In the US, compare a city like Houston, TX to a city like Portland, OR. Seems like two different planets.
It's pretty telling that, as a European, I've literally not heard of any of those European alternatives.
What's going on with the rest? They think Elon is the man!?
It's been a while since I've gone through a whole day being proud of my US citizenship. Today was one of the most shameful.
Trump is creating a lot of enemies. Even turning allies into enemies. The reputation usually mostly recovers when there's a Democrat in the WH, but since American voters walked right back into the same chaos again, eyes wide open, it's going to be a lot harder to recover this time around. There's just very little trust and credibility left.
Americans are too dumb to have this much power. It's all size and no substance. We need to find a better way to distribute power in this world.
The Republicans have all the power in Congress and they are all afraid of Trump.
There's nothing that can be done. Republicans have every bit of power there is. At least for the next two years.
Sorry, but none of this matters. Republicans are all powerful now. They have the White House, the House, the Senate, SCOTUS, the Fed, the Treasury. For the next two years, they can do whatever they want and act however they like. The voters walked right into this with eyes wide open. I don't want to hear the excuses and cries. America is just getting what it voted for.
Welcome to the United States of America anno 2025.
Trump never mentions anything that can make him look like he gave anything up. His fragile ego just doesn't allow that. He always has to come out as the winner and everyone else has to come out as the loser. And that's what he will call them.
Yet, no one's doing anything about it or can do anything. These people are all powerful now. The White House, the House, the Senate, SCOTUS, Fed. Everything belongs to the Republican Party and they can do whatever, whenever. No checks and balances.
From my viewpoint, Trump is and will be causing social hardship much more than economic hardship.
I could possibly see a benefit in preparing for a harder times socially. Further division among neighbors might be the main casualty of this administration. Social cohesion is already struggling from his first four years.
Economically, I have no confidence in Trump's actions overall, but I am very confident that his massive ego determines his actions, and that ego is largely held up by the performance of the stock market. He will be very careful not to take any action that will rattle the markets too much. Whenever he see a negative reaction in the markets, he pulls back, claims a moral victory and moves on to the next thing.
Anecdote: My Trumpster in-laws could not stop yacking about "Biden's high eggs prices" just last month. Haven't heard a peep about the price of eggs since Trump came back. Now it's just "God's will."
Difference is that in the US, people are armed to the teeth and a peaceful protect will quickly turn deadly.
When Donald Trump arrived in Washington in 2017 on the eve of his first inauguration, he was a stranger to most in town.
Greenland plays an outsized role in the daily weather experienced by billions of people and in the climate changes taking shape all over the planet.
Trump's intention marks a rejection of decades of U.S. policy that has prioritized self-determination over territorial expansion.
The US president-elect has expressed his desire to buy the territory for the US
> The Danish king has changed the country’s royal coat of arms to display symbols of Greenland and the Faroe Islands more prominently – in an apparent rebuke to Donald Trump.
Inside the Capitol, reminders of the violence from the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, are increasingly hard to find. Scars on the walls have been repaired.
> Inside the Capitol, reminders of the violence are increasingly hard to find.
> Scars on the walls have been repaired. Windows and doors broken by the rioters have been replaced. And there is no plaque, display or remembrance of any kind.
> Lawmakers rarely mention the attack, and many Republicans try to downplay it, echoing President-elect Donald Trump’s claims that the carnage of that day is overblown and that the rioters are victims.
The military ties of the man who carried out an attack in New Orleans on New Year’s and another who died in an explosion in Las Vegas highlight the increased role of people with military experience in ideologically driven attacks, especially those that seek mass casualties.
A Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying “This is Trump’s America now,” according to court documents.
> A Colorado man is facing possible bias-motivated charges for allegedly attacking a television news reporter after demanding to know whether he was a citizen, saying “This is Trump’s America now,” according to court documents.
Biden commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 death row inmates, derailing Trump's plan to ramp up executions.
> With just weeks left in office, US President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 37 of 40 federal death row inmates - potentially thwarting President-elect Donald Trump's plans to expand federal executions during his upcoming administration.
President-elect Donald Trump says he wants to revert the name of Alaska's Denali back to Mount McKinley.
> President-elect Donald Trump has once again suggested he wants to revert the name of North America’s tallest mountain — Alaska’s Denali — to Mount McKinley, wading into a sensitive and decades-old conflict about what the peak should be called.
First it was Canada, then the Panama Canal. Now, Donald Trump again wants Greenland. The president-elect is renewing calls he made during his first term for the U.S. to buy Greenland, the ice-covered semi-autonomous Danish territory.
> The president-elect is renewing unsuccessful calls he made during his first term for the U.S. to buy Greenland from Denmark, adding to the list of allied countries with which he’s picking fights even before taking office on Jan. 20.
Thirty years after Florida required schools to teach African American history, how the subject is taught remains inconsistent across Florida classrooms, a review by The Associated Press has found.
Health care sharing ministries advertise reimbursements for members’ medical bills. But they are largely unregulated, and most have restrictions on maternity coverage.
The man arrested in the killing of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO is being held without bail after a New York federal court appearance on charges including a death-eligible murder count.
The Amazon founder saw an almost 10-figure savings by moving south.
> Financial experts predicted Jeff Bezos’s move to Florida would pay off handsomely—and they were right. So far, the Amazon founder’s tax savings have been astronomical, worth an estimated $1 billion this year alone.
The Top Gun star is being celebrated for spiking military recruitment with his screen roles.
> Tom Cruise has been awarded the US Navy's highest civilian honour for "outstanding contributions" to the military with his screen roles.
The cold-blooded assassination of a health care CEO has uncorked a torrent of public anger at the health insurance industry. Should the ugliness of that fact make Americans bottle the anger back up?
> A Gallup poll released this week but conducted before the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, found that most Americans, 62%, think it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure that all Americans have health care coverage. A minority, 36%, said it’s not the government’s responsibility.
At least 277 people have been killed since 2000 by shooters who believed the gun in their hands was unloaded because the magazine was removed.
Donald Trump says he can’t guarantee his promised tariffs on key U.S. foreign trade partners won’t raise prices for American consumers.
> New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat who has taken a soft touch with President-elect Donald Trump, left open the possibility of switching to the Republican Party in a pair of Friday morning interviews.