Trumps Presidency 2025

[Motown Bombers]

My neighbors to my right are Ukrainian immigrants, neighbors on the left are Arab. Directly across the street are Arab, to the right of them are more Arabs and to the left is more Ukrainians. I have no idea any of their legal status, but I keep looking out my window to see if ICE is here. Living near immigrants has been great because they barely speak English, and I don't get bogged down having to exchange meaningless pleasantries with them. 

[RatkoVarda]

he seems nice

[chasfh]

9 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said:

not sure how the county gets out of this death spiral. MAGA tells a bold face, laughable lie that the US is spending $50M on condoms in Gaza. Press reports the lie, some treating it as straight news. Eventually, some media gets around to pointing out it is not true, but not using word "lie." But MAGA will no price for lying to the American people. If anything, having the "guts" to tell these lies only emboldens MAGA's angry, nihilist zombies.

The obvious lie that Trump’s first inauguration was the most highly-attended in history, and their repeated insistence that it was true despite visual evidence, really was instructive to that cabal.

[romad1]

26 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said:

he seems nice

well-adjusted.  I am betting his mother never gave him a cherry coke enema and tied him to the piano to see if he could hold his water. 

 

edit: that was a really obscure reference to the made for tv movie "Sybil."  That movie messed up a lot of people of my generation who saw it. 

Edited Wednesday at 02:18 PM by romad1

[chasfh]

I might say here "so undocumented people are dirtbags, huh?", but then I remember she's probably including Puerto Ricans who are American citizens, too.

 

[Tigermojo]

2 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I might say here "so undocumented people are dirtbags, huh?", but then I remember she's probably including Puerto Ricans who are American citizens, too.

 

They're shooting the dogs! They're shooting the cats!

[chasfh]

1 minute ago, Tigermojo said:

They're shooting the dogs! They're shooting the cats!

They're shooting the pets of the people who live there!

[CMRivdogs]

There goes the price of oranges

 

[Tigerbomb13]

21 minutes ago, chasfh said:

I might say here "so undocumented people are dirtbags, huh?", but then I remember she's probably including Puerto Ricans who are American citizens, too.

 

Such lovely people in this administration. I feel much dumber for watching this. 

[chasfh]

3 minutes ago, Tigerbomb13 said:

Such lovely people in this administration. I feel much dumber for watching this. 

You're one ahead of me. I didn't even bother cuing up the video.

 

Edited Wednesday at 02:59 PM by chasfh

[romad1]

1 hour ago, chasfh said:

I might say here "so undocumented people are dirtbags, huh?", but then I remember she's probably including Puerto Ricans who are American citizens, too.

 

If the Secdef wore a uniform people would be freaked out over the separation between civil and military.  But, the head of the Ministry of the Interior can I guess? 

[oblong]

Dumb Dumb and his President the Space Boy are trying to claim credit for "rescuing" the "stranded" astronauts on the ISS.

That's not how it works.  They were not stranded and the plan to get them home was in place since last year.

Another false claim.

[RatkoVarda]

Elmo literally putting children in OPM

[Tiger337]

This would be hugely unpopular, another huge over reach

https://idahocapitalsun.com/2025/01/27/idaho-house-calls-on-u-s-supreme-court-to-reverse-same-sex-marriage-ruling/

I'm almost rooting for over reach now.  It's the only way out of it.  During the summer, there was a talk at my school given by an economist and author who had written a book about presidential eras based mostly on economic policy.  He said this era started with Reagan and has largely been very conservative especially due to deregulation.  He said that every such era ends at some sort of cross roads and ends with the current party getting crushed.  He was very sure that Trump was going to win the election in 2024 and also very sure that he'd over reach (mostly in respect to economic policy) and that the Republicans would get crushed in 2028.  This of course should be taken with a big grain of salt and I don't expect anyone to agree with it, but it was interesting at the time.     

[Tiger337]

11 minutes ago, RatkoVarda said:

Elmo literally putting children in OPM

One could argue that they are all children.  

[Motown Bombers]

6 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

This would be hugely unpopular, another huge over reach

https://idahocapitalsun.com/2025/01/27/idaho-house-calls-on-u-s-supreme-court-to-reverse-same-sex-marriage-ruling/

I'm almost rooting for over reach now.  It's the only way out of it.  During the summer, there was a talk at my school given by an economist and author who had written a book about presidential eras based mostly on economic policy.  He said this era started with Reagan and has largely been very conservative especially due to deregulation.  He said that every such era ends at some sort of cross roads and ends with the current party getting crushed.  He was very sure that Trump was going to win the election in 2024 and also very sure that he'd over reach (mostly in respect to economic policy) and that the Republicans would get crushed in 2028.  This of course should be taken with a big grain of salt and I don't expect anyone to agree with it, but it was interesting at the time.     

I think the issue is that there is a massive right wing propaganda apparatus that didn't exist in the 80's. The positive is that Democrats do well when Trump is not on the ballot. Trump impersonators have struggled. This is a cult of Trump. Once he's dead, I have no idea if anyone can fill those clown shoes. 

[gehringer_2]

36 minutes ago, Tiger337 said:

This would be hugely unpopular, another huge over reach

https://idahocapitalsun.com/2025/01/27/idaho-house-calls-on-u-s-supreme-court-to-reverse-same-sex-marriage-ruling/

I'm almost rooting for over reach now.  It's the only way out of it.  During the summer, there was a talk at my school given by an economist and author who had written a book about presidential eras based mostly on economic policy.  He said this era started with Reagan and has largely been very conservative especially due to deregulation.  He said that every such era ends at some sort of cross roads and ends with the current party getting crushed.  He was very sure that Trump was going to win the election in 2024 and also very sure that he'd over reach (mostly in respect to economic policy) and that the Republicans would get crushed in 2028.  This of course should be taken with a big grain of salt and I don't expect anyone to agree with it, but it was interesting at the time.     

The thing about political reversals is that they are always perfectly obvious - in hindsight. The GOP thought that the NewDeal era was ripe for reversal from about 1952 onwards but it didn't happen until 1980. Before that the pressure for economic reform had been building from the 1890s and some got done under TR but it wasn't until the Great crash that FDR had a strong enough coalition to reverse the status quo and pass the New Deal.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

3 hours ago, RatkoVarda said:

he seems nice

Only the very best people!

[romad1]

Your fault if you get COVID or Leukemia

Seth Masket: "Sanders: Is health care a human right? RFK: It's not the same as free speech, because it costs money. Also it's people's fault if they get sick Some rights cost money! Trials and legal representation cost money. Running elections to ensure the right to vote costs money." — Bluesky 

[Tigerbomb13]

2 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Your fault if you get COVID or Leukemia

Seth Masket: "Sanders: Is health care a human right? RFK: It's not the same as free speech, because it costs money. Also it's people's fault if they get sick Some rights cost money! Trials and legal representation cost money. Running elections to ensure the right to vote costs money." — Bluesky 

We are ****ed if this nutcase gets through. 

[Mr.TaterSalad]

18 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

The thing about political reversals is that they are always perfectly obvious - in hindsight. The GOP thought that the NewDeal era was ripe for reversal from about 1952 onwards but it didn't happen until 1980. Before that the pressure for economic reform had been building from the 1890s and some got done under TR but it wasn't until the Great crash that FDR had a strong enough coalition to reverse the status quo and pass the New Deal.

https://newrepublic.com/article/166358/disastrous-legacy-new-democrats

You can thank Bubba Clinton for killing the New Deal era policies of FDR and LBJ and ridding the party of New Deal era Democrats as much as Reagan. It was Bubba and his acolytes that started the New Democrats and the Democratic Leadership Council in Washington DC. It was Bubba that gutted welfare with the switch from AFDC to TANF. It was Bubba that doubled the extreme rate of poverty in this country. It was Bubba that enacted NAFTA, CAFTA, GATT, and PNTR status with China. It was Bubba who deregulated media (TV and radio) with the Telecommunications Act of 1995. It was Bubba would replead Glass-Steagall and replaced it with Gramm-Leach-Bliley. It was Bubba who deregulated the commodities and derivatives trading. It was Bubba who killed local banking with the Riegel-Neal Interstate Banking Act.

The Gipper definitely started an era of massive deregulation, tax cuts for the wealthy elite, globalism, union busting, and an erosion of social welfare in this country. Reagan deserves a hefty amount of criticism for all the devastation his policies caused, in particular on economic issues. Reagan hurt many, many millions and millions of people with his economic and social agendas. That said, I feel Clinton deserves in on the share of criticism for the mess we are in now economically. Instead of building off the New Deal and Great Society he reversed that trend and continued down the path Reagan started us on.

[mtutiger]

It will get lost amongst all the anti-vax gaslighting (which is arguably the most important thing), but Bobby Kennedy has been nominated to run HHS and is completely ignorant to how Medicare and Medicaid work....

No requirements beyond his last name for this job at all.

Edited Wednesday at 05:40 PM by mtutiger

[mtutiger]

Good Lord Almighty...

[gehringer_2]

45 minutes ago, Mr.TaterSalad said:

That said, I feel Clinton deserves in on the share of criticism for the mess we are in now economically. Instead of building off the New Deal and Great Society he reversed that trend and continued down the path Reagan started us on.

You have to be a little bit fair though. Clinton would never have been elected if he had campaigned on the above. Reagan's policies were wildly popular because the long term effects hadn't shown up yet, so the Dems either had to get on the bus or continue to lose elections. The only reason GHWB lost is that by acceding to tax increases he was considered less Reaganite on the economy that where Clinton was able to triangulate himself. BTW 'Triangulation' was exactly the buzzword of Clinton's "New Democrats". Sometime society is just at fault for getting what it wants. I suppose you can always come back to society making bad decisions because of a flawed media system or a lousy education system, but those aren't problems a candidate can solve in the election cycle in front of him, he has to play it as it lays.

I think the bigger problem is that at the time, not many people understood that there is an economic hierarchy in employment and you have to have wealth generating productive capacity to generate the income for productive workers to spend to support service workers (and 'knowledge' workers are in the final analysis, service workers). I think the lawyers  and executives all figured they were 'service' workers and they were well paid, why can't everyone be a service worker and be well paid. But it doesn't work that way because law and executive positions limit free entry - they aren't really in an open market the way other workers are. It's taken basically until Biden for any American president to admit that globalism and 'competitive advantage' are a bill of goods and he's done a poor job of explaining it. If you want broad based high wage employment, you have to have businesses that generate primary wealth, that is that make something tangible out of nothing, for instance cars out of iron ore, sand, copper, or microchips out of sand and other chemicals, or batteries out of crude oil (plastic) and lithium, etc., etc. It means industrial production. That tangible wealth (real stuff) creation is where the income comes from to create a middle class. I don't think most of them in DC understand it even now.

The other thing they didn't understand that that technology is the easiest commodity to export. You can't assume your IT tech workers are protected from overseas competition. Any country can educate and many of them have.

Edited Wednesday at 06:25 PM by gehringer_2

[RatkoVarda]

Looks like the arsonists are going to give themselves another participation trophy