volkris @volkris@qoto.org

It's a know your enemy sort of thing to say, no, #Trump is not a king. He's a stupid brand. And recent events just highlight that as he slapped his name on the #Gaza agreement.

I keep thinking of the Trump brand of wine.

Trump didn't make that wine. I doubt he knows how wine is even made at all. He's notorious for not drinking, so how would he even know if the wine is good or bad? He doesn't know anything about it, he just slapped his brand on it.

To counter Trump it's foolish to approach him as a king. In fact that might might make things worse because it brings more attention to his brand.

The #nokings stuff is foolish because it misses what's going on here. And it will serve to actually embolden and strengthen Trump.

Know your enemy. He's not a king, he's not that smart, he's just a brand hopping from issue to issue the same way he hops from crappy wine to crappy steaks.

#USPolitics

Under #Biden US national labs found themselves hamstrung by micromanagement, demands from the administration that resources be diverted away from #science while regulators repeatedly shut down programs much to the chagrin of our International partners.

It's been a breath of fresh air that the new administration has allowed us to actually get back to work. I don't even care if they know what they are doing, at least they are no longer interfering. Science is getting back on track now.

Regardless of everything else that #Trump might be getting into, and maybe it's just because he's just that incompetent, at least the US is getting back on track with its scientific endeavors. Our experiments are getting back up to speed after years of crippling bureaucracy, and we can start making progress again.

There's a lot to complain about with Trump, but I am very glad to see that the expectations for science are living up to what I'd hoped.

#USPolitics

Lately I've been thinking about how the #Republican party has evolved over the last decade or so as viewed through the lens of the games that major voices in the party play.

Previous generations of #GOP speakers were proudly golfers, but lately major voices are football fans. You can hear them make that shift from talking about golf to talking about football.

Well, over the years Republicans have made this marked shift from looking to work together and build consensus to just looking to fight their opponents. And it strikes me that that's also a difference between golf and football.

The new generation of conservative speakers don't understand the realities of political systems where they have to work with others, convince others, to get things done. It's as if they are projecting philosophies from football on to their politics in ways that didn't happen previously.

And that's a shame for us all. That's how you get #Trump... and #Harris.

#USPolitics

There's an old idea of fairness that when cutting a cake between two people one person cuts and the other picks the piece they want.

This method aligns the interests of both parties, no matter how corruptible and *human* they may be.

I think it's underappreciated how often the US government design has a similar method in its checks and balances: one group can reject an official, but they don't get to choose the replacement.

See, for example, impeachment proceedings.

After all: "This policy of supplying, by opposite and rival interests, the defect of better motives, might be traced through the whole system of human affairs, private as well as public."

--Hamilton (maybe)

#USPolitics #politicalscience #federalistpapers #hamilton

It's a know your enemy sort of thing to say, no, #Trump is not a king. He's a stupid brand. And recent events just highlight that as he slapped his name on the #Gaza agreement.

I keep thinking of the Trump brand of wine.

Trump didn't make that wine. I doubt he knows how wine is even made at all. He's notorious for not drinking, so how would he even know if the wine is good or bad? He doesn't know anything about it, he just slapped his brand on it.

To counter Trump it's foolish to approach him as a king. In fact that might might make things worse because it brings more attention to his brand.

The #nokings stuff is foolish because it misses what's going on here. And it will serve to actually embolden and strengthen Trump.

Know your enemy. He's not a king, he's not that smart, he's just a brand hopping from issue to issue the same way he hops from crappy wine to crappy steaks.

#USPolitics

It's a know your enemy sort of thing to say, no, #Trump is not a king. He's a stupid brand. And recent events just highlight that as he slapped his name on the #Gaza agreement.

I keep thinking of the Trump brand of wine.

Trump didn't make that wine. I doubt he knows how wine is even made at all. He's notorious for not drinking, so how would he even know if the wine is good or bad? He doesn't know anything about it, he just slapped his brand on it.

To counter Trump it's foolish to approach him as a king. In fact that might might make things worse because it brings more attention to his brand.

The #nokings stuff is foolish because it misses what's going on here. And it will serve to actually embolden and strengthen Trump.

Know your enemy. He's not a king, he's not that smart, he's just a brand hopping from issue to issue the same way he hops from crappy wine to crappy steaks.

#USPolitics

What's worse, a #DEI hire or #Trump hiring somebody he said was outright unfit because they sucked up?

#Conservatives were expressly proud of this.

#USPolitics

Remember: the vice president is the president of the #Senate. The VP is in the legislative branch, not the executive branch.

People talk about #Trump as if he should be passing legislation to fund government when really it's not his call. The legislation is being blocked in the Senate, so the executive branch has nothing to do with it. Trump doesn't get a vote, so let's not inflate his ego by saying otherwise.

HOWEVER, JD #Vance actually does have authority in that chamber, in fact he's one of the few people that really does.

Yes, the #Democrats bear responsibility for voting to block the legislative procedure, but really, let's also lay this at Vance's feet. He should be pressing for a solution because that's his actual job.

I wish more Americans were informed about the VP's actual position in the US government.

#USPolitics #shutdown

The funny thing about a headline like this is that, I don't think it's broadly reported because it's technical, but there are serious reasons to think that Halligan was not legally appointed and so has no authority to bring any charges at all.

You know, if we're talking about law and order here...

@gatewaypundit_official

#USPolitics #Law #Trump

#Trump canceling a meeting with China on account of them not sending the US rare earth metals is just, it would be delicious if it didn't have real world implications... and wasn't yet another instance of a pattern that's gotten so repetitive.

Once again a giant accomplishment that Trump celebrated and crowed about--China bowing to him to send those resources, showing how awesome and nearly godlike he is--didn't end up working out.

Oops.

And once again to conservatives this is the fault of the other guy, not the one who lied about such a tremendous accomplishment.

Siiiiiigh.

#USPolitics

Conservative media: #Trump is awesome! When you're covering him on a trip it's hard because he doesn't sleep, he comes out anytime day or night to talk to you!

Me: oh well that might be what's so screwed up about him. The dude is constantly brain dead exhausted.

#USPolitics

It's worth noting that in the recent #BlueSky vs #Fediverse drama, the fundamental complaint was that BlueSky wasn't centralized enough, so some people are coming to Fediverse seeking that centralization.

For the years of talk about how BlueSky isn't decentralized like Fediverse, those folks were always wrong, and this is another case illustrating their getting that backwards.

Fediverse is centralized around instances. BlueSky is decentralized down to users. Of the two, BlueSky is the decentralized option.

Whether that's good or bad is a separate matter.

Once again we can see that #Trump is being used, but he's too damn stupid to realize that the folks flattering him into thinking he's in charge are mainly just making fun of him.

This week there was a lot of reporting about "Trump's plan" for #Gaza, Hamas, and Israel, but there was also reporting that the plan was spearheaded by British figures. Trump was flattered into promoting it as his own, and he did as he was told, but thinking it was his idea all along.

Today it's being reported that Trump tried to issue orders with regard to "his plan", but those orders were ignored because no one actually cares about him beyond his usefulness to them.

This cycle repeats over and over again.

What a pathetic idiot.

#USPolitics