Tesla gets more than 20% of parts from Mexico, it will be affected by tariffs

>The problem with this is that it would at most replace a fraction of income taxes.

Yeah, but it isn't like they're unaware of this. They're looting the country. If the money gained from the tariffs wont offset the tax cuts, well that must mean we need to cut further, privatize further...

> Imagine Apple facing 1000% tariffs unless they take down content that's critical of the president. It's not outside the realm of possibility.

It's totally not. And the funny thing is nobody will speak up.

Higher trade value with friends then enemies (except China which is already tariffed)

You don't need a non biased website to tell you that. Goods costing %25 more affects the low income folks way more.

Think about it this way, eggs go from $3 to $10. Someone with high income is barely affected. If you make min wage at $7 an hour its a huge burden.

Mearsheimer is an idiot. From his talk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qciVozNtCDM

his 'realism' is based on...

"...Putin rarely lies to foreign audiences”

Which is just plain not true.

https://euideas.eui.eu/2022/07/11/john-mearsheimers-lecture-...

Yes, that’s how these people think. I fundamentally disagree with it and thinks it’s destructive to society, but these people want to watch things get destroyed. This is why they also applaud cuts in welfare and the federal government. Anything that is part of status quo is considered part of the swamp, so it must burn.

Countries don't have friends, they only have interests. Thinking in terms of a kindergarten and not in terms of geopolitics disqualifies you from serious participation.

There some recent Ukrainian successes:

https://x.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1897450904938320095

and

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/03/01/ukrainian-t...

Not to mention russian rafnieres getting hit almost every night:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidaxe/2025/03/04/ranging-acr...

I'm reading the opposite, Ukraine is taking back ground and Russia's Pokrovsk is going backwards. I've also read reports there have been mass surrenders and disobedience in the Russian ranks.

Mostly I follow "Ukraine the latest", I've listened everyday for 3 years and I don't think they lie because I've listened to it through some VERY tough and depressing times for Ukraine. So it's not just one sided.

Denys Davydov is also good, once again very honest guy on Youtube. Also tells it like it is, also reported some very tough times. He is Ukrainian, yes but if you follow him, you will see he is objective.

Those photos of Russians on buildings with flags aren't good indicators of anything, they've been doing that for years now, they ordered to put themselves at risks for those photo ops, they're propaganda.

I can't read the Economist article but I keep seeing Trump saying how dire it is for Ukraine but I believe he is lying and saying that to justify his extortionist behavior towards Ukraine and to force Zelensky into to a deal.

If it was that bad the war would've been over years ago. I think Trump's betrayal will make it pretty bad for them though. Let's see what Europe can come up with.

It also seems like a LOT of Ukraine's success has been from FPV drone usage, they seem to be further ramping that up and also have ramped up production.

Regardless of what it's mission is, and which military branch operates the base, it still counts as the US having a military presence.

Isn't mining anything in Greenland bloody hard given the arctic climate ? It kinda has so low population and small economy for a reason & I don't think global warming will measurably help with it.

Before the negative reviews come pouring, consider that the rise of China was the result of exactly this strategy in reverse. At the time "Nixon in China" was an attempt to support a largely agrarian Chinese communist state to give Russia (the stronger competitor) something to worry about on its eastern flank. Strengthening and emboldening the communist "little brother" was a deliberate foreign policy goal during the Cold War. This strategy was what the protean Henry Kissinger was most famous for at the time. Talk about unforeseen consequences. Maybe we bet on the wrong horse. China in 2025 seems like a much more serious global competitor than Russia. Ask yourself, who would you rather compete with?

You do realize nobody wanted to do that, and Putin's aggressive thuggery is 100% the reason why Russia has been isolated. Cultivating an invader doesn't make sense for anyone.

That's EXACTLY WHAT THEY DID. Literally all of Europe and the US bent over backwards for Russia. German made it one of there central geopolitical missions to integrate Russia. They invaded Georgia and did many other questionable things, then took Crimea and still most countries were willing to basically not upset the Apple cart. So they did 'cultivate' Russia.

Russia always loves to only talk about NATO and how bad it is. But NATO actually helped Russia because it let the Eastern European feel save and that convinced them that economic collaboration with Russia was in their benefit. And it also passivized these countries, making them far less militarist. Without NATO, these countries would have invested far more in conventional defense for the last 30 years and would have refused any Russian integration.

But at some point cultivation goes to far and you can't just forever say 'well we need Russia against China so they can have Ukraine', 'well we need Russia against China so the can have Georgia', 'well we need Russia against China so they can have the Baltics'.

Like at some point 'cultivating' only works if you have a partner on the other side that has even the slightest interest in cooperation. Russia elites care about their own power, and that power is threatened by justice and democracy, not China. They will not switch and view China as their enemy unless China want to start to be an enforcer of democracy or actively take Russian land.

China knows this and is prepared to wait to get back their Russian territory (and maybe more). China is well aware that Russia is a massively declining power, suffering from massive brain-drain, bad demographics, surviving off left over Soviet industry and massive amount of natural resources (that China can already acquire). So China, despite Russia owning a lot of land that China absolutely believes is theirs, will focus on the US because the West, is a much bigger economic, political and ideological competitor.

So the simply reality is, as long as China has major 'Western' allies close to its borders, you will simply not get Russia and China to really go at each other as they did during the Communist competition days. No matter what day dreaming old Cold Wars have about doing the Sino-Soviet split again.

> Throwing more arms and Ukrainian youth into that meat grinder is a very cynical way to proceed.

Its not cynical if the population there actually wants that. This is not a case where Ukraine has some dictator who is doing some vanity invasion of foreign territory. Its not even like Afghanistan. Because in Ukraine you actually have a pontifical system that can be converted into a long time useful ally.

> driven Russia further into alliance with China and Iran

This is always the fear mongering people use. But this has a number of limitations. First, non of these countries actually like each other. Russia and Iran work together but don't like each other. Russia and China are the same. Russia know well that China really wants to own 80% of Russia, even if this isn't their primary focus right now. They will never be true allies as the US is in NATO, its just not happening. Unless maybe where one is a complete client state of the other.

And in terms of commercial relationship, oil and weapons, they are already doing that. Appeasing Russia in Europe doesn't massively pull them away from China and Iran. Sure maybe they sell slightly less oil in that direction, but the relationships aren't effected that much.

At the end of the day, these 3 regimes, have one thing in common, they don't want Western values based system of values and worst of all democracy. So they will always cooperate along that line.

PS:

> The attempt to Balkanize and neuter Russia looks like an abject failure.

Overall, its not except its not a failure at all. Finland, Baltics, Poland and all the others are now well integrated into Europe and will never go back to being Russian in any sense.

The simple answer is because waivers are at the discretion of the administration.

I'm confused by your post, because if I squint it seems like there are multiple ways to interpret it:

1. User legitimately doesn't know that tariffs are a tax against the importer, meaning parts-importer Tesla might seek a personalized tax-break, and because Musk's buddy Trump is a corrupt crook he might command the government to grant it.

2. User doesn't realize Trump can corruptly give Musk an exception, and furthermore is also asking why Mexico would want to impose a responding tax on their own exporters, just to punish them for making sales to US-Tesla.

3. It's actually all sarcasm in one way or another, but Poe's Law is too strong and pretending to be a Redcap looks like actually being one.

I guess the reasoning goes something like: Tesla / Musk / Broligarcy.

I have a feeling that the net flow of contraband across the Canadian border is northward, giving the Canadian Fentanyl Czar the opportunity to clown on Trump by imprisoning Americans.

Ironically the result of all the cuts will likely be a reduction in the size of the economy - which can actually lower the tax take too (a portion of the money flowing around the economy comes back in taxes) so the combination of that will likely be an increase in the US's debt to GDP ratio and reduced living standards for most people.

That is not to say that Governments can spend to excess with no consequences of course, but that these indiscriminate cuts are likely going to have the opposite effect as intended.