TheAppletons

Correct. You'll notice the people posting videos as "proof" of anything - have no ability to think for themselves. Instead, they post videos that other people have produced, most of whom are as mentally challenged as the person posting the videos. These are also the same geniuses telling everyone else to "do your own research" as if googling some nutjob on YouTube is actual "research."

This is by design. Completely disable the SSA so that the idiots in charge have to "fix it".....while siphoning off billions for themselves.

Even better. You post videos to support your point....but don't even know the contents. Genius, lol. Again. Your "critical thinking" is off the charts. Would you like to punch yourself in the face again? Or are you done embarrassing yourself?

"Critical thinking" guy posts a slew of YouTube videos. Genius, lol. Might want to change your AN nick to "Captain Shame".

Well, 81 million voters were wrong....that's how Biden was elected. So yeah, 77 million voters can be wrong. And they were.

Kristi Noem....head and blown? I'm in.

Not in Chiang Mai. Tourists simply urinate in the moat and then refill their waterguns from.....the moat. Source: I've seen it.

Yeah, not to stray too far off topic here, but when people feel less financially secure - as when their investments tank - then they tend to spend less. 2/3 of the US economy is consumer driven. Tariffs then drive up the price of goods, reinforcing that reluctance to spend. It's all linked, as I'm certain you're aware.

Already happening.

You forgot the part where the tariffs wiped out $11 trillion US dollars in wealth. But if it raises $1.5 trillion, that's.....gotta be good, right?

It's called "projection." The ignorant cheerleaders on here applauding the ongoing destruction of the USA are the anti-Americans.

Originally posted in the Financial Times (link below to non-paywalled archive): "If it endures, Donald Trump’s decision on April 2 2025 to enact sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs on US trade partners will go down as one of the greatest acts of self-harm in American economic history. They will wreak untold damage on households, businesses and financial markets across the world, upending a global economic order that America benefited from and helped to create. and "Trump’s justification hinges on a naive belief that treats trade imbalances as if they were the profit and loss account of a business, and not the culmination of highly specialised supply chains. He also considers factory work to be the fount of economic development, ignoring how decades of free trade has enabled America to rise up the industrial value chain and become a global leader in services and innovation." https://archive.is/Xqq9m

The gullible goobers who for voted for Trump....and the rest of the US consumer population.

Slightly off-topic but the people to whom your posting - like three very loud people - mostly live in Cambodia or some other dirt cheap desolate destination because they've f'd up their lives. They revel in the fact that America, where they used to live, will now suffer the pain they themselves are suffering because they are insufferable fools. They cheer the demise of the country in which they couldn't be successful because they are basically failures in life. They post here to make themselves feel better and because they can't afford much more than an internet connection and a rat-infested closet. In other words, misery love company for these losers. Best to just ignore them and let them live in ignorance and poverty, eating their 50 thb rice dishes and rooting for their "tough guy" in diapers to "show everyone who's the boss."

Except none of what you state is how they calculated the US "reciprocal tariffs". It had nothing to do with what other countries actually use as tariffs. "To calculate the tariffs it decided to impose on countries around the world, the White House used a formula that focused on trade deficits and total exports. The formula didn’t include an assessment of tariff rates for specific products in individual countries, or take into account other trade barriers that weren’t tariffs. Instead, the reciprocal tariff rate applied to each country was: their trade deficit divided by exports to the U.S., divided by two. If the country has a trade surplus with the U.S., or the number resulting from the above formula was less than 10%, then a flat rate of 10% was applied." and "For example, the U.S. has a $235.6 billion trade deficit with the European Union, which exports a total of $605.8 billion to the U.S. Based on the White House’s formula, $235.6 divided by $605.8 equals 0.388, which divided by half is 0.194. That number gets rounded up to 0.2, which leads to a 20% tariff rate." https://archive.ph/NSn9u#selection-875.0-896.0 (Originally published in Fortune magazine; the link is to a non-paywalled archive of the original article.)

Awwww, that's adorable that you think this tariff fiasco has anything to do with what you wrote.

Well, you're going to LOVE tomorrow then: "U.S. stock futures cratered as President Donald Trump unveiled sweeping tariffs of at least 10% and even higher for some countries, raising the risks of a global trade war that hits the already sputtering U.S. economy. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 828 points, or 1.95%. S&P 500 futures dropped 2.68% while Nasdaq-100 futures lost 3.19%." https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/02/stock-market-today-live-updates-trump-tariffs.html

Herbert Hoover, Jr.

From the Wall Street Journal: "There will certainly be higher costs for American consumers and businesses. Tariffs are taxes, and when you tax something you get less of it. Car prices will rise by thousands of dollars, including those made in America. Mr. Trump is making a deliberate decision to transfer wealth from consumers to businesses and workers protected from competition behind high tariff walls." and "Over time this will mean the gradual erosion of U.S. competitiveness. Tariffs that blunt competition invite monopoly profits while reducing the need to innovate. This is the story of the American steel and car industries in the 1950s and 1960s before global competition exposed their deficiencies." https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-liberation-day-tariffs-protectionism-82d0aa3a

Correct. I should have more accurately stated that the minimum part B payment is $185/month.

"If President Donald Trump maintains the massive tariffs he announced today, his unprecedented trade policies will probably cause both the US and global economies to fall into a recession in 2025, JPMorgan analysts said in a note to investors." and JPMorgan noted that the tariffs would hike taxes on Americans by $660 billion a year, the largest tax increase in recent memory by a longshot. It will cause prices to surge, too, adding 2% to the Consumer Price Index, a measure of US inflation that has struggled to come back down to earth in recent years." https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/tariffs-trump-news-04-02-25/index.html

They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took the trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to the USA. So there's a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to the US are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges the US. (The math works for every country, btw.) What extraordinary nonsense this is.

Have you recently turned 65 and are now paying a Medicare part B premium (which is auto-deducted from your monthly Social Security payment)? Medicare part B is $185/month in 2025, I think.

+1. It's not a "change of heart". It's a "you lied to us and now you're trying to screw us over for your benefit" underway.

Nope, not able.