U.S. 2028 Presidential Election Season and General U.S. Politics Thread

Danbo said:
I am not an American....but doesn't the US have a tradition doing this?

Trump didn't invent it, under W Bush people were flown out to Guantanamo without trial or legal defense, held like animals and often tortured. Did people push back or protest? Nope.....nobody gave a shit because they all were "terrorists". Just because people are criminals doesn't mean you can strip them of basic human rights...and a lot of people incarcerated during that time were innocent.
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Yep, and those of us who spoke out against that were labeled "terrorist sympathizers" and dismissed, or even accused of being terrorists ourselves. Same thing happened again to those of us who spoke out against Obama using drone strikes against US citizens without due process under the guise of "national security".

And now we have the natural progression of that, the next step on that path, where US citizens are going to be disappeared to foreign prisons with no recourse and no records. And people will wonder how we got here. The path is pretty clear.
 
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FictionalFaust said:
That was the one. I do wonder if "we have to get out" will beat "fuck that is a massive paycut though"
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As for Japan, at least the low cost of living will offset some. Europe is quite an expensive place to live as well, but it's still comfortable enough if you are high skilled and/ or willing to work harder than other people (which isn't difficult).
America's salaries are fantasy salaries at this point and the cost of things is absurd. It's a joke that they think that tariffs will help people by locally produced things because it's not possible to produce things locally at a cheap price, especially after getting rid of immigrants as well.
 
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Europe is a fair range tbf, if you spod off to Spain/Portugal or the other end to Poland and co, you can find low COL and pretty well payed remote jobs. The actual centre though, yeaaaaaaaaaah...
 
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Danbo said:
I am not an American....but doesn't the US have a tradition doing this?

Trump didn't invent it, under W Bush people were flown out to Guantanamo without trial or legal defense, held like animals and often tortured. Did people push back or protest? Nope.....nobody gave a shit because they all were "terrorists". Just because people are criminals doesn't mean you can strip them of basic human rights...and a lot of people incarcerated during that time were innocent.
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One difference is that the people rounded up and sent to Gitmo back then were all outside the United States when nabbed. That led to Americans caring a lot less about their plight. Not saying it's any better, but it hit a little differently. That, and all the post-9/11 hysteria. I'm not really sure how it felt stateside at that time as I was living in Japan then, but I am here for this now and I can tell you it officially sucks ass.
 
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Danbo said:
A favour? ....if he is currently working on his PhD it is a fucking disaster.
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Well, yes, of course. But the kick in the ass to get off the sinking ship is at least a benefit.

Plus, depending on where he's at with the program, he could probably finish up the degree even from Japan.
 
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News story says he's within 1 year from graduating, so there's a good chance he can finish the rest in Japan. The bigger issue is he has wife and kids already established in the US.
Also stupid move since the PhD has been funded by a US university.
 
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jhingy567 said:
Also stupid move since the PhD has been funded by a US university.
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This country no longer has any interest in investing for the future. The toxic capitalism mindset of "NOW NOW NOW" that infected companies into prioritizing the next quarterly earnings call over literally everything else has now infected the federal government, but in an even dumber and less justifiable way.
 
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bdole said:
This country no longer has any interest in investing for the future. The toxic capitalism mindset of "NOW NOW NOW" that infected companies into prioritizing the next quarterly earnings call over literally everything else has now infected the federal government, but in an even dumber and less justifiable way.
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I think it's even stupider than that. It's not like there's a good short-term outcome. It's just "owning the libs" or whatever the hell it is that MAGA gets off on.
 
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Gasoline price in the US is down compared to last week, but UP compared to when DJT took office.
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Similar for everything else he's crowing about. CPI index is down 0.1 - after a 0.5 and 0.2 increase.

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Sudsy said:
Gasoline price in the US is down compared to last week, but UP compared to when DJT took office.
View attachment 28164

Similar for everything else he's crowing about. CPI index is down 0.1 - after a 0.5 and 0.2 increase.

View attachment 28165
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Which is likely all that matters because Trump supporters have memories of goldfish, or are so stupid that they can only keep 1 number in mind and have issues with holding a concept thought for more than a few minutes.
 
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qcryp said:
As ridiculous as the story is, it is still good to see someone somewhere made a logical decision to reverse it.
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No apology or anything lol.

The whole thing went viral just as the admin were trying to strongarm the visiting Japanese delegation into a 'trade deal'. No wonder the negotiations went nowhere 🤣
 
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jhingy567 said:
No apology or anything lol.

The whole thing went viral just as the admin were trying to strongarm the visiting Japanese delegation into a 'trade deal'. No wonder the negotiations went nowhere 🤣
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I'm glad for him they reversed it but I sure hope he takes the message that America isn't to be trusted and once he gets that PhD he would be wise to continue his career in a country not overrun with mouthbreathing dumbasses who have no idea what their "America First" agenda is really going to do to the country.

As far as apology, you'll never get it out of these people. In fact, better just to let them quietly back down then to dig in, because they have to show their base that they're "strong." In this sense it's a little bit of Japanesque face-saving.
 
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Just read about the two German girls who were thrown in Jail and deported for only having the first 2 days of accommodation booked. Looked to be genuine tourists who were gonna wing it and didn't have a fixed plan yet. Basically how a lot of young people travel.
Anyway I think I will be cancelling my US trip now. As much as I'd like to see rocket launches and beautiful national parks, I don't fancy spending a night in jail with gangbangers (the bad kind).
I don't know how the US tourism sector will survive under the current conditions.
 
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jhingy567 said:
Just read about the two German girls who were thrown in Jail and deported for only having the first 2 days of accommodation booked. Looked to be genuine tourists who were gonna wing it and didn't have a fixed plan yet. Basically how a lot of young people travel.
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For March, there's been a 28% decline in German tourists travelling to the US compared to March 2024. Given that these trips were probably booked a long time in advance, there's probably going to be a bigger decline in the following months. Getting deported for only having your first 2 days booked is absolutely ridiculous. The entire experience will probably have a big impact on these two girls' mental health as well.

None of my friends are planning to go to the US any time soon.
 
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Another side effect that is just starting to be felt: trucking in the US is on the verge of collapse. Freight traffic at ports in California is so low that prices for cross-country freight have gone back 2 decades, and truckers are starting to get laid off. This Republican-heavy industry is about to drop to levels lower than what happened during COVID, 100% because of Trump's tariffs. Even with "pauses" or whatever he's claiming, overseas shippers are just skipping US ports because the cost and uncertainty is not worth it.

So yeah, that'll be fun. Projections say that by the end of May, we'll have pretty much 0 port freight out of California. No more trucker jobs. And truckers went hard for Trump.

For comparison's sake: May 2020 had 51 container ships that just skipped Californian ports completely due to lack of demand. April 2025 has 81 so far. The entire world is going to just go around the US. And this is probably why Trump is so laser focused on the Panama canal. He probably wants to make it much harder for cross-pacific shipping to bypass the US.
 
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bdole said:
Another side effect that is just starting to be felt: trucking in the US is on the verge of collapse. Freight traffic at ports in California is so low that prices for cross-country freight have gone back 2 decades, and truckers are starting to get laid off. This Republican-heavy industry is about to drop to levels lower than what happened during COVID, 100% because of Trump's tariffs. Even with "pauses" or whatever he's claiming, overseas shippers are just skipping US ports because the cost and uncertainty is not worth it.

So yeah, that'll be fun. Projections say that by the end of May, we'll have pretty much 0 port freight out of California. No more trucker jobs. And truckers went hard for Trump.

For comparison's sake: May 2020 had 51 container ships that just skipped Californian ports completely due to lack of demand. April 2025 has 81 so far. The entire world is going to just go around the US. And this is probably why Trump is so laser focused on the Panama canal. He probably wants to make it much harder for cross-pacific shipping to bypass the US.
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Naturally when all the truckers are laid off, when farms lay fallow as China will no longer buy soybeans, when dealerships close down…

"Why did Biden do this?!"
 
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