[RD] Trump in Charge: The MAGA Presidency

It might be Trump's administration way to fight obesity.

(I'm not even sure they wouldn't actually seriously consider that)
 
Akka said:
It might be Trump's administration way to fight obesity.

(I'm not even sure they wouldn't actually seriously consider that)
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More likely it's their way of trying to provoke bread riots so they have plausible cover to declare a state of emergency and start rounding up everyone they don't like.
 
Lexicus said:
I'm positively sure that you have no idea what you're talking about.
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You are wrong
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EnglishEdward said:
The way I see it regarding food stamps etc.

If the money has to be raised locally, within the state, then
people can see that it is going to their state's needy locals
and assess whether it has good or bad adverse effects.

The inherent problem, with undertaking this in a big federal (USA
wide) state basis, is that it inevitably destroys local connectivity.
In such circumstances people merely tend to want to pay as little
as possible, but have their states receive as much as possible.

Supposed big state efficiencies undermine effectiveness.

And there is the practical question as to what is the best balance in
helping the disadvantage, the optimum mix of providing housing,
training, job opportunities, healthcare or subsidised food etc.

If the matter is left to individual states, they have the opportunity
to discuss this and make their own decisions. And those states
who get it wrong can learn from those states those who do it better.

But that is impossible, if the rules are made once on a federal basis.
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At least in the US there is a YUGE problem with that approach. Specifically, the states that produce the most money are the blue/Democratic dominated states and those are the states that most of the funding for food stamps comes from. Blue states tend to be much more favorable towards food stamp type programs, so its less of an issue there. However, the red/Republican dominated states tend to be much poorer, with far less funding available to go to federal food stamp funding and those are the states where there is more political hostility towards food stamp programs, at least among their elected representatives and the political ideology that is prevailing there.

So if food stamps were done on a state-by-state basis, how that would work in practice, is that the poor in blue states would have robust, well funded food stamp programs with plenty of political support, while the poor in red states would starve, with scarce funding and constant program cuts being made.

That kind of situation is the kind of thing that would lead very quickly to civil unrest and maybe even insurrection/Civil War. Food stamps have to be federally funded.
 
Sommerswerd said:
Opposition to the kneeling protest is a great example of this phenomenon. The prior form of essentially the same protest (of institutional racism and police brutality) was standing with a fist raised and head bowed at the national anthem... which of course was condemned as "disrespectful"... but then decades later, quietly kneeling instead was similarly condemned as... disrespectful.

Like I've repeatedly said on these threads... When folks don't like the cause, they won't like the methods, regardless of what the methods are. "Don't like the what/who, won't like the how, regardless
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Fair example - I could never get how kneeling could be construed as disrespectful.

Still, just because some folks don't like the cause, does not mean all methods are good, or that any opposition to the methods is actually an opposition to the cause.
 
I think MTG is angling to be the heir to the MAGA movement and run for POTUS (or a VPOTUS selection). @Gori the Grey I know you don't think she has the chops, but she probably disagrees with that.

Marjorie Taylor Greene 'putting blame' on GOP Congressional leaders for shutdown​

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is continuing to buck GOP congressional leadership, placing blame on top Republicans Thursday morning for failing to pull the government from its ongoing shutdown. “I’m not putting the blame on the president,” Greene (R-Ga.) said in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room.” “I’m actually putting the blame on the speaker and Leader [John] Thune in the Senate. This should not be happening.”

Greene has continued to be a thorn in the side of Republican leadership in recent weeks, splitting from President Donald Trump and the GOP on a string of major topics — calling the war in Gaza a “genocide,” campaigning for the release of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case and pushing for an extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. “We control the House, we control the Senate, we have the White House,” she said Thursday. “I’ve been vocal saying you can use the nuclear option in the Senate. This doesn’t have to be a shutdown. But what we have to do is we have to work for the American people, and our country is so divided right now.”
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https://www.politico.com/live-updat...arjorie-taylor-greene-shutdown-blame-00599774
 
Each of them is going to put in their bid. Each of them has a fragment of Trump's own appeal. In her case it's being stupid and boorish (and entirely complacent in her boorish stupidity). Don Jr., for example, can't be stupid in quite the same way as MTG and Trump can. But she in turn isn't rich and successful and a financial jenius to whom I can entrust the workings of the economy.

But those voters who love Trump are going to crave the whole package and not be satisfied with any partial substitute. They may not even be able to articulate what it was about Trump that is missing from wannabe-X or mini-Y. But they'll just say, "Well, X is no Trump; that I can tell you." And their disappointment will turn to positive antipathy when they see X grasping after Trump's voters.

Maybe I'll work up a chart, with all the things that make Trump Trump (and have contributed to his appeal), and which of them various of his possible successors have and don't have.
 
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I’m not sure if there’s an article about or not. But I just got a case of the cringe after seeing Trump in a Spartan armor from Halo.
 
Gori the Grey said:
Each of them is going to put in their bid. Each of them has a fragment of Trump's own appeal. In her case it's being stupid and boorish (and entirely complacent in her boorish stupidity). Don Jr., for example, can't be stupid in quite the same way as MTG and Trump can. But she in turn isn't rich and successful and a financial jenius to whom I can entrust the workings of the economy.

But those voters who love Trump are going to crave the whole package and not be satisfied with any partial substitute. They may not even be able to articulate what it was about Trump that is missing from wannabe-X or mini-Y. But they'll just say, "Well, X is no Trump; that I can tell you." And their disappointment will turn to positive antipathy when they see X grasping after Trump's voters.

Maybe I'll work up a chart, with all the things that make Trump Trump (and have contributed to his appeal), and which of them various of his possible successors have and don't have.
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Well Don Jr. is a special case, because he isn't going to get in by winning a real election. His path to office is as the autocratic heir under some flimsy pretense, supported by Republican political capture of a monopoly on the levers of government, which they already have.

In any case, I think I get what you're arguing, but I have a different outlook. I don't think Trump's heir needs to replicate Trump's "magic". I think that they can piece together their own appeal based on some new characteristics that are unique/special to them vis-a-vis Trump and that can be enough to motivate sufficient enough voters to carry them to victory... again, assuming that a legitimate election even happens, which... we'll see I guess...

What MTG seems to be going for nowadays, is that "Maverick" energy that McCain/Palin had. As you say, she certainly has that obnoxious, proud-ignorance, thing that Trump does down pat. She also has the bonus of having established herself as a direct rival/nemesis of Jasmine Crockett and AOC, which has great potential to pay dividends in terms of her popular appeal with MAGA for future elections.

On the flip-side, I think that the Democrats are poised to shoot themselves in the foot by snubbing someone like AOC, or Mandami to go with the "safer" Pritzker or Newsom, at the cost of widespread voter apathy and disillusionment.
 
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Sommerswerd said:
On the flip-side, I think that the Democrats are poised to shoot themselves in the foot by snubbing someone like AOC, or Mandami to go with the "safer" Pritzker or Newsom, at the cost of widespread voter apathy and disillusionment.
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We're kinda seeing this play out with Mikie Sherrill in NJ, very much the "safe" option and now the race is a nailbiter. If Trump wasn't President I'd say the Dems were gonna lose that race for sure. I think the same would be happening with Spanberger in VA, except the Republicans have a truly terrible candidate in Earle-Sears.

Sommerswerd said:
His path to office is as the autocratic heir under some flimsy pretense, supported by Republican political capture of a monopoly on the levers of govenrment, which they already have.
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Imo, he has no shot of this whatsoever. If the Republicans do succeed in rendering the Constitution entirely meaningless, then at least at first*, whoever has the loyalty of the praetorians (ICE) will control the state.

*and if things go that way, sooner or later someone will realize that the only force capable of contesting against ICE is the actual military.
 
Samson said:
ICE officials have told us that an apparent biometric match by Mobile Fortify is a ‘definitive’ determination of a person’s status and that an ICE officer may ignore evidence of American citizenship—including a birth certificate—if the app says the person is an alien.
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Really cannot be undersold how bonkers and blatantly illegal this is. Even if you have all your paperwork in order they can still disappear you.
 
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