Trump supporters, how do you square this?

[Westernhawk]

I haven't contributed much since the election (not a positive for my mental health, not a productive use of time)...but I still lurk through this thread now and again. If I see I am 10 pages behind, I don't go catch up on what I missed, but I will see what the latest scuttlebutt is.

For all those open-minded liberals/progressives/never-Trumpers out there, what do you see as some potential positives coming from Trump's moves? And try to avoid couching the potential good in the means by which it was brought about, just focus on things that might be a net positive moving forward.

I will start...getting Western Europe to pony up more on defense spending is good.

I agree that getting W Europe to contribute more is a good thing.

Maybe congress will fulfill their constitutional duties moving forward. That's my hope.

More Americans are interested in learning more about how our democracy is supposed to work (co-equal branches, etc). This might be a good thing moving forward.

 

[Westernhawk]

I'll add that maybe more people are learning and becoming more interested in where our money actually goes, and what programs cost a few billion vs a few trillion. More knowledge about how our government should work, or does work, is a good thing.

 

[Westernhawk]

Lastly, speaking out right now is good in itself.

It may make some people uncomfortable or angry, but pointing out issues right now can be:

1. Empowering
2. Unifying
3. Can educate others

Maybe more people will get a bit more involved. Email your representative

 

[thedukeofearl]

I haven't contributed much since the election (not a positive for my mental health, not a productive use of time)...but I still lurk through this thread now and again. If I see I am 10 pages behind, I don't go catch up on what I missed, but I will see what the latest scuttlebutt is.

For all those open-minded liberals/progressives/never-Trumpers out there, what do you see as some potential positives coming from Trump's moves? And try to avoid couching the potential good in the means by which it was brought about, just focus on things that might be a net positive moving forward.

I will start...getting Western Europe to pony up more on defense spending is good.

Now it is ESSENTIAL

 

[kicker22]

MFing tRUMP is telling Zelensky that he can't understand the hatred he has for Putin

Imagine that

View attachment 11337

Lol The building in your pic looks like it's ended up better then the rest of their meeting. I love how Vance felt the need to get himself involved to stir the pot. But once again it comes back to our Commander in Chief feeling disrespected, but yet showing no respect whatsoever in the process. Honestly after the few minutes of that I got to see I can't imagine why any world leader would want to involve themselves in talks with him or his idiot VP.

 

[PCHawk]

MFing tRUMP is telling Zelensky that he can't understand the hatred he has for Putin

Imagine that

View attachment 11337

He actually said he does understand it.

 

[PCHawk]

The fact that it's an absolute bullshit request from someone who isn't even their supervisor let alone affiliated with the agencies they work for. To be quite honest I'd find myself in a similar situation as those that refused to get the covid vaccine if I had a federal position. I'm honestly not sure whether I'd submit an email or not.

I read a post from a congressman who used to work at a different position. He was tasked with auditing the phone bill, which he said was an incredibly daunting task. He came up with the idea of calling the leaders of every branch of office and had them give him a list of every used phone number under them. After the list was finished, he eliminated every phone number not on the list. There were a lot of them. After awhile a guy called him and said the machine they use to send fingerprints isn't working. Turned out it used a phone number and they forgot to list it. They turned the number back on and that was the only issue they ever had. Every other number that got cancelled was wasted tax payers dollars up until that point.

That story is very similar to what Musk is doing. This is a very efficient way to find out if salaries are being paid to people who don't even work anymore, or possibly don't even exist. I get that sending an email is a mild annoyance and I also get not wanting to for "the point of it". But the end goal is eliminating government waste. Just fricking send a one minute email and let them cancel the salaries that aren't even in use anymore (like the phone numbers).

 

[PCHawk]

For what it's worth I know there's been a lot of hot topics in this thread, but I truly do respect and enjoy this thread. Great opportunity to get a lot of political feelings off my chest and to simply vent and while I don't agree and most likely won't ever, I've always been one to value the opinions of others. And most importantly it keeps us busy LOL.

I love the discussion too and appreciate your attitude towards others who have different opinions.

 

[PCHawk]

Trump keeping the door open on this idea:

https://www.newsnationnow.com/politics/trump-i-wouldnt-be-opposed-to-using-private-forces-for-deportations/

I think a general rule of thumb is when someone says something, and then follows it with "but", the thing that say next holds more weight. So while you saying he's keeping the door open is technically true, realistically it's probably not going to happen.

 

[thedukeofearl]

​

Zelenskyy Meets With Russian Agent​

 

[Westernhawk]

MFing tRUMP is telling Zelensky that he can't understand the hatred he has for Putin

Imagine that

View attachment 11337

People with Antisocial Personality Disorder (which is the overall term that may encompass sociopathy and psychopathy) cannot understand the feelings or suffering of others. They are indifferent to it.

People with ASPD can have difficulty mentalizing, or interpreting the mental state of others.[49][50] Alternately, they may display a perfectly intact theory of mind, or the ability to understand one's mental state, but have an impaired ability to understand how another individual may be affected by an aggressive action. These factors might contribute to aggressive and criminal behavior as well as empathy deficits.[51] Despite this, they may be adept at social cognition,[52] or the ability to process and store information about other people, which can contribute to an increased ability to manipulate others.[53][54]

 

[CP87]

I think a general rule of thumb is when someone says something, and then follows it with "but", the thing that say next holds more weight. So while you saying he's keeping the door open is technically true, realistically it's probably not going to happen.

My general rule of thumb with Trump is that when he hints at something unseemly he can do for one of his cronies, but then tries to minimize it as unlikely...he is going to try to do it if he can get away with it down the road.

 

[kicker22]

I read a post from a congressman who used to work at a different position. He was tasked with auditing the phone bill, which he said was an incredibly daunting task. He came up with the idea of calling the leaders of every branch of office and had them give him a list of every used phone number under them. After the list was finished, he eliminated every phone number not on the list. There were a lot of them. After awhile a guy called him and said the machine they use to send fingerprints isn't working. Turned out it used a phone number and they forgot to list it. They turned the number back on and that was the only issue they ever had. Every other number that got cancelled was wasted tax payers dollars up until that point.

That story is very similar to what Musk is doing. This is a very efficient way to find out if salaries are being paid to people who don't even work anymore, or possibly don't even exist. I get that sending an email is a mild annoyance and I also get not wanting to for "the point of it". But the end goal is eliminating government waste. Just fricking send a one minute email and let them cancel the salaries that aren't even in use anymore (like the phone numbers).

My issue is that if he truly expects every single employee to do so, then (1) he's not going to be able to find the time for his team to process this information and (2) if they direct supervisors and ultimately their higher ups have the time to do this then who's to say he doesn't see that as an opportunity to fire them because they have the time to waste reviewing them.
I get the logic behind it, but the only thing I find worse then someone wanting to tell me how to do my job is someone wasting my time and preventing me from doing it. I'd probably get fired for my response in that situation, because it wouldn't be pleasant.

 

[CP87]

 

[PCHawk]

My general rule of thumb with Trump is that when he hints at something unseemly he can do for one of his cronies, but then tries to minimize it as unlikely...he is going to try to do it if he can get away with it down the road.

Trump isn't really hinting at anything here tho. Other people are. All he has done is not 100% eliminate the possibility.