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Trump Dictatorship and All Things Politics

Zombie said:
I gotta push back on this narrative that the democrats problem is that they are too SJW or something. “SJW’s” actually believe in something - the democrats of the last decade or so haven’t put up much of a fight for anything, other than what little remains of their institutional power. And now that Trump is taking a sledgehammer to that institutional power they find themselves completely flatfooted.

Diagnosing the democrats as being too woke and thus ineffective is doing the fascists job for them. It’s not a coincidence that much of Trumps power grab is being done under the cover of fighting back against things like “gender ideology” and DEI.
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The point is they are behaving too much like my son did when he was maybe 13. He was one of these kids who tended to get stuck on something to the detriment of other things he should be doing, not quite "OCD" or whatever, but as an example, one day he had a $10 bill that he lost. He came to me and we looked for it and couldn't find it. I convinced him to go to bed and he did, but then around 1 am I woke up to noises from his bedroom. I came in and he was frantically searching for the $10 bill. I helped him look and realized he would go nuts until he found it, so I went back to my room, got a $10 bill and went back to his room and discreetly dropped it on the floor, then pretended to find it. He was so relieved. Then later, around 3 am, I wake up to him standing next to my bed, looking more worried than before. I asked him what was wrong and he said that it wasn't his $10 bill, his was folded differently. AARGGHH!!

Anyway, that is how the left has been acting in regards to things that are outside of the dangers brewing on the right. They have been so focused on the "SJW" trees (I say that only as a catch-all and to point out how half of the entire country feels about it) that they cannot see the forest of all that was brewing in a way they could adjust to address. The problem is both sides are using their version of "cancel culture" to attack the other, and we are still waiting for one side to be the adult in the room, and I had hoped the left would see this and react appropriately, instead they were content calling the other side rubes and idiots and backwards-thinking fanatics, instead of trying some kind of outreach and inclusivity. And in the process they missed their chance to maybe win over the hearts and minds they needed to unseat the Orange Jesus-King of the right.

So I stand by my assessment. They were so convinced they had the moral high-ground they failed to realize the only way to get someone with them there on that high ground is to reach out and pull them up, instead of continually knocking them down at every turn. And that people who are continually knocked down will inevitably latch onto the one guy promising they won't get kicked around any more. And that is exactly what has happened. That is why the left were so smug in their acceptance of Harris that they failed to see that she was a terrible candidate and leaned into the fact that at least they were morally correct that electing a woman was just as good as electing a man! And in that, they failed to see that it wasn't her woman-ness that derailed the campaign, or her blackness, although those both played a part since we now see that a good half of our country still harbor full on sexist and racist views, no, it was her utter lack of preparedness and ability to reach out and bring people together, when really she had spent a good chunk of her political career at the spear's tip of the SJW movement, or at least that was how she came across to those she actually needed to reach.

So they can pat themselves on the back all they want that they had the moral high-ground this whole time, but that is basically the equivalent of Nero and his fiddle watching Rome burn.

And we are still waiting to find out who the adult is in the room in all this, to first, stop the efforts by the right to usurp the government in this "bloodless if the left will allow it to be" coup, and second, actually start building alliances instead of "how dare you ignore my pronouns" walls all over the ****ing place.




For the record, I am happy to call anyone what they want, and if what anyone gets out of this is that I am opposed to social issues happening in the country right now, I would invite you to ask my daughter and her trans partner how I treat both of them. I couldn't care less what you want to do in your private life and I will endlessly defend your right to do it. I am merely using these phrases as an example of the things the left got stuck on and the right hated that drove the division even deeper. And there is a time and a place to throw it in the faces of those rabidly opposed to you through social cancelling, and the past 4 years were NOT the time nor the place, nor is it now. Now we need to put some of that on the back burner and fix the **** that threatens to destroy the country. Then we can make further steps toward fixing the injustices in society, once we know we actually have a stable society that can survive the next 4 years. Otherwise, I guess we can scream and yell about pronouns in the concentration camps the right would love to shove everyone into, and see how far that gets us.
 
Overreach anyone?

Donald Trump has signed an executive order that could make him the most powerful president in history by using an obscure Constitutional theory to enact his vision of presidential authority. The new order seeks to 'reign in independent agencies' by seizing various departments that normally act in accordance with Congress and bringing them under control of the executive branch in the White House.

The order also states that the president and attorney general will interpret the law, leaving Trump free from Congressional and judicial oversight. Observers suggest that Trump is using unitary executive theory which grants the president a wide swath of authority.

The unitary executive theory also claims the president has robust powers to override Congressional oversight on restrictions such as the ability to fire the heads of independent agencies. Trump's new executive order grants him power over various agencies such as The Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Trump has signed scores of executive directives in the past three weeks, many of which have and will been challenged in the courts as potentially unconstitutional. This latest EO will likely be no exception.
 

Hours after the talks concluded, Trump told reporters at Mar-a-Lago that Zelenskyy's public approval rating was "down to 4%," failing to provide a source for the figure. Russian President Vladimir Putin has also repeatedly framed Zelenskyy as illegitimate, citing the postponement of the country's 2024 presidential elections due to martial law.

During a Wednesday press conference in Kyiv, Zelenskyy challenged Trump's claim, pointing to respected recent surveys showing him polling consistently above 50% with voters and describing Trump's assertion as Russian "disinformation."

“As for President Trump, with all due respect to him as a leader of the American people, who we deeply respect and are thankful for all his support, but President Trump, unfortunately, is living in this disinformation space,” Zelenskyy continued.

Hours after the U.S.-Russia discussions concluded with a commitment to continue talks, Russia launched a major missile and drone barrage into Ukraine. Ukraine's air force reported 167 drones and two Iskander ballistic missiles launched into the country, with 106 intercepted and 56 more lost in flight.

Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov reported a "massive enemy strike on a densely populated area of the city" causing electricity, heating and water outages.

Zelenskyy said in a post to social media that the strike targeted "civilian energy facilities," in keeping with longstanding Russian doctrine. "For nearly three years now, the Russian army has relentlessly used missiles and attack drones against them," he said.

"Just yesterday, after the notorious meeting in Riyadh, it became clear that Russian representatives were once again lying, claiming they do not target Ukraine's energy sector," Zelenskyy continued.

"Yet, almost simultaneously, they launched another attack, with drones striking electrical transformers," he wrote. "And this is during winter -- it was minus 6 degrees Celsius at night."

"We must never forget that Russia is ruled by pathological liars -- they cannot be trusted and must be pressured," the president said.

Trump said he believes he has "the power to end this war," while falsely claiming Ukraine started the conflict against Russia. The war began when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, a campaign that followed eight years of cross-border Russian aggression in Crimea and Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

Zelenskyy suggested on Tuesday that the U.S.-Russia talks in Riyadh merely revived ultimatums issued by Moscow in the early stages of its invasion.


"I have the impression that there are now some negotiations happening and they have the same mood, but between Russia and the United States," Zelenskyy said during a visit to Turkey.

"Again, about Ukraine without Ukraine," he added. "It's interesting, if Ukraine didn't yield to ultimatums in the most difficult moment, where does the feeling come from that Ukraine will agree to this now?"

From the comments: Aid to Ukraine is smart money.For a TINY fraction of the US defense budget (3%) and ZERO American military lives, we're helping decimate the military and economy of one of our biggest enemies who illegally invaded a sovereign European nation.In acting with conviction, we've strengthened NATO (Finland is in now and Sweden soon will be) which will make future Russian aggression much less likely and allow the US to reduce its military footprint in Europe, saving vast sums over time.
 
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The six-day poll, which closed on Tuesday, showed 44% of respondents approved of the job Trump is doing as president, down from 45% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted January 24-26. Trump's approval rating stood at 47% in a January 20-21 poll conducted in the hours after the Republican's return to the White House.

The share of Americans who disapprove of his presidency has risen more substantially, to 51% in the latest poll, compared with 41% right after he took office.
 

Overall, twice as many Americans say they do not trust Musk “at all” when it comes to his management of their sensitive data. Which is too bad for them, because now that he has wormed himself into the top echelons of power, there is nothing they can do about it… apart from trusting the courts and that the administration will abide by their decisions.

It seems highly unlikely that this is going to happen, of course, because Musk, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance have all indicated that they may violate court orders telling them to stop certain activities.

While Republicans unsurprisingly trust Musk, independents have very little faith in him doing the right thing and/or behaving ethically.

A mere 17 percent of them say that they trust the billionaire “a great deal,” while 45 percent do not trust him at all.

But Americans don’t just distrust Musk when it comes to their personal data kept in government databases; they also do not trust him with their tax money.

Only 22 percent of them said they trust him “a great deal” when it comes to determining which funds appropriated by Congress should be rescinded while nearly twice as many say they don’t trust him at all.

Once again, the blind faith Republicans have in Musk is the only reason these figures are not more devastating. A mere 17 percent of independents said they trust him a great deal.

Of course, if the Trump administration were to play by the rules, this question would be moot because, even though he may be running the White House now, and even though the administration has been trying to freeze funds, Musk actually has zero authority to do so.

On the one hand, that’s because he has not been elected to anything. More importantly, that’s because the executive branch does not have the power of the purse. That is why federal judges have halted those freezes and, ultimately, the Supreme Court will have to decide whether it will smash the separation of powers to pieces and annihilate the system of checks and balances by granting the president (or the billionaire who got him there) the authority to decide which appropriated funds should be spent.

Finally, the poll also shows that Americans are very concerned about the conflicts of interest that arise from Musk’s role in the government.

Only about a third of them are not concerned or not very concerned that a man whose companies get billions of dollars from the government in the form of tax breaks, contracts, and other forms of subsidies would use his vast powers to benefit himself financially.

It goes without saying that Republicans are used to this type of behavior from Trump. The rest of Americans, however, are troubled by these conflicts of interest.
 
fishonjazz said:

The six-day poll, which closed on Tuesday, showed 44% of respondents approved of the job Trump is doing as president, down from 45% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted January 24-26. Trump's approval rating stood at 47% in a January 20-21 poll conducted in the hours after the Republican's return to the White House.

The share of Americans who disapprove of his presidency has risen more substantially, to 51% in the latest poll, compared with 41% right after he took office.
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Meh. It is Reuters/Ipsos. They also reported that Trump was underwater in January, contrary to nearly every other poll in the country. Reuters/Ipsos also reported that Kamala Harris had a 2% advantage the day before the election.

If you look at the RCP or FiveThirtyEight averages, Trump is at or near all time highs.
 
fishonjazz said:
45 percent do not trust him at all.
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That is an interesting way to write the article. It is true the poll found 45% do not trust Elon Musk at all, but they also found that 50% have some measure of trust in Elon's combing through the data to find fraud, waste, and abuse. The 45% of un-trusters represent a lower percentage of people than the amount who voted for Kamala in the last election, meaning even some Kamala voters are okay with purging fraud, waste, and abuse from government spending.
 
fishonjazz said:
... override Congressional oversight on restrictions such as the ability to fire the heads of independent agencies. Trump's new executive order grants him power over various agencies such as The Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
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Civics lesson: There are three branches of the American government. There is the Legislative Branch, the Executive Branch, and the Judicial Branch. There is no fourth Independent Branch. That is something lefties made up. The FCC, FTC, and SEC are all in the Executive Branch, not the fictional Independent Branch. Democrats are just mad the duly elected Chief Executive is purging their lefty apparatchiks from Executive Branch agencies.
 
fishonjazz said:
Overreach anyone?

Donald Trump has signed an executive order that could make him the most powerful president in history by using an obscure Constitutional theory to enact his vision of presidential authority. The new order seeks to 'reign in independent agencies' by seizing various departments that normally act in accordance with Congress and bringing them under control of the executive branch in the White House.

The order also states that the president and attorney general will interpret the law, leaving Trump free from Congressional and judicial oversight. Observers suggest that Trump is using unitary executive theory which grants the president a wide swath of authority.

The unitary executive theory also claims the president has robust powers to override Congressional oversight on restrictions such as the ability to fire the heads of independent agencies. Trump's new executive order grants him power over various agencies such as The Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Trump has signed scores of executive directives in the past three weeks, many of which have and will been challenged in the courts as potentially unconstitutional. This latest EO will likely be no exception.
Click to expand...
He is absolutely after the FTC and the SEC. With full control over those he could roll back a century of consumer and worker protections, and allow business to run rough-shod over everyone in the pursuit of greater and greater wealth for the top 1%.
 
fishonjazz said:

The six-day poll, which closed on Tuesday, showed 44% of respondents approved of the job Trump is doing as president, down from 45% in a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted January 24-26. Trump's approval rating stood at 47% in a January 20-21 poll conducted in the hours after the Republican's return to the White House.

The share of Americans who disapprove of his presidency has risen more substantially, to 51% in the latest poll, compared with 41% right after he took office.
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The issue is, can this be turned into any kind of resistance. Will they show this at the polls in the mid-terms. This will really show where the country wants to go. I don't have a ton of faith it will make any difference. We will be fully a shambles by the end of the next 4 years of full on dictatorial oppression. Hopefully a better administration can help rebuild after that. But that will be a monumental task. I am not certain we will ever recover from this.
 
LogGrad98 said:
He is absolutely after the FTC and the SEC.
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He won a free and fair election to become the Chief Executive over agencies in the executive branch such as the FTC and SEC. It was becoming the US President that he was after, and he accomplished it. Regardless of how those in the FTC and SEC feel about it, Trump is their boss.
 
Al-O-Meter said:
Dude. I know you can read. Musk said "If we can't do this, then we'll have that". It is not the same as saying "We have that", but it is saying we are in danger of becoming that if you lot get your way.
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Yeah, I can read. Musk said our federal agencies are an unelected 4th branch of government.
 
LogGrad98 said:
He is absolutely after the FTC and the SEC. With full control over those he could roll back a century of consumer and worker protections, and allow business to run rough-shod over everyone in the pursuit of greater and greater wealth for the top 1%.
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As was obviously the plan all along.
 
LogGrad98 said:
Anyway, that is how the left has been acting in regards to things that are outside of the dangers brewing on the right. They have been so focused on the "SJW" trees (I say that only as a catch-all and to point out how half of the entire country feels about it) that they cannot see the forest of all that was brewing in a way they could adjust to address. The problem is both sides are using their version of "cancel culture" to attack the other, and we are still waiting for one side to be the adult in the room, and I had hoped the left would see this and react appropriately, instead they were content calling the other side rubes and idiots and backwards-thinking fanatics, instead of trying some kind of outreach and inclusivity. And in the process they missed their chance to maybe win over the hearts and minds they needed to unseat the Orange Jesus-King of the right.
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I'm honestly not sure what this is referring to. What actions specifically do you think they took that were an example of them being too focused on the "SJW" trees? For that matter, what do you mean by SJW trees?

I ask because there were a lot of issues that I think would be considered "SJW" adjacent that the democrats careened to the right on during Biden's tenure. For example, they adopted the republicans immigration plan, they supported the crackdown on campus protests against the genocide in Gaza, they did a complete 180 on police reform. Each of these were done in part to "reach across the aisle" and attract more moderate voters.

LogGrad98 said:
So I stand by my assessment. They were so convinced they had the moral high-ground they failed to realize the only way to get someone with them there on that high ground is to reach out and pull them up, instead of continually knocking them down at every turn. And that people who are continually knocked down will inevitably latch onto the one guy promising they won't get kicked around any more. And that is exactly what has happened. That is why the left were so smug in their acceptance of Harris that they failed to see that she was a terrible candidate and leaned into the fact that at least they were morally correct that electing a woman was just as good as electing a man! And in that, they failed to see that it wasn't her woman-ness that derailed the campaign, or her blackness, although those both played a part since we now see that a good half of our country still harbor full on sexist and racist views, no, it was her utter lack of preparedness and ability to reach out and bring people together, when really she had spent a good chunk of her political career at the spear's tip of the SJW movement, or at least that was how she came across to those she actually needed to reach.
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I do agree that Democrats have largely come across as out of touch and elitist, but I'm unsure what you're referring to when you say they were "continually knocking them down." Who's them? How were they knocking them down?

The "left" was not smug in their acceptance of Harris. The establishment wing of the democratic party may have been, but the left was very skeptical. Also, I don't think the democrats chose Harris out of some concern for making the morally correct choice in selecting a black woman as their candidate. They made that choice because they had painted themselves into a corner and had no other choice available. They should have supported a primary to select a candidate to replace Biden on the ticket. The reason they didn't do this wasn't out of some SJW concern or anything like that - there clearly was no masterplan to have Harris as a candidate - it was purely based on the establishment wing refusing to cede any control over the party.
 
Zombie said:
I'm honestly not sure what this is referring to. What actions specifically do you think they took that were an example of them being too focused on the "SJW" trees? For that matter, what do you mean by SJW trees?

I ask because there were a lot of issues that I think would be considered "SJW" adjacent that the democrats careened to the right on during Biden's tenure. For example, they adopted the republicans immigration plan, they supported the crackdown on campus protests against the genocide in Gaza, they did a complete 180 on police reform. Each of these were done in part to "reach across the aisle" and attract more moderate voters.



I do agree that Democrats have largely come across as out of touch and elitist, but I'm unsure what you're referring to when you say they were "continually knocking them down." Who's them? How were they knocking them down?

The "left" was not smug in their acceptance of Harris. The establishment wing of the democratic party may have been, but the left was very skeptical. Also, I don't think the democrats chose Harris out of some concern for making the morally correct choice in selecting a black woman as their candidate. They made that choice because they had painted themselves into a corner and had no other choice available. They should have supported a primary to select a candidate to replace Biden on the ticket. The reason they didn't do this wasn't out of some SJW concern or anything like that - there clearly was no masterplan to have Harris as a candidate - it was purely based on the establishment wing refusing to cede any control over the party.
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Boy, if there ever was a time for a shift to center for Dems or a new Centrist third party with good backing, now is the time. There won't be another opportunity like this for a generation.
 
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