Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/cbs-denies-stephen-colbert-forced-not-air-talarico-interview-fcc-equal-time-1236665701/

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/variety-magazine/

Equal Time Act issue?

Trump is as corrupt as any leader is history, other than Sam Harris I hear very few go into details*. Spinning stories which are questionable doesn't help things.

Example $500M stake UAE state in Trumps crypto scam followed by UAE access to advanced drone technology. UAE also share technology with China.

Vietnam tariff concession following Trump golf resort green light.

You are not wrong. A visit to western Pennsylvania is eye opening and you start to understand where one strand of MAGA comes from. And the Democrats take the blame on this too having abandoned the working poor over the last few decades in the search for “electability”. The institutional two party system combined with the Citizens United Supreme Court decision has led to a toxic mix.

Trump was elected not to achieve anything but to “stick it to the libtards” ( a common phrase in my local old fashioned barbers). As such he’s been a success.

I fear for the midterm elections. But voter suppression is not new. It is however become more aggressive with ICE and the Save Bill. Problem is there is a large population of people who correctly recognize that democracy (such as it is) has not delivered for them, so why should they care.

it’s a long way back for the US, but there are signs of a new generation of leaders, AOC, David Hogg, Mandani, Katie Porter emerging.

At the risk of meandering further off topic, but you did ask

This weeks example

Closer to home look at the Stripe story often cited as the most successful Irish company {who hilariously enough will likely not even go public on Irish stock exchange but US} and entrepreneurs, they had to move to US to get startup funding and get big and only then returned back to Europe and Ireland outgrowing their competitors in Europe by about 10x in same timeframe

not willing to admit that there are easily fixable problems as outlined in the EU Draghi report i linked is why even the median US household income (this would accommodate the extreme inequality they have there) adjusted for PPP is also pulling away, along side productivity.

Ehhhh ... so the best you can come up with is an Irish-born company doing great business in Europe ... ? Your assertion was that companies are avoiding the EU in favour of the less regulated US (and other?) market.

All you've illustrated so far is that the US is a great place for rich people to get richer - but we've known that to be the case since rich Europeans "discovered" the continent in 1492.

The current administration has obviously decided to embroil the whole new-native population in their re-enactment of those heady days; that's no reason for the rest of us to play the same game.

An Irish born company that had to completely leave Ireland, get funding and guidance in US for several years and only return to European market when they were a tech giant bypassing and bankrupting several European competitors who stayed

You asked for an example and I gave you two, there is no reason why Europe can’t become an innovation center in STEM

All of this happened before Trump whom as you can see from my posts here I absolutely despise, unwillingness to admit that there are issues is how MAGA has managed to worm its way into politics

Blindly dismissing and not implementing the Draghi report will lead MAGA like deplorables worming their way into European politics as resentment grows, I absolutely despise the Vance narrative about Europe stagnating but there is a small kernel of truth behind his lies

Maybe so, maybe not, tho in my day this sneering you are doing at any and all innovation used to be a trait of the conservative and “republican” parties which got hijacked by MAGA

You just talked yourself into a position which is not miles apart from the couchfucking hillbillies who voted Trump and Vance in

When in fact, Trump was in court for refusing to rent properties to black people, while Jackson was cutting his political teeth.

I remember similar criticism being levelled at Stripe whom initially were not different from any of dozens card payment processors built on top of visa:Mastercard

Fast forward few years and our politicians are tripping over themselves inviting them back to Ireland and trying to claim them as best example of “Irish innovation” and “Europes largest tech unicorn”

It’s easy to sneer from sidelines but it ain’t easy to grow a startup in Europe, it should not be hard

Sure

Energy; any number of fission and fusion startups working on clean green energy avoiding Europe, since outside a couple of countries in EU most absolutely despise the N(uclear) word and there’s is no funding, solar and wind manufacturers struggling with likes of orsted on brink of bankruptcy due to China flooding the market

Food; plant based or lab grown meats being penalised out of existence

Fuel: fracking tech more or less banned right across Europe with us relying on questionable countries for gas, hydrogen ending up an expensive flop

Cars: Whole of German/Feench etc car industry being completely out competed by China and their slave labour

Road; what roads? It’s next to impossible to construct any sort of infrastructure especially in Ireland

Healthcare/Social; don’t know enough about subject to comment but my Novo Nordisk investment is in the dumps for a while now

Perhaps you can give us an example of European companies in these areas that are not also in US and Chinese markets doing well and not being outcompeted out of existence? How about you answer some questions for once

The European markets did do well last year despite the Trump clown show so maybe the tide is turning

”I have always wondered why we haven't grown more indigenous IT/MedTech/Pharma companies considering the talent pool we have.”

just scroll up higher up this page at the sneering and dismissive attitudes at the concept of a startup

All after I pointed out that Draghi report identified the root issues and made recommendations to help us in Europe backed by ECB but now gathering dust for years

Trump, Vance etc all are assholes of the highest caliber, but the meme of failing Europe they have blown out of all proportion does contain a small kernel of truth, a kernel that our own European technocratic brains have long ago identified, listed and offered solutions for