What has Trump done now?

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

He was of Ukrainian background too. He was a watchmaker by trade, just out of his apprenticeship, and he was put in Infantry. The warmongers killed him off. Typical of govt warmongers, as long as it's not them.

 

His young brother attended the ceremony in Canberra honoring conscripts, many years later. I called his dad the same day, I found his name in the phone book. He was quite astounded that a stranger would go to that trouble. I said I knew his son, and we talked a bit. He was a broken man, being an immigrant after WW2, coming here for safety and a better life.

Edited Thursday at 05:05 AM by Grumpy Old Nasho

[octave]

Trump adviser insults veterans as not 'fit to have a job.' It's disgraceful.

[red750]

The impact Donald Trump’s tariffs are having in everyday life were evident on live TV

Many people on the internet are coming to the realization the impact Donald Trump’s tariffs will have on items across the country.

 

President Trump made his highly anticipated return to the White House 44 days ago, and on Tuesday, March 4, he marked the occasion with a bold address to Congress. 

 

During his speech, Trump revealed that he had received a letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, referencing the recent Oval Office controversy that dominated headlines last week. Since his return, the Republican president has wasted no time in taking action, signing a series of executive orders—including lifting the TikTok ban and making a firm declaration that there are ‘only two genders,’ among others.

 

Tariffs, Tariffs, and More Tariffs

Tariffs have become a defining feature of President Trump’s tenure, with nations like Mexico, Canada, and China bearing the brunt of his aggressive trade policies. The White House has justified these measures as a response to what it calls an “extraordinary threat posed by illegal aliens and drugs, including deadly fentanyl.” In simple terms, tariffs are taxes on imported goods—making them more expensive to sell in the U.S., with the added cost often trickling down to consumers.

 

The Real-World Impact

A recent Fox News report shed light on just how much these tariffs are affecting everyday Americans. In a stunning live TV moment, a Dodge Ram truck’s price jumped by $20,000 in real time. “This Dodge Ram truck was $80,000. It instantly just became $100,000 under Trump’s tariff tax hike,” the Twitter account FactPost noted while sharing the clip. The rising costs on imported goods raise questions about how these policies will shape consumer spending and the broader economy.

 

Tariffs Shake the Auto Industry

David Kelleher, owner of Pennsylvania-based David Auto Group, painted a grim picture of the impact tariffs are having on the car market. Speaking to Fox News, he shared a striking example:

 

“I sold an order for a customer—an $80,000 truck. It’s $100,000 now. He’s not going to buy the truck. It’s going to sit on my lot—you know the highest interest rates we’re paying for floorplan. Nobody’s gonna buy the truck because it just had a $20,000 price increase.”

 

 

[red750]

[facthunter]

You NEED an arsehole. We don't NEED Trump. Nev

[kgwilson]

4 hours ago, red750 said:

 

Tariffs Shake the Auto Industry

David Kelleher, owner of Pennsylvania-based David Auto Group, painted a grim picture of the impact tariffs are having on the car market. Speaking to Fox News, he shared a striking example:

 

“I sold an order for a customer—an $80,000 truck. It’s $100,000 now. He’s not going to buy the truck. It’s going to sit on my lot—you know the highest interest rates we’re paying for floorplan. Nobody’s gonna buy the truck because it just had a $20,000 price increase.”

 

 

Before Trump & Musk began their destructive mismanagement a few short weeks ago I was reading an article about the worst cars of 2024 from a prominent Auto mag. The first statement on the worst cars was "everything from the USA that isn't a Tesla". Now it is everything from the USA including Teslas if current sales have any thing to do with it. They do seem to have an unhealthy relationship with enormous gas guzzling Pickup trucks producing more emissions than any other brands. Interestingly though RAMs are built in the US but the company is owned by Stellantis with its HQ in the Netherlands. Trumps plan to ban Chinese cars and tariff imports from everywhere & the RAM price is indicative of his ignorance of where all the components for the US auto industry come from.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

7 hours ago, octave said:

Trump adviser insults veterans as not 'fit to have a job.' It's disgraceful.

You wouldn't believe that distortion of facts, would you? What a rag that UStoday is.

[rgmwa]

Trump's negotiating skills, or lack of are becoming clearer. First he imposed arbitrary 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico's auto industries, among other trade items, allegedly because of drugs crossing the border. Then he delayed them by a month while Canada and Mexico took significant steps to reduce the drug imports, most of which are brought into America by US citizens anyway.

 

The last few weeks have shown that the additional drug prevention measures have been pretty effective so Canada and Mexico expected that they would be in the clear because they had done what was asked. However Trump imposed the tariffs anyway because he said the measures weren't good enough and had also decided he now also wanted the auto industries to move all their production to the USA.

 

Because the goalposts had suddenly moved, the CEO's of the three major auto manufacturers phoned him and pointed out the problems his tariffs would cause in their industry - like major cost increases to the price of vehicles. So now he has suddenly back flipped and postponed the tariffs for another month to supposedly give the industry time to shift their production to the US. They can't do that in a month of course, so no doubt he will impose the tariffs again. Or maybe not. Who knows?

 

Trump's supporters think he's a master strategist, but in reality he's the same opportunistic, arrogant, unethical and ignorant bully he's always been. Between the global tariffs, his fight with NATO and Ukraine, his cozying up to Putin, the decimation of Government institutions and the disruption to services that will bring, his failure to reduce the cost of living, and his chaotic management style, his popularity will head downhill pretty quickly in the next weeks and months.

 

His ratings in the opinion polls and the stock market are already dropping, and those are the two things he cares about most.  He is going to fail the job of running country just like he failed in his business ventures. Hopefully his successor can undo some of the damage in time, but it is already too late to salvage America's place in the world order. He has already trashed that and turned the clock back at least eight decades. He is the complete disaster he accuses others of being. 

[onetrack]

And the Trump hollow BS about wanting to stop the Ukraine War in 1 day and save lots of lives, has been seen for the lie that it is, when he stopped delivery of U.S. Armaments to the Ukraine, and turned off the flow of U.S. Intelligence to them - intelligence that the Ukrainians relied on, to track Russian military movements.

 

As a result, a lot more Ukrainian lives have probably been lost, which Trump doesn't care about, he only cares about ingratiating himself with a rampant murderous dictator, Putin. 

 

As has been said, "Trump is Russia's finest asset in the U.S., right now". I wouldn't be surprised to see him giving Putin access to U.S. Military classified information, he's nothing more than a money-grubbing traitor, selling out friends and allies, for the equivalent of 30 pieces of silver. 

 

There's a good article in the Nightly about his destructive and purely selfish aims. He's jealous of Xi Jinping and his enormous power, and is intent on facing off with China.

Ukraine is just a useless minnow that can be tossed to the Russian shark, while Trump gets on with sorting out Xi.

 

Someone will tell him soon that Australia is a possibly useful asset in the Sino face-off - then he'll no doubt start talking about walking in and taking over Australia, too, because we're sitting on all these valuable minerals, that are so important to the U.S.'s needs.

 

But I don't think he's actually woken up to that fact yet, he's probably looking at a globe to try and find Australia, and to see if there's any great big beautiful sites for more Trump hotels and golf courses there.

 

https://editions.thenightly.com.au/ccidist-ws/the_nightly/the_nightly/issues/15671/OPS/GR64VTOKN.1%2BGQ650L1RV.1.html?rev=2025-03-06T15:07:10+08:00&embedded=true

[octave]

1 hour ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

You wouldn't believe that distortion of facts, would you? What a rag that UStoday is.

 

[red750]

7 hours ago, onetrack said:

to see if there's any great big beautiful sites for more Trump hotels and golf courses there.

Mayne he can restore the Gold Coast beaches after Cyclone Alfred's destruction.  (Tongue in cheek).

 

 

[facthunter]

Maybe Putin has "SOMETHING" sleezy on Trump?    The Russians are good at finding that kind of stuff.  Nev

Edited Thursday at 09:48 PM by facthunter
more content.

[red750]

[red750]

[old man emu]

3 hours ago, facthunter said:

Maybe Putin has "SOMETHING" sleezy on Trump?    The Russians are good at finding that kind of stuff.  Nev

What do you think all the kerfuffle during his 2016 campaign was all about. It seemed to be that the Ruskies had some good video of him from his earlier times in Moscow involving him and a pro, and she wasn't "showering" him. Given his association with Epstein, such behavior would be par for the course. But has Trump ever honestly made par? 

[Marty_d]

Nope, he cheats at golf too.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

Veterans are revered in the US, unlike here in Australia. To our politicians, veterans and ex servicemen are a disease that won't go away. That's how I was treated after discharge, I had no place to stay, no job, no money, I was left destitute, then had to crawl my way back up in a time of recession. Whenever I applied for a job, and wrote down "two years military service" as my last job of employment, I never got those jobs. It wasn't until I omitted that from the job applications, that I started to get jobs. I just never mentioned "military service" from then on. My mate was charitable enough to let me stay at his place free of rent for a while till I started to get back on my feet. Eventually I did, but it was a hard slog, a slog thrust on me because of a very unappreciative Nation and Govt.

 

The veterans sacked in the US will still get looked after, it already said that if you'd bothered to read and listen. But you keep raving on about one side of the story to suit your selfish egos. Be more intelligent for a change. Don't hate for the sake of hating for heavens sake.

[old man emu]

28 minutes ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

Whenever I applied for a job, and wrote down "two years military service" as my last job of employment, I never got those jobs.

Did you ever think that the employer was looking for someone with current experience in the position they were trying to fill? While I acknowledge that you did your duty, infantry experience doesn't translate into private sector occupations. You were unlucky that your number was drawn. Think of your mates whose numbers were not drawn. While you were serving your country, they were gaining skills and experience in the private workplace. 

 

Reading between the lines of your above post, I get the idea that there is more to your story than it would be polite for me to seek out, so I won't. I'll give you that bit of respect, but will you give me a modicum of respect and quit this "suit your selfish egos" shit. 

[rgmwa]

4 hours ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

 That's how I was treated after discharge, I had no place to stay, no job, no money, I was left destitute, then had to crawl my way back up in a time of recession. 

I agree that the returning vets at that time were generally treated pretty shamefully after having serving their country, whether they were volunteers or called up. However, are you blaming all that your two years in the army? It sounds as though you expected the army to find you a paying job and a place to live. Did your mates feel the same way? What did they do when they got out? What job did you have and where did you live before you went in?

Edited Friday at 08:18 AM by rgmwa

[red750]

GON. You are always on about warmongering westerners when referring to people  trying to protect themselves from invaders.

 

What about this miserable so and so?

 

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2023792/nato-warplanes-russian-border-putin-attack

[facthunter]

Most of them have PTSD like returnees from ALL wars. It's a $# !t Scene. These guys got red paint thrown on them Not by anyone I'd stay friendly with. They had NO say in whether they went or NOT. Nev

[old man emu]

Yes. The way Vietnam Vets were treated in the 1970s was bad. However, nowadays the Dept of Veterans Affairs is providing a great deal of support, which those Vets, and those from more recent conflicts, are getting. Yes. I know about the high suicide rate, but that is getting attention, too.

 

A big problem is that because of the shit treatment handed out by the RSL to those Vets, they don't want anything to do with the RSL. That is a bad thing, because it is through the help of the RSL that these Vets can access what the DVA can provide. 

 

And GON, don't pooh-pooh what I've said. My sister and brother-in-law are helping their local Vets to access DVA every day. In another thread I mentioned that they have just got onto Starlink for internet access because their work on behalf of Vets occupies many volunteer hours per day. So if you make a wrong comment about the RSL or DVA, I'll come back like a shot with a rebuttal.

[Jerry_Atrick]

I was a bit young to know what was going on, but when I later heard, I could not understand why people threw paint (and other abuse) at vets not not the pollies who sent them there. To me, it is the real issue with humanity. A purported gravy train rolls past and people just jump on it and join in without thinkking about it. It is the same thing with Chump... the right wing media are whipping things up, and people just jump in. Some people are now learning about the negative consequences to them, but they still support Chump. I read in an article on the FT that in the burbs, people still supported him as what he has sone hasn't impacted them (yet).. they even conceded it was selfish; but it was an "I'm alright, jack" mentality without caring for their fellow human beings (https://www.ft.com/content/cea4cb0c-95b0-48b7-bcc3-e219f3714196); quoting from it:

 

 

However, this is not unexpected in the US. The culture is "me.. me.. me.." and of course, it has to be im-me-diate gratification; Chump is actively reducing oil prices and reached a deal with OPEC to flood the markets; I am guessing there was a threat of flooding the market with US Oil, or, in his trade war with Canada, he has to seek supplies from elsewhere that he won't tarrif (oh how ironic would that be if it were from Saudi or another Arab state, yet he wants to slap immigration bans on there). Noticed that Russia and Ukraine meet US envoys in Saudi? Neither country are a threat to Chump.

 

Bugger the fact that a few cents a gallon will cost them huge in the future when their country goes up in smoke or floods or dries out. They obviously don't love their children enough.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

10 hours ago, old man emu said:

Did you ever think that the employer was looking for someone with current experience in the position they were trying to fill? While I acknowledge that you did your duty, infantry experience doesn't translate into private sector occupations. You were unlucky that your number was drawn. Think of your mates whose numbers were not drawn. While you were serving your country, they were gaining skills and experience in the private workplace. 

 

Reading between the lines of your above post, I get the idea that there is more to your story than it would be polite for me to seek out, so I won't. I'll give you that bit of respect, but will you give me a modicum of respect and quit this "suit your selfish egos" shit. 

You conveniently side stepped my main point. Consider how our veterans were/are treated before criticizing how US veterans are treated. 

 

Admittedly I raved on a bit, but it was to describe a few things that I endured to make the point that our politicians were mongrels who refused to acknowledge the difference between "voluntary", and "compulsory", one is by free will, the other is under duress. Need I say any more?  Conscripts were treated like they were volunteering, because we turned up and signed papers. And therefore, the politicians saw little or no need to rehabilitate us back into the general community, regardless of how much they will brainwash you now telling you they did everything they could.

 

American veterans are highly respected by their community, and if they get shoved off the government payroll, you can bet they'll be helped in other ways.

[octave]

4 hours ago, Grumpy Old Nasho said:

American veterans are highly respected by their community, and if they get shoved off the government payroll, you can bet they'll be helped in other ways.

 

For many people, work brings dignity. 

 

 Alina Habba said

“We have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work. That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means. We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work.”

 

I think many veterans would find the asserion that they are "not fit to work" offensive. If people need to be sacked, why do it in such a brutal manner?  I watched a series of interviews with veterans who had been sacked, and they claimed that the reason they were given was "poor performance" even though most of them had had positive assessments. This would make it difficult for them to get a new job. Why so cruel?

 

There is an assertion in Habba's quote that those workers sacked "don't actually work"

 

You must surely agree that the Trump administration has made some embarrassing and dangerous errors such as sacking workers involved in nuclear safety and bird flu prevention only to scramble to rehire them.   There seems to be a mentality of acting in haste.   Musk actually waving around a chainsaw is the perfect metaphor for what is happening.  If he could just put down the chainsaw and use a scalpel and intelligence, it would not be so problematic.   

 

VA Crisis Line Employees Among Those Fired Amid Federal Workforce Purge

 

Edited Friday at 08:06 PM by octave
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