Mid-Platitude Cyclone

Unable to even.

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@itsmingway YES, HAVE SOME

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@itsmingway Unf. ❤️

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@BWTF_Ben @KevinRAGES What manner of malcreadinous chucklefuckery could possibly hate on G1. G1 walked so later whippersnappers could run. We gotta check some damn heads for damage frfr.

[Russ Latino @RussLatino]

You have a trade deficit with Kroger. You buy more stuff from them than they buy from you. Kroger has not taken advantage of you. You voluntarily paid them for something you wanted and which you were either unwilling or unable to produce yourself at a lower cost.

The U.S. has a trade deficit with other nations in large part because we are a richer nation and have more money to buy things and because poorer nations can produce those things more cheaply.

We will never have a trade surplus with a country that has workers making $2 a day because they don’t have the money to buy our stuff, which is expensive by comparison to the stuff they produce. That is, unless we become very poor. During the Great Depression, the U.S. had a trade surplus. We also will never be able to onshore the manufacturing of cheap consumer goods without making those goods very expensive (and I’m not sure where the workers would come from). We do export an awful lot, though. More goods than everyone but China and more services than anyone.

I’m all for working to tear down trade barriers, like tariffs, imposed by other countries. Many of our trade partners already had lower overall trade barriers than the U.S., including Canada. I have no doubt that yesterday’s move will create additional leverage. President Trump is not wrong that they need us more than we need them, or in his belief that we have more cushion for the pain of a trade war. As is always the case in economics, these decisions are cost-benefit analyses.

But left in place for any elongated duration, yesterday’s announcement carries substantial risks. Tariffs are taxes paid by domestic importers and their customers — so Americans. Prices will go up. Manufacturing efficiency will go down. For a couple of generations, economists (people like Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell) believed that tariffs deepened the Great Depression and that even the McKinley era tariffs preceded a recession. Maybe they’re wrong. I’d rather not find out.

Finally, a word on institutions. The Constitution gives Congress, not the presidency, the right to set tariffs (and levy taxes). Regardless of what you think of the policy announced yesterday, we are skating perilously close to Congress being a meaningless rubber stamp. The founders envisioned it being the most representative and important branch of government.

[Jesse Brenneman @Jesse_Brenneman]

America is finally being run like a business: a business acquired by private equity that’s being stripped for parts before being liquidated.

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@kotori_mouchi Mention domestic spending, social programs or infrastructure and you're a socialist. Doesn't look good for them. They'll have to give a little socialism in the next few years or there will be people in the streets demanding communism.

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@kotori_mouchi None of them are looking to cut govt spending - only "the other guys'" programs. Usually (but not always) to invest more in the military, which is the ultimate money pit. Or to promise tax cuts for their rich friends.

[Jason, @jasonc_nc]

I don’t think a lot of people appreciate how much of their overall lifestyle and relative certainty is backstopped by a steady, boring stability of systems they don’t understand or even realize exist.

[Donald Trump’s Neck Vagina @torontobaddy]

Who was this reporter? I’d like to buy them a drink. 🥃

[Sarah Longwell @SarahLongwell25]

He’s either a kid who is too young and stupid to be held accountable for his actions. Or he’s an adult with a taxpayer-funded job that includes having access to American’s most sensitive information, which demands a high standards and accountability. Can’t have it both ways.

[DonAlt @DonAlt]

What people on here don't realize is that there are real losers behind the grifts and scams that are run on here

Some random schmuck with $100 to invest getting rinsed by Dave Portnoy for all he has
A dude trusting Ansem with his last $500 because he portrays himself as genuine
A Trump fan yeeting his savings into Trump coin to make it

All I hear on here is "Yeah but there were winners like XYZ" brother... these memes are zero sum, the winners took (or will take) from the losers
It's a fucked sort of hunger games and the influencers on here have machine guns while you've got dick all

[Sturgeon's Law @Sturgeons_Law]

Elon frames his remarks as "inappropriate," & Vance as "stupid" & "disagreeable." When this part of the right disavows explicit racism in its ranks, they refuse to describe it in moral terms. But ask them to describe some inane DEI policy, & they'll deploy strong moral language.

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@balajis And here are some "rightists" funding terrorists who went on to kill numerous Americans. Left or right is irrelevant. This administration WILL put you to the firing squads after they've enjoyed your contributions to their cause.
https://t.co/lL3ozwT65A

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@JDVance Absolutely, stupid social media posts shouldn't destroy your life. But there are consequences for stupid decisions. That's how he goes from stupidity to experience.

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@JDVance EXCEPT if we are going to be serious about good, limited government, we have to hold those acting on its behalf to a higher standard. Government employees - and those acting with the authorization of the government - cannot antagonize the people they serve.

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@kotori_mouchi And I don't mean that other voices don't matter simply in terms of they aren't important. I mean other voices are seditious by their very nature.

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@kotori_mouchi Definitely wouldn't look for srs answers in this pit ma'am. For the fascist in love with his/her own voice, no other voice matters. You're either with them or you get paved over. And when evil runs out of enemies, it turns on itself.

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@kotori_mouchi The administration is governing more in terms of an absolute monarchy through issuing edicts inspired by its claim to a heavenly mandate rather than will of the people.

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@kotori_mouchi One of the persistent mysteries of the 20th C. is how one of the leading cosmopolitan societies of the 1920s could facilitate the rise of the fascism and the 3rd Reich. It's a slow boil.

[Mid-Platitude Cyclone @jadillon08]

@RSO possibly has air assets on scene out of Ryan Field, but too dark to make out the tail number.