Charlie Kirk shot at an event in Utah

[cherokeetroy]

First -- thank you for bringing a more fun and interesting approach.

The "finger pointing blame game" has gotten really old and tired.

And I agree with you.  The blinders need to come off to who actually is fascist.

If we look at the leadership within the last couple of decades, I would say both sides lean into authoritarianism 

That's what we get when we elect narcissists & sociopaths 

whether it's Marxism, Communism, Fascism or Nationalism doesn't matter 

I think America has been sliding into totalitarianism for a very long time

'A Republic if you can keep it'

They've been chipping liberties away from the very beginning 

And now we're turning into a technocracy

[Bootless]

I think the part that's non-discretionary is running a budget deficit. Why? Because the US is an import economy and dollars are leaving the country. They find their way to foreign central banks, who then face a choice: Buy up American assets, or loan the dollars back to the US government. The US doesn't want American assets to fall into foreign hands, so it has through diplomacy engineered a status quo where foreign central banks loan this money back to the US government. Since, to support this, its government has to borrow a bunch of dollars, it has to run a budget deficit.

By spending it on the military the US has found a way to inject dollars back into the domestic economy while also using its military to project soft power all over the world. There are undoubtedly better ways to spend a trillion dollars domestically (to be fair, it's hard to quantify the value the US is getting out of its military power). But as you suggested, the MIC is itself a powerful entity. It grew into an insatiable beast during the cold war, and afterwards there hasn't been the political will to change the status quo and reassign the budget to things that could more effectively improve US standards of living.

Economic colonialism or financial imperialism are reasonable ways to describe US foreign policy. I hesitate to call it fascism because fascism to me requires a dictatorial government and forced oppression of opposition. While there is still democracy and freedom of the press, ailing though they may be, the US can't be called fascist. We can say that some of its policies are similar to what a fascist government would be doing, but ultimately there is little value in that and it just confuses people.

What's the hidden hand you speak of? It seems to me that the US is acting as you would expect a global economic hegemon to act. Selfishly.

Borrowing!! Borrowing!!

But now foreign governments will buy Trump family crypto currency instead of buying traditional T Bills or bonds. (my prediction) See: Trump's stablecoin chosen for $2 billion Abu Dhabi investment in Binance, co-founder says And if you have a subscription: In Giant Deals, U.A.E. Got Chips, and Trump Team Got Crypto Riches

National debt going up.
Tax revenue from Corporations and Billionaires going down. 
And Foreign investment going to Trump family enterprises instead of traditional lending vehicles.
Foreign trade deals made based on how much Trump benefits personally.

We're gonna have a freaking great depression leading to austerity measures.
Bye bye Social Security.

[Halfswede]

"Oh no, this source doesn't confirm my existing beliefs. Quick, find an excuse to discard it."

Good for you that you found one. Now you can continue to believe the thing that makes you feel good about yourself.

By simple math, they can't be made up of the best and the brightest.

Think of it this way (I will avoid the venn diagram for simplicity):  You have 100 candidates for a job.  10 of them are truly capable and they are randomly distributed among the group.  Most likely some are of different races or sexes, but it is irrelevant. The best 10 are in there.

By math alone, as soon as you choose to weigh one or the other demographic, you have automatically lowered your chances of getting the best.  Let's say it's doctors. Everyone wants the best doctor looking at them and their family (I think).

DEI says that women get priority.  Suddenly, assuming some reasonable representation, you have lost 5 of the 10 candidates.  You only have a 5% chance of getting the best (half of what you had before). Now lets say you want a black woman like Biden did for SCOTUS.  You have 50% x 13% or 7.5% chance of getting the best. 

EVEN if you picked white males as the priority, you now have 50% x 50 something, so 25% chance of getting the best.  You see ANY preference except skill based merit costs you from getting the best (doctor in this case)

Wierdly, this is what you get when you look for caucasian population: "In the U.S., the percentage of the population identifying as non-Hispanic White was 58.4% in 2023, while the percentage identifying as White alone (including Hispanic White) was approximately 59.8% in 2024. These figures show a declining trend, with the non-Hispanic White population share decreasing from 64% in 2010 to 58% in 2020."

So, anywhere that is using DEI inherently has less than the best and brightest working there.  Math has no feelings, here.

[putnam6]

If we look at the leadership within the last couple of decades, I would say both sides lean into authoritarianism 

That's what we get when we elect narcissists & sociopaths 

whether it's Marxism, Communism, Fascism or Nationalism doesn't matter 

I think America has been sliding into totalitarianism for a very long time

'A Republic if you can keep it'

They've been chipping liberties away from the very beginning 

And now we're turning into a technocracy

This is why I have you on ignore, I know our core beliefs are similar enough why argue over anything else...

Cause I think the last uncompromised President was Eisenhower, and his well-founded concerns about the MIC have morphed into the technocracy/big pharma/MIC 

The Patriot Act, I was skeptical of its reach till being clued in on ATS back in the day, that with the WMDs and Russ Kick

Doesn't matter how we arrived at the same general destination

[ANNEE]

Fascism.

The subject probably warrants its own thread, but I don't expect anyone would respond to it, as is traditional here when there are attempts to talk about political ideology with any kind of depth. So I'm not spending time making one.

I think the conversations are getting better.

There's recently been more dialogue and less finger pointing.

[ANNEE]

If we look at the leadership within the last couple of decades, I would say both sides lean into authoritarianism 

That's what we get when we elect narcissists & sociopaths 

whether it's Marxism, Communism, Fascism or Nationalism doesn't matter 

I think America has been sliding into totalitarianism for a very long time

'A Republic if you can keep it'

They've been chipping liberties away from the very beginning 

And now we're turning into a technocracy

I think we need a new thread.  I don't do threads because I can't devote time to monitor them.

Different angle -- people have changed (yes, the white's too).  IMO -- there was more control back in the 50's.  People followed rules and respected the government.  

Then anti-establishment happened.

THREAD TITLE:  Charlie Kirk shot at an event in Utah

I wouldn't be surprised if Tyler Robinson is Schizophrenic.  

Schizophrenia usually takes hold after puberty. Most people are diagnosed in their late teens to early 30s. It's rare to develop this mental health disorder before age 12 or after age 40.

Schizophrenia is a mental health condition where people can experience a disconnection from reality, presenting with symptoms such as false beliefs and disorganized thinking.

[UltraBudgie]

Schizophrenia is a mental health condition where people can experience a disconnection from reality, presenting with symptoms such as false beliefs and disorganized thinking.

oh wow there's probably some people here like that!

[ANNEE]

The Patriot Act, I was skeptical of its reach till being clued in on ATS back in the day, that with the WMDs and Russ Kick

I think we should - at least - mention the PNAC.  Replaced by the Foreign Policy Initiative.  

Before the Patriot Act.

[ANNEE]

oh wow there's probably some people here like that!

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[Oldcarpy2]

I think we can all agree that he has "mental health issues" which is now a PC term for what we used to call "nutcases'.