US Politics Thread

[Moxie]

lol! I've made it very clear I don't approve of ANY of it. Both Biden and Trump's pardon's. Rule of law! Just done whine about one and keep quiet about the other. Maintain the same energy about BOTH, or don't say anything at all in my view.

I'll stop finger wagging when you stop trying to be a victim. Good?

You really are very uninteresting to talk to these days.

 

[Federberg]

here's one for you @britbox

 

[britbox]

If you asked me what I think the qualifications are for Pres/VP, I missed that as a specific question. I didn't dodge it. Must have missed it in all the palaver. I do think that some form of public service does make one better qualified to be President of the US. A lot take the path through governorships, as well. (Remember that technically the VPs main job is to be capable to be President, so the qualifications are the same.) I don't personally think that only being a business person is a good background. We had Mike Bloomberg as Mayor here in NYC, and, while I liked him, and he did handle some things well, he tended to behave as a CEO, and sometimes just bulldozed certain of his ideas through, which weren't always good and rubbed everyone the wrong way. Trump had a tendency to be like that as President.

I don't know why you have to say that I "hero-worship" certain politicians. That's pointless hyperbole, and incorrect.

I already copped to the fact that I brought up cults first, in the context of Gabbard, and why. I still think your latching onto them is pointless. Though, speaking of definitions, I asked you to define "cult", since your definition seen seems to be pretty loose and all-encompassing, but you didn't. So no need to go so ALL CAPS on me, mister.

I do think that Trump is pretty much a moron. He has a very incurious mind, and he basically reacts to everything instinctively. Now, I will say that he has an instinct for finding the zeitgeist and exploiting it, which is his super-power. But that just makes him an excellent snake oil salesman. He's also a bully, and a sociopath. But he's a man's man, and he's got Arnold Palmer's penis to prove it. And the Village People.

My argument would be that the public servants in the United States haven't served the public very well. The US has racked up a $36 trillion national debt, lower living standards, massive drug issues (illegal + legal pharma), escalating crime, and personal enrichment of officials at the expense of civic duty. This is unsustainable. So, more of the same is not the answer. Bizarrely, this has occurred when the US is supposed to be the leading power in the world.

It's not just an American issue.... virtually every country in the world has a crippling debt problem. So ask yourself this... who is owed all these trillions of dollars? If every country is in debt, then who are they in debt to? If you do one thing in this thread, answer that question for yourself.

At some point, you cannot keep kicking the can down the road. Trump is an agent of change, chaos...whatever you want to call it. But it might be a necessary one.

 

[Moxie]

My argument would be that the public servants in the United States haven't served the public very well. The US has racked up a $36 trillion national debt, lower living standards, massive drug issues (illegal + legal pharma), escalating crime, and personal enrichment of officials at the expense of civic duty. This is unsustainable. So, more of the same is not the answer. Bizarrely, this has occurred when the US is supposed to be the leading power in the world.

It's not just an American issue.... virtually every country in the world has a crippling debt problem. So ask yourself this... who is owed all these trillions of dollars? If every country is in debt, then who are they in debt to? If you do one thing in this thread, answer that question for yourself.

At some point, you cannot keep kicking the can down the road. Trump is an agent of change, chaos...whatever you want to call it. But it might be a necessary one.

I think this is too broad to be useful, but I will say that chaos is never money-saving. Also, some things are more important than balancing the budget.

 

[Kieran]

Kamala was a lousy candidate, the worst since Sarah Palin, but with a funny impressionists range of blaccents. African American Red Injun Jamaican DIE product placement. Yes, she’s the Claudine Gay of politics. A coward who couldn’t even speak without advisers driving in to drag her from the rubble. The democrats knew this four years ago when Tulsi holed her below the waterline.

Trump is chaos but he’s right to attack the bloated bureaucracies, because chaos has the effect of keeping people on their toes. They’re crippling the west. A nephew sent me a funny video of Trump being inappropriate with his opponents, Pocahontas etc. I think people are warming to this, uncouth though it is. He’s becoming a peoples politician in that he has no sheen, no filter, and he blurts funny crazy stuff about the elitist Democrats. I still don’t like him and think he shouldn’t have been shower to run, but the Biden administration blew a golden opportunity to become a government of all America. ID politics is dead under Trump and a lot of Americans are like hypnotised people stumbling into the daylight, becoming actually woke. The tyranny of the weak over the strong is ended.

I see the necessity for DOGE but I’m not sure about Musk, I don’t know enough about him, other than he’s obviously quite brilliant, and that he bought Twitter and sent the blue hairs crazy. All the protected biases and bigotry, the propaganda and cheerleading for intrusive big government, big pharma, has been bumped and so obviously loads of crybabies left.

But I’d prefer Vivek Ramaswamy to run this, if I was American. He’s an incredibly brilliant and insightful man, plus he’s polite to his opponents and could be a unifying figure. In some senses the USA is like the EU in that its turgid, zombie superstate set up is similar - and similarly not in favour of the people it serves. A baseball bat to the head, administered liberally, ought to do it..

 

[britbox]

I think this is too broad to be useful, but I will say that chaos is never money-saving. Also, some things are more important than balancing the budget.

You'll have to pay the piper. The petro-dollar is coming to an end. You can't perpetually exist on printing money and selling govt bonds to a shrinking market.

 

[britbox]

I said in a previous post that solutions for many issues can be found easily where there is a will.



Which of Trump's executive orders are you for, and which are you against?

 

[Federberg]

You'll have to pay the piper. The petro-dollar is coming to an end. You can't perpetually exist on printing money and selling govt bonds to a shrinking market.

don't count the dollar out so quickly mate. There's no alternative. All that nonsense BRICS currency isn't going to work. As things stand crypto won't work much better either. Furthermore the countries/economic blocs that could theoretically represent an alternative are in a far worse position than the United States. Let me put it this way... the beginning of the decline of the pound sterling was around World War 1. It took until World War 2, and Bretton Woods for the US dollar to fully replace it. While this economic shift was happening the US was also replace the British Empire as the premier naval power in world. What's the alternative to US financial or naval power in the world today? Nothing, nada...no one. Certainly not China. Despite this innovation breakthrough with Deepseek, China has fundamental demographic headwinds that will never permit economic supremacy. Let's chat in another 50years when India has possibly caught up. That's a safer bet imho...

 

[britbox]

don't count the dollar out so quickly mate. There's no alternative. All that nonsense BRICS currency isn't going to work. As things stand crypto won't work much better either. Furthermore the countries/economic blocs that could theoretically represent an alternative are in a far worse position than the United States. Let me put it this way... the beginning of the decline of the pound sterling was around World War 1. It took until World War 2, and Bretton Woods for the US dollar to fully replace it. While this economic shift was happening the US was also replace the British Empire as the premier naval power in world. What's the alternative to US financial or naval power in the world today? Nothing, nada...no one. Certainly not China. Despite this innovation breakthrough with Deepseek, China has fundamental demographic headwinds that will never permit economic supremacy. Let's chat in another 50years when India has possibly caught up. That's a safer bet imho...

Nothing lasts forever mate. There have been far stronger empires in times gone by, They all fulfill a cycle. Any fiat currency relies on perception because they aren't backed by anything physical. It's like monopoly money... the only thing holding it up is people's perception that it has value. The whole banking system is based on fraud.

 

[Federberg]

Nothing lasts forever mate. There have been far stronger empires in times gone by, They all fulfill a cycle. Any fiat currency relies on perception because they aren't backed by anything physical. It's like monopoly money... the only thing holding it up is people's perception that it has value. The whole banking system is based on fraud.

I don't disagree. The point I was trying to convey to you is the timescale involved for shifts in fiat currencies.

 

[britbox]

I don't disagree. The point I was trying to convey to you is the timescale involved for shifts in fiat currencies.

I agree. The whole process will have to play out. The can might get kicked down the road a little further, but the system will eventually run its course. Maybe it won't be crypto and BRICS, but my gut feeling is that a CDBC won't last more than 5 years without a major revolt.

 

[Federberg]

I agree. The whole process will have to play out. The can might get kicked down the road a little further, but the system will eventually run its course. Maybe it won't be crypto and BRICS, but my gut feeling is that a CDBC won't last more than 5 years without a major revolt.

we're sufficiently globalised now and with the tech revolution it's a safe bet that the next reserve currency won't be controlled by a nation state. We may not yet know what that new thing will be. I'm not sure that any current incarnation of crypto fits the bill, but it's likely that it'll be open source and based on encryptions that only quantum computing (if that) will be able to break. I guess the key point I'm trying to get across is that it's more likely (short of some unknown tech breakthrough) to take decades to happen.

And by the way... we probably want it to take decades. These things tend to be extremely disruptive - whether it's war, or some sort of Great Depression level chaos - we don't want to be a part of it!

 

[mrzz]

we're sufficiently globalised now and with the tech revolution it's a safe bet that the next reserve currency won't be controlled by a nation state. We may not yet know what that new thing will be. I'm not sure that any current incarnation of crypto fits the bill, but it's likely that it'll be open source and based on encryptions that only quantum computing (if that) will be able to break. I guess the key point I'm trying to get across is that it's more likely (short of some unknown tech breakthrough) to take decades to happen.

And by the way... we probably want it to take decades. These things tend to be extremely disruptive - whether it's war, or some sort of Great Depression level chaos - we don't want to be a part of it!

As you guys said above, in the end the currency model is confidence based. The ghost of quantum computing will always be there to take confidence away from crypto currencies. The funny thing is that it is not a given that quantum computing will ever be a practical thing. We simply don't know well enough Quantum Physics to be able to categorically affirm that it will be practically possible (I am not saying that we won't ever be, just to be clear).

But there is also another scientific break trough affecting this: nuclear fusion. Again, not a given, but we know more about fusion than we know about the quantum-classical limit. Also, we do have a shining example of functioning nuclear fusion, it rises everyday in the east.

If NF becomes practical, energy becomes practically free and unlimited. So computational power rises in some orders of magnitude. Not as much as it would with quantum computing, but it is still a game changer, and given that the crypto model relies in computational power, NF would add uncertainty to the established order. In other words, too many clouds hanging over crypto right now.

But NF may well be the disruptive thing you are looking for. In this case, though, it has the potential to be a good thing. In the long term, no doubt that it is indeed a good thing, but in short...




I'd add

 

[britbox]

we're sufficiently globalised now and with the tech revolution it's a safe bet that the next reserve currency won't be controlled by a nation state. We may not yet know what that new thing will be. I'm not sure that any current incarnation of crypto fits the bill, but it's likely that it'll be open source and based on encryptions that only quantum computing (if that) will be able to break. I guess the key point I'm trying to get across is that it's more likely (short of some unknown tech breakthrough) to take decades to happen.

And by the way... we probably want it to take decades. These things tend to be extremely disruptive - whether it's war, or some sort of Great Depression level chaos - we don't want to be a part of it!

We might want it to take decades mate - humans are resistant to rapid change, but technologies are lining up that will change the course of humanity. The WEF and the UN want their vision done and dusted by 2030. Of course, alternative visions are also being lined up. A steady evolution spanning decades is not on the cards.

 

[britbox]

As you guys said above, in the end the currency model is confidence based. The ghost of quantum computing will always be there to take confidence away from crypto currencies. The funny thing is that it is not a given that quantum computing will ever be a practical thing. We simply don't know well enough Quantum Physics to be able to categorically affirm that it will be practically possible (I am not saying that we won't ever be, just to be clear).

But there is also another scientific break trough affecting this: nuclear fusion. Again, not a given, but we know more about fusion than we know about the quantum-classical limit. Also, we do have a shining example of functioning nuclear fusion, it rises everyday in the east.

If NF becomes practical, energy becomes practically free and unlimited. So computational power rises in some orders of magnitude. Not as much as it would with quantum computing, but it is still a game changer, and given that the crypto model relies in computational power, NF would add uncertainty to the established order. In other words, too many clouds hanging over crypto right now.

But NF may well be the disruptive thing you are looking for. In this case, though, it has the potential to be a good thing. In the long term, no doubt that it is indeed a good thing, but in short...




I'd add

The last thing that the "powers that be" want is free energy.

 

[Jelenafan]

Trump is chaos but he’s right to attack the bloated bureaucracies, because chaos has the effect of keeping people on their toes. They’re crippling the west. A nephew sent me a funny video of Trump being inappropriate with his opponents, Pocahontas etc. I think people are warming to this, uncouth though it is. He’s becoming a peoples politician in that he has no sheen, no filter, and he blurts funny crazy stuff about the elitist Democrats. I still don’t like him and think he shouldn’t have been shower to run, but the Biden administration blew a golden opportunity to become a government of all America. ID politics is dead under Trump and a lot of Americans are like hypnotised people stumbling into the daylight, becoming actually woke. The tyranny of the weak over the strong is ended.

This is bush league bull shit.

If you think “chaos for chaos sake” is the answer and response to eliminate “elitism” , well.

The bigger battle has absolutely nothing to do with Republicans versus Democrats , and if you can’t see that….look to see where the real “power” lies in the real world.

 

[Fiero425]

This is bush league bull shit.

If you think “chaos for chaos sake” is the answer and response to eliminate “elitism” , well.

The bigger battle has absolutely nothing to do with Republicans versus Democrats , and if you can’t see that….look to see where the real “power” lies in the real world.

We can't help these people! Their brains are so scrabbled, chaos feels good to them! I absolutely can't stand watching the news for all the insanity perpetuated by these chaos loving idiots! The MSM isn't helping by actually appeasing these nuts since there are millions of them! Past critics of Trump are now "bowing & scraping," fearful that he'll turn on them! Someone's going to get mamed or killed; sooner or later! There's a serious cross-section of these loons who feel they can get away w/ anything & they're testing limits all the time!

 

[Kieran]

This is bush league bull shit.

If you think “chaos for chaos sake” is the answer and response to eliminate “elitism” , well.

The bigger battle has absolutely nothing to do with Republicans versus Democrats , and if you can’t see that….look to see where the real “power” lies in the real world.

The real power lies with Satan, brother, there’s your answer. But if you really believe in electing non entities like Kamala just because she ticks a few boxes, then I’m sorry, you're complacent and you need chaos.

A state of chaos in the bloated bureaucracies is what I was talking about, and that’s what’s needed in the west. We have too many people sitting on their fat asses taking home money for doing feck all. Inefficiency, incompetence and carelessness seems to be their forte. They can’t be fired, and they can’t be inspired to do better. We have them here in Ireland too, the EU is run by them, and they wouldn’t last 5 minutes in the private sector.

There’s chaos that’s not good for society - we see this in the modern activists, screeching and chanting inanities about things they don’t understand and never think about - but that’s another thing. Putting a ticking time bomb under people’s arses in government jobs? That’s a good thing.

Now what you might define as “the real problem”, I might even agree with you. But you can’t be in favour of inefficient, costly and inert bureaucracies…

 

[Kieran]

We can't help these people! Their brains are so scrabbled, chaos feels good to them! I absolutely can't stand watching the news for all the insanity perpetuated by these chaos loving idiots! The MSM isn't helping by actually appeasing these nuts since there are millions of them! Past critics of Trump are now "bowing & scraping," fearful that he'll turn on them! Someone's going to get mamed or killed; sooner or later! There's a serious cross-section of these loons who feel they can get away w/ anything & they're testing limits all the time!

You didn’t understand what I was saying either…

 

[Jelenafan]

The real power lies with Satan, brother, there’s your answer. But if you really believe in electing non entities like Kamala just because she ticks a few boxes, then I’m sorry, you're complacent and you need chaos.

A state of chaos in the bloated bureaucracies is what I was talking about, and that’s what’s needed in the west. We have too many people sitting on their fat asses taking home money for doing feck all. Inefficiency, incompetence and carelessness seems to be their forte. They can’t be fired, and they can’t be inspired to do better. We have them here in Ireland too, the EU is run by them, and they wouldn’t last 5 minutes in the private sector.

There’s chaos that’s not good for society - we see this in the modern activists, screeching and chanting inanities about things they don’t understand and never think about - but that’s another thing. Putting a ticking time bomb under people’s arses in government jobs? That’s a good thing.

Now what you might define as “the real problem”, I might even agree with you. But you can’t be in favour of inefficient, costly and inert bureaucracies…

You totally missed my whole point by assuming mine was a pro Kamala post.

Oh well uberleftists & uberconservatives all have more in common then they realize.