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Your forebears created the House of Representatives for a reason. So, even Don Lemon stated that DEI became a house of worship and if you didn't sing with the choir; you were out of the church. IMO; it was an enhanced form of race relations. Congress, not EO. Agreed. Who or how? My grandfather had to come over twice. First time, he was a WOP. Congress. Not EO GAC should be between children, parents and doctors and is really none of any one else's business. One of the issues with transitioning in the military is - once hormone treatment started, they were non-deployable for three years. That is the length of an enlistment, so for many they went in just to get the change (affordability). An issue which could be resolved with Universal Healthcare. Any? How do you feel about the physically disabled? You might want to expand on this. Did you vote FOR the revolting guy? If so; then he is "your guy."

Probably there isn't anything now that will stop China from taking Taiwan, the Spratley's, or anything else they want. We can only hope that Europe can keep the front lines in Ukraine steady to keep Russia from re-arming while all of Europe gets their military capabilities up to speed. What a shit show. Trump is giving Europe to Putin and Republicans in Congress are standing up and applauding him while he's doing it. Unbelievable.

I disagree. The measure of success of a government is support of its people's freedoms, providing for essential basic services and defending the country against its enemies. It is not to make a profit. If a company lets itself be taken over by another company, and its shareholders double their money, that company is successful. If Russia took over control of the US and the people here got a hefty payout from Putin - would you consider that a success? So you support hiring unqualified white straight men over qualified black, LGBT or female candidates? Because DEI is the opposite of that. DEI is "hire the best candidate REGARDLESS of race or sex or orientation or religion." So no medical facilities in the military? No VA hospitals? No GI bill? No airshows? No recruiting? No on-base housing? Because none of those has anything directly to do with killing people. OK. So Melania Trump and Elon Musk flouted the rules. Is that acceptable because they are white? Or is it unacceptable, and should be held accountable? So no breast reduction surgery for female high school swimmers who might have a shot at the Olymics if they get it? No hair transplants for 15 year old boys who are losing all their hair? No breast augmentation for a 17 year old girl who has such lopsided breasts that she is bullied mercilessly? I think that their parents - and not you - are in a better position to decide. White straight men are all terrified that the special treatment they have gotten for 300 years or so is coming to an end. I can't get too upset about that. A president who does nothing, and lets Congress make all the decisions, is vastly preferable to a president who destroys democracy in the US. Indeed, that is how the Founding Fathers pictured the presidency to work. Harris would have been a president. Trump is working towards being a king. Sad that weak people support kings over presidents. You chose him. He is your guy,

But he's your guy anyway. Because there is nothing he could do that would cause you to re-think your support of him, and risk potentially having been wrong. I'm sorry, but that's bullshit. I'm assuming that means that your humanity has a price, and so does everyone else's. Wendy P.

I'd take someone who does nothing over someone whose every action is for his own benefit or that of his cronies, who embaces rioters, who openly threatens vengeance on those who oppose him, who spends millions of taxpayer money on golfing while cutting aid to the poorest members of society, who has no conception of the difference between the truth and a lie, who openly brags about being a sexual predator, etc. etc. etc. Nothing sounds pretty good in comparison.

Who gets to judge those things, though? Currently it is a crew of inexperienced 19-23 year old coders who might be able to write script but clearly have not a clue about anything else. Cuts are being made on the basis of what Elon Musk thinks is useful to himself. He is of course well known for his lack of ability to care about anyone except himself and his 10,000 offspring (or so I infer from his statements and behavior), so condemning a few million people to die of malaria, HIV, or starvation is a small price to pay if he gets his tax cuts and trip to be the king of Mars. When Congress creates programs and allocates money, the Executive Branch has no constitutional authority to kill or defund those programs. The Executive can lobby Congress to get rid of such programs, but to do so they would have to convince Congress to take responsibility. Unfortunately the current cult formerly known as the Republican Party is all too happy to let Musk, who doesn't have to worry about re-election, take the heat for killing programs and ruining many lives, at least until he goes after Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid (which will begin any day now) and 2/3 of the people who vote R suddenly find themselves in line at the soup kitchen. I fear, though, that virtually every Republican congresscritter will discover that they have no idea where to look for their cojones after Trump and Musk cut them off and fed them to a drove of pigs.

Government isn't and should never be ran as a business. That is not it's function. More so when current leadership has more experience with bankruptcies than with actual successful businesses.

Hi folks, Looks like the Jack Daniels people are crying crocodile tears: Jack Daniel's maker says Canada taking bottles off shelves 'worse than tariffs' Too fucking bad, I say. Jerry Baumchen

Business is about making a profit for the owners or shareholders. Government is (or should be) about providing services that are not inherently profitable, such as protecting peoples rights and safety, regulating business to limit their tendency to maximize profit by screwing over people, supporting basic research that isn't profitable in the near term but eventually may lead to advances that can be picked up on by industry to develop products such as new drugs, and so on. It's infuriating (to say the least) to see the US government being taken over by grifters who clearly seek to personally profit, either by direct means or indirectly by eliminating the ability of government to prevent them from running roughshod over everybody else. "it's just the way it is" is just a slightly different way of saying "fuck anybody who I don't like".

No, it's not. They will deny a few Trump orders to make them seem impartial. Nothing will fundamentally change.

Did you ever think through the implication of the fact that the only President who's ever been willing to do the things you want is a dumb, revolting sonofabitch? Call me crazy but I can't help thinking that might say something about the merits of the policies. Nah, you're right - it's probably just a coincidence.

It isn't. There isn't. 1) It can't. Europe is already giving a lot of aid, but it is not capable of replacing US arms supply. Ukraine needs weapons from both sides of the atlantic. 2) That's not the goal. As things currently stand, doing business with Russia is the goal.

My grandparents were born in Ireland before the advent of airplanes. Ireland was still reeling from the effects of the potato famine that happened about 40 years earlier, and no one was really doing well. She was a potato farmer; his family owned a sheep farm, which meant he was a bit richer than she was. But richness is relative, and when they decided to emigrate to the US, all their savings together could barely pay for one ticket. So my grandfather came over first. The New York he arrived in around 1925 was very anti-Irish. There were strict immigration quotas, and they were stricter than normal for the Irish since there weren't many in the country at that point. I don't know how he got past that, but he did. He came into the US, found a place to stay, and got his bearings. Then he did something that would make him a criminal today - he started to work. It is how most illegal immigrants become illegal immigrants today. He had to work to make enough money to wire it back for my grandmother to come over. But back then that was legal, and thus he worked at odd jobs until he could send for her. Jobs were very hard to find; "Irish need not apply" was a common sign seen back then, due to the common knowledge that Irish immigrants were ignorant, brawling drunks. They lived together in Queens for decades. He passed a New York civil service test which was lifechanging for them, because he could then get steady work as a city bus driver. My grandmother worked at the Chemical Bank cafeteria. And while they lived there they had two girls - my mother and my aunt. The tenement they lived in was classic Old New York, with no elevators, massive stone steps, huge air wells so that people could have light throughout their apartments, a good half inch of paint on everything and antiquated, dim lighting fixtures in the hallways. It always smelled like boiled cabbage in the hallways. I think about them often when I hear about the immigration debates today. As Irish they went through what Hispanic immigrants are going through today; everyone just "knows" that they are a problem. They are criminals, lazy, leeches etc. Which is sad, and I think indicates most people haven't met many. Over the years I have met, in person, perhaps a dozen illegal immigrants. Out of all of them, only two were what the media portrays as illegal immigrants. These two I met on the way back from Eloy after a long weekend of skydiving. I saw them standing next to a broken down car in the 105 degree heat, and figured I would stop to see if they needed anything. As I rolled to a stop I realized that the car was standing on four flats and hadn't been driven in months, if not years. The people there were two Hispanic guys who asked me in broken English if I could give them a ride to San Diego. I told them that I couldn't, but did leave them with all the water/food I had left over from the weekend. I hope they made it somewhere safe. The rest started out legally - then violated immigration law and became illegal immigrants. One was a member of the Swiss national skydiving team who came here on a tourist visa - and then offered to coach someone for a few bucks. She was then an illegal immigrant; she had violated immigration law. Another was legal but had a paperwork problem with his green card. His only legal option was to leave the US while it was sorted out, since his visa had expired. But he did not, since he had a company to run. He was, at that point, an illegal immigrant. A co-worker had his visa renewal delayed, and on the day the renewal was supposed to arrive, he waited by the mailbox all day. It did not arrive. He was then illegal. To his credit he did the best he could, and moved to Mexico the next day to await the arrival of the visa. Our company helped as much as they could, setting him up for remote work and pressuring the INS to move on the paperwork. Now, right wingers reading this may claim "but they're not REAL illegal immigrants! They came in legally and there was just a paperwork problem!" The thing they miss is that MOST illegal immigrants fall into this category. About 40% just plain overstay their visas. About 35% work illegally. About 10% have problems with paperwork that makes them illegal. (And many fall into two or three of those categories.) The image of illegal immigrants crossing the border illegally under cover of darkness - that's less than half of all illegal immigrants. Now these people, again by the letter of the law, would have a very hard time becoming legal if they were honest. I've helped a few people with green card and citizenship applications, and the applications ask a very important question - have you violated US immigration law in the past? And if you have, it is VERY difficult to get a green card, because you have a history of not following the law. So most people just say "no" and it usually works out, because the INS is a government program that politicians love to cut. But there's a catch there, too. If you obtain a green card, or become a citizen, under false pretenses, it will be revoked. Thus those people just have to pray that no one looks at their history very closely. This brings us to two of our most famous illegal immigrants - Elon Musk and Melania Trump. Musk first came to Palo Alto in 1995 under a student visa; he said he was going to go to school at Stanford. But he never did. He never even enrolled. Instead he began working at a startup called Zip2. He flew under the radar for a while until 1996, when potential investors looked at everyone's immigration status, and required both Musk and his brother to get a visa within 45 days. Derek Proudian, who was with Zip2 at the time, said that “their immigration status was not what it should be for them to be legally employed running a company in the U.S. We don’t want the founder being deported.” Given that Musk then quickly got his work visa, it is safe to say that he lied on that application, and said he had never violated immigration law. Melania Trump (Melanija Knavs at that point) came to the US in August of 1996 on a B1/B2 tourist visa. Under a tourist visa, of course, it is illegal to work. Per employment records, she was paid for 10 modeling assignments between September 10 and October 15. Then on October 18, 1996, Knavs got an H-1B visa, the visa intended for skilled workers, allowing her to legally work. Again given the speed that she got the visa, she did not admit she had violated immigration law. So although people rail against illegal immigrants, it might be wise to afford them the same opportunities to skirt the law that was afforded to Knavs and Musk. It would have been a bad thing for the US economy to have deported Musk just because he was an illegal alien.

Zelensky probably wasn't willing to pay for a whore to suck his dick. Respect is earned or given, NOT demanded. If you have to demand it, it's not respect. Wendy P.

Negative. We wanted you to vote for Harris to decrease the chance Trump would be elected. You chose otherwise. In our country and in the last election, in particular, some of us consider that to be ill considered. Don’t over complicate our simple thinking.

One of the things all us old farts forget is the 9/11 was 24 years ago. To most people under 40 that is a history lesson, not a life experience. A 30 year old was 6 years old at 9/11 they sure as hell don’t remember how everyone came together in support of the US.

Hi. Man it seems like we've known each other for a couple of decades :)

To this observer from across the pond it appears Trump and Vance seem hell bent on dissolving NATO. Formed in 1949 in Washington NATO comprises a collective of countries who agreed to support each other in the event of hostility being targeted against any of its members. (Article 5) In 76 years Article 5 has only been invoked once. 12 September 2001 by the USA, every member country stood by the US, most lost hundreds of troops in the subsequent war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Government is and should always be different. It's not a business, nor should it ever be.

Jack Daniels CEO Lawson Whiting (also a Trump supporter) is having some #tregret as Canadians pull US products from shelves. It is a "disproportionate response" and completely unfair to him. "I mean, that's worse than a tariff, because it's literally taking your sales away, [and] completely removing our products from the shelves."

https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/s/unxqzqDuSz Serms Trump has at last succeeded in getting Europe to agreeing to spend more on defence. I wonder if the idiot realises the money will be spent in Europe on European products?

Well I thought I answered that in my post above the one you quoted. It depends on his experience, if any... And it wouldn't take opening it, the packed rig would be apparent. Mains are generally bulkier than bailout rigs, the container design is often a bit different, on mains the ripcord is usually on the right side whereas on bailout rigs they're usually on the left, mains have the D-rings, bailout rigs don't, mains don't have seals or packing cards... The NWA or FBI people procuring the rigs probably don't have any idea about the differences, they're just grabbing what they can get. When they tell Emrick they've got the backs, he probably knows they've got bailout rigs, but he probably doesn't say anything lest they ask him for more. Which again, might explain the dummy reserve. There's no way in hell Emrick doesn't know that training aid from a real one.

Until we get Brent back he's the best we can do. Be patient.

That was sure my first thought. Wendy P.

One has to wonder what kompromat Putin has on Donald.

He is at least a knob. JD accused Zelensky of disrespecting the USA by lecturing then about conditions in Ukraine. A couple of weeks ago JD came to Munich and disrespected the entire European community by lecturing us on how to run our own internal political systems. A guy who has spoken extensively about the need to replace US democracy with a single far right leader accused Europe of betraying democracy if they we don’t invite the far right into government. The shallowest of hypocrites. As for Trump - dis anyone ever think we’d see an American President display such weakness on the world stage? It is now blanket administration policy to not even acknowledge that Russia invaded Ukraine in the first place in case the Kremlin takes offence at the truth. Alongside dismantling protections against Russian cyber warfare, halting aid to Ukraine and proposing the lifting of all sanctions on Russia and the Russians it seems that the White House believes it’s only ploy in these ‘negotiations’ is to give Putin absolutely every single thing he could ever want and hope he decides to throw them a bone in return.

Ironic that this thread started with you being incredibly angry that other people didn’t automatically believe every single word of what Burchett said happened behind closed doors. Now you’re incredibly angry because you refuse to believe any of what Bill said happened behind closed doors

A little bit of German humour poking fun at trump

https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/western-australia/wa-premier-brands-us-vice-president-a-knob-20250304-p5lgth.html Our premiere has called JD Vance a knob. Trump said the world was laughing at the US, well we sure are now. Global leaders are starting to publicly correct him and slowly starting to take the piss.

Because it has been the default. To this day, "black sounding" names get interviews less often. That's discrimination. Because, again, that's been the default. For a simple proof of this, JD Vance was admitted to college under a DEI program. When I pointed this out to conservatives, a good half of them replied with "that's absurd, he's white." DEI is indeed the opposite. It means hire anyone if they are qualified, regardless of their race or sex or gender. D. It says hire anyone qualified even if they need a handicapped parking spot. E. It says provide services that some employees need (like mother's rooms) even if they are a small percentage of the workforce. I. Oh I know what YOU think it means. No gender affirming care for trans kids. But gender affirming care for cis kids? No problem! And if you think that just makes sense - you are the problem. Yes, now AND then. Even if you don't understand the issues. Do you think porn is the same as books about queer kids? How about books about straight kids? Are they OK? Again, if one is OK but not the other - that's homophobia. If you were supporting democracy you would have voted for Harris. You prefer a dictator, as long as the dictator does what you want. Don't feel bad - most US conservatives are like you. https://pro.morningconsult.com/trend-setters/global-right-wing-authoritarian-test

Damn Canadians need to open that giant faucet. South Carolina is under Canada, and water flows down!

I guess 'Mericans will have to learn to speak and spell proper now that English is the official language of the USA. I think all official documents should be written in Cockney dialect.

Hi

You vote for someone thoroughly malevolent, WTF do you expect?

Trump is evil by any definition of the word. Evil, evil, evil. And his people are invariably sycophants and thus enablers of evil, not to mention morons like RFK Jr.

Man, these make me feel really grateful for being young and more intentional about taking care of my body.

Careful with the projection. I approve of treating government with the same fiscal responsibility as necessary for a successful business (yeah, I know the dumb sonofabitch has a tendency to bankruptcy). I approve of ripping any woke policies out by the roots. Funding DEI is not an option. I approve of picking an official language. My forebears would have done better with French or German, but we picked up some English along the way. I approve of having a military focused on its primary mission, with no consideration of other agenda. I approve of limiting who can immigrate, and have no problem with flouting the rules being an unacceptable option. Many who got to Ellis Island were sent back, and I've lived many places where being there without authorization was a Really Bad Idea. I approve of Right Back Atcha trade legislation, where our tariffs duplicate those of our trading partners. "Gender Affirming Care" for children is child abuse and should be charged as a felony. If you want surgery to confirm your identity as a penguin once you reach majority - and you pay for it - knock yourself out. Any group should be careful when asking for "Special Treatment," given how that worked out previously. Harris would have done nothing I consider useful, so Trump was operationally preferable. He is, unfortunately, entirely revolting, and by no means "my guy."

Kids!

I'm sorry but I think you're falling into the trap laid by extremist politicians of setting impossible standards for anyone else to follow. The system isn't broken. The system is not robust enough to stand up to malicious actors like Trump, but it can't ever be, really. There will always be a case that if you elect enough people who don't care about the law, the leadership will be above the law. But the answer to this is literally as simple as voting for grown ups with some sense of public service. That's all you need. Now ideally (IMO) this person would be willing to have serious conversations about the consequences of 40 years of increasingly pure neo-liberal economic policies and the need for imposition of responsibility for content onto the tech/media giants... but that's a wishlist for another day when the choice is between two grownups who haven't stated their intent to destroy the system. When the choice is between one normal person and one wrecking ball, under the normal person everything will work just fine. Maybe a little better, maybe a little worse, but absolutely fine. Handwringing about exactly who is the perfect person to oppose the wrecking ball has them laughing all the way to the ballot box. You'll see this template from the extremists time and time again - create a problem and force the conversation to happen on their terms that the problem now independently exists and who can give you a perfect plan to solve it.... when the real answer is that we just need to stop enabling them. One of the best examples is election security in the US. The extremists lied and lied and lied about utterly absurd schemes - dead Venezuelan presidents hacking in via satellite FFS - then pushed through sweeping reforms to weaken what was in fact an extremely robust system on the basis that too many people had lost faith in election security. Again in that case anyone engaging in a conversation with those people about how the system can be better protected has already lost because they have accepted the fraudulent worldview.

Despite the criticism you face I see this as the way forward. A groundswell of support for a strong third option and breaking the back of a two party has to be the best solution. The dems dropped the ball covering for Bidens decline and I suspect are also quite beholden to big business influence. While I disagree with your view of Harris, she is not the person who can overturn a broken system. I believe a lot of people have recognised that the system is broken. Trump and his ilk are able to exploit it for more power and money. Most major party politicians are content to keep the gravy train going. With all due respect to those of you over about 70, I don’t think people over 70 should be in high pressure jobs like President , speaker of the House or the Supreme Court. Certainly a role as advisors and consultants.

Tosaw book,, Florence.. Cooper was threatening to touch the wire to the battery terminal..

What was Trump's record of voting in the Senate before his first election? Inquiring minds want to know. Because it sounds like you are arguing that bankrupting companies and being a reality TV star is better preparation for the presidency than being an attorney general, a district attorney, a senator and a vice president. And again, if you are looking to a future of Trumps, I want no part of it. Even if Trump's opponents have an annoying laugh, and didn't vote as often as you would have liked them to.

Trump and Vance really showed the true depth of their depravity today. Petulant scumbags putting their own fragile egos above global security and the life and death of tens of thousands of people.

Agreed. A plumber might not be qualified. But being a DA, then an Attorney General, then a Senator, then Vice President - that does lend experience that tends to qualify one for the job. The Senate's output is based on the votes of 100 people; it's a group effort. No one person accomplishes anything concrete. They sponsor bills. They work on language for amendments. They participate in committees. They advocate for their positions. They lobby other senators. They vote. They kiss babies and shake hands. That's the job. Like you said, pick any vocation and they do something, even if you don't think it's much. To single her out, she was first senator to co-sponsor the Medicare for All Act of 2017. She and Rand Paul sponsored a bill to reform the bail system in the US. She wrote parts of the Senate bill making lynching a federal crime. She sponsored a bill to expedite the reunion of families separated at the border. And she voted hundreds of times while a senator. This experience came in handy when she set the record for tiebreaking votes in the Senate while she was VP. Now, you might think all that's nothing, but you could say the same thing about most vocations. Do insurance salesmen really do anything? They don't create the insurance. They don't pay out that insurance. They don't directly help people. They just move paper. Heck, I was only one of 400 people on the big-way record in Thailand. I didn't accomplish anything extraordinary. I wasn't an organizer, adviser or sector captain. I didn't stand out. All I did was not screw up by doing the same thing I had done in the past ~300 bigways I did. Did I do nothing? Failure to learn from the past means a future of Trumps. And while you might be OK with that, I think that would be the end of US democracy.

Unfortunately there must be some truth to people hiding Biden’s decline and that undermines the dems ability to take the high ground.

Hi Keith, No matter how one measures it: IMO she was a far better choice than Trump. IMO in 2024 voting for anyone other than Harris or Trump was the same as not voting at all. A meaningless gesture, nothing else. Jerry Baumchen

After personal intervention by Trump's envoy his administration has successfully pressured the Romanian government into letting serial rapists and incel influencers Andrew and Tristan Tate travel to the US, essentially letting them off scott free from their numerous criminal charges across Europe because like fuck are they ever going back for any court date. This is the family values Republican party. Celebrating and defending despicable individuals about whom the absolute best, least controversial thing you can say is that they are professional pimps. Everyone down the chain even remotely involved in actioning this is fucking disgusting. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg4kkv3e1v9o

I'd put his head on the block.

No he won't. He thinks the US sent 500 billion and is "trying to get it back". He's just trying to shake down Ukraine for far more than the US actually sent, and stopping all aid is already a given. He's fully a Russian asset. ...but at least DOGE might balance the budget right? (no, they won't do that either)

One weekend at Perris Cap't Hooks Sky Pirates were practicing their 10 man speed stars and told everybody that after they got together anybody else could come in on their formation, I got 4 20 man's in a row that day, there is something to be said about "the good old days".