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Re: Politics
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 2:56 pm
by Wood Goblin
No, he’s just a dumbass. There’s no Hudsucker Proxy plan to vacuum up stocks. This is just pure, useless wealth destruction.
Re: Politics
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 3:20 pm
by offal
I've read some commentary that suggests it's partially just Trump enjoying being a bully, trying to look "strong", without any real understanding of how markets work -- and when some of the backlash inevitably gets so bad that he backpedals on some of it, he gets to look like the good guy. "Forget the fact that he cut my arm off, he just gave me a Band-Aid. He's a good guy". Given the national attention span and general outlook of the MAGA voter, this certainly seems plausible.
Whether that description of his motivation is accurate or not is a moot point though, of course. It's a tragedy regardless.
Re: Politics
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 3:37 pm
by Wood Goblin
The fact that the other countries included unpopulated islands and that their “tariffs” were “calculated” using phony math should provide a pretty good indication that we’re not working with scheming masterminds here.
They really are that dumb.
Re: Politics
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 3:38 pm
by cakes
offal wrote: Fri Apr 04, 2025 3:20 pm
I've read some commentary that suggests it's partially just Trump enjoying being a bully, trying to look "strong", without any real understanding of how markets work -- and when some of the backlash inevitably gets so bad that he backpedals on some of it, he gets to look like the good guy. "Forget the fact that he cut my arm off, he just gave me a Band-Aid. He's a good guy". Given the national attention span and general outlook of the MAGA voter, this certainly seems plausible.
Whether that description of his motivation is accurate or not is a moot point though, of course. It's a tragedy regardless.
I mean, that's how he works. He does some stupid shit, back pedals, and then he'll say he fixed it, but it was someone else's fault. Watch, he'll say the issue was from Biden and if it wasn't for Biden, his plan would have worked.
Re: Politics
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 3:38 pm
by cakes
joe_lmr wrote: Fri Apr 04, 2025 2:47 pm
Hanlon's Razor is a false dichotomy.
Well, I'm more of a Hanzo the Razor kinda guy anyway.
Re: Politics
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 4:08 pm
by Wood Goblin
The Trib’s evening edition headline is “Trump Hits the Golf Course as Stock Market Plummets over Tariffs.”
Pretty funny, but also pretty fuck those guys, who declined to make a presidential endorsement last year.
Re: Politics
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 4:22 pm
by jfv
Wood Goblin wrote: Fri Apr 04, 2025 2:56 pm
No, he’s just a dumbass. There’s no Hudsucker Proxy plan to vacuum up stocks. This is just pure, useless wealth destruction.
I don't think he's clueless. But I don't think he's a chessmaster, either. Sort of like
The Wrath of Khan... two-dimensional thinking.
Anyway, I'll stop speculating. His behavior is unnecessarily damaging, regardless.
Re: Politics
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 5:36 pm
by losthighway
This step is very unique to me. In 1.1 presidential terms he's almost only made frustrating, stupid and awful policy moves. What stands out about this is it's particularly weird. Like you could reach and link it to some right populism, but it's pretty far from the standard issue evil he's been invested in.
Re: Politics
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 5:54 pm
by Krev
You're not dealing with a sane person, and Howard Lutnick et al know they can buy for pennies on the dollar during their manufactured depression.
Re: Politics
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 6:43 pm
by The Yeoman Ghost
Krev wrote: Fri Apr 04, 2025 5:54 pm
You're not dealing with a sane person, and Howard Lutnick
et al know they can buy for pennies on the dollar during their manufactured depression.
I love the book
Citizen Hughes, and one of my favorite revelations was that Lyndon Johnson—the arch political operator; the man who knew every weakness that lay in the hearts of men, and how to exploit it—was at his wits’ end trying to deal with Howard Hughes. Even though Johnson felt like he knew every angle in the book, he could never figure out what Howard Hughes’s game was … because it never occurred to him that he was dealing with a madman.