Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Belize]

Hey, don't worry. With the bill they introduced that would abolish OSHA, having to wear PPE will be a thing of the past seeing as there would be no safety systems put in place.

Oh good, I can't wait for the lessons literally learned in blood be relearned in blood yet again.

[Voidwielder]

There are a lot of hacks, frauds, charlatans and other cretins out there who comment on ''geopolitics'' and forecasting but this man has been quite solid for the last 25 years. Interesting read and somewhat beyond the ''current events''.
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/amer...conomic-cycle/

In the United States, a new socio-economic cycle shows its hand, its flaws and its power over time as a president, sometimes heedless of the emerging reality, manages the political system that will govern it and, in turn, be reshaped by it.

It’s important to remember that the president of the United States presides. He does not rule. His power rests in a profound awareness of the spirit of the nation and the forces that will shape it, ranging from the domestic economy to global interests. It is these forces and the president’s grasp of them that define the presidency, but the forces – be it technological innovation or unforeseen economic calamity – are not of the president’s own making. He presides over and facilitates the necessity that emerges and faces the inevitable. President Ronald Reagan politically engineered the financial foundation of our current cycle by creating a climate to increase investment capital and oversaw the founding of a new financial and social order following one of the models that new presidents employ on taking office: the ruthless and even reckless overthrow of the old.

The old order dated back to before World War II. Franklin Roosevelt took office in 1933 amid the Great Depression and the coming of a great war. He did not know how to solve the problem; he just knew that national security required an economic and social shift in American society. He set himself a target, which appeared reckless to his enemies and supporters, of creating a program for ending the Depression. To do that, he had to break the economic orthodoxy that had dominated political thought, an orthodoxy that essentially argued that a balanced budget, among many other things, was the key to prosperity. He undertook what was seen as a wild, haphazard and reckless set of shifts in how the government and the financial system worked. He did not end the Depression right then, but he set the stage for solving it, challenging and wrecking the orthodoxy, and opening the door to a fundamental shift in the U.S. economy that in turn set the stage for reshaping the way the world worked. The opposition was appalled, but the public was relieved that someone had grasped the magnitude of the crisis.

Deliberately or not, President Donald Trump has followed the Roosevelt model. Roosevelt set about signaling that the old order was exhausted and that all that had been solid had to be overturned. He recognized what his opposition did not: that the system was broken and that something had to be done. He faced great opposition, from those who denied that the Great Depression was the result of a systemic failure that would solve itself, from those who thought his plans too mild and from those who thought the intent of the 100 days laudable but were convinced that caution was still essential.

Roosevelt’s solutions were not eternal. They eventually fell with the coming of the cycle ushered in by Reagan, but they saved the country by creating a middle class and financing a global war. Although his opponents never conceded and continued to revile him, Roosevelt and his heirs made no concessions.

Trump is now in his 100-day period. Roosevelt’s goal was to strip the old order of its power to rule by moral principles made obsolete and harmful. The current apparent randomness, unpredictability and recklessness should be seen in this light. Roosevelt’s goal was to shatter the old elite blocking evolution. That is Trump’s goal, albeit expressed radically differently. For Roosevelt, the elite represented the old orthodoxies on economics and the inevitable inequality that followed. Trump’s main antagonist is an ideology, which for the sake of argument I will call hyper egalitarianism, that was, in his mind, demonizing the country and its citizens and imposing an order on cultural institutions and values to solve the inequities of the old order. It was also redefining moral obligations and even medical norms. In a real sense, Trump’s goal is not to restore the country to what it was but to lay a new framework, which, I suspect, he has yet to devise. He is, for now, presiding over apparent disorder rather than aligning with what had been normal.

What will follow is a new economic cycle, shifting now as it has every 50 years. Each cycle was anchored in a new technology based on necessity. Andrew Jackson saw the creation of canals to bind the nation’s economy together. Rutherford B. Hayes presided over the railroad revolution, Roosevelt over the automobile revolution and the emergence of the middle class, and Reagan over the new financial order that would give way to what I call the microchip era. Each of these technologies had its roots in economic and social necessities and was accompanied by many other innovations, but they are symbols of unheard-of solutions that are the essence of America. Crucially, once a president presides over the transformation, the nation is not bound by any president but proceeds to solve and create new problems on its own accord.

The era being created under Trump will also have pivotal technologies reshaping it, many of which I can’t imagine. I’m confident that they will relate to the coming demographic crisis. The number of elderly Americans is growing while birthrates are falling. The elderly need to be taken care of, physically and financially. That means that a revolution in medicine and its understanding is indispensable, not only for certain diseases but also for the structure of life. If life is essential, then a new medical culture and technology will emerge, causing the usual anger and pain. But that is not all that is needed. The declining workforce will need to be supported by new technologies that combine genuine artificial intelligence with a new material science so that the constant reinvention of America, both a cultural and economic necessity, can take place. This will also require a reconsideration of all that was obvious in the past – that immigration is not essential for a shrinking workforce that is supplemented by technology.

The solutions I casually posit may well be wrong, insufficient, insufficiently imaginative or not well thought out. Yet the one thing our history assures is that they will, in due time, be dealt with. It is now the task of the president, as it was of all presidents, to preside over the process, clear the pathway for others to solve problems and duel with the inevitable enemies in battle. Presidents do not rule, but they clear the ground. The historical probability is that consistent successes in cycles since the founding, and allowing for the inevitable conflict, will continue.

[Kaleredar]

There are a lot of hacks, frauds, charlatans and other cretins out there who comment on ''geopolitics'' and forecasting but this man has been quite solid for the last 25 years. Interesting read and somewhat beyond the ''current events''.
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/amer...conomic-cycle/

The flowery drek misses one crucial thing:


Trump is a greedy, self-absorbed moron interested not in the power or hegemony of the United States but of personally profiting off of it by lining his own pockets and the pockets of the uber wealthy. His concern does not extend to the economy and least of all to the American people.

Equating Trump’s self-absorbed quest to line the pockets of the already uber-wealthy with FDR’s creation of a middle class and social safety nets (that the GOP saw fit to erode over the ensuing decades) is one of the worst political takes I’ve seen in a looooong time.

[Edge-]

The flowery pose misses one crucial thing:


Trump is a greedy, self-absorbed moron interested not in the power or hegemony of the United States but of personally profiting off of it by lining his own pockets and the pockets of the uber wealthy. His concern does not extend to the economy and least of all to the American people.

Equating Trump’s self-absorbed quest to line the pockets of the already uber-wealthy with FDR’s creation of a middle class and social safety nets (that the GOP saw fit to erode over the ensuing decades) is one of the worst political takes I’ve seen in a looooong time.

FDR had some big, bold ideas, and a vision.

Donald has big water. Ocean water. And a sharpie.

[Jastall]

There are a lot of hacks, frauds, charlatans and other cretins out there who comment on ''geopolitics'' and forecasting but this man has been quite solid for the last 25 years. Interesting read and somewhat beyond the ''current events''.
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/amer...conomic-cycle/

If Trump were at all interested in casting a new socioeconomic future, he'd have done so during his first term. People like Musk might have such a drive, but Trump is a man of present adulation and validation, not grand future ambitions. The latest tariff stunt is but one showcase of this.

America's stagnant life expectancies also make very much press X for doubt on the particular argument of people living longer, given that by the nature of its unequal healthcare system (which no Republican is interested in changing) any magical new AI-powered anti-aging technologies will be reserved for the wealthy minority to a greater or lesser degree.

[Mayhem]

I have this memory from 2015 when the latest refugee crisis in Europe broke out. Suddenly we had throngs of (mostly Syrian) refugees camping out in Budapest, just waiting for trains to take them to Germany. And after the initial shock, the reaction from folks actually meeting them, such as yours truly passing them every day while commuting, was mostly "poor things", with a side of "have a sandwich". But the reaction from far-flung villages who only saw them on TV was "OMG SCARY BROWN PEOPLE WILL SOMEONE DO SOMETHING!"

Same thing here, it still is. The most anti-immigrant crowds are from rural areas, where they have about zero immigrants. They also always talk of the most livable city in the world as if it was a hell hole ripe with crime and homeless immigrants roaming the streets. Like, it is the most livable city in the world for years in a row, and rural folks say it's worse than ever when we weren't the most livable city. Zero thoughts go through their minds, zero. And if anyone is curious, about 45% of the population have a migrant background.

- - - Updated - - -

So silly for anyone to accept that offer. I'd begrudgingly return to the office and maybe job hunt for a while, wouldn't want to bank on having something lined up before a forced resignation.

Sure, but imagine 2.3 million civil employees would just up and leave without anyone to replace them.

[Belize]

People like Musk might have such a drive,

Absolutely not, people like Musk only care about enriching themselves and playing kingmaker for the power it makes them fill and the void it fills from lacking any real connections.

Musk has never built anything himself, he has no grand view or strategy or planning capabilities, especially not with something as complex as a country's economy.

[Edge-]

https://www.reddit.com/r/labrats/com...nt_to_nsf_pos/

List of words that are apparently "soft banned" as they all fall under the "DEI ban". This can be verified by navigating to the bottom of this document and verifying in Appendix B - https://www.commerce.senate.gov/serv...5-58EEF99750BC

Biases/biased/biased towards is included, which is a core, neutral way of describing many things in science.

"Community diversity" is also banned, for some reason.

"Disability" is apparently banned as well which...is a bit problematic.

"Equity/Equitable/Equality" are also apparently banned.

Female/Females is banned

No mention of "gender" allowed

"hate speech" is similarly apparently verboten

"institutional" has too many syllables and is scary

"political" is uh...erm...well...uh...

"race and ethnicity" and "racial" and "racial diversity" and why would we want to discuss that when we have ONE MASTER RACE or some stupid shit?

"trauma" F in chat for scientists researching traumatic brain injuries and the like, gonna hvae to come up with a whole new lexicon

this is the most retarded shit ever

apparently if your research included the word "female" it was DEI and should be defunded. seriously, republicans are dangerously stupid as a whole

[Breccia]

Female/Females is banned

No mention of "gender" allowed

That's going to be interesting, considering they've already pushed WH directives about your gender being locked at conception. Well, guess we have to throw that out, too.

- - - Updated - - -

Trump says he wants Ukraine's rare earth metals in exchange for further support.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump complained that the U.S. had sent more in military and economic assistance to Ukraine than its European partners, adding, “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things.”

Trump suggested that he’s received word from the Ukrainian government that they’d be willing to make a deal to give the U.S. access to the elements critical to the modern high-tech economy.

“I want to have security of rare earth,” Trump added. “We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.”

"So that's his plan for ending the war?"

No. That's his price for ending the war. He'll defend against unchecked Russian aggression, but only if he's paid.

[Edge-]

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/04/g-s1-...ents-january-6

The FBI on Tuesday handed over a list to the Justice Department of bureau employees who worked on the Jan. 6 Capitol riot investigation — but did not include the individuals' names because of security concerns, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Instead of names, the FBI provided what's known as a unique employee identifiers — in essence an employee ID number, the person said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss personnel matters.

The bureau also submitted each individuals' current title, their title at the time of the relevant investigation, their role in it, the date of the activity and their current office. Information on around 4,000 FBI employees was turned over to the department, the person said.

FBI leadership submitted the information in response to a memo from the Trump Justice Department last week, directing the bureau to identify all current and former FBI personnel who worked on Jan. 6 cases or the prosecution of Hamas leaders last year.

The information is part of an effort to remake the FBI and Department of Justice to serve President Trump's agenda and push out those deemed disloyal. Trump faced off against the Justice Department in a pair of criminal cases over the past couple of years — until those prosecutions were dropped after he won the election.

In the same memo, with the subject line "Terminations," acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove ordered the firing of eight senior FBI officials, leading to panic at the FBI of a possible purge of thousands of agents in retaliation for their work on Capitol riot cases.

Since then, FBI employees were instructed to fill out a survey that would detail their specific role in the investigations.

The knives are out for FBI agents who did their jobs and investigated the cases they were assigned to.

Nobody hates law enforcement like Donald and the Republican party hate law enforcement.

FBI agents filed two separate lawsuits in federal court in Washington, D.C., against the Justice Department, seeking to block it from making public any list of FBI employees or their personal information.

One of the lawsuits was filed by the FBI Agents Association and anonymous agents, which counts the vast majority of the bureau's roughly 15,000 agents as members. The other suit was filed anonymously by a group of nine FBI agents.

Both of the complaints cite concerns about potential retaliation by Jan. 6 defendants against FBI employees who investigated them. Trump pardoned some 1,500 Capitol riot defendants, including individuals convicted of assaulting police.

Because it's highly likely the administration will dox these individuals intentionally to harass them.

[Breccia]

Nobody hates law enforcement like Donald and the Republican party hate law enforcement.

Well, yeah. Trump is a criminal. Of course he hates law enforcement, they tried to make him face consequences for his many crimes.

[Xyonai]

Oh boy I'm sure looking forward to yet another endless middle eastern occupation at the behest of the 'No more forever wars' president.

[Masark]

The planes are now on their way to the extermination camps.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/u...c0d478c2b.html

[uuuhname]

There are a lot of hacks, frauds, charlatans and other cretins out there who comment on ''geopolitics'' and forecasting but this man has been quite solid for the last 25 years. Interesting read and somewhat beyond the ''current events''.
https://geopoliticalfutures.com/amer...conomic-cycle/

LMAO.

I mean, comparing Trump to FDR is acatully genius. where FDR helped create the working class and ushered in a near century of the US being the sole world spanning imperial power. Trump, being the exact opposite in a perfectly symmetrical way; is going to oversee the US's crumbling empire and bring back serfdom!

is that good? eeh the people who clearly pay for this guy to sit on his ass and write this tripe sure think so.

[Edge-]

The planes are now on their way to the extermination camps.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/u...c0d478c2b.html

https://archive.is/KNV0J

archive link

a few bits

In addition, the U.S. flew Indian immigrants back to India on Monday, a second U.S. official said. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public.

I've seen a lot of mixed reactions to Donald from the Indian community in my neck of the woods, including fair bit of support. I'll be curious to see how many folks in the community react to this news, since I don't think Donald has singled out Indians for deportation specifically, yet.

There are more than 725,000 immigrants from India living in the U.S. without authorization, the third most of any country after Mexico and El Salvador, according to the Pew Research Center.

That, I didn't know.

There are approximately 300 service members supporting the holding operations at Guantanamo Bay, and the numbers will fluctuate based on the requirements of the Department of Homeland Security, which is the lead federal agency. At least 230 of those service members are U.S. Marines from the 6th Marine Regiment, who began deploying on Friday.

That...sounds like server understaffing for 30,000 prisoners at the concentration camp.

[Belize]

The planes are now on their way to the extermination camps.

https://www.thestar.com/news/world/u...c0d478c2b.html

Wonder how many American citizens will get caught up in this. We already know there's been a few and it's been like, 2 weeks.

[postman1782]

Such a disingenuous take when restrictions were happening in many blue counties well into 2021.

Lazy.

- - - Updated - - -



Funny you mention OHSA, because when Biden tried to use it as a backdoor for vaccine mandates is when his ratings really began to tank.

And many here had the audacity to say "You don't HAVE to get the vaccine, you can just lose your job instead."

And you still don't get why Dems are so unpopular.

No there wasn't, we were mostly open by the time Joe Biden took office in 2021, in fact, all of the lockdowns ended by June 12th, 2020.

https://stacker.com/society/states-h...d-down-longest

[Polyxo]

https://www.reddit.com/r/labrats/com...nt_to_nsf_pos/

List of words that are apparently "soft banned" as they all fall under the "DEI ban". This can be verified by navigating to the bottom of this document and verifying in Appendix B - https://www.commerce.senate.gov/serv...5-58EEF99750BC

Biases/biased/biased towards is included, which is a core, neutral way of describing many things in science.

"Community diversity" is also banned, for some reason.

"Disability" is apparently banned as well which...is a bit problematic.

"Equity/Equitable/Equality" are also apparently banned.

Female/Females is banned

No mention of "gender" allowed

"hate speech" is similarly apparently verboten

"institutional" has too many syllables and is scary

"political" is uh...erm...well...uh...

"race and ethnicity" and "racial" and "racial diversity" and why would we want to discuss that when we have ONE MASTER RACE or some stupid shit?

"trauma" F in chat for scientists researching traumatic brain injuries and the like, gonna hvae to come up with a whole new lexicon

this is the most retarded shit ever

apparently if your research included the word "female" it was DEI and should be defunded. seriously, republicans are dangerously stupid as a whole

I assume the accepted scientific term in the US is now 'chicks/broads'.

[Edge-]

I assume the accepted scientific term in the US is now 'chicks/broads'.

bitches/hoes in the modern parlance

[Polyxo]

bitches/hoes in the modern parlance

'dames' if you want to be fancy.