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Agent22Smith's avatar

You masterfully bring us from the ancients to the present to deliver your assessment of the sad state of the U.S. Great read, with which I sadly agree.

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Ed Uehling's avatar

And of all that Bill points out, Trump is only making things worse with his paranoid fixation on “national security at any cost” and war mongering (which causes worldwide insecurity!) he makes the ridiculous assertion that tariffs are not attacks on the American people when history proves that they are very invariably destructive of wealth, creation, innovation, competitiveness, prosperity and even morale. He is clearly “off the rails” in every aspect having already made virtually everything more expensive for Americans with his 2017 steel tariffs while simultaneously creating a 70% share of steel manufacturing for China and handed it a nearly 100% innovation share. Only people forced to buy American steel.(ie, hapless Americans) now do it.

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Xavier Narutowicz's avatar

Trump washed his hands of Ukraine; he proposes to sell 1 billion, a month, in weapons, to Europe, for nine months, compared to Biden’s 150 billion. Europe is reporting Russian incursions, ridiculous from a Russian perspective; they propose to shoot Russian planes, start a NATO war. Crazy! Why?

500 American generals are meeting at Quantico. Will it be nuclear war or will we drop out of NATO?

The world is a crazy place, and the US is ground zero crazy, and it is not all Trump. It has been increasing exponentially for 70 years.

I like Trump, he is different. We need different.

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Mike Ware's avatar

I’m with you Xavier, let’s give the man a chance. We don’t even have a choice at this point in time. In the meantime, I’m making bank on gold and silver and miners. All the best to you.

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Stephen Wolf's avatar

Has anyone asked the question: Do we really want the military leadership of all U.S. forces in one building? What could possibly go wrong? What are our enemies thinking?

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Xavier Narutowicz's avatar

Yea, what would that look like. Hamilton founded West Point. It was difficult, military life was difficult, years on the frontier. Training ground, Mexican War. Civil war, great generals, North mostly South. Grant was a supply officer, drank too much at lonely post.

All in all, a great tradition, a production of leadership.

I guess, when they are all together, someone will take a picture.

A collection of stupid. Enemies would want to protect them.

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working stiff's avatar

I must be blind, shopping at Lidl and Aldi, Walmart, i find prices relatively static. No impact from Tariffs. So where does your data come from. Gasoline, down, mortgage rates down, it all seems like nothing but scare tactics. Will it pop, yes, eventually. But predictions are near the end of 26.

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StarboardEdge's avatar

"So where does your data come from."

Rectal Retrieval....

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Mike Ware's avatar

🤣

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Stephen Wolf's avatar

Predictions are nothing but an opinion with an open date.

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Eid's avatar

Have you checked coffee prices lately?

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Mike Ware's avatar

I don’t patronize Starbucks

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Xavier Narutowicz's avatar

Coffee beans are money, an addiction, I store it, like forever stamps. When money goes, there is barter.

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Stephen Wolf's avatar

I buy Folgers instant from Sam's Club. Has gone up $2.00 a jar in last year.

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Xavier Narutowicz's avatar

Eisenhower warned of the military congressional industrial complex in 1960. We have been an increasing war state ever since. In the first term, Trump was the only President to not start a war since Hoover.

Tariffs, imposed by A. Hamilton made the country. Free trade is a lie of American international business that wanted to produce cheaply abroad and ship it free back to the United States. The United States was the only nation without limits on imports. Everyone else protected their native industry, even China.

Bill imports farm products from Argentina to the US.

When we had meat import quotas we had a beef industry.

We were the world’s industrial power 90 years ago, now we have 2 million industrial workers.

Free trade has destroyed America.

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Mike Ware's avatar

Second that

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Ed Uehling's avatar

You imply that the cost of imported steel is high. Isn’t there a high 40% tariffHow much steel did the US steel industry export in each the last 8 years?

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Ed Burns's avatar

Yet the current (McGraw-Hill publication for end of Sept 2025) Engineering News Record inflation index forecast for year-end 2025 remains at an historically steady and tame rate of 3.1%.

One would expect this particular inflation index to reflect, not only problems with the cost of imported Steel & Copper, major foreign equipment manufacturers, etc., but also as reflective of domestic skilled and semi-skilled labor cost increases as well.

Perhaps, "the sky isn't falling" after all?

Meanwhile, my utility bill for electricity has tripled, year over year.

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Xavier Narutowicz's avatar

How many times has dollar circulation increased in 50 years. It doesn’t correlate to inflation because of cheap products produced in low wage states. 3.5 % inflation is the cost of the hegemonic dollar, the cost of a credit society, dependent on a devalued debt.

The consequences to Americans has been disastrous.

Lost jobs, stagnant wages, lost standard of living.

When you are not a producer of nut and bolt necessities, you stagnate, ingenuity, productivity and invention ceases.

Just contemplate simple products made in China. America was in the forefront of invention. It is projected that AI and government snooping computer systems will consume 40% of current energy supply. It is like building pyramids, a stupidity of human excess on the backs of many. 30% of my electric bill is taxes.

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Ed Burns's avatar

I have no argument with your position, except to add that without nuclear energy as a baseload power source, we'll have to go back to coal for efficiency and economy, which I really don't see as the preferred path from where we are today.

Solar for residential would be fine and, together with an EV powered transportation system would act to augment a nuclear baseload grid with a type of local back-up storage for power emergencies and a repository for cheaper overnight power on a daily basis. Battery storage (BESS) also has a place, especially for critical industrial applications, buying anywhere from two to eight hours reprieve in emergency conditions. Natural Gas fired generators for longer back-up.

Wind and vast Solar farms are a highly questionable source for power to scale, particularly if we build out a nuclear fleet.

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Xavier Narutowicz's avatar

Nuclear should have happened in the 60’s. Took a destructive military turn. It is the rational option.

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Steve L's avatar

Thank you Bill🙏. You and your friend are enjoying the fruits of your labor and living through the insane policies the mentally deranged left have created. No gas heaters 🤣 global warming, open borders. All deranged policies to destroy the West and give the power to the communist globalist. Your sweet friend states; “You could seal the borders and take away all the windmills and solar panels. But the major problem would still be there”. And she is 💯% correct. The problem is the left. These most morally and mentally corrupt individuals have always been the problem. The great news is America has had enough. Enough of the corruption, enough of the lies, enough of the fake news media, enough of the crime, enough of the murder, enough of the democrat cult of madness. Yes Bill, it seems your buddy James Comey will be the first to stand trial for Treason. This weakling will cry and breakdown like the mentally fragile fool he is, and all the globalists behind him will fall. So let the cleansing and the games begin! MAGA🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸. “If you're want a friend in DC, get a dog. We're coming for you.” …Dan Bongino, Deputy Director, FBI🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

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StarboardEdge's avatar

Brother Steve - I will be SHOCKED if ANY of the dimocrat traitors ever see the inside of a courtroom. It's all theater and I fear it's just fake meat to keep the wolves away from the Queen of Do Nothing, Scam Blondi.....

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Steve L's avatar

It’s happening, and it’s way overdue! Give them time to make the case and figure out where to prosecute. DC is a liberal swamp and they would have no success there, but if they prosecute for what it is, treason, then it’s possible for a military tribunal 🙏

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Mike Ware's avatar

SE, I agree with you. Blondi couldn’t prosecute her way out of a paper bag. She’s pitiful.

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Mike Ware's avatar

I saw where Bonnie bill didn’t mention the true sights from the sidewalk cafes and Eiffel Tower. I’ve seen the pictures and videos, and they don’t look very “Parisian” to me 😂🤣😝

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Steve L's avatar

I know Mike, so sad what happened to our beautiful countries. My last visit to Paris was so horrific that I would never go back. The restaurants were no longer run by French, and mostly Muslim controlled. Crazy shit how globalized countries have all been destroyed. Time to fight back or lose it forever…

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Mike Ware's avatar

Yes, and just more of Bonner’s lies by omission. But then again, he’s where he belongs.

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Steve L's avatar

Honestly Mike, I don’t think he knows where he is🤔

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Allan R Camrud's avatar

Bravo President Trump! I know little Latin and less Greek but I do know common sense. Spend a little time analyzing the impact of those 3 events (climate change, migration,covid) and the world would be a different place... The stultus's make a living claiming to be scholars.

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Mackinac's avatar

Excellent points!

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Don Hrehirchek's avatar

Good word "stultus. That way only You and I can put ourselves, if We choose to , into the definition. Good way not to point fingers!

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Andrew TORRANCE's avatar

Edward Bernays (1891-1995) argued in his seminal work, “Propaganda” that propaganda is needed to bring order out of chaos in a complex modern society. It creates a narrative which guides the thoughts and actions of the people in a society so that they act with a common set of rules and values. This narrative will not take account of everything but will set up certain ideas and events as determinant. The ideas may be partly false, and the events misrepresented, but they still determine the direction of society.

This means that successful policies must be backed by convincing propaganda. One of Bernays’s first assignments was to assist in the development of propaganda to justify Woodrow Wilson`s abandonment of the peace he had proposed in the 1916 election so that the USA could join in the First World War. This had become necessary to protect the money lent by the US banks to finance the Western alliance`s war effort. The Western powers had to win to make the World safe for JP Morgan. If they won, they would pay him back, but as their debts were so heavy, they would remain under American influence almost indefinitely. Bernays knew that “Make the world safe for JP Morgan” would not cut it, so he came up with “Make the world safe for democracy.” It was misleading. Russia, on the Western side, was perhaps less democratic than either Germany or Austria, though perhaps France and Britain were more democratic. As for JP Morgan, his bank was not democratic at all. Still, for all its shortcomings, the slogan worked and is still in use today to justify US foreign policy.

The US seems to be executing a rapid turnaround in foreign policy in 2025, but it has not been accompanied by the same skilled propaganda that helped Woodrow Wilson 100 years ago. Maybe it will develop as time goes by, but until it does, the nation will remain fractured.

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Mike Ware's avatar

Thanks for reminding people of the history of propaganda. I’m sure most people have zero knowledge or understanding of it.

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Abe Porter's avatar

BB-Good article. You are getting into more economics and hopefully less political. Guiding us in politics is a losing proposal. The reason is you said it perfectly. When the people get freebies it is extremely difficult to taker it away.

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StarboardEdge's avatar

Bravo, Mr. Bonner. Bravo.....

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Fazal Sheriff's avatar

The UN Assembly of Nations should have treated DJT the Same way as they treated the Israeli PM… by .. Walking Out✅🎉👏

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StarboardEdge's avatar

Sure thing* - because he was so wrong about what he said in his remarks to them during his first term.....

*insert eye-roll for the indoctrinated here......

PS - Did you bother to LISTEN to a single word he said? No, I didn't think so. How very typical of the unserious, low-IQ, domestic enemy dimocrat cultists....

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Fazal Sheriff's avatar

No!.. only what filtres through to me😎…i … and, That was … Plenty..😡i stopped watching and listening to him ✅🤣

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StarboardEdge's avatar

"i stopped watching and listening to him"

Yet you would argue to the death that you KNOW exactly what he said, amIright?

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Mike Ware's avatar

SE, you know they can’t argue with facts or reason because they’re brainwashed zombies

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Mackinac's avatar

I think they were stunned by the reality of his statements and the sting of reality when he talked about climate change which the UN - IPCC controls the narrative. But I do agree with Bill that it may not be that the US economy is the best ever, and inflation is destroyed, but then again it may turn out to be quite good. Looking at markets it seems that everyone isn't too sure about which side they should be on, probably largely because of all the freebees society is receiving.

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Fazal Sheriff's avatar

Yes… and even when, Not if, The US goes into Recession.. He Will Deny it and Pass Blane on Biden and Co….

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An Ol' LSO's avatar

Fazal, spot-on. The problem is America is rapidly falling apart. The end of the U.S. Hegemony followed rapidly by the US$. Unfortunately, there is no MAGA again. Pure hogwash. The World is turning away at an alarming rate helped by Trump's tariffs and sanctions. In a flash, Trump has sent country after country to the BRICS world including (unbelievably) India. The U.S. is only 4% of the world population, manufacturers few things, and it's only strength left is a consuming economy supported by a fiat currency that is collapsing. The only saving grace for awhile is that Europe including NATO is coming apart faster than the U.S. Farmers in America losing their markets overseas and the economy losing jobs at a rapid pace. You can blame the democrats and past administration and you can cheer the ol' TACO Clown on, but it is a lost cause. Yes - think positive, believe in redemption, and drink the kool-aid. Unfortunately, it won't help. And, if you are in a position where preparation is not possible, I guess hopium can be a relief. Frankly, ol' Bill sitting in a cafe sipping a first growth seems a good path forward as the western world is crashing. Yes - I get it. I am an idiot and just don't understand how GREAT the Clown is and he will lead us all to the promise land. The effect of the kool-aid is remarkable.

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Fazal Sheriff's avatar

Ah!.. The Kool-Aid✅Did Jim Jones Popularised that?… I am from Guyana 🇬🇾 where JJ LED so many Americans to their.. Blissfull End😡; I have made Canada my Home now for 50 years… and will Be haré for another… well….Until the Maker Calls😎; The Question is … How much More can or will the American people .. Endure before they say .. Enough is Enough !!!

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An Ol' LSO's avatar

Yes, good ol' Jimmy is responsible for the term "kool-aid". Guyana is an interesting country. Have done some work at Dr. Singh's in Georgetown. Ol' Jimmy was followed by the Heaven's Cult in Rancho Santa Fe but they didn't use kool-aid. How much more...........great question.....that will be answer in the not-too-distant future. The World is splitting and the West absolutely hates it - hard for them to believe just how ungrateful all the colonies are in Africa, Middle East, and Asia. But, the America Era is ending - just hope it doesn't end in a mushroom but some of the neocons would rather have ashes than lose their hegemony.

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Fazal Sheriff's avatar

I am not familiar with Dr Singh… In the Médical Field or Business?

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Mike Ware's avatar

Lol 😂 thanks for admitting that you’re a Canuck! Fools of the highest order lecturing Americans on America. Meanwhile, the Dopey White North is a pure communist hellscape.

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Kevin Leader's avatar

I would say the Carney is a WEF puppet as are most of the EU and UK governments.

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StarboardEdge's avatar

Fret not my good friend Fazal. The American people are in the process of saying 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" as we speak. They're just not saying it in the way you and fence-sitter LSO will like......

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Mackinac's avatar

Which is where it should be blamed.

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Fazal Sheriff's avatar

“ Those who blame others have a long way to Go; those who blame themselves are part way there”

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Mike Ware's avatar

Who’s Blane?

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Mike Ware's avatar

SCREWBALL ALERT 🚨

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Invector's avatar

And DJT should have treated them exactly how they deserved to be treated--he should have had them frog-marched out of the building, kicked out of the country, and then had the entire effing building razed.

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Sherilyn Allen's avatar

I originally signed up for Bonner Private Research etc. for economic and financial guidance. All I have gotten in the past 2+ years is vituperous sputtering about your hatred for Trump and mockery of the Biden group. There isn't a person here you can't refrain from criticizing. Well, they may deserve your mocking and hatred, but what are we supposed to do about it? Moving to another socialist country is not going to help the situation. A revolution in America is not going to work either for normal people. I used to look forward to reading your interesting articles and witty style. Now I just skim them to find what I don't need to read. It is sad.

Sherilyn Allen

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Don Hrehirchek's avatar

Well Sherilyn. There are a few alternatives. Steve L. gave You one . I will not give You one , but only to say that I take reading Bill's word with a thought of education. I do not know how much You have paid to read Bill's words . But I do not suspect a great amount. And You are certainly allowed to express Your view on this site!

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Steve L's avatar

Agree Sherilyn! For a much better understanding of what is happening in our world l, read Jeff Childers…. https://substack.com/@coffeeandcovid

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Flier's avatar

Bill's blond friend quotes the Greeks of old: [democracy]. . ."works for a while...but not for long. People always want more free stuff. And then, you can’t take it away...even when you’re going broke.”

Did she make this same point about foreign assistance or UN programs? ". . .[foreign governments and people] always want more free stuff."? Did she point out that what is true it the individual level is also true at the international level? The USA has been giving away 'free stuff' for generations, and we can't take it away, even when we're going broke.

Seems to me there's a message there.

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Lucas Kandia's avatar

The guardrails are down! What will stop them?

The bottom of the cliff all Western governments are driving us over.

As an aside — Bill and his crew were the ones who nudged me onto Substack. To research, to write, to edit (with a little AI help), and I thank them for that.

This week I read a long (14,000 words!) but worthwhile piece on Substack:

"The Wrong Enemy: Blood Clots. Not Cholesterol." by Unbekoming.

Given that many of us here are getting on in years, it struck me as timely.

I almost just commented “Good job” — but instead I fact-checked, dove deeper, and ended up writing two companion essays of my own. They’re about water. Not the rain Bill mentions today, nor the tears we shed over inflation, but the kind we drink… or too often don’t. Since we’re all trying to extend the life of our balance sheets, we might as well extend our own too.

The Hidden Foundation: How Chronic Dehydration Shapes Cardiovascular Disease

https://lucaskandia.substack.com/p/the-hidden-foundation-how-chronic

The Master Switch, Part II: Acute vs. Chronic Dehydration

https://lucaskandia.substack.com/p/the-master-switch-part-ii-acute-vs

Enjoy — and take care this weekend — watch out for those cliffs without guardrails!

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kenneth dame's avatar

Great read, Bill. It would be great if it takes a long 30 years for the dollar to depreciate 80%. A 1 trillion (and quickly growing) interest payment (alone} on the debt of 37 trillion (and growing) says otherwise. The question is how fast and how far the dollar depreciates, when gold (real money) is revalued to the dollar. If they raise interest rates to really fight inflation, hell and (30 yrs) will arrive very quickly for the poor and middle class. The lucky one percenters are obviously immune.

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Dean McLeod's avatar

Guys, I enjoyed reading your comments. Bonner and buddies do most of the heavy lifting research and attempt the most rational thinking about possible futures. Many of the commenters add real world and personal experience that provide perceived ground truth. I've been gratified to notice the commenters using respect and goodwill in your language and attitude. I've certainly come to the place in my life that the complexity of past, present and future realities is far greater than most people comprehend. There needs to be a certain humility in our certainty. I get daily come-ons from hucksters, shysters and pressure pump and dumpers. I guess we have to remember, that when it comes to money, most financial advisors have one major objective....me, me, me!

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Don Hrehirchek's avatar

I have not heard from "Gypt" in a while . Has He been banned ?

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Ed Burns's avatar

Ahh...the Bill I have known from my past readings. Only a bit of TDS still in evidence - which is fair - as long as the observation is made that there is a continuum of sorts now in play.

What I especially appreciate is the reversion to the core position of the absence of our Founder's Gold anchor as the root cause of our current economic slide. Your lips to Gods ear, Bill Bonner.

However, whether ultimately effective or not, I still see Trump as "the man in the Ring" today. His tariff imposition as, at least, an attempt to rein in the excesses of past post-WWII worldwide industrial and currency control policies, left unattended and unattenuated and now having gone completely amuck.

Certainly, a level of imposed control, rooted in common sense, even if wholly dependent on a charismatic force to affect change,, A team out in the open now operating with policies far better than the last Potemkin presidency bent on seeking to rationalize a mistaken and costly alternative energy scheme (amongst other errors), using the forces of their amen-chorus in media and academia. A violent mob of predatory pseudo-experts in government and backed by their street anarchists and even more violent, free-range, nut-jobs,

The hidden-hand forces of the past DC based "Green energy elites" actively being outed by household budget crushing energy inflation, via tripled up utility bills (see NJ Gubernatorial races), now fully engaged in an active cover-up campaign, revealing a stubborn, STEM illiterate and morally bankrupt party as the only Trump alternative currently on offer

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