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Trump's Second Term

Blue Mountain said:
As of the close of the day on June 3, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -753.

2 June 2025
-1: Headline: Trump signs order to double steel and aluminum tariffs at midnight (CBC)
-1: Elon Musk makes a post on X criticising the omnibus tax bill [285]
-1: Trump’s plan to strike major trade deals stalls [286]
-1: Headline: New Federal Employees Must Now Write Essays Praising Trump’s Policies (Newsweek)

References

285. Elon Musk: “I’m sorry, but I just can’t stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination. Shame on those who voted for it: you know you did wrong. You know it. It will massively increase the already gigantic budget deficit to $2.5 trillion (!!!) and burden America citizens with crushingly unsustainable debt.”

286. (Via Aaron Rupar) We’ve gone from “90 deals in 90 days” to sending letters to other countries pleading with them to negotiate.


2 June 2025
-1: Trump lies about the immigration status of a man accused in a terror attack in Colorado [284]
-1: Headline: RFK Jr. May Have Just Ruined Our Best Weapon Against Bird Flu [The Bulwark]
-1: Headline: Major Corporations Are Dumping Law Firms That Caved to Trump (mediaite.com)
-1: Headline: FEMA staff baffled after head said he was unaware of US hurricane season, sources say (Reuters)

Reference

284. Trump: “Yesterday’s horrific attack in Boulder, Colorado, WILL NOT BE TOLERATED in the United States of America. He came in through Biden’s ridiculous Open Border Policy, which has hurt our Country so badly. He must go out under “TRUMP” Policy. Acts of Terrorism will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law. This is yet another example of why we must keep our Borders SECURE, and deport Illegal, Anti-American Radicals from our Homeland. My heart goes out to the victims of this terrible tragedy, and the Great People of Boulder, Colorado!”
The truth is the man was in the country on a visa that was issued by Trump’s first administration. (Apparently the visa had since expired, so he was no longer legal.)
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If ever there was an opportunity for AI-generated literature, this must surely be it.
 
Blue Mountain said:
It has been speculated for years Trump has a reading disability. Of all his faults, this is one I do not hold against him. So if it requires an alternate approach to make him aware of the state of the world, they should do it.

On the other hand, isn't this "accommodation" and DEI? BAN IT!
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Or maybe, just maybe, a person who lacks the ability to comprehend simple written concepts shouldn't be in charge of a diverse nation, or the world economy, or the nuclear codes . . . .
 
Blue Mountain said:
It has been speculated for years Trump has a reading disability. Of all his faults, this is one I do not hold against him. So if it requires an alternate approach to make him aware of the state of the world, they should do it.

On the other hand, isn't this "accommodation" and DEI? BAN IT!
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I'm not sure 'is too vain to wear reading glasses' is medically classed as a disability.
 
Resume said:
Or maybe, just maybe, a person who lacks the ability to comprehend simple written concepts shouldn't be in charge of a diverse nation, or the world economy, or the nuclear codes . . . .
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How do the nuclear codes work, is it a code like you'd type into a keypad, or is it a password sequence to repeated verbally. Is it "Man Woman Person Camera TV"?
 
More on the rapidly accelerating brain drain:

NYT...with the Trump administration slashing spending on science, Dr. Patapoutian’s federal grant to develop new approaches to treating pain has been frozen. In late February, he posted on Bluesky that such cuts would damage biomedical research and prompt an exodus of talent from the United States. Within hours, he had an email from China, offering to move his lab to “any city, any university I want,” he said, with a guarantee of funding for the next 20 years. Dr. Patapoutian declined, because he loves his adopted country. Many scientists just setting out on their careers, however, fear there is no other option but to leave.

Scientific leaders say that’s risking the way American science has been done for years, and the pre-eminence of the United States in their fields.
China and Europe are on hiring sprees. An analysis by the journal Nature captured the reversal: Applications from China and Europe for graduate student or postdoctoral positions in the United States have dropped sharply or dried up entirely since President Trump took office. The number of postdocs and graduate students in the United States applying for jobs abroad has spiked.

A university in France that created new positions for scientists with canceled federal grants capped applications after overwhelming interest. A scientific institute in Portugal said job inquiries from junior faculty members in the United States are up tenfold over the last two months. “We are embarking on a major experiment in restructuring the innovative engine in America, and China is the control,” said Marcia McNutt, a geophysicist and the president of the National Academy of Sciences, which was established by President Abraham Lincoln to advise the government on science policy. “China is not going to cut its research budget in half.”

Since the 1950s, when the federal government expanded the National Institutes of Health and created the National Science Foundation as public-private research partnerships, the United States has become the international mecca for science. It was the uniquely American system that President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s science adviser, Vannevar Bush, envisioned in his landmark report, “Science, The Endless Frontier”: Federal money enabled scientific discoveries that made American research institutions the envy of the world, and they in turn fueled the rise of the United States as the leader in technology and biotechnology.

As that system attracted international talent, it came to depend on the aspiring scientists who come to the United States to work in university labs at low wages for the privilege of proximity to the world’s best researchers. They often stay: In the American defense industry and fields like engineering and computer and life sciences, at least half the workers with doctorates are foreign-born.
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Cutting off your nose to spite your face is a totally MAGA thing to do. Ay-yuk!
 
Elon is turning on the Republicans

Elon Musk
@elonmusk
In November next year, we fire all politicians who betrayed the American people

Quote
Matt Van Swol
@matt_vanswol
OK LET ME JUST GET THIS STRAIGHT…

THE GOP ARE OUT THERE:
1) SPENDING MILLIONS ON LUXURY HOTELS IN UKRAINE
2) NOT VOTING ON ANY DOGE CUTS
3) SPENDING 60% OF THEIR TIME ON VACATION
4) NOT CODIFYING EXECUTIVE ORDERS
IS THIS THE “MAJOR REFORM” THE AMERICAN PEOPLE VOTED FOR?!!!
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Blue Mountain said:
It has been speculated for years Trump has a reading disability. Of all his faults, this is one I do not hold against him. So if it requires an alternate approach to make him aware of the state of the world, they should do it.

On the other hand, isn't this "accommodation" and DEI? BAN IT!
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His reading disability is laziness. He's never had to do it in his life before, so why start now.
 
Blue Mountain said:
It has been speculated for years Trump has a reading disability. Of all his faults, this is one I do not hold against him. So if it requires an alternate approach to make him aware of the state of the world, they should do it.

On the other hand, isn't this "accommodation" and DEI? BAN IT!
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Dump is a DEI hire. Old and confused, suffering from dementia, with the emotional maturity and people skills of a spoiled toddler, 4th grade level English skills, and difficulties with reading even simple texts.

I think it may have been someone on this forum who said that without his inherited riches he'd be a sleazy used car salesman, and Bannon (I think it was) would be the guy in the mascot costume in the parking lot who ◊◊◊◊◊◊ off in the Taco Bell restroom during lunch break.
 
Blue Mountain said:
It has been speculated for years Trump has a reading disability. Of all his faults, this is one I do not hold against him. So if it requires an alternate approach to make him aware of the state of the world, they should do it.

On the other hand, isn't this "accommodation" and DEI? BAN IT!
Click to expand...
It has been speculated, yes. I wouldn't hold that against him. This, though? This would be very much in "extremely unreasonable accommodation" territory. With that said, the problem here has little to nothing to do with whether he has a reading disability, just like during his first term.

To poke at a rather subdued article on the topic -

CIA publishes new account describing "challenges" of briefing Trump

Short version that's a little less subdued? In his first term, to get nearly anything across, they had to dumb things down by a lot, reduce the number of things covered to only a couple, and keep it really simple and then pray that he wouldn't just completely ignore it anyways. Even then, his behavior was often more akin to a toddler, and sometimes a toddler having a temper tantrum, at that.
 
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Jack by the hedge said:
This rather has the ring of dialogue from some complicated caper movie, when one of the criminals realises he's really exposed, because he's been trying to do his part of the crime and if the rest of the gang don't do theirs and cover for him then he'll be left holding the bag.
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being discarded is a legitimate problem for the trump orbit. seems to be the failure to reduce the deficit is going to be at elon’s feet, and the financial backing propping up the stock of his failing company could lose patience.

the worlds smartest man has painted himself into a corner
 
dirtywick said:
being discarded is a legitimate problem for the trump orbit. seems to be the failure to reduce the deficit is going to be at elon’s feet, and the financial backing propping up the stock of his failing company could lose patience.

the worlds smartest man has painted himself into a corner
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He overpromised by orders of magnitude. Failing to uncover trillions in fraud and waste was bound to tarnish his golden halo. A bit of resentful whiny "Well, what are you ◊◊◊◊◊ doing about it?" is only to be expected. But won't help him.
 
alfaniner said:
Nitpick, they only said "The Emperor". I don't think he even got a name until after Return of the Jedi. I just rewatched that and don't recall his name being said in any of the Original Trilogy.
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Seems unlikely as they gave names to every character who just appears on screen in the cantina scene.
 
alfaniner said:
While a President does have a "Big Red Button" of sorts, it still has to go through a few layers before a launch is performed. The high-ranking military person in charge could put a halt to it. (This is much simplified.)
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None of whom have the authority to countermand it.
 
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