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Yep, article is well meaning but dumb.

Idealism is great, but politics requires pragmatism. Which is why people like AOC and Bernie (who are well left of Kamala politically) still told voters to vote for Kamala in the election - she was the only way to avoid Trump, she was the pragmatic choice.

But apparently we'll be discussing why it's a dumb idea to be a protest voter in a very close election for the next four years non-stop.

I'm Australia's regard, what the bully is doing is hurting himself more that his victim.

If the bully punches himself in the face I'm not gonna punch myself in the face to prevent him being emboldened.

As an aside, I don't know why people think that a market capitalism solution is what will stop Trump. The whole world won't just stop buying US-made products in unison and the NASDAQ drops precipitously and Trump announces "oh dear, i will stop doing a fascism and be a good boy from now on". This is a fantasy that does not map to the real world.

Look at how tarrifs have affected Putin or Kim Jong Il: barely at all. Yes, their people suffer, but the leaders make new trade deals with different counties so their personal wealth in largely unaffected. Meanwhile they have big propaganda wins as it feeds right into their party narrative that the 'rest of the world is against us', 'the elites are conspiring at the WTO'. And those countries have been heavily targeted by tariff schemes for decades, how long you guys want Trump? Historically the only way authoritarian regimes are brought down is via internal conflict or war.

Why do most people here seem to agree that Trump's tarrifs are stupid and brash, yet Australia's leadership deeming retaliatory tarrifs would be the same is 'gutless and weak'?

This is just smart leadership on Australia's part. We are a trade surplus partner with USA - meaning we import more from the US than we export, and importantly the targets of the tarriffs are only a small fraction of our exports to the US.

So, to create knee-jerk retaliatory tarrifs on the US for the sake of assisting a very small sliver of our exports would be truly shooting ourselves in the foot.

Have a look at our iron ore export leading markets and look for the USA to see how much we need them: https://www.statista.com/statistics/1149300/australia-leading-iron-ore-export-destinations/

Now add up ALL iron, steel aluminium, and 'ores' from this list of all Aus -> US exports: https://tradingeconomics.com/australia/exports/united-states

Sum total: ~$550mil of our $14.7billion exports to the US in 2024 were aluminium or steel or their ores. So a 25% tarrif on 3.7% of our exports? To a country we have a trade surplus with?

Its not worth us tariffing them, would hurt us far more than we gain, and our top economists agree - saying "retaliatory tarrifs would be an act of self-sabotage" https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-02/treasury-came-armed-with-a-warning-politicians-dragged-them-mud/104995418

Most plastic melts at between 200°C and 320°C. So... Uh. Let's fire up those ovens, baby.

I suggest we start with Dupont and 3M executives to field test the removal process - since they're cool with testing their products on us.

Additional suggestions encouraged. Coke-Amatil? Tyre manufacturers?

There's a whole ocean between 'a single (biased) source claims Signal have stopped responding to requests for cybercrime assistance' and 'Signal is a pro-Kremlin app'.

But it can make custom emoji! 🫨 That alone is worth the hundreds of millions Apple spent.

Probably the same as we have now, "be neat if and when it eventually arrives".

Must be nice to live in this fantasy world of yours where there are no real problems.

No Russian war of aggression in Ukraine, no Palestinian genocide, no billionaire capitalists causing climate change and wealth inequality hitting levels not seen since the 1920 market crash - just happy feels with head in the Murdoch sand.

Nah it's all good - it's confusing because federal-level hate crime and Anti-Nazi laws came in recently also (last month). Those are all mandatory minimum prison sentences though, no fines.

I cordially invite Elon to come to Melbourne Australia and flip his favourite salute.

Its a significantly more painful $23,000 fine there, and if he does it repeatedly there's a good chance of a 12 month prison term.

https://www.vic.gov.au/fact-sheet-nazi-symbol-prohibition

P. S. If my maths is right he can do it almost 15 million times before he runs out of money, I might have to email Vic gov to ask them to review the fine to be wealth-adjusted.

Do you know how you stop 'edgy teens' from becoming actual Nazis?

You show them consequences for their incredibly disrespectful and obscene behavior.

This kid obviously hasn't has enough consequences in his life, and will now get to experience some.

Only in one state of Australia, Victoria. Worth mentioning.