Voroxpete @ Voroxpete @sh.itjust.works

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Ironically, this would largely achieve Trump's goal of lowering America's trade deficits. A big reason why America runs such deep deficits is because the strength of the dollar makes it less attractive to buy from the US, but the dollar never weakens because it's the global reserve.

Of course, when OPEC discussed moving away from the dollar Trump lost his shit, so it's not like this is his actual plan. There's no 5D chess here, they're all idiots. Nor would intentionally devaluing the dollar to increase US exports be a smart idea, but it is something that has been seriously proposed by one of Trump's economic advisors.

This feels like one of the least surprising news items of all time.

So, obviously, this part of the question gets more complicated.

Ideally, no one should want sweat shop jobs to exist anywhere. Ideally we should all be OK with paying more for clothes in order to have them produced by people who are getting paid a decent wage and have decent working conditions.

And tariffs, if used effectively and smartly, could be a part of solving that problem. A government might choose to carefully and thoughtfully apply tariffs on goods made with sweatshop labour in order to encourage companies to raise their employment standards in a way that that creates better employment opportunities both in their country and in the foreign nations where the manufacturing is currently being done.

But that has absolutely nothing to do with the bullshit spewing out of the white house.

Your assessment of Trump's thinking is 100% correct, but I just want to pick up on this specific detail;

He will not consider WHY foreign trading partners do not want his inferior products. He is selling them and they must buy, and if they do not buy it is "how they rip off america".

And point out that actually in many cases its not that the American made products are bad, it's that the countries in question can't afford them. No one in Cambodia or Vietnam is buying an American made car or phone. But Americans buy loads of products made with cheap Vietnamese and Cambodian labour. It's precisely because that labour is cheap that Americans want those products, and it's precisely because that labour is cheap that no one there can afford American products.

This is big part of the flawed thinking behind these tariffs. They're trying to eliminate trade imbalances that are a direct result of America exploiting other countries for cheap labour, but they're doing so by acting as if those countries are somehow exploiting America.

They're also just good business sense.

Diversity, equity and inclusion are about making sure that you have a wide variety of perspectives represented within your company.

Here's a really dumb anecdote that illustrates the point; Flaming Hot Cheetos were invented by a Latino janitor. He came up with the recipe, pitched it to higher ups, and through some serious persistence managed to get them to give it a shot. It's sold as one of those feel good stories about coming up from nothing or whatever, but the real takeaway is that it took a god damn janitor with the dogged persistence of a god to make that idea happen, because there was no one in the rooms where the decisions happened who was able to say "Hey, maybe we'd capture the Latino market better if we made flavours that appealed to them?" A more diverse company would already have been having these kinds of ideas. How much brilliance is being lost because of bad hiring practices?

Diversity makes your business more effective. A diverse workplace can attract and keep the best talent. A diverse workplace can serve the broadest range of customers, and penetrate deeper into every market it targets. A diverse workplace can build a more healthy environment for all its employees, creating better productivity. These are all good things if you are a company that likes making money.

America: "Fuck everyone else, we're going to create a totally isolated economy and refuse to buy anything from our allies. Fuck international trade, we don't need you losers anyway"

Europe: "OK, we won't trade with you then."

America: "Wait, no, come back!"

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No matter stupid you think he is, I guarantee it's more than that.

It matters only insofar as Kramer is exactly the kind of person who MAGA thinks is really smart.

His opinion shouldn't matter to anyone with two braincells to rub together, but a lot of people don't meet that criteria and do care a lot about what he says.

It's an important temperature check for how things are going in MAGA land.

This won't do shit for affordability, because the people with investment in housing will use their existing financial leverage to buy up all the new supply and either flip it at grotesquely inflated prices or rent it out.

This is like selling more tickets to a Taylor Swift concert; you're just giving the scalpers more to work with.

You can't solve hoarding by giving people more to horde.

Good shout. I'd also argue there's basically no way to read Bowie's Rebel Rebel that isn't about gender fuckery of some kind. I'd argue very strongly that it's an AMAB character presenting femme.

Swiftly followed by Bowie releasing Queen Bitch in 1971 and Lou Reed releasing Take A Walk on The Wild Side in 1972.

Bowie and Reed were both heavily involved in the New York drag scene at the time.

This is the correct answer.

A long time ago a fellow GM taught me a great rule: Every problem that you introduce should have at least three possible solutions; two that you came up with yourself, and one that your players will find, and which you could never have imagined.

Which actually makes this poll much, much worse for Elon. You're right that a lot of that 33% saying "Yeah I'd totally buy a Tesla" are probably the MAGA cult who've downloaded the latest instruction set and are now responding as programmed. Which means a lot of those people live in areas that Tesla has previously underserved (because red voters were actively antagonistic to electric cars and their infrastructure), meaning have no infrastructure there; no dealerships, no charging stations. You can't take a Tesla to a regular mechanic, and charging stations are a real problem when you live in flyover country where everything is 200km from everything, at a minimum. Most of the people who now support Elon because he's "hurting the right people" probably have no ability to actually use his products.

Yes, it will suck, and people will die as a result. A lot of people. We're still not remotely prepared for the scale of human misery climate change is going to inflict.

But it's important to be clear about the distinction between "This will make things much, much worse" and "This will destroy any chance of things getting better."

The latter is the message oil and gas execs want you to be spreading. Don't do their dirty work for them.

We've already avoided 4C based on current trends.

This is because the world is rapidly pivoting to renewables, simply because they're so much cheaper and better than the alternatives. It will be almost impossible to reverse that trend even with the damage the Trump admin will do.

Don't get me wrong, we still have a LOT of work to do, but the situation is not hopeless. The number one spreaders of climate doomerism right now are oil and gas companies. They want you to despair, so that you'll give up on trying to change things. In reality a lot of climate trends are already swinging in positive directions simply because of the economics. That on its own is not enough, and we'll never solve a market driven problem with market solutions, but it's a start.

This is not how climate science works.

Everything we're doing is "later than we should have done it", but nothing is ever "too late to make a difference."

The climate isn't a lightswitch, and it's not a bomb with a count down timer. Everything we do to improve the situation reduces the amount of total suffering that will result from anthropogenic climate change.

The notion that there is a point of no return beyond which our efforts are useless is very popular... With oil and gas executives. The "It's too late" message is being pushed heavily by people who want to keep polluting.

In reality, it's like getting into a car crash. Even if you brake too late to avoid the impact, braking still reduces the severity of the impact. Everything we do to reduce our carbon impact (as a species) will save lives. We are past the point of avoiding any harm at all, but we can still reduce the harm that occurs and hasten the point where we begin to restore our climate to a healthy state.

Polls tend to revert to the mean. This isn't surprising, a contraction for the Liberals was always inevitable at some point. With the lead they've built up their odds look good to excellent, but it's definitely important to understand that by election day it's going to be much more up in the air than it is now.

As always, nothing matters if people don't get out and vote.

Another win for Canada!