Decline of the GOP episode XV

[selmaborntidefan]

At least when he mixed up which Kansas City is home to the Chiefs, it was at least a little bit understandable, it’s like the fact many fans couldn’t find Auburn on a map and think it really is located in the western section of the state of Georgia. But cue MAGA-world and their 47-D chess gymnastics of “France financed it with interest on the Louisiana Purchase we paid so therefore Trump is right,” although good luck proving that money was still around 50 years later.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I sometimes think it would work better if Trump's critics - could actually admit he's occasionally RIGHT about some things and if his cult could actually admit he's WRONG about a lot of stuff.

Some members of the former group do better at this than the latter group is willing to do.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

I'm seeing multiple reports of a few things saying Trump now has a 39% approval rating, and while it is well-deserved, let me just note a few things:
- he was 29% in June 2016 , which was down from 37% (39% for Trump is actually quite high)
- Trump is never going to be on the ballot again, so unless you have a Democrat you're going to use to replace him, it is sort of irrelevant
- in theory (at least), a President holding both houses even with a low approval should be able to do some things if: a) he actually had an agenda besides demanding things like a villain in a movie; b) since he won't lose many Republican votes out of sheer fear of his temper

It will be interesting to see how many Republicans now fear the guy since Luca Brasi (Musk) has decided that working for Trump is costing him too much money and legacy.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I'm seeing multiple reports of a few things saying Trump now has a 39% approval rating, and while it is well-deserved, let me just note a few things:
- he was 29% in June 2016 , which was down from 37% (39% for Trump is actually quite high)
- Trump is never going to be on the ballot again, so unless you have a Democrat you're going to use to replace him, it is sort of irrelevant
- in theory (at least), a President holding both houses even with a low approval should be able to do some things if: a) he actually had an agenda besides demanding things like a villain in a movie; b) since he won't lose many Republican votes out of sheer fear of his temper

It will be interesting to see how many Republicans now fear the guy since Luca Brasi (Musk) has decided that working for Trump is costing him too much money and legacy.

Point is, he's there at 100 days, first president in70 years...

 

[selmaborntidefan]

This is not a parody - unfortunately.

 

[Huckleberry]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/29/politics/trump-administration-international-students-visas?cid=ios_app

How the Trump administration labeled students as criminals with no evidence

The Trump administration ordered international students to be effectively designated as criminals without checking if the information was true, court records reviewed by CNN show, along with new information that was revealed by a government official at a court hearing Tuesday.



Trump supporter, conservative, independent, libertarian, moderate, or liberal - it doesn’t matter where you are on the political spectrum, this has to be alarming to you. If not, I’d like to hear why you find these actions to be acceptable.

 

[JDCrimson]

He said yesterday in Michigan at his 100 day celebration that he was just getting started, that we havent seen anything yet, and that nothing could stop him. He reminded those who voted for him this is what he campaigned on and what they wanted and to get over it.

Yall can embrace these statements however you want.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/29/politics/trump-administration-international-students-visas?cid=ios_app

How the Trump administration labeled students as criminals with no evidence

The Trump administration ordered international students to be effectively designated as criminals without checking if the information was true, court records reviewed by CNN show, along with new information that was revealed by a government official at a court hearing Tuesday.



Trump supporter, conservative, independent, libertarian, moderate, or liberal - it doesn’t matter where you are on the political spectrum, this has to be alarming to you. If not, I’d like to hear why you find these actions to be acceptable.

 

[Huckleberry]

He said yesterday in Michigan at his 100 day celebration that he was just getting started, that we havent seen anything yet, and that nothing could stop him. He reminded those who voted for him this is what he campaigned on and what they wanted and to get over it.

Yall can embrace these statements however you want.

The lack of concern about Trump’s actions from Republicans and other conservatives is alarming. It appears that as long as he is enacting policies with which they agree, they’re fine with his methods. And the tepid response from most Democrats is almost equally distressing.

 

[Bamaro]

This is not a parody - unfortunately.

View attachment 50676

If that gets him out of the whitehouse it would be the best thing Graham ever dreamt up, as ridiculous as it is.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

If that gets him out of the whitehouse it would be the best thing Graham ever dreamt up, as ridiculous as it is.

“Wait…. all this time I thought Lindsey Graham was the son of Billy Graham….. I mean, they are both from Carolina! Not many people know that. You know, I might be the first one to ever put that together.”
- Donald Trump probably

 

[selmaborntidefan]

Give him a hand, folks, he’s shaking things up!!

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/30/economy/us-gdp-q1/index.html

The US economy just had its worst quarter
since 2022 as President Donald Trump’s significant policy changes unnerved consumers and businesses.

Gross domestic product, which measures all the goods and services produced in the economy, registered at an annualized rate of -0.3% in the first quarter, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

That’s a sharp slowdown from the fourth quarter’s 2.4% rate, and much worse than the 0.8% rate economists projected. GDP is adjusted for seasonal swings and inflation.

US stocks dropped after the GDP report was released.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

You have to love Trump blaming this on Biden. We have managed to go from Biden was baked and didn’t know up from down for the last four years to the notion that he crashed the economy after he left office.

I know, politicians lie as a matter, of course, but I’m sorry, we have never had a pathetic liar to this level in the White House. Never. Not Nixon, not Clinton. Nobody. Reagan told more truth in the opening days of the Iran-contra scandal than this guy has in a decade on the stage.

 

[jthomas666]

This is not a parody - unfortunately.

View attachment 50676

Yet another argument for mandatory retirement...

 

[selmaborntidefan]

What's been reported on several sites - and not just the usual suspects - is Trump is basically ticked at the incompetence of Waltz (and he's about as forgiving as Darth Vader) and that EVEN VANCE sees this as a disaster, but they're going with, "If we fire him, it gives the Democrats and media what they want."

If polls flip enough on it, he will. Trump already set a record last time by flushing something like 1/3 of his entire staff (and he didn't even fill all of the positions) LAST TIME.

And it starts…. A certain news producer informed me this has already happened.

Trump FIRES his top national security adviser Michael Waltz

President Donald Trump will fire Mike Waltz as his national security adviser in the first ousting of a cabinet secretary in this administration, the Daily Mail confirmed.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[selmaborntidefan]

It has in fact happened.

Mike Waltz out as national security adviser, but Trump says he'll be ambassador to U.N.

President Trump says he is nominating Mike Waltz to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[cdub55]

The lack of concern about Trump’s actions from Republicans and other conservatives is alarming. It appears that as long as he is enacting policies with which they agree, they’re fine with his methods. And the tepid response from most Democrats is almost equally distressing.

Leave out the political party and this is 100% accurate. _____ is awesome because he is in _____ party and _____ is the devil because he is from _____ party. All the while _____ and _____ are laughing their hoo ha's off behind closed doors while Joe Smith who is borrowing money from Capital One to pay his mortgage is arguing with Antwan Richardson who is getting his car repo'd because he is 3 months behind on payments.

 

[selmaborntidefan]

The lack of concern about Trump’s actions from Republicans and other conservatives is alarming. It appears that as long as he is enacting policies with which they agree, they’re fine with his methods. And the tepid response from most Democrats is almost equally distressing.

I am neither a liberal nor a Democrat - in all honesty, who the hell knows what I am, but I digress - but I actually think the Democrats for the time being are playing it right. I know their raging activist base doesn’t agree, but it will sound like nothing but whining by next November if they do it every single day.

As far as the Republicans, well, they are looking at what happened to Jeff Flake and Bob Corker and for that matter water carrier Kevin McCarthy and deciding, “ I can maintain a career and keep my mouth shut, or I can speak up and have my house burned to the ground with me in it by those people he pardoned for invading the Capitol.”

Given who Trump has pardoned in the past - including the Go Fund Me fraud in NV - that fear is not as unfounded or ridiculous sounding as it would’ve been just six years ago. Most lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are cowards anyway, and the last thing most of them want to do is move back home amongst the people that they both despise and represent.

Incidentally, the Democrats don’t get a free pass on this courage thing about speaking up. They’re complaining that Republicans won’t speak against the guy whose followers stormed the United States Capitol building, but the same people lacked the courage to speak up and tell the honest to God truth about their own President when he was baked.

 

[Huckleberry]

Why did Tommy Tuberville vote in Florida if he lived in Alabama?

Election records show Tuberville voted in Florida after he says a homestead exemption puts his residency in Alabama.

www.al.com

Why did Tommy Tuberville vote in Florida if he lived in Alabama?

 

[Huckleberry]

Pronouns won’t kill anyone, unlike Republican public health policy

Towards the end of my teaching career, I had trans and nonbinary students come out to me in class.

open.substack.com

Pronouns won’t kill anyone, unlike Republican public health policy

...

Let’s be clear. No one ever died because someone asked to be called they. But people have died, and are dying, because Florida now treats once-in-a-century floods like seasonal allergies. Because a governor with a Harvard Law degree pretends sea-level rise is a hoax and calls carbon dioxide “plant food.” Because toddlers are getting whooping cough in states where science class has been replaced by “God Did It 101.”

Meanwhile, drag queens are your emergency. Not the fact that Fort Lauderdale floods during high tide. Not that the Great Salt Lake is vanishing. Not that coral reefs are dying faster than your party’s commitment to facts. No, it’s that someone born male asked to use the women’s restroom. That’s the existential crisis.

This isn’t policy. It’s performative pearl-clutching. It’s deflection with a flag lapel pin.

 

[crimsonaudio]

SMH, what free speech?

https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/867