Trump's Second Term

The _____ Administration has effectively shut down the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Millions of dollars in previously awarded federal grants intended for arts and cultural groups across the country are being canceled by the Trump administration, according to a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) senior official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they're not authorized to speak publicly.

The funds had been awarded by the agency through a competitive application process and, according to the official, covered grants from fiscal years 2021-2025. The official said that "no upcoming awards" will be made in fiscal year 2025.
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Andy_Ross said:
It all turned out OK.

That's a relief.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonald Trump
THE OPERATION IS OVER! THE PATIENT LIVED, AND IS HEALING. THE PROGNOSIS IS THAT THE PATIENT WILL BE FAR STRONGER, BIGGER, BETTER, AND MORE RESILIENT THAN EVER BEFORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!
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Us liberals will really have egg on our faces if by some unexpected series of events the US economy comes roaring back in a couple of years. Not that I can see it happening; the tariffs and trade wars are more likely to trigger a mild recession that will likely last about two years. (This is just a feeling on my part; I have no theories or numbers to back it up.)
 
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Andy_Ross said:
Reporter: How long will it take to get manufacturing -- American manufacturing to where you would like to see it?

Trump: Well, let's say it is a two-year process..

where will the markets be in two years.

I thought it was supposed to be 'short term' disruption.
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Two years ? That's a heck of a difference from the usual two weeks.
 
The head of the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command was removed from his job on Thursday, according to the top Democrats on the congressional intelligence committees.
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But a U.S. official briefed on the matter said Laura Loomer, a far-right activist and outside adviser to President Trump, called for General Haugh’s removal during her Oval Office meeting on Thursday. Mr. Trump ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to fire General Haugh, the official said.
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As of the close of the day on April 3, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -417.

3 April 2025
-1: US markets react to Trump's tariffs: DJIA -1,679.39 (-3.98%); S&P 500 -274.45 (-4.84%); NASDAQ -1,050.44 (-5.97%)
-1: Howard Lutnick on CBS, via X: "You're going to see employment leaping starting today." (yeah, off a cliff)
-1: Headline: DOGE-related layoffs have topped 280,000 (WTOP news) (There were ~3 million employees in Jan 2025)
-1: Headline: Gen. Timothy Haugh Ousted as Head of NSA and Cyber Command (New York Times)
-1: Headline: Cultural groups across U.S. told that federal humanities grants are terminated (NPR)
-1: Trump's tariffs include 20% on France, but only 10% on Martinique and Guadeloupe, which are part of France!
-1: Trump posts another nonsensical and premature all-caps comment regarding the health of the US (economy) [124]

Reference:

124. Trump: "THE OPERATION IS OVER! THE PATIENT LIVED, AND IS HEALING. THE PROGNOSIS IS THAT THE PATIENT WILL BE FAR STRONGER, BIGGER, BETTER, AND MORE RESILIENT THAN EVER BEFORE. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!"
 
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shemp said:
If things get bad enough. Much worse than even now. Things will have to get to the point where millions of MAGA have no jobs, no health care, can't keep a roof over their heads, can't feed themselves and their children, etc. We're not close to that yet, and it may not happen. But the seeds of it certainly have been planted.

If that happens, people around him and in Congress will start to bail, if they think they can do it and not feel the wrath of MAGA.
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I said earlier, I think the leopard eating face party has started eating the wrong faces too soon. Before they put sufficient fixes in to skew the elections. The minor officials it would require are some of the people he's hurting now.
 
I liked this analogy from lana@beige.party on mastodon
Ok. I'm a teacher. So let me break this down for you into very very simple ideas and numbers.

Let's say you run a sandwich shop. You sell $10 sandwiches. It's a very good sandwich shop. You sell a lot of sandwiches. In fact, I buy a sandwich from you every single day. In a week, I have spent $70 buying sandwiches from you.

Now let's say I am selling my car. You, the owner of the sandwich shop, need a car. I decide to sell you my car for the very very reasonable price of $700.

So here's the situation at the end of a week. You have sold me $70 worth of goods. I have received $70 worth of sandwiches. In return, I have sold you $700 worth of goods, and you have received $700 worth of car.

Any reasonable, rational person would look at that situation and say "that's a fair exchange". Both parties paid an amount of money equal to the value of the goods they now own.

But Trump is not a rational person. What he has decided this means is that you have somehow cheated me out of $630, because $700-$70=$630. Does this make sense? ◊◊◊◊ no. If anything, I got the better part of that deal. I now have $630, plus a belly full of sandwiches.

But it gets even worse. Then, because Trump's a-brain is filled with maggots, he further declares that since $70 divided by $700 is .10, that MUST mean you, the owner of the sandwich shop, have been imposing a 10% sandwich tariff on me the whole time. Does THIS make a lick of sense either? Also ◊◊◊◊ no.

But wait, you're going to love this. Trump's "solution" to this is to decree that going forward, all cars I sell you will be marked up a "reciprocal' 10% to $770. He says this will be good for sandwich sales. Does THIS make any goddamn sense either? Jesus ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ Christ on a pogo stick no it ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ does not.

This entire idea is complete ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ for what I hope you can now see are a whole raft of very very obvious reasons. Among them:

1. There never was a "sandwich tariff" to reciprocate
2. There is no rational reason for you to buy a car from me ever again
3. This will not affect sandwich sales at all
4. That's not how numbers work
5. That's not how any of this works

Now replace the car seller with America, and the sandwich shop with an island inhabited only by penguins. I wish I was joking.
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