I think James Surowiecki has come up with a good explanation for where the numbers came from. The whole thread is worth reading, even if it's on the hellsite, but here is the gist:
"Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us.
So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is."
It's like an ongoing experiment by some Trickster God to determine just what it would take for the GOP to abandon their naked raving emperor, or for the Serious Civil Centrist media to break with the cult of "Neutrality." The next escalation by Loki might take the form of:Trump "calculating" the number of troops to be sent to danger zones by multiplying the numerological value of the foreign leader's name by his shoe size. (Headline: "Trump's Unorthodox War-Planning Creates Controversy Among Critics.")
One theory is that it's all grift, or "the selling of indulgences," as someone said. Industries hard hit come crawling to Trump, pay his fee, and get an exemption.
Is it wrong to speculate thus? It would be wrong not to.
We certainly have absorbed the idea that that’s what it was six years ago, right? But it’s so crazy this time, and there doesn’t seem to be any room the art of the deal to take place.
"Right-wing leaders have made attacks on trans people and nontraditional expressions of gender a cornerstone of right-wing politics over the past few years. They have spread disinformation about trans people and panicked over the prospect of children adopting different gender identities or names at school. What is the reason for so much fear? Transgender people make up less than 2 percent of the population, and their presence in society doesn’t evidently harm other people. Project 2025’s pro-family orientation helps explain why the right considers them such a threat. A worldview that sees gender roles as strictly delineated and immutable cannot acknowledge the existence of trans people or anything else that contemplates an alternative to a total separation between what it means to be male and what it means to be female."
I think we can take Mr. Graham's remarks as an accurate read of the liberal commentariat. This is the thinking we're up against and it's prevalent. As long as progressives feel they are fighting ignorance and prejudice they will be unable to see the authoritarianism in their own message.
Frankly, Graham is giving right-wing leaders too much credit. The reason they hammer the Trans Menance is the same reason they hammer DEI and its godparent Woke. It gets a strong response from their base, which is all the old-school non-MAGA Republicans ever cared about. Keep 'em riled up and voting (and donating). There is no philosophy behind it for them. They probably share the Ick Factor but that's it.
Now MAGA Republicans, that's a horse of a different color. They are the base elected to office, and their philosophy is resentmemt and fear. There are fascist "philosophers" on the right that used to belong to the fringe, guys like Curtis Yarvin, that push likes like the one Graham summarizes. They are rapidly being mainstreamed by MAGA politicians from Trump on down, but they are probably not a majority in the Republican party. Yet. But since Trump owns the Republican party, it looks like they are because non-MAGA Republicans are keeping their heads down until this whole thing blows over. As the economy crashes and the federal regulatory state grind to a halt those Republicans are going to face some hard choices.
I think James Surowiecki has come up with a good explanation for where the numbers came from. The whole thread is worth reading, even if it's on the hellsite, but here is the gist:
"Just figured out where these fake tariff rates come from. They didn't actually calculate tariff rates + non-tariff barriers, as they say they did. Instead, for every country, they just took our trade deficit with that country and divided it by the country's exports to us.
So we have a $17.9 billion trade deficit with Indonesia. Its exports to us are $28 billion. $17.9/$28 = 64%, which Trump claims is the tariff rate Indonesia charges us. What extraordinary nonsense this is."
https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1907559189234196942
It's like an ongoing experiment by some Trickster God to determine just what it would take for the GOP to abandon their naked raving emperor, or for the Serious Civil Centrist media to break with the cult of "Neutrality." The next escalation by Loki might take the form of:Trump "calculating" the number of troops to be sent to danger zones by multiplying the numerological value of the foreign leader's name by his shoe size. (Headline: "Trump's Unorthodox War-Planning Creates Controversy Among Critics.")
One theory is that it's all grift, or "the selling of indulgences," as someone said. Industries hard hit come crawling to Trump, pay his fee, and get an exemption.
Is it wrong to speculate thus? It would be wrong not to.
We certainly have absorbed the idea that that’s what it was six years ago, right? But it’s so crazy this time, and there doesn’t seem to be any room the art of the deal to take place.
Here’s Chris Murphy on your side though https://bsky.app/profile/jannetteb.bsky.social/post/3llwvkx6tac23 That’s a pretty strong sign you could be right.
Krugman's post from yesterday started with a trenchant quote from Apocalypse Now
"Willard: They told me that you had gone totally insane, and that your methods were unsound.
Kurtz: Are my methods unsound?
Willard: I don't see any method at all, sir."
Which describes all of this perfectly.
Prospective phrases for my Thursday night demonstration sign:
"Tariff Jive in 2025!"
"Got Tariffs?"
"Tariffs for Me – Nothing for You!" (alt: "Tariffs for Him – Nothing for Us!")
"Tom Tariffic sez PAY UP!"
"Tariff Terrorism!"
"Make the 20's Roar Again!"
"45/47 – The Only Numbers He Knows"
Aw, maybe not...needs work.
I went with “TARIFFIED YET?!”
From David Graham in The Atlantic:
"Right-wing leaders have made attacks on trans people and nontraditional expressions of gender a cornerstone of right-wing politics over the past few years. They have spread disinformation about trans people and panicked over the prospect of children adopting different gender identities or names at school. What is the reason for so much fear? Transgender people make up less than 2 percent of the population, and their presence in society doesn’t evidently harm other people. Project 2025’s pro-family orientation helps explain why the right considers them such a threat. A worldview that sees gender roles as strictly delineated and immutable cannot acknowledge the existence of trans people or anything else that contemplates an alternative to a total separation between what it means to be male and what it means to be female."
I think we can take Mr. Graham's remarks as an accurate read of the liberal commentariat. This is the thinking we're up against and it's prevalent. As long as progressives feel they are fighting ignorance and prejudice they will be unable to see the authoritarianism in their own message.
WTAF are you talking about "the authoritarianism in their own message"
That comment reads like it's the middle of a discussion you haven't shared.
Yes, it is. It’s a discussion in my own head which I should have kept to myself.
Frankly, Graham is giving right-wing leaders too much credit. The reason they hammer the Trans Menance is the same reason they hammer DEI and its godparent Woke. It gets a strong response from their base, which is all the old-school non-MAGA Republicans ever cared about. Keep 'em riled up and voting (and donating). There is no philosophy behind it for them. They probably share the Ick Factor but that's it.
Now MAGA Republicans, that's a horse of a different color. They are the base elected to office, and their philosophy is resentmemt and fear. There are fascist "philosophers" on the right that used to belong to the fringe, guys like Curtis Yarvin, that push likes like the one Graham summarizes. They are rapidly being mainstreamed by MAGA politicians from Trump on down, but they are probably not a majority in the Republican party. Yet. But since Trump owns the Republican party, it looks like they are because non-MAGA Republicans are keeping their heads down until this whole thing blows over. As the economy crashes and the federal regulatory state grind to a halt those Republicans are going to face some hard choices.