bannork

Reality today US style. Financial markets in free fall after inheriting a bull market from Biden. The US without friends. Canada, Japan, India, S. Korea, UK, various Commonwealth countries in talks with the EU to form a free trade association.

There's something fascinating about a nation voting for a man whose so full of lies and nonsense. It's extraordinary really.

The UK has free medical care. That is a wonderful thing the older you get.

Musk is quick to innovate, now self vandalising Teslas.

According to The Washington Post, there was great hope that the president's plan to gut regulations and shy away from anti-trust lawsuits would be a boon to the technology sector but, after 75 days in office, his reliance on tariffs has impacted not only their complex manufacturing capabilities but has also had a devastating effect on their stock values. After Trump’s tariff was announced, Apple’s stock dropped16%, Meta declined 14%, and Amazon fell 13%. According to estimates from Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index, Tesla CEO Elon Musk personally lost $110 billion from his net worth so far this year, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos $37.6 billion and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg $18.6 billion. Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post," the report states. 'We’d like to put this chapter behind us': Tech execs having regrets about backing Trump Apparently it's not just stock values that are falling. It's feared costs related to supply chains for device makers and structural infrastructure will soar due to tariffs on steel and aluminium. So sad.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda, government representatives, religious leaders, military personnel, and thousands of spectators gathered on Thursday to bid farewell to four American soldiers who died during military exercises. Their bodies arrived at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware on Friday, where they were received by several senators and military personnel. However, President Donald Trump did not attend the ceremony as he chose to take part in a Saudi Arabia-supported golf tournament at his resort in Doral, Florida Golf over duty: Trump skips soldiers' farewell in Lithuania

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/ckg23qpnnlxo At least 27 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air strike on a school in northern Gaza that was serving as a shelter for displaced families, the Hamas-run health ministry says. Dozens more were wounded when the Dar al-Arqam school in the north-eastern Tuffah district of Gaza City was hit, it cited a local hospital as saying. Gaza: Israeli strike on school kills 27, health ministry says - BBC News

Come on tbl, lighten up.

You can't always get what you want. A pro-MAGA outlet, The Quartering, spelt it out for its followers the day after Trump's sweeping new tariffs were announced. “You do NOT need the new iPad. You do NOT need the new Cell Phone. You do NOT need the new video game console. You WANT them. There is a big difference and if you look at the people whining about the tariffs, I challenge you to ask them how their lives have been affected in any way.” The Quartering had previously boasted that Trump’s new administration would usher in a “golden age” in America. Critics soon pounced: “Broke: America’s economy enters a golden age on Jan. 20 woke: you losers don’t need things,” Civil rights lawyer Joshua Erlich wrote on Bluesky. “Wasn’t WANTING the new iPad, Cell Phone, & video game console the whole reason you voted for Trump in the first case?” essayist and writer Sami Gold pointed out to his followers on X. 'Life comes at you fast': Pro-Trump outlet mocked as it flips on 'golden age' outlook

Musk is not only vile and odious but his stupid actions at DOGE has caused senseless worry to many federal employees. He just leaves an unpleasant taste in the mouth, enough reason to avoid any products associated with him, or indeed with the US at present. For example, 30 medical-related employees, including more than 10 laboratory leaders, were laid off at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) this week after a coding error mislabelled employees with incorrect position codes. “NIH leadership has informed us that the individuals below should be contacted ASAP and told immediately return to work,” the HR email stated. Among reinstated employees are three senior scientists and staff in the Office of Research Training and Career Development, as well as people in the Office of the Scientific Director and facilities. One of the employees also included Richard Youle, who claimed a 2021 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences after showing how clearing out damaged organelles discourages Parkinson’s disease. “I am infuriated at the inefficiency of the time wasted by staff running around having to respond to these events, heartbroken for the emotional cost for hardworking, dedicated civil servants and scientific trainees just starting their careers,” an anonymous NINDS employee told The Transmitter. https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/other/infuriated-at-the-inefficiency-workers-mistakenly-fired-by-doge-error-hired-back/ar-AA1Cgbrv?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=EDGEXST&

Dazed and confused. While the White House’s top economic advisers insist that the administration’s massive new set of tariffs are non-negotiable, Trump’s made clear he’s not on the same page with his team. "The tariffs give us great power to negotiate. They always have,” Trump told reporters Thursday aboard Air Force One a day after his Rose Garden “Liberation Day” tariff announcement sunk the market to its lowest point since the COVID-19 pandemic. However: 1. “This is not a negotiation,” Trump adviser Peter Navarro said moments earlier in a CNN interview. 2. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said: “I don’t think there’s any chance Trump is going to back off his tariff.” What's going on? Uncertainty 3 different White House officials explicitly said today that the tariffs are not up for negotiation,” YouTube personality Amit Kukreja told his followers on X. “Now Trump says they are. Just more and more uncertainty that the market has no idea how to price in.” Tearing up current agreements “What's the point of negotiating with someone who already violated a bunch of trade agreements to impose tariffs?” Julian Sanchez, a senior fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, wrote on Bluesky. “They ALREADY negotiated. And then Trump just decided that didn't mean anything.” Constant Flip flopping Navarro: "Trump is going to stay tough…no negotiation on tariffs *one hour later* Trump: tariffs are negotiable.” X user David Dennison wrote. Trump, the master bluffer according to Maga Policy analyst James Medlock posted on Bluesky that the president’s defenders say, “Trump is just pretending to be crazy to get a good negotiating stance. Trump: This is not about negotiating. Defenders: Trump is just saying he's not negotiating, to get an even better negotiating stance.” ‘Deal or no deal?’ Critics pounce as Trump breaks with own aide immediately after TV spot

Experts say Trump's tariffs won't solve US carmakers' EU struggle Last year, Germany shipped nearly 450,000 cars to the US, while only 136,000 US cars were sold in Germany, according to Germany's auto industry association VDA. Before the introduction of the 25% tariff, the US had a mere 2.5% duty on cars from Europe, while the EU's rate for US vehicles is 10%. Industry expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer points to the size and fuel consumption of US vehicles as key obstacles, as fuel prices in Europe are significantly higher than in the US. Without smaller, more fuel-efficient models, Dudenhöffer believes US manufacturers will continue to struggle in Europe, regardless of tariff policies.

Everybody knows penguins are smuggling fentanyl from their base at the South Pole into the US, just look at the way they walk, they're plainly high as kites. Plus the disrespect they showed Trump and Vance in the Oval Office. Tie-less and constantly chatting between themselves.

CNN Business reporter Allison Morrow on Thursday took stock of Musk's three recent business and political failings: 1. His $20 million losing bet on the pro-Trump candidate for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. 2.Tesla's biggest sales drop ever, falling 13% in the first quarter, while its No. 1 rival grew revenue by 60% in the same time period. Musk has lost more than a quarter of his total net worth since January as Tesla shares have slumped. 3. Rumours swirling that Trump wants to sack Musk although the White House denies it. Morrow went on to say there was so far no sign of any business plan to regain customers. According to her, the sales drive with Trump on the South Lawn, combined with the Commerce secretary’s appealing to Americans to buy Tesla shares, fell flat; whilst the FBI threatening to prosecute Tesla vandals as domestic terrorists stretched the definition of terrorism beyond credibility according to legal experts. 'Parade of humiliation' has engulfed Elon Musk in just the last day: CNN Business reporter

It's not only Krugman ridiculing Trump's formula for tariffs. The maths 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%. That's how the volcanic Australian territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands in the Antarctic ended up with a 10% tariff. Madagascar, with a GDP per head of just over $500 p.a. 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. "Presumably no one is buying Teslas there," John Denton, head of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), told Reuters, an ironic reference to the improbability of Madagascar being able to placate Trump by buying upmarket U.S. products. Madagascar is not alone: the bluntness of the formula as applied to economies which cannot afford to import much from the U.S. inevitably leads to a high reciprocal tally: 50% for Lesotho in Southern Africa, 49% for Cambodia in Southeast Asia. Richer countries are nonplussed too. For the European Union it has produced a punitive tariff of 20% - four times the 5% which the World Trade Organization calculates as the EU's average tariff rate. Trump's tariff formula confounds the world, punishes the poor

Most moving Most something or other

Sexiest singer Absolutely ageless song

Most uplifting song Most un-uplifting song

Perfect execution, rock blues: Space rock

I'll bite Perfect male voice imo. Perfect female voice

Journalist James Surowiecki observed Wednesday evening that the president's sweeping worldwide tariffs seemed to be based on a simplistic formula, which takes the U.S. trade deficit with an individual nation and divides that number by its exports to the U.S. Surowiecki posted on X. "They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us. So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is." However because Trump claims to be 'nice' he then divides the figure by half! In a final flourish, if US trade deficit/imports with a country is less than 10%, or the US has a trade surplus with a country, Trump then slaps a flat 10% tariff on that country. 'Truly amazing': Journalist slaps down White House aide's attempted fact check