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On February 03 2025 19:38 Silvanel wrote:
Well. I guess Trump is GH hidden ally. He is going to run US economy into the ground, then start a long costly war thus making US fertile ground for incomming socialist revolution.
Not my ally, but Dems are accelerationists now. Democrats don't have any plan beyond "make people in the US suffer so much they remove Trump/fascists from power". They don't have a plan of how to do the "remove them from power" part other than ask them politely to give power back though.
That said, Musk is shutting down USAID (basically an anti-communist CIA operation) so that's fun.
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On February 03 2025 23:48 KwarK wrote:That reminds of me of the the urban legend about a US general using pig blood smeared on bullets to shoot Muslims in the Philippines that Trump repeated believing it was both true and an excellent idea. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40969475It's been a long few years but it's always fun to remember that Trump gets his understanding of the world and it's history from facebook memes.
Probably just saw too many ads for Jihawg ammo
There's also the Ukrainians that literally did think it was a good idea:
A video shows a masked man dipping bullets into chunks of gelatinous lard before carefully loading them into a gun’s magazine.
“Dear Muslim brothers, in our country, you will not go to heaven. You will not be allowed into heaven. Go home, please. Here, you will encounter trouble. Thank you for your attention, goodbye,” the unidentified man says.
The video was posted by the National Guard of Ukraine on Sunday on Twitter, three days after Russian forces launched a military assault into Ukraine. The caption says it depicts an Azov fighter preparing bullets to be aimed at “Kadyrov orcs” by lacing them with fat from pork, which is forbidden to Muslims.
www.vice.com
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On February 02 2025 00:41 Salazarz wrote:
It's always been weird to me how so many people talk about USSR's attempt at communism being a failure. Soviet Russia was massively behind Western nations in the race to industrialize; they then had the majority of their country and a huge chunk of their population destroyed in WW2. As soon as that ended, they were stuck in an arms & economic race with the significantly richer and more developed NATO bloc. Nevertheless, they created a relatively prosperous society, and despite the common refrain of how there's no incentive to excel in a communist state, USSR absolutely did excel in a lot of things. Their education was second to none, they contributed massively to advancement of sciences and sports, their engineering projects (the ones that didn't fail horribly, anyway :D) were incredible for their time. By any measure, USSR was a superpower and not just because of their nuclear arsenal or the stockpile of guns. Was it perfect? Certainly not. But it's not as if 'muh communists' took a prosperous nation and turned it into shit.
It's also weird how so many people go, 'communism can't work because of human nature and greed' -- as if greed and psychopathic powermongering doesn't completely break capitalist systems just the same.
The bigger arguments are around the performance of the Eastern European and Baltic countries during communism and after. East Germany is one people like to bring up a bunch but really all of them have been drastically better since.
Then when you talk to anyone from there that lived during communism (say born before 1985, better earlier), they do talk about the economics and food shortages. But the bigger thing they talk about is the massive changes in freedom. Not having to worry about being locked up for saying the wrong thing or having the wrong person say you said the wrong thing is a big deal.
You also have to remember that Russia treated all these countries as colonies to make mother Russia better and stronger. It is not a fluke, or propaganda that basically everyone who lived through it never wants to again. Heck even in Russia there is many people who justify Putin as, at least better than communism.
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On February 03 2025 23:43 Velr wrote:
What in the last ~25 years made you think: "Yes, we need more places like America?" How is (even "soft power") annexing (mostly) poorer countries improving anything for anyone?
Especially because with Trump you have proven twice, that treaties the US signs aren't worth the paper they are written on.
Fundementally I think we've learned that natural resources are bad for a developing country without a greater currency to shoulder the load. The only way you build a real wealth of a nation is through healthcare and education to exploit the natural resources that your country has by increasing the productivity and value of each human. If you arne't increasing the value of the humans than what is the point of the human? Mexico has constantly had an issue of their oil revenues wrecking their currency and being held in a constant net of being dependent on America while at the same time being suspended from real reforms by America. Any talent in a nation near America is motivated to leave for America making it increasingly hard to build that base of wealth that a nation needs to develop. Removing the barriers between states ala the EU is a real path to development but without the federalized government you lose the ability to assert yourself on a world stage.
Like ask yourself how the new EU countries improved their lives by joining the EU.
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United States44286 Posts
On February 03 2025 23:56 GreenHorizons wrote:Show nested quote +On February 03 2025 23:48 KwarK wrote:That reminds of me of the the urban legend about a US general using pig blood smeared on bullets to shoot Muslims in the Philippines that Trump repeated believing it was both true and an excellent idea. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40969475It's been a long few years but it's always fun to remember that Trump gets his understanding of the world and it's history from facebook memes. Probably just saw too many ads for Jihawg ammoThere's also the Ukrainians that literally did think it was a good idea: Show nested quote +A video shows a masked man dipping bullets into chunks of gelatinous lard before carefully loading them into a gun’s magazine.
“Dear Muslim brothers, in our country, you will not go to heaven. You will not be allowed into heaven. Go home, please. Here, you will encounter trouble. Thank you for your attention, goodbye,” the unidentified man says.
The video was posted by the National Guard of Ukraine on Sunday on Twitter, three days after Russian forces launched a military assault into Ukraine. The caption says it depicts an Azov fighter preparing bullets to be aimed at “Kadyrov orcs” by lacing them with fat from pork, which is forbidden to Muslims. www.vice.com
I feel like there's a difference between doing it as a colonizer at the head of an army and doing it as an individual victim of a genocidal war of invasion by an expansionist empire.
But in any case Trump still shouldn't get his policy ideas from Facebook memes.
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On February 04 2025 00:14 KwarK wrote:Show nested quote +On February 03 2025 23:56 GreenHorizons wrote:On February 03 2025 23:48 KwarK wrote:That reminds of me of the the urban legend about a US general using pig blood smeared on bullets to shoot Muslims in the Philippines that Trump repeated believing it was both true and an excellent idea. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-40969475It's been a long few years but it's always fun to remember that Trump gets his understanding of the world and it's history from facebook memes. Probably just saw too many ads for Jihawg ammoThere's also the Ukrainians that literally did think it was a good idea: A video shows a masked man dipping bullets into chunks of gelatinous lard before carefully loading them into a gun’s magazine.
“Dear Muslim brothers, in our country, you will not go to heaven. You will not be allowed into heaven. Go home, please. Here, you will encounter trouble. Thank you for your attention, goodbye,” the unidentified man says.
The video was posted by the National Guard of Ukraine on Sunday on Twitter, three days after Russian forces launched a military assault into Ukraine. The caption says it depicts an Azov fighter preparing bullets to be aimed at “Kadyrov orcs” by lacing them with fat from pork, which is forbidden to Muslims. www.vice.com I feel like there's a difference between doing it as a colonizer at the head of an army and doing it as an individual victim of a genocidal war of invasion by an expansionist empire. But in any case Trump still shouldn't get his policy ideas from Facebook memes.
It was posted by the National Guard of Ukraine, unless you mean the Jihawg guy in a “massive Muslim takeover" kinda way 
You're right, Trump shouldn't govern by meme, but he's probably going to keep doing it. Especially with Musk and his band of mystery tech bros running around hacking on various government computers.
EDIT for context: On Saturday, USAID's director of security and his deputy were put on administrative leave after they attempted to block people working with DOGE from accessing the agency's secure systems.
“No one feels safe to go anywhere near the Ronald Reagan building,” one USAID official told NBC News. “We just had Elon Musk call us a criminal organization. Our security chief was escorted out. We know we are being surveilled by DOGE.” "DOGE" is like 3+ layers of memeception
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On February 03 2025 23:52 GreenHorizons wrote:Show nested quote +On February 03 2025 19:38 Silvanel wrote:
Well. I guess Trump is GH hidden ally. He is going to run US economy into the ground, then start a long costly war thus making US fertile ground for incomming socialist revolution. Not my ally, but Dems are accelerationists now. Democrats don't have any plan beyond "make people in the US suffer so much they remove Trump/fascists from power". They don't have a plan of how to do the "remove them from power" part other than ask them politely to give power back though. That said, Musk is shutting down USAID ( basically an anti-communist CIA operation) so that's fun.
I'd like to kindly ask you don't use my post for your propaganda. The point of my post was to highlight that if they are going to continue to act against their best interests and the interests of everyone around them, they need to deal with the consequences. I probably have more of a plan to do that than you do with your socialism schtick. So keep me out of it. And no, I will not be posting my ideas.
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Finland965 Posts
The White House said on Monday it has noticed that Mexico is "serious" about President Donald Trump's executive order on tariffs, but Canada has "misunderstood" it to be a trade war between the neighboring countries.
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"Canadians appear to have misunderstood the plain language of the executive order and they're interpreting it as a trade war," Hassett added.
From Reuters
I see the US is already trying to walk it back.
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It's all just a joke guys, calm down!
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On February 04 2025 00:42 hexhaven wrote:Show nested quote + The White House said on Monday it has noticed that Mexico is "serious" about President Donald Trump's executive order on tariffs, but Canada has "misunderstood" it to be a trade war between the neighboring countries.
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"Canadians appear to have misunderstood the plain language of the executive order and they're interpreting it as a trade war," Hassett added. From ReutersI see the US is already trying to walk it back.
I love that part.
"Hassett, when asked if Trump's policies will create more inflation, said one needs to look at all of the president's policies together. "I think this is going to be one of the biggest supply-side positive shocks that we've ever seen," he said."
Indeed, that heart attack is shocking. A very positive experience according to doctor Trump. Everyone really needs a shocking heart attack every once in a while.
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Northern Ireland27343 Posts
On February 03 2025 23:25 Sermokala wrote:
I don't think Oblade understands the complexity of global relations and wants to boil everything down to ownership and control. Gitmo in Cuba is suppose to be land that we rent, not own. The cuban government after the revolution wanted to tear up the renal agreement and has never cashed the rent checks for the land but the US clings to the agreement it signed with the cuban government that gives them the legal cover to do what they want anyway. This treaty only mattering to America because global laws are a joke.
Greenland has an independence story from its effort to become independent from Denmark. It came to the point of "yeah you're independent now but we don't need to do foreign policy because we're a few hundred thousand people". The Territories of the United states are much like that, if they wanted to become independent they're more than free to pursue self-determination but they don't, they also don't want to become more integrated into the United states which would be necessary to gain representation. There have been election in PR about this and there hasn't been the kind of conclusive result to determine their future. They don't want to remain a territory but they also don't know if they want independence or to become a state.
The Philippines is a straight-up colony that we have an abusive relationship with. Don't look up the history of the Philippine Revolution, its where America learned that shotguns were pretty effective before WW1. They eventually got their independence but are now a quasi-American colony where they will host a massive US military base and their people enlist in the US navy en mass.
But for the record every case has its own differences and its own story behind it. If you're too ignorant to understand Greenlands story but still want it for nothing other than the love of Imperialism you can just state that. You are allowed in America to make the argument that Imperialism is good and we should be doing more Imperialism to create a single trade sphere to better all parties.
Does anyone want to debate with me about Imperialism would actually be good for people? I unironically think a north American super state would be best, even if I don't know how we could get there.
Ya gotta show your working first :p As argumentative as I am I do need a bit of detail lad!
I have a rather unpopular one myself, albeit that’s a European super state of some description.
Although in that instance it’s ’go bigger so you can go smaller’. I.e. if you’ve got a cohesive bonding layer that binds Europe together, you can give more autonomy to smaller constituent parts.
This idea of mine will show its age now, as we were in the EU at the time, and Scottish independence was more to the forefront.
It’s an idea to deal with the ‘you aren’t big enough to go it alone’ problem, in terms of secessionist movements. Also my belief that nation states become dysfunctional when you’ve too much variation amongst their constituent parts.
For lack of a better term, and coming from the UK I’ll call them ‘union nationalists’ consistently conflict with ‘cultural’ or ‘identity’ nationalists and that’s quite hard to reconcile.
The former may have a big emotional attachment to the bigger national entity, or it may be a pragmatic worry that a secession may lessen their power and standing in the world. The latter want more self-determination and autonomy based on whatever their perceived different identity is.
Flemish and Wallonians are frequently at loggerheads in Belgium, to the degree they’re Northern Ireland’s chief competition in periods of no government. But Belgium’s already small, you lose influence again if you break it up. Ya got your craic over here, you’ve Catalans, you’ve Basques who have a foothold in both Spain and France etc, gets tricky.
The other issue I was theorycrafting is one of power projection. Individual European nations don’t really have it anymore, as much as some of us Brits and others have delusions to that effect.
Quite difficult to reconcile a belief that many nation states are dysfunctional because of very divergent populations, with one that Europe needs to have a more united front.
But I think it could work in an admittedly crazy hypothetical land. Have a certain layer of regulation, currency, some universally agreed inalienable rights and leave folks to it if they’re behaving. Come up with a robust collective security policy and funding mechanisms.
The TLDR of my tangential ramble is if anything I think many a nation state is too large as is. Or at least incorporates too many disparate elements.
The US is already split on partisan lines to the degree of genuine dysfunction, so in the current climate I think some superstate would conceivably be even more messy.
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Trump purging the FBI seems like it could be a bad omen. Anyone keeping a running count of constitutional crises?
Legal experts said that few, if any, of the firings carried out so far by the Trump administration have been legal under civil service laws because the employees were not afforded due process.
The Trump White House argues, though, that the president has the absolute right to fire anyone he wishes in the executive branch. The Supreme Court has ruled that federal employees have a right to a hearing before they are disciplined or terminated.
...Even if some of the employees sue and win, they said their public service careers have been irreparably damaged, if not ended.
Current and former FBI agents say the purge at the bureau has had a shattering effect on the morale, sending a message that agents who work on cases that anger someone in the Trump administration could be targeted.
www.nbcnews.com
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On February 04 2025 00:14 Sermokala wrote:Show nested quote +On February 03 2025 23:43 Velr wrote:
What in the last ~25 years made you think: "Yes, we need more places like America?" How is (even "soft power") annexing (mostly) poorer countries improving anything for anyone?
Especially because with Trump you have proven twice, that treaties the US signs aren't worth the paper they are written on. Fundementally I think we've learned that natural resources are bad for a developing country without a greater currency to shoulder the load. The only way you build a real wealth of a nation is through healthcare and education to exploit the natural resources that your country has by increasing the productivity and value of each human. If you arne't increasing the value of the humans than what is the point of the human? Mexico has constantly had an issue of their oil revenues wrecking their currency and being held in a constant net of being dependent on America while at the same time being suspended from real reforms by America. Any talent in a nation near America is motivated to leave for America making it increasingly hard to build that base of wealth that a nation needs to develop. Removing the barriers between states ala the EU is a real path to development but without the federalized government you lose the ability to assert yourself on a world stage. Like ask yourself how the new EU countries improved their lives by joining the EU.
I'm not arguing against federalism or multinational agreements. I'm just not seeing how the US can even be seen as a goal to strife for, at least if your not basically a failed state (of which Mexico isn't far off, among other things also due to the "help" of US arms and drug demands).
Value of each human? How many people does the US jail again? Your murder rates might be lower than central/south America, so your better than the worst places on earth, while being the richest country on earth.....
To not drag this out: The US is way too rich to do so horrible in so many aspects. It's democracy is deeply flawed, Income inequality is out of control, what other "rich" countries see as basic rights for their citizens are treated as luxuries, in short: No sane person would try to model his "ideal" country or anything even approaching such a thing after the US.
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On February 04 2025 02:48 GreenHorizons wrote:Trump purging the FBI seems like it could be a bad omen. Anyone keeping a running count of constitutional crises? Show nested quote +Legal experts said that few, if any, of the firings carried out so far by the Trump administration have been legal under civil service laws because the employees were not afforded due process.
The Trump White House argues, though, that the president has the absolute right to fire anyone he wishes in the executive branch. The Supreme Court has ruled that federal employees have a right to a hearing before they are disciplined or terminated.
...Even if some of the employees sue and win, they said their public service careers have been irreparably damaged, if not ended.
Current and former FBI agents say the purge at the bureau has had a shattering effect on the morale, sending a message that agents who work on cases that anger someone in the Trump administration could be targeted. www.nbcnews.com
This is banana republic stuff.
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On February 04 2025 03:24 maybenexttime wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2025 02:48 GreenHorizons wrote:Trump purging the FBI seems like it could be a bad omen. Anyone keeping a running count of constitutional crises? Legal experts said that few, if any, of the firings carried out so far by the Trump administration have been legal under civil service laws because the employees were not afforded due process.
The Trump White House argues, though, that the president has the absolute right to fire anyone he wishes in the executive branch. The Supreme Court has ruled that federal employees have a right to a hearing before they are disciplined or terminated.
...Even if some of the employees sue and win, they said their public service careers have been irreparably damaged, if not ended.
Current and former FBI agents say the purge at the bureau has had a shattering effect on the morale, sending a message that agents who work on cases that anger someone in the Trump administration could be targeted. www.nbcnews.com This is banana republic stuff.
Funnily enough, this is also exactly what people have warned about before Trump got elected. This is scary shit. You are currently seeing your democracy being dismantled.
Trump is systematically removing anyone who is not loyal from all key positions in the country. And we are less than a month in. At this rate, if he does another Januar 6th, there will not be anyone left to stop it.
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Northern Ireland27343 Posts
On February 04 2025 03:47 Simberto wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2025 03:24 maybenexttime wrote:On February 04 2025 02:48 GreenHorizons wrote:Trump purging the FBI seems like it could be a bad omen. Anyone keeping a running count of constitutional crises? Legal experts said that few, if any, of the firings carried out so far by the Trump administration have been legal under civil service laws because the employees were not afforded due process.
The Trump White House argues, though, that the president has the absolute right to fire anyone he wishes in the executive branch. The Supreme Court has ruled that federal employees have a right to a hearing before they are disciplined or terminated.
...Even if some of the employees sue and win, they said their public service careers have been irreparably damaged, if not ended.
Current and former FBI agents say the purge at the bureau has had a shattering effect on the morale, sending a message that agents who work on cases that anger someone in the Trump administration could be targeted. www.nbcnews.com This is banana republic stuff. Funnily enough, this is also exactly what people have warned about before Trump got elected. This is scary shit. You are currently seeing your democracy being dismantled. Trump is systematically removing anyone who is not loyal from all key positions in the country. And we are less than a month in. At this rate, if he does another Januar 6th, there will not be anyone left to stop it.
Indeed. 2016 was pretty shit already but this term has injected the steroids in basically all domains. It’s considerably worse, and quicker in taking shape.
I look forward to another 4 years of smug ‘centrist’ types just ignoring this and saying the real problem is the left is too mean in calling it out of course
If we only didn’t call the racism, or general idiocy for what it is then they’d not do that!
It’s not remotely subtle, or cleverly disguised.
If you’re down with this administration you’re either a Fascist or a happy Fascist enabler, and it’s as simple as that. Gurn all you want, you made your bed so stop fucking whinging about a spade being called a spade.
And stop whinging that folks don’t take your nonsense seriously if it’s transparent nonsense.
Call me a fucking crazy radical but you can be a conservative without scraping your knees on the asphalt in preparation for blowing Dear Leader Donald.
Youse chose to fellate him, not me. Deal with it.
No consistency, no values, no balls. That’s modern conservatism in a nutshell, an absolute fucking shower.
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On February 04 2025 03:47 Simberto wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2025 03:24 maybenexttime wrote:On February 04 2025 02:48 GreenHorizons wrote:Trump purging the FBI seems like it could be a bad omen. Anyone keeping a running count of constitutional crises? Legal experts said that few, if any, of the firings carried out so far by the Trump administration have been legal under civil service laws because the employees were not afforded due process.
The Trump White House argues, though, that the president has the absolute right to fire anyone he wishes in the executive branch. The Supreme Court has ruled that federal employees have a right to a hearing before they are disciplined or terminated.
...Even if some of the employees sue and win, they said their public service careers have been irreparably damaged, if not ended.
Current and former FBI agents say the purge at the bureau has had a shattering effect on the morale, sending a message that agents who work on cases that anger someone in the Trump administration could be targeted. www.nbcnews.com This is banana republic stuff. Funnily enough, this is also exactly what people have warned about before Trump got elected. This is scary shit. You are currently seeing your democracy being dismantled. Trump is systematically removing anyone who is not loyal from all key positions in the country. And we are less than a month in. At this rate, if he does another Januar 6th, there will not be anyone left to stop it.
The lack of reaction from the public is shocking, there's only been some tiny protests so far. In the past couple of weeks there were protests of 100k+ in Serbia, Slovakia, Germany for relatively small potatoes compared to what's happening in the US.
Country's being dismantled in front of their eyes and they write fanfics about hypothetical socialist revolutions in 2600 while eating dumplings on the couch.
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Protests dont do shit in the US, we've seen that over the last few decades, I dont blame people for not wanting to go out and waste their time. Protests work when they can't be waited out or are targeted towards people who will listen to the protestors, Trump and the fascist brigade isnt that.
If people wanted to make their voices heard they should boot up GTA and toss some bricks through key houses windows and make life a nightmare for the powerful people of GTA whenever they can get away with it in GTA.
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Northern Ireland27343 Posts
While arriving in Maryland from Florida, Trump told the BBC that tariffs on EU goods imported into the US could happen "pretty soon".
"They don't take our cars, they don't take our farm products, they take almost nothing and we take everything from them. Millions of cars, tremendous amounts of food and farm products," he told journalists.
The US President added he enjoyed good relations with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, and that trade issues with the UK could be worked out.
When asked by the BBC if there was a timeline for announcing tariffs on the EU, Trump said: "I wouldn't say there's a timeline, but it's going to be pretty soon."
For its part, the 27-member bloc has condemned Trump's decision to move ahead with tariffs against Canada, Mexico and China, and warned that it will "respond firmly" if it also becomes a target.
China said it could take "corresponding counter measures".
Mexico and Canada have also vowed to take retaliatory measures, although Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said after meeting Trump on Monday that he had agreed to delay tariffs against her country for a month.
On trade with Britain, Trump said: "The UK is out of line. But I'm sure that one, I think that one, can be worked out."
He also discussed his relationship with the British Prime Minister who he said has been "very nice".
"We've had a couple of meetings. We've had numerous phone calls. We're getting along very well," he added.
What of this isn’t utter drivel?
The EU has farms with better standards and overall quality than the US, the fuck would we be interested in importing from there?
American cars are gigantic penis substitute monstrosities that don’t massively interest the European market. Build less stupid cars. The Japanese or Koreans aren’t struggling to penetrate it.
How is the UK ‘out of line?’ exactly?
Innumerable mysteries!
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Their whole rhetoric regarding American cars and the EU is based on a lie. Trump is his people have repeatedly claimed that the EU had a 100% tariff on US cars. It does not. The tariffs are around 8-10%.
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EPT
