Okay, I'm going to say something controversial. I know, right, me? Who could have seen that coming? Well sometimes you have to change it up a little so here it is. The rest of the world has lost patience with us and is straight up laughing at us, or more accurately, they are laughing at the clown we elected king. I know if you're a supporter, you will find a way to dismiss this place we find ourselves in today as nothing. Heck, you're probably used to Republican Presidents being laughingstocks in the eyes of the rest of the world by this point. Maybe you're just immune to it by now. In any case, whether you like it or not, whether you choose to admit it or not, it is the reality we find ourselves in right now. It is our own fault of course, well us AND Russia. We allowed a petulant man-child to represent us and now we must suffer the consequences. I have little doubt that Trump will easily go down in history as the single worst president ever to occupy the Oval Office and no president past or future will ever have come even close or will come close to the damage he has wrought on this country and the rest of the globe. How do we correct this blunder of seismic proportions and regain our status as the leader of the free world? Your guess is as good as mine. I think that this is a classic case of shooting yourself in the foot and simply having to sit back, put your leg up and wait for the healing to run its course. Regaining the world's trust will not happen overnight. Asia will almost certainly be the benefactor of our self-immolation. They play the long game while we tend to be completely short-sighted. What does this mean for the average American. Probably a leaner existence for generations to come as the "empire" wanes into irrelevance. I think that we had a lot to offer the rest of the world initially but nothing lasts forever. Hope you had a taste of what was left of the American dream, I know that I did. I am just sorry that my kids and their kids will never know what that dream meant. Hopefully, they will forgive us, but really, why should they?
You know what, Joe? I've read through quite a few past threads on here and I have to tell ya, I'm not real impressed with your rantings. What I see is another person who just can't seem to get over the 2016 election. President Trump is just that, our nations President. He has done no less and no more damage than any president before him. Is he perfect? Hell no. Was any other past President perfect? I feel the world looked down at us more so under the previous administration. The left, and especially the far left, are proving to the rest of this country (the deplorables) just exactly why they voted for Trump in the first place. All of this wet your pants hysterics is going nowhere for the left and will ultimately lead to four more years of Trump.
Yeah, that tired old pathetic excuse of Democrats just being bitter that Trump won, albeit with Russian assistance, is pretty hollow and doesn't even begin to address the Mount Everest of crap this imbecile has heaped on this country in only 3 years in office. The numbers clearly don't bear out your feelings that the world looked down on us under Obama just as much as they do now. You'll ignore those numbers of course because that is literally the only way you can maintain the illusion that the moron-in-chief is at all fit to occupy the highest office in the land. Maybe it is you that can't get over your vote in 2016? I know I'd be embarrassed by it. I grew up in the DFL Party in the 60' and 70's in Minnesota when smart people actually existed in the state in rural areas. Once you get outside of any populated area of the state these days, you run into the Michele Bachmann types. Anti-Abortion extremists, gun nuts, and bigots. Oh yeah, I still have plenty of relative that live in rural parts of Minnesota and they routinely use the "N" word, vote for Republicans that take away their pensions and healthcare, and argue just like you do. So whether you are impressed with me or not is of little consequence to me because I know you, or your type anyway, because I grew up around people like you. People that never bothered to educate themselves and live in the same stupid small towns with the same stupid small town minds they were born with. The world is a great big wonderful place. Too bad you'll never see it. So pardon me for not being impressed by your rantings. P.S. I was never looking for perfection. I'd settle for a little bit of competency at this point.
You know, I can be bipartisan in saying that, whether it was trumps doing, Obama doing or even the Popes doing, we can accept that our economy is doing better, more people voted in 2016 than any other election since Reagan and I am convinced that the quality of this nation has improved our the last 4 years at least.
I wish that the statistics did bear out your assertions but tragically they do not. By all measures, we are sliding into another Gilded Age in this country. The Gilded Age is defined as the time between the Civil War and World War I during which the U.S. population and economy grew quickly, there was a lot of political corruption and corporate financial misdealings and many wealthy people lived very fancy lives. A small number at the very top did live very well while the rest of the country lived in utter poverty. At least back then, much of the country was agricultural. Today, that isn't an option for the vast majority of the country. When you need 3 jobs just to pay rent while 2-3 people at the top have as much income as lower 50% of the country, you have a situation that will inevitably collapse under the weight of human misery and despair. History is replete with examples of societies that ignored the lower classes and paid the price through revolution, wars on a world-wide scale, and mass societal upheavals. Do we really want to go through something like that or can we address the issues of injustice today? Remember, the opposite of wealth is not poverty, it is injustice.
Thank you. I'll accept the compliment. Clinton was right about everything she said during the campaign. Trump turned out to be Putin's puppet just as she predicted. The army of deplorables became emboldened and came out of the woodwork in places like Charlottesville with the Unity the Right Rally and the Proud Boys in New York. So thanks for putting me in such good company.
Joe?!? Controversial??? Come on..... In all seriousness, I have said before and I will say again. I am not a fan of our presidents boisterous mannerisms. Earlier in the week I did watch an address he gave at NATO. I had rather wished many of his comments were toned a bit more... Well, lets just say "gentlemanly"..... However, there is another side to that coin as well. There could be a case made for decades of inequality and unfairness in the dealings that have taken place between ourselves and other nations. Perhaps setting a forceful tone is now appropriate....... See, I believe that somehow and someway the American exceptionalism we have lived by for decades has somehow been force fed to many gullible sheeples as American shamefulness. Well, I won't buy into that any more than feeling shameful for my businesses success. It was earned and I'll never feel ashamed about that any more than I'll ever feel ashamed of being American.... I say all that because there are some global wrongs that do need to be righted. And perhaps this is the time and place to make that happen. Now to directly address your comment..... I have in fact seen the Trump baby balloon that was flown during a UK visit. I feel comfortable compartmentalizing that as an overt action perpetrated by the few rather than the many. So I am left to wonder what the basis is for your charge. If it is how you feel, well I respect that. I often post how I feel here. When the metal meets the road and the UK or any other nation finds themselves under attack, who do you suppose they will call? France?? I rather doubt that. What I have come to know in my years is this.... Americans do have quite the short memory. Yes, again I will bring it back to the economy. Many predecessors have attempted to accomplish the state our nation currently resides in. Plentiful work, affordable gas and opportunity abounds. Rest assured that when people struggle finding work or having the ability to fill their tanks affordably, they will long for this time. And you can bet they will not be at all happy with those that brought the man and his economy down. I said it before and I'll say it again and again. The substance of a man lies in his results. And Mr. Trumps results have benefited all.
LOL! Yes, I was being confrontational intentionally. Musing Amok I suppose. I guess that I never try to insult people but I feel how I feel and I see no reason to temper my opinions to protect anyone else's feelings. We are not all little snowflakes and won't melt at the slightest application of heat. Like I have always said here, everything you see is just somebody else's opinion. I'm entitled to mine and you are entitled to yours. You don't have to agree with mine and I don't have to agree with yours. At least you are civil and don't attack people on a personal level. Anytime someone's first post in any thread is a personal attack, it is pretty obvious that they have no valid counter argument to make. They are only arguing from an emotional standpoint not an intellectual point of view. I find most people's opinions tainted with the stain of partisanship and I suppose mine are no different. It is fairly inevitable that we will one and all be influenced by our partisan leanings. The only people that really bother me are the ones that think that their opinions are the final word. Honestly, how much arrogance does it really take to think that your opinions are the only ones that don't stink? The economy is reaching a tipping point, in my opinion. We've been plodding along for the last decade without investing in infrastructure, research, education, American manufacturing and doing absolutely nothing to build a stable growth model that will last into the future. We measure our financial well-being by how the wealthiest among us are doing, how stocks are doing, how corporations are doing, how international trade is doing, but we never ask how the average person is doing. The average person is not doing as well as you might think in this economy. It wouldn't take much of a recession to dump millions of people onto the employment rolls. I read one article recently that wasn't so much predicting another recession, but rather a depression greater than 1929. And they spelled out exactly how it could happen. It didn't seem implausible.
Happen to have a link to that article? I'd be interested to read that. I do agree that the economy can't keep going the way it is.
I will try and find it again. I thought it was Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnma...-on-the-brink-of-the-second-great-depression/
Canada's economy has a cold. Let's hope it isn't catchy. Canada loses 71,200 jobs in biggest employment drop in decade Source: Financial Post Canada’s job market unexpectedly weakened for a second-straight month, registering the biggest drop in employment since 2009 and casting doubt on the resiliency of the domestic outlook. The economy lost 71,200 jobs in November, Statistics Canada said Friday in Ottawa, following a decline of 1,800 in the prior month. That pares the total number of jobs added this year to around 285,100. The report missed the median economist forecast for a gain of 10,000 jobs. The unemployment rate increased to 5.9 per cent in the month, from 5.5 per cent in October, the biggest one-month jump since 2009. The decrease in employment was broad-based among both the goods-producing and service-producing sectors. “Canada’s jobs report is disappointing, showing job losses for the second month in a row,” said Julia Pollak, labor economist at ZipRecruiter, an online employment marketplace. “But observers should remember that the numbers are highly volatile and that this is still the strongest year for job growth in Canada in 17 years.” Read more: https://business.financialpost.com/...oses-71200-jobs/amp?__twitter_impression=true 1
