Lurker > Tom_Joad

Way I hear it, they're counting on it. Nothing better than a depression for them to buy everything they want to grab on the cheap, and it ensures that the rest of us are desperate enough to willingly accept servitude to them.

I feel like there's always a belief that 10 or 20 years from now will be so much more advanced than the current times. A decade is a long time.

I know we could theoretically travel to Mars right now, but actually living there and colonizing it?

I remember in 1990, I read something that said humans would land on Mars in just 10 years. Not just rovers. Actual astronauts walking around and building a base I guess. I'm pretty sure back then, whoever wrote that, likely thought that by 2025, Mars would be fully colonized. And maybe we would have already reached another solar system

It's interesting that the same people complaining that the left doesn't demonstrate against the GOP is complaining that the left is demonstrating against the GOP. Almost seems like the issue is that she's demonstrating at all...

Half of the cast is from Black Widow, so it's kind of a pseudo-sequel to that.

Can they stop him? I thought they did some stupid shenanigans like changing the definition of a day in regards to congress, so right now the tariffs he is doing are technically legal.

Unlike many other German car manufacturers, Audi does not have its own factories in the USA - the company has to import all vehicles for the US market. Now Audi has stopped all deliveries to the USA. The reason for this is the tariffs imposed by US President Trump around the world last week.

According to a report of the automobile week, this applies to all vehicles after the 2. April were delivered to the USA. Accordingly, vehicles that have arrived in advance should be delivered as planned. The industry portal referred to an internal letter to the dealers. A company spokeswoman has said confirming this.

Audi is supplying its vehicles to the USA from Germany, Hungary and Slovakia. In Mexico, the model "Q5" is also manufactured - a bestseller in the USA.

More than 37,000 Audis in stock in the USA

According to the report, Audi has more than 37,000 cars in the US. These vehicles are not affected by the new tariffs. They are to be specially marked in stock and selling. The company also wants to provide retailers with a so-called customs toolkit next week, which is to provide short-term communication strategies and sales impulses for the current stock.

According to the report, Audi wants to analyse the impact of the new import duties on the business. The company wants to focus on minimizing the impact on customers and trading partners and supporting its own dealer network in the best possible way.

I think the argument is happening because while you're willing to say that, others in the topic apparently are not. And thus, endless arguments.

On Saturday, April 5, hundreds of thousands of Americans took to the streets across the nation to protest the harmful policies of Donald Trumps second term. The Hands Off! demonstrations represented what organizers called the largest single day of protest since Trump entered office with more than 1,100 rallies scheduled in all 50 states. From Chicago to Washington, D.C.; Asheville to Boston; Milwaukee to Louisvillepeople showed up in droves.

CNN reported that organizers estimated millions turned out coast to coast for these protests that united civil rights organizations, veterans, womens rights groups, labor unions, and LGBTQ advocates. Even with conservative estimates, were talking about one of the largest mobilizations in recent American history.

But if you picked up a major print newspaper the next day? Youd barely know it happened.

The New York Times relegated the protests to an image below the fold with a caption instructing readers to turn to page 18 for more information.

The LA Times shoved it in a tiny box in the bottom right-hand corner, sending readers to section B.

The Washington Post threw a teaser at the very bottom of its front page, directing people to the Metro section.

The Boston Globe managed a brief front-page callout mentioning tens of thousands joined marches against Trump and Musk.

And Rupert Murdochs media properties? The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal made no mention whatsoever of the protests on either their April 6 or April 7 front pages. Surprise, surprise.

This isnt just bad journalism. Its a deliberate editorial choice that speaks volumes about how establishment media downplays collective action challenging power.

When hundreds of thousands of people coordinate across an entire nation to protest governmental policies, thats not a page 18 story. Thats not a see more in section B situation. Thats front-page news. Period.

The messaging from these protests was clear and compelling. Organizers articulated specific demands: an end to the billionaire takeover and rampant corruption of the Trump administration; an end to slashing federal funds for Medicaid, Social Security, and other programs working people rely on; and an end to the attacks on immigrants, trans people, and other communities.

This wasnt just a bunch of disgruntled people without purpose. This was a coordinated resistance with specific grievances and demandsexactly the kind of civic engagement our democracy supposedly values.

I understand cable news had better coverage. But print media still matters enormously for setting the agenda and signaling what deserves public attention. When papers like the Times, Post, and Journal diminish massive protests through placement alone, theyre telling readers: This isnt that important.

What gets front-page treatment instead? The same recycled profiles of Trump voters in diners weve been reading for nine years now. The same bothsides framing that treats authoritarianism as just another policy position. Meanwhile, the actual resistance happening in real time gets buried beneath crossword puzzles and lifestyle sections.

The relegation of these protests to footnotes is more than just an editorial failureits part of a broader pattern where establishment media normalizes extreme policies while marginalizing opposition. We saw it during Trumps first term, and here we are again.

If hundreds of thousands of people gathering across all 50 states to protest doesnt make the front page, what would? Whats the threshold? Or is the real issue that these particular protestsagainst billionaire power grabs, against slashing social programs, against attacks on marginalized communitiesmake too many publishers uncomfortable?

This isnt about bias. Its about basic news judgment. When print outlets bury one of the largest nationwide protests in recent memory, theyre not being neutral arbiters. Theyre making a political choice about what deserves attention and what doesnt.

To be fair. The brainwashed see the other side as brainwashed.

Nobody should be buying anything from China anyway. Everything they produce is just low quality garbage items.

Nintendo Switch $2000

Container shipping

If the USTR fee goes forward, the container liner industry would switch Chinese-built ships out of US trades. To the extent they cannot avoid port fees, liners would seek to pass along the added costs as a surcharge.

Multiple cargo shipper respondents to the USTR proposals asked that shipping lines be denied the ability to pass along port fee costs. But that wont help freight rates, because if that happens, liners would pull ships from unprofitable US services, as they have every right to do. Freight rates would then increase, not due to surcharges, but due to lower capacity.

According to Andrew Abbott, chief executive of ACL, This would cause a freight rate explosion that would dwarf the Covid-era rate increase and devastate the supply chains of American companies.

The National Retail Federation said, The fees will result in costs increases of hundreds of dollars per container for cargo owners. Shifts in service by ocean carriers would cause significant disruption due to port congestion.

According to the Chamber of Shipping of America, The imposition of the proposed port fees.would cause a significant disruption to the US maritime market with expected disruptions to the supply chain and/or significantly increased shipping costs, which would ultimately be borne by US producers and US consumers.

Ocean carriers would also reduce the number of US port calls per service string to reduce exposure to charges, cutting calls to tertiary ports and only calling at the largest ones.

The fees would generate congestion at larger ports, as operators of vessels subject to fees seek to minimise the number of US port calls those vessels make on each route, said the World Shipping Council. Economic impacts of congestion and reduced US port traffic [due to shifts to Mexico and Canada] would reverberate throughout the economy.

US exporters of containerised goods would be even harder hit than importers, given their lower freight rates, which would be much more heavily impacted by port-fee fallout than US importers.

The US Agriculture Transportation Coalition (AgTC), which represents US exporters of containerised agricultural and forest goods, said, Many components of our farm country and port network will suffer: marine terminals, longshore labour, freight forwarders, logistics companies, warehouse operators, and drayage and over-the-road trucking firms.

The transport cost increase would quickly render US ag unaffordable and uncompetitive, and because there is ample substitute supply from other countries, it would end US ag sales to foreign markets.

Summing up the worst-case scenario for US exports and imports, the Association of Ship Brokers & Agents wrote, One thing is certain: If the maximum fees are imposed, the resulting economic pain will reverberate through every sector of the US economy and in every household.

• Deadline has been reached for submissions by potential testifiers at USTR hearing on port fee plan and responses are overwhelmingly negative
• Business leaders warn of potentially catastrophic effects to US import costs, US export competitiveness, and the US economy overall
• Multiple shipping companies say they will cease US operations if the port fees go forward

TARIFFS are bad enough just look at the US stock market but business leaders are warning of catastrophe if the Trump administrations port fee plan goes forward.

The US Trade Representative announced on February 21 that it plans to levy exorbitant port fees in some cases over a million dollars for every US port call by Chinese transport operators, Chinese-built ships, all operators that have any ships on order at Chinese yards, and according to one interpretation of the proposal (based on a presidential draft order obtained by Lloyds List), all operators with any Chinese-built ships in their fleets.

The USTR plan would also mandate that a portion of US exports be carried on US-flagged and, eventually, US-built vessels.

Respondents had until Monday to submit comments to the USTR if they wanted to testify at the hearing on the proposal on March 24. They responded in droves, overwhelmingly negatively, with several predicting a disaster for importers, exporters and the US economy in general if the USTR did not kill the port fee plan.

Some executives also bluntly asserted that if the plan was approved as written, their companies would go out of business or leave the US.

Florida-based Seaboard Marine, the largest US-based, foreign-flag container shipping carrier, which serves the Caribbean and Central and South America, said the proposed rule would have the unintended consequence of putting US-owned carriers like Seaboard Marine out of business, while at the same time pushing more business into the hands of large foreign-owned carriers.

Virginia-based Atlantic Container Line, which operates in the transatlantic trade, said it would be forced to terminate its US services, close its American offices, lay off its American staff and redeploy its ships to other trades.

Dry bulk logistics provider Carver Companies, which employs over 500 people, said, The additional financial burden would likely force us out of business, leading to significant job losses and economic disruption in the regions we serve.

Peeples Industries, which runs a private dry bulk terminal in Savannah, Georgia, said, The proposed action would put our company out of business.

Bermuda Container Line, which operates the Chinese-built Oleander (IMO: 9827334) on weekly service to Bermuda from New York/New Jersey, said, There is almost a certainty that the added financial cost would threaten its survival, jeopardising one of Bermudas only dedicated services, leading to food shortages on the island.

Somers Isles Shipping, a small operator transporting 150 teu per voyage or 4,000 teu per year on biweekly service from Port Fernandina, Florida to Bermuda, said, This fee would simply put us out of business in one voyage.

Hans Laue, president of Florida-based brokerage Gisholt Shipping, warned that the USTR fees would, at the very least, cause the demise of dozens of American small- and medium-sized businesses, resulting in tens of thousands of jobs. The worst case, Laue said: Applying them as proposed could be Armageddon for American industries and American citizens across the board.

Tanker shipping

US President Donald Trump insists he will boost US oil and gas exports, but port taxes would be passed along via charter parties to energy cargo shippers, inflating the cost of US exports and reducing their competitiveness.

The American Petroleum Institute, the US energy sectors top lobbyist, said the USTR plan could undermine President Trumps energy dominance agenda by making it more challenging to export oil, LNG and refined products, and would also hinder the USs ability to import crude oil.

According to NYSE-listed Energy Products Partners, the US export tanker cargo preference requirements would inadvertently guarantee that there will be no drill baby drill. The liquid gold under our feet would stay in the ground.

INEOS, a leading exporter of US ethane, said the proposed port fees risk rendering the export of US ethane gas uneconomical.

Dry bulk shipping

The responses were even more ominous from dry bulk shippers.

The US National Mining Association said, Increased costs, supply chain disruptions and even the outright inability to import or export critical materials could bring the industry to a standstill.

According to the West Virginia Coal Association, It may prove impossible for coal-exporting companies to secure an adequate number of appropriately designed and sized vessels to avoid the proposed port fees. Imposition of the port fees will simply price West Virginia coal out of the seaborne energy market. This rule is not only onerous, but unnecessary and impossible to manage and will serve to punish major export states like West Virginia.

According to the American Soybean Association, The US does not have the domestic-flag capacity to handle our export market at the rate proposed by the USTR. We are extremely concerned that if this proposal goes into effect, US soybeans will be effectively shut out from our global export markets.

Bulker charterer KOGA said that a typical US Gulf-Mediterranean voyage cost on a 10,000 dwt vessel would be $70 per tonne without the proposed port tax, and $170 per tonne with the tax. This increased cost would make such voyages financially unfeasible, it asserted.

IMI, a logistics provider that handles gypsum and cement imports to the US and exports of coal and petcoke from the US, said the broad USTR port-fee criteria would capture virtually every vessel IMI charters and would result in an annual cost burden of $180m-$630m, which will become a direct pass-through expense to IMIs US customers.

Lightship Chartering pointed to the 10m tonnes of rock salt that is imported annually from overseas for road de-icing in the US northeast. The USTR plan would double the cost of imported salt from $20 per tonne to $40 per tonne, it said, adding that local US municipalities would not be able to cover the rise with tax increases.

Peeples Industries president Frank Peeples Jr estimated that freight on dry bulk cargoes from Georgia to Europe on a handysize vessel would rise from $24 per tonne to $55.25 per tonne.

Trading this cargo will no longer be viable. What I cant understand is a rule on bulk vessels that will require a fee greater than the typical bulk freight cost to Europe or even greater than the value of the product itself. This rule seems to assume that many of these commodities on targeted Chinese-built bulk vessels are captive and therefore will be forced to pay. That assumption is wrong. These products at the fee levels proposed will not trade. Full stop.

Looks like he ran away.

you still hear them talk as if there was a secret make Manchin do whatever you want button they just refused to push.

I definitely didn't have "worldwide rise of pro-Israel fascism" on my bingo card going into the 21st century

The Weimar hyperinflation wasn't related to the Great Depression, it happened because the German government was intentionally devaluing their currency to try to get around reparations payments.

Ive got to assume their next argument will be to have the Fed drop interest rates. Which will not do anything of course.

Which is all fine and good when one of the choices isnt literally the end of democracy as we know it.

Leftists should have held their fucking noses and voted for Harris, just like I did four years ago with Biden, because while he wasn't perfect, he was INARGUABLY THE BETTER CHOICE.

Elon Musk is one

The others are less publicly famous but I think they are the ones who actually run not just America but the entire planet. If they feel that Trump is ruining their lives, then they will do something to stop him

I think they let him run wild because they didn't realize how destructive he would be. They are probably rethinking it now

If it happens, things are going to turn real crazy, real fast

Do not associate your Google account with the phone until AFTER getting through customs.

Create an all new, clean-slate Google account to use the phone initially. Once through customs, do a factory reset of the phone, then login to your normal Google account.

(You don't want both your clean-slate account and your regular account on the same device, ever. For Google will auto-associate the two with each other.)

So I've been trying to use lotion as suggested, but it feels like a losing battle sometimes.

I remember this one time I was putting on lotion almost once a day for an entire month, to no avail. I honestly suspect it weakens the skin and makes it more prone to break. Makes me think might as well let my hands get calloused and thus protected from future breakage. Just like how my feet can form blisters, then become calloused and no longer blister anymore.

On the plus side will see if my insurance covers the dermatologist visit so I'm finally seeing someone about it

Also known as, how politics is supposed to work.

All too many people forget that these people work for us. Their literal purpose as a job is to serve the community they represent. And the cool part of a functioning democracy is that when those representatives aren't doing their jobs we get to say "no fuck off, if you don't do a better job we're going to withhold our vote for you." And if those people want to win their election because they genuinely care about bettering their community, then they'll find a way to capture those votes, instead of alienating them and costing them their election chances.

Would you say that was a good strategic decision

A lot of them are protesting today

I'm questioning how much you minimize within the device content.

Travel apps?
Pokemon Go?
Bank apps?
Burner e-mail that you tie to your bank temporarily?
Don't....google anything other than in incognito mode?
Don't take pictures?

First it's all the pro palestinian protests have stopped, now they have to specifically be focused solely on trump to count, the goalposts do be moving