Maybe you should make a seperate cope thread.

I see this discussion as highlighting Trump the person. I see Trump as symptomatic of the control of our political system by large corporations. I see Trump as merely the latest entertainer. Would Trump have even made it without Musk's $250 million donation? Even if Kamala would've gotten elected it would have been financed by corporate billionaires. I didn't vote for him but I'm not going to condemn my fellow Americans for voting for him. Something is wrong with the other side if a person like him can get elected. Plus, corporations don't care about the content of anyone's character, they care about who's going to help them make the most money. Whatever Trump does or doesn't do, the one thing I guarantee is that large corporations who kiss his ring are going to make record profits. Along with the political slogan, "it's the economy stupid", goes another very relevant slogan, "follow the money".

It will be entertaining to see if he whups MAGA into submission or if MAGA eats him and moves on.

I see this discussion as highlighting Trump the person. I see Trump as symptomatic of the control of our political system by large corporations. — alleybear

That's about right. Government reduced to entertainment "The Economy" reduced to "The Oligarchs".

Ending in The Last Picture Show.

Imitation meets its maker.

So the Jack Smith report has been published.

So the Jack Smith report has been published. — Wayfarer

Corruption doesn't matter for people unless it affects them. It all just becomes a fiction, with no difference between "House of Cards" and the real world. People don't actually care until they get a boot on their face and they cry out "how did this happen!?"

So, no one really cares about the report. It's clear that political leaders of the past had much more responsibility to respect democracy and the political system and people cared that they did. But today, the brain rot of the general public have made the people fundamentally stupid to the point that everything they hear in the news is fiction, a reality show, a wrestling match.

I don't have any hopes for the people to gain political intelligence and rationality. They need to get a boot on their face before realizing that rising political corruption and crimes is a dangerous path.

People actually voted for this person. Drugged fools believing in magic.

14Jan25

10Jan25

It's official:

DJT, Convicted Felon-in-Chief

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/trump-sentencing-hush-money-new-york-9f9282bc

Sometime in the next ten days the US DoJ, at the very least, should release the partial (or complete) Special Counsel's Report on DJT's January 6 Insurrection Indictment Case. The US AG should also release the Special Counsel's Report on DJT's Stolen National Security Documents and Obstruction of Justice Indictment Case and then receive an unconditional pardon from POTUS. History is watching, Mr Biden. TBD.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2025/01/09/trump-special-counsel-report-federal-appeals-smith/77549818007/ — 180 Proof

Mr. Smith: "F-U, Douchebag!"
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/14/donald-trump-2020-election-conviction-special-counsel-report-jack-smith

:up:

People don't actually care until they get a boot on their face and they cry out "how did this happen!?" — Christoffer

I don't think this is quite right. People really care about money. Many strongly believe in a necessary relationship between money and happiness, so much so that money is often equated with happiness. Having money is being happy.

Money is the opium of the masses. And the happiness which it is equated with is an illusion produced by its presence, the effects of that addiction. Feed the addiction, the illusion persists. Threats to the supply, allow fear and anxiety to permeate the illusion of happiness. DJT well understands the relationship between money and illusion.

That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how the people don't care about the competence and ability of their elected leaders. How their idea about them is a fiction, something "on TV", not real, not really affecting them.

You are right in that they care when policies affect their income and financial situation, but it only leads to a flip between parties in the next election. How the economy actually functions is also just some fiction they see on financial news. And they only see economical problems when something sudden happens, like hyperinflation.

The problem is that people today view reality as fiction. While they might know intellectually that it's reality, they don't treat it as such as their emotional connection to reality is both skewed by media, social media, and online influencers. People have lost the ability to find truth in a sea of lies, and eventually they lose the ability to sift out what is actual truth. It leads to either shutting down their ability to take care of society as a civilisation, or they alienate from society entirely, forming a fictional narrative to "live within".

In this situation, the populists thrive as they can construct whatever narrative they want. They create "TV shows" that people can binge as they're slowly sucked dry of their financials.

It's remarkable how easy it is to program people. To slowly change people over time so that they get used to the new conditions. How a worse financial situation becomes the norm that they then celebrate because their elected leader calls it "good".

Money is only opium when people are told it is. It's the capitalist condition, the neoliberal free market built in the 80s that has constructed this narrative of financial success that is fueling the young today. It doesn't happen "just because money", it happens because people are programmed to like capitalism, to defend capitalists, to defend the status quo. In so doing they aren't just craving money, they crave the ladder to climb, being taught by their parents and society that this ladder is the true meaning of life.

The fundamental truth is that the masses are stupid. Too occupied by their own lives that they don't care about anything else... until that life is threatened. They are unable understand how politics affect their lives, they are too narrow minded to care for policies or how politics work.

They are told what to vote on and what to do in politics, that's it. They're fed a fiction and they opt in for the one they like. Just like having a favorite TV-show or film. It's all constructed fiction.

Previous generations were much more careful about who they voted for. It may be that's because democracy was rather new and people felt a need to care for the society they wanted to have. And with two world wars, they also cared for the possibility of a new one. They did not want someone who's "shaking things up", because they knew what that can lead to. Previous generations were keen on getting corruption out of politics.

But people today don't care about corruption. It's all just fiction anyway. It's the other side that's corrupt, but my side cut corners to give me what I'm told to want.

What I'm tired of hearing is everyone complaining about the people up top. Both in capitalism and political power. As long as a nation isn't a full blown fascist state, the people can organize and make a difference.

The only thing is that they don't care, they're not interested. It's just fiction on TV, it's not real for them. It only becomes real, when it's actually real, when there is a boot on their face because they didn't care to organize against a policy that enabled that boot.

People forget that the only reason why the top 1% have power is because there are people who follow their orders. The top 1% against 99% and those 99% believe in the fiction that there's nothing to be done because the 1% have all the power.

Everyone is just a stupid.

People don't actually care until they get a boot on their face and they cry out "how did this happen!?" — Christoffer

By that time it's too late, cuz the half of the population that's getting paid to put a boot in someone's face are figuring they made the smart move and the ones getting a boot in the face are the dummies. It's too late cuz by then, enough people have been bought.

I'm of the view that due to the American mentality, and the fact of there being more guns in this country than people, fifty years from now central US government authority will either break down and we'll literally return to medieval state-level feudal authority, or the central government will have to go full martial law. I do not see a sensible resolution due to corporate greed (they won't know when to stop; and for global corporations, they'll lose their fat American goose but there are plenty other geese to eat [AI will make it more efficient]).

Jack Smith's "report" in a nutshell:

Lawyer says he would have won his own case had he not dropped it.

Another nothing-burger from the unlawfully-appointed prosecutor. We can add it to his growing list of failed cases.

Astonishingly, Trump still insists that the exporting countries are the ones who pay the tarrifs he's set to impose. He's setting up a 'department of external revenue' to collect the revenue. To this day, he can't or won't understand that buyers in the importing country pay the tarrifs, not the exporters. One of innummerable examples of his immunity to facts.

And besides

"The president-elect appears ignorant of the fact that there’s been an 'external revenue service' since July 31, 1789," posted Andrew Feinberg, White House correspondent for The Independent. "That’s when George Washington signed legislation creating the US Customs Service, the forerunner of what is now [the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Agency]."

Although being ignorant of facts is part of the MO.

The bottom line is, America has elected a President who hates Government. As far as Trump is concerned, the separation of powers and the checks and balances designed by the Constitution are all impediments to his will, and as such, part of the problem that he wants to dissolve. He wants a government of underlings and enablers, and so far the craven Republican Party is bending over backwards to give him exactly that.

Yes, in other words The Clown's goal is a White nationalist apartheid dictatorship and the means to succeed – transforming this (failing) neoliberal corporatocracy into a full-blown oligarchic kakistocracy – is on the verge of being installed by the MAGA-GOP majority US Congress & SCOTUS. Even though "We the Sheeple" failed again in the last election, will Democrats in Congress, Democratic State Governors & US military leadership also fall in line behind The Clown or will the fuckers uphold their oaths to defend the US Constitution "against all enemies foreign and domestic"? TBD. :mask:

Though the hostage exchange and ceasefire is still very fragile, it was funny watching Biden try to take the credit during his final address, and then tell us misinformation was a threat to the country.

A “tense” weekend meeting between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and incoming Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff led to a breakthrough in the hostage negotiations, with the top aide to US President-elect Donald Trump doing more to sway the premier in a single sit-down than outgoing President Joe Biden did all year, two Arab officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/arab-official-trump-envoy-swayed-netanyahu-more-in-one-meeting-than-biden-did-all-year/

and then tell us misinformation was a threat to the country. — NOS4A2

I wonder if you can do any better than Trump's cabinet nominations: who won the 2020 US presidential election?

Biden won the rigged election. He was inaugurated, after all.

Why do you say it was rigged?

It’s crazy because there is no 28th amendment. But don’t worry, this nightmare is almost over.

Nos4! You said the 2020 election was rigged. I asked you why you said that, and you have given no answer. IMHO it is vile practice in a discussion forum to refuse reply to civil and pertinent questioning. If you choose troll-like behaviour, I will request sanctions.

I’m not sure you’ve ever been civil, Tim. You can type both our names in the search bar and see nothing but exasperated name-calling and lies. And never once have I requested sanctions.

13 billionaires ...

Billionaires and loyalists will provide Trump with muscle during his second term
^{— Daniel Drache, Marc D Froese · York University · Jan 13, 2025}

The distance between rich and poorer has increased, though I'll note that people like Gates, Buffett, Swift have donated/contributed considerably to various causes. The Clown administration seems to favor the rich.

I'm still at a loss as to why RFK Jr was picked as head of Health.

I’m not sure you’ve ever been civil, Tim. You can type both our names in the search bar and see nothing but exasperated name-calling and lies. — NOS4A2

The question was civil, requesting you support something you said, which answer you still have not given. As to exasperation, granted, but as to lies, please reproduce here any lie whatsoever I have told. You aver lies told; I have told none; that leaves you.

Now answer the question! And it shouldn't be necessary for me to repeat it a third time.

Well, let's all hope that Trump will actually get prices to go down because that's apparently the trade that alot of American voters have made for this.

I'm still at a loss as to why RFK Jr was picked as head of Health. — jorndoe

Trump doesn’t want to govern, but rule. He basically hates the government, unless and until he can make it conform to his will.

You can say what you want about Trump, but by pressuring Israel into accepting a cease-fire his team has done more good in a single sitting than the Biden administration over its entire term.

Well, let's all hope that Trump will actually get prices to go down because that's apparently the trade that alot of American voters have made for this. — Mr Bee

So, how is imposing massive tariffs on imports supposed to make prices go down?

Well, let's all hope that Trump will actually get prices to go down because that's apparently the trade that alot of American voters have made for this.

They’d like him and thus the country to fail. Just watch how many times they refer to any of his successes.