The reason I noted India is because AFAIK India has the highest VAT of any major economy at 28%. So the US will be applying 28% + Indian tariff percentage, and claiming that is reciprocity.
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The Indian taxation system is fucked. But the tariffs on top of the taxes is total idiocy. But hey , itās protection of Indian manufacturers at work.
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Nothing wrong per se about a high VAT, value added consumption tax is the least distortionary tax there is.
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My apologies. Flowers to anyone who attend these, but the scale nation wide is uninteresting to the point where international media doesnāt even pick it up.
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It was nationwide. From small towns to big cities people protested at their state houses or local government buildings. I may not look like much individually, but itās hard to put a total on such a diverse protest. USA is a pretty large placeā¦add em all up, and Iām sure itās well into the hundreds of thousands.
I think that here, many people were taking a wait and see attitude towards this second run of Trump, thinking that it couldnāt be as bad as many were making it out to be. Now that people are actually seeing the bullshit this administration is trying to pull, their concern is turning to anger. Weāre only two months into his term. Iām hopeful things will ramp up in intensity in the near future.
When the masses wake up and realize that this is a class war, then the larger dominoes will start to fallā¦at least thatās my hope. Iām just trying what I can to push those dominoes over.
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Here you go:
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Have not reached the end of the first monthā¦
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True, meant to say entering second month.
Makes it even more relevant, the newness of this all to many here.
Sureā¦but then , itās direct taxes and indirect taxes.
The white collar tax payers who pay the taxes in India are very less and they get a huge chunk of their salary blown right off.
Add to that the exhorbitant indirect taxes in GST(VAT) as you guys refer it to
@Magnus: more reliable thanā¦ I was going to say Royal Mail but I meant to praise you not insult you. Is there a reliable postal service anywhere in the world?
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Yes, I said all around the country. From what Iāve seen it definitely wouldnāt add up to āhundreds of thousandsā, but maybe Iām wrong. And even that wouldnāt be particularly impressive for a country of your size (population).
But Iāll take your point, fair enough. Letās hope it gets warmer, so protesting gets a bit more convenient and more people start waking up.
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A reliable postal service ?
Not my field. I am unhappy with the Norwegian mail services after it was privatised. I can tell you that much. After privatisation, we ony get mail delivered 2-3 days a week. Newspapers more often. Packages 2 days a week. Itās shit. Before privatisation, we got mail every day except for saturday and sunday.
As for package service, Post Nord (Some Scandinavian multi country branch) is fucking awful and regularly sends my packages back to central. Literally I track them, they get to MY distribution centre, then they send them back to main central in Oslo due to some fucked up mistake. Hate them.
Bring, the Norwegian Mailās service is much better (but you cannot choose these services, because you cannot in advance know what service the ones you order, say books from, use, without nagging them about it in a phone call and that is Karen-like and no one does that). But not good enough.
But why are we talking about the mail ? 
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Itās now a bit funny that I didnāt get this, lol. But I just didnāt 
Lots of people have been beaten into a belief in the futility of public shows of resistance. Even the word itself has become ācringeā. It was 4 years of public opposition, followed by a further 4 years of a self evident display of unfitness from the man himself. And he won. Lots of people are just all out of ideas and thinking more of the same is pointless.
Lots of people are still numb after the result. The day by day awfulness just isnt registering because the result of the election itself already put them at full āWTFā and so are incapable of reacting to it. Like any refractory period, that will pass.
But you are also seeing a lot of less flashy, behind the scenes opposition. The courts have been slammed by opposition to the various things heās done. Groups like Run For Something are overwhelmed by responses.
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Negotiations after 4.5 hours in Ryadh is going according to plan, I see:
Lavrov: āEurope can no longer hide behind the U.S. and will soon face consequences for its ālawlessness.āā
Also, more meaty:
https://x.com/SLagodinsky/status/1891769415655457189
Note that the Russo-American demand on elections in Ukraine is designed only to get rid of Zelensky. They do not demand free and fair elections in Russia. Only in Ukraine, Ukraine who constitutionally cannot have elections during war time.
Elections BEFORE final agreement is beyond absurd, but they are trying to crush Ukraine and remove any opposition. Oligarchs are ready in the wings to take overā¦
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The administration files with the courts that Musk is not an employee of DOGE and has no authority, contradicting all their public statements.
As typical, they are simultaneously on all sides of an argument, which is why no point they ever make should have any ground ceded.
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Well youāre just a woke DEI snowflake.
The terminology is quite ironic. He speaks about Europe, not the EU. But Russia are a full part of Europe, so how does that compute?
This guy seems to have neurolingual problems. He literally doesnāt know what he says, and itās not the first time.
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(ā¦)
To give a couple of examples, the fires in Los Angeles this year are expected to cost, on various estimates, between $28bn and $75bn in insured losses alone. Estimates of total losses range from $160bn to $275bn. These immense costs are likely to be dwarfed by future climate disasters. As Trump rips down environmental protections and trashes federal responsiveness, the impacts will spiral. They could include non-linear shocks to either the insurance sector or homeowners, escalating into US-wide economic and social crisis.
(ā¦)
Every government should hope for the best and prepare for the worst. But, as they do with climate and ecological breakdown, freshwater depletion, the possibility of food system collapse, antibiotic resistance and nuclear proliferation, most governments, including the UKās, now seem to hope for the best and leave it there. So, though there is no substitute for effective government, we must seek to create our own backup systems.
Start with this principle: donāt face your fears alone. Make friends, meet your neighbours, set up support networks, help those who are struggling. Since the dawn of humankind, those with robust social networks have been more resilient than those without.
Discuss what we confront, explore the means by which we might respond. Through neighbourhood networks, start building a deliberative, participatory democracy, to resolve at least some of the issues that can be fixed at the local level. If you can, secure local resources for the community (in England this will be made easier with the forthcoming community right to buy, like Scotlandās).
From democratised neighbourhoods, we might seek to develop a new politics, along the lines proposed by Murray Bookchin, in which decisions are passed upwards, not downwards, with the aim of creating a political system not only more democratic than those we currently suffer, but which also permits more diversity, redundancy and modularity.
Yes, we also ā and urgently ā need national and global action, brokered by governments. But itās beginning to look as if no one has our backs. Prepare for the worst.
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The Minister of Health in the United States chimes in:
https://x.com/RobertKennedyJc/status/1891173186508664924
Itās Ukraine who invaded Russia, of course.
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