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Elon Musk
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 Elon Musk“Traitor? Elon, if you don’t understand that defending freedom is a basic tenet of what makes America great and keeps us safe, maybe you should leave it to those of us who do,” Kelly wrote on X. Kelly emphasized his support for Ukraine in his social media posts and criticized Trump for cutting off aid to the country. “This war started with what Putin thought would be a three-day operation to take Kyiv and control of all of Ukraine. Now three years later, that hasn’t happened. American and allied support has been a big reason why, but I saw how cutting it off now risks everything so many Ukrainians have laid down their lives for. And while our support hasn’t been free, we haven’t sent even half of what President Trump says,” Kelly said in his post. The U.S. relationship with Ukraine has been strained since Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office last month, accusing him of being “disrespectful.” The heated encounter drew backlash from world leaders and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, with many critics accusing Trump of trying to appease Russia. Trump later ordered a pause on military aid and intelligence sharing to Ukraine shortly after the meeting. Now, U.S. officials are meeting with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia this week about possibly bringing an end to the Russia-Ukraine war. Trump remains focused on reaching some kind of peace deal to stop the war. His approach toward Ukraine so far has relied far more on stick than carrot — limiting their access to intelligence and weaponry. While conciliatory toward Putin, Trump recently also threatened new sanctions against Russia over its ceaseless attacks on Ukrainian cities. |
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Boys Will be Boys When asked about the feud, and how it could impact the public's understanding of Trump's tariffs, Leavitt said Tuesday, "These are obviously two individuals who have very different views on trade and on tariffs. Boys will be boys, and we will let their public sparring continue. You guys should all be very grateful that we have the most transparent administration in history." Why It Matters Musk called President Donald Trump's trade adviser Peter Navarro "truly a moron" and "dumber than a sack of bricks" in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Tuesday. Musk, a top White House adviser on federal spending cuts, was responding to comments made by Navarro on CNBC about how Tesla makes its cars. The clash between Musk and Navarro—two of the president's most influential advisers—over Tesla's manufacturing practices reflects a deeper and ongoing debate at the heart of U.S. industrial and trade policy, one that reaches right into the White House as it pursues historic tariffs. End quote. President Musk also called Navarro “Peter Retarrdo.” Such a smart boy. Aren’t we all glad he is in charge of destroying social security? |
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jonheck 09-Apr-25, 09:09 |
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Tariffs as Tax As a tax, we’ve tried it several times, with bad results each time. It is a regressive tax. My state has no income tax, but high sales tax (though not on food). The sales tax is regressive, as a much higher percent of poor people’s budget is dedicated to staples. Explanation of Groper trade policy: A wealthy Cadillac dealer orders a pizza for his family every Friday night. His family loves pizza from a particular restaurant because it's the best tasting pizza and the Cadillac dealer likes the price. He's even developed a friendship with the pizza delivery boy who cycles several miles to bring them their pizza. One day the Cadillac dealer is doing his accounts and has a thought: 'Over the years, I've given the pizza delivery boy thousands of dollars and yet never once has he bought a Cadillac Escalade from me. How is that fair? This guy is ripping me off.' The more he thinks about it, the more angry he becomes. 'I'm running a massive trade deficit with that kid on that bicycle. He is deliberately not buying my cars to screw me over. I'm a Cadillac dealer and he's a puny kid on a bike. I hold all the cards. I'm going to put a stop to this.' So, the following Friday night he confronts the delivery boy. 'You have been robbing me for years. I'm subsidising your business with thousands of dollars and yet you never buy my Escalades. So, I'm going to impose a 50% surcharge on every pizza you deliver to this house and there's nothing you can do about it!' The pizza delivery boy looks confused. 'I'm sorry but I couldn't afford to buy or run a Cadillac Escalade even if I needed one, which I don't.' 'I don't care,' says the Cadillac dealer. 'It's not fair me subsidising you thousands of dollars. Why should I be paying you these subsidies?' 'Because you like my pizza and that's what they cost. That's not a subsidy. It's called trade,' answers the delivery boy. 'Well, it's not trade if you refuse to buy a Cadillac, so I'm going to charge 50% on top of the price of your pizzas so I get some payback.' 'Who are you going to charge?' 'My family!' 'How's that going to work?' 'They're going to be livid! They'll be so angry that the pizza is going to cost 50% more that they'll stop telling me to buy them from you. They'll start making their own pizzas and you'll go bust!' 'Can they make pizzas this good? Do they even want to?' 'That's not the point!' 'And how many more Cadillacs will you sell if we go bust?' 'Who cares? At least I won't be being ripped off by a mere pizza delivery boy on a bicycle!' 'OK. Here's your pizza. Keep the tip. It was nice doing business with you.' |
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Shiva 9:43. <As a tax, we’ve tried it several times, with bad results each time. It is a regressive tax. My state has no income tax, but high sales tax (though not on food).> Back in the late 1990's our conservative Federal government introduced 'Taxation Reform'. (By 'reform', they meant a change that they wanted, not a simplification) This was the introduction of a 10% tax not just on sales of items, but on provision of services as well. Suddenly my consulting business was hit with a 10% tax on TURNOVER, not just profit. The same for tradesmen, washing machine repairs and lawn mowing. In theory it also applied to buskers and street beggars, but I don't think many of them paid 10% of their takings to the Australian Tax Office. In return we were promised that this would allow other taxes to be dropped, such as stamp duty on property sales. The next Budget saw cuts in the rates of Income tax and concessions to corporate taxes. But a quarter of a century later, the biggest single source of income to State Governments is still stamp duty on property sales. Conservatives HATE progressive tax rates. Flat tax is their dream, and they will use any dodgy argument to push it. |
