78 thoughts on “Tuxedo Tax Tariff”


  2. President Trump’s tariff announcement, which sent stocks into a nosedive and enraged America’s allies around the world, mysteriously excluded one major country: Russia.


  3. Michael Kosta recaps Trump’s tariffs fallout, from a stock market crash to cabinet officials taking to the airwaves to cheerlead the move. Plus, Grace Kuhlenschmidt checks in on the penguins who now find themselves in a trade war.

  4. pogeaux,
    guess that wasn’t an april fool’s joke after all. looks like the cheesehead jumping ellen finally has jumped the shark.
    Musk to remain ‘friend and adviser’ to Trump after leaving Doge, says Vance | Trump administration | The Guardian

    […]

    But on Wednesday, Musk dismissed the report as “fake news” and the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, criticized the Politico story, calling it “garbage”, and adding that Musk “will depart from public service as a special government employee when his incredible work at Doge is complete”.

    And then, on Thursday morning, in an interview with Fox News, Vance stated: “Doge has got a lot of work to do, and yeah, that work is going to continue after Elon leaves, but fundamentally, Elon is going to remain a friend and an adviser of both me and the president.

    “Elon came in and we said: ‘We need you to make government more efficient, we need you to shrink the incredible fat bureaucracy that thwarts the will of the American people but also costs way too much money,” Vance added. “We said, ‘That’s going to take about six months’ – and that’s what Elon signed up for, but of course, he’s going to continue to be an adviser and by the way, the work of Doge is not even close to done, the work of Elon is not even close to done.”

  6. Author of the Day: Anatole France

    PENGUIN ISLAND is written in the style of a sprawling 18th- and 19th-century history book, concerned with grand metanarratives, mythologizing heroes, hagiography and romantic nationalism. It is about a fictitious island, inhabited by great auks, that existed off the northern coast of Europe. The history begins when a wayward Christian missionary monk lands on the island and perceives the upright, unafraid auks as a sort of pre-Christian society of noble pagans. Mostly blind from reflections from the polar ice and somewhat deaf from the roar of the sea, having mistaken the animals for humans, he baptizes them. This causes a problem for The Lord, who normally only allows humans to be baptized. After consulting with saints and theologians in Heaven, He resolves the dilemma by converting the baptized birds to humans with only a few physical traces of their ornithological origin, and giving them each a soul.
    Thus begins the history of Penguinia, and from there forward the history mirrors that of France (and more generally of Western Europe, including German-speaking areas and the British Isles). The narrative spans from the Migration Period (“Dark Ages“), when the Germanic tribes fought incessantly among themselves for territory; to the heroic Early Middle Ages with the rise of Charlemagne (“Draco the Great”) and conflicts with Viking raiders (“porpoises“); through the Renaissance (Erasmus); and up to the modern era with motor cars; and even into a future time in which a thriving high-tech civilization is destroyed by a campaign of terrorist bombings, and everything begins again in an endless cycle.

  7. So if Elon leaves Doge and its wrecking machine, who will be in charge? Now that it has laid waste to all these departments with mass cuts and firings, who handles the fall out?

  9. Pat, no, not a joke. Ellen will be fucking with the US much like Putin does so long as Dumbass is in the oval.

    Jamie, who handles the fallout? Good question. Can’t answer that, but the answer should be the department head who oversees the gutted Department of …. But there is a question I can answer- Who bears the brunt? That one is easy. WE DO.

    And Sturg, yes. Fuckery like we haven’t seen in 100 years. That turned out well – took a world war to finally pull us out of it.

  10. Trump is so psycho obsessed with showing off his power he’s actually having fun wrecking the economy. He’s like a hostage taker, and the whole world is his victim.

  11. Poobah, roger that. BTW he’s showing his age now – does that “old man tentatively walking” thing – especially down stairs. Plus, he just looks like shit, even for him.

  12. Here’s WaPo’s AI generated summary of the comments on its article about the stock market continuing to tank today.

    The comments overwhelmingly criticize President Trump’s trade policies, particularly the imposition of tariffs, which are seen as extortionate and damaging to the global economy. Many commenters express concern that these actions will lead to a global economic crisis, with increased prices and unemployment in the U.S. and strained international relations. There is a strong sentiment that Trump’s approach is reckless and self-serving, with potential long-term negative impacts on global markets.

    This summary is AI-generated. AI can make mistakes and this summary is not a replacement for reading the comments.

    AI got it right in this instance.

  17. FYI – Eugene Robinson has “retired” from WashPoo. He stated he has not left journalism though.

    Continuing my daily rant – the media refuses to put to the public how demented, delusional, diseased and senile krasnov is. His staff knows the more he is in public, the more it it obvious he is stumbling around in his own universe. Send him to play around on golf courses, he is away from microphones and the media does not show how unstable he is. A couple of days ago he was pontificating about the old fashioned and rarely used word,”groceries”. This is not the first time, but for sfb every minute is a not the first time now.
    He is bonkers.

  20. sorry, I had to laugh when that asshole came in here on a day everybody’s losing everything talking about how well he’s doing and trying to explain deliberate tanking of the economy by Trump is cyclical, what a fucking asshole

  23. sorry, I have to vent somewhere. Don’t want to offend the sensitive local trumpers! They’re so sensitive! Such adorable deliberately cruel cute little racist Nazi homophobic babies, make sure you’re nice to them! They don’t know how dumb they are!

    over it

  24. *top google search rn:

    “how high a building do i have to jump off?”

    *(made that up for satirical purposes)

  26. Interesting & worrisome when trying to move money to pay my taxes. 1) Notice on IRA that funds transferred will be held up to 10 days -I’ve never seen that before. 2) Technical difficulties/can not transfer funds at this time.

  27. Our wannabe dictator now trying to fire Fed chair Powell for griping about his tariffs. Trump has long wanted to control interest rates, laws be damned.

  28. LOL, Pendejo

    Cycles are real, 2 major ones are getting ready to flip sometime in the near future. This will happen no matter who was elected president. You add on top of that a newly elected president who is surrounding himself with nut cases and light weights then reducing my risk and moving 60% of my portfolio out of stocks (where btw, I had 2 years of fantastic growth) is a no brainer
    That you didn’t have the brains to reduce your risk, is your problem.
    So feel free to rant on
    Jack

  29. This is some bullshit – Adolf is golfing & Congress is gutting Medicaid, just as an appetizer.

  30. To further irritate Anonwhoever, yesterday i earned 20% return on a case of Irish whisky. Given my age and the rate I drink Irish coffee, That maybe a lifetime supply. I also earned 46% on a kitchen sink made in Vietnam. I’m looking at other big ticket items that can still be picked up at pre-tariff prices. A new HVAC, Maybe?

    Jack

  31. The only issue I have is anyone trying to explain away deliberate economic arson as cyclical, it’s a fucking lie, buddy

    we had a world leading history making economy until Trump deliberately tanked it a month ago full fucking stop

  32. Amid the horror that is the current failure of the democratic experiment I got the urge for fried chicken. There are several places that serve up very good fried chicken around here, we are fortunate. I decided on Amish Market and drove over.

    Shuffling in line I made it to the counter and looked at the young lady doing the picking and boxing. I recognized her and said “Hi, you used to be on the other side.” acknowledging she used to be a the beef and pig counter. A huge smile crossed her face, “I was”. She smiled all the minutes she was helping me. She appreciated being seen as a person, a human and recognized. I was happy that I made her day a little better than before we talked.

  33. I don’t know if something is cyclical… a power grab… or something else. But one thing I’m absolutely sure of… when we fight amongst ourselves… Putin smiles.

  34. yeah, I’m over the Kumbaya bullshit

    Lost all power, society collapsing around us and we’re singing Kumbaya and saving money on white goods

    fuckin ponderous

  35. somebody told me they are going to protest weekend and I was like you don’t get it. We already fucking lost it’s over.

    This fucking guy thinks I couldn’t see a market crash coming, please

  36. you didn’t need to be a genius by the way, literally every economic expert and phony economic expert and economic advisor warned Trump’s policies would collapse the global economy and he did it anyway

    because like some other people, he has his and doesn’t give a fuck

  38. hmm why was i whining about economic pain on a political message board amid your regime-bolstering lies hmmm

  40. these are the battles folks

    Everybody believes dumb bullshit now because people who know better let dumb bullshit stand

    Do better

  41. we have a literal quacks and charlatans running our health agencies for Christ’s sake because so many just believe easily refutable bullshit

    BUT YOU HAVE TO REFUTE IT

  42. do it but do it more tactfully than me and we will be getting somewhere

    like take some “fucks” out I guess might be a strategy

    ❤️

    (it’s a journey)

  43. https://apnews.com/article/senate-budget-tax-cuts-spending-gop-trump-c43bae18e39cd7a819099376c2aee789

    Republicans moving ahead with Trump’s ‘big’ bill of tax breaks and spending cuts amid tariff uproar
    Democrats, as the minority party, don’t have the votes to stop the GOP plan. But they intend to use the procedural tools available to prolong the process. Democrats argue that Republicans are focusing on tax breaks for the wealthy at the expense of the programs and services millions of Americans rely on for help with health care, child care, school lunches and other everyday needs.

    Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, the ranking Democrat on the Budget committee, repeated a slogan he has been sharing: “Families lose and billionaires win.” 
    “That,” he said, “is the Republican plan.” 

    While House Republicans approved their package with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and up to $2 trillion in spending cuts, the Senate Republicans are taking a different tack.

    Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is making the case that since the existing Trump tax breaks are the current policy, they are not considered new, and do not need to be offset with reductions in spending — an approach Democrats compare to “going nuclear” with the normal rules, particularly if the strategy is put to the test with an unfavorable ruling before the Senate parliamentarian. 

    Instead, Senate Republicans are considering offsets mostly for any new Trump tax breaks. Raising alarms from the most conservative budget hawks, the senators have set a floor of about $4 billion in budget reductions to health and other programs — a fraction of the package’s expected $4 trillion-plus price tag for tax breaks.

  44. Your complaint was about *you*losing money, not the generic economy. When I pointed out how obvious a market down turn was and it has been happening btw since December. Your reply was to call me bad names because you don’t have a clue what I said. Maybe your lack of understanding is my fault, my writing which seems clear to me sometimes isn’t to someone who hasn’t done the same research I have.
    But your bad manners are all on you.

    Jack

  45. hey, where are those bad-ass 90s liberals stood their ground passionately and didn’t take any bullshit

    Oh wait, that’s you people 😎

  47. “The McKinley Tariff of 1890 was a U.S. law that significantly raised import duties to protect domestic industries, increasing average tariffs to nearly 50%. It aimed to shield American manufacturers from foreign competition but led to higher prices for consumers and contributed to a political backlash against the Republican Party in subsequent elections.” ai

    “The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930 was a U.S. law that raised tariffs on thousands of imported goods to protect American industries during the Great Depression. However, it led to retaliatory tariffs from other countries and significantly decreased international trade, worsening the economic downturn.” ai

    Here we are, again, folks. Hotels will close, as will restaurants and live theatrical shows. Tourism died. There will be no FIFA games in the US, nor will there be a US Olympic Games. Air travel
    will plummet (not just the planes) because few will be able to even afford to travel domestically.

    Many Americans will die from lack of medical care, malnutrition (food shortages are coming) and there will be a huge spike in the number of folks so distraught that the unalive themselves.

    VA benefits, including mental health hotlines, are being defunded; Medicaid cuts will put folks on the streets; the intentional glitching of SS payments will cause folks to go without medicine, food, or they may be unable to make rent payments. Interestingly, Congress just decided that the $5 cap on overdraft fees was unfair to big banks, so now they can cause folks to spiral further into debt.

    My guess with my IRA, a lot of folks are probably trying to move money to a virtual mattress like checking, and they don’t have it. That’s why the 10-days for funds to appear messsgr came up, and that’s why there’s a “technical” difficulty in moving funds. Maybe it’s to intentionally slow down the attrition.

    This is the sh/tiest of sh/tshows, and Adolf is golfing with Saudis.

  48. https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/DoE-Hands-the-Keys-to-Strategic-Crude-Oil-Stockpile-to-New-Firm.html

    The Department of Energy has awarded a new $1.4 billion contract to Strategic Storage Partners, LLC—hardly a household name—to manage the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR)—America’s emergency stash of crude oil.

    The SPR is more than a rainy-day fund—it’s a key pillar of U.S. energy security. Stored in massive underground salt caverns at four sites in Texas and Louisiana, the reserve can hold up to 714 million barrels of crude. It’s been tapped in times of war, hurricanes, and—most recently—during the 2022 price surge, when 180 million barrels were released by the Biden Administration.
    The contractor’s role is to keep the whole operation running. That includes facility maintenance, system integrity, emergency preparedness, and executing drawdowns when called upon. According to DOE, Strategic Storage Partners will handle the “operation and maintenance of facilities and related systems,” and will be expected to safeguard U.S. supply chains and economic stability.

    DOE says the selection of the little-known company followed a “rigorous competitive process.” Strategic Storage Partners, a lesser-known name, now inherits a high-stakes job: managing the largest stockpile of crude oil on the planet, under the watchful eye of both markets and policymakers.

    This contract for this company seems like sham. Remember a contact for restoring power to Puerto Rico went to a non-entity or something?

    *Rut-oh!

  49. if you notice, I don’t make the same kind of jokes I used to make, lovingly teasing liberals or play devil’s advocate with your arguments with the hope of improving them for a wider audience or any of that nonsense because these conservatives have no shame and will say absolutely anything- and yes, if it’s something you or I say and it sounds good to them they will use it.

    If you’re not cognizant of that, you’re behind the game or you are aware and playing theirs

    i told Sturge i was looking forward to checking out of politics after Kamala won, this is not the reality i wanted, don’t blame me

  50. and btw RR. YOU posted the Orwell quote “telling the truth in times of great deception is a revolutionary act”

    😜❤️

  53. “The sky is falling” a liberal chant for over 50 years and they have never been right, why would you think anybody would believe you now? Even if you are right this time.
    Maybe it is time for a different strategy?
    BTW, I was amused the other day when the UAW was going full MAGA several people here were saying how pro-union they were.

    lol
    Jack

  54. not everybody has it as good as you to be complacent. The sky falls on people’s heads every day.

    listen if you’re in pain, I’m sorry, if you’re not don’t be a prick

    Or do whatever I don’t care, but if you make regime-bolstering lies, and I feel the urge, I might refuse them. The only promise I can make

    we’re kidnapping people off the streets, betraying allies, collapsing global economies, enabling racists, disenfranchising women etc.- the sky is falling for a lot of people

  57. FAFO The leopards are coming for some before others, but unless you are in the 1% they are coming for you, too.

    Still can’t access funds and nobody can tell me why.

  58. and by the fucking way the conservatives won with “the sky is falling” messaging, (that isn’t the problem with liberal messaging btw)

    it was an inherently racist and homophobic sky but that’s what it was.

  61. Mint? I’d never have thunk it.

    I’d love to wake up to find this was all a bad dream, or someone came in and fixed it while I slept. That’s the kind of lemonade I want. Opposition lemonade.

    What I suspect will happen is things will get very, very bad before May Day, and Putin will have someone take out tRUMPsky, make it look like some group of country to incite more unrest in the US. Yep, even Adolf has a shelf life when it comes to Putin. Doubtful that he realizes it.

    It will, of course, fix nothing. It’ll be at least ten years before we get a drop of lemonade…and then the asteroid hits. Maybe Earth, maybe the moon, maybe Elon’s space junk, but after that there will be lemonade.

  64. https://www.qcnews.com/news/u-s/north-carolina/nc-court-of-appeals-rules-in-favor-of-griffin-in-case-to-dismiss-over-65000-votes/

    Over 65,000 voters have 15 days to prove that their votes were eligible. According to the Opinion of the Court, if the deadline is not met, the votes will be tossed out.

    The primary reason behind the ruling, in a vote that went 2-1 in favor of the Plaintiff, is because of the amount of incomplete voter registration votes that were cast in November.

    Griffin first filed an appeal the day after votes were counted in the general election where he lost the state Supreme Court seat to Democrat Allison Riggs by 625 votes. He argued that the Board of Elections, who he later filed a lawsuit against, did not properly check all voter registrations when they counted the votes.

    This decision ultimately will be appealed to the North Carolina Supreme Court now. Where Republicans maintain a 5-2 majority. (And since Justice Riggs recused herself, it’s a 5-1 majority.) NC voters will see just how corrupt the State Supreme Court when they rule on this case,” her tweet said.

  68. Wonder what is happening with the auto industry?

    I read an article about 8,200 jobs that, if lost, would impact about 50,000 jobs (every one of those jobs is responsible for 7 others).

  72. Ivy – enjoy the rest.

    There seems to be a stirring of people remembering their upbringing and educations and trying to fight back against a dictator. Will the efforts gain strength? I sure hope so. One of the YT Dem channels said that AOC (easier than spelling her full name) topped Schumer in a poll for voting in the next election. Not much, but maybe he will retire.

  74. Someone is increasing their retirement contribution to buy low. I think it sounds like throwing money down a rat hole. IDK. We came within a point and a half of the market putting on the brakes. The alarms go off at losses of 7% and 13% and 20% but I don’t know what would start something up between a 7% trigger and a higher level. Anyway, I’m glad I retired early and had my bucket list year, because I’m just growing vegetables for the foreseeable future.

  77. Renee, sorry I didn’t see the X-crement meme until now. I LOVE it. Been a helluva day. Trying to get 2 days ahead to be off at a 3 day seminar next week.

Comments are closed.

Join the Trail Mix

Get an alert when Craig goes live, and the link when our Open Thread heats up.