Trump's Second Term

[Pacal]

Please elaborate. What threats?

Regarding threats to Canada. Lets see Trump via Executive Orders violates the Free Trade Agreement on specious grounds, seeming to think that trade deficits are somehow subsidies which is just stupid.

Violating a Treaty is of course a aggressive act and in this case there is no reason for it. Or more accurately no rational reason. Trump whining about how "unfair" the Treaty is, is fascinating given that he negotiated the last revision of it.

Trump then says that in order to avoid the tariffs Canada should become part of the U.S. No doubt Trump wants to wage a tariff war until Canada gives in. Oh and has a Canadian I can tell you that Trump's simple statement that he wants Canada to join the U.S. and his disregard of what actual Canadians think about the idea. (We reject it. But Trump says we will come around. Whatever.) I note there is little interest in the U.S. it seems for Canada joining the U.S. So what the hell is Trump thinking?

So yes Trump has been uttering threats and implementing aggressive acts, basically economic coercion against Canada.

 

[Tero]

aaron.rupar

New in PN: Trump is assaulting his own legitimacy"A Trump without that veneer of legitimacy offered by the judiciary will end up, like his idol Vladimir Putin, as a 'strongman' who can remain in office solely and entirely based on the threat of force. The question, then, could become whether military and law enforcement authorities will be 'loyal' to a leader who has shed even the pretense of constitutional legitimacy."
LINK https://www.publicnotice.co/p/trump-defying-court-rulings

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

Sure, but not usually from its friends. Quite seriously, don't you get any sense that Canadians generally are shocked and angry at Trump's threats?

While I'm on the subject, what are we to make of Trump's seeming belief that people of other countries want to give up their independence and become part of the US? Is it just bluster or does he really fail to grasp that people have patriotic pride in their own country rather than a secret longing to be part of his?

Or that very few people want to be subsumed into a ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ third world dictatorship?

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

This is pretty bad. We have no way out of this.

In two years an election. Democrats get house. Then Trump ignores it and takes revenge on all of us 2 years.

I honestly think he's already at the fuhrerbunker stage of his regime. There is nothing he is doing that is not destructive to the US or its interests.

 

[TellyKNeasuss]

In two years an election. Democrats get house.

You have a lot higher opinion of the intelligence of American voters than I do. But I'm not seeing widespread outrage despite the outrageous conduct of the Trump Administration. It seems (at least to me) that a solid majority of Americans either support having an autocratic leadership or don't pay attention to what's going on in the govt. as long as the traffic lights work and the trash gets collected, so I question whether the Democrats can gain control of the house (especially given that there are only a few dozen seats that are legitimate contests).

 

[Andy_Ross]

Donald echoing Elon's attacks on Judges.

I expect Donald to try and sack them all very soon.


[/quote]
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Billions of Dollars of FRAUD, WASTE, AND ABUSE, has already been found in the investigation of our incompetently run Government. Now certain activists and highly political judges want us to slow down, or stop. Losing this momentum will be very detrimental to finding the TRUTH, which is turning out to be a disaster for those involved in running our Government. Much left to find. No Excuses!!![/quote]

 

[Segnosaur]

In two years an election. Democrats get house.

You have a lot higher opinion of the intelligence of American voters than I do. But I'm not seeing widespread outrage despite the outrageous conduct of the Trump Administration.

I think its likely to happen for a few reasons...

First of all, it has been the historical trend... the party that holds the whitehouse tends to lose support in the house during midterms. (I guess its a way for people to express displeasure in the presidency even if they can't do anything directly.)

Secondly, voter turnout is lower in the midterms, but Democrats will be more motivated after dealing with 2 years of stubby McBonespurs ruling by executive order and they will probably have higher turnout.

Thirdly, despite the fact that Trump is in the "honeymoon" phase of his presidency, polling shows that (on average) he has a negative favoribility rating. And a president's popularity tends to go down with time.

Lastly, lets face it: Trump is, well, Trump. You know things are going to implode. The MAGAchud are morons for sure, with a short memory. But, when Stubby McBonespurs does not lower the price of eggs by 2026 some might decide to sit out the election. (Yeah, the MAGAchud were morons for voting for him in the first place, but it will be hard to blame "the democrats" when the republicans have been in control for years and inflation is rampant due to tariffs, the US is sending troops to Gaza, and you can't get healthcare because they just figured out that "the obamacare Trump said he would cut is the same as the Affordable Care Act many MAGAchud depend on".

 

[stanfr]

Donald Trump looks more unstoppable than ever before.

Meh, all it takes is one clogged artery...

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Lastly, lets face it: Trump is, well, Trump. You know things are going to implode. The MAGAchud are morons for sure, with a short memory. But, when Stubby McBonespurs does not lower the price of eggs by 2026 some might decide to sit out the election.

Nah, the Drumpf cult will stand by him until he dies. By 2026 and 2028, though, the idiots who sat out the 2024 election will probably have realized their stupidity and actually get off their asses on election day, and we'll probably see a repeat of Biden's landslide victory in 2020.

That is, if elections are held and conducted fairly, and SCOTUS doesn't just overturn the result.

 

[Dr.Sid]

Meh, all it takes is one clogged artery...

Don't hold your hopes. Swines live long.

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Meh, all it takes is one clogged artery...

Or one bullet, this time from someone who can actually aim and knows not to let their rifle barrel poke out from the sniper's nest.

 

[stanfr]

We are obliged to go there in May/June for our nephew's wedding. We had been looking forward to it - not quite so much now

We will be in Wyoming and Colorado. I expect we will be safe (we are white, anglophone and culturally Christian) but I expect we will encounter a lot of unpleasant views

I am in a 60-40 city in Colorado (60% conservative--lots of churches and military bases!) but aside from the zealots with their flags and tattoos, not so bad, and every town north and south along the Front range is liberal-leaning. It's the rural areas that are MAGA. Which is why Wyoming is a giant MAGA cesspool.

 

[Abooga]

Asset forfeiture, police brutality, for profit prisons... I´m starting to think that the USA already was a fascist distopia. Trump only needed to give it a little push to nudge it into a full blown dictatorship...

 

[stanfr]

Asset forfeiture, police brutality, for profit prisons... I´m starting to think that the USA already was a fascist distopia. Trump only needed to give it a little push to nudge it into a full blown dictatorship...

Nah, although the massive incarceration rate has been a sign of a police state. The profit prisons only represent 8% of the total--and Biden wanted to get rid of them. Emminent Domain is as American as apple pie. And police brutality has been around since the beginning, and just like 'asset forfeiture' is also present in many other 'democracies' The autocratic and patriarchal leanings have always been there, it just took a long evolution of right wing media and concurrent drop in real wages for middle Americans to allow the fascist opening. And it's not a full blown dictatorship yet, although that is obviously the goal, so the opposition better not waste any time mounting a defense.

 

[Lukraak_Sisser]

Well, at least you have a clear seperation of church and state in the US, imagine if the would be a state ordained faith.

Oh wait.

President Trump Announces Appointments to the White House Faith Office

President Donald Trump announced appointments to the White House Faith Office.Pastor Paula White-Cain will return to the White House as a Special

www.whitehouse.gov

So, Trump voters, are you of the correct faith?

 

[kookbreaker]

So as some have noted Trump changed the name of Fort Liberty back to Fort Bragg, but apparently he's trying to do bad trolling since its now named after A WW2 paratrooper who won a Silver Star.

So he's dog whistling but I wonder who he has scrambling to find actual USA heroes with the same last names as those Confederate generals.

Finding an A.P. Hill is gonna be a piece of work.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

"There is no evidence that I can find that either Elon Musk, DOGE, or anyone in the Trump administration has applied anything resembling through to this budget cut."

More generally if Musk were interested in rooting out waste or fraud, he would have hired forensic accountants, not programmers, as was pointed out elsewhere.

If Galaxy Brain were interested in rooting out waste, he'd have ended all federal grants to Tesla, if he was interested in ending fraud he'd have opened up anivestigation into the backroom deali gs between SpaceX and Kathy Leuders.


Oh, wait...

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

As of the close of the day on February 10, my positive/negative score on the Trump administration stands at -102.

10 February 2025
+1: Trump orders the Treasury to stop minting pennies (minimal savings)
0: Executive Order: Eliminating the Federal Executive Institute (impact unknown)
0: Elon Musk claims, without evidence, that FEMA sent $59M to luxury hotels to house illegal migrants. [22]
0: Trump on Ukraine: "We're gonna have all this money in there, and I say I want it back."
-1: Trump fires the Board of Visitors at all 4 US military academies (see note)
-1: Trump fires the director of the Office of Government Ethics (see note)
-1: Executive Order to impose 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imported into the United States
-1: Trump repeats his desire to own the Gaza Strip
-1: Trump wants to ethnically cleanse the Gaza strip and deny the Palestinians right of return [23]
-1: Trump threatens to cut off aid to Jordan and Israel if they don't resettle Palestinians from Gaza
-1: Trump claims that without the US, Canada is not a viable country [24]
-1: Asked about the CPFB, Trump instead insults Elizabeth Warren [25]

I added a -1 line to February 9:
-1: Executive Order: Gulf of America Day, 2025 (-1 for "silly")

Note: I've adopted a policy that any report of Trump firing someone is a negative, since such actions should go through due process and not simply be at the president's whim, even if he has the authority to do so.

I will re-score the Elon Musk claim about $59 million being spent on luxury hotels to house illegal migrants to -1 if his comment is confirmed to be false or exaggerated.

Footnotes:

22. Musk: "The @DOGE team just discovered that FEMA sent $59M LAST WEEK to luxury hotels in New York City to house illegal migrants. Sending this money violated the law and is in gross insubordination to the President’s executive order. That money is meant for American disaster relief and instead is being spent on high end hotels for illegals! A clawback demand will be made today to recoup those funds."

23. BAIER: Would the Palestinians have the right to return to Gaza?
TRUMP: No, they wouldn't.

24. Trump: "We’re making our country larger, we’re making our country stronger. And in the case of Canada—if this should happen—I don’t know how they can do it without us. Because without the U.S., Canada really doesn't have a country. They do almost all of their business with us, and if we say we want our cars to be made in Detroit, with a stroke of a pen, I can make that happen. And other things, in addition to that, would not allow Canada to be a viable country. "

25. Asked about the CFPB, Trump rampages on Liz Warren: "Pocahontas. The fake. The faker … she's a fake. Just like she said she's an Indian … she's a nasty woman. She's a really nasty woman."

I think claims made without citations should automatically be negatively marked. It is almost definite that they are lying to cover for their dictatorial policies.

 

[Segnosaur]

Lastly, lets face it: Trump is, well, Trump. You know things are going to implode. The MAGAchud are morons for sure, with a short memory. But, when Stubby McBonespurs does not lower the price of eggs by 2026 some might decide to sit out the election.

Nah, the Drumpf cult will stand by him until he dies.

I know there are a lot of hardcore MAGAchud who will back him regardless of what he does.

But in the 2024 election, Trump did pick up support from some... unexpected... areas. Like the Muslims for Trump who didn't like Biden's support for Israel (but now see that Trump wants the US to "take over" Gaza). Or the Venezuelans who supported Trump (but later found he ended a program that granted many protected status.)

These people were idiots for supporting Trump. It was obvious that Trump would be worse in every way. But they still voted for him, even if they weren't the core MAGAchud supporters.

I suspect that these people might be less inclined to vote for a republican in future elections.

 

[acbytesla]

I grew up in Kansas. I'm pretty certain that a lot of them voted for Trump.

Oh yeah.

I know there are a lot of hardcore MAGAchud who will back him regardless of what he does.

But in the 2024 election, Trump did pick up support from some... unexpected... areas. Like the Muslims for Trump who didn't like Biden's support for Israel (but now see that Trump wants the US to "take over" Gaza). Or the Venezuelans who supported Trump (but later found he ended a program that granted many protected status.)

These people were idiots for supporting Trump. It was obvious that Trump would be worse in every way. But they still voted for him, even if they weren't the core MAGAchud supporters.

I suspect that these people might be less inclined to vote for a republican in future elections.

Or the idiots who heard him say he would halt inflation. Trump is a liar and has always been one. He has even said so himself. He distanced himself from Project 2025 and now is implementing it. When do these morons understand you can't believe Trump?