ewsieg

You are correct on this about MAGA's, but a very large number of people that voted for Trump didn't think he won in 2020 and don't believe illegals were all violent criminals. What that large group were, were folks that were lied to by the left regarding 50 intelligence officers that said it was Russian disinformation, that by simply asking if it could have been a lab leak they were mocked, that inflation wasn't an issue, and despite the lack of interviews and press briefings from Biden and videos of him walking around mindlessly umpteen times that he was not in decline, but rather sharper then ever (Joe Tapper is coming out with a book about his decline now after spending the last 4 years on CNN fighting against anyone that even worried about a decline, **** you Tapper). They saw democratic mayors in northern states freak out when the southern states decided to burden them with the problems faced by a large influx of illegals that they have had to endure the entire time. You didn't accept any of them, you mocked them. The reaction of large city mayors on immigration was the most obvious 'show your ass' moment by your party in recent memory and instead of just publicly agreeing that maybe unfettered unorganized mass migration by illegals into this country may not be the best thing, publicly the party chose to demonize those complaining about it as racists. Even as Biden took actual steps to deal with it. Still I wish that large group would have looked deeper into what a Trump 2.0 presidency would be like and voted for Harris. I don't see how you win over the electorate (consistently at least) without being more accepting. But I guess continue to mock, doesn't seem to be working right now, but who knows, maybe it will prevent a Trump 3rd term.

Absolutely, but it's also not 49% of the voting population or whatever Trump got. I would love to peel some folks off of that group rather than push them to dig into their 'dear leader' and add to that 25-30% that is true MAGA.

Ahh, to each your own I guess. I don't feel like I said you had to befriend MAGA so they could betray you, just saying if everyone had a little more empathy, we'd be better off. I still feel I'm conservative. I grew up listening to Rush. But I was always interested in understanding an issue rather then simply agreeing with whatever an (R) told me was the issue. This led me to listening to programs like This American Life, which arguably is often anecdotal, but even if I disagreed with the politics of a particular episode, I often found a side I had not thought off. I think it helped me steer clear of Trump when he took over the party.

It is a tall ask, one I certainly don't live up to all the time, but IMO, it's the right 'ask'. I don't think you win over the opposition or even those that don't get into the weeds with politics and pick a side by making fun of them at every chance. Don't get me wrong, Reddit's r/facepalm is pretty funny, I just don't think it's constructive which is what I think MTUTiger was getting at.

You're not wrong... but MTUtigers post is still the correct way to handle this. It's annoying without a doubt, but it's not beneficial to anyone to just go scorched earth on those we oppose. I was actually going to jump on here to talk about what my Facebook feed looks like now. Some old friends/family of mine are sharing meme's, that are often incorrect and at best, only partially true, as they troll the left and claim 'wins' on every little thing they believe Trump is doing great. At the same time, zero empathy on anything. Until they find a reason to have a little empathy, nothing is going to change their mind. Especially if you're refusing to give them any empathy as well.

I was in the same boat as Oblong and it got to the point where I just felt The Wire was too old for me to truly appreciate it. I figured I missed my chance. During Covid, I hunkered down and watched it and I learned it was worth being mentioned as one of the greatest.

The Killers should have been the first concert there.

This is an interesting take and I think i've seen it in real time myself. My MIL has a 2nd home on a lake in mid-Michigan. An association on the lake worked with the local authorities and got an assessment added as part of a plan to dredge the lake. It's a man made lake and apparently has always been done every 10-15 years, but hasn't been done in about 20. As such, lots of algae issues that everyone on the lake is dealing with. Years ago when they started this current dredging project, a lone person started a new 'association' and has done nothing but demand "answers", and find "documents" which they then read wrong and claim it is evidence, and the whole point is they want it to be considered a public lake (which it is, but it also has no public access which they don't seem to understand) and therefore feel the state should pay for it or grants could be applied for (which attempts were made). While most don't follow this new group, she's definitely recruited a lot of users and they almost were successful in stopping the dredging (which already was delayed due to unrelated EGLE issues.) The oddest thing is that the facebook group for them sounds MAGA'ish or at least Qanon'ish, yet the women running it also randomly puts anti-Trump stuff on it. Yet many of the people she has gotten to join her, are more Trumpy. It simply makes no sense, much like all of our politics now.

That's some injustice I could get behind. (j/k)

@Archie, am I like Pfife far left or just chasfh far left?

I think part of it is shock still. Hamtramck's mayor just said he still supports Trump the other day. I suspect they hope/think Trump saying what he's saying about Gaza is not going to be pursued.

Not the same at all and I doubt Romad is claiming it's identical. But as a conservative to a conservative, I would gather that at least pre-Trump, you of all people would have been more likely to side with a statement that says there is no room for celebrating violence of any sort, even if you're not actually committing violence.

Death panels are evil, the government should not get to decide who dies. But here me out..... Life panels, where the government decides who lives. Pretty solid concept, right?!?! </thoughts from a MAGA>

Even during Trumps first term when people would say we're an international embarrassment, I would shrug my shoulders and think of all the crap other countries do that we put up with. In just a months worth of this new term, I'm at the point where I legitimately would second guess international travel just because I'd be embarrassed to tell people where I'm from. My friends wife spent a summer in Europe right out of college and used a backpack she got from a 2nd hand store, it had a Canadian flag on it. There were a handful of places that she said she was treated significantly better once people saw it. I could only imagine what it might be like now. Also to note, years ago in Munich I stopped to watch a street performer and when he asked everyone where they were from, I was the only American and standing next to a Somalian. He openly joked the Somalian should kill me, we all laughed. Not sure I'd be as comfortable today.

As a bit of caution on this, I'll say what I tell my kids, be selective with your outrage as no one is 'truly' real on social media. Many reels are only about click bait. Some people even put viewpoints against their true beliefs because they want to mock/troll the other side. Plus, even if it is real, you have to then question the responses/comments from everyone as i'm sure some of those are the same. I remember my mom posted something a few years back and I called her as I was pissed about her sharing it, turns out all she saw was a video that started out like 'this is why our government can't be trusted', the video paused on her and she didn't even bother trying to watch the full thing. It got on her feed and that initial little response made her think it was important enough to share.

Unfortunately you are right that it's a privilege, the president doesn't have to talk to anyone. I'm sure you were on my side when I have complained about the likes of Biden or Whitmer never holding press conferences though. Another difference here though is that he's picking and choosing who he gives this 'privilege' to based on if they are friendly to him. Whether an actual violation of the 1st amendment or not, a true advocate of the 1st amendment would not like to see that happen, regardless of the letter next to the president allowing it.

I used to perform audits a long time ago. It would have been so much simpler if anytime I had an invoice in front of me the question was "Did paying this result in some of the money making it into my pocket?" and 'No' meant I told my company not to pay it anymore and 'Yes' meant I told my company it was worthwhile to keep.

As they should. They also have to deal with the outcome if they don't put boots on the ground as well. I don't want this war and have been critical of the west, especially when I believe there was a really good chance this war could have been over early and an entire generation of Ukraine men could still be alive strengthening the remaining parts of Ukraine. But we're here today and Russia is dug in while at the same time the US is stating to the world we're not going to advocate for democracy or simply what is right anymore. If Europe wants do to that, in their own backyard which Trump always likes to point out as a reason they should be dealing with this and not us, then he can shut his mouth about it.

It's not that DEI is bad, but many on the right feel the left took it too far. Unfortunately the response is taking it too far as well. Someone close to me is part of an executive team for a large company. They recently merged with another company and it wasn't a merge and consolidate situation, they intended on having this other company continue to operate as they always have, just under their umbrella. They had a large town hall and during it, while another executive is speaking, a DEI director who was not involved happened to walk past. This executive invited him in, promoted him and his role, and invited folks to reach out to him...then this is where it went sideways. He decided to share a story that a previous DEI director encouraged him to share (and stated that as he started it). When DEI was first introduced at their place, he wanted to be an ally, but as a white male wasn't sure how to do that. He went to that director and asked if he could start a group for white people. The person telling me this said they had never heard this story before and admitted he squirmed a little in his chair in front of everyone. The executive speaking went on to say he was told that was not an option, but when asked why he would want a white group, he stated he wanted to be supportive and felt he could get together with other folks that want to be supportive to try and assist. He was assured that if he wanted to be supportive, he can join any group and he would be welcomed. He didn't realize that was even an option. Over the next few years he went to meetings for every DEI organization they had, learning and assisting with all, becoming a valuable asset for that previous DEI director. She asked him to share that story as she felt it was exactly why people freaked out about DEI and showed there is room for everyone, including white males. Well, 12 people went to HR after the townhall, demanding he is fired and everyone on the stage be disciplined for not shutting it down immediately. Even after an initial investigation where it was discovered that it was 1 manager and his 11 employees and several of those employees stated that they were afraid of being laid off and were told doing this would help protect their jobs, HR chose to pursue. The president of the org was aware of the story and privately said they didn't think anyone did anything wrong after hearing about it, but made it clear they would not step in. Additionally it was later learned that HR immediately determined there was no issue but admitted they felt that had to pursue because of the DEI tie in, despite the current DEI director defending what was said on stage. Eventually he was able to stay, but he had to get on a call with that entire team and issue an apology. No explanation, no context, nothing, just admit fault and apologize. The CEO knew it was wrong, the DEI director knew it was wrong, but no one dared get in the way because of the fear that it would look bad if they refused to punish a DEI complaint.

So Europe should take a bigger role, but if they do what you ask, they are still wrong?

Crazy that Patel is basically caught lying to congress and republicans (law and order??!?!) are going to push him through. Dems should push impeachment immediately after the vote.

Wow, she sounds like a real piece of work, spending so much energy on other countries instead of helping her own. This judge probably hates that his wife is always spending time helping people in Africa instead of in his kitchen making him a sandwich. Hopefully we don't help any other countries, plus that helps us down the road too, because dumb countries like Russia and China will step in to 'help' them, while also working out trading to take valuable minerals from them. If only we get out of the way so these other countries can waste money on important minerals that can help their economy exponentially. MAGA!!!!

I wouldn't have believed this if you told me, but Pepe's grandma, she's 100% legit. You're going to persuade me if you keep posting all these fully vetted facts.

Crap, hate hitting my quota of 1 well articulated post so early in the year.

This is why we can't have nice things with you around. Biden was told how he was handling student debt forgiveness was unconstitutional, so he stopped doing that way and tried another means to achieve his goal that he felt was constitutional. If it isn't, parties have a right to challenge that too. His tweet above is that despite being stopped, he continued to fight for his goal. Nothing is legally wrong with that. Trump has every right to try and enact any changes he wants to do, but if what he does is determined to be out of his legal rights, he needs to find another way to do it.