Should the US be a Dictatorship?

[Archon8]

Are you here for an honest give and take on ideas, facts and opinions?

Generally yes, but when some (not you) are very quick to insult me for agreeing with the plurality of voters in the United States, it makes me less interested in engaging in discourse.

 

[Senethro]

I imagine there was a time when a plurality of voters were open racists, so I think there may be more to it than that.

 

[Moriarte]

Denmark is not the same as Columbia.

The entire European Union will retaliate with tariffs if Trump tries it.

We had a standoff between the EU and the USA in 2019-2021. Reciprocal tariffs in Airbus-Boeing dispute. This sort of thing isn't in the realm of impossible, I understand this is going to be business as usual with the new president. I hear the barrage of tariffs can start as soon as this Saturday.

Canada and Mexico can avoid tariffs before Saturday’s deadline, says Trump’s commerce pick

Howard Lutnick testified at his US Senate confirmation hearing for his nomination to head commerce department

www.theguardian.com

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I'm going to have to doubt this chain of events, would you have a source or collection of sources which confirm this occurred as you said it did?

Google it yourself (I don't normally say this because it's rude, but then you did just call me a liar about something that's been on the news in both our countries).

So sorry that your orange hero is a jerk and so are his buddies.

 

[Zardnaar]

meanwhile, xi jinping wins by doing absolutely nothing.

Well it's why tik tok is pro Trump.

 

[Gorbles]

lmao, and that's why Twitter is pro-US. Naturally.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Apparently, to avoid the tariffs, Canada and Mexico have to stop the flow of fentanyl into their countries. If such a thing is so easy, why isn't Trump doing it for the US? Why does Trump need Canada and Mexico to shut down China's AI programs?

From the link above:
"Donald Trump’s nominee to run the commerce department, Howard Lutnick, said on Wednesday that Canada and Mexico can avoid looming US tariffs if they act swiftly to close their borders to fentanyl, while vowing to slow China’s advancement in artificial intelligence."

 

[Birdjaguar]

Well it's why tik tok is pro Trump.

One of Trump's rich supporters has a big investment in ByteDance. If TikTok goes away he will lose many millions. Trump switched his view on TT as soon as got a few millions for his campaign.

 

[r16]

... as they're systematically destroying all trust the [US] has ensured itself over the last century. and their voting constitutients are blind to it. they have no idea what they're throwing away.

this is not the case . They "have gained power" against some system they have been spoonfed for ages to be against them as "small men" . Just like the movies have all these rough men in the bar looking for trouble as they pick on the collage kid and stuff , they are thrilled that the Old will soon be destroyed , never to come back and so on . If lesser countries and indeed peoples do not provide when they are told , they will be taught their place . If not they will hear nothing about it . There are no places on news coverage about failures .

watch New Turkey . No scandal of any kind has brought or can bring it down . No lies exposed , no outrageous conduct uncovered , no outright robbery by state institutions , no unsafe streets , no little kids raped , no nothing . They do not care . The people that will support the New America will not budge . They are going to be the new elite and all those college kids will serve them , soon under conditions of slavery .

and it is going to proved that the EU will match , using their so called resistance against the buffoon in the White to cover the way they will dumb down their people as it was done in the US . 1984 is descending all over the world . It would have been nice if this was noticed , but , hey , this is the nice thing about it that makes it so "invincible" ... "there are smart men on both sides" . They are on their own side .

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Apparently, to avoid the tariffs, Canada and Mexico have to stop the flow of fentanyl into their countries. If such a thing is so easy, why isn't Trump doing it for the US? Why does Trump need Canada and Mexico to shut down China's AI programs?

From the link above:
"Donald Trump’s nominee to run the commerce department, Howard Lutnick, said on Wednesday that Canada and Mexico can avoid looming US tariffs if they act swiftly to close their borders to fentanyl, while vowing to slow China’s advancement in artificial intelligence."

I doubt he cares about fentanyl. To hear him yap, Canada is the source of fentanyl and illegal immigrants sneaking into the U.S.

To which I've said ever since the first time I heard an American blame Canada for the 9/11 terrorists getting into the U.S.: It's not Canada's job to decide what or who gets into the U.S. That's the job of the U.S. border agents. If they fail to prevent the wrong stuff and people from entering their country, they have only themselves to blame.

 

[Zardnaar]

One of Trump's rich supporters has a big investment in ByteDance. If TikTok goes away he will lose many millions. Trump switched his view on TT as soon as got a few millions for his campaign.

Think they were pushing Russian/Chinese disinformation pre election.

 

[danjuno]

Generally yes, but when some (not you) are very quick to insult me for agreeing with the plurality of voters in the United States, it makes me less interested in engaging in discourse.

Maybe try providing sources to back up your claims in the first place, then?

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

did I miss the news on the update yesterday? White House rescinds memo on federal aid freeze

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/29/politics/white-house-rescind-federal-funding-freeze/index.html

The White House Office of Management and Budget on Wednesday rescinded a memo that froze federal grants and loans and created widespread confusion this week.


“OMB Memorandum M-25-13 is rescinded. If you have questions about implementing the President’s Executive Orders, please contact your agency General Counsel,” a new memo obtained by CNN reads.


White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X that while the earlier memo had been rescinded, the president’s executive orders freezing foreign assistance and ending diversity equity and inclusion initiatives, for example, remain in effect. Those orders are more targeted than the trillions of dollars in aid that was frozen Monday night.


The White House budget office had ordered the pause on federal grants and loans, according to the internal memorandum sent Monday, which unleashed anxiety even as the White House said it was not as sweeping an order as it appeared.


Though White House aides publicly blamed the media for causing the confusion, arguing that none existed within the building, the administration had received a flood of calls from lawmakers and state officials with questions about its impact on their home states.


A handful of GOP members of Congress had raised concerns to advisers on the president’s team, underscoring how the confusion was far from contrived. Republicans were privately frustrated they were not given a heads up at a decision that stirred a direct deluge of outrage from constituents.


Federal agencies “must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance,” White House Office of Management and Budget Acting Director Matthew Vaeth said in the original memorandum, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, citing administration priorities listed in past executive orders.


On Tuesday afternoon, a federal judge temporarily blocked part of the Trump administration’s aid freeze.

If not already, Trump has revealed that, with significant-enough pressure, he will quite easily back down from any one of his demands.
And it's not like anyone really had to take to the streets on this one; people just started asking a bunch of questions.

 

[r16]

Boiling frog - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

yeah , Trump is a weak thing . Let us forget he did that . Let us be happy he reversed on many things . Let us forget some things are not reversed . Let us be happy with the hope he will reverse again in due course and will work in 10%s which can never reach a full 100 .

also let us forget Leftist lack of stuff that makes the uncommitted eventually commit against them .

in politics the frogs are nicely boiled everyday . It used to be crab cooking here , don't know how it became froggy .

 

[Angst]

did I miss the news on the update yesterday? White House rescinds memo on federal aid freeze

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/29/politics/white-house-rescind-federal-funding-freeze/index.html

If not already, Trump has revealed that, with significant-enough pressure, he will quite easily back down from any one of his demands.
And it's not like anyone really had to take to the streets on this one; people just started asking a bunch of questions.

the executive order itself is still on the path to going through. they just stopped the aid freeze.

bluntly, i don't think it's a question of pressure per se. i think it's because he blindsided everyone, and got into legal trouble (which i don't know if he expected) and was probably told by some tired legal aide somewhere that this may actually not pass in SCOTUS in spite of the packed court. projecting strength, or at least lack of failure (even with all the confusion) is important to the way this administration sells itself. was the same during last trump time.

so, yea. the executive order is technically still on the books, the aid freeze part has just been rescinded. chances are that direct executive control of most governing sectors is still going to happen. which regardless of the policies we'll see the next four years is the scary part. it is a expansion of executive power we haven't quite seen yet; historical pushes of it has happened, but not in a modern state with a modern bureaucracy. literally all public officials, from top to bottom, is planned to be controlled by whatever president's in charge.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Every few hours.
More

Trump administration offers roughly 2 million federal workers a buyout to resign

An email went out to the federal workforce Tuesday evening, with a subject line that had ties to Elon Musk.

www.nbcnews.com

This one is causing a lot of fear and uncertainty among 2 million workers.

Take the 8 months free pay, resign, and start looking for another job?

Or stay put and risk getting fired?



Workers still can collect unemployment if they get fired? How much would that be?

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/01/30/federal-workers-buyout-offer-00201349

Federal workers reeling over Trump’s ‘buyout’ offer: ‘This is the last lifeboat in town’

“There’s also a deep suspicion, especially among people who think they may be on the chopping block, that this is the last lifeboat in town,” said an employee.

The unions are saying don't take it.


Was that air traffic controller worried about this subject when the deadly 67 fatality air collision occurred in DC recently?

Duckworth, the outgoing chair of the Senate aviation subcommittee, also blasted Trump for jumping on the diversity narrative — and suggested that efforts by Trump and his efficiency czar Elon Musk to shrink the federal workforce were worsening the strain among FAA employees. She noted that agency workers were among those who received emails this week from the White House Office of Personnel Management asking them to consider quitting their jobs.

Those letters made their way to “some air traffic controllers that are responsible for airspace in the Northeast region,” Duckworth said, “basically trying to scare them into quitting at a time when we have a shortage of air traffic controllers. So I don’t think the Trump administration is in a strong position right now to start blaming others.”

Senator Duckworth piloted a black hawk helicopter for 1000s of hours before being shot down in Iraq in 2004 and losing her legs.

 

[Kaitzilla]

Speaking of mind games against workers, the 18 fired inspectors general have yet to sue.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

President Donald Trump’s firing of 18 inspectors general explicitly violates a law passed by Congress to protect these anti-corruption watchdogs from removal by a corrupt president. Believe it or not, though, that’s not the most worrisome thing about Trump’s actions.

The Trump administration wants the firings challenged to get the Supreme Court to hold that the president can fire anyone within the executive branch, stripping civil servants of protections fundamentally designed to fight patronage and graft. Scarier still, the court might conceivably do this.

Should they exercise their legal rights and sue and *maybe* get their jobs back?

If they lose, even more or all federal workers might end up able to be fired by Trump.

Defying Legal Limits, Trump Firings Set Up Tests That Could Expand His Power

The prospect of legal challenges to President Trump’s purges may be a feature, not a bug, for adherents of sweeping presidential authority.

www.nytimes.com

President Trump abruptly fired dozens of officials in the past few days — including inspectors general, a member of the National Labor Relations Board and career prosecutors — in ways that apparently violated federal laws, setting up the possibility of lawsuits.

But the prospect of getting dragged into court may be exactly what Mr. Trump’s lawyers are hoping for. There is a risk that judges may determine that some of the dismissals were illegal, but any rulings in the president’s favor would establish precedents that would expand presidential power to control the federal government.

There are roughly 80 inspector general total.
Are the Afghanistan reconstruction or Pandemic recovery ones still at work?
Trump might be able to fire them, but many replacements will need Senate approval.

Office of Inspector General (United States) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Arakhor]

The unions are saying don't take it.

Well, of course not. Even if Trump and Musk were remotely trustworthy, which of course they aren't, aren't federal employees paid by Congress, rather than the President? He has about as much power to enforce this bargain as he has any intention of following through with it.

 

[Angst]

Speaking of mind games against workers, the 17 fired inspectors general have yet to sue.

Bloomberg - Are you a robot?

Should they exercise their legal rights and sue and *maybe* get their jobs back?

If they lose, even more or all federal workers might end up able to be fired by Trump.

Defying Legal Limits, Trump Firings Set Up Tests That Could Expand His Power

The prospect of legal challenges to President Trump’s purges may be a feature, not a bug, for adherents of sweeping presidential authority.

www.nytimes.com

There are roughly 80 inspector general total.
Are the Afghanistan reconstruction or Pandemic recovery ones still at work?
Trump might be able to fire them, but many replacements will need Senate approval.

Office of Inspector General (United States) - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

this is the kind of stuff that's absolutely insane and bad news for everyone. thanks for the update on it ofc

 

[Farm Boy]

for agreeing with the plurality of voters in the United States

I won't make fun of you for this, but I will make fun of you despite it.

Parasitic brainworms are still brainworms even if the quarterback and cheerleading captain screw while humming along. Heya, even a Hillbilly Elegy reference to go along with the RFK one for ya.