2025 Political Thread

[bjdeming]

The media does still focus on the view inside the US, and I think voters would be surprised if they knew long-time international friends had views like this one, expressed on the BBC website today:

...On the flipside, certain Trump supporters see in Putin a strong leader who embodies many of the conservative values they themselves share.

To some, Putin is an ally in a "war on woke".

...

Some think the division is about more than Trump's particular views and that Europe can not just sit tight waiting for his term in office to end.

"The US is becoming divorced from European values," argues Ed Arnold, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) in London. "That's difficult [for Europeans] to swallow because it means that it's structural, cultural and potentially long-term. "

"I think the current trajectory of the US will outlast Trump, as a person. I think Trumpism will outlast his presidency."

...

Trump appears ready to turn the page on the post-Cold War rules-based international order of sovereign states that are free to choose their own destinies and alliances.

What he seems to share with Vladimir Putin is a desire for a world in which the major powers, unconstrained by internationally agreed laws, are free to impose their will on smaller, weaker nations, as Russia has traditionally done in both its Tsarist and Soviet Empires.

That would mean a return to the "spheres of interest" system that prevailed for 40 years after the Second World War..."

I don't know that many US voters, especially those young enough not to remember Reagan, would care about the "spheres of interest" thing, but if they/we -- many of us still sharing the European values of our immigrant ancestors -- could all understand that the actions of today in DC have lumped us together with Putin's Russia in the eyes of the world, this deniable coup of the oligarchy would be stopped. Permanently.

Find someone who can communicate such things, as well as a positive e pluribus unum vision of America, and the voters would flock to them (which means they would also have to have a saintly background and an immunity to bullets, poisons, etc., at least until the thug brigades understood that such things are unacceptable to the American people; this will not happen as long as the American people stay passively quivering in shock at home while the thugs and their front people continue taking the active role in American daily life).

 

[bjdeming]

I already like DeSantis, you don’t have to keep convincing me! Heh

DOGE, the concept, is badly needed across every segment of government. Given how DeSantis has governed I’d be surprised if his cuts in Florida were as hap-hazard as the Trump administration’s have been. I admittedly haven’t looked into it though because I’m largely off social media as, despite my few posts here, I’ve made more of an effort the last few years to tune out politics as much as I can.

You might want to check out that Wired series, particularly the one I linked, if you can, and see if it changes your perception on DOGE's usefulness as a concept.

Thrift, efficiency, budget mindedness have always been around and very seldom acted upon.

What we want is simple action, and that cannot address, let alone solve, complex problems.

 

[Jacob]

You might want to check out that Wired series, particularly the one I linked, if you can, and see if it changes your perception on DOGE's usefulness as a concept.

Thrift, efficiency, budget mindedness have always been around and very seldom acted upon.

What we want is simple action, and that cannot address, let alone solve, complex problems.

It’s why I said DOGE as a concept is badly needed. The idea. It wasn’t intended to be a comment on the current implementation by Musk and Trump.

 

[andyhb]

Not long until these people start boasting about committing crimes against humanity.

 

[bjdeming]

It’s why I said DOGE as a concept is badly needed. The idea. It wasn’t intended to be a comment on the current implementation by Musk and Trump.

Oh, okay. I see now and agree, except for the part about current implementation, preferring rather to call it a return to responsibility, merit, and accountability.

After all, we can't get what we want, if we can't first call for it by its true name.

My dog is in this hunt, too. Social Security was running a surplus in the 90s, as expected by fiscal planning; Congress spent the surplus on other things, and now SSA is going to start running out of money in the 2030s.

That old and proven stupidity is light-years away from anything Elon and his chainsaw have to do with.

Dave Barry once suggested that we all move in with those Congress critters when the cuts come -- wish he was still running for president in elections.

I don't think our informal co-presidents are implementing anything so much as lashing out at a world that has always sort of laughed at and hated each of them and, in practical terms, they're drawing attention away from whatever is really going on with the oligarchs/plutocrats ("deniable coup in the US" works for me, but other interpretations are possible).

++++++++++++++++++

The below is just something on the general topic that occurred to me while I was typing this, not part of the reply.

Maybe if we, unlike Gov. DeSantis, stopped using the Trumpeteers' names for things and just fell back on the original concepts of efficiency, job evaluation based on merit, accountability, objective analysis of actual costs and benefits of suggested cuts, ...

Uh, uh., uh, it's hard to think, my brain, my brain is overheating, DOGE nice and simple, cute doggie, Elon with a chainsaw cool, Trump good, media scum, don't worry be happy, there is no world outside my little space here, no society, just me and my castle, the size of a glowing screen...watch the screen...stay in the pod/echo chamber...no stress...nice doggie...nice face on the screen telling me what is Truth or daring me to hate face...

And so to bed, to dream. Such bad dreams, too.

But life is what we make it. I heard a young man once say, "I have a dream" and it was good. I heard a young president once say, "We will go to the Moon," and we went to the Moon. That was good, too.

We all know to look up from the screen from time to time and stay connected with the real world.

Do we still dare to look up even further and express a real-world good dream and then do it? Can we still understand that even failed attempts in good directions are worthy of respect and honor?

There I go babbling again. But Evan's right -- these are dangerous times. Every little babble might help.

 

[UpperLevelLOL]

75% of US-based scientists are considering leaving the US. If even a fraction of these folks actually do end up leaving, this brain drain will make us dumber and fall behind the rest of the world. Of course, as we saw earlier, Trump's main base is among those with less education, so this is likely intentional.

75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving

More than 1,600 readers answered our poll; many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.

www.nature.com

 

[bjdeming]

 

[bjdeming]

View attachment 37328

Not long until these people start boasting about committing crimes against humanity.

<rant> So feminism has devolved to this: making content outside an El Salvadoran max security prison.

And the old lie about linking freedom to abortion is again surging on the (D) side, which -- when it had power last time -- almost succeeded in canceling the word "woman."

Ta heck with it all. I'm just going on with what's worked for this feminist for five decades: being me just as hard as I can (that came from Pratchett/Gaiman's book Good Omens, BTW).

</rant>

 

[Evan]

This is not Capitalism. This is not Conservative. If the government threatens companies for passing on cost increases (due to tariffs), or takes action to prevent them from doing so, then don't be surprised when the stock market drops by 20% or more. Why would an investor pay the current price for the stock of an auto manufacturer if their profits are about to drop substantially? Why would they pay current prices for any American company who is facing a heavy tariff burden?

https://www.wsj.com/business/autos/trump-tariffs-automaker-prices-warning-928bc7a9?st=r8Jj1e

This is all basic economics. Anyone should be able to understand it. Then again, the current occupant of the White House did manage to bankrupt several casinos...a truly herculean task for all but the most inept.

 

[Anti Marine Layer]

75% of US-based scientists are considering leaving the US. If even a fraction of these folks actually do end up leaving, this brain drain will make us dumber and fall behind the rest of the world. Of course, as we saw earlier, Trump's main base is among those with less education, so this is likely intentional.

75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving

More than 1,600 readers answered our poll; many said they were looking for jobs in Europe and Canada.

www.nature.com

Education today is basically leftist indoctrination. They teach kindergarteners that there's as many genders as the stars, men can get pregnant, abortion is healthcare and that America is systemically racist. So it's not surprised that well educated indoctrinated people vote Democrat. The college students praise Hamas cheered on by their professors.

America used to be #1 in education before the Department of Education was created. Today social justice is more important than reading, writing, and arithmetic. Lots of people don't make it out of high school, at least in the schools where failing grades have not been banned because they're now considered racist, as poor people (mainly Black and Hispanic) have less resources to study.

These people should enjoy moving to the UK where there's no free speech and you can be thrown in prison for Facebook comments. They believe it's much more traumatic to be offended by "hate speech" (e.g. there are only two genders) than to be imprisoned for your conservative beliefs. I hope Ellen DeGeneres and her wife are enjoying it there.

 

[UpperLevelLOL]

Education today is basically leftist indoctrination. They teach kindergarteners that there's as many genders as the stars, men can get pregnant, abortion is healthcare and that America is systemically racist. So it's not surprised that well educated indoctrinated people vote Democrat. The college students praise Hamas cheered on by their professors.

America used to be #1 in education before the Department of Education was created. Today social justice is more important than reading, writing, and arithmetic. Lots of people don't make it out of high school, at least in the schools where failing grades have not been banned because they're now considered racist, as poor people (mainly Black and Hispanic) have less resources to study.

These people should enjoy moving to the UK where there's no free speech and you can be thrown in prison for Facebook comments. They believe it's much more traumatic to be offended by "hate speech" (e.g. there are only two genders) than to be imprisoned for your conservative beliefs. I hope Ellen DeGeneres and her wife are enjoying it there.

So do you just uncritically believe everything the news tells you? There is absolutely no evidence or poll that shows the US being #1 in education in 1979 when the Department of Education was created. In fact, the US usually ranked towards the bottom of international education metrics like the FISS that were implemented around that time. And, between 1951 and 2007, education attainment skyrocketed by almost any measure. And can you show me an example of the DoE requiring public kindergarten classes teaching "as many genders as the stars," or is that just more nonsense you're taking as a fact?

As for the idea that education is "leftist indoctrination," can you back that up? Finally, here in the US we just ripped someone here legally off the street and locked them away for writing an editorial and we are targeting other folks here legally and deporting them based on social media posts.

Seriously, your unsourced, conspiratorial diatribes are getting really stale.

 

[maroonedinhsv]

Education today is basically leftist indoctrination. They teach kindergarteners that there's as many genders as the stars, men can get pregnant, abortion is healthcare and that America is systemically racist. So it's not surprised that well educated indoctrinated people vote Democrat. The college students praise Hamas cheered on by their professors.

America used to be #1 in education before the Department of Education was created. Today social justice is more important than reading, writing, and arithmetic. Lots of people don't make it out of high school, at least in the schools where failing grades have not been banned because they're now considered racist, as poor people (mainly Black and Hispanic) have less resources to study.

These people should enjoy moving to the UK where there's no free speech and you can be thrown in prison for Facebook comments. They believe it's much more traumatic to be offended by "hate speech" (e.g. there are only two genders) than to be imprisoned for your conservative beliefs. I hope Ellen DeGeneres and her wife are enjoying it there.

You seem to have abandoned the immigration conversation and reverted to your Facebook/social media talking points. I’m absolutely shocked.

 

[bjdeming]

Meanwhile, in Europe (emphasis added):

...

A recent YouGov poll showed that 79% of Germans still see Vladimir Putin as "very" or "quite" dangerous to European peace and security.

Now 74% said the same for Donald Trump.

The survey followed a speech in Munich in which his Vice President JD Vance laid into Europe and its values.

"That was a clear signal that something fundamentally has changed in the United States," says Markus Ziener.

"We don't know where the US is heading...

-- Source

We Americans don't know where the US is heading, either, but most of us don't like the direction yet feel paralyzed and/or helpless, which is exactly the mindset aimed for by the use of such speed and ruthless bluntness in all the major moves that have occurred since the inauguration. Psyops 101 (there was a lot of public discussion of this sort of thing in the Vietnam War era).

And now they're taking it down to the state level, as they would have to do, to maintain a democratic republic facade, with the election-related EO -- throw the Congressional races into chaos in 2026 and then consolidate power with the coronation of currently "crown prince" JD in 2028 (notice how fast they got him out of the country and the US public eye as Signalgate broke and things heated up? I call this misdirection, too).

I still call it a deniable coup by oligarchs of great ambition, with egos too big for them to feel that the country they belong too is greater than they are, and an inability to look beyond their control keyboards to see and have any empathy for their fellow human beings.

This is bad in so many ways.

Oh, also, Germany is preparing for war again.

 

[Anti Marine Layer]

Meanwhile, in Europe (emphasis added):



We Americans don't know where the US is heading, either, but most of us don't like the direction yet feel paralyzed and/or helpless, which is exactly the mindset aimed for by the use of such speed and ruthless bluntness in all the major moves that have occurred since the inauguration. Psyops 101 (there was a lot of public discussion of this sort of thing in the Vietnam War era).

And now they're taking it down to the state level, as they would have to do, to maintain a democratic republic facade, with the election-related EO -- throw the Congressional races into chaos in 2026 and then consolidate power with the coronation of currently "crown prince" JD in 2028 (notice how fast they got him out of the country and the US public eye as Signalgate broke and things heated up? I call this misdirection, too).

I still call it a deniable coup by oligarchs of great ambition, with egos too big for them to feel that the country they belong too is greater than they are, and an inability to look beyond their control keyboards to see and have any empathy for their fellow human beings.

This is bad in so many ways.

Oh, also, Germany is preparing for war again.

Yes, Obama fundamentally transformed America and Trump is trying to change it back to what it was like before Obama destroyed it.

 

[Anti Marine Layer]

It's Joe Biden's favorite holiday today. Last year it also happened to fall on Easter. Dylan Mulveaney, Sarah McBride I can see you.

 

[Anti Marine Layer]

The new woke Snow White was so terrible even far left sources like Huffington Post called it a disaster. Go woke, go broke.

 

[UpperLevelLOL]

Looking at the stock market and incoming tariffs, I think we're all about to go broke. Do you know how hard you have to screw up to get Japan, China, and South Korea to agree on anything?

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/30/sou...o-promote-regional-trade-as-tariffs-loom.html

 

[andyhb]

Everyone gets due process under the law for fornicate's sake. This is how atrocities such as the Holocaust and the Cambodian genocide started. It started with low hanging fruit and easy targets, and then expanded to anyone the regimes didn't like/thought was a threat.

How anyone can support this madness in 2025 is beyond me.

 

[Mike S]

View attachment 38007

Everyone gets due process under the law for fornicate's sake. This is how atrocities such as the Holocaust and the Cambodian genocide started. It started with low hanging fruit and easy targets, and then expanded to anyone the regimes didn't like/thought was a threat.

How anyone can support this madness in 2025 is beyond me.

MAGA might have a problem with Justice Scalia

 

[bjdeming]

Meanwhile, on the DOGE front (Mussolini and his ilk were big on efficiency, too): "God-like" access to the whole department's system architecture.

And top people who opposed it are gone.