Bulletins and News Discussion from April 14th to April 20th, 2025 - The Lamentations of a Levy-Loving Leader

Image is of Trump's initial set of reciprocal tariffs. Source is CNN and Reuters.

It's difficult to keep up with the news around the tariffs; they get instated, then dropped, then reinstated... for example, on Friday, Trump said that certain electronics like smartphones would be exempt, causing markets to rally a great deal, but now the Commerce Secretary has said that they might not be exempt? The state of play right now, if you haven't been keeping up this week, is that the US recently announced a 90-day global pause on implementing the tariffs he had planned (that is, 25% on certain Canadian and Mexican goods, and at least 10% on every other nation) but nonetheless increased tariffs on China to 145%.

Meanwhile, China has been - quite remarkably - standing their ground, increasing tariffs on the US to 125%, and putting restrictions on rare earths. Xi Jinping has been in Vietnam and has made statements against a tariff war there, saying that it would have no winners. Meanwhile, a Chinese spokesperson has essentially said that China can endure the tariff war due to the increasing demand from its domestic market in combination with its growing economic ties with other countries.

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344 评论

Kilmar Abrego Garcia to remain in El Salvador, says Bukele

Not surprising, ghouls doing ghoul shit. Wish someone would do something funny while Bukele is still stateside
- while Bukele is still stateside
  
  telling on himself
- So they're just holding them indefinitely? So deportation is a life in prison sentence?
  
  Yeah, once you are taken to CECOT you aren't getting out
  
  More like a death sentence than a life sentence.
  
  Yep
- After a plane carrying Abrego Garcia and other detainees secretly left the U.S. in mid-March, a federal judge in a separate case temporarily blocked the deportation, ruling that the plane must turn around.
  "Oopsie... Too late," Bukele wrote with a crying laughing emoji on X the next day alongside a screenshot of a news report on the judge's decision.
  Hell would be too good for them.
  
  How long until we get an ICC case for trump and bukele? The Hague is far to nice of a prison for their likes unfortunately...id rather he spend the next 40 years in pure darkness with wormy bread and sewage to drink
  
  Bukele is more likely to get one than Trump once the US turns on him again.
- Is this officially the first Supreme Court order Trump is ignoring
  Edit: also occurring to me there’s a small chance this guy is already dead / very fucked up and that’s why there’s all this “I’m powerless” theater. Much more likely Trump just doesn’t want to comply, but it’s a possibility
  
  The admin argues that they are doing whatever they can to "facilitate", but his return is ultimately up to El Salvador.
  But yeah, they also probably don't want his stories of the horrors to be out in the public. Because of how politically important this poor mans case has become, its likely he dies sooner rather than later.
  
  The admin argues that they are doing whatever they can to "facilitate", but his return is ultimately up to El Salvador.
  Yeah this is understood by all to be a farce
  
  also occurring to me there’s a small chance this guy is already dead / very fucked up and that’s why there’s all this “I’m powerless” theater.
  Even if it is not too late for this guy, this is the exact reason they are staking out this position. They are reserving the option to do this to anybody without any due process or transparency.
  
  The President has complete immunity according to SCOTUS. He doesn't have to follow any of their rulings.
  
  Trump avoiding a constitutional crisis by just ignoring the crisis and doing what he wants anyway
- So the Trump admin says it doesn't have power to bring him back, and Bukele says he doesn't have power to send him back.

344 评论