Shock and Awe on day one

[nigel99 471]

Well it seems Trump has come onboard swinging it looks like a wild ride.

1. Jan 6 ‘hostages’ pardoned including the known violent cases.

2. Security clearances pulled for the officials on the Hunter Biden laptop case who dissented. 

3. Crypto currency grift couple of days before inauguration 

4. Elon’s Nazi salutes at the inauguration 

[BIGUN 1,306]

9 hours ago, nigel99 said:

Elon’s Nazi salutes at the inauguration 

Morning, Nigel. When Elon bought Twitter and after a few weeks, I DM'd him and suggested he find a CEO for Twitter and go back to saving the world. As mentioned on here before, I "think" he's on the Howard Hughes path. IMO - he needs to butt out of politics, stick to what he does best and get out of the limelight. 

[JerryBaumchen 1,360]

7 hours ago, BIGUN said:

Morning, Nigel. When Elon bought Twitter and after a few weeks, I DM'd him and suggested he find a CEO for Twitter and go back to saving the world. As mentioned on here before, I "think" he's on the Howard Hughes path. IMO - he needs to butt out of politics, stick to what he does best and get out of the limelight. 

Hi Keith,

If only.

I do agree with absolutely everything in your post.

Jerry Baumchen

[nigel99 471]

7 hours ago, BIGUN said:

Morning, Nigel. When Elon bought Twitter and after a few weeks, I DM'd him and suggested he find a CEO for Twitter and go back to saving the world. As mentioned on here before, I "think" he's on the Howard Hughes path. IMO - he needs to butt out of politics, stick to what he does best and get out of the limelight. 

I agree with you. Did he ever reply to your DM ?

[nigel99 471]

46 minutes ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Hi Keith,

If only.

I do agree with absolutely everything in your post.

Jerry Baumchen

https://web.archive.org/web/20250116043851/https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-government/the-constitution/

They have removed the constitution from the White House website. The link provided is to the archived page. 

[JerryBaumchen 1,360]

1 minute ago, nigel99 said:

https://web.archive.org/web/20250116043851/https://www.whitehouse.gov/about-the-white-house/our-government/the-constitution/

They have removed the constitution from the White House website. The link provided is to the archived page. 

Hi Nigel,

Well, why not?  Trump cannot understand anything in it.

Jerry Baumchen

[BIGUN 1,306]

12 hours ago, nigel99 said:

Did he ever reply to your DM ?

He did not. 

[BIGUN 1,306]

11 hours ago, JerryBaumchen said:

Trump cannot understand anything in it.

Well, mostly just the 14th Amendment and as of this morning, it sounds like 22 states are taking him to court. 

[nigel99 471]

30 minutes ago, BIGUN said:

Well, mostly just the 14th Amendment and as of this morning, it sounds like 22 states are taking him to court. 

I’m curious what you think about this next phase of the US?

I can’t remember if you supported Trumps policies or not (from memory you were abstaining). 

[BIGUN 1,306]

45 minutes ago, nigel99 said:

I’m curious what you think about this next phase of the US?

Morning, Nigel. I am opposed to the Immigrant policy as presented. IMO, Trump could have taken a more phased approach. 1) A moratorium on new immigrants for 3 years. Have every undocumented go to INS and get an I-10 Card (Making that up, just an example), Spend the next three years vetting all thos new I-10 cards (Paying taxes, not criminals, etc. etc.) If  there were children of undocumented born in the US, the 14th amendment says they are citizens, If one does not have an I-10 card, then a due process. During that 3 years, Bill & I had spoke of using BRAC bases as the "new" ellis island for new immigrants.

I voted for Chris Garrity - Independent and voted for the person in each case, some moderate Democrat, some moderate Republican (Balance) . IMO, the chasm of division is too wide. We need a leadership that can bring both parties together, not push each other further apart. 

 

[nigel99 471]

1 hour ago, BIGUN said:

Morning, Nigel. I am opposed to the Immigrant policy as presented. IMO, Trump could have taken a more phased approach. 1) A moratorium on new immigrants for 3 years. Have every undocumented go to INS and get an I-10 Card (Making that up, just an example), Spend the next three years vetting all thos new I-10 cards (Paying taxes, not criminals, etc. etc.) If  there were children of undocumented born in the US, the 14th amendment says they are citizens, If one does not have an I-10 card, then a due process. During that 3 years, Bill & I had spoke of using BRAC bases as the "new" ellis island for new immigrants.

I voted for Chris Garrity - Independent and voted for the person in each case, some moderate Democrat, some moderate Republican (Balance) . IMO, the chasm of division is too wide. We need a leadership that can bring both parties together, not push each other further apart. 

 

Thanks Keith,

I appreciate your reply. I agree the US seems insanely divided by extremism on both sides.

[wmw999 2,442]

Speaking of divided by extremism, I just finished watching the Netflix documentary "Join or Die," which is the movie-ization of the book Bowling Alone, about how the reduction in civic engagement (as evidenced by the smaller numbers in all kinds of fraternal organizations, as well as churches) is correlated quite convincingly with a rise in extremism. And how this also played out in a similar fashion during the Gilded Age.

And it makes a certain amount of sense; if kids learn how to deal with each other by having siblings and friends, it seems as though adults could learn as much by having friends they kinda-sorta HAVE to deal with, as opposed to virtual "friends" who can be unfriended, ghosted, or simply ignored when they piss you off. Personally, I think the rise in suburbs and "every man is an individual" ethos also contributes, as does, of course, the rise of the internet.

So I'll join a club or two.

Wendy P.

[JerryBaumchen 1,360]

9 hours ago, BIGUN said:

Morning, Nigel. I am opposed to the Immigrant policy as presented. IMO, Trump could have taken a more phased approach. 1) A moratorium on new immigrants for 3 years. Have every undocumented go to INS and get an I-10 Card (Making that up, just an example), Spend the next three years vetting all thos new I-10 cards (Paying taxes, not criminals, etc. etc.) If  there were children of undocumented born in the US, the 14th amendment says they are citizens, If one does not have an I-10 card, then a due process. During that 3 years, Bill & I had spoke of using BRAC bases as the "new" ellis island for new immigrants.

I voted for Chris Garrity - Independent and voted for the person in each case, some moderate Democrat, some moderate Republican (Balance) . IMO, the chasm of division is too wide. We need a leadership that can bring both parties together, not push each other further apart. 

 

Hi Keith,

I could not agree more.

However [ IMO ], it all goes back to Gingrich and his 'My way or the hiway," approach to politics.

Jerry Baumchen

[BIGUN 1,306]

4 hours ago, wmw999 said:

And it makes a certain amount of sense; if kids learn how to deal with each other by having siblings and friends, it seems as though adults could learn as much by having friends they kinda-sorta HAVE to deal with, as opposed to virtual "friends" who can be unfriended, ghosted, or simply ignored when they piss you off.

Interesting. I'm gonna have to look into watchng that.. Yeah, the whole nature of communications now is not about sitting down and talking with someone that you have an issue with; I see it in my kid, explosion, noise, sharing of texts, block, ghost, etc. Honey, did you talk WITH them about it. No. OK Let's do that.  

[wmw999 2,442]

Yeah. To me, talking WITH someone is kind of like playing catch WITH them. You want to stretch both of you, but if you make it impossible, they lose interest very fast. It takes little kids awhile to learn that (they think it's a riot to throw the ball so it's impossible to catch). Once they figure out that you keep playing with them as long as you can catch most of the balls (and they figure out you could, in fact, make it impossible for them, too), it gets to be a whole lot more fun, and better for both.

Wendy P.

[nigel99 471]

6 hours ago, wmw999 said:

Speaking of divided by extremism, I just finished watching the Netflix documentary "Join or Die," which is the movie-ization of the book Bowling Alone, about how the reduction in civic engagement (as evidenced by the smaller numbers in all kinds of fraternal organizations, as well as churches) is correlated quite convincingly with a rise in extremism. And how this also played out in a similar fashion during the Gilded Age.

And it makes a certain amount of sense; if kids learn how to deal with each other by having siblings and friends, it seems as though adults could learn as much by having friends they kinda-sorta HAVE to deal with, as opposed to virtual "friends" who can be unfriended, ghosted, or simply ignored when they piss you off. Personally, I think the rise in suburbs and "every man is an individual" ethos also contributes, as does, of course, the rise of the internet.

So I'll join a club or two.

Wendy P.

Thanks I’ll be watch it. I really don’t like religion, but honestly one of the benefits is community spirit.

Covid and working from home hasn’t helped either. I mostly work from home and only recently realised how little I leave the house and socialise these days.

[nigel99 471]

2 hours ago, BIGUN said:

Interesting. I'm gonna have to look into watchng that.. Yeah, the whole nature of communications now is not about sitting down and talking with someone that you have an issue with; I see it in my kid, explosion, noise, sharing of texts, block, ghost, etc. Honey, did you talk WITH them about it. No. OK Let's do that.  

Debate and disagreement is definitely a dying skill. I’m tired and grumpy from kids being up till 2am screaming at each other 

To bring it closer to home you only need to look at discussions in SC from 20 years ago and how there was heated debate, but still substance. It probably gradually declined rather than fell off a cliff, but the last couple of years there was not much debate as people shouting their viewpoints.

[BIGUN 1,306]

16 minutes ago, nigel99 said:

It probably gradually declined rather than fell off a cliff, but the last couple of years there was not much debate as people shouting their viewpoints.

My signature line used to read, "Everyone is trying so hard to be heard that no one is listening." It fell on deaf ears.  

[JerryBaumchen 1,360]

7 hours ago, wmw999 said:

Speaking of divided by extremism, I just finished watching the Netflix documentary "Join or Die," which is the movie-ization of the book Bowling Alone, about how the reduction in civic engagement (as evidenced by the smaller numbers in all kinds of fraternal organizations, as well as churches) is correlated quite convincingly with a rise in extremism. And how this also played out in a similar fashion during the Gilded Age.

And it makes a certain amount of sense; if kids learn how to deal with each other by having siblings and friends, it seems as though adults could learn as much by having friends they kinda-sorta HAVE to deal with, as opposed to virtual "friends" who can be unfriended, ghosted, or simply ignored when they piss you off. Personally, I think the rise in suburbs and "every man is an individual" ethos also contributes, as does, of course, the rise of the internet.

So I'll join a club or two.

Wendy P.

Hi Wendy, 

Then there is this:

Jerry Baumchen

PS)  Just watched 'Join or Die,' quite interesting.  Don't agree with a lot of it; but, at least he tries.

 

[base698 14]

20 hours ago, wmw999 said:

Speaking of divided by extremism, I just finished watching the Netflix documentary "Join or Die," which is the movie-ization of the book Bowling Alone, about how the reduction in civic engagement (as evidenced by the smaller numbers in all kinds of fraternal organizations, as well as churches) is correlated quite convincingly with a rise in extremism. And how this also played out in a similar fashion during the Gilded Age.

There's a lot of talk about this in conservative circles online.  It's referred to sometimes as "ideologies" fulfilling the void left by "God is Dead" of the postmodern era.  Veganism, transgenderism, CrossFit and even skydiving fill the void.

Skydiving has real sacrifice and sometimes the angry sky gods punish indescriminitely for no reason, despite doing everything correctly.  The punishment for the sin of 200 jump wonder on a cross braced canopy can be swift as well.  Always thought it mapped nicely as a religion replacement when I was younger.

[base698 14]

On 1/20/2025 at 10:45 PM, nigel99 said:

Security clearances pulled for the officials on the Hunter Biden laptop case who dissented

Do you support intelligence officials who are supposed to be non partisan distributing propaganda for one party over another?  What about drumming up support for a war on false pretenses, ala Iraq?

[BIGUN 1,306]

On 1/22/2025 at 3:48 AM, BIGUN said:

Well, mostly just the 14th Amendment and as of this morning, it sounds like 22 states are taking him to court.

So it would appear that, "President Trump’s sweeping agenda took its first hit Thursday, when a federal judge put a temporary hold on his birthright citizenship executive order."

Perhaps if there were an AG, they would have explianed it to him.

[wmw999 2,442]

If Trump were to call for a constitutional convention, his folks would think that was a dandy idea.

The merit of an idea is evaluated by who came up with it, not by what it is and its possible implementation and/or implications.

Wendy P.