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Wall Street is finally waking up to Trump’s tariff policy.
Financial markets are beginning to react after the United States implemented tariffs on its three largest trading partners on Monday.
> Mark down March 3, 2025. That was the day Wall Street finally realized that US President Donald Trump was serious about tariffs. On Monday, the S&P 500 fell nearly 2 percent as Trump confirmed what we at the Atlantic Council predicted in February—that the tariffs on Canada and Mexico were not mere threats, but actually likely to be implemented. The stock markets continued to fall on Tuesday as investors processed the news.
Trump Takes the Dumbest Tariff Plunge
He says the 25% levies on Mexico and Canada will begin Tuesday. Stocks fall.
President Trump likes to cite the stock market when it’s rising as a sign of his policy success, so what does he think about Monday’s plunge? The Dow Jones Industrial Average took a 650-point header after he announced that he’ll hit Mexico and Canada on Tuesday with 25% tariffs.
Mr. Trump said at the White House there was “no room left” to negotiate with the two American trade treaty partners. Some of his smarter advisers have been hoping he’d start renegotiating the USMCA and delay the tariffs. But Mr. Trump wants tariffs for their own sake, which he says will usher in a new golden age.
We’ve courted Mr. Trump’s ire by calling the Mexico and Canada levies the “dumbest” in history, and we may have understated the point. Mr. Trump is whacking friends, not adversaries. His taxes will hit every cross-border transaction, and the North American vehicle market is so interconnected that some cars cross a border as many as eight times as they’re assembled.
Tariffs could hit the US economy, warns a former Trump insider.
"Remember tariffs are a tax, and they're primarily a consumer tax," Scaramucci added. It's "a consumption tax, sort of like a VAT [value-added tax]. And that’s a regressive tax. So what ends up happening is the poor people — it eats up more of their disposable income than any other income group."
“Tariffs are actually — we’ve had a lot of experience with them. They’re an act of war, to some degree,” Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B) CEO Warren Buffett said in a new CBS News interview on Sunday.
US Treasury Department says it will not enforce anti-money laundering law
>The U.S. Treasury Department said on Sunday it would not enforce an anti-money laundering law that obliges millions of business entities to disclose the identities of their real beneficial owners.
Remarkable timing there... I'm sure it's purely a coincidence that this new EO slipped in right before Trump announced his strategic cryptocurrency reserve today after ripping off his supporters to the tune of $12 billion with his pump & dump Trump coin.
>"Treasury takes this step in the interest of supporting hard-working American taxpayers and small businesses.."
1984 has come and gone, and America is now officially for sale.
President Trump has quickly transformed America’s approach to the environment, withholding funds and stretching the limits of presidential power.
In a few short weeks, President Trump has severely damaged the government’s ability to fight climate change, upending American environmental policy with moves that could have lasting implications for the country, and the planet.
With a flurry of actions that have stretched the limits of presidential power, Mr. Trump has gutted federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry.
He is abandoning efforts to reduce global warming, even as the world has reached record levels of heat that scientists say is driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels. Every corner of the world is now experiencing the effects of these rising temperatures in the form of deadlier hurricanes, floods, wildfires and droughts, as well as species extinction.
Democrats tap freshman Sen. Elissa Slotkin to deliver response to Trump’s March 4 joint address to Congress
New Democrat coalition (pro-business centrists), and Problem Solvers cuacus (committee emphasizing bipartisan) darling up and comer Elissa Slotkin will detail the DNC democrats rebuttal to Trumps speech. Its unclear whether she will talk about Democrat's positions on key issues.
What is being described as a "total annihilation" of SSA, say critics, proves that Trump's promises to protect Social Security "are a sham."
The Social Security Administration, now under the control of an official installed by U.S. President Donald Trump, began the process of gutting whole segments of the agency and firing a huge portion of its already diminished workforce, sparking alarm among advocates who say the move will almost certainly result in benefit delays and disruptions.
The American Prospect, which first reported earlier this week that Acting SSA Commissioner Leland Dudek was weighing staff cuts of up to 50%, obtained an email sent late Thursday indicating that the department has launched an "agency-wide organizational restructuring that will include significant workforce reductions."
The world has never before been faced with such a threat. The United States has handed the nuclear codes to a madman, a criminal, a would-be dictator and a moron
If you think things are bad now, then, brace yourself: it is about to get a whole lot worse. If you are alarmed at the speed with which the Trump administration has set about dismantling every institution of American government and every pillar of the international order, you must understand that this is not just the initial burst of activity, the “shock and awe” phase after which things will settle down: if anything, the pace will continue to accelerate.
The world has never before been faced with such a threat. The United States has handed the nuclear codes to a madman, a criminal, a would-be dictator and a moron, all in the same person. Whatever the purpose to which he directs these powers – to impress his dictator friends, to further enrich himself and his cronies, to seize absolute power or just to watch the world burn – we must hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
The public blowup could propel President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to escalate the fight in Ukraine instead of agreeing to peace.
President Trump says he wants a quick cease-fire in Ukraine. But President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia appears to be in no rush, and the blowup on Friday between Mr. Trump and Ukraine’s president may give Russia’s leader the kind of ammunition he needs to prolong the fight.
With the American alliance with Ukraine suffering a dramatic, public rupture, Mr. Putin now seems even more likely to hold out for a deal on his terms — and he could even be tempted to expand his push on the battlefield.
. . .
For the Kremlin, perhaps the most important message came in later remarks by Mr. Trump, who suggested that if Ukraine did not agree to a “cease-fire now,” the war-torn country would have to “fight it out” without American help.
That could set up an outcome that Mr. Putin has long sought, at the cost of tens of thousands of Russian lives: a dominant position over Ukraine and wide-ranging concessions from the West.
As Ukraine enters the fourth year of Russia's full-scale invasion, shifting political dynamics in the U.S. threaten to influence the course of the war. U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly misrepresented the war’s origins, excluded Ukraine from initial negotiations, and advocated for what many see as an exploitative deal that would force Ukraine to surrender national resources as “repayment” for U.S. aid.
Trump’s rhetoric raises urgent questions about America's long-term commitment to aiding Ukraine.
In an interview with the Kyiv Independent, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders shares his concerns about Trump’s growing alignment with Russia and other authoritarian regimes, what a possible U.S.-Russia alliance would mean for the American people, the role of billionaires like Elon Musk in shaping both domestic and international political discourse, and why defending Ukraine is crucial for the future of global democracy.
Ukrainian leader abruptly left White House after being publicly berated by US president in Russia ceasefire talks
Democratic lawmakers rushed to defend Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the Ukrainian leader was publicly berated by Donald Trump in a disastrous Oval Office meeting.
The US president accused Zelenskyy of “gambling with world war three” while his vice-president, JD Vance, called the Ukrainian leader “disrespectful”, before cutting short talks aimed at kicking off the process of ending Kyiv’s three-year war with Russia.
Zelenskyy abruptly left the White House soon after without signing a rare critical minerals deal with the US that Trump has said is the first step toward a ceasefire agreement that he is seeking to broker between Russia and Ukraine.
Chris Hedges: The Purge of the Deep State and the Road to Dictatorship
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26150229
> Archive Link: https://archive.ph/PvXZ2 > > Substack link: https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-440 > > --- > > >This article is read by Eunice Wong, a Juilliard-trained actor, featured on Audible’s list of Best Women Narrators. Her work is on the annual Best Audiobooks lists of the New York Times, Audible, AudioFile, & Library Journal. www.eunicewong.actor > > >Text Originally posted Feb. 18, 2025^[[1] https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/the-purge-of-the-deep-state-and-the-440] > > Chris Hedges: The Purge of the Deep State and the Road to Dictatorship [15:11 | FEB 23 2025 | The Chris Hedges YouTube Channel | https://youtu.be/Z0qesDVvhzY] > > >Donald Trump’s dismantling of the deep state presages the formation of something far worse. > > > --- > > About ScheerPost: > > >ScheerPost is an award-winning, independent news organization that focuses on progressive politics and human rights issues that the mainstream media miss or decline to cover. Founded on the principle of honest reporting and holding those in power to account, we make it our mission to bring our readers the latest cutting-edge news and analysis about these issues. With our original articles written by renowned journalists and reposted articles curated by our award-winning staff, we present our readers with daily content from various perspectives that explain and challenge dominant narratives. Since our inception in March 2020, we’ve been able to maintain our independence through grants and reader donations — we will never erect a paywall — and in the process, our stories have been viewed more than 15 million times by our readers from around the world. > > >At the helm of ScheerPost are editor Narda Zacchino, former Los Angeles Times reporter, Sacramento Bureau Chief, Orange County edition editor, associate editor and vice president, deputy editor of the San Francisco Chronicle, and senior editor at the Center for Investigative Reporting and Robert Scheer, former Ramparts magazine managing editor, Los Angeles Times national correspondent and columnist and author of 13 books. With a combined 60 years-plus of mainstream journalism experience, they created ScheerPost, which has become an essential internet news outlet. At a time of increasing dominance of billionaire ownership in journalism, they materialized the warning of legendary media critic A.J. Liebling that “Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one.” Led by passion for independent journalism and bringing light to the truth, the founders do not take any compensation so all donations can go to site staff and operations. > > >ScheerPost fills a news media gap by reporting on issues other publications often shy away from or ignore entirely, such as controversial international issues; the threat of nuclear war; economic, racial and gender inequality; criminal justice reform; defense industry profiteering, and important moments in history that textbooks totally ignore. Our journalism is vital to providing an alternative understanding of what is going on in our world today. ScheerPost is committed to raising the voices of those marginalized by mainstream media and amplifying issues suppressed by the most powerful people and organizations in the world.^[[2] https://scheerpost.com/about-us-2/] >
Inside DOGE’s Clash With the Federal Workforce
This post uses a gift link with a view count limit. When it runs out, there is an archived copy available
Look, sometimes you make mistakes. Maybe you send an email to the wrong person. Maybe you accidentally buy the wrong kind of pasta sauce at the grocery store. Maybe you accidentally dismantle criti…
Look, sometimes you make mistakes. Maybe you send an email to the wrong person. Maybe you accidentally buy the wrong kind of pasta sauce at the grocery store. Maybe you accidentally dismantle critical global health infrastructure. These things happen! At least, that’s what Elon Musk wants us to believe.
At yesterday’s first official Musk/Trump administration cabinet meeting, Elon decided to share a cute little anecdote about his DOGE team’s approach to governing. Just a fun little story about how they “accidentally canceled” Ebola prevention efforts. What a knee slapper!
. . .
The only problem is that almost everything here is nonsense… well, except for the part about canceling the program on Ebola prevention. Musk absolutely did that. And some other terrible stuff as well. But the fixing the mistake part? That doesn’t appear to have actually happened. Oopsie!
The Times identified 49 people within the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a group formed by Elon Musk that in a short few weeks has radically upended federal agencies.
The New York Times identified 45 people within the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a group formed by Elon Musk that in a short few weeks has radically upended federal agencies. Few members have formal Washington experience. Many are software engineers. All seem to have a clear mandate: Shrink and disrupt the federal government.
Mr. Musk’s team has taken aim at more than 20 agencies while gaining access to sensitive government data systems. But the full extent of its reach or ambitions is unclear.
Much of the team’s operations are opaque, and most of its personnel have not been disclosed by the Trump administration, and it is unclear exactly how large the operation is. Through executive order, President Trump moved the team from the Office of Management and Budget, where it had been housed as the United States Digital Service since its founding, into the White House — a transition that effectively shielded its work from open records laws that could give the public insight into its operations.
The list below includes some of Mr. Musk’s allies; engineers — many of whom are young men — with backgrounds in artificial intelligence; former employees; and others who have helped the operation. Several have recently deleted their social media accounts after their names appeared in news reports.
*gift link
Study counteracts claims by conservative lawmakers that books being removed from classrooms are sexually explicit
The majority of banned books in US public schools last year dealt with people of color, LGBTQ+ people and other demographics, according to a new study from PEN America.
The report also counteracts claims by conservative lawmakers that books being removed from classrooms are sexually explicit and that book bans are altogether a “hoax”, an assertion made by Donald Trump.
. . .
Out of 4,218 book titles that were banned, 1,534 – or 36% – featured people of color, the most censored identity group in book bans. Some removed titles included August Wilson’s Pulitzer-prize winning play Fences and Innosanto Nagara’s A is for Activist, a picture book for children about social issues.
Books featuring people of color were disproportionately targeted in all banned-book categories, the report found, especially in removed historical and biographical titles. Of such banned books, 44% included people of color; more than one-fourth, or 26%, of those books featured Black people.
The president said Lee Zeldin, the agency administrator, was planning mass layoffs. Hours later, officials said the president was referring to a budget cut only.
There are photos of what the US looked like before environmental regulation. It was not pretty
Government employees fight the Trump administration’s chaos by organizing and publishing information on Bluesky
Calling itself #AltGov, the network has developed a visible, public-facing presence in recent weeks through Bluesky accounts, most of which bear the names or initials of federal agencies, aimed at getting information out to the public – and correcting disinformation – about the chaos being unleashed by the Trump administration.
With 40 accounts to date, their collective megaphone is getting louder, as most of the accounts have tens of thousands of followers, with “Alt CDC (they/them)” being the largest, at nearly 95,000 followers.
. . .
The #AltGov hashtag has roots in the first Trump administration, perhaps most famously through the “ALT National Park Service” account on what was then Twitter, according to Amanda Sturgill, journalism professor at Elon University, whose book We Are #AltGov: Social Media Resistance from the Inside documents the earlier phenomenon. (That account, with its 774,000 followers, has since moved to Bluesky. Its online presence is parallel to and separate from the #AltGov network.)
Did Margie get ejected when she was behaving like a braying walrus? I didn't see anything suggesting that she was kicked out at the time.
His own class is going to betray him because he is the dumbest motherfucker alive.
The billionaires will regret giving him power, because they're subtly giving up their own levers of influence over him.
When you could buy a politician or an election, you held some sway over those politicians in those seats. When you pay lobbyists who will do the work of writing specific regulations that help you, and then have them try to get those regulations actually enacted, you had influence over how the government could wield power over you.
But the Trump movement has been about consolidation of power in one man, who doesn't feel constrained by laws, or by other politicians. The billionaires are down to a single tool: trying to pay off one man, who doesn't keep his word.
The question becomes, at what point does it go from money buying power, versus power buying money? It's a subtle distinction, but an important one for those who currently have money and who want to derive power from that.
Trump and Elon want to make it so that they can singlehandedly destroy any business that doesn't bend the knee. At the same time, they want to be able to shape the rules in an arbitrary way to only help those they like, and hurt those they don't. They're not quite there yet, and I'd say that the rich still have some power independent of the government. But the plan for those in charge is to consolidate power as quickly as they can, to where that's no longer true.
There's a substantial chance that this goes down the same way that scene in The Dark Knight Rises, where the financial backers who enabled Bane's movement insist that they should still have influence over that movement, once it takes power.
Or if you actually want a historical parallel, the oligarchs who funded the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, only to find themselves in concentration camps themselves.
There is a direct line between GWB and Trump. The lies of the Bush administration and it's denigration of the "reality-based community" laid the groundwork for Donald Trump's Big Lies. if Al Gore won in 2000, I doubt we would have Trump today. Ron Suskind wrote all about it in the NYT back then. This article about the article is not behind their paywall:
https://theweek.com/articles/854892/what-karl-rove-right-about-realitybased-community
The aide said that guys like me [Suskind] were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors ... and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
It’s a very small population, but a very, very large piece of land.
Sounds like the king of clowntown has been looking at a Mercator projection again. It's an easy mistake for people who don't know what they're talking about to make.
I stole this from reddit:
And this interest in Greenland smacks of the game of "Risk", which might be the basis of his foreign policy.
I'm which case, he should mass forces on New Zealand.
Danish special forces are watching you...
She wasn't there apparently?
wait. was she in the audience? I swear the camera went to what appeared to be the "concerned" mother in the audience during that part.
Was she by chance receiving laundry at the time?
He renewed imperialist rhetoric about annexing Greenland and the Panama Canal while distorting U.S. aid figures to Ukraine.
What I heard him actually say would normally get most Presidents impeached.
The Democrats seemed unorganized, nobody is leading them like Trump is leading Republicans. Here's a gimmick I'd like to see them use next time.: Every time Trump says a blatant lie - call it out - LOUD. One by one, watch how many people get thrown out throughout the speech.
22 Billion cut to HHS is a ton though. Surely that will go toward paying down the deficit? Good on Green for bringing attention to it.