goes” by The La’s is a perfect song. Thank you, So I Married An Axe Murderer, for teaching me this existed.
The Big Question
Do you look at the window sticker of cars? What do you look for?
Top graphic image: depositphotos.com
I think VW and other manufacturers should call this line item on the Monrooney the, “I did that – D Trump” fee.
Mildly related to window stickers but I love the episode of seinfeld where Jerry tries to buy a new Saab from puddy but pisses him off halfway through and suddenly the msrp jumps like 7 grand from things like anti rust treatment etc, and at the end he’s like “oh we don’t actually do that, it’s just more money”
All time favorite episode. “we don’t even know what that is”.
“finders fee” – “it was on the lot!” Exactly!
Yes! It’s so hilarious (see also: “but that Trucoat”) I’m a HUGE Seinfeld fan…these are other favorites from that episode:
GEORGE: Look at these salesmen. The only thing these guys fear is the walk-out. No matter what they say, you say, “I’ll walk out of here right now!”
(A salesman approaches)
SALESMAN: Can I help you with something?
GEORGE: (Threatening) Hold it! One more step and we’re walkin’!
——————————————-
SALESMAN: Sir, are you gonna buy a car?
GEORGE: No! (The salesman walks away. He addresses the mechanic through the door’s window) Hey! Hey! I can see you! That is my Twix! (The mechanic eats
the last of the Twix, obviously to make George even more angered. It works) Oh, ha, ha! Ho, ho!
‐——————————————-
GEORGE: It’s a Twix! They’re all Twix! It was a setup! A setup, I tell ya! And you’ve robbed it! You’ve all screwed me again! Now, gimme one! Gimme a Twix!
MECHANIC: They’re all gone.
GEORGE: (Yelling out, frustrated. The camera spins from a top angle) Ttttttwwwwiiiiiixxxxx!
I’m not a person who buys new cars, anything new in my budget is not something I’m interested in spending money on.
I DO appreciate seeing the ticker listed on used car listings, because it makes it easy to verify the vehicle has the options I want without requiring communicating with the dealer. For instance, I was looking at F150’s a few months ago, and I required the 3.55 or 3.73 rear locking differential, the 36gallon fuel tank, and the 2.7L V6. If those 3 things weren’t listed, I moved on.
I’m not looking anymore, over the end of Q4 2024 and Q1 2025, the used prices seemed to have gone up quite a bit.
Whoops wrong post to reply to. Sorry
I like looking at the window stickers when I bring my car for service. There is ALWAYS a different RSQ8, its ALWAYS reserved, and I like to see what this rich MF is buying and for how much.
At the end of the day a lot of the MAGA crowd just wants to say hateful shit and not be held accountable for it. The whole IT’S MUH FREEDOM thing is just a half assed excuse. I’m hardly a member of the PC Police myself but when a certain marginalized group says that a particular word offends them profoundly I remove it from my vocabulary and never really think about it again.
I just don’t really understand why that’s so hard. It’s not a violation of your freedom or some shit, it’s society growing, recognizing something is hurtful, and kicking it to the curb. Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequences. It never has. You can say whatever you damn well please but everyone else can react as they see fit.
But then again I also don’t understand why pronouns are this big issue either. If someone wants to be called they/them or whatever is it THAT much of an inconvenience to accommodate them? Of course not. If someone named Christopher asks you to call them Chris do you angrily keep calling them Christopher? Of course not. Would you just start refusing to refer to a physician as doctor because you don’t feel like it? Of course not.
Is calling someone who physically presents as traditionally masculine but identifies as female and wants to be called Katie THAT much of a pain? Of course it isn’t. But people want to be bullies and are Big Mad that society has moved on from a lot of their behavior. And that’s a shame, I don’t think it’s that hard to just be nice to people but for a sizable chunk of the MAGA crowd it’s impossible.
On another note my brother’s name is Christopher.
We call him dip shit for short.
Great comment.
That’s what happens when you convince yourself basic human empathy is a trait for the weak
The death of human empathy is one of the earliest and most telling signs of a culture about to fall into barbarism.
I didn’t know a post could be so spot on.
Well said.
There was a headline in a Texas paper a year or two back: ” Senator Rafael Cruze, who goes by the preferred name “Ted”, has introduced a bill to limit the use of preferred names and pronouns”. I love that, it’s so nail on the head.
They’re the biggest hypocrites. For four years they were complaining about freedom of speech, now they’re cheering when students are getting snatched off the streets for simply writing op-eds in their college paper. For the same 4 years they’ve been complaining about some rights the Biden admin took away (the right to use slurs?) and now are cheering as first amendment and due process are trampled.
Former Canadian, Rafael Cruz. 🙂
This is the real reason for all of the tariffs and attacks on Canada. Revenge for them sending us Cruz
I was in elementary school in the 80’s, we used to call each other some vile stuff growing up. Not as a racist or discriminatory way, just busting balls as we Massholes tend to do. As I got older, I realized a lot of those terms had deeper meaning and it was wrong, so I struck those words from my vocabulary. I still hear slightly older people use them, not necessarily in a hateful context, but they just never got past the 80’s meaning.
I’m so glad social media didn’t exist when I was young. I grew up in a very conservative rural area and the stuff we used to say makes my blood run cold. I’d like to think we were mostly dumb, not malicious, but that doesn’t make it any less hurtful to the people on the receiving end.
Absolutely! Same here with social media, so glad I pre-date that.
When I was young, a classmate whose sibling had Downs syndrome heard someone say the “R” word, and when he got upset he was told not to be so sensitive. His response is, “My family hears that and worse every single day. Don’t you think that wears on us?” He really did sound so beat down and tired.
The only time I use the word retarded is when I’m talking about spark timing.
Or when you add stuff to make paint dry more slowly.
The funny thing is thing is that the unacceptable term was originally coined as a neutral medical terminology to replace an even worse term.
The worst part is it’s such a lazy way to talk some shit. Like if you’re going to be provocative asshole, be a provocative asshole. Just dropping the r-word? Do you even care? If Ketamine-fueled techno Pope spent less time paying dudes to play video games, and invested in some creativity. Maybe he could call out the Crayon eating Kindergarten economist, who somehow never finished the Trade Deficit part of Econ 101, with some passion. Like, oh, you said the R-word! Such masculinity! We can shit talk to anyone with a heartbeat, anywhere in world. And this is who peaks! It’s like the middle school JV team playing in the NBA. We’ve got some real passionate haters out here. Some Jimmer Range snipers of personal insults. And it’s just dudes who can’t score outside the layup line getting prime time on TNT.
Well shit. “Ketamine-Fueled Techno Pope” sounds like an awesome name for a shoegaze band.
Well, this comment is way too common sense to be on the internet.
That being said, if we could all do this a bit, man, how much better everything could be.
The funny thing is the mental gymnastics they’ll go through. My parents used to be the sort of people who “didn’t mind someone being gay, but they don’t see why anyone should flaunt it.” They’d complain if my cousin posted something about his boyfriend on Facebook or anything. I pointed to near-identical posts from my sister about her husband, and they started to shut up about it.
The thing that helped the most was my dad’s oldest sister being even worse. She was uncomfortable at her grandson’s wedding because of all the interracial couples…he was a white guy marrying a black guy. She also wanted his former last name listed in places, despite him taking his husband’s name. They could see the problems with her, and they’ve since gotten better (about that; they’re still not great on a lot of things, including fear of cities that’s still mostly rooted in racism).
I can’t find the clip unfortunately, but there was a local town hall where the standing chairman was ranting about transgenderism and pronouns not being acceptable, so a woman who was fielding questions kept referring to the chairman as “madam” and “mam” which he obviously hated fiercely. The response was a very reasonable “well you don’t like pronouns at all, you refuse to say what yours are, so I picked one.” Absolute cinema.
The infuriating part, well, aside from being seen by some people as undeserving of love, is that in the quest to destroy people like me, anti-trans rhetoric catches people who aren’t even trans in the crossfire. Were you born female but just present more masculine? There’s now a chance you’ll be called a man, humiliated, and maybe even have the cops called on you. It’s happened before, and it saddens me every time I read a report of it.
All I wish is for people to be a bit kinder. Treat people how you’d hopefully want to be treated.
Yeah, this crap hurts cis women and is sold as protecting them. Anti-trans rhetoric and legislation is bad enough on its face, but they are hurting the very people they claim they are protecting.
A bathroom sign won’t stop a rapist, but a masculine cis woman using the bathroom might get arrested, assaulted, or even killed. And trans folks using any bathroom are at risk, one way or another. It’s despicable.
As if the world’s not rough enough and dangerous enough as it is.
I’m sorry you live in a world that makes existence especially hard for you. I hope your corner of the world has people as kind as you.
Exactly! Other peoples names and pronouns are such a bullshit hill to die on. Who hasn’t had a sibling or cousin who decided as they grew up that Bobby, Stevie, or Taytay weren’t the name they wanted to go into HS or college with?
Maybe I’ve always been too PC but most of the “your not even alowed to say X anymore” words are no real loss. We used them when we were stupid kids and in this case maybe the kids these days are smarter than we were.
They’re calling them window stickers, folks, window stickers, can you believe that? Not a very beautiful term. Very unfair to us. They write on the window stickers that the cars will be more expensive. The dealers say they’re charging you more money for the tariffs, not good, it may be illegal to do that, very bad people doing this. And they write so many things on the window stickers you don’t know what’s in the car, it’s actually very scary and possibly illegal what these dealers do, nobody can read so much, it’s not good. Not good. Too many things in these cars. We need better cars, folks. We’re going to be designing cars. Should we do that? I don’t know. Tesler did a great job designing cars. Liberals hate these cars so much, they say, “Mr. Trump this car is too beautiful it’s bad, it’s wrong, I don’t like it, sir.” I don’t know. Very scary what they’ve done. We need our own car. We’ve searched for a car like what we want to build, all our lives. We’ve searched everywhere. People are saying our car will be powerful like a gorilla, can you believe that? It’s very beautiful to think about. But we need it to be soft, don’t we? Soft and ‘yielding’ they say, ‘yielding’? Isn’t that wonderful? Yielding like a Nerf ball. We’re going to build the car and we’ll build it here and very strongly and very soon.
“I had a car salesman walk up to me in the grocery store check out line, a big tear running down his face…”
Very strong man, looked very healthy. I wanted to touch him, folks. It’s hard when the men are so big and healthy and beautiful to not touch them. You see their muscles and you imagine them. You imagine them holding you at night and for a brief moment the pain leaves, it’s beautiful. Just no more pain, folks.
Don’t stop sir!
But, folks, it’s just so easy to grab any woman by the pussy. So easy when the women are so big and healthy and beautiful to touch them. You see their boobs and you imagine them. You imagine holding them at night for hours and hours while the “pain” leaves. It’s beautiful. Then she needs to clean all that “pain” up that she caused.
and it’ll be all computer, just think of it. Beautiful, very good, Tesla computers, but now one you can drive. And I’m told they will be driving you soon. Very soon. Already are, incredible. Your Chinese Smasnug or Korean iApplephones can’t do that. They’re not made in America. Tesla makes them mad our car are all computer and theirs are only some computer. A very inferior product, sad and possibly illegal to sell something so inferior here in America. Not good. Unfair to us. We have strong, very strong, very powerful legislation coming soon, very soon that will have these countries paying their fair share for selling such inferior cars that are only some or even no computer cars. Can you imagine? A no computer car? Very scary. Very unsafe.
I read this and the subsequent comments, and I…
I gotta lie down
You need to lay down, go to sleep, isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that nice to imagine? People come up me, yesterday, people came up to me, a baseball team, Brooklyn Dodgers, New York. Brooklyn, bad part of town. Very bad place, a lot of ILLEGALS. Lot of criminals and they don’t put them in jail. They don’t arrest them. Old ladies can’t go across the street it’s too dangerous, too unsafe, very bad situation. Nobody should go.
Until you posted these on-topic replies, I wondered if that was an actual quote you just copied and pasted. You are inside the man’s brain.
There’s a lot of room in there.
BTDT, worked on it this weekend. Ironically it’s German underneath.
The Homer did bankrupt Herb Powell’s company, so your post totally tracks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM5HMMXNCoc&pp=ygUNdGhlIGhvbWVyIGNhcg%3D%3D
This is so perfectly spot-on that I fear for your mental health. There’s no way a fully functional, healthy brain can come up with that…
Nowadays they talk about mental health, can you believe that? Mental health they’re calling it. They go there and try to look at your brain, ask you questions, ask you things, personal things, very bad things, sometimes woke. Sometimes woke things. We’ve eliminated woke, by the way. All gone! We don’t like it. If they ask you woke things it may be illegal. We’re looking at it, if it’s in the constitution. Lot of things in there, lot of things we’re looking at very strongly and very quickly eliminating. Lot of changes they’ve made. Not good to change something beautiful. They say Mr. Trump sir you need the amendments! Amendments, it’s unbelievable the amendments they made. Democrats, mostly. Mostly bad amendments, mostly amendments that are unfair, we don’t know, we’re looking at it strongly.
Matt, the aim isn’t fair trade, the goal is no progressive income tax. Offers from others that might void that ultimate goal will be ignored or excused. Please don’t be fooled by this long con. Is it a stupid con, absolutely? But that doesn’t stop a stupid person from thinking it will work and doing incalculable amounts of damage in that attempt. Of course, you have to be focused purely on your desires and not care a whit about the good of anyone else to even try, but that’s who were dealing with. You are not that kind of person, so it’s probably hard to grasp that level of selfish sickness, but believe me, that’s exactly who he is.
I mentioned yesterday that a victim can always claim they are justified in any action. That is why orange thing always says we’re being treated unfairly by everyone except those doing his bidding or otherwise furthering his aims. I call it the Perfect Victim System. I know people who swear by this system as the solution to literally everything. Remember, PVS is always the perfect system.
I have been arguing with right wingers and libertarians for decades about progressive income taxes. It often boils down to percentage of the income paid in taxes versus the absolute value of the taxes paid. They think that if a rich person earns more they should not pay more in taxes than a poor person they should pay the same in taxes and not more because they “worked harder ????” than the poor person who earned less. I try to counter with “how about the same percentage?” or some other logical argument.
“You might ask: How does David Koch happen to have the wealth to be so generous? Well, let me tell you a story. It all started when I was a little boy. One day, my father gave me an apple. I soon sold it for five dollars and bought two apples and sold them for ten. Then I bought four apples and sold them for twenty. Well, this went on day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, until my father died and left me three hundred million dollars!”
And they like to completely ignore things like capital gains taxes being lower than income taxes. Or the completely lopsided amount of infrastructure use by rich vs poor. Or the fact that the poor need to spend a lot more of their income to survive. Or any number of other things. They just really want a VAT or a flat tax and it makes for a nice simple talking point.
They feel really smart for solving taxes and the rich people feel protected because enough people parrot talking points that will help them get richer.
(Full disclosure: I was VP of the Libertarian Club in college.)
WELL WRITTEN! thanks for getting it.
I could not agree more. Eliminating the progressive income tax is for-sursies the goal.
Spend the next two years fully manipulating the stock market while eliminating the taxes that the rich pay and simultaneously lowering your tax rate to a level that you can absolutely see and feel, but not nearly coming close to the increase in costs that all the other actions are going to cause.
Any article that references Peter Navarro should include mention of his fictional source Ron Vara—an anagram of his last name
I’d like to say more, but will stop here to not get further into the political mess
When I first started reading it, I thought the R-word was recession, but a moment later reality kicked in.
Same, and not surprised.
“If you are in a position of power and Elon Musk certainly is, then that power comes with some responsibility. Or at least it should. And if you model this kind of behavior for your millions of followers, you’re saying it’s ok to pick on those who are less powerful and cannot easily defend themselves.”
You would think so, but the last presidential election merely confirms that nearly half the people that voted have explicitly declared they’re okay with the president of their freaking country acting this way, so as you can see, our standards have fallen quite a bit.
I was quite disappointed when Clinton lied about his… indiscretion.
Oh boy.
Well you know, it all really hinges on what the definition of is is.
Well if you read the whole transcript, Clinton is absolutely telling the truth and the other lawyer is an idiot.
Yeah, a lot of things turn out that way. People hear a limited and deceptively presented version of the story and the whole truth falls by the wayside.
It’s like the woman who sued McDonald’s for the hot coffee. She kept being presented as someone looking for a payday, but she had serious burns and just wanted her medical bills paid. It was McDonald’s refusing to take responsibility that built the whole thing up.
I really miss people having shame.
Who knew we would look back with nostalgia on a time when the President doing one crime was enough for his own party to drive him out of office.
Watergate would barely warrant a mention on the evening news, given all of the illegal stuff this administration has already done.
Oh what I would give for a moment’s respite from shame. I almost envy those free from it, but then I remember all the shitty things they do.
I find it really disturbing how the punching bag is always poor people, often by people that are slightly less poor. Then when people punch UP (like Bill Burr), they get criticized.
Ice T said it years ago in a Body Count song, it’s not black vs. white, it’s rich vs. poor.
It has always been rich vs poor. Anything else is just smokescreen meant to keep the rich rich.
People don’t seem to realize they are much closer to being on assistance or homeless than being a billionaire.
And many of those same people are also celebrating assistance going away.
America – home of “I’m going to vote against my own interests”.
“Especially if it hurts the people I hate”
I’ve repeatedly tried to get through to most of those people that a homeless guy under a bridge is 1000x closer to being a millionaire than a millionaire is to being a billionaire…
This whole tariff thing reminds me of an old Joe Isuzu commercial, where David Leisure says something totally and obviously false, and then the subtitles pop up words to the effect of “he’s lying”.
Admin Talking Head: Tariffs aren’t taxes.
Network Talking Head: Economists say they are taxes.
ATH: Prices won’t go up.
NTH: Business leaders say prices will go up.
ATH: The exporting country will pay them.
NTH: Everybody knows consumers will pay them.
Basically anything the administration says is exactly the opposite of what the consensus of experts say. Which is why “tariffs are going to be great for our economy” is so terrifying.
The G in MAGA stands for “Gaslit”
TO: Carlos
FROM: Elon
MSG: Hey bro, can I borrow your cello?
If this doesn’t win COTD, I don’t know what would. Well said!!!
For the sticker, yep, I look at the options and the features, and really like having a copy of ones for cars I’ve purchased, even used ones.
With respect, this is the wrong question. A better question is, “When do you think the last person in the US will pay a Trump tariff on a new vehicle?”
At this rate? probably just after a few meetings with the EU PMs that are already scheduled.
So…maybe June?
Well the last time I paid an itemized phone bill there was still a fee for the spa is American War.
See also Chicken tax.
Absolutely. I’m looking for all the options, add-ons, etc. that have been added at factory, port, and dealer, and I’m definitely adding up the pricing and subtracting anything I want them to drop. And, of course, simply seeing what options are included, since dealers like to do things like pitch a low trim level as fully loaded.
In general, I know I’ll have to pay for factory options, whether I want them or not. I’ll be able to fight them on a lot of port options, and I will absolutely not accept dealer-installed options that are not of value to me. Depending on the manufacturer, I might also be able to see if it was a vehicle ordered for someone, in which case I’ll absolutely try to get some money knocked off because the previous customer may have forfeited a deposit.
Window stickers have a lot of useful info. Always worth a look.
I use window stickers to decipher if a vehicle has the option packages I want, cause online ads are often vague at best.
Like when a manual transmission turns out to be paddle shifters.
Or when Subaru Performance Transmission turns out to just be a goddamn CVT
Or when I’m trying to figure out IF THERE’S HEATED SEATS IN THIS FUCKIN FORD TRIM.
Ford is the WORST for locking heated seats away in Narnia.
I zoom in on dash pics, haha. At least the F150’s I was looking at still had buttons. And if I could see the seat buttons, I could probably also see if the locking diff logo was on the 4wd shift knob. The absence of either would have me moving on.
They almost never give a shot of the center console clearly enough to see the switches.
GM is easy, cause they’re put heated wheels in nearly everything with heated seats, so you just look for the heated wheel button on the left of the steering wheel.
GM is the worst offender of making dealer ads hard to decipher because of their naming scheme on tiers. The ads always say “LT” but not if it’s an LT1, LT2, etc.
But in general finding specific options online (and trusting the description from the dealership) is tiresome.
With my bad back, I’m always trying to figure out if there’s adjustable lumbar controls for both seats when researching used cars for my family. (sidebar: why are they so rare now?!) Needless to say, I have a strong opinions about the importance of framing when taking photos of passenger seats.
With current supply shortages and a Tilda Swinton-induced eternal winter, I get it I guess, but those of us in the mortal realm get cold butts as well.
Anyone using bigoted and discriminatory language like that is not acting like an asshole, they just are one.
I think there are more specific terms that would be unquestionably accurate as well.
Well yes but I am attempting to maintain at least a modicum of professionalism.
He is just a aping the first family members.
I’ve never looked at a window sticker in person but online it’s useful.
If you like learning about music history this is a great channel and the video on The La’s is a great story.
Will check that out! Fave song on the La’s album is “I Can’t Sleep”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LURvVxSZl4
There She Goes is pretty good too.
Love that one too!
Wow! Now I know why there wasn’t a second La’s album. That’s ok, the first album was great enough, despite what he thinks of it.
Ha! That is a good way to put that.
This will last as long as it takes for an executive order to ban dealers from itemizing tariff costs.
Hell, Pennsylvania bans itemizing the 18% Johnstown flood recovery tax on alcohol sales so nobody notices it
I like seeing all the extra junk that is included on the window sticker, it is nice having it all spelled out.
I’m really hoping to see a picture of two more or less identical cars next to each other on a dealership lot, but one is ~$10k more expensive due to coming across the border a few days or weeks later. Hopefully these window stickers will make that happen.
Why are Republicans suddenly so excited about taxes going into government coffers? I thought this was historically considered a bad thing?
Also, tariffs are not being paid by “other countries” (whatever that even means.. like does someone honestly think the Chinese government is righting checks to the US government at the ports??). Tariffs are being paid by the entities that import the goods into the United States–which is just as likely to be the American customer as it is the foreign supplier.
ALSO, why on earth would companies invest billions of dollars in multi-year plans to resource production to the United States when the president is negotiating to potentially get rid of tariffs? The tariffs that are ostensibly in place to encourage those plans in the first place. It makes no sense.
Anyway. Window stickers. They should prominently display the tariff impact. Everyone should. Instead, they will probably hide it in the cost and replace the stickers with QR codes for cost savings because everything is dumb.
Critical thinking has been banned.
Now STFU and go away. You look like you might a foreigner or something…
/S
My guess? Because this whole tariff scheme is a market manipulation tactic, not a real taxation strategy. The tariffs will be in place just long enough to drive up prices for the average consumer and allow Trump’s cronies to buy up stock at cut prices, then they’ll magically disappear for some BS reason. Yet prices for consumers won’t come back down, because they never do. All of the money that was going to the government now gets funneled to corporations.
Am I giving Trump too much credit for playing a long-ish game? Maybe, but you have to admit shifting money from the government to businesses is a very Republican thing to do.
I think this is very possible. The other thing that will happen along these lines is small companies becoming insolvent and being bought up cheap by the big guys.
When he was blaming the tariffs on Fentanyl, it was already pretty obviously bullshit (well, to most people). Now that his “emergency drug crisis” tariffs suddenly apply to everyone (and it doesn’t seem like anyone is asking about the Fentanyl? WTF?) it’s pretty obviously intentionally tanking the markets. They bounce back for a minute? Double down. Another 50% on China. Oh, the poor Vietnamese sweat shop workers aren’t going to buy F150s? Another 50% coming to your Nike sneakers soon.
We’re a long way from the bottom with lots of digging left to do in this hole.
I like the VW solution to add a line for tariffs on the window sticker. The tariff costs will likely be a moving target for years so they can adjust that line rather than mess with the MSRP.
I’m a fan of it as a tool to keep the dealerships honest.
“keep the dealerships honest”
That’s hilarious.
I had a laundry list of disclaimers, first being the notion that dealerships are anything close to honest to begin with, but figured nobody wanted to read that…
I like to read the window stickers. I look for what options and packages are on the car. I have the window sticker from my 2012 Wrangler in a frame on my office wall behind me.
Dare I say Based Elon?
A broken clock can be right, but only twice a day.
He is right about that, though. Navarro literally went on TV and claimed Vietnam was, in his words “effectively a colony” of China, as if the two countries aren’t mortal enemies who fought a significant war in 1979
Navarro was basically the only economist who favor sky-high tariffs.
In the (social) sciences of your opinion is the only one against the mainstream, you are either an era-redefining genius, or you are a moron.
Navarro in all likelihood ain’t no Einstein or Newton.
He’s got significant backing from the Juche school.
As an expert in the Korean language* I can state with confidence that it is pronounced as “douche.”
*I heard “Gangnam Style”. Once. I think it has to deal with invisible horses.
Hey pretty lady. Thanks, now I have an earworm.
Elon is dumber than a sack of bricks if he didn’t realize that Navarro was going to be in charge of trade policy when he started going hard for Trump last fall.
I suspect every single cabinet member went into the job thinking “I’m the only sane/smart one here”.
They were only half right, and unfortunately it was the part about the other members.
Having watched Navarro for over a decade now and sampled some of his written economic thought…. Elon is being rather generous in his opinion of the man.
He is probably the absolute stupidest person with any authority in our current government. That is saying a lot, but I believe it is completely true. But, then, the President is also listening to him and implementing his advice 100%, so…
Which says it all in a short concise statement. PANIC is not optional. The inmates have taken control.