Trump's Second Term

Only Congress can declare war, not the president. If Trump ordered troops to invade a foreign country, that would be an illegal act of war. Subsequent approval after the fact would be seen as condoning natiowide illegal activity. It would be the equivalent of Russia's Duma condoning Putin's ventures into Ukraine.

But yeah, this GOP would do it.

Also, the Canadians are perfectly capable of striking back...hard. Like Ukraine, they have a fair contingent of modern US made weapons, including aircraft.
AIUI the US typically doesn't declare war any more. Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and so on were police actions or something similar.

For Canada Trump could declare a Fentanyl emergency, use the military to attack some "labs" in Canada and then go all in to "protect" the military once Canada defends herself.

Look at Hitler's approach to taking Czechoslovakia.
 
As of the close of the day on April 8, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -444.

8 April 2025

0: Executive Order: Strengthening the Reliability and Security of the United States Electric Grid
-1: Executive Order: Protecting American Energy from State Overreach
-1: Executive Order: Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry
-1: Attorney General Bondi pulls funding for Maine's Department of Corrections due to a male in a women's prison [136]
-1: Attorney General Bondi says Americans deported to El Salvador aren't coming back [137]
-1: White House account on Twitter underestimates the dependency the US has on foreign trade [138]
-1: Trump sings the praises of coal as an indestructible power source [139]
-1: Trump suggests it is impossible to sell a house beside a "windmill" (wind turbine generator) [140]
-1: Video on YouTube: FBI disbands crypto enforcement team
-1: Trump: "They say the most successful 100 days in the history of our country, and I believe that's right."
-1: Trump: "China will now pay a big number to our treasury. This is all taxes." (Yes, paid by Americans!)

References

136. Bondi: "Some breaking news--we pulled all non-essential funding from the Department of Corrections in Maine because they were allowing a men in a women's prison. A giant, 6 foot 1, 245 pound guy ... no more of that."

137. Bondi on Boasberg: "Those inmates, those violent gang members, those violent alien enemies will remain in El Salvador. He cannot get them back, so his jurisdiction is over ... going forward, these terrorists better look out."

138. White House on X: "America does not need other countries as much as other countries need us ... President Trump has a spine of steel."

139. Trump: "Coal is the single most reliable, durable, secure, and powerful form of energy ... it's almost indestructible. You could drop a bomb on it and it's gonna be there for you to use the next day."

140. Trump: "Anybody have a windmill by your house? Congratulations, you'll never sell your house. And today I signed historic executive orders to unleash coal production to the highest levels ever. Because coal is the most powerful thing."


7 April 2025
-1: Trump makes a spectacularly stupid comment about [Palestinian?] hostages [135]
-1: Headline: Trump says EU must buy $350B of US energy to get tariff relief [Politico]

Reference

135. Trump: "I said to [the former hostages], was there any sign of love? Did Hamas show any signs of, like, help or liking you? Did they give you a piece of bread extra? Did they give you a meal on the side? Like what happened in Germany."


6 April 2025
0: Treasury Secretary Bessent says the tariffs plan will reindustrialize the US (0 for possibly correct) [130]
-1: Howard Lunick apparently believes iPhones are assembled by hand by humans and not robots [131]
-1: Trump says he wants to send Americans to gulags in El Salvador [132]
-1: Treasury Secretary Bessent says fired federal workers can work in the new factories (which may not get built!) [133]
-1: Trump posts a bunch of lies to social media about the health of the US economy [134]

References

130. Lutnick: "The army of millions and millions of human beings screwing in little screws to make iPhones -- that kind of thing is going to come to America."

131. Trump: "I love that. If we could take some of our 20 time wiseguys that push people into subways ... if he would take them, I would be honored to give them. I don't know what the law says on that ... I'm all for it."

132. Scott Bessent: "The data is on our side. President Trump's plan will reindustrialize the United States, revitalize the private sector and raise wages for hardworking Americans."

133. Scott Bessent: “On one side, the president is reordering trade. On the other side, we are shedding excess labor in the federal government, and bringing down federal borrowings. That will give us the labor that we need for the new manufacturing.”

134. Trump: "Oil prices are down [true], interest rates are down (the slow moving Fed should cut rates!) [not true], food prices are down [unverified[, there is NO INFLATION [not true], and the long time abused USA is bringing in Billions of Dollars a week from the abusing countries [not true] on Tariffs that are already in place. This is despite the fact that the biggest abuser of them all, China, whose markets are crashing, just raised its Tariffs by 34%, on top of its long term ridiculously high Tariffs (Plus!), not acknowledging my warning for abusing countries not to retaliate. They’ve made enough, for decades, taking advantage of the Good OL’ USA! Our past “leaders” are to blame for allowing this, and so much else, to happen to our Country. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
 
As of the close of the day on April 8, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -444.


What happens when it gets to -666. Is that when all hell breaks loose?

Interestingly enough, the fat clowns' "TRUMP MEDIA & TECHNOLOGY GROUP CORP (DJT)" closed at 16.66 today (the 12th).

Maybe lady luck is about to unleash some serious karma on his ass.

One can at least hope, right?


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Correct me I am wrong, but from this side of the pond it seems that tariffs are being presented as some kind of dollar generator, with Trump declaring yesterday, that they are raising 2 billion on a daily basis. Surely, no cash has been raised for the US, at all. The 2 billion is an extra cost to every American consumer who buys any of the imported goods affected. Either the American importer will absorb some or all of the tariff cost or it will get passed on to end buyer in the shop. Certainly a possible disincentive to import such goods, but not a short term dollar raiser. I think somebody should tell America that it is actually a new government national tax, and they are the ones being "ripped off".

To repeat the obvious, it is going to take years for US manufacturing to fill the eventual gap created by importers who stop, or reduce their volume buying from exporting countries suffering from the tariffs, and then there is no guarantee that Americans will like, afford or want their own particular versions of the goods they used to buy from abroad, unless of course they are basic necessities. The big boy exporters like the EU & UK, Asia, Canada etc, who trust each other, are already talking about a new trading alliance that excludes America (who cannot now be trusted, sadly), perhaps even China would want to be allowed in. The smaller exporters will still do Trump's deals on his terms, but that might not be enough to prove his strategy is valid, if anyone could call it that.
 
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Correct me I am wrong, but from this side of the pond it seems that tariffs are being presented as some kind of dollar generator, with Trump declaring yesterday, that they are raising 2 billion on a daily basis. Surely, no cash has been raised for the US, at all. The 2 billion is an extra cost to every American consumer who buys any of the imported goods affected. Either the American importer will absorb some or all of the tariff cost or it will get passed on to end buyer in the shop. Certainly a possible disincentive to import such goods, but not a short term dollar raiser. I think somebody should tell America that it is actually a new government national tax, and they are the ones being "ripped off".

To repeat the obvious, it is going to take years for US manufacturing to fill the eventual gap created by importers who stop, or reduce their volume buying from exporting countries suffering from the tariffs, and then there is no guarantee that Americans will like, afford or want their own particular versions of the goods they used to buy from abroad, unless of course they are basic necessities. The big boy exporters like the EU & UK, Asia, Canada etc, who trust each other, are already talking about a new trading alliance that excludes America (who cannot now be trusted, sadly), perhaps even China would want to be allowed in. The smaller exporters will still do Trump's deals on his terms, but that might not be enough to prove his strategy is valid, if anyone could call it that.
Yes, I believe you're right. A $1,000 iPhone made in China now costs $2040, with $1,000 going to China as before and $1,040 going to Uncle Sam. China doesn't pay that. No new money enters the US. The extra money just moves from the customer to the treasury and the effect on China is just the reduction in the number of Americans who can pay that much for a phone.

<edit to add> Yes I appreciate that China doesn't really get the $1k retail cost of the phone. The retailer gets paid and so does the importer, shipper, exporter, factory, component suppliers and Apple. But now Trump takes more of the customers money than all of them put together.
 
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well it makes the $1900 american assembled iphone alternative more appealing to the consumer.

what's that, you say? apple is an american company and there's no american alternative to the iphone because all the other cell phones are also assembled overseas? and those are being tariffed as well?

well, in exchange we're going to get rid of all the middle class office workers and make them mine coal manually to turn them into men.
 
You can't sell your house next to a windmill but they will be queuing up for one next to a coal power station.

Trump: "Anybody have a windmill by your house? Congratulations, you'll never sell your house. And today I signed historic executive orders to unleash coal production to the highest levels ever. Because coal is the most powerful thing."

Not to mention the beautiful natural vista that is the coal mine.
 
I assume everyone here recognizes how Trump tried to "help" the coal industry in his first term (for example by loosening up regulations about how "coal ash" needed to be handled.)

By the end of his first term there were fewer operating coal power plants.

Yes but think of the jobs in 'Clean Coal', anyone with a bucket of water and a scrubbing brush will be able to become a green energy billionaire!
 
Not to mention the beautiful natural vista that is the coal mine.
Especially because the only way to mine coal profitably is strip mining. I suppose there's the prospect of the views across the new valley that's just been created and/or the new spoil heap mountains.
 
Police actions are legal only on US territory. Otherwise the miserable turd would be "police actioning" everywhere already, like in Beijing.


But once he's invaded the land is US territory. He's been assured of that fact by the noted constitutional scholar & international law expert [Checks Notes] Prof V. Putin.
 
Especially because the only way to mine coal profitably is strip mining. I suppose there's the prospect of the views across the new valley that's just been created and/or the new spoil heap mountains.


It's like a big beautiful bunker. I assume Trump likes them since he's always hitting his balls in them.
 
Perhaps we just need to explain tariffs in a way a stereotypical Trump supporter might understand? How about:

Tariffs are like shooting a relative hoping the bullet goes through them, misses all their vital organs and takes down someone standing behind them.
 
Perhaps we just need to explain tariffs in a way a stereotypical Trump supporter might understand? How about:

Tariffs are like shooting a relative hoping the bullet goes through them, misses all their vital organs and takes down someone standing behind them.

Judging by the US gun related news stories oft referenced in Social & Current Events that might not be seen as a problem..
 
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Perhaps we just need to explain tariffs in a way a stereotypical Trump supporter might understand? How about:

Tariffs are like shooting a relative hoping the bullet goes through them, misses all their vital organs and takes down someone standing behind them.
So they are like a usual Saturday night at the bar?
 

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