I suppose someone like Thomas Massie, Ron Paul or Ron Johnson. But as none of them are running, I haven’t done a deep dive on them.
4 Likes
As Chris has suggested, I don’t do the lesser of two evils. IMO, this adds to the willfully blind syndrome. Rather, I observe actions and attempt to understand the path that they are on.
1 Like
I see it too, its the same pattern. One must think the same way as the group and the group leaders double down and triple down. Disagreement is healthy and normal! A lack of disagreement means either nobody is engaged, nobody cares, or its not worth sticking your neck out for some reason.
This is why its not about left-right. Its up/down. Everyone needs to be held accountable… because everything matters in the real world.
5 Likes
Excellent!
I like them as well. I wonder if they have ever been under intense scrutiny, and what would come up with them. I could imagine that there are “things” in their background that some would find unacceptable.
I like the Paul’s (Ron & Rand), am incredibly grateful to Ron Johnson, RFK Jr, & I like Massie as well - especially the purist in me, but none of those guys could have beaten the machine in this last election. Each of them would be great leaders in a civilized, educated republic. Unfortunately, that’s not the world we’re living in today. Today, we need a combination of deal maker, a courageous leader, and a hyper-tasker. We need someone who takes decisive action, and pushes hard, but also realizes the “king like” executive moves can be reversed when the political pendulum swings back the other way.
I don’t, nor do I suggest that anyone support Trump blindly, and I don’t hold it against anyone for speaking up about our disappointments with increasing the deficit, bombing (anyone anywhere), not releasing files (yet) as promised, or prosecuting the many abuses & crimes of the former ultra left. I just think it represents tremendous naïveté about what it actually takes to tackle the many, many issues that we have & expect all desired actions to be completed quite so soon.
I think there’s nuance that we haven’t considered & this is where the PP community & Chris’s insight normally thrive. My initial reaction to hearing that we bombed Iran was to think, holy sh!t, Trump’s crazy! He just guaranteed WW3! I prayed a lot more than usual over the last week.
As the last few days have played out, part of me wonders if Israel had shared that they planned to nuke Iran, which would have guaranteed farther nuclear escalation. I’m simply willing to concede that IF something like that was in the cards, then the action Trump took, could have been the most brilliant thing that could have been done, especially (as it shakily appears) if it actually can end the conflict, prevent farther escalation, keep the straight of Hormuz open, and potentially lead to a better chance for peace in the area than we’ve had in my lifetime.
PBD (Patrick Bet David), who is actually from Iran has had some insightful recent commentary.
20 years ago, I had a Quality Director work for me (who was also from Iran). At the time, I thought Iran was a backward desert barely above 3rd world status. This person shared their rich architectural, engineering, and medical accomplishments with me & opened my eyes to the potential talent in “Persia”. I saw airports and buildings that made the US look like the 3rd world. I had no idea! If a lasting peace can be achieved, and if leadership in Iran were to embrace modern values, the country could be the greatest turn around success story of this century.
While Trump has been able to accomplish a great deal thru executive orders, he’s not a King & he knows that. Prosecuting the crimes that were committed requires the cases to be air tight. That’s going to take time. I may be naive, but I think that what we’re seeing from Kash, Bongino, & Bondi right now are strategic diversions to buy time to get those cases in irrefutable order.
I’m also simply saying that at 5 months in, perhaps we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bath water just yet.
Is Trump perfect? Certainly not. But so far, I am stunned with everything he & his team have been able to accomplish. Even if he can’t figure out how to deliver the rest of what I & I think many of us here want, I don’t know of another human being on the planet that could even come close. So yeah, I’ll keep cheering for him, and praying for him and for all of us, because seriously, the alternative is to just throw in the towel & wait for doomsday. I’m still too young for that & that’s not the legacy I plan to leave for my 4 teenagers.
If Kamala had won, doomsday would likely already be upon us. With Trump, we’re at least in the fight & the starting to build momentum with a solid string of victories. The war isn’t won, but I’m starting to like our odds.
Peace
5 Likes
Just because some people dont say much doesn’t mean their points of view aren’t valid when they do. They may well be very deep thinkers and just dont feel the need to put it out there all the time. Maybe part of why they don’t is fear of not being heard or being walked all over when they do, which is exactly what’s happened here.
8 Likes
I like what I’m seeing with Vance.
CBDCs, data connected across gov’t via Palantir, & AI are like the automobile vs the horse & buggy. They’re going to happen. Can we effectively prevent them? No.
Can we influence their implementation to “try” to protect individual liberty & their possible use for good vs complete tyranny? Only if like-minded, smart people are involved in leading & shaping their implementation. Those trains have already left the station.
AI security & ethical quantum hacking engineers are likely to be the elected leaders of the future. Anyone without a strong background in this space will become owned or irrelevant.
Oh please. Being walked all over - seriously 
That is an over reaction IMHO.
The point is that people who rarely comment chime in to complain about the tone of discussions, how it has shifted in a way they do not like. Is it not reasonable to think that it is active participation that contributes to & influences the tone of discussions? And that absence of same detracts from influence in the same manner?
We see the same handful of names contributing on a regular basis. It only makes sense then that the discourse will reflect those influences, all the more so when there are few that weigh in with additional points or counterpoints. If more people participated in discussions the influences of the regulars would be diluted to the point they are less influential on overall tone.
There are a fair number of people that have only been here since Chris’s Covid coverage started in 2020, and before the website was upgraded. Most, IMHO, have no idea what the site was like before that time. I have said it before and say again, it is not the same, at all. Gone are fabulous, long running, deep & respectful discussions about 3E related topics. That continues to be felt, to me, as a huge loss.
I also say that respect is earned via consistent participation which gives the tribe a chance to get to know someone. It is pretty difficult to respect someone’s points of view if they rarely do more than a post here and there, and rarely, if ever, actively engage in ongoing discussions.
No doubt there are a lot of smart, deep thinkers out there. I would love to see them participate more, to bring their contributions. The site is better when more people contribute. It is that simple.
It wasn’t my post so I’m responding, not reacting. Half the world are introverts; they listen, observe, take the time to digest and consider and speak (or write) when they feel appropriate. They don’t feel the need to be blathering on all the time. It’s that simple
5 Likes
And you’ve also now completely disregarded my comment as well as the original poster without taking any time to consider anyone else’s points of view. Discussion is worth nothing if you don’t listen to the other person. I’m not going to keep responding to this. I’ve said my bit.
Hey there,
I’m assuming your original comment was intended for me. I didn’t take offense to it.
I’m a PP member because I think Chris & the PP community are generally among the best at considering multiple perspectives & the nuance of complex systems. It’s why I joined & why I remain.
My comment wasn’t intended to be rude, criticize, or complain, but just to challenge us to make sure we’re still considering the complexity & alternatives & not being so quick to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
All the best,
5 Likes
Here’s the problem, none of them are electable. Even worse, the party won’t support them.
I watched this happen in MI with gov race. R party backed an anti gun somewhat anti abortion candidate in the primary. There were a LOT of gun people that refused to vote in 2018. Then in 2022, the R candidate was rabidly anti abortion, and even worse, the party had the opportunity to a approve rec weed, but pushed it to the general election. Guess who came out to vote, all the pot heads. R party knew it would pass in the general election. They stood on principals and lost the gov, house, senate, AND state Supreme court. R party could F* up a wet dream.
Sometimes (most of the time) we have to compromise. My experience with people in leadership, corp or political, they are almost always narcissist, and play to their supporters. If you haven’t watched the youtube video, rules for rulers, I would highly encourage taking the time to watch it. It’s eye opening.
3 Likes
I understand that, I was just answering a question, not supporting them for office.
1 Like
I can see how this influences your thinking. Me? I will do whatever I can to slow this AI controlled dystopian train down. This means speaking out against the current administration that is headed quickly down this path. This isn’t “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” as you state.
1 Like
And always.
The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
(Eternal vigilance? One gets tired after a few decades…)
3 Likes
Totally support the “slow this train down” approach as well. If enough of us do that & others of us work to figure out how to influence it, we might have a fighting chance😉
2 Likes
same same here - very disappointing to see all the ‘liberty’ alt media fall in line behind the ‘Iran is an existential threat and cannot have a bomb’.
I served in Iraq in 2005 and worked out there that we were lied to. I still remember Powell holding up the anthrax, and the utter failure of ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’ - which produced nothing but bodies and debris. Ten years later I fell for it again and deployed on ‘Op Enduring Freedom’… and same result.
Even now, when I mention this on forums - the YEAR I spent ‘fighting for freedom’ in the 2 countries that bracket Iran, all I get is ‘Iran is the devil and you are an antisemite’.
Its depressing how gullible the great majority of humanity is, and how much it hurts us.
12 Likes
As a teenager i was lied to about VietNam and probably Watergate
The government politicans/Big Ag, Pharma. Military Industrial Complex/etc. lies continued and have even expanded to the point i basically believe nothing as i see it all as spin and propaganda. However, i have also evolved where it is a waste of time constantly teasing through the lies.
Chris has a target rich environment to research and podcast on. Maybe unfortunately, i listen (and comment) less intensely to PP ( the only podcast i consistently listen to) now as i feel it is taking on a more dramatic tone. I am sad with the world’s overwhelming moral ethical decay. Hope and pray but PREPARE so I (and the PP) tribe) can be a good example for others.
God is the only one who can save us now.
2 Likes
Hope for the best, but plan for the worst.
Yes, keep your hopes up, they can keep us going, but also be realistic about the true nature of the predicaments.
By my scorecard, the US is on a truly unsustainable fiscal/monetary path. We can all hope I’ve misjudged that condition, but if I haven’t (and I haven’t, lol)…
…then we have to ask, “Are Trump’s actions addressing or worsening the situation?”
Well, things are getting worse, on that front. The US is logging it’s third-worst deficit in 2025 on record, with only 2020 and 2021 being worse:
I know that Bessent and Trump know this…they came in with big aims to do something about it.
Now the plan is “grow the economy faster than the deficit,” but that’s either a hopelessly naive plan or they have given up, thrown in the towel, and are giving us the usual political-speak clap-trap as a palliative.
In order to truly “grow the economy” the structural impediments would have to be removed, mainly the fact that the many layers of administrative parasites that gum up the works would have to be removed.
That sort of reform cannot be done by EO. It requires true political statesmanship and bipartisan alignment. DOGE was on the right track. They completely abandoned that project as “too hard.” Trump seems to lack the ability to fight through the weaponized TDS to get any alignment with any Dems on anything at all. That’s because he’s not very good at compromising and making allies. It seems to be very much a his way or the highway style.
You know what else is hard? Telling people they can’t have their cake and eat it too. So I’ll bet we’re not going to be having any belt-tightening fireside chats from Trump anytime soon either.
Instead, we’ll get more Mamdani-like electees who promise the world to the 51% by shellacking the 49% who, I should endeavor to point out, are the golden goose in this tale - the productive people - who for some reason never end up working harder or taking bigger risks because they are taxed into near-oblivion. They end up doing less, and so there is less to tax and redistribute, necessitating even more taxes, which end up producing less, and on and on and on.
All of this against a backdrop of peak oil arriving, oh, right about now for the US.
12 Likes