this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
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I hope we respond by putting tariffs on American pickups. Democratic nations need to cut the US out of the global economy entirely until they learn how to act right.

Apologies if there's any weirdness in this post, it's my first one.

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[–] Seagoon_@aussie.zone 52 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I suspect these announcements by Trump are nothing but stock market scams with a whole bunch of insider trading going on.

Trump removed tariffs from Mexico and Canada after a few days. We'll see what happens with this

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

He removed them for nothing. He was tricked. Both Canada and Mexico agreed to do things they were already going to do and Trump folded.

[–] Seagoon_@aussie.zone 17 points 2 months ago

there were stock market movements based on what Trump said

people who have insider knowledge would be able to make a lot of money on that

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 months ago

USian here. It really didn't matter - his friendly media repeated the lie that he forced those bad old countries to beef up drug and immigration enforcement via his big strong negotiation style. The fact that it's nonsense has no bearing on the political reality here, sadly.

[–] guyoverthere123@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

He's put back the 25% tariffs on Canadian steel

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[–] notgold@aussie.zone 44 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Oh please Albanese, put a 50% tariff on American cars.

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 42 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

We’re talking about Albo here, he’ll apologise and ask if Trump can double it.

Dutton would offer the country to be annexed mind you.

[–] ChaoticNeutralCzech 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Even the "polite" Canadians fought back - and won. Everyone would when it's the economy at stake.

Still, no way he's touching truck prices.

[–] hitmyspot@aussie.zone 8 points 2 months ago

Just American ones. There are multiple non us alternatives.

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 43 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Heyyyyyy welcome to the "being threatened by the USA because Trump felt like it" club!

-EU + Denmark, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, Panama.

[–] TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone 24 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's an honour to be part of this prestigious and exclusive group! ☺️

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

It's less exclusive every day.

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[–] kudra@sh.itjust.works 36 points 2 months ago (5 children)

I think we can all do something. I know our economy is tiny, but Australia buys way more from the US than they buy from us... and you know what a big chunk of that is? Services. Some of those are hard to shift but others are easier.

I've hosted all my websites and registered all my domains in the US for over 20 years.

That changed yesterday and I'm transferring everything over to Australia.

For Fedi, look at Australian servers where you can. Subscriptions? Fuck off Netflix et al. Get out of Google as much as you can. If you're here you are probably already out of FB and Reddit, but leave anything else you can that is US based and try to support AU or EU.

Don't buy US foods, cars, or technology where possible (let's face it, most of those are crap anyway).

And you know what, most of the US based internet is shit now too. It was fun 20 years ago, but consistent enshittification has been the worst in the US. At least the EU is trying to fight it.

Yes our economy is tiny, but we can change more than you might think, and as the rest of the world probably will do similar, the US won't be quite as well off as it thinks it is.

[–] TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Never been on Facebook, just got a lifetime ban from Reddit for being mean to magats. 🤣

[–] Almacca@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I got one over the weekend for making an off the cuff joke about punching members of a hate group for 'inciting violence'. Context and nuance is too hard for them, I guess. I spent too much time there anyway. Happily deleted my entire account, as I have also done for Facebook. This place seems ok, if a little underpopulated right now.

[–] TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone 2 points 2 months ago

Haha, I'm just operating under the assumption that we're all Reddit rejects and this place is likely to get quite a bit busier in the near future. 🤣

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

A lot of US brands are just relabeled Chinese stuff with a markup. They get us badly on financial, services and IP. I am down to one streaming service and I only have one US based hosting service left which I will be moving to Australian owned hosting soon. My PCs run open source except for games. I will probably keep buying Steam games but it isn't realistic to totally cut out US business. Things like PayPal and Netflix are easy to do without.

[–] notgold@aussie.zone 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Wise beyond your years @kudra@sh.itjust.works

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[–] muntedcrocodile@lemm.ee 21 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I guess trump doesn't want our rare earths. Us and China hold a duopoly so good luck.

[–] shirro@aussie.zone 3 points 2 months ago

Unless China gets control of our mining companies and then we lose that strategic advantage.

[–] galoisghost@aussie.zone 18 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You know that despite how everything panned out out in Canada. Albo is going to immediately fold and spend his final days in office grovelling.

[–] dumblederp@aussie.zone 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Dutton will suck the orange right off Trumps cock.

[–] galoisghost@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago

Of course but in the meantime he will hypocritically anyone who’ll listen how pisspoor Albo is

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 16 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I hope we respond by putting tariffs on American pickups.

I kinda don't want this. Because I want those yank tanks taxed and/or regulated regardless, because it's the right thing to do, and I don't want progress towards that to be undermined by being seen to get caught up in a bullshit trade war.

[–] MisterFrog@aussie.zone 2 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Huge cars with terrible visibility should have been outlawed ages ago anyway. There's no good reason for someone's bonnet to come up to my shoulders on a fucking ute.

There's a reason why the road toll is going UP per capita in the US.

As much as it sucks for the Americans, there is a small part of me that's happy about Trump shooting themselves in their own collective foot, because maybe we'll consider diversifying our alliances a little. Instead of being America's little ~~laptop~~ lapdog.

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[–] spiffmeister@aussie.zone 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I remember reading that the government was hoping that because we run a trade deficit with the yanks they wouldn't do this. Look forward to that just being the assumption and the government having done 0 planning.

[–] Taleya@aussie.zone 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So the question is: what is he trying to distract from now.

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

First go round, yeah, Trump was distracting on purpose. The thing everyone seems to be missing is that, the man isn't in charge any more.

Look at his tweets, or whatever the fuck they're called, mostly focused and on point. Listen to his words, he doesn't ramble on and on and on. We only hear truncated quips.

Anyone remember how he got more and more demented as the election came closer? Anyone remember how his cognition dropped off a cliff in 2021 or so, and continued downwards, fast?

The Project 2025 people have got him locked in as a mouthpiece, nothing more. Competent people are now in charge, this won't be like 2017.

[–] Masta_Chief@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Competently evil people

[–] wesker@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I'd actually request more weirdness in future, please.

[–] TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone 8 points 2 months ago

I'll see what I can do! 😉

[–] Aradina@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 months ago

They'll just beg, and then roll over and ask for more when that doesn't work

[–] iii@mander.xyz 5 points 2 months ago

We have to shoot our own feet untill they learn how to walk.

[–] psyklax@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

"Omg! Australia is attacking the US!" <- How our (US) media covers this, probably.

What is our dumbfuck president claiming for an excuse to tariff another one of our Five Eyes allies? What is the perceived slight that has set off this unstable man-baby POTUS?

(Did not read the article.. assuming answers can be found there.)

(Edit: have now read the article)

President Trump's announcement was made a day after Australia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles met with American Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth. 

'That this advice has been given the day after our Deputy Prime Minister was in Washington to hand over billions of dollars to secure the AUKUS submarine deal is particularly troubling,' Mr Willox said.

This is all they said about the potential motivations. They had a meeting with our Christian Nationalist unqualified news commentator defense secretary, made a deal where Australia is paying the US for submarines. Now you all are getting Art-of -the-Deal'd. I would call it extortion and an act of war.

[–] Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)
[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Denominating all international trade in Euros would probably shut him right the fuck up.

[–] DarkSpectrum@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I believe BRICS is already working to replace existing USD backed global rare earth and commodity markets with new markets backed by gold and BRICS currencies and without speculation based pricing.

America is no longer a superpower and will soon become just another country to plunder for resources, including human labour.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago (6 children)

Forgive me if I'm not excited at whatever dystopian nightmare BRICS comes up with.

[–] DarkSpectrum@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Fair point, worth tracking though

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