The Trump Presidency 2.0

amlove21 said:
I can't possibly format this message like @Box (cause lazy), but I channeled His Holiness on this one.

I was working out at the gym this morning (legs, obv), and I was about to put more weight on. I thought, "Sheesh, the last set was tough; if I put more weight on, it's gonna tax me even more, but I want these big beefy legs. My dad never had big legs, he just never got to that next level."

A gym employee came over and said, "You know, if you just stayed at that weight, you'll never realize your full potential and that's ok. Grinding it out, never making gains is virtuous. We did the math, and we figured out that the top 10% of lifters here pay 75% of our total revenue, but 90% of the rest of the population doesn't use the gym as much, so we will give them a discount. If you get into that top 10%, we will have to charge you a little more. I'd recommend just staying at this weight, honestly. There's no real incentive to go higher; you'll get charged more, the rest of the population will get jealous and say you used steroids and cheated (even though you're here at 0400 6 days a week), and gym leadership will tell you you're not paying your fair share while simultaneously creating a class of lifting surfs destined to remain at their station... so just accept your position in the lower lifting class and keep paying your dues. Granted, you'll never lift more than your dad or his dad, and you'll never realize the LifeTime™ Athletic Dream- but we are a pretty progressive gym."

Then I put on 315 freedom units for a slick 5 spot (ass to grass, everyone clapped) because I was never meant to stay in the middle class of lifter, that's meant to be a transitory phase. The gym should be giving me every opportunity to rise to that 10% from my lowly beginnings. The guys that started LifeTime™ wrote that down in their founding documents, it turns out, but they recently dealt with 16 years of new management that seemed hell-bent on keeping their members down and stealing their money. They have a new GM now, and everything the guy does (even good ideas that benefit 80% of the gym) seems to make everyone mad for no other reason than they don't like the guy. It's Vegas, he probably does tan too much.

The folks who wanted to stay at their current weights were happy with the discount, and with the money they saved every month, they could invest in some supplements and a trainer, and it turns out a few of them used that investment to lift more, and now they're in the top 10% too. Every time I see one of them get into that top 10%, it makes me happy, and the gym makes way more money like that. I wish more people were like that, but the lifting community is super weird and fractious, and a sect of lifters (all doing some retarded thing called "CrossFit™") insist that the weakest people should pay just as much as the strongest people and that the weak people will actually be disincentivized to get stronger if you give them a discount. That doesn't make any sense to me, but I am positive that LifeTime™ is the best gym in the world, and why wouldn't I want the gym to help me, and why wouldn't I want to help the gym by my own success?

This is solely a story about a workout and not an allegory about taxation under $150k.
Click to expand...

Well done, Aesop.... well done....
 
DA SWO said:
Problem with usage is multi-fold.
W. Bush was the first to use it, so did Obama, and Trump, so the illegal to use argument could be weak.
Biden may have used it almost100%, so the argument is did he know what was signed?
Was stuff signed without telling him?
Simple solution, pass a law making autopen signatures illegal on bills, e.o's, pardons, etc.
Click to expand...
It's interesting, to say the least. Mike Johnson recounted a story about a talk with Biden having no clue about pausing LNG outputs; I think it's safe (now) to admit that Joe Biden was mentally compromised for the vast majority of his presidency.

Trump has used autopen (fun fact the first president to use an autopen-like technology was Thomas Jefferson, who used a polygraph to draft several letters at once), an autopen signature is legally binding; Biden vacillated between auto pen and physical signature, and the documents online are digital versions and not the original... there is just a lot of muck, as per our usual agreement.

I guess where the rubber meets the road is- was Biden actually involved in the signing? Was he aware of the action? Did he approve? If only he was alive, and as smart as the MSM told us for 4 years, he could clarify.

Alas. I am filing this in the "fun for about 24 hours, then memory holed with no outputs" box.

The real issue here is the pardons themselves, not how it was signed. A blanket pardon for a Mark Milley, the J6 committee and Anthony Fauci is egregious, not the way they were signed.
 
He's sharp - he's focused - he's probing - he's detail oriented - he's corrupt - and has no idea what is going on around him unless his handlers give him a note card with very specific details on what he is supposed to do...
...because he is so detail oriented

The shenanigans about the autopen are a frivolous distraction - its legal - all '46 has to do is repeat what his wife tells him...
..."yes, I signed the person to keep doctor milley and general fauci out of the bullpen at dodger stad...
...no, the parson, I signed the parson that pronounced Jack and Jill man and wife during COVID
...I'm sorry I meant pardon, uh, pardon
...pardon me, is there any ice cream?
... what I meant to say was that I pardoned Represidentive Cheney for all of her crimes, all the way back to that time when she shot a bird in the face while hunting for her fathers golf partner

GOD DAMN IT JILL - THESE WORDS ARE TOO SMALL - I CANT READ THEM WITHUT MY PRESCRIPTION AVIATORS

Ok Ok Ok I think I've got it now...
-Vice Representative Lon Cheney shot somebody's bird on January 6th and I signed her pardon

-General Mark Fauci poisoned some bagels and used them for medicine training to vaccinate some infected bats and I gave him a presidental pardon

-Retired Military Doctor Milley A. Vanilli may or may not have committed sedition by undermining his commander in chief by talking to a Chinese governor but its ok because it helped me get selected, so I pardoned him two

That is all....
 
Testimony?

Joe is so far gone he thinks testimony is some sort of new fangled metallic alloy...
antimony, testimony, what difference at this point does it make ??
 
Devildoc said:
I'm feeling content for the day.

Egg prices are down
Gas is down
Oil is down
Inflation is trending down
Border is being closed
Criminal illegals are being shipped out

....and Duke is the 1 seed in the east....
Click to expand...
Duke is winning that thing. My favorite part about March is making a bracket for a sport I can't name a single athlete and haven't watched 1 minute of play the entire year.

Also, to the above- Trump's approval ratings are as high as they have ever been, the Dems approval is the lowest it's ever been, and the perceived "party leader"... is AOC. Just keep doing whatever you're doing, all of you. Outputs look great.

You know, it's almost like the dissent against Trump is astroturfed, and so is the support for the Dems. It's almost like (follow me here)- all that was a lie.
 
amlove21 said:
You know, it's almost like the dissent against Trump is astroturfed, and so is the support for the Dems. It's almost like (follow me here)- all that was a lie.
Click to expand...

I don't think either of those things were astroturfed. I feel like we've (the site) discussed this before, but I think what we're seeing is consistent with a pretty foundational difference between the averages Liberal and Conservative.

Libs are very performative about their discontent, but Conservatives will actually follow through.
The Rachel Maddow watching crowd won't do anything if it's perceived as hard or not earning them social points. Libs are off feeling bad for themselves right now; they'll recover from their boo-boos and start yelling again around the midterms.
 
Cookie_ said:
I don't think either of those things were astroturfed. I feel like we've (the site) discussed this before, but I think what we're seeing is consistent with a pretty foundational difference between the averages Liberal and Conservative.

Libs are very performative about their discontent, but Conservatives will actually follow through.
The Rachel Maddow watching crowd won't do anything if it's perceived as hard or not earning them social points. Libs are off feeling bad for themselves right now; they'll recover from their boo-boos and start yelling again around the midterms.
Click to expand...
Disagree here (not rising to the hate emoji level) for one reason- I have the ability to watch MSM and hear them talk about the administration.

James Carville said the administration is in "full collapse". ... 4 days ago.

All the hate is manufactured going one way, all the positive manufactured the other, on one-way streets.
 
amlove21 said:
Disagree here (not rising to the hate emoji level) for one reason- I have the ability to watch MSM and hear them talk about the administration.

James Carville said the administration is in "full collapse". ... 4 days ago.

All the hate is manufactured going one way, all the positive manufactured the other, on one-way streets.
Click to expand...
I think it’s a bit disingenuous to say that opposition to this administration is astroturfed. We’ve had people in this very thread talk about how much they dislike the things that the administration is doing. Even the poll that you cited shows just how polarized people’s opinions on Trump are:

The total approval/disapproval ratio is 47/51, but the really instructive part is the breakdown of “Strong/Somewhat Approve” and “Strong/Somewhat Disapprove” (which you can see on page 4 of the poll. Strong approve is at 37%, somewhat approve is 10%. Meanwhile, strong disapprove is at 46%, with somewhat disapprove at only 5%.

Bottom line is that people really only have strong opinions about Trump - there are not that many people who don’t have an opinion about him. Idiot blowhards like James Carville might say some dumb shit, but the antagonism towards the administration is very real.

Edit: the poll in question is here
 
Last edited:
amlove21 said:
Disagree here (not rising to the hate emoji level) for one reason- I have the ability to watch MSM and hear them talk about the administration.

James Carville said the administration is in "full collapse". ... 4 days ago.

All the hate is manufactured going one way, all the positive manufactured the other, on one-way streets.
Click to expand...

I'm not talking about the news media, because we know they'll always do this.

I'm talking about your average American citizens. The lib guy or gal in Boulder will post on their social media that "Trump is fascist and Elon's the shadow president" but they aren't gonna show up to a protest on the weekend because it's Epic/Ikon pass season. Hell, they won't even call or write their Senator/Representative to voice their concerns, because nobody "sees" that.

I think conservatives (generally) are much more likely to actually do something that has legitimate effects. The Slacktivism seems a touch less common for that side.
 
Salt USMC said:
I think it’s a bit disingenuous to say that opposition to this administration is astroturfed. We’ve had people in this very thread talk about how much they dislike the things that the administration is doing. Even the poll that you cited shows just how polarized people’s opinions on Trump are:

The total approval/disapproval ratio is 47/51, but the really instructive part is the breakdown of “Strong/Somewhat Approve” and “Strong/Somewhat Disapprove” (which you can see on page 4 of the poll. Strong approve is at 37%, somewhat approve is 10%. Meanwhile, strong disapprove is at 46%, with somewhat disapprove at only 5%.

Bottom line is that people really only have strong opinions about Trump - there are not that many people who don’t have an opinion about him. Idiot blowhards like James Carville might say some dumb shit, but the antagonism towards the administration is very real.

Edit: the poll in question is here
Click to expand...
And herein lies the point.

How much of that polling is influenced by the overwhelmingly bad coverage on the vast majority of news networks, social media accounts, and other activist journalists to drive a 37 percent "strongly" disagree? Has polling ever been wrong- say, in the last 2 elections? Do you think folks like Ann Seltzer (who famously called Iowa for Kamala, and then was flamed so bad she quit) was genuine and non-biased in her assumption that Iowa was 13 points underwater? Do you think, in the context of polling generally, there may be a vast swath of people that don't engage in the poll, or that those who even answer polling (Republicans and conservatives are notoriously low respondents) questions? Love the James Carville dig- that guy was the preeminent dem strategist until about 2 seconds ago. Now he's a total crackpot that has no idea what he's talking about- pretty cogent critique of the entire dem house of cards right now. Joe Biden was smart, and with it, and cogent, and a great man, and a great father- right up until he wasn't. Then Kamala was the best thing ever and a perfect politician. The list literally goes on and on. The polling is an outgrowth of the astroturfing that happens 24/7/365.

How about 16 Democrats and their "that shit ain't true" video? That's an organic, authentic critique of policy by our elected officials? Or could it be a deceptive practice where an organization or group creates the illusion of grassroots support for a cause, product, or political movement even though the support is actually artificial and orchestrated? Which is, you know, the definition of astroturfed? And then, if you dare espouse a counternarrative, people will call you all the things they want to call Trump- all the -ist's or -phobe's... or even worse, they'll say they think your read of the data is "disingenuous". ;-)

When you include The View, MSNBC, CNN, Vox, and the litany of other opinion-journalism sites that breathlessly report every "outrage" with this admin and then you have polling reflect the best numbers Trump has ever had, even considering polling bias and the larger mainstream media push to demonize the guy at every turn and the fact that those polls are answered largely by people that are pre-determined to hate the Orange man... you get it.
 
Cookie_ said:
I'm not talking about the news media, because we know they'll always do this.

I'm talking about your average American citizens. The lib guy or gal in Boulder will post on their social media that "Trump is fascist and Elon's the shadow president" but they aren't gonna show up to a protest on the weekend because it's Epic/Ikon pass season. Hell, they won't even call or write their Senator/Representative to voice their concerns, because nobody "sees" that.

I think conservatives (generally) are much more likely to actually do something that has legitimate effects. The Slacktivism seems a touch less common for that side.
Click to expand...
You know what they will do? They'll answer polling questions. (To my above).
 
DA SWO said:
Problem with usage is multi-fold.
W. Bush was the first to use it, so did Obama, and Trump, so the illegal to use argument could be weak.
Biden may have used it almost100%, so the argument is did he know what was signed?
Was stuff signed without telling him?
Simple solution, pass a law making autopen signatures illegal on bills, e.o's, pardons, etc.
Click to expand...

How many things has Trump signed with Autopen? That homie loves having that fat signature on things.
 

Similar threads

Marauder06
Don't Automatically Assume the Worst About People
Replies
14
Views
691
Diamondback 2/2
Diamondback 2/2
AWP
Bergdahl 2.0
2
Replies
29
Views
2K
Totentanz
Totentanz
AWP
The Aging Crisis in America
Replies
8
Views
488
Dame
Dame
A
Casino Night and the 75th Rangers
Replies
0
Views
205
ALSE Sarge
A
AWP
HAPPY MONDAY FROM THE BOOK SUPPOSITORY BUILDING!!!!
Replies
13
Views
946
Muppet
Muppet
Back
Top