The only reason the most dire predictions about tariffs didn't come true, is because the actual tariffs implemented were drastically less than those announced on "Liberation Day" (and now we're at 15 percent). If the tariffs initially announced at 50 -- 100 pct had been implemented as promised, we would be looking at a very different economy right now. But it's impossible to prove a negative...

 

Very possibly. Zealots are like that. The last Japanese soldier didn’t surrender until 29 years after the war was officially ended. He surrendered only after the Japanese government found his previous commander and flew him to the Philippines with written orders to formally relieve him of duty and return to Japan in retirement.

Yep. The whole “island-hopping “ campaign was about blockading Japanese troops on islands in the Pacific so the Marines didn’t die rooting out zealots. Reasonable people would have seen they were losing and surrendered to avoid bloodshed. But the Japanese out waited the Americans and eventually the American President had enough - and there went Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 

You have to include the projected casualties in an invasion of the Japanese mainland in the nuke decision…it wasn’t just a “I’m tired of this” moment. The war in the pacific was beyond brutal for all involved. Just saying.

 

Oh, clearly. The use of the nukes was to avoid the “boots on the ground” option, at least until an unconditional surrender was signed by the senior leadership. Lowest estimate on an assault on the Japanese home islands was a quarter million US dead. Upper estimate was 4 million. that was from a total US population of only 138 million.

If the Iranians are betting it can’t happen again, they are misreading history. The US is THE ONLY nation to have ever used nukes in anger. They would be fools to assume it can NEVER happen again.

Sometimes you need to remind even sociopaths that they aren’t necessarily the only sociopaths in the world.

 

In a Foreign Affairs essay where the author discusses effective and ineffective use of economic chokepoints he briefly discusses tariffs. (By and large ineffective)
In it he uses our largest trading partner, Canada, to illustrate his point. Due to the harm that high tariffs caused for US industry, by end of December 2025 the Canadian tariff rate was 3.5%. Essentially unchanged from December 2024.

 

On April 7th Trump tweeted a threat to destroy the Persian nation with nuclear weapons. (".....never to be brought back again")
And yes, it appears that he came to that point simply due to impatience. (He had grown frustrstrated with them not surrendering and our economy was being harmed)

It isn't the summer of '45. We are not in a total war situation with Iran.(although Iran has been put in a situation where they are in a total war circumstance with the USA)
We know what using them entails.

Assuming the use could be limited to Iran only, (not a certainty) after the collapse of the Iranian government from the use of nukes, then what?
How would the humanitarian crisis be addressed?
How would the refugee crisis be addressed?
How would the USA survive the fallout of joining the ranks of history's greatest criminals?
How would the world avoid devolving to Hobbesian chaos and fractured disaster?
Only complete "f.. .ing morons" think that today a nuke can be used and it will be just a 'one off, that's it' event.

I hope someday we find out what occurred on April 7th.
And then put structures in place to control any phsycopaths with access to such power.

 

The true believers of the doomsday scenario should be buying a fleet of Priuses and motorcycles to flip and turn a tidy profit in a couple of months.

In the real world, Prius sales are absolutely tanking right now. (Loosing market share to the hybrid Camry and other hybrids)

I dunno.

 

It's all performative. There wasn't a word about any of this when the Obama administration was bombing the Libyans into the stone age, or when there was total collapse in that country, resulting in open-air slave markets.

 

All dominant faith scriptures condemn suicidal acts. Shaheed is the Muslim phrase for martyr. Martyrs, like chaplain authorized justification for soldiers killing stacks of enemy in battle, are exempt from Islamic guilt. Who’s the moron if you think cornered extremists can’t or won’t use atomic arrows? Israel for one, isn’t going to take that chance. Self preservation over moral misgivings every time.

 

Could Libya control 20% of oil transport?