John Drake

If you're a Democrat it might have been better to have Trump in 2020 than 2024. The old Trump presidency would have continued with its half-hearted ways being led around by Ivanka and Jared. But, now, instead of a weak Flavius Honorius, they've got Lucius Cornelius Sulla.

buzzzzzzzwords

Hey UKers, it's no longer about Muslims integrating with British culture, it's about how Britons will integrate with Islam. Just a matter of time now.

There is still an applicable word for them available: harpy.

Quickly moving to implement the Hun Sen model of permanent one part rule. Yes, Prayuth was better.

Maybe when the farmers switched to sugar cane???

And more than 24 hours later, the burning and AQI is worse than yesterday.

Some necessities may indeed increase in cost. But many of these "goods" whose price will increase will not be sold. And that is something that could benefit America. Americans buy too much stuff, a lot of junk and a lot of gizmos that aren't needed. One of the things tariffs can do is stop people from spending and have them start saving instead. Americans need to do that. So what if they don't buy a new phone every year or TV every couple of years or other gadgets they don't need. That will put few Americans out of work. Whose going to be impacted? Maybe Amazon and other online retailers. The days when these sort of things would put Americans selling things in shops and malls out of business and out of work are behind us. It'll be the foreign manufacturers who suffer.

I do know where I don't want to live and it's China, a country that welded people into their apartments without food and medicine during Covid.

I wonder how many hotshots in Thailand, even on this forum, work for companies here that would be devastated by tariffs. A little bit of the guffawing might be those guys getting ready for the unemployment line.

If the US only applied reciprocal tariffs and the same limitations on import control that Thailand does, then Thailand would collapse. Thailand has a $10 billion trade surplus with the US, while it has a trade deficit with China of about the same amount. If that $10 gets dented, then Thailand is in trouble. There is nothing that Thailand makes that the US absolutely must have.

With the goal of becoming a full member in August. See my link above.

It's a BRICS "partner country" that wants full membership by this August.

Because that was what Trump said he would do, if they didn't make a commitment to backing the dollar.

Whatever the faults of Joe Biden and/or Donald Trump, I would much rather live in a world that their America dominated, rather than one in which Xi, Putin, Khamenei, Kim Jong Un, and even the dictator in waiting, Modi, exercised dominant power.

It's a replay of Japan, Germany, Italy and the smaller axis partners, Rumania, Hungary, and even the Indian collaborators of the Indian National Army.

With a goal of being a full member seven months from now, in August.

No, BRICS was formed to replace democratic governance worldwide with authoritarian/dictatorships.

I agree that the attack on TSMC is stupid beyond belief. But I'm not so sure that the other end of the argument, backing away from Taiwan, is such a bad idea. The opposition KMT is in a coalition that controls the legislature and most local governments. Only the executive is in the hands of the DPP. And the KMT wants a Hong Kong style solution (one country; two systems) to the current conflict with the PRC. Going down the same path as Hong Kong would likely soon result in complete control by the PRC. In those circumstances who would want to pour investment, American weapons, and other support into a KMT-ruled Taiwan if it runs the risk of being turned over to the PRC in a few years?

They've already applied to join.

Already grow rice in Louisiana and tropical fruit in Florida and California.

It could be good for us. China does this sort of thing all the time. They use tariffs and import inspection slow-downs to get their way with countries such as Australia, South Korea, and Japan. And I remember the government apologizing for the nation a few years ago when a Thai immigration officer slapped a Chinese tourist. China takes care of its people and its interests. Why shouldn't the US do the same?

Like most things Trump, its effect is unpredictable.

Possibly. No, maybe even likely. But I still like to see it, because it ought to scare the bejabbers out of the Thais who have been quietly undermining US interests through things such as openly inviting Chinese companies to set up in Thailand to evade US sanctions and restrictions.

Maybe people have awakened in DC and aren't waiting for another Pearl Harbor this time.