Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Gorsameth]

Capping credit card interest is not a good move. I do not support that.

That said, it would do good for a decent amount of American's to rely less on credit. We are a bit too indoctrinated into consumer culture where wants are often synonymous with needs. What were once considered luxuries have become day to day necessities due to constant advertising and pressure of a manufactured need to keep up with your neighbors. And more often than not, it is put on a credit car for 24 easy payments of $20 a month. Add more and more items in that way, and you end up with horrid credit card debt, sapping away and chance of saving enough money to afford any sort of a comfortable future.

Yes, they do it to themselves, but the system of hyper consumerism created this. Unfortunately, many are too weak willed to stop for a moment and think if they need all the junk and services they pay for, or if they can live without and put that money aside in a high yield savings account, or any sort of retirement plan for their future. Then they get to 40-50 years old with nothing to show for the time they've put in working other than nick knacks, services, and other nonsense.

If I were to give a hot take on what we can do. A quick off the cuff idea would be to better examine a applicants current monthly income and their monthly spending on bills. If they don't have or make the money to responsibly pay off a credit card debt they are looking to take on, while being able to pay their bills, they should be denied.

Something like, A person makes $2,000 a month, and their monthly bills add up to $1950 per month, they would be denied the use of a credit card. They obviously do not have the income to pay it off in a responsible manner, therefore should be denied.

This is not in regards to taking out a loan. This is in regards to credit card purchases. Medical expenses should not be included in this. Things that are life or death should not be included. I'm talking about general consumer level purchases. TVs, Clothing, Vacations, Odds ends type trinkets and so on.

Reminds me of the Big Short and the 'no income, no job' loans.
Because that would never backfire...

The culture is a massive problem but also that something ridiculous like 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Without savings a credit card is the only way they can actually cover any unexpected expense.
its moronic and no way to run a country, which is why its inevitable that the entire thing will come crashing down yet again, and again, and again.

[Kathandira]

Reminds me of the Big Short and the 'no income, no job' loans.
Because that would never backfire...

The culture is a massive problem but also that something ridiculous like 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Without savings a credit card is the only way they can actually cover any unexpected expense.
its moronic and no way to run a country, which is why its inevitable that the entire thing will come crashing down yet again, and again, and again.

That's why I threw in the portion about life or death sort of things, and that this isn't about Bank loans. If someone comes up with an unexpected life event, a bank loan could be a better option. Might even get a better interest rate with the bank than they would from a credit card.

[zorkuus]

I'd like to believe that's the case, but surely they can do it without having to call him "Daddy" of all things lol I didn't realise it such an intimate relationship.

Watters is obviously in the closet. And I'm not joking.

[Edge-]

Watters is obviously in the closet. And I'm not joking.

i don't think he's in the closet

i just think many of them have a weird sub fetish and like a strong daddy. but like, in an emotional way, not a sexual way. they need their dom (...maybe that's why they like "don"old?) to make them feel safe and secure.

[zorkuus]

i don't think he's in the closet

i just think many of them have a weird sub fetish and like a strong daddy. but like, in an emotional way, not a sexual way. they need their dom (...maybe that's why they like "don"old?) to make them feel safe and secure.

I don't take it back. These people are WEEEEEEEIRDOS.

[alach]

I would love for some of you Europeans to report what your local media has to say about trumps speech tomorrow. Politicians gonna politic, but trump spent over an over insult after insult towards allies. I'm sure local news will have a strong take on in the morning, if not already.
He is just so rude, crude, and stupid he has no place representing anything other than miss teen USA, he needs to go back to being a career pedo, for the sake of the world.

Any right wingers left here willing to defend this?

[LeGin v4]

Trump today. Full Davos text:

https://singjupost.com/transcript-pr...ef-davos-2026/

So what we have gotten out of NATO is nothing except to protect Europe from the Soviet Union and now Russia. I mean, we’ve helped them for so many years. We’ve never gotten anything except we pay for NATO and we’ve paid for many years until I came along.

Demented, lying, pedofuck.

Exactly how many British, Canadian, French, German, Italian, Denmark etc. military personnel died in Afghanistan? How many were permanently disabled?

Of the 3,579 dead - 1,159 were non US.

Fucking Denmark lost more than 40 soldiers, one of the alliance’s highest per-capita death rates.

All paling in comparison to the number of Afghan Security Forces killed, 66-92k

Whose failure of a war was it? Fuck you.

Canada gets a lot of freebies from us, by the way. They should be grateful also. But they’re not. I watched your prime minister yesterday. He wasn’t so grateful. They should be grateful to us. Canada. Canada lives because of the United States. Remember that, Mark, the next time you make your statements.

Fuck me.

He kept referring to Greenland as "Iceland"

"Rigged" election in 2020.

One lie after another debunked:

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/21/p...and-fact-check

Any American who buys into this absolute fucking pile of steaming shit deserves all they get in the way of domestic policy punishment. Again, no disrespect or harm wished on those who didn't vote for him, but I hope MAGAs suffer. Really suffer.

[Rasulis]

The problem isn't interest rates, fundamentally. It's carrying a balance on the card, which is what leads to you paying interest. My current bank's cards are all mostly 20.99% interest rates; there's a low-rate option but that also carries an annual fee. I pay zero interest, while using my card as my primary tool for purchases; essentially 100% of my purchases are through my credit card; interest only applies if I don't pay off the balance within that first month. It only dips from 100% in the rare chance I spend money someplace that doesn't take cards, and that's so unlikely here that I can't recall the last time it came up.

That all said, I used to carry a balance, and it was due to poor decisions and predatory practices by banks, and they're definitely exploiting people to make money. But if the problem is, fundamentally, poor wealth management, then removing access to credit cards will just means those problems surface elsewhere and due to new reasons, not that those problems will vanish. Adjusting rates on cards doesn't fix the problem, here.

The problem isn't always wealth management, though. Sometimes, you hit a legitimate rough patch, due to unemployment or medical issues or property damage or whatever. And then you push that onto whatever credit you can, to survive that rough patch, and then struggle to pay it back. That's gonna happen regardless, and IMO the better approach to that kind of issue is better safeguards and support from society in general, not limiting access to credit.

Banks lose money on people like you. That's why they have to charge 21% on people that actually carry credit card balance. Now, if everybody carries credit card balance instead of just using credit cards for the rewards, maybe they will reduce the interest rate to 10%. <obvious sarcasm>

I am guilty of using my personal credit card strictly for the travel mileage.

[Elder Millennial]

The DELUGE of unfathomable stupidity and crass offensive nonsense coming out of the United States is beyond anything in recorded history.

Like even some of the dumbest historical acts I can think of, in the sense of a geopolitical move, either had some logic or at least ideological motivation behind them.

What we are seeing is a hegemonic power at the very height of its success simply self immolating for no discernible reason.

The US didn't just become a fascist state...it managed to become a kakistocracy at the same time. All the guard rails have failed, the ship is steaming into a cliff side, full speed ahead, half the people on board watching mostly in silent terror as the other half is screaming for more speed.

- - - Updated - - -

Banks lose money on people like you. That's why they have to charge 21% on people that actually carry credit card balance. Now, if everybody carries credit card balance instead of just using credit cards for the rewards, maybe they will reduce the interest rate to 10%. <obvious sarcasm>

I am guilty of using my personal credit card strictly for the travel mileage.

I've been living in Europe for going on 18 years now. I haven't used a credit card in about 16 of that.

I have two, from two different banks, but I literally never use them. I don't even carry them in my wallet.

[Gorsameth]

The DELUGE of unfathomable stupidity and crass offensive nonsense coming out of the United States is beyond anything in recorded history.

Like even some of the dumbest historical acts I can think of, in the sense of a geopolitical move, either had some logic or at least ideological motivation behind them.

What we are seeing is a hegemonic power at the very height of its success simply self immolating for no discernible reason.

The US didn't just become a fascist state...it managed to become a kakistocracy at the same time. All the guard rails have failed, the ship is steaming into a cliff side, full speed ahead, half the people on board watching in terror as the other half is screaming for more speed.

The reason is very discernible.
They got conned by a literal man child into electing him for President.

And they deserve it for doing twice.

[Elder Millennial]

The reason is very discernible.
They got conned by a literal man child into electing him for President.

And they deserve it for doing twice.

Nah dude. I'm not buying the "conned" bullshit. For me, that's like the "Devil made me do it" excuse.

[Mayhem]

I've been living in Europe for going on 18 years now. I haven't used a credit card in about 16 of that.

I have two, from two different banks, but I literally never use them. I don't even carry them in my wallet.

Yeah, either for work expenses, but then it's not your credit card anyway, or for travelling because of the included travel insurance. At least that's how almost everyone I know uses them if they even have one.

[Endus]

The reason is very discernible.
They got conned by a literal man child into electing him for President.

And they deserve it for doing twice.

It's a lot deeper than just a "con". The American people have been carefully and intentionally encultured for generations into fundamentally toxic and disabling views like "American Individualism" and "blind unreasoning faith in law and order", and it is not remotely limited to Republicans. Democrats are fully as involved in all this as they are. As are non-voters. Perhaps especially non-voters.

The quick and short of those two points, for the sake of clarity; American Individualism is "toxic" because it disconnects you from and argues against the concept of community, with implicit blame applied to those who are not successful in and of themselves, while the privileged who are successful falsely claim it's personal skill or talent alone.

And "blind and unreasoning faith in law and order" boils down to two factors; trusting the police when American policing in particular among police in general are institutionally and intentionally the enemies of the people, agents who protect the status quo and subjugate the lower classes not agents of justice or crime prevention, and also trusting that the courts will bring about justice when they also are deeply corrupt and serve that status quo rather than the people more broadly.

When non-functional or counter-functional ideas take root and become predominant, it's a matter of time before societal collapse. It's all a house of cards and it's finally too tall to stand for any longer. Trump's the natural outcome of all this shit, plus the openly accepting and encouraging attitude of the USA in general to open, violent bigotry. Which would be a third factor but that one's been endemic since before the USA was a thing.

None of these problems came about in the 21st Century. Their roots stem way back into the early 20th if not further.

[Elder Millennial]

Yeah, either for work expenses, but then it's not your credit card anyway, or for travelling because of the included travel insurance. At least that's how almost everyone I know uses them if they even have one.

I have travel and travel health insurance bundled into my life insurance with my bank that I took out with my mortgage. When I travel I mostly use a Prepaid Debit Card from my bank for purchases in places where I don't have the absolute confidence in the security of the transactions. Like during our last trip to Colombia when I was making payments at bars, restaurants and taking out cash at the ATM.

[Endus]

I've been living in Europe for going on 18 years now. I haven't used a credit card in about 16 of that.

I have two, from two different banks, but I literally never use them. I don't even carry them in my wallet.

I have no reason not to use mine. It costs me literally nothing, unless you count my bank/VISA itself tracking my purchases, and adds fraud protection and increased warranty protection on top of the rewards I earn, which are basically free money (just a couple months ago I paid off a monthly bill of a couple hundred with points).

These are all pretty standard for credit cards in Canada, and they're accepted nearly everywhere. I honestly can't even recall the last time I had to use my debit card. As long as I pay off the balance every month, the benefits are free and I'd be worse off in choosing not to take advantage of them. The one argument I could see is if you've got a problem with purchases being tracked, but that would write off debit cards just as much.

I might be more cautious if I were traveling, but that's about it.

[Muzjhath]

I have no reason not to use mine. It costs me literally nothing, unless you count my bank/VISA itself tracking my purchases, and adds fraud protection and increased warranty protection on top of the rewards I earn, which are basically free money (just a couple months ago I paid off a monthly bill of a couple hundred with points).

These are all pretty standard for credit cards in Canada, and they're accepted nearly everywhere. I honestly can't even recall the last time I had to use my debit card. As long as I pay off the balance every month, the benefits are free and I'd be worse off in choosing not to take advantage of them. The one argument I could see is if you've got a problem with purchases being tracked, but that would write off debit cards just as much.

I might be more cautious if I were traveling, but that's about it.

The stuff you mentioned are standard in debit cards in Sweden. And debit cards are cheaper.

[Rasulis]

I have no reason not to use mine. It costs me literally nothing, unless you count my bank/VISA itself tracking my purchases, and adds fraud protection and increased warranty protection on top of the rewards I earn, which are basically free money (just a couple months ago I paid off a monthly bill of a couple hundred with points).

These are all pretty standard for credit cards in Canada, and they're accepted nearly everywhere. I honestly can't even recall the last time I had to use my debit card. As long as I pay off the balance every month, the benefits are free and I'd be worse off in choosing not to take advantage of them. The one argument I could see is if you've got a problem with purchases being tracked, but that would write off debit cards just as much.

I might be more cautious if I were traveling, but that's about it.

Better fraud and merchandise return protection also. The mileage bonus gained was enough to upgrade my seats from economy to business class on my trips to Shanghai and Tokyo before Thanksgiving, and to Jakarta and Singapore December/January.

[thilicen]

Looks like it's Taco-Wednesday, the dumb fuck is dropping the 10% tariffs lol

[Endus]

The stuff you mentioned are standard in debit cards in Sweden. And debit cards are cheaper.

Hard to get "cheaper" than "free with rewards that can be converted to cash so actually they're paying me to use the card".

[Mayhem]

You guys have to understand that credit cards don't offer the same shit around the world.