Trump's Second Term

[KDLarsen]

trump has announced reciprocal tariffs on, well, everyone?

“Whatever countries charge the United States of America, we will charge them. No more, no less,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Thursday. “Very simple. Nobody knows what that number is. If you go by individual country … and you look at what they’re charging us, in almost all cases they’re charging us vastly more than we charge them.

“Those days are over,” he said.

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

It's not that it's not a concern for us, it's that it's more of a concern for Europe than for us, and so Europe should shoulder most of the burden of dealing with it. And they aren't stepping up to the plate like they should, in part because they didn't spend on defense like the US (including Trump) has been telling them to for decades, and often still don't want to.

As for this, it always ignores that when these conflicts break out it's not the US that gets to deal with the refugees. It's not the US that had to deal with attacks on power or data infrastructure. And if things progress beyond Ukraine, as is increasingly more likely with Trump licking Putin's heel, it's not the US civilian infrastructure that will get destroyed barring a full on nuclear exchange. Maybe if the US did it's share in accepting refugees the EU would be more amenable to increasing defense spending.

 

[Blue Mountain]

I thought I had posted this about 12 hours earlier, but reading through the thread I can't find it and searching for my posts on my members page doesn't show it. So I'm (re)posting it now.

As of the close of the day on February 12, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -128. The score took a big jump on February 12 when I realized Trump had earlier summarily fired 17 insepctors-general, and I scored -1 for each of them.

12 February 2025
-1: Trump tweets "BIDEN INFLATION UP!"
-1: Trump suggests land taken from Ukraine need not be returned because the Russians fought for it [27]
-1: Trump rambles on about magnetic elevators on the USS Gerald R. Ford: "It's a new theory." [28]
-17: To date Trump has fired 17 other inspectors general without cause (will adjust if some were fired for cause)

Added to February 11:
-1: Trump fires the inspector general of USAID

Footnotes:

27. REPORTER: Do you [see a] future in which Ukraine returns to its pre-2014 borders?
TRUMP: It certainly would seem to be unlikely. They [Russia] took a lot of land and they fought for that land.

28. Trump: Look at—take a look at the Gerald Ford, the aircraft carrier, the Ford. It came—it was supposed to cost three billion. It ends up costing like eighteen billion. And they make, of course, all electric catapults, which don't work. And they have all magnetic elevators to lift up 25 planes at a time, 20 planes at a time. And instead of using hydraulic like on tractors that can handle anything from hurricanes to lightning to anything, they use magnets. It's a new theory. Magnets are going to lift the planes up and it doesn't work.

(In fairness, Trump probably meant the magnetic elevators are a new technology, which they are. I found a story from early 2023 talking about issues with the elevators, but two years on hopefully they're now working better.)

 

[Ziggurat]

As for this, it always ignores that when these conflicts break out it's not the US that gets to deal with the refugees. It's not the US that had to deal with attacks on power or data infrastructure. And if things progress beyond Ukraine, as is increasingly more likely with Trump licking Putin's heel, it's not the US civilian infrastructure that will get destroyed barring a full on nuclear exchange.

You aren't arguing against me, you're demonstrating that I'm right. It is precisely because Ukraine matters a lot more to Europe than it does to the US that means Europe should take the lead in supporting Ukraine.

 

[azazal]

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH, if true

"In a video clip that’s gone viral, Musk’s 4-year-old child named X Æ A-Xii, often shorted to just X, appears to tell President Trump, “I want you to shush your mouth.” Trump appears to listen to X as he’s saying it but then looks back at the senior Musk, who’s been talking the whole time."

Elon Musk's Kid Keeps Saying Weird Stuff About Trump

Little X appeared to tell Trump "shush your mouth" in the Oval Office.

gizmodo.com

 

[Blue Mountain]

With respect to Trump firing inspectors-general, it makes sense from his point of view if he doesn't trust them to be doing their job, which is preventing waste and corruption. Have these positions traditionally been at the president's favour, or are they more like regular government hires that need a formal process for termination?

 

[Safe-Keeper]

HAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAH, if true

"In a video clip that’s gone viral, Musk’s 4-year-old child named X Æ A-Xii, often shorted to just X, appears to tell President Trump, “I want you to shush your mouth.” Trump appears to listen to X as he’s saying it but then looks back at the senior Musk, who’s been talking the whole time."

Elon Musk's Kid Keeps Saying Weird Stuff About Trump

Little X appeared to tell Trump "shush your mouth" in the Oval Office.

gizmodo.com

Every parent knows the feeling. You bring your toddler to meet another toddler hoping they'll be best friends, but then one is just horrible to the other and you realize you've made a big mistake.

quick edit: Hilarious as that is, I also agree with the Parkrose Permaculture channel that the kid shouldn't have been there, of course. Don't use children as props or mascots for politics..

edit2: parent, not adult. Sorry about the clumsy wording.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Hilarious as that is, I also agree with the Parkrose Permaculture channel that the kid shouldn't have been there, of course. Don't use children as props or mascots for politics..

Oh, it's worse than that: Musk started carting a toddler around ever since that United Healthcare guy got Luigi'ed. Musk's using the kid as a human shield.

 

[AmyStrange]

Every adult knows the feeling. You bring your toddler to meet another toddler hoping they'll be best friends, but then one is just horrible to the other and you realize you've made a big mistake.

quick edit: Hilarious as that is, I also agree with the Parkrose Permaculture channel that the kid shouldn't have been there, of course. Don't use children as props or mascots for politics..

Yup, or use my fellow dead veterans as props either.


-

 

[P.J. Denyer]

Other nations change government too, I'm pretty sure the US would be less than pleased if everyone else with whom they had agreements repudiated them after every change of government.

 

[kookbreaker]

Yup, or use my fellow dead veterans as props either.


-

What? you don't like candidates giving a thumbs up over their graves? Whatsamatta you?

 

[dudalb]

I think any parent who gives the name to their child that Musk gave to his kid should be brought up on charges of child abuse.

 

[Andy_Ross]

That was mostly after and largely focused on air defence. The army was left to make do until after Prague.

No, by the time the war stared the British Army was the only one completely mechanised.
The Germans bought the thousands of horses sold out of British service, they still largely relied on horse drawn vehicles right up to the end of the war.
Infantry platoons had been completely reorganised and re-equipped with the sections based around the Bren Gun rather than the infantry section rifles. Company level support platoons were equipped with tracked carriers for machine guns and mortars.
The Navy had started a program of building new cruisers, destroyers and escorts and the drydock facilities had been overhauled and improved.
There was a lot done between Munich and the start of the war.

 

[newyorkguy]

....................Which one is wearing a diaper?

 

[The Great Zaganza]

it's good that Musk brought his kid to prove that since his species can mate with humans, it's technically human, too.

 

[thaiboxerken]

View attachment 58994
....................Which one is wearing a diaper?

False dichotomy. They could both be wearing a diaper.

 

[Allen773]

it's good that Musk brought his kid to prove that since his species can mate with humans, it's technically human, too.

View attachment 58994
....................Which one is wearing a diaper?

I don’t know but either way I trust the one on the left more.

 

[Segnosaur]

One thing that is also clear now is that any agreement with the US is not worth the paper it is written on. At any point all their international agreements can be ripped up at the whim of a single person. There are a few other countries with similar track records. Russia. Iran. Afghanistan.

This canard again.

Agreements made by the president are not binding on future administrations, nor on the nation.

Nobody is denying that the United States can withdraw from treaties or similar agreements at some future time.

But, when the US does enter into some sort of agreement, I think the other parties are reasonable in assuming that USUALLY future administrations will attempt to maintain the status quo (respecting the letter and/or intent of the agreements), and if the U.S. decides to withdraw from a treaty, it will only be done under careful consideration.

There is a difference between a country saying "After careful consideration we are withdrawing from this agreement because the geopolitical situation has changed", and "We are withdrawing from this agreement because we decided to elect a man-baby who wants to throw a temper tantrum".

Many of Trump's broken treaties/agreements involved him blowing up deals that were working, for no other reason than Trump is an idiot who doesn't understand economics or geopolitics.

 

[theprestige]

Nobody is denying that the United States can withdraw from treaties or similar agreements at some future time.

That's not what I'm talking about. There is no treaty or similar agreement to withdraw from, if Congress hasn't ratified it.

The president cannot enter the country into a treaty. Only Congress can do that. At best, the President can order the executive branch agencies to comply with whatever provisions of the treaty are under his authority. But that policy only lasts until the end of his administration, and rightly so.

 

[Aridas]

I don’t understand: is this an example that shows that corruption investigations are unnecessary and can be abolished, or that they are even more necessary, and should be intensified?

Neither, of course. It's an example of how willing Zig is to betray the US over BS. Of special note for why it's BS is that what he's complaining about did not even purport to be the work of US intelligence. It involved former intelligence officials observing that, on the face of it, the situation looked highly suspicious and in line with Russian tactics, but that they did not have access to relevant evidence and so could not make any definitive determination. The observation was pretty accurate, quite frankly, which unfortunately, is the kind of thing that leads certain kinds of people to double down. It had all the more power, of course, because of Russia's more general underhanded support for Trump.

Zig and much of the rest of MAGA seem to want to rewrite history, of course, and as we've seen, they're willing to condemn the whole US intelligence community over various very unreasonable manufactured grievances. That's the behavior of enemies to the country and useful idiots.

Not even remotely the same argument. Why are male and female sports separated? Because of gender differences? No. Because of sex differences. Sex differences don't go away because you're dysphoric.

Biological differences are one thing. That's a justification, though. I'd think that the Victorian Era's legacy and how women were pretty much excluded and discouraged from sports (and exertion in general) for a very long time has much more to do with why they're separated, though, in reality.

I thought I had posted this about 12 hours earlier, but reading through the thread I can't find it and searching for my posts on my members page doesn't show it. So I'm (re)posting it now.

Post 5512.