Yes, the Epstein files are the only thing we should be talking about now and until Trump is finished.
USA Politics
- Thread starter Genghis Khan
- Start date
Yes, the Epstein files are the only thing we should be talking about now and until Trump is finished.
Vaenyr
Ancient Mariner
A lot of countries are copying the Trump playbook. I looked at Iran and Japan, and the positions there are exact copies, with Japan's far right party even going so far as to calling themselves the "Japan First" party, blaming all woes on immigrants and promising to solve the stagnant economy by getting rid of immigrants. You know, Japan, famously homogenous country and dealing with declining birth rates. But sure, killing tourism and getting more isolated is definitely gonna help.
In some way this proves that far right sentiment isn't born out of actual immigration statistics; it's all fueled by grifters and bad faith actors who push certain agendas.
Hmm, this thread isn't showing up in General Discussion.
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
It is for me…
It doesn't matter. Just keep piling the straws on the camel's back.
Vaenyr
Ancient Mariner
Weird, for me it is.
Realistically his base will find a way to excuse this somehow. We shouldn't make it easy for them. Have them admit that they never actually cared about any of this, it was always just a talking point to rally around.
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
Communism falls apart once your collective gets bigger than about two dozen people, because interpersonal politics and corruption start to find their way in. This has happened repeatedly in intentional communities. The idea of implementing it at a national level and having it actually work is kind of laughable.
Vaenyr
Ancient Mariner
Re: Communism, I'm in favor of Socialism, not full-blown Communism, but we need to add some significant context to the discussion. The Communist endeavors in South America were severely sabotaged by the US and the CIA. Communism isn't inherently authoritarian; it's an economic model. Just because the USSR/Russia twisted it into an abomination doesn't mean that the general principle is utopian and doesn't work. At the end of the day it's about who owns the means of production. I've seen smaller corporations that have incorporated a communist hierarchy, where each worker has their basic needs met and owns the worth and value that they are producing. And while they are still trying to operate in a capitalist system, since you can't divorce yourself from your country's economic system, they are succeeding. There's no reason why this shouldn't be scalable to larger models.
Before we start with the "but human greed, corruption, yadda yadda yadda", we are already experiencing these very same things under capitalism. The biggest corporations are owning the majority of brands we come into contact with on a daily basis. They exploit, not only the lower classes in the West, but also entire nations world wide. They use child slavery so that we can get cheap phones or chocolate. People are forced into poverty, are starving, are dying due to weak or even corrupt healthcare systems. There's a reason why the murdered insurance CEO was such a big story; across the political spectrum people were actually happy and united. It says a lot about the type of work you do, when instead of sympathies people rejoice in your death.
The CEOs are getting paychecks in the millions-range, while the workers are dreaming about becoming a millionaire, at the same time as they are becoming poorer and poorer.
And that's just what is actively happening to humans. The constant striving for endless growth is destroying our planet. We are consuming resources at a rate that cannot be replenished, even though there's absolutely no reason to do that except for corporate greed. Scientists have been warning us for decades, but the mega corporations are spending money to smear climate activists and spread misinformation about climate change. We are barreling towards certain doom in the name of short-term profits, but hey, at least the CEOs can become even richer. So, if we want to throw all possible criticisms at communism, we need to do the same with capitalims, and at some point we need to talk about the seemingly inevitable drift into fascism that can be observed in late stage capitalism.
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So much for that topic, the whole Epstein thing is clearly rattling Trump. It's apparently the only thing that actually bothers him. Other stuff, like his Russia connections, were always used as talking points by him at his rallies and campaigns. The Epstein stuff he'd rather ignore or have it disappear somehow. I'm glad, that for once, the media are managing to properly keep this story in the news, instead of focusing on his deflections.
Before we start with the "but human greed, corruption, yadda yadda yadda", we are already experiencing these very same things under capitalism. The biggest corporations are owning the majority of brands we come into contact with on a daily basis. They exploit, not only the lower classes in the West, but also entire nations world wide. They use child slavery so that we can get cheap phones or chocolate. People are forced into poverty, are starving, are dying due to weak or even corrupt healthcare systems. There's a reason why the murdered insurance CEO was such a big story; across the political spectrum people were actually happy and united. It says a lot about the type of work you do, when instead of sympathies people rejoice in your death.
The CEOs are getting paychecks in the millions-range, while the workers are dreaming about becoming a millionaire, at the same time as they are becoming poorer and poorer.
And that's just what is actively happening to humans. The constant striving for endless growth is destroying our planet. We are consuming resources at a rate that cannot be replenished, even though there's absolutely no reason to do that except for corporate greed. Scientists have been warning us for decades, but the mega corporations are spending money to smear climate activists and spread misinformation about climate change. We are barreling towards certain doom in the name of short-term profits, but hey, at least the CEOs can become even richer. So, if we want to throw all possible criticisms at communism, we need to do the same with capitalims, and at some point we need to talk about the seemingly inevitable drift into fascism that can be observed in late stage capitalism.
------
So much for that topic, the whole Epstein thing is clearly rattling Trump. It's apparently the only thing that actually bothers him. Other stuff, like his Russia connections, were always used as talking points by him at his rallies and campaigns. The Epstein stuff he'd rather ignore or have it disappear somehow. I'm glad, that for once, the media are managing to properly keep this story in the news, instead of focusing on his deflections.
edward creighton
Nomad
Thinking about taking my Thai wife to the Def Leppard residency in Las Vegas but the "big beautiful bill" proposes an additional $250 "integrity tax" for her so visa costs would be $435 for a 5 day trip. ESTA to increase from $20 to $40. Makes trip very doubtful, unless "integrity tax" is refunded which has been suggested.
Wife has seen Maiden 3 times now in Paris, Madrid and Lisbon, a brave new world for her!
Wife has seen Maiden 3 times now in Paris, Madrid and Lisbon, a brave new world for her!
theoretically, you're supposed to get the $250 back but no mechanism for returning funds has been created, so...
It's a shame, Vegas is a ton of fun. I'd go again if it wasn't for the whole "the American president is an enemy of the free world" thing.
It's a shame, Vegas is a ton of fun. I'd go again if it wasn't for the whole "the American president is an enemy of the free world" thing.
Aggelos
Ancient Mariner
I always viewed Vegas as a very American thing. Never got the alure TBH. Maybe because I don't gamble.
MrKnickerbocker
clap hands
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
True, though trying to insert capitalism into an authoritarian system is often an awkward fit, as we’ve clearly seen in China. If the government can quickly change the rules and pull the rug out from under companies, it makes it very difficult to plan and very risky to do business in that country. We’re seeing this on a smaller scale with Trump’s authoritarian moves within the executive branch in the U.S.
Someone needs to tally up the per capita cost of implementing that approach in the U.S. and see what it would really mean, and what would be required to cover it with tax revenue. I don’t think Americans would respond well to European-level gas prices and a 20% VAT.
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
True, but once corruption sets in on a system without extensive checks and balances, the march toward authoritarianism becomes inevitable, either to impose control on a system that’s spiraling out of control, or to impose the will of the corrupt people who managed to weasel their way into decisionmaking roles.
Why is that, and why are there no real world examples of it succeeding at scale, then?
Yes, but that’s the whole point. Capitalism tends to work better because it harnesses greed for the greater good, but it requires extensive checks and balances and regulation to prevent that greed from biting the hand that feeds. Just like harnessing dangerous animals and putting them to work, you have to have and enforce strict safety protocols to avoid having your head bitten off.
Basically, any place where the profit motive acts against the wellbeing of the people, you need a regulation to keep that danger in check. But you need to temper that with risk assessment so you don’t go overboard like California frequently does.
…and yet I assume you still own a phone and eat chocolate…?
Yes, this is obscene. We should consider capping total executive compensation at 40x the total compensation of the lowest-paid employee or contractor at the company. That way they can still be paid a massive premium, but if they want more, they have to raise all the boats with them, or start to dump unrealistically cheap overseas labor.
Well, there’s also the standard of living that richer countries have become accustomed to, and whose populations would be unlikely to give up willingly.
Yax
Ancient Mariner
The Sweden (and in part others, although multiple historians claim Sweden were in many ways the most leftist of the democratic western states) of the late 1960-1970s were doing this, but in a light version and more importantly, pre internet and pre globalization (the late 70's saw the first election of a right-center coalition that started to implement european liberal policy). It was a mix of capitalism and socialism, though with some obvious flaws with authoritarian, or at least, non-capitalist overtones with few or none non-public options of core services like TV, Radio, infrastructure etc with mountains of bureaucracy and non-individualist policies. Hell, the early 80s had the Social Democrats adopt (although with the party leader and Prime Minister in an under-the-radar internal opposition) wage earner funds - though it never materialized in any meaningful way and was a contributing issue in getting the right-center elected in 1977.
Would I want to live in the 60's-70's Sweden? No, though I wouldn't mind a variation of the late 80's as I think the U.S. economic neo-libereralism influences here have gone too far (after all, Sweden has one the largest western ratios of GDP/billionaires, an ever shrinking welfare state and more and more capitalist and upper middle-class policies).
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