American Politics

[Sirioja]

After Capitol when Biden was elected with democracy, Trump is now trying to fuck midterms when Americans, not me, don t seem to agree with his politics, lies, behavior. But USA are not a democracy, as long is Trump. If Americans who don't agree went in streets versus him, he would have to run away and hide, even too fat as told his doctor.

[Sirioja]

Agreed. I'd add that Ivy League schools like the University of Pennsylvania don't graduate many stupid people either. Trump graduated from the highly regarded Wharton business school there.

What Sirioja and KevKev fail to appreciate is that Trump was the master of the zero sum game. Often his vendors, banks, investors, and / or customers would take it on the chin, while Trump would make money. A classic example is Atlantic City. The bond holders in Trump's casinos got stiffed. They didn't get their money back. In fact, they lost over a billion dollars. Now, normally when this happens, the debtor (Trump) has to pay tax on "forgiveness of debt" income. Trump however, through a quirk in the tax code, did the opposite. Instead he managed to end up with a $900 million carried forward tax loss from the Atlantic City casinos that he used to avoid paying tax for about the next two decades. If that's not pure genius what is!

I've had two business partners who are like Trump, and working with them was a living hell. True to form, one of them made money on our dealings while I lost a bundle. My takeaway from my experience with them and from reading a couple of biographies about Trump's pre-presidential days was that based on his character he didn't deserve to be president.

Being graduated and being clever are quite different and Trump show to the world his lack of cleverness and knowledge of the world. For sure, he is megaloman and schizophrene and has big problems with women, so often in Epstein files and would be in jail if not protected. When he bought so many people in his life, when he was made with his family money, I would not be surprised his graduation was also bought. Anyway, when I started to work, my boss was graduated from Polytechnique school and I m pretty sure higher level than university of Pensylvania, but he was so inefficient for work, he didn't understand how to be efficient, even he was from the highest level school. Funny, people came to beginner I was, to avoid him and not waste time, he didn't stay for long at his job, not good enough, even highly graduated.

[Tiny 12]

I think you are confusing personal political views with intelligence. Unless you want to believe that a man can become President of the United States of America and be dumb.

I might not like the polices of the current administration. But the current POTUS is not dumb by any means. In fact, I would say he is a business and political genius. Or at least a scrappy street fighting survivor.
.

Agreed. I'd add that Ivy League schools like the University of Pennsylvania don't graduate many stupid people either. Trump graduated from the highly regarded Wharton business school there.

What Sirioja and KevKev fail to appreciate is that Trump was the master of the zero sum game. Often his vendors, banks, investors, and / or customers would take it on the chin, while Trump would make money. A classic example is Atlantic City. The bond holders in Trump's casinos got stiffed. They didn't get their money back. In fact, they lost over a billion dollars. Now, normally when this happens, the debtor (Trump) has to pay tax on "forgiveness of debt" income. Trump however, through a quirk in the tax code, did the opposite. Instead he managed to end up with a $900 million carried forward tax loss from the Atlantic City casinos that he used to avoid paying tax for about the next two decades. If that's not pure genius what is!

I've had two business partners who are like Trump, and working with them was a living hell. True to form, one of them made money on our dealings while I lost a bundle. My takeaway from my experience with them and from reading a couple of biographies about Trump's pre-presidential days was that based on his character he didn't deserve to be president.

[EihTooms]

I think you are confusing personal political views with intelligence. Unless you want to believe that a man can become President of the United States of America and be dumb.

I might not like the polices of the current administration. But the current POTUS is not dumb by any means. In fact, I would say he is a business and political genius. Or at least a scrappy street fighting survivor.

No need to lower oneself to personal attacks just because you have a political disagreement with somebody. If fact, that is why most of what is written here goes in one eye and out the other because it is not designed to inform, it is designed to be a means of venting their political frustrations with others.

Trump is not nearly as blitheringly stupid as he is 100% certain his supporters, followers and voters are:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DY4sU...o5MTEyNXk1eQ==

[Tiny 12]

In Texas, I do not criticize them either, but when you look at other states, it's different. A buddy told me that Samsung issued a pretty harsh memo on why they were moving their headquarters from New Jersey to Texas.

And I know a teacher in New York who got her health plan to pay for a boob job and a fireman whose health plan paid for his hair implants.

That is a Democratic rewrite of who brought inflation down. Sure, Volker played the cards he was given with skill, but Reagan gave him the cards. The biggest scare back then was oil, and Carter kept up Nixon's brain dead policy of price controls on oil. As you know everything in the economy in one way or another is energy related, and once Reagan removed the caps, oil prices came down and stayed down for decades. So Volker was able to keep rates high and then cut them once inflation came down.

Even the biggest economic flaw of the Reagan presidency, the huge deficits because of defense spending, allowed for a peace dividend later on as low oil prices and high defense costs crushed the former USSR.

And that is just the economy. You look at soft power and culture in 1984, and it is hard to beat. Michael Jackson and Thriller, Prince and Purple Rain, the LA Olympics with Micheal Jordan and Mary Lou Retton coming out. Hollywood never was higher. TV shows like Cheers and the Cosby Show were at their peak viewership levels and we have not seen anything like them since. If you did not know times were good then, you did not have a pulse. The only other year economically as good in the USA was 2000, and unlike Tooms, I give Clinton and Gingrich both credit for that.

To say the great times in 1984 were all due to Volker is a Democratic rewrite, and IMO it is insulting to Reagan who I still think was the greatest president in my lifetime. But unlike a partisan hack like Tooms, I am willing to put Clinton as #2. I am just not sure Clinton would be all that without Gingrich.

I agree with all of that Elvis. In my adult lifetime, I'd put Reagan first, Clinton in his second term at number two, and George H W Bush at 3. The rest were in one way or another crappy presidents.

Carter's natural gas price controls were even nuttier than the price controls on oil. You had decontrolled gas produced from deep, expensive wells going for maybe $6 per MMBTU. And gas from many shallow wells capped at under $0. 50 per MMBTU. The result was a lack of incentive to drill wells less than 15,000 feet deep because of price controls. We ended up with gas shortages and high prices, the worst of both worlds.

[Sirioja]

Nachos = Not A Chance Hormuz Opens.

For the last 6 weeks, we've been hearing from the Great Genius (GG) that war is over, Hormuz opening is imminent, America has won; only to be rebuffed by Israel (who really are the ones who call the shots, and to whom America is subservient).

Consider how far America has fallen under this GG. Consider the fact that America is condescended to by China which admonishes it about falling into the Thucydides trap (to which the GG probably wondered "Thu who? Sounds Oriental, no wonder you guys side with him" Consider how America's status in the world has fallen, where many ridicule the fact that it couldn't even face up to a third rate, worn out nation like Iran; where others condemn America's unjust assault on specious cassus bellus, where many others regard with disgust its subservience to Israel. A superpower's status is derived from its military and economic status as well as the respect that others confer upon it. The latter has gone up in smoke, the military prowess appears to be irrelevant, and the economic status is being challenged in its own courts..

When he promised peace in one day for Ukraine to be re elected, dumb genius failed, but even better, he even made 2 new wars with Venezuela to rob petrol and Iran following criminal Netanyahou and making Ormuz being blocked as Iranian answer to crazy orange. He also wanted to make a beach resort in Gaza and his daughter wants in Albania, but really not welcome there. USA of Trump won't be welcome in many places, when they have so bad image to try to rob, like Greenland or Ukraine. Big failure for dumb genius and US justice often cancel his decisions.

[Sirioja]

I think you are confusing personal political views with intelligence. Unless you want to believe that a man can become President of the United States of America and be dumb.

I might not like the polices of the current administration. But the current POTUS is not dumb by any means. In fact, I would say he is a business and political genius. Or at least a scrappy street fighting survivor.

No need to lower oneself to personal attacks just because you have a political disagreement with somebody. If fact, that is why most of what is written here goes in one eye and out the other because it is not designed to inform, it is designed to be a means of venting their political frustrations with others.

We may not have same meaning for intelligence, when Trump twice elected president of not MAGA at all USA, is not more than a great liar and robber. When he started in business, he didn't pay tax, he tries to rob everybody. Wake up USA when he fucked You so deep with his peace promises and now in the wall versus Iran but not changing anything, but making inflation and for Americans who are so blind and naïve fucked by his daily bullshits, same than Putin with Russia, kind of twins. His little dog, Hesgeth didn't come, when facists are not welcome in France.

[HotDog666]

Nachos = Not A Chance Hormuz Opens.

For the last 6 weeks, we've been hearing from the Great Genius (GG) that war is over, Hormuz opening is imminent, America has won; only to be rebuffed by Israel (who really are the ones who call the shots, and to whom America is subservient).

Consider how far America has fallen under this GG. Consider the fact that America is condescended to by China which admonishes it about falling into the Thucydides trap (to which the GG probably wondered "Thu who? Sounds Oriental, no wonder you guys side with him" Consider how America's status in the world has fallen, where many ridicule the fact that it couldn't even face up to a third rate, worn out nation like Iran; where others condemn America's unjust assault on specious cassus bellus, where many others regard with disgust its subservience to Israel. A superpower's status is derived from its military and economic status as well as the respect that others confer upon it. The latter has gone up in smoke, the military prowess appears to be irrelevant, and the economic status is being challenged in its own courts.

And this is the GG that a few of you still think worthy of respect. Some people never cease to amaze me.

Whatever the outcome- at some point Hormuz will reopen- America has failed abjectly. Iran had always foregone nuclear weapons (the ersthwhile Ayotollah considered nuclear WMD a sin in Islam); they were being rigorously monitored by the relevant agencies; there was an agreement in place which they were adhering to which Trump then tore up unilaterally. Then and only then did they start their enrichment program. And this was the onset of a series of decisions by the GG which led to America snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. And yet, in some minds, there's still a likelihood he's a GG. I really don't understand such people.

[Elvis 2008]

I don't criticize my state and local governments because they actually supply things we need.

In Texas, I do not criticize them either, but when you look at other states, it's different. A buddy told me that Samsung issued a pretty harsh memo on why they were moving their headquarters from New Jersey to Texas.

And I know a teacher in New York who got her health plan to pay for a boob job and a fireman whose health plan paid for his hair implants.

I went back and forth with Tooms over the twin recessions that occurred during the tail end of Carter's term and the first of Reagan's. The appointment of Paul Volker to replace partisan hack William Miller as Fed chairman was the cause. Volker wisely raised interest rates sky high which caused the recession. Tooms of course absolved Carter, who appointed Volker, and blamed Reagan.

That is a Democratic rewrite of who brought inflation down. Sure, Volker played the cards he was given with skill, but Reagan gave him the cards. The biggest scare back then was oil, and Carter kept up Nixon's brain dead policy of price controls on oil. As you know everything in the economy in one way or another is energy related, and once Reagan removed the caps, oil prices came down and stayed down for decades. So Volker was able to keep rates high and then cut them once inflation came down.

Even the biggest economic flaw of the Reagan presidency, the huge deficits because of defense spending, allowed for a peace dividend later on as low oil prices and high defense costs crushed the former USSR.

And that is just the economy. You look at soft power and culture in 1984, and it is hard to beat. Michael Jackson and Thriller, Prince and Purple Rain, the LA Olympics with Micheal Jordan and Mary Lou Retton coming out. Hollywood never was higher. TV shows like Cheers and the Cosby Show were at their peak viewership levels and we have not seen anything like them since. If you did not know times were good then, you did not have a pulse. The only other year economically as good in the USA was 2000, and unlike Tooms, I give Clinton and Gingrich both credit for that.

To say the great times in 1984 were all due to Volker is a Democratic rewrite, and IMO it is insulting to Reagan who I still think was the greatest president in my lifetime. But unlike a partisan hack like Tooms, I am willing to put Clinton as #2. I am just not sure Clinton would be all that without Gingrich.

[SubCmdr]

You find Trump smart? I only see a stupid and rather ignorant about the world Trump. Maybe he was smart, not to pay tax, or to make Americans paying millions when he play golf. He gives such a bad image for USA, same than Netanyahou for Israel.

I think you are confusing personal political views with intelligence. Unless you want to believe that a man can become President of the United States of America and be dumb.

I might not like the polices of the current administration. But the current POTUS is not dumb by any means. In fact, I would say he is a business and political genius. Or at least a scrappy street fighting survivor.

No need to lower oneself to personal attacks just because you have a political disagreement with somebody. If fact, that is why most of what is written here goes in one eye and out the other because it is not designed to inform, it is designed to be a means of venting their political frustrations with others.

[Sirioja]

Yes a lot of Americans move to third world countries, like Thailand, Costa Rica, Mexico and France because their retirement dollars go farther. You must know a lot more about French history than American history. Maybe you could comment on France's massacres in Algeria, slavery in Indochina and the Caribbean, and imperialistic conquest and subjugation throughout the world.

About USA history, I hope You know at least this land was robbed to Indians by mostly low level people coming from Europe, not belonging to the highest level in Europe and without English, USA could be French. About wars, even when losing, like Vietnam or Afghanistan or now Iran, USA always made good business from wars. Trump is same robber than those who arrived from Europe stole to Indians. At least, in France we have much better healthcare too many Americans come for, paid with my tax. And also, so much better foods not making obese at only18 or even younger.

[Sirioja]

Trump wasn't president in 2022 Tooms. Biden was.

Trump is smart but I'd attribute his success as a businessman mostly to the head start he got from his father, being a great salesman, his shrewdness and his willingness to treat his customers, vendors, banks and investors unethically. I brought this up with friends who believed that equipped Trump to deal with foreign governments and drain the swamp better than other candidates. Like I told you, I didn't vote for him. Or the Democratic candidates, except Joe Biden in the 2020 primary because Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders scared the shit out of me.

You find Trump smart? I only see a stupid and rather ignorant about the world Trump. Maybe he was smart, not to pay tax, or to make Americans paying millions when he play golf. He gives such a bad image for USA, same than Netanyahou for Israel.

[SubCmdr]

What do they expect? For individuals to work until they drop?

This really got me because working guys are literally paying for those lazy ex-pats living abroad.

I know several retired military men (and women) living abroad. From a 4 Star General to a retired E-7. The money they receive from their government was earned through service. Not their fault US Companies no longer care about their workers by not providing pensions. It's up to everyone to do it on their own now. Life is harder in that sense now. But they didn't make the rules, they just followed them. Is it your suggestion that these shouldn't get their pensions just because you don't like paying taxes?

Oh, and by the way, they still pay taxes. In my country of origin you are taxed on your worldwide income no matter where you reside in the world

I was just abroad, and if you really look at things, you see prices are pretty much the same in things without legacy or legal costs. Televisions, food, restaurants, cars are all pretty comparable to the USA if you go for similar quality. Then you look at places where the government has intertwined itself with pensioners, and you see where there is such a difference: housing, property taxes, education, health care, insurance, child care, and you see amazing savings when abroad.

Where is abroad? Big differences country to country.

The one redeeming feature of a pensioner type would have been that at least they are putting their retirement $ back into the USA but not guys like Tooms and Spidy. All they are doing is sucking the USA dry, and yet they are so arrogant they want even more money than they are getting now.

Reference is made to the military men (and women) that I know that have retired overseas.

Our forefathers warned us about this.

The founding document of my country of origin says:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

So, after they decided I was no longer 3/5 of a person and give my people a vote. Yes, the interests of me and my loved and liked ones come first. I've already put my time in on behalf of my fellow citizens. So I could care less what they think. Individuals who are still working hate on those that have put in the time and are no longer working. Handle your business. And you too will be able to have a income without working in the future if you choose to do so.

If they really cared about how much others pay for gasoline, they would get back to work and stop leaching off hard working Americans.

I guess he is NEVER going to stop working. Retirement is not in the picture for him. Either through mismanagement of his resources or failure to earn enough money to save for retirement.

ROTFLMAO!

[KeviKev68]

Trump wasn't president in 2022 Tooms. Biden was.

Trump is smart but I'd attribute his success as a businessman mostly to the head start he got from his father, being a great salesman, his shrewdness and his willingness to treat his customers, vendors, banks and investors unethically. I brought this up with friends who believed that equipped Trump to deal with foreign governments and drain the swamp better than other candidates. Like I told you, I didn't vote for him. Or the Democratic candidates, except Joe Biden in the 2020 primary because Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders scared the shit out of me.

How many times did Trump claim bankruptcy? No one who makes that many claims can be referred to as a "great" businessman. LOL.

[EihTooms]

Since typically pro Repub Mainstream Media has for decades been giving Repub President Eisenhower a pass for committing the USA fully and completely militarily to the Vietnam War by word, deed and treaty for at least 7 years of his 8 year presidency, I am sure very few living persons even know about Operation Mobile Yoke, launched by Eisenhower 5 months before the 1960 presidential election and that had been in its planning stage for 6 months before that:

TIME
National Affairs. Red Alert.
June 6, 1960

https://time.com/archive/6811743/nat...irs-red-alert/

As Chinese Communist shells slammed into the Nationalist offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu last week, ending a three-month lull in the Formosa Strait, military strategists of the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization sounded a Red alert at a SEATO meeting in Washington. Warned Admiral Harry D. Felt, U.S. commander in chief in the Pacific: The Southeast Asian peninsula is a target for Communist China, and Laos is the first point of entry. Another danger spot, said Felt, was shaky South Viet Nam, under worsening pressure by Communist guerrillas (TIME, May 2).

Meeting outside Asia for the first time since its formation in 1954, eight-member-SEATO braced for post-summit Communist boldness in secret strategy sessions, laid the groundwork for the SEATO foreign ministers meeting to be opened this week by Vice President Nixon. While SEATO strategists were discussing the Red Chinese menace, the U.S. Air Force announced that it was getting ready to deploy a striking force of 120 supersonic jet fighters and other aircraft on maneuvers in Thailand, Formosa and the Philippines. Operation Mobile Yoke, said the Air Force, was planned six months ago, just happened to be announced in a week when Communist artillery started firing.

* The U.S., Australia, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Thailand and Great Britain.

Now, let's see if anyone else can clearly read between the lines, and it doesn't require much effort, for why a sitting president would maneuver a full on USA military strike force right to the edge of the combat lines, ready to get the green light at any moment to respond to any perceived or real "incident" in the area, so quickly and close there would be no chance to clarify the reason and skuttle the mission, just a few months before that sitting president's Vice President was logically expected to take charge as Commander in Chief?

Well, really, regardless which Party's nominee won the upcoming election and had to decide how to deal with the corner Eisenhower had put him squarely into; should he wave the white flag, withdraw and retreat like the French, admit defeat to the Communists' purported Domino Theory of World Dominance, Eisenhower's framing of it for those 7 years, just 15 years after winning the War against Nazi Fascist aggression in Europe and Japanese Imperialism in Asia or allow the USA Military forces put there by Eisenhower and poised to respond to any perceived or real "incident" to unavoidably begin the full combat engagement Eisenhower had been setting the groundwork for over the previous 7 years?

Of course, no president other than Eisenhower "started" America's full and irreversible commitment in every conceivable way to The Vietnam War.

Just as Trump has done with Iran. And as Trump did on a different "battlefield" of engagement to lay the groundwork for, usher in and exacerbate Trump's Pandemic.

Typically pro Repub Mainstream Media has worked very hard and for decades to see to it that the "Party of personal responsibilty" never has to take responsibility for some of the worst results and outcomes in history.