jakee

Brilliant! Stunningly mediocre would be a refreshing, reliable alternative to the mercurially incompetent incumbent. Except it doesn't, because it isn't. There is no 'back atcha' involved in the tariff formulas. None. It is unprovoked and unwarranted attack. In addition (and I can't believe I have to say this to a functioning adult), having no rational game plan is a Bad Thing. I would laugh if what you were saying wasn't so depressingly racist. Trump is presiding over a huge expansion of Federally mandated DEI programs. This is the demand he made to the major private universities: By August 2025, the University shall commission an external party, which shall satisfy the federal government as to its competence and good faith, to audit the student body, faculty, staff, and leadership for viewpoint diversity, such that each department, field, or teaching unit must be individually viewpoint diverse..... Every department or field found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by hiring a critical mass of new faculty within that department or field who will provide viewpoint diversity; every teaching unit found to lack viewpoint diversity must be reformed by admitting a critical mass of students who will provide viewpoint diversity. There's your MAGA 'merit' based hiring system - you have to hire enough Republicans. Engineering Professors can't be hired on the basis of purely being the best Engineering teacher if it means a Republican is going to be overlooked. Chemistry Professors can't be hired on the basis of who has the most promising research if it means a Republican is going to be overlooked. Mathematics undergrads can't be admitted on the basis of who had the best SAT scores if too many of them sound like they might be liberals. But hey - you're just happy they definitely can't give someone a little extra chance of an interview because they're black. Exactly the same reason to vote for the leprechaun who promised you the pot of gold, with about as much chance of success. Truly, you are an amazing specimen of the Dunning-Kruger effect. I marvel at how a person so desperate to be viewed as having an unparallelled grasp of the interconnectedness of history, society and politics can also be so completely uninterested in actually knowing anything about the world in which they live and the subjects on which they speak, and so ready to credulously swallow any line of bullshit that the conservative elites throw at you. If political scientists and biologists could team up to find a way to reverse whatever the heck it is that's going on in your brain we might even be able to develop an effective antidote to the new world order of populist authoritarianism before it's too late.

Moms and regular people did that when Trump was in power.

Only by people being deliberately obtuse.

Doesn’t matter at all though, because she doesn’t work there. Wendy would probably have some great input to a bunch of Pentagon meetings but it doesn’t matter, because she doesn’t work there. Any other staffer at the Pentagon might want their spouse to look over their shoulder while they work but they can’t do it, because they don’t work there. When my partner was in the military I went to some fun Officer’s Mess parties but I definitely couldn’t sit in on any meetings about the work because… well it’s just obvious, isn’t it?

Except no, thats bollocks. She shouldn't be there anymore than Bryan Noem should be in meetings about border security and domestic terrorism. Has the Trump administration seriously managed to normalise nepotism to this degree already?

He brings his wife into serious meetings with foreign counterparts. I mean for christ's sake - we're dealing with people here who've literally watched House of Cards and used it as a fucking instruction manual.

You give him far too much credit. He's only ever been an opinion contributor and 'TV personality' - he's never been a news journalist as in someone who investigates and uncovers stories. That would be way too much like hard work.

$3k? That’s not theft, it’s civil asset forfeiture.

Where does that number come from? Had a million or two people like you shown up we wouldn't be having the discussion. You had a binary choice between an agent of chaos with a declared intention to destroy the constitutional system of checks and balances and a normal politician who happens to be a Democrat, and you were unable to choose the normal person. Given your comment above you do appear to be happy with the idea that people who failed to vote against Trump are culpable, so it's baffling that you refuse to consider yourself one of them.

It now turns out that Hegseth shared the same information at the same time on another group chat he started using his personal phone... with members of his family and friends. I look forward to hearing him explain how his own wife tricked him into inviting her into the Yemen Warplans Casual Group chat. "It's not my fault, she changed her screen name! I thought she was the babysitter..."

Ok, so you admit that you lied. Why then do I need to watch videos to understand your point of view when you admit that your point of view is fake? People did assist him - and despite that he still killed Floyd. Would you expect him to give an honest answer? Would you expect any murderer to tell the truth? What is undeniably true is that, at the very least, he did not care if he killed Floyd. A man accused of a $20 fraud. Every single F'ing time the right accuses the left of something, it is what they themselves are actually doing. I think that the violence that is allowed to run rampant in US prisons is an absolute travesty that makes a mockery of the concept of justice and destroys any hope for an effective system of rehabilitation. I would be willing to bet that you have no problem with the idea of criminal 'shitheads' being shanked, raped and murdered in prison, just as you have no problem with the police murdering people over suspicion of petty theft.

Considering you are one of the people who was suckered by the Republican rhetoric about Harris that’s a question for you to answer.

Turns out that when Trump thought he'd be able to stop the Ukraine war on day one, it was because no-one had ever told him it might be difficult. So that's understandable. Likewise the absolute priority of stopping all the people dying - well plan A of, um, just asking Putin nicely didn't work so he can't be arsed now. Which is totally fine. "Now if, for some reason, one of the two parties makes it very difficult, we're just going to say, 'You're foolish, you're fools, you're horrible people,' and we're going to just take a pass."

The dynamic of that was interesting too. El Salvador gets paid a lot of money to take deportees and stick them in prison for no legal reason. When asked in the White House to send one of them back El Presidente said (paraphrasing) 'fuck you, the USA doesn't tell me what to do" and President Trump who is so sensitive to disrespect and ingratitude said "Hey this guy is so great isn't he?"

It's cute that you think 'not moving forward' is what you have to worry about here.

The Supreme Court has already ruled that Constitutional bars cannot stop a candidate standing for President if he's really really popular.

Trump demands that Harvard introduce sweeping Affirmative Action policies in admissions, staffing, course content and disciplinary processes specifically to help one racial/religious group it feels is underserved. Spoiler alert - it's not black people. Trump freezes $2bn in Harvard funding after university rejects demands

The problem with that is that you justify it by stating things like you were faced with two parties of extremes, without ever stating what those extremes were. It just seems fundamentally dishonest. We all know what Trump's extremes are, but people like you and Brent happy to spread the both-siderist idea that 'well ok but whatabout the Dems they must be doing I don't know but something that's just as bad' which makes people feel that voting for him is ok. Then you get things like this. Let's be honest, the Dems wouldn't have done anything like this. Trump blames Zelensky for starting war after massive Russian attack

In fact there was so much fanfare around the tariffs that the media are barely covering anything else. His Ukraine negotiations have been an abject failure in persuading Putin to do anything at all (as they were always going to be) and you don’t hear a thing about it.

Without even hinting at what those things are that's a very something and nothing statement though, isn't it? It's technically true to say that over here the Tory party could have done things differently at the last election to get my vote... but if the things I mean are 'adopt the policies of the 1990's Labour party' then what I really mean is that there was no possible scenario in which I was going to vote for them.

Wait, I thought putting tiny screws into iPhone cases for minimum wage was going to be the New American Dream?

This is why I struggle to have any sympathy at all for those who voted for him but are now saying "well I never thought he'd do this" because the only response I can think of is "why not?" I guess it's why, as repulsive as it is, there's a certain directness to Winsor's attitude that is at least understandable and consistent. As long as 'the commies' aren't in charge and there's enough old timey racism being perpetrated he literally doesn't give a fuck about anything else. But for everyone currently showing the tregret? I have no idea what they ever thought was going to happen.

What, common sense? Well ain’t that a kick in the teeth.

... in 6 months. Because I guess no one in the medical profession ever bothered to think about it before and it's probably quite easy to fix. SMH. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj0z9nmzvdlo

Why do you think there’s a dichotomy? Who he really is and who his supporters think he is are two different things. A liberal arts grad who worked in the mainstream media before becoming a professional politician lectures us about the elite? What would he call someone with his CV if they were on the other side? I saw an old pre brexit vote debate the other day and it was staggering how unquestioningly media presenters accepted the statement that the remain campaign represented ‘the elite’. But who was selling Brexit? Alexander Boris De Pfeffel Johnson (yes really) of Eton, Oxford and establishment journalism. Jacob Rees-Mogg, whose nanny looked after him during his first political campaigns, of Eton, Oxford and the City of London. Jim Ratcliffe, richest man in Britain, James Dyson, most famous industrialist in Britain. Anyone who says ‘the elite’ when they mean ‘the other side’ and hopes we won’t notice has immediately disqualified themselves from serious conversation.