Politics Thread

[paulxu]

No doubt there is a lot of waste in the government, probably like most large organizations. And it's good to root it out and be more efficient with your resources.
How USAID got caught up in that I'm really not sure. They do (did?) great work around the world, responsible for saving millions of lives with famine relief and medical assistance like GW Bush's Pepfar for AIDS cures.
It is (was?) a great soft power exercise that helped American influence for the good around the world. Now China will fill that void.

[waggy]

No Paul other organizations don't do what our federal government has done. Other organizations go bankrupt. The federal government has FLEECED the American people. 36 trillion Paul. I realize the government deals in big numbers, but digital calculators didn't even have that many digits when I was a kid.

[paulxu]

That's a good point about other organizations going bankrupt.
But that really has nothing to do with the minuscule spending of USAID (the majority going to American companies for supplies, medicine, etc) and the good it has done for our country around the world.
It's the baby with the bath water, and I'm loath to let the Chinese replace us as the better influence around the globe.

[waggy]

China is spending most of the money they take from us on a war machine. They do nothing out of pure humanitarianism.

[Xville]

Hey Ville, why are you selling yourself as an expert on Kam Craft? "I’ve seen him play quite a bit." LOL!!! He played like 100 minutes in a X uni, and you know more than the rest of us somehow? Or are you trying to infer that you drove up to Oxford every weekend? I mean, it's not like UM was on TV in Louisville more than once or twice?

It's pretty sad that you're so completely obsessed with your image on this board that you have to try to make people believe you're an expert at everything. Little man syndrome or low self esteem?

yikes. May want to do your own research on that one. I know you're a dinosaur and probably only have rabbit ears on your tv, but for those in the modern world, you can watch pretty much any one of their games.

[bjf123]

Who carries our debt? If the debt is to ourselves, then it's easy, it just gets forgiven. It's just on paper. But if it's held by a foreign entity, then I predict war with that entity.

According to ChatGPT and Grok, about 23% of our debt is foreign owned, with Japan holding the most, about $1.1 trillion and China holding about $760 billion.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Smails]

Have we seen any of the tariff fallout besides market volatility? Has anything actually materialized and reached the consumer yet? I certainly don't enjoy losing portfolio money, I'm not as concerned as many because I'm a good 15 years away from retirement.

I wonder how much of this chaos and instability is market speculation combined with a very loud subset of Americans who hate DJT and want soooo bad to tell other Americans "I told you so". Genuinely curious on how this looks in a month..

[Xville]

I didn't want to vote for either of Trump or Harris in the general election. I'd have preferred Desantis or Haley or for the Democrats to have actually held a process that involved voters to select a candidate that people didn't hate. I voted for Trump because he was the least bad option from my POV.

As for Republicans not calling out Trump, you'd have to have slept through the last 10 years to wonder about this. "Mainstream" Republicans have tried many times to challenge/call out/get rid of Trump. Every time they do, they get slaughtered. Even someone as popular as Ron Desantis essentially got neutered when he challenged Trump directly. Am I happy about that dynamic? Of course not. But other than becoming Democrats or completely ceding power to the Democrats, the Republicans at this point don't really have a choice but to go along with Trump.

Do I think this administration is going well? Not really, but I didn't really expect it to. I HOPED it would go better. I think they're doing some things I like. I appreciate the improvements at the border and on immigration. I like the efforts on cutting government spending. I like the idea of re-shoring jobs. Of course, none of those things are being done in a way that is exactly ideal. I don't love losing 10-15% (maybe 20, 25, 30 percent by the time we're done) of my 401(k), but I've seen market downturns before, and I'm sure it will be fine in a few years.

So I don't love it. But the modern, progressive Democratic party does nothing for me, and their vision for the country doesn't give me warm fuzzies for my children. So here we are.

You're absolutely correct on this. I do wonder though that if the market continues to see a decline, if Republicans will have what they need to overcome him. I know there are a couple of bills Republicans have drafted that would limit his tariff power...I'm sure they are just waiting to see what the market does over the next couple of weeks to see if a vote would be viable.

[XU_Lou]

yikes. May want to do your own research on that one. I know you're a dinosaur and probably only have rabbit ears on your tv, but for those in the modern world, you can watch pretty much any one of their games.

No need to. There's absolutely NO WAY IN HELL you've ever watched more than one Miami game in your entire life.

LIAR...

[Xville]

No need to. There's absolutely NO WAY IN HELL you've ever watched more than one Miami game in your entire life.

LIAR...

I mean, it's not like UM was on TV in Louisville more than once or twice

I'll file this under the very long list of facts you got wrong. You're an angry little elf. It's hilarious.