Andy1

First, with regards to the student activists - freedom of speech is a bedrock freedom which our democracy is founded on in this country. Personally, I think the students protesting against universities due to their alignment with Israel interests were stupid or brainwashed on TikTok. Everybody does stupid crap in college. A few may have had connections with Hamas. Universities handled the protests poorly, due to a variety of reasons. Regardless, there is no freedom of speech unless we allow others to speak/scream things that we don’t agree with. This applies to pro Hamas idiots and to the neo-Nazi losers without a life. Peaceful protest is the American way through which all major changes in society have been achieved. Now for Harvard…They will survive the Trump era. They may have to dip into their endowment a bit but this really isn’t about Harvard. Harvard is just the target Trump chose so everyone will pay attention. This is Trumps battle against all universities who dare not follow his orders. He wants to control what they teach and who they hire. He wants DEI for his minions. He is not just stopping funding for Harvard. They have stopped funding for universities all across the country. He wants universities to fear his wrath. It’s part of the authoritarian playbook. Government partnerships with American universities is a longstanding tradition which has helped create the best university system in the world. They have championed liberal values such as non discrimination and understanding of other cultures. It’s why wealthy foreigners want to send their children here to study. Our education system has its problems, but it’s one of the best things America has which is the source of so much innovation solving problems and creating new things in all fields of society. Trump wants to break that. If universities take federal funds, he wants to control them. If they don’t follow his orders, he will order investigations and launch lawsuits against them. Already 50 universities are under investigation about DEI crap. That’s what he does to people he doesn’t like. You seem to think Trump is not against university education. In my opinion, it is obvious that he and his crew want to control them or break them. Him and his cronies have all been through Ivy League universities though. Republicans love to crap on higher education as part of their fake populist act. Ted Cruz is famous for that BS even though he went to Princeton and Harvard Law School. I guarantee you that they will all be sending their kids to famous universities while they convince their followers that education is overrated and not necessary or desired today. The less educated the public is, the easier it is for the corporate wealthy to remain in power and pass laws to benefit them and not the people. Authoritarians love an uneducated public.

Well the current president is guilty of sexual abuse and republicans don’t seem to have any problems with that. Just sayin…

This is the stupidest thread on PPP.

What are you talking about? References? America has been multicultural since the beginning. If you don’t like it, there are plenty of “pure” options to move to. And as a reminder, the vast majority of immigrants from Mexico south are Christian.

This year China’s universities will produce over three times as many PhD STEM students as Americans graduating with same degrees. These are the people who will shape the future in technology, robotics, communications, AI, medicine, space, etc. So here’s Trumps solution to helping America compete - First attack foreign students studying here to send a message, heard around the world, that they are not welcome. Then his next move is to withhold funding for research at Harvard over his stupid, illegal demands so he can fight his culture war. In China they celebrate academic achievement. In America, Trumpists ridicule and demean it. Their motto might as well be “We don’t need no education…” He wants to make America dumber and less competitive. This is not what made America great.

The one consistent trait in Donald is that he LOVES the dictators. He seems to view leaders of democracies as weak people, subservient to the other branches of their governments.

This is a power play by Trump. He wants to make the court subservient to him. At worst, they will give him a sternly worded letter which he will ignore. The concept of coequal branches of government does not befit a criminal king.

Every election is a reaction to the last 4 years. This country is bipolar. If/when a true liberal president gets elected, they will have the authority to use all the levers of power Trump is now claiming. Ignore court rulings Fire government workers deemed disloyal Target private citizens and business with legal action Force conservative universities and organizations to do what he wants Target protesters Remove rights, etc… Everything goes around in a cycle.

Good thread topic. Bad title.

Trump can’t out-tough China. China and Russia are used to collective suffering for national pride in a way Americans can’t do. In the end, whenever that is, I don’t expect any meaningful advantageous new trade deal with China. China knows the cards they hold. They can create a lot of economic pain if they want to. He will create some other crisis to divert attention while the tariffs whimper away and he declares fake victory. The media will spend one day talking about tariffs being over, then focus on new crisis. Now, where are all the amazing deals with all the other little s-hole countries?

Ok, I agree. Nazis are a bad comparison - too old school and maybe a bit over the top. Now when it comes to unidentified masked men in black snatching people off of the street, or deporting people to hell hole prisons in another country with no rights, that’s much more like the Russian FSB. That’s more of Donald’s style.

Just look at the title and first post of this thread.. LOL 😆

Fine. Hyperbole is what politics is all about. Once upon a time, Obamacare was about sending grandma to the government run death chambers.

I understand the rules. You are unable to comment or criticize actions of Dear Leader, so you can only talk about the messenger. Perhaps some day, you can tell us what you think about this case.

Trump is now defying a 9-0 ruling by the conservative majority Supreme Court. If the government wanted to bring the guy back, they could. This is what Putin does. Trump is now happy that he can finally act like a true ruthless, lawless dictator. I guess the Moral Majority crowd is down with this during Holy Week. Does the right believe in the rule of law? The court wrote : “The Government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including US citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene.” This is Trumps position and today he mentioned his desire to send US citizens to El Salvador prisons, which is clearly ILLEGAL. One orange old man as judge, jury, and executioner, just trust him. Now picture a radical liberal president doing the same thing. The political pendulum swings back and forth so don’t discount the possibility. Read the 4 page decision here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a949_lkhn.pdf

When Trump opens his mouth, Putin speaks.

We need manufacturing, but factory work is for those other people; not me or my kids. That’s partly why businesses left.

No worries. The clown crew has this under control.

Rational in the sense of being understandable or logical from a policy perspective, not that I agree with it. I would see the training funded with savings from DOGE.

No one can answer my question above because there is no rational reason for his tariffs and no consistent reason explained by the administration. I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer but a rational tariff policy would be to place 10% tariffs on China products and imported oil and use that revenue to pay tuition costs for education/training in high need job fields like nursing, doctors, medical specialists, electricians, welders, mechanics, plumbers, and subsidized child care. Those are areas of real need that would help Americans everywhere. Everyone could understand the reason. By the time we are in nursing homes, doctors will be replaced by us talking to a computer and they will have robots wiping our ass because there are no people in those jobs.

What is the goal of Trumps tariff policy? Be specific. You can’t determine if what he did was right unless you know the goal to achieve.

Fine. No one forces anyone go to college. Go get a trades job then. They make good money too and are in short supply. Welders, plumbers, electricians etc are all needed. Those jobs are better than the factory jobs or coal jobs Trump wants your kids to work at.

How arrogant does one have to be, to be the wealthiest nation in the history of the world and declare that global trade hasn’t been fair to America? Every other nation on the planet is like WTF? In other countries, children and young adults leave their families to go to work in factories making goods for America. They work in places with no OSHA or laws to protect them. They make this sacrifice to support their families living in poverty unlike anything in America. Do Americans think that other countries don’t also have problems adapting to changes caused by global trade? America has benefited the most from global trade. The entire economy of the world has been designed by and for the benefit of America. As our economy has developed and wages increased, corporations followed the rules of capitalism and moved to locations where labor and resources were cheaper to maximize their profits. Americans supprted that philosophy over and over again by choosing the cheaper foreign made products over the remaining Made in America alternative. America is still the #2 largest manufacturer in the world. Biden got the bipartisan CHIPS Act done which is a step in the right direction. Trump has repeatedly wanted to repeal that… for no logical reason. Now currently, the economic issue seems to be the struggles of young men without college degrees. A lot of them seem to think they deserve better. Women are succeeding more than ever before and are out competing men in many areas. If men are struggling, the answer is to buck up, get off the video games, and get training or education in a field that will pay well. If you have to move, then move. Make a career in the military. There are plenty of labor shortages in many sectors of our economy. Why does the only answer have to be a factory job artificially created by tariff taxes paid by Americans? Everyone is ignoring the service sector of the economy. We dominate the world in that department. There are huge labor shortages in this sector. The trade war has, and will, damage this sector of jobs. See: https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/11/business/service-sector-trade-war-jobs-threat/index.html

So basically these neo Nazi idiots are a bunch of insecure losers.