Obviously, it’s important I not ignore the big trade news from the weekend even if that’s what I want to do. This is going to be hard. I want this place to be a respite from a lot of the divisions in the world because car culture can be a way to get away from all of that. We’ll try to keep the rest of the site that way, so just consider this a bit of a trigger warning.
Here we go…
How could the Mavericks trade Luka Doncic to the Lakers?!? If you’re a Dallas fan, this is just another disappointment in a long line of disappointments. If you’re a Lakers fan, you might be happy in the long term, but what does a Lakers team look like this season? Next season? These are all tough questions.
Just kidding! I’m going to talk about all the trade war shenanigans. I’m not going to be alarmist about it and, instead, I’m going to try to embrace the unreality of it all with a bit of a Swiftian analysis. Jonathan, not Taylor, just to be clear. If you want alarmism you can feel free to head over to the Millennial retirement home known as BlueSky, where everyone is screaming like a banshee (though I wouldn’t use that phrase on BlueSky unless you want 12 people you don’t know to accuse you of Irish cultural appropriation).
This will be one of those Morning Dumps that’s mostly focused on one thing but, if you stick around, we’ll have some Stellantis executive changes a new Alpine paint job. Exciting!
The Anti-Cars Trump Presidency?
An electric car entrepreneur is running the government, he’s raising taxes on gasoline and destroying the supply chains used to make traditional gas-powered cars and somehow the left is upset. pic.twitter.com/pfaOQAQvkf
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) February 2, 2025
President Trump is going through, maybe, on tariffs he previewed last week. The goal, in his words, is to stop Canada and Mexico from allowing the drug Fentanyl and illegal immigrants from crossing the border.
What if President Trump had other plans? I didn’t come up with this idea and, in my heart of hearts, I’m a little loathe to cite my old friend’s old roommate Matthew Yglesias, but here’s the tweet/x/whatever, which I’ll quote below:
An electric car entrepreneur is running the government, he’s raising taxes on gasoline and destroying the supply chains used to make traditional gas-powered cars and somehow the left is upset.
If you can’t see the quote, he’s referencing this story from Axios about how the “U.S. auto industry could be decimated by tariffs” because, as we’ve pointed out, there are a bunch of cars made in Canada and Mexico. Even worse, now that we’ve got an idea of what the tariffs will look like, it seems like goods get charged every time they cross. Some car parts/cars will cross a border up to five times.
Over at The Detroit Press, there’s a big and ongoing list of automakers that could be impacted. It’s basically all of them.
Around 90% of auto exports from both Mexico and Canada go to the U.S., according to the Mexican Automotive Manufacturers’ Association and the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association.
Detroit is at the epicenter of domestic impact, and the Detroit Regional Chamber and its MichAuto affiliate on Saturday evening the tariffs “will have detrimental effects to our automotive industry in Michigan, the Great Lakes Region and across the continent.”
“Our economies are inextricably linked by manufacturing and many other critical industries,” Glenn Stevens Jr. the executive director of MichAuto said in a statement. “MichAuto and its constituents are concerned about the collateral damage that will be done to manufacturing, the impact it will have on Michiganders’ jobs, and the fact that the consumer will feel the increased cost of doing business in the prices they pay from vehicles in the showrooms to the grocery store.
Do you want to know one car that’ll be super impacted? The Ford Maverick. They’re coming for the Maverick! Sound the alarms!
From Automotive News we’ve got “Tariffs threaten to bring North American auto production to ‘screeching halt’” and this tidbit:
Tariffs aimed at Canada’s auto sector will also “score direct hits” on auto producing states from Michigan to Alabama and Georgia to California, said Flavio Volpe, CEO of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association.
“The dominoes will fall as the quick debates happen on who is going to absorb the 25 per cent.”
The tariff rate is “15-per-cent higher than anybody’s profit margin,” and neither automakers nor suppliers will be prepared to take those losses, resulting in idled plants, Volpe added.
Oh, right, automakers have been squeezing supplier margins for approximately forever and so a 25% tariff is not sustainable for them if it happens, as promised.
Maybe Canada and Mexico will blink? According to the NYT, that ain’t happening yet:
Canada announced on Sunday that it would target everything from American-made honey, tomatoes and whiskey to refrigerators and toilets as Mexico’s president said her country would respond soon to President Trump’s far-reaching tariffs in products from the United States’ neighbors.
If you’re so inclined, you can go find videos of Canadians booing the “Star Spangled Banner” and taking bottles of Tito’s Vodka off the shelves (so far, blue state liquors seem safe).
It’s here I would like to tag our own Canadian correspondent Thomas in this conversation, but he’s curiously absent today. He’s claiming he “has the flu” from a recent trip. Curious timing, Thomas!
It’s possible this will be limited in timing and scope, but former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers doesn’t think so, telling CNN’s Manu Raju:
“This is a self-inflicted wound to the American economy…. I’d expect inflation over the next three or four months to be higher as a consequence, because the price level has to go up when you put a levy on goods that people are buying.”
Welcome to the Resistance… Larry Summers? Lol.
So, it seems bad, but maybe it isn’t going to be bad! In a bit of good timing, I’m reading a book about the history of free trade in the United States right now and it’s probably worth mentioning that few people ever correctly guess what the result of tariffs are going to be. In fact, economists still don’t even necessarily agree on the impact of trade policy from 100 years ago.
I’m going to take the most unlikely case this morning. Not because it’s what I believe is true. I don’t. I just find it amusing. Right now the people over at the r/fuckcars subreddit are treating it as good news and “The War On Cars” account on BlueSky (where else?) had this to reiterate that they’re “not going to welcome Trump to The War On Cars” even though people keep asking.
What if this trade war is a war on cars? If you wanted to make people drive less and buy fewer new cars, this would be a not-terrible way of doing that.
First, you’d make cars really expensive. Unnecessarily so. And you’d do it right at a time when everyone is concerned about vehicle affordability. Then, just for fun, you’d make gas more expensive. Is gas going to get more expensive? Maybe!
From NBC News, we get “Gas prices set to rise as Trump tariffs hit Canadian and Mexican oil” and this:
The likely hike in fuel prices reflects the double-edged nature of Trump’s trade protections which are designed to bolster domestic business and pressure U.S. neighbors to curb illegal immigration and drug smuggling, but which will also run counter to his promises to tackle inflation.
The U.S. imports some 4 million barrels per day of Canadian oil, 70% of which is processed by refiners in the Midwest. It also imports over 450,000 bpd of Mexican oil, mainly for refiners concentrated around the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Tariffs on those imports mean higher costs for making finished fuels like gasoline, much of which is likely to be passed along to U.S. consumers.
I’m not going to get into a whole petroleum lesson here (although, as a Houstonian, about 40% of my history and science education in public schools was designed to prepare me to do so), but the type of oil we’re really good at refining is the kind of thick, gloopy stuff (crude oil) we get from Canada. We need Canada’s crude oil and Canada needs our refining. This is especially true in the Midwest, which can’t easily get crude oil from anywhere else. A deeper explanation here if you’re curious.
If the tariffs go into effect on Tuesday and aren’t quickly reversed, it’s possible that cars and gas will both get more expensive. If they are reversed in short order, then, perhaps, not much of this will happen.
Is this a totally ridiculous argument? Of course it is. President Trump has made it clear he wants to strengthen the domestic car industry and, over a long enough time period, it’s likely that carmakers will relocate more production in the United States.
Also, Tesla will probably suffer from these tariffs, so it’s not like President Trump’s new best friend Elon Musk will escape the impact, nor will this avoid impacting EVs (all GM EVs, for instance, will get hit).
Hey, what’s that Musk feller up to right now?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk And His Band Of Mysterious Young Engineers Are Attempting To Take Over Control Of Government Payments
The @DOGE team is rapidly shutting down these illegal payments https://t.co/GabhBL7gxf
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2025
The ostensible car company CEO Elon Musk and “six young men” are — under the guise of DOGE, which is supposed to improve government efficiency — apparently running around the federal government trying to stop payments to federal contractors.
WIRED has identified six young men—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project, tasked by executive order with “modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.” The engineers all hold nebulous job titles within DOGE, and at least one appears to be working as a volunteer.
Elon Musk has called these young men his “Spartans” and, yeah, not gonna touch that one. According to Bloomberg, the Lutheran Family Services funds went to a faith-based charity that has been providing social services to refugees.
Looking into the list that was highlighted, this includes Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, which provides foster care to children. There’s also Lutheran Social Services of the South, in Texas, whose mission is to “break the cycle of child abuse by empowering children, families and communities.”
I mention all this because… it’s weird! Some people may find these specific cuts totally normal and there’s a Libertarian sort of logic to it, maybe, but most automotive CEOs are usually loathe to get involved in politics. Like, I’m pretty sure Koji Sato wasn’t out trying to stop dialysis patients in West Virginia from getting rides to the doctor.
The Bloodletting At Stellantis Continues
Carlos Tavares, pictured above, is out at Stellantis and, as was inevitable, a lot of his successors and deputies are getting shuffled out of their roles.
Chief Software Officer Yves Bonnefont is stepping down from his role, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. Linda Jackson, who has been in charge of the Peugeot brand, is also losing her role, the people said.
Considered a Tavares protégé, Bonnefont has been in charge of the software business that was responsible for delays to key new models in the U.S. and Europe, including an all-electric Ram pickup truck, the people said. Chief Engineering and Technology Officer Ned Curic will oversee software in the future as part of operations streamlining, they said.
Sometimes you pick the wrong horse. It happens.
Hey, Look, New Alpine Livery
This TMD was a long, hard squeeze. Apologies. Here’s a nice, short, smooth log of news to help round it out. It’s the new Alpine A424 hypercar livery for 2025. Looks good, Alpine!
What I’m Listening To While Writing TMD
Are you ready to have your socks absolutely charmed right off of your feet?!? I was trying to explain to my daughter what being 16 felt like, and Bjork’s “Oh So Quiet” is about as close as it gets. She didn’t get to see the great Spike Jonze video, though, because we were in the car.
The Big Question About Trade
How long will this last? Will this trade war even make it to COTD?
Top image: White House/Captain Planet
At least Canadian tariffs are being targeted to areas that voted for Trump. I bet those tariffs last for a while as punishment. Pick a better leader or literally pay the price.
“At least Canadian tariffs are being targeted to areas that voted for Trump.”
It is worth remembering that nearly 40% of Californians voted for Trump, and that similar percentages of voters in Alabama and Mississippi voted for Harris. States are not nearly as neatly divided as people assume. It seems ridiculous to target a state because a small majority preferred trump, and equally stupid to praise states where a small majority voted for Harris.
I’ve been screaming that at the top of my lungs.
There are more Trump supporters in New York City than there are people in many red states.
One can say the reverse about Texas and smaller blue states.
Electoral College must die.
There are a lot of Racists in America who simply voted for Trump because they thought he would hurt the people they hate…
What confuses me is the 40% of Native Americans in Arizona supported trump.. Now they are being harassed by ICE (or at least Navajo are)
Leopards and faces…
It’s going to be really hard on satire writers for a while..
Getting rid of the electoral college would be a big help. Getting rid of closed and/or winner take all primaries would also lead to less extreme candidates. It would also be great if elected officials couldn’t redraw maps to ensure their party gets the most seats. Sometimes our democracy doesn’t seem very democratic.
It’s the states’ current leadership that is being targeted. Let them explain it to their donors, er, excuse me, I meant “employers”.
People tend to forget that California spawned Nixon and Reagan, and the state’s electors sent both to their first terms in the White House. Sometimes the pendulum swings right on the Left Coast. I’m not crowing about it, just sayin’.
Get rid of the electoral college..
With the data available today, targeting specific areas for retaliatory tariffs is probably easy. Slap the red areas while sparing the blue areas, even within states.
Yes, the Electoral College must be consigned to the dustbin of history.
I REFUSE to hear any sort of suggestion the GRAND EMPEROR TRUMP doesn’t think things all the way through before doing them. Same goes for SUPER DUPER MONEY MAN MUSK!!! (When you use all caps it’s supposed to mean that YOU MEAN BUSINESS).
The Felon in Chief has an IQ estimated around 78.
He can’t think farther ahead than his own fat belly.
Mr. Musk is not very bright, but like Trump, is a skilled confidence man. The funny thing is how they keep showing how ignorant and or stupid they are, but half the population doesn’t notice…
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups.””Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”
Both attributed to the late, great George Carlin.
Imagine what he would be saying about todays times? At the same time i feel like his head would’ve exploded trying to make sense of the insane world we live in today.
Your head only explodes when you try using it to think.
Unless you’re a Martian and Slim Whitman’s “Indian Love Call” is being played within earshot
(Oh – you were referring to George, not the Narcissist in Chief)
Nah, Musk is obviously intelligent AND a skilled confidence man – realisticly, all billionaires who didn’t just inherit it are at the end of the day. You have to make people trust you enough to invest with you. It’s just he’s following the same “crazy rich guy” life arc as Howard Hughes, and has become very convinced of his own infallibility. The sooner he get’s to the “recluse” stage, the better. Preferably on Mars.
Trump is a dumb as a box of hair carnival barker who inherited enough money from Daddy that people paid attention to him, with an unfortunate knack for self-promotion. And a vast audience of stupid, racist, and misogynist people to lap up his bullshit.
And banks are willing to lend him money. After 6 bankruptcies. Hard to wrap my head around that.
That’s easy to explain. The actual bankers that approved those terrible loans were most likely handsomely rewarded from those same loan proceeds. You wouldn’t believe the level of theft that goes on, even at Fortune 500 companies.
Bribary and greed will get you everywhere, when the sums are big enough.
One month into 25 and it’s starting to look a lot like the last seven. Oh well, it will pass like all things.
Pass like a kidney stone full of pain and anguish.
As someone who just went through this a few months ago, god I hope not.
Will it though?
And the last 4 years were both prosperous and fairly relaxing for me. Now I have existential dread and keep loaded firearms around.. The idea that “we got through this before” is sort of like saying that midway though Russian Roulette..
I suspect this tarifuffle will be over in time for golf season. We just have to hold on until he gets distracted by something else that lets him act like the big dic.. err Don.
“he”, that’s the mistake everyone made.. Not realizing this wasn’t about him being president. He only wants three things; to play golf, maintain his celebrity status and stay out of jail. He accomplished all of that by getting elected, and now has turned the government over to monkeys with machine guns. This election was never about the president, but all the people electing him invited along and their dystopian agenda.
This. The pandemic was not much fun, but I never actually got Covid despite still travelling for a living right through it. Amazing how effective doing what the smart people tell you to do can be. But otherwise, my income increased substantially, I paid off two houses, and life was pretty good. Now I am stuck with a build contract for a new house that is going to result in a PILE of debt that I am not excited about at all, while the tariff bullshit could have a severe impact on my job, and God knows what will happen when I try to sell one of my current houses once the new one is done, if it ever gets done with the looming building trades shortage here in SW FL. English is a language rarely heard on a building site here in DuhSantisland.
But no loaded guns. I might be tempted to use it on myself. Or Trump, and I am too pretty for prison.
You have a house in Maine and a house in Florida and are worried about the other house you are having built in Florida?
Doesn’t sound like you will be living on the streets any time soon.
SWFL isn’t at all like it used to be, by the way. It’s become quite spendy.
Still *extremely* reasonable in the non-toney parts compared to the Northeast though. For what my relatively crappy old shack in Maine is worth, I could buy a palace on a canal in Charlotte County.
And Portland is still cheap compared to Boston where my office is.
I’m thankful every day I’m not homeless, while at the same time recognizing the differences in economies. My guess is that Kevin B. Rhodes is also able to avoid false dichotomies.
And your point is? Yes, I am a reasonably successful adult. I would prefer an economy that allows me to stay that way.
Well, they were always in the house, now they are around the house.
I agree, but it’s going to HURT. Unless we get lucky. I am praying for a stroke. For Trump, not me, but maybe my having one would be a blessing at this point.
I dunno. Somehow Vance is scarier than Trump. He doesn’t seem to have the pathological need for flattery that can at least steer Trump away from his more destructive tendencies when applied correctly.
I disagree. Obviously, Vance isn’t great. But he’s not *senile*. And he has contradicted Trump a number of times over policy. I am sure I will HATE his policies, but they won’t be as chaotic as Trump’s. And I very much doubt he would let Musk have nearly as much sway over him as Trump does.
Agree, Musk and Thiel need to be kept as far away from power as possible.
Vance is scary as an individual, but he does not have the entire Republican party and 40% of the country at his beck and call. The absence of Trump would/will create a power vacuum that dozens of equally charisma-free hopefuls will scramble to fill. I’m not saying the Republicans wouldn’t still do a lot of damage without Trump, but they will also be more fractious and easier to defeat in Congress, etc. (If there is still a Congress by the time any of this happens.)
Heh, you’d miss the slow load train wreck. I do worry about the hillbilly replacement. Working in tech for my entire career has colored my opinion of most of the broverse.
Vance isn’t senile. That is a huge point in his favor, even if he is also a flaming asshole at his core. He’s at least a functioning adult who probably won’t tank the economy on a whim. He also has roughly .0001% of the rabble-rousing charisma of Trump, and none of the influence with the base that scares the ever-loving shit out of the few Republicans with a brain left in DC.
10000000% agree with you on those points. He’s not a senile narcissistic man-child.
Just came here to say FUCK TRUMP. And Elon. And every goddamn person who voted for those cucks.
Aw, don’t insult cucks like that. They don’t deserve it.
I don’t know, they might like it.
It’s only fair, Westjet tariffed me 25% because I wanted to bring a suitcase!
/s
//We’re making extra effort to visit Canada on vacation if this actually continues
This is one of those times where I actually maybe don’t want to go to Canada, pretending to be Canadian has always been the cover when traveling to countries that hate us, but that ruse won’t work there
I’m willing to have Garage Beers with any US Autopian member that makes the trip.
I’ll be there with ketchup chips! I always cross the border back to the US with a case of those.
If you reside in Canada, can I borrow your sofa for a few years???
The Garage sofa is located next to the Garage Fridge where the Garage beers are. Across from the 65″ Garage TV. I even heat it all winter. Come on over!
Same
Throw in some Hawkins Cheezies and I’m there!
I don’t know if it’s near you but we’re planning a trip from Mass through the Maritimes this summer.
I’m closer to the Hawkins Cheezie factory (Belleville, ON) than I am to the Maritimes. I’m stomping around the country’s Capital Region.
Canadians don’t dislike Americans, they dislike the policies, and ugly Americans.
Yeah, you say that, but, eh, we say that about a lot of countries, too, (China, Iran, etc), ask Chinese-Americans and Iranian-Americans how well that actually works out for them in their daily lives, eg, if a drunk guy at a bar wants to be a big man or something
I’m going to Spain next month, starting in Barcelona (which notoriously hates tourists), so it’s gonna be…interesting.
Unrelated, but we’re also working on EU citizenship by descent. Still about a year to go in the process. Also gonna be interesting to see how these laws change in the near future.
As long as you aren’t wearing a red hat, you’ll be fine.
I’m headed to Montreal in two weeks. That’ll be fascinating for sure.
Say dat and dis a lot, order poutin eh ant
ewel be fine tabernac. Pass dat 50 over ear.
If you ever feel specifically targeted for hatred or disdain, or that you can’t get service in the shops, just take a deep breath and realize that sometimes Quebec be like that 🙂 (/s je t’aime QC!)
Try to make it to Quebec City if you can! Definitely worthwhile
I give the tariffs about a month, and then I expect them to quietly go away. Trump’s goals are so vague so he can declare complete and total success at almost any point (particularly tariffs on Canada – how is Canada hurting the US and why would import taxes reduce that imagined harm?). He recently publicly acknowledged US consumers will be harmed by the tariffs. I wonder if someone finally convinced him that tariffs aren’t a good idea, much less a magical pill to solve all of our country’s problems.
If trump were a conventional politician, I would assume the tariffs were an empty promise to get elected and not an actual policy goal. Somewhat ironically, I think he may be one of the more honest politicians in recent history. Politicians knowingly make a lot of crazy promises to get elected. While that is annoying, I’m finding I prefer that to a candidate who appears to have unknowingly made crazy promises to get elected.
Claudia Sheinbaum threw him a crumb on the Mexican side and he pounced on it like my cat going after Temptations. This isn’t about Fentanyl or even illegal immigration, it’s about the appearance of being a Bigly Doubleplusgood Dealmaker. If it weren’t for the considerable potential harm to both economies I’d love to see Trudeau stick to his guns.
Yeah, and that’s the problem, damage containment is unfortunately more important and worth swallowing pride over, Trump probably is going to be looking for an offramp. I don’t know what that would be, exactly, since Canada already agreed to spend $2 billion more on border security and expand the authority of immigration officers outside designated border crossings, but I think his beef with Canada is entirely personal animosity to Trudeau, so I don’t see Trump backing down. He hasn’t had enough dealings with Sheinbaum for her have made it permanently onto his enemies list yet, so he’ll still at least keep up the appearance of being willing to work with her for now, but he has too big of a personal hangup on Trudeau to even accept a W when it’s offered to him
I’m guessing that Ivanka suggested Trudeau was good looking and now he’s on the shit list.
Or Melania…..like she took a shining to Newsom,Trump doesn’t like that.
Gavin got to lay a kiss on her. It’s more action than Trump got at the inauguration when he got hat-blocked!
See also: Columbia and deportation flights.
All Columbia asked was for them not to use military planes and handcuffs, everyone is now claiming Columbia “backed down”.. Really? Because I’m pretty sure the US did, by changing the flights and treatment of the humans involved.
I think Canada should not only stick to their guns, but force all US vehicles traveling in to change their tire air to “Canadian made”. I like that Ford tore up the contract with Star Link too. It’s sucks for Canadians, but it sucks more to be treated like an inferior country by the trump administration.
It’s just so hard just to look at his face, let alone understand and hear his policy coming out of his mouth.
I used to come home from work and put on the news. Now I come home from work and put on the BBC Antiques Roadshow Prime channel. I’m not as up on current events but I can 100% tell you how much your Regency silver teapot is worth.
This entire administration has 100% turned me off from the big 3 TV networks, so unbearable to watch. My anytime TV is any of the 3 Star Trek channels on PlutoTV now.
On the subject of Criminal Trump’s Tariffs:
“Maybe Canada and Mexico will blink? According to the NYT, that ain’t happening yet:”
More like ‘That ain’t happening… PERIOD‘.
As a Canadian, I’m already boycotting US-made stuff where feasible. I’m cancelling my netflix as well (replaced with crave.ca). And I cancelled a vacation to the USA I had planned… and I will not travel to the USA for as long as Trump and his crooked gang of MAGA asshats are in power.
Oh and Ontario just cancelled a deal we had with Starlink to provide internet service to northern communities because FUCK YOU MUSK/TRUMP.
And a bunch of US-made products are getting pulled from Canadian shelves.
And I fully support that.
“How long will this last? Will this trade war even make it to COTD?”
Probably will last for the next 4 years… possibly less if he leaves office in a body bag because he dies of an age-related issue OR there is another assassination attempt on him.
As long as Trump is in office, the only thing we can be sure of is that there will be chaos.
“As a Canadian, I’m already boycotting US-made stuff where feasible.”
Welcome to the Autopian, proudly made in the USA.
I mean, I ain’t paying for it. It’s actually costing THEM to host my Canadian comments! Like my own mini-tariff.
Whether you pay or not does not a boycott make:
boy·cott
verb
verb: boycott; 3rd person present: boycotts; past tense: boycotted; past participle: boycotted; gerund or present participle: boycotting
withdraw from commercial or social relations with (a country, organization, or person) as a punishment or protest.
“we will boycott all banks which take part in the loans scheme”
approve of
refuse to buy or handle (goods) as a punishment or protest.”an advert urges consumers to boycott the firm’s coffee”refuse to cooperate with or participate in (a policy or event).”most parties indicated that they would boycott the election”noun
noun: boycott; plural noun: boycotts
a punitive ban that forbids relations with certain groups, cooperation with a policy, or the handling of goods.
“a boycott of the negotiations”
Origin
from the name of Captain Charles C. Boycott (1832–97), an Irish land agent so treated in 1880, in an attempt instigated by the Irish Land League to get rents reduced.
So to be a proper boycott you need to not visit the site at all.
And why would you boycott? You’d only be hurting yourself. And we’d miss you.
Much like Canadian broadcasting, this site has a minimum percentage of Canadian content (a-la Thomas). So a full boycott doesn’t make sense. Gotta support my countrymen, even if he does live in the GTA.
What, no love for your commonwealth brethren? Everyone knows Australia is just warm, topsy turvy Canada.
Lewin knows what he did.
Yeah but in the part of the USA that isn’t MAGA. And it’s not like I’m paying a subscription… are you?
You should pay a subscription to support these hard-working people whose work you enjoy. I just pay the cheapest one because I’m, well, cheap, but it’s something.
I second that statement,the people that are running this site are working their tales off to make a living. I’d like for this site to continue to grow and for them to become prosperous.
Maybe someday David and Mercedes can afford to buy a nice car for their spouses,and more importantly Jason can get out of debt from his medical issues.
I shouldn’t tease Mercedes and David as I love old obscure junk just like they do. Except that my wife thinks my “gold” should be out of our garage, yard and her life.
I pay for a subscription to support the people who work here because I get a lot of value out of the site. I encourage you to do the same. I assume there are contributors here from many parts of the political spectrum, just like the commentors.
Yeah but in the part of the USA that isn’t MAGA
About that:
https://jobs.netflix.com/location?slug=los-gatos-california
Netflix HQ is in Los Gatos California. Which is in Santa Clara county for which 68% of cast votes were for Harris:
https://www.kcra.com/article/california-counties-donald-trump-flipped-2024-election/62830733
That BTW is bluer than the Autopian’s HQ county of LA.
And it’s not like I’m paying a subscription… are you?
Yes. Yes I am. And I’m a cheap bastard.
I respect your decision.
The trade war will end when our Fuhrer Trump decides to invade Canada, after he invades Mexico of course, because his type will fall for a two front war. He isn’t very bright, but he has found a large supply of minions who will take a personal loyalty oath to him…
As one of our resident Canadians, I’d like to thank the current US administration for uniting the Canadian populous in record time.
Seriously, it’s a pretty unanimous “F-U” up here. But we’re stubborn pricks by nature.
Most of us below the border do not blame you one bit.
No hits below the
beltborder.Ex-pat Canadian in Texas. I can relate.
Honest question because I see conflicting reports down here: is the Canadian populous truly united against him? Or are the prairies still wishing they had his clone in charge of the Canadian government?
Prairies are in on the fight. The Alberta Premier is literally the only holdout.
Most provinces started by immediately pulling ALL US alcohol from shelves. You can’t even buy what’s already here. Then every Premier (except Smith, that idiot) is basically in a game of who can boycott the most US stuff.
Smith is an idiot, but she also knows that Trudeau will gladly sacrifice Alberta’s primary source of income for the “greater good”.
What a feeling it must be to be almost wholly united on something. Thanks for shedding some light on it for me.
Keep your stick on the ice!
Which is hilarious that the generally most pro-US areas of Canada, and the ones most likely to have a favorable impression of Trump are now being turned against him because of his own actions.
I have friends who liked the Orange Menace, but I think they liked the idea, and the standing up for yourself part. I’ve had lots of texts over the weekend, they’re not as big of fans now…
For reference, I’m originally from Alberta
I’ve been waiting for the buyer’s remorse to set in. Popping a big bowl of popcorn tonight.
What’s the Canadian position on US political refugees? I thought about Mexico but my Spanish just isn’t up to it.
It’s a straight up points system. Younger you are, more professional your role, more points. Hit the number, you’re in.
Let’s see: I’m old, and a local government bureaucrat approaching retirement. Guess I’m stuck here. Does US Veteran status get me anything? No? Didn’t really think so, but it never hurts to ask.
You can always take advantage of the six months less a day in any 12 month period. Visa free.
And of course if your medical care costs more than 14,400 Canadian per year you can’t move there even if you are part First Nations, as I learned…
Will Autopian have to pay 25% more to import Thomas’ submissions or will it pay him in Canadian dollars now to offset a tariff? (Sorry Thomas, that extra 25% will go to Uncle Sham.)
You just get less, you’ll only see 25% of our Canadian comm….
Funny g…
On the plus side the $CAD is already at a multi-year low! Vacation in Canada this year. Currently $1 Trumpbuck will get you $1.45 Canadian Pesos
Invest in poutine and Canadian booze. You won’t regret either. You should also inve…
It’s a big change from when I moved to the States in 2008 and the $CAD was worth more than the $USD
That was a brief, but glorious time as I lived in a border tow…
Unless you can’t stand cottage cheese in your fries…
Who the hell would put cottage cheese in fries? Cheese curds, or if you’re a pizza place, pizza mozzarella.
I’m really looking forward to the day when I don’t read the news and learn some new way that either myself or someone I care about is about to get fucked over.
A while back I realized that I was supposed to relax sometimes, and I stopped looking at news on the weekends, figuring that there’s not many things that can’t wait until Monday. It’s been great; I recommend it.
Yeah I do that and look for ways to distract myself. Literally took a 6 mile walk yesterday hoping the fresh air and scenery would clear my mind and it only partially worked.
I stopped listening to npr last year because I can’t stand hearing the current potus speak. I listen to history & archeological podcasts while doing mindless tasks now —and am much happier for it.
Still get sucked into an occasional video, then catch myself & watch idiots wrecking on snow & ice
Try searching youtube for Subaru Ice Storm Portland Oregon to see idiots with all season radials total their neighbors cars…
I will. In the first storm to hit the Mid-Atlantic, I went out Sunday in about 4” because my new snow tires have been dry rotting for a couple years now. Started sleeting, and I slowed to 15 or so—only to be passed on a double yellow by a new Honda sedan. I took my old wrx the hell home & parked it.
Ice don’t play—and I don’t play in it, but I’ll watch idiots from safety.
Does anyone remember the bit on Robot Chicken where Ted Turner was Captain Planet? Ran around causing chaos and yelling “CAPTAIN PLANET” every time? Well, that’s what went through my head when I saw that lead picture.
The tariffs are a distraction for the real evil happening. They are going to dismantle the EPA and set us back decades. They are already committing treason and infiltrating highly sensitive systems. A guy who was on the phone with Putin regularly is doing this. Its straight from the Russian playbook on how to destroy the US.
This is what is keeping me up at night, literally.
There is no distraction any more. They’re just openly doing the most cartoonishly evil things because they know that nobody is going to stop them. There’s no need to try and distract people. If they haven’t completely dismantled the EPA yet it’s because they haven’t gotten around to it.
Not to mention having Immigration / Border Patrol arrest us Natives…
But its not about racism… /s
Does anyone have 2024 numbers for the cars & trucks imported to the USA from the UK and the entire EU countries? Can’t be that high can it ?
Also, what are the numbers for the Made in USA vehicles shipped to the UK and EU?
Makes that Jaguar move to shut down for a year look pretty good right now. They can wait it out before deciding how to move forward. Like that was planned.
We are currently in the fuck around of times, but the find out of times is most certainly coming.
The first Trump Presidency was the fuck around times. I’m not sure why we voted to find out, because he was quite clear to anyone who actually listened to what he was saying every day after he lost in 2020.
Because idiots will believe the right wing news & X[sh]itter if they repeat the lies enough times…
I’ll never again underestimate the power of propaganda on the simple minded.
Stock market participants seem to be of a mind that Wile E. Coyote’s tariff announcements will be short lived on stock prices, which seems to indicate the market thinks the tariff announcements are theater.
I do not understand tariffs — theatrical or otherwise — on Canadian goods at all, especially because the US has a lot more to lose in a trade war with Canada than Canada does. WTF has Canada done?
The President is an idiot, and thinks that a trade deficit with Canada is a “subsidy” to them.
The fact that the deficit is so small with Canada is actually what is surprising. Canada as an entire nation has a smaller population than California, yet trade is nearly equal.
That is because Fuhrer Trump wants to increase the size of the US by taking all of Canada and moving the US Mexican Border at least a few hundred miles south of its present location, not to mention taking Greenland…
To be clear, I think the tariffs, especially the Canadian ones, are a bad and dangerous idea, but I struggle to find a world in which this statement is true.
For better or worse, the US is swinging its big dick around in a way not really seen in decades.
Treating a loyal ally like Canada this poorly doesn’t reflect well on Trump or the US in general, but it’s Canada and Canadians who are going to be hurt more by this.
Yes, but only because Canada has recently gone overboard leaning to US demands since Trump 1.0. There are plenty of other markets for Canadian energy and raw materials if the orange menace decides to ramp things up, but those other relationships have been discounted to this point.
Does Canada even have the ability to sell/ship Alberta crude to anyone besides us?
Not currently (or at least not efficiently) but this has been a big wakeup call to them to start to develop pipelines to the west in order to be able to ship it towards Asia, i.e. an alternate buyer. This is going a long way toward dismantling internal Canadian resistance to the idea. If the tariff gets much higher than it currently is then it may make sense to rail it towards the coasts instead as the overall cost of doing business would be less (and the added “benefit” of denying feedstock to many northern refineries geared up for that oil and not able to process the lighter US stocks.
That sounds like a many-year type of undertaking as a response to something that I still believe deep down will be resolved quickly.
Now, one could argue that the US becoming more unpredictable since 2016 is reason enough to make the investment, but it still seems like Canada is the one getting screwed here in the short term, which was my original point.
Yes, but it’s mostly to the West coast, so we’d be selling more to Asia than Europe.
I’m not an expert on Canadian pipelines, but the only east-west pipeline through Alberta carries natural gas. There are plans for a trans-mountain pipeline now, but functionality is years in the future.
The TransMountain upgrade is already flowing.
Such is the status of so many, many things right now.
The bots doing the main reporting have the information wrong. The new TransMountain pipeline enables much larger volume to the West Coast, not greater export to the US. But that is a drop in the bucket compared to what goes to the US
If Energy East was approved, the refineries in New Brunswick and Quebec could use Alberta crude over imports, which they do now.
The big leverage Canada has is that US refineries are built to handle a grade of feedstock. The bigger refineries in Houston were originally built to process Venezuelan heavy crude, and Alberta oil sands are roughly equivalent in chemistry, so they can use it as a replacement feedstock for the sanctioned Venezuelan oil, and has been.
No one is going to spend the billions of dollars required to make the change. Oil and gas are essentials. The costs will just pass through, as generally speaking motor fuel and home heating are not discretionary purchases.
There is a huge pipeline project to ship oil from Alberta to a port on the coast of British Columbia. The trans mountain pipeline tripled its capacity to 890000 barrels a day. The expansion is complete and running as of May 2024.
It took a long time to build, but I would expect any further expansion of the line to be much, much faster. It took a long time to get agreements/contracts with the parties impacted by the expansion and new sections. Extending agreements is way easier than starting from scratch.
“For better or worse, the US is swinging its big dick around in a way not really seen in decades.”
So why am I getting SDE from the MAGA Tariff Adderol/Ketamine team?
Aggressively threatening others to extract concessions is about as masculine as it comes.
Again, I don’t support the tariffs on Canada.
But the left has done this weird thing most of my life where “small dick” is both the most devastating insult one can level, but is also completely detached from reality. See also, comments on truck articles.
It’s similar to “pedo” on the right, something that has been overused to the point of losing all meaning.
I don’t believe that aggressively threatening others is an exclusively masculine thing – unless Angry Karens, Real Housewives and MTG are now gender-fluid.
And I suppose if one simply used a Teddy Roosevelt quote reference about a stick, we wouldn’t have gone there.
This time.
😉
“Aggressively threatening others to extract concessions is about as masculine as it comes”
No – not even close. This is how insecure masculinity impaired men behave. Really masculine men don’t need concessions, and have the strength to protect weaker people from threats.
Its a big flacid dick, and the world will trade on without us while Trump pouts.
I agree, the trade war will be short lived. I see it as a strong man business tactic to get everyone to the negotiating table. Although, I don’t know what is going to be negotiated. I’ve seen crazy, poison pill business tactics in the past, but never with the economies of three countries.
No, the trade war will ebb and flow for at least the next four years.
Trump really is that stupid. He sincerely wants America to go back to the days when everything the Federal government does was financed by tariffs.
Trump thinks the entire world works exactly like the real estate development industry and the tactics he used when battling a daytime talk show host for control over a couple casinos and and an amusement park project will work equally well in all settings, completely ignoring that the goals, circumstances, and nature of the relationship are totally different and require different techniques and different styles of deals
I honestly think it’s entirely personal, Trump personally dislikes Trudeau and probably feels that Trudeau was mocking him or disrespecting him in conversations with other world leaders during the 4 years he was out of office, so this is revenge intended to force Trudeau out even faster than he already announced and get some Canadian equivalent of Milei or Meloni in there that Trump can be buddy-buddy with. Basically, economic coercion to force regime change. Trudeau’s resignation isn’t enough for Trump, because he’s still sticking around and his immediate replacement will still be a Liberal
For sure. You can tell Trudeau hates Trump, but over the years he’s really been careful with his words to try to avoid unnecessarily provoking the Cheeto-in-Chief. I can’t help but laugh every time I watch the clip of Trudeau pausing for 21 seconds before answering a question about Trump and just imagining the shit he’d like to say. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeaDi-0Nz8w
The guy ran for President in 2016 because Obama made fun of him at a dinner, he holds grudges for long times and will do pretty extreme things to settle them
On the other hand, he seems to be OK with bringing former opponents/critics into his administration as long as they perform an appropriately deferential mea culpa, but that could also be strategic, to ruin their ability to oppose him independently by making them complicit in everything he does going forward
Tariffs on Canada is just Trump’s way of making sure the rest of the nation can’t get wood, either.
SorryNotSorry
No, Canada is in the much weaker position. There are very few points on which Canada can squeeze the United States to the same effect, save perhaps a small hit in energy-related commodities.
Without going too much into history, Canada’s existence is kind of an accident of history. From the the British Empire it arose, unimportant in a strategic sense until post-WWII.
If the United States were not so benevolent (and the existence of Canada not so key to American strategy the Cold War), it could have happily squeezed Canada out of existence, whether by a war, or economic strategy. It chose to make a prosperous ally.
I’m happy that things worked out the way they did. But I don’t have any illusions about who would win if it actually came down to it, nationalism aside.
Fuhrer Trump’s joke about making Canada a state isn’t just a joke…
That depends. ARE YOU ACTUALLY GONNA RUN COTD TODAY??
Sorry, I thought that aggressive stupid all caps was the American method of diplomacy now.
TELL THOMAS WE SAID HELLO
You also have to be insulting while shouting.
Harsh.
But is he wrong?!?
You forgot to punch yourself in the balls at the end.
If Thomas does COTD we get 25% more COTD. That’s how it works, right?
To even try to coherently say what’s been going on in our federal government, which is a legit coup as much as I’m tired of that word, would make you sound like an absolutely insane person. Not sure we’re equipped to deal with this kind of belligerent aggression. Unless the Market drops something huge, like 5,000-10,000, then I don’t think anything stops this trainwreck.
I used to watch House of Cards when it was new and was shocked by how outlandish the first few seasons of storylines seemed. Then Trump 1.0 got elected and HoC became comparatively tame overnight and no longer watchable as reality all of a sudden became FAR more absurd. And now we are here and T1.0 is starting to look like the good old days…
Remember when we used to think getting a blow job from an intern in the Oval Office was one of the worst things a sitting president could do?
I didn’t care about the blowjob.
I cared about the lying.
BDE would have been “Yeah, I got head from her. She’s of age. I already apologized to Hillary, after which she took a month long trip to New York and spent $150,000 of my money at Cartier. So what?”
Worst?
That was awesome. I’ve met Clinton. The dude exudes game.
Exactly! It wasn’t even remotely terrible all things considered!
Or covering for some lackeys who failed at an office burglary
These tariffs are part of the promised revenge tour. We didn’t vote for him in 2020, so here’s our retribution.
Nobody can say we weren’t warned.
That’s the frustrating part. This all reminds me of the steamroller scene from Austin Powers where we could see for miles away that we’re about to get run over and yet did nothing about it.
Trump 2.0 is going to be our Brexit. The “Whoops I didn’t think the sh*t would really hit the fan like this” reaction.
It’ll just take time, and with his spindoctors and the media’s short attention span, any inflationary spikes or supply chain shortages will be blamed on someone else. Just like how Trump blamed all inflation on Biden, even though the groundswell started firmly on his watch, during Covid.
My prayer for our country is that this is truly the nadir, and that no damage is done that can’t be fixed among our relationships with the world.
I admire your optimism, but I’m afraid it’s going to get worse (a lot worse) before it gets better. And the effects will have a lot of permanence.
Just think, we’re on Day 13. Not even two weeks of this clown show!
Only 1062 days to go!
I admire your optimism, too. Don’t forget about the proposed constitutional amendment to allow him to run for a third term.
I forgot to add the asterisk for the *providing we don’t fuck with current laws.
Let him run a third time , guess who his opponent would be…..Obama.
Trump would be 81 when he started campaigning and drooling on the podium worse than Biden was.
Given the proposed amendment, Obama couldn’t run. To be eligible for the third term, you’d have to win, then lose, then win again. If you won twice in a row, you wouldn’t be eligible.
It’s pretty much tailored for Trump, though historically Garfield would have qualified as well so the sycophant that proposed it claims it isn’t sucking up.
You are absolutely right, I’m wrong.
Facts are important and I thank you for correcting my comment .
Hey, no biggie. A lot of people I know had heard about the amendment but didn’t know the specifics. My intent was not to correct but to inform.
If the amendment wasn’t to tailored to Trump, I think you’d probably be right about the Dems putting up Obama again.
And about the drooling. People seem to forget Reagan was pretty far into dementia by the time his second term ended, and Nancy was pretty much running the show.
I remember that too, it was covered up then just like now ( both Biden and Trump) and we all are paying a price for it.
Definitely Trump/tarrifs, Elon madman running around, this has a Brexit shitshow feeling. I frankly am angry about the likely negative changes, this is my country (and yours), not a fiefdom. I’m not here for it.
Musk is promoting Tommy Robinson, a man so toxic that even Nigel Farage wouldn’t touch.
A stock market crash is exactly what they are trying to do. Rich people make so much more money when the market crashes. They have spare cash, you and I regular people don’t, so we can’t cash in like they can. It’s going to be a financial blood bath.
I don’t disagree at all here.
Follow the money and it shall lead you to the truth.
Because the economy is going crash so hard that people can’t afford to buy cars?
As a Red State resident, and Canadian, Trump is out of his depth. The level of passive aggressiveness and pettiness about to be implemented by Canadians will be staggering.
Ford has already banned all US alcohol in LCBO stores, the largest single purchaser of alcohol in North America. BC and Nova Scotia have followed suit. He has also ripped up a $100M tender to Starlink.
These actions are on top of the actual retaliatory tariffs implemented by the Canadian Federal Government.
#IStandWithCanada
As a western New Yorker, good on Ford! You all have some excellent wine in Ontario. Plus whiskey. That’s all the major food groups right there.
I’ll miss your hydroponic tomatoes and strawberries. They have been excellent.
Oooooh, scary! lol. Next thing you are gonna tell me is that they are boycotting Thanksgiving.
Trudeau is going to fold. Why people are getting so worked up is beyond me,
For him to fold, he has to have some idea of what Trump would even consider sufficient, which, so far, all that’s been put out there is for “illegal immigration and fetanyl deaths to fall to zero”, which is obviously impractical and also completely outside Canada’s control, considering that even if they were totally 100% effective at sealing their entire border and stopping 100% of all illegal crossings and drugs, it would constitute a barely noticeable rounding error in terms of what comes into the US every year
That’s probably why they are on the phone at this moment.
Do you think the Mexicans rolled over?
These are the same troops that were sent in 2021.So no they didn’t rollover.
Theres ways of getting things done without being a complete asshole and Trump has never figured that out. He has screwed his contractors and subs since he started.He uses people then discards them.Hes so vain that you can call him a cheat and a liar and end up being his vice president,if you suck up after.Or become sec of state.
WOW.
If you are a supporter of Trump which it sounds like you are , I challenge you to look at 4 or 5 separate news sources each day for a week.
Make 1 or 2 of them be foreign independent news sources and get both sides of the storyline.
I read and follow many news sources and there are such differences it’s amazing that they are reporting the same thing.
Fox and MSNBC are to prime examples of polar opposites.
Theres a lot going on needless to say and encourage everyone to get all the FACTS not just from one or two biased sources.
Yes, things are going to get way worse before they get better under Trump let’s hope that we don’t do permanent damage to our democracy under his term as
kingpresident.Follow the money trail, it will lead to the truth.
The topshot made me vomit in my mouth a little bit.
It reminded me of those NFTs people wasted ridiculous amounts of money on.
PFFT, wasted. Are you some kind of woke asshole??? /sarcasm 🙂
Excuse me, Walker, Texas Ranger Trump is an artistic masterpiece
Well the Mexican tariff is already on pause for a month, so there’s that.
And are Elon’s children working under the renamed United States Digital Service actually engineers or “engineers” like Musk is?
They are more accurately described as “Little Jared Kushners”.
At least one of them is like 19 years old and still in college
Oh great, co-op’s are running the show.
This is too absurd to be made up.
I believe he’s the one listed as an unpaid volunteer on DODGE’s org chart, he won some sort of Musk-sponsored competition with a proposal for an AI powered scheduling assistant and got some development funding
Mexico already folded, 30 day pause on Tariffs while the US and Mexico try to hash out a more permanent deal.
Trump said he’s looking to Tariff the EU too.
Personally I’m against Tariffs, however I believe it is completely fair to have equal retaliatory Tariffs against countries with those same Tariffs against your country. (~300% on butter and cheese, 100% Tariff on foreign made automobiles, etc.) I’m not saying that’s what these Tariffs are, but as far as Tariff application is concerned I believe equal retaliatory Tariffs are fair.
That being said if we could get rid of the Income Tax in the US via blanket X% tariffs on foreign goods I’d support that, but only because I hate the income tax that much.
What’s wrong with an income tax?
The inability to opt out. I don’t like my tax dollars going to harming good and or innocent people and or pets at home or abroad, sadly it’s my government’s favorite past time.
With the blanket tariffs instead of an income tax idea, if successfully implemented, one would be able to chose not to fund the US Government via not buying foreign made goods.
Honestly the best way people have to vote is with their dollar, and I’d prefer my dollars not be spent harming innocent people and or pets at home or abroad.
It’s easy to opt out of paying income taxes, there are two ways. 1. Stop making so much money and get below the line. or 2. Get to work and figure out how to make an absurd amount of money and then you won’t need to pay taxes either.
Not as easy as you think. If you make below the minimum to file that is poverty, not developing nation poverty, but extremely hard to live on without already owning things like a home and whatnot.
Yeah if you’re rich enough you can get out of paying taxes, but rich people are a very small percentage of the population, not really accessible for your average Joe.
So the majority of the population is forced to fund the things that actively harm themselves and those they care for, I believe we should all have the option to opt out of funding things they are morally against.
I bet you a lot of people wish they weren’t funding the Vietnam War, especially so during the Draft, yet they had to unless they wanted to live in poverty or break the law.
How better to get the Government to listen to the people if their funding dries up when they harm the very people who control their funding?
(which in this case would be all Americans, instead of politicians, massive corporations, and unelected bureaucrats)
What a colossally bad take.
You absolutely CAN opt out of federal income tax – live below the poverty line, don’t work at all and live in the woods somewhere, or move out of the country. If you don’t like that, too bad. If you want to participate in society and use the things paid for by the government, you have to contribute. That’s life.
Even if tariff is 100% and I choose to buy ONLY imported goods, I struggle to imagine how that could make up for the elimination of income tax.
There just isn’t enough stuff to buy, and the plan fails even grade school math.
Do you think the Government is efficient?
I believe the tariff plan is possible, but it would require lots of cuts, which this administration is doing a lot of currently.
I think no matter where you are on the political spectrum everyone agrees that the Government is inefficient, and misuses tax dollars regularly.
The government is no more inefficient than most large businesses, and more efficient than outsourcing government functions to private industry.
This. The idea that private corporations are any more efficient than the government is laughable to me.
The tariff plan is stupid because we are too globally entrenched. All it will do is hurt the common man and close small businesses. We saw exactly how well it can work with Brexit.
Mexico didn’t “fold”, Trump did.
Just as I was predicting, Trump will take any pause for logical discussion as a “win.”
That’s how bullies work.
How exactly? Mexico agreed to send a bunch of troops to the border, giving Trump pretty much what he asked for.
Yeah people are so desperate for Trump to “lose” in any way that they are taking what appears to be a complete concession by Mexico as somehow evidence that we lost something.
I didn’t vote for the man and don’t support these tariffs but some of the discussion around here is the definition of TDS.
Agreed. I would love to have some real discussions about what is actually happening and the consequences of the actions being taken without all of the emotion behind the hatred of the man.
There are some very questionable and historical changes in the government right now. Many (maybe all or most even) I could not support but the lack of measured reporting on the events is making it difficult to truly read in what is happening.
Him and Elon, my dude. It’s like talking to a brick wall.
That will have zero effect on fentanyl coming into the US. It’s a fig leaf.
Of course not. That’s irrelevant. But he got what he asked for, so that’s a win for Orange Julius Caesar.
The math doesn’t add up trying to replace the income tax with tariffs.
https://taxfoundation.org/blog/trump-income-tax-tariff-proposals/
https://www.piie.com/blogs/realtime-economics/2024/can-trump-replace-income-taxes-tariffs
I’m with you on the income tax thing but I don’t believe tariffs are going to suitably fund the totality of the US government. Maybe if we let Trump continue to dismantle every federal office it becomes more tenable but there are… other considerations here.
A basic consumption tax can work and I would support this as long as there were mechanisms to negate taxes on spending up to the poverty level. There have been proposals before, even good proposals. Unsurprisingly they have gone no where.
I could support it but I don’t see anything to make me think it has any chance so I’m not going to fight for it actively. But I’m behind you all the way!
And, it also goes to say, any credible plan to replace the income tax has to also go hand in hand with eliminating the income tax, otherwise it’s just adding extra taxes on top of it. Which is exactly what the tariffs are presently doing
Remember, corporations don’t pay their taxes, their customers pay them, any increase in the cost of doing business is passed along in the form of higher prices
Agreed. I assumed that was implied but we all know what happens when we assume.
Corporations actually “pay” their taxes from one of three sources:
Higher prices on goods and services
Lower wages to employees
Lower dividends/returns to investors
The last one is not very likely if you look at history, especially the last 25 years or so but really has only been a small possibility since corporations were formed. Smaller, private businesses only get the first two options of course.
This reminds me of that old riddle/puzzle where you’re stuck on one side of the Rio Grande with an alternator, crankshaft, and head unit for a Toyota Tundra. You want to get to the other side, but the boat only holds two components, and each crossing (in both directions) creates a 25% tariff, which can be compounded each time. How do you do this in the fewest crossings possible while generating the lowest total cost to the final assembly plant in Texas and also before being rounded up and deported like Cheech Marin in Born in East LA?
I thought it was a Volkswagen Fox, a chicken tax, and (for some reason) a very unfortunate merchant’s cabbage cart.
Well played 🙂
“MY CABBAGES!”
*sigh* (this is all I have to offer)
*Ditto*…
Bonus for bring up Bjork! Now I’ll have to dig up ‘Sugarcubes – live in Alabama 1988’ video. Wow, Bjork was phenomenal. Einar is crazy in a fun way.
Man, do I miss the 80s college days sometimes.