Remote View

SeventyTwoTrillion [he/him] @hexbear.net

3w ago

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.

Last week's thread is here.
The Imperialism Reading Group is here.

Please check out the RedAtlas!

The bulletins site is here. Currently not used.
The RSS feed is here. Also currently not used.

1K comments

Existing liberal lines on the PRC are shattering, and those antagonistic towards the PRC are increasingly being opposed. The time is good to be correcting misconceptions about the PRC and explaining the benefits of siding with it over the US.
I may have to hand it to the accelerationists, Trump may go down in history as one of the accidentally best presidents in USian history.
The Chinese Century is well upon us, as we already knew, but increasingly liberals are accepting this. The Paper Tiger is dissolving.

UK Supreme Court has ruled that the concept of sex is strictly binary, and based on sex at birth.
Trans women are now excluded from women's spaces and services, even if they have a gender recognition certificate. Discrimination is now codified.

Bukele is one of many Salvadoran fascists. Every generation of my leftist family have dealt with them through orgs and sometimes militant acts. He’s proving to be more like Maximiliano Martínez. A self-admitted facist who’s responsible for heavily kneecapping the Communist movement in El Salvador and nearly wiping out their indigenous population. My great-grandfather was jailed during his reign and I don’t think he ever came back.
Even worse is that he did all this before the CIA even existed. Much like Bukele, Martínez was an opportunist who was more than happy to suck the imperialists teats if he got something out of it.
I have to say that it’s a little amusing how nobody gave a shit about Central America and now all these foreigners keep talking about us. The takes here are much better than other sites that regularly frustrate me.
- His popularity in polls seems wild to me, is something like 90% the reality or is there some kind of dissent?
  
  Not directly related to his popularity but here's a decent
  thread on /r/trueanon on the topic

havent posted in a few years, been lurking since october 23, my whole family is in Jenin, but I live in the so called united states. So I'll try to post news from and about Palestine when I can as my contribution to the mega.
havent seen this posted yet but US killed 70+ civilians and injured over 200 at Ras Issa Port in Hodeidah, very significant escalation in my view
UPDATE | Sanaa's ministry of health reports that the death toll of the US attack on Ras Issa Port in Hodeidah last night has reached 74 Yemenis.
At least 171 others were injured.
Rescue teams from the ambulance and civil defense are still identifying missing persons and searching for victims.
Source: The Cradle

China says Latin American countries ‘are nobody's backyard’. After the US Secretary of State said that the US wants to reclaim its ‘backyard’, the Chinese Foreign Minister said that Latin America does not want ‘doctrines of domination’. In an interview with Fox News on Thursday, Hegseth accused China of dominating Latin America and said that Donald Trump's administration wants to regain US influence over countries in the region.
"The Obama administration took its eye off the ball and let China take over all of South and Central America, with its economic and cultural influence, making deals with local governments for bad infrastructure, surveillance and debt. President Trump said ‘no more’! Let's take back our backyard."
In response, Wang Yi declared that Latin American countries are seeking independence, not “doctrines of domination”. Chancellor Wang Yi: "What the Latin American peoples want is to build their own home, not to be anyone's backyard. What they are looking for is independence, not doctrines of domination."
Telegram
- I LOVE CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTER WANG YI
  
  我爱王毅❤️
- Imagine talking to and about brown people as if they are actually human beings. What is the world coming to?

Why Trump (probably) won’t defy the Supreme Court Today at 11:45Aam BST
Donald Trump Is Defying The Supreme Court Today at 06:29pm BST
lol
- Trump Claims He Can Overrule Constitution With Executive Order Because Of Little-Known ‘No One Will Stop Me’ Loophole
- Establishment liberals, as usual, completely ignored that the supreme court order had some weasel wording (on facilitate vs effectuate) that would allow for this very possibility to occur. Did they really think that the Trump administration would not try to exploit this?
  The weasel words:
  The rest of the District Court’s order remains in effect but requires clarification on remand. The order properly requires the Government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador. The intended scope of the term “effectuate” in the District Court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the District Court’s authority. The District Court should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs. For its part, the Government should be prepared to share what it can concerning the steps it has taken and the prospect of further steps.
  Nobodies on twitter/x were pointing this very possibility out days ago. You know it's bad when nobodies on twitter are doing better journalism than the Washington Post.
  Also the Huffington Post article is really bad
  These are two entirely different things. There is no world where the administration’s definition of “facilitate” aligns with obeying either court’s orders.
  There is, it's the one we're living in right now. Hence Garcia still being locked up in El Salvador and not repatriated back to the United States, and Trump remaining president, with no constitutional crisis. That is how it's playing out. Saying that it ain't so doesn't actually change anything.
  The reason the administration can even make the claim for its mangled definition of “facilitate” gets at how the Supreme Court royally screwed this case up.
  In its unanimous decision, the court did order the administration to get Abrego Garcia out of CECOT and to the U.S., but it also stated that the district court that first ordered Abrego Garcia’s return “should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
  Why is the Huffington Post viewing this as a screw up, and not a deliberate action by the justices on the court, to give the Trump administration an out here? The court is a partisan institution, the majority of the judges are Republican nominees. Compromises obviously had to be made to get this verdict, yet alone a unanimous one at that. They are going to give their party and their guy (in Trump) a way out. Does the Huffington Post not understand the basic dynamics of political power?
- 😔

"Youngest political prisoner in Russia", exchanged to the West last year, publicly confesses that he was not a "political prisoner", but an actual spy and enemy combatant.
https://twitter.com/RWApodcast/status/1912169328369418634

Currently riding on a train through Xinjiang. Hopefully I'll update later with more details.

A sitting US Congressman personally firing on the Russian military.
There has to be some law against this (not that it will be applied). MAGAs have been crying “Logan Act” because of van Hollen’s visit with Abrego Garcia, meanwhile a Republican elected official is personally committing acts of war against a sovereign nation.

Lol lmao

ICE arrested and is holding a Latino man in Florida as an "unauthorized alien" after he crossed into the state from Georgia. He is a US citizen born in Georgia.
https://x.com/LlanosJackie/status/1912908068167221653
https://xcancel.com/LlanosJackie/status/1912908068167221653

There are factories in China going on tiktok and telling people how to buy stuff directly from them and ways to evade tariffs
Its all extremely funny
- It's not about avoiding tariffs, it's about cutting the cost of the import to the price of the manufacturer instead of the price of the importer middleman. Tariffs are a % of the price.
- It's actually been going on since before the tarrifs lol. For example:
  "Tony from LC Sign here! Join our WhatsApp to get the latest high quality LED signage straight from factory. Shipped by DHL or FedEx".
  That guy's videos were constantly getting recommended to me, despite finding them distasteful at times.
  
  Is there like a website or search term for this? asking for a friend

Looks like Trump is pushing forward the Biden export license rule for high-end "AI" accelerators. Similar to what China implemented for rare earth minerals. NVidia is expecting a ~$5bn hit from this. Poor China, they will now have a harder time wasting energy on AI.
[edit] as is tradition, someone was buying big puts on NVDA the entire day before the announcement. Insider traders are making insane amounts of $$$.

ICE nuking tourism by kidnapping random tourists.

A deadly E. coli outbreak hit 15 states, but the FDA chose not to publicize it

We are continuing down the eugenics "let disease cull the weak" path. They will probably unrecommend vaccines next, so insurance will stop covering them, and people will be priced out of vaccine access like they've done with uninsured people and covid vaccines. Dr. Brianworm will say they cause autism, and disease makes you strong, and that will be that.

Milei is accused of possessing material with child sexual abuse and networks question whether he is a pedophile
https://revistaforum.com.br/global/2025/4/19/milei-acusado-de-possuir-material-com-abuso-sexual-infantil-redes-questionam-se-ele-pedofilo-177724.html

So that pause on tariffs happened because a couple of sleuths knew that Trump would be alone and since there would be no counterarguments to them, Trump would just default to whatever they were saying. They even waited to see him type it out, to make sure he didn't just forget about it.

And now for positive India news: Communist-led Kerala soon to become India’s first state free of extreme poverty
The low levels of destitution in the state is a result of decades of progressive policy interventions such as:
Land reforms
High social spending
Institutionalizing healthcare as a public service
Providing job training and other necessary support for families that did not have a stable source of income
Launching a minimum 100-day job guarantee
Developing individual livelihood plans based on the specific needs of a particular family
Various other programs under successive communist governments
So Kerala is the indian state with the highest human development index. For those that don't know about Keralan politics, state elections are contests between the Communist Party of India (Marxist) led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Indian National Congress led United Democratic Front (UDF), Modi's BJP only has 1 single MP in the state.
For decades it used to be that Keralan elections would go like this, every 5 years the incumbent government would lose and the opposition would get to govern, however in 2021 for the first time ever the LDF, which had been governing since 2016, consecutively won the elections and so they have governed the state for almost 10 years, that could explain why so much progress has been achieved.
Now, as someone who doesn't know a lot about Kerala, if winning twice in a row is an outlier outcome then one would guess that, regardless how well they have governed, the LDF will probably lose in 2026 and the UDF will get to govern again, but I just saw this headline in an article I'm not gonna read saying they're polling well and could win 3 times in a row so maybe there's hope!

NYT says Trump vetoed Israels plan to strike Iranian nuclear facilities
Israel had planned to strike Iranian nuclear sites as soon as next month but was waved off by President Trump in recent weeks in favor of negotiating a deal with Tehran to limit its nuclear program, according to administration officials and others briefed on the discussions.
I haven't decided whether I think Biden would have green lit this or not.

Zionazi controlled University of Amsterdam, Neanderthalands 🇳🇱 sent plain clothed pig thugs to beat the shit out of peaceful protesters cw violence by pigs, reddit link

Okay this is actually…. Big fucking news?
Edit: it’s a MAYBE but still cool! I know science news Isn’t exactly the purpose of this thread but it seems possibly big enough to warrant a comment here
nytimes

Ghana created a new state body to take over all gold sales in the country, banning foreign and other domestic interests from playing that role. This is notable as Ghana is one of the most western friendly countries of West Africa.

AP: Thousands gather in London to support trans rights following UK ruling over definition of woman
Including this wonderful bit of cognitive dissonance:
Trans groups are worried that Wednesday’s landmark decision would undermine their rights, even though the U.K.'s highest court said transgender people remain protected from discrimination. The head of Equality and Human Rights Commission said the ruling will mean transgender women will be excluded from women’s toilets, hospital wards and sports teams.
Of course, the BBC has the real news: Westminster statues vandalised at trans protest

I've noticed recently that Wikipedia has been a lot less pro-Israel recently. Like, they directly call it an Apartheid state and what Israel is doing a genocide without any qualifiers, and if you look at the Talk pages on those articles, any time someone tries to bring it up, they're basically just like "No. We've already settled on this discussion."

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-15/china-tells-airlines-stop-taking-boeing-jets-as-trump-tariffs-expand-trade-war

The libs are mad again because Pete Hegseth didn't properly file his paperwork and protect the information about doing massive war crimes. The war crimes themselves tho, those are great.

This is the moment just minutes ago when Mohsen Madawi a Columbia University student was apprehended by HSI agents in the middle of his appointment to become a U.S. citizen. He is a Palestinian-born green card holder. Video was taken by his friend ⁦
https://x.com/lilialuciano/status/1911821866408522045
- The way the pigs are all covered up and hooded & masked is pretty telling on how legit all this is. They also seem to be avoiding the camera as much as they can. Who can even tell if these are actually cops, the one guy in grey/green had no pig letters on his clothes as far as I could tell.
  
  Only in America can we have hundreds of millions of guns and sit totally placid as masked unidentified men in unmarked vehicles are abducting people in broad daylight. What was the point of the guns if not for this exact situation?
  
  It's also a terror tactic. If you don't know who is kidnapping you then you don't know whether to call city, state, or federal. You don't know if you're resisting local cops or the feds. And if they gun you down there's not much chance of them being idd. A big part of state terror is often the anonymity of the perpetrators.

While the world is distracted by media noise… China is quietly rallying Asia to shift global power. In just a few days:
45 economic agreements signed with Vietnam
A 5-year strategic pact sealed with Malaysia
Key diplomatic meetings in Thailand
Military and strategic cooperation boosted with Indonesia
Telegram

A NATO country will send troops to Ukraine to learn from the war. Russia said they will be legitimate targets.
Denmark sending troops to Ukraine to "learn drone warfare."
100% chance NATO troops will be directly involved in droning some Russians.

Trump is Kamala-ing JD!

Well, well, well. Look at the completely predictable consequences of my actions
U.S. Chipmakers Fear They Are Ceding China’s A.I. Market to Huawei
New restrictions on semiconductor exports to China are scrambling sales and fueling concerns that the Chinese tech giant will become a chip-making powerhouse.
https://archive.is/YSBZK

President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country will not resume diplomatic relations with Ecuador.
Telesur English

Awful thought I just had: Will Luigi Mangione be sent to CECOT?

hmmmmm

Currently on a break from Anglo political content while visiting family in El Salvador. I did decide to come back just to relay some interesting information from leftists in the country.
CECOT is actually the prison with the best conditions in the entire country and it certainly looks like it from the outside. I’ve seen much worse looking ones since arriving.
But it isn’t the industrial extermination camp people think it is. The real one is under the radar and it’s at Izalco. There’s an unmarked graveyard rumored to be inside or nearby it while no such thing has been heard of at CECOT.
So I’m off for another couple of days.
Also an obligatory fuck you to anyone still looking to “punish” or invade El Salvador.

Ukraine openly training child soldiers and getting a glowing write up by G*rman state media.

Ford stops car shipments to China from Michigan and Kentucky.
In April, ~80 cargo ships are "blank sailing" so far, while around 50 were at the height of Covid. So more cargo ships have either cancelled their scheduled travel entirely, or are at least skipping ports than at any point during Covid.
Trump did something to fuck with the student loan system, I completely forget what it was. Anyway, student loan defaults spiked 289%.

From the NYTimes live thread on the hearing of Kilmar Abrego Garcia:
Forcing the administration to reveal what it has done behind the scenes is an interim step on the way toward Judge Xinis figuring out if officials are in contempt of court. The judge also notes that this could be an uncomfortable process as the administration is compelled to answer specific questions and officials are possibly made to sit for depositions. She says she envisions the discovery process taking about two weeks. Suggesting how expeditiously she intends to move, Judge Xinis tells Drew Ensign, the Justice Department lawyer, that he should clear his calendar in order to arrange the discovery information she intends to request. “Cancel vacation,” she says. “Cancel other appointments. I’m usually pretty good about this in my courtroom, but not this time.”
Look at that, only two short weeks until they've legally figured out if the government didn't "facilitate" Garcia's return.

FT: Trade, tech and Treasuries: China holds cards in US tariff stand-off
https://archive.is/ZKce1
This is the important chart, idk why archive.is doesn't load it:

William Shatner went to space with Jeff Bezos and said, "It felt like a funeral." QED.
From this video, which is also very good in that it talks about the absolute dumbification of feminism and women working in science and technology: women in space but it sucks

Trump is rumored to be drafting an executive order that will enable the US to seize rare earth metals from the ocean floor. Actual pulling-the-copper-out-of-the-walls policy if it happens.
- Far more expensive than mining it on land, orders of magnitude, and at 2% the concentration.
  There is a reason this hasn’t been done already and it isn’t because US corporations don’t want to wreck the marine environment. It’s massively expensive. There are non-Chinese land sources that will get tapped before the seabed.
  And the supply of these minerals is also a refinement problem. China owns this market because they have the refinement capacity, not just because they have the raw materials.
  
  Yeah, just sitting here hoping the power of stupidity and unlimited resources isn't going to overcome all the hurdles.
- Do you want to anger Godzilla? Because this is how you anger Godzilla.
  
  At this point I think Godzilla could only improve conditions.

Send in the clown: Bill Maher turns pro-Trump
Maher, the comic who once fancied himself a fearless political truth-teller, is now wobbling under the weight of his own ego. His recent televised monologue — an extended love letter to his dinner with Trump — was less a political reflection than a highlight reel of self-flattery and unearned gravitas.
Maher bragged that he had dinner with Trump — “a dinner that was set up by my friend Kid Rock.” Yes, when your access to the leader of the free world is coordinated by a rap-rock-country novelty act — a man who has assaulted a strip-club DJ, waved Confederate flags and hurled homophobic slurs at his own fans — you might want to reevaluate your choices. But Maher treated it like an RSVP to the Met Gala.
“I’m not the leader of anything,” Maher proclaimed, “except maybe a contingent of centrist-minded people who think there’s got to be a better way of running this country than hating each other every minute.”
Amazing timing, just as Trump is becoming less popular than ever, including his entire first term.

he’s running

"More reaping and less sowing, please" says the Pentagon
China’s Halt of Critical Minerals Poses Risk for U.S. Military Programs

Insane

the zionist regime's latest ceasefire offer is peace when all groups in Gaza disarm (obviously this was rejected)
https://www.npr.org/2025/04/15/g-s1-60361/israel-hamas-gaza-ceasefire-talks

Growth Of Ukraine's Azov Units Follow Path Of The Waffen-SS | Moon of Alabama
(no brainworms detected)

Seems like they found the deported guy Kilmar
https://x.com/ChrisVanHollen/status/1913034619710034094

Wall Street Journal did an investigation into Elon Musk paying women to have his children. It speculates that Elon has many more children than the 14 which are publicly known
https://www.wsj.com/politics/elon-musk-children-mothers-ashley-st-clair-grimes-dc7ba05c
https://archive.is/xwvfU

Republican Governor Candidate Proposes Female Undocumented Immigrants Can Stay If They Marry “Incels” Government mandated girlfriends, jfc

Apart from the fact that islands are populated, I'd love to see these libertarians do more of this. Find land that is completely unpopulated. Create a "libertarian"/liberal/conservative utopia. Get owned by bears. Repeat.

It is over
https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/04/8716/
"But we are capable of so much more.
Our technologies permit us to manipulate time and space. They leave distance annihilated, cause things to grow, and improve productivity."
Pack it up. We are done for

Prediction: Abrego Garcia will return home at some point. And then Trump and his ilk will spin it as "See? We'll correct our mistakes when someone isn't a criminal!" And then the Democrats will treat that as the big victory, so they don't need to do anything about this anymore whilst the same shit still keeps happening, like Derek Chauvin's conviction.

JD Vance killed the pope

The ICJ has just granted piSSrael an extra 6 months to issue their defense of Final Solution policy against South Africa's suit. The court date has been postponed to 12 January 2026 instead of 28 July. Palestine Chronicle

1016 comments