No matter how great your private insurance is, it won’t help you if the only hospital(s) in your area have closed down, especially when time is of the essence. Not just rural but in the less populated cities. That’s why cutting Medicaid and other safety net programs hurts everyone, not just “the poors”. Looks like a bunch of “I got mine, screw you” thinkers are about to do some finding out.

This is why they aren’t allowing due process, which would expose many more “mistakes”. There’s likely many more who were already sent to the El Salvador concentration camp than just Kilmar Abrego Garcia. For example, this poor guy. How many more?! 😠

I suppose historians will settle on a specific term, probably ‘maga’ (though I’d prefer ‘magat’), to apply to the members of this instance of fascism.

That’s what these kind of people carry as walking around money.

You’re the one who said Nazi (in your previous post). I use the term fascist which is more accurate for this regime/movement and its supporters, though I don’t doubt that many in its ranks would also fall under and identify with the specific term Nazi.

The Tesla brand is associated with fascists for a reason–Elon Musk is one, and perhaps even the most powerful one. The Tesla brand should become anathema for that reason. It should be a mark of shame to drive one now, no matter what it was a sign of before. Don’t tell me to feel as sorry for Tesla owners as for the people whose lives are being ruined by Musk and the trump regime as a whole. If they could afford to buy one then, they can afford to get rid of it and get something else. Yes, it’s too bad it turned out that way for them, but the blame for that belongs to Musk, not us.

What’s really too bad people being abducted and sent to prison camps. People who have served in the government being fired for no valid reason and the detrimental effects that will have on the rest of us and our society. The destruction of government functionality so it can be taken over and its resources divvied up between fascist oligarchs.

Yes, I’m more worried about the people who will lose their medical care as Medicaid is defunded by Congress, those who may miss payments or even completely lose their main source of income after thousands of Social Security workers were fired and the agency becomes more dysfunctional, those who are suffering or have already died because USAID was suddenly shut down, etc etc etc than I am about someone’s Tesla resale value or those who work for ICE in any capacity.

I’m sure when you get picked up and detained without due process all you’ll need to do is use reason and logic with them and everything will be fine. /s

I’m also sure that your first reaction to that was to snort in disbelief that such a thing ever would or could happen to you, even though it’s already happening to other US citizens. But sure, if you can fit in as a favored type of citizen, maybe it won’t happen to you (that’s the important thing, right?).

It’s time to stop clinging to the belief that things are normal in the United States. Logic, reason, and rule of law no longer apply. Eventually we’ll all have to choose a side: the easy one going along with the fascists, or the hard and probably dangerous one against them–yes, even your strawman single mother who is “very concerned” but needs that ICE job, has to choose.

Exactly.

She’s not laughing it off. She’s worried and carrying her passport on her at all times.

I occasionally get wrong numbers and text messages. Happened a lot on my old number which had a string of 2’s in the middle. Got a lot of calls for numbers with one more or one less 2 than mine. Nowadays it’s more likely to be a text. On my new phone number I keep getting texts from a bail bondsman reminding a certain person of their next hearing date. I can’t get them to remove my number from their database. Hopefully that person isn’t depending on getting a reminder.

What’s as bizarre as anything else about this is that they are sending these to people via email. Like she says, most people will just think it’s spam. What official US government organization has ever before sent official legal stuff via email? None. Until now.

The idea that if you don’t see an email threatening to arrest or deport you, because it was filtered as spam or looks like spam or was sent to an old email you don’t even use anymore or any number of things related to email being an unreliable way to contact someone, is scary.

I also read somewhere that some govt agency (don’t recall which, I think it was a health agency?) would now be posting all official notices on X instead of on their own official website!!!

They really are stupid when it comes to undermining their own case, aren’t they?

No. They don’t care about “making a case”. They don’t have to. They don’t care if what they say is wrong or ridiculous–note how they were smirking as they said all the fake excuses in their press conference. They know they’re stupid fake excuses and they know everyone else knows it. They don’t care. They’re having a blast. They’re flaunting their power and daring anyone to try and stop them.

I didn’t express any views about it, just asked for help understanding how the process worked and got an insult as the first reply. No, they don’t have to answer and yes, they can just post a disparaging reply if they want, but I am also allowed to respond and defend myself as well.

Several people, including you in your edit, provided helpful information, and I thank all those who posted helpful replies.

Thanks! that’s very clear.

So the main thing I wasn’t understanding was the idea that a seller like Temu would actually pay the tariff ahead of time–I didn’t realize they would do that, just figured they’d get paid for the product, ship it off and let the other end of the line deal with the tariffs part.

Such a profound lack of understanding what tariffs are and who pays them…

They were the ass. Nothing in my post indicated I don’t understand what they are and who pays them. I was asking about how the process works in practice.

(edit: replying to new stuff added to post):

I don’t think the manpower exists to look at every package and charge accordingly.

This was part of my confusion as to how the tariffs were getting calculated and charged. One person said they were getting calculated when being cleared through customs, which would mean that every shipment would have to be processed and calculated at that time, or at least verified if it had already been pre-calculated.

So that certainly seems to justify the de minimus exceptions, since the cost of dealing with small-value shipments would be higher than what would be gained from the tariffs on them. Now they’ve removed that exception for China–I suppose they figure the huge increase in tariff rates will make up for that cost.

Thanks! Yes, I had read that the de minimis exception was removed for China.

So that sounds like CBP is calculating the tariffs for everything when it arrives, then the postal service takes it from there and collects what you owe when you pick it up from them or they deliver it to you. I guess that makes sense. I just wonder if even CBP even knows what the correct current rates are, based on the article. I guess they do, but the people/companies importing stuff probably don’t and might be quite surprised at what they get charged!

If you’re unable to answer the questions, just don’t respond.

So how does this all work in practice? You order something from China and it will be sent over on a ship. At what point do you pay for the item, what steps does it go through to get to you, and how/when do you pay the tariff to the government?

Say you pay the Chinese company $100 online for your order and they ship it. So it arrives on US soil. Who picks it up there, the USPS? Who determines what the tariff amount should be and collects it? Some shipping company or port authority inspector or what? At what point does someone deliver it to you and collect the tariff from you?

You beat me to it, declaring this is the day that will be marked in history.

I’m calling today, with the conclusive fall of the Judicial branch, the day that the US officially became a dictatorship by definition.

The day when no one can still pretend there’s any gray area left. Courts, the last remaining “check and balance”, officially no longer have any say in what the regime does.