Former President Donald Trump's United States of America

[afransen]

And yet even now, Musk et al. aren't going all out to figure out space mining. It's NASA leading the moon mission. Not Space X or Blue Origin. These guys always talk a big game. They never put their money where their mouths are.

They aren't the only ones. In defence, you have companies like Andruil pretending they are coming up with really novel ideas when they are simply scaling down other weapons without scaling down costs at the same rate. But since it's tech bros who know how to market, everybody thinks they are geniuses and the military is clueless.

SpaceX seem to have a viable business with Starlink as a legitimate, large scale business requiring orbital launch capability. The economics of going to the moon, Mars, etc. doesn't seem to be there. Musk's ventures are to help fund his dream of people on Mars. The rationale of settling Mars seems tenuous as there doesn't seem to be any economic rationale. Colonialism on Earth was driven by exchange of commodities. There is nothing on Mars worth exporting to Earth. Mars is a shallower gravity well than Earth for launching mass to places other than Earth's surface, but is there much of a market for that?

 

[lenaitch]

SpaceX seem to have a viable business with Starlink as a legitimate, large scale business requiring orbital launch capability. The economics of going to the moon, Mars, etc. doesn't seem to be there. Musk's ventures are to help fund his dream of people on Mars. The rationale of settling Mars seems tenuous as there doesn't seem to be any economic rationale. Colonialism on Earth was driven by exchange of commodities. There is nothing on Mars worth exporting to Earth. Mars is a shallower gravity well than Earth for launching mass to places other than Earth's surface, but is there much of a market for that?

There's a number of companies doing commercial low earth orbit launches, and once Starlink has the sky covered in satellites, then what. Perhaps if/when his model of vehicle recovery proves to be more economical that the traditional expendable platforms.

 

[afransen]

There's a number of companies doing commercial low earth orbit launches, and once Starlink has the sky covered in satellites, then what. Perhaps if/when his model of vehicle recovery proves to be more economical that the traditional expendable platforms.

SpaceX has a dominant share of the launch market. Their competitors are mostly struggling.

Starlink has to be continually replenished. The satellites have a service life of 5 years after which their orbit decays and they burn up in the atmosphere.

 

[DSC]

Trump just announced that he will impose. 25% import tariff on Canada (and Mexico). On Day 1.

 

[Northern Light]

Trump just announced that he will impose. 25% import tariff on Canada (and Mexico). On Day 1.

One must take this with a rather large grain of salt, I expect.

I'll have to re-read the CUSMA agreement, but I'm not sure the U.S. President's executive authority actually goes that far.

Put that to one side, Canada is the leading source of aluminum for the U.S. which is a major input to a host of U.S. products; one particular form of aluminum is a key item in a great deal of U.S. Military hardware and some of that is exclusively made in Canada.

A 25% tariff on softwood would send the price of new U.S homes and renos spiraling.

A 25% tarriff on energy would devastate the U.S. Canada is a large exporter of electricity, oil and nat. gas to the U.S. for both residential and business customers.

Meanwhile, the beef industry is integrated across the Canada-U.S. border almost seamlessly.........

While its possible The Donald will find a way to do something that foolish, I can't imagine it would last long; and I find it far more likely that any tariffs will be far more limited in scope.

 

[PinkLucy]

Trump just announced that he will impose. 25% import tariff on Canada (and Mexico). On Day 1.

This was announced along with some rambling about drugs flowing into the country (ignore the home grown stuff) and thousands of Canadians and Mexicans are pouring into the country bringing our crime and drugs. Except he used capital letters.

 

[christiesplits]

Trump just announced that he will impose. 25% import tariff on Canada (and Mexico). On Day 1.

Curious to see if his announcement comes to fruition. He's previously thrown red meat at his base, before reneging. Some are speculating that he's using it as leverage to force Mexico and Canada to tighten border security. Perhaps he introduces a tariff but at a lower rate, or excludes certain industries like auto manufacturing and food. Will be an interesting next couple months.

 

[Towered]

I think Trump will be far more unhinged and willing to make extreme policy choices in his upcoming mandate. He'll approach his presidency from a perspective of spite and vengeance. His party controls all three branches of government, and this will be his last term, so he'll have nothing to lose and thus will attempt to exert maximum damage. I think we're in for a harsh, vitriolic administration on a level we haven't seen before, at least for the next 2 years, when hopefully the Democrats manage to win back the senate or the house in the mid terms. Buckle up.

 

[afransen]

Unhinged. The way it is phrased, there is nothing Canada could do to satisfy Trump's demand (completely stop the flow of migrants and drugs. To zero?). I suppose Canada can only respond with matching tariffs subject to our own list of grievances to be corrected. Maybe use the proceeds to dump dark money into a bunch of anti-MAGA PACs and information campaigns on US airwaves explaining why tariffs on Canadian goods are leading to inflation in various areas and business closures and layoffs.