GiddyGap

Sorry, but none of this matters. Republicans are all powerful now. They have the White House, the House, the Senate, SCOTUS, the Fed, the Treasury. For the next two years, they can do whatever they want and act however they like. The voters walked right into this with eyes wide open. I don't want to hear the excuses and cries. America is just getting what it voted for.

Capitalism

No

Welcome to the United States of America anno 2025.

Trump never mentions anything that can make him look like he gave anything up. His fragile ego just doesn't allow that. He always has to come out as the winner and everyone else has to come out as the loser. And that's what he will call them.

Elon and Trump are butt-buddies.

Yet, no one's doing anything about it or can do anything. These people are all powerful now. The White House, the House, the Senate, SCOTUS, Fed. Everything belongs to the Republican Party and they can do whatever, whenever. No checks and balances.

From my viewpoint, Trump is and will be causing social hardship much more than economic hardship.

I could possibly see a benefit in preparing for a harder times socially. Further division among neighbors might be the main casualty of this administration. Social cohesion is already struggling from his first four years.

Economically, I have no confidence in Trump's actions overall, but I am very confident that his massive ego determines his actions, and that ego is largely held up by the performance of the stock market. He will be very careful not to take any action that will rattle the markets too much. Whenever he see a negative reaction in the markets, he pulls back, claims a moral victory and moves on to the next thing.

Very good read. Thank you.

And great to have a reasonable conversation with someone you don't necessarily agree with. That is unfortunately a rarity these days.

I'm going to leave it here on a high note. Thank you again and have a great weekend, my fellow philosopher.

I appreciate your response, even though I disagree. Still appreciated.

As an American who grew up in Europe, I have experienced the freedom that comes with living in societies that are largely weaponless. I don't use the word "freedom" lightly here. It truly is a huge mental burden here in the US to send kids to school not being a 100 percent sure that there will not be a school shooting that day. Or go to the movie theater or just stroll down the street. It just feels and is much safer in most of western Europe.

I understand that it's impossible to remove all these weapons from the American society, but I do think we need much stricter common sense gun laws. No need for bans, except for military-style weapons. But we do need to make sure that we don't keep experiencing these insane massacres of children caused by firearms. Arguing that weapons have nothing to do with it, or even that we need more weapons to prevent it, is just ridiculous. The firearm is the tool used and it's designed specifically to take life as efficiently as possible. It must be met with common sense rules.

Anecdote: My Trumpster in-laws could not stop yacking about "Biden's high eggs prices" just last month. Haven't heard a peep about the price of eggs since Trump came back. Now it's just "God's will."