Alex Z

@azincle.bsky.social

346 Followers 328 Following

Deep State supporter Deadly Fixed Object enjoyer. Cleveland Guardians fan. Liberal YIMBY. Repeal the 2nd amendment. He/him. @azincle everywhere

Kay Sutula, Director of the Office Management and Budget, stated that healthcare and prescription costs had increased by 34% from October 2024 to October 2025. Should this trend continue through November and December, staff projects an annual expenditure of $45.6 million by the end of the year.
Close up of cherry blossom flowers with Wade Lagoon and Severance Hall out of focus in the background
Trump Tariffs Show Signs of Being Written by AI "Exactly what the dumbest kid in the class would do."
Trump’s Tariff Formula Slammed As ‘Fake’ And ‘Incredibly Stupid’ By Experts
How were the tariffs decided? The tariffs were pitched as “reciprocal,” but appear to have been calculated using a simple calculation: the country’s trade deficit divided by its exports to the US multiplied by half. That means countries that export more to the US than they import are taxed higher.
Economists rip apart Trump's 'insane' list of 'fake' international tariff charges levied against US and reveal 'the formula White House used' to create reciprocal fees that have caused global chaos
What the Trump administration seems to have done is taken the deficit ($235.6 billion) and divided it by the total number of imports from the E.U. ($605.8 billion), yielding a figure of 38.89%, which the administration rounded up to 39% and called a “Tariff to the U.S.A.” imposed by the E.U. But obviously, that is not a tariff.
But the “tariff” percentage numbers that Trump presented (on a large chart that he hugged in the windy April weather) do not bear any direct relation to actual tariffs these countries levy. Instead, economics scribes trying to puzzle out the White House’s numbers theorize that they represent each country’s trade deficit with the United States, divided by the value of that country’s exports to the U.S. — a metric that the Atlantic contributor James Surowiecki called “extraordinary nonsense.”
Trump claimed that other trading partners impose "non-monetary barriers" on the United States. The chart illustrates the tariff rates "charged" by different countries or regions to the United States, including "currency manipulation" and "trade barriers." "There is no basis for the claimed tariff-equivalent rates imposed by other countries. This is pure invention," Gary Clyde Hufbauer, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told Xinhua.
How ‘kind’ are Trump’s new tariffs? Megha Bahree Megha Bahree Reporting from Vancouver, Canada In his Rose Garden ceremony, Trump has tried to frame his newly unveiled tariffs as “very kind” – but some experts are questioning that assertion. “The notion that these tariffs are ‘discounted’ and ‘reciprocal’ compared with those charged by US trading partners is simply false,” said Brett House, an economics professor at Columbia Business School. “Any notion of discounting and reciprocity is premised on opaque White House calculations of the effects of alleged currency manipulation and supposed trade barriers that are unlikely to stand up to inspection by outsiders.”
The Trump administration said the rate set for each country reflects a combination of the tariff and “non-tariff” or regulatory barriers that U.S. exporters face in those markets, which they then cut in half to arrive at the final figure. Around 85 countries received a duty rate of more than 10 percent, but that figure includes the 27 nations in the EU. In many cases, the foreign non-tariff barriers — which include regulations like food, safety and environmental standards — are worse than the tariffs that countries impose, White House officials said in a briefing with reporters before the announcement. They were granted anonymity as part of the ground rules for the briefing. The United States runs a trade deficit with most, if not all, of the countries it hit with an individualized tariff rate. In contrast, it runs a trade surplus with the United Kingdom, which the Trump administration just hit with the base line rate of 10 percent.
Notably absent on the list of countries subject to tariffs were Mexico, Canada, Russia and Belarus. Bessent said the United States doesn’t trade with Russia or Belarus because they are sanctioned. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, however, found in 2024 that the United States’ total goods trade with Russia was an estimated $3.5 billion.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced the US was imposing reciprocal tariffs on a small collection of Antarctic islands that are not inhabited by humans, as part of a global trade war aimed at asserting US dominance. The Heard and McDonald Islands, known for their populations of penguins and seabirds, can only be reached by sea.
President Donald Trump on Wednesday laid out the U.S. “reciprocal tariff” rates that more than 180 countries and territories, including European Union members, will face under his sweeping new trade policy. Trump and the White House shared a series of charts on social media detailing the tariff rates they say other countries impose on the U.S. Those purported rates include the countries’ “Currency Manipulation and Trade Barriers.” An adjacent column shows the new U.S. tariff rates on each country, as well as the European Union. Those rates are, in most cases, roughly half of what the Trump administration claims each country has “charged” the U.S.
“We will charge them approximately half of what they are and have been charging us, so the tariffs will be not a full reciprocal,” Trump said from the Rose Garden on Wednesday afternoon. “I could have done that, I guess, but it would have been tough for a lot of countries and we didn’t want to do that.” For example, instead of matching the European Union’s 39% tariff on US goods, the new duty on the EU will be 20% instead. China, which was already slapped with a 20% tariff for its role in fentanyl trade, will be levied an additional 34% — half of the 67% tariff it imposes on the US — bringing its new rate to 54%.
In literary criticism, an idiot plot is one which is "kept in motion solely by virtue of the fact that everybody involved is an idiot",[1]: 26  and where the story would quickly end, or possibly not even happen, if this were not the case.[2] It is a narrative where its conflict comes from characters not recognizing, or not being told, key information that would resolve the conflict, often because of plot contrivance. The only thing that prevents the conflict's resolution is the character's constant avoidance or obliviousness of it throughout the plot, even if it was already obvious to the viewer, so the characters are all "idiots" in that they are too obtuse to simply resolve the conflict immediately.
BURGER PIZZA- CLASSIC NON VEG For all the meat cravers, try the classic non-veg Burger Pizza loaded with the goodness of burger and the greatness of pizza
Paella on the stove covered in shrimp and other seafood
Typical suburban big-box strip mall with giant surface parking lots
Gold Line BRT cost going up by $70 million for more park-and-ride spots A park-and-ride facility and Washington County service center will be added at a Woodbury station. By Janet Moore January 12, 2021 at 9:02PM
Based on Ontario, Canada, placing a 25% Tariff on "Electricity" coming into the United States, I have instructed my Secretary of Commerce to add an ADDITIONAL 25% Tariff, to 50%, on all STEEL and ALUMINUM COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES FROM CANADA, ONE OF THE HIGHEST TARIFFING NATIONS ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD. This will go into effect TOMORROW MORNING, March 12th. Also, Canada must immediately drop their Anti-American Farmer Tariff of 250% to 390% on various U.S. dairy products, which has long been considered outrageous. I will shortly be declaring a National Emergency on Electricity within the threatened area. This will allow the U.S to quickly do what has to be done to alleviate this abusive threat from Canada. If other egregious, long time Tariffs are not likewise dropped by Canada, I will substantially increase, on April 2nd, the Tariffs on Cars coming into the U.S. which will, essentially, permanently shut down the automobile manufacturing business in Canada. Those cars can easily be made in the USA! Also, Canada pays very little for National Security, relying on the United States for military protection. We are subsidizing Canada to the tune of more than 200 Billion Dollars a year. WHY??? This cannot continue. The only thing that makes sense is for Canada to become our cherished Fifty First State. This would make all Tariffs, and everything else, totally disappear. Canadians' taxes will be very substantially reduced, they will be more secure, militarily and otherwise, than ever before, there would no longer be a Northern Border problem, and the greatest and most powerful nation in the World will be bigger, better and stronger than ever — And Canada will be a big part of that. The artificial line of separation drawn many years ago will finally disappear, and we will have the safest and most beautiful Nation anywhere in the World — And your brilliant anthem, "O Canada," will continue to play, but now representing a GREAT and POWERFUL STATE within the greatest Nation…
Vanguard Investor Choice Vanguard is piloting a way to give eligible investors a greater say in the proxy voting process.
Yard sign that says "TRUMP LOW PRICES KAMALA HIGH PRICES"
Cleveland-Cliffs 1 month stock chart showing it down 23.73%
Shanghai metro map
Colin Powell at the UN in 2003 holding up a fake vial of Anthrax, claiming Iraq had a bioweapon program
Tax Help What do I enter for qualified payments received related to the East Palestine Train Derailment? NOTE: Only enter an amount on this line if it is included in your federal adjusted gross income. More information about taxability of the payments can be found here . If you determine your payment is tax-free, don't include it in your federal AGI and don't enter the amount on this line. Enter any of the following amounts included in your federal adjusted gross income that you received related to the train derailment near the city of East Palestine, Ohio on February 3, 2023: Paid or reimbursed for your personal, family, living, or funeral expenses; Paid or reimbursed for expenses incurred to repair or rehabilitate your personal residence; Paid or reimbursed for expenses incurred to repair or replace the contents of your personal residence; Paid by a person engaged in the furnishing or sale of transportation as a common carrier by reason of death or personal physical injuries; OR Paid by a federal, state, or local government to promote the general welfare. These amounts are deductible only to the extent any expense compensated by such payment is not otherwise compensated for by insurance. Also enter amounts included in your federal adjusted gross income to compensate for lost business resulting from the derailment paid by any of the following: A federal, state, or local government agency; A railroad company, as that term is defined in R.C. 5727.01; OR Any subsidiary, insurer, or agent of a railroad company or any related person. For more information, See R.C. 5747.01(A)(39).
Lufthansa A340-300
A day of confusing and often contradictory guidance left many federal workers still unclear ultimately how to handle Musk’s request. Some were told to comply, others were advised not to, and still others were awaiting instructions from their agency’s leaders until late in the day. Speaking from the Oval Office on Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump called Musk’s email demand “ingenious” and said that anyone who didn’t respond is “semi-fired or fired.” Then, a couple of hours later, Trump’s own administration directly contradicted him, when the Office of Personnel Management formally notified agencies that response was voluntary and that any failure to respond would “not equate to a resignation.”
Twitter ad screenshot for a seatbelt alarm silencer
Headline: Denny's plans to close more restaurants than previously expected Nearly 30 additional locations could shut their doors this year as the diner chain’s comeback efforts hit a snag. By Joe Guszkowski on Feb. 12, 2025
“A 25-Year-Old With Elon Musk Ties Has Direct Access to the Federal Payment System”, my sources have also independently (and before publication of the Wire article at 1 AM today) confirmed their reporting that: Two of those sources say that Elez’s privileges include the ability not just to read but to write code on two of the most sensitive systems in the US government: The Payment Automation Manager (PAM) and Secure Payment System (SPS) at the Bureau of the Fiscal Service (BFS). Housed on a top-secret mainframe, these systems control, on a granular level, government payments that in their totality amount to more than a fifth of the US economy. [...]
Tweet by me: "Human scale" neighborhoods have nothing to do with building heights and everything to do with streetscapes and storefronts. 2 photos attached of Hong Kong streetscapes
NY Times headline: Trump Favors Blunt Force in Dealing With Foreign Allies and Enemies Alike
Map showing arrows from the Canadian border near Detroit and Buffalo into northern Ohio
Tweet by me: And we're supposed to believe they have a plan to scale this to 90000 pph capacity lol. Reply: That 90K is for the whole loop. My reply: So divided over all the stations each one individually will only have 900 pph capacity?