Bear Pit: now the sole domicile of politics at LuLa

[digitaldog]

That man of god Michael Johnson even answered a journalist the other day that the protesters at the town halls were actors. He might even believe it.

"Tell people that there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure." - George Carlin

[degrub]

I see that there is lots of online chatter about economic problems, inflation, etc., especially related to tariffs and the town hall meetings. It's obvious to me that the people at the top simply don't care. Not at all. Although economic slowdowns should be bad for company owners, layoffs can offset some of that, and the long-term wage reductions are even more compensation. Most people (or a lot of them) believe that the purpose of government is to act in the best interests of the citizenry. But what happens when the people at the top have no such concerns.

Thailand might be one example of that phenomenon.

[Robert Roaldi]

Thailand might be one example of that phenomenon.

My problem is that I don't see the game plan. The USA continues to be the world's leader in many areas, why take a wrecking ball to it. The economy was doing fine by all measures, all the pre-election talk of crumbling economy was bullshit. There may have been fears of trade adversaries, e.g., China, but what else is new. That's commerce, always has been. If the USA was losing ground in some areas all they had to do was make better products and services, there's no mystery about that. Besides, that all sounds pretty hollow to me. Apple, Tesla, others, all do business in China, big time, so I have a hard time swallowing the notion that there is some worldwide struggle for ascendancy in that arena, it's just business as usual. Or is it that the boys want access to Chinese cheap labour but don't want China to ameliorate their standing? How stupid is that. Maybe that kind of low-rent understanding of a complex topic is all that Trump can comprehend?

And I don't get the rapprochement with Russia. By all accounts they are a minor league economic power, utterly corrupt, no real rule of law, California has a larger GDP, and Putin regularly kills journalists and opponents. What's the upside of associating with a regime like that? What advantage does that association bring to the USA? Is it true that Trump is compromised there? Is the USA really going to let itself be dragged into the toilet for no better reason than Trump owes Putin a favour about something? Sounds like a 3rd rate thriller plot.

A groundswell of social unrest seems to be starting. Trump's real problems may turn out to be domestic. Putin can't save him from that no matter many bots are unleashed on social media, especially as more and more people are beginning to see that social media is turning out to be dumber than even the National Enquirer.

By comparison, Musk's motivations are more clear. He wants to give himself more government contracts, nothing mysterious about that. People have been led into thinking that monopolies are good, now they're being sold the idea that corruption is good too, because Elon is a genius and knows best. That will work till it doesn't. I mean, I'm sure he thinks he's a genius.

[Rhossydd]

My problem is that I don't see the game plan.

I get the impression there's no plan for America, it's just a quest for personal power and financial greed.
So far 'Making America great again' is going in the wrong direction on the global stage.

And I don't get the rapprochement with Russia. .... Is it true that Trump is compromised there?

Well rumoured, but quite what is worse than what's on record seems unlikely.
The curiosity is that the cost of the war and sanctions are starting to really hurt some key aspects of Russia's infrastructure. Continue to support Ukraine until they defeat Russia, regain their lands and Putin finds his power challenged and they'd be able to ignore any threat from them.

[Rob C]

I get the impression there's no plan for America, it's just a quest for personal power and financial greed.
So far 'Making America great again' is going in the wrong direction on the global stage.
 Well rumoured, but quite what is worse than what's on record seems unlikely.
The curiosity is that the cost of the war and sanctions are starting to really hurt some key aspects of Russia's infrastructure. Continue to support Ukraine until they defeat Russia, regain their lands and Putin finds his power challenged and they'd be able to ignore any threat from them.

I think that the truth may well be more straightforward: worsening mental issues.

[Rhossydd]

I think that the truth may well be more straightforward: worsening mental issues.

That might be plausible if it was only Trump doing crazy, contradictory things, but it's also Vance, Hegseth, Kennedy.... Plus the lunacy of letting Musk and his kids loose on destroying the established government structures.

[Robert Roaldi]

That might be plausible if it was only Trump doing crazy, contradictory things, but it's also Vance, Hegseth, Kennedy.... Plus the lunacy of letting Musk and his kids loose on destroying the established government structures.

In some exchanges on these pages several years ago, the fear was expressed about democracy becoming the tyranny of the majority, that the people who contribute nothing could hijack the powers of government to extract wealth from those that produce it. Given the stagnant growth in wages since the 1980s and the resulting much greater disparity in wealth, you could argue that the opposite has happened, that the top rungs have extracted wealth from poorer citizens. The latest budget seems to add to that process. Is this irony? Was it gas lighting all along? If you sell your democracy to the highest bidder, there are consequences.

In a related story item, the CIO at Google wants a 60 hour work week, https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/business/company-news/2025/03/02/google-co-founder-says-60-hour-workweek-the-sweet-spot-for-productivity/. What a wimp he is. What he really wants is to bring slavery back, people should be happy to work for food and shelter. Just say so. In an oligarch economy, that might be the end game. Maybe these guys see Russia as utopia, no laws, no elections, no power to the people, just arbitrary rule for the convenience of a few. Sort of like having kings again.

During Feudalism 1.0, the power of nobility came from god, so goes the story. When Trump assumes room temperature, will there be an orderly transition to the first born male? Will all those unqualified lieutenants now in place go for each other's throats or fight off Musk for the throne? Speaking of which, there were some demotions at the DOJ, be interesting to see who they insert at the upper echelons. It will be interesting to see who the DOJ and FBI go after in the coming months. Do you think there will be a new push on to arrest biker gangs, the mob, financial fraudsters, you know, criminals?

I see that Trump denies any knowledge of the repatriation of the Tate brothers. Why would these guys care about the Tate brothers?

All of this destruction was self-inflicted. There were no problems bad enough that they required a revolution to fix. The artificial trade war will impoverish most citizens but the oligarchs will be fine.

[Rob C]

That might be plausible if it was only Trump doing crazy, contradictory things, but it's also Vance, Hegseth, Kennedy.... Plus the lunacy of letting Musk and his kids loose on destroying the established government structures.

”One Flew Over The …” 

Birds of a feather flock together. One must not forget the lure of latching on to the best mealticket available on the day, which may well function as a secondary emotional driver to membership of the gang. An irresistible need for fame is, of itself, a somewhat unnerving personality trait. The personal price always extracted is high; there are many, many cases of flights too near to the Sun.

[degrub]

We can hope for sooner rather than later !

[William Walker]

Patrimonialism

An excellent article that everyone should read to help understand what is going on here...

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/02/corruption-trump-administration/681794/

[Robert Roaldi]

A few days ago the order came down (from Hegseth, I think) to stop cyber surveillance of Russia, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2025/03/01/trump-putin-russia-cyber-offense-cisa/. It's not clear to me what this means exactly as I saw other reports that say that some surveillance continues. All a bit murky.

A senior agent at the FBI who spoke out against the investigation of FBI agents who had worked on the Jan 6 prosecutions was removed from office. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/top-fbi-official-forced-criticizing-trump-pursuit-agents-investigated-rcna194610. Is this an example of the weaponization of government or a simple disciplinary action?

We have new tariffs starting this morning and the markets crashed. Who benefits from the impoverishment of the American middle class?

Musk thinks that social security is a Ponzi scheme. He said this during a Joe Rogan podcast interview. I didn't watch it, did Rogan agree or disagree, does anyone know?

I've only seen snippets but some of the behaviour of politicians at the recent town hall meetings seem deliberately dismissive to me. Are they trying to provoke violence do you think?

I think the administration will start delaying what social security payments remain to make life as miserable as possible for citizens. This may have already started, I don't really know. This serves as warning and punishment. Very Soviet this, the government's controlling of people's behaviour at its most granular. Land of the free.

About half of the US population doesn't really believe in democracy, that is, they only believe in it when "their" side wins.

Sometime soon, I could see google coming on side. The result might be censorship of youtube, where a lot of anti-Trump criticism lives these days. It's much easier to shut down dissent when there are fewer news outlets. No need to send troops to the local independent radio station because there are none, all can be done by clicks of a mouse. Does anyone think that the tech brotherhood will resist state control?

All very gradual, drip by drip.

[Rob C]

Nope; unless the US population wakes up one day, freed of all political umbilical cords, it has no chance of smelling the dying roses of its once cherished illusion of being the land of the free.

I write this from parallel experience: was a time, within my UK context, where my vote inevitably went to the Conservatives. Then came Brexit and the huge chain of lies about Europe and life here (fibs led by my erstwhile party of natural choice), that the scales were forced from my own eyes, and I saw the naked hatred, duplicity and power-at-any-cost reality behind those who once, automatically, enjoyed my vote. Sadly, all I saw across the political spectrum was a collective of neocommunists led by an old man suffering from his own delusions. Today, I could not lend my vote to any UK party; I am totally disenfranchised. I wonder if it was ever so, and I had simply failed to understand that, that the political mood in the country had never before forced all these people out into the open?

[Robert Roaldi]

Nope; unless the US population wakes up one day, freed of all political umbilical cords, it has no chance of smelling the dying roses of its once cherished illusion of being the land of the free.

I write this from parallel experience: was a time, within my UK context, where my vote inevitably went to the Conservatives. Then came Brexit and the huge chain of lies about Europe and life here (fibs led by my erstwhile party of natural choice), that the scales were forced from my own eyes, and I saw the naked hatred, duplicity and power-at-any-cost reality behind those who once, automatically, enjoyed my vote. Sadly, all I saw across the political spectrum was a collective of neocommunists led by an old man suffering from his own delusions. Today, I could not lend my vote to any UK party; I am totally disenfranchised. I wonder if it was ever so, and I had simply failed to understand that, that the political mood in the country had never before forced all these people out into the open?

Part of it is that the label "Conservative' doesn't mean what it used to. For example, these days in the USA David Frum and Mike Pence are no longer "conservative" enough. If the FBI and DOJ become the new KGB, they can exert a lot of pressure on the ordinary citizen who just wants to feed his family. All they need is a public example or two, Putin can show them how. But they probably don't need to resort to force or threats of force, consumer culture tamed rebellion long ago. Let's see where the vaccine thing and the healthcare battles go. If people are willing to allow their government to limit their access to those things (unless they're rich), then they're groomed for anything.

One of the funnier comments I read the other day was criticism of Zelensky not wearing a suit to the oval office. Co-President Musk wore a t-shirt to his cabinet meeting.

[Robert Roaldi]

Nope; unless the US population wakes up one day, freed of all political umbilical cords, it has no chance of smelling the dying roses of its once cherished illusion of being the land of the free.

I write this from parallel experience: was a time, within my UK context, where my vote inevitably went to the Conservatives. Then came Brexit and the huge chain of lies about Europe and life here (fibs led by my erstwhile party of natural choice), that the scales were forced from my own eyes, and I saw the naked hatred, duplicity and power-at-any-cost reality behind those who once, automatically, enjoyed my vote. Sadly, all I saw across the political spectrum was a collective of neocommunists led by an old man suffering from his own delusions. Today, I could not lend my vote to any UK party; I am totally disenfranchised. I wonder if it was ever so, and I had simply failed to understand that, that the political mood in the country had never before forced all these people out into the open?

I don't know how much of this moronic North American trade war reaches the airwaves in Spain but we've had blanket coverage here today. That imbecile Vance repeated the nonsense about Canada exporting illegal drugs to the USA, when every hard fact about that points in the other direction. Further, most of the illegal guns in Canada come from the USA as well. There must be an audience for this crap though, they keep repeating it, although maybe they have nothing coherent to say. Can there be anyone who takes Vance seriously? There were also noises about the USA needing/wanting access to the critical minerals from Canada. Honestly, is it possible to be that stupid and still be able to use a knife and fork without killing yourself. When has Canada ever NOT traded in resources with the USA. For all I know, half the mining companies in Canada's north are American to begin with. Endless repetition of the dumbest lies.

Trump also threatened to counter any Canadian tariffs with augmented American tariffs. It will be a painful transition for Canada but the sooner we find reliable trading partners elsewhere the better. We can no longer rely on the USA behaving like a sane country. Imo, they're flirting with being a failed state. I heard rumours today of the DOJ starting investigations into some Democratic politicians. Be interesting to see what they concoct, although it's probably intended as distraction. Things may come to a boil soon domestically for the USA, and their own internal turmoil will make them difficult to trade with, tariffs or no tariffs. All I see online is American citizen disgust with their own government, I hate to think what might happen when health care cuts and other economic realities hit home while Musk writes himself new government contracts. It all gets dumber by the minute.

[Robert Roaldi]

So some tariffs are on, others aren't, some are delayed another month, maybe. Or maybe not. We might know more tomorrow. Or not. Gee, I wonder how Donny managed to bankrupt so many companies.

I get a big kick of the white house press secretary lecturing people to not be "disrespectful" towards the President by asking difficult questions, while both she and Trump continually refer to Justin Trudeau as "Governor" instead of using his actual title "Prime Minister". Are they 12 years old? Or just f**king stoopid.

I see that Michael Johnston's chief of staff was caught drinking and driving. I hope some reporter keeps us informed about the fate of the patrol officer that stopped him.

It seems to me we haven't seen much of Musk this week. With the sales and stock price troubles at Tesla he may be at head office taking care of business. I figure there will be layoffs there, something he's well-practiced at that these days. Probably warming up his email app as we 'speak'. Maybe those folks can get a job at Ford or Rivian or somewhere. Oh wait...

But that may be the future of modern business, the "new" new economy, https://www.business.com/finance/big-tech-earnings-and-layoffs-compared/. Big profits and big layoffs. If you want to understand why the USA may be suffering in world trade circles, you might want to think about whether short-term stock price interests should figure so prominently in strategic thinking. I'm not saying that it should be ignored, but there may be other aspects to running a business. Good thing they lower taxes on those rich folks, that way they can invest in the economy.

And if you're feeling too happy about the state of the world and want to take yourself down a notch, try listening to this recent Making Sense podcast episode, https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/401-christian-nationalism-and-the-new-right. In it Sam Harris speaks with journalist Katherine Stewart about topics covered in her book.

Here's the blurb from the landing page: "Katherine Stewart is the award-winning author of Money, Lies, and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy (Bloomsbury, 2025). Her previous book, The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, formed the basis of the documentary feature God & Country, produced by Rob Reiner. Stewart's work appears in The New York Times opinion section, The New Republic, Religion News Service, and other publications. "

The funniest thing I saw this week was this page from the satirical site The Beaverton: https://thebeaverton.com/2025/03/putin-emails-trump-tell-me-5-things-you-did-for-me-last-week/.

[Robert Roaldi]

Trump is "strongly considering" sanctions on Russia, https://www.bbc.com/news/live/cg70jylp32gt.

I'm sure he is. Maybe he'll implement them just after the newly postponed tariffs scheduled for April 2nd. Or on some other date. Is he taking back that UN vote from the other day? They give you a redo at the UN, don't they. (Maybe this is how he plays golf?)

There was an interesting opinion piece by Stephen Marche published in a recent edition of Macleans, dated 9 January 2025,  on the subject of why the US could not annex Canada or anywhere else, https://macleans.ca/society/canada-51st-state-america/.

[Rhossydd]

They really don't have a clue;
https://petapixel.com/2025/03/07/the-pentagon-is-deleting-thousands-of-photos-as-part-of-a-dei-purge/

[Robert Roaldi]

They really don't have a clue;
https://petapixel.com/2025/03/07/the-pentagon-is-deleting-thousands-of-photos-as-part-of-a-dei-purge/

There are some truly fringe ideas out there. In that podcast with Sam Harris and Katherine Stewart (mentioned 2 or 3 messages ago), in the second half of the podcast Stewart recalls meeting a lady at a Moms for Liberty meeting who was happy that her school's library got rid of The Diary of Anne Frank because of a lesbian scene. There was no lesbian scene in that book. According to Stewart there was a scene where two teenage girls hugged in glee over something. It doesn't take much to set off some people.

[Rhossydd]

There are some truly fringe ideas out there.

It really reveals how poorly some American's education is that they so easily fall for so much conspiracy nonsense.

It's interesting to see how seriously many Europeans are looking at their contracts (defence and civil) with US companies now Trump has proved so volatile and unreliable.

[Robert Roaldi]

It really reveals how poorly some American's education is that they so easily fall for so much conspiracy nonsense.

It's interesting to see how seriously many Europeans are looking at their contracts (defence and civil) with US companies now Trump has proved so volatile and unreliable.

What's their other choice.  As true as it is that Europe (and Canada for that matter) depended too explicitly on US defence during the cold war, it has to be said that the US did not build over 700 military bases worldwide because of the pressure that was applied by their bullying allies. The USA wanted those bases for their own reasons and enjoyed what benefit they brought. They liked it that way or they wouldn't have done it. They're not victims in that sense.  Now that the USA is in financial straights (because no one wants to pay taxes, boo hoo), Trump is playing the card that they were taken advantage of by allies. This is bs. Since no one seems to know much history, the argument sort of works, even all the while it's probably a good thing that allies pay for their own defence.

To my mind, it would have made more sense to arrive at a new arrangement in a more sensible manner, but that's not how Trump operates it seems. OTOH, according to Niaill Ferguson (from another Making Sense podcast) US Presidents have been asking allies to do this very thing for decades and they balked, probably because it's always easier to do nothing. But it's all a large feedback loop. If the European and other allies do start paying for more of their own defence costs, they will to some extent feel less inclined to always follow US policy as a result. You give with one and take with the other. If the USA pays for everything then they get to be the boss, not wrong; if they don't pay for everything, then they're no longer the boss, I don't see how you can escape that logic.

Notwithstanding all that, the recent actions, calling Zelensky names, having public tantrums, voting with Russia in a UN vote, seems more like drunken bar diplomacy and makes the US look foolish. Inasmuch as it accelerates less reliance on the USA, with new international leaders emerging, that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's not as if American foreign diplomacy has done much good since 1960. The wars on terrorism and drugs have produced pretty meagre results. But hey, Musk, Bezos, Zuck and others are rich and don't pay much tax so it's all cool then. That's a cheap shot but the mutli-decade failure of public governance is just so glaring. And that was before space aliens.