I don’t think so, at least when it comes to US citizens, because deportations would cost them and spark controversy for no benefit. I think they’d prefer to keep these deeply indebted people in the US as indentured servants willing to work for pennies and too poor to engage politically.

The penguins will tariff him up.

You’ve conjured images in my mind. I wish you hadn’t.

Their marriage hasn’t been the same since Bert returned from Vietnam and Earnie gave in to the voices.

Yeah… I still have clips of Blackwater’s ‘adventures’ in Iraq. If they’re still as humane and accountable as they were back then, seeing them anywhere is a bad omen.

That’s exactly it. Owners want people desperate, because desperate people work for less. As you point out, they start with “illegals”, but they will eventually come for the old and the disabled too, because some people will have to pick up where Social Security left and care for them and, in doing so, will become even more desperate. Who will risk their job fighting for their rights knowing that not only their own livelihood, but also that of their old mother or their disabled brother is on the line? We need to be clear: this is not about government efficiency or even a crackdown on “illegals”, but a war — the owners’ war on us workers and our kin.

They’ve been manufacturing consent in a similar way in Germany, agitating against immigrants and dubbing some or all people in your situation “Sozialschmarotzer” –“social parasites”–. Under the pretense of fighting those threats they conjure, they’ve been dismantling social security — without DOGE’s viciousness, but bit by bit.

In his first term, Trump increased both the budget deficit and total outstanding debt with his unsustainable fiscal policy. Now, his antagonistic and erratic trade policy is raising Treasury yields. He and his political project are brewing the very debt crisis they keep fearmongering about. The solutions they contemplate, like currency devaluation, messing with the Federal Reserve, perpetual or century bonds and a partial default on repayment obligations to China, further erode trust in the global financial system that underpins American power.

The expression “world economic anchor” is meant literally and factually: the United States are the world’s strongest consumer market and therefore drive demand and economic activity like no other, and, more importantly, the US dollar and Treasuries serve as a reserve currency and asset, respectively, for both central banks and private investors. This arrangement is unfair, in its own macroeconomic ways that have nothing to do with exceptionalism, manifest destiny or cultural superiority, to both the rest of the world, who end up funding the United States, and common US denizens, who suffer from inflated assets.

I think this charade parade is both a play to his MAGA base and a sort of loyalty test to see who in the military goes along with him.

On the one hand, scurvy is not a concern, because it is very unlikely to develop it, even with a bad diet, as far as I know. On the other hand, it might not be possible, economically viable or environmentally sound to add vitamin C to water in the way fluoridation is; I don’t know enough to judge here.

It’s fascinating how some people, however fringe, believe both:

• that there is a Deep State or some other form of conspiracy that controls hurricanes and people’s minds; and
• that Trump –or anyone else for that matter– can rein in such a powerful, almost omnipotent force.

On the one hand, I share your doubt, which is justified in the face of all the deceit and mismanagement that Merz in particular and the CDU and CSU in general engage in and their disdain for the public good. On the other hand, the fact that the Sovereign Tech Fund / Agency survived the German budget crisis gives me some hope that it will at least stay.

Although they could do more, I wouldn’t say they don’t care. For instance, Germany established the Sovereign Tech Agency.

Trump could blame Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve. In fact, Trump is already pressuring him, writing or at least posting the following:

This would be a PERFECT time for Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to cut Interest Rates. He is always “late,” but he could now change his image, and quickly. Energy prices are down, Interest Rates are down, Inflation is down, even Eggs are down 69%, and Jobs are UP, all within two months - A BIG WIN for America. CUT INTEREST RATES, JEROME, AND STOP PLAYING POLITICS!

On Reddit someone posted a parody of the whole affair. I believe it was originally posted on r/wallstreetbets, but it has since been deleted.

Donald Trump did indeed write at least the first three sentences back in 2018. I couldn’t find a source for the rest of the quote, but (a) I wouldn’t put it past that man to utter such nonsense and (b) it’s only fair we indulge in some stretching of the truth, given the extent to which he and his lackeys disregard it.