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Trump Dictatorship and All Things Politics

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team was in the middle of announcing new Cabinet picks this week when they were informed of a sexual assault allegation about one of his previous selections, Pete Hegseth, stunning several members of Trump’s team who have since raised questions about the viability of his nomination, according to two people close to the situation.

Trump had announced he was tapping Hegseth as his next secretary of defense after only days of considering the veteran-turned-Fox News host and very little internal vetting. Within 48 hours, the heads of Trump’s transition team were brought a complaint about a sexual assault allegation regarding Hegseth.

The campaign was brought information that aligns with what Monterey, California, police described as an investigation into “an alleged sexual assault” involving Hegseth on October 8, 2017.

Hegseth wasn’t ever vetted by an outside firm before he was announced.

One source insisted that despite the surprise, the president-elect and the transition team were moving forward with the nomination at this time.

But in the days since, the allegation has only roiled Hegseth’s already shaky selection to run the largest agency in the federal government that includes millions of service members and civilians and a budget over $800 billion. There was open speculation on Friday in Trump’s orbit about whether Hegseth would ultimately pull his own nomination, with several people concerned that there could be more damaging information to come.

The president-elect’s pick this week of Hegseth, a nominee without senior military or public office experience, to serve as his secretary of defense had surprised both Pentagon officials and the former president’s own allies.

Lol, now it makes sense why trump picked him.

Birds of a feather....
 
I think Trump in his second term is going to be like Mike Tyson in the Logan Paul fight. Everyone was expecting an 80s style hero story in the Tyson fight but what we got was the harsh reality that Mike is a tired old man who can't move as fast, hit as hard, or develop a cohesive strategy that played to his actual strengths.

Trump was old the first time, he's going to be a bumbling old grampa yelling at the clouds this time around.
 
I think Trump in his second term is going to be like Mike Tyson in the Logan Paul fight. Everyone was expecting an 80s style hero story in the Tyson fight but what we got was the harsh reality that Mike is a tired old man who can't move as fast, hit as hard, or develop a cohesive strategy that played to his actual strengths.

Trump was old the first time, he's going to be a bumbling old grampa yelling at the clouds this time around.
no disagreement.
 
President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team was in the middle of announcing new Cabinet picks this week when they were informed of a sexual assault allegation about one of his previous selections, Pete Hegseth, stunning several members of Trump’s team who have since raised questions about the viability of his nomination, according to two people close to the situation.

Trump had announced he was tapping Hegseth as his next secretary of defense after only days of considering the veteran-turned-Fox News host and very little internal vetting. Within 48 hours, the heads of Trump’s transition team were brought a complaint about a sexual assault allegation regarding Hegseth.

The campaign was brought information that aligns with what Monterey, California, police described as an investigation into “an alleged sexual assault” involving Hegseth on October 8, 2017.

Hegseth wasn’t ever vetted by an outside firm before he was announced.

One source insisted that despite the surprise, the president-elect and the transition team were moving forward with the nomination at this time.

But in the days since, the allegation has only roiled Hegseth’s already shaky selection to run the largest agency in the federal government that includes millions of service members and civilians and a budget over $800 billion. There was open speculation on Friday in Trump’s orbit about whether Hegseth would ultimately pull his own nomination, with several people concerned that there could be more damaging information to come.

The president-elect’s pick this week of Hegseth, a nominee without senior military or public office experience, to serve as his secretary of defense had surprised both Pentagon officials and the former president’s own allies.

Lol, now it makes sense why trump picked him.
I’m sure this is from msnbc but why is it so hard to include the link to your source dude?
Do you only have one msnbc tab and you don’t know how to access other news sights or sources?
 
A couple of genuine questions for @Al-O-Meter-- and I promise there's no ulterior motive, beyond simply being curious: What is your reaction to Trump's nominations so far? Which ones are you excited about, and why? Are there any that concern you, and why? Do you notice a strategy here, and does any of what Trump is doing surprise you this early on? What do you hope will happen over the next four years specifically as a result of his nominations, assuming they all work out? Is there anything you thought/were hoping he'd do differently with his nominations?
 
A couple of genuine questions for @Al-O-Meter-- and I promise there's no ulterior motive, beyond simply being curious: What is your reaction to Trump's nominations so far?
Mixed.

Which ones are you excited about, and why?
I do like the nomination of Tom Homan for Border Czar, John Ratcliffe to head the CIA, and Pete Hegseth for Defense Secretary.

Tom Homan is a good pick because the open border is an issue that needs to be addressed and he’s exactly the kind of pit bull to do it. I believe he is about to expose the lie that Biden needed additional tools from Congress in the form of a bipartisan bill that Trump spiked. The laws are already on the books and they are about to be enforced.

John Ratcliffe is a good pick because I don’t believe the CIA is that bad. They don’t need to be burned to the ground and John Ratcliffe is well qualified to keep that team pointed in the right direction.

Pete Hegseth is a good pick because he knows how to use a flamethrower, and the upper echelons of the military need to be purged. He’s in that spot because he literally wrote the book on what needs to be done, why, and how. People much smarter than I am are praising the pick, and all the right people are crying about it.

I’m holding out hope they can find someone as good as Pete Hegseth to do the same at the FBI, which also needs some purging.

Are there any that concern you, and why?
I don’t like the Matt Gaetz pick for AG, and Kennedy for HHS.

The only good thing that would come from Matt Gaetz becoming AG is that it would alleviate the need to fire a bunch of the rot in DOJ because they’d quit on their own. Having people quit is preferable to firing them. That is where the positives end. Gaetz has too much baggage, isn’t that bright, hasn’t shown an ability to plan anything, isn’t qualified to run such an organization, is a risk to get blackmailed, and might not purge some who need purging if they blow him.

Kennedy at HHS is an issue because I don’t think he’s qualified to run an organization so large that it accounts for a quarter of all government expenditures. He has some good things to say on food, and some really bad ideas on vaccines being linked to autism. That said, I do think he is sincere in wanting to make the United States more healthy.

Do you notice a strategy here, and does any of what Trump is doing surprise you this early on?
I definitely notice a strategy. Trump does not trust anyone currently in place. He got burned badly in 2016 by staffers left in place from the previous administration, and he's learned from that mistake.

What do you hope will happen over the next four years specifically as a result of his nominations, assuming they all work out?
What I hope happens over the next four years is that we forget about the government. I want the government to be like a refrigerator that quietly goes about doing what it is supposed to do while our attentions are focused on the more important parts of life.
 
I keep coming back to this paragraph from Snyder:

“Imagine that you are a foreign leader who wishes to destroy the United States. How could you do so? The easiest way would be to get Americans to do the work themselves, to somehow induce Americans to undo their own health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. From this perspective, Trump's proposed appointments -- Kennedy, Jr.; Gaetz; Musk; Ramaswamy; Hegseth; Gabbard -- are perfect instruments. They combine narcissism, incompetence, corruption, sexual incontinence, personal vulnerability, dangerous convictions, and foreign influence as no group before them has done. These proposed appointments look like a decapitation strike: destroying the American government from the top, leaving the body politic to rot, and the rest of us to suffer”.

So, there’s that outlook, given the characters involved…
 
I keep coming back to this paragraph from Snyder:

“Imagine that you are a foreign leader who wishes to destroy the United States. How could you do so? The easiest way would be to get Americans to do the work themselves, to somehow induce Americans to undo their own health, law, administration, defense, and intelligence. From this perspective, Trump's proposed appointments -- Kennedy, Jr.; Gaetz; Musk; Ramaswamy; Hegseth; Gabbard -- are perfect instruments. They combine narcissism, incompetence, corruption, sexual incontinence, personal vulnerability, dangerous convictions, and foreign influence as no group before them has done. These proposed appointments look like a decapitation strike: destroying the American government from the top, leaving the body politic to rot, and the rest of us to suffer”.

So, there’s that outlook, given the characters involved…
Trump calls it draining the swamp.

But where most people imagine the Swamp being DC, and Trump emptying it of the much and the swamp creatures, The swamp is actually Trump's friends and they are being emptied into DC.
 
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I think Trump in his second term is going to be like Mike Tyson in the Logan Paul fight. Everyone was expecting an 80s style hero story in the Tyson fight but what we got was the harsh reality that Mike is a tired old man who can't move as fast, hit as hard, or develop a cohesive strategy that played to his actual strengths.

Trump was old the first time, he's going to be a bumbling old grampa yelling at the clouds this time around.
And with a team around him to turn his ramblings and rantings into actual reality. So, far more terrifying.
 
What I hope happens over the next four years is that we forget about the government. I want the government to be like a refrigerator that quietly goes about doing what it is supposed to do while our attentions are focused on the more important parts of life.
If all of my political beliefs could be summed up in one short statement, it'd probably be this.
 
If all of my political beliefs could be summed up in one short statement, it'd probably be this.
Sadly it's not possible with trump at the helm. He always has to have as much attention as possible
 

Recess appointments are perfectly fine if used the way they are intended to be used. What Trump is trying to do is specifically called out in the law as NOT what recess appointments are for. You cannot use recess appointments as a way to circumvent Senate oversight, or to avoid expected political resistance.

I don't care if Clinton had 1,000,000 recess appointments as long as his all abided by the rules set forth for using recess appointments. If Clinton had 1 that was out of bounds I would be against it.

Trump supporters don't like details. They don't like subtlety. I wonder if it is because they lack the cognitive ability to deal with anything that isn't black and white, binary, yes or no, boy or girl. It gets too difficult and they react with anger and denial. If it's too hard for them to understand then it just isn't real.
 
Trump supporters don't like details. They don't like subtlety. I wonder if it is because they lack the cognitive ability to deal with anything that isn't black and white, binary, yes or no, boy or girl. It gets too difficult and they react with anger and denial. If it's too hard for them to understand then it just isn't real.
"The difference between ignorant and educated people is that the latter know more facts. But that has nothing to do with whether they are stupid or intelligent. The difference between stupid and intelligent people—and this is true whether or not they are well-educated—is that intelligent people can handle subtlety. They are not baffled by ambiguous or even contradictory situations—in fact, they expect them and are apt to become suspicious when things seem overly straightforward." - Neal Stephenson, The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer
 
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