Ok, not football at all, but it matters, eventually.

[Billyni]

Think Trump will "break some things" and he's term limited. He also is not a politician.

Musk is worth over $34,000,000,000 and I don't think he's worried about depending on any of the government workers to put food on his table. A brilliant outsider with a goal to cut waste could be very lethal to these federal bureacrats.

Like the old saying "it's the hope that kills" I know that you are probably right but I still hope something can change. They steal 1/2 my paycheck every payday and they fritter it away with grift and corruption. They have stolen all of the money in our retirement fund - "Social Security" and replaced it with worthless IOU's. Of course, the government workers have a "seperate but equal" retirement plan that's fully funded in real money. Many of us know that the ponzi scheme that is our government can't continue without major changes. Needless to say there's a reason that ******* is over $106,000 and it's not because anyone thinks the schemers that came up with this are honest and trustworthy. Some people think they are more honest than the politicians that rule us.

You give half your wages to taxes??

[spaldy]

Not just taxes. Federal, State, Local and excise state taxes, social security, medicare. Add the sales tax on items you buy and I'm right at 50%. Like many yanks I don't have corrupt tax dodges and write offs and I'm not a politician which generally exempts you from IRS actions.

I guess I could look at the bright side. If I was in California, New York, New Jersey it would be higher than that.

[Billyni]

Not just taxes. Federal, State, Local and excise state taxes, social security, medicare. Add the sales tax on items you buy and I'm right at 50%. Like many yanks I don't have corrupt tax dodges and write offs and I'm not a politician which generally exempts you from IRS actions.

I guess I could look at the bright side. If I was in California, New York, New Jersey it would be higher than that.

Omg. Whatever happened to the land of the free.

[spaldy]

I forgot to mention the best part

Most private sector employees have no pensions anymore. Been that way since the 1980s. Federal goverment workers and politicians all have one. Civil servants also aren?t laid off and very hard to fire. Many get lifetime medical as well. Private sector are routinely laid off in slow times and fired. Many get no healthcare unless they buy Obamacare which is ****ty and overpriced with good sized deductible. Many docs won?t take it

The one exception? The military. They have to put in 20 years. The most valuable federal employees get treated the worst

No one can figure out why Trump won.

[WTF11]

Spaldy, we're obviously not going to agree on the majority of the points raised by each other and others who have posted, so this will be my last post on this thread.

You suggest that you're not an expert on the UK? Well, that makes two of us who aren’t “experts” on each others countries (find any assertion of mine that would suggest otherwise). The difference being that one of us makes ridiculous assertions about the others country, without a single shred of evidence nor even the most basic of KNOWLEDGE gleaned from actually visiting said country, whilst the other at least has lived and worked abroad (not just in the USA) and has a modicum of REAL KNOWLEDGE regarding the people and working practices of said countrys.

As to who I have worked for/with and how well known they are? I’m guessing you have personally interviewed the whole of the American population in order to determine that 95% have never heard of Siemens (45,000 employees), or Alstom (2,400 employees)? I’d suggest that companies like those, who provide rolling stock and the systems to control the railroad, as well as smaller companies like New England Construction, are hardly “crony capitalist companies”? Rather, they employ skilled, hard working folks who have delivered real benefits to just about every person living in America who use public transport, either in improved freight transport or commuter travel etc, or the housing and workplaces they live or work in. On the transport issue, maybe you’d prefer to go back to johnny appleseed/huck finn days with horse-drawn carts?

And where have I suggested that Americans “think like I do”? Quite clearly a large number don’t, otherwise the fragrant combed-over one wouldn’t be President-elect! Doesn’t change my view of the risk he presents, not only to America but the rest of the world.

As to his win being a “landslide”? Hmmmm……as you have the electoral college, and Trump won the 7 swing states and overall by 312 votes to 226, you could argue he “won big”, but if you look at the vote share across the country, it’s a little less impressive (Republican 49.9%, Democrat 48.3%). Lies, damned lies and statistics huh? With a popular vote split almost 50/50, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that you have a hugely divided country, rednecks included, one that Trump has no intention of healing.

In another post you refer to the large number of folks who "haven't reported into the office. "Strange that someone so loyal to the most capitalist country in the world seems also wedded to the communist ideology of “clocking on” being present at a desk/workstation/assembly station and observed/monitored. Presence “in the office” which you seem to keen on, doesn’t equate to productivity, and many employers discovered during Covid lockdown that many employees could be MORE productive whilst working from home (fully or part-time), as they had a better work/life balance, fewer issues related to travel/commuting etc. You’d suggest that none of the half a million you refer to, or their employers, have benefitted in such a way?

And who are the “accounting buddies” you mention, and what evidence is available to support their assertions on cuts, savings and the (implied) disbenefit of those who “haven’t reported to the office” (how very authoritarian!)?

Not a bad thing, moving government departments out of the Washington “bubble”, something the UK is doing to reduce the tendency of the Whitelall “bubble” to apply too much influence to some departments. Something we agree on perhaps, but “moving Agriculture to the middle of the country”? The United States is one of the world's largest producers and exporters of cereals, which are grown in almost every part of the country, so where would you choose? And whilst cereals are important, what about fruit/wine producers etc, livestock (primarily but not only beef). Lots of competing influences;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricu..._United_States

You choose?

And energy, you mean oil/gas extraction, or renewables, or nuclear, or all of that? Coal mining is of great importance to Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, where would you put the administrative offices? Drilling for oil however, especially the offshore fields, is focussed on Louisiana, Texas, California, and Alaska. Even if fossil fuels are the only consideration, where would you put the Energy department offices? Easy to come up with soundbite slogans, harder to implement even if you accept the idea in principle.

I’d agree with you that things will change for the USA, and for the rest of the world, just not in a good way.

[ozleeds]

Omg. Whatever happened to the land of the free.

Wait he didn't mention when you go out for food it's like law you have to leave a tip! Because food workers apparently don't get paid much.
One Indigenous basketballer can make 50 mil a year while his brothers leave on the streets off there faces.
Surely there some decency in small country towns of low population that help each other and don't need the corrupt rich to screw them. I know the Mormon are one and the Amish i mean just plain people with little farms and live like the old ways.
America is a disgrace all they worry about is other countries business and starting wars sorry spaldy. Facts are my nephew in Pittsburg and all the videos on the zombies plus the politician's as you had a smiling assassin and a criminal to choose from. Darker times ahead shame as most American people I have met in real life are pure nice people.

[ozleeds]

Something different to cheer you up
https://www.facebook.com/reel/538476728785012

[spaldy]

Something different to cheer you up
https://www.facebook.com/reel/538476728785012

that is excellent!

[george_kaplan]

Wait he didn't mention when you go out for food it's like law you have to leave a tip! Because food workers apparently don't get paid much.
One Indigenous basketballer can make 50 mil a year while his brothers leave on the streets off there faces.
Surely there some decency in small country towns of low population that help each other and don't need the corrupt rich to screw them. I know the Mormon are one and the Amish i mean just plain people with little farms and live like the old ways.
America is a disgrace all they worry about is other countries business and starting wars sorry spaldy. Facts are my nephew in Pittsburg and all the videos on the zombies plus the politician's as you had a smiling assassin and a criminal to choose from. Darker times ahead shame as most American people I have met in real life are pure nice people.

I just came back from Pennsylvania, they are great people down there, friendly and just good hard working folk. You are so wrong to say America is a disgrace. It definitely is not. Any city around the world is more or less the same, it?s just easy to single out America. Try Rio or Cape Town for two off the top of my head. Melbourne or Sydney are not what they were, been there plenty times. Funny you end in saying ?in real life?
Don?t believe everything you see or read on line etc.

[spaldy]

agreed on the city comment. It's the same worldwide.

a previous posters comment on the landslide is kind of strange. He won over 85% of the counties countrywide (I think Yorkshire would be a county if in the US) and won the popular vote by 5 million. In a divided and polarized country that's a landslide.

99.90% of the businesses in the US are considered "small business". Remove government workers from the equation and over 90% of the citizens in the US work for a small business. Making determinations about yanks based on a global conglomerate that pays pensions and healthcare for life is kind of like making decisions on the FA based on what Citeh or Lpool do and extrapolating it to the entire FA. These big crony capitalist companies spend millions and millions of dollars on lobbyists and polticians giving them stock, cash, free trips, escorts and houses and condos. Most politicians come in with little money and leave multimillionaires even though they live in the most expensive city in the country and make 200k a year. The corruption is fed by companies like semiens and the constrtuction company that buys off politicans and bureacrats to get the lucrative contracts.

Yes, it is likely that Trump will cause some great changes and upheaval if you are a politician or croney capitalist. Not so much for those that are government workers or croney capitalists