The Frankish Reich

How's this for "taking on" the military-industrial complex? https://nypost.com/2025/05/02/us-news/trump-budget-calls-for-more-than-1t-in-defense-spending-massive-cuts-to-education-foreign-aid-and-environment/

Really an excellent article from the pure business side. The ripple effects of the ridiculous tariffs (which the markets do believe will be undone before fully enacted) will continue for some time.

Next you'll hear that she has a deal for the Bowser International Golf Result in Dubai.

Immigrant invader! Refusing to assimilate. Probably speaks that Low Dutch thing instead of English.

As the righties are always quick to say: Now let's see Trump post himself as the next Ayatollah.

Surprisingly strong April jobs report shows resilience of the Biden Economy!

Nothing on point here. Your initial argument (cut and pasted from an old CATO article) suggesting that the U.S. economy in the 1920s continued to grow despite (not because of) a tariff increase; therefore, the current tariff increase poses no problem. Which ignores the fact that it is 100 years later, with a far more interconnected world economy, and that Trump's proposed increase, when it goes fully into effect in something like 70 days, will be approximately 25 times greater than that 1922 increase. As the WSJ editorial said, Trump seems to believe that if a little bit of something is good, a lot of that something must be a whole lot better. A lot of MAGA types are so seduced by his shoot from the hip nonsense that they can no longer even comprehend how outrageous his proposals are. Not just twice as large as the largest prior tariff increase, but 25 times larger.

What nonsense. Even if we did only go from an average weighted tariff of 1.5% to 10%, you do get that that's a 6.5X increase? 650 percent increase? Nothing has ever been close. Not even 1832 (boy you went digging, I gotta give that to you!) And of course we only have (ostensibly) a 90 day pause on the big ones. Mr. 90 day/180 day/270 day/oh, let's forget I ever said something that stupid with my confusing chart in hand and move on with things.

OK, I'm an old guy. Not that old, but with old guy consumer habits. I know what shoe brands/styles I like. So I know the size/brand and check out Amazon (which owns Zappos). Sometimes I'll try things on in a Nordstrom Rack type store where you don't need someone to fetch the box, see what I like/fits, then go home and Google it to find it cheaper. True athletic shoes (think hiking boots)? I still have to get those in person. Fit is too important.

Did we win the Cold War? Too soon to tell. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/23/back-in-the-ussr-lenin-statues-and-soviet-flags-reappear-in-russian-controlled-cities

Try it. You'll never go back.

Wow, Pepsi is now health food! Wait'll they see what RFK Jr says about high fructose corn syrup. The should sub beef tallow. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/18/rfk-jr-corn-syrup-ban-trump Wow, something I can get on board with!

Trump: "what a beautiful, powerful sight"

At what cost? Should we be growing coffee in huge greenhouses so we don't have to import it? Should we go back to the cottage industry days of a craftsman making wooden toys, so families can pay $150 for a bespoke doll instead of $25 for the plastic one the kid actually wants? All so we can feel better about ourselves and our "greatness?" I call that stupidity, which in my day was not a great thing. Which is typically a tell that it isn't ...

I agree. And no problem searching by size/color/style/price. I'm surprised men's shoes are even sold in stores today.

Spoken like Mitt Romney. He had a point.

Well, that's another possible explanation. But I prefer the illiteracy one. It means you can be educated.

The trade-weighted tariff average goes from 1.5% to 25.8% Does that look like a 64% rise to you like Fordney-McCumber 1922 was? Economic illiteracy? Math illiteracy? Both? EDIT: @Big Blitz - are you still struggling with the math? Here's a cheat: https://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/algebra/percentage-increase-calculator.php The answer: 1520% increase. So your argument is this: a 64% increase in the average tariff rate in 1922 didn't cause an immediate recession; hence, a 1520% tariff increase in 2025 is nothing to worry about. Color me unconvinced.

I don't know who is feeding you these links (I suspect it's one of your Twitter feeds), but it would do you good to actually read the cited article before reposting an unrepresentative clip from it. I spotted this right away because CATO - a libertarian think tank - would never suggest tariffs are benign. Do you know by what percentage Trump's tariffs increased the average tariff rate? I'll give you some time to look it up. EDIT: Time's up. https://taxfoundation.org/research/all/federal/trump-tariffs-trade-war/

I don't think "rabidness of support" means what you think it means.

And just wait till they're "adjusted" up in the upcoming months. (isn't that what the MAGAs always say happens?)

Steve Rattner this morning: - Strip out the effects of Trump's tariffs (mostly increased beat-the-tariffs import activity) and GDP GREW by about 2 percent on an annualized basis in Q1. - So Q1 was, indeed, the continuation of "the Biden Economy" - sustained growth, low unemployment, decreasing inflation. Trump blew that up with anticipated tariffs, and then actual imposition of tariffs (which happened in early April, Q2). His analysis is obviously correct.

What exactly has the Germ Theory of Disease given us? Time to return to the turgid miasma theory. MAHA!! Has anyone investigated whether the environmental degradation of fracking causes measles? Because the Texas/New Mexico maps show a pretty strong correlation between fracking activity and measles cases. Get on it, RFK! Editorial comment: what a frickin idiot.

Proves what was pretty obvious. Goldberg said that it wasn't the first time Waltz had texted him. Waltz was providing info to Goldberg for a long time, trying to cultivate his reputation as a serious thinker on national security matters. This is the true reveal: most of those Trumpies who excoriate the MSM have a pretty good familiarity with MSM reporters who they selectively leak to in order to improve their public standing.

You are too kind. I can't really take credit for that one.