Yes, the leader of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Alice Weidel, doesn’t even live in Germany, but in Switzerland.

However, the AfD pursues a largely neoliberal economic policy and will therefore not do anything for the socially disadvantaged or for East Germany. But this fact is effectively disguised by the constant slogans “Foreigners are taking jobs away from Germans” and similar nonsense.

In this respect too, the AfD is quite similar to the MAGA people and, strangely enough, both are especially popular with the socially disadvantaged who vote against their own interests.

It’s really unbelievable how stupid people are. I mean, if the inhuman ideology of these damn Nazis isn’t enough to put you off, then at least one look at the States should be enough to make you realize how incompetent and corrupt they are.

This guy is such a clown…it’s really unbelievable…what a disgrace to the USA.

Play stupid games, win deadly diseases.

Yes, unfortunately, I think the US has been a plutocracy for way too long already.

I think it’s time for US citizens to admit that and change it for good. Of course, I’m fully aware that many Lemmy users have long realized this.

I really don’t want to offend anyone with this obvious statement, but it’s simply a fact that many people in the USA have been living like in a third world country for a very long time - even though the US is one of the richest countries in the world.

The reason for this is very obvious: shameless enrichment of the rich and powerful - hardly any difference to Russia imo - more humane means so far, yes, but the effect is basically the same.

This is not meant as an insult at all. I just can’t believe how obvious the corruption in the USA is: Even in the highest offices. People like the President himself or Clarence Thomas (so on and so on) obviously no longer feel the need to be ashamed of anything - they don’t even try to keep any of their criminal activities even remotely secret.

Our system is certainly not perfect and we also have major problems with corruption and also with the resurgence of fascist parties. But the level of open corruption in the USA is still mind blowing to me: The shameless insider deals of the president, the unscrupulousness of constitutional judges who so obviously rule against the constitution! I can’t even begin to name even half of it.

Unconditional immunity for presidents? Imprisonment of innocent people without due process? Prisons for profit? I think that’s wild and only possible in a failed state!

I mean, you really don’t have to be an expert in constitutional law to realize that any even halfway decent democratic constitution would of course rigorously rule all this out.

I myself can only observe this from afar and helplessly feel sorry for all the good and still rationally thinking US citizen.

Of course, I have no solutions. Only the obvious thought that the US institutions have long been corrupted.

I wish you all the best and try to contribute at least something from afar - but unfortunately I have little hope, because I honestly believe that the US system is broken beyond repair.

I’m not so sure they even want that at all. Simply because of their shameful behavior, while the US president acts like a goddamn Nazi (because he obviously is one, of course).

But for all that, the Democrats have refused to allow even a little progressiveness in their ranks for years, against the wishes of their own voters.

But hey, I don’t know very much about all this because I’m from Germany.

All I can say is that in our country - and this applies to larger parts Europe - Sanders, for example, would be a moderate center-left politician. What he is calling for is not at all radical in many parts of the world, but rather quite normal. Basic decency, so to speak…

Yes, I very much hope so.

Unfortunately, however, I fear that the situation for ordinary US citizens will have to get even worse. That seems to be the prerequisite for Drump’s still frighteningly numerous followers to overcome the sect-like state of mind in which they live in thanks to their apparent lack of intellect and the deliberate misinformation by their own leader and all his greedy cronies.

But yes: perhaps the collapse of the US standard of living, which I believe is inevitable due to this incompetent administration, will be able to perform this miracle.

I think it is high time if anything is to be saved from total ruin.

Well, he is the worst president in US-history…

Then things will soon get very tough, especially for ordinary US citizens and the socially disadvantaged in particular. Trump’s idiotic power games are largely at the expense of US citizens.

This is already evident from the fact that his import tariffs are in principle nothing more than a massive VAT increase.

At the same time, the emigration of intelligent people is piling up.

This is what a failed state does.

That’s true, but he will still need new buyers because his previous allies, whom he has alienated greatly, will very likely reduce their order volume considerably.

I think that this so-called statesman, with his petty power games, has once again overestimated himself on this issue - as with others issues but in the same stupid manner.

That doesn’t seem unlikely to me, since Trump has destroyed the basis of trust with his allies and is thus doing considerable damage to one of the few US industries that is still functioning well, namely the arms industry.

Perhaps he somehow thought that Europe would buy the weapons needed to equip itself because he has unilaterally terminated NATO protection from US companies. Maybe a few that you can’t get anywhere else, but the EU would be incredibly stupid to buy from a nation that is now hostile to it.

So other buyers will probably have to be found - although Russia has its own arms industry and is also on good terms with China. Moreover, unlike Trump, Putin really isn’t an idiot.

But hey, maybe the EU can negotiate a billion-euro arms deal with Russia to get better conditions for Ukraine.

It would hardly be any different from buying weapons from the US.

Never mind. Russia is calling the shots on their side anyway.

Oh, absolutely. I am totally convinced that Trump’s main goal is to line his own pockets and those of his criminal friends.

I was merely trying to reflect what Trump’s official plan is - especially in light of the fact that the US economy actually does have some problems. These include among other things steadily rising interest payments to creditors and the strong dollar, which has very obviously been at odds with weakening industrial production for quite some time.

However, the Mar-a-Lago Accord (not an accord yet by the way but merely a strategy paper) was drawn up by his main economist, Miran. This guy is apparently convinced that the problems that the US economy has could be solved in this way.

But still: even if Trump wasn’t a criminal who is only interested in his own advantage, I still don’t think his economist’s plan could work. Even without Trump, this would be pretty absurd. But with Trump I think it is impossible, because this moron even makes it worse - for example by not introducing the tariffs gradually as planned, but immediately at the maximum percentage (prolly to make more on insider trading). This is disastrous even in the context of this already crazy plan.

So in short, Trump’s economists want to fundamentally reshape the global economy (by pure force) with a pretty absurd plan - but Trump’s greed and stupidity makes it even less likely that this could ever work.

Oh, and: In any case, all of this is very much at the expense of US citizens - except for the usual 1 percent, of course.

Edit: Probably a misunderstanding: I didn’t mean that you were wrong about Trump jeopardizing the long-term prosperity of the US economy - I completely agree with you. I just wanted to say that the US economy was indeed already fragile before him, but that’s not because of Biden, but because of a long-term development that led there.

I think you’re wrong: the problem in the US is that the dollar is far too strong in relation to industrial output. The reason for this is that it is bought by other nations as a reserve currency through US government bonds.

This is a major problem for the US industry, which is nowhere near as strong as the strength of the currency would suggest. The problem is that a disproportionately strong dollar makes US products so expensive on the global market that they are barely competitive.

Trump’s plan (described in the so-called “Mar-a-Lago Accord”) now envisages forcing the partner states in particular, all of which are creditors of the USA, to suspend their claims (basically as if it were a national bankruptcy).

The only two explanations for this behavior I can come up with are: Either the US is actually bankrupt and Trump is trying to forestall the inevitable, or he is trying to impose an economic system on the world that favors the US even more than it already does, in an excess of hubris.

Either way: I believe that neither of the “solutions” for these two scenarios are realistically feasible with this plan. And I also don’t think that the Fed will go along with this, without which Trump cannot implement this plan - but he can’t force the Fed to play along either because he has no direct control over this institution as it is independent of the state administration.

Good regulation, very transparent, what could go wrong

Trump Has Exposed Exploited the Fragility of the Global Dollar System