America - The Official Thread
- Thread starter ///M-Spec
- 40,652 comments
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- 11,966
- Marin County
- 450
- Canada
- Zero_to_oblivion
The problem is that Trump thinks this means he's being successful.
In his view, for decades other countries have prospered due to unfair trade agreements, Trump wants to unsettle that and tilt trade back in the US' favour, to "Make America Great Again" which he knows will mean foreigners will be upset.
If every single person in the world (excluding his base) were to show their intolerance toward him, he'd chalk that up as a victory, as he defaults other people's attitudes towards him to be due to him "empowering" the US with the trade wars.
He thinks he is winning and everyone else hates him for it. His own stupidity doesn't exist in his world, so it's not a factor.
- 30,147
- a baby, candy, it's like taking.
- TexRex72
This misunderstands Trump. A big part of this misunderstanding Trump is that Trump presents as much, to be fair, but then Trump is a lying rat so that's ultimately on those that believe Trump.
Trump wants to benefit personally. That's it. Trump doesn't produce anything or provide a legitimate service, so Trump benefits personally by being in a position to eliminate competition for those that compensate Trump for that illegitimate service.
- 40,943
12 hours from "We'll going to stand in solidarity with our counterparts in the House to block this" to "We're going to vote so hard for this that it will clear the filibuster threshold by several votes." No extracted concessions. No reason given for rolling over and destroying the only leverage they will probably have in this entire congressional cycle. Even people who aren't running for reelection went in on it.
Truly unparalleled levels of cowardice, idiocy and incompetence.
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- 4,066
- Null Island
Chuck Schumer (clown)
Danoff
Premium
- 34,152
- Mile High City
He's worried about what a shutdown means for power in the short term. Schumer's political career seems to be coming to an end anyway. I think he believes he's throwing himself on the grenade. It's not clear to me whether he's failing to meet the gravity of the moment or is one of the few that actually recognizes it.
Schumer signaling one way and AOC signalling the other way is possibly the chosen strategy for handling the Kobayashi Maru they're in. Or maybe they're really in disarray. Whatever it is, I wouldn't assume that Schumer's flip is idiocy. It might still be the wrong choice, I couldn't tell you, but I think Schumer sees a real threat in shutdown. The specific threat he has stated is that he thinks that it can enable faster, more legally supported, firings of government workers.
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- 40,943
I think he's well past needing to worry about his career "coming" to an end anymore. He's done. I'd be amazed if AOC doesn't use this as a pretext to primary his dumbass and take his seat.
This is the stuff Schumer was saying on Wednesday, loudly to all the press listening:
Assuming that the things you are saying are true by any measure, even just delusions inside his own mind, what changed between Wednesday and Thursday that not only led to the hold on his conference collapsing but him personally voting in favor of it even though it already had the votes to pass? The thing widely condemned across his party that he insisted he would hold the line against wasn't even worth a meaningless protest vote from the Senate minority leader mere hours later?
Is it because Trump called him a fake-Jew terrorist on Twitter?
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- 4,509
- Vancouver, BC
- 2,382
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- FuriousDemon
Somebody set this justice warrior on fire already
www.nbcnews.com
Trump calls for jailing his perceived opponents in Justice Department speech
Speaking from the Great Hall of the Justice Department, Trump targeted former special counsel Jack Smith and referred to Jan. 6 rioters as “hostages.”
www.nbcnews.com
- 30,147
- a baby, candy, it's like taking.
- TexRex72
- 30,147
- a baby, candy, it's like taking.
- TexRex72
The Trump Administration’s Eggstremely Interesting Fix for High Prices
The Trump administration’s latest move to combat soaring egg prices—quietly turning to imports—exposes the irony of its own protectionist loyalties.
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- 17,460
- United Kingdom
O, say can you see...
America, you are scum.
America, you are scum.
- 6,041
- Finland
My first thought when the stocks began crashing was that it's a deliberate move, so that later when they've recovered he can cherry pick the rock bottom as the starting point to show how much he's improved the economy. With the attention span of the average voter it'll work just fine.Can’t wait for Dumold to tell his people to kiss his feet as he’s saved the USA from the bad situation he was left with.
- 11,226
- Central Coast, NSW
- Com_Fox5
- EelX 5
I would like to complain to the American Dungeon Master their campaign is broken and high charisma characters are way too overpowered where their drawbacks are just negated.
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McLaren
Premium
- 45,769
- Texas
Imagine this stupid ass logic a year ago, man. "The stock market tanking below pre-election levels due to international instability & tariffs actually causing the price of things to go up is a good thing for the economy".
No wonder Mike Johnson's stupid ass was on Faux News recently talking about how Trump is correcting Biden's economy & doing a 180... a 180 right down the toilet.
- 87,968
- Rule 12
- GTP_Famine
Don't need to - it's Brexit logic.
Everything in the lead-up to Brexit was about how much better off we'd be with independence to make our own rules and trade agreements. Afterwards it's all been either blaming not Brexiting soon enough, making the wrong Brexit deal, the EU trying to punish us out of spite, or post-hoc rationalisation that we always knew it was going to be difficult financially after Brexiting but that all that mattered was regaining Are Sovrintea (which we always had).
And, to be fair, that latter part is actually the most accurate; it was always about "getting back control" of Are Boarders (getting rid of immigrants) regardless of the cost. The whole "we'll be better off" thing was always a hypothetical created to sell it.
Danoff
Premium
- 34,152
- Mile High City
Seems like just a few months ago I was telling people that they were whining too much about cheeseburgers being a few dollars higher and that it wasn't worth destroying the country. And it WAS just a few months ago. I was saying, at the time, that people didn't understand how well things were going and that it could get much worse very quickly. I didn't realize how quickly though.
- 3,822
- Hoboken, New Jersey
It's not incompetence on his part, it's active malice. Trump/Musk/GOP has made it clear they don't want a shutdown and there's nothing to suggest there's any ulterior motives behind that. Schumer's argument that shutting down the government is exactly what Trump wants quickly falls flat. If there was a legitimate case, then how come literally every house Dem voted for the shutdown? Besides, a government shutdown, even one that's comparatively lengthy, will be less destructive to the country than the GOP budget bill in the long term. It's not even a close call.
Then he should never have been the leader of the Senate Democrats right now to begin with. It really says something that he's willing to appease the fascists simply because he won't be majority leader in the future (or even run for reelection if he opts for retirement) since that's the easier option than actual, meaningful resistance. But regardless of how he voted, the underlying problem is still there.
The Democrats can't bank on the fact that Trump's unpopularity will solely occur because of his own reckless governance and economic fallout, especially given how cultish MAGA really is- they're already blaming the falling stock market and looming recession on "fixing Biden's mess". Effective opposition from the Dems is a powerful, necessary tool to make Trump less popular and more hated. And that's the problem with Schumer- he's utterly incapable of meeting the moment. While (up until this moment at least) Schumer has been a fine statesman and voted the right way, this is not nearly enough. Schumer has no rizz. How many people are actually enthusiastic about him? He has governed like a bureaucratic administrator instead of a politician- which requires being popular- which is not only ineffective in regards to tackling Trump but also as the de-facto leader of an entire political party to begin with.
The Dems need people like AOC and Bernie to replace Schumer and Jeffries. Whether they're "too far left" or not doesn't matter- they are literally the most popular and widely known Democrats and also the loudest, most fearless voices in the defense of democracy. Third Way neoliberalism is not only incapable of defeating fascism, but ill-suited to prevent it from taking hold in the first place. Moderate dems need to come to terms with the fact that literally any Republican is a much bigger threat than the progressive/leftist dems, which requires both a unified front and potentially ceding some of their influence in the party.
Here's the most likely scenario. Schumer, like Jeffries/house Dems, was initially on board with the shutdown. Then, he got some phone calls, from the party's biggest, most influential ultra-wealthy/corporate donors. They're worried about what a shutdown will mean for the stock market and their own bottom line, and urged Schumer to reconsider. Because Schumer is not only immune from fascism (due to advanced age, wealth, and likely not running for re-election/minority leader), he caved, but also because he is still trying to court the few remaining elite donors that are loyal to the party and to make sure they don't also shift towards the GOP. It's the same reason why he and Jeffries have met with tech billionaires not long after Trump's inauguration. They are more accountable to capital than their own constituents, let alone the future trajectory of the nation.
Here's the more cynical scenario. There was much more widespread panic among the Democratic Party about voting for the shutdown- both concerns regarding donors, and about re-election for reps/senators in less safe seats stemming from the conventional wisdom that governing as a "moderate" will ensure their seats. So Schumer (assuming he doesn't run for re-election) is the fall guy. Almost the entire party is outraged by him, rightfully so, but in the end he faces no real consequences. Democrats only have themselves to blame if they lose in 2026 and 2028, as being too weak of an opposition and without any coherent vision or narratives will betray the base and do nothing to convince independent or apathetic voters, no matter how much of the lesser evil they really are.
Nevertheless, Schumer, and the 9 other "moderate" senate dems behavior is aiding and abetting a fascist takeover of the United States, full stop. They are collaborators and complicit in whatever happens as a result. At the very least, they deserve a brutal primary.
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- 30,147
- a baby, candy, it's like taking.
- TexRex72
So this "argument" from pedo bitch Gym is aggressively stupid on its face--the executive appoints federal judiciary which, short of SCOTUS, is not the end all, be all, and frankly neither is SCOTUS when it can apply precedent, overturn precedent, and even cut precedent from whole cloth--without even considering how frequently Republicans try to push cases to Amarillo, Texas and the NDTX Amarillo Division federal court which seats a single judge that also just happens to be in absolute lock step with their causes.
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