The Next President is...

[brabus]

[uhhello]

This is real life.  Grab a beer or three and listen to whole thing.

 

[disgruntledemployee]

G-men that were doing their jobs as directed by their bosses get fired.  I smell a fat lawsuit.

https://www.mediaite.com/news/fbi-agents-involved-in-trump-cases-escorted-out-of-offices-in-friday-night-purge/

"Trump denied Friday afternoon during an Oval Office press conference that he ordered the firings."

 

I call bullshit.

[brabus]

I trust the FBI about as much as the CCP at this point. But, I suppose it depends on the official reason they were fired (not just whatever single quote was printed in a news article). Could be bullshit/lawsuit city, but may not be. Also, we’re they truly fired, or just reassigned to BFE Field Office, ND and quit?

Edited Sunday at 04:47 AM by brabus

[arg]

1 hour ago, disgruntledemployee said:

.... that were doing their jobs as directed by their bosses ......

 

Have you seen that anywhere else?

[17D_guy]

So... About those tariffs and retaliatory tariffs.

[Banzai]

We are now actively tariffing an ally (and have threatened to double the tariffs) at 25%. We have promised to tariff Taiwan semiconductors, perplexingly. And we have now declared we are going to tariff the EU?

Someone go with data as to how this aligns with grand strategy. Was this in the campaign? I guess the play really is isolationism, so buckle up.

Also @brabus, I’ll bet that these policies will have a significantly larger effect on grocery prices (along with almost everything else related to middle class and working class families) than widespread H5N1.

[ClearedHot]

8 hours ago, arg said:

Have you seen that anywhere else?

Ya Vol!

[brabus]

1 hour ago, Banzai said:

We are now actively tariffing an ally (and have threatened to double the tariffs) at 25%. We have promised to tariff Taiwan semiconductors, perplexingly. And we have now declared we are going to tariff the EU?

Someone go with data as to how this aligns with grand strategy. Was this in the campaign? I guess the play really is isolationism, so buckle up.

Also @brabus, I’ll bet that these policies will have a significantly larger effect on grocery prices (along with almost everything else related to middle class and working class families) than widespread H5N1.

Actively tariffing two “allies” who continue to not GAF about our shared borders and are directly contributing to significant amounts of American deaths and general degradation of society. Trump uses tariffs as leverage, and he has been extremely successful at wielding them. CA and Mex are welcome to FAFO, or they can start actually doing something about the shit they let pour into our country. 
 

Now to the topic of tariffs as a baseline/long term economic strategy, I’m not sure yet. They will certainly raise prices in the short term, but if that yields substantial growth in American production/less reliance on foreign imports in the long term, that is a good thing and potentially worth the short term cost sacrifice. Secondly, if this is done in conjunction with reducing/eliminating the income tax (not holding my breath, but for discussion’s sake), that would essentially mean I pay more for consumables, but way less to the gov’s pockets where I have little to no control over where my money goes. I have control over my own spending, I have zero control over congressional spending. I prefer the former and I think most Americans do too. 

Edited Sunday at 02:51 PM by brabus

[Banzai]

Meh I’ll just say I bet this doesn’t pan out in some 4D chess way that some of y’all are convinced.

[disgruntledemployee]

11 hours ago, arg said:

Have you seen that anywhere else?

Yep.  Vindman. 

But if you want to allude that FBI agents doing their job is akin to being a Nazi, isn't the firing of them just the same?  Trump ordered their purge so those doing that bidding are just the same, following orders.  We can call this one when the lawyers decide.

[17D_guy]

2 hours ago, brabus said:

Actively tariffing two “allies” who continue to not GAF about our shared borders and are directly contributing to significant amounts of American deaths and general degradation of society. Trump uses tariffs as leverage, and he has been extremely successful at wielding them. CA and Mex are welcome to FAFO, or they can start actually doing something about the shit they let pour into our country. 
 

Now to the topic of tariffs as a baseline/long term economic strategy, I’m not sure yet. They will certainly raise prices in the short term, but if that yields substantial growth in American production/less reliance on foreign imports in the long term, that is a good thing and potentially worth the short term cost sacrifice. Secondly, if this is done in conjunction with reducing/eliminating the income tax (not holding my breath, but for discussion’s sake), that would essentially mean I pay more for consumables, but way less to the gov’s pockets where I have little to no control over where my money goes. I have control over my own spending, I have zero control over congressional spending. I prefer the former and I think most Americans do too. 

Are you really saying Canada, who we've been aligned with culturally, military, economically for at least 100 years isn't an ally?

 

They were ride or die with us in Afghanistan. Let's planes land in their county on 9/11 and took those people into their homes.

 

Not an ally? What is an ally then?

[Sua Sponte]

https://apnews.com/article/doge-musk-trump-classified-information-usaid-security-35101dee28a766e0d9705e0d47958611
 

 

[arg]

34 minutes ago, disgruntledemployee said:

Yep.  Vindman. 

But if you want to allude that FBI agents doing their job is akin to being a Nazi, isn't the firing of them just the same?  Trump ordered their purge so those doing that bidding are just the same, following orders.  We can call this one when the lawyers decide.

Kinda depends on how it went down. Were they told "go do your job"? Or were they told "go do your job" wink,wink, nod,nod while holding up a pictures like this

I'll go out on a limb and say everyone on this board witnessed it in the Military to some degree. I'm guilty of it. CC ordered me to give a letter LoC I didn't feel was warranted. I did let him know I was doing it on his order.

[arg]

11 minutes ago, Sua Sponte said:

https://apnews.com/article/doge-musk-trump-classified-information-usaid-security-35101dee28a766e0d9705e0d47958611
 

 

It may be the NORCO but I'm having trouble justifying why USAID has classified stuff.

[Smokin]

USAID is basically a government version of an NGO charity and we would laugh if Doctors Without Borders tried to deny an auditor information because it was classified.  Additionally, if the President directed it, then security clearances and classification are completely irrelevant as he has ultimate classification authority.  If he wants them to look at our space sharks with lasers program, that's his prerogative.

Maybe DOGE guys should have done the security paperwork, but there are also a lot of security process stuff that DOGE could address so working within the bureaucratic system to drastically change that system seems a bit counterproductive.

[arg]

14 hours ago, uhhello said:

This is real life.  Grab a beer or three and listen to whole thing.

 

After all that, look who they elected as chair

 

Edited Sunday at 07:03 PM by arg

[brabus]

7 hours ago, 17D_guy said:

Are you really saying Canada, who we've been aligned with culturally, military, economically for at least 100 years isn't an ally?

 

They were ride or die with us in Afghanistan. Let's planes land in their county on 9/11 and took those people into their homes.

 

Not an ally? What is an ally then?

No I’m not saying that all. But looking back I realize how I wrote that could be taken that way, so I don’t blame you for the response. A better way to say it is just because they’re an ally doesn’t mean they don’t face repercussions for actions (and lack of actions) leading to negative outcomes for our country. The carrot hasn’t worked, so here’s the stick. They don’t get anymore free passes just because they’re an ally. Furthermore, as an ally they should act like it and do a lot better WRT border-related issues. We’ll see how long this lasts; my guess is not horribly long as they realize they’re economically way outside our league. 

Edited yesterday at 12:12 AM by brabus

[Biff_T]

On 2/1/2025 at 8:04 PM, uhhello said:

This is real life.  Grab a beer or three and listen to whole thing.

 

WTF did I just watch?

The guy had the reading ability of a 4th grader.   

We have to elect a make believer to make our process fair.  These people need to see a war zone.   

[SurelySerious]

WTF did I just watch?
The guy had the reading ability of a 4th grader.   
We have to elect a make believer to make our process fair.  These people need to see a war zone.   

That’s the thing, Biff. Having to go through life espousing a platform like men believing they’re women being a totally normal thing is a war zone, haven’t you heard? All those C Model guys have been at war this whole time, we just didn’t hear their story.

[lloyd christmas]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/david-hogg-becomes-democratic-national-223229111.html

https://babylonbee.com/news/to-announce-theyve-given-up-completely-dnc-selects-david-hogg-as-vice-chair

 

[GrndPndr]

On 2/2/2025 at 9:50 AM, brabus said:

Actively tariffing two “allies” who continue to not GAF about our shared borders and are directly contributing to significant amounts of American deaths and general degradation of society. Trump uses tariffs as leverage, and he has been extremely successful at wielding them. CA and Mex are welcome to FAFO, or they can start actually doing something about the shit they let pour into our country. 

<snip>

Yes, most folks don't understand that Trump is using these as a leverage for negotiations.  I'll argue in that vein (sts) that it is working so far, he has reactions from everybody who's been "tariffed."  Otherwise he would be like the previous POTUS, who sat there with hi d*ck in his hand, doing nothing.

Edited yesterday at 03:39 PM by GrndPndr
forgot a word

[GrndPndr]

39 minutes ago, GrndPndr said:

Yes, most folks don't understand that Trump is using these as a leverage for negotiations.  I'll argue in that vein (sts) that it is working so far, he has reactions from everybody who's been "tariffed."  Otherwise he would be like the previous POTUS, who sat there with hi d*ck in his hand, doing nothing.

et voilà !

Mexico president makes deal with Trump to pause tariffs for a month, put 10K troops on border

[LookieRookie]

22 hours ago, Smokin said:

USAID is basically a government version of an NGO charity and we would laugh if Doctors Without Borders tried to deny an auditor information because it was classified.  Additionally, if the President directed it, then security clearances and classification are completely irrelevant as he has ultimate classification authority.  If he wants them to look at our space sharks with lasers program, that's his prerogative.

Maybe DOGE guys should have done the security paperwork, but there are also a lot of security process stuff that DOGE could address so working within the bureaucratic system to drastically change that system seems a bit counterproductive.

Elon has brought in some random tech bro 20 year olds to help him. (Some graduating high school in 2022)

 Those people don’t have clearances and should absolutely not have access to classified material without proper security clearance vetting/training.

 

[jrizzell]

Elon has brought in some random tech bro 20 year olds to help him. (Some graduating high school in 2022)
 Those people don’t have clearances and should absolutely not have access to classified material without proper security clearance vetting/training.
 

Both things are true. Is there fraud in USAID funding, I’m sure there is. It doesn’t excuse having uncleared personnel access US Government networks, that’s totally unacceptable


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