Importing from North America Has Become Tough

[stompandgo]

I understand all of what you are saying. If you don't think that the USA is the world's largest consumer nation, I don't know what to tell you.

Yes, this will be disruptive in the short run. The USA is also taking the long view. It's less about the tariffs and all about the trade restrictions and regulations. Some countries do not allow American imports of certain products at all. That's not fair trade, that's trade restriction. The only way to correct these kinds of decades long trade imbalances is to start with tariffs and negotiate a trade deal to remove the restrictions, or create agreements for purchase that are enforceable.

 

[Chargeride]

I wasnt going to reply because we are going political again and its not really fair, we are drifting from this free forums core commerce.
My last post on the subject..

The EU wants the war to carry on and grind Russia down, exactly like ww2.
Every time Zelenskys about to sign he has a little chat with Ursula and Macron and Starmer and its no I cant sign because ..I think the last excuse was' its not legal for me to do so', the guy is literally an actor who played the leader of Ukraine and hes being bounced between wormtongues while being in the weakest position imaginable.

This situation is utterly drastic, if America pulls out then Putin will crush Ukraine and invade Europe and you will be fighting alone Stefan.
We will watch from the sidelines like we did with Ukraine, send you some old tanks, Polish flags in social media, will the young men of Poland fight or run?
Do you think the EU will defend you?
No they will let Russia take half because they havent got America to save them.

Our nukes are impotent against a slow invasion.
Our papers are screaming that we should arm up to defend the Russian borders, we cant get people to sign up.
Immigrants openly state they will not fight for Europe.

Indians have started going home, they can see Britain self destructing.

Starmer keeps saying, we will defend Poland, because he knows we wont.

We are spent, our national pride and patriotism has evaporated under globalism and mass immigration.
The French will fold instantly.
Half of Germany might welcome the invasion.
We have a tired army, that has no belief to fight for, they tear down our flags, hunt down the right in the ranks, the youth will not fight, no one will fight.
They mock our veterans on tv as they cry for the pointless sacrifice of the dead.
Europe will need 1.6bn immigrants just to keep barely ticking over and as the US security paper states, they may well morph into hostile states.

You can write this off as hyperbole, but you know how bad it is.
Everything will tick over with brinkmanship till suddenly one day it wont.

Poland is the de facto anti EU country of Europe, our far right holds it up as a beacon of hope with its strict anti immigration policies, the probably fake, maybe partial truth of the Trump stealing four pro maga countries includes Poland.
I can imagine your despair hearing this anti EU rhetoric from me as well, but I simply dont believe its good for Europe, they constantly claim decades of peace under the EU.
No its decades of US funded peace despite the EU.
They have mocked America way before Trump, even Tony Blair had to defend America against the intrinsic , snidy, elitist attack by the EU at everything they did.
Chickens..home..roost.

All we can hope is America decides a chaotic Europe might harm them and that isolation could end up with US troops dying in Europe again.

Anyway, I wish you luck, it seems you are preparing and history tells us you know not to be caught out again.

We thought this was all over after the Soviet collapse, its actually worse than the cold war.

This may seem ridiculous to some, but thats exactly what fed ww2, the belief it wouldnt happen

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The EU wants the war to carry on and grind Russia down, exactly like ww2.

It's Putin's narrative. It is just the opposite. Russia attacked an independent and peaceful country Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. Ukraine gave up her nuclear weapons in 1990s and got security guarantees, worthless as usual. Since the Putin's rule, numerous countries were attacked by Russia, and it was always explained as the "protection of Russian speaking populace.

Russia is now waging a hybrid war against Europe.

Your English Channel won't protect you in case of war, Charge.

Again, your views are pure Putin's narrative. Have you ever heard of the place name Londongrad?

 

[Mr. Coffee]

When I said "Maoism", I didn't expect us to go full on Gang Of Four so quickly.

So someone who is an apologist for evil dictators can please explain to me how this is going to make things better in the long term.

And keep in mind that "long term" is irrelevant if you are horribly screwed in the short term.

We aren't boiling the frog anymore, we're just putting it in the microwave.

 

[Chargeride]

It's Putin's narrative. It is just the opposite. Russia attacked an independent and peaceful country Ukraine in 2014 and 2022. Ukraine gave up her nuclear weapons in 1990s and got security guarantees, worthless as usual. Since the Putin's rule, numerous countries were attacked by Russia, and it was always explained as the "protection of Russian speaking populace.

Russia is now waging a hybrid war against Europe.

Your English Channel won't protect you in case of war, Charge.

Again, your views are pure Putin's narrative. Have you ever heard of the place name Londongrad?

This is exactly want he wants to do and we are rightly concerned, but have no stomach whatsoever for a fight, who will you look to?
Putin has all he needs from Ukraine, its sea ports so we cant block him in.
The fields are full of Russian dead, their money taken, their oligarch yachts impounded.
Biden cleared British cruise missiles to hit inside Russia as his final command to make the war unfixable by Trump.

Are we to presume Russia will just leave it as water under the bridge.

Im predicting a wall of European assets on the border regardless if Zelensky folds or not.
It has actually begun already.

The US draws down troops on NATO's eastern flank as Europe frets about a security vacuum

The U.S. confirms it will reduce its troop presence on NATO’s borders with Ukraine. This move has raised concerns among allies about a potential security gap as Russia becomes more confrontational.

apnews.com

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Im predicting a wall of European assets on the border regardless if Zelensky folds or not.
It has actually begun already.

You don't fight a war in 2025 with a "wall of assets on the border". That is a better strategy to stop smuggling.

With modern weapons and targeting systems, concentrations of force are just concentrated targets. So a very roomy slaughter is required.

I'm very skeptical both that Russia is really intending to fight a war with NATO and that it would be possible for the Americans to skip out on it.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Putin has all he needs from Ukraine, its sea ports so we cant block him in.

Heard of those "shadow fleet" tankers recently damaged in the Black Sea? Russia had to move her Black Sea navy to the seaports in the east because...

their oligarch yachts impounded.

Are you sure those got impounded? (St. Catherine Quay, Londongrad, July 2022).

 

[stompandgo]

Seizing the yachts is the easy part. Selling them with a clear title after a plethora of legal challenges is the issue.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

I think you are in a very bad way if your Navy can be defeated by a country that has no Navy.

If I were a country which had made enormous capital investments over decades in a Navy and the operations expertise to have a blue-water Navy what is happening to Russia in the Black Sea would have me looking over my shoulder. And if my country's international trade depended on some other countries' Navy that had made such large investments I would also be looking over my shoulder.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Russia militarily is a spent force. Putin has no intention of moving against NATO. Thanks to Ukraine his best troops lie dead in the black mud next to 90% of his entire tank force now peacefully rusting away. His conscripts from remote piss poor Republics are barely trained, with North Korean artillery shells and Iranian missiles for company. Open up a Russian missile and it's full of western hi tech components. There is barely a Russian arms industry anymore.

Whereas on his Western borders wait the Polish army superbly equipped and chomping at the bit to have a go. Finland, tiny but who know their Russian neighbours intimately, have previous, and are very well prepared and would very much like Karelia back now thank you very much. Behind them is rich Sweden with the most tech advanced weapons production in Europe and a powerful army and then there is Norway the steady NATO watchmen in the Arctic who know the Russians up close.

Meanwhile U.K. and Germany are rearming at speed, France is bullish, Turkey is taking no more shot from Putin and artillery shell production is now sky high and that's what Ukraine needs above all. Millions of 155 shells, America had already reduced the transfer of their own shell stockpile for fear of running out and Europe led by the Czechs are vastly increasing production and about fucking time too.

All Putin has in the form of threats is the nuclear card. His 3rd world army has advanced less than ten miles in over a year. A 9 month siege of a ruined tiny city nobody has ever heard of and even now he has STILL failed to take, the bodies piling up and up. And he plays the nuclear power card again and again and again. In 2022- if you give Ukraine manpads we will be forced to go nuclear-

Nothing happens.

If you give them Leopard tanks- Nuclear

Nothing

Himars?
ATACMs?
F16s?
Blow up the crimea bridge (3 times)?
Sink our battleship?
Destroy 20% of our aerial bombers, part of our nuclear deterrent in one audacious drone attack(Spiderweb) ?
Destroy the petroleum & gas infrastructure throughout Russia?

NOTHING HAPPENS. NOTHING. NADA. He just bombs women and children night after night. It's all bluff but Putin the old (mediocre) KGB agent plays his spy craft games. He's weakened the EU with brexit and spy games especially in Germany (remember the Wirecard collapse?) Interfered in elections from U.K. France US Germany, Romania, Poland, Moldova...failing in most of these, that's all he can do, online troll farms & bots. And if Trump ain't a Russian asset, well he's doing exactly what a Russian asset would do! The 2 big clubs Putin fears most is the EU and NATO. He can't have Ukraine on his border in both because A. his citizens will see how rich the Ukrainians become, like Poland, like Croatia and all the ex-Warsaw Pact countries who escaped Russias grasp in the 90s after 40+ years and B. because a Ukraine In NATO means he can't attack them.

Trump has pissed off Canada the staunchest NATO ally. Done the same to Denmark, small but at the heart of EU & NATO. He's constantly threatening to cut off Ukraine and this latest fake peace plan is a plan of Ukraine surrender. He bends over backwards for Putin. But I'm more surprised at the complete lack of inquiry about his pro Putin behaviour & family's shady billion dollar grifting, from the traditional right wing hawks in US, what happened to them?! Where's the scrutiny? Are they all dead with John McCain?

This week, after the FBI spent a year painstakingly extraditing a Belarusian woman found selling US military secrets & just as they were taking her to court, ICE snatched the suspect and plans to immediately deport her back to Belarus. Hard to make this s*it up.

May You Live In Interesting Times. They say.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

People need to keep in mind that large majorities of the US Public and large majorities in the Senate and House want to provide more support to Ukraine. And similarly large majorities want the US in NATO. Also some pretty strong institutional barriers have been put up that make it hard from a practical standpoint to pull the US out of NATO.

Tr*mp is running about a 36 percent approval and 61 percent disapproval rate, which is historically low for any President. Historically even dictators depend on popular support and 36 percent was probably below where Khadafi and Ceaușescu when they were deposed and killed. Both of whom had far more effective police state apparati than the Administration could ever hope for.

It is also important to keep in mind that what happens when a strongman is declining in his faculties is never pretty and often chaotic.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

apparati

Sweet!

 

[Gionnirocket]

People need to keep in mind that large majorities of the US Public and large majorities in the Senate and House want to provide more support to Ukraine. And similarly large majorities want the US in NATO. Also some pretty strong institutional barriers have been put up that make it hard from a practical standpoint to pull the US out of NATO.

Tr*mp is running about a 36 percent approval and 61 percent disapproval rate, which is historically low for any President. Historically even dictators depend on popular support and 36 percent was probably below where Khadafi and Ceaușescu when they were deposed and killed. Both of whom had far more effective police state apparati than the Administration could ever hope for.

It is also important to keep in mind that what happens when a strongman is declining in his faculties is never pretty and often chaotic.

... and yet there's not a single republican who will cross him no matter the circumstances and they're setting the stage making it impossible for a democrat to ever get elected again.

 

[gromike]

End of the Republic.
It's ironic that the last Republican President destroys the Republic that the first Republican President fought to maintain.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

... and yet there's not a single republican who will cross him no matter the circumstances and they're setting the stage making it impossible for a democrat to ever get elected again.

Just saying. But the line between being an all-powerful dictator and rotting meat is often razor thin and nobody will know they are close to it until it is much too late.

Nicolae Ceaușescu went from unquestioned dictator-for-life in Romania to dead from acute lead poisoning via firing squad in the space of a few short weeks.

Antonio Salazar was dictator of Portugal for decades (from 1932 to 1968). After a stroke in 1968 and recovery from a coma, the ministers held fake cabinet meetings with him, prohibited him from making public appearances, and even published a fake newspaper for him to convince him things were going great until his death in 1970.

I think with Tr*mp we are likely to end up with a "Weekend at Bernie's" situation where so many people are profiting from him being President that they will keep him in the job even when he kicks the bucket as long as they can. Given that his family alone is raking in a billion dollars a month they have every incentive to keep the grift going.

 

[Rás Cnoic]

Just saying. But the line between being an all-powerful dictator and rotting meat is often razor thin and nobody will know they are close to it until it is much too late.

Nicolae Ceaușescu went from unquestioned dictator-for-life in Romania to dead from acute lead poisoning via firing squad in the space of a few short weeks.

Antonio Salazar was dictator of Portugal for decades (from 1932 to 1968). After a stroke in 1968 and recovery from a coma, the ministers held fake cabinet meetings with him, prohibited him from making public appearances, and even published a fake newspaper for him to convince him things were going great until his death in 1970.

I think with Tr*mp we are likely to end up with a "Weekend at Bernie's" situation where so many people are profiting from him being President that they will keep him in the job even when he kicks the bucket as long as they can. Given that his family alone is raking in a billion dollars a month they have every incentive to keep the grift going.

Well the plan must include Trump dying on the toilet before his term is up, given his physical condition as you say, and they must already have a shortlist of successors. Question is which of the Peter Thiel halfwits do they think can carry the MAGA faithful plus con enough normal Americans for them to hold on to the throne?

Or typical fascist style do they just intend to promote a National emergency to cancel elections? Off the top of my head, say something like a war in the Caribbean for instance.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Well the plan must include Trump dying on the toilet before his term is up, given his physical condition as you say, and they must already have a shortlist of successors. Question is which of the Peter Thiel halfwits do they think can carry the MAGA faithful plus con enough normal Americans for them to hold on to the throne?

Or typical fascist style do they just intend to promote a National emergency to cancel elections? Off the top of my head, say something like a war in the Caribbean for instance.

I'm guessing when he eats that Last Cheeseburger and croaks that none of the groups around him who think they are the Rightful Heirs will have enough power to take over. And all of those groups hate each other just as much as they all hate normal people and Democrats. So the internecine fighting will be long, ugly, and likely inconclusive.

MAGA as a group was always a big but very thin tent. A lot of the supporters only showed up to vote for Tr*mp and never voted for anyone else. And it is Politics 101 that it is hard to keep a coalition going if you screw over many members of said coalition.

 

[Chargeride]

Russia militarily is a spent force. Putin has no intention of moving against NATO. Thanks to Ukraine his best troops lie dead in the black mud next to 90% of his entire tank force now peacefully rusting away. His conscripts from remote piss poor Republics are barely trained, with North Korean artillery shells and Iranian missiles for company. Open up a Russian missile and it's full of western hi tech components. There is barely a Russian arms industry anymore.

Whereas on his Western borders wait the Polish army superbly equipped and chomping at the bit to have a go. Finland, tiny but who know their Russian neighbours intimately, have previous, and are very well prepared and would very much like Karelia back now thank you very much. Behind them is rich Sweden with the most tech advanced weapons production in Europe and a powerful army and then there is Norway the steady NATO watchmen in the Arctic who know the Russians up close.

Meanwhile U.K. and Germany are rearming at speed, France is bullish, Turkey is taking no more shot from Putin and artillery shell production is now sky high and that's what Ukraine needs above all. Millions of 155 shells, America had already reduced the transfer of their own shell stockpile for fear of running out and Europe led by the Czechs are vastly increasing production and about fucking time too.

All Putin has in the form of threats is the nuclear card. His 3rd world army has advanced less than ten miles in over a year. A 9 month siege of a ruined tiny city nobody has ever heard of and even now he has STILL failed to take, the bodies piling up and up. And he plays the nuclear power card again and again and again. In 2022- if you give Ukraine manpads we will be forced to go nuclear-

Nothing happens.

If you give them Leopard tanks- Nuclear

Nothing

Himars?
ATACMs?
F16s?
Blow up the crimea bridge (3 times)?
Sink our battleship?
Destroy 20% of our aerial bombers, part of our nuclear deterrent in one audacious drone attack(Spiderweb) ?
Destroy the petroleum & gas infrastructure throughout Russia?

NOTHING HAPPENS. NOTHING. NADA. He just bombs women and children night after night. It's all bluff but Putin the old (mediocre) KGB agent plays his spy craft games. He's weakened the EU with brexit and spy games especially in Germany (remember the Wirecard collapse?) Interfered in elections from U.K. France US Germany, Romania, Poland, Moldova...failing in most of these, that's all he can do, online troll farms & bots. And if Trump ain't a Russian asset, well he's doing exactly what a Russian asset would do! The 2 big clubs Putin fears most is the EU and NATO. He can't have Ukraine on his border in both because A. his citizens will see how rich the Ukrainians become, like Poland, like Croatia and all the ex-Warsaw Pact countries who escaped Russias grasp in the 90s after 40+ years and B. because a Ukraine In NATO means he can't attack them.

Trump has pissed off Canada the staunchest NATO ally. Done the same to Denmark, small but at the heart of EU & NATO. He's constantly threatening to cut off Ukraine and this latest fake peace plan is a plan of Ukraine surrender. He bends over backwards for Putin. But I'm more surprised at the complete lack of inquiry about his pro Putin behaviour & family's shady billion dollar grifting, from the traditional right wing hawks in US, what happened to them?! Where's the scrutiny? Are they all dead with John McCain?

This week, after the FBI spent a year painstakingly extraditing a Belarusian woman found selling US military secrets & just as they were taking her to court, ICE snatched the suspect and plans to immediately deport her back to Belarus. Hard to make this s*it up.

May You Live In Interesting Times. They say.

Putin has built a war economy, he has made 200bn just from selling gas and oil to Europe which we hilariously use to provide power for Ukraine.

How the West is helping Russia to fund its war on Ukraine

Data shows that Russian fossil fuel revenues are three times higher than aid allocated to Ukraine.

www.bbc.co.uk

They blew up one of the 'ghost ships' supplying us and everyone went..wayhey, Russia is finished.
Theres 500 of them suppyling us and others through proxies.

The ‘dark fleet’ of tankers shipping Russian oil in the shadows

As sanctions loomed, sales of ageing crude carriers suddenly soared, bought by operators unknown to the market

www.theguardian.com

They are building defences in the arctic.

Is Russia preparing for war in the Arctic?

www.polarregions.co.uk

To suggest Russia is a spent force is wishful thinking, Putins energy is dirt cheap, ours is catastrophically high.

Im not here boasting for Putin, Im pointing out the threat...it is very, very real.
Putin got to within 19 miles Kyiv in days , it was only US intervention that made him back off and retreat.

Without the US Ukraine would have been Russias within weeks.

Poland is preparing, we are just making noises and hoping the US will keep spending money, Ukraine owes Europe and America a multi generational debt already and now we are going to take out a loan on Russian money to support more death in muddy fields.
Brinkmanship of the highest degree.

 

[Chargeride]

Just saying. But the line between being an all-powerful dictator and rotting meat is often razor thin and nobody will know they are close to it until it is much too late.

Nicolae Ceaușescu went from unquestioned dictator-for-life in Romania to dead from acute lead poisoning via firing squad in the space of a few short weeks.

Antonio Salazar was dictator of Portugal for decades (from 1932 to 1968). After a stroke in 1968 and recovery from a coma, the ministers held fake cabinet meetings with him, prohibited him from making public appearances, and even published a fake newspaper for him to convince him things were going great until his death in 1970.

I think with Tr*mp we are likely to end up with a "Weekend at Bernie's" situation where so many people are profiting from him being President that they will keep him in the job even when he kicks the bucket as long as they can. Given that his family alone is raking in a billion dollars a month they have every incentive to keep the grift going.

I was in Romania just before he was overthrown, to actually see a decaying communist regime up front in its last days as Im sure Stefan has some experience of , is quite the shock to western eyes.
Mothers would pull their children away from us, not because they though we were dangerous, just the slightest hint of colluding with the 'enemy' might result in consequences.

 

[Mr. Coffee]

Without the US Ukraine would have been Russias within weeks.

Except in 2022 when the war started Ukraine had little to no help in the first weeks of the war, when everyone assumed that Ukraine was doomed.

Except the multiple times in 2023 and 2024 and 2025 when all US assistance was cut off for weeks at a time.

At this point in time NATO and the US need Ukraine, desperately. For their military technology and their tactical and operational skills.

Just as one example, Ukraine is mass-producing FPV drones for under $1000 each and in quantities approaching 10_000 per week. While the US is building not-quite-as-good drones for $70_000 and making around 1000 per year. It gets worse, because Ukraine can push software updates to those drones right up to the point where they are expended and has a turnaround time between when a change is needed and when it gets deployed that is under 48 hours. That matters because it is one more way you can stay ahead of electronic warfare.

Ukraine is doing all that while they are getting the sh*t bombed out of themselves every night.