#defendant-elect trump

[alex51324]

Another good one from Vox about the upcoming Trump Tariffs, and what they might mean for your near-future spending.

The first thing to understand is that tariffs absolutely do not do what Trump thinks they do. Trump has pitched tariffs as a way to lower prices, which is simply...wrong. He also seems to be under the impression that tariffs are a way to make foreign companies pay taxes to the United States. That is also wrong.

A tariff is a tax on imported goods. The usual reason for imposing a tariff is to protect domestic production from being undercut by cheaper imported goods--if Domestic Company A can produce widgets for $10 a dozen, but Foreign Company B can do it for $8 a dozen, you impose a 20% widget tariff, and Company A and Company B's widgets both end up on the domestic market at the same price. That way, Company A has no particular reason to move their widget factory to another country where it might be cheaper to operate, thus keeping jobs, wages, and prices at the current level.

Economists debate whether tariffs are actually a good way to achieve these goals; however, even if we assume it does, you can probably see a few problems. First, and most obviously, lowering prices is nowhere in the definition of what people who really like tariffs say that they do. On the contrary, they are intended to prevent prices from dropping due to cheaper imports, and they do that because the tariff is paid not by the foreign manufacturer, but by the domestic distributor, who typically passes that cost directly to the consumer.

Second, if we were going to use tariffs to support American manufacturing, it would have been a good idea to do that back when there was some American manufacturing left to protect. Like around the time Trump was in kindergarten, would have been a great time to start. Even 1980 might not have been too late.

If--and this is a big if--heavy tariffs on imported goods are maintained for a long time, it could happen that tariffs eventually slowly start to bring manufacturing, and manufacturing jobs, back to the US. It could happen.

But if it did, it would take a lot longer than four years. And what happens in the meantime, is that prices on everything we import will skyrocket. And what we import includes most of our clothing, electronics, household items, large appliances, small appliances, cars, children's toys--just about anything you can name. And a fair bit of our food. (We also export a lot of food, so unless climate change wallops us real hard in the next few years, we don't have to worry a whole lot about actual food shortages, but it will not be surprising if we see higher prices and less selection as a result of tariffs, let alone other policies that Trump has discussed.) While Trump has been (of course) light on policy specifics, some numbers he's floated are 10-20% tariffs on imported goods in general, rising to 60% on Chinese goods, and 100% on imports from Mexico.

Some sources are suggesting that, since tariffs are such a completely boneheaded idea that will not do any of the things Trump claims to believe* they will do, surely someone will manage to explain this in a way that he can understand, before he actually imposes them. The author of the Vox article above thinks that's unlikely, and that having made such a big deal about tariffs on the campaign trail, Trump will charge ahead with them anyway. I don't know.

However, the point is, if you're thinking about a major purchase, you might want to do that before January 20. Especially if it's something where the manufacturing is concentrated in China, like laptops, phones, that kind of thing. According to the article, the Consumer Technology Association is saying prices in that category could go up as much as 40%, if Trump follows through on what he's floated.

And he might not! We simply do not know. However, my laptop has started doing that thing where you have to wiggle the charging cable to get it to connect; in the before-times, I'd figure I have a few months before I really have to worry about it, but as things are, I'm keeping an eye on the Black Friday sales.

(*There's some speculation that what Trump actually wants to do is weaken China's economy, which happens to be something that Putin would like to see. Another possibility is that he has some idea about reducing America's reliance on/relationships with other countries, as a way of furthering some goal of his. Or maybe he just wants to start selling Trump-branded phones, IDK.)

[alex51324]

Yeah, this is actually helpful.

We've heard a lot, in the run-up to the election, about how a second Trump presidency will be worse than the first, because this time he's coming in with a plan and experience.

But experience cuts both ways, and people like the ACLU--and, we should hope, the outgoing administration, and the Democrats in Congress and state governorships, and judges who still remember their duty to the rule of law--are also coming in with a plan and experience they didn't have in 2016.

Last time, in 2016, I remember this period--between the election and the inauguration--being dominated by a sense of confusion and disbelief that he'd actually been elected. And the early phase of his presidency we spent a lot of time looking at each other and going, "Did that actually just happen? Did the president of the United States do/say that batshit thing we just saw him do/say?" The first response to his every piece of norm-breaking and outright overreach was to say, "Can he do that?" and then explain how either he technically could or technically couldn't, but was doing it anyway.

Now we know that those are all the wrong questions; the right question is, "He just did, so what are we going to do about it?"

A Pragmatic and surprisingly comforting perspective about the Trump 2nd Presidency from the ACLU

***Apologies if this is how you found out the 2024 election results***

Blacked out part is my name.

I’m not going to let this make me give up. It’s disheartening, and today I will wallow, probably tomorrow too

AND

I will continue to do my part in my community to spread the activism and promote change for the world I want to live in. I want to change the world AND help with the dishes.

And I won’t let an orange pit stain be what stops me from trying to be better.

A link to donate to the ACLU if able and inclined. I know I am

[i-like-swiss-cheese]

"The road to fascism is paved with people telling you to stop overreacting"

[yourcrazygirlokris]

I am fucking done with this bullshit. I don’t care how much abuse from other people I may face or the slurs I will get called or the beatings I will get, I’m walking the halls of the fucking campus with a trans pride pin because by god whatever torture I have to endure is worth it if I can let local trans people around me IRL know there’s someone there for them, and I suggest people who can do so should too.

I know for a damn fact we need another Stonewall Riot and it’s likely we would be shot and killed where we stand more than we already are if not for those people who were there for each other in a world fighting against them. My main goal in life was to become a marine biologist and I don’t give a shit if that’s ripped away from me because this world will have to pry it from my cold dead hands and I’ll die before I stop screaming from the rooftops.

It’s been proven by Luigi Mangione that we are fucking terrifying to our oppressors and the upper class if we push hard enough, and if that was just one person just think of an entire community doing just that. I refuse to live in a world where people are killing themselves just because old demented cis men in suits say so. This is the time for a revolution. We’re all pissed the fuck off and it’s time we do something about it. Live out of spite of those men because you know if you do, you will see them die just like they wanted us to.

I implore you to like and reblog this. Take this to more people, because that’s what we need now more than ever. This isn’t even about trans people, because I can sure as hell tell you if trans people go first, everyone else is going next.

Live or die, we do so with pride.

[ruoshik0]

Seeing as how american political stuff, protests and warnings and all other things keep appearing on my fyp, i wonder if this all happened in the DC universe. Observe:

(Im not a US citizen, so take this with a grain of salt)

L Mangio (allegedly) shoots the American Health Insurence company’s CEO.

Bruce Wayne is too much of a himbo and an empath to do anything (meaningful) becasue otherwise his cover will be blown. Brucie isn’t supposed to know anything other than a simple he killed him and ran away.

Dick Grayson is also a too much of a happy idiot himbo to do anything, because again, his cover. Both of them will support in the shadows by sending anonymous fake evidences to the lawyers that suggest Luigi wasn’t the perpertrator.

Jason Todd publically announces that he is on L’s side by questioning the evidences and the unfair sentence issued by the judges and the court.

Cass is conflicted because on one hand killing is absolutely unacceptable, but on the other hand, what the victim had done before dying is despicable.

Timothy Drake, otherwise the smartest (in the eyes of the public) and the most respectable (again, the public) Wayne, doesn’t announce which side he is taking officially because it could affect WE stocks. However, he not only bribes the judges and whatever-else that they count L’s crime as murder rather than terorrist attack, he also pays for L’s lawyer and uses certain words that could mean he is siding with L on his personal social media accs.

Duke Thomas very very publically and quite aggresively announces that L is innocent and that the now deceased CEO had done wrong deeds. In a less flowery language. This sparks backlash from the public because Duke is still talking about a dead person but many agrees with his sentiment.

Damian Wayne, even if he doesn’t use social media much, hears heated rants about the situation from his siblings. Particularly from Duke and Jason. After researching, Damian decides he stands with L but doesn’t announce it publically.

All of these actions lead to L being a free man and the public knows that the Waynes have taken L under their wing, however unofficially. This also sports fanart of L being adopted into family. This does not actually happen.

During the presidential race, Tim’s political knowledge comes in handy. He makes a deal with Kamala and Biden and counter bribes and even blackmails some state representitaves into voting for Kamala instead of Trump. Of course, she had been feeling iffy about the deal but whatever Trumo does in his presidency is obviously far more worse than what Tim will make them do when he cashes in on the favor they now owe him.

Which means the democrats won and that means the republicans violently protest because of it. Trumo is thrown into jail because he’s a convicted felon so the protesters won’t get bailed out of jail.

Yippee happy ending :D

[alex51324]

Remember what we said about distinguishing between "Trump's back on his bullshit" and "grab the kids and run" time?

This is looking like the latter, for undocumented folks in Chicago.

(Article is from the Wall Street Journal and dated 1/17/25; the same information is being reported by multiple mainstream news outlets.)

Trump to Begin Large-Scale Deportations Tuesday

The incoming Trump administration is planning a large-scale immigration raid in Chicago next week, according to four people familiar with the planning, the first move in President-elect Donald Trump’s promised mass deportation campaign. The raid is expected to begin on Tuesday morning, a day after Trump is inaugurated, and will last all week, the people said. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will send between 100 and 200 officers to carry out the operation. [...] The transition team had been contemplating cities to target in a day-one operation as a way of making an example of so-called sanctuary cities, which adopt policies limiting cooperation with federal immigration authorities. They settled on Chicago both because of the large number of immigrants who could be possible targets and because of the Trump team’s high-profile feud with the city’s Democratic Mayor Brandon Johnson. [...] Tom Homan, the administration’s incoming border czar, appeared to preview the operation during a visit to Chicago last month.  “We’re going to start right here in Chicago, Illinois,” Homan said at a holiday party on Chicago’s North Side. “And if the Chicago mayor doesn’t want to help, he can step aside. But if he impedes us, if he knowingly harbors or conceals an illegal alien, I will prosecute him.”

[faerie-hideaway]

Land of the Free?

More like Land of the Liars.

[in4newz]

[lady-hibiscus]

i don't think we're living in the best timeline anymore but at least its the funniest one

[lottie-dottiee]

America is falling apart at the seams.

We are actively descending into a dictatorship and nobody seems to be aware, nor do they seem to care! A few of us see the truth, but our voices are muffled with inaction. Will we let this happen? Will we let our country, and everything it supposedly stands for, fade away? And will we fade away with it? Will our lack of unity let the United States of America dissolve into nothing? We need to stand against the tide and fight for the tattered remains of our country. Together.

And remember: a ruler is nothing without the will of the ruled.

[nuthousethe2nd]

"whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government"

quoted from the declaration of independence. The paper that america runs by.

If our government is currently acting against the constitution and acting violently, we can riot, we can act on it, we can abolish it.

so why aren't we doing anything about it.

yes, there's information being spread, yes there's peaceful protests, but none of that is going to get us where we need to be. we have to fight back. We have to win. America will become a dictatorship if we don't fucking do something.

start the riots. start the protests. use weapons. BE VIOLENT. BE LOUD. BE AGRESSIVE. THIS COUNTRY IS RUN BY THE PEOPLE. WE CANT LET THAT CHANGE.

Its now or never. do something before its too late.

[nervousyoungloser]

resources for the incoming USA administration

i compiled a list of resources -- although short -- for those in the united states who are scared for or unsure about these next few years. please always stay strong and connected to your communities. your existence is resistance.

https://linktr.ee/eliasdecaro

if you have any proposals for links to add, feel free to suggest them!

[porcelanitaa]

"Why do you care? you're not American" You wouldn't care? Your morals are so fucking weak you don't care about all the people whose life and rights are in danger cause (you think) it doesn't affect you? Are you that selfish? Are you that simple minded?

[i-like-swiss-cheese]

what a shame it would be if this were to be rebloged by a bunch of people, spreading the message further than the original reddit post could have ever reached.

Update because this got way to popular: the source of this image seems to be a bit fishy and not nearly as large as I thought it was. With that I would ask that, instead of going back to being apathetic, please reply/ reboot with any actually useful methods of resistance. Hopefully, we will find a way to resist and make a real difference, but even if we don’t please do not give up, they want the see nothing more than their biggest opponents eliminating themselves. And please check whatever resources have been provided so that we can minimize this damage

[alex51324]

One thing I haven't seen mentioned nearly enough here on Tumblr is that the other day, at a townhall-style campaign event here in Pennsylvania, Trump decided halfway through to just...stop taking questions, and put on some tunes instead.

According to the Washington Post, his handlers tried to get him back on task, even sending the message, "Please do two more questions before music" to his teleprompter screen, but it did not work, and Trump ended up requesting songs and swaying to them for over half an hour.

His selections reportedly included two versions of "Ave Maria," "YMCA" by the Village People, and Rufus Wainwright's cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah."

(Wainwright has objected, calling the unauthorized use of the song "blasphemous." I concur; one of my vivid memories of Trump's election in 2016 was how Cohen's death--the day before US election day, but announced after--added to the sense of profound hopelessness. So for Trump to take his dick out and piss on that song--after Cohen's estate objected to its use at this year's RNC--just really bugs the shit out of me.

Or, as Wainwright said, "the good in me hopes that perhaps in inhabiting and really listening to the lyrics of Cohen’s masterpiece, Donald Trump just might experience a hint of remorse over what he’s caused. I’m not holding my breath.”

A cease-and-desist has been served to the Trump campaign.)

But anyway, the main point is that this is a deeply bizarre, unhinged thing to do at a campaign stop.