This is the strangest take I've ever seen. Surely you're not seriously worried about an auditing department? DOGE cannot do anything without Trump's approval.

Auditing is fine.

Now the worry is we have people in there who check with Trump multiple times before doing anything.
Trump can soothe their worries with written orders and promises of pardons.
He says he backs their efforts in public.

He could switch to verbal orders.
Order them to do nefarious things.
Delay payments.
Make payment errors that take time and effort to fix, but keep happening to a certain kind of people.
Leak confidential info to news organizations.

Then one day, Trump can say he never told them to do any of it.
Deny pardons, fire them, hang the naive college kids out to dry.
What friends would they have?

Trump would be fine and his enemies would still suffer.
 
Auditing is fine.

Now the worry is we have people in there who check with Trump multiple times before doing anything.
Trump can soothe their worries with written orders and promises of pardons.
He says he backs their efforts in public.

He could switch to verbal orders.
Order them to do nefarious things.
Delay payments.
Make payment errors that take time and effort to fix, but keep happening to a certain kind of people.
Leak confidential info to news organizations.

Then one day, Trump can say he never told them to do any of it.
Deny pardons, fire them, hang the naive college kids out to dry.
What friends would they have?

Trump would be fine and his enemies would still suffer.

Yeah, Trump could also fire a bunch of nukes so that the mushroom clouds spell out "TRUMP" in the Atlantic Ocean. Except that he's already been president for four years and never did that. If you spend all your time paranoid about what Trump might possibly do, well... it's going to be a long four years for you.
 
I have a funny feeling that at least half the people who post on off topic are USAID grifters who's jobs somehow depends on weird dei grants being given to foreign businesses & NGOs. Particularly European nations (as in Ireland dei plays).

There's probably a whole international cottage industry around this kind of crap, so no wonder certain people are wailing like somehow DOGE is going to induce economic collapse. It's because those very same people risk a personal economic collapse of their own grift! They're simply projecting and making it seem like everyone has the same cringe socialist dei jobs they have.

Moderator Action: Warned for trolling. The_J
 
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Yeah, Trump could also fire a bunch of nukes so that the mushroom clouds spell out "TRUMP" in the Atlantic Ocean. Except that he's already been president for four years and never did that. If you spend all your time paranoid about what Trump might possibly do, well... it's going to be a long four years for you.

Yes, that is correct :love:
 
This is the strangest take I've ever seen. Surely you're not seriously worried about an auditing department? DOGE cannot do anything without Trump's approval.
Does Trump know? Does Trump want to know for that matter? How does anybody find out the answer to questions like that?

This is the whole point of the kind of personalized authoritarian set-ups we already know and love fx from Russia. It's not like Putin, or Trump, necessarily give detailed instructions.They just suggest that it would be good if someone did something about something, or someone – and then leave the cronies to come up with ideas about how to interpret what might please the boss, and make it happen. (If it goes wrong the boss can wash his hands, and throw them under the bus.)

It's the personalization of power like that is anathema to running an accountable and transparent government. "Efficiency" is a bit of a loaded concept in relation to that, since government can be efficient in such a number of ways – depending on what is desirable. But is not what is considered "good governance" – that is all about transparency as to guarantee predictability – i.e. you know what to expect if you do A or B or C, but avoid X like the plague etc.

But the whole gist of the allure of Trump, and his style of power, is unpredictability and leveraging uncertainty. Which as it happens is also the party-piece of actual bona fide autocrats.
 
Does Trump know? Does Trump want to know for that matter? How does anybody find out the answer to questions like that?

This is the whole point of the kind of personalized authoritarian set-ups we already know and love fx from Russia. It's not like Putin, or Trump, necessarily give detailed instructions.They just suggest that it would be good if someone did something about something, or someone – and then leave the cronies to come up with ideas about how to interpret what might please the boss, and make it happen. (If it goes wrong the boss can wash his hands, and throw them under the bus.)

It's the personalization of power like that is anathema to running an accountable and transparent government. "Efficiency" is a bit of a loaded concept in relation to that, since government can be efficient in such a number of ways – depending on what is desirable. But is not what is considered "good governance" – that is all about transparency as to guarantee predictability – i.e. you know what to expect if you do A or B or C, but avoid X like the plague etc.

But the whole gist of the allure of Trump, and his style of power, is unpredictability and leveraging uncertainty. Which as it happens is also the party-piece of actual bona fide autocrats.
This entire post loses complete credibility when you note that there are multiple extended press conferences per week where Trump answers all questions asked of him, and is fully aware of everything that's occurring in his administration.

I have no idea how the most transparent president in US history is somehow interpreted as an autocrat. Here just yesterday, he spent 30 minutes explaining his actions and answering questions.

 
This entire post loses complete credibility when you note that there are multiple extended press conferences per week where Trump answers all questions asked of him, and is fully aware of everything that's occurring in his administration.

I have no idea how the most transparent president in US history is somehow interpreted as an autocrat. Here just yesterday, he spent 30 minutes explaining his actions and answering questions.

The Kremlin has spokespersons commenting on things all the time. They run a meaty webpage in English to put all that commentary in too. Doesn't make a damn difference from the underlying problem.

You will just have to find out about this new political game gradually, over in the US.
 
The Kremlin has spokespersons commenting on things all the time. They run a meaty webpage in English to put all that commentary in too. Doesn't make a damn difference from the underlying problem.

You will just have to find out about this new political game gradually, over in the US.
Yes, please do lecture me on how a man who has already been president for 4 years and has been fulfilling his campaign promises non stop for the last few weeks will somehow do a complete turnaround and betray his supporters and country. That sounds completely plausible.
 
Yes, please do lecture me on how a man who has already been president for 4 and has been fulfilling his campaign promises non stop for the last few weeks will somehow do a complete turnaround and betray his supporters and country. That sounds completely plausible.
146% it will be like this:
He is Trupm, and he is dump,
He got Elon in his trunk.
They schemed a plan, so wild, so grand,
To launch a nuke with one bare hand.

Elon said, "Let's aim for Mars!"
But Trupm cried, "No, aim for bars!"
They pressed the button, just for fun,
And poof! The deed was quickly done.

The skies lit up, the birds took flight,
The world just watched in sheer delight.
For in the end, it’s just a tale,
Of two big egos setting sail.

Edit. I wrote only first 2 sentence. All Credit to DeepSeek. GPT refused write "didn't pass security filter"
 
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I have no idea how the most transparent president in US history is somehow interpreted as an autocrat. Here just yesterday, he spent 30 minutes explaining his actions and answering questions.

Trump is cynically being transparent just to annoy liberals and marxists!!!
 
Yes, please do lecture me on how a man who has already been president for 4 years and has been fulfilling his campaign promises non stop for the last few weeks will somehow do a complete turnaround and betray his supporters and country. That sounds completely plausible.
But you are just like the Russians now. Whether they like or support Putin, they all know he's in charge. And that's the situation in the US now as well. Love him or hate him, all Amercians know Trump is in charge...

But those two being in charge does not mean you have the first idea who is actually running things. Questions like that just gats hand-waved away with the truism that Putin/Trump is in charge.

But it's clear as mud how government actually operates then. They might be in charge, but they are not actually responsible for anything ("everything" in the end being much the same as "anything", followed by "nothing") – not in the sense that they can be held to account.

I guess the US system should still be given the benefit of the doubt – but it hasn't been particularly good at holding Donald Trump to account so far. And his supporters exults in this, and we all draw our various conclusions from it.
 
But you are just like the Russians now. Whether they like or support Putin, they all know he's in charge. And that's the situation in the US now as well. Love him or hate him, all Amercians know Trump is in charge...

But those two being in charge does not mean you have the first idea who is actually running things. Questions like that just gats hand-waved away with the truism that Putin/Trump is in charge.

But it's clear as mud how government actually operates then. They might be in charge, but they are not actually responsible for anything ("everything" in the end being much the same as "anything", followed by "nothing") – not in the sense that they can be held to account.

I guess the US system should still be given the benefit of the doubt – but it hasn't been particularly good at holding Donald Trump to account so far. And his supporters exults in this, and we all draw our various conclusions from it.

Trump is in charge because he won the election. It was a free and fair election, and he is lawfully executing his legal authority as president. If you hear different, sorry but it's from left-wing propaganda. It's not questionable who is in charge because Trump is amazingly consistent - he even insulted California by saying they refused to listen to him from 5 years ago when he warned them about their water problems, and there is proof of this from past tweets. When Trump has been saying the same thing over and over in the campaign and follows through on it in office and fulfills his promises with gusto, then it's pretty obvious that he's the man in charge.
 
But you are just like the Russians now. Whether they like or support Putin, they all know he's in charge. And that's the situation in the US now as well. Love him or hate him, all Amercians know Trump is in charge...

But those two being in charge does not mean you have the first idea who is actually running things. Questions like that just gats hand-waved away with the truism that Putin/Trump is in charge.

But it's clear as mud how government actually operates then. They might be in charge, but they are not actually responsible for anything ("everything" in the end being much the same as "anything", followed by "nothing") – not in the sense that they can be held to account.

I guess the US system should still be given the benefit of the doubt – but it hasn't been particularly good at holding Donald Trump to account so far. And his supporters exults in this, and we all draw our various conclusions from it.
Just as to add on: Putin thought the Russian Army was strong enough and the Ukrainian Army weak enough for the Russian Army to just charge on into Kiev and take over within a matter of days, and it's been 3 years since.

When you have corruption like Russia and like what's happening with the US, no one, not even the leaders, know exactly what's going on.
 
Yes, and the US government is now an Orange Dude who is in charge. Was the point...

We'll find out how government-as-a-system fairs on such a premise.
 
Just as to add on: Putin thought the Russian Army was strong enough and the Ukrainian Army weak enough for the Russian Army to just charge on into Kiev and take over within a matter of days, and it's been 3 years since.

When you have corruption like Russia and like what's happening with the US, no one, not even the leaders, know exactly what's going on.
And Trump might have thought his tariff shake-down of Mexico and Canada would yield better results - until he ran into the prospect of actually having to start an honest to goodness trade war with the US's closest economic allies.

Though I'm still in two minds about the actual fall-out. There is still nothing preventing Trump from returning to the tariff-threat as many times as he likes, and try to salami Mexican and Canadian sovreignity down to a nub – IF he has the balls (and it could backfire spectacularly, and he might not).
 
Yes, and the US government is now an Orange Dude who is in charge. Was the point...

We'll find out how government-as-a-system fairs on such a premise.

So far, brilliant, even by the standard of liberals (if they weren't so completely biased).

First woman chief of staff (Susie Wiles)
Highest ranking openly gay person in government (Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury)
Highest ranking Latino in government (Marco Rubio, Secretary of State)
Payments stopped to churches, elimination of the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships

But I bet Trump got zero credit for any of that from liberals, which is why I am not impressed by them trying to convince me that the sky is falling under the second Trump presidency.
 
People did vote for the wrecking ball and revenge tour yes.

For the 1st time in generations, Washington D.C. and its ultra-rich counties are facing job cuts and a recession.
Especially if Trump moves agencies to other states. :eek:

Only the tidal wave of lawsuits will keep everyone employed!

The D.C. Bar association has 100000+ members I think.

**Edit**
Everyone who wants to see this still gasped and freaked out when all grants and loans got paused for the entire nation.
Cashflow is lifeblood!
Thank goodness the courts stopped that.
 
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But it's clear as mud how government actually operates then. They might be in charge, but they are not actually responsible for anything ("everything" in the end being much the same as "anything", followed by "nothing") – not in the sense that they can be held to account.
The nearest check is the upcoming midterm election. The larger one in four years, when Trumpism will be on the ballot, probably, even if Trump himself is not...probably.

He'd have to screw up concretely, rather than abstractly, for enough people to care, sufficient to disempower the movement. Screw up here is defined as tanking the economy, starting an unsuccessful war, somehow breaching conservative norms, or failing to deliver on cultural war victories. The last is probably most important, tbh, and he is delivering them, with legions gobbling it up.

As it stands, the current sorta feudal personal relationship style governance is kinda what people voted for. We never managed to reconcile the factions stemming from the culture war, nor check capitalist excesses, people lost faith, and wanna tear it down, for better or worse. AFAICT, going after the Brahmins is sorta the point; to the avg Trump voter, the cultural values of the left are meant to be overcome, for the counter elites, the destruction of the administrative state has long been a goal, with expansion of corporate power the desired result. The former group goes along with the latter for its reasons(mostly perceived unfairness in state involvement in social matters and programs).
 
The nearest check is the upcoming midterm election. The larger one in four years, when Trumpism will be on the ballot, probably, even if Trump himself is not...probably.

He'd have to screw up concretely, rather than abstractly, for enough people to care, sufficient to disempower the movement. Screw up here is defined as tanking the economy, starting an unsuccessful war, somehow breaching conservative norms, or failing to deliver on cultural war victories. The last is probably most important, tbh, and he is delivering them, with legions gobbling it up.

As it stands, the current sorta feudal personal relationship style governance is kinda what people voted for. We never managed to reconcile the factions stemming from the culture war, nor check capitalist excesses, people lost faith, and wanna tear it down, for better or worse. AFAICT, going after the Brahmins is sorta the point; to the avg Trump voter, the cultural values of the left are meant to be overcome, for the counter elites, the destruction of the administrative state has long been a goal, with expansion of corporate power the desired result. The former group goes along with the latter for its reasons(mostly perceived unfairness in state involvement in social matters and programs).

Is there ANY blame at all you're willing to ascribe to Democrats for their loss? Or is it all nefarious intent on behalf of conservatives? Perhaps the absolute failure of Kamala to do anything while Vice President? Literally her defense for the Biden border disaster is insisting that she was not actually the border czar. Ok, regardless, you're the #2 person in the administration, so what exactly were you doing the entire time? Meanwhile the latest DNC meeting they blame her loss on racism and misogyny. Yeah ok, as long as the Democrats refuse to accept any personal responsibility whatsoever and not try to actually connect to mainstream Americans, they will continue to lose elections.
 
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