Traitor Watch - The 45 & 47 Thread

Axaday

Well-known member
Citizen
If he won't even acknowledge the reality of who pays the tariffs, he won't make any other sensible decisions regarding them either.

When asked about the cost of childcare, Trump's answer was that it won't matter. His tariffs are going to make our country so wealthy it won't matter what things cost. That giant influx of cash will be coming from inside the United States. He isn't failing to acknowledge the reality of who pays the tariffs. He DOES NOT BELIEVE IT.
 

The Mighty Mollusk

Scream all you like, 'cause we're all mad here
Citizen
When he talks about "our country", he only means "the wealthy people who pay attention to me". He does not care about anyone or anything else.
 

Pale Rider

...and Hell followed with him.
Citizen
I really can't wait for my first tariff-funded stimulus check. Trump's strategy for wealth redistribution sounds just swell.
 

Pale Rider

...and Hell followed with him.
Citizen
FB friend:
Donald Trump doesn't worry about putting completely unqualified people in charge of the DoD, the FDA, the CDC, etc because he himself never had to learn anything and he never paid a price for that.

He puts zero value on qualifications and expertise, and his fans are the same, despite their grossly dishonest claims of being concerned about Kamala Harris's qualifications. As a general rule, when a right-winger expresses "concerns" about anyone's qualifications, that person is always a woman or a minority.
 

NovaSaber

Well-known member
Citizen
Really think that the only way DOGE could live up to its purported purpose would be if the first thing it did was eliminate itself, and obviously I didn't expect that, but I also didn't expect the first thing I heard about them doing to be this:

Screenshot_20241114_044209.jpg
 

Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
Somebody please just nuke this whole country into a crater and put us out of our misery. We're all going to die either way; might as well make it quick.
 

The Mighty Mollusk

Scream all you like, 'cause we're all mad here
Citizen
Can you give me, like, a week's notice first? I need to pick up more leather and spikes to prepare for becoming a full-time wasteland marauder.
 

Axaday

Well-known member
Citizen

They are going to give Donald everything and EVERYONE he wants.

Which now includes this-

I've never heard of Rep. Thomas Massie, but I think he is a moron. Donald Trump is not the President of the United States. He is announcing who he wants for cabinet positions. He isn't nominating them because he can't. When he can, they'll be in session. If he wants a temporary recess nominee, he'll have to wait a while.
 

Axaday

Well-known member
Citizen

I think there are a few different approaches to cabinet picks. Trump is obviously, and true to character, leaned all the way to the wall on "loyal lieutenants". Some of his picks seem totally ineffectual and those are probably fine. All of the executive departments know how to do their jobs without a President or a Cabinet. Ones like RFK Jr you have to worry about because he will presumably direct them to do things they shouldn't. I'm not sure what happens there. Trump had meetings at the Pentagon in term 1 where people who know what they were doing just had to tell him "No" and he didn't like it, but it worked.

I don't think RFK or Gaetz are getting past the Senate. We'll see.

Presidents USUALLY choose experts in a field to run a Department. It isn't strictly necessary administratively. As I said, the departments know what they are doing. They don't need HELP from a cabinet member. Administratively the most effective skill is them being able to manage an organization. Trump did that last time when he picked all the CEOs. It was problematic for other reasons, but at least they had experience running something. Term 2 stooges do not.

The reason to get experts is because the cabinet also serve as advisors to the President, so they have meetings where issues are discussed and they are able to understand the issues and help out. There was no reason to expect Trump to do that. He knows he doesn't need advice from experts. The thoughts that pop into his head are almost always correct.
 

MrBlud

Well-known member
Citizen

I think there are a few different approaches to cabinet picks. Trump is obviously, and true to character, leaned all the way to the wall on "loyal lieutenants". Some of his picks seem totally ineffectual and those are probably fine. All of the executive departments know how to do their jobs without a President or a Cabinet. Ones like RFK Jr you have to worry about because he will presumably direct them to do things they shouldn't. I'm not sure what happens there. Trump had meetings at the Pentagon in term 1 where people who know what they were doing just had to tell him "No" and he didn't like it, but it worked.

I don't think RFK or Gaetz are getting past the Senate. We'll see.

Presidents USUALLY choose experts in a field to run a Department. It isn't strictly necessary administratively. As I said, the departments know what they are doing. They don't need HELP from a cabinet member. Administratively the most effective skill is them being able to manage an organization. Trump did that last time when he picked all the CEOs. It was problematic for other reasons, but at least they had experience running something. Term 2 stooges do not.

The reason to get experts is because the cabinet also serve as advisors to the President, so they have meetings where issues are discussed and they are able to understand the issues and help out. There was no reason to expect Trump to do that. He knows he doesn't need advice from experts. The thoughts that pop into his head are almost always correct.

You seem to be falling back into the “Trump had nothing to do with Project 2025” trap you fell into earlier.

Once he was elected, a whole bunch of Project 2025 people that worked on Project 2025 :surprise: got jobs in his administration to carry out Project 2025. Apparently (according to you) by sheer coincidence.

Trump has already started the drumbeat that he wants the full ability to pass recess appointments. Now, since Rick Scott didn’t win Senate majority leader, Trump may or may not get that.

Maybe the two of them couldn’t pass a full Senate but that wouldn’t matter if he gets to recess appointment them as he very much wants to do.
 

CoffeeHorse

Exhausted, but still standing.
Staff member
Council of Elders
Citizen
Trump always protested too much when it came to Project 2025. Whether he ever planned on implementing it or not, he tried to deny even knowing about it, and that much was demonstrably false.
 

Pocket

jumbled pile of person
Citizen
Because saying things that are demonstrably false is all he's capable of when confronted with a topic.
 

Axaday

Well-known member
Citizen
Maybe the two of them couldn’t pass a full Senate but that wouldn’t matter if he gets to recess appointment them as he very much wants to do.
He'll have to sit around a while. The Senate will be in session when he is inaugurated and will probably stay in session until summer. Longer if we are at war and he says he will use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to implement his immigration policy and that requires Congress to declare war on a bunch of Central American countries. He is kind of mopped into a corner.
 

Axaday

Well-known member
Citizen
You seem to be falling back into the “Trump had nothing to do with Project 2025” trap you fell into earlier.

Once he was elected, a whole bunch of Project 2025 people that worked on Project 2025 :surprise: got jobs in his administration to carry out Project 2025. Apparently (according to you) by sheer coincidence.

Trump didn't say the Heritage Foundation were a bunch of filthy Nazis. He said he agreed with some of the things they said and some of it he didn't. Miller was behind the tariffs in Trump's first term. Homan was running ICE. Trump went out of office and they were invited to contribute to Project2025. Tariffs and deportations were practically the only concrete issues Trump ran on. It hasn't been a secret that those were issues where he agreed with Heritage. It would be a surprise if he didn't bring Miller and Homan in.

You can review what I wrote before. I didn't say there was anything in Project2025 that Trump wouldn't do. I said I hadn't even read it and didn't know what policies were in it. What I did say can be sorted into two groups:

1) My main point. I said that you cannot call it his campaign slogan when he publicly said it wasn't. This is just true by definition. Even if he ghost wrote the entire thing from page 1 to page 900. Your slogan is the thing you say. It is not the thing that you say had nothing to do with you.

2) I am doubtful that he was involved in it. Because no involvement from him would be useful.
 
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Rhinox

too old for this
Citizen
I've had, quite frankly, the worst month of my life these past few. This election didn't do me or the country any favors. But I do have some thoughts.

First and foremost, I'm done with being nice and I'm done entertaining false equivalents. We have a president elect who loves giving derogatory nicknames to his opponents. Who does nothing but mock others and tear them down. Neither he nor his die hard fanatics have any qualms about name calling or being derogatory. When one side refuses to act with decorum, it is not unreasonable or untoward to refuse to treat them with kid gloves or nicely. You do not get to sit back and say that one side has to show some respect and courtesy when the other side goes out of their way to be assholes.
I really don't care if you don't like the term 'traitor'. It is a term that fits both by definition and legally. Your feelings mean nothing now.
I don't care if you get offended when people are angry with how you voted. Your willful ignorance has a cost. People have a right to be mad and I don't blame them. What is it all the MAGA people like to say? "hug your feelings". Works both ways. Cry harder. When one side makes it a point to be cruel and derogatory, they don't get to ******* whine when they're called names.
The second part of this is the false equivalents. No, both sides are not alike. No, both sides are not equal in their problems and the issues they present. No, both sides don't have good points and bad points. This was once true, but now it is not and I'm sick of people clinging to a middle ground that no longer exists. Trump has made it clear what he thinks of minorities and the LGBQ community. Neither should have to play nice or spare his feelings after his blatant nazi buddies wave their swastikas around. Trump has made it a point to dismantle governmental checks and balances. His nomination announcements make it clear he wants to gut the safety net that keeps millions of people alive. His extreme choices are nowhere near mere policy disagreements of the past.

Finally, on the election itself, here's where i'm sure I'm going to piss a lot of people off. Kamala never should have been the candidate. It was proven in 2016 that America will vote for the least capable male over the most qualified female. While Clinton had other baggage, so did Biden. But people (especially other women) were willing to vote for Biden. They weren't for Kamala. I'm as progressive as the next person. I believe women to be just as capable as any man, especially that man. But the nation, by and large, isn't.
The second big issue with the election, that apparently no one is talking about, is how the billionaires put their thumb on the scale. We don't have inflation, we have massive price gouging. By corporations and billionaires who were able to increase their profit margin and increase anger and dissatisfaction in the lower economic classes, all of which benefited Trump, who will, of course, reward them with massive tax cuts and the ability to act with impunity.
We're not becoming an oligarchy, we're already there and we're there because Biden (and Kamala) wanted to pretend like it was the 1980s. The scales have already tipped. We have billionaires who control the media and we only get their view. (looking at you Bezos and WaPo). They can manipulate the markets for political gain. Meanwhile, Kamala tried to run on the "strongest economy" argument while staples cost more now than they ever have.

If the democrats want to win, then we have to put aside nicety. We have to campaign like we've already lost and have nothing to lose. We need a firebrand who will call out this behavior and bullshit instead of giving pithy statements and nonanswers. hug, run Lewis Black. That's the kind of energy needed.
 


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