United States Politics Thread 46

[jcb]

I'll have to look into this.

Further reading/watching:
https://www.cbsnews.com/minnesota/news/ ... -campaign/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LazUZz3K6IY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWq2QvvPw68

Talking Points
Jesse Ventura says Donald Trump "copied everything" from Minnesota governor campaign for 2016 presidential run

[Ares Land]

Is Ukraine going to be better off under Russia? Is Taiwan going to be better off under China?

Why don't you ask Trump voters? I can't help these countries. I can only take what I'm given and think of the best next step. If we do get a multipolar world, it could be easier to undermine each oppressive regime.

We are not getting a multipolar world. That's just Republican propaganda.

One thing that might have happened if political leaders had a minimum of sense is Europe getting its act together and organizing for defense without the United States. Spoilers: that will never happen. One Trumpist creature on Twitter was bragging about "the client kings paying homage to the new emperor" and tell you what, this is more or less what's going to happen.

[Raphael]

Is Ukraine going to be better off under Russia? Is Taiwan going to be better off under China?

Why don't you ask Trump voters? I can't help these countries. I can only take what I'm given and think of the best next step. If we do get a multipolar world, it could be easier to undermine each oppressive regime.

We are not getting a multipolar world. That's just Republican propaganda.

I'd say we currently have a multipolar world, or at least we had one until Monday. We will be back to unipolar once the global autocratic alliance is firmly established as the one pole that dominates everything.

[Ares Land]

I found this series of slides illuminating.

It was, and so was the article. And, I should add, curiously relatable.

[keenir]

great...what about the family or the individual? or is everyone defined by their commons/community membership?

If a family business becomes a megacorp, it will be "taxed" until it's a family business again.

two questions:
1: why the quotation marks around taxing?
2: didn't you just say there'd be no taxes?

okay, a third: doesn't that discourage family businesses from being successful? (you may think "why would that discourage them?" but if they get punished/penalized for having a success that grows them beyond being a small business...)

(and isn't that exactly the conditions you said you were escaping from in your own commons? certainly sounds like it, at least)

How so?

pressure from family/neighborhood/denomination.

[keenir]

One thing that might have happened if political leaders had a minimum of sense is Europe getting its act together and organizing for defense without the United States. Spoilers: that will never happen. One Trumpist creature on Twitter was bragging about "the client kings paying homage to the new emperor" and tell you what, this is more or less what's going to happen.

I don't doubt that many countries will be calling him up to say congrats on being elected...but I don't think he's going to have an easy time making anyone pay him in the way he campaigned for -- getting Eastern Europe to repay the US for the Marshall Plan et al? Japan to repay for all the postwar changes? I don't think anyone will be doing that, whether or not they have enough money to do that.

[WeepingElf]

One thing that might have happened if political leaders had a minimum of sense is Europe getting its act together and organizing for defense without the United States. Spoilers: that will never happen. One Trumpist creature on Twitter was bragging about "the client kings paying homage to the new emperor" and tell you what, this is more or less what's going to happen.

I don't doubt that many countries will be calling him up to say congrats on being elected...but I don't think he's going to have an easy time making anyone pay him in the way he campaigned for -- getting Eastern Europe to repay the US for the Marshall Plan et al? Japan to repay for all the postwar changes? I don't think anyone will be doing that, whether or not they have enough money to do that.

Well, many congratulations are just out of politeness, I think - it is, after all, polite for a democratically elected leader to congratulate a newly democratically elected leader. After all, Trump was elected, and did not conduct a coup d'état, which would be a different matter. But I guess that most European heads of government (with some exceptions like Orbán or Meloni) don't really look forward to having to deal with this madman, and would have preferred a Harris victory. And we must say that we don't know yet how many of the frightening things Trump has announced to do when he is elected will actually be done. (But people used to say the same about Hitler in 1933, and we know what happened.) The congratulations from Moscow and Beijing probably were more sincere, even if it is IMHO far from certain that Trump will be Putin's and Xi's best friend.