Trump Administration Episode 2: MAGA Strikes Back (1 Viewer)

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    Optimus Prime

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    I guess this can be our new Daily Trump Tracker Thread
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    President-elect Donald Trump said Tuesday he planned to expedite federal regulatory approvals, including all environmental permits, for any company or individual proposing to invest $1 billion or more in a construction project.

    “Any person or company investing ONE BILLION DOLLARS, OR MORE, in the United States of America, will receive fully expedited approvals and permits, including, but in no way limited to, all Environmental approvals,” Trump wrote Tuesday afternoon on Truth Social. “GET READY TO ROCK!!!”

    The announcement on Trump’s own social network comes as lawmakers in Congress are working to pass a bipartisan bill aimed at easing federal permitting requirements, a step widely seen as necessary to hasten building of upgrades in roads, bridges and energy systems as aging infrastructure heaves under pressure from increasingly extreme weather and a growing population.

    During the first half of his term, President Joe Biden signed into law three landmark bills aimed at modernizing U.S. infrastructure. That includes the hundreds of billions of dollars earmarked in the Inflation Reduction Act for clean energy projects, marking arguably the largest government investment into meeting demand for fossil fuels with lower-carbon alternatives outside of China.

    But the federal permitting process that developed in the 55 years since the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act slowed the deployment of those dollars as opponents of anything from a solar farm to a lithium mine to a natural gas pipeline seized on the country’s bedroom ecological-protection law to halt or delay projects with lawsuits.

    The announcement on Trump’s own social network comes as lawmakers in Congress are working to pass a bipartisan bill aimed at easing federal permitting requirements, a step widely seen as necessary to hasten building of upgrades in roads, bridges and energy systems as aging infrastructure heaves under pressure from increasingly extreme weather and a growing population.

    During the first half of his term, President Joe Biden signed into law three landmark bills aimed at modernizing U.S. infrastructure. That includes the hundreds of billions of dollars earmarked in the Inflation Reduction Act for clean energy projects, marking arguably the largest government investment into meeting demand for fossil fuels with lower-carbon alternatives outside of China.

    But the federal permitting process that developed in the 55 years since the passage of the National Environmental Policy Act slowed the deployment of those dollars as opponents of anything from a solar farm to a lithium mine to a natural gas pipeline seized on the country’s bedroom ecological-protection law to halt or delay projects with lawsuits...............

     
    Our first two threads

    It's actually a fascinating history of thoughts and reactions to everything involving the first Trump admin as it happened in real time


     
    Last edited:
    I guess this can go here...

    Literally this

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    I guess this can go here...

    yes because it's such a horrible burden on them.
     
    Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly donated $1m to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, marking the latest twist in the complicated relationship between the tech boss and the Republican president-elect.

    The donation has been confirmed by the Silicon Valley company, according to The Wall Street Journal, and comes despite Trump threatening the Facebook founder with jail just months earlier, if he attempted to influence the 2024 election.…..

     
    Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has reportedly donated $1m to Donald Trump’s inaugural fund, marking the latest twist in the complicated relationship between the tech boss and the Republican president-elect.

    The donation has been confirmed by the Silicon Valley company, according to The Wall Street Journal, and comes despite Trump threatening the Facebook founder with jail just months earlier, if he attempted to influence the 2024 election.…..

    Zuckerberg is a punk. Just another example of wealth not really giving a damn about anything beyond wealth. This is particularly obvious with the so-called “Techbros”. Everyone of them is a clear and present danger to democracy and the country.
     
    There’s a quiet but intense debate going on today in America, over how and whether the country will function over the next few years.

    Despite Republicans having an ostensible House majority for the last two years, it has been Democrats who have done all the actual governing. More House Democrats than House Republicans have voted for the bills funding the government, authorizing our national defense programs and raising the debt ceiling.

    In short, the House Republican caucus has been so dysfunctional that neither Kevin McCarthy nor Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) could have kept the lights on without Democratic votes.

    There is no reason to think the next Congress — with an even narrower House Republican majority — will be any different. So the question is, should congressional Democrats continue to bail out Republicans, or should they let them sink or swim on their own?

    If Johnson wants to do something that’s good for America, shouldn’t Democrats lend him their support regardless of whether his own caucus backs him or not? Shouldn’t Democrats act responsibly even when Republicans won’t?

    Surprisingly, there’s a correct answer here. And it comes, of all places, from the field of addiction recovery.

    For the last two years, Democrats have thought they were acting in the country’s best interests by helping Republicans govern. They have not been. They meant well, but they have actually been protecting voters from the consequences of Republican dysfunction and enabling bad Republican behavior.

    Republican politicians are now addicted to drama, outrage and “owning the libs.” When you shield addicts from the consequences of their actions, you’re not doing them any favors. All you are doing is enabling their addiction.

    The same goes for their voters. Many are hooked on the political performance and continue to elect unserious, bomb-throwing zealots who pander on social media for the clicks and the television appearances. But Congress is not a reality television show. In real life, dysfunction has consequences.

    The country won’t be on the road to recovery until it is allowed to experience those consequences. If that means giving free rein to the collection of clowns with flamethrowers that now passes for the Republican Party, so be it. Democrats should resist the urge to intervene when the inevitable happens and they set themselves on fire.

    For the next two years, Democrats have no responsibility to govern. They should focus on politics instead and take a longer view of the country’s best interests. If, for example, House Democrats had allowed Republican dysfunction to shut down the government in September, they almost certainly would have won a House majority in November.

    A few weeks of furloughed workers and shuttered national parks would have been a small price to pay for an effective check against Donald Trump’s plans for an American autocracy. Democrats should be practicing tough love and allowing Republicans to inflict pain on themselves, even if that also inflicts some pain on the country.

    This isn’t to say they should let Trump permanently wreck America just to teach his voters a lesson — an approach advocated by some angry progressives. If there is an issue that could do irreversible damage to America’s future, then Democrats should be prepared to step in. But, as a general rule, if Republicans can end a crisis just by acting like responsible adults, Democrats should stand by and do nothing at all, for just as long as it takes..................

     
    As the world’s largest gathering of Earth and space scientists swarmed a Washington venue last week, the packed halls have been permeated by an air of anxiety and even dread over a new Donald Trumppresidency that might worsen what has been a bruising few years for science.

    The annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting drew a record 31,000 attendees this year for the unveiling of a slew of new research on everything from seismology to climate science to heliospheric physics, alongside a sprawling trade show and bouts of networking as scientists jostle to advance their work.

    As grad students and grizzled researchers huddled around pin-boarded presentations in a cavernous exhibition space, however, one person dominated muttered conversations: Trump. The president-elect has called climate science a “giant scam” and when last in office sought to gut US scientific funding and sidelined or even punished scientists deemed unfriendly to the interests of the chemical and fossil fuel industries.


    The prospect of an even more ideologically driven Trump administration slashing budgets and mass-firing federal staff has given America’s scientific community a sort of collective anxiety attack. “We all feel like we have a target on our backs,” said one National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist, who added that agency staff are already seeking to “pivot” by replacing mentions of the climate crisis with more acceptable terms such as “air quality”.……

     
    As the world’s largest gathering of Earth and space scientists swarmed a Washington venue last week, the packed halls have been permeated by an air of anxiety and even dread over a new Donald Trumppresidency that might worsen what has been a bruising few years for science.

    The annual American Geophysical Union (AGU) meeting drew a record 31,000 attendees this year for the unveiling of a slew of new research on everything from seismology to climate science to heliospheric physics, alongside a sprawling trade show and bouts of networking as scientists jostle to advance their work.

    As grad students and grizzled researchers huddled around pin-boarded presentations in a cavernous exhibition space, however, one person dominated muttered conversations: Trump. The president-elect has called climate science a “giant scam” and when last in office sought to gut US scientific funding and sidelined or even punished scientists deemed unfriendly to the interests of the chemical and fossil fuel industries.


    The prospect of an even more ideologically driven Trump administration slashing budgets and mass-firing federal staff has given America’s scientific community a sort of collective anxiety attack. “We all feel like we have a target on our backs,” said one National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist, who added that agency staff are already seeking to “pivot” by replacing mentions of the climate crisis with more acceptable terms such as “air quality”.……

    Ignorance and arrogance will run rampant.
     
    They seem an unlikely, almost motley, crew of emissaries.

    For the Bahamas, there is Herschel Walker, a former NFL star whose fledgling Senate campaign was undone by a string of personal embarrassments but who now is named to be the next US ambassador to the small island nation.

    To the plum diplomatic posting of Paris goes Charles Kushner, father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a man the president-elect once pardoned for a felony conviction that the former Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie, an ex-federal prosecutor, called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.

    And to Greece, once a preserve of seasoned career diplomats, goes Kimberly Guilfoyle, until recently the romantic partner of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, and a woman known more for her rumbustious media profile than her diplomatic acumen.

    The trio are among a flurry of ambassadorial nominees rolled out by Trump in recent weeks as he rushes to fill his administration at breakneck speed with envoys who will project his “America First” ideology abroad.

    Their lack of credentials has prompted one experienced foreign policy analyst to label them a “diplomatic clown car” – and a deliberate affront to the countries hosting them.

    Since last month’s election triumph, the president-elect has nominated ambassadors at a rate not recalled in recent memory – including five in a single day this week.

    Some appear conspicuously unschooled in the diplomatic arts; others have business links which experts say risk conflicts of interest.

    Unlike most countries, which fill ambassadors’ roles from the ranks of professional diplomats, it is customary for US presidents to reward allies and financial backers with ambassadorial jobs – with prize postings like London and Paris almost always going to friends of the man in the oval office.

    But Trump has broken new ground with the sheer volume of ambassadorial nominations – and his lack of consideration of their professional suitability.…….

     
    They seem an unlikely, almost motley, crew of emissaries.

    For the Bahamas, there is Herschel Walker, a former NFL star whose fledgling Senate campaign was undone by a string of personal embarrassments but who now is named to be the next US ambassador to the small island nation.

    To the plum diplomatic posting of Paris goes Charles Kushner, father of Donald Trump’s son-in-law, and a man the president-elect once pardoned for a felony conviction that the former Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie, an ex-federal prosecutor, called “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he ever prosecuted.

    And to Greece, once a preserve of seasoned career diplomats, goes Kimberly Guilfoyle, until recently the romantic partner of Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, and a woman known more for her rumbustious media profile than her diplomatic acumen.

    The trio are among a flurry of ambassadorial nominees rolled out by Trump in recent weeks as he rushes to fill his administration at breakneck speed with envoys who will project his “America First” ideology abroad.

    Their lack of credentials has prompted one experienced foreign policy analyst to label them a “diplomatic clown car” – and a deliberate affront to the countries hosting them.

    Since last month’s election triumph, the president-elect has nominated ambassadors at a rate not recalled in recent memory – including five in a single day this week.

    Some appear conspicuously unschooled in the diplomatic arts; others have business links which experts say risk conflicts of interest.

    Unlike most countries, which fill ambassadors’ roles from the ranks of professional diplomats, it is customary for US presidents to reward allies and financial backers with ambassadorial jobs – with prize postings like London and Paris almost always going to friends of the man in the oval office.

    But Trump has broken new ground with the sheer volume of ambassadorial nominations – and his lack of consideration of their professional suitability.…….

    “This is America…”
    1734887021474.jpeg
     
    This inevitable split has the potential to be absolutely epic

    The world’s most powerful man with a massive cult following vs the world’s richest man with a massive cult following

    Both of whom are thin skinned, impulsive, childish and vindictive men

    Get your popcorn ready
    ==============================
    The relationship between President-elect Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk is no match made in heaven and it will unravel, one-time Trump supporter and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie predicted in an interview.

    As soon as the going gets rough and Trump needs a scapegoat to blame for a bungle, that’s when the men will part company, Christie told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl Sunday on This Week.……

     
    Striding on stage to thunderous music and strobing pyrotechnics, Charlie Kirk thanked God for Donald Trump’s victory in November’s presidential election during a speech that set the tone for a Jesus Christ-filled weekend at AmericaFest, Turning Point USA’s (TPUSA) annual gathering which drew 20,000 rightwing politicians, media figures and activists.

    “We cannot take credit for what happened on November 5,” said Kirk, the firebrand director of TPUSA. “Who deserves credit is God Almighty.”

    Kirk wrapped his speech on a similar note.

    “Is God done with this country? Now I can say confidently, no, God is not done with America.”

    The third annual AmericaFest was a victory lap for TPUSA, the group that took on the bulk of the Trump’s ground game during a 2024 campaign that secured him a second presidency.

    With its star-studded cast of Christian commentators, rightwing media superstars and a keynote address Sunday morning by Trump himself, AmericaFest showcased the Make America Great Again (Maga) movement’s vision for Christian power and its commitment to mobilizing more conservative evangelicals into the Republican party base.

    That was evident from the first night on, when every speaker that followed Kirk on stage invoked Christian doctrine.

    Ben Carson, the 2024 Trump campaign’s national faith chairperson, lamented the nation straying from Christianity and proclaimed that it is “time to come back to it”.

    Even Steve Bannon nodded to the idea that Trump’s presidency had been God-ordained – and suggested it could be prolonged to what would be an unconstitutional third term. He wrapped his comments by yelling “Trump 2028! MSNBC, fork you”, and told the crowd: “Divine providence works through Donald Trump as its instrument.”

    And when an audience member asked Ben Shapiro how he would feel, as a Jewish person, about the Christian Bible being taught in public schools, the conservative commentator replied: “I think it’s great.” He called the Bible the “seminal document of western civilization”, and added that he believes “all of America is built on biblical values”.…….

     

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