Attack on the Feds independence

[Handlebar]

Free speech? The previous administration was working with the tech companies to stifle speech but now has the gall to call others fascists.

NATO, we have been paying the lions share for that organization forever, during the first Trump admin he was mocked and derided by the media for dare suggesting that other NATO countries actually pay what they are obligated to pay, and if you are fearful of Russia maybe not buy oil and gas from them. But as soon as Ukraine happened by God they wanted us to clean up their back yard. Apparently, we should have asked for Greenland sooner, I cannot remember the Europeans having this much backbone before.
Powell has a cost overrun of over a billion if the reports are correct and spare me the "it is politics". Interest rates and fiscal policy have been nakedly political for a while now. I have no tears for the Federal Reserve or bankers in general. They were all quite comfortable watching the financial condition prior to 2008 and made sure through their backing that bonuses were still paid out in 2009-10

Democratic evolution has been just as drastic, they are quite comfortable with boys in your daughter's locker room and don't you dare say anything about you transphobic bigot, you deplorable who bitterly clings to outdated social morals and has limited education and information. Hell, I am prochoice but in Colorado and I believe Minnesota you can abort damn near to moment the baby starts to crown. A doctor yesterday during a congressional hearing could not confirm that men cannot get pregnant, but Republicans have evolved into total nonsense.

But fear not for I do not believe that Dems are losing in fact I think they are somewhat successful. We are just seeing the fraud associated with NGOs and weather you liked DOGE or not the spending associated USAID and other programs. But 99% of things that were pointed out never were cut so we will still be paying for things that we have no business paying. Congressional Republicans stood on their feet and applauded and then put everything back.

I am of the conclusion that the established parties are two sides of the same coin with outliers. Dems wanted illegals for the votes, Repubs wanted them for the cheap labor. Blue collar labor has watched salaries stagnate either through trade deals that benefited stock traders or a blind eye to an invasion of labor coming across the border. One thing that Trump has proved is that you just need to enforce the laws that we already had on the books we did not need a comprehensive new bill, that was nothing but amnesty for illegal crossing and a further incentive to keep coming.

My son enters the job force in a couple of years I fear that in many ways the deck is stacked against him and others

 

[Khunter]

 

[SaskHunter]

a few quotes doesn't make it like 1936....i'm not saying I agree with everything being done by this administration, but as soon as someone tries using the Nazi comparisons you loose me.

But it's more than slogans, it's the militarization of the State against its citizens, lack of due process, violent rhetoric, and so on. Making a parallel to the Nazis doesn't mean the US will start gassing people, but it does mean that a lot of things are historically similar to fascist takeovers. If you can't see the parallels, you are either disingenuous or lying to yourself.

At any rate, I would think a Canadian would be much more concerned about all the issues going on in Canada. But having lived in Canada for 6 years, one thing i learned is Canadians have almost no interest in Canadian issues. The media and politicians up there have done an amazing job at deflecting and focusing on the U.S. It's smart on their part.

I think your last point used to hold weight 10+ years ago, but not at all in recent years, since COVID anyway. Canadians are extremely concerned with Canadian issues, the biggest of all has been the constant economical and territorial threats coming from down South for the past year. I think it's very understandable that Canadians are obsessed with the US right now when we can't go a single day without a US gov't official talking trash about us, imposing tariffs, threatening our territorial integrity, or overall making fun of us. Having spent a lot of time in the US and having family down there, I guarantee your country would have taken severe actions against any other nation who would have made a fraction of the threats the US has made to Canada.

Pete Hoekstra, the US Ambassador to Canada, has been the biggest POS of them all. The man is spewing dangerous anti-Canadian rhetoric on Canadian soil, enjoying his sweet sweet diplomatic immunity. The fact that our gov't hasn't declared him persona non grata speaks volume to how tolerant we have been with this BS.

I know its hard for some to believe that we only want to maintain this friendship, we absolutely DO NOT want to join you. Though we are similar "people", we are still significantly different, annexing Canada would essentially mean annexing tens of millions of Democrats. I think some people are disillusioned and actually believe that becoming an American citizen equates winning the game of life, it isn't, standards of living in most 1st world countries is on par if not better than the US'.

Happy to see most of you are very concerned with what's happening, it just sucks that the rest of the world is just waiting for the next unhinged thing to come out of this admin.

NATO countries are literally deploying NATO troops, to a NATO country because of possible aggression from an original NATO member, wild! The Canadian gov't and Armed Forces are literally preparing for possible actions on our territory or another NATO ally's. The fact that these last two sentences are facts, not fiction, is beyond ridiculous!

 

[Irrelevant]

I made no comparison between what Clinton/Obama said and the crazy things Trump tries to get people to believe. If you read it again I doubt you will see the comparison you've claimed. I didn't.

Many in the Dem leadership are incredulous that Trump won even once and they lack any self-inspection to their contribution to that. I was pointing out some of the events that happened along the way that Dems seem to be oblivious to, either intentionally or by lack of understanding, that have caused them to lose touch with many of the voters they historically counted on.

Among the hardcore party Dems I encounter today, that same level of arrogance and condescension continues and they are just as oblivious. I provided an explanation of the problems Dems have and don't seem interested in fixing, not a comparison to Trump. Their inattention to their position is why they aren't going to save us from the problems of today, at least not in my view.

And none of it is letting the Rs off the hook for their contribution to the problems. The spineless Rs in Congress want to secure a political future by being a Trump bootlicker. They're a bunch of enablers who ten years from now will be embarrassed when asked to explain why they were so absent when their leadership was so badly needed.

I have no use for Trump, his unfit character, his disregard for the Constitution, or his group of spineless minions working the levers of power. Maybe a more accurate term for my feelings about him would be "despise." There are some of his policies I agree with, but I never have, and never will, vote for a person who I see to be as morally and ethically bankrupt as he is, a person who degrades every institution that has made America great, and is laughing as he wipes his ass with the US Constitution.

Rather that vote for either of the mainstream party nominees, since 2016, I've ended up writing in Condoleezza Rice and John Kasich for my Presidential/VP vote.

None of that is a comparison or an equivalency. It's two different accounts, about two different groups, taking two different paths, in the same race to zero, as explained through the lens of my lfie experiences.

I read it twice last night and once again this morning.

Can you imagine what would have happened if Obama had sent federal law enforcement to Dallas?
Or said, "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law."
Or, “I don’t need international law” and that his power is limited only by his “own morality”
What if Obama, Biden, or Hilary had said ole Charlie Kirk deserved it because of his politics, as the Cheeto did with Rob Reiner?

Those results would have been so vastly different that we likely wouldn't be pissing away time on HT to talk about it.

Sign me up for the status quo of the early 2000s. I'll take a two-party system that simply operates in pork to the current one based exclusively on violence and hatred. What's even worse is that I, like you, and I'm sure many, many others, actually like many of the things Mr. Spray Tan is doing. But a civilized society cannot allow civility to be extinguished. The normalization we've seen, and, again, the mental gymnastics used to equate the two "evils" is much worse for the durability of our republic than simple corruption and poor governance that we've seen since the start.

 

[brymoore]

Sign me up for the status quo of the early 2000s. I'll take a two-party system that simply operates in pork to the current one based exclusively on violence and hatred.

I miss the Reagan days when two parties negotiated bills. Both parties spent too much money but they did it civilly.

 

[Bonasababy]

But it's more than slogans, it's the militarization of the State against its citizens, lack of due process, violent rhetoric, and so on. Making a parallel to the Nazis doesn't mean the US will start gassing people, but it does mean that a lot of things are historically similar to fascist takeovers. If you can't see the parallels, you are either disingenuous or lying to yourself.



I think your last point used to hold weight 10+ years ago, but not at all in recent years, since COVID anyway. Canadians are extremely concerned with Canadian issues, the biggest of all has been the constant economical and territorial threats coming from down South for the past year. I think it's very understandable that Canadians are obsessed with the US right now when we can't go a single day without a US gov't official talking trash about us, imposing tariffs, threatening our territorial integrity, or overall making fun of us. Having spent a lot of time in the US and having family down there, I guarantee your country would have taken severe actions against any other nation who would have made a fraction of the threats the US has made to Canada.

Pete Hoekstra, the US Ambassador to Canada, has been the biggest POS of them all. The man is spewing dangerous anti-Canadian rhetoric on Canadian soil, enjoying his sweet sweet diplomatic immunity. The fact that our gov't hasn't declared him persona non grata speaks volume to how tolerant we have been with this BS.

I know its hard for some to believe that we only want to maintain this friendship, we absolutely DO NOT want to join you. Though we are similar "people", we are still significantly different, annexing Canada would essentially mean annexing tens of millions of Democrats. I think some people are disillusioned and actually believe that becoming an American citizen equates winning the game of life, it isn't, standards of living in most 1st world countries is on par if not better than the US'.

Happy to see most of you are very concerned with what's happening, it just sucks that the rest of the world is just waiting for the next unhinged thing to come out of this admin.

NATO countries are literally deploying NATO troops, to a NATO country because of possible aggression from an original NATO member, wild! The Canadian gov't and Armed Forces are literally preparing for possible actions on our territory or another NATO ally's. The fact that these last two sentences are facts, not fiction, is beyond ridiculous!

Its not just other countries.

I think a lot of people do not understand the scale of Trumps actions in my state and what some people are starting to grapple with here.

For all my life I have downplayed any need to arm oneself with a personal arsenal to defend against an oppressive government action.

I have long said we have laws and checks and balances in place to prevent that....including safeguards against using the military against its own law abiding citizens.... and in the worst case, enough LE and military would resist or lay down their arms before attacking their own.

That's out the window, the threat is real, checks are not being allowed by Republicans, and law abiding/constitution respecting people are wondering if they need to prepare for violent confrontation.

Never thought I would see anything remotely like what we are seeing happen, right here, right now.

 

[406dn]

I know its hard for some to believe that we only want to maintain this friendship, we absolutely DO NOT want to join you. Though we are similar "people", we are still significantly different, annexing Canada would essentially mean annexing tens of millions of Democrats. I think some people are disillusioned and actually believe that becoming an American citizen equates winning the game of life, it isn't, standards of living in most 1st world countries is on par if not better than the US'.

A few days ago, I came across an article that compared household wealth in the US compared to Canadian wealth. I did not find it just now, or I would have linked it.

The takeaway is that the US has a higher average net wealth, and Canada has a higher median wealth.

The US has more extremely wealthy people, and Canada has a more prosperous middle class.

This sort of thing is a result of policy, over a decent run of time. Canada, and much of Europe have higher tax rates, and the services that go with that. The US, since Reagan, has lower marginal tax rates, and more limited services.

People like Bezos, Zuckerberg, Gates, and others have been able to grow enormous fortunes. Musk is being mentioned as likely to become the world's first trillionaire. That would be one thousand billion dollars.

Over my lifetime, the bottom half of the US society has increasingly lost out. Their net worth is a pittance, if they even are above zero. That is the plight of over 150 million Americans.

The result of our policies is that half of our population is in survival mode.

I mentioned in an earlier post that my passion for field trialling pointing dogs from horseback, has taken me to Canada numerous times. One of the most striking things is that whatever poverty exists there, it is well hidden compared what I see here.

 

[SAJ-99]

NATO has been a leach for a long time. I don't want to exit NATO, but I think it's high time that the EU start paying up. Trump is right about that.

Fed independence? Do you recall them squashing valid inflation concerns during the last admin? I heard "transitory" for months/years - now they critique every move as "inflationary" - why weren't they independent enough to say that gov spending during Trump 1 and Biden would cause inflation? Gov spending more than it takes in causes inflation and always has.

The complicated stuff - like Iran? I openly criticized the admin for taking action against them. But in hindsight - I tend to think that was the correct move.

To me the right has moved - not "further right" but to a strange unhealthy imperialistic nationalism (tariffs, "america first", etc). The lefts certainly moved deep into their own strange places.

NATO- Yes, Trump is right. He is also repeating the same complaint every administration has had for the last 40yrs. Bush I, Clinton, Bush II, Obama all of them. But you approach it like NATO has a checking account that all the countries put money into. That's not the way it works. It is % of GDP spent on defense. Since the start of NATO we have ALWAYS spent more on defense. Cold war, nuclear build up, etc. The situation got worse when Reagan decided to outspend the Russians to collapse the USSR economically. That worked. But after, while everyone else cut back on defense, we didn't. Our Congress just can't stop handing defense firms money. Recently what got Europe to step up was Putin invading Ukraine. Trump just increased our defense spending in OBBB and has proposed a $1.5T defense budget. Certainly a pipe dream, but even a small move means there is no way the rest of NATO can keep up. It just isn't mathematically possible.
The problem with Trump is he doesn't understand the concept of an alliance. This makes sense for a transactional guy with no real friends. To him, threatening allies makes complete sense to get what he wants. Unfortunately now we are in a situation where allies are very selective in the intelligence they share with us. So basically he made us weaker. See? Complicated.

The Fed- You are confusing being wrong about a forecast with being political. The Fed raised rates at the fastest pace since Volker in the late 70's. The market tanked and inflation cost Biden a lot of credibility and may have put Trump back in the White House. So political? In democrats favor? I just don' see it. Should the Fed work with Treasury? Yes. And they do. But you don't want them tasked with fixing problems caused by the Treasury, or Congress, or the President. You will pay the price. That is why independence is very important. Again. Complicated.

Iran and the middle east in general is mess. That isn't changing.

I agree that some of the left will espouse some weird ideas. But I think that group makes up the same percentage of its base as the MTG's and Boebarts make up for Republicans. Republicans problem is they have to embrace people who hate. That's the brand now. Old school conservatives (the non-racist ones) have largely left or just vote taxes. I do hope to see more independents. But that would require Americans to pay more attention in elections. I don't have much confidence in that.

 

[Big Fin]

I read it twice last night and once again this morning.

Can you imagine what would have happened if Obama had sent federal law enforcement to Dallas?
Or said, "He who saves his Country does not violate any Law."
Or, “I don’t need international law” and that his power is limited only by his “own morality”
What if Obama, Biden, or Hilary had said ole Charlie Kirk deserved it because of his politics, as the Cheeto did with Rob Reiner?

Those results would have been so vastly different that we likely wouldn't be pissing away time on HT to talk about it.

Sign me up for the status quo of the early 2000s. I'll take a two-party system that simply operates in pork to the current one based exclusively on violence and hatred. What's even worse is that I, like you, and I'm sure many, many others, actually like many of the things Mr. Spray Tan is doing. But a civilized society cannot allow civility to be extinguished. The normalization we've seen, and, again, the mental gymnastics used to equate the two "evils" is much worse for the durability of our republic than simple corruption and poor governance that we've seen since the start.

I agree with your comments, other than the implication that I'm equating, normalizing, or doing mental gymnastics. I suspect we share the same concerns of where we are at on January 16, 2026.