Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Draco-Onis]

You zoomed way past idiocracy. Idiocracy, people were just stupid. They weren't evil or abusive or mean. President Camacho couldn't figure out how to save the crops, but was willing to listen to people smarter than he was who thought they'd figured out how to fix it, especially once they demonstrated their idea worked.

President Camacho was a better President than Donald Trump, and it isn't even a close running. I'd rather live in Idiocracy's world than the modern USA. Everyone around me might be an idiot, but they're nice idiots. I'd take a neighbourhood surrounded by those kinds of idiots than MAGA-hat-wearing Nazi dorks any day.

In the same situation Donald Trump would call the smartest person on earth woke and have him executed.

[Poopymonster]

I swear to god, the leaded gasoline fumes from the 50s-70s made an entire generation of Americans lose their everfucking minds.

Let us not forget lead was in paint too.
Yummy yummy wall candy.

[Iphie]

yeah...my bingo card is useless now:

NRA opposes transgender gun ban

I gotta admit this came so far out of the left field that I have to wonder if we are on the same planet...

[btlcryct]

Greenland/Canada/Panama/Venezuela/the moon, etc. invasion incoming?

President Donald Trump just signed an executive order in the Oval Office to restore the “Department of War” as a secondary title for the Defense Department.

“I think it’s a much more appropriate name, especially in light of where the world is right now. We have the strongest military in the world,” Trump said before signing the order.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who joined the president in the Oval Office, said the name change is “not just about renaming, it’s about restoring.” Hegseth said the military will “go on offense, not just on defense” and, reflected in the name change, the country will “raise up warriors, not just defenders.”

[Draco-Onis]

yeah...my bingo card is useless now:

NRA opposes transgender gun ban

I gotta admit this came so far out of the left field that I have to wonder if we are on the same planet...

Marjorie Taylor Green and Thomas Massie are fighting Trump over Epstein more than Chuck Schummer and Hakeem Jeffries who are sending "strongly worded letters". We left old earth a long time ago even bizarro world can't contain the insanity in this reality.

[gondrin]

yeah...my bingo card is useless now:

NRA opposes transgender gun ban

I gotta admit this came so far out of the left field that I have to wonder if we are on the same planet...

The reasoning behind why they don't want the ban is suspect. They honestly don't care if transgendered people aren't able to own a firearm. It is because they don't want the same reason Trump is trying to use to ban transgendered from getting a firearm to be used against Conservatives or anyone else they tend to agree with. Trump is using "mental illness" and trying to define transgenderism as a mental illness.

The problem becomes, who decided this? Who decides what is classified as a mental illness? I wouldn't trust Trump, RFK Jr or anyone else on his administration because they could label any group that they perceive as an enemy as having some form of mental illness.

Granted, transgenderism is a form of body or gender dysmorphia in the sense that what your "inner image" of yourself doesn't match the outside. But that is extremely broad and is also suspect of being bad science.

If any Trump supporter doesn't want to be called a nazi or a fascist, they need to demand Trump actively stop doing the things that Nazi Germany actively did. Nazi Germany actively declared certain groups as having a "mental illness" or something that would basically take their rights away.

[Breccia]

The reasoning behind why they don't want the ban is suspect. They honestly don't care if transgendered people aren't able to own a firearm. It is because they don't want the same reason Trump is trying to use to ban transgendered from getting a firearm to be used against Conservatives or anyone else they tend to agree with. Trump is using "mental illness" and trying to define transgenderism as a mental illness.

And let's be honest, the one group that should be the most concerned about being called mentally ill are the people hiding in bunkers with MREs and ten guns.

[postman1782]

Lead water pipes.

We still have those everywhere.

[gondrin]

"Every accusation is a confession."

Trump's attack dog Pulte who has accused a current Fed Governor, Lisa Cook, Democrat members of Congress and other Democrat officials across the country has parents that pretty much did the exact same thing.

If we are being fair and going after all crime, why isn't his parents being investigated and charged with mortgage fraud?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...02f6fd8da&ei=9

President Donald Trump's Federal Housing Finance Agency director Bill Pulte has emerged as an "attack dog" who has filed a series of complaints against various politicians and public servants Trump opposes, accusing them of mortgage fraud. His latest target is Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, whom he claims took "primary residence" status on two different properties at the same time — and Trump's Justice Department is now pursuing a criminal investigation of the matter.

A new investigation by Reuters reveals that Pulte's father and stepmother are doing the exact same thing.

"Mark and Julie Pulte, the father and stepmother of Bill Pulte, President Donald Trump’s appointee as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, since 2020 have claimed so-called 'homestead exemptions' for residences in wealthy neighborhoods in both Michigan and Florida, according to the records," reported Marisa Taylor, Chris Prentice, and Mike Colias. "The exemption is meant to give a discount to homeowners on taxes for properties they use as their primary residence."

Furthermore, when Reuters started asking questions, the Pultes' tax breaks in Michigan were abruptly revoked.

"Local tax officials in both states told Reuters that claiming more than one home as a primary residence isn’t generally allowed in their jurisdictions and could be punishable by fines or back taxes," said the report. "After Reuters contacted tax officials in Bloomfield Township, Michigan, to inquire about the dual claims, Darrin Kraatz, director of assessing, on Thursday said the township 'as of today' would revoke the exemption on the Pultes’ residence there."

This isn't the first time Pulte, who has more broadly taken an aggressive stance against the Fed, has faced such scrutiny. Last month, reporting revealed Pulte's wife donated half a million dollars to a super PAC backing Trump, routed improperly through a Delaware shell company — although the Federal Election Commission did not find a criminal offense when it investigated.

[Edge-]

This isn't the first time Pulte, who has more broadly taken an aggressive stance against the Fed, has faced such scrutiny. Last month, reporting revealed Pulte's wife donated half a million dollars to a super PAC backing Trump, routed improperly through a Delaware shell company — although the Federal Election Commission did not find a criminal offense when it investigated.

my favorite part is how they're basically all career criminals lmao

[Cthulhu 2020]

ROFLMAO

"Ah yes Trump was a pedophile and had lots of sex with 14 year olds because he was an FBI informant tasked with taking down Jeffrey Epstein, that's why his name is all over Jeffrey Epstein's notes and why so many women name him as their rapist when they were kids!"

[Xyonai]

That's the dumbest, most desperate excuse I've ever fuckin' heard.

[Dontrike]

ROFLMAO

"Ah yes Trump was a pedophile and had lots of sex with 14 year olds because he was an FBI informant tasked with taking down Jeffrey Epstein, that's why his name is all over Jeffrey Epstein's notes and why so many women name him as their rapist when they were kids!"

Goes right along with "Trump is taking down the Deep State!"

I actually did know of someone on a men's health forum that believed in the Deep State.

[Breccia]

NYTimes OP ED by Jason Furman, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers from 2013 to 2017.

The job slowdown in the past few months is significant and concerning. Normally it would be more than sufficient reason for the Federal Reserve to slash interest rates in an effort to stave off what could even be the beginning of a recession. Unfortunately, these are not normal times, and while the Fed can help a little, it cannot do too much. The only real solution can come from the institution that caused some of the problems: the White House.

The economy has added an average of about 29,000 jobs per month over the past three months. There are different ways to compare that to recent years, but that average is below the same period last year (82,000 a month) and well below the roughly 168,000 per month the economy added last year. On a percentage basis, it is below the growth rate of any other three months outside of recessionary periods (the recessions, their lead-ups and their aftermaths) in over 60 years. One can never be confident on the basis of three months of data, which is subject to revision, but this and a range of other measures confirm the job market is stalling.

This should lead the Fed to cut rates by something like 25 basis points at the next meeting, but no one — least of all the Fed — should be under the illusion that it can or should do much more than that.

The biggest reason the Fed cannot solve the labor slowdown is that its tools can help spur labor demand by getting businesses to invest and hire more — but the labor problem is much more about labor supply. Specifically, it’s about a marked downshift in labor force growth because of reduced immigration.

Now, we know Trump has some options, such as forcing the sick and the old to work in factories for their Medicaid. And yes, deplorables like @tehdang voted for that proudly, as demonstrated by his refusal to comment otherwise. I guess the America they want is for their parents to toil in physical labor for poverty wages, as the economy crumbles.

Everyone knows the bad job numbers are real, including Trump and Trump supporters. Everyone knows the job numbers are so bad that Powell will have to cut rates, which Trump has said he wants, but with high inflation could not be done without bad job numbers. So, we know this is what Trump wanted. Or, he's incompetent, senile, and/or retarded and nothing he does has any reasonable plan. It's intentional, or it's accidental. And we know this because even Trump is telling people to wait a year for things to get better.

Things got where they are from 7 months of Trump. Let's see how bad they are in another 12.

[Rasulis]

Everyone knows the bad job numbers are real, including Trump and Trump supporters. Everyone knows the job numbers are so bad that Powell will have to cut rates, which Trump has said he wants, but with high inflation could not be done without bad job numbers. So, we know this is what Trump wanted. Or, he's incompetent, senile, and/or retarded and nothing he does has any reasonable plan. It's intentional, or it's accidental. And we know this because even Trump is telling people to wait a year for things to get better.

I don't think it is guaranteed that Powell will cut rates. Although the economy is showing signs of weakening, it is still decent. On the other hand, inflation is, or was, still higher than the Fed would have liked. I think the inflation report coming out next week will be the deciding factor.

[Dontrike]

ROFLMAO

"Ah yes Trump was a pedophile and had lots of sex with 14 year olds because he was an FBI informant tasked with taking down Jeffrey Epstein, that's why his name is all over Jeffrey Epstein's notes and why so many women name him as their rapist when they were kids!"

Had to respond again, found a video of it where Johnson also says "Trump has great sympathy for those women."

[Fugus]

I don't think it is guaranteed that Powell will cut rates. Although the economy is showing signs of weakening, it is still decent. On the other hand, inflation is, or was, still higher than the Fed would have liked. I think the inflation report coming out next week will be the deciding factor.

Sad thing is, I would have trouble justifying cutting rates regardless because you know Trump would use that to double down on what’s he’s doing and blame the fed for it because they actually did something instead of holding steady. Any movement on the part of the fed would be pointed to as an excuse and you know he would push it further with all the damage being that much more because of it. If they blink before he does, they get the blame and still don’t fix anything.

[Mayhem]

Ideocracy was once a comedy, then it became a warning, a documentary, and now a hopeful vision for a better tomorrow.

Fuck I hate this timeline.

Thanks to you, I spilled coffee over my keyboard.

[PACOX]

These dumbasses are going to try to ban Tylenol.

An upcoming report from the US Department of Health and Human services is likely to link the development of autism in children to a common over-the-counter pain reliever, and it will reference a form of the vitamin folic acid as a way to reduce symptoms of autism in some people, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The report is said to highlight the pain reliever Tylenol, when taken during pregnancy, along with low levels of folate, a vitamin that is important for proper development of a baby’s brain and spine, as potential causes of autism, according to the Wall Street Journal. It will also name folinic acid, a form of folate also known as leucovorin, as a way to decrease symptoms of autism.

Folate supplements are already recommended for women during pregnancy to prevent neural tube defects, such as spina bifida, in infants.

[Breccia]

I think the inflation report coming out next week will be the deciding factor.

It should be, yes, and the Fed has an increasingly tough pair of jobs. They want to spur job creation, but keep inflation under control. That was hard enough already, since Trump made inflation high and jobs flat. Now, based on the trend over the last three months, inflation is even higher and jobs are even worse. Bridging the gap is objectively harder.

Speaking of harder, it's even harder to defend Trump on FOX News *ding*

Host: Go ahead and get your hot take. It’s not the number you wanted or expected. How come?

Kevin Hassett, Director of the National Economic Council: Right, well, one of the things we know is that they’ve been really at BLS struggling with bad response rates. And Goldman Sachs put out a study yesterday that said that they’d been messing up the August seasonals so much that over the last 10 to 15 years they’ve tended to have to revise up the number by around almost 70,000 jobs when they get the new final surveys.

Host: So it’s their fault?

Hassett: And so while I’m saying that this number, we expect this number will be revised up, that’s sped the pattern over and over. And if that happens, that’ll be consistent with all the other indicators we’re seeing. Industrial production is at an all-time high. Capital spending is up 8% over the first half of the year after it being mostly flat under Joe Biden. And also within the jobs report we got today, there are a lot of really interesting and positive patterns.

Quick note: what the host did not ask is "Why is capital spending up 8% if we see no job growth and layoffs? Is it because tariffs made things more expensive?"

Hessett: Thing one is that all the job creation is private sector job creation. Government workers are actually, their employment declined by a hundred thousand. All of the job creation is native born workers, whereas about half of the job creation under Biden was foreign-born workers. And so there are lot of real positive things to see. And the final thing is that the wage numbers are fantastic. The wage growth is almost at 4%. Which means that the typical wage earner in America right now has gotten a $500 raise already because of Donald Trump’s policies.

"Sorry" to interrupt again, but half of these forums have already posted the $2,400 figure that Trump's tariffs will cost the American people. $500 won't cover that. Feels like a strange anti-flex.

I will also add wage growth is down to 4%, not up. Wage growth has dropped while Trump is in the WH.

Host: The revisions for June and July, collectively, were lower. And you’re saying the revisions for next month will come back. We’ll see whether or not that’s the case.

Hessett: Yeah, and there’s another big revision next week, but the point is that these numbers, the reason why they’re getting revised so much is that the numbers are based on surveys and people are kind of not filling out the surveys until the last minute, and so the share of surveys that have actually been filled out at the beginning of the month is way lower than it used to be.

In other words, Team Trump is desperately cherry-picking and throwing out random numbers hoping to distract from how bad these results are for their intentional direct actions. Hessett avoided talking about rising prices and other recession warnings, no surprise there, but fumbled around with capital spending and wage growth because he was frantically looking for any number greater than zero.

And he's not alone. Also on FOX News was Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer *ding*

Host: Do tariffs have anything to do with this slowing job market?”

Chavez-DeRemer: Tariffs are working. I’ve been on the road, as you know, in 32 states out of my 50-state tour. Tariffs are working. How do I know this? Because companies are reinvesting in the American workforce.

We’re seeing the consumer confidence up.

Interrupting again: no, we're not. It's been slowly but steadily dropping. Chavez-DeRemer is lying.

Chavez-DeRemer: We’re seeing real wages up year over year, almost 4%. Real wages are up. Blue collar boom—I talk about it. It seems like something that is rhetoric, but it’s not because that’s what we’re seeing on the ground. Blue-collar wages are up 1.4%.

Why would you brag about wages being up 4% and blue collar wages only up 1.4%? That's fucking stupid. You're telling the people who voted Trump into office that his rich friends are getting the benefits.

Incidentally the Dept of Labor is really pushing "blue collar wages are rising in the first 5 months of Trump's term faster than any other first five months" to gloss over Obama and Biden taking over after W and Trump did tons of damage. That's standard operations for them, but still disingenuous.

Chavez-DeReme: Unemployment is still holding steady. Statistically, it’s non-existent.

It's rising and she knows it. This is another objective lie. US unemployment rate near 4-year high as labor market hits stall speed

Chavez-DeRemer: So that’s the key to the American people is that we’re leaning in, we’re doing everything we can for this workforce. And now this is one more thing that the Fed can do, and Jerome Powell hasn’t done his job, and the president—that’s why he’s been so vocal about this. We need those interest rates down.

Host: Would you admit to being just a little disappointed by this weakening job market?

Chavez-DeRemer: Well, 22,000 jobs underperformed just a bit, but it’s still in the positive.

Wow. First of all, dumb fucking thing to say when a month was just revised negative. Second of all, if the best you have to say is "it was above zero" you need to rethink going on camera. This is likely a Team Trump defense because Trump is so used to saying "hey, at least my penis has any length at all".

Chavez-DeRemer: Almost a half a million jobs have been created since the president took office.

Again, brain dead fucking stupid response. Remember all those BLS numbers I keep quoting? The ones we've been discussing for decades? 500k jobs in seven months is just over 70k a month, which is low. The average job growth/month, except for 2020, from 1971 to now is 153k. From 2010 to now is 228k. Team Trump is bragging about job numbers half to one-third normal. She should be concerned that the predictions were below average, and then more concerned that they undershot expectations.

But at least it's not negative, right?

Chavez-DeRemer: It’s gonna take some time. But again, when everybody’s working for the American people and the American worker and somebody chooses not to, and they’re instrumental in those decisions that affect the market, that affect wage growth, that affect all of those things—do your job. And I know that the president’s not gonna let up on this, and neither am I.

Also missing from the interviews: what, exactly, Powell should be doing, and why. Yelling "Do your job!" isn't really, you know, helpful. Now, I assume from context they mean "drop rates". It'd be nice if they said "he should drop rates to spur job growth"...but that would require them admit job growth is low. Until they are actually clear, they're basically announcing that Powell will be an excuse for their poor results.

And it's so obvious, not even FOX News is buying it.

Host: The manufacturing jobs in this latest report, down twelve thousand. Don’t think the government, the president wants to see that, does he?

Remember that "at least it's positive" from earlier? Heh. FOX News fucking stomped on that claim.

Chavez-DeRemer: No, absolutely not. What he wants to see is the reinvestment in the workforce and manufacturing, and construction. That’s where we need the skilled training.

I'm curious where this training will come from after Trump tried to dismantle the Dept of Education.

Chavez-DeRemer: That’s why I’m on the road to understand that we’re going to make America skilled again. So as these companies continue to invest, eight trillion is already being invested-

Citation needed.

-and we’re gonna see more and more of that. We’re gonna need that workforce so those job numbers go up. I’ll be working with our state partners and I know I’ve said this over and over again. We’re going to get those funds to our respective state partners, be the best federal partner we can be so that the workforce is ready to go as soon as they are needed. And so yes, it’s gonna take some time.

This job, it takes hard work, the president leading the way, and we’re gonna continue to lean in and make America, you know, skilled again. And what I do love to see is those hundred thousand jobs of federal workers that have gone down, and we are going to grow at the private sector jobs. Eighty-four percent of the jobs out of the half a million are from the private sector, and we want to continue to see that investment by those businesses.

I see we're going with "we're helping the private sector, by firing government workers to make them take private jobs". Which is...a take that exists.

So there you have it, Team Trump goes on camera to say "there is no bad news, everything is fine, but give us some time to fix it, it's Powell's fault, and at least it's above zero". Desperation. Panic. Deflection. Excuses. Weak, weak excuses. And most importantly, nothing but poor results they feel the need to defend, because even as they say they're not bad, they are.

Team Trump is made of indiviuals with low IQ. But, hey, at least it's still in the positive.