Dumb Trump supporters shoot America in the foot

Be fair OP. America became a laughing stock the moment Trump was elected.

Mate, we’ve been laughing at you for decades.
At least Trump only really hurt America, unlike the third world countries everyone one of your presidents bombs and murders while you self title yourself defender of the free world or whatever wankery it was.
- Most of us don't like Trump, most of us don't like the bombings in other countries, most of us didn't want to be in Vietnam, most of us didn't want us to be in Iraq.
  I don't look at every person in the UK and assume you all love the Monarchy and love the current and past two morons you have had running the place. I mean fuck Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss, and Boris Johnson and Brexit? Shit isn't lookin great over that way either but I don't assume it's because every single citizen of the UK wanted it that way. Quit looking at America like one big collective individual and take a moment to realize that the system here is rigged to shit from years of political fuckery. We are stuck with a two party system and the past two presidents who did the most damage to our foreign relations and our political system didn't even win the fucking popular vote.
  Oh and if I incorrectly assumed you nationality just fill in the appropriate bullshit that is probably happening in your current country.
  Sincerely,
  One of the majority of Americans that don't like what is happening in this country either
- 'mate', 'wankery'...
  I take it your country is totally free of any atrocities and has since Its inception been fair and impartial in all of its international dealings.
- Laughing at me for decades? Or my country. I'm not even American.
- Please tell me you're British. Because that would make your moralizing about Americans go from mildy amusing to outstandingly hilarious.

Who would have thought that people so vehemently against a functioning government would ultimately give the world the impression that America does not have a functioning government

As an outsider, there are soo many other indicators. All linked to R politics.
And this is true. Feels like USA politics are an even bigger joke than Italian's
- Hey! I resemble that comment!

^ TL; DR
You also left out “again”.

These are the same people who would cut their noses off to spite their own face, so not surprising.

Can we make it a habit to post source links? I don't want to surf completely on vibes.

Maybe its behind a paywall?
- Ideally, an un-paywalled version can be found. Even if one can't be found, it is still much better to post the source.
Listen to picture. Feel angry at big group of people.

We deeply need educational reform. Perhaps even a fairness doctrine for social media. It's just a problem we can't keep ignoring. And homeschooling needs a better set of standards so you don't have Qanon mom #5000 teaching her kids the earth is flat.

Holy fucking shit does homeschooling need better standards.
My mom wouldn't send me to school because she was afraid I'd get "indoctrinated by all the liberal propaganda in the Alabama public school system".
Needless to say, I'm mostly self-educated.
The U.S. is reaping destructive misery by failing to progressively raise education levels back when it had the opportunity during the last 60 years

Thanks Republicans! That will really help that economy you claim to care so much about.

Important to remember, in many cases it was a goal, not a side effect. When someone lived out their life and they're kinda miserable and unfulfilled, they might justifiably hate our world, in a sense. There's really only one way to take revenge on it, and that's to perpetuate and worsen the shittiness so that nobody can hope to escape it.

Misery loves company, or so the saying goes.

Says a lot about the people that absolutely don't want for student debt to be cleared in the USA because they had to clear it themself.
- The worst part is that the student debt they paid off was a small portion of the debt that people cannot afford to pay off now because the same people defunded universities.
  When I was a young kid a summer job at minimum wage could pay for a year of state college. By the time I attended a summer job paid for a semester. Now a summer job at the minimum wage will barely pay for books, since the minimum wage has stagnated and tuition goes up year after year.
- I would be surprised if the people most aggressively against student loan forgiveness had any personal difficulty with student loans themselves at all. The politicians beating the drum were likely wealthy enough for tuition to be an afterthought, and their constituents do not value education enough to have needed the loans in the first place.
  If you're in the second camp you're probably also bitter that these educated liberal elite, that think their so fancy and embarrass you with their big city talk, want now to get their education, which they lord over you, FOR FREE! You're probably angry that these young people with their hip culture you don't understand or have time for, because you're waking up predawn to drive 45 minutes to your manual labor job which is wrecking your body, "don't have to work like you do." In short, you're probably not very big picture oriented, your self esteem is probably pretty fragile, and you're probably not the strongest abstract thinker. You're likely angry to the point of antisocial, and relish any opportunity to leverage your will.
- If those people are over a certain age, they "cleared" it themselves with GI benefits and/or they worked during the summer to pay for tuition.
Hurt people hurt people. Also, dumb people hurt people.

What's really interesting is that the [manufactured] debt ceiling crisis in 2011 caused the credit rating agency S&P to downgrade US debt then as well...BUT, instead of causing US debt to be more expensive, investors wound up selling equities and buying MORE debt, causing interest rates to go down even more, and bond prices to increase!

Bill Gross, founder and manager at the time of PIMCO's fixed income/debt fund, the biggest in the world, wagered HEAVILY that the debt downgrade would cause interest rates to go UP, and bond prices and to go down, as they should, according to every economics textbook ever. He lost billions as a result and I think that's about when Pimco fired him even though he was the founder.

Interestingly, this downgrade seems to be largely ignored by both debt and equity markets. Markets appear to be pricing this in as "business as usual" which is sorta interesting in itself. Smart money seems to think everything is fine. I usually go with the smart money on these things, so I'm not too upset about Fitch's downgrade. (Just to be clear though, the R party can go fuck themselves.)

It can be smart money thinks it’s fine, or smart money has already priced in the risk due to the trump years.
- That's always possible I suppose but I don't think so. The crisis in 2011 rocked markets for months with monstrous daily swings up and down. There was barely a blip when fitch downgraded the debt and during the last few debt ceiling impasses.
  Personally I think it's pretty clear at this point that it is just theater and they'll never allow a default. The reason being, all of congress is too wealthy and heavily invested in stable world markets, and obviously in the pockets of their corporate overlords who feel the same. A default would be catastrophic so it's just not going to happen.
Smart money is only as smart until the whole thing collapses as a pack of cards.
- I think you mean a house of cards, because a pack of cards is pretty damn sturdy

They'll never accept responsibility.

S&P lowered their rating to AA+ back in 2011, honestly I'm surprised it took so long for another rating agency to drop theirs down. Wouldn't be surprised if Moodys drops theirs as a result.

Original source

Fitch downgraded the U.S. credit rating due to fiscal concerns, a deterioration in U.S governance, as well as political polarization reflected partly by the Jan. 6 insurrection, Richard Francis, a senior director at Fitch Ratings, told Reuters on Wednesday.

For the United States to have its rating upgraded there would need to be a combination of factors, such as a stabilization of debt to GDP, and possibly a permanent suspension of the debt ceiling, said Francis.