Tariffs land like a sumo wrestler

 

Apr 3, 2025 (73/1461)

TOM lit the torch and burned down the stock market today. As fully expected and predicted the tariffs imposed on ALL 185 countries in the world (through one crazy-ass metric….”The math is simple: take the U.S. goods trade deficit with a country, divide it by that country's exports to the U.S. and turn it into a percentage figure; then cut that figure in half to produce the U.S. "reciprocal" tariff, with a floor of 10%.”) landed harder than a sumo wrestler. And while Wall Street burned, what did TOM do? Got on AF One and went to FL to frigging play golf. Not a care in the world. Oh, you poor suckers who voted for me so that I could be King of the World? Oh, you’re dying? Huh. That’s too bad. See ya suckers. TOM was able to cause the worst day in the markets since COVID. The last thing that brought the world to a screeching halt. And now TOM. “Madagascar - one of the poorest nations in the world with gross domestic product (GDP) per head of just over $500 - meanwhile faces a 47% tariff on the modest $733 million of exports of vanilla, metals and apparel that it did with the U.S. last year.” This looks like a brilliant strategy. Once I again, I predict we will see backpedaling at a fierce speed as they realize too much too soon. Full speed with the bulldozer is apparently the only tactic in the economic war chest. An once again TOM will look the fool (oh wait, he’ll pin it on someone else. Rubio? Bessent?) who will be the pansy for his reckless, thoughtless, ruthless actions.

And the cast of TOM’s cabinet continues to pull from the ranks of (un) reality TV. The Senate today confirmed Dr Oz (I still can never read or say that without starting to sing “somewhere over the rainbow, way up high…”) as head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Awesome. Not at all.

And in a page from Handmaids’ Tale, “The U.S. government has banned American government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The only exception to the policy is U.S. personnel with pre-existing relations with Chinese citizens; they can apply for exemptions. If the exemption is denied, they must end the relationship or leave their position, the people said. Anyone who violates the policy will be ordered to leave China immediately.” What. The. Hell.  So sorry to say that the person to whom you’ve been married for ten years is suddenly an imminent threat to the US and so you can either divorce them or quit and get the hell out of China and never have a job again most likely. If we fly any farther back into the 1950’s, we will definitely need Dr. Emmett Brown’s Delorean to ever have a chance of getting back to any reasonable, progressive era.