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

"The Washington Examiner? Well colour me shocked. And any studies done on Fox, Newsmax et al content wouldn't show a heavy "entirely hostile" bias against Biden/Harris? Of 

course

 they would. That's my point. US media is incredibly, nay scarily partisan and captured. They may as well be the official PR companies of the two parties. And because of that now toxic environment whatever actually independent media exists will be seen as Fake News© by one side, or both."

Wise observations from @Wibbs

Thanks to the killing of the Fairness doctrine under the GOP administration of Reagan the Evangelical. US has really changed since then and not for the better. Add in Citizens United when Obama was POTUS, and accelerate with pitiable education and the booming population. Trump is what America's become, like every President.

'We might attempt to try and annex some of your sovereign territory over the coming year but in the meantime, got any eggs?'

@Wibbs Personally I'd make it a legal requirement for all those of voting age to vote.

The candidates who will benefit from forcing people into a voting booth who don't really want to be there, will be the shoutiest of shouty populists.

The power of marketing.

Do you recall the guy who was quoted here, saying he voted for Trump because of his "business acumen".

F**king laughable stuff.

No. I don't agree with this and it's a very US POV.

Right now, there is nobody in this country that I can vote for. I can't throw my X on Labour. I've never voted for Sinn Fein. I absolutely despise Fine Gael and their smug politics/politicians, Fianna Fail have scuppered the country twice in my lifetime and have always been chancers, I'm not that enamoured with the Social Democrats who seem to be somewhat at sea in the grand scheme of things and the "others" leave me cold. There were also no indies that caught my eye.

However, if someone is a citizen of the state and paying taxes etc, then they absolutely have a right to voice their opinion on how the country is being run by those with their hands on the levers of power, regardless if they voted or not.

It's understandable that people get angered by someone who just cannot be arsed to get out and vote because it's the most important democratic right that people possess. But sometimes the case is that a person just can't see anyone that they can, in all consciousness, vote for.

In addition, I'd actually prefer if people who aren't informed on what they're voting for stay the fu*k out of the polling booth. There's too many clowns voting for and against people/issues that they don't have the first clue about and it leads to catastrophic results. Hello Brexit/Hello Trump.

the scaremongering about compulsive voting is just that.

Here in Australia we have CV, there’s very little in the lunatic fringe getting in

Tarriffs are simply more tax's they increase the cost of goods for consumers .I think musk is his his own world he wants to cut federal agencys and sack as many people as possible .people servants protect the environment and protect consumer rights they work in national parks and pay pensions or provide medical services to people in low income .western countrys allow people to retire and provide basic services and pensions which are paid for by the tax's those people paid when they were working .They also collect taxes and regulate company's to ensure real competition.

If the federal government is erased the quality of life will fall even for middle class people

It makes no sense to privatise federal agencys eg you can't make a profit running social security or Medicare Medicaid or running national parks or providing emergency services in natural disasters

I'm not sure why it is a US point of view, they seem more interested in stopping people from voting than obliging them to. Unless they are Republicans. I don't agree with forced voting either, it would encourage protest and uninformed votes that had no relationship to the government of the country. While I agree generally with your analysis of Irish political parties, its going well off topic for this thread.

I'm not sure why it is a US point of view

I have, generally, only heard the idea that people who haven't voted should remain voiceless from Americans. I fundamentally disagree with that idea no matter where it's expressed.

I don't agree with forced voting either

I, literally, said nothing about "forced voting".

While I agree generally with your analysis of Irish political parties, its going well off topic for this thread.

That I do agree with. 😄

It would scratch him. Animals tend to recognise people who like them. There's a good reason there's no cat-or dog-in Trump's WH. The bald eagle didn't take to him either. Animals are no fools.

And heavily partisan feedback keeps the media that way. MAGA readers expect MAGA media to hew to the Trump line and will punish any deviation from that course. That why any right-wing media that have any pretensions to objectivity are in a quandary. If they dare to contradict some Trumpist statement or voice disagreement over any policy, they lose readers and are liable to face the wrath of the God Emperor. Having an impeccable rightist record won't save you. Recent WST doubts earned them condemnation as 'globalists'. To hardcore MAGA any deviation from orthodoxy (which could means March's orthodoxy or This weeks orthodoxy or Saturday's) could have one condemned as 'leftists' . NoT too different from Stalin's USSR….without the mass murder.

Unfortunate use of words there Donnie

When almost everyone agrees with each other on everything and just echo what the other person says. This thread is almost 100% anti-Trump in which posters with identical opinions thank each others posts.

Mod Edit: Warning issued for commenting on other posters rather than the thread topic

But they're pretty much identical. That's the point I'm making. On anything that matters, I mean.