So basically government price fixing.

Not even. He's not doing anything to prevent prices from going up. He's just whining at businesses for refusing to cut their margins to fund his government.

Isn’t USA supposed to be the pillar of libertarian capitalism?

It's funny. There's a couple of think thanks - the Fraiser Institute, the Hoover Institute, in collaboration with the CATO Institute - that are constantly putting out papers saying how America hasn't gone Libertarian Capitalist enough. Historically, the two places in the world they consider "Most Libertarian" have been Hong Kong and Singapore.

However, over the last decade, they've been forced to delist both of these locations as Chinese business investment flooded in and American financial interests were shoved out. So now their new favorite spots are Switzerland, New Zealand, Luxembourger, and Ireland. Incidentally, these institutes are filling up with White Nationalists and other ultra-orthodox Christian Conservatives who refuse to acknowledge any country with brown people in it might have civil or economic liberties. The current issue of their annual newsletter blames a great deal of this shift on pandemic response and subsequent economic relief during the downturn. But there's plenty of ink spilled denouncing any country that's breaking away from the MAGA mindset, particularly Canada, China, and Mexico.

As our relationships with the BRICS and the various Latin American, African, and Southeast Asian states have deteriorated, our ability to recognize them as free and liberal have decayed alongside them. And the criticisms internally ebb and flow with the state of domestic politics - Obama ushering in a low-watermark for American liberty, for instance.

Trading through coercion.

Libertarian police 

I was shooting heroin and reading “The Fountainhead” in the front seat of my privately owned police cruiser when a call came in. I put a quarter in the radio to activate it. It was the chief.

“Bad news, detective. We got a situation.”

“What? Is the mayor trying to ban trans fats again?”

“Worse. Somebody just stole four hundred and forty-seven million dollars’ worth of bitcoins.”

The heroin needle practically fell out of my arm. “What kind of monster would do something like that? Bitcoins are the ultimate currency: virtual, anonymous, stateless. They represent true economic freedom, not subject to arbitrary manipulation by any government. Do we have any leads?”

“Not yet. But mark my words: we’re going to figure out who did this and we’re going to take them down … provided someone pays us a fair market rate to do so.”

“Easy, chief,” I said. “Any rate the market offers is, by definition, fair.”

He laughed. “That’s why you’re the best I got, Lisowski. Now you get out there and find those bitcoins.”

“Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m on it.”

I put a quarter in the siren. Ten minutes later, I was on the scene. It was a normal office building, strangled on all sides by public sidewalks. I hopped over them and went inside.

“Home Depot™ Presents the Police!®” I said, flashing my badge and my gun and a small picture of Ron Paul. “Nobody move unless you want to!” They didn’t.

“Now, which one of you punks is going to pay me to investigate this crime?” No one spoke up.

“Come on,” I said. “Don’t you all understand that the protection of private property is the foundation of all personal liberty?”

It didn’t seem like they did.

“Seriously, guys. Without a strong economic motivator, I’m just going to stand here and not solve this case. Cash is fine, but I prefer being paid in gold bullion or autographed Penn Jillette posters.”

Nothing. These people were stonewalling me. It almost seemed like they didn’t care that a fortune in computer money invented to buy drugs was missing.

I figured I could wait them out. I lit several cigarettes indoors. A pregnant lady coughed, and I told her that secondhand smoke is a myth. Just then, a man in glasses made a break for it.

“Subway™ Eat Fresh and Freeze, Scumbag!®” I yelled.

Too late. He was already out the front door. I went after him.

“Stop right there!” I yelled as I ran. He was faster than me because I always try to avoid stepping on public sidewalks. Our country needs a private-sidewalk voucher system, but, thanks to the incestuous interplay between our corrupt federal government and the public-sidewalk lobby, it will never happen.

I was losing him. “Listen, I’ll pay you to stop!” I yelled. “What would you consider an appropriate price point for stopping? I’ll offer you a thirteenth of an ounce of gold and a gently worn ‘Bob Barr ‘08’ extra-large long-sleeved men’s T-shirt!”

He turned. In his hand was a revolver that the Constitution said he had every right to own. He fired at me and missed. I pulled my own gun, put a quarter in it, and fired back. The bullet lodged in a U.S.P.S. mailbox less than a foot from his head. I shot the mailbox again, on purpose.

“All right, all right!” the man yelled, throwing down his weapon. “I give up, cop! I confess: I took the bitcoins.”

“Why’d you do it?” I asked, as I slapped a pair of Oikos™ Greek Yogurt Presents Handcuffs® on the guy.

“Because I was afraid.”

“Afraid?”

“Afraid of an economic future free from the pernicious meddling of central bankers,” he said. “I’m a central banker.”

I wanted to coldcock the guy. Years ago, a central banker killed my partner. Instead, I shook my head.

“Let this be a message to all your central-banker friends out on the street,” I said. “No matter how many bitcoins you steal, you’ll never take away the dream of an open society based on the principles of personal and economic freedom.”

He nodded, because he knew I was right. Then he swiped his credit card to pay me.

It feels so gross upvoting a picture and quote from Reagan.

But he had the best bankruptcies, beautiful bankruptcies, everbody said say, many woman said "no more bankruptcies, they are too great", believe me!

He doesn't have to. The goal of Trump is simple: exert power. He doesn't care who gets hurt in the process so long as his base sees him as their God (intentionally using the capital G here).

The guy owned casinos that went bankrupt. It takes a special kind of person to do that

Who was the ex member of his team that said he was in the room when people tried to explain tariffs to Trump and he clearly didn't understand them, he just likes them based on his misunderstanding of them...

I'm sure he believes that other countries are paying the tariffs and it's money going to the US federal coffers...

If it actually worked it's a funny way to say, let's tax corporations. It would never happen though because it makes line go down.

Im worried that at this point, for all the destruction and permanent damage hes done, that we may just need him to stick around and break more things.

If he kicks off tomorrow, we could have this happen again. It all gets washed under the rug and hes replaced with more subtle powers. It only took 4 years for the majority of the usa to forget the first round of damage he caused, after all.

But then again, if he lasts too long, we risk never recovering.

There is a sick, nihilistic balance to all this now imo. I want a guarantee that we dont slip down this road again. And unfortunately more pain may be the only way to guarantee it for the next few generations.

I feel dirty even saying it. But in my gut, i believe it.

unions

Article only says the UAW, which has more retired members than it does active, and a pathetically small percentage of the active automotive workforce.

I’m not super well versed in “healthy union demographics”, but a quick wikipedia perusal says the three largest US unions (National education association, service employee international union, and the american federation of state, county, and municipal employees) have between 2-15% retirees.

Something tells me the UAW is just led by chuds but what do I know?

Usually, it takes Congress to agree on something to raise taxes on the working class. With tariffs, he can do it by himself like a real dictator would.

History is written by the victors, and the outcome is looking grim right now.

The trump regime was designed to TANK the US economy so that stocks, businesses, and industries can be bought by billionaires at rock bottom prices.

All is going according to plan.

He's a dementia riddled old man who shits in diapers. What do you expect?