Donald Trump the Megathread part II - Mod Warning updated in OP 12/2/26

Some of the comments on tributes to Alex on Facebook have shocked me to my core

This is history repeating itself in full view of the world and still some people cannot see it .

They'd just call them a liberal left-wing hack and ban them from the White House press room.

Over 30 people killed in ice custody they complied look where it got them one commited suicide by running into a brick wall

They shouldn't come as a shock. The disciples want to live in a police state or authoritarian state, just as long as the state is screwing over or killing the 'other' guys. There's always an element of vindictiveness with these right wing populist / authoritarian movements.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte about to speak to a European Parliament Committee.

Here's something I don't understand. Trump showed that during the Biden presidency acting as a single leader of the Republican helped him when it came to the next election.

If the Democrats were a real party and not just a collection of individuals who all desire power they'd do the same. Come up with 1 central leader and have that person act as a leader of the opposition. Have 1 voice speaking in opposition to Trump.

I understand that the ridiculous American system doesn't have the concept of proper party leaders, but if the Democrats were clever they'd do that. They won't, but they should.

It doesn't matter who said it though. The evidence is that even when you are compliant, it's no guarantee for safety.

What's happening here is that a bunch of murderous psychopaths have been given a licence to kill the people that they hate in their heads by a far right government that's leaning into fascism. Compliance with Trump's paramilitary doesn't mean that you won't be molested in some way, up to and including death.

Trump and his handlers want to create an atmosphere of terror. It's an essential part of their politics. They want people to be afraid and if people do react they'll use that as pretext for more oppressive action.

It's truly frightening what America has done to itself.

Trump really wasn't 'the single leader' until much later in the process.

At this stage of the previous administration, Ron Di Santos was the front-runner. Trump gave mixed messages as to whether he would even stand again (Hindsight means everyone will say they knew he was going to stand etc, but it was a real topic of debate)

Your idea of a stated Leader of the Opposition is something I do find appealing though.

It's pretty wild alright. I've always tended to be sceptical of the doomsdaying as regards America sometimes — you look back at times like the 1960s and the violence and strife that existed back then. Riots, murders, assassinations, things like Kent State etc., with the added backdrop of the Bomb.

Conscious also that social media has given us unprecedented insight into the infinite wormhole of opinions that exist in hundreds of millions of different minds. When Kennedy was shot, people heard about it on the news and from scheduled radio or TV discussion (ie, you got a break from it). When Charlie Kirk was shot, people went online and were exposed to the vast array of the opinions of reasonable people, unreasonable people, bad faith actors and bots. It's a 24/7 overwhelming deluge that challenges our ability to think with clarity and rationality, including as regards how we interact with those who see the world so differently from us. If Twitter was around in 1963, I'm sure we would have seen some pretty wild takes and bad faith actors.

But I don't know, (for all their many flaws as human-beings and politicians) people like Nixon, Kennedy etc or others in their administrations were at least intelligent and guided by some discernible form of reasonableness and rationality, even if disastrous or immoral (or illegal) decisions were made from time to time. On this occasion it feels like there are no grown-ups left in the room in the highest offices of power in the US — and those who are grown-ups are either utterly lost in sycophancy or genuinely seem to harbour fascistic fantasies. There does not seem to be any base of reason on which to hang at least a shred of one's faith in the current administration.

I wonder how many of that lot are now ICE agents?

You’re getting annoyed now, calm down.

You seem to be focused in on Boston for some reason, you were the one who brought up Boston, not me. I was clear in my post it was certain parts of the States that are kips, and that is true.

Happy index’s aren’t scientific data, and you again, aren’t going for actual data like crime rates etc, gun crime for example. So you’re being very selective.

And it’s rather odd how an Irish person (I am assuming you’re Irish) is going to this much to prove an America city is better than an Irish one. Truly bizarre.

It's a moot point here, anyway because they disarmed him and then shot him. This isn't to mention that the video evidence doesn't show him having brandished his gun at ICE during the fateful confrontation. He's wrestled to the ground, the gun taken off his hip and then ten bullets are fired into his body.

So, there's no real excuse to say they feared for their lives at the point of shooting. If they did, they were clearly exercising very poor judgement and/or training, so shouldn't even be in that role.

Where is it being reported that Pretti's gun was discharged?

It can be seen in one of the videos.