That one year, for an affluent citizen of the world’s most populous country, India, to get a U.S. tourist visa, is so ridiculous that I almost missed it (despite having heard before that the U.S. State Department is greatly understaffed). I think that timeframe is true, and that tourist visa delays cost the U.S. hotels, theme parks, and restaurants significant potential revenue. I wouldn’t go, as a tourist, to a country so unwelcoming. So much for the power of K Street lobbyists.
If Musk gets even 10 percent of his desired federal employee staffing cuts, how long will the waits be?
The more I think about it the more intensely it pisses me off that one orange buffoon, based on bad information, who was elected by a mob of dumbasses who believed a ludicrous pack of lies, is capable of single-handedly destroying the economy of a G7 country – and one that has long been America’s best friend and closest ally. And also probably his own country’s economy, but it will be slower and take longer just because the sheer size and inertia of the US economy makes it more time-consuming to destroy.
But at the very least, his policies will be inflationary for the US economy and the cost of goods will rise along with interest rates. At which point the orange buffoon may try to take over the Federal Reserve, something he’s already threatened to do, and artificially lower interest rates. This reckless loss of control could lead to hyperinflation like that of the Wiemar Republic following WWI.
If the waits are basically forever, so that brown-skinned furriners don’t even try to get into the US legally, then … mission accomplished!
Here’s the sort of thing that happened after Trump was elected the first time:
Of course, he doesn’t actually care about that; he cares about persecuting brown people. As long as some conflict with Mexico hurts and kills lots of Mexicans and brown Americans he’ll be happy.
This is exactly what Erdogan did. Claimed rising rates weren’t fair, and forced them lower. It did not go well. Eventually he had to cave and rates rose dramatically. He claimed inflation was caused by high rates. Just the sort of willful stupidity we’ve come to expect from Trump.
Except they don’t remember. The George W. Bush administration, especially the waning days of it, were pretty horrific, mired in Middle Eastern conflicts and suffering from The Great Recession of 2008. It did result in 8 years of Democratic leadership afterward, but then we went right back to a chaotic Repub administration.
In fact, now we have a similar situation to the one in the W years-- a figurehead at the top and a shadowy think tank pulling the strings behind the scenes. Back then it was W. Bush and Project for the New American Century, now it’s trump and the Heritage Foundation.
I’m assuming Canada is just a handy target because you guys are doing so many things so much better than the US, but in the way you are doing it, your efforts can be mischaracterized as Socialism and excessive wokeness. Sucks that you just happen to be so close to the US that you are a convenient initial target for irrational and unnecessary theater. Doubt it will give much satisfaction to know you are unlikely to be alone in terms of countries Trump fucks over for absolutely no good reason.
I live in Alberta so I have no idea what you mean when you say Canada does things better. Our pro-plague premier wants to declare global warming to be nonexistent by fiat, thinks Ivermectin kills viruses, and hired Tuckums himself to come here and help spread her particularly odious gospel. She issued a statement recently saying how much she was looking forward to working with the nazi-loving rapist Trump.
They mean the Canada that most of us know and love, the rest of Canada except for Alberta, Canada’s Texas. Truth be told, Alberta is also a pretty good place, it’s just that the current premier is a certifiable lunatic.
The Right lives in its own fantasy world; they aren’t angry at the actual Canada, they are angry at the one that lives in their own heads. Which as far as they are concerned is a bunch of radical socialists, and thus literally Satanically evil.
The tariffs also appeal to Trump’s ego. He hasn’t done anything other than threaten to do it yet. But what has he already gotten in return? World leaders begging him for mercy. They probably haven’t been very good friends to him over the past four years but now they need him and he can be as rude and petty to them as he wants to be. That’s probably a more powerful narcotic than all the fentanyl that comes across both borders combined.
I think this is quite accurate. I really doubt that even his crazy advisors will be crazy enough to let him implement 25% tariffs across the board, as it would be devastating to American businesses, too, in the tightly integrated Canada-US economy. But it must be enormously satisfying to his insatiable ego that twuthing something on Truth Social while sitting on the toilet in the middle of the night has multiple countries in a turmoil.
I wouldn’t consider isolationism in the first place. It’s just that he believes that all relationships should be one way, with the more powerful profiting off the less powerful in return for nothing. Anything else is for “losers”. It’s the national version of how he expects to receive work and services from people and then refuses to pay them.
He doesn’t want trade, because with trade both sides benefit which is anathema to him. He wants tribute.
Does the incoming president normally start making deals just two weeks after they are elected? Wouldn’t this interfere in the President’s job? And, yes, I know Trump wouldn’t care but I don’t know if others did this.