Thoughts on the Trump presidency

[najaB]

Doesn’t the Electoral College make things somewhat murkier?

It does since it's actually just the electors whose votes actually count and most states allocate their electoral college votes on a winner takes all basis. So the popular vote could be 42:58 and the result go the other way.

 

[dcbwhaley]

Grim but not really shocking was it? You'd bet your mortgage on the orange ape blaming DEI and/or woke.

And if the accident turns out to have been caused by the helicopter pilot then Trump will no doubt blame it on the fact that there are transgender personal in the air force

 

[DM352]

We find out tomorrow if they will put a 25% tariff on us. Mixed media on Feb 1 or Mar 1 and think either way it will not include oil. Don't want to risk going off topic but have read some informal discussion on Canada being in the EU with Saint-Pierre and Miquelon owned near Canada by France. The discussion will likely be as far as it goes.

 

[nlogax]

Undoubtedly the long term goal here is to replace income taxes with sales taxes. Mathematically it makes zero sense with taxable personal income dwarfing what can be recouped from tariffs, but logic and reason be damned, the new WH inhabitants are going to try it anyway and everyone of a working class / normal financial standing will be worse off.

My attention is currently on what's happening to thousands of civil servants right across the federal workforce who are being offered redundancy payments en masse in alignment with a Return to Office mandate for everyone. Plus the targeted firings of FBI agents who were involved in Jan 6th investigates. Also the removal of anything related to diversity. The speed of execution of this destructive plan across so many facets of US life is quite astounding.

(Info in alt text)

 

[najaB]

Also the removal of anything related to diversity.

A lot of low to middle income white female MAGA members are just finding out that the group that benefited most from DEI policies was low to middle income white women.

Turkeys voting for Xmas dinner.

 

[dgl]

A lot of low to middle income white female MAGA members are just finding out that the group that benefited most from DEI policies was low to middle income white women.

Turkeys voting for Xmas dinner.

More like voting for Thanksgiving!, but yes people get so bogged down with things that they forget that they could be impacted as well.

 

[najaB]

More like voting for Thanksgiving!, but yes people get so bogged down with things that they forget that they could be impacted as well.

Worse than that, they don't even bother to find out what the things they're so opposed to actually are.

I bet you £100 that fewer than one in ten Trump voters can actually correctly define DEI, critical race theory or gender identity.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

An ex-Trump advisor was saying on Newsnight last night that Europe imposes VAT on American imports, and the Trump import tariffs are equivalent.
That bypasses the fact that the US already imposes sales tax on everything, varying by state, although usually at a lower level than VAT (eg 6% v 20%).

Mark Carney, potentially Canada's next PM, was also on and spoke a lot of sense defending Canada's position.
He said the cross-border drugs/immigration issues are less than 1% of the equivalents across the Mexican border, which is in any case run by Americans.
He wants solidarity with UK/EU/G6 to resist unilateral tariffs from the US.

The bossy girl who is press spokesperson for the White House said "millions of US deaths" were caused by imported fentanyl.
I think she added 3-4 zeros on to the real figure for effect.

 

[Masbroughlad]

What saddens me is that the news is full, quite rightly, of how we must never forget what evil and hatred of others can do. The Nazis and Auschwitz.

At the same time, Trump is dividing the country (and beyond) on lines of gender, sexuality, disability, race etc and the World sits back and watches.

It is ironic and hypocritical. We should be calling Trump's America out, not sucking up to his hatred. He needs to be cut off, not pumped up.

 

[dgl]

So we have Trump blaming Disabled people for the countries ills and making sure his people are in positions of power (removing his "enemies" where possible), and his right hand man doing salutes...
It looks like we have a duck here.

 

[AndrewE]

Undoubtedly the long term goal here is to replace income taxes with sales taxes. Mathematically it makes zero sense with taxable personal income dwarfing what can be recouped from tariffs, but logic and reason be damned, the new WH inhabitants are going to try it anyway and everyone of a working class / normal financial standing will be worse off.

My attention is currently on what's happening to thousands of civil servants right across the federal workforce who are being offered redundancy payments en masse in alignment with a Return to Office mandate for everyone. Plus the targeted firings of FBI agents who were involved in Jan 6th investigates. Also the removal of anything related to diversity. The speed of execution of this destructive plan across so many facets of US life is quite astounding.

(Info in alt text)
View attachment 173803

That is a good picture: about to obliterate the reminder of "INTEGRITY!"
Of course that is what has already happened...

 

[Masbroughlad]

So we have Trump blaming Disabled people for the countries ills and making sure his people are in positions of power (removing his "enemies" where possible), and his right hand man doing salutes...
It looks like we have a duck here.

His comments about air traffic safety and diversity were despicable and offensive. Downright false, no doubt. You can have diversity within the skills needed for the job.

I read that the days before, Musk had taken his axe to some aviation safety body. You never know what is true and what isn't. Trump's form for blaming other, usually diverse groups to shift blame or hide his incompetence and failures is appalling.

When will the decent politicians of the World, call out this dangerous man for what he is. Problem is, money talks. That needs to stop. People, service and support matter - a decent, cohesive society, not a broken, divided one.

 

[Harpo]

When will the decent politicians of the World, call out this dangerous man for what he is.

Appeasement is the only word for it.

 

[87electric]

Worse than that, they don't even bother to find out what the things they're so opposed to actually are.

I bet you £100 that fewer than one in ten Trump voters can actually correctly define DEI, critical race theory or gender identity.

Conversely, last year in any Western parliament/congress situation saw zero in ten Democrats would define what a woman was. The silence was deafening.

 

[Sorcerer]

What saddens me is that the news is full, quite rightly, of how we must never forget what evil and hatred of others can do. The Nazis and Auschwitz.

At the same time, Trump is dividing the country (and beyond) on lines of gender, sexuality, disability, race etc and the World sits back and watches.

It is ironic and hypocritical. We should be calling Trump's America out, not sucking up to his hatred. He needs to be cut off, not pumped up.

Appeasement is the only word for it.

Realistically, and I ask this in good faith, what can we realistically do? Trump has already demonstrated that he doesn't care what anyone else thinks and will storm ahead with whatever he has planned because nobody can stop him, so even if we in the UK had to choose between Europe and the Americans (in which case I would lean towards to the EU just because Trump has treated allies so poorly and already made the decision for us) there is very little we can do to sway him, especially when his opponents haven't been able to stop him getting re-elected despite everything they could throw at him (and in fact it's arguably empowered him).

 

[InkyScrolls]

Conversely, last year in any Western parliament/congress situation saw zero in ten Democrats would define what a woman was. The silence was deafening.

While your phrasing is awkward I understand what you're saying. It is very easy to define what a 'woman' is, but unfortunately until the difference between sex and gender becomes more generally known (and accepted by those currently anti-science), it is almost impossible to find a definition everyone will agree on.

 

[DelW]

Plus the targeted firings of FBI agents who were involved in Jan 6th investigates. Also the removal of anything related to diversity. The speed of execution of this destructive plan across so many facets of US life is quite astounding.

Yet just a few months ago Trump himself was raging at the previous administration for allegedly "politicising" and "weaponising" the Justice Department. As so often with Trump the blatant hypocrisy is breathtaking, yet his acolytes appear blind to it.

 

[najaB]

It is very easy to define what a 'woman' is, but unfortunately until the difference between sex and gender becomes more generally known (and accepted by those currently anti-science), it is almost impossible to find a definition everyone will agree on.

I'll go further than that and say that, even with agreement on the precise context in which it's being used, it will never be possible to hash out a definition that doesn't have caveats or exceptions.

Simply because nature doesn't care about our attempts to categorise it.

 

[Oxfordblues]

I look on the second Trump presidency with wry amusement. I used to seethe watching "Yes, Minister" as everything that Jim Hacker tried to do at the Department of Administrative affairs was scuppered, circumvented and skewered by Sir Humphrey Appleby. Now we have a President who seems unencumbered by the equivalent of a Permanent Secretary, which is at first glance refreshing, but I don't see Trump's "dictatorship" lasting for more than a few months.

 

[m0ffy]

Conversely, last year in any Western parliament/congress situation saw zero in ten Democrats would define what a woman was. The silence was deafening.

It’s an obviously bad faith question designed to elicit specific responses, usually asked by transphobes. The right response is to either ignore or ridicule the questioner.

 

[brad465]

I look on the second Trump presidency with wry amusement. I used to seethe watching "Yes, Minister" as everything that Jim Hacker tried to do at the Department of Administrative affairs was scuppered, circumvented and skewered by Sir Humphrey Appleby. Now we have a President who seems unencumbered by the equivalent of a Permanent Secretary, which is at first glance refreshing, but I don't see Trump's "dictatorship" lasting for more than a few months.

How do you see this dictatorship ending?

 

[SuspectUsual]

Trump’s press secretary explaining that the Mexican and Canadian tariffs are because they’ve allowed so much fentanyl into the USA that it’s killed “tens of millions of Americans”

Link here

x.com

x.com

Total deaths in the USA over the last 20 years for all drugs is around 1.1 million

Nobody bats an eyelid because everyone expects these frauds and liars to just make numbers up

 

[najaB]

Nobody bats an eyelid because everyone expects these frauds and liars to just make numbers up

And that's ignoring that most Fentanyl comes into the USA from China.

 

[InkyScrolls]

It’s an obviously bad faith question designed to elicit specific responses, usually asked by transphobes. The right response is to either ignore or ridicule the questioner.

Indeed.

 

[43096]

Worse than that, they don't even bother to find out what the things they're so opposed to actually are.

I bet you £100 that fewer than one in ten Trump voters can actually correctly define DEI, critical race theory or gender identity.

That's because the majority of people do not care about gender politics, and DEI gets lumped in with that. They just want to live their own lives.

 

[najaB]

That's because the majority of people do not care about gender politics, and DEI gets lumped in with that. They just want to live their own lives.

Agreed. But I'm talking about the people who you see being interviewed who are dead set against these issues but who can't explain what they are.

Or those who want Obamacare to be repealed because the Affordable Care Act covers their medical insurance needs.

 

[jon0844]

And if the accident turns out to have been caused by the helicopter pilot then Trump will no doubt blame it on the fact that there are transgender personal in the air force

It's crazy that the military felt they needed to hide the name of the female for fear of threats on the family. I am sure she'll now be considered the cause simply for being female.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 2 Feb 2025 ==

Video: The Room Next Door - Donald Trump Plane Crash Fact Check

Even without the humourous additions, Trump has been inexcusably bad in handling this tragedy but the video gives it a whole new angle on just why Trump is so terrible.

When Trump explains how helicopters work (and mentions that he has many) it is amazing anyone can think he's a genius - but then again, people think the same about Elon Musk.

 

[Yew]

It's rather strange, that (as mentioned on the other thread) the NTSB has decided to only post updates on X, rather than by email. It seems to me that the character limit would make that platform fundementally unsuited to such nuanced and detailed updates.

 

[DelW]

It's rather strange, that (as mentioned on the other thread) the NTSB has decided to only post updates on X, rather than by email. It seems to me that the character limit would make that platform fundementally unsuited to such nuanced and detailed updates.

Possibly mandated by Musk, to give him complete control over NTSB's output?

The conflicts of interest in having Musk influential in government become more blatant every day. He's already said he wants to eviscerate the FAA, so that SpaceX doesn't have to bother with all that safety stuff that boring old politicians used to find important.

 

[D6130]

I suspect that the orange man will be in trouble in less than four years time when his policies have the opposite effect on the American economy to that which he intended. I predict that there could be serious civil unrest in various quarters.