Disclosing Tariff Impacts: A Hostile and Political Act

[nikcers]

No we don't. We do the opposite. More independence = more freedom, not more central management and taxation.

National independence.

In economics you know- we are energy independent.

We produce more energy than we consume.

 

[acptulsa]

Whoever gains and maintains AI supremacy will control the world.

Artificial god-like super intelligence is a big deal.

It boasts. Interesting.

It might be a big deal, in another forty years. Right now it's a pipe dream. You're, um, living? undead? proof.

 

[Invisible Man]

National independence.

In economics you know- we are energy independent.

We produce more energy than we consume.

I'm for individual independence. What you're calling "national independence" is a euphemism for bigger government and less freedom.

 

[acptulsa]

There's no going back to analog and silver.

Humans are more adaptable than you are.

 

[nikcers]

I'm for individual independence. What you're calling "national independence" is a euphemism for bigger government and less freedom.

Individual independence sounds great and all.

I definitely don't produce my own electricity.

Not enough to power any of my electronics atleast.

I guess I could rig up a hamster wheel and run on it.

I could farm my own chickens too probably.

That sounds like a real peaceful way to live.

 

[nikcers]

Humans are more adaptable than you are.

Don't you want to know everything about everything?

The knowledge of billions of books all inside your head.

Don't you wanna learn Kung fu or guitar just by installing and running the program?

 

[Invisible Man]

Individual independence sounds great and all.

I definitely don't produce my own electricity.

That's where voluntary exchange comes in. Voluntary.

Just as it is not beneficial for you to produce everything you use yourself, so it is not beneficial for a country to do that. Or, if it were beneficial, then the situation would obtain naturally via the voluntary decisions of the population, and not need to be imposed on them by central planners.

 

[nikcers]

That's where voluntary exchange comes in. Voluntary.

Our system is democratic capitalism.

You voluntarily participate in it.

You don't get to voluntarily cooperate with other nations.

That's the system our founders created. The president controls foreign policy and the states vote for president.

We don't have a headless government.

Your right to voluntary exchange ends at our borders.

 

[PAF]

Featured Articles
by Jacob G. Hornberger
May 3, 2025

After riding a wave of criticism of Democrats for suppressing freedom of speech, President Trump has just put the quietus on Amazon, which had the audacity to contemplate including the price of Trump’s tariffs in its shopping carts.

Upon hearing of Amazon’s plan, Trump went ballistic, calling Amazon’s plan a “hostile and political act.” According to an article in Aljazeera, Trump telephoned Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to express his displeasure. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt even pulled the Red card, pointing out that “Reuters recently wrote [that] Amazon partnered with a Chinese propaganda arm.”

Alas, following the lead of major law firms and universities that have incurred Trump’s wrath, Amazon quickly capitulated, announcing that it would not share the tariff information with its buyers.

Trump was ecstatic, announcing “Jeff Bezos was very nice. He was terrific. He solved a problem very quickly and he did the right thing.”

The episode reminded me of what Lyndon Johnson did soon after being elevated to the presidency after the JFK assassination. According to Robert Caro’s biography of Johnson, there were two newspapers in Texas that were investigating Johnson’s official corruption. While he was vice-president, Johnson could do nothing about it. But as president, things were different. He picked up the phone, talked to the editor or publisher of both newspapers, and informed them in no uncertain terms that he wanted the investigations terminated. Johnson mentioned the possibility of IRS audits and the federal government’s regulatory powers.

Both newspapers knew that the president of the United States wielded the power to do very bad things to them. Both investigations were immediately shut down and never pursued again. Johnson, no doubt, was as ecstatic as Trump.

Of course, Trump wouldn’t have to mention the IRS or some federal regulatory agency or the possibility of some new congressional Internet law to Bezos. By now, everyone is fully aware of the power of any U.S. president to do very bad things to people through the overwhelming regulatory and tax powers of the U.S. government.

What was wrong with what Amazon was contemplating? Nothing. Nothing at all. Amazon was simply going to inform Amazon buyers of the truth about what Trump’s tariffs were costing them. If that isn’t an exercise of freedom of speech, I don’t know what is.

But Trump obviously does not want American buyers of goods and services to see how much money his tariffs are costing them. He obviously just wants them to see how much money his tariff tax is bringing into the federal government, as if that is something good.

Convinced that Amazon’s plan to disclose the truth about the cost of his tariffs to American consumers was a “hostile” act, Trump and his minions immediately went on the attack and quickly won their war against Amazon. In the process, by striking a harsh and effective blow against the fundamental, God-given right of freedom of speech, Trump was guilty of what he criticized Democrats for doing.



Reprinted with permission from Future of Freedom Foundation.

So Much for Free Speech Under Trump - The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity

After riding a wave of criticism of Democrats for suppressing freedom of speech, President Trump has just put the quietus on Amazon, which had the audacity to contemplate including the price of Trump’s tariffs in its shopping carts. Upon hearing of Amazon’s plan, Trump went ballistic, calling...

ronpaulinstitute.org

 

[wizardwatson]

Dotards gonna dotard.

 

[acptulsa]

Dotards gonna dotard.

Don't be silly. Republicans are never the hypocrites.

Until their guy gets into office.

 

[PAF]

Don't be silly. Republicans are never the hypocrites.

Until their guy gets into office.

It's not like it wasn't known a long, long time ago. You told them, I told them.... it's even in his On the Record.

I guess folks really liked his Record... enough to abstain from voting to send a message even vote for him.

 

[unknown]

 

[nikcers]

Trump called a man with hundreds of billions of dollars and yelled at him. I can't believe how far we have gone as a nation when the president of the United States can call someone with hundreds of billions of dollars and yell at them.

I bet he went home and cried on his huge pile of money.

Trump is even worse than Communist China.

 

[Voluntarist]

We talked about this particular case in the Disclosing Tariff Impacts: A Hostile and Political Act thread. As it turned out, it was never anything that Amazon planned to do:

Amazon said Tuesday it considered displaying import charges on items sold via its site for ultradiscount items, but that the plan “was never approved and not going to happen.”

... which makes complete sense, because if Amazon listed the tariffs as line items, it would have revealed what the base cost of each item was. That would have revealed the seller markup on the base cost, which would have been more shocking and objectionable to their customers than the tariff contribution. By restricting the tariff information to only the ultra-discounted items, the Amazon markup wouldn't have seemed so outrageous; but it also would have left customewrs questioning why the tariff information wasn't included on every item.

And I'm pretty sure that Trump never actually phoned Bezos, and all the political song and dance was merely to make it seem like Amazon backed down to the "tough guys" in the Trump administration - so don't mess with the Trump administration!!

Thus far, I don't know of any legislative or executive order attempts to curb free speech - though I am attempting to ferret out any such attempts. Trump has issued so many executive orders, that it's difficult to say what's in them all. Using the "bully pulpit" to socially beat down opponents is one thing - a bad thing - but no where near as bad as legislating such action, or putting "executive action" hurdles into place.

 

[nikcers]

In 2020 the founder of China's Amazon Ali Baba criticized China's financial system and he got disappeared.

I wonder if Trump will disappear Bezos now that free speech is dead in our country like maybe a drone strike or deportation.

Trump will surely send him to Gitmo to be tortured like the communists would do to disappear him.

 

[wizardwatson]

Thus far, I don't know of any legislative or executive order attempts to curb free speech - though I am attempting to ferret out any such attempts. Trump has issued so many executive orders, that it's difficult to say what's in them all. Using the "bully pulpit" to socially beat down opponents is one thing - a bad thing - but no where near as bad as legislating such action, or putting "executive action" hurdles into place.

He signed the anti-freedom of speech against all non-citizens on Day 1 of His presidency in order to serve the ZOG-beast.

https://ronpaulforums.com/threads/trumps-hate-speech-will-get-you-deported-eo.569193/

From the thread, and the text of the EO:

Section 1. Policy and Purpose. (a) It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.

Granted, this is weak sauce, but freedom of speech will be hard to directly take away in this country. It's easier to use the immigration issue to convince Americans that the judiciary needs to be castrated similar to how the legislature has been castrated.

Once there's no judges willing to stick their neck out for the Constitution, it doesn't really matter anymore. They "bring you in for questioning" and they do whatever they want to you, because the Executive branch will have full police state power. We will be at perpetual war with "insurgents" and you'll need to watch your neighbors cuz you never know who the spies are. Same boring formula tyrants have used forever.

 

[Voluntarist]

He signed the anti-freedom of speech against all non-citizens on Day 1 of His presidency in order to serve the ZOG-beast.

https://ronpaulforums.com/threads/trumps-hate-speech-will-get-you-deported-eo.569193/

From the thread, and the text of the EO:
Section 1. Policy and Purpose. (a) It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.

OK, agreed, that limits the speech of aliens/non-citizens (at least), so I'm with you.

Plus it's vague enough that the details of "espousing hateful ideology" could be refined on any given day dependent upon the administration voted into power. For instance, in a Democratic administration, I could see that being used to keep JK Rowling from entering the US.

 

[nikcers]

He signed the anti-freedom of speech against all non-citizens on Day 1 of His presidency in order to serve the ZOG-beast.

https://ronpaulforums.com/threads/trumps-hate-speech-will-get-you-deported-eo.569193/

From the thread, and the text of the EO:



Granted, this is weak sauce, but freedom of speech will be hard to directly take away in this country. It's easier to use the immigration issue to convince Americans that the judiciary needs to be castrated similar to how the legislature has been castrated.

Once there's no judges willing to stick their neck out for the Constitution, it doesn't really matter anymore. They "bring you in for questioning" and they do whatever they want to you, because the Executive branch will have full police state power. We will be at perpetual war with "insurgents" and you'll need to watch your neighbors cuz you never know who the spies are. Same boring formula tyrants have used forever.

Those deportations aren't even based off that executive order.

They are based off a rarely used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, which grants the secretary of state broad authority to expel foreigners deemed to pose “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the United States.

Visas can also be revoked if they are considered a public danger.

Tyrants don't let foreign nationals come here and stay here to study.

We have no reason to let people come here who especially hate the United States or our allies.

That's not a free speech issue that's just common sense.

People like that get radicalized and radicalize other people and do terrorist attacks.

 

[Anti Globalist]

I've yet to meet a single Trump supporter online or in real life that wants to censor people who criticize Israel.