Featured Trump tariffs put the US auto industry in disarray

Let's call it an unspoken tenant. The term is somewhat fluid. After all there is video of people trying to get over the Berlin wall not too many decades back -
Photographs of people shot while trying to cross the Berlin Wall at the Berlin Wall memorial Stock Photo - Alamy
& getting shot for their efforts. Similarly to this day in North korea.

China commies have their own brand of hell

Persecution of Uyghurs in China - Wikipedia

 

No, having a closed border doesn't mean you're a communist country, it just means you are taking care of your people over foreigners.
Which makes sense....who wants to come into a country illegally? Sure some are desperate for new jobs and opportunities BUT many have backpacks full of drugs or they are dragging little children to sell them into our human traffickers/sex-slaves network or they are gang members coming over to bring their crap.
The Vatican has had one of the tightest borders and border enforcement in the world for many years and they are hardly communist.
The insane open-border is the main reason Kamala got slaughtered in the election. But kudos to her for being our ONLY politician put on the Presidential ballot without a single vote to be there by members of her own party. (So when Democrats accuse Trump of being a king or a tyrant or anything else non-democratic, they just need to shut the heck up and fix their own broken party.)

 

Not sure why the discussion has gone off the rails into such politics. We do have some of the expected results of the tariffs.

Economic growth has slowed. Producer inflation has increased, now it is ready to accelerate consumer inflation Manufacturing employment has dropped when before the tariffs there were 500,000 open manufacturing positions that companies were planning to fill. Now we are told the tariffs won't show anything good for 2 years, great excuse to lie about the numbers. These were expected things from the tariffs. The voodoo economist Peter Navajo said that they would not be inflationary and create jobs. When asked about his previous failed tariffs, he attacked the economist community and the numbers. Now taxpayers are paying secretary of the treasury to go on Sunday shows and lie about the numbers. Employment has gained in health care, government, and AI. Manufacturing is down in the US other than semiconductors.

 

must be because no one realizes tariffs & Trump are not political

Question that's more apropos is why the thread wasn't started in FHOP in the 1st place. That's on the OP.

As far as using Auto Sales / tariffs as a presidential blamefest, auto sales are worse or better turning on who is buying what - as it's always been. I see a bunch of Fords are doing better than average.

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/g65277687/auto-sales-q2-2025-winners-losers/
.

 

Think the semiconductor manufacturing in the US is gonna be a smashing success? I don't. Takes fabs but it also takes a culture and a workforce. Every time I see a video of a chip factory I think where in the US could we get that workforce? Even Taiwan isn't having enough babies to sustain their workforce long term. China either but there people can be compelled to work in those conditions..

 

The Times covered this recently, I thought it was a decent read.

 

Author blames our engineering ills on the lawyers - while admitting - letting engineering run amok has its own set of societal travails.
Awful simplistic - as it doesn't explain WHY the <37% of US legislators (congress & house that have practice law at one time or have a JD degree) take the fall. Not saying there's a disconnect. From personal experience - it would take 2 semesters for MBA after a JD - so both groups benefit from a deep understanding of the other.
.

 

Bottom-line is that I don't believe there's a minimal education level required to hold office.....is there (Congress)???????
Just a minimal age requirement (35 years old) and US citizen, for the presidency.

 

It appealed to me as far as first order philosophy: engineers create and distribute new wealth, lawyers defend and concentrate old wealth.

 

I think lots of US citizens have a rather distorted view of foreigners.

How many illegal aliens wanted to come to the USA illegally? None of them.

Does that mean they're all a bunch of drug and human traffickers? No, the great majority of people that want to come to the USA and can't legally are not a bunch of criminals. Some don't come because they would break the law and many others the only two laws they broke were crossing illegally and working illegally.

I'm an American that has been all over Mexico and have seen how people suffer things that are so terrible I can't sleep anymore.

I know that that's not the USA's problem, but I can see why some people would feel that crossing a boarder illegally is their only hope.

 

Not even the child traffickers? Or the drug mules? or terrorists?

 

Correction - one other requirement & as Bruce Springsteen would say, "Born in the USA" for the prez.
Age 30 for congress.
No requirement for US Supreme court. In theory one could be 17 years old and failed their GED
.

 

25 for the house of representatives + 7 years as a US citizen and live in the state they represent.
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artI-S2-C2-1/ALDE_00013371/

 

In their case it's usually harder to get caught the fewer crimes that can be attributed to them. If pulled over by an immigration officer, showing a valid green card could be the difference between being let go or getting arrested and having further investigations take place.

But regardless, as I mentioned before, the great majority are not dealing drugs, trafficking humans or planning acts of terrorism. The great majority of illegal aliens are folks that just want a life for their family.

 

Illegal is still illegal.

 

Duh. And I never said I condoned crossing a boarder illegally or working illegally or doing anything else illegally.

But coldhearted is still coldhearted.

 

It would be nice if we could encourage our immigration enforcement to catch those criminals.

Thing is, that's hard work. There's no way these guys can meet their quotas if they're bogged down by "filling out the paperwork" and "doing careful investigative work" and "getting true and accurate warrants signed by the judge."

So they just take the easy way out and scoop up whomever they can find.

 

It would be nice if the DNC could pass that word on to a lot of mayors.......


I've always taken a middle position on this issue - which means that I'm hated by both sides.

I believe that if everyone knew the difference between a legal temporary worker, a permanent resident, and a US citizen then it would lead to more grown-up discussions.
I fully support the current administration's immigration actions - especially in "sanctuary cities" where sometimes actual criminals including felons are given protection against federal authorities - leading to the current "scoop 'em all up and ship 'em all out" policy.
If the mayors of the 50 largest cities started actively cooperating with ICE instead of the other way around then deporting the illegals who are in the system would keep ICE busy for the next three years.

Breaking into the US is not a felony.
It's a misdemeanor - THE FIRST TIME.
If you have been previously removed from the U.S. and attempt to enter again illegally, you could (AND in most cases SHOULD) face felony charges with a prison sentence of up to two years.
I believe that in many cases the punishment for this felony could be waived if the illegal is simply barred permanently and removed.
All of this applies to illegals whose only criminal offence is breaking into our country.

There are a non-trivial number of illegals with felony convictions who are still in the country being protected in sanctuary cities if only because local authorities are not allowed to share information that would lead to an easy removal for the illegal felon.
THAT'S what "makes it hard."

I also believe that there should be a path to permanent residency for illegals even leading up to actual citizenship for people who stay out of the system and perhaps pay a steep fine or show a US Armed Forces DD-214 (Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty) under HONORABLE conditions, teaching certificate in an under-served area etc...etc..

The idea that illegals are only useful for non-mechanized crop harvesting, lawn maintenance, or in a nail salon strikes me as a little creepy for a nation still coming to grips with a past history of chattel slavery and a late 19th century eugenics movement, but that's ME being ME again.

 

A former Prius owner whose last USA car was a 1973, 400 ci, Plymouth station wagon and some rebadged Asian cars sold by Detroit,

schadenfreude
​

Bob Wilson

 

I'll put Teslas down as "Fast" and maybe even "Good".......but not cheap.
Especially when I compare them with my GMC pickup........

As far as the company and it's owner?
When Starlink's $80 "Residential Lite" plan is available in my area my intentions are to ditch my current internet provider, because I live in Hurricane country and we cannot continue to have "above average hurricane seasons' forever.......
I'm also hoping to see a few Starship launches once the early adopters finish paying their share for the up-front costs.
Perhaps in P-Can.