So clueless.

The fact is that the trade imbalance is the largest single factor that makes the US dollar the world currency -- and also helps to keep the federal debt cheap. All of those countries that have a trade surplus with us send us lots of goods and in exchange they get lots of dollars. What do they do with them? They buy US-denominated securities, including treasury bonds. So many people and organizations around the world holding large reserves of US-denominated securities is what makes the dollar the world's default currency.

To the extent that he succeeds at "correcting" the trade imbalance, he'll undermine the dollar's status. And trying to bully countries into sticking with the dollar by threatening action that will make the dollar worth less to them is just... clueless. And that's assuming his actions to explode the debt while escalating financing costs doesn't result in enormous devaluation of the dollar, which would make it worthless rather than just worth less.

On balance I think I'm mostly glad that Trump is a moron, because if he weren't he would be really dangerous. On the other hand, if he had either a brain or the humility to listen to people who do, he might understand that he's trying to destroy what he's trying to control, and that winning that sort of game is losing. Probably not, though. He's amoral enough to be okay with ruling over a relative wasteland, because he and his will be better off.

Does it matter if the dollar depreciates 10% if your dollar assets appreciate 20%?

Why should I be happy that pure chance separates me from being hunted by drones, especially when I just get banned if I try to express sympathy for those unluckily suffering worse conditions than me? Why should I take part in this ridiculous nightmare of an unfair system?

Why won't you support laws that would let me buy a suicide solution, even if someone profits? Why force me to be underhanded and sneaky? Why are you afraid of me openly and proudly choosing death, and advocating that you should, too?

What if you buy US stocks with your dollars, and they go up more than the dollar declines?

Remember when your attitude was prevalent in the 1980s but the US stock market is still insanely profitable?

How come the stock market outperforms inflation and keeps setting new record highs? How are you going to buy the S&P 500 if you don't hold dollars?

But in a world where profit from death is so ubiquitous (animal deaths, weapons manufacturers, Blackwater, etc.), how arbitrary is drawing the line at suicide clinics?

From one of my brother's last notes (possibly the last):

"If they can put a man on the moon
You'd think
They could give us totally painless suicide,
available on demand, in clinics, for a fee.
Hell of a profitable business!!! of course,
the criminals would cut corners and the
sadists make you suffer until, like everything
else, you'd be as afraid to go to the
Clinic as you are to pull the trigger."

What is wrong with allowing me to buy a dose of horse tranquilizer (that is what my brother used, but he had to get his illicitly), hiking up to some remote hilltop, and lying myself down for the last time? Why force me to hide my intentions and use illegal websites to obtain my exit method?

Is it because the argument for suicide is so strong that you can't defeat it with words, so you can only ban it?

What if the horrific state of the world where a meek, nonviolent vegetarian like myself is bombarded by meat ads and even when I try to get away to the National Forest like the other day, I awake to a herd of cattle being driven through my camp, with yeehawing cowboys and cowgirls scaring the cows towards whatever horrific fate awaits them, as they looked at me with deeply hurt eyes? Why isn't it depressing to anyone else that only by accident of birth (cf. Rawls' veil of ignorance) we weren't born in Gaza?

Anyone else remember Woody Allen's "Sleeper"?

Dr. Orva: Here, smoke this. And be sure you get the smoke deep down into your lungs.
Miles Monroe: I don't smoke!
Dr. Orva: It's tobacco! It's one of the healthiest things for your body.

Is it less horrific if you do it surreptitiously, hiding your intentions, buying the horse tranquilizer on the dark web, like my brother did?

Is it any wonder fertility is crashing? If suicide were legalized so that I could legally buy horse tranquilizer and promote my own suicide without getting banned or otherwise silenced, could any sales pitch prevent millions from joining me?

It occurs to me that this is a good use of massive solar plants. It wouldn't cost much to idle your oxygen-separation equipment when the sun isn't shining, so you wouldn't need much in the way of battery storage. Grid scale solar without battery backup in a sunny area (like south Texas) can cost as little as $0.03/kWh, which would give you a separation cost of $4.5 to $24 per ton of LOX. Obviously, if you were producing LOX at a scale needed to fuel a fleet of Starships, you'd work to get that towards the bottom of the scale -- so the LOX loadout for a ship could cost on the order of 3500 * 4.5 = $15,750. To launch 150 tons to orbit. Of course you still need methane.

Could you make "green" methane (i.e. without using fossil fuels) with a big solar farm, and what would that cost? You'd do it with the Sabatier reaction to combine CO2 and H2 to get CH4. To make a ton of CH4 you need 2.75 tons of CO2 and 0.5 tons of H2 (stochiometry, dawg). To get a ton of CO2 with direct air capture takes about 2000 kWh of electricity, so 5500 kWh for the CO2. At $0.03/kWh that's $165 for the CO2. However, producing the half-ton of H2 with electrolysis would take 25,000 kWh, so $750. This puts the raw materials cost of green CH4 at around $915. The Sabatier reaction would add a little more, call it $930 in all.

So... Starship could be entirely solar-powered at a cost of around 3500 * 4.5 + 1000 * 930 = ~$946k, assuming $.03/kWh, ignoring equipment and storage overhead. It turns out that the cost is utterly dominated by the cost of methane production; LOX is all but free. But the cost of solar will likely continue to go down so... fuel costs could indeed get really, really low, even with a zero-carbon strategy. Perhaps as low as $2/kg to LEO.

Rapid Accelerated Disassembly?

Rapid Anomalous Disassembly?

Or did you mean R.U.D. (Rapid Unscheduled/Unplanned Disassembly)?