Trump 47

[CowboyJD]

Completely agree. These countries are often also in a strategic location.

As much as people talk about bleeding heart libs and wanting to take care of the entire world, truth is this is about using "small money" for big influence across the world.

I firmly believe that all this aid/exertion of "soft power" needs to be rationally and effectively looked at and evaluated.

Given Trump's “identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.” tweet, I don't have much faith that it's going to happen under this administration.

 

[GOGETUMPOKE]

And the Canadian dollar dropped to a 22 year low on the news of it and all the taking booze off the shelf talk gets a little perspective when every Canadian with a dollar got poorer on one crazy dude's latest move….let's interject a little reality here. The Premiere of Nova Scotia was on the news talking about how his people wouldn't take this and were pulling booze off the shelf. All 1M of them. If the Mayor of Ft Worth threatened a nation close to scale as the US we would all point and laugh. So we should point and laugh except the mayor of Fort Worth is more important. Canada who is worse off in pretty much every way under and recently ousted Trudeau...and Mexico who is globally known for being ran by cartels didn't acquiesce to anything out of compassion for the citizenry of both nations.

There will be no trade war with Mexico and Canada because they cannot last in one for any amount of time. Our exports to those countries as a percent of GDP is nothing.....their imports to us break their economy in months. I believe the US should be using tariffs much more than we are. We are the biggest market in the world and we have used that mechanism far too little. Fire is a great way to clean up your pastures too but it can burn your house down if you just throw gas all over everything. Trump throwing around outlandish numbers that change by the hour isn't fastidious use of an economic lever to say the least. What I hope he is doing is using this as a negotiating ploy......work for us as much as with us or we will make life harder. Fire a few warning shots and let them know we aren't going to get the expensive end of the deal from now on. I'm hoping for method to the madness which appears to be overwhelmingly madness thus far......but you know what they say wish in one hand and shit in the other.......

China is an all together different beast.

Trump is going to keep doing what he's doing and getting at least some of what he wants until someone with some actual leverage (China) tells him to pound sand and calls his bluff. Did he get everything he wanted from Canada and Mexico? Probably not, but he's got the next 30 days to get the trade balanced more in our favor and I bet he gets it done. Unlike most on here, I'm rooting for him...and us. What everyone seems to be forgetting is that we are still $37t in debt and we really only have two choices. We can keep doing things the way we've been doing them or we can make changes. Some of those changes are going to seem drastic and some will cause some temporary pain potentially. Trump doesn't have to run again and he's in a perfect position to do some necessary but unpopular things to get us on the right track if he can do so without burning the entire republican party to the ground. He's done more in two weeks than he did in probably the first year of his first term and definitely more than Biden got done in his entire term. He learned some valuable lessons from the first term and hit the ground at a dead run this time. I like the pace, I like the results so far, and I like the way we're headed. I'm here for it.

 

[mugatu]

I firmly believe that all this aid/exertion of "soft power" needs to be rationally and effectively looked at and evaluated.

Given Trump's “identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.” tweet, I don't have much faith that it's going to happen under this administration.

I don't have faith in this government doing anything rationally or effectively

 

[GOGETUMPOKE]

I agree. These issues have been going on for many decades. I get that Elon has given himself a 2-year time limit, but trying to do so much in the first two weeks so that at a minimum the appearance of illegal activities has occurred is going to hinder it not help it in the long run.

I somewhat agree. Things are definitely going faaaast! On the other hand, I feel like most of what they've uncovered so far in the USAID debacle, for one example, are things that the American people should know about anyway. Nobody, has provided any proof so far that any laws have been broken and if Elon and his band of nerds can uncover and expose this cesspool of grift for the money laundering scheme that it appears to be we should all be cheering him on. The more the politicians scream about it the more we should demand that the curtain be pulled back even further. If it takes someone like Musk then so be it.

 

[Stillwater Townie]

I somewhat agree. Things are definitely going faaaast! On the other hand, I feel like most of what they've uncovered so far in the USAID debacle, for one example, are things that the American people should know about anyway. Nobody, has provided any proof so far that any laws have been broken and if Elon and his band of nerds can uncover and expose this cesspool of grift for the money laundering scheme that it appears to be we should all be cheering him on. The more the politicians scream about it the more we should demand that the curtain be pulled back even further. If it takes someone like Musk then so be it.

I view Trump as a con artist. So, I fear any corruption Trump and Musk rightfully uncover will only be wrongly replaced with their own style of corruption.

 

[GOGETUMPOKE]

I view Trump as a con artist. So, I fear any corruption Trump and Musk rightfully uncover will only be wrongly replaced with their own style of corruption.

So the answer is to leave it covered?

 

[mugatu]

So the answer is to leave it covered?

No that's not the answer, but you can't honestly believe that Trump truely cares about getting rid of corruption and conflicts of interest and doing things the right and legal way.

 

[GOGETUMPOKE]

No that's not the answer, but you can't honestly believe that Trump truely cares about getting rid of corruption and conflicts of interest and doing things the right and legal way.

Yeah, at this point I don't really care who uncovers it and you shouldn't either. The argument that we shouldn't pull back the curtain because Trump "might" do something shady is just ridiculous. I have no way of knowing if this post is accurate but the more I see the more I'm convinced that the whole dang thing needs burned to the ground.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1886623414024131002

 

[Polds4OSU]

Yeah, at this point I don't really care who uncovers it and you shouldn't either. The argument that we shouldn't pull back the curtain because Trump "might" do something shady is just ridiculous. I have no way of knowing if this post is accurate but the more I see the more I'm convinced that the whole dang thing needs burned to the ground.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1886623414024131002

And calling out and accusing Churches of illegal money laundering and questioning their "religion" and "Faith" is ok as they do this ??!!!??

Because that's exactly what
Happened here. Lutheran NGO program funding was called out to be shut down....then they go after MY Faith and My Church..


Want to shut it down legally...fine

Want to question the actual Faith 4 million+ Lutherans and accuse the entire church of illegal money laundering.... UNACCEPTABLE!!

 

[Stillwater Townie]

So the answer is to leave it covered?

No, just enforce the laws against corruption and create new ones, if needed. For instance, those in Congress are not supposed to be doing insider trading. Is it enforced?

Certainly, it sounds like how government money is spent needs to be more transparent and accountable, rather than done in secret. Even if it's the CIA.

 

[milehighpoke]

As I already said, I think damn near every single American could agree that the govt is broken when it comes to wasteful spending. But the answer is not to just cut off the flow immediately without a backup plan. Unless, of course, the backup plan is for you and your billionaire buddies to start buying things up and using your own money to influence the world.

All this talk for years about the deep state and the NWO. It's here. It's right in front of your face, out in the open. But it's your team so it's cool.

 

[milehighpoke]

Your point #1 is incorrect. Understand., that you don’t like it, but he is a government employee.
If you don’t like it then I assume you didn’t like it when Biden hired people like this (ie Anita Dunn and others).

You're right on 1 point. He is "technically" a govt. employee. A special employee that is expected to work less than 130 days out of a 365 day calendar year. You also glossed over the point where DOGE is not a department of the government. The president has no authority to just create departments.

I also forget if Anita Dunn was given access to the entire treasury department and carte blanche to just "delete" (Elon's words) spending programs?

 

[Polds4OSU]

As I already said, I think damn near every single American could agree that the govt is broken when it comes to wasteful spending. But the answer is not to just cut off the flow immediately without a backup plan. Unless, of course, the backup plan is for you and your billionaire buddies to start buying things up and using your own money to influence the world.

All this talk for years about the deep state and the NWO. It's here. It's right in front of your face, out in the open. But it's your team so it's cool.

Trump already talking about using the US sovereign wealth fund he ordered for the govt to create yesterday ......to purchase TilTok and US Steel

 

[Polds4OSU]

Create the problem, solve the problem, claim victory

 

[Polds4OSU]

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[milehighpoke]

Just got an email from my kids school that they are putting a freeze on any new applications for the Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP). It helps low income families with afterschool care. They currently don't have enough funds allocated to continue the program.

I know it's just "the poors", but how can you magats be so heartless and cruel? These people rely on help so they can work and provide for their families (and pay taxes).

 

[Donnyboy]

Consider that a major reason that we are a large part of their exports is because we have been reasonable and judicious with tariffs, which any decent economist will tell you harm economic output. The may be trying to gain more access to the US in the short term but this wild threatening behavior with tariffs from the largest long-term trading partner would have anyone thinking that they will have to change and no longer depend on one long-term trading partner. And, in comes China to play the major role in fostering that change.

The major reason is NAFTA which is a bad deal for us as a whole....cheap avocados and poutine doesn't replace manufacturing jobs. They are set up to ship stuff to us far easier than rest of the world....that change will take longer than it takes for tariffs to bankrupt them and US raiders to come buy them at cents on the dollar. Their largest export in dollars by far is petroleum/gas and again they aren't really set up to ship it to anyone but us....they actually ship it through the US to themselves in cases. Timber and electricity are bolstered by getting around state environmental rules. Wanna know why we get electricity from Canada because states like New York made environmental regs that Canada didn't.....same with logging.....because it's completely different to burn natural gas or cut down 100K acres of trees if they are 200 miles north when considering the climate of the whole Earth.

Canada's 23 GDP was 2.14 T (or less than 10% of ours). They have 2.3 million people of their 16M strong work force employed in jobs tied to exports to the US not counting all the other drivers, shop owners, banks, etc . In 2023 they shipped 440 B to the US.....128B was oil/gas/minerals which we have 52B was vehicles which we used to make....there are only 9 product categories according the the UN that total more than 10B and one is "Commodities not specified by kind" we get more "Precious stones and pearls" you know vital stuff than aluminum or steel.....if a real 25% tariff was put on all goods they don't make it 6 months without a full on depression. Canada is dependent on us. I'm not for the way Trump is going about this and I'm not for a contentious relationship with our next door neighbor but a "trade war" with Canada needs put in the context it belongs.

Their currency dropped 11.5% on the headline. The grown ups in Canada saw that....they may have to talk tough about booze or beaver pelts but a message was sent however haphazardly delivered. I really hope that this exercise cuts through the crap of acting like we are peers and sets the tone for future deals and is the end of it....it rarely is with Trump.

 

[JTOSU]

You're right on 1 point. He is "technically" a govt. employee. A special employee that is expected to work less than 130 days out of a 365 day calendar year. You also glossed over the point where DOGE is not a department of the government. The president has no authority to just create departments.

I also forget if Anita Dunn was given access to the entire treasury department and carte blanche to just "delete" (Elon's words) spending programs?

I think you may be getting hung up on the word “department” and thinking “agency”. DOGE is not an agency of the federal government.

The President absolutely does have the authority to hire unelected people to work for him. If he wants them to run a cabinet head position then they need to be confirmed by Congress, but there is no such requirement for the type of work Musk is doing. Musk’s authority is limited, but his access to the Treasury was approved the the head of the Treasury.

Don’t know about Anita Dunn and Treasury access. My assumption is she did not. But she and her team did have access to student debt records to do an end-around of the laws.

Again, I understand concerns that you and others have…but arguing that it is illegal (or President has “no authority”) was not correct yesterday and not correct today.

 

[Donnyboy]

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This is absolutely the wrong way to go about this.

The Department of Education has to be considered a failure that needs a total overhaul. I don't know what the answer is part of me likes the idea of states being more involved more local control smaller bites at the elephant kind of thing then you get states like Oklahoma that want to teach that gay people have tails and the planets formed when Jesus sneezed. But something big has to be done with education.....we peaked 13 years ago. We have lost 30 of progress and the trend is not improving. The current generation will be less educated than the previous and not by an insignificant amount. That's a first for the US.

The wife of disgraced wrestling executive and blowing it up isn't the answer.

 

[milehighpoke]

I think you may be getting hung up on the word “department” and thinking “agency”. DOGE is not an agency of the federal government.

The President absolutely does have the authority to hire unelected people to work for him. If he wants them to run a cabinet head position then they need to be confirmed by Congress, but there is no such requirement for the type of work Musk is doing. Musk’s authority is limited, but his access to the Treasury was approved the the head of the Treasury.

Don’t know about Anita Dunn and Treasury access. My assumption is she did not. But she and her team did have access to student debt records to do an end-around of the laws.

Again, I understand concerns that you and others have…but arguing that it is illegal (or President has “no authority”) was not correct yesterday and not correct today.

I am hung up on the word department, because that's what it's being called.

"Despite the broad authority granted by the United States Constitution to the president, he does not have "unilateral and unrestrained authority over the Executive Branch" and "congressional action is required to create Executive Branch departments, to fund them, to determine the nature and scope of their duties and to confirm the appointment of their top leaders". While the president manages the conduct of executive branch offices, "it is Congress, not the President, that establishes departments and agencies, and to whatever degree it chooses, the internal organization of agencies".

This page, on the whitehouse website, sure makes it sound like a department and agency. Although I guess your argument now is that "it's not technically part of the executive branch!". But reading that page, it sure sounds a LOT like an arm of the president...since he explicitly says it's to further his agenda.

Establishing And Implementing The President's "Department Of Government Efficiency" – The White House

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered: Section 1.

www.whitehouse.gov