National ‘Character Counts’ Week seems to be off to a stellar start!
The Trump Presidency | Biden Inaugurated
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Agreed, they're all quite bad. You could add quite a lot more to the list, and I think would a bipartisan majority of the population would agree on many of them too. But I think it's not unreasonable to say those are short-term effects, some which can be fixed as soon as someone else takes over, and others which could be repaired within the next president's term(s).
There were a whole host of fears that would cause much more damage in the short-term, and back to the original point, the undercurrent of fears was about the lasting effect it would leave and the direction it would set the US on. Personally I think some of Trump's deliberate policy decisions have more lasting damage than the policy and personal feck-ups you've listed, but none of them were unique Trump decisions. They were pretty standard Republican decisions. I think most of us would say that there are all sorts of standard Republican decisions that would do serious damage to the country, and eventually to the world. It was a widely held view that Trump would go well beyond that. He was different in a way that the US government wouldn't be able to contain. It was an outlandish claim at the time but quickly became normalised in discussions on here, and now that it hasn't materialised, it doesn't really get mentioned. The goalposts just get moved and if all else fails, it becomes a very hostile, partisan atmosphere.
While I understand your point I can't really agree. The damage he is doing will last half a century and longer. Republicans who ran for higher office used to at least need to maintain a veneer of decency, no longer, and it will never come back. The next Rush Limbaugh won't try to get into radio, he'll run for governor. Putting people in charge of federal agencies who's stated mission was to dismantle those agencies isn't republican either, half of those agencies were started by republicans.
He hasn't attempted to nuke democrat voting cities (as far as we can tell), but other than that he's been as shite as anyone could have imagined.
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Trump has driven out vast swathes of the US's most experienced and qualified civil servants. In the state department especially the US has lost literally irreplaceable (in the short-medium term) amounts of knowledge and connections. The true damage of Trump is going to be institutional rather than policy or relationship related.
Making government smaller has been a pretty typical political goal for most of the last half-century, surely? Maybe the methods differ in a really substantial way - I really don't know - but does it make that much of a difference if the end outcome is similar? But I do agree that it's those things that to some degree fly under the radar that can have the greatest long-term consequences, death by a thousand cuts and all that, while the endless controversies which grab most of the attention are in many cases a deliberate distraction. And Trump's better at creating the controversy so it's plausible that there's a lot of things that have flown under the radar that do more damage. I haven't read the Michael Lewis book mentioned for example, and while I've followed a lot of US political news in the last few years, I wouldn't presume to have read close to all of it. So maybe I just haven't seen the things that will make that difference. Which federal agencies has he (essentially) destroyed?
On your first point, at the very least we can surely agree that it's just speculation. We're not very good at predicting the long-term effects of these political catastrophes. There's countless examples where it looked like a country was set on a particular path, an irreversible path, by one individual and then in relatively short order they changed course. So I understand the pessimism but it doesn't seem unreasonable to think we'll essentially see regression to the mean on that.
I have the same issue and turning the phone to landscape doesn’t make it appear
@Rado_N saved the day for me.
I just listened to a podcast on this yesterday. It’s old (2018), but it goes into how this whole thing came about. I recommend giving it a listen. Reply All is a fantastic podcast.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reply-all/id941907967?i=1000425267892
Literally 2 weeks away where this thread can finally die a slow horrible death or 4 more years of random non surprising bullshit and hailing Ivanka as our new dear overlord.
Scott Walker putting the con in Wisconsin. That subhuman piece of crap was once a GOP presidential frontrunner in 2016.
Yes. However former republicans used to want to shrink the government by relaying it's duties onto free enterprise for ideological reasons (they think it's more efficient). Trump isn't doing that, he's just abolishing government. This isn't a free market administration, it couldn't be further from one with all it's tariffs, special favors, public slamming of US companies by the president, etc.
Yeah sadly the media focus isn't always on what I would consider most important, and I haven't read anywhere near to everything about his presidency either (with the amount available I doubt anyone has been able to). And the US will obviously survive Trump in some shape or form, but it won't necessarily get better soon. In a lot of ways it will also just depend on future generations of politicians as to how long his damage will last, with people like AOC in the wings there's some reason to be hopeful (at least that's what I tell myself).
Hes surely going to lose isnt he
Puff puff give..
Forgive my Scottishness but technically that wouldn't be a strike because the non existent picther didn't swing, right? Not nitpicking or anything...
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Maybe I'm completely off base but if you're asking how to strike through stuff type [ s ] without the spaces at the start of what you want to strike out and at the end type [ /s ] without spaces.
For example; Donald Trump is a
Plump’s the pitcher in this case. There’s no batter in the box. The pitch looked a tad low, but it wasn’t that bad of a pitch. Decent framing by the catcher. Basically depends on the strike zone of the umpire if he calls it or not.
Probably called a strike.
Meant hitter, typed pitcher because I'm lazy. Ok, fair enough if it was a decent three pointer slapshot, but my main question was whether or not that a proper touchdown?!
Only if the birdie was slung by the hooker.
Thankfully we moved here after his ass got voted out, but he definitely set the state on fire. If you give the podcast I mentioned to a listen one of the things that comes up (other than that the local city council is equal filth) is that the state is on the hook for $750 million when (not if) the Foxconn plant goes under.
That’s early winning right there.
How can Fauci just accept this. Say what you want about Johnson but he wouldn't tweet somethinig like this about Whitty or Vallence
If he hit's back Trump will "have cause" to sack him. I have a feeling he is trying to just ride this out in the hopes Biden gets elected as he can still do some good while in his current position.
He’s definitely taking the long view. Don’t think Trump can directly fire Fauci, he could definitely have a proxy do so, though.
What a task Biden has. He needs to rebuild Fauci's reputation to make the thing work.
I doubt he cares. Any man really cares would havr spoken much sterner in protest even if it costs him his job.
Plus it'll be much too late by the time biden sworn in
That's all well and good, but the virus is still continuing, election is not until 2 weeks, and Biden isn't inaugurated until January.
It is a sad world when a fecking imbecile like Donald Trump can scold one of the best medical researchers of all time, for stuff related to medicine and that is exactly the topic of his research.
I'm sure recent polls show Fauci is still way more trusted than Trump, and these attacks are yet more own goals and nails in his own coffin.
Let's not forget the more people that die, the more people are affected in one way or another. Be it catching it themselves or knowing someone who has it or knowing someone who has died or losing a direct loved one etc ... Each time that happens those people will be devastated and disgusted by the words coming from Trumps mouth and his whole attitude towards COVID.
In a normal world/country? Sure, I would agree. If he makes a stand it dominate the news cycle for like a day, right? After that we are left with no visible presence and likely few internal influencers to try and keep the train from completely jumping the tracks. If he sucks it up and stays on board he can at least affect some change. He may be highly respected, but if he is gone from NAID then he has no ability to give orders or make policy. For the most part I think the Matis and Kelly's of the world and the "adults in the room" crap is crap. This is one case where we need to keep someone sane who believes in science in government.
Is that only for Trump supporters though?
It's typical Trump bully bullshit either way. The worst "first pitch" came from 50cent.
Fits the uber mensch image Trump is trying to convey about himself - and that's all that matters to him and im sure his equally fit fans /s.
Here’s as good a place as any...
I feel a touch bad by saying this, but I truly hope his last bit of time on earth is as full of suffering as it could possibly be.
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I feel a touch bad by saying this, but I truly hope his last bit of time on earth is as full of suffering as it could possibly be.
It's typical Trump bully bullshit either way. The worst "first pitch" came from 50cent.
Nah, it's shit. A ball if the umpire calls it and any hitter worth his salt is taking that sinking, slow pitch over the wall. There' a reason he hasn't done it again as President, not least because he's older, fatter, slower, and weaker than he was 16 years ago.
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