Hardkill

I wonder what happens if Musk bans all accounts of those on X who speak out against Trump.

Yeah, I feel that way too.... I generally don't believe in owning guns, but given the extraordinary circumstances we are in, I think we may need them.

Unreal..... I now want to just give up on humanity. Everyone who voted for him deserves to be deceived by him.

I really hope Trump is not serious about raising the average tariff rates on all imports, including raising the tariff on Chinese imports, to what they were during the Great Depression-Era. Not only would many millions of Americans be significantly poorer than they are now, but it could become a big contributing factor to another severe recession if not a depression in the future. The Smoot Hawley Tariff of 1930 (which imposed the second-highest tariff rate in U.S. history, after the Tariff of 1828) completely backfired by worsening the Great Depression. There's a reason why America has kept the average rate on all imports, especially the average rate on dutiable Imports, to very low levels since the late 1940s (post WWII). In fact, Ronald Reagan's presidency began a new trend of lowering tariff rates down to another level and that trend continued on as a precedent that lasted all the way to the end of Obama's presidency. Trump has been trying to change that precedent ever since his first term as president and Biden continued it but did it in a much more intelligent manner. Now Trump wants to take that into overdrive and for very dumb and antiquated reasons.

As I've already mentioned in my previous post on this thread, real wages for most workers in America have actually outpaced inflation for almost 2 years now. What's the issue is that the general level of prices of goods and services for Americans today are about 20% higher than they were around 2019-2021. According to economist, Mark Zandi and his team, you have about half of Americans whose real income increases have either barely kept up with or have significantly exceeded that of the cumulative inflation from over the past 3 or 4 years and you have the other half of Americans whose real wage/salary increases have not kept up with the cumulative inflation from over the past 3 or 4 years. Plus, even though mortage rates and Fed Fund rates have actually been historically average since 2022 and have been going down significantly since late 2024, many Americans are still having trouble tolerating even those levels of relatively normal rates largely because of the growing housing shortage we have had and was never seriously addressed since the end of the 2008 financial crisis. Also, credit card rates have been at such unprecedented high rates for years now that it's become truly usurious. That too has also been hurting many people in the US. Believe me, I've been keeping track of all the data on all of this stuff obsessively like every other day since inflation first became a problem in 2021. It's like I've been learning to become an expert on the economy for years. Last but not least is the fact that the widespread discontent many people have had over inflation and general level of prices in our country has been disgustingly amplified by the extreme negative partisanship, ridiculous drama, and the never-before-seen amount of misinformation out there from the right-wing media, the far left media, and the alt-media. The mainstream media outlets for years have done a terrible job in counteracting the falsehoods and toxic mischaracterizations of inflation and high prices projected by all of the anti-mainstream media outlets out there and the more reasonable progressive media outlets have still not been anywhere near as robust as they need to be to combat all of the misinformation and false narratives on this issue. The brain rot in this country is so real.

Alright fine... Then, I'll try my best to ask questions more judiciously.

Oh yeah, this wealth inequality situation we have going is still an absolute injustice. I was just pointing out some of the positive things that have actually occurred at the same time regarding wealth in our country that a lot of people probably don't realize.

This is why the Democrats and the Left desperately need to build a powerful left-wing media ecosystem to defeat Musk and the Right on the messaging war.

Sorry, but I don't think it's fair to say that I need to think for myself above everyone here. At least unlike a lot of people on here, I am more willing to learn from someone like you with more of an open-minded. Also, I can't believe that you think that my questions are so trivial. Another thing is that I haven't been just asking questions on this forum. I've also been giving my fair share of knowledge, understanding, and answers on various things to many people on this forum over course of several years. Very heartbreaking and demoralizing....

Yeah, they now work for them. However, isn't the CIA part of the deep state? If it is then aren't they able to pressure Trump to sign onto pro-Western policies such as continuing to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia?

Oh, but both Trump and Musk support Putin. How does the CIA tolerate that?

But the CIA is generally run by conservative-leaning people and Musk has become a right-winger. So, why wouldn't they support whatever he is doing given that their ideologies and level of overall development align with his?

The idea that the decades-long growing economic inequality in America has caused the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer is partially misleading. While it is true that the rich have gotten richer, with the top 1% and 0.1% of earners experiencing significant income growth, the story for the poor is more nuanced. According to data from the US Census Bureau, the poverty rate has declined significantly over the past several decades, from about 19.5% in 1964 to around 12.9% in 2020. In fact, the average poverty rate during the Biden presidency, specifically from 2021 to 2024, was the lowest ever compared to any other presidential term in US History. This is due to the continuing long-term economic growth and the increasing amount of targeted social policies that all have helped lift many people out of poverty, even if the benefits of growth have not been evenly distributed. The incredible period of prosperity and optimism during Bill Clinton's presidency, the strong economy by the end of Obama's presidency and the major liberal policies enacted during his presidency, the very strong economy during Biden's presidency and the major liberal policies enacted during his presidency have all really contributed to the significant long-term decline in poverty in this country since the early 1990s. However, income growth for low- and middle-income households has been slower than for high-income households, leading to increased income inequality. Additionally, many people who have risen out of poverty are still struggling financially and lack economic security. Also, unfortunately, Trump and the GOP are of course now going to make poverty worse again during these next 4 years.

Then how do we reconcile with what you said before? Is the only glimmer of hope for anything right now is to work on our life purpose like focusing on our career or preparing for some kind of war?

Is it because my posting about him have been way more overblown than yours?

Who told you that inflation is still sky-high? For almost 2 years inflation levels have been normal (~2-3% inflation) and have been outpaced by average real wage growth throughout the whole country. Also, gas and oil prices over the past 2 years have been about as cheap or as reasonable as they were during much of Obama's presidency and close to what they were during Trump's 2nd and 3rd year as president, especially when you adjusted for inflation in 2024-2025 dollars. It's the cumulative effects of inflation from 3 to 4 years ago that have caused the cost of living, affordability, and high prices of various such as housing and grocery prices along with high borrowing costs including very high credit card interest rates and debt that are altogether still the problem.

Isn't this the kind of same Trump hysteria and fear that I've been making?

That's and the terrible media environment we are in.

I don't see what action Trump is ever going to take to seriously solve the housing affordability issue.

People are already suffering from climate change more so than ever before! Most Americans especially the growing generations of younger people in our country say that they believe the climate crisis is real and the majority of Americans support climate reforms! “72% OF US BELIEVE THE CLIMATE CRISIS IS REAL” Source: Yale (12.13.2023) — When asked “Do you think that global warming is happening?” — 72% said YES. Pew (10.25.2023): 71% say that climate change is “causing harm to people in the U.S.” and 63% expect that harm from climate change “will get worse in their lifetime.” https://www.cbsnews.com/politicalclimate/ This isn't the 1900s or early 2000s anymore where the vast majority of people during those times weren't affected by it, the degree of the climate wasn't nearly as bad as it has gotten in recent years, and most people didn't even believe that climate change was real! So, why hasn't the legitimate worry about this issue amongst the majority of Americans gone down lately instead of spiking up?! Why wasn't climate change even a salient issue at all in the 2024 general election and why did America elect the worst climate change denialist ever for president instead of someone like Harris who would've been as progressive as Biden was on climate change, even despite Biden passing the most historic piece of legislation ever in US History for dealing with climate change?!

Biden will go down in US History as a very tragic figure. He will be blamed forever for Trump successfully returning to power and becoming more powerful than ever before. Sadly, what most Americans may not ever realize was how much Biden truly accomplished. He was really the most progressive president and most left-leaning president America had since LBJ in the 1960s. He vastly accomplished way more positive things in policy for the country than Jimmy Carter did. He made Bill Clinton's presidency look like that of a conservative Democrat or moderate Republican. Hell, his accomplishments as president arguably should make Obama envious. I really hope that history will eventually regard Biden as a president who was like Truman, a highly underrated president who was later on recognized as a near-great president by experts.

That's a good idea. I like that.

So, is now not a good time for anybody to be protesting for climate change? Or should climate activists in the US still try their best to keep fighting for it by keeping the conversation on it going in some way even though there will obviously be no way to stop Trump, MAGA, and the GOP from making climate change much worse during these next 4 years?

People in the US hate or are hurting late-stage capitalism in many ways even if they don't realize it: Yet, they love or are addicted to late-stage capitalism in many ways even if they do realize it: Is that the paradox that's going on with people's entrenched beliefs on hyper-capitalism? Just want to make sure I am clear on what you're saying.

But the rise of Nazism happened not just because of some evil charismatic madman convinced enough to follow his regime. Hitler was able to make it happen primarily from enough people suffering from both the Great Depression and from surrounding countries they perceived to be great threats to their society. The economy we are in is the strongest it has been since the 1990s. Greed is truly one hell of a drug. I am sure that the brainwashing from both the right-wing media machine and many alt-media outlets on the internet including those damn crypto scams and online "get rich quick schemes" have made this whole problem even worse.