United States Politics Thread 47

[rotting bones]

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is effectively telling Americans to eat shit and die: https://youtu.be/VKnuBGY5fuM?si=KWwmEEng6UrwAAHT

It worries me that both Encyclopædia Britannica and Encyclopædia Universalis are published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., which publishes in the US. All large corporations in the US are presumed compromised by MAGA interests.

[jcb]

First he was going to do tariffs, then he wasn't, then he was, then he wasn't, then he was?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMSeiEMvxIo

[zompist]

First he was going to do tariffs, then he wasn't, then he was, then he wasn't, then he was?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMSeiEMvxIo

I've heard that he was spooked by the drop in the stock market, and by calls from US auto manufacturers. But who knows.

Chaos has always been his primary strategy, but business really does not like chaos.

[keenir]

First he was going to do tariffs, then he wasn't, then he was, then he wasn't, then he was?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMSeiEMvxIo

I've heard that he was spooked by the drop in the stock market, and by calls from US auto manufacturers. But who knows.

I thought it was because not only did Canada, Mexico, and China not roll over and show their bellies...but that all three of them retaliated with equal and sometimes greater tariffs.

[jcb]

First he was going to do tariffs, then he wasn't, then he was, then he wasn't, then he was?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMSeiEMvxIo

I've heard that he was spooked by the drop in the stock market, and by calls from US auto manufacturers. But who knows.

Chaos has always been his primary strategy, but business really does not like chaos.

I strongly doubt that even Trump knows what he is going to do. He is fickle and has no grand strategy (beyond enriching himself). He doesn't understand how tariffs work, and seems to treat them as if they were fines that other countries pay.

***

In other belated and somewhat interesting news, the man who invaded the Comet Ping Pong restaurant in Washington DC with guns looking for a nonexistant child sex trafficking ring (AKA the "pizzagate" conspiracy, which later got subsumed into the QAnon conspiracy) back in 2016 died in a shootout with the police in January 2025.
- https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politi ... rcna187082
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2F84w1NDU8

[Raphael]

First he was going to do tariffs, then he wasn't, then he was, then he wasn't, then he was?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMSeiEMvxIo

There might have been cats faced with open doors who were more decisive.

[rotting bones]

The first is a reinterpretation of Samuel P. Huntington's ideas about 'Clash of Civilizations' mixed with modern concerns about the culture war and Christian politics. They see an inevitable conflict in the future between a conservative Judeo-Christian West with 'democratic' values (though their idea of democracy is warped) against either a woke leftist front or a despotic Orient, or a mix of both of them. The Minister of Foreign Relations in my country was an advocate of this idea and we see it very clearly with Milei as well, though Milei has softened a bit towards China since becoming president obviously. In this context, Russia is a part of this conservative West, with a government built on strong Christian family values, but has been pushed away by Europe. Russia is a natural ally for the USA as part of this 'Western' bloc, even more to an extent than some of the 'woke' Europeans and the bureaucratic European Union. (Samuel P. Huntington noticeably did not consider Russia a part of the West but these guys clearly do).

Conservatives in every country see leftists as culturally foreign. Even in France, weirdly, since other countries tend to see France as the source of leftist culture.

Having said that, I have doubts about how conservative Trump is personally. He is riding a Christian nationalist wave to power for sure, but he might just see Putin as "strong" like Kim Jong Un. Trump is fine with giving the Christian nationalists what they want because he correctly believes that cultural conservatism is only for the poor.

[keenir]

Some news that has nothing to do with Trump: https://youtu.be/tPbpIzJxE5U?si=m1-iBRroUqECBbWH -

...which starts with good news.

...and then has a bit of bad news.

....and then more good news.

.....and closes with further good news.

[rotting bones]

First he was going to do tariffs, then he wasn't, then he was, then he wasn't, then he was?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMSeiEMvxIo

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8DA4o ... ijfedjSZCQ

"The prince, who is responsible for making the decision to proclaim the state of emergency, reveals, at the first opportunity, that he is almost incapable of making a decision. Just as compositions with restful lighting are virtually unknown in mannerist painting, so it is that the theatrical figures of this epoch always appear in the harsh light of their changing resolve. What is conspicuous about them is not so much the sovereignty evident in the stoic turns of phrase, as the sheer arbitrariness of a constantly shifting emotional storm in which the figures of Lohenstein especially sway about like torn and flapping banners. And they also bear a certain resemblance to the figures of El Greco in the smallness of their heads, if we understand this in a metaphorical sense. For their actions are not determined by thought, but by changing physical impulses." - Walter Benjamin

[Ahzoh]

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/u- ... -canadians

I fucking knew something like this was going to happen. Going to be harder to visit my mum this year =/

[rotting bones]

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/u- ... -canadians

I fucking knew something like this was going to happen. Going to be harder to visit my mum this year =/

Sorry to hear that.

[Raphael]

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/u- ... -canadians

I fucking knew something like this was going to happen. Going to be harder to visit my mum this year =/

Sorry to hear that.

Seconded.

[Ahzoh]

I don't even know how long it'd take to register (or where exactly) or when I'd find the time to get fingerprinted.

[rotting bones]

The US is becoming a dangerous place.

https://www.unpopularfront.news/p/the-a ... oud-khalil

[doctor shark]

I don't even know how long it'd take to register (or where exactly) or when I'd find the time to get fingerprinted.

At least according to the USCIS website, if you enter by air or land and have an I-94 issued (i.e. your passport gets stamped), then you are already considered to be registered and need to do nothing further. But, still...

[Travis B.]

Thing is, we all knew this was coming -- Trump et al made no secret of their plans -- yet so many people didn't vote for Harris because "eggs were too expensive". Those people can rot in hell, and they deserve to have their faces eaten by leopards, just like they voted for. If you were a gov't employee who got fired after voting for Trump, I have no sympathy for you. If you were someone who insisted on sticking it to the Dems over Gaza or because you thought the Dems were only one femtohitler better than the Republicans, you don't get a pass just because of your well-meaning intentions -- you are just as bad as the people who were explicitly for mass deportions and like. And if you voted for Trump because you wanted 'teh illegals' to be deported, and then they came for your own wife, what happened is your personal fault.

[keenir]

maybe we need to let Bernie Sanders be President. or at least VP.

after all, he draws crowds, and always has. and every time he ran against another Democrat, his supporters voted for Trump. (both times that I can recall, that happened - against Harris and Clinton)

[zompist]

maybe we need to let Bernie Sanders be President. or at least VP.

Kind of too late for that, I'm afraid. He'll be 87 in 2028.

AOC will be just 39, though!

after all, he draws crowds, and always has. and every time he ran against another Democrat, his supporters voted for Trump. (both times that I can recall, that happened - against Harris and Clinton)

That's exaggerated. Wikipedia has a whole page on this which asserts that "Sanders-Trump voters" were just 6–12% of Sanders supporters.

Sanders didn't run for president in 2024.

[keenir]

maybe we need to let Bernie Sanders be President. or at least VP.

Kind of too late for that, I'm afraid. He'll be 87 in 2028.

AOC will be just 39, though!

after all, he draws crowds, and always has. and every time he ran against another Democrat, his supporters voted for Trump. (both times that I can recall, that happened - against Harris and Clinton)

That's exaggerated. Wikipedia has a whole page on this which asserts that "Sanders-Trump voters" were just 6–12% of Sanders supporters.

Sanders didn't run for president in 2024.

ah, my bad; i thought he was running up til the Democratic Party nomination of Harris.

[Ahzoh]

Thing is, we all knew this was coming -- Trump et al made no secret of their plans -- yet so many people didn't vote for Harris because "eggs were too expensive". Those people can rot in hell, and they deserve to have their faces eaten by leopards, just like they voted for. If you were a gov't employee who got fired after voting for Trump, I have no sympathy for you. If you were someone who insisted on sticking it to the Dems over Gaza or because you thought the Dems were only one femtohitler better than the Republicans, you don't get a pass just because of your well-meaning intentions -- you are just as bad as the people who were explicitly for mass deportions and like. And if you voted for Trump because you wanted 'teh illegals' to be deported, and then they came for your own wife, what happened is your personal fault.

People didn't vote for Harris for a whole myriad reasons. Some of them valid, a lot of them just racism, the majority of them just pure delusion, malice, and spite.
And it turns out the "eggs are expensive" crowd really didn't care about the eggs because those same people are now ok with economic hardship if it means Trump "getting done what needs to be done"

Also the Democrats are just as culpable for this turmoil as the voters. For decades they've been out of touch and riddled with deluded geriatric elites, the same as the republicans. They have no teeth and no spines, too afraid to go actually left (though they posture like they are). They continually fail to read the atmosphere.

They really fucked us with their bullshit in 2016 that lead to Bernies not getting nominated as candidate.

Their ONLY redeeming quality is that they openly care (or at least pretend to) about democracy and anti-corruption.