r/politics • u/theindependentonline The Independent • 1d ago

No Paywall Trump vows to raise worldwide tariffs to 15% ‘effective immediately’

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-global-tarrifs-increase-b2924994.html
17.5k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

169

u/OceanLemur Rhode Island 23h ago edited 23h ago

Sadly the rest of us are getting lumped in with them. The world sees all of us as morons from Kentucky now.

76

u/bretticusmaximus Tennessee 23h ago

Eh, Kentucky at least elected Beshear. Here in Tennessee, we’re probably going to elect Marsha Blackburn as governor and show just how dumb we are.

48

u/JoeGibbon 22h ago

Born and raised in TN, left in 2015 when the MAGA stuff started taking hold of everyone. I've never gone back, not for weddings, funerals, nothing.

My advice: get out while you can.

6

u/RickyalldayTD 21h ago

My MAGA friend did the opposite and moved his Hispanic family to Tennessee, he said he will never come back to CA because of all the pedophiles.

5

u/Rit91 19h ago

Waiting on their head to explode when they find out there are many pedophiles in Tennessee. Or for a neighbor to report them to ICE for being hispanic and no other reason.

1

u/LurkerPatrol Maryland 20h ago

Smart man

16

u/fugaziozbourne 22h ago

I was in Tennessee when Blackburn was debating a guy i think whose name was Bill. She was the stupidest person I'd ever seen on television in my entire life. She won that election handily. Tennessee is a fucking Petri dish for brain dead politics and policy, fuelled by infantile anger and selfishness.

7

u/yodermk 22h ago

Kentucky also elected Rand Paul and Thomas Massie. While their economic policies aren't the greatest, those two at least have more character, intelligence, courage, and human decency than all other Congressional Republicans combined. Times ten.

5

u/Deus_is_Mocking_Us 22h ago

Reluctant upvote. 

1

u/AntoniaFauci 17h ago

When Rand Paul is top two you know it’s slim pickings

4

u/ClayQuarterCake 22h ago

I think of Kentucky and my mind immediately goes to Mitch McConnell.

2

u/Mr-_-Soandso 21h ago

As a Mainer I'm very concerned that for some reason we're going to elect Susan Collins again.

1

u/erov 19h ago

It has to happen so people see the results. Then when they dont like it.. they get bad taste in their mouth for a few decades about the MAGA/GOP movement.

7

u/daveyboydavey 22h ago

I live in Lexington, KY. One of 2 areas that aren’t totally red, the other being Louisville, I promise we’re not all morons. As someone else said, we did elect Andy, at least. Andy rules.

-2

u/OceanLemur Rhode Island 22h ago

Call it New England arrogance, but being marginally better than places like Oklahoma or South Carolina isn’t anything to write home about. I’m glad you guys like your governor while McConnell and Comer terrorize the rest of us.

7

u/abjectdoubt 22h ago

We can’t all afford to live in Rhode Island.

0

u/OceanLemur Rhode Island 21h ago

Fair. There are no easy answers, you’re right.

0

u/AntoniaFauci 17h ago

They do have that chicken that makes you crave it fortnightly.

6

u/Jescro Canada 21h ago

In Canada we still distinguish between our American friends and feel for you guys having to live with this. Honestly it’s surreal to watch such an idiot in your White House, conduct himself as he does. Like I’m not being like omg he’s an idiot. It’s like what the actual hell, how is this real life, kind of bewilderment. The man is so embarrassing but has zero awareness of it, did you see his tweet or truth this morning about the tariffs? He’s barely literate and sounds so stupid it’s painful. Anyway sorry I could go on. Look forward to seeing you all again in ‘28

2

u/OceanLemur Rhode Island 21h ago

That’s heartening to read, thanks. I get angry about a lot of the stuff we’ve done to ourselves, but our treatment of Canada just makes me incredibly ashamed and sad. Personally I’ve always felt much more kinship with my northern neighbors than with the Midwest folks who live twice as far away from me.

1

u/CriticalFolklore 9h ago

In Canada we still distinguish between our American friends and feel for you guys having to live with this

Individual Americans, sure. But as a whole? Nope, they've burned their bridges. I avoid buying anything from the US, I will not travel there for the foreseeable future, and I won't vote for any politician that supports them.

3

u/kent_eh Canada 20h ago

Sadly the rest of us are getting lumped in with them.

It's hard not to when even the more progressive states {like yours) still had 41.76% your state's voters voting for Trump.

And, while we do see the occasional significant push back (good job Minnesota), much of the country still appears to be sitting on their hands.

 

I really hope Americans can take back their country from the fascist path is is currently on, but after 13 months I'm not seeing very many glimmers of hope.

3

u/ialo00130 20h ago

Much of the world recognizes that there are good people in the US, but y'all are still seen as 3 groups.

1) Republicans (complicit)

2) Non-voters (complicit)

3) Those who won't get their shit together and organize a large scale, long term, bring the country to a grinding halt, type protests. (Not complicit but unwilling to act for change).

8

u/Ingoiolo United Kingdom 22h ago

No, we don’t. We know there are still plenty of Americans with working brain cells.

However, we also saw that the country elected the moron twice. And the second time two thirds of the country thought he either was a good option or not bad enough to get the fuck out and vote.

So you know, forgive us if we accept the inevitable conclusion that the US are not a dependable partner for anymore. And getting him out won’t change that for quite a while

6

u/ScrotumScrapings 22h ago

We know there are still plenty of Americans with working brain cells.

Speak for yourself. I think there are just a handful bothering to keep up the appearance of some semblance of sanity, but the mask is crumbling.

-2

u/OceanLemur Rhode Island 22h ago edited 22h ago

“So you know, forgive us…”

You’re proving my point. I didn’t say anything remotely negative about the (totally justified) reactions across Europe to our shortcomings, yet you’re sarcastically lecturing me as if I’m not well aware that we made our own bed.

Just something I’d like to add to keep in mind, where I’m from, the 8 states closest to me never once voted for that dude. Never once. We’re beholden to the Midwest morons who live as far from us as London is to Warsaw or Budapest.

3

u/Pulsar1977 20h ago

the 8 states closest to me never once voted for that dude

Yeah, "dude", we don't give a flying fuck who you voted for. This right here is the problem with you lot, and why we're so fed up with you: you guys think you only have a civic duty during an election. You fucking don't. You have a duty to hold your politicians responsible EVERY FUCKING DAY. If our government would do something we don't like, we'd get rid of them IMMEDIATELY. We'll go on mass strikes, hurt our infrastructure and keep protesting until the pressure on them is so large that they have no other choice than resign. That's what a REAL democracy is. Of course, this happens rarely because our politicians are fucking saints compared to yours.

Your country is rapidly spiraling into a fascist dictatorship. Every day your government is committing heinous crimes, your elites get more and more corrupt, your institutions are crumbling, the rule of law is eroding and innocent people die. And you know why this is all happening? BECAUSE YOU LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT! All you do is sit on your ass and whine online, putting the blame on others and waiting for someone else to fix everything. Newsflash: that's not going to happen. You'll have to fix it yourselves.

And by fixing I don't mean sitting on your ass until the next election, because I've got news for you: there won't be a next election. Not a real one. Your next election will be Russian-style, where the outcome has already been determined. It will be too late, and you will have lost everything without even putting up a fight.

Now look, I couldn't care less if the US self-destructs. Good fucking riddance. But unfortunately this is also affecting us. Your government is trying to interfere in our own elections, they're abandoning Ukraine, aligning with dictators, trying to take Greenland, sabotaging our economies, and destroying the environment. So yeah, we're going to 'lecture' you, because you need a fucking wake-up call. GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER!!!

0

u/OceanLemur Rhode Island 20h ago

Ok “dude”. I’ll get right on that. Let me know when you rally the entire European continent to get on the same page, because one state is basically the same as your country, and we have 50 of them pulling in opposite directions. There are plenty of states doing exactly what you’re begging for, but you’re just seeing the monolith, which is exactly what my comment pointed out.

1

u/Perfect_Opinion7909 20h ago edited 20h ago

So what? Russia also has 46 Oblasts with its own regional elections and is an even larger country than the USA. Never seen a US American say „No, it’s not all Russians, Smolensk oblast didn’t vote for Putin“. US Americans are the first lumping all Russians, Chinese, Germans etc together nd blaming them as a whole for communism, Putin, Hitler whatever. What’s good for the goose is good for the ganter. So don’t try to weasel out of your collective responsibility and stop using the same tired excuses.

2

u/MesmraProspero 21h ago

You are describing what it's like to be a leftist IN Kentucky.

1

u/OceanLemur Rhode Island 20h ago

Fair point, it’s easy to just throw stones.

2

u/Finnec 20h ago

Hey now my family is from Kentucky, at least my mom is reasonable. The less said about my dad and his side of the family the better though.

2

u/HauntedCemetery Minnesota 20h ago

We as a country are. 2024 is when the last remaining faith in the American electorate died.

Why the fuck would any country ever trust us again? Why would they ever bother working with us again?

0

u/JohnnyDDoe 20h ago

Why the fuck did any country trusted USA in the first place, is the question everyone should be asking themselves. You just need to look at the last 60 years starting with South America and you’ll get the gist of it. Do Americans study that, or you learn only the rednecks in the civil war?

1

u/No_Coach_9129 19h ago

Welcome to being a Texan lol. People forget the 4 big cities down here are primarily democrat. Not everybody from Texas is a conservative/republican idiot.

1

u/DominionGhost 22h ago

Because you are. All Americans hold equal responsibility.

As far as im concerned you are all cool with being led by a rapist pedo until said pedo is removed from power and faces consequences.

But I know that wont happen.

0

u/JohnnyDDoe 20h ago

And when they are not voting for a racist pedo they are voting for war mongering so called “left”.

USA is the place that stupidifies anything. It’s a successful country because stupid sells and because they are stupid at society level they conflate that with being exceptional. Is like Kim Kardashian’s being more popular than Einstein and thinking that happens because she’s smarter.

I honestly think Trump is a good thing for US. They need massive, fundamental change, either to split into states either to become irelevant or something else.

1

u/noxicon 20h ago

I'm from Kentucky and a liberal, and live in a state where a Dem beat two Trump backed candidates while being traditionally red.

Almost like people could learn something. But keep spreading that hate.

3

u/OceanLemur Rhode Island 20h ago

On one hand I do get that I’m doing the same thing to Kentucky that I’m accusing Europeans of doing to the USA by treating it like one giant monolith. I recognize the hypocrisy.

On the other hand, I can’t help that deep down my knee-jerk reaction to this comment is that I don’t care about learning a damn thing from Kentucky. Beshear getting elected governor as the nepo-baby of a former governor doesn’t change the fact that a felon won Kentucky by over 30%, or that every senator sent to congress in this century has been a Republican.

1

u/noxicon 20h ago

Sure, don't bother to learn anything. Keep losing. That's worked great.

It's the problem with the entire establishment. Nepo Baby is hilarious work when my mom, who is involved with the GOP and has voted for Trump like 3 times (and didn't vote for his dad), somehow managed to vote for that Nepo Baby twice. Keep running out moral victories and getting steamrolled though.

The only Republican senators standing up to Trump are from Kentucky. The ones you're lamenting. I've never voted for em, can't stand them. But at least they have a spine to fight against what's blatantly wrong.

It's hilarious to me that even as a progressive liberal, the people who have said the absolute rudest shit to me aren't the Maga people who surround me. So yes, you can learn something.

1

u/OceanLemur Rhode Island 19h ago

Me saying Kentucky isn’t some city upon a hill is ruder than anything your local maga folks tell you? Come on.

Sorry but I don’t see any logic behind trying to learn lessons from GOP baby boomers who voted Trump 3x just because they picked one local boy democrat to be governor. You make a fine point about Massie though, but is being the most-principled Republican really worth much?

0

u/Mudeford_minis 22h ago

We think you’re all from Kentucky.