volkris @volkris@qoto.org

Watching the screw-ups in the Comey prosecution right now I'm just thinking #TACO , #Trump Always Chickens Out, should be joined by #TOFU , Trump Only Fs Up.

Because seriously... OK his supporters claim that he's not chickening out, that was the plan all along, but there's really no way to get around the F ups.

And this is a historically giant screw up.

#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

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

Sometimes these major #GOP Influencers just jump the shark of crazy.

#USPolitics

Siiiigh

#USPolitics

#Trump is spending millions of dollars and wasting the time of special forces teams to sink motorboats and murdering their drivers who are just trying to get drugs to Americans who need cheaper drugs.

We really need to emphasize how absurd that is.

Want to lower drug prices? Stop killing the people trying to bring drugs to the US!

#USPolitics

Occasionally #Trump comes right out and admits that his handlers aren't giving him the real picture of what's going on.

It's really important to keep that in mind, that the guy is so sheltered from the outside world. as it clarifies the concern about the administration.

Trump isn't really in charge. The people around him use him.

#USPolitics

Today #Trump supporters are crowing about how he keeps winning over every court that comes after him, he's a force of nature that no one can land a hand on, because he's just so awesome, and a rebuke against politicized use of the courts.

Trump keeps winning!

Meanwhile, outside of that uninformed echo chamber...

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/11/26/donald-trump-penalty-lawsuit-hillary-clinton-00669616

#USPolitics

The controversy surrounding the Senators' ad regarding illegal military orders really distills the state of US politics at the moment.

For example, mainstream conservative influencers are treating the ad as if it really was speaking directly to soldiers, as they are so unsophisticated that they take a political spot at face value.

This kindergarten level of naivety drives so much of the political discourse shaping US politics in this era, and helps shield #Trump from accountability.

#USPolitics #GOP

Technically true, but Kurtz should should know better than to present this as practically true in general.

#USPolitics

Watching the screw-ups in the Comey prosecution right now I'm just thinking #TACO , #Trump Always Chickens Out, should be joined by #TOFU , Trump Only Fs Up.

Because seriously... OK his supporters claim that he's not chickening out, that was the plan all along, but there's really no way to get around the F ups.

And this is a historically giant screw up.

#USPolitics

Listening to #BBC broadcasts reminds that a lot of folks internationally (and unfortunately a lot of folks in the US) don't really understand how the US government is structured when it comes to things like the #Epstein file issue.

Procedurally, it's much more complicated than "Just release the files!"

(The following is brief illustration of the situation)

At the surface, the act of Congress is rather pointless. With coequal branches, Congress lacks authority to order the Executive to release anyway, so the passage is only symbolic. #Trump could have released the documents he had at any point, or not released them, and that doesn't change here.

BUT complicating this is that Congress already passed laws that sought to restrict the release of such documents. So it's one symbol running into another and an Executive playing them off each other.

Media reports really miss the nuances of the structure in this arrangement, as parliamentary systems don't really have these.

#USPolitics