Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[diller]

This is offset by the tax cuts coming later this year as well as cheaper energy.

You seriously think there will be tax cuts?

Also energy will NOT be cheaper, the US is already self-sufficient with oil, pumping more oil is not going to happen because the oil companies are not interested in that since that would lower their profits.

[gondrin]

You seriously think there will be tax cuts?

Also energy will NOT be cheaper, the US is already self-sufficient with oil, pumping more oil is not going to happen because the oil companies are not interested in that since that would lower their profits.

Funny thing is, all it will take is OPEC+ to decide they had enough of Trump's shit and basically tank the oil market outright and kill a TON of jobs in the US. The price of oil has to be higher or the entire oil and natural gas job market in the US will pretty much crash overnight.

[fwc577]

So what the fuck do we do now? All three branches of the government is gone, so are both traditional and social media. The right wing propaganda machine is stronger than ever. I don't see any other way to fight this.

Vote. 2026 will come soon enough. People are going to be pissed. Everyone is going to be hurting. GOP voters will feel defeated and won't turn out. It's at this point, that things shift back Democrat. The propaganda on social media won't matter. Trump will do his deportations but when eggs are suddenly $10 per dozen and grocery prices are worse than ever and the tech oligarchs are saying "Deal with it", the people will do exactly that.

It will be 2016 and 2020 all over again.

[Corvus]

Went to r/leopardsatemyface - my word is it amusing. From the maga who has lost 700k so far on the Trump coin and whose wife wants to divorce him to the police union that backed Trump and is unhappy that he freed the j6 terrorists and everything in between.

Normally I wouldn't get pleasure out of others suffering but they did this to themselves.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh, and egg prices are up 27% since Trump was elected.

[fwc577]

OPEC+ to decide they had enough of Trump's shit and basically tank the oil market outright and kill a TON of jobs in the US.

Algeria
Azerbaijan
Bahrain
Brunei
Brazil
Republic of Congo
Equatorial Guinea
Gabon
Iran
Iraq
Kazakhstan
Kuwait
Libya
Malaysia
Mexico
Nigeria
Oman
Russia
Saudi Arabia
South Sudan
Sudan
United Arab Emirates
Venezuela


Those are some countries that are real friendly to America. I don't think we have to worry about them crashing the American econonmy! /s

[gondrin]

So tell me, in what way is this going to help out anyone?

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/21/healt...ion/index.html

Trump administration directs federal health agencies to pause communications

Amid a deluge of executive actions, the Trump administration has directed federal health agencies to pause external communications, such as regular scientific reports, updates to websites and health advisories, according to sources within the agencies.

The initial orders were delivered Tuesday to staff at agencies inside the US Department of Health and Human Services, including to officials at the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health, according to the Washington Post, which first reported the story.

The direction came without warning and with little guidance as to what exactly it covered, according to sources inside the affected agencies who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to share the information.

In a follow-up memo obtained by CNN on Wednesday, Acting Health Secretary Dr. Dorothy Fink provided additional details, including that the directive would be in effect through February 1.

The memo told health agency employees to have all documents and communications - including regulations, guidance, notices, social media, websites and press releases - reviewed and approved by a presidential appointee before issuing them. It also directed employees not to participate in any public speaking engagements without approval, and to coordinate with presidential appointees before issuing official correspondence to members of Congress or governors.

“As the new Administration considers its plan for managing the federal policy and public communications processes, it is important that the President’s appointees and designees have the opportunity to review and approve any regulations, guidance documents, and other public documents and communications (including social media),” Fink said in the memo.

The directive also told employees to notify higher-ups of any documents or communications that should be exempt either because they’re required by law or because they’re critical for health, safety or other reasons. Already Wednesday morning, the FDA sent out a communication about a safety warning added to the multiple sclerosis drug glatiramer acetate, which goes by brand names including Copaxone, for a “rare but serious allergic reaction.”

A source familiar with the directive said that while it wasn’t entirely unheard of for an incoming administration to ask for a pause to review information before it’s publicly released, the scope of the order appeared to be unusual. Another said there were no similar restrictions on communications issued at the beginning of the last two administrations, and said employees were fearful about their jobs.

America’s health agencies, including the CDC, FDA and the NIH, routinely release information on food recalls, drug and medical device approvals, as well as updates on evolving public health threats including natural disasters and infectious diseases. Many of the agencies have been closely tracking and reporting new information on the H5N1 bird flu outbreak, which is spreading in the nation’s poultry flocks and dairy cattle and among people who work with those animals.

“Not a day goes by when CDC isn’t tracking a potential threat to our health,” Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the CDC said in a statement. “Right now they are letting us know about bird flu in cows, birds, and people. Every time there is an outbreak involving a food, they let us know how to avoid getting sick. They let us know where diseases are occurring around the world that could affect our health here or if we travel. Cutting off communications from CDC puts our health at risk and prevents our doctors, nurses, and public health leaders in our communities from doing their jobs. I urge the administration to quickly lift the pause.”

During Trump’s first administration, a federal health official said political appointees pushed to change language of weekly science reports released by the CDC during the Covid-19 pandemic so they wouldn’t undermine the president’s political messaging.

The first direction Tuesday was given by Stefanie Spear, a deputy chief of staff at HHS who joined the agency this week, according to the Post. Spear was the press secretary for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. during his 2024 presidential campaign. Kennedy is Trump’s pick for HHS secretary but must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming the role.

A message sent to Spear on Tuesday evening about the order was not returned. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment.

A spokesperson for the CDC and a spokesperson for the FDA referred CNN to HHS for comment. HHS has not responded to CNN’s request for comment.

“A temporary pause in the flow of health information should not be cause for concern,” said Dr. Brian Castrucci, who is president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, a nonprofit which studies and seeks to support the nation’s public health workforce.

“The question is how extensively is that pause enforced? If there is something that requires immediate action, it needs to be communicated because lapsed time means lost lives.”

[fwc577]

So tell me, in what way is this going to help out anyone?

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/21/healt...ion/index.html

Sure. It's going to heavily reduce the financial burden on many. It will achieve this by causing loved ones to die and those dead people don't have to worry about their finances anymore.

[Edge-]

Went to r/leopardsatemyface - my word is it amusing. From the maga who has lost 700k so far on the Trump coin and whose wife wants to divorce him to the police union that backed Trump and is unhappy that he freed the j6 terrorists and everything in between.

Toby fair that's also a bit of your average /r/wallstreetbets poster. There's a very decidedly non-zero chance it's just a troll done for fun, as well. But if it is real, while I feel terrible for their family boy howdy is it one of those cathartic moments.

Oh, and egg prices are up 27% since Trump was elected.

As someone that doesn't regularly eat eggs (just if I go out for breakfast), #NeverTiredOfWinning

- - - Updated - - -

So tell me, in what way is this going to help out anyone?

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/21/healt...ion/index.html

It's going to be pretty bad for local health departments that rely on a lot of those regular updates to do their jobs effectively, and those health departments often primarily and disproportionately serve folks in poverty.

As we saw through the thorough documentation of how they were making herculean efforts to make up for huge gaps in the overall medical care grid throughout much of the rural/impoverished south. That's Trump territory.

[Bwgmon]

So tell me, in what way is this going to help out anyone?

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/21/healt...ion/index.html

So in the event COVID resurges or another pandemic happens (or both), he can go "Look, I'm doing a great job by doing nothing! If the numbers are bad, the CDC would say so!"

That said, in that event I'm sure someone will find a way to aggregate the numbers without the CDC's help anyway, just to rightfully piss him off the despotic cockwomble.

[Moralgy]

This is offset by the tax cuts coming later this year as well as cheaper energy.

My power company is in the talks about increasing rates right now. When can I expect this to go down instead?

[PACOX]

So in the event COVID resurges or another pandemic happens (or both), he can go "Look, I'm doing a great job by doing nothing! If the numbers are bad, the CDC would say so!"

That said, in that event I'm sure someone will find a way to aggregate the numbers without the CDC's help anyway, just to rightfully piss him off the despotic cockwomble.

COVID has caused people to lose their mind in general. LA flirted with banning masks but all that is old news with the fires. Theres several places that have banned masks or proposing masks ban in middle of flu season (and some other non-descript bugs) going around. Old people have lost their damn minds.

[fwc577]

COVID has caused people to lose their mind in general. LA flirted with banning masks but all that is old news with the fires. Theres several places that have banned masks or proposing masks ban in middle of flu season (and some other non-descript bugs) going around. Old people have lost their damn minds.

I live in a conservative area and sadly, mask ban wouldn't matter because nobody is out there wearing masks anyways. Meanwhile, our hospitals filled up so quickly that someone I know who had a stroke spent a week in an ER room because they didn't have any regular rooms available because their are so many sick people flooding the hospitals now.

I'm glad a lot of the boomer generation is dying to viruses because their entire generation is a virus on our society.

[Elenos]

COVID has caused people to lose their mind in general. LA flirted with banning masks but all that is old news with the fires. Theres several places that have banned masks or proposing masks ban in middle of flu season (and some other non-descript bugs) going around. Old people have lost their damn minds.

People are fairly quick to ignore reality when reality is horrible.

Problem is reality doesn't stop existing just because you ignore it. Millions of people that died from COVID could have lived if everyone cared enough about lockdowns and masks.

[PACOX]

I live in a conservative area and sadly, mask ban wouldn't matter because nobody is out there wearing masks anyways. Meanwhile, our hospitals filled up so quickly that someone I know who had a stroke spent a week in an ER room because they didn't have any regular rooms available because their are so many sick people flooding the hospitals now.

I'm glad a lot of the boomer generation is dying to viruses because their entire generation is a virus on our society.

Took my grandfather 6 hours to get a standard chest x-ray like 2 weeks ago because the hospital was full of people with respiratory this or that. Apparently MFers stopped washing their hands because it was full of people with norovirus too. Noro is various easy to get but I live in a red county with people who walk around and think they can't get sick. Had people in the ER worried to death because they had a little stomach virus.

[Twdft]

So what the fuck do we do now? All three branches of the government is gone, so are both traditional and social media. The right wing propaganda machine is stronger than ever. I don't see any other way to fight this.

The way I see it the US is on a fast track to full blown fascism with slavery. Your entire civil service will be yes-men in a month or two. One of a civil servants duties is to not carry out unlawful orders. Which will be a bit hard for when everyone is reclassified as schedule f employee and the very first order not complied with means direct job termination. A couple of these and the rest will fall in line to keep their job.

Also to deport someone the destination country has to take them. I can't see that happening for millions and millions of people. So what will happen is all the people on deportation lists will get sent to prison for the crime of being undocumented. The 13th amendment will make them work the exact same jobs as now, just for longer hours and in an orange jump suit.

A third of the country actively wants that and voted for it. Another third didn't even care enough to inform themselves and didn't vote in the first place. It will be on the last third to #resist to make these plans not work.

[Zaydin]

It's only been 2-3 days and I'm already exhausted.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Like, I really enjoy heated debates and discussions. Where we have actual differences of opinion and the best course isn't clear.

But we can't have such discussions any more, at least in politics, because conservatives don't have a coherent ideology with functional principles from which to develop or discuss policy. I've been asking consistently here for years in various threads, on various topics, to get anyone to provide an explanation, but the last user who ever even tried was Skroe. When you can't present an argument I can at least intellectually understand as coherent, if not agree with emotionally, then you just flat-out don't have an argument that supports your views. Period, end discussion. It's that cut and dry.

Like, I've made a hobby of theology for way longer than I've been here as a poster. I nearly had enough credits to minor in theology when I did my History degree (expressed only to show the interest wasn't just casual). Religious discussion is not permitted, and I get why, but just to make the point; I'm perfectly comfortable accepting arguments I don't emotionally agree with. I don't have an issue with anyone having faith (even if I don't), or making arguments from that faith, but the tenets of that faith can and should be held to scrutiny for their internal coherency and validation in your scripture. That's "theology", as a practice.

Sure, off-topic here. I'm not trying to dispute that. My point is even if we take conservativism as a "faith" thing that isn't based on reality alone, it still has to hold to tenets and logic. There has to be something underpinning it. And nobody's been able to explain what that even is; every time we break it down, it comes down to "supporting hierarchical systems that establish in-groups to be protected and out-groups to be harmed". And those distinctions are entirely arbitrary. And because it's arbitrary, that central premise lacks validity; you cannot establish any sense of justness in which groups are "in" and which are "out". And you've gotta, if you want a coherent and understandable system of thought based on justifiable principles.

Conservativism, in all its flavors? Nope.

And just watch; I'm asking again here. Will I get the answer this time? Betting not.

And without that answer, there's just nothing to discuss. They're wrong and their position is based on intentional cruelty, and we should oppose it for the same reason we'd stop a guy beating his wife in the middle of a public park.

They try to pretend to have liberal democracy values, but often end up contradicting themselves on many issues, proving they don't really have any values...

Or so we say.

The reality is we know exactly what they are.

Fascists.

"Rugged individualists" People who are mad at the world, people who think that unless their religious order is enforced over the populace, all of society is degeneracy. But they can't admit they just want to force people to follow dumb fascism or go to prison, our freedoms are enshrined in the constitution, and their fascism goes against everything they CLAIM to stand for. Democracy, liberty, freedom. They fling these words around as if they were sacred, but what they really mean is Power, Deception, Strength, Use of government to silent dissidents.

Already polls about whether or not Republicans think our elections are secure went from the teens percentages, to over 80% after Donald Trump won. They only believe things are fair if THEY win.

They're cheering on ending birthright citizenship, they're cheering on the end of LEGAL immigration into the United States, they're cheering on the open oppression of LGBTQ people and minorities. A Christian pastor pleaded for Donald Trump to show mercy to the weak, sick and poor, the masses who face oppression every day, and she was attacked for it by the MAGA mob.

Cruelty is all they know, it is the center of their ideology. Even on this forum they gloat over people suffering, cheering that others openly agonize about the potential use of government force to suppress their personhood. True evil is being revealed before our eyes, day by day, and they'll deny it every step of the way until the moment when the knife is in our backs and they'll go "Yeah, you were right all along, I just hated woke socialists and wanted them gone". There is no living peacefully with fascists in power, when they seek every day to push the political needle to the point that they're allowed to use the full force of the government to get rid of political rivals.

[Shadowferal]

Trump floats eliminating FEMA so states can ‘take care of their own problems'

Red states are going to pay for voting for this fool. And I wish I had some empathy, but I don’t.

[Cthulhu 2020]

You seriously think there will be tax cuts?

Also energy will NOT be cheaper, the US is already self-sufficient with oil, pumping more oil is not going to happen because the oil companies are not interested in that since that would lower their profits.

They're gonna give the middle class a $200-$300 tax cut that expires in 4 years, and in the same bill give billionaires a permanent 15% tax cut and the dipshits will claim their life is 100000000% better under Trump because of that $200-$300 while the price of groceries doubles from tariffs and our hospitals fill up with bird flu patients.

[Templar 331]

Trump floats eliminating FEMA so states can ‘take care of their own problems'

Red states are going to pay for voting for this fool. And I wish I had some empathy, but I don’t.

Red States: California should take care of it's wildfires with its own money!!

Also Red States: OMG!! WE'VE BEEN HIT WITH A NATURAL DISASTER!! WHERE'S THE FEDERAL MONEY AT!?!? WE NEED HELP!!!

It's a fucking recurring theme with these assholes.