The fed is being dismantled in front of our eyes.
Militia's shoot US citizens for documenting their illegal behavior.
Insane
militia
noun
1. a military force that is raised from the civil population to supplement a regular army in an emergencyI don't know if you're from the US, but here, militia applies solely to civilian groups and not government ones.
Maybe send your gold to a country that actually protects priceless things, like the UK.
[1]: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/art-thieves-blew-u...
I thought that was a constitutional right?
FFS, I'd wager the ICE thugs didn't even think Alex had a weapon at all, not until they had already (A) shoved him (B) pepper-sprayed his face and (C) yanked him from the other disabled protester he was trying to shield and (D) threw the blinded Alex to the ground on his knees with both hands down on the pavement.
____________
To be more specific, since there are different angles out there, I'm referring to these [0][1], where one of the ICE agents can be seen removing something from Alex's belt.
Then, almost immediately, the adjacent ICE agent draws and shoots the blinded, restrained, and unarmed Alex Pretti, putting ~4 bullets into his back from behind.
[0] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/witness-videos-cbp-kill... -- At 1:01, grey-hat-jacket pulls something from Alex's exposed waist with his right hand. He swings his his arm away towards the road (see other footage) while black-hat-green-sleeves pulls his own sidearm and shoots.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMsBIPjUq2k -- At 1:31, you can see grey-hat-jacket's right-hand swinging into the road, holding what looks like a weapon.
The Gestapo.
Sometimes the law and its enforcers are the bad guys. Usually around the point where they abduct, brutalize and murder with impunity
They kidnap, beat and then throw away citizens and legal migrants.
They are misinformed i’m afraid. This is the BEST case scenario: https://apnews.com/article/minnesota-immigration-us-citizen-...
worst case scenario is you’re sent to another country, or killed.
> People are obstructing armed immigration enforcement and expecting to come away unscathed.
It’s scary that people actually think like this. These types of unprincipled excuses for lawlessness and murder are how authoritarians get into power. It might have been more excusable in the past but not today when the videos show the murder for the whole world to see.
They shouldn't have shot him since he was not being violent. But he did obstruct: he was standing in middle of the street, acting like a traffic cop. When border patrol tried to arrest a woman, he got between them and the woman. That is obstruction!
After that they shot him without any reason.
If you mean Republican federal legislators, then that's a much more complicated question and I think you'll need to explain how you're doing the math.
My dude, you have seized upon a statistic that, while technically true, is also utterly-effing-meaningless.
To illustrate, I've calculated the headlines for other Presidential elections:
1936 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1940 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1944 SECOND HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1948 SECOND HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1952 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1956 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1960 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1964 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1968 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1972 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1976 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1980 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1984 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1988 SECOND HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1992 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
1996 SECOND HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
2000 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
2004 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
2008 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
2012 SECOND HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
2016 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
2020 FIRST HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
2024 SECOND HIGHEST TURNOUT IN HISTORY!!!
The fact that the US did this twice beggar belief. For those of us in the rest of the world who have no say but are bombarded by this shit daily, we hold you all responsible (no matter what 1/3rd you're in).
To hit the captain with a shovel may look like mutineer madness on any boat, but maybe a sign of necessary changes and reality grounding on a ship called "titanic" where the captain yells "right on, right on" into a pipe that does gurgling sounds.
If voters saw the first Trump term and knew about Project 2025 (which was public and publicly discussed) and didn't care enough to vote against the implementation of what was happening right under their noses then that isn't much different than voting for him.
If anything it's worse. At least the right is actively evil. At least voting third party, futile as it is, is making a statement. Seeing Trump's movement gain and consolidate power, listening to their beliefs, seeing the preparation of political infrastructure, January 6th, stacking the Supreme Court, the normalization of white supremacy, and knowing fascism could be a vote away and not giving a damn shows a depth of poisonous cynicism and cowardice that should brand a person for life. That will brand our entire society for a generation.
I thought right wingers were all about individual freedoms, now all of a sudden you want to dictate the values of your fellow citizens?
Moving that much gold makes me think that’s a great opportunity for the world’s biggest heist!
When large quantities of gold are actually transported "at once", it usually happens in secret on warships. Maybe military planes would be used nowadays? Who knows. Good luck anyhow.
(well, not really, as it weren't direct gold reserves but gold-backed dollar reserves)
Also I wonder if the rising gold price would interact with this, though I think this would make the "sell and re-buy" strategy actually more viable, at least if you buy first and then sell.
So countries like France held dollars and could no longer get them converted to gold. From my reading, before 1971, all the requests to convert dollars by France, Switzerland, and the UK were all honoured, contributing to the crisis. I don't believe anyone were refused conversion until 1971. And even then, everyone still had their dollars. All they lost was the ability to redeem for gold according to the fixed Bretton Woods price. Dollars could still be used to buy gold at market value.
But this article is talking about repatriating gold owned by other governments but physically held in vaults by the US. A bunch of countries (including Germany) have already repatriated vast amount that were housed by the US, and those requests have never been refused. The Federal Reserve is said to even keeps the bars owned by other countries physically separate, rather than commingled.
If they had converted gold to dollars, this only suspended their ability to "rebalance" between gold and dollars, and no value was lost.
The result would be catastrophic for the US: worst case would be a domino cash in of American debt.
There's an amusing anecdote about the Dutch queen who asked the prime minister if he read Mein Kampf.
Everyone is just desperately pretending none of this is happening.
Perhaps they think asking is the best way to find out.
Because gold repatriation isn't something that special or unthinkable. It happened multiple times already.
Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Germany have asked a significant portion of their gold back. The US gave them and the world kept working as before. The amount of doom posting in this thread is mildly amusing though.
It would trigger a loss of faith in the US and USD. Which could get really spicy given that the US relies on reserve currency status to keep things steady despite comparatively high debt/gdp
Hard to tell what would happen but I suspect its borderline enough that nobody sane wants to find out
https://www.federalreservehistory.org/essays/gold-convertibi...
"The prohibition on gold ownership in the US was relaxed in 1964, and finally rescinded in 1977 when Gerald Ford signed proclamation Pub.L. 93-373."
However, during severe economic recession the US government has Nationalized private gold holdings >1oz in the past. Something like a 35% drop in markets due to a theoretical Magnificent 7 "AI" bubble correction does pose a nonzero risk.
Keep some Popcorn ready, as the price of Gold going any higher is getting weird. =3
What would the founding fathers, the ghosts of the French Revolution or Plato say to that? Nothing, they’re all dead.
We should be doing the changing, not the long dead past.
Well, the people are dead. Calling a ghost itself "alive" or "dead" is a categorical error.
Have a great day. =3
"The Evolution of Cooperation" (Robert Axelrod)
https://ee.stanford.edu/~hellman/Breakthrough/book/pdfs/axel...
https://www.moneymetals.com/news/2024/10/05/why-france-repat...
Instead of drawing the anger of the US, just .. slowly over time, sell all the gold off, and move the money back. And use it to build infrastructure or something. Much better than gold.
Anyway, it's been clear to me that this sort of thing was Trump's plan all along. The goal is massive and permanent reduction in the size of the federal government. If that requires crashing the US ability to borrow more money, and crashing the value of the dollar, that's a price he's willing to make the US pay. US reputation abroad is of absolutely no importance to him; indeed, it's a negative, since a positive reputation allows borrowing that sustains the large federal government he hates.
The lesson for Europe is that depending on the US to defend them was a poisonous mistake, even if a very seductive one.
A post-crash US would be poorer, but also much more economically competitive. This would tend to encourage investment, so it's an interesting question how far the dollar would actually decline.
I wouldn't want to be in South Korea or Taiwan (or Japan, really) in this scenario.
It was a decision that was necessary to not loose the second world war to Germany and/or the Sovietunion. Until 30 years ago separating from the US would have meant allowing the Sovietunion to expand to the Atlantic. Separating from the US has been an open discussion for the last 30 years, but it was always felt to be a security risk and the US has actively used its soft power to remain the status quo.
The only reason why other countries sent their soldiers to stupid wars in Afghanistan and Irak that made no sense then and make no sense now was because they were honoring their commitments and saying OK, we send people to die but if the worst come and Russia attacks us, The USA will do their part. Now Trump openly says all this was for nothing. All trust in the USA is gone as nobody knows what Trump does when he wakes up next day. So we quietly work on making the best of the current situation.
Of course Europe was leaning on US defense. This enabled resources to be diverted to social spending instead, something that has become all the more vital as populations age. And it's not clear what the US gets out of defending Europe now. There's no perceived Soviet juggernaut and Russia can't even conquer Ukraine.
It looks a bit like that to be the case, but legally Russia still isn't at war with the Ukraine, according to their own internal law. Hence the use of mercenaries and "volunteers" and the pinky promise that conscripts are not used near the Ukraine.
This is just Germans dealing with end being unavoidable.
This is also what at least part of the Americans doesn't get. Europe, Canada, Japan, South Korea, etc. weren't freeloaders, they were doing the bidding of the US in the UN, maintaining the system where the US can print money without limit, etc. All that soft power has been destroyed.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_the_Powerless
(hook)
We′re all living in Amerika.
Amerika ist wunderbar.
We're all living in Amerika,
Amerika, Amerika.
(verse)
Wenn getanzt wird, will ich führen,
auch wenn ihr euch alleine dreht.
Lasst euch ein wenig kontrollieren.
Ich zeige euch, wie es richtig geht.
Wir bilden einen lieben Reigen,
die Freiheit spielt auf allen Geigen.
Musik kommt aus dem Weißen Haus
und vor Paris steht Micky Maus.
(hook)
We're all living in Amerika.
Amerika ist wunderbar.
We′re all living in Amerika,
Amerika, Amerika.
(verse)
Ich kenne Schritte, die sehr nützen,
und werde euch vor Fehltritt schützen.
Und wer nicht tanzen will am Schluss,
weiß noch nicht, dass er tanzen muss.
Wir bilden einen lieben Reigen,
ich werde euch die Richtung zeigen.
Nach Afrika kommt Santa Claus
und vor Paris steht Micky Maus.
(hook)
We′re all living in Amerika.
Amerika ist wunderbar.
We're all living in Amerika,
Amerika, Amerika.
We′re all living in Amerika.
Coca-Cola, Wonderbra.
We're all living in Amerika,
Amerika, Amerika.
(outro)
This is not a love song.
This is not a love song.
I don′t sing my mother tongue.
No, this is not a love song.
(hook)
We're all living in Amerika.
Amerika ist wunderbar.
We′re all living in Amerika,
Amerika, Amerika.
We're all living in Amerika.
Coca-Cola, sometimes war.
We're all living in Amerika,
Amerika, Amerika.
Meanwhile Germany could silently buy gold at home and let the market handle where it comes from.
We're essentially creating the same scenario as WTI vs Brent oil, where gold is partitioned into multiple different products depending on location.
"We just want to have it for a bit to polish it to ensure it is shiny. It's a requirement of German law under Saftsack gesetz 35.6"
The more he pushes us away with his deranged tantrums the more independence we are forced to build, it's a win-win really
It is a profoundly untrustworthy country.
The gold discussion imho misses the point if it’s reduced to “Trump is unhinged.”
What we just saw at Davos with Greenland reveals the actual pattern: the theatrics are the tool, not the objective. The erratic behavior generates uncertainty, which then gets converted into bargaining leverage.
With Greenland, Trump just demonstrated how this works: maximum escalation (tariff threats against a NATO partner), then “backing down” in exchange for concessions (“total and permanent access”). The result is a structural shift - Europe becomes more dependent on US decisions in the Arctic, not less.
The second-order effect: coercive bargaining within the Western alliance becomes normalized. Once you’ve done this with Denmark, the threshold drops for similar tactics on other issues - tech regulation, China policy, financial infrastructure.
The third-order effect for German gold: the real question isn’t whether Trump is “crazy enough” to freeze gold reserves. The question is what negotiating leverage the mere possibility creates. Even if the probability is 5% - what concessions would Germany make to bring that risk down to 0%? That’s the actual logic: the more everyone believes he might do it, the more he can “sell” not doing it.
The economists aren’t arguing that (or if) confiscation is likely. They’re arguing that the risk is no longer negligible enough to ignore - and that the cost-benefit calculation of storing it there has fundamentally shifted.
So, he made the threats. Stocks start going down, bond yields start going up. Perhaps surprising to him there is a unified reaction from EU countries, the trade bazooka is on the table. More rational actors in his entourage/broligachy start to get worried, advising him to find a landing site. Along comes Mark Rutte who offers him a landing site that sounds great, but does not improve much over his starting position, but actually made it worse (there will be non-US NATO arctic troops on Greenland, not just 4 dog sleds or whatever he is always rambling about).
The longer-term damage for the US is much bigger. Tech sovereignty just moved to the top of the EU agendas and companies and government will move away from US tech, to a loss of hundreds of billions of income in the longer term.
Some 4D chess move...
What concessions? Can you name one thing that Trump got that the US did not have before?
If these actually are attempts at some sort of “the art of the deal” manipulation, they are failing catastrophically. He is achieving nothing while destroying the soft power the US benefited from since WW2.
> The second-order effect: coercive bargaining within the Western alliance becomes normalized
What? What does that even mean? Do you realize how hand-wavey this sounds? With this kind of vague ex-post rationalization totally blind to any negative consequences of the supposed “bargaining”, you could sanewash literally any action. Trump shoots the Prime Minister of Norway on live TV? He just wanted to promote better security of the Western leaders.
Someone else in this thread talks about the supposed lack of awareness of “the art of the deal” meme. No, I am aware of the “4D chess” theory to explain Trump’s behavior. I just don’t think it matches the observation. I think the “malignant narcissist with emotional maturity of an 8-year-old” works much better.
BTW, I like how Emily Maitlis talks about Trump’s “achievements” in Davos - it brings a bit of much-needed levity to the situation: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/34yP2X-nZCk
He said this in his book The Art of the Deal, released in 1987. It’s been his playbook for all political campaigning and both terms of his presidency. It’s a meme to point this out in certain right leaning circles.
I was frustrated by the lack of awareness about this for awhile. I still am but I understand now that the media is also playing their part and doing their role. It’s absolutely justified - these ridiculous claims and arguments generate clicks, attention, revenue.
It’s something that should be kept in mind by the average voter though, and in social media discussion. Everyone wants you to be emotionally invested. Trump wants you to commit so he can pump fake tou, and the media gets solid quarterly numbers