Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Doomcookie]

Even if half of this stuff on this list are bogus, it still highlights how much our govt wastes. I think it's still a good idea to pull back the curtains, even if nothing is accomplished, the sheer ludicrous nature of some of this stuff may at least serve as a deterrent for future foolish spending. Maybe.

This and RFK Jr tackling big pharma may be the only good things that come out of this admin, and they should be celebrated. Why didn't Dems take the lead on this? Again, they would have scored major points with the public. They are losing the idea battle and will be irrelevant for a decade because of it.



https://x.com/america/status/1857228761915412814

Trump had the biggest budgets, ever.

Why is it only okay in your eyes, when a rapist does it?

[Endus]

Even if half of this stuff on this list are bogus, it still highlights how much our govt wastes. I think it's still a good idea to pull back the curtains, even if nothing is accomplished, the sheer ludicrous nature of some of this stuff may at least serve as a deterrent for future foolish spending. Maybe.

This and RFK Jr tackling big pharma may be the only good things that come out of this admin, and they should be celebrated. Why didn't Dems take the lead on this? Again, they would have scored major points with the public. They are losing the idea battle and will be irrelevant for a decade because of it.



https://x.com/america/status/1857228761915412814

How would you, or RFK Jr, know any of these things were "bogus"? Sure, the framing in the stupid-ass meme is alarming, but it carefully doesn't link to anything verifiable, and you can frame nearly anything as if it were ridiculous. Penicillin research, before penicillin was known to be a thing? "Look, they're funding moldy bread research. Just throw it out!" Quantum physics research? "They don't even think effects follow causes! How crazy are these scientists!?" Replacement organs? "They want to make human-pig hybrids by putting a pig heart into a human being!"

All this does is expose anti-intellectualism and hostility to science as a process.

[Edge-]

All this does is expose anti-intellectualism and hostility to science as a process.

Big number!!! Shocking!!! Very concerning!!! Big is scary!!!

I enjoy that one of the things on there is the interest we pay on the debt to ourselves and like yeah what are we going to do...just not pay that and fuck our credit rating or something? Is that how one balances a kitchen table budget? (Yes, this is a joke)

[DarkTZeratul]

How would you, or RFK Jr, know any of these things were "bogus"? Sure, the framing in the stupid-ass meme is alarming, but it carefully doesn't link to anything verifiable, and you can frame nearly anything as if it were ridiculous. Penicillin research, before penicillin was known to be a thing? "Look, they're funding moldy bread research. Just throw it out!" Quantum physics research? "They don't even think effects follow causes! How crazy are these scientists!?" Replacement organs? "They want to make human-pig hybrids by putting a pig heart into a human being!"

I found this out when a family member sent me an article about how much money the military was wasting doing research on shrimp. I thought it sounded ridiculous, so I looked into it to see why they were wasting money on something so stupid. Turns out, there are compounds in shrimp exoskeletons that improve wound healing and they were researching how to effectively use it in medicated bandages. And that's why I don't take any of these things at face value and always look into what money is actually being spent on, because most of the time it's just grossly dishonest framing of something actually worthwhile.

EDIT: To give one example, of something mentioned in that post: $8,395 for "DOD's Lobster Tank". This is, quite literally, just a tank to keep lobsters in for the DOD commissary. But saying "we serve lobster in the cafeteria and the equipment to do so costs money" doesn't sound scary and wasteful.

[Edge-]

I found this out when a family member sent me an article about how much money the military was wasting doing research on shrimp. I thought it sounded ridiculous, so I looked into it to see why they were wasting money on something so stupid. Turns out, there are compounds in shrimp exoskeletons that improve wound healing and they were researching how to effectively use it in medicated bandages. And that's why I don't take any of these things at face value and always look into what money is actually being spent on, because most of the time it's just grossly dishonest framing of something actually worthwhile.

Which, if found to be useful and able to scale up in a cost effective way, can help people in general, too! I blame people being so damned uncurious. Big numbers about shrimp bad! No warning signs that it seems odd and like that's a small program that's part of a far larger budget or anything, number big! Number bad! Shrimp!

That sounds genuinely kinda rad, tho.

[DarkTZeratul]

Which, if found to be useful and able to scale up in a cost effective way, can help people in general, too! I blame people being so damned uncurious. Big numbers about shrimp bad! No warning signs that it seems odd and like that's a small program that's part of a far larger budget or anything, number big! Number bad! Shrimp!

That sounds genuinely kinda rad, tho.

This was many years ago and I found myself curious, so I tried googling it again. I believe the specific compound was "chitosan," which was approved by the FDA for use in wound dressings in 2003. Looks like they also use it in hydrogels to treat burns.

Per Wikipedia:

Chitosan-based wound dressings have been widely explored for a variety of acute and chronic wounds. Chitosan has the ability to adhere to fibrinogen, which produces increased platelet adhesion, causing clotting of blood and hemostasis. Chitosan hemostatic agents are salts made from mixing chitosan with an organic acid (such as succinic or lactic acid). Chitosan may have other properties conducive to wound healing, including antibacterial and antifungal activity, which remain under preliminary research.

Chitosan is used within some wound dressings to decrease bleeding. Upon contact with blood, the bandage becomes sticky, effectively sealing the laceration.

Sounds really useful! Now imagine if some spending hawks killed that research because we're "wasting money studying shrimp."

[Huehuecoyotl]

Two morons, with an inflated sense of their own abilities, given total control over an organisation too complex for any human to understand, even if they wanted to. Given free reign to cut whatever they deem to be wasteful, without understanding what it connects to or what impact it could have. Yup, this can only end well.

When a scenario has it's own named descriptor (Chesterton's Fence, in this example) the first thing any sensible person would think is "looks like other people have tried doing what we're intending to do, and realised it's a bad idea with unintended consequences. Maybe we should rethink this". But what the chuckle brothers are going to do is decide "all those other people that have tried doing this were idiots, not the geniuses we are, let's start cutting!"

I'm not going to lie, as somebody outside the US it's going to be slightly amusing watching these idiots fuck things up really badly then flail around trying to avoid blame. But since I know it's going to have impacts on real people, and I have empathy, the amusement turns to despair pretty quickly.

[Poopymonster]

Which, if found to be useful and able to scale up in a cost effective way, can help people in general, too! I blame people being so damned uncurious. Big numbers about shrimp bad! No warning signs that it seems odd and like that's a small program that's part of a far larger budget or anything, number big! Number bad! Shrimp!

That sounds genuinely kinda rad, tho.

It's an excellent idea, the shrimp program.
Now if we can only get it out of the wasteful hands of the Government...one sec, gotta tag my secretary
Yeah, full suite, 4 years Florida. And one at that place in Jersey. Just to be sure, let's get one in Scotland. Yes. Scotland. No I'm not wearing the dress. Write it off as lobbying.

[Surfd]

I have no idea how putting Mr. Dunning Kruger made flesh, Elon Musk, in charge of that department wouldn't violate a metric fuckload of Ethics laws, considering the conflicts of interest alone from the number of government programs he has his fingers in.

[Jessicka]

This was many years ago and I found myself curious, so I tried googling it again. I believe the specific compound was "chitosan," which was approved by the FDA for use in wound dressings in 2003. Looks like they also use it in hydrogels to treat burns.

Per Wikipedia:
Sounds really useful! Now imagine if some spending hawks killed that research because we're "wasting money studying shrimp."

They’re expensive but those trauma dressings are starting to become fairly standard in larger first aid kits such is their effectiveness.

[Breccia]

I believe the nomination of RFK Jr. to serve as Secretary of HHS is an abrupt departure from the pro-life record of our administration, and should be deeply concerning to millions of Pro-Life Americans who have supported the Republican Party and our nominees for decades.

RFK Jr. has defended abortion on demand during all nine months of pregnancy, supports overturning the Dobbs decision and has called for legislation to codify Roe v Wade. If confirmed, RFK, Jr. would be the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in modern history.

-- serial cuck Mike Pence

[Cthulhu 2020]

Even if half of this stuff on this list are bogus, it still highlights how much our govt wastes. I think it's still a good idea to pull back the curtains, even if nothing is accomplished, the sheer ludicrous nature of some of this stuff may at least serve as a deterrent for future foolish spending. Maybe.

This and RFK Jr tackling big pharma may be the only good things that come out of this admin, and they should be celebrated. Why didn't Dems take the lead on this? Again, they would have scored major points with the public. They are losing the idea battle and will be irrelevant for a decade because of it.



https://x.com/america/status/1857228761915412814

I think it's fucking hilarious how conservatives will phrase spending in the most ridiculous way possible to cut spending on it.

Like they'll say "We're spending $2 billion a decade funding people watching bug sex!" when it's literally the department of agriculture studying the mating cycles of bugs that destroy our crops and that research often leads to even more billions saved in non destroyed crops.

Or "We pay $200,000 a year to watch hamsters fight!" Which honestly sounds pretty badass, but for 1) It was a study on how anti rage drugs affect people/creatures on steroids 2) The study finished in 2017

At this point conservatives are just outrage farming and every rube, idiot, dumbass, fuckhead and dipshit is falling for it. They're going to dismantle our entire country via outrage farming, people are going to starve, die, and become crippled, and the dumbest among us will open their mouth and go "Yes master please piss in my mouth more"

- - - Updated - - -

How would you, or RFK Jr, know any of these things were "bogus"? Sure, the framing in the stupid-ass meme is alarming, but it carefully doesn't link to anything verifiable, and you can frame nearly anything as if it were ridiculous. Penicillin research, before penicillin was known to be a thing? "Look, they're funding moldy bread research. Just throw it out!" Quantum physics research? "They don't even think effects follow causes! How crazy are these scientists!?" Replacement organs? "They want to make human-pig hybrids by putting a pig heart into a human being!"

All this does is expose anti-intellectualism and hostility to science as a process.

My grandfather circa 2000: "They're research screens you can touch? Why would we need that when we have buttons?"

- - - Updated - - -



Putting aside the "Almost never" breaking his own rule...

It's half your age PLUS 7.

Bets on if it was intentional that half of 42 is 21, minus 7 is 14?

Can we all just agree Gaetz is a pedo?

[Captain N]

Based on Gaetz and Trump I can almost guarantee there's going to be a push for lowering the age of consent to 14 - I mean it's not like Red States haven't already tried this.

[Jessicka]

Putting aside the "Almost never" breaking his own rule...

It's half your age PLUS 7.

Bets on if it was intentional that half of 42 is 21, minus 7 is 14?

Can we all just agree Gaetz is a pedo?

Yes. This is fucking disgusting.

[Endus]

Putting aside the "Almost never" breaking his own rule...

It's half your age PLUS 7.

Bets on if it was intentional that half of 42 is 21, minus 7 is 14?

Can we all just agree Gaetz is a pedo?

Also the "I almost never broke that rule in 10 years" meaning there was a whole lotta time there where he definitely did.

[Poopymonster]

Based on Gaetz and Trump I can almost guarantee there's going to be a push for lowering the age of consent to 14 - I mean it's not like Red States haven't already tried this.

They're already pushing it.
Small, you might say, baby steps.
Fetal Personhood, everyone is +9 months. That 15 year old is almost 16 now.

[fwc577]

Pretty sure that Matt Gaetz tweet is fake. I don't see it on Twitter or he deleted it.

[Odinfrost]

Pretty sure that Matt Gaetz tweet is fake. I don't see it on Twitter or he deleted it.

Knowing Blockhead, it really could be either or.

[Woodtable]

Trying to find a source but rumors are Trump is going to give podcasters, youtubers, social media "influencers" credentials to sit in WH press briefings. There is never a fucking bottom to this huh?

[Bodakane]

I think it's fucking hilarious how conservatives will phrase spending in the most ridiculous way possible to cut spending on it.

Like they'll say "We're spending $2 billion a decade funding people watching bug sex!" when it's literally the department of agriculture studying the mating cycles of bugs that destroy our crops and that research often leads to even more billions saved in non destroyed crops.

Or "We pay $200,000 a year to watch hamsters fight!" Which honestly sounds pretty badass, but for 1) It was a study on how anti rage drugs affect people/creatures on steroids 2) The study finished in 2017

At this point conservatives are just outrage farming and every rube, idiot, dumbass, fuckhead and dipshit is falling for it. They're going to dismantle our entire country via outrage farming, people are going to starve, die, and become crippled, and the dumbest among us will open their mouth and go "Yes master please piss in my mouth more"

- - - Updated - - -



My grandfather circa 2000: "They're research screens you can touch? Why would we need that when we have buttons?"

- - - Updated - - -



Putting aside the "Almost never" breaking his own rule...

It's half your age PLUS 7.

Bets on if it was intentional that half of 42 is 21, minus 7 is 14?

Can we all just agree Gaetz is a pedo?

I want this to be real, but is it?