Do you feel like the winds of change are blowing today too?
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 16:05
VIEWED: 185382
PAGE 21 of 479
Not sure exactly where this belongs, but I believe that, try as hard as he might, there are a few things Trump can't change.
One is the extreme wealth gap that's only gotten bigger under ALL recent Presidents, including Clinton, Obama, and Biden*. If history shows us anything, Clinton, Obama and Biden* were favorable to banks, finance, pharma/tech/MIC, and globalism (Clinton ending Glass Steagall, promoting China trade and NAFTA, Commodities Futures Trading Act; Obama choosing a Wall Streeter for Treasury and flooding banks with $$$, TTP, TTIP; Biden* vaccine mandate, flooding USA with money, neocon foreign policy).
Not sure who MAGA Republicans are beholden to, but since it costs SO much money to run for office, I'm sure there's some big donors in the background.
Anyway, point is, in order to rebuild American productivity, somebody's gonna have to make some INVESTMENTS. And to improve the avg American std of living, wealth is gonna have to flow downwards, not upwards.
SECOND posted somewhere about capitalism, said that "producers control prices".
NOT TRUE.
UNDER CAPITALISM*
BUT WE DON'T HAVE CAPITALISM*, WE HAVE MONOPOLISM AND OLIGOPOLISM. (And an oligarchy to go with it.)
What would be required for a reset?
Well, getting rid of the deep state, and embedded bureaucracy which will attempt to impede any change.
Aggressive enforcement of anti-monopoly laws, requiring broadband media to provide equal primetime to national candidates, restoring Glass-Steagall, requiring higher capitalization rates for banks, rewriting business tax code, infrastructure rebuild ... there's a lot to do. It's a multi-decade project.
Fortunately, there are so many OTHER things that globalists and their political handmaidens fucked up that Trump (and, later, Vance?) like 'wokeness" and DEI and the southern border, that MAGA Republicans should be able to keep throwing red meat to their constituency, which will give them time ....IF THEY SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY... to do something real with the economy and improve people's situations.
*Under capitalism, competition between producers will keep prices down as they attempt to undercut each other. Clearly, that's not happening
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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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Yeah...
The worst thing that could happen for America right now is if financial conditions worsen long-term under Trump.
Though it does appear that at least some of the Democrat party are realizing how many of their bad policy positions ruined their party and are trying to retreat from them now, a prolonged period of even worse financial situations for average Americans after the 4-year shitshow we just went through could flip everything right back to Democrats.
And like I said in one of the threads yesterday, Republicans need to keep their hands off of Food Stamps, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security and drop the Abortion issue altogether.
Fucking with any single one of those could still be enough to turn things right back over to the Democrats. Fucking with a combination of them all at once would virtually guaranty Republicans lose everything.
I already told my old man yesterday that if they take millions or tens of millions of people off Medicaid that all of those people will vote Democrat in 2028.
And I included myself on that list too. I will vote Democrat in 2028 if I lose my health insurance at any point over the next 4 years.
That's a guaranty, and I expect that Second and Ted will hold me to it if it plays out that way.
EDITED TO ADD: https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/program-information/medicaid-and-chi
p-enrollment-data/report-highlights/index.html
79 Million American people were enrolled in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programs as of October of last year.
Neither candidate saw 79 Million votes in total.
Don't kick that bear, Trump. It is a trap and a guaranteed loss for Republicans going forward if you fuck with it.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:Trump is crazy and if you don't see that, you too have lost touch with reality. Eight Presidents have been shot, including Trump, and 4 died. If Trump keeps going crazier, he'll make the 4 into a 5, although I'm not sure what he could do to appear crazier. Maybe prancing around in the nude as in The Emperor's New Clothes folktale? That would raise Trump's insanity ratings a notch.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Don't lose your mind now, boy.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Trump calls for Canada to become 'coveted 51st state'
By Kateryna Riabovol | Feb 2, 2025
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/trump-calls-for-canada-to-become-covet
ed-1738516511.html
He again addressed Toronto on his social network Truth Social, calling on Canada state to become the 51st US state.
"We pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada. Why? There is no reason. We don’t need anything they have," he writes.
In his post, the American president said that the United States has unlimited energy, that the United States should produce its own cars, and that the country has more wood than it will ever use. Canada, for its part, cannot exist without subsidies from the United States.
"Without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada — AND NO TARIFFS!" Trump summarized.
While talking to journalists at the White House, US President Donald Trump confirmed that he was going to impose tariffs on goods from the European Union.
"Will I impose tariffs on the EU? Do you want an honest answer or a political answer? Absolutely. The EU has treated us terribly," he said.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:Quote:Trump is crazy and if you don't see that, you too have lost touch with reality. Eight Presidents have been shot, including Trump, and 4 died. If Trump keeps going crazier, he'll make the 4 into a 5, although I'm not sure what he could do to appear crazier. Maybe prancing around in the nude as in The Emperor's New Clothes folktale? That would raise Trump's insanity ratings a notch.
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Don't lose your mind now, boy.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
Why don't you just take a few breaths and relax buddy.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump calls for Canada to become 'coveted 51st state'
By Kateryna Riabovol | Feb 2, 2025
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/trump-calls-for-canada-to-become-covet
ed-1738516511.html
He again addressed Toronto on his social network Truth Social, calling on Canada state to become the 51st US state.
"We pay hundreds of Billions of Dollars to SUBSIDIZE Canada. Why? There is no reason. We don’t need anything they have," he writes.
In his post, the American president said that the United States has unlimited energy, that the United States should produce its own cars, and that the country has more wood than it will ever use. Canada, for its part, cannot exist without subsidies from the United States.
"Without this massive subsidy, Canada ceases to exist as a viable Country. Harsh but true! Therefore, Canada should become our Cherished 51st State. Much lower taxes, and far better military protection for the people of Canada — AND NO TARIFFS!" Trump summarized.
While talking to journalists at the White House, US President Donald Trump confirmed that he was going to impose tariffs on goods from the European Union.
"Will I impose tariffs on the EU? Do you want an honest answer or a political answer? Absolutely. The EU has treated us terribly," he said.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
One thing we know for sure.
We're not going to be asking ourselves what happens when somebody theoretically does all of this stuff anymore.
We will have an answer.
Good luck everybody.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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Quote:
USAID Website Goes Dark As Trump Reportedly Plans To Shift Agency Under State Department
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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:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
USAID Website Goes Dark As Trump Reportedly Plans To Shift Agency Under State Department
Yanno... When I'm being a dick to the dummies I might bloviate otherwise from time to time, but I'm a fuckin' dummy. I can't be expected anymore than any other American to keep in my head what the meaning of every Alphabet Agency the Government cooks up is supposed to mean.
They know that. That's why they always choose acronyms that mean whatever they want you to think about an agency, rather than what that agency does.
Since both the short-term and long-term future of healthcare is on everybody's mind right now, and I'm sure that a lot of people are thinking about words like Medicare and Medicaid, and in California and the SouthEast Coast they're all probably still thinking about Emergency Aid, and what will come of that.
So we have ourselves an agency that just went dark in these scary times, and the name of that very agency is USAID.
Oh Fuck. Not now. Any time but now! You're going to shut down US aid NOW!!??????
........
....
...
Wait a minute. Let's not lose our minds here and see what this is all about.
Hey Siri. What department does USAID stand for?
"The USAID is short for the U.S. Agency for International Development."
Thank you Siri. I feel much better now. I love you, and I for one can't wait to welcome our new robot overlords.
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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon
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How Trump’s tariffs blew up the price of washing machines seven years ago
Wondering what tariffs might do to you? Here's what happened to washing machines and dryers after Trump tariffed them in 2018:
Three years later they were 20% more expensive instead of continuing a trend that would have made them 20% less expensive. Now multiply that by everything and you'll get a sense of what Trump's latest tariffs are going to do to us.
https://jabberwocking.com/raw-data-how-tariffs-blew-up-the-price-of-wa
shing-machines-seven-years-ago/
Price of Laundry Equipment Before and After 2018 tariffs
https://www.google.com/search?q=Price+of+Laundry+Equipment+Before+and+
After+2018+tariffs
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Why Has Trump Gone Soft on China and Hard on Canada?
National interest? Or personal interest?
By Paul Krugman | Feb 01, 2025
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/why-has-trump-gone-soft-on-china
The tariffs Donald Trump imposed during his first term were mainly aimed at China. There were a few exceptions, like a tariff on Canadian aluminum, supposedly to protect national security (which was crazy.) But China was, rhetorically and practically, the big trade enemy.
And Trump’s talk about trade during the campaign seemed to point to a continuation of this pattern, with pledges of a 10 percent tariff across the board but 60 percent on China.
But now we have the first big tariff announcement from Trump 2.0, and it’s 25 percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada but only 10 percent on China.
True, those original China tariffs of around 19 percent are still in place. But this still means that Canada is now facing tariffs comparable to those imposed on China. And you should also bear in mind that Canada is far more dependent on exports to the United States than China is:
Source: World Trade Organization
So basically this is a slap on the wrist for an autocratic regime that is a dangerous rival and even potentially a military foe, versus a body blow to a democracy that is arguably our best ally.
Wait, it gets worse. China runs a large overall trade surplus, which isn’t always a bad thing but in this case does reflect China’s attempt to export its way out of the failure of its domestic policies. Canada runs roughly balanced trade:
Source: World Trade Organization
It’s true that Canada runs a bilateral trade surplus with the United States, selling more to us than it buys. (Trump, however, routinely overstates the size of this surplus by a factor of two or three, and calls it a “subsidy,” which makes no sense at all.) But this surplus is entirely caused by Canadian energy exports, mainly oil to the U.S. upper Midwest:
How is that a bad thing?
Bottom line: I can’t think of a reason punishing Canada with tariffs, let alone treating our neighbor far more harshly than Trump is treating China, is in the national interest. Trump’s spokesperson says that it’s because of the fentanyl pouring across our northern border, which wouldn’t justify tariffs even if it were happening — which it isn’t.
But who says that these tariffs have anything to do with the national interest — as opposed to the personal interests of the people calling the shots?
My guess is that Trump is imposing steep tariffs on Canada and Mexico just to show that he can — that it’s essentially a dominance display. And the many people pointing out that it’s a terrible idea probably only reinforced his determination to show that he’s in charge and smarter than anyone else.
What about letting China off easy? We know that Elon Musk has strong business reasons for wanting to treat China gently. Back in November Politico Europe wrote:
The reelection of Donald Trump is threatening to tip U.S.-China relations into a downward spiral of trade tariffs and escalating international spats, with Europe stuck in the middle.
But China thinks it has an ace in its back pocket that could help keep Trump’s more robust policies in check: Tesla CEO Elon Musk, whose company depends on good ties with the Asian country.
It sure looks as if the Chinese judged that correctly, doesn’t it?
And then
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