Mega-Thread: Trump Focused Discussion

[Ursus]

God, and you just know that everyone in the chat is pointing fingers trying to figure out who leaked the chat logs, lol.

Plot twist: It was Heidi Cruz herself who leaked it, as revenge against her cowardly husband who has spent the last 4 years licking the boots of the man who called her ugly.

[Blur4stuff]

I love how conservative propagandists (dinesh, shapiro, etc...) and their followers are arguing that it's okay for Cruz to be away because he's useless.

This is Trump behavior. Don't do your job, blame everyone else, and never take responsibility.

[Elegiac]

Plot twist: It was Heidi Cruz herself who leaked it, as revenge against her cowardly husband who has spent the last 4 years licking the boots of the man who called her ugly.

You know, given how this year is turning out so far, sure. I'd fucking believe it.

[Edge-]

I love how conservative propagandists (dinesh, shapiro, etc...) and their followers are arguing that it's okay for Cruz to be away because he's useless.

Imagine thinking that someone is literally incapable of doing anything to help their fellow countrymen during a time of extreme struggle, especially someone as connected and powerful as a Senator.

I mean, it speaks volumes about the complete lack of any functional ideology and an inability to even conceve what leadership and responsibility look like.

Meanwhile, Beto, who isn't even elected to anything, is working to help organize wellness checks on senior citizens because regular people, much less people with connections, can do immense good even if it's not in their damned job description.

[Breccia]

It was Heidi Cruz herself who leaked it

Please be true please be true please be true please be true please be true please be true

Also:

Cruz says 'it was a mistake' to go to Cancun amid Texas arctic blast

Yep.

It was obviously a mistake. In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it.

I was trying to be a dad. And all of us have made decisions — when you got two girls who have been cold for two days and haven’t had heat or power and they’re saying, ‘Hey look, we don’t have school, why don’t we go. Let’s get out of here.’

"Well surely his voters will accept this with no reserv--"

In the background of the video, a crowd of people could be heard chanting "resign."

"Nevermind."

Wanna see the video?

"That's a bunch of protesters outside his house, with signs demanding his resignation."

Whoops! Dopey me!

[postman1782]

Please be true please be true please be true please be true please be true please be true

Would be funny, because Ted didn't stand up for her after Trump basically shit on her.

[Breccia]

after Trump basically shit on her.

Well he is German.

...wait, you were being metaphorical, right? Or is this a Falwell thing? It's the rabid fanbase, I'm not taking anything for granite here.

[postman1782]

Well he is German.

...wait, you were being metaphorical, right? Or is this a Falwell thing? It's the rabid fanbase, I'm not taking anything for granite here.

Well, for all I know, it was only in the primaries, but it could be a sexual thing with them. Considering how Cruz basically cucked himself and did the phonebank thing for Trump a couple months/weeks later when Trump won the primary in 2016.

[Benggaul]

Imagine thinking that someone is literally incapable of doing anything to help their fellow countrymen during a time of extreme struggle, especially someone as connected and powerful as a Senator.

I mean, it speaks volumes about the complete lack of any functional ideology and an inability to even conceve what leadership and responsibility look like.

Meanwhile, Beto, who isn't even elected to anything, is working to help organize wellness checks on senior citizens because regular people, much less people with connections, can do immense good even if it's not in their damned job description.

I mean, as a Senator he probably couldn't do much, but as a fucking human being he absolutely could be calling in favors using his juice as a Senator to get some help to the people who need it. Beto is showing Texans they fucked up big time last time they voted.

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68,924 new cases; 2,761 deaths, bringing the total to 505,309. Everything remains underreported thanks to the weather (primarily in Texas) and is probably off by 10-15k cases and several deaths. I know some people in Texas who have been notified they likely won't have power until the 20th, so again, don't expect accurate numbers until next week...and good luck to those poor bastards.

Stay warm, folks.

[Edge-]

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...abu-story.html

Honestly, I figured Haley for a smarter political player than this, but I guess I've grossly overestimated her political chops. Hasn't she figured out by now that appealing to Trump or trying to placate him is a fuckin losing move? That he's petty and vindictive and the worst person to tie your wagon to? What on earth made her think he'd want to meet with her after she criticized him, a man incapable of accepting any criticism.

[Kellhound]

Hey, if it means they decide they don't need to help and stay home...

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This is what happens when you pile a shitload of tariffs on China and the EU with absolutely no fucking plan whatsoever for how to actually utilize them to achieve any sort of positive end result.

Tariffs are not the cause.

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That happened in the 80s... The trade war and Trump’s disdain for making deals, happened 40 years after that...

The US deciding to turn away from manufacturing as the bedrock of our economy did that. Only about 12% of our GDP is from manufacturing, to China's 27, Germany's 23%, South Korea's 29%, and the ROC's 31%. Hard to export what you don't make.

[kaid]

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...abu-story.html

Honestly, I figured Haley for a smarter political player than this, but I guess I've grossly overestimated her political chops. Hasn't she figured out by now that appealing to Trump or trying to placate him is a fuckin losing move? That he's petty and vindictive and the worst person to tie your wagon to? What on earth made her think he'd want to meet with her after she criticized him, a man incapable of accepting any criticism.

Why do none of them seem to understand you are either 100% all the time for trump or you are dead to him.

[Fugus]

Tariffs are not the cause.

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The US deciding to turn away from manufacturing as the bedrock of our economy did that. Only about 12% of our GDP is from manufacturing, to China's 27, Germany's 23%, South Korea's 29%, and the ROC's 31%. Hard to export what you don't make.

@Breccia

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t the US the worlds second biggest manufacturer behind only China in 2016 and originally on pace to retake the top spot by 2020 before Trump came along?

Not saying the manufacturing brought back jobs or anything as they vanished into the ether never to be seen again but didn’t the manufacturing largely return? Or am I remembering it wrong?

[Omega10]

https://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...abu-story.html

Honestly, I figured Haley for a smarter political player than this, but I guess I've grossly overestimated her political chops. Hasn't she figured out by now that appealing to Trump or trying to placate him is a fuckin losing move? That he's petty and vindictive and the worst person to tie your wagon to? What on earth made her think he'd want to meet with her after she criticized him, a man incapable of accepting any criticism.

My take on it is that Haley did her best to state her position and while trying to minimize damage to herself with respect to the Trump side. I think at some point being rebuffed by Trump will be considered a badge of honor for her as I don't think that Trump's popularity will make it until 2024. Trump may be able to effect the 2022 elections, but he'll be history by 2024.

I consider Haley to be the biggest threat to democrats winning big in 2024. Actually, at this point she is the only one. And right now all of her comments score high in the common sense side.

She chided Trump on things he should most definitely been chided for. Then she made a decent attempt to mend bridges. She is working to be leader of the anti-Trump republicans with a foot in the door towards getting the support of at least SOME of the Trump supporters.

[Paranoid Android]

I'm howling.

Apparently someone in Heidi Cruz' group chat leaked the logs to the press and...well...



"Confirmed by a second person on the thread". Fucking lol.

Uhhhh! This is the erotica I need! Sooo juicy! Love it!

[Magical Mudcrab]

@Breccia

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t the US the worlds second biggest manufacturer behind only China in 2016 and originally on pace to retake the top spot by 2020 before Trump came along?

Not saying the manufacturing brought back jobs or anything as they vanished into the ether never to be seen again but didn’t the manufacturing largely return? Or am I remembering it wrong?

The U.S. is the second largest manufacturing superpower, but I doubt that America was on pace to surpass China. Statista shows that the difference in manufacturing in 2018 was in the double digits, with China and the U.S. comprising 28.4% and 16.6% of the world's manufacturing output respectively. It's possible that there was a massive shift in less than 2 years,= that halted U.S. growth, or that Trump's buffoonery caused the U.S. to lose ground, but I'm not sure if that is the case and even if it was how much it would have impacted the 2018 data.

[Breccia]

Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn’t the US the worlds second biggest manufacturer behind only China in 2016 and originally on pace to retake the top spot by 2020 before Trump came along?

Manufacturing was on a steady decline, including that their salaries paid less and less, even before Trump came along and directly made things worse with tariffs, and also, made the trade gap wider, not narrower. And any measurable increase Trump might have gotten with manufacturing jobs was killed by him yelling CHINA VIRUS CHINA VIRUS CHINA VIRUS.

The only way a Trump supporter could claim that it wasn't because of the tariffs, which yes it was, unless they admitted it was also due to the pandemic. But Trump's strategy of "put on some Natioal Security Lol tariffs, then wait for someone else to come up with a plan" objectively failed.

Trump promised to bring back manufacturing. He failed. Anyone who claims otherwise is trolling.

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My take on it is that Haley did her best to state her position and while trying to minimize damage to herself with respect to the Trump side.

It's easy to get cut by barbed wire when straddling fences.

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When Texas sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing treasonists. They’re bringing crime. They’re zodiac killers. And some, I assume, are good people.

-- some guy on Twitter

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So Cruz is a Senator. The optics are bad, but it's not like he ran Texas.

So have we talked about Perry?

Perry says Texans willing to suffer blackouts to keep feds out of power market

“Texans would be without electricity for longer than three days to keep the federal government out of their business,” Perry is quoted as saying. “Try not to let whatever the crisis of the day is take your eye off of having a resilient grid that keeps America safe personally, economically, and strategically.”

"But...the Texas power grid just proved it was not resilient. Or safe. Or strategic."

Perry, former president Donald trump's energy secretary, however, blamed the rolling blackouts on the rise of wind and solar energy in Texas.

“If wind and solar is where we’re headed, the last 48 hours ought to give everybody a real pause and go wait a minute,” Perry said. “We need to have a baseload. And the only way you can get a baseload in this country is [with] natural gas, coal, and nuclear.”

"But didn't the natural gas wells freeze? And doesn't Texas have a pretty minimal proportion of wind/solar compared to, say, New York or Illinois or other states that haven't frozen over and had dozens die?"

Perry strikes me as the kind of person who'll say "Okay there was a catastrophe and a bunch of people died. But that's no reason to change anything. No way will that happen twice."

[pathora44]

So Cruz is a Senator. The optics are bad, but it's not like he ran Texas.

So have we talked about Perry?

Perry says Texans willing to suffer blackouts to keep feds out of power market



"But...the Texas power grid just proved it was not resilient. Or safe. Or strategic."



"But didn't the natural gas wells freeze? And doesn't Texas have a pretty minimal proportion of wind/solar compared to, say, New York or Illinois or other states that haven't frozen over and had dozens die?"

Perry strikes me as the kind of person who'll say "Okay there was a catastrophe and a bunch of people died. But that's no reason to change anything. No way will that happen twice."

This perfect response to this was already posted on the Texas blackout thread but God dammit does this fit so perfectly well.



Seriously just like the mayor, Texas Republicans sure do love to tell their constituents that each and every last one of them could die and it wouldn't affect them one bit. You know you would tend to believe that at some point my ability to be surprised by how fucking horrible Republicans can be would hit the bottom. Then you read a story like this and I go "oh hey look, they broke through to another cavern that is at least another 50 foot drop." and down the pit I go.

[DarkTZeratul]

Perry strikes me as the kind of person who'll say "Okay there was a catastrophe and a bunch of people died. But that's no reason to change anything. No way will that happen twice."

Rick Perry thought the Department of Energy was in charge of power generation, and he was the goddamn Secretary.

[postman1782]

Rick Perry thought the Department of Energy was in charge of power generation, and he was the goddamn Secretary.

Just another unqualified dumbass under the Trump administration. At least with Obama, I believe he had someone that was a nuclear physicist.