Politics

This is published by David McWilliams in an Irish broadsheet on Jan 4th 2025:

A country can threaten tariffs and talk tough when it is owed money. When it owes money, that’s a different story.

We are heading into a trade war. That’s what the United States wants and that’s what the world will get.

In 2025 it will become increasingly obvio…[Read more]

@PopeBeanie

There are other ways.

He might withdraw days before the middle of his term, continuing to rule through his veep and then seek a second term again in the next election, which I think may be perfectly legal.

He might elect a proxy (Don Jr.?) to stand in for him while he rather blatantly is the true President, also probably…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
A psychiatrist explains why Trump wanting a third term (and by extenstion of his logic, to never leave office) was inevitable from the start.

He also says that the 12th and 22nd amendments together prohibit a president from becoming a president a third time, but I saw an explanation, I forget from who, saying Trump might be able to…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
The tariff thing might be a way to gain control of taxation from congress for king tRump. Add tariffs as a tax, cause recession so billionares can buy up stocks, then be the hero calling for sweeping income tax reductions, stock market bounces back. Rich get richer.

There’s a strong argument that the new oligarchy can treat this…[Read more]

The tariff thing might be a way to gain control of taxation from congress for king tRump. Add tariffs as a tax, cause recession so billionares can buy up stocks, then be the hero calling for sweeping income tax reductions, stock market bounces back. Rich get richer.

While the judge did the right thing in dismissing charges with prejudice, I’m sure prosecutors holding charges in abeyance to extort someone’s cooperation is pretty much standard practice, though I suspect most often it’s done to get an underling to rat on a more important target.

A psychiatrist explains why Trump wanting a third term (and by extenstion of his logic, to never leave office) was inevitable from the start. And, amazingly, it has nothing to do with facing prison after leaving office.

Yeah, Pope…

It is dismal, so many people available for Trump to purchase. However, the grass roots rumblings have begun. When the recession hits, Trump is gonna need extra strength Depends ™.

Is this, or is it not outright corruption of our courts, legal establishment, and politicians in power? This explanation is from a Democratic senator.

14-1/2 minutes long

Yay, Rand Paul! I’d forgotten about him for a while.

1-1/4 minutes long

The video with Jason Stanley on Amanpour referred to a Guardian article on the topic of how the Trump admin wants to define university policies and practices. As Enco notes, they can do this when they have powers of the purse. (Yo MAGA, the left may have set the scene, but you made governmental interference inevitable.)

Excerpt from the…[Read more]

PopeBeanie,

This is a moment in our political history when grabbing power with big money, packing SCOTUS starting way back with ignoring Obama’s SCOTUS nomination, GOP demanding full political loyalty to Trump’s takeover and narcissism, promotion of conspiracy theories, Christian Nationalism, other false narratives, even growing support for Put…

[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
In other words, it takes more than just making stupid noises on EuroVision or not furnishing the apartment for me to use the term: “Fascist.”

Same here, actually. And using that word lowers his credibility, imo, while I guess I took advantage of the clickbait opportunity when I posted it here.

However, I’m not con…[Read more]

The concept of “government free” free market is so cute. The drive for any company is always to monopolize, crush start-ups, control pricing and optimize profit over any and all social, environmental, or human welfare concerns. As an engineering manager with a 20 million annual budget working on a 250-million-dollar project; I was high enough to…[Read more]

PopeBeanie and Robert,

Now here below is where Trump earns the label of “Fascist”, as well as exemplifies the folly of central planning.

Trump wants to impose tarriffs ostensibly to serve the U.S. auto industry, yet in his pretension of Omniscience, he failed to consider that U.S. auto makers use foreign-made parts and have foreign plants and…[Read more]

Wondering if all of this slashing of services and tariff waring will actually result in tax cuts for what is left of the middle class. I doubt it will be more than a token break. It is the upper middle working class that carries the burden. People such as doctors, lawyers, engineers, accountants who get a W2 and honest small business owners as…[Read more]

PopeBeanie,

In other words, it takes more than just making stupid noises on EuroVision or not furnishing the apartment for me to use the term: “Fascist.” 😁

PopeBeanie,

Enco, I promise I was only reviewing this thread, starting with its first post back in December, and my purpose was not to find examples of the kind of stuff that you write. But the following comment spurred me to point out that Jason Stanley is not the only pontificator conflating “Fascism” with policies they criticize:

My use of…[Read more]

PopeBeanie,

To “wants to put an end to all this nonsense”, ok, but the level and speed of destruction is justified like claiming the Titanic was all about trying to put an end to those nasty icebergs

The exaggerated sense of invulnerability and omniscience of Academia is real, unlike urban legend quotes about the Titanic. Everything rotten hap…[Read more]

Enco, I promise I was only reviewing this thread, starting with its first post back in December, and my purpose was not to find examples of the kind of stuff that you write. But the following comment spurred me to point out that Jason Stanley is not the only pontificator conflating “Fascism” with policies they criticize:

TheEncogitationer…

[Read more]