Politics

[_Robert_Participant]

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 well. They pay 20% or more.

The bottom half and top wealthy pay 5% tax or less. Retired people with million-dollar plus portfolios pay very little. Corporations used to pay 30-40%, but now they can be virtually tax-free with all the incentives and shenanigans via their staff of expert tax evasion accountant specialists. And churches…well what a scam.

I can’t wait to see what DOGE gives us besides more tainted chicken and crashed commuter planes.

See the blue slice? They want more.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

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 that U.S auto makers would be adversely affected by tariffs and have to raise prices to offset the expense.

Trump Warned U.S. Automakers Not to Raise Prices in Response to Tariffs
Threat came in a call earlier this month, in which carmakers feared punishment if prices go up
By
Josh Dawsey and Ryan Felton
March 27, 2025 9:00 pm ET
https://archive.ph/GwxsT

He also wants to weaken the U.S. Dollar to get more foreign money to spend on U.S. goods, never mind that this means that after this the Dollar won’t have as much purchasing power for U.S. consumers and purchases will end up even more expensive.

And more expensive autos and goods will not just affect the end-user U.S. consumer, but U.S. businesses using autos and other goods as capital for the business, which means more higher prices. Government purchases of higher-priced goods will also mean higher taxes and more inflation of the currency to pay for them.

It just doesn’t stop until goverment is deprived of this power over economic transactions.

[_Robert_Participant]

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 see and hear it all. It so common to see all the people working under me shaking their heads at decisions from above me. They had no idea why upper management did the baffling things they did, but I knew how depraved it was and couldn’t even talk about it.

The only body capable of redistributing wealth is the government. This is literally to save the system. But now big business is the government.  They will work to secure a third term for Trump. They will privatize everything and squeeze the population for every cent. If they succeed at destroying the constitution and grab that last 1/3 of the wealth, there will be revolution. Hell, people will be building guillotines again.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

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 convinced that fascism and oligarchy are not impossible outcomes before the next presidential election, until I see MAGA and GOP back off on their cult-like support of him, his lies, and their constant mischaracterizations of the left’s evil nature and intentions.

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 Putin and authoritarianism around the world.

I’m really surprised, in light of your libertarian beliefs (am I wrong?), that you don’t see this as a more serious political threat.

The whole world sees this as a threat, while authoritarians, including the most serious theocrats see opportunities to support each other for their own rises in power. Those are the current trends that have the most “evil” and destructive intentions, IMO. I’d love to hear you explain this in a more positive light.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

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 Putin and authoritarianism around the world.

I’m really surprised, in light of your libertarian beliefs (am I wrong?), that you don’t see this as a more serious political threat.

The whole world sees this as a threat, while authoritarians, including the most serious theocrats see opportunities to support each other for their own rises in power. Those are the current trends that have the most “evil” and destructive intentions, IMO. I’d love to hear you explain this in a more positive light.

I’ve been trying to take it all in as it happens and reserving my thoughts until I can process it.

Christian Theocracy at home and tyrants abroad in the CRINK axis (China, Russia, Iran, North Korea,) are indeed reasons for concern, but so far, the biggest complaints against Trump has been his relatively minor attempts to stop the gravy train of NGOs, academia, and NPR/CPB, even though the NGOs, academia, and NPR/CPB have all been voices for the ideologies of foreign enemies of freedom.

And Leftist Wokeness in tax-funded institutions serves as agitporops and distractions from Christian Nationalists, so it all needs counter-attacking.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

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 article:

The government also announced a taskforce on alleged antisemitism at 10 major universities; sent a letter to 60 schools warning that they are under investigation for discriminating against Jewish students; and arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia student who led pro-Palestinian protests, under an obscure provision that gives the US secretary of state the power to deport foreign nationals whose presence in the US has “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States”.

One can blame the left for going overboard on do-good (busy-body?) wokeness, while another can blame instigating/pandering politicians on right for popularizing and implementing damaging anti-wokeness “solutions” in the guise of MAGA just trying to save America.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

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

1-1/4 minutes long

[PopeBeanieModerator]

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

[_Robert_Participant]

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 ™.

[UnseenParticipant]

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.

[UnseenParticipant]

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.

[_Robert_Participant]

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.

[UnseenParticipant]

_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 tariff war as an opportunity to do some bottom fishing.

But here is what I see as the unintended consequence, and it’s already happening. Trump assumes that the United States is so essential to the global economy that through sheer force of will, he can bring the rest of the world to heel.

Well, he’s wrong and new economic bonds and channels are already forming. Rather than buying produce from America, Canada and other countries are finding that much of the produce they bought from us can be bought from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America. Argentina already produces beef and can produce even more. The Netherlands is already second only to the United States as a producer of produce and other countries can model themselves on The Netherlands and stop dealing with us.

What Trump is producing unintentionally is a world economy excluding the United States.

Soon, the Euro or a new BRICS currency may supplant the Dollar as the international reserve currency.

Economist Richard Wolff things that the dance is over for the American Capitalist Empire:

• This reply was modified 1 week, 6 days ago by  Unseen.

[PopeBeanieModerator]

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 get elected as vice president, then the elected president could step aside for the vice president to takeover as president. I disagree, but it has never been tested in court.

Here’s an excerpt from wikipedia:

The Twelfth Amendment explicitly states the constitutional requirements as provided for the president also apply to being vice president and the Twenty-second Amendment bars a two-term president from being elected to a third term, but it is unexplicit whether these amendments together bar any two-term president from later serving as vice president as well as from succeeding to the presidency from any point in the United States presidential line of succession. Some contend that the Twelfth Amendment concerns qualification for service, while the Twenty-second Amendment concerns qualifications for election, and thus a former two-term president is still eligible to serve as vice president.

What might happen if it were up to SCOTUS?

[UnseenParticipant]

@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 legal.

“Wherever there’s a will there’s a way” as they say.

• This reply was modified 1 week, 6 days ago by  Unseen.

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