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.

The article says “digital technology” and mentions phones, tablets, computers, etc. But headline writers are lazy.

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.

I got my desktop computer from https://www.currentbuild.com/

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?

Trump supporter who didn’t vote in the election wants sympathy for also being too lazy/apathetic to bother to vote for him. That actually puts her half a rung higher on my sympathy scale than trump opponents who could have voted for Harris to stop him but didn’t.

Atallah is planning to leave for Lebanon in a few days, and he is not sure what will happen when he tries to return.

*raises one eyebrow* How strong a mental block can people have, that even after this experience returning from Canada, he’s “not sure what will happen” when he returns from Lebanon?

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.

‘They’re Draining Resources’

“Building new power plants and taking all the water just to service broligarchs’ AI businesses is fine, though.”

“Damn that’s wild because I voted for you to have zero tariffs and a $50K tax break as a small business owner under Kamala,” reads the top comment under the video.

One of the best comments because it’s true and he can’t dismiss it as people being mean or reveling in his pain, just stating reality.

She hasn’t seen a dime from him and never will in the remainder of her lifetime. If she was much younger and trump hadn’t won again she might have had a chance, but her victory is basically symbolic only. I’m sure you know that the rich can just keep appealing what amounts to forever since the legal system crawls at the speed of a sloth. Legal, and especially financial consequences do not apply to oligarchs.