President-elect Donald Trump is threatening to impose big tariffs on imported goods, especially from countries like China. Might be a good idea to hoard cheap imported crap now.
Tis the Season to Hoard Cheap Crap
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The Final Countdown" talk show on Radio Sputnik. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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I’m impressed by your commitment to sustainability – who needs reusable bags and refillable water bottles when you can just hoard cheap plastic toys? It’s a bold new strategy, and I’m sure it’ll be a game-changer for the environment, and for American wallets too!
“Put the Planet First!” indeed… 🙁
Trump is merely loudly blathering “the quiet part” of US foreign policy: hostile contempt – quite “democratically” applied to friend and foe. (“America has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests” ― Henry Kissinger)
This chronic abuse of the “other” 95% of the world’s population has “motivated” the non-Anglo countries to form economic associations (e.g.: BRICS & Shanghai Co-operation Organization) based on trade under more favorable terms of collaboration and mutual respect, instead of constant US threats, intimidation and obsessive, mass-murderous control.
“The VAST majority” of the world’s population is gearing up to drop any and all economic involvement with the sputtering US empire. The populations of US and its obedient puppies, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea & Japan (about 1 billion out of 8 billion, total ) will eventually come to realize that they rely, for a LOT more than simply cheap crap, on that “inferior” 90% that they have finally, irreversibly alienated.
That’s why the US have the world’s most expensive military, to stop that kind of thing.
Indeed and the result has been a $3000/person annual power-shopper surcharge to finance the military-maintained hyper-consumer paradise. We can safely assume the surcharge will rise steeply while the shelves become, then remain, bare as the so-called “strategy” to “let the economy depend on those we are happily killing” comes to its inevitable fruition.
Caught the most recent DMZ. It is worth a listen. Rall’s position on Biden’s pardoning was right in line with my thoughts.
Ted, why is the carousel automatically in motion? It’s like getting Kamala Harris to simply answer a direct question to get to the comment page.
The Chinese have cut off imports of rare earth metals to the US, and are offering financial instruments on friendly terms to countries that are in debt to the US so they can pay off those debts and dump the dollar. US trade with China is only 10% of their exports, so they can afford to cut us off entirely if they decide to do so–which wouldn’t surprise me.