Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

Close the 40 foot space between Mike Pence, the President of the Senate and the Proud Boys; then what?

• Proud boys say "hey we were just kidding" and they go home?
• Arizona's alternate slate of electors also leave their DC Hotel and also just go home?
• Someone files a lawsuit, gets it to the US Supreme Court, argues the case and gets a ruling certifying the vote?

In what alternate reality do you not find the actual sacking of our Capital and execution of a plan to maintain power, by every definition a coup, not serious?

Are you disappointed that Pence and other genuine conservatives stood their ground despite the very proximate threat?

Hitler, Putin, and recently Viktor Orbán won their popular elections then just decided to stay in office. That is exactly what Trump intended to do.

Originally Posted by JamesBond

I guess it was a "coup" because of the hundreds of people massacred as they made their way into the building? Oh wait.

"Sacking" of the capitol. that is some really funny stuff amigo.

But guess what.... they are all still replaceable, and the real 'coup' took place in the middle of the night at "closed" vote counting places. Oh yeah... conspiracy theories and all....

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

Trump's "America First" tariffs are a tax on us and a disruption to the global supply chain, especially to American manufacturers. Biden has kept nearly all of Trump's tariffs. The scarcity of goods makes prices higher.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

Cheap interest rates created a housing bubble again. It is about a perfect storm for inflation.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

The Fed is, and should be, independent of the President.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

removing all of Trump's tariffs should have been almost the first action to lower inflation.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

January 6th was much more serious than most people treat it.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

But I am not sure we will keep our democracy.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

I think keeping "we the people" in charge hinges on whether rule-of-law conservatives can take back the Republican party. The politics of personality and frustration with the bureaucrats are forces too strong to hold out against. The grievances are too strong. We need an Eisenhower and I'd take a Ronald Reagan. We need a leader with both respect for law and rhetorical ability.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

• Ukraine is the second-largest nation in Europe. Nearly half of Europe's gas comes from, or through, Ukraine. Oil & Gas are global commodities.
• Direct payments to poor families began under Trump and were continued by Biden & Congress approved both rounds from both administrations.
• Trump's "America First" tariffs are a tax on us and a disruption to the global supply chain, especially to American manufacturers. Biden has kept nearly all of Trump's tariffs. The scarcity of goods makes prices higher.
• Cheap interest rates created a housing bubble again.

It is about a perfect storm for inflation. The Fed is, and should be, independent of the President. We would not like politicians manipulating the dollar for short-term gain, although I'd not say the firewall is perfect, it should be there. The Fed has done much more than just raise interest rates, the Fed has mostly closed the "window" by which banks and insurers have been getting free funds to speculate in the market. The loss of the banks and insurers using Fed money has been responsible for much of the decline of the equity markets and I am surprised more media outlets have not reported that fact to the public. In sum, the Federal Deficit is down, shrunk by around $2 trillion. Financial conservatives and dollar hawks should be cheering, but the personal pain of seeing a quarter of their 401K's evaporate has tampered enthusiasm for deficit reduction. Biden is about as unlucky as any politician could possibly be and his administration has been slow, too conservative, in its reactions. He has done some things like employing the Defense Production Act to deliver baby formula, but removing all of Trump's tariffs should have been almost the first action to lower inflation.

January 6th was much more serious than most people treat it. We came down to maybe a forty-foot space: The distance between the Proud Boys who stated they would have killed Mike Pence had they captured him. In the weeks that followed almost everyone disavowed "the big lie." Then as politicians figure out their base really liked "the big lie" they started to find ways to incorporate their base's demands so that they would not kill their own political ambitions on the hill of honesty or rule of law.

The parallels between America-first faith-based fascism and the rise of the NAZI movement are both striking and terrifying. Germans in the Weimar Republic grew increasingly frustrated with inflation; mad at foreigners, directing their antipathy at immigrants. Hitler rose in popularity by giving voice to these grievances, tried to pull off a putsch and after failing got banned from Twitter. No seriously, he got banned from public speeches. After the ban was lifted Hitler came back stronger than ever. The stock market crash of 1929 had the knock-on effect of freezing German capital markets. The NAZIs were elected to office. Then they just kept those offices. Many Americans were supportive of their cause including many churches in the United States.

We are approaching a perfect storm of economic transition. Long term, the rise of alternative energy supplies will employ many more Americans in better jobs than our pump and burn operations today. Long term I am an optimist.

But I am not sure we will keep our democracy. I think keeping "we the people" in charge hinges on whether rule-of-law conservatives can take back the Republican party. The politics of personality and frustration with the bureaucrats are forces too strong to hold out against. The grievances are too strong. We need an Eisenhower and I'd take a Ronald Reagan. We need a leader with both respect for law and rhetorical ability.

Authoritarian regimes tend to be corrupt and inefficient. We might be at the point where we figure out what our lives are going to be like in the post-Democratic United States.

Originally Posted by SonicFlyer

LOL no it wasn't. It was a joke. A bunch of goofballs walk through the capitol with a few of them doing some damage, but most of them just peacefully there.

Originally Posted by PilotWombat

I just popped in to see where this thread was headed and clearly the answer is "off the rails". So I'm not going to read what was posted before nor come back to see how you respond, but the fact that you call a mob of people who murdered a police officer in the line of duty while calling for the Vice President they were actively searching for to be hanged (probably not the same people and not at the same time, but the same group in the same incident) a "bunch of goofballs" is downright terrifying.

Originally Posted by Bucking Bar

Close the 40 foot space between Mike Pence, the President of the Senate and the Proud Boys; then what?

• Proud boys say "hey we were just kidding" and they go home?
• Arizona's alternate slate of electors also leave their DC Hotel and also just go home?
• Someone files a lawsuit, gets it to the US Supreme Court, argues the case and gets a ruling certifying the vote?

In what alternate reality do you not find the actual sacking of our Capital and execution of a plan to maintain power, by every definition a coup, not serious?

Are you disappointed that Pence and other genuine conservatives stood their ground despite the very proximate threat?

Hitler, Putin, and recently Viktor Orbán won their popular elections then just decided to stay in office. That is exactly what Trump intended to do.