Ugh. The Dow is down 3100 points in the last month, most of that in the last two days. All due to Convict Donnie’s “tariffs”, which should be referred to as anti-bribes.
A bribe is when you pay someone to do something on your behalf – Donnie has done plenty of that too. But an anti-bribe is when you cause economic pain to a person or organization (or country), and then remove that pain when they do something for you. It’s also known as a protection racket in gangland – “…nice little country you have here, it’d be a shame if it burned down. Just pay me weekly and I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.” That’s what these “tariffs” really are – they’re not very subtle threats, pain inflicted on companies and countries, pain that will be removed when they bend the knee to Mad King Donnie.
It’s actually ingenious – I’m not sure who in Donnie’s Clown Cabinet came up with the plan, but congrats to them. It’s a way to funnel huge amounts of capital, cash and otherwise, to Donnie’s pocket. Plus, Donnie and his sewer clown cronies can make money on the timing of the huge market moves – currently down and down hard, but probably up later, when the tariff pain is removed. It’s the biggest grift he’s ever pulled off, but it’s a grift pure and simple. I hope more Americans can see it for what it is.
It’s all disgusting and discouraging to watch. If Congress weren’t a bunch of dysfunctional cowards, they could stop this. Executive Orders are NOT laws. But Congress is busy hand-wringing about keeping their phoney baloney jobs, unconcerned that our economy and democracy are being burned down.
The courts aren’t powerless, but they aren’t power-full either. Mad King Donnie and his minions are conveniently ignoring dozens of court orders on multiple fronts, finding quickly that judges are not able to enforce their rulings. What are they going to do, throw Donnie in jail? Nope, SCOTUS already determined that can’t happen.
Back to the beginning of this essay, the Dow is down about 9%, and I still maintain it’ll drop 20%-ish from its high points at the end of 2024. Time will tell what that (and the rest of Donnie’s fuckery) does to retirement savings.
Meanwhile, thanks MAGA. Nice job.