The Trump Presidency - Part 2

I know the debate on Trump's comments on South Africa is mostly happening in the Musk thread, but I read this in a CBC article (link) just now:
"South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote solidarity, equality and sustainability. In other words: DEI and climate change," Rubio said in his post on X, without giving details.
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Leaving aside the private property thing (it's mistaken, but could in theory have been a valid point) - how low have you sunk when you're scolding someone for promoting solidary, equality, and sustainability? How have those become fundamentally terrible ideas, per se?

(Also, if I were a nitpicker, I'd say that Rubio is here accusing South Africa of promoting sustainability and climate change. That's impossible. It's rather that South Africa promotes sustainability, while the Trump administration promotes climate change. But anyway.)
 
oneniltothearsenal said:
Israel-Gaza is not the only issue though, despite a few vocal posters focusing solely on that for the last year. Even if Trump and Biden are equally bad on Gaza (and after Trump's statements I personally don't think they are equally bad but whatever), Trump is so much worse on so many other issues. Just look at what he is doing and his executive orders.

Harris/Biden/Dems are not and were not pushing Trump's combination of extreme religious conservatism, neo-mercantilism, Russian 90s style oligarchy mixed in with full blown climate change denialism. Yes, the neoliberal status quo can be bad and obviously has problems but this current blend of extreme religious conservatism, neo-mercantilism, and Russian 90s style oligarchy mixed in with full blown climate change denialism is magnitudes worse and will, in the long run, cause massively more suffering in the world short and long term.
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yeah, you're right about all that, and I accept that, when you bring all that in the choice is/was obvious. I even said I'd have voted for Harris.

I was coming it it from a slightly different point of view though, in that it is unfair to criticise people for voting one way or the other around the Israel situation, when it's really difficult to know how it's going to play out. We're all just guessing.

And yeah it's pointless to debate it in those terms. Right now though it kinda feels like the only issue.
 
VorZakone said:
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To be fair, if there was one actual intelligence service that could do with a revamp and restructure, it's probably the FBI. It operates on pretty archaic structures and reporting lines.

I have zero doubt in my mind however any restructuring that the Trump administration will do will make things worse.
 
Tarrou said:
where did they hire all these DOGE agents from?
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Here's a WIRED piece on some of these DOGE guys.

Engineers between 19 and 24, most linked to Musk’s companies, are playing a key role as he seizes control of federal infrastructure.

WIRED has identified six young men—all apparently between the ages of 19 and 24, according to public databases, their online presences, and other records—who have little to no government experience and are now playing critical roles in Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) project.
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The six men are one part of the broader project of Musk allies assuming key government positions. Already, Musk’s lackeys—including more senior staff from xAI, Tesla, and the Boring Company—have taken control of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and General Services Administration (GSA), and have gained access to the Treasury Department’s payment system, potentially allowing him access to a vast range of sensitive information about tens of millions of citizens, businesses, and more.
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https://www.wired.com/story/elon-musk-government-young-engineers/
 
Panama's leader rejects State Department claim of deal for U.S. warships to traverse Panama Canal for free
Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino on Thursday denied the U.S. State Department's claim that his country had reached a deal to allow U.S. warships to transit the Panama Canal for free.
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Mulino said he had told U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Wednesday that he could neither set the fees to transit the canal nor exempt anyone from them and that he was surprised by the U.S. State Department's statement suggesting otherwise late Wednesday.

"I completely reject that statement yesterday," Mulino said during his weekly press conference, adding that he had asked Panama's ambassador in Washington to dispute the State Department's statement.
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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/panama...s-rubio/?ftag=CNM-00-10aab7e&linkId=739929412
 
2mufc0 said:
:lol:

Very accurate, who would have thought self proclaimed liberals are only liberal when you do what they want you to do.
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There’s an element of truth to that. How strong the element depends on one’s perspective I suppose. It’s reminiscent of this:

 
Tarrou said:
bloody hell

amazing he is getting away with this
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From what I understand, he's basically repeating what he did to Twitter right after buying it - even down to sending all staff in both cases an e-mail called 'A fork in the road' (with the proposal for them to quit).
 
Tarrou said:
bloody hell

amazing he is getting away with this
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If there was ever a proof that there isn’t a deep state, it is this. A deep state would not have allowed Trump and Musk to dismantle that same deep state without even trying to fight.
 
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/06/poli...ive-orders-icc-anti-christian-bias/index.html

President Donald Trump is expected to sign a pair of executive orders Thursday afternoon, one targeting the International Criminal Court and a second on “anti-Christian bias,” a White House official told CNN.

The ICC move is expected to place financial and visa sanctions on “individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of US citizens or our allies,” according to a fact sheet obtained by CNN, an effort to punish the body for issuing arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

and

“Today, I’m signing an executive order to make our attorney general — who’s a great person, she’s going to be a great attorney general, Pam Bondi — the head of a task force brand new to eradicate anti-Christian bias,” he said.
 
RedDevil@84 said:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/06/poli...ive-orders-icc-anti-christian-bias/index.html

President Donald Trump is expected to sign a pair of executive orders Thursday afternoon, one targeting the International Criminal Court and a second on “anti-Christian bias,” a White House official told CNN.

The ICC move is expected to place financial and visa sanctions on “individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of US citizens or our allies,” according to a fact sheet obtained by CNN, an effort to punish the body for issuing arrest warrants for top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

and

“Today, I’m signing an executive order to make our attorney general — who’s a great person, she’s going to be a great attorney general, Pam Bondi — the head of a task force brand new to eradicate anti-Christian bias,” he said.
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Sounds like Gilead to me.
 
A staffer for Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency whose access to U.S. Treasury payment systems was approved by a federal judge on Thursday has links to a deleted social-media account that advocated for racism and eugenics.
The 25-year-old employee, Marko Elez, resigned Thursday after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection to the account.


The deleted profile associated with Elez, who was embedded in the Treasury Department to carry out efficiency measures, advocated repealing the Civil Rights Act and backed a “eugenic immigration policy” in the weeks before President Trump was inaugurated.

“You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” the account wrote on X in September, according to a Wall Street Journal review of archived posts. “Normalize Indian hate,” the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.
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Probably getting promoted to chief of staff.
https://www.wsj.com/tech/doge-staff...11a93?st=GZQVJp&reflink=article_copyURL_share
 
AfonsoAlves said:
If every single person who didn’t vote, voted for a third party candidate instead, we’d be looking at a very different political landscape decades ago.

Heck, if we use reform as an example, in 2015 why would anyone vote ukip? They’re never going to win. Two party system fptp and all that jazz.

Only the pressure from those voters in 2015 ended up inadvertently causing brexit.

So yeah voting for an alternative is viable and if everyone has this mentality the landscape would have differed.

But alas, feel free to not take part in democracy and then complain about its aftermath.
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very similar themes here (and yes it is very enraging)

oneniltothearsenal said:
I want to listen to that but frankly I have to be in the right headspace or I'll probably get too depressed. It really is terrifying but its good that at least people are talking about it and bringing it out in the open. These people are really a whole new beast that most of the population is simply unprepared for (including myself!)
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The honeymoon will end if a few months and they know it and once it becomes clear to most they’ve been sold a lie (i.e. lower prices) or are actually worse off (chaos in public agencies, tariffs, etc.) the disappointment will begin to set in public, this is why they’re bulldozing their way with their crazy agenda.
 
Rajma said:
The honeymoon will end if a few months and they know it and once it becomes clear to most they’ve been sold a lie (i.e. lower prices) or are actually worse off (chaos in public agencies, tariffs, etc.) the disappointment will begin to set in public, this is why they’re bulldozing their way with their crazy agenda.
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It doesn't matter , nobody can remove them now.
 
As chaotic as it may seem, this is exactly what the electorate voted for. As much as many will complain they voted for change and he's not wasting time in changing things up. I'm sure things would have been stable under Kamala but it would be the status quo and not much would have changed in reality or perception.

That said, you can't bluff your way through the term and the outcomes of said actions will be felt, whether positive or negative sooner or later.

Good luck to the USA.
 
How exactly does one sanction the International Criminal Court?

I swear he's not only got Alzheimer's but he also thinks he's Oprah. You get a sanction, you get a sanction...
 
Cheimoon said:
From what I understand, he's basically repeating what he did to Twitter right after buying it - even down to sending all staff in both cases an e-mail called 'A fork in the road' (with the proposal for them to quit).
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With Elon's knowledge of Linux and Barron's cyber skills (because he has computers) I'm sure they can do anything.
 
This may be a dumb question, but why were Biden and Obama's hands always "tied" when trying to get things done, while Trump just does whatever the feck he wants through EO's?

Are democrats somehow above that?
 
KirkDuyt said:
This may be a dumb question, but why were Biden and Obama's hands always "tied" when trying to get things done, while Trump just does whatever the feck he wants through EO's?

Are democrats somehow above that?
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Doesn't hurt that he's got the Supreme Court under his thumb. There hasn't been a liberal majority on the Supreme Court in half a century.
 
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