Usa Thread

[Steve]

The Democrats will always find a way to snatch losing from the jaws of victory, as in 2016. 

[panadolsandwich]

2 minutes ago, chocolat steve said:

Reduce the wars, the VA invariably won't have to spend as much caring for vets. We create our own issue. What would the expenditure of the VA be like if we didn't invade Iraq and limited Afghanistan to just going after OBL? 

I'm entirely on board with this, but 50 Billion isn't so bad and rather then being pissed away on the (at the very, very least 80 billion dollar - more likely triple that) wall since it really does help people out.  Not too mention ceding all that real estate to Mexico (building a wall on the river would perhaps cost Trillions of dollars and would be an engineering feat in and of itself). 

The biggest mistake the USA made was not just toppling the executive in Iraq.  That's exactly what the Iraqi army was expecting.  Get rid of the Generals, promote the competent people, and install a few people to manage the transition.  Continue to pay the military who really weren't to blame mostly.  Instead it had to be a complete and utter take over with foot on the throat style diplomacy. Destroy all the workable infrastructure, go in all guns blazing like a bunch of cowboys - encounter little to no resistance, then ask yourself - ok what the fuck do we do now?  We just can't leave and we've pissed off *everyone*, absolutely *everyone*.  Hmmm.  It doesn't take Nostradamus to predict what was going to come next.  

[panadolsandwich]

19 minutes ago, chocolat steve said:

I'm not  saying Trump is fucked. I wouldn't be surprised if he won. All I am saying is the record he is running on is vastly overstated. His hard core support isn't voting for financial reasons.

Just let the candidate be anybody except Biden.  If it is Biden, Trump will romp home.  Not so sure why Trump appears to be so scared of Biden.  I suspect it's a ploy to get the DNC to ram Biden through like they did with Hillary.

[panadolsandwich]

Also the Iowa caucus was a real poll and he came fourth with Amy Klobuchar nearly pipping him for that post.  The public really don't like him.  Which is obvious, he shares a hell of lot of characteristics with Trump.  It wouldn't surprise me if the same oligarchs backing Trump also back Biden - it would become a no lose situation for them. 

[panadolsandwich]

I think I've got to the bottom of the Barr story - it goes something like this:

Trump: Bill I want you get Roger Stone off the hook - we go back a long way.

Barr: Okay will do, but I want you to understand I'm going to have criticize you a little bit.  Cast some shade on the whole thing.  It provides us both cover if it ever comes back to bite us on the ass. 

Trump: Goddamn it, you're a genius Bill.  Most people would never suspect such a cunning plan!

Barr: President Trump you do understand I'm going to have to say something a little bit bad about you - but it's really in your best interest.

Trump: All understood, this was a genius idea I came up with wasn't it Bill?

Barr: Oh very much genius sir, this idea of yours is absolutely brilliant.

Later. . .

Trump on the phone to Barr: You fucking ungrateful shithead what the hell did you say about me? [Trump feverishly twittering - being the President I can interfere with any criminal case I goddamn like].  Hangs up the phone. 

Barr:  Fucking hell!  I wonder how many years in prison I'm looking at. . .

 

[panadolsandwich]

Biden's manner of approaching young women, often children, creepily from behind and massaging the shoulders and sniffing their hair, or going for a peck on the cheek or one on the mouth.  Well I'm certainly at a loss to explain it.  Because there is no explanation.  If it had happened only a couple times it wouldn't be so bad, but it seems to be a regular thing (there are dozens of examples of this on the net). 

I think it's mostly harmless, some weird kind of fetish or something.  But ask yourself, would you let your own daughter be fondled sniffed and kissed like that?  If he visited my daughter's school I would make sure she stayed at home.  In fact I wouldn't let Biden within a country mile of my daughter.  And I wouldn't be shy explaining it to her. 

[Steve]

10 hours ago, panadolsandwich said:

Just let the candidate be anybody except Biden.  If it is Biden, Trump will romp home.  Not so sure why Trump appears to be so scared of Biden.  I suspect it's a ploy to get the DNC to ram Biden through like they did with Hillary.

You don't have to worry about Biden, he's not going anywhere but down. As for Iraq, not going there in the first place would have been nice. The GOP acts like it never happened. Afghanistan should have been about getting bin Laden. Ignoring centuries of history was arrogant and we paid for it. No foreign power has ever been successful there. Not even the Mongols, nor Alexander the Great, the British, no one. 

There is only one thing that has been successful in conquering Afghanistan and that is Islam and it took 300 years for the Afghanis to convert and it wasn't from being forced, the moslems just stayed there and like water over a rock, eventually wore them down. 

Trump is the 'Mad Men' era's last gasp. Even if he wins re-election, the future is pretty much assured. Most of the young generation is progressive and against what he and his supporters are. The shooting at Parkland HS in Florida saw their students protest guns and millions of other High School students supported them on social media. When a far right speaker is on college campus there are protests. If it was AOC or Sanders they would be greeted like rock stars. The future of people like Trump is done, they know it. It's a matter of when not if. Demographics are against them and the one niche they have a majority in, the young people of that niche are polar opposite in thinking. 

And what may be the coup de grace is there may be some people on the left playing loose with the constitution for something they want to do , or whatever and will be using Trump as a precedence. The fringe right think they will fight their way out of it, literally, with guns and have these visions of an armed resistance. Hmmm...we will see. The government will be prepared for it and it will be infiltrated as the government does with all groups it doesn't like or is wary of. 

[Steve]

The sky is falling...the sky is falling...haha...yeah, I have been sounding the alarm and it may not seem like it.This video will probably be ignored like Cav's video and that's fine. However, there are a few things that will make the next crash a depression. 1. The 2008 crash was a housing bubble. This economy has a half dozen bubbles over a trillion dollars in a country with a 5 trillion dollar budget. Each bubble is 20 percent of the economy. 2. Interest rates are at their lowest. Cutting interest rates is the biggest weapon the federal reserve has to reduce the severity of a crash. We pretty much cut the interest rate in half after 2008 and what that did was it made loans for cars, homes, credit cards cheaper and gave people and incentive to spend. That tool is gone now. I predict we will have zero percent rates or a shade over zero maybe a quarter of a percent and it won't do any good to anyone but the super rich who can borrow money basically for free and buy up cheap assets. The average consumer will be fucked. 3. Trump has placed cronies on the various agencies that oversee the economy. Not just the Fed, but the SEC, and other regulatory agencies The video talks about it a little. Trump has placed people who will let the banks do whatever they want. The credit reporting agencies can do what ever they want. Basically, he has made the bubble bigger. 4. We have no plan. China to their credit know they will face a massive recession or depression and are doing things behind the scene. They are buying gold at unprecedented rate. So is Putin. America has no plan. We are not preparing for how we are going to deal with it. The only plan America has is how its going to quell civil unrest via the Patriot's Act, FEMA, National Guard, FISA warrants and probably suspending habeas corpus laws. That'5. s if things get bad enough and I think it will. I can easily see far right militia groups ramping up domestic terrorism exponentially to the point it will be normalized. They will start with public symbols and individuals. Federal or state buildings and offices, maybe a politician, Wall Street exec, etc. But as far we will do, if it happens under Trump's watch we will bail out the big boys again and that will spark fringe left wing people and some fringe right wing but the far right will be split over Trump. If it happens under a Democratic president if he or she wins this year the banks will not be bailed out. Massive welfare to the massive and the value of your dollar will go down. That loaf of bread will cost 3 dollars, that dozen eggs will be 4 or 5 dollars. That gallon of milk 4 or 5 dollars. A lighter version of post WW1 Germany. 

The solution? Well, its coming anyway. 12 years of so called economic expansion is never seen before in our history. I would argue its not expansion but a weak recovery for a variety of reasons, blame to Obama (he shouldn't have bailed out the banks, but the people who had bad mortgages instead) but also a lot of blame on the GOP for not approving anything that would work so that Obama would fail. Such as the infrastructure bill which was a no brainer. McConnell famously bragging he told Obama he would not work with him on anything was possibly the most traitorous act by a Senator since McCarthy. 

What we need but will never happen is a managed downturn. Instead of waiting for market forces to implode the economy where you have very little power to fight it, we manage a downturn ourselves. It's inevitable. A crash that is, so lets make the bubble smaller. It's like a person with massive credit card bills, car loans, mortgage, student loans, and can barely make the minimum payment and then losing his job and it all implodes but rather anticipates that and starts now in cutting back spending, working with the banks on his loans. Consolidating some perhaps where he will have a lower monthly payment but instead of a 7 year pay off its now 10 or 12 years. He may have to negotiate returning the house to the bank and move into a smaller place or work out a deal with relatives back at his parents, or whatever. He may give up his car, voluntary repossession but take Uber or get a used car that is much older but will be free and clear. When he loses his job, the unemployment cSheck may actually cover his reduced bills. 

America should do the same. Cutting military spending is a no brainer. Specifically overseas bases. Huge financial drain. I do not in any way shape or form want a cut to the VA areas that help vets. Plan infrastructure projects in anticipation of a crash. FDR did this as well. Actually regulate the banks. Stop them from making the bubble bigger. Get into their books and start reducing the toxic assets now. The federal reserve start buying gold. Not increasing the national debt is a no brainer as well. Push for the G8 and G20 meetings to be mainly about reducing the exposure of a global recession/depression and what areas countries can work together to that end. Plan any bailouts now by working with economists on a 'what if' scenario. My preference is how to bail out the consumer. 

 

[Steve]

Whatever happens with the election and lets say worse case scenario Trump wins re-election. What happens with the Republicans after 2024? My guess Nikki Haley will run and will get massive support within the party. She ticks off a lot of boxes and it will be a different dynamic attacking a woman candidate without being called misogynistic. That's my guess. If not, it will have be someone not connected to Trump because numbers wise, Dems will have the advantage and now that young people are voting in record numbers compared to their past, you will have 14 to 17 year olds now being eligible to vote. Just like how Bernie is pretty much the only candidate getting teenagers who were 14 to 17 in 2016 to vote now. Thats a lot of voters. 

I think the Republicans will leave the Trump era severely damaged but they can come back. Just like 4 years after the '76 election they came back to rule for 12 years. And they are much better at politics than the Democrats. If the Bernie wing of the party, the social justice Dems get more seats and more power, they will have a pretty good counter to the Republicans on the basis of ethics. They don't take corporate money and that's a big carrot in front of voters. Also, there will be a crash by 2024. That will have the biggest impact. 

[Steve]

I thought Republicans were for state's rights and letting locals decide for themselves what type of society they want? I am from a sanctuary city, Los Angeles. There are tons of Mexican nationals in jails. It's not like they are not going to jail. In fact the California prison system has a specific group for them called Pices. Los Angelenos will tell you that the only real visible sign of illegal aliens and any interaction is when you plan to move or get some work done around your home and you go to the local Home Depot and hire them where they hang out looking for work. Or if you are in the construction business or restaurant business. Other than that, locals really have no day to day public view of them. 

It's also complete bullshit local police are hamstrung by it. These places have cops that kill unarmed people all the time and get away with it. They have zero fear of stopping someone who may be illegal. None whatsoever. 

https://www.yahoo.com/news/border-patrol-deploy-elite-tactical-151432429.html

Border Patrol Will Deploy Elite Tactical Agents to Sanctuary Cities