91–100 of 133 posts
America will not collapse, but American democracy likely will collapse. At the end of 2022, GOP will win the mid-term elections and have the majority in the house and the senate. They already have state legislatures effectively under control, and the supreme court is full of conservative judges. In 2024 Ron De Santos, or another authoritarian candidate, will win the GOP nomination and easily win the election because…
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"If the other party wins, it's not democracy."
In this case, the Republican party is objectively authoritarian - and arguably neofascist. For all of the faults of the Democrats (and there are many) they are not actively hammering on the foundations of Democracy. Their leader did not just attempt to overthrow an election. They aren't actively undermining the ability to vote, or trying to put corrupt officials in place who will overthrow elections that don't go the…
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Yeah, I don't really get that either. If push comes to shove and we (the US) devalue our currency, then all the other foreign debt holders are left holding the bag while we just suffer through a couple years of recession.
> If push comes to shove and we (the US) devalue our currency [..] Against what, and by what means? (Perhaps naively) I'd always assumed the markets decide the exchange rates of (most) Western currencies against each other. Obviously with a dollop of central bank intervention here and there(!)
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Yeah, I don't really get that either. If push comes to shove and we (the US) devalue our currency, then all the other foreign debt holders are left holding the bag while we just suffer through a couple years of recession.
> If push comes to shove and we (the US) devalue our currency [..] Against what, and by what means? (Perhaps naively) I'd always assumed the markets decide the exchange rates of (most) Western currencies against each other. Obviously with a dollop of central bank intervention here and there(!)
>After years of swelling deficits fed by incessant warfare in distant lands, in 2020, as long expected, the U.S. dollar finally loses its special status as the world's reserve currency. Suddenly, the cost of imports soars. Unable to pay for swelling deficits by selling now-devalued Treasury notes abroad, Washington is finally forced to slash its bloated military budget. It's funny and interesting that the military bu…
Those figures are required expenditures, not budgets. They represent agreements between tax-paying citizens/employees and the government. The military's funding is variable and not required - the Constitution doesn't even support a centralized military. You're equating very different things.
Yes, it does. It just says that military appropriations for the Army have to be approved by Congress every two years. Congress controls the purse strings, the President has command.
Article I, Section 8:
"The Congress shall have power...To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To provide and maintain a Navy..."
Note that the Navy is not even subject to the two year limit on funding.
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We’ve substantially curbed immigration into the US, so I wonder how that might affect this “secret sauce”.
Have we? With the exception of 2020 due to the pandemic, how much has immigration declined?
[0] https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/ann...
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If that happens, the democrats only have themselves to blame at this point. Biden came in with a 60+% approval rating, now he is in the high 20s / low 30s. I actually think it's more likely that a third party like Andrew Yangs Forward Party emerges and wins an election. A lot of people are sick of two options, and feel alienated in by their own party (both sides)
Biden's approval rating is currently 43%. Third parties can't win in a first past the post system.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/589450-quinnipia...
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Not sure why you think Ron desantis qualifies as an authoritarian. Also you admit the GOP will win the elections and Biden is a loser. Sounds pretty democratic. Predicting that the republican majority will inevitably establish an autocracy is birther level Dem propaganda. You shouldn't watch MSNBC.
I can see a few signs that Santis qualifies as authoritarian. Just from the recent news: https://www.axios.com/desantis-florida-civilian-military-for... Also, MSNBC & CNN are not different from Fox News. These are all propaganda networks. I despise them all equally.
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Those figures are required expenditures, not budgets. They represent agreements between tax-paying citizens/employees and the government. The military's funding is variable and not required - the Constitution doesn't even support a centralized military. You're equating very different things.
> the Constitution doesn't even support a centralized military Yes, it does. It just says that military appropriations for the Army have to be approved by Congress every two years. Congress controls the purse strings, the President has command. Article I, Section 8: "The Congress shall have power...To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years; To pro…
Navy was a different consideration at the time since it protects trade, which is required for commerce afaik.
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Biden's approval rating is currently 43%. Third parties can't win in a first past the post system.
33 and heading south: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/589450-quinnipia...