Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[NED funded]

Speaking of Visas, why only the H1-Bs?
I wonder how many H2-Bs are employed at Mar-a-Lardo.

The reason H1Bs are the target its bc freshly graduate people struggle with getting jobs and they blame it on H1B holders. It doesnt even affect all fresh grads, only those in computer science and related stuff.

[PhaelixWW]

US born Caucasians are minority.

That's not really saying much. Caucasians are already a minority in California. More so in San Francisco. Even more so if you only include US-born Caucasians.

[Twdft]

The reality? Pretty sure Putin is pushing Trump to destabilize the west as much as possible and suggesting Trump start conflicts with these countries, and while Trump is likely more than happy to oblige, and many MAGA in the house and senate are too, I'm gonna guess there are more than a few who are beholden to corporations that operate in the western hemisphere who would strongly oppose Trump actually trying to start these conflicts.

This is veering into conspiracy territory but sometimes I look at Trumps ramblings and think he can't be that stupid. I am sure he hasn't thought about the Panama canal for decades until like a couple days before, I am generous in assuming he would have even known why it is important. He blabbers on about the last thing someone said to him so I have to wonder who brought up the Panama canal? And other stuff. Him having regular midnight chats with Putin might make sense.

[gondrin]

This is veering into conspiracy territory but sometimes I look at Trumps ramblings and think he can't be that stupid. I am sure he hasn't thought about the Panama canal for decades until like a couple days before, I am generous in assuming he would have even known why it is important. He blabbers on about the last thing someone said to him so I have to wonder who brought up the Panama canal? And other stuff. Him having regular midnight chats with Putin might make sense.

If you've ever watched his interviews over the years, you'll see he really is that stupid.

[Endus]

This is veering into conspiracy territory but sometimes I look at Trumps ramblings and think he can't be that stupid. I am sure he hasn't thought about the Panama canal for decades until like a couple days before, I am generous in assuming he would have even known why it is important. He blabbers on about the last thing someone said to him so I have to wonder who brought up the Panama canal? And other stuff. Him having regular midnight chats with Putin might make sense.

The strongest recommendation I can give is a version of "the purpose of a system is what it does", which is also a really useful maxim. In this case, it's more "a person means what they do". And "saying" is part of "doing".

I'm not saying people don't lie, I call out lies all the time. That's also a thing people "do". But the point here is; unless you have evidence that demonstrates it's clearly a lie, just take people at their word. Don't try and imagine up strange machinations and plots whereby their words might be a 5d chess move. Just take it at face value.

And it what they said or did was fuckin' stupid, they're just fuckin' stupid. Most of the time, it's really that simple. Half of the human race has below average intelligence, give or take. There's a lot of stupid people out there, and a lot of them get rich because luck is a bigger factor to wealth than intelligence. Don't mistake wealth for intelligence or talent. Elon Musk is a fuckin' moron who probably sits around an 85 IQ or so, and he's the richest dumbfuck in the world. All it takes is getting lucky 3-4 times on longshots. Which isn't likely, but that's why there's thousands of idiots who lost everything for every one who gets rich.

[DarkTZeratul]

Don't mistake wealth for intelligence or talent. Elon Musk is a fuckin' moron who probably sits around an 85 IQ or so, and he's the richest dumbfuck in the world. All it takes is getting lucky 3-4 times on longshots. Which isn't likely, but that's why there's thousands of idiots who lost everything for every one who gets rich.

Also, to note a similar maxim, just because someone is very knowledgeable about one thing does not mean they're very knowledgeable about other things. Ben Carson is a legitimately brilliant neurosurgeon, but he is demonstrably far from brilliant outside his field.

[PhaelixWW]

5D chess or delusional ramblings?

A judicious use of Occam's razor is indicated.

[Kaleredar]

5D chess or delusional ramblings?

A judicious use of Occam's razor is indicated.

An idiotic appeal to people more idiotic than him.

“Me make America big. America big=good. Me take other countries. Other countries no can stop because America tough.”

His followers want a bully, and so he acts like one. He doesn’t need to act like a smart bully; they never demanded that of him.

[PhaelixWW]

An idiotic appeal to people more idiotic than him.

“Me make America big. America big=good. Me take other countries. Other countries no can stop because America tough.”

His followers want a bully, and so he acts like one. He doesn’t need to act like a smart bully; they never demanded that of him.

"The idiots' mascot."

[Malkiah]

"The idiots' mascot."

i remember in 1999/2000 watching in abject fucking horror when the zeitgeist of america decided it was not only OK with the attitude that "someone you could have a beer with" was an acceptable criteria for selecting a president but a noble one, because i saw this exact scenario playing out.
it's such an utter condemnation of what the populace of the US has devolved into.

trump isn't smart enough or clever enough to trick people, and he isn't charismatic or folksy enough to have that kind of yellow lab stupidity charm that bush jr had, and you can't sell populist fascism to a people that don't already want it... trump is just what roughly 50% of the population of the US wants in a president, it's truly horrific for what it says about the american people.

[PhaelixWW]

trump isn't smart enough or clever enough to trick people, and he isn't charismatic or folksy enough to have that kind of yellow lab stupidity charm that bush jr had, and you can't sell populist fascism to a people that don't already want it... trump is just what roughly 50% of the population of the US wants in a president, it's truly horrific for what it says about the american people.

The silver lining is that these are people who actively hate government. So the fact that they vote for the most destructive, idiotic government they can find is not entirely surprising.

Some people vote for him because they're stupid enough to think he's the best leader. But others vote for him because they know he's the worst leader.

[Templar 331]

i remember in 1999/2000 watching in abject fucking horror when the zeitgeist of america decided it was not only OK with the attitude that "someone you could have a beer with"

The idea behind this isn't inherently bad. Simple people want someone who won't act like they're above the common man. It helps reaffirm that the ones running the show won't forget about the people that don't constantly rub elbows with politicians(rich people). But like you've pointed out we've got the exact opposite happening now. Instead of a humble but capable leader who'll keep all of our best interests at heart we have a vicious clown that will attack anyone uncle Jimbo and aunt Karen thinks is bad and only cares what the money bags think.

[Malkiah]

The idea behind this isn't inherently bad.

i respectfully disagree.

Simple people want someone who won't act like they're above the common man. It helps reaffirm that the ones running the show won't forget about the people that don't constantly rub elbows with politicians(rich people). But like you've pointed out we've got the exact opposite happening now. Instead of a humble but capable leader who'll keep all of our best interests at heart we have a vicious clown that will attack anyone uncle Jimbo and aunt Karen thinks is bad and only cares what the money bags think.

i actually think that the ideal politician is like the ideal doctor or engineer: a hyper specialized weirdo who is a borderline autistic idiot savante with almost zero capacity to relate to most people or connect on an emotional level.
someone fixated on the skillset of the job that considers all other factors irrelevant, that's what i want out leadership personally.

the reason why is that you can rationalize your way to humanity quite easily, even lacking a significant amount of what is considered "normal" human feelings you can intellectually determine that a robust safety net and heavy investment in infrastructure will result in positives for society, but you can't feefees your way through an economic crisis or a huge natural disaster.

[PhaelixWW]

i actually think that the ideal politician is like the ideal doctor or engineer: a hyper specialized weirdo who is a borderline autistic idiot savante with almost zero capacity to relate to most people or connect on an emotional level.
someone fixated on the skillset of the job that considers all other factors irrelevant, that's what i want out leadership personally.

Although that completely ignores the foreign diplomacy aspect of a head of state.

Far better to have someone with charisma and at least enough intelligence to pick good advisors and listen to them. Those advisors can be the "hyper specialized weirdos".

Hell, one of Trump's (many) problems is that he rarely listens to his advisors.

[Cthulhu 2020]

This is veering into conspiracy territory but sometimes I look at Trumps ramblings and think he can't be that stupid. I am sure he hasn't thought about the Panama canal for decades until like a couple days before, I am generous in assuming he would have even known why it is important. He blabbers on about the last thing someone said to him so I have to wonder who brought up the Panama canal? And other stuff. Him having regular midnight chats with Putin might make sense.

Saying that Trump does Putin's bidding when it comes to threatening our neighbors is closer to conjecture than conspiracy. We KNOW that there's a ton of Russian money tied up with MAGA politicians and especially Trump, we know that the Kremlin is a large source of Elon's funding. Most of Trump's first cabinet has been indicted as foreign agents working for the Kremlin. This isn't made up, it happened and is happening.

We also know that Putin has desired the destabilization of the west and the dissolution of NATO for a very long time. It's basically the only thing stopping him from rolling over a lot of eastern europe and trying to reunite the Soviet Union. That's what Georgia and Ukraine are, and he wants to do it to more nations, it's just that he can't with everyone allied against him.

Getting Trump to start threatening our allies is certainly a great way to get the west involved with fighting itself rather than staying in a united front against Russian aggression.

I know Trump is stupid, but the idea to take over Panama and Greenland was planted by SOMEONE, that's how it always works with Trump.

[Malkiah]

Although that completely ignores the foreign diplomacy aspect of a head of state.

it doesn't really ignore it so much as "had i my druthers every leadership position in the human race would be like this" and at that point it wouldn't matter.
obviously, i don't have my druthers, and so yeah it would be pretty weird for a singular head of state to be like that in relation to everyone else.

[ringpriest]

This is veering into conspiracy territory but sometimes I look at Trumps ramblings and think he can't be that stupid. I am sure he hasn't thought about the Panama canal for decades until like a couple days before, I am generous in assuming he would have even known why it is important. He blabbers on about the last thing someone said to him so I have to wonder who brought up the Panama canal? And other stuff. Him having regular midnight chats with Putin might make sense.

The government of Panama helped one of his business partners evict his staff from a "Trump" hotel a few years ago, because the Trump management company wasn't paying its taxes. Then they chiseled his name off it.

[PhaelixWW]

The government of Panama helped one of his business partners evict his staff from a "Trump" hotel a few years ago, because the Trump management company wasn't paying its taxes. Then they chiseled his name off it.

Hmm, I'd forgotten about that.

Love the picture, though.

[Shadowferal]

Musk calls MAGA element "contemptible fools" as virtual civil war brews

Elon Musk condemned a segment of the MAGA movement as "contemptible fools" who should be purged from the Republican Party in a social media post Friday.

...neither Musk nor Trump is president yet..and here we are.

[PhaelixWW]

Musk calls MAGA element "contemptible fools" as virtual civil war brews

Elon Musk condemned a segment of the MAGA movement as "contemptible fools" who should be purged from the Republican Party in a social media post Friday.

...neither Musk nor Trump is president yet..and here we are.

♫ In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the leopard eats tonight... ♫