[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AdamB', '
')Not silly at all. The good news is, citizens could certainly see the truth of it. The highest paid lawyers in the land can probably find some technicality. But even if they do, that doesn't mean the 12 fine Americans in the jury pool were wrong. Only that the convicted felon and convicted sexual assaulter can afford the high priced lawyers.

[Newfie]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'C')arinke,

How you feeling about the tariffs ?

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergyUnlimited', '
')So is it still a rule of law or maybe a rule of money?
Is America still a country where rule of law applies?

[theluckycountry]

The Latest Border Patrol Numbers Are Here And Wow...
Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he Border Patrol has released the latest stats on encounters with illegal aliens at the border and they once again prove that there was an intentional controlled effort to flood America with immigrants under the Biden administration.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergyUnlimited', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('AdamB', '
')Not silly at all. The good news is, citizens could certainly see the truth of it. The highest paid lawyers in the land can probably find some technicality. But even if they do, that doesn't mean the 12 fine Americans in the jury pool were wrong. Only that the convicted felon and convicted sexual assaulter can afford the high priced lawyers.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('EnergyUnlimited', 'H')ere in Europe fewer and fewer people have any hopes that America will be great again, even in traditionally pro-American Poland.
Trump has declared tariff war (and increasingly a trade war) on most of world and he has no cards in hand.
Xi Jinping has strong cards, Putin does as well and even European Commission has few Jacks but Trump does not.
How he wants to play with no cards?

[theluckycountry]

Doge? To bring the finances into line or just more smoke and mirrors. The Trump package had been announced and it includes raising the debt ceiling by 4 Trillion. Will that be enough to see out his term? I doubt it. The US forks over 1 trillion a year just in interest payments now.

Where's Biden? No one talks of him now, like all the others, like trump will be one day as soon he's out of the public eye. Anyone who believes trump will make a difference is kidding themselves, this train is going full speed and there is only one possible ending.

[theluckycountry]

Here is a good an analysis of politics I've ever read

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he last fifty years has seen the relentless shift of formerly progressive political parties to the right, to the point that now so-called “liberal” parties are right-of-centre neoliberal, war-mongering, billionaire-coddling apologists for the political and economic status quo, even though these systems are obviously falling apart and not serving their citizens.

And when a true progressive leader emerges, like a Bernie Sanders or a Jeremy Corbyn, they are immediately sabotaged, largely from within, by right-wingers infiltrating these parties, whose vested interests are threatened by progressives.

There is no conspiracy here. When a particular party has been in power for a long time, during which the quality of government services has conspicuously declined, and during which it has allowed itself to be bullied by rich donors and lobby and pressure groups into actions that are anathema to its base, its unpopularity should come as no surprise. And running on a platform of “At least we’re not as bad and scary as the other party” is unlikely to be a successful strategy.

These parties are not idiots. They are not deliberately shooting themselves in the foot. So why are they acting so incompetently, and selecting such incompetent ‘leaders’?

Money is, of course, a large part of the reason. Money buys power. If the rich make supporting the party conditional on certain platforms, laws and (de-)regulations, the party is naturally going to do what it’s told. Those who buck the donors are unlikely to be even nominated by the party, let alone win against a barrage of attack ads and financial support for opponents by the disgruntled billionaires who’ve been snubbed. Given the dumbing down of the citizenry in many countries, and the increasing impact of propaganda, mis- and disinformation and censorship, that is unlikely to change.

The right-wing autocrats who are in their ascendancy almost everywhere are not “populists”. They are the only choice for the large majority of voters who are fed up with dysfunctional, unresponsive, and unrepresentative governments. They are protest votes. The last US election was not “won” by Trump; it was lost by Biden/Harris and their handlers, who told the voters things have never been better and the alternative was scary and dangerous. You don’t win elections by scare-mongering, war-mongering, and lying to voters.

Same thing in Canada. Voters repulsed by the racist anti-government hate-monger Poilievre turned on a dime after threatening to support him and oust the incompetent, toadying, pro-war “Liberal” Trudeau, when the party ousted Trudeau and replaced him with the political neophyte Carney. Now, instead for voting against Trudeau and the useless and broken status quo, they were free to vote instead against the lunatic Poilievre, who even lost his own riding. Both Carney and the reelected Australian PM Albanese won because Canadians and Australians both loathe Trump and his tariffs more than they loathe the government parties overseeing the falling-apart of their political and economic systems. Likewise, the US Congress (both parties) is loathed even more than Trump. Voters across the political spectrum are justifiably outraged by the incompetence, deceptions, unfulfilled promises, misallocation of funds, and the ignorance and neglect of citizens’ needs and suffering, that all of our governments have demonstrated over the past fifty years, almost without exception.

This is a completely unsustainable situation. I can see only two possible outcomes:

The citizens will give up on “democracy” and the role of government entirely, and continue to support those (mostly ideological right-wingers) advocating (and now implementing) its dismantling; or
A new progressive movement will arise to fill the void with programs that actually live up to their heretofore purely performative ‘principled’ utterances.

The argument Aurélien has consistent made why the second outcome is not happening and seems unlikely to happen is that it takes time, money, and sustained organizational effort to launch a political movement. It looked for a while as if Occupy might evolve to be such a movement, but look what happened to it. The New Green Deal stumbled and fell before it had even started to gather steam. When true socialists like Bernie and Jeremy looked as if they might steamroller such a movement to power, the moneyed interests, notably within their own parties, quickly crushed their movements with money, propaganda, and innuendo.

We learn slowly, we civilized humans, especially in systems that keep us ignorant and as dependent as infants on the status quo. So I tend to agree with Aurélien that this ‘second option’ is unlikely to happen. I think we are likely to continue to stumble into electing autocracies that will continue to erode our trust in, and destroy, our governments. Though at least these ideological despots clearly show that money and corporations already actually run our political systems, and that the ‘democracies’ that governments want us to believe we live under are a sham.

And because private moneyed interests are just as incompetent at running things as governments (they are, after all, largely the same gang passing through the revolving doors between government and corporations), and are even less interested in acting in the interest of the population as a whole, the ongoing collapse of our economic and political systems is likely to be faster and more brutal than it might have otherwise been.

I wrote recently about how I see that collapse unfolding, and it’s not pretty.

But I thought it would be an interesting thought experiment to consider what would be (or would have been) required for this second option to occur, and at least mitigate the effects of collapse.

[theluckycountry]

Public services; rail hospitals, roads, these are the things we need government for, but increasingly governments across the world are selling out to corporate interests. It will truly become a world of the rich and the poor, just like it was before the oil bonanza freed the common man from poverty. And that's the simple reality, it's not a huge conspiracy by the mega corporations, they have always been around in one form or another, (the east India company, the nobles and their estates) it's the dwindling natural resources that coal and oil gave us (themselves foremost), that is causing this. And it's always the same, with every empire throughout history. They all had their glorious day in the sun then collapsed into obscurity after they reached their limits to growth.

Our Empire has lasted just over 400 years, it's called the Western Christian Empire, for lack of a better phrase. And 400 years is about the average of all empires. There were a few notable exceptions; Egypt, with a few collapses and darkages along the way, Rome, with it's split, China I guess with it's collapses and re-invigorations. But the vast majority, 400 years and then over rover. Many of those old empires came out of poverty when oil came abundantly on the scene but they never grew back into empires. They just tagged along, such was the bounty of oil that it allowed the entire planet to briefly rise out of the mud.

But that's ending, and oil based solar panels and electric cars won't change it one iota.

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')usk leaves whitehouse after publically expressing disappointment over trump’s “big, beautiful” spending bill, which includes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks and an increase in defence spending.

Musk warned the bill undercuts the work of DOGE.

[Newfie]

This DOGE story is interesting. And I din’t think it is over yet.

Tesla seems to he unwinding. Elsewhere today I was reading how the US solar industry is in collapse likely made worse by Trump removing government support.

And I see Trump now completely at odds with Tulsi Gabbard.

It seems Trump is narrowing his already tiny cadre of loyal supporters to a precious few. Rubio is wearing 2 if not 3 hats, so he seems to have some real influence.

The tariff impacts are only beginning to show.

I don’t have first hand knowledge being now in Canada. One thing I am seeing is Amazon in Canada is no longer showing a delivery date, they email you a delivery date once have one. Something stupid, a 6 pack of reader eyeglasses ordered Mid-May, I just received notice they will he delivered July 26. I don’t know why. Perhaps due to my rather remote location? And I don’t know iff thatbis somehow influenced by the tariff struggles. Perhaps.

[theluckycountry]

I recall back in Trump-01 he pissed off a lot of his inner circle. Seems to be his trademark.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Newfie', 'T')his DOGE story is interesting. And I din’t think it is over yet.

Tesla seems to he unwinding. Elsewhere today I was reading how the US solar industry is in collapse likely made worse by Trump removing government support.

And I see Trump now completely at odds with Tulsi Gabbard.

It seems Trump is narrowing his already tiny cadre of loyal supporters to a precious few. Rubio is wearing 2 if not 3 hats, so he seems to have some real influence.

The tariff impacts are only beginning to show.

I don’t have first hand knowledge being now in Canada. One thing I am seeing is Amazon in Canada is no longer showing a delivery date, they email you a delivery date once have one. Something stupid, a 6 pack of reader eyeglasses ordered Mid-May, I just received notice they will he delivered July 26. I don’t know why. Perhaps due to my rather remote location? And I don’t know iff thatbis somehow influenced by the tariff struggles. Perhaps.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')usk leaves whitehouse after publically expressing disappointment over trump’s “big, beautiful” spending bill, which includes multi-trillion-dollar tax breaks and an increase in defence spending.

Musk warned the bill undercuts the work of DOGE.

[careinke]

Damn, Trump just took out Iran's Nuclear capabilities in a joint strike with Israeli cooperation. This could go either way. We do live in interesting times.

I wonder if Dims helped goad him into this with their only effective propaganda this year calling trump a TACO. I have to admit' that was damn clever of them. It was definitely up to conservative meme standards.

Peace through war (where have I heard that before?)

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', 'T')he creatures you cite are just like you, losers looking for excuses to blame for their failures. I have only one thing to say Have Fun Staying Poor (HFSP). Not just economically, but Poor Socially, Morally, Ethically, Physically, and Mentally, to name just a few.
Peace

[careinke]

I don't hate Elon or Trump at all. I may question some tactics, but no one bats a 1,000. I'm borrowing because it is a 1.99% interest rate, and the rest of my money is making 30% per year (CAGR). I do regret I did not buy into Tesla stock earlier than I did. You have to perform/act like the rich in order to stay that way.

Peace

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', ' ')I'm borrowing because it is a 1.99% interest rate, and the rest of my money is making 30% per year (CAGR).

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('theluckycountry', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', ' ')I'm borrowing because it is a 1.99% interest rate, and the rest of my money is making 30% per year (CAGR).

[theluckycountry]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', '
')Well what did BTC do against the AUD over the past year??? Come on you can do it, quit blinding your viewpoint. I suspect you have checked and found BTC above your 45%.