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Bob Gmitter's avatar

Agree Bill. The politicians (puppets of the military industrial complex) and their useful idiots in the media keep creating these enemies to fight. I find it ironic that the same articles in the lamestream press that say that Putin and Russians are on the verge of collapsing due to no weapons and soldiers left but then say that he is planning on invading on taking over Europe?????? WHich is it? If Russia is on the verge of collapse how are they going to take over the rest of Europe???? One redeeming quality of Trump is that in his first term we did not get into any new wars. Harris/Biden started the war in the Ukraine and by funding Iran with billions allowed them to rearm their proxies and attack Israel.

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Howard E Bouchard's avatar

The war in Ukraine started in 2014 when we overthrew a democratically elected president who was friendlier to Russia than us and we subsequently started offering Ukraine, situated on the Russian border, NATO status.

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Mackinac's avatar

Bob,... that is probably the highest probability suggestion of working. This would be my first choice of action.

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Bob of the bald's avatar

Trump will not succeed unless he overcomes the fed reserve and all the pork barrel. History tells us there has never been a bloated bureaucracy that pulled it's ass out of the fire. This does not bode well for America and DICTATES the need to prepare as best we can. I am told 90% of the nation is not even aware so this means we must prepare for that fact also. In a nutshell it looks like you can't fight the fed et al. Damn glad I am 85.

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Gone Fishin’'s avatar

Last sentence sir; too, I want to announce that for myself in 9 years. Brilliant.

Thanks,

Mark

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Petra Kehr's avatar

In all one could conclude we're some kind of nursing home investment club 😁

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James W.'s avatar

……me to!……..

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Mark Aa's avatar

We have found the enemy, and he are US.

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MICHAEL WALSH's avatar

$500 Billion cut from Defense. John Kennedy found out the hard way what happens when you f*ck with the MIC. Do these guys think there will be no consequences ?

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Frank Westmoreland's avatar

Mr. Walsh, I think you're, of course, being facetious here. I'm sure you know that the Pentagon guys and gals don't have to remove any president because they oversee the largest JOBS operation in the U.S. by far. That $1T annually goes overwhelmingly towards jobs with decent benefits for millions of so-called private U.S. workers, as well as many more millions of partially-paid private U.S. workers, whose businesses couldn't survive without this partial funding of their operations by the Pentagon. Actual Pentagon govt. workers are very few compared to the "private" workforce supported by the Pentagon.

It's all fine and good for Bill and his friend and co-leader with Bill of the U.S. maverick financial analysts, David Stockman, to show how $500B annually can and should be cut. But quite another to tell us readers how they would go about doing this without eliminating tens of millions of U.S. jobs (full and partial). This would lead to a deep recession or even a depression---as Bill just pointed out two essays ago. (Pres. Trump & the GOP Congress would be replaced by CA Gov. Pretty Boy in the WH, Bernie Sanders in the Senate, and AOC in the House. Talk about the final death blow to America!) These unemployed contractors are overwhelmingly VOTERS!!! And like most American workers, they are soft, and used to this prop-up of their jobs by huge debt. These are not the tough folks of the 20th Century who went through the depression of the 1930s, WII, & Korea, and knew how to buckle down to work out of a difficult financial situation, like they did in 1981-1983 when Paul Volcker blasted interest rates sky high as the work-out.

I think this huge cut can happen if it is done GRADUALLY over many years so these workers have the time to find jobs in what should be a gradually improving private sector because the $500B annual cutbacks will greatly reduce the federal debt burden. But taking an all-at-once meat axe to the problem is not remotely politically possible. So I hope Bill and David will come with a plan to do this in a practical, gradual way, avoiding political catastrophe for right-leaning leaders. (I have read people who have studied this, who indicate buyouts of these folks, like corporations have done, by providing one-year's salary and two years of health benefits to assist in the transition. The cost would be initially high, but over a decade, money would be saved by getting these folks permanently off the Pentagon's payroll.)

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MICHAEL WALSH's avatar

Dear Frank,

The MIC is not the Pentagon guys and gals.

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Mackinac's avatar

BUT we haven't even had the persistence to start cutting. How would we ever find the persistence to do it gradually?

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Donald Withrow's avatar

Yes Sir, I am watching the dumpster fire called Build Back Better float down the street.

Proof that democrats are incompetent at governing!

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Dorothy's avatar

DW: You can add Republicans to that list also.

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Kevin Johnson's avatar

Upholding that which is prescribed in the book of Deuteronomy is a prohibitively expensive undertaking.

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Don Hrehirchek's avatar

Mr. DJ Trump will not drain the swamp . He has to many obstacles to climb and little time. It is not a matter of a pen stoke. Wish it was , sort of.

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Ed Uehling's avatar

THE REAL “PROBLEM” in a few hundred words. Thank you, Bill.

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D J Hadley's avatar

It shouldn't be hard. Pass one law.

"It shall be illegal for any government to borrow money, upon pain of death."

And stick to it.

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Egypt Solomon's avatar

The illusion within the illusion. America has no debt, it owes no one nothing! Hahaha The Mind Control Drone Project enters a new phase, “You say you want a revolution, well, you know, we all wanna change the world” laser wave the southern hemisphere and bend the brain mush!

The Gambino Boss Family, back to the future, Samuel Cody Petrozzeli, 34, aka, “Sammy The Plug”, making a buck, The Statue of Liberty reigns, New York street corner gains.

He who laughs last absolutely did not the joke, Mr. Woke. It’s crunch time!

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Luke C's avatar

Forget about any projections. If they are not starting with a mighty Javier style chainsaw and just lopping government branches and limbs away indiscriminately, and wholesale…they have zero hope of meaningful change.

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Mackinac's avatar

We certainly can't cut the FDA, NIH or CDC. Who would insure that we have "safe and effective" medicines that would both pad the "PhD's" pockets for doing this tedious work and keep Bill Gates in the black with his investments and foundational contributions to society all while keeping America healthy.

I guess when one starts reading the 412 pages the only conclusion which I come to is that all this debt is exactly what is building the America and it's billionaires into the most "succesful" economy in the world. A palace of mirrors that no one in the world can "discount", whatever that means. Good luck getting your Congressmen and Senators to change it ! I say go long and try to guess the top.

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Larry's avatar

Love your newsletter, I drive my wife and kids crazy by my quoting it all the time. You mentioned a set of books about the "History of the World" What is the author and published date?

Thanks

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Karim Gulam's avatar

Brilliant.

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Hugh's avatar

As Winnie The Pooh would say "Oh bother", just when I was convinced the sun was going to shine.

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Graham Jones's avatar

Great article. As Peter Lilley a former Social Security Secretary in the UK Cabinet and I suspect small government guy said ‘the trouble with a billion pound saving is you’re taking a thousand pounds from a million people’. Reagan couldn’t do it, Thatcher ultimately couldn’t do it which is why those of us who believe in sound money, small government and balanced budgets are looking to Argentina to see if Milei can.

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