| 6ixStringJack: As for Executive Orders? Bill Clinton had 364 of them in 8 years. GWB had 305 of them in 8 years. Barack Obama had 276 of them in 8 years. Joe Biden had 162 of them in 4 years. Trump may have had more than any of them with 559 so far in less than 6 years, but if you're going to pretend this is a Trump only phenomenon, you're either an idiot and/or a liar. |
| 6ixStringJack: We are not a Democracy, and we're certainly not a "Liberal" Democracy. You fail your civics test outright. |
| second: 2) The second Trump administration has broken from these traditions, both at home and abroad. Domestically, Trump has ruled through a cascade of executive orders, bypassing Congress and issuing diktats that appeared on their face unconstitutional, illegal, or reflective of extremely bad judgment. Internationally, he has sided with the world’s dictatorships, such as Russia, at the expense of fellow liberal democracies. And he has at a stroke dismantled the liberal economic order by imposing arbitrary tariffs on friendly countries under the claim that America was being exploited by the open economic world it itself had created.
[go to link] |
| second: 1) The United States is the world’s oldest and best-established liberal democracy. While the country has had a checkered past of deviations from the ideal set forth in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” it has over 250 years created a remarkable space for liberty and prosperity in North America. More than that, since 1945 it has labored to create a liberal world order, where other liberal democracies could flourish and interact.
[go to link] |
| second: Last year, President Donald Trump took the unprecedented step of ousting Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer after alleging economic data was being “rigged” without evidence. Now, research suggests Trump’s move packed a punch against the U.S. economy.
A new analysis published in the Center for Economic and Policy Research from four economists indicates that the U.S. economy took a $20 billion hit in lost economic activity due to Trump’s firing of McEntarfer last August. The analysis attributed the figure to a “sharp increase” in policy uncertainty that depressed economic activity since businesses operating in a cloudy landscape tend to pause investment decisions. “Protecting the credibility, independence, and technical capacity of federal statistical agencies is therefore not merely an administrative concern,” they wrote. “It is a consequential economic one.” [go to link] |
| second: 2) For all of their nonlinear thinking and idiosyncratic views, voters have told me a couple of things over and over again: They think the system is broken, and they feel that they’ve been lied to in ways that make their life tangibly worse. Fewer of them now believe that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can get ahead in this country. Instead, they think that “establishment” politicians are benefiting from this system while everyone else loses out. Because of that, they want to place their trust in leaders who come across as “real people” who are genuinely interested in improving voters’ day-to-day life—not just winning and holding political office. [go to link] |
| second: 1) I’ve conducted more than 400 focus groups with thousands of voters across the political spectrum. Here’s what I’ve learned: People are wild. They are full of contradictions. They lament our deep political divisions while raging about their political enemies. They believe in grace but cut their Trumpy brother out of their life forever. They’re married to an immigrant but voted for the guy who wants to deport millions of people who have the same immigration status as their wife. They hate the government and want to lower the national debt, but they also want the government to spend more to help them and their communities. They call themselves pro-life but believe in a woman’s right to choose. I could go on. [go to link] |
| second: One of the reasons the discussion of whether the US is “winning” the war against Iran seems so surreal is that it is looking more and more likely that the result of the war will be a historic withdrawal from the Persian Gulf area and maybe even much of the Middle East: [go to link] |
| 6ixStringJack: Losers. |
| THG:
GA MAGA Republican Mike Collins says they are going to cut Medicaid and Social Security! |
| second: “We won,” ?President Donald Trump declared in March, less than two weeks after launching his war of choice against Iran. Claiming that Iran was “very much destroyed and, even, obliterated,” Trump had already promised the conflict would bring peace to the region and, somehow, the globe. “The heavy and pinpoint bombing will continue, uninterrupted as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!” Trump wrote. But six months and two failed ceasefires later, the floundering conflict sputters along. And you may have noticed that world peace has yet to be announced. [go to link] |
| second: 2) Economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson wrote “Why Nations Fail,” positing that countries with a strong rule of law and a widespread distribution of benefits, succeeded, while “extractive economies” typified by a ruler at the top who is above the law who, along with his cronies, siphons off as much created wealth as possible, fail.
Not only does that fit the Trump Administration to a “T,” but once again in the past week the GOP majority on the Supreme Court has opined that at least a Republican President can simply ignore laws passed by Congress and proceed however he chooses. Let’s see how far the US has slid towards banana republic status in economic terms in the past 40 years since the Reagan Administration: [go to link] |
| second: 1) 6ixStringJack wrote, "I'm pretty sure . . ." I know you are full of bullshit, 6ix. Trump is a thief, as are his multi-billionaire friends. |
| 6ixStringJack: I'm pretty sure the Somalians and Tim Waltz stole over $90 Billion taxpayer dollars in Minnesota alone, so try again. |
| 6ixStringJack: Loser. |
| second: While tax-cheating Trump and unemployed 6ix pay no income tax, Immigrants in the U.S. pay hundreds of billions of dollars in federal state, and local taxes each year.
• Overall Immigrant Payments: Immigrants contribute over $600 billion annually in combined federal, state, and local taxes.
• Undocumented Immigrants: Households led by undocumented immigrants paid nearly $90 billion in taxes in recent tracked years (such as $89.8 billion in 2023), averaging about $8,889 per person. [go to link] |
| 6ixStringJack: And Joe Biden and unchecked illegal immigration cost us a whole lot more. You have nothing to stand on, loser. |
| second: The war in Iran has now cost U.S. consumers $100 billion in higher energy prices. Higher gasoline and diesel prices have cost the average U.S. household more than $760 since the war began Feb. 28. On Friday, diesel hit an all-time record high, and it’s continued to rise every day since. As of Monday morning it’s at $5.90 a gallon, per AAA, up about 60% from a year ago. [go to link] and [go to link] Fuel refineries can thank Donald Trump and his war for the windfall profits. |
| second: The war in Iran has now cost U.S. consumers $100 billion in higher energy prices. Higher gasoline and diesel prices have cost the average U.S. household more than $760 since the war began Feb. 28. On Friday, diesel hit an all-time record high, and it’s continued to rise every day since. As of Monday morning it’s at $5.90 a gallon, per AAA, up about 60% from a year ago. [go to link] and [go to link] Fuel refineries can thank Donald Trump and his war for the windfall profits. |
| second: President Donald Trump said on Monday that Canadian private jet maker Bombardier would no longer be allowed to sell its planes in the United States unless it started manufacturing in the country.
“NO MORE SELLING BOMBARDIER IN THE UNITED STATES! Their products aren’t good enough!” President Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
“If they want our Market, they must build here, and stop treating America like a ‘piggybank,’” he said. [go to link] Is there nobody in the White House who will tell Trump to put on clothes rather than walk around in the nude, shouting nonsense, looking foolish? Or are they all naked fools, too? |