[Youngian]

You read that right, no tariffs on cheap tat from China. Like Trump merchandise.

US President Donald Trump has suspended tariffs on small packages from China, after his sudden order ending duty-free treatment for shipments worth less than $800 (£645).
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y7edy35pvo.amp

[Bones McCoy]

[Abernathy]

This, from Emma Brockes in The Grauniad, is both revelatory and somehow
chilling :

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... nment-doge

You would be forgiven for thinking we were back at the Bullingdon Club, in the company of Jonty, Munty, Stiffy, Kipper, Chugger and, to use the polite version, Pig Botherer – only in this case it’s Big Balls and a guy with a history of racist tweeting. This is the sudden, startling emergence into American political life of a type deeply recognisable to Brits: that is, jaunty young men with juvenile nicknames and a firm belief they should be running the world.

[Killer Whale]

I think we were all expecting corruption, but for it to happen so quickly and so blatantly...

[Crabcakes]

There's nothing Europe can do. The continent is too divided to fight Putin. Meanwhile, Starmer is still in denial about how to deal with Trump.

I thoroughly disagree - there is plenty that can be done. Putin is far weaker than he makes out and is desperate for Trump to bail him out. What I’m hoping is that an opportunity that would mean some short-term funding increases isn’t squandered.

But good work on shifting to the “we’re all doomed so just sit back and let the inevitable happen” style. Is it Russian troll format to just demoralize, genuine hunger for fascism, or trot-like pipe dreams of a socialist utopia rising from the ashes?

[Andy McDandy]

Trump's terrorism advisor (causing or stopping?) is already going down the "we've got nukes so don't fuck with us" route.

Team America: World Police, only the police are the cops from Red Riding.

[Crabcakes]

This is good. Trump seems to think he can have the final say but withdraw all contributions, and Putin seems to be counting on that. But the problem with using an agent of chaos is that you get chaos, and that doesn’t always end as you suspect.

[Abernathy]

Can’t help but wonder just exactly how Trump’s 90 minute long telephone conversation with Putin went.

Does Trump understand why Putin decided to launch his invasion of Ukraine 3 years ago ? Does he know what Putin is looking to achieve with this war ? Did Trump even ask him anything about this ? Did Trump offer Putin anything ?

Trump supposedly always starts from a position he was allegedly accustomed to in business : “The Art of the Deal”, to quote the title of “his” book (wriiten by someone else). Presumably he was looking for some kind of “deal” with Putin’s Russia.

He’s not really in a position to tell Putin he can keep the Ukrainian territory he has grabbed so far, but I bet he did - Even though Wylodimir Zelensky wasn’t even in on the call. Any “deal” Trump is able to broker will certainly be one from which Trump and his family will benefit personally ( See also Gaza-a-Lago).

Surely there cannot be any sort of “deal” that leaves Ukraine (and the baltic states, and so and so forth) in a position of huge uncertainty, and Putin able to claim a win.

Like Crabs, I’m greatly encouraged by the assertion of unequivocal support for Ukraine by the EU and by Keir Starmer. If Trump goes ahead with withdrawing USA support for Ukraine (and knowing Trump, he might well do so) as a pressure point on Ukraine to accept the terms of his “deal”, it’s good to know that a UK/EU commitment to step in and fill the breach is there. We can and we must afford to do so. This is existential, not a fucking game of Trump monopoly.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Governor Trudeau. Glad they got rid of that old guy who mucked up people's names. And God knows what the rest of it means. Canada doesn't spend enough on Defence, but who does it need protection from?

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm wondering if these people actually are this thick. VAT isn't just charged on imports, but on domestic production too.

VAT is by no means something purely European either.

The president said his priorities are the most “egregious” examples of unfairness in trade, including countries that have big trade surpluses and high tariff rates.

An administration official, who spoke without attribution, said that Trump “is more than happy to lower tariffs if countries want to lower tariffs”.

But the administration said they would be considering things beyond tariffs, which means they could consider other taxes countries put on foreign goods. Peter Navarro, Trump’s trade adviser, spoke out on Thursday against the European Union’s value-added tax (VAT) as the “poster child” for what the administration sees as an unfair tax, the New York Times reported.

[Yug]

What is sales tax, if not an American version of VAT?

In the US the price displayed on the shelf isn't the price you pay at the till. At least in civilised countries the tax is included in the displayed price. Americans think this is weird.

[kreuzberger]

"Plus tax" pricing is there to engender daily, if not moment by moment, resentment of government and paying in to the system.

Personally, I am in the PAYE system (or equivalent thereof) for the first time since the mid-90s. On a salary that is about 50% above the national average, which is a lot less than I trousered in the past, I pay in less than 500€ a month in direct taxes. It's buttons.

Beforehand, coughing it all fourteen months later was immeasurably more painful.

[Bones McCoy]

Meanwhile, millionaires in the USA are like

[davidjay]

"Plus tax" pricing is there to engender daily, if not moment by moment, resentment of government and paying in to the system.

Personally, I am in the PAYE system (or equivalent thereof) for the first time since the mid-90s. On a salary that is about 50% above the national average, which is a lot less than I trousered in the past, I pay in less than 500€ a month in direct taxes. It's buttons.

Beforehand, coughing it all fourteen months later was immeasurably more painful.

Swings and roundabouts. When I was self-employed I always regarded self-assessment as an interest-free loan, or if you prefer, a twelve month credit term.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Well indeed. Making it up as they go along.

[Andy McDandy]

It's Cummings and his dogshit puppets all over again, isn't it?

Or more to the point (get ready, Abers - this is a great one), it's like Trump is modelling his behaviour on the wheelchair-using mobster played by Christopher Walken in the 1995 thriller "Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead". The character brags that he's so unpredictable and random that nobody ever knows what he'll do next. When another character calls him out on breaking a deal, he replies "I'm a criminal; my word means shit!".

That or he gave each of his underlings a different message, a la Tyrion Lannister in season 2 of Game of Thrones, when he decides to flush out the queen's spy among his associates.

Or maybe they are indeed making it up as they go along. Or the saner ones are frantically backpedalling when one of the others says something particularly egregious.

[Abernathy]

J D Vance has apparently given the NATO conference a lecture on how Europe should start embracing democracy and stop trying to anull elections suspected of being rigged. This from a man whose party leader tried to incite a violent coup only a little over 4 years ago, literally in order to stop US democracy from functioning. You really couldn't make it up.

[Watchman]

I believe he actually used the phase, “there’s a new sheriff in town”

[Bones McCoy]

I believe he actually used the phase, “there’s a new sheriff in town”

At the gay bar, gay bar, gay bar!!

[Oboogie]

I believe he actually used the phase, “there’s a new sheriff in town”

A new idiot in the village, more like.