Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

[finesse]

There's as many people that didn't vote at all as voted for either candidate. Obviously nobody motivated them. We don't know what might. Nothing about this says we support Bolton, because I certainly don't, but it's not exactly time or even prudent to be running purity tests on favorable opinions. We need everything in our favor we can get.

 

[Paine]

There's as many people that didn't vote at all as voted for either candidate. Obviously nobody motivated them. We don't know what might. Nothing about this says we support Bolton, because I certainly don't, but it's not exactly time or even prudent to be running purity tests on favorable opinions. We need everything in our favor we can get.

I don’t think the people that didn’t vote were just sitting out waiting to hear from neoconservatives. Again, isn’t that exactly what Harris did in the closing days of the campaign?

IMO, amplifying this kind of stuff has always exceptionalized Trump. It makes him seem like he’s not a normal Republican to voters or that the Republican Party is somehow distinct from Trump.

Bolton and his ilk are directly responsible for the conditions that allowed Trump to rise. They don’t get to escape blame now.

 

[Zoo_View]

I don’t think the people that didn’t vote were just sitting out waiting to hear from neoconservatives. Again, isn’t that exactly what Harris did in the closing days of the campaign?

IMO, amplifying this kind of stuff has always exceptionalized Trump. It makes him seem like he’s not a normal Republican to voters or that the Republican Party is somehow distinct from Trump.

Bolton and his ilk are directly responsible for the conditions that allowed Trump to rise. They don’t get to escape blame now.

Trump and Trumpism didn’t happen because John Bolton, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Condi Rice and others trumped up invading Iraq in 2003.

The MAGAts, including Trump, supported, overwhelmingly supported, invading Iraq in 2003 and trying to orchestrate nation-change (on the cheap) in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Saxby Chambliss didn’t beat Max Cleland in the 2002 US Senate race in Georgia because Saxby opposed invading Iraq.

John Kerry wasn’t “Swift-boated” in 2004 because he was proposing escalating the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 

[Paine]

Trump and Trumpism didn’t happen because John Bolton, Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Condi Rice and others trumped up invading Iraq in 2003.

The MAGAts, including Trump, supported, overwhelmingly supported, invading Iraq in 2003 and trying to orchestrate nation-change (on the cheap) in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Saxby Chambliss didn’t beat Max Cleland in the 2002 US Senate race in Georgia because Saxby opposed invading Iraq.

John Kerry wasn’t “Swift-boated” in 2004 because he was proposing escalating the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

American imperialism has created the conditions for Trump to rise. That’s my point.

 

[nycfan]

OK, so MSNBC is owned by NBC. They aren't going to sell it to Elon. It would pulverize their brand. I read somewhere they are thinking about spinning it off, but I would be surprised if the spin off would sell to Elon either. I would assume NBC would put some sort of anti-Elon provisions in the new company's certificate of incorporation (if it does get spun off).

Doesn’t Comcast own NBCUniversal? I doubt Comcast cares so long as whoever buys MSNBC takes NBC out of the name.

 

[nycfan]

At least this guy is t the Sugeon General nominee, I guess. Winning!

 

[nycfan]

 

[superrific]

Super said something about him being a tariff guy. I assumed Trump would pick someone who likes tariffs, but do we know what Bessent really thinks about them?

Here's his op-ed piece published a week ago. Tariffs are the greatest thing, even Hamilton loved them!

SCOTT BESSENT: Let's talk tariffs. It's time to revitalize Alexander Hamilton's favorite tool

Prior to the 16th Amendment, which authorized the individual income tax, tariffs had been one of the federal government’s chief sources of funding.

www.foxnews.com

 

[superrific]

Bolton puts his ideology over his country. I don’t think he cares about the Republican Party. He’s committed to American imperialism. If that means young men and women need to die in a war against Iran, so be it.

What are you arguing here? I don't think there's a single person on this thread who wants Bolton as part of the Dem coalition. Pubs can keep him.

The thing about him is that he's a straight shooter. Like, he gives you an honest assessment of what he thinks. That's what made him a really shitty ambassador, but it is useful as a commentator. Of course, a lot of what he thinks is messed up, but unusually for the GOP, he doesn't bullshit. He says, "this is what I think we should do" without all that much regard for whether people will like it.

That said, I can't imagine we really disagree about him in any meaningful way. I do think he should get props for shutting down Trump's Ukraine bullshit. Who else in Trump's administration would stand up to Trump like that. It's not nearly enough to make up for what he did in decades prior. And maybe he did it for bad reasons, but he still did it.

 

[superrific]

Doesn’t Comcast own NBCUniversal? I doubt Comcast cares so long as whoever buys MSNBC takes NBC out of the name.

Right. But how do you take NBC out of the brand name of MSNBC, without pulverizing the property you're trying to sell? You can't go with MS (that's microsoft; people don't remember that MSNBC was originally a partnership between NBC and MS).

It would be as if the state legislature passed a law requiring all sports teams in the state to have one word nicknames. We could be the UNC Tars, but come on. that would be terrible.

 

[altmin]

I went to college with Bradley George and we ran in the same circles. We have talked occasionally since he started working at NPR.

At the state level, NPR is doing the best they can. And I will continue to argue that NPR at the national level remains among the best services at reporting international news.

We have a good friend who is a reporter at NPR. Apparently behind the scenes, NPR is tearing itself apart as the upper levels seem hell bent on kowtowing and sane washing the new admin.

 

[donbosco]

Seb Gorka's wife is a UNC grad. She was a St. A. Class of ''82 I believe. She was part of the crowd that I hung out with back in those days. I can't say that we were friends though.

Katharine Cornell.

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[DiehardHeelFan]

This.

 

[mpaer]

We have a good friend who is a reporter at NPR. Apparently behind the scenes, NPR is tearing itself apart as the upper levels seem hell bent on kowtowing and sane washing the new admin.

And I guess I understand that-don't agree-but they be scared for good reason

 

[nycfan]

Right. But how do you take NBC out of the brand name of MSNBC, without pulverizing the property you're trying to sell? You can't go with MS (that's microsoft; people don't remember that MSNBC was originally a partnership between NBC and MS).

It would be as if the state legislature passed a law requiring all sports teams in the state to have one word nicknames. We could be the UNC Tars, but come on. that would be terrible.

Agree that a lot of value is in the names but businesses often agree to rebranding efforts after a spin-off. But who knows. I think it will be easier for CNBC to rebrand than MSNBC b/c the former is already a lot more independent from the NBC mothership.

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

"

• President-elect Trump's appointees Musk and Ramaswamy aim to mandate full-time office work for federal employees, predicting mass resignations.
• Federal worker unions are preparing to resist efforts to eliminate remote work, arguing it would harm recruitment and disaster preparedness.
• The proposed mandate faces challenges as over half of federal workers already work in-person and many agencies offer hybrid or remote options.

...Of the 2.3 million civilian federal workers—nearly 30% of whom are veterans—more than half already work in-person because of the nature of their jobs, such as food-safety inspectors and healthcare workers, according to a 2024 Office of Management and Budget report. The rest, who are eligible to work remotely some of the time, perform an average 61% of their hours in the workplace. In U.S. Census Bureau surveys, federal and private-sector employees work roughly the same amount of time in person versus remotely.

... “We’ll want to be reasonable, as compassionate as we can, at the level of individuals,” he said. “But at the level of permanently downsizing the scope of the bureaucracy, that is obviously going to have some consequences.”

Ramaswamy predicted in a post on X that up to 25% of civil servants would leave in the event of a full-time office mandate. ...

Though some companies, including Amazon and Dell, have recently ordered staff back to offices full time, most U.S. companies offer some flexibility on where employees work, according to data from Flex Index, which tracks the policies of more than 6,300 companies.

One exception is Musk’s business empire. He scrapped remote work at Tesla, SpaceX and X postpandemic, calling it “morally wrong.” ..."

----
The Mayor of D.C. has been pushing this for the health of the District's supporting businesses, BTW, so an end to remote work will have support across the aisle.

A lot of private sector employers who want to end workplace flexibility will be watching this closely as an opportunity to eliminate private sector remote work options.

 

[Mulberry Heel]

"

• President-elect Trump's appointees Musk and Ramaswamy aim to mandate full-time office work for federal employees, predicting mass resignations.
• Federal worker unions are preparing to resist efforts to eliminate remote work, arguing it would harm recruitment and disaster preparedness.
• The proposed mandate faces challenges as over half of federal workers already work in-person and many agencies offer hybrid or remote options.

...Of the 2.3 million civilian federal workers—nearly 30% of whom are veterans—more than half already work in-person because of the nature of their jobs, such as food-safety inspectors and healthcare workers, according to a 2024 Office of Management and Budget report. The rest, who are eligible to work remotely some of the time, perform an average 61% of their hours in the workplace. In U.S. Census Bureau surveys, federal and private-sector employees work roughly the same amount of time in person versus remotely.

... “We’ll want to be reasonable, as compassionate as we can, at the level of individuals,” he said. “But at the level of permanently downsizing the scope of the bureaucracy, that is obviously going to have some consequences.”

Ramaswamy predicted in a post on X that up to 25% of civil servants would leave in the event of a full-time office mandate. ...

Though some companies, including Amazon and Dell, have recently ordered staff back to offices full time, most U.S. companies offer some flexibility on where employees work, according to data from Flex Index, which tracks the policies of more than 6,300 companies.

One exception is Musk’s business empire. He scrapped remote work at Tesla, SpaceX and X postpandemic, calling it “morally wrong.” ..."

----
A lot of private sector employers who want to end workplace flexibility will be watching this closely as an opportunity to eliminate private sector remote work options.

I have a hunch that a "leopard eating faces" thread is going to be very busy here very soon. Next year is going to be an absolute shitshow and disaster, with chaos in the federal government as these clowns get rolling as soon as Dear Leader takes office.