Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Voidwielder]

So what steps can the otherwise catatonic Dems take to, well, stop this hostile takeover of the government by Musk? Or the game here is ''let him destroy it all so we can campaign on it''?

[Doomcookie]

Has anyone said, on the record, that Elon Musk has not been granted the proper security clearances on the reverse side? The President sits on top of the declassify and granting security clearances pipeline.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/03/polit...yee/index.html

CNN apparently found an "an official familiar with the matter" that says "Musk has a top secret security clearance." Take with a grain of salt, since it's an anonymous official, and we have only CNN's reputation that they found and correctly identified a relevant official.

I tried to make it further, but I just can't. He's now a federal employee. Today's news goes even more granular on naming him a "special government employee." So please, if there is something outstanding that you're concerned about, say that one federal employee is advising on matters to the President that a different federal employee used to do. You must have seen by now that I don't particularly favor unelected and nameless members of the government bureaucracy compared to named members that were recently in the private sector.

(I fully expect the permanent bureaucracy to do its own war of misinformation and doxxing to assert its (supposed) independence. The latest I saw was the leaking of the names and ages of DOGE workers.)

That's a lot of words to explain why you support government corruption.

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Yeah, I'm going to need a source on this. His exact designation was reported on today, sure. If your entire argument rests on saying Trump did it late, then I'd have to see some documentation. The DOGE EO was January 27th, 2025, so it's likely that he was operating under the authority of the Executive Office of the President (in the now-renamed "USDS") since that date.

Yeah, it was provided.

And, you are lying.

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The same logic of accusing somebody that just said he likes waffles of hating pancakes.

People literally questioned the legality, so they should expect to receive an answer on the legality if they're partially wrong or completely wrong.

No it's not.

You defended corruption.

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I'm absolutely concerned that he might self-enrich and troll too hard and make flippant decisions. Some of that can be reversed, too.

It doesn't exclude my concern as stated, and unaddressed by you: The executive branch got a new leader a couple weeks ago, and the federal bureaucracy ultimately reports to him. The way it's been talked about, it sounded like people expected to suffer Trump for 4 years, but for him to be denied from fulfilling any of the campaign promises that are well within his remit. In fact, the ultimate measure of Trump is if he manages to accomplish most of what he set out to do, and the result is a weak economy and a disgruntled populace.

I do expect some government sabotage. In fact, a majority of this forum would like nothing less than for government bureaucrats subverting the President's agenda, since they see such subversion as moral and averting disaster.

I'll agree with you that the private computers should be examined by security professionals for dealing with sensitive data.

You must have me confused with another poster that asserted that everything legal is good. You literally can't correct misinformation on here without someone putting words in your mouth.

No you're not.

You just lied for him.

That's not concern.

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You can check out how much money USAID wasted on projects in Afghanistan, for yourself. This is only up to 2015 and highlights only one country in the world. Have they also done some good? Possibly, but to act like they are beyond reproach is nonsense. This level of waste is staggering.


https://projects.propublica.org/graphics/afghan

Trump had the biggest budgets of all time.

Can you provide a single comment of yours where you condemned him?

[Slirith]

So what steps can the otherwise catatonic Dems take to, well, stop this hostile takeover of the government by Musk? Or the game here is ''let him destroy it all so we can campaign on it''?

Let's not kid ourselves, it will be this 100%.

[Shadowferal]

Let's not kid ourselves, it will be this 100%.

*shrugs*
It's going to be that no matter what. Case in point, Nebraska’s beef industry is toast because most work is done by immigrants. And Nebraska knew it when they voted overwhelmingly for Trump.

[Corvus]

El Salvador has offered to take 'dangerous criminals' from the US, including us citizens, and shove them into its notorious mega-jail, and Rubio thinks its a good idea.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jn5291p52o

[Captain N]

El Salvador has offered to take 'dangerous criminals' from the US, including us citizens, and shove them into its notorious mega-jail, and Rubio thinks its a good idea.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0jn5291p52o

So surely a 34 times convicted Felon found liable for rape who defrauds his employees would be considered dangerous?

[Malkiah]

On a more serious note, I think we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the American Republic.

i think it will depend on the US tendency to flip-flop between parties in elections, and i think this for two main reasons:
1. you can't really do a military coup or declare yourself dictator in the US, because that would require the whole of the military going along with being utilized against the country and despite every aspect of stupid on display i think as of 2025 that wouldn't happen, at least not in a full scale occupation way.
the mechanisms of how society operates in the US are just too disparate right now, it would be exceedingly difficult to effectively lock down control over food supply or other essential goods/services that basically dictate people's survival since there's no system in place for the government to control any of that.
in order to set up that kind of control you'd need large scale backing of arms, and... back to the military thing again.

2. even rampant psychos who want to take over a country need time to cement power and establish control, and the 2/4 year election cycle is highly disruptive to that sort of ideological continuity. that's a double-edged sword in that it stymies progress, but to a degree also buffers against regression.

if you look back at recent US history it's astounding to think that democrats had majorities in the house and senate unbroken from 1955 to 1981, and no party has held both for more than 6 years since then.
i think that if that trend continues then on a bureaucratic level you're going to keep having a tug-of-war between republican fuckery and democratic reversion to the mid 20th century status quo, though of course how much fuckery and how much attendant reversion takes place is anyone's guess.

i don't have any inclination to wave away danger or ignore warning signs but i also don't have a fetish for being terrified, what i see right now is a country in a slow motion stumble: will it fall? will it recover? in 4 years if republicans win the presidency again i'll be right there with you on the street corner with the sandwich board.

[Nymrohd]

So what steps can the otherwise catatonic Dems take to, well, stop this hostile takeover of the government by Musk? Or the game here is ''let him destroy it all so we can campaign on it''?

Given that the GOP controls everything, I don't know how it is on Dems. It is clear they've moved judicially as much as they can but I don't see what they can do otherwise

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Let's not kid ourselves, it will be this 100%.

Can they do something?

[Belize]

@Endus

I take it back, I was right about Ford being a vaguely human shaped homunculus made from leftover slug parts.

[postman1782]

@Endus

I take it back, I was right about Ford being a vaguely human shaped homunculus made from leftover slug parts.

Probably because of the pause.

[Belize]

Probably because of the pause.

Fuck the pause, this should be a wake up call to decouple from the U.S. and Musk. The pause should just be a head start to get the groundwork down.

[minteK917]

Given that the GOP controls everything, I don't know how it is on Dems. It is clear they've moved judicially as much as they can but I don't see what they can do otherwise

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Can they do something?

They cant and even if they could they fucking shouldnt. Im so tired of this shit blaming the dems for everything. 76 millions people knew his plans, he was public about it talkong about it everywhere, 76 million people did this, not any incomptency from the dems, not sleepy joe, not kamala, not trans people.

At this point your retards have to feel the consequences of their vote. If I was an elected dem, id look at my fellow dem and who ever is not going to reelection vote yes to most bad idea. To make sure people see the consequences of their actions and stop being saved last second by john mccain and mike pence type of people, enough of your country holding by a thread and the dems taking some blame that they arent fixing that thread hard enough while half your voter population are trying all they can to cut and burn the fucking thread.

And if you did not vote you were.complicit, you heard everything trump promised like everyone else, enough of this baby shit.

[tehdang]

They cant and even if they could they fucking shouldnt. Im so tired of this shit blaming the dems for everything. 76 millions people knew his plans, he was public about it talkong about it everywhere, 76 million people did this, not any incomptency from the dems, not sleepy joe, not kamala, not trans people.

At this point your retards have to feel the consequences of their vote. If I was an elected dem, id look at my fellow dem and who ever is not going to reelection vote yes to most bad idea. To make sure people see the consequences of their actions and stop being saved last second by john mccain and mike pence type of people, enough of your country holding by a thread and the dems taking some blame that they arent fixing that thread hard enough while half your voter population are trying all they can to cut and burn the fucking thread.

And if you did not vote you were.complicit, you heard everything trump promised like everyone else, enough of this baby shit.

"He said his plans, and still the American people voted for him, so they're going to see the consequences of their vote." It sounds like Democracy to me.

Democrats had control of Congress from 2020-2022 and could've started curtailing the Executive's ability to unilaterally levy tariffs. They could've pointed out all the cronyism and patronage schemes in departments like USAID, and sought to reform it. They could've done Biden's belated 2024 border enforcement measures back in 2020, instead of having Biden reap the political consequences of the largest immigration surge in US history. These were real issues that Democrats could've taken away from Republicans. Now, Republicans get to do it. And Democrats are left defending millions of American taxpayer dollars funding trans organizations in Guatemala and Serbian workplace DEI. Democrats had an opportunity to bring attention to and fix DEI abuses, like the FAA hiring scandal of the past decade.

They failed, and they don't like who got put in charge to change it. The solution is competence, and the advantage is that nobody turns to incompetence to fix it.

[Doomcookie]

"He said his plans, and still the American people voted for him, so they're going to see the consequences of their vote." It sounds like Democracy to me.

Democrats had control of Congress from 2020-2022 and could've started curtailing the Executive's ability to unilaterally levy tariffs. They could've pointed out all the cronyism and patronage schemes in departments like USAID, and sought to reform it. They could've done Biden's belated 2024 border enforcement measures back in 2020, instead of having Biden reap the political consequences of the largest immigration surge in US history. These were real issues that Democrats could've taken away from Republicans. Now, Republicans get to do it. And Democrats are left defending millions of American taxpayer dollars funding trans organizations in Guatemala and Serbian workplace DEI. Democrats had an opportunity to bring attention to and fix DEI abuses, like the FAA hiring scandal of the past decade.

They failed, and they don't like who got put in charge to change it. The solution is competence, and the advantage is that nobody turns to incompetence to fix it.

That's a weird way to explain why you lied.

You're blaming Democrats for your decision to defend a fascist.

[Kathandira]

As we have seen so far, this administration is shaping up to be just like the last time Trump won. Total whiplash, and mass uncertainty of the truth.

For those who feel like this chaos is driving them crazy, remember, that is the point. See video below:

https://youtube.com/shorts/LqkSNovrb...qjEoOp9ELIrk6Z

[Canpinter]

As we have seen so far, this administration is shaping up to be just like the last time Trump won. Total whiplash, and mass uncertainty of the truth.

For those who feel like this chaos is driving them crazy, remember, that is the point. See video below:

https://youtube.com/shorts/LqkSNovrb...qjEoOp9ELIrk6Z

Great to know being stressed out is actively helping the fascists, Christ this country sucks.

[Kathandira]

Great to know being stressed out is actively helping the fascists, Christ this country sucks.

It felt like confirmation bias when I saw that video. I wish it really were.

[Templar 331]

"He said his plans, and still the American people voted for him, so they're going to see the consequences of their vote." It sounds like Democracy to me.

Only when your guy wins does it sound like Democracy to you. Any other time it's "THE ELECTION WAS RIGGED!!!!"

Democrats had control of Congress from 2020-2022 and could've started curtailing the Executive's ability to unilaterally levy tariffs.

1. Just because Republicans like to diminish the powers of the incoming party doesn't mean it's a good thing to do.
2. Any measures they could do would immediately be undone by the incoming Republican lead Congress.
3. Any measures they could have done would be expanded by Republicans against the next Democrat President.

They could've pointed out all the cronyism and patronage schemes in departments like USAID, and sought to reform it.

Are there any "cronyism and patronage schemes" going on or are you just sucking shit out of Trump's ass? And don't try to gaslight us into thinking Trump let Musk invade the USAID and Treasury Department to fix any wrong doings. They went in to steal. Nothing more.

They could've done Biden's belated 2024 border enforcement measures back in 2020, instead of having Biden reap the political consequences of the largest immigration surge in US history.

People want into our country. How is this a bad thing? Why do you hate people from other countries so much? And don't play it off like you want them to come in legally, because you don't.

These were real issues that Democrats could've taken away from Republicans.

To busy fixing all the other shit that's been fucked by the last Trump Presidency. That and all the MAGA traitors actively working against this country's interest from INSIDE the Capital building just so they can sit back and point at Biden for not getting anything done and oh hey isn't that what you're doing right now? Funny how if you just sit back and throw mud at someone trying to clean a house they can't seem to get anything clean. And then you people vote in the mudslingers thinking they know how to clean the mud dripping off of their hands out of the carpet.

Now, Republicans get to do it. And Democrats are left defending millions of American taxpayer dollars funding trans organizations in Guatemala and Serbian workplace DEI.

More bullshit from Trump's ass you keep spewing.

Democrats had an opportunity to bring attention to and fix DEI abuses, like the FAA hiring scandal of the past decade.

I get you don't like women, foreigners, trans, gays, minorities, poor people, etc., but that doesn't mean you can make up some bullshit about a subject you didn't know Trump was going to make up 3 weeks ago. There wasn't DEI abuse. It didn't happen.

They failed, and they don't like who got put in charge to change it. The solution is competence, and the advantage is that nobody turns to incompetence to fix it.

Except in America where we vote them into office to fuck up it up because a third of our country would rather live without any government.

[Edge-]

That's a weird way to explain why you lied.

You're blaming Democrats for your decision to defend a fascist.

Note - it's never the fault of Donald or people voting for him. It's always the fault of Democrats and their voters for letting it happen.

[Doomcookie]

Note - it's never the fault of Donald or people voting for him. It's always the fault of Democrats and their voters for letting it happen.

I'm just happy his own old comments will forever prove him to be a liar.

All he has to do, is explain when he stopped lying, and show evidence that he did actually stop lying.