So is him calling the cave divers pedophiles falling under "what choice did he have"

3/6/2025 1:36:57 PM

Quote :

"I'm not sure anyone here, other than you apparently, would admit he has done favorable things and if they did it would be with caveats."

This type of thinking seems to happen often, and is quite dumb. Just because people aren't constantly praising him doesn't mean they don't recognize at he's a smart guy that has done good things. Every criticism of him doesn't have to be prefaced with a caveat that he's a smart guy that's done some good things. Lots of evil people who did terrible things were smart people, and it's not necessary to preface criticism of them with "but hey, they're smart and did some good things too!"



[Edited on March 6, 2025 at 1:53 PM. Reason : ]

3/6/2025 1:49:55 PM

The 10 Democrats who voted to censure Green are all moderates: Reps. Ami Bera and Jim Costa, both of California; Ed Case of Hawaii; Laura Gillen and Tom Suozzi, both of New York; Jim Himes of Connecticut; Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania; Marcy Kaptur of Ohio; Jared Moskowitz of Florida; and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington state.

3/6/2025 3:38:14 PM

^^ I was specifically referring to instances where he's called dumb, that Tesla would be successful without him, he's not an engineer, and muh emerald mine comments.

^^^ didn't have a choice came in the 2020 era. Covid, lawsuits, Biden snub etc

Newsome makes a play:

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/06/gavin-newsom-breaks-with-democrats-on-trans-athletes-in-sports-00215436

[Edited on March 6, 2025 at 5:33 PM. Reason : A]

3/6/2025 5:32:36 PM

What is this Biden snub I keep hearing about?

3/6/2025 5:40:33 PM

https://bsky.app/profile/johnrogers.bsky.social/post/3ljqftk7n5s2q

Quote :

" Interracial marriage did not cross 50% approval in the US until 1996, when I was 30 years old. Good political messaging drives opinion, it doesn't follow it."

3/6/2025 6:24:03 PM

^^ https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/05/business/tesla-snub-white-house-event/index.html

3/6/2025 8:19:48 PM

Thanks!

3/6/2025 10:12:29 PM

Newsom definitely sounds like he’s positioning himself to be more of a center-left candidate for 2028.

3/7/2025 9:07:09 AM

he’s been positioning himself to be a presidential candidate his whole life and he’s gonna fail spectacularly

[Edited on March 7, 2025 at 11:51 AM. Reason : .]

3/7/2025 11:51:25 AM

Quote :

"The most popular politician, by far, with self-described moderates is Bernie Sanders (+15). I think there is a major disconnect between what beltway pundits see as "moderate" and where voters are."

https://twitter.com/jeremyslevin/status/1898038391695888693
This tweet is misleading bc the poll they reference doesn't have many politicians BUT it does have Musk and hes - 21 among moderates. Trump is only - 11.

Link to poll
https://t.co/RZipnzVL0Q
https://twitter.com/jeremyslevin/status/1898044974068879608

3/7/2025 2:39:15 PM

Quote :

"the point of DOGE (allegedly) is to make drastic budget cuts because the United States can't afford year after year, decade after decade of deficit spending."

Horseshit. Pure, 100%, unadulterated horseshit. Look, i get your schtick, the US has needed to reign in spending, and the Dems have repeatedly missed their shot. But what DOGE is doing has nothing to do with lowering government spending, either.

This is a giant red herring, and it's painfully obviously so. They've managed to nuke a tenth of the federal workforce for a grand total savings of... drumroll... less than one fucking percent of the federal budget. They are even torching IRS agents, which, if you want to balance a budget, nuking the place that, you know, brings in your revenue seems to be the worst way to do it. They are torching some grant programs, sure, which happen to total up to, again, a small fraction of our budget. But you know what they aren't hitting? The actual big ticket items, which are massive corporate subsidies going to companies making record profits. They aren't hitting the actual bloated govt contracts which happen to quite nicely line the pockets of GOP donors.

What this actually is, is a purge of government employees. That's it. Trump made it clear on the campaign trail that he wanted a federal workforce that was completely beholden to him. It's why he's sacked every single IG he could get his hands on. It's why he has nuked all the heads of federal agencies. Project 2025, which he totally isn't implementing, even though he's hired almost everyone who worked on it and has done basically everything it's asked for, has laid out the same plan. His transition team even had pretty clear hiring and performance rubrics made up where a key component was loyalty to Trump.

And, frankly, if you want a government purge, this is exactly how you go about it, nuking the workforce. The focus on "probationary" employees is an explicit strategy, both because they have less protections, and because the admin is trying to set up a test case for the SC with them, hoping they will take the bait and say the President has unfettered hiring authority within the Executive Branch. After that, the rest of the workforce can be terminated and replaced with people who will do whatever Trump wants at every single level within the federal government.

It's got nothing to do with saving money, and everything to do with a complete and total takeover of the federal government by Trump and his loyalists. They've telegraphed it for years. Now you just have to ask why they want to do it. And I think January 6th is your answer.

So cut the crap, quit acting like this is about cutting costs. It's a purge of the federal government workforce and attempted fascist takeover of our government. Have the Dems failed? Sure, but that doesn't justify what DOGE is doing by any stretch of the imagination. We can only hope that Roberts and Barrett see this for what it is and put a stop to it before the re-education camps starts popping up.

3/10/2025 2:39:36 PM

Quote :

"This is a giant red herring, and it's painfully obviously so. They've managed to nuke a tenth of the federal workforce for a grand total savings of... drumroll... less than one fucking percent of the federal budget."

And how do you think they could possibly implement any real change if the internal bureaucracy is not brought to heel? This strategy is all predicated on the idea the US hasn't had an actual executive function since FDR. The idea that the internal bureaucracy (and deep state) being the major problem with the country was openly discussed and even referenced all over the place (not just project 2025).

If all that happens is a few feds get fired and they end up replaced by IT workers at Booz Allen Hamilton for 4x the gov pay rate it will be a huge failure. I've seen some local complaints about cut contracts to these IT shops that make PowerPoints for millions of dollars so I'm hopeful.

3/11/2025 6:48:52 AM

So we're going along with the "deep state" myth now?

Government is not known for its efficiency, but not everything is a conspiracy.

3/11/2025 7:14:19 AM

"Deep State" being unironically referenced, lol

There are definitely ways to help balance the budget, in part, by shrinking the federal workforce. Clinton did this under NPR in the 90s. The difference was that it was methodical and precise, you didn't have someone cutting in broad swathes with zero regard of the damages they were causing. You can tell this wasn't thought about, because you have Elon going "we did an oopsie and trying to hire these people back".

Burro's take is one that I full heartedly agree with

3/11/2025 9:56:08 AM

Apparently the Deep State is different than "Iron Polygon/Triangle", but with some overlap. I thought it was just a trumpism on the Iron Triangle concept.

Quote :

" The Deep State, often tied to entrenched bureaucrats and insiders, overlaps with these but focuses more on covert government influence. While related, they aren't identical: the Iron Triangle is a specific policy-making model, the Deep State emphasizes shadowy government actors, and the Cathedral is about ideological control. The Chevron doctrine, which historically allowed agencies to interpret ambiguous laws with judicial deference, empowered the bureaucratic arm of these systems by giving unelected officials broad sway—until it was recently overturned, shifting some power back to courts. "

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_triangle_(US_politics)

Quote :

"So we're going along with the "deep state" myth now? "

See Chevron over turn:
https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-happens-if-supreme-court-ends-chevron-deference

The actors in this play are not operating in a way that seems like THEY think it is a myth (regardless if it is). You can say it's a myth, but I think it explains the actions and behevior better than the opposite.
Why are they attacking it, and what is the end goal? There were numerous examples in Trump 1 (and other administrations) where the executive will was ignored by the bureaucracy.

My statement is:
1) The Chevron ruling (and FDRs action before it) created a government structure that moved power from the traditional branches to the bureaucracy.
2) Trump et all believe this to be the case (as the think tanks like Claremont Inst, Yarvin, Vance) have made statements they believe it to be true
3) Their actions they are taking are to untie 1 and in support in 2

See tons of articles like: https://apnews.com/article/trump-presidential-power-executive-congress-grants-freeze-60fa3a9fabf6328f9aa3c45ed34e2cc3

If he's "centralizing power" what's he centralizing it from?

[Edited on March 11, 2025 at 10:24 AM. Reason : a]

3/11/2025 10:18:01 AM

^ congress and courts

The USA is the wealthiest country in the world and has 350 million people to serve. The so called deep state is merely the machinery needed for this— as we’re literally seeing first hand with the collapse and disruption. The President is not supposed to be handpicking favorites loyal to him when delivering government services. There might not be specific prohibitions against this Constitutionally but it’s how we set the system up. Execution of government shouldn’t be partisan. Why were people, including democrats, mad at Obama’s IRS for (correctly) using tea party as a search criteria for groups abusing non profit status? The appearance of playing favorites is obviously wrong, let alone the corrupt actuality of how trump does play favorites.

3/11/2025 11:17:26 AM

Quote :

"My statement is:"

now we know why this dork relies so heavily on AI

3/11/2025 2:02:15 PM

^^ then why attack the bureaucracy if it's only Congress and the courts?

3/11/2025 3:07:01 PM

Because those people will largely follow the law when congress and the courts ask for compliance. Trump needs people who will break the law or ignore it or just destroy the basic capacity to follow the law

It’s why every fascist does a purge. Trump has likely committed the biggest fascist purge in history and it’s on-going.

3/11/2025 6:24:39 PM

Senate dems better not vote with republicans on the budget

3/11/2025 7:40:00 PM

+ 1 not voting for budget

3/12/2025 6:26:43 PM

Quote :

"And how do you think they could possibly implement any real change if the internal bureaucracy is not brought to heel?"

1) So you admit that it's not about trimming the budget. Good, we're making progress
2) The "deep state" myth, aside from being silly, is a quintessentially fascist appeal. The "evil insiders wrecking our country" claim, while often featuring in authoritarian circles in general when a purge needs to happen, is specifically fascist when coupled with "and that's why we aren't great any more." The obvious example being the scapegoating of German Jews for the fallout from WW1. The claims here are same thing, and they are dangerous as hell.
3) Let's talk about just how absurd this is. The horrible "deep state" is blocking Trump from doing what he wants, but the people who blocked him the hardest in his first term were his own hand-picked advisors. It doesn't even add up. But instead, he's going to focus on probationary workers to clear out the deep state... Cause you know, the guy blocking Trump the hardest today is the guy who was changing the locks on the bathrooms at East Bumfuck National Park.
4) Let's also be clear: the organization that you could most reasonably say might "work against Trump" based on what it did under the Biden admin is the DOJ. They have turned on a fucking dime with the change in admin and are in lock step with him.

The whole "deep state" thing is a complete myth. I'm down with nuking Chevron, and I don't like the administrative state because it has deferred powers from both Congress and the Executive, but this isn't the way to do it. Nuking the IGs and top officials at all the agencies, as he did, is about all he has to do, and then win the SC case. I think, given Harlan Thomas' telegraphed statements about it, he has a decent shot at it, if he just kept it to those agency heads. Taking it down to the individual contributor level, in such a wanton and plainly disingenuous manner, might work against the admin. The presumption of regularity goes a long ass way in helping administrations get away with shit that is less than above board. But when you are blanket firing people who just got promoted 2 months ago for "performance reasons", that presumption gets stretched a bit thin. If Cheeto and his peeps aren't careful, they might even get the presumption of regularity thrown out and have courts start second-guessing government officials. Nothing would make this little-l libertarian happier than to see courts stop believing government officials when they are obviously lying about their motives.

[Edited on March 13, 2025 at 11:31 PM. Reason : ]

3/13/2025 11:21:06 PM