In the US, compare a city like Houston, TX to a city like Portland, OR. Seems like two different planets.

So much for the 1st Amendment. Guess that’s only valid when it fuels the Trumpsterfire.

It’s pretty telling that, as a European, I’ve literally not heard of any of those European alternatives.

What’s going on with the rest? They think Elon is the man!?

It’s been a while since I’ve gone through a whole day being proud of my US citizenship. Today was one of the most shameful.

Trump is creating a lot of enemies. Even turning allies into enemies. The reputation usually mostly recovers when there’s a Democrat in the WH, but since American voters walked right back into the same chaos again, eyes wide open, it’s going to be a lot harder to recover this time around. There’s just very little trust and credibility left.

What if you only use the apps?

Americans are too dumb to have this much power. It’s all size and no substance. We need to find a better way to distribute power in this world.

The Republicans have all the power in Congress and they are all afraid of Trump.

There’s nothing that can be done. Republicans have every bit of power there is. At least for the next two years.

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.

deleted by creator

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.