Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[gondrin]

But, they won't see it as such. They are cheering record money spent on Black Friday, but ignore less items were sold.

I wish it was just this administration doing this but it is a business thing. I see it at my work constantly.

The corporate office looks at gross sales then items sold then customer count. Which is backwards. It should be customer count, items sold and then gross sales.

Right now, the business is generally down over the year as far as customer count goes along with item count but sales are either the same as last year or up a bit. Which means less people are spending more. And the last thing any business that deals with non-specialized product wants is fewer people buying less but paying the same as before. Because that means that if people start to shop elsewhere, it will hit the business far harder than it normally would.

And here is a fun fact. The price of your groceries is going to go up about 25% on average over the next year. Because a lot of the food people buy or the raw materials to make the food and/or packaging aren't grown or manufactured in the US. And no amount of tariffs will cause those businesses to make those things in the US.

And that is what is being tariffed. The raw materials or raw foodstuffs.

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https://www.npr.org/2025/12/04/nx-s1...-lgbtq-inmates



These people should all be allowed to be publicly abused for the rest of their lives for the harms they are trying to do to others, especially vulnerable folks.

Vile bigots deserve nothing but hatred and abuse.

All because they hate transgendered folks but protect pedophiles. They absolutely want transgendered folks to die so doing this is par for the course.

[Elder Millennial]

everything[/I] on trump, including an all but guaranteed conviction on the documents case, but ran out of time before he could use it. Will be fun to watch this explode like a jelly donut in the face of that drama queen.

The problem with these hearing is that the way they are structured are intentionally designed to allow whichever party is chairing the hearing to absolutely railroad the person testifying.

Do not expect Smith to be able to actually explain himself or to be able to reveal anything.

The Republicans will posture a bunch, shout at Smith, then the Dems will try to ask him questions, the chair will cut him off saying his answers are not pertinent to be subject of the hearing, that will devolve into a shouting match and some monologues between the Dems and the Republicans and in the end we will have learned nothing, and Smith will have had to put up with some of them dumbest people on Earth shouting conspiracy theories and political talking points at him for hours on end without him being allowed to actually get a word in.

[fwc577]

When we bought our Sleep Number, the company offered no interest if paid in full Within 24 months.

Yup. That's what mine was as well. Sadly, it's only 12 mo no interest now. After I made that post, I decided to go look at the new heated models because my bed is getting pretty old and I'd like to get a new one before this one eventually pops (it popped once while under warranty and I got a free air chamber replacement, so it's only a matter of time, imo, lol).

[gondrin]

Well, the Trump-Epstein Ballroom is going swimmingly. By swimmingly, I mean extremely poorly. Like everyone Trump hires, he now fired the architect on the project.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/polit...5702ec81&ei=15

President Donald Trump fired his own ballroom architect after clashing with an architect over expanding the project.

The boutique architecture firm led by James McCrery II was reportedly replaced after three months when questions surfaced over whether the group could manage the large-scale plan, The Washington Post reported Thursday.

"It is unclear whether McCrery stepped back voluntarily, but the men parted on good terms and remain so, according to one of the people familiar with the project, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations," The Post reported.

Trump apparently wanted to increase the size and scope of the project, "but it was McCrery’s firm’s small workforce and inability to hit deadlines that became the decisive factor in him leaving," a source told the outlet.

The president has decided that architect Shalom Baranes will take over the job. Baranes' design firm has designed and renovated government buildings in Washington, D.C. for decades and has taken on projects that include the main Treasury building near the White House and the General Services Administration headquarters.

The $300 million ballroom is one of the largest renovations expected at the White House and follows the demolition of the East Wing, the historic corridor and location of the former first lady's office. Trump has also signaled plans to renovate the National Mall.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Man that's crazy they've reopened the investigation into the J6 DC pipe bomber? Crazy timing since MTG has flipped against Trump.

[PhaelixWW]

Man that's crazy they've reopened the investigation into the J6 DC pipe bomber? Crazy timing since MTG has flipped against Trump.

What is up with you and weird conspiracy theory posts lately?

[Cthulhu 2020]

What is up with you and weird conspiracy theory posts lately?

Kash Patel literally talked about it today? Like it's not some huge story but c'mon.

Like we've got New York Mayor Eric Adams making it illegal to divest Israeli investments in New York city weeks before Mamdani takes office, as well as making it illegal to protest against Israel and people on this forum are like "Nah Israel totally doesn't have our politicians' balls in a vice grip THAT'S JUST A CONSPIRACY if Snopes or WaPo doesn't tell me about it"

[gondrin]

What is up with you and weird conspiracy theory posts lately?

Not an actual conspiracy seeing as the administration was actively reopening it.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/04/fbi-...5128c02b9e6a68

The FBI on Thursday morning arrested a suspect accused of planting pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic party headquarters in Washington, D.C., prior to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, the Trump administration said.

The suspect, Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old resident of Woodbridge, Virginia, is charged with “use of an explosive device,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a press briefing Thursday afternoon.

Now, do I believe this person committed the crime? Not at the moment. However, if he did, I wonder if he will also basically call out everyone else involved if there is anyone else.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Not an actual conspiracy seeing as the administration was actively reopening it.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/04/fbi-...5128c02b9e6a68



Now, do I believe this person committed the crime? Not at the moment. However, if he did, I wonder if he will also basically call out everyone else involved if there is anyone else.

I guess it's the part where I talk about MTG? That or they can't use google and look it up themselves and get upset that I often post stuff without an immediate link? The entirety of the white house and pentagon press corp has been replaced with loyalist yes-men and people still want WSJ to tell them what to think.

Like I look at the surveillance footage of the J6 pipe bomber and that is NOT a man and there was plenty of coincidental evidence pointing to MTG, but the previous administration just sat on a $500,000 reward for info and never did any further investigating. How did Trump's incompetent DOJ find this Brian Cole guy other than as a scapegoat for someone else? Maybe they're trying to cover MTG's exit from politics cleanly so she doesn't blow the lid on the pedophile operation like she threatened to do if Matt Geatz was exposed?

[DarkTZeratul]

The president has decided that architect Shalom Baranes will take over the job. Baranes' design firm has designed and renovated government buildings in Washington, D.C. for decades and has taken on projects that include the main Treasury building near the White House and the General Services Administration headquarters.

Hiring someone with that kind of experience is, objectively, a good thing. It also means he will almost certainly be fired for pushing back with realistic notions of what can and can't be done and what the regulations are.

[gondrin]

I guess it's the part where I talk about MTG? That or they can't use google and look it up themselves and get upset that I often post stuff without an immediate link? The entirety of the white house and pentagon press corp has been replaced with loyalist yes-men and people still want WSJ to tell them what to think.

Like I look at the surveillance footage of the J6 pipe bomber and that is NOT a man and there was plenty of coincidental evidence pointing to MTG, but the previous administration just sat on a $500,000 reward for info and never did any further investigating. How did Trump's incompetent DOJ find this Brian Cole guy other than as a scapegoat for someone else? Maybe they're trying to cover MTG's exit from politics cleanly so she doesn't blow the lid on the pedophile operation like she threatened to do if Matt Geatz was exposed?

Honestly, if it comes out that MTG was one of the people planting the pipe bombs(big if here), I can see her basically dropping the dime on pretty much everyone and anyone just to save her skin.

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Hiring someone with that kind of experience is, objectively, a good thing. It also means he will almost certainly be fired for pushing back with realistic notions of what can and can't be done and what the regulations are.

I am all for hiring people with tons of experience. I just know Trump doesn't like to be challenged and anyone who works for Trump gets burned. Either by not being paid or their reputation and therefor(if they are a business owner) their ability to do business.

[Edge-]

The entirety of the white house and pentagon press corp has been replaced with loyalist yes-men and people still want WSJ to tell them what to think.

This is why, FYI. Remember, most outlets did not sign onto the bullshit pentagon rules.

Like I look at the surveillance footage of the J6 pipe bomber and that is NOT a man and there was plenty of coincidental evidence pointing to MTG, but the previous administration just sat on a $500,000 reward for info and never did any further investigating. How did Trump's incompetent DOJ find this Brian Cole guy other than as a scapegoat for someone else? Maybe they're trying to cover MTG's exit from politics cleanly so she doesn't blow the lid on the pedophile operation like she threatened to do if Matt Geatz was exposed?

Why would they be protecting MTG now that she's flipped on them? I remember seeing some of the "evidence" years back and it was a bunch of tiktok brainrot with "THEY WALK SIMILAR I DID VISUAL GAIT RECOGNITION".

I think you're confused because this appears to be the result of a years-long investigation since the bombs were placed? Like, a lot of times it does indeed take a long time to investigate something and find someone. Do I trust this administration? No, but they'll have to prove it in court and if he's just a bullshit fall-guy they won't secure a conviction.

This is, also, like, borderline if not actual conspiracy stuff.

Are we really pretending that Greene is a reputable/trustworthy source to "expose" others? It's just like Cawthorne and his claims of seeing the drugs and sex parties and things in DC and then never actually naming names because...shocker...he was bullshitting and lying as well.

[gondrin]

Are we really pretending that Greene is a reputable/trustworthy source to "expose" others? It's just like Cawthorne and his claims of seeing the drugs and sex parties and things in DC and then never actually naming names because...shocker...he was bullshitting and lying as well.

Honestly, no. I wouldn't trust her even after she would have been given a truth serum.

However, anything to throw a wrench into this administration is a good thing. Her dropping a dime on pretty much anyone and everyone would be a massive wrench because it would require this administration to use time and resources to defend it.

[Kaleredar]

Kash Patel literally talked about it today? Like it's not some huge story but c'mon.

Like we've got New York Mayor Eric Adams making it illegal to divest Israeli investments in New York city weeks before Mamdani takes office, as well as making it illegal to protest against Israel and people on this forum are like "Nah Israel totally doesn't have our politicians' balls in a vice grip THAT'S JUST A CONSPIRACY if Snopes or WaPo doesn't tell me about it"

Who are these people?

Name names. Hell, @ people.

I haven’t seen anyone earnestly saying “oh no we should really just take their word for it” beyond the usual suspects like Ned or tehdang or somewhatconcerned and the latter two have completely disappeared for months and Ned doesn’t post in this thread except for occasional random one-line exasperations about Trump stupidity.

[fwc577]

Who are these people?

Name names. Hell, @ people.

I haven’t seen anyone earnestly saying “oh no we should rally just take their word for it” beyond the usual suspects like Ned or tehdang or somewhatconcerned an the latter two have completely disappeared for months and Ned doesn’t post in this thread except for occasional random exasperations about Trump stupidity.

I believe some of those people are on permanent vacations.

[Cthulhu 2020]

I believe some of those people are on permanent vacations.

It's not just those fuckwits, I regularly get replied to that some of the things I say are conspiracies if I don't drop a link to WaPo or Snopes or or WSJ. One of them at least attempts to look it up.

I kinda get it, we live in an age of extreme disinformation. I can literally watch something happen in real time (like say, the DHS twitter account location being Tel Aviv Israel), find tons of other people who also saw it in real time, point out that X literally rolled out this feature to show account locations, and then took it down as soon as people saw Tel Aviv for the DHS account, then brought the feature back up but Government agencies were exempt from having their locations shared, and then about a week after that all Government agencies suddenly have their location information access restored and all US government accounts are in USA again.

Like it's pretty easy to deduce what happened, but because WaPo didn't directly report on it, some thought it was just a conspiracy.

My entire point about making the post was that there's probably a pretty high chance that the social media manager for DHS is an Israeli troll (we know Trump isn't running the White House account, it's some 4chan trolls) but that actually being caught would have been a huge scandal and so they did a cover up.

Of course people thought me making the post meant my entire criticism was that Israel is running DHS entirely, but that's the usual strawman tactic.

[Endus]

Kash Patel literally talked about it today? Like it's not some huge story but c'mon.

Like we've got New York Mayor Eric Adams making it illegal to divest Israeli investments in New York city weeks before Mamdani takes office, as well as making it illegal to protest against Israel and people on this forum are like "Nah Israel totally doesn't have our politicians' balls in a vice grip THAT'S JUST A CONSPIRACY if Snopes or WaPo doesn't tell me about it"

The only reason you get pushback, really, is the "have our politician's balls in a vice grip", which implies control and duress. Which leans towards antisemitic conspiracy theory.

It's much simpler, IMO.

Israel holds influence because they throw money at candidates, via sources like AIPAC. Legally and cleanly. And those candidates are soulless and easily-bribable so they take the money and say whatever they need to in order to keep the cash flowing. For many of those candidates, like Adams, there's also that they're legitimately really fuckin' stupid, but Hillary Clinton's supposedly not an idiot and she went full-on genocide-denial this week, herself, at a NYC summit.

I think they just lack any real sense of ethics or responsibility and are driven largely by greed.

[DarkTZeratul]

I kinda get it, we live in an age of extreme disinformation. I can literally watch something happen in real time (like say, the DHS twitter account location being Tel Aviv Israel), find tons of other people who also saw it in real time, point out that X literally rolled out this feature to show account locations, and then took it down as soon as people saw Tel Aviv for the DHS account, then brought the feature back up but Government agencies were exempt from having their locations shared, and then about a week after that all Government agencies suddenly have their location information access restored and all US government accounts are in USA again.

This, right here? This is absolutely conspiracy nonsense.

The claim that the location was "Tel Aviv, Israel" is suspect on the face of it because the location feature only showed countries, not specific cities, so even if it DID it would have just said "Israel" and not "Tel Aviv." Second, the viral screenshot that's been going around lacks the gray verification checkmark that an actual government account would have. And third, the person who first posted that screenshot kind of outright implied that they created it by editing a screenshot of their own profile.

And then from there you just invent this whole conspiracy about this one specific thing being the reason that they took down the feature (and not because, for instance, it immediately revealed just how many MAGA-boosting accounts are actually foreign astro-turfers). I get it, you hate Israel because of Palestine. But pretending that they're the secret puppet masters controlling everything from the shadows is, like, one of the oldest antisemitic tropes out there.

[PhaelixWW]

Kash Patel literally talked about it today? Like it's not some huge story but c'mon.

It was talked about today because they made an arrest today.

This case wasn't closed and reopened, and the timing has nothing to do with MTG as they've been actively pursuing this for over half a year now.

Suggesting that the timing is wonky is a conspiracy theory unless you have a lot more super-secret information you're sitting on.

Like I look at the surveillance footage of the J6 pipe bomber and that is NOT a man and there was plenty of coincidental evidence pointing to MTG, but the previous administration just sat on a $500,000 reward for info and never did any further investigating. How did Trump's incompetent DOJ find this Brian Cole guy other than as a scapegoat for someone else? Maybe they're trying to cover MTG's exit from politics cleanly so she doesn't blow the lid on the pedophile operation like she threatened to do if Matt Geatz was exposed?

Man, Edge was right... advanced case of brainrot.


"It's not a conspiracy theory, loser!"

<5 seconds later>

"It's a conspiracy, I tell you!"


Also, this footage looks female to you?

[alach]

So over in the media news, Netflix won the bidding war for WB, keeping it out of blanket of control from trump allies. No doubt we will see them interfere and block the merger. They will make many excuses, but none of it will be for the benefit of the consumer. This will be 100% about trump and republicans controlling all our media.

Oh, and it's a big day for soccer today and trump is exerting his control over that already, threatening to move games from cities he doesn't like and the FIFA president loves to kiss his ass.

Why the hell is this guy everywhere. He is just so exhausting.