Subject: Re: Long article identifying growth of stupidity
The stupid label should indeed be applied to those who got him into power in the first place. Critical thinking is certainly not the fashion.

And if we extend the logic to the people who lost to him, we can only conclude they are even more dense. And regarding those who did lose to him, critical thinking left the left quite a while ago. This is why they are in the position they are.

If I were a Democrat, the above would absolutely drive me insane.

I'm on board with your second paragraph however.

The challenge with Trump and his policies is that many of them have a solid basis in reality (not all) which ties directly into my statement about the opposition being yet more stupid. My expertise is more in the foreign affairs arena so I will stick mainly to that element.

- Ukraine...multiple administrations got us to where we are with all of the big moves during Democratic ones defined as Chechnya (Clinton), Crimea (Obama) and the latest Ukraine (Biden). If you are unable to infer that Putin infers Democratic administrations are push overs internationally when it comes to hard power, I can't help you. On the flip side, Trump has been absolutely bizarre with Putin. I'm generally not into conspiracy theories, but I could almost get behind one on Trump being compromised.

- Threats to the actual US mainland...the top two for a long time have been drug trafficking and cyber. Anyone want to make a counter-case? I'm not sure where I sit on blowing narco boats out of the water with military force but there is the Obama strike against a US citizen that turned jihadist. I wish Congress would not have turned over its war declaring authorities to the Executive, but here we are. The train on undeclared wars left a long-time ago. If you can kill a US citizen without trial by designating them an enemy, doing same for foreign narcos is not a stretch. I mainly see the latest as a continuation of what Congress has permitted with effectively very little restraint/checks and balances.

- Europe...I offer anyone the opportunity in this thread to make the case that they have not been freeloading on defense since the end of the Cold War. It's ridiculous really. Soft power is a good thing to have, but it has never substituted for hard power.

On domestic policy...no one beyond a small vocal minority is losing any sleep on immigration enforcement and a hard pushback on some really non-mainstream cultural issues. This is where I find the opposition about as dense as it gets. It's baffling how stupid they are in being set-up on losing cultural issues by the Trump administration and the response seems to always be. Give me another fist in the face please. Eventually, I believe a new version of Bill Clinton will show up or the D party will no longer govern beyond urban areas. For those of us who are history geeks...does anyone find it interesting how much today is like the early days of the Republic when it was pretty much rural against urban?

Of course we are dealing with chaos as a strategy which I don't think is going to work out great for us over the long haul. Canada and Greenland, just plain weird. Why? So unnecessary. Some (not all) of the tariffs, are not going to work out well over the long haul. I'm on board for tariffs to force back critical industries like pharma, metals, energy, food, chips and critical defense industry. For the thoughtful, Covid was a wake-up call, and personally, I think the Trump crew is doing us all a service by forcing some hard conversations in this area. China has been very astute here to the Western world's detriment...and it has been a deliberate and long-term strategy they have carried out that started in the late 90s. Undercut via subsidies, block from China, kill, take over.

Meanwhile, neither party seems willing to take on the two really big problems we have...the national debt and a very broken and expensive healthcare system. Unfortunately, with a professional political class primarily oriented on keeping their jobs, circuses and bread for the masses continues to be an effective sop.