Oh Hey, How's THE GROCERIES?
Expensive, and tariffs aren't going anywhere, thanks for asking!
After voter suppression won and Democrats lost last November, much soul-searching! Maybe when prices go up, low- and bad-information voters will finally realize that Dictator Day One’s claim that tariffs will lay a golden egg and cheapen The Groceries is a lie? And a really obvious and extra-dumb one, too?
And now the Find Out Time has come for The Groceries, and even with the world’s dumbest Reichstag fire burning in Los Angeles, some Democrats are managing to wedge that talking point into the conversation.
For example, abrupt pivot, Amy Klobuchar!
“In this case, the president time and time again has shown this willingness to one violate the laws. We've seen across the country in many different situations outside of the immigration context, and to inflame situations. So what do I think he should be doing right now? Who do I think he should be bringing in? I think he should be bringing in economists to talk to him right now about what's happening with the debt and with his big beautiful betrayal of the middle class, to be talking to him about what's going on with the tariffs and how they are hurting small businesses.”
Okay, okay, we will talk about THE GROCERIES and the PRICES! Food is getting more expensive, with THE EGGS averaging $1.64 more for a dozen than they were a year ago, and the beef and the chicken costing about 40 cents more per pound, if you haven’t noticed.
And attention Walmart shoppers, they are un-rolling-back new, higher prices on products, including a 44 percent hike on dolls that tinkle themselves, like spoiled little girls want for Christmas. Walmart won’t eat the tariffs, but this doll can pretend to, and then pretend-crap them into a diaper! And it’s not just the dolls, little Johnny will also have to make do with fewer fishing reels now that some are 45 percent more, and self-indulgent grandmas and grandpas now can no longer afford to splurge on multiple heating pads, because they’ve gone from $19.98 to $24.96.
Just a little taste of what’s to come! The World Bank is predicting the US growth rate will be half of what it was under Joe Biden because of the tariffs. And the inflation rate is rising, from 2.3 percent last month to 2.4 percent this month, though staffing shortages at the Labor Department may be affecting data quality. The Port of Los Angeles is down to five ships coming in a day, with 50 percent less work for dockworkers.
And oh hey, how’s it going trying to undo Trump’s fuckups with China?
Courts won’t save him (or us!); an appeals court has let his tariffs stay in place for now, at least until they can hear arguments July 31. Six months in and we are already so tired of typing “the court says Trump can do it for now.”
Hey, how did those trade talks with China in London on Monday and Tuesday go? LOL. TWO ENTIRE DAYS of trade talks, and it seems nothing has changed. Though Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik says they “reached a handshake for a framework,” which sounds about as useful as concepts of a plan, or wishes in one hand and doll poop in another. The agreement seemingly has not changed since the last one, and Trump did not get the one thing he and the techbros need most, export licenses for the rare-earth minerals necessary to make computer chips and stuff. D’OH! Lutnik said certain US export controls will “come off, sort of, as President Trump said, in a balanced way, when [China] approve[s]” the rare-earth mineral licenses, which strongly implies they have not approved them.
The entire timeline of Trump’s spasmodic tariffs and pauses and reversals with China is NUTS, and helpfully compiled by Time Magazine. This is no plan, this is not concepts of a plan. The only metaphor that springs to mind is this guy.
PREVIOUSLY!
Let us rewind to that pathetic tale about the MINERALS! Sluggin’ Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and tousle-tressed trade rep. Jamieson Greer went to Geneva last month, so a Chinese delegation could watch them negotiate with themselves over how much the US ought to embargo itself. They settled on a 90-day pause on the batshit 145 percent tariffs, lowering them to 30 percent, and China lowered their rate to 10 percent, and China said maybe they would let the US buy critical minerals from them again at some point, details TBD.
After the Geneva meeting last month, Art O’Deal proclaimed the relationship with China was “reset.” But two weeks after the deal in Geneva was signed, Trump vaguely and rantingly accused China of violating it:
“I made a FAST DEAL with China in order to save them from what I thought was going to be a very bad situation, and I didn't want to see that happen. Because of this deal, everything quickly stabilized and China got back to business as usual. Everybody was happy! That is the good news!!! The bad news is that China, perhaps not surprisingly to some, HAS TOTALLY VIOLATED ITS AGREEMENT WITH US. So much for being Mr. NICE GUY!”
Why didn’t China say thank you for saving them from the “bad situation” Trump impulsively decided to put them in?
Scott Bessent later clarified Trump was mad because China was now apparently in no hurry to send over any of those rare earth minerals that he had thought Scotty and J-Dogg had gotten them to agree to, urgently needed to make stuff like those AI chips he promised to the UAE for their new data center. Whoops!
Then Pete Hegseth mouthed off at a defense summit about China being a threat, and Marco Rubio announced the US was going to begin revoking visas of Chinese students, “including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields,” an unprecedented, wildly hostile move: There are nearly 300,000 Chinese students in the US, representing one in four foreign students, and revoking student visas is the kind of thing you see in war, or with a complete regime collapse.
Then State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce went on a rant that China is exploiting us:
“The United States, I further can say here, will not tolerate the CCP’s exploitation of US universities or theft of US research, intellectual property or technologies to grow its military power, conduct intelligence collection or repress voices of opposition.”
And then last Wednesday, June 4, Trump doubled tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum from 25 percent to 50 percent, because he is like a drunk monkey driving a bus. And THEN, the very next day, he called up Chinese President Xi wanting to try to clean up the hogwallow he made, because he really does need those minerals BAD, it would seem. Art of the deal!
But in spite of the insults, Xi picked up the phone when Trump called, and even sent representatives to meet Bessent, Greer, and also Howard Lutnik in London for two days of talks.
Why Lutnik? Did Trump want more of an adult in the room because the two first doofuses did not get him the one thing he wanted, and the administration has apparently just now realized tech companies need those rare earth minerals and magnets fast or else, which is something he should have thought about before, because his poor planning is not China’s emergency?
Now the US is reportedly willing to ease up export controls on semiconductor chips to get the minerals it negotiated itself out of in the first place. Amazing. And Dear Leader TruthSocialed that the Chinese students can stay after all.
“OUR DEAL WITH CHINA IS DONE, SUBJECT TO FINAL APPROVAL WITH PRESIDENT XI AND ME. FULL MAGNETS, AND ANY NECESSARY RARE EARTHS, WILL BE SUPPLIED, UP FRONT, BY CHINA. LIKEWISE, WE WILL PROVIDE TO CHINA WHAT WAS AGREED TO, INCLUDING CHINESE STUDENTS USING OUR COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES (WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN GOOD WITH ME!). WE ARE GETTING A TOTAL OF 55% TARIFFS, CHINA IS GETTING 10%. RELATIONSHIP IS EXCELLENT! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER!”
So now we are getting the minerals like we were before he started this trade war? And wait, what is he talking about, about 55 percent, is that MORE tariffs, and is the 55 percent on us from China, or the other way around?
Confusing.
Oh hey AN UPDATE! China now says that it isn’t true, and limitations on export of those rare minerals will continue for at least another six months, so as to keep their leverage over the Dealmaking Guy who lies all the time. So, nothing changed at all between a month ago and now, other than Trump (or Rubio, behind Trump’s back) deciding to revoke Chinese student visas and then flip-flopping on it, and the US going back on the agreement to add more tariffs on metals.
One thing is for sure, The Groceries aren’t going great. And people are noticing. A recent poll shows Trump’s approval on the economy went from +8.24 points in January to negative 15.75 points. OOF.
So maybe the Democrats are a little right about that, the path to victory may be through that old-fashioned word, GROCERIES. Or maybe a good slogan would be TIRED OF CHAOS, because aren’t we all?
"But in spite of the insults, Xi picked up the phone when Trump called..."
...and make jerkoff motions to the other guys in the room, trying not to laugh.
So are these paranoid authorities going to investigate my family now? We had an exchange student from Hong Kong live with us for four years to attend school here in the US. She became the big sister that I never had and to this day I love her to bits.
Margaret, I know that you and your husband reside here in the US. Please, precious sister, keep yourself and your family SAFE from these fascist pigs!