We live in a capitalist society (unfortunately). Rich people hoard their capital during recessions, which means fewer job openings. I graduated HS during the 2008 recession, and it took me 6 months of applying everywhere I could to get a temp job in a factory paying minimum wage (and no benefits or any job security at all, of course). It was literally hard to get a job at McDonald's or Wendy's. IIRC, it took nearly both of Obama's two terms for the job market to recover to what it was. So yeah, you may be able to find a job after a lot of hunting, but everyone's so desperate they'll accept anything. The way things are going with deregulation and all that, I wouldn't be surprised if company-towns make a comeback (which, incidentally, is kind of like the corporate city-states people like Peter Thiel, who worked with Musk and groomed JD Vance, openly talk about).
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I think a lot of them are ideological psychos. Saw an interview with Forbes magazine founder, and he's giddy about these tariffs because he thinks they'll enable tax cuts. I don't think he cares if his shares tank or whatever, as long as he doesn't have money "taken away" from him to help the poors.
Meh, I think it's fine and good for countries to specialize and be dependent on each other. Keeps the peace through mutually assured economic destruction. Global upticks in isolationism preceded the World Wars. Also, it just makes sense, because different countries have different resources, and their populations are differently skilled.
He wants to use tariffs (which act like a flat-tax) to lower income tax on the rich. There's speculation he's also doing something like the "Mar-a-Lago Accord," which involves devaluing the dollar (causing inflation). If wages don't rise with the inflation (which they don't want), US labor will be more competitive, so people can work in factory jobs with pay analogous to current Chinese factory workers.
I could not renew online (not sure why it wouldn't let me). You need an appointment in my state now. Before this change, it was an all-day affair. I.e. get there before it opens, stand in an extremely long line that wraps around 3 sides of the building, and stand in line for most the day (in the extreme heat, in the summer).
And, I guess it still took most the day even with an appointment too.
It disenfranchises many voters. I know several people who don't have valid IDs. I was almost unable to to vote last November because my ID expired, and all my local DMVs were booked for many months. Had to set an appointment 3 months in the future at a DMV 50 miles away from me to get an ID just before the election.
They felt they needed the "undecided" or "centrist" vote to win, so Trump denying he didn't know what it was, was helpful. Trump never condemned it either, he just said some of it was a little extreme, IIRC. The "undecided" or "centrist" vote is very marginal.
A lot of Rep voters approve of Project 2025. His approval isn't that low. Approval of certain policies, like tarriffs are low, but overall approval isn't. What's scary is his most evil policies (the immigration policies) have some of the highest approval.
Yeah, almost seems like it. I am convinced they are at least doing something like the "Mar-a-Lago Accord" to devalue the dollar, unseat the USD as the global reserve currency, inflate debt away, and make wages low enough and people desperate enough so more manufacturing is viable in the US again.
Not sure if you're trolling or not. They're very obviously following Russia's playbook of consolidating power, dismantling the state and handing it to oligarchs, and "flooding the zone" with bullshit so people believe what they want. They probably won't outright claim they're the King and there will be no elections, but they'll probably rig the elections, at least in red states, so the Republican party has control of the federal government in perpetuity; similar to how Russia has "elections." Any media that doesn't toe the line will get labelled as "fake news," and probably have "legal" and financial actions taken against them. I mean, a few days ago, and executive order was signed that, among other things, requires voters to show a birth certificate or passport which will disenfranchise many, many voters. So, no, we won't explicitly have a king, but we will have a totalitarian one-party rule with oligarchs at the top, and an extensive propaganda machine to keep people confused and misdirected. I don't expect voters like the one's that wore the "better Russian than Democrat," to organize in a large militia and fight homeland security, the national guard, or whatever other military the government would deploy on US soil (they're "considering" invoking the Insurrection Act at this very moment). I suspect most Republicans would just be fine with their team being in power, no matter what the cost; and having propaganda legitimizing their beliefs just makes it easier for them. Republican voters surely won't rise up to fight for a Democrat that "lost" an election.
Everyone in the presidential line of succession are monsters. The entire government is being reshaped into a totalitarian state. A full revolution or counter-coup is needed. I don't see a revolutionary movement being organized any time soon. Maybe if we get into Great Depression-like conditions. I think the amount of surveillance, well-developed counter-intelligence tactics, and power of the state in modern America would still make a revolution very hard to pull off though. I suppose extremely popular mass civil disobedience could also bring everything to a halt and make the US ungovernable; not sure what would actually happen to the government though.
He tariffed countries with no people and trade deficits of thousands of dollars, and tariffed Ukraine.