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

No, #Trump isn't "terrified" of #NoKings protests. He doesn't even know they're happening if his handlers don't tell him.

The #GOP In general isn't terrified about it, they welcome it, because they're going to use framing of it in their campaign materials. It plays into their game.

These protesters are being played.

#USPolitics

Listening to #C-SPAN covering the #NoKings rally in DC, #BernieSanders is giving his speech and completely misrepresenting what the legislation before the Senate includes.

Can somebody please poke Bernie and have him actually read the legislation that he is voting against? He's holding up funding for the federal workforce, holding up all of those paychecks, based on his misunderstanding of what the legislation actually says?

He is a very powerful person who is harming a lot of people and putting it on display right now. Maybe it's time for him to retire. Maybe other powerful people need to stop propping him up.

But mainly, we need to call out powerful people like Sanders who are really doing a lot of harm to a lot of people here.

If he's unable or uninterested in understanding the legislation that he is supposed to be working on as part of his job, then he needs to step down, not promote misinformation to his echo chamber at these silly protests.

#USPolitics

I don't know why anybody takes #BernieSanders seriously. He's been completely out of touch with reality for years.

Right now he is complaining about the shutdown of government that he's been voting for. Has anybody told him how his votes work? Does he care what's happening in reality?

It's like his handlers just stand him up so he can spout rhetoric that they benefit from.

The state of #USPolitics...

DC #NoKings speaker being broadcast on #C-SPAN:

They say we are living in an echo chamber, but [goes on to say a bunch of ignorant stuff proving that he is living in an echo chamber]

This is why the whole event is so silly. It is an expression of the echo chamber, really proving the point and buttressing the arguments of their opposition. They are playing into the hands of their opposition.

#USPolitics

#NoKings protests are a tremendous example of strawman argument that will probably be counterproductive but take a tremendous amount of social resources to engage in.

A whole lot of people yelling no kings! while their opponents simply say, yeah, right, no kings... we agree, so what are you on about?

That pointless interaction has already been showing up in media, substantial messages being lost in the straw man.

It's a symptom of people being locked in their echo chambers. It's sad, it's pathetic.

#USPolitics

#BBC, talking about the meeting with the Ukrainian president: Everyone knows #Trump likes to plays cards close to the vest.

Yeah but never forget he likes to hold his cards close to his vest while he's actually playing checkers and his opponents are playing chess.

The guy never has any idea about what's going on around him, and we need to emphasize that constantly to fight back against the conspiracy theories, and his own supporters.

#USPolitics

To understand the #GOP and the #MAGA phenomenon, keep in mind that so many folks backing that side have trouble understanding other perspectives, instead projecting their own viewpoint onto others, assuming everyone else is just like them.

It's a big problem that folks can't seek consensus when they start with different sets of facts, and this is one of the major sources of that.

Here #Kilmeade has a personal respect for force so he assumes everyone else does too.

#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

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