Trumps Presidency 2025

[Tiger337]

1 minute ago, Edman85 said:

Not a big cat person, but this is easy.

The cats without question...They need to update the choices with Musk and RFK jr.  They could drop McConnell and I'm not sure who else.  

[romad1]

Is the theme of this administration that the old eat the young? 

https://www.science.org/content/article/nsf-downsizes-summer-research-program-undergraduates

https://bsky.app/profile/davidimiller.bsky.social/post/3lj6kqhsafk2m

 

 

[romad1]

If this group survive I'll be surprised.

https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/katy-perry-gayle-king-lauren-sanchez-space-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-1236322425/

This has Oceangate Submersible written all over it.

[mtutiger]

15 hours ago, chasfh said:

So, again, after nine years of Trumpers wishing nothing but the worst for liberals, it’s liberals who have the obligation to reach out to Trumpers, a group of people who take their emotional and social cue from a nihilist sociopath, in the mere hope that they will respond in a kindly and neighborly fashion? Liberals are the ones who are supposed to make peace with the leopards?

That seems like a tall ask to me.

Donald Trump won the overall popular vote by 1.5% nationally, and by roughly 200,000 votes spread over three states (PA, MI, WI).... small, subtle changes in the electorate over the next couple of years can and will make a huge difference.

It's not about the Trumpers, it's not about the "red hats" as you like to call them.... most of those people are just gone. But there's a slice of the electorate that doesn't follow politics as closely as your or I do, who maybe don't love Donald Trump but remember the economy as being reasonably good between 2017-2019 (memory holing how he ****ed up 2020). We pretend like these people don't exist, but they do....

The "leopards" and "FAFO" stuff is fast food for liberals, and it isn't without a modicum of truth, but in order to build a coalition to push back on these guys, there's going to have to be an acceptance of people who realize or admit that they were lied to by this administration. It's annoying, I'll be the first to admit it, but it's reality.

[mtutiger]

15 hours ago, ewsieg said:

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.

To be fair, I don't know that it's fair to expect all liberals to modulate their speech or feelings either.... and what politicians say and supporters say are two different things. 

I think it would be dumb for Schumer, Jeffries, or even AOC to go out and talk about FAFO and leopards eating faces, for instance.... but I suspect that almost all of them, even if there are tactical disagreements, would acknowledge that politics is about addition and not subtraction. And may not mimic the viral lines of the base voter.

[mtutiger]

14 hours ago, ewsieg said:

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.

If there was one thing I could change about the rhetoric I see from the anti-Trump side, it would be to stop making these broad brush assumptions that all 49% are MAGA.... it's counterproductive on a number of levels

[Hongbit]

16 hours ago, chasfh said:

So, again, after nine years of Trumpers wishing nothing but the worst for liberals, it’s liberals who have the obligation to reach out to Trumpers, a group of people who take their emotional and social cue from a nihilist sociopath, in the mere hope that they will respond in a kindly and neighborly fashion? Liberals are the ones who are supposed to make peace with the leopards?

That seems like a tall ask to me.

Would I use stick figure drawings, rapid hand movements, or some type of grunting to communicate with them?  

[Tigermojo]

29 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

Would I use stick figure drawings, rapid hand movements, or some type of grunting to communicate with them?  

Middle finger 

[Motown Bombers]

1 hour ago, mtutiger said:

The "leopards" and "FAFO" stuff is fast food for liberals, and it isn't without a modicum of truth, but in order to build a coalition to push back on these guys, there's going to have to be an acceptance of people who realize or admit that they were lied to by this administration. It's annoying, I'll be the first to admit it, but it's reality.

Only liberals are asked to accept these people. After 2020, all MAGA did was say the election was stolen and Biden wasn't a legitimate president. They tried to undermine Biden at every point and Trump was publicly cheering for the economy to collapse. MAGA said Latinos were violent criminals who are poisoning the blood of America and need to be kicked out and they were like where do I sign up. 

[chasfh]

51 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

Would I use stick figure drawings, rapid hand movements, or some type of grunting to communicate with them?  

“You might, rabbit, you might.”

[oblong]

You don't have to give these people a seat at the table, they don't even want one, but the ask is to not mock them or scream in their face.  You say "Yeah, he's a bad guy.  Welcome to the party.  Here's more information.  MTU is right.  There are people who are not engaged like we are in this.   

We go after dems for having purity constests and compliment the GOP for "coming home to vote".   This is an example of that.  You need their votes.  It might make you feel good to say I told you so and **** off.... but where does that get you electorally?  What is the goal?  To scream or to win elections?

I've blocked and snoozed a lot of liberals b/c I don't need a daily 4 page rant from Heather Cox Richardson or Occupy Democrats to tell me what I already know.

 

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, mtutiger said:

To be fair, I don't know that it's fair to expect all liberals to modulate their speech or feelings either.... and what politicians say and supporters say are two different things. 

I think it would be dumb for Schumer, Jeffries, or even AOC to go out and talk about FAFO and leopards eating faces, for instance.... but I suspect that almost all of them, even if there are tactical disagreements, would acknowledge that politics is about addition and not subtraction. And may not mimic the viral lines of the base voter.

One of the changes in politics in the internet age is that it's really no longer possible to target different messages to different audiences. Back in the day a Pol could have acknowledged the base's frustration with all the FAFO and leopards eating faces rhetoric they wanted to hear to get charged up, but then still had a messaging system to the 'outside' that was conciliatory. But in the internet there is no such thing as an internal vs external audience, all there is is bulletin board material for the other side.

[chasfh]

To be fair, the uneducated/ignorant voter who listened to what the news channel that was on in the laundromat or doctor’s office or even their place of work said, and who is horrified at the result of their vote, might be reached and brought into the tent. Those are not the people I was referring to, but they were part of the problem this time, intentionally or not. So there might be some opportunity there, if they can be made to care about something they might have even aggressively avoided with all their might before. It feels more likely they would just avoid the free and fair ballot box in the future, like a child burned by a stove, which by itself may or may not work. The hopeful pessimist is crossing his fingers for that four-ish years from now.

[chasfh]

4 minutes ago, oblong said:

You don't have to give these people a seat at the table, they don't even want one, but the ask is to not mock them or scream in their face.  You say "Yeah, he's a bad guy.  Welcome to the party.  Here's more information.  MTU is right.  There are people who are not engaged like we are in this.   

We go after dems for having purity constests and compliment the GOP for "coming home to vote".   This is an example of that.  You need their votes.  It might make you feel good to say I told you so and **** off.... but where does that get you electorally?  What is the goal?  To scream or to win elections?

I've blocked and snoozed a lot of liberals b/c I don't need a daily 4 page rant from Heather Cox Richardson or Occupy Democrats to tell me what I already know.

 

I’ve long felt that some people in Occupy Democrats are one light-switch flip from becoming Occupy the Capitol. A lot of people who go that hard that energetically in one direction are doing it for the thrill versus for the principles.

[Motown Bombers]

I'm just saying do what MAGA did to win voters. Tell them they are poisoning the blood of Americans and will eat your pets. Tell them West Virginia is a mountain of garbage. Promise to ban Christians and deport white people. 

[Edman85]

2 hours ago, romad1 said:

If this group survive I'll be surprised.

https://variety.com/2025/biz/news/katy-perry-gayle-king-lauren-sanchez-space-jeff-bezos-blue-origin-1236322425/

This has Oceangate Submersible written all over it.

I have some friends/former colleagues who are verrrrry sharp that work at BO.

[romad1]

8 minutes ago, Edman85 said:

I have some friends/former colleagues who are verrrrry sharp that work at BO.

So, either Bezos plays ball and makes the WP a house organ for Trumpism or his fiance dies. 

[oblong]

When you are that wealthy you aren't attached to people.   He can get another fiance.

 

[Hongbit]

Just now, romad1 said:

So, either Bezos plays ball and makes the WP a house organ for Trumpism or his fiance dies. 

Mr. Luther will be sad for a few days and then will go find himself a newer Miss Teschmacher. 

[romad1]

the horrifying part is that none of the people going up want to go up.  

[LaceyLou]

14 hours ago, Tiger337 said:

 

Do I even have to tell you which two I would choose?

[mtutiger]

1 hour ago, Motown Bombers said:

Only liberals are asked to accept these people. After 2020, all MAGA did was say the election was stolen and Biden wasn't a legitimate president. They tried to undermine Biden at every point and Trump was publicly cheering for the economy to collapse. MAGA said Latinos were violent criminals who are poisoning the blood of America and need to be kicked out and they were like where do I sign up. 

Yes, it absolutely sucks.... but a movement whose leaders lie like they breathe and have no shame are always going to have it easier than the rest of us. 

Edited February 28 by mtutiger

[LaceyLou]

16 hours ago, IdahoBert said:

I can only go back so far in the pages of this thread without messing with myself psychologically and emotionally, so if this has already been seen, here it is again.

I can only stand just so much exposure to political social media, and although I don’t think we’re going to tame capitalism with boycotts, if this is the only thing I can do, I’m in.

I’ve run into a number of people socially who are talking about this. I’m not going to buy anything Friday, although I might go to a Mexican restaurant tomorrow because I know the people there are good people and it’s a family owned place.

I’m also going to go dead on social media and not even turn my TV on and for me this is not some sort of self involved conceit, it’s more or less what I’ve been reduced to and I’m admitting that this is what I’ve been reduced to right now. See you all in a couple days.

I already avoid a lot of those companies, though a lot of them own a lot of other brands that make them tougher to avoid (Bezos is linked with Whole Foods, Uber, and Grubhub, for example). I try to support local businesses instead.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

3 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Yes, it absolutely sucks.... but a movement whose leaders lie like they breathe and have no shame are always going to have it easier than the rest of us. 

If these people are so obviously dumb and gullible what's to say we welcome them in and then when the next charlatan or huckster comes along they don't just fall for them too? And again, ignorance of the law doesn't mean you can go around and do things without repercussion. The same is true of an ignorant vote.

[Motown Bombers]

5 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

Yes, it absolutely sucks.... but a movement whose leaders lie like they breathe and have no shame are always going to have it easier than the rest of us. 

Guess I don't see how liberals are supposed to win over people who follow a guy who lies and has no shame. The only way I see is having them touch the stove like the woman from Baldwin. She believed Trump over Harris. She acknowledged Trump was a horrible person. She knew it but still voted for him. It was ok as long as it wasn't happening to her. I see this a lot with MAGA. They hate Obamacare because they thing it's something only black people get but don't take away their ACA. There needs to be a lot of stove touching. Dems can't be the helicopter parents anymore.