[RD] Trump in Charge: The MAGA Presidency

EvaDK said:
We paid attention alright. And concluded that Vance is an ignorant hypocrite with about as much political and diplomatic clout as a used diaper.
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my neighbour rang on my doorbell a few days ago. he was quite out of it (he has some form of mental illness). so we engaged in conversation in the hallway, and he was really angry that i was making so much noise during the night hours. as i'm a very quiet resident, i was confused, and then prodded for whatever kind of noise he could be talking about. was it music, was it like dragging chairs, kitchen noises, stomping? because you know, if he could describe the noises, i could stop making them. apparently it had been going on for months. he really didn't want to talk about the noises though, and kept asking me to be quiet. this took twenty minutes. eventually, as i asked what kind of noises they were like, he said: "the noises are... artistic. and genius." i asked what that meant, and he said the noises were literally "artistic" and "genius". and he kept rambling, going in circles.

i would take that as a compliment, but i sleep at my gf most days and only do my music stuff during the day. this was not me.

now, this was all very uncomfortable, and reasonably scary. he was rambling with wide open eyes and was hard to read, constantly grabbing his forehead. he wanted to take the tiny elevator with me to the landlord, but seeing the look in his eyes, i chose instead to call the landlord, who promised to visit each of us individually in like 15 minutes, so we said bye and i could return to my apartment instead.

now, here's the point.

i was definitely paying attention. any reasonable person would. doesn't mean it wasn't insane.
 
Angst said:
myea but it's like. we can't switch back and forth every four years, getting deals made and breaking them again. it just doesn't work. speaking for just denmark, we literally fought with america in the middle east and lost a lot of troops relative to our size; we have served as willing lapdogs to whatever regime showed up for my whole life, allowed american possessions on royal land, etc. to then have america turn around and implicitly threaten to land troops on the island... it's not conductive to good diplomacy, and one wouldn't be unreasonable to expect it has chilled danish relations a little bit, having us look elsewhere for strong allies. eg while not ideologically aligned, china at least keeps its deals, you know.

i will also note: i am wholly sympathetic to the plight of the majority of americans who are in this situation (and while not sympathetic, i'm empathetic to the trump voters that just got duped), and i recognize there's practical reasons to keep a line out for the usa. but we're also talking practical reality here. trump doesn't even keep the deals he himself set up, and we're watching not just him, but, like all of republican congress being fine with these developments. this is not a good sign for future dealings. i will also note that a flip back is not particularly guaranteed. the left saw these rumblings lurking about in the states for decades and been warning about it, puppet judges pushed by the republicans not doing a confirmation and such. the left acts as good canaries like that. a big part of 2025 was dreams about not being able to lose an election again. we'll see. it really comes down to what scotus does about the legality of trump's actions as the court cases make it there. but i'm not optimistic, seeing that they have already repealed chevron and granted immunity to prosecution.

on a very practical level, we can't cooperate with someone who doesn't keep their end of the bargain. it's not even about the fairness of the deals, it's the volatility of it. it's logically impossible to keep the deals on our end if they keep breaking them. if they don't keep deals ever, even one that's bad for us, we literally can't make deals with them.
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The main issue is that the institutions in the US that are supposed to keep the whims of a President in check are non-functioning. Watching formerly "normie" Republicans defend and minimize Trump's actions and their effect on US diplomacy should be instructive in this regard. These people have been driven entirely insane by negative polarization. Many of them know how important consistency and "norms" are for international relations, but they cannot bring themselves to criticize their heroes. And therein lies the problem - madmen who are indulged in their every whim by a supine cult of personality simply do not make good negotiating partners.

And we all know what comes next - when many US allies have deserted the US to instead make deals with reliable partners, this will probably be blamed on the "woke mind virus" taking over those countries rather than on the idiotic actions of the US' own elected leaders. Expect an amadeus post that mentions Kim Philby in this context. These governments will turn out to have been riddled with communists all along.
 
Valka D'Ur said:
As for the booing, it's obvious that some people don't understand the reason why Canadian fans started doing that. They're not actually booing the American teams (many of which have a lot of Canadian players). It's a way to publicly express disapproval at Trump and what passes for his government. If he drops the "51st state" crap and starts referring to Justin Trudeau as Prime Minister again, rather than this childish and insulting "Governor Trudeau", the booing will stop.
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I think Canadians are too damn sensitive. If we Americans got upset every time someone insulted our leader, well we'd just be angry all the time, wouldn't we? But I guess Trudeau is untouchable. Nevermind how frequently and in such horrible terms you've insulted my leader, god forbid someone insult your leader. Canadians booing our anthem was beyond disrespectful and I'm glad we responded in kind. I am less likely to support close relations between the US and Canada now since you think criticism of the national leader is a one way street, and if I am at a sporting event in the future where the Canadian anthem is played, I will boo alongside my fellow patriotic Americans.
 
Archon8 said:
I think Canadians are too damn sensitive. If we Americans got upset every time someone insulted our leader, well we'd just be angry all the time, wouldn't we? But I guess Trudeau is untouchable. Nevermind how frequently and in such horrible terms you've insulted my leader, god forbid someone insult your leader. Canadians booing our anthem was beyond disrespectful and I'm glad we responded in kind. I am less likely to support close relations between the US and Canada now since you think criticism of the national leader is a one way street, and if I am at a sporting event in the future where the Canadian anthem is played, I will boo alongside my fellow patriotic Americans.
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Trump's whole shtick is trash talking others. Y'all don't get to act the agreived party when your man did it first.
 
danjuno said:
Trump's whole shtick is trash talking others. Y'all don't get to act the agreived party when your man did it first.
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Well that's how conflict starts, is that each side escalates it to a level that the other finds unacceptable. Maybe other nations are unfamiliar with having their national leader insulted. As an American, I'm used to people from all kinds of countries try to lecture me on American politics. I remember again the horrible terms that people liked to use for President George W. Bush. But I thought the national anthem was above petty politics, but to the Canadians I guess not. That's fine, it just hurt relations between our people. Sure, maybe you can say Trump started it, and now the Canadians have escalated it, and where will it end? Aggressive tariffs by the US? The end of the USMCA? The end of close relations? Perhaps any of it.
 
danjuno said:
Trump's whole shtick is trash talking others. Y'all don't get to act the agreived party when your man did it first.
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Therein lies the BSAB trap. It does not really matter to the person making the BSAB argument (in this case that both sides are name calling each others' leaders) who "started it" or who is more culpable, committing the greater/more harmful/more dangerous offense, etc. All that matters is to claim that "both sides" are doing it, which then becomes the justification to substantively criticize the other side and defend their own side. If both sides are doing it then you can't blame/criticize/condemn their side for doing it. That's it, the core of the BSAB argument./tactic.
 
Insulting US politicians has been an American pastime since Washington left office. It has a long history and it is patriotic to do so. Those who decide to run for any high office essentially agree to stand in the limelight before unruly crowds.

BTW, Trump has a very long history of insulting people and especially in his 2016 campaign to claim the nomination.
 
Archon8 said:
If we Americans got upset every time someone insulted our leader, well we'd just be angry all the time, wouldn't we?
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could drop a number of questions here. bluntly, the lack of self-reflection is so damning. you know we've all read what you've posted throughout the thread, right?
 
Mistake #1.
 
It's entirely likely based on the timeline Trumps entire reason for running in 2016 was insults. It dates back to the Correspondence Dinner in like 2012ish. The man is unbelievably thin skinned.
 
He was prepping with the birtherism earlier.
 
And the goalposts have been moved to Trump insulting people. Nobody disputes that. I don't even care that you insult him, because I am filled with national pride that he is such an effective leader. Moderator Action: Warned for trolling. The_J The problem is when another nation is so offended by his insults of their leader that they choose to boo our national anthem, which to me is an insult to all Americans. That's fine, it just means I'm hostile to your country now, and will express that view accordingly to my elected leaders that maybe it's time to step down diplomatic relations to a less friendly level.
 
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Trump is a known narcissist who hates being criticized or questioned. He has a long history of payback against those who don't do his bidding, accept his dominance, or show disloyalty.
 
Angst said:
my neighbour rang on my doorbell a few days ago. he was quite out of it (he has some form of mental illness). so we engaged in conversation in the hallway, and he was really angry that i was making so much noise during the night hours. as i'm a very quiet resident, i was confused, and then prodded for whatever kind of noise he could be talking about. was it music, was it like dragging chairs, kitchen noises, stomping? because you know, if he could describe the noises, i could stop making them. apparently it had been going on for months. he really didn't want to talk about the noises though, and kept asking me to be quiet. this took twenty minutes. eventually, as i asked what kind of noises they were like, he said: "the noises are... artistic. and genius." i asked what that meant, and he said the noises were literally "artistic" and "genius". and he kept rambling, going in circles.

i would take that as a compliment, but i sleep at my gf most days and only do my music stuff during the day. this was not me.

now, this was all very uncomfortable, and reasonably scary. he was rambling with wide open eyes and was hard to read, constantly grabbing his forehead. he wanted to take the tiny elevator with me to the landlord, but seeing the look in his eyes, i chose instead to call the landlord, who promised to visit each of us individually in like 15 minutes, so we said bye and i could return to my apartment instead.

now, here's the point.

i was definitely paying attention. any reasonable person would. doesn't mean it wasn't insane.
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My sympathies.

The new neighbor in my apartment building, well, I expect she is similarly loony.

On her first night, she made the whole building smell of weed. Which, it's legal, but it's kinda impolite to consume so much it pollutes everything. This was not the worrying part.

She then proceeded to scream, as if seeking Valhalla, real warcries, while banging on the walls with force, and just who does that after going through enough weed to mellow Bob Marley?

Although I've not had any disconcerting personal experience yet, I'm similarly attentive.
 
Archon8 said:
And the goalposts have been moved to Trump insulting people. Nobody disputes that. I don't even care that you insult him, because I am filled with national pride that he is such an effective leader. The problem is when another nation is so offended by his insults of their leader that they choose to boo our national anthem, which to me is an insult to all Americans. That's fine, it just means I'm hostile to your country now, and will express that view accordingly to my elected leaders that maybe it's time to step down diplomatic relations to a less friendly level.
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Feel free to start an "I hate Canada" thread. This thread is focused on Trump.
 
Birdjaguar said:
Insulting US politicians has been an American pastime since Washington left office. It has a long history and it is patriotic to do so. Those who decide to run for any high office essentially agree to stand in the limelight before unruly crowds.
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Any organization that doesn't tolerate ridicule or critique of its own authority or figures of authority, is effectively a cult.
 
Voidwalkin said:
She then proceeded to scream, as if seeking Valhalla, real warcries, while banging on the walls with force, and just who does that after going through enough weed to mellow Bob Marley?
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Grief can do that.

It doesn't help fix the walls, either.

Better than the windows!


Birdjaguar said:
Feel free to start an "I hate Canada" thread. This thread is focused on Trump.
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Can do both, unless failure of imagination.
Spoiler :

;)
 
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Archon8 said:
don't even care that you insult him, because I am filled with national pride that he is such an effective leader.
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Can you post a list of his accomplishments since Jan 2025?
How about during his first term?

Please be specific.
 
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