• humanspiral@lemmy.ca
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    42 minutes ago

    This is more an example of advanced senility dementia that spouts more and more absurd out of his mouth, rather than any imminent declaration that any bon seller is a commie traitor insurgent. Though central banks around the world might want to consider this out of control spiral, and sell before they are threatened not to be allowed to sell.

    Still this is just the dotard mixing up his talking points, although technically he could claim winning this war. The bond market no longer has an air force or navy, and its missile production facillities are down at least 90%.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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    2 hours ago

    Mango Mussolini despises the military, but wants to use them for his power grab. If it really happens, the American better hope for cooler heads within the military that fully understand their oath is to protect US Constitution and not a rotting bag of orange shit.

  • PumpkinSkink@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    This statement is really weird, even for Trump because in the question asked immediately prior he clearly understands the question about whether he directed Bessant to intervene in the bond market stating.

    “Not at all. No, he’s a very capable man. He wanted to do it. He’s very good at it. He is a good touch. Very good natural touch for the bonds and interest.”

    Right? He understands ehats beung spoken about, or his answer at least makes it sound like he does.

    Then the reporter mentions that yields came back up and asks if Trump was going to direct Bessant to do “some other type of intervention”. At this point Trump suggests military intervention.

    He goes from “Bond market intervention” -> “Interest rates” (reasonable) to “Intervention” -> “I might direct the military to attack the bond market” (deranged) in, like 10 seconds. Is he just playing word association? Is he fucking with the reporter?

    • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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      3 hours ago

      “I might direct the military to attack the bond market” (deranged) in, like 10 seconds. Is he just playing word association?

      One hundred percent got stuck on the word “intervention” got lost in the brain fog, his alignment forbids STFUing or asking for clarification, so he just pattern matches over to “military” and his speak box handles the rest (no thoughts required for duckspeak)

    • VoodooMischief@lemmy.ca
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      6 hours ago

      I disagree with your assessment that he understands the first question. His answer is just your typical responsibility deflection (“He wanted to do it”) combined with vague praise (“He is a good touch”). It’s akin to Maurice’s generic answers about football in IT Crowd (“Did you see that ludicrous display last night”). The only thing Trump DOES understand is using the military for his problems, which is why his answers ultimately land there.

      • monotremata@lemmy.ca
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        5 hours ago

        This is my read on it too. He has no idea whether we want bond yields high or low or what. He actually feels a little bit attacked by the question because he doesn’t understand it. At first he tries to deflect it, because if the question will just go away, he doesn’t have to care about it anymore. But then there’s a follow-up. This is a challenge that isn’t immediately going away. That makes him angry. He still doesn’t know what’s going on, but now he has to care about that. So he’s gonna make a vague threat about being in control of the military. That should do the trick. That makes the reporters’ eyes get wide every time, and he can just walk away at that point and be guaranteed to get a lot of press attention. It’s a win-win.

        You have to understand that he doesn’t see these interviews as means of communication. He sees them as power struggles. Any communication that occurs is entirely incidental.

        • floofloof@lemmy.caOP
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          4 hours ago

          Someone else offered the darker explanation that he’s threatening to use the military against countries like Canada who decide to reduce their investment in US bonds. I don’t know whether that’s seeing meaning where there isn’t any, but here in Canada we haven’t forgotten that Trump keeps saying he wants to destroy our country one way or another. But overall I think it’s more likely he’s just failing to understand the question then forgetting what he’s supposed to be talking about.

          • monotremata@lemmy.ca
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            4 hours ago

            Yeah, he definitely seems untethered enough that any kind of threat seems risky to entirely dismiss. I don’t think he’s gonna do anything with the actual military against Canada, though. That’s expensive, and his puppeteers don’t see a big profit in it. He’s kind of already acting as an occupying force within the US, and his hold on power here is tenuous; and war with Canada, who can actually hurt Americans on their home soil, would be even more unpopular than his various overseas entanglements.

  • sns@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 day ago

    America isn’t like this because Trump is president

    Trump is president because America is like this

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        3 hours ago

        You say that like some of the most educated people in the country don’t consistently vote Republican.

        This idea that earning a MBA or a JD or an MD makes your politics good is completely wrong. The idea that failing to earn a HS Diploma makes you unqualified to vote is equally dogshit.

        Politics is a consequence of your social affinity and your material conditions. You don’t just take a class and become a liberal Democrat if your grade is high enough.

        • Folstar@lemmus.org
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          3 hours ago

          Yes, but ceteris paribus, an educated electorate is going to make better decisions. Or rather, the number of obviously bad decisions rejected is increased as knowledge of history and concepts deems them unworkable. Society exists.

          • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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            3 hours ago

            an educated electorate is going to make better decisions

            I have seen no evidence to this effect. Consider South Africa under Apartheid. Once an individual realized how they benefited from systematic oppression of those below them, more and more fell in line. It is the “uneducated” underclass that made the revolution possible. And it was only possible through a strong social network that defied the “educated” understanding of micro-ethnicities that the Apartheid government sought to entrench.

            Same with Israel. You’ve got tons of educated professionals in that country who are explicitly and knowingly there to participate in a genocide. The Palestinian opposition has no education infrastructure. They can only resist through social cohesion and trust networks predicated on faith.

            The UK, another excellent example. A massive university system that largely exists to reproduce neoliberal ideological beliefs in a population that manages a predatory financial system and an arms export industry.

        • 5318008@lemmy.ml
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          3 hours ago

          This idea that earning a MBA or a JD or an MD makes your politics good is completely wrong

          Well, on average… it does.

          You don’t just take a class and become a liberal Democrat if your grade is high enough.

          No, but being intelligent is correlated with both of these things. Dumb people are more easily tricked by right wing talking points. Dumb people also don’t get good grades. Smart people are, for whatever reason, more likely to agree with liberal or leftist talking points. Smart people are also more likely to get high grades.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        It’s worse than that. Everyone has been brought up to be a narcissistic consumer and they approach public policy the same way.

          • stoly@lemmy.world
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            5 hours ago

            I became so disappointed in my grandmother when I was in high school when she expressed this attitude. I couldn’t understand why it mattered as children still needed school.

        • BooBees@fedinsfw.app
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          24 hours ago

          It was idiocy all along.

          Signed - a native whose ancestors talked at length and wrote down (or had someone else write down) how dumb they were in the very beginning, before there was even a nation

      • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        24 hours ago

        That’s not the issue at all. It’s the curriculum, the no child left behind act implementation, and the overall indoctrination and corruption of a system of government that rewards the rich.

        Most schools get plenty of money and just blow it on things they don’t need. Buildings way too fancy and overpriced educational subscriptions to crap, instead of spending it on more teachers and teacher salary. The money is plenty there. None of the rich fucks get a cut from cheaper buildings and teacher payrolls.

        • Prairie_Madness@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          Stripping education doesn’t necessarily mean money. The GOP has waged an all out war on knowledge over the last few decades. Hell Fox News was recently saying “colleges make liberals” despite the fact that all the people saying it had college degrees.

          No Child Left Behind gas been terrible. And I agree that money needs to go to teachers, not admins

          • MrGeneric@lemmy.today
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            2 hours ago

            Fox News was recently saying “colleges make liberals” despite the fact that all the people saying it had college degrees.

            Wait, Jesse Waters has a college degree?

          • WoodYouLookAtThat@lemmy.today
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            3 hours ago

            I’m in my mid 30s and Fox News was saying that colleges make liberals when I was in middle school.

            Probably even before that, I was just too young to notice

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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              3 hours ago

              In 2001, he graduated from Trinity College in the state capital of Hartford, Connecticut, with a Bachelor of Arts in history

              A liberal arts major, no less. From an East Coast private school in one of the bluest states in the country.

    • Deacon@lemmy.world
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      23 hours ago

      It a fair and accurate criticism and it probably shouldn’t have snuck up on us like this.

        • stoly@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          Exactly. I gave up hope when W was elected a second time after an abysmal presidency and terrible performance in the debates prior.

          • mifan@feddit.dk
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            14 hours ago

            I honestly thought that W was the lowest you could go. But in comparison with the current president you somehow wish you could at least go back to that level of presidency. Much bad to be said about him, but at least he was gentleman with respect for other people, institutions and the constitution.