Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[PACOX]

The “price fixing” here works because the corporations are agreeing to it for personal favors from and to Trump. Unfortunately not applicable to a more magnanimous administration.

Which means the government has the power to negotiate with the corporations or tell them to eat shit - contrary to what Republicans and Democrats say whenever a progressive presents similar proposals and programs. When a progressive says they will engage in price fixing its impossible or will take to all.

Turns out you can actually just negotiate with the corporations or just do it and it's up to the corporations to complain.

Really turns out that people ate bipartisan lies from politians in bed with the same corporations that would have been hit so they voters hey that you want is nonsense so stop asking about. Then the silly voter just takes that as the gospel, even defend the nonsense they are told by an upper class of elites.

Next Trump is going subsidize trade schools for those who take government jobs after they graduate.

- - - Updated - - -

basically. curry favor with the easily bribed emperor, and avoid his wrath because he will not hesitate to tank your stock price.

but i guess that's a good thing if it has a good result?

Oh no it's horrible because the healthcare system is still messed up. It just shows the ACA subsidies weren't bankruoting the country or healthcare companies. It shows subsidized (universal or single payer) healthcare is only impossible in the US because a particular class tells you it's impossible. The means and mechanisms are all laid. Like having all the ingredients for a cake then someone telling you you can't actually make a cake with the ingredients because rather use the ingredients for some other nonsense. Then you go along with them and think you can't make the cake. Be wary of the person telling you that you can't make the cake.

To clean up my post - how long have the odd person say cut out insurance companies and directly negotiate with healthcare industry? I've heard it my entire adult life and I am sure it was around a longer (factually). The Overton Window is something else.

TrumpRX as a program is stupid. It's a dirt cake full of egg shells and clumps. But it means someone who knows what they are doing and less insidious can actually make a good cake and people need to stop allowing others tell them the cake is a lie.

[Kaleredar]

Which means the government has the power to negotiate with the corporations or tell them to eat shit - contrary to what Republicans and Democrats say whenever a progressive presents similar proposals and programs. When a progressive says they will engage in price fixing its impossible or will take to all.

Turns out you can actually just negotiate with the corporations or just do it and it's up to the corporations to complain.

Really turns out that people ate bipartisan lies from politians in bed with the same corporations that would have been hit so they voters hey that you want is nonsense so stop asking about. Then the silly voter just takes that as the gospel, even defend the nonsense they are told by an upper class of elites.

Here's the difference.

When Trump leans on corporations, they yield because they know that ultimately yielding will net them more money. Because they know Trump is anti-labor, anti-union, anti-tax and pro-monopoly.

He will facilitate your corporation conglomerating as much wealth as possible, reducing as many regulations as possible, and erroding employee rights as much as possible, so long as you comparatively give a "little" money over to him. Giving ~50 million dollars to Trump is pocket change if you can slash your workforce overhead or he cuts your taxes or repeals regulations for you or allows you to corner to the market to the tune of hundreds of millions or billions of dollars.

The "progressive" administration, on the other hand, is working for the benefit of the people, not for a figurehead you can pay off or for the benefit of the corporate bottom line. So the corporations have a vested interest in resisting a progressive administration as hard as possible and, if they find one to be in power, have a vested interest in doing as much as they can to remove it from power or at the least denigrate its ability to regulate them as much as possible.

Oh no it's horrible because the healthcare system is still messed up. It just shows the ACA subsidies weren't bankruoting the country or healthcare companies. It shows subsidized (universal or single payer) healthcare is only impossible in the US because a particular class tells you it's impossible. The means and mechanisms are all laid. Like having all the ingredients for a cake then someone telling you you can't actually make a cake with the ingredients because rather use the ingredients for some other nonsense. Then you go along with them and think you can't make the cake. Be wary of the person telling you that you can't make the cake.

To clean up my post - how long have the odd person say cut out insurance companies and directly negotiate with healthcare industry? I've heard it my entire adult life and I am sure it was around a longer (factually). The Overton Window is something else.

TrumpRX as a program is stupid. It's a dirt cake full of egg shells and clumps. But it means someone who knows what they are doing and less insidious can actually make a good cake and people need to stop allowing others tell them the cake is a lie.

Of course ACA subsidies weren't bankrupting the country.

But you see, Trump had to do the bare minimum to make it appear as if his tax cuts were even close to balancing out, which means he has to cut government funding to groups he know can't fight back.

And like I said, corporations (in this case, the health care industry) have absolutely zero incentive to bring prices down. Republicans aren't spreading lies about "European death panels" and the "evils of socialized medicine" all on their own dime, after all.

The progressive's "You're going to do what's good for the people of the US, no matter your bottom line" is something corporations will actively fight against. Trump's "do what I say and I make you a lot of money, just give me a slice of your profits and influence" is something they are all too happy to fall in line with.

There needs to be a resounding mandate from the people at all forms of governance to bring corporations to heel. Sadly, the GOP's propaganda routinely ensures that such progress is grievously denigrated whenever they retake a chamber of congress or the presidency.

[Rasulis]

TrumpRX rolled out today. I don't care to go into the details. It's a bunch of bullshit except for the part where apparently this country is 100% capable of price fixing and it didn't take decades of legislation. Huh? What happened to all the BS both parties tried to tell people advocating for progressive (and populist) agendas like price fixing? My point is to stop try defending tales that come from the wealthy. Became a little class conscious in your political opinions.

Zavzpret on TrumpRX - $594.83

Zavzpret on GoodRX - $594.84

Zavzpret on commercial health insurance with prior authorization - $0

1 cent cheaper than GoodRX. Good insurance still better.

[Breccia]

Trump repeats lies about inflation, immigration and elections in NBC interview

Yeah I know @Paranoid Android linked something, but I have CNN points to spare. Plus...well, you'll see.

That was a textbook moment in political interviewing – but it was one of the only times in the interview that Llamas challenged one of Trump’s false claims. Over and over, when the president repeated lies that were debunked months or years ago, Llamas responded simply “right” or “yeah” – or didn’t acknowledge them at all.

I think P.A. said this, too.

The article is extensive, so, I'll pick three.

Prices during this presidency

Trump’s claim: Llamas told Trump, “Talking about the economy, you’ve brought a lot of prices down, as we said. Some are still stubborn.” Trump responded, “Very few.”

Fact check: It’s not “very few” prices that are stubbornly refusing to decline. Overall prices have increased during this presidency, Consumer Price Index data shows – in December 2025, average consumer prices were 2.7% higher than they were in December 2024 – and far more products have gotten more expensive since Trump’s January 2025 inauguration than have gotten cheaper.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: Llamas echoed Trump’s false claim, saying, “But – but when – yeah, very few. I get it.” He then proceeded to ask Trump, “When you talk to Americans, though, do you have to get them to understand that the prices are not gonna come back down to your first term because we had a pandemic and we had record inflation?”

Yeah, you see that part? CNN didn't just fact-check Trump. They are now naming and shaming anyone who interviews Trump and lets Trump give an objective known lie in public without doing anything.

Good.

Inflation today

Trump’s claim: “And now we have almost no inflation. Think of it. You know what it was for the last three months? 1.2%.” He repeated moments later, “For the last three months it’s at 1.2%. You know that.”

Fact check: The most recent year-over-year inflation rate, 2.7% in December 2025, is not “almost no inflation” by any reasonable definition of that vague phrase. And inflation wasn’t “1.2%” for the last three months; the year-over-year rate was 2.7% in November 2025 and 3% in September 2025. (The government couldn’t calculate the October rate because of data-collection issues caused by a government shutdown.)

Trump claimed in a newspaper op-ed last week “annual core inflation for the past three months has dropped to just 1.4%,” but: Trump used “1.2%” in the NBC interview; the math behind even the 1.4% figure is not clear (CNN got a result of 1.6% when using a standard method of “annualizing” data); the White House ignored CNN’s requests this week for a detailed explanation of the 1.4% figure; and Trump did not say in the interview that he was referring to “core” inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, or using annualized data.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: Llamas said “right” when Trump claimed we now have almost no inflation. He did interject with the current inflation rate after Trump first made his “1.2%” claim; Llamas said, “Inflation is down – 2.7 right now.” But when Trump repeated the “1.2%” figure and insisted “you know that,” Llamas said, “Yeah. But the last – okay.” He then moved on to another subject.

Yeah, 1.2% inflation is imaginary. Trump's own admin said Trump had double this or higher every single month. Trump is lying.

There's a ton of stuff we've already heard and know is false, like how he won 2020, how China pays the tariffs on China, how there's $18 trillion in investments already, etc.

Then, this:

Russia and elections

Trump’s claim: Talking about foreign interference in US elections, Trump said, “And everybody knows that Russia – they talked about Russia, turned out to be a hoax. It was – Hunter Biden. It wasn’t Russia.”

Fact check: Russian interference in the 2016 election did not turn out to be a hoax. It happened. An investigation led by special counsel Robert Mueller concluded that “the Russian government interfered in the 2016 presidential election in sweeping and systematic fashion” and that it did so with the intention of helping Trump beat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

“First, a Russian entity carried out a social media campaign that favored presidential candidate Donald J. Trump and disparaged presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Second, a Russian intelligence service conducted computer-intrusion operations against entities, employees, and volunteers working on the Clinton Campaign and then released stolen documents,” the Mueller report said.

Trump has often seized on the fact that the Mueller report said the investigation “did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities” to declare that claims about him or his campaign having colluded with Russia were a “hoax.” But Mueller found evidence the Trump campaign felt it would benefit from those interference activities and that there were “numerous links between individuals with ties to the Russian government and individuals associated with the Trump Campaign,” though “the evidence was not sufficient to support criminal charges.”

Regardless, the Russian interference itself was clearly real.

Trump’s confusing comment about Hunter Biden, son of former president Joe Biden, may have been a reference to how some social media companies briefly suppressed a damaging news story about the younger Biden late in the 2020 election campaign, in which Trump ran against the elder Biden. That has nothing to do with the fact of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign, in which Trump ran against Clinton.

Llamas’ response to Trump’s claim: He said “yeah” moments after Trump’s remark.

"Wait, Hunter Biden had something to do with election interference? That's the first I've heard of it."

That's the first anyone has heard of it. Trump's senile retarded brain came up with it out of nowhere. Llamas said nothing.

[Sterling Archer]

This is your casual reminder that the paper that broke Watergate and the Pentagon papers, acquired by a billionaire, has just laid off 1/3 of its entire staff.

Democracy dies in darkness.

Yeah, that was a mission statement.

[gondrin]

Democracy dies in darkness.

Let me correct that phrase.

Democracy dies with thunderous applause.

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Well, once again, the corruption is front and center.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/comp...37c8564d4&ei=9

Federal prosecutors plan to increase incentives for companies that cooperate during criminal investigations, including promises not to prosecute them, the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan said on Thursday.

Jay Clayton's remarks at an industry conference come as the Justice Department is scaling back corporate crime enforcement and refocusing on immigration and drug cases under the Trump administration.

Companies need to know there is a specific benefit to cooperating with U.S. prosecutors in rooting out wrongdoers, Clayton said at the Securities Enforcement Forum in New York.

That includes offering companies so-called non-prosecution agreements, or NPAs -- deals that Democrats have criticized in the past.

"Our approach is going to be: let's get an NPA signed as quickly as possible that calls for continued cooperation," he said.

Clayton, an appointee of President Donald Trump, said the different approach on cooperation would benefit shareholders, too. He previously led the Securities and Exchange Commission, a civil regulator, during Trump's first presidential term, and focused on retail investors at the time.

Those retail investors continue to be among his top priorities on white-collar crime issues, he said, noting he has an eye on misconduct in small-cap stocks, private funds and prediction markets. When asked if he foresees prosecutions in those so-called event contracts, he said: "Yes."

Clayton also criticized past enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a 1977 law that bans companies that operate in the U.S. from bribing foreign officials.

The Justice Department paused the law's enforcement last year and resumed it with a plan for a more scaled-back approach. Clayton criticized the law for putting the U.S. at a disadvantage to other countries and penalizing companies instead of targeting individual wrongdoers.

"I hate corruption of foreign officials," Clayton said. "I hate the FCPA as applied."

[alach]

I know we have moved on, but here is my source.

New High of 45% in U.S. Identify as Political Independents

More independents lean Democratic than Republican, giving Democrats edge in party affiliation for first time since 2021

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A record-high 45% of U.S. adults identified as political independents in 2025, surpassing the 43% measured in 2014, 2023 and 2024. Meanwhile, equal shares of U.S. adults — 27% each — identified as either Democrats or Republicans.

In most years since Gallup began regularly conducting its polls by telephone in 1988, independents have been the largest political group. However, the independent percentage has increased markedly in the past 15 years, typically registering 40% or higher, a level not reached prior to 2011.

Site has charts and graphs and whatnot. I also read that more moderate conservatives and independents actually support what are traditionally Democrat values and policies, even if they don't identify as a party member. Basically, yeah, we support green energy and equal rights and wages, but just don't tell my neighbours, Joe-Bob and Cleetus.

[Dontrike]

Shit like this is why it's easy to call all republicans pedophiles when the ones at the top send shit like this.

[Veggie50]

Sooo… Trump tweeting a video of obama as a monkey…

And some ppl still defend him as “not actually racist.”

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/article...ed-as-monkeys/

[Dontrike]

Did you know that doing a Keto diet can cure schizophrenia and bipolar disorder? Of course you didn't know that, because that's not possible, and the only way you'd believe that is if you have worm brain. Speaking of.....

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made an unfounded claim on Wednesday that the keto diet can cure schizophrenia.

Health experts were quick to call the comment a vast overstatement regarding the relationship between the diet and the disorder.

Kennedy made the comments while he was visiting Tennessee as part of a national tour to encourage Americans to "eat real food," according to The New York Times.

His tour is serving as an information campaign to highlight the changes he's made to the federal dietary guidelines. The new recommendations include eating more protein and fats — like steak, cheese, and butter — drinking whole milk, and avoiding carbohydrates.

During his visit to the Tennessee State Capitol, Kennedy said "we now know that the thing things that you eat are driving mental illness in this country," and claimed that a Harvard doctor had "cured schizophrenia using keto diets."

“There are studies right now that I saw two days ago where people lose their bipolar diagnosis by changing their diet,” Kennedy said.

The Health and Human Services Secretary has been openly skeptical of vaccines and medication. In 2024, he said that ADHD medication had "poisoned" an entire generation of children. Last year, he fired the entire 17-member Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices vaccine board and replaced them with handpicked skeptics.

In Tennessee, Kennedy was apparently referring to a 2019 paper by Dr. Christopher Palmer, who described “two patients with longstanding schizophrenia who experienced complete remission of symptoms” after they began the keto diet. According to the research, both patients “were able to stop antipsychotic medications and have remained in remission for years now.”

Palmer and his colleagues said in September that the keto diet was a “promising therapeutic approach for schizophrenia.”

The Independent has requested comment from Palmer.

"Keto," as it's often called, is a diet that generally consists of at least 70 percent of calories coming from fat, fewer than 10 percent coming from carbohydrates, and fewer than 20 percent from protein. The diet has proven popular for people looking to shed weight without having to go vegan or seriously reduce their caloric intake, but critics have warned that the focus on fats can, over time, be detrimental to one's heart.

While there are many accounts of keto dieters losing weight, the diet is also difficult to stick to because so many foods — even common staples like some fruits and vegetables and beloved treats like pizza — are prohibited by its rules.

There have been some short-term studies — like one published by Stanford last year — that have found the keto diet "might" help schizophrenia patients, but health experts warn that "might be helpful" is not the same as the nation's top health official declaring a complicated mental illness has been cured by cutting out bread.

Dr. Paul S. Appelbaum, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and former president of the American Psychiatric Association, told The NYT that it is "simply misleading" to claim that schizophrenia symptoms can even be improved by the keto diet, never mind cured.

“There is currently no credible evidence that ketogenic diets cure schizophrenia,” Dr. Mark Olfson, another Columbia psychiatry professor, told The NYT.

He noted that most of the studies that tested the keto diet as a treatment for mental health disorders — including the Stanford study referenced by Kennedy — did not include a control group following a regular, non-keto diet.

Kennedy seems all-in on high-fat and protein diets. On January 7, Kennedy declared that the "war on protein" was over.

"Today the lies stop," Kennedy said in a statement. "Protein and healthy fats are essential and were wrongly discouraged in prior dietary guidelines."

The Independent has requested comment from Kennedy via the DHHS.

[alach]

This place is deader than a sack of doorknobs. Someone needs to go troll reddit to find some fresh meat.
For the good of mmo-c of course.

[Mayhem]

Shit like this is why it's easy to call all republicans pedophiles when the ones at the top send shit like this.

Can't make it much more obvious, jebus.

Oh, and that's his brother, so it was a family business. Is his brother still around?

[gondrin]

Can't make it much more obvious, jebus.

Oh, and that's his brother, so it was a family business. Is his brother still around?

That isn't the best part of that whole exchange and pic.

It is the fact they censored the email address in the To: part but forgot to censor it in the actual message part when he replied to it.

Amateur hour over there.

[Dontrike]

That isn't the best part of that whole exchange and pic.

It is the fact they censored the email address in the To: part but forgot to censor it in the actual message part when he replied to it.

Amateur hour over there.

Oh there's more to that amateur hour. There's one where they censored the word "don't" almost like they just searched for "Don T" and blanked that out.

[gondrin]

Oh there's more to that amateur hour. There's one where they censored the word "don't" almost like they just searched for "Don T" and blanked that out.

I keep saying either this administration has possibly the most inept people around or there are a handful in there that actively want to sabotage things just enough to make it look like incompetence just so they don't get fired.

[Gabriel]

Did you know that doing a Keto diet can cure schizophrenia and bipolar disorder? Of course you didn't know that, because that's not possible, and the only way you'd believe that is if you have worm brain. Speaking of.....

RFK Jr. sure sounds like someone that has first hand experience with schizophrenia tho.

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Oh there's more to that amateur hour. There's one where they censored the word "don't" almost like they just searched for "Don T" and blanked that out.

They probably used AI to censor the documents tbh.

[Edge-]

They probably used AI to censor the documents tbh.

reportedly, they did, actually


and unsurprisingly

[Gabriel]

reportedly, they did, actually


and unsurprisingly

C'mon I was joking...

[Edge-]

C'mon I was joking...

i'm trying to find the report now, i recall seeing it a few days back.

[Mayhem]

C'mon I was joking...

Oh, but they absolutely did. I've seen a document where every " a " is censored.