mixed_biscuits

_________________________
Are they sending mixed messages with the isolationist, 'America First' rhetoric whilst also trying to interfere abroad like this or is it unrealistic to expect them to be completely isolationist, given the globalised world we're in?
Too many people getting hung up on the word "isolationist". The US admin doesn't self-identify as isolationist.
 

version

Well-known member
One thing that you maybe don't hear much about is that the postmaster general, a person appointed during Trump's first term, a person with major conflicts of interest, has basically been wrecking USPS from the inside.

forgot to mention how often in the past few years I've had mail/packages show up mangled/damaged, or never not show up at all, my/our mail getting delivered to the wrong address, getting other people's mail (sometimes for people that don't even live on the same street!), etc...

This used to almost never happen.

Feb 14 (Reuters) - Days after U.S. President Donald Trump ended duty-free entry for cheap Chinese goods entering the U.S., his administration put the order on hold after more than a million packages piled up at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.​
It was the result of a rushed, confusing policy change that proved unworkable on short notice. Government officials are now scrambling to implement the order in a way that won't cripple America's hyper-efficient import system.​

This is one of the issues the Trump admin. has with USPS atm.

A particular challenge is the government-owned United States Postal Service (USPS). Although USPS only accounted for about 5% of last year's total de minimis shipments, some 75 million parcels, experts described it as the Achilles heel of any policy to remove tariff exemptions on low-value shipments. USPS, with a history developed around the receiving and sending of letters, is not set up to assess and process duties on packages of sweaters, shoes and headphones coming from abroad.​
Express carriers like FedEx, UPS and DHL have in-house customs brokerage divisions that collect any tariffs owed by package recipients, and these companies often handle every step of a delivery, from drop-off to doorstep. In contrast, USPS receives items from foreign postal services that are flown into a handful of international mail facilities at major U.S. airports. These packages often arrive with limited information about their contents. In addition, USPS is not set up to process tariffs.​
"The postal service has absolutely no way, themselves, to collect duty or pay duty to the government," said Cindy Allen, CEO of Trade Force Multiplier, an international trade consultancy service, and a former CBP official.​
 

0bleak

Well-known member
Yeah, we've basically never had to pay taxes on stuff we get in the mail from another country (unless maybe it's worth thousands of dollars), but if his goal is to make things more efficient, adding tariffs or taxes to packages would be doing the opposite.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Yeah, we've basically never had to pay taxes on stuff we get in the mail from another country (unless maybe it's worth thousands of dollars), but if his goal is to make things more efficient, adding tariffs or taxes to packages would be doing the opposite.
You mean... something Trump said would make things better... might actually make them worse? 😬
 

0bleak

Well-known member
It's pretty shitty to be labeled as a parasite by the president's right hand man due to having mental disabilities (and physical, too, since it affects my motor skills) that have already caused me a lot of suffering and hardship.
I expect the trump and musk fans to defend that, too, and prolly be calling for genocide and concentration camps for people such as myself since people like musk aren't even hiding their disdain for others anymore.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
It's pretty shitty to be labeled as a parasite by the president's right hand man due to having mental disabilities (and physical, too, since it affects my motor skills) that have already caused me a lot of suffering and hardship.
I expect the trump and musk fans to defend that, too, and prolly be calling for genocide and concentration camps for people such as myself since people like musk aren't even hiding their disdain for others anymore.
Yeah, it's appalling. It's also totally fucking hypocritical, since his companies receive huge subsidies from the federal government (in addition to guaranteed contracts and preferential loans.

Screenshot_20250217_085000_Chrome.jpg

I've seen people quote figures of a total of $8M a day...
 

hmg

Victory lap
Big difference between subsidies that build value and innovation vs. throwing money into a bottomless pit. And those (Biden mandated) subsidies have a distinctly green tinge that you'd usually applaud.

Finally, $8 million daily is tiny, about 17 minutes of NHS spending.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Big difference between subsidies that build value and innovation vs. throwing money into a bottomless pit. And those (Biden mandated) subsidies have a distinctly green tinge that you'd usually applaud.

Finally, $8 million daily is tiny, about 17 minutes of NHS spending.
Musk could take a shit in your mouth and you'd tell him it tasted of Lindt chocolate.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
You don't have to be a rabid anti-Trumper to see that there could be a slight conflict of interest when the person who decides which schemes receiving government money are productive and which are wasteful is the very person whose benefit-receiving schemes are deemed genuinely productive while virtually all the others are declared wasteful and cut to the bone or further.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
It's pretty shitty to be labeled as a parasite by the president's right hand man due to having mental disabilities (and physical, too, since it affects my motor skills) that have already caused me a lot of suffering and hardship.
I expect the trump and musk fans to defend that, too, and prolly be calling for genocide and concentration camps for people such as myself since people like musk aren't even hiding their disdain for others anymore.
Is he not talking about civil servants?
 

0bleak

Well-known member
I don't think anyone thinks he's referring to civil servants, nor have I see one person claiming such.
and considering the history of people using the phrase "parasite" before they started killing others and throwing them in ovens, it's not a good look.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
I don't think anyone thinks he's referring to civil servants, nor have I see one person claiming such.
and considering the history of people using the phrase "parasite" before they started killing others and throwing them in ovens, it's not a good look.
I bet you 100 bucks they aren't going to throw anyone into any ovens (they being Trump and Co, not the Demoncrats).
 
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