Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 18/03/25

Yeah. A lot of the issues are because the systems people use to elect their governments are archaic and corrupt and force people to choose between 'a douche and a turd' every time.

Canada, America, UK, all have first past the post systems that are almost impossible to reform because the incumbent party by definition always benefits from the system that saw them get elected, and two established parties tend to dominate with 3rd party voters essentially voting in favour of the the party they dislike the most.

If the electoral system is rigged then you can't blame the voters for electing bad candidates.

They took a huge beating compared to their polling around a month before Trump took office, and that's the point of discussing it in this thread. The sharp turn in polling back to the Liberals was a direct result of Trump.

Its not like that will change though. They have been using that system for so long that using modern systems in other countries would seem like too much of a change.

It took how long for gay people in Ireland to get marriage rights? It took how long for black people in deep southern US somewhat equal rights (probably a few with old attitudes down there still!)?

That sort of change happens over decades, not just 1 guy like trump coming in and upsetting world order.

You can't overlook the machinations that happened to create Trump's win. Over 4 million eligible voters were purged from the rolls,.and that's not even talking about the quite credible possibility of actual election hacking fraud.

It's like when folks say Americans aren't ready for a female perfect, despite a majority already having voted for one.

REPORTER: Amazon will soon display a number next to the price of each product that shows how much the Trump tariffs are adding. Isn't that a perfect demonstration that it's the American consumer who is paying for these policies?

LEAVITT: This is a hostile and political act by Amazon.

Stay tuned for Burger King to object to having to list the calories beside their food on the grounds that such a requirement is a hostile and political act.

It's not taken seriously by anyone even now. The fact that the idea is delusionally unrealistic doesn't make Trump's advocacy of it any less hostile or offensive.

I can see why the Trump regime would be pissed about it, and presumably Amazon made this decision knowing that it would piss them off. But in the US context it's a more than reasonable decision. Ticket prices on goods in the US are quoted before sales tax; it's only when you get to the till that they add the tax to your purchases. If you're price-sensitive you have to remember this, and make sure you have enough money to cover the ticket price and the tax. So Americans are accustomed to being told the price and the applicable tax separately. This isn't quite the same, but you can see the parallel.

We really need Trump to be pretty successful in the damage he does up to the midterms. Americans need to feel the pain before then. If it happens after, the democrats will be blamed for blocking his "beautiful plan", and MAGA will roll on, perhaps a decade or more. We need to see a serious drop in living standards. A shortage of consumer goods (this is happening already, the ports have very few containers in them and there's a significant drop in ships docking, especially on the pacific coast). Even the dumb dumbs need to see first hand the damage they've done.

Amazon saying they weren't actually planning on putting tariff costs on its main website, but the Shlte House attack on the idea speaks volumes about how unprepared the US is to let consumers realise these tariffs are paid for by themselves.

The effects of this in the next few months will be interesting. I personally think that once some things start to disappear from shelves, panic buying will set in for things not even related to China. They freaked out over masks and toilet roll. I don't think Americans will keep a cool head and so they will self-inflict shortages by stockpiling.

Vegas didn't vote for Trump.

One company laid off their concierges in some of their properties. They arent needed anymore when people can just use their phones to get directions or restaurant recommendations and reservations. Its hardly mass layoffs. Not yet anyway. It still seems as busy as ever to me, the place was packed last weekend for wrestlemania, stayed on the strip last month and it was the same as ever, very busy. Many people who work on the strip will tell you the same thing.

Yesterday was the third busiest day ever reported at the airport so it doesnt seem like vegas is dead or dying just yet. I know some people are hoping for the sky to fall and for vegas to be decimated, even people who live here (easy to say when your job won't be effected) but I hope not.

Just how much of a dunce do you need to be that you can't figure out how a tariff works at this stage and you're relying on Amazon to bring it home. (*YOU, being the average American)

See, the reporter's follow up to Leavitt's bullshit should have been "Well, don't you believe that it would be of great benefit to the US consumer and that they'll understand the effect that Trump's tariffs are having on their spending?"

These bastards need to be cornered and their lies exposed and challenged every. single. time.

At the outset of orange man`s ramblings on tariffs 66% believed that the country supplying goods would pay the tariffs, which really doesn`t say much for their even basic understanding of how tariffs work. But even in spite of fox et al they now seem to be getting the message, even if 38% of them still appear to believe the country suppling will pay the tariffs.