Trump's Second Term

[Aridas]

I don't see how that would help much, to be honest. Dump hopefully won't last four years, either due to dementia or just expiring from old age and too many hamberders, but you know Musk and Vance will be just as bad.

Maybe some of his cultists will snap out of it when Daddy Drumpf dies, and will start to look more critically at what's happening to America, but I've kinda lost hope of that. We don't just need to dump Dump, we need the Democrats or some other party back in office. Is that possible without violence? No clue, but I'm afraid it's not.

Unfortunately, I don't have much hope that the traitor dying would solve much, either. It has potential when it comes to slowing the US' decline to some extent, yes, but the real issue wasn't and isn't Trump. The Republican Party's long standing party over country strategies that harm and betray the US and how they've managed to woo voters both because of and despite those strategies have much more to do with the real issues at hand.

Why would you think that ?

The Republicans have demonstrated for at least a couple of decades that they have no interest in governing and for the past 9 years have been firmly in the thrall of Donald Trump. They have absolutely no interest in, and no intention of, firming up the guardrails - indeed they want to weaken the guardrails by threatening to deport judges who rule against Trump and suppressing free speech.

Indeed. It's likely well worth noting that they know that Democrats are almost certainly not going to abuse the power, no matter how much ado they've raised over nothing, while they happily will abuse such.

Fixed that for him. trump doesn't know how to drive.

A topic that came up during his last Presidency. The evidence was quite reasonable that Trump has driven in the past, at the least. People complimenting him related to his cars could well have played a notable role, of course.

Last I heard, the Resolute Desk had been removed from the White House last month to be "lightly refinished", which I assumed meant Trump was having tacky gold plate added.

Or that he damaged it.

 

[MostlyHarmless]

Unfortunately, I don't have much hope that the traitor dying would solve much, either. It has potential when it comes to slowing the US' decline to some extent, yes, but the real issue wasn't and isn't Trump. The Republican Party's long standing party over country strategies that harm and betray the US and how they've managed to woo voters both because of and despite those strategies have much more to do with the real issues at hand.



Indeed. It's likely well worth noting that they know that Democrats are almost certainly not going to abuse the power, no matter how much ado they've raised over nothing, while they happily will abuse such.



A topic that came up during his last Presidency. The evidence was quite reasonable that Trump has driven in the past, at the least. People complimenting him related to his cars could well have played a notable role, of course.



Or that he damaged it.

I believe it was because Elon's kid wiped a booger on it. I think it was sent out the next day.

 

[JayUtah]

Well, Donald Trump said he would start lowering prices on Day One. We thought he was talking about eggs, but it turns out to be stock prices.

 

[psionl0]

I think there's a reasonable counter arguement that as the people vote in the American President they shouldn't be easily replaced by politicians, unlike our PMs they are personally chosen (okay, electoral college etc..) rather than being party appointments. The thing about Trump is that he is such an outlier and at a time when politics have been so disrupted by a century of unprecedented social & technological change that institutions worldwide haven't caught up with. As ever in political leadership there is the struggle to balance the need to be able to remove an inept or unsuitable leader Vs the conflicting need for a competent one to be able to make necessary but unpopular decisions without being immediately ousted. But there's a serious problem when those meant to be providing oversight are in the thrall of the overseen.

You make it appear as if one slight misstep and the PM's gone. It's not like that at all. Replacing a PM is a very damaging political process and won't happen unless the PM is consistently on the nose with the voters and even then, there has to be an alternative who is either already popular with the public or can convince the party that they can win the voters back. This means that the PM has a lot of leeway in what they choose to do and it is relatively rare for a PM to be toppled by the party.

The last time that a PM who wasn't on the nose with voters got toppled in Australia was in 1993 when Paul Keating knifed Bob Hawke. Keating would have been trounced at the very next election had the opposition not proposed a new tax (in contravention to the political wisdom that no party ever gained government by proposing a new tax).

Election campaigns in Australia tend to be "presidential" in style since they center around the PM and opposition leader rather than their respective parties.

 

[psionl0]

If the Republicans were willing to do their part they could have been shot of Trump using the 25th amendment or impeachment.

The problem isn't that there aren't mechanisms to remove Trump, it's that the GOP won't use them.

If the Conservatives had been similarly intransigent then Truss would have stayed on as PM.

There is a big difference between what happens behind closed doors and what happens under the glare of a congressional session. As I pointed out earlier, party votes for PM take place via secret ballot so a party member is free to vote with their conscience without fear of retaliation by the deposed PM.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Add a Pepsi button to the car so they'll know it's him.


Or just use facial recognition software, I guess. It's 2025, not whenever that film came out.

Just lock all the doors and windows, turn the heat up to maximum, and watch him sweat to death in a few minutes.

 

[arthwollipot]

The last time that a PM who wasn't on the nose with voters got toppled in Australia was in 1993 when Paul Keating knifed Bob Hawke. Keating would have been trounced at the very next election had the opposition not proposed a new tax (in contravention to the political wisdom that no party ever gained government by proposing a new tax).

Rudd/Gillard/Rudd. Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison.

Election campaigns in Australia tend to be "presidential" in style since they center around the PM and opposition leader rather than their respective parties.

A fact that really annoys my dad.

 

[alfaniner]

Trump sits into his new Tesla (gold plated model S plaid I guess). Starts autopilot. Tesla burst into flames, doors can't be open, Trump burns on live TV. Musk says "oops" and blinks into the camera.

Sounds like a great finale to one of the Hitman video game scenarios I'm playing that go to a cutscene.

 

[Tero]

And they had the Tesla Trash Truck too.

 

[Regnad Kcin]

Jailhouse Cock.

Love Me Tenderizer

 

[Safe-Keeper]

Equinor, the Norwegian state-run oil company, has officially moved to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Merica. I am disappoint.

 

[Norman Alexander]

Equinor, the Norwegian state-run oil company, has officially moved to refer to the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of Merica. I am disappoint.

Gulf of Merkin...wasn't it?

 

[psionl0]

Rudd/Gillard/Rudd. Abbott/Turnbull/Morrison.

These were PMs on the nose with the voters and leading their party off a cliff.

 

[arthwollipot]

These were PMs on the nose with the voters and leading their party off a cliff.

If you say so.

 

[Pixel42]

I thought I knew what "on the nose" meant but the last few posts make no sense to me. Googling the phrase finds no meaning for it other than the one I'm familiar with. Is it an Australian thing?

 

[surrogate]

Sounds like a great finale to one of the Hitman video game scenarios I'm playing that go to a cutscene.

Agent 47 taking out POTUS 47 does seem fitting.

 

[arthwollipot]

I thought I knew what "on the nose" meant but the last few posts make no sense to me. Googling the phrase finds no meaning for it other than the one I'm familiar with. Is it an Australian thing?

I didn't think it was exclusively Australian. If something is "on the nose" it means that it stinks. In context, psionl0 is saying that the voting public felt that a particular PM has been around too long and has started to go off.

Which was not the case with Julia Gillard, in my opinion, but Abbott had certainly made himself pretty unpopular.

 

[sts60]

Well, Donald Trump said he would start lowering prices on Day One. We thought he was talking about eggs, but it turns out to be stock prices.

This year’s rate of return on my 401(k) has dropped >4% since Biden’s last day in office, and will probably be negative tomorrow. Thanks, Trump!

 

[angrysoba]

I noticed fivethirtyeight polling was down on the weekend.

I'd almost be inclined to say it had something to do with its stats switching to Trump being disliked last week.

Don’t think so. Nate Silver was talking about it recently saying that the owners have repeatedly cut costs on 538 and not seen the value in it.

A few words about FiveThirtyEight

Silver Bulletin will begin publishing some new features soon — including Trump approval ratings. But the media just lost an extremely valuable resource.

open.substack.com

 

[steenkh]

This year’s rate of return on my 401(k) has dropped >4% since Biden’s last day in office, and will probably be negative tomorrow. Thanks, Trump!

My wife’s UN pension is calculated in dollars, but paid in Danish kroner. The last payment was actually higher than before, but we are fearing that the Trump effect will hit us. On the other hand, if Europe’s economy is going down the drain as well, the dollar may be able to hold its value vs. the krone.