Legitimate gripes about Trump
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Tuesday, August 25, 2026 18:50
VIEWED: 5711
PAGE 5 of 19
Quote:
Originally posted by JAYNEZTOWN:
Should Greenlanders want to join the U.S., however, a slight majority of 51% expressed at least some support for permitting them to join the country.
Support for taking the Panama Canal was more mixed, with 40% supporting it to 41% opposing such a move and 19% unsure.
Americans decidedly opposed the acquisition of Mexico, with 69% disapproving of such a move. Support for acquiring Canada should the country oppose integration was also low, with 61% opposing its acquisition.
10000% behind taking back the Panama Canal. Fuck them, that's ours.
My advice to Greenland is the same advice I gave to Puerto Rico. Stay the fuck out if they put it to a vote. You'll end up with half those trees cut down in 10 years and they'll rename the place Disneyland. Stick around long enough and we'll burn the other half of the trees down on you.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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My biggest gripe about Trump is that he's a blowhard salesman. Now, I happen to like what he's selling (MAGA) but he promises shit he can't possibly deliver.
Also, he's getting bad advice and while the people he's nominating may be loyal, some of them don't know what they're doing. Kellogg in particular seems to be living in 1920.
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal." - Henry Kissinger
AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA
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Quote:Trump doesn’t understand economics, but that’s no problem for him because the advisors he selected to work in the White House repeat back to him his same old misunderstandings, and that ain’t gonna change no matter what misfortunes happen caused by Trump's failure to understand.
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
My biggest gripe about Trump is that he's a blowhard salesman. Now, I happen to like what he's selling (MAGA) but he promises shit he can't possibly deliver.
Also, he's getting bad advice and while the people he's nominating may be loyal, some of them don't know what they're doing. Kellogg in particular seems to be living in 1920.
By Paul Krugman | Jan 16, 2025
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/chinas-very-bad-no-good-trillion
Krugman gives the following warning: “Not about Trump, and fairly wonky.” I disagree with that assessment. It is about Trump’s misunderstanding of how an economy works.
Giant Chinese trade surpluses create problems in other countries too — although not the problems crude mercantilists like Donald Trump imagine. And China’s attempt to export its problems (for that’s what this amounts to) will meet a protectionist backlash; in fact, this would have happened even if Trump weren’t about to take office.
First things first: When a nation runs a trade surplus, what it that telling us? Many people, Trump obviously among them, think such a surplus is a sign of national strength — if you’re selling more to other countries than you’re buying, that must be because you’re outcompeting them. But that isn’t at all how it works.
For a nation’s balance of payments always balances. That is (with some slight technical adjustments),
Trade balance + Net inflows of capital = 0
I often run into people who believe that a successful economy, one achieving rapid productivity growth and leading in cutting-edge technology, will both run big trade surpluses because it’s so competitive and attract lots of foreign capital because it’s such a good investment. But that’s arithmetically impossible.
In fact, when an economy surges past its rivals in productivity and technology, it usually does attract a lot of foreign investment — but that means that it runs a trade deficit, not a surplus. A case in point: U.S. productivity surged past productivity in Europe after around 1995, because we were quicker to take advantage of information technology. As a result, foreign money began flooding in — and that led to a much bigger U.S. trade deficit:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/?g=1CXGd
Conversely, when nations experience big declines in trade deficits or increases in trade surpluses, it’s usually because something bad has happened. Look at what happened to current accounts (a broad definition of the trade balance) in southern Europe during the euro crisis 15 years ago:
More at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/chinas-very-bad-no-good-trillion
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Right-wing politicians justify massive tax cuts for the rich with the claim that all will be well because these policies will unleash rapid economic growth.
Donald Trump has brought his own brand of nonsense, with claims that tariffs can make foreigners pay for everything.
Which brings us to Scott Bessent, Trump’s pick for Treasury secretary. Bessent’s “3-3-3” economic plan is full-on magical thinking. He will increase oil production by 3 million barrels a day, reduce the budget deficit to 3 percent of G.D.P. and raise economic growth to 3 percent.
The Congressional Budget Office expects potential G.D.P. to rise about 1.9 percent a year over the next decade; Bessent is claiming that he can raise that to 3 percent. The problem is, nobody knows how to do that. The question is whether there are plausible policies that could raise productivity enough to get growth up to 3 percent.
Well, Republicans believe, or claim to believe, that they can sharply raise productivity growth by cutting taxes on the rich. You could say that claim is unsupported by evidence. But that’s too weak; in fact, it’s powerfully rejected by the evidence.
The markets were reassured by Bessent’s selection because he comes across as a normal, sensible Wall Street type. But personal affect is a very bad guide to how policymakers will act. Trump’s future Treasury secretary — I assume he will easily be confirmed — has policy ideas that are, in their own way, as disconnected from reality as Trump’s belief that he can fund the U.S. government entirely with tariffs, at no cost to consumers, or Elon Musk’s belief that there’s $2 trillion a year in wasteful spending hidden under the sofa cushions or something.
More evidence at https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/voodoo-maga-style
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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January 17, 2025
https://andrewtobias.com/three-bessent-takeaways-and-a-bonus/
I watched all three hours of Scott Bessent’s confirmation hearings. My major takeaways:
1. He’s highly competent, thoughtful, and decent. In many respects, he’s likely to be a fine Treasury Secretary.
2. Whether out of conviction or greed, he and his team are blind when it comes to taxing the wealthy. To them, the top tax brackets are either perfect just as they are . . . or else too high. At no income level — be it above $1 million a year or $10 million or $1 billion — would they consider even a small rate hike. This is terrible for our economy, our National Debt, and our social fabric.
Yesterday, Scott called billionaires “the job creators.” His fellow billionaire, Nick Hanauer, debunked that notion in a 6-minute clip I’ve been linking to for 12 years:
Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs"
Via Business Insider: "As the war over income inequality wages on, super-rich Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer has been raising the hackles of his fellow 1-percenters, espousing the contrarian argument that rich people don't actually create jobs. The position is controversial — so much so that TED is refusing to post a talk that Hanauer gave on the subject. National Journal reports today that TED officials decided not to put Hanauer's March 1 speech up online after deeming his remarks "too politically controversial" for the site...".
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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How bond market vigilantes could check Trump's power
By Lawrence Delevingne, Yoruk Bahceli, Davide Barbuscia and Dhara Ranasinghe | January 16, 2025, 2:51 PM CST
https://www.reuters.com/markets/rates-bonds/how-bond-vigilantes-could-
check-trumps-power-2025-01-16/
NEW YORK/LONDON, Jan 16 (Reuters) - When Bill Clinton began his first term as president in 1993, he faced a challenge to his authority from an unexpected adversary: bond traders. Low taxes and high defense spending over the prior decade had contributed to U.S. debt doubling as a share of economic output.
Clinton and his advisers worried that 'bond vigilantes' – so called because they punish governments' profligacy – would target the new Democratic administration. A run on U.S. Treasury bonds, they feared, could sharply raise borrowing costs, hurting growth and jeopardizing financial stability. A frustrated Clinton made the unpopular decision to raise taxes and cut spending to balance the budget.
"He went away pretty disgusted with the idea that here he had just won an election by a pretty nice margin in a difficult three-way race, and now he was subservient to a bunch of bond traders," said Alan Blinder, one of Clinton's closest economic counselors who later served as the vice chair of the Federal Reserve. "A lot of us are wondering if the bond market vigilantes are going to come back for a second chapter."
As Donald Trump takes office on January 20, concerns over bond vigilantes in the United States, have resurfaced, according to several market experts. And this time, the economic indicators are even more alarming, they said.
The U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio is pushing 100%, double the level in Clinton's time. Left unchecked, by 2027 it's projected to exceed the records set after World War II, when the government borrowed heavily to fund the war effort.
Bond yields, which move inversely to prices, have been climbing. The yield on 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds has risen more than a percentage point from a September low, a whopping increase for a measure where even hundredths of a percent matter.
Like Clinton before him, Trump now faces the prospect of bond vigilantes becoming a potent check on his policy agenda, according to several former U.S. and foreign policymakers who faced market turmoil while in office.
Reuters interviewed nearly two dozen policymakers, economists and investors – including Trump advisers, a former Italian prime minister and former Greek and British finance ministers – and examined bouts of bond market routs around the world since the 1980s to assess the risk of turbulence after Trump takes office.
The review found several indicators watched by bond traders are flashing red. U.S. federal debt has increased to more than $28 trillion, from less than $20 trillion when Trump took office in 2017. Debt is also piling up in other countries, with the world’s total public debt expected to cross $100 trillion for the first time in 2024, leaving investors nervous.
"There's a risk of the bond vigilantes stepping up," said Matt Eagan, portfolio manager at Loomis Sayles, a fund manager with $389 billion under management. "The unanswerable question is when that would occur."
The experts believe Trump has some cover, thanks to the dollar's status as the global reserve currency and the Fed's now well-established ability to intervene in markets in moments of crises, which means there are always buyers of U.S. debt.
Other nations may be at more imminent risk, partly because of worries that Trump's trade policies would dampen their growth, the experts said. Some of Europe's biggest economies, including Britain and France, have come under pressure in bond markets recently.
The Reuters analysis of past crises showed it's hard to predict what will spark a bond market selloff. Part of the problem is market signals are open to interpretation. But once panic sets in, conditions can quickly spiral out of control, often requiri
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Another potentially decent thread ruined by unchecked TDS.
You had 2 dozen threads to put this crap in, idiot.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
January 17, 2025
https://andrewtobias.com/three-bessent-takeaways-and-a-bonus/
I watched all three hours of Scott Bessent’s confirmation hearings. My major takeaways:
1. He’s highly competent, thoughtful, and decent. In many respects, he’s likely to be a fine Treasury Secretary.
2. Whether out of conviction or greed, he and his team are blind when it comes to taxing the wealthy. To them, the top tax brackets are either perfect just as they are . . . or else too high. At no income level — be it above $1 million a year or $10 million or $1 billion — would they consider even a small rate hike. This is terrible for our economy, our National Debt, and our social fabric.
Yesterday, Scott called billionaires “the job creators.” His fellow billionaire, Nick Hanauer, debunked that notion in a 6-minute clip I’ve been linking to for 12 years:
Banned TED Talk: Nick Hanauer "Rich people don't create jobs"
Via Business Insider: "As the war over income inequality wages on, super-rich Seattle entrepreneur Nick Hanauer has been raising the hackles of his fellow 1-percenters, espousing the contrarian argument that rich people don't actually create jobs. The position is controversial — so much so that TED is refusing to post a talk that Hanauer gave on the subject. National Journal reports today that TED officials decided not to put Hanauer's March 1 speech up online after deeming his remarks "too politically controversial" for the site...".
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
They'll post clowns in full makeup pretending to be women and how they should be able
to reach your kids, but THIS is too politically controversial for the site?
TED is a WEF-led Liberal Dystopia.
What's the real reason they wouldn't show you that clip?
That's the question you ought to be asking yourself.
--------------------------------------------------
"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) laid bare the plans of how House Republicans will finance their tax cuts for the rich by gutting support for everyone else, in a thread posted to Bluesky on Friday afternoon. https://bsky.app/profile/wyden.senate.gov/post/3lfxlcqdojk24
The document outlining Trump's budget options: https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/budget_optionspdf.pdf
Quote:Republicans plan to sell out the American people
To start things off, corporations got a huge tax break from Trump and Republicans in 2017. Now Republicans want to give them another handout at a cost of $522 billion
Here’s another $222 billion handout to huge, profitable corporations. Odds are, the corporations will turn a lot of these handouts into stock buybacks for the benefit of wealthy shareholders and executives:
Somebody’s gotta pay for all those corporate tax breaks. Republicans want to begin with a $192 billion tax increase on single parents
They want to repeal the IRA’s energy tax credits, which are what lowers carbon emissions and invests in clean energy. At a time when energy production in America is booming and clean energy is taking off, Republicans want to surrender the clean energy industry to China and raise your energy bills.
Trump lies all the time about who will pay his tariffs. It’s a $2 trillion tax hike on consumer goods, and Americans will be the ones who pay for it. A devastating increase in the cost of living for working families and a huge hike in operating costs for small businesses.
By Matthew Chapman | January 17, 2025 4:20PM ET
https://www.rawstory.com/ron-wyden/
"My staff just got ahold of this memo from House Budget Committee Republicans," wrote Wyden. "It's lengthy and hard to digest but it tells us exactly how Republicans plan to sell out the American people for another round of tax cuts to the rich."
House and Senate Republicans are planning a broad package of tax changes to support President-elect Donald Trump's agenda, with one of their biggest priorities being extending the 2017 tax cut bill — although there is disagreement between the chambers on whether to pass those tax items on their own or bundle them with legislation on energy and border security.
"To start things off, corporations got a huge tax break from Trump and Republicans in 2017. Now Republicans want to give them another handout at a cost of $522 billion," wrote Wyden. "Here’s another $222 billion handout to huge, profitable corporations. Odds are, the corporations will turn a lot of these handouts into stock buybacks for the benefit of wealthy shareholders and executives."
As far as how to pay for them, Wyden noted, it's a laundry list of cuts to vital services.
"Republicans want to begin with a $192 billion tax increase on single parents," said Wyden. Additionally, "They want to repeal the IRA’s energy tax credits, which are what lowers carbon emissions and invests in clean energy. At a time when energy production in America is booming and clean energy is taking off, Republicans want to surrender the clean energy industry to China and raise your energy bills."
Other things on the chopping block, Wyden noted, include repealing green energy subsidies, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, a $4 million program to reduce air pollution in schools, and the remainder of the Biden-era IRS funding increases to modernize tax collection and audit high-income tax evaders.
They are also exploring repealing the home mortgage interest deduction, which would be a $1 trillion cut over 10 years, although this is one of the few proposed GOP cuts that would make the wealthy pay more.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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CBO projects US debt to grow $23.9 trillion in 10 years, not including costs of extending Trump's tax cuts
By Josh Boak | January 17, 2025
https://apnews.com/article/cbo-budget-outlook-treasury-26b1fc8a13af453
7b72660c4a478dd97
The national debt is slated to rise by $23.9 trillion over the next decade, a sum that does not include trillions of dollars in additional tax cuts being championed by President-elect Donald Trump. The national debt is now $36.20 trillion https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/national-debt/
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office released its 10-year budget outlook on Friday. Annual budget deficits are expected to equal 6.1% of U.S. gross domestic product in 2035, which the CBO noted is “significantly more than the 3.8 percent that deficits have averaged over the past 50 years.” The federal government is poised to spend $7 trillion this fiscal year, a sum that would equal about 23.3% of GDP.
The CBO numbers suggest a persistent and possibly worsening gap between the taxes Americans are willing to pay and the services they expect the government to provide.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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