Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 18/03/25

Global warming!

another indication that Trump is still an anti Vader - the appointment of that Kennedy gentleman

Texas did have a net migration gain, 612k moved in, but, 478k moved out. If it was so great, surely there wouldn't be such a significant number moving out? Easy to tell whatever story you want.

Interesting article in the Observer of how Trump and Biden worked together on the Gaza ceasefire deal.

Trump sent his aide to Israel a week ago to meet Netanyahu. He made it clear what Trump expected from his government. He told the Israeli leader: “The president has been a great friend of Israel, and now it’s time to be a friend back,” the Wall Street Journal reported.

The Israeli prime minister is “scared” of antagonising Trump, according to a European diplomat.

After that meeting, Netanyahu ordered a delegation to Doha, Qatar, including spy chiefs and a top aide, with a mandate to reach a deal. It was the beginning of the final, unlikely stretch in negotiations that had lasted more than a year.

After Trump’s election victory, Biden proposed the two work together on a deal. The final push was “historically almost unprecedented, and it was a highly constructive, very fruitful partnership”, between the two camps, said the administration official.

Good to see Biden and Trump working together on the deal. Hopefully it holds and there will be no return by Israel to its genocide in the area.

Hopefully its not a brief compromise by Netahyahu to get more military backing from Trump to re-engage the war.

People make personal life choices based on what they value, their work flexibility, their stage of life, kids etc and importantly the cost of living . Most will have moved because their jobs moved. I feel the reports of the collapse of San Fran are over exaggerated for political reasons. I was there in October for a conference , I brought my toddler, we walked all over from the golden gate bridge to the piers with the sea lions , to China Town. We took a waymo for the novelty, she played in about 5 different playgrounds dotted around. I wasn't hassled by a single homeless person, I particularly liked the Italian area next to Chinatown for cafes and the beautiful houses on the hill. I literally thought that I would move there if it didn't add an extra x hours to the flight to Ireland(I live East Coast). To me the cost would be worth it because I could afford it for now but if I added a few more kids I'd have to recalculate. That would not make san fran some hellscape that I'd have to flee from, it would just be too costly for me. Just to address it, if I hang out in the tenderloin I'm gonna have a bad time but then I'm not gonna go there, Vancouver was similar but smaller with east Hastings and it was a joy to live there also. The occasional smell of piss or being aggressively asked for a few dollars is not a big deal for me. I didn't get the sense at any point that there was danger. San Fran was more expensive than New York, it has a long way to fall, it still has the largest economy and a very high quality of life. I met people from Italy, Germany and Australia, all who flew thousands of miles and lived their time there, it is an international destination.

The big problems tend to be infrastructural. Was over in San Francisco recently and it was lovely, great public amenities, but traffic is awful.

However, the US doesn’t spend in these areas, firefighters and police are at the minimum, roads and utilities only get replaced when they fail so they are very susceptible to natural and manmade disasters.

Spending money on these is also anathema, easier to cry about it afterwards.

I could easily have found myself living in San Jose or Austin (though the mosquitoes in Austin are awful).

Though what clucking woke has to do with this I'm not sure, people who cluck woke are generally pieces of sh1t with anger problems. "Woke" didn't stop anyone spending on infrastructure.

Of the top 15 states in terms of being net beneficiaries of federal funds 13 are Republican controlled states.

Mod - @eire4, I've deleted your attachment as it's unreadable on mobile, please just add a link instead.

The garbage truck that Donald Trump rode in as a comeback to "garbage" remarks by Joe Biden will make an appearance at Monday’s inauguration.

😁

Classy. Very presidential 👏

It wasn't the left that lost their **** and stormed the Capitol trying to disrupt the certification of an election? Or am I misremembering?