I love that the search results end. Like, “nah bruv, that’s it, and I’m not going to make shit up to get you to click ads”

The Gold standard couldn’t be sustained. Basically, the U.S. was no longer just exporting shittons of product and making a killing, it was now also importing a lot. The shift of that balance meant that keeping the ratio of 35 dollars per troy ounce of gold was nigh impossible.

Hey mods! We got one! Ban him!

I understand and sympathize with where you’re coming from. I don’t have all the counter arguments, but one that stuck with me while I was devils advocating it with two of my friends is pretty convincing I think. (Mind you, I’m drunk on a Friday night at 3 AM, so just posting this before I forget to do it tomorrow).

One of your arguments (not all!) is built on an opposing side abusing the cultural impact of CRT/DEI. However, that can be applied as a premise to a slew of other political efforts with the same mechanics where the singling out of a group can be twisted into discrimination of an adjacent group:

• Americans with Disabilities Act
• Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) for Alaskans
• Shelters and Services Program for Immigrants
• Any policies surrounding Native Americans

In all the above programs, one could make the case that there are adjacent groups that do not, but maybe should, receive those benefits. CRT/DEI is the easiest target to gather people around. It doesn’t exist in a vacuum, it’s just the most prominent and easily targetable policy.

All that doesn’t invalidate CRT/DEI or any of the other policies, and even with political opposition one could still argue for their benefit. So, my point is this: Bad actors abusing and misrepresenting a program that focuses on specific groups is not an argument against that policy. If it didn’t exist, they’d latch on to something else. So you’re letting a policy be ruined, not based on its merits, but on how others can twist a narrative around it.

Again, you have made other points that I’m not addressing at all in this argument. I’ll let others argue against those.

After the USAID thing I called it this morning: Before the end of march the U.S. is a dictatorship in all but name.
To pull this off things have to happen fast, denying anybody the time to react.

USAID was a probing attack, gauge the reactions, develop plans, figure out how to do it better with the next department. You don’t start with Homeland Security, the CIA, or the FBI - that’s the final part.

Meanwhile, keep everybody busy with 50 different crazy things so they can’t organize a concerted effort to resist.
That being said, I’m only half-sold on Greenland and the Panama Canal being a distraction. Once you have complete control you’re at the whim of Denmark not revoking access to Thule and Panama not denying passage. Might be both, confuse and prepare.