[RD] Trump in Charge: The MAGA Presidency

"Irrelevant".
 
Gorbles said:
Do we have a name for a thing where the focus is intentionally pulled sideways towards an anecdote that has no actual bearing on the news being relayed?
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Didn’t think my comment was enough to pull focus away, but when the chance comes up to dunk on the Cuban communists I take it.
 
Yeekim said:
Fair point.
I guess they would have been in the country illegally. Yet, having some illegals removed from your country at the cost of your government defying courts and embracing illegal action is like having a pizza delivered... by a hurricane that leaves with your house and car. 😬
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the law in question suspends the need for courts, right to courtly defense, etc. so, would they have been in the country illegally? we don't know. the foreign enemies act does not care. there is no presumption of innocence. they can arrest you if you look too venezuelan and send you to el salvador's Happy Camp.

it's hard to make a comparison, but here's a metaphor. let's say i'm making a hamburger. so you ask how long it should be boiled. and i tell you straight up, that you don't boil hamburgers. it's not that kind of food.

so at the "i guess they would have been in the country illegally", you're misunderstanding the structure of this law. it does not matter whether they're in this country illegally. they may be, they may not. you have no defense if they think you're illegally here. the practice does not investigate your case. whether you show your american passport doesn't matter. you are disappeared before anyone knows what's going on. you don't boil hamburgers.

so the random appeal in the EO saying they were trent de la agurara or whatever? that doesn't even matter. the EO could've said they're aliens or lizard people. i would have no defense in court and would be summarily disappeared. this is the point of the law.
 
SemiLazyGamer said:
You know all those radio broadcasts the US has done around the world in local languages like Voice of America?

Dead because Trump made the department stop all activities except what is mandated by law and also cut contracts with private broadcasters like Radio Free Europe/Asia.

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I heard this was coming. That's really sad. US/English readers like me may have to find other more obscure sources for stories about former Soviet Union countries; and I wouldn't know where to look. Vox? Vice? Dunno. RFE has been my one-stop shop for a lot of Ukrainian War news that doesn't reach the big networks.
 
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Ok Lex, have a minute.

Context, eh?. You know I'm not a Democrat. I never speak for them. They jerrymander all my representation, have my whole life, they don't need me to speak for them. I am content that you know this. Void does, and he hasn't been here as long. You also know I don't love the Republicans. They're simply a lesser evil. Not as significantly less, now that the realignment has swapped them on thier policies in significant part, and everyone pretends it was never different. But you know I think this, too.

Void, who I was responding to before the transatlantic nonread poofest, wondered about leaders of the Democratic party. This is not the same thing as campaigners for the party, fundraisers for the party, rabblerousers of the party. Fetterman, who Void then correctly identifies as hated by the worst elements of this party, displayed some leadership stones when calling out the unmitigated disaster for Democrats that shutdown would be. Trump is downsizing the government, it will cost him popularity, change often does. Work often does. People like playing, they don't like working as much. Shutting down lets him do that faster while also letting him shift the blame for doing so. They also don't have the votes to get it running again. It's a stupid fight to pick. Dick Durbin, not my favorite guy, also isn't stupid enough to not see that. So they jumped on the grenade and let the new Democrat Tea Party sentiment whine. That's good for the party. That's, arguably, leadership. He looks better in that way. Like McCain saving medical care from Bonespurs the Cowardly who doesn't like heroes. But Republicans are too blitheringly stupid to see it. Not a unique trait, there.

Newsom is preening himself. That's different. That's being pretty for the crowd. Maybe tomorrow's leadership. I think he's angling for it.

I make these statements in context of knowing you stake more extreme opinions here than you claim in meat space. You've said it, after all. You value real results. Tye capability of even recognizing those is definitely not universal.
 
Farm Boy said:
You also know I don't love the Republicans. They're simply a lesser evil. Not as significantly less, now that the realignment has swapped them on thier policies in significant part, and everyone pretends it was never different. But you know I think this, too.
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No offense, but you gotta be holed up in a pretty idyllic ranch removed from everything to consider Trump's tyrannical, head-on assault on democratic institutions "a lesser evil".

Or maybe you're simply okay with the idea of a dictatorship, given nobody's really going to come over to burn down your farm. Even if entire minorities are shipped off to camps and/or offshore detention centers, and the rule of law degenerates for most everyone but your cozy demographic.
 
And this is an opinion from first from the imperial capital and then from very far away.

But noted! At least they seem honest. I'll get another Mr. Rogers song later.
 
Looks like the court order came in while the planes were almost to El Salvadore.
Trump claimed they were out of jurisdiction and didn't order them to return.

It was clearly an ambush.
The Executive Order was not advertised at all, and the planes were sent at ludicrous speed, literally trying to race with a court order.

I think he said if the Supreme Court ruled against him, he would request El Salvadore to return them.
Guilty, innocent, actual gang members, or not, we have to take Trump's word on it.
Regardless, they will be chained to the floor 23 hours a day.
Solid steel beds with no mattress.
Anyone who survives this will have permanent physical damage I would imagine.
El Salvadore takes a year to review their case I think?

I hope the Supreme Court takes a really dim view on this and votes 9-0 to order them returned.
Do non-citizens have any due process rights at all?
How long until citizens that are slow to produce documents get treated this way?

The most cynical part (beyond the souls chained to the floor) will be that everyone fighting this will be smeared as trying to import violent foreign gang members, of which some likely are.
What about the innocents?


In more alarming news, Trump is trying to undo Biden's pardons. (Not the ones for his family)


There are rumors the Autopen was signing executive orders that Biden knew nothing about.

Does Trump have any actual proof?

**Edit**
Trump is in fact going after Biden's family pardons.
 
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Farm Boy said:
And this is an opinion from first from the imperial capital and then from very far away.

But noted! At least they seem honest. I'll get another Mr. Rogers song later.
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I just can't really have any discussion with you that's downstream of the fact that your values lead you to say the GOP is the lesser evil. If you believe the GOP is a lesser evil on March 17, 2025 you are simply a fascist from my point of view. No point in discussing anything with fascists. The GOP needs to be violently suppressed, its voters disenfranchised and the leaders locked up in the same concentration camps they're now ignoring the courts to deport people to.

Fetterman is a Republican (fascist) for all intents and purposes. He's voted to confirm a fascist attorney general and voted to enable the fascist president to detain immigrants suspected of crimes. He also wholeheartedly and sadistically supported a gang of fascists murdering tens of thousands of children even before the fascist takeover of the USA.
 
It's been a pleasure knowing you, Lex.
 
Kaitzilla said:
Does Trump have any actual proof?
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I don't think that "proofs" are in any way required by now.
The really frightening thing isn't that Trump is bonker and whatever mad things he's throwing around. That's just typical Trump, that's expected by now.
That he was voted by the PV is the first really, really frightening thing (over half the country saw him as a better alternative), and considering how insane was his first term, it's really damning for both the electorate, and his opponents.

But the truly frightening thing, is how little pushback there is from the cascade of illegal/illegitimate acts he's doing. He's going to end up with all the actual power of a dictator simply because there is nobody left in the Republican party that has any sort of spine for the rule of law (and the Democrats looks like either bidding their time and giving Donald enough rope to hang himself with, which TBH looks like a working strategy, and/or they are still groggy from their defeat and unable to reinvent themselves to get in touch with the actual voters).
Now, the question is : will there still be enough of a democratic system left to change the balance of power for the next elections ?

But more importantly, it seems we're seeing the failing of US institutions of checks and balance. I mainly blame the FPTP and electoral systems, and how said checks and balance stop working when one party has the hands on all the levers of the political apparatus and fall blindly in line with a leader. It's built-in incentive for treason as soon as the political decorum falls in piece - and Donald has been pretty good at destroying decorum.
 
Farm Boy said:
It's been a pleasure knowing you, Lex.
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you're making this whole argument all while reps are fine with trump deporting hundreds to work camps without a trial. blocked by a judge, but the judical order was ignored. when you're called out, it's this again: and your reserved nonanswers are often more annoying than anything else luckily, so that's not unexpected. it's however always surprising when you type something dumb.

basically i'll just +1 Lord Shadow's post. i'll add though, that idk what your farm is producing for, but we'll see if it just dies in the recession. if you're worried for your farm... good. you support this crap.
 
Akka said:
over half the country saw him as a better alternative
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Not true, it was in fact just under half of the electorate, which in turn is around 1/5th (or a bit less) of the total population. But more people voted for someone else than voted for Trump.
 
Akka said:
But the truly frightening thing, is how little pushback there is from the cascade of illegal/illegitimate acts he's doing. He's going to end up with all the actual power of a dictator simply because there is nobody left in the Republican party that has any sort of spine for the rule of law (and the Democrats looks like either bidding their time and giving Donald enough rope to hang himself with, which TBH looks like a working strategy, and/or they are still groggy from their defeat and unable to reinvent themselves to get in touch with the actual voters).
Now, the question is : will there still be enough of a democratic system left to change the balance of power for the next elections ?
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The cowardice of Congress is breathtaking.


In a near party-line vote on Tuesday afternoon, the House of Representatives blocked the most direct pathway for lawmakers to revoke the emergency executive powers Trump used last month to impose tariffs on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China. That change helps further cement executive control over trade policy and creates additional challenges for lawmakers seeking to claw back some control over tariff decisions.

"It speaks volumes that Republicans are sneaking this provision into a procedural measure hidden from the American people," said Reps. Don Beyer (D–Va.) and Suzan DelBene (D–Wash.) in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Fair warning: The details of what happened are a bit wonky.
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Before passing a continuing resolution to keep the government open, the House had to pass a separate resolution setting the rules for the debate over the stopgap spending bill. This is a routine thing. On this occasion, however, Republican leaders slipped a provision into the rules resolution that makes a long-term change to how the House will operate.

"Each day for the remainder of the first session of the 119th Congress shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 202 of the National Emergencies Act with respect to a joint resolution terminating a national emergency declared by the President on February 1, 2025," is how the relevant portion of the rules package spells things out.
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Will Trump's billionaires really primary anyone who steps out of line this far from the next election in 2 years?

We all remember when AIPAC went after the Squad members.
abcnews.go.com

Pro-Israel groups spent big to oust two Squad members in primaries

Pro-Israel groups focused their spending on defeating two members of the Squad, and had a fairly strong showing in Democratic primary endorsements.
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

If nothing else, Congress should fear the day when they show up for work and have nothing to do because they delegated away all their powers.
I hope DOGE comes for them then.
 
Akka said:
I don't think that "proofs" are in any way required by now.
The really frightening thing isn't that Trump is bonker and whatever mad things he's throwing around. That's just typical Trump, that's expected by now.
That he was voted by the PV is the first really, really frightening thing (over half the country saw him as a better alternative), and considering how insane was his first term, it's really damning for both the electorate, and his opponents.
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The bolded is incorrect according to the currently available credible data.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_presidential_election - Trump 49.8%
https://www.cnn.com/election/2024/results/president - Trump 49.8%
https://www.reuters.com/graphics/USA-ELECTION/RESULTS/zjpqnemxwvx/president/ - Trump 49.9%
https://www.fec.gov/resources/cms-content/documents/2024presgeresults.pdf - Trump 49.8%

This has been mentioned before, and its worth bringing up, pretty much every time this inaccurate claim is made, specifically because of the underlying/tertiary implications that tend to go along with the claim. Trump didn't get a majority of the vote. Elections in the US are always close, usually very close, in terms of percentages of the vote, but it is simply incorrect to claim that Trump got "over half"/the majority of the vote. He didn't. More voters in the election voted for someone besides Trump than voted for him.

So it is inaccurate to say that "over half" or "most" people/voters in the election voted for Trump. They didn't, and it matters, because it contradicts the notion/theme that "most Americans support Trump", underlying the claim that "over half" the country supported him or preferred him to the alternatives available, and undermines the theme of his popular/majority "mandate". Trump won by a plurality, not a majority. Trump has never received a majority of the vote, either in 2016 or in 2024. There is a reason for that. A majority of the electorate did not want/vote for Trump to be President. They did not agree on who they wanted instead, but they didn't want him... which, as a related aside, is why we should have ranked choice voting, but that is another issue.

Trump won the election. He won the popular vote. He won the electoral college. The Republicans gained seats in the Senate and held on to their majority in the House. The majority of voters in the 2024 election did not vote for Trump.

EDIT - x-posted with @Lexicus
 
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