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superchuck500

superchuck500

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Is there a trade deal with China? Is it really a deal or just a pull-back to status quo ante? Is Trump advancing US interests in this well-executed trade battle plan or was this poorly conceived from the start . . . and harmful?

I think the jury's still out, but I haven't seen that the Chinese are offering much in compromise - and it's not even clear if there's going to be an agreement. But it's clear they are working on something and I'm sure Trump will sell it as the greatest trade deal ever. The proof will be in the details.


 
Donald Trump has found a new target for his trademark mockery and dismissal: little girls.

In comments at a 30 April cabinet meeting, the president seemed to dismiss the economic impact of his chaotic tariff regime on American consumers by citing girls as the primary complainants.

“Somebody said, oh, the shelves are going to be open,” Trump said. “Well, maybe the children will have two dolls instead of 30 dolls. And maybe the two dolls will cost a couple bucks more than they would normally.”

Trump is prone to odd non-sequiturs, but the dolls have become something of a sticking point. Onboard Air Force One on 4 May, he doubled down on his insistence that American girls should have fewer toys.

“All I’m saying is that a young lady, a 10-year-old girl, nine-year-old girl, 15-year-old girl, doesn’t need 37 dolls,” he told reporters. “She could be very happy with two or three or four or five.”

In an interview with Kristen Welker of Meet the Press that same day, Trump again mentioned the dolls. “I don’t think a beautiful baby girl needs – that’s 11 years old – needs 30 dolls,” Trump said.

“I think they can have three dolls or four dolls because what we were doing with China was just unbelievable.” He went on to assert that American children also have too many pencils. “They don’t need to have 250 pencils. They can have five.”

In some respects, the comments seem like a rare bit of honesty from the president: an acknowledgment of the reality that his tariffs will hurt consumers and lower the American their standard of living.

With steep tariffs on many consumer goods, particularly those made in China, and supply chain issues caused by retailers and producers frantic attempts to offset the costs of the new tariffs, many common products – yes, including children’s toys – will become shorter in supply and steeper in cost.

Because of Trump’s policies, it is indeed true that there will be fewer presents for children underneath American Christmas trees this year – a trend that is likely to continue for years to come if Trump’s trade war triggers an economic recession, as is widely expected.

Americans themselves don’t have much say in this, but Donald Trump wants us all to know that he’s comfortable with us, and our children, having less.

But the selection of dolls, in particular, as Trump’s stand-in for consumer prices reflects the gendered ideas about work, money and purchasing that animate Trump’s chaotic economic policy.

After all, Trump did not talk about the impact of his trade regime on toy trucks or GI Joe action figures – and he certainly didn’t mention its likely impact on things like video games, basketballs, squat racks or protein powders.

The tariffs will increase prices across economic sectors and hurt consumers of all kinds of goods.

But Trump did not speak in general terms about those who might like to buy a house one day, or about who will be hurt by his tariffs on Canadian lumber, or about those who would like to be treated for their illnesses but who have to pay steeper prices for the medicines they need when tariffs hit pharmaceuticals.

He didn’t talk about any of the consumption that Americans are uniformly agreed to think of as reasonable, dignified or aspirational.

He chose, instead, something seen as trivial, childlike, and only for girls.

The comments aim to cast the pain that consumers will face as ultimately feminine and frivolous, their complaints petulant and childlike.

In this respect, Trump is drawing on a long tradition of economic rhetoric that aims to cast consumption as feminine, decadent and morally suspect – and to contrast it with the supposedly more manly and virtuous productive side of the economy.

It’s a laughably stupid symbolism, one that only works for those deeply committed to their ignorance about how the economy actually works: in truth, everyone consumes, and people of all genders participate in the productive economy.

But Trump does not argue based on the facts: he asserts dominance.

And here, he casts those Americans who would complain about the economic pain that he is inflicting on them as feminine and hence as contemptible, deserving no more respect than spoiled children……..

www.theguardian.com

Why is Trump so fixated on toys for little girls? | Moira Donegan

Asked about his tariffs’ impact, the president has repeatedly pointed to dolls – because they’re seen as feminine, childlike and frivolous
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
Those are all very valid points. He is completely uneducated but has a cunning ability to attack the right people at the right times to maintain his flock of followers, and keep them in an aggrieved state - making them feel ennobled and put upon while pointing fingers at members of society with less power.

Attacking girls and women right now will definitely play to his base - for sure.

Jon Stewart had put out what is so wrong and so exasperating about this - rather than say that maybe billionaires don’t need 8 houses or 18 luxury cars or 2 yachts, he attacks the middle class. Well, I’m solidly middle class and I don’t see any girl having 30 dolls. Or 250 pencils.

That’s who he is, though. Attack the working class and protect the billionaires.
 


Yeah its fair to say he's panicking. He's such a moron. China has increased export to ASEAN countries by 21% while reducing export to the us by.....21%. Lol.



Just like that last trade war with China. They moved on from our market, while we poured tax dollars into farm subsidies to compensate for those losses. Yet, the American voters with their infinite wisdom, thought he's a master negotiator? I'm gonna keep laughing because this just cannot be real.
 
UriUT said:


Yeah its fair to say he's panicking. He's such a moron. China has increased export to ASEAN countries by 21% while reducing export to the us by.....21%. Lol.



Just like that last trade war with China. They moved on from our market, while we poured tax dollars into farm subsidies to compensate for those losses. Yet, the American voters with their infinite wisdom, thought he's a master negotiator? I'm gonna keep laughing because this just cannot be real.
Click to expand...



we are losing 0-5 and all 5 goals are own goals.

all 5.

and we are only 20 min into a 90 min match
 
Zero

1746912768322.jpg
 

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