Trump's picks for his 2nd presidency thread

[marvin martian]

So land mines bad but razor wire good? Doesn't Ukraine have a constitutional right to protect itself? It's border??? What do you think razor wire does to women and children?

Gov. Greg Abbott’s disregard of a Supreme Court order to comply with federal agents at the southern border isn’t making fellow Texas Republicans nervous. It’s making them even bigger fans of the governor’s aggressive posture.
The state is embroiled in two major court battles with DOJ over its use of razor wire and floating buoys designed to block migrants from entry, leading to an intensifying standoff between Texas and the Biden administration. The enforcement effort — and the migrant crisis itself — has sparked nationwide controversy. But it is especially acute in Texas.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that federal border patrol agents may remove razor wire Texas had installed along the U.S.-Mexico border while DOJ sues the state over access to the border. The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear a separate case involving access and river border buoys in May, leaving the floating barrier in place in the meantime.

Abbott disagreed with the ruling and has vowed to “continue to defend Texas’ constitutional authority to secure the border and prevent the Biden Admin from destroying our property.”
Texas Republicans have lined up behind him at every level. They argue his actions are constitutional and accuse the Biden administration of failing to enforce existing immigration laws.
“Since March 2021, Governor Abbott has taken a series of actions in an attempt to alleviate the burden of the crisis at our southern border, but this Administration’s failed border policies have enticed migrants to continue to cross,” reads a letter sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland signed by most of the state’s GOP lawmakers last week, urging Garland to reconsider the DOJ’s lawsuit against Texas over its use of razor wire.

I don't understand you Nazis. You claim to believe Ukraine has a right to defend it's border, but we don't.

Why don't you pick up a rifle and go fight Putin?

 

[kyzr]

To begin with and before I answer your question, I am going to give you this warning. I do not accept personal insults and debasing. Your dumbass statement is something I do not accept. You can say things like "you don't know what you are doing", you are blind-by-choice", "you are misinformed", and even "you are not using your brain", those are all fair responses. Dumbass is an insult and debasement. Next time, I will put you on ignore and you will be #33, with all the other insulters and debasers that seem to live here in this message board.

Having said that and addressing your response:

Back in April, Fahrenthold and Rosalind S. Helderman reported that they couldn’t find a single cash donation to charity that Trump personally had made over the previous five years. The Trump campaign had provided the newspaper with a list of donations made by the candidate, but many turned out to be gifts-in-kind from Trump’s businesses, such as free rounds of golf at Trump courses donated to charity auctions, and land-conservation agreements to forgo development rights on Trump-owned properties. The only cash donations were from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the family charity that Trump established in 1988.

Trump is not a "giving" person. He does things that seem charitable but everything he has done has been with a personal goal in mind.

For example, most charitable people that truly give, do not publicly announce their donations or get anything back from them. Trump gets favors, gets advertising, seeks and gets praise, etc., which means he is not giving but investing.

Trump in his entire lifetime has never done one single thing that he did not get a benefit back from it. That is not charity and it is not giving.

You don't give warnings, you just put someone on ignore dumbass.

1. Whining about being called a liar or dumbass is shorthand for what you called me:
"If all you can do is SAY "you are lying", I would have to assume that you are one of Trump's minions and not a capable-of-thinking-for-yourself person."

2. Forbes lists Trump's charitable donations as averaging $130,000,000 a year. So who gives a fuck if any is cash? They can sell the donation to get cash. Another lie by you.

3. As I said before Trump gave more than I would have after being persecuted with "Lawfare".

4. Why is a Brit like you posting so much anti-Trump garbage on a US forum anyway? Trump won a major electoral victory and you should be more focused on fixing your own fucked up country.

 

[Luckyone]

You don't give warnings, you just put someone on ignore dumbass.

1. Whining about being called a liar or dumbass is shorthand for what you called me:
"If all you can do is SAY "you are lying", I would have to assume that you are one of Trump's minions and not a capable-of-thinking-for-yourself person."

2. Forbes lists Trump's charitable donations as averaging $130,000,000 a year. So who gives a fuck if any is cash? They can sell the donation to get cash. Another lie by you.

3. As I said before Trump gave more than I would have after being persecuted with "Lawfare".

4. Why is a Brit like you posting so much anti-Trump garbage on a US forum anyway? Trump won a major electoral victory and you should be more focused on fixing your own fucked up country.

First of all, I am not British. I am American and live in the U.S. All you have to do to realize that is read my profile. Dumbass is an insult. Me saying you are lying is not an insult, it is my interpretation of what you are saying. I am not insulting or debasing you as everyone lies on occasion. Lying for one's benefit is normal.

Caring and giving is defined by sacrificing something for others. When you give but are getting some benefit back, that is not giving, it is doing business. Trump has never given anything without getting some benefit back. He is a clinically proven narcissist and narcissists never think of others, always think of themselves.

By the way, I can show you hundreds of occasions where Trump has screwed some innocent person without reason other than his own benefit. That is not a giving person.

Do you know that Trump's charity was found to not be charitable (was using the funds for his own benefit) and forced to close down by the courts"

Judge fines Trump $2 million for misusing charity foundation​

You are definitely misinformed and totally biased and blind-by-choice and I have no desire to communicate with you anymore.

 

[playtime]

i'm waiting for donny to pick bo bo as labor dept secretary 'cause she's good at jobs.... get it???

jobs!!!!

 

[IDIOCRACY]

To begin with and before I answer your question, I am going to give you this warning. I do not accept personal insults and debasing. Your dumbass statement is something I do not accept. You can say things like "you don't know what you are doing", you are blind-by-choice", "you are misinformed", and even "you are not using your brain", those are all fair responses. Dumbass is an insult and debasement. Next time, I will put you on ignore and you will be #33, with all the other insulters and debasers that seem to live here in this message board.

Having said that and addressing your response:

Back in April, Fahrenthold and Rosalind S. Helderman reported that they couldn’t find a single cash donation to charity that Trump personally had made over the previous five years. The Trump campaign had provided the newspaper with a list of donations made by the candidate, but many turned out to be gifts-in-kind from Trump’s businesses, such as free rounds of golf at Trump courses donated to charity auctions, and land-conservation agreements to forgo development rights on Trump-owned properties. The only cash donations were from the Donald J. Trump Foundation, the family charity that Trump established in 1988. But the Post also pointed out that Trump hadn’t given any of his own money to the Trump Foundation since 2008—

Trump is not a "giving" person. He does things that seem charitable but everything he has done has been with a personal goal in mind.

For example, most charitable people that truly give, do not publicly announce their donations or get anything back from them. Trump gets favors, gets advertising, seeks and gets praise, etc., which means he is not giving but investing.

Trump in his entire lifetime has never done one single thing that he did not get a benefit back from it.

That is not charity and it is not giving.

Your hand was on your hip when you wrote that huh Luckyonce?
"I am going to give you this warning. I do not accept personal insults"

 

[Luckyone]

Your hand was on your hip when you wrote that huh Luckyonce?
"I am going to give you this warning. I do not accept personal insults"

I don't insult or debase people unless they do it first. By the same token, I am a fighter and if I am slapped, I slap back.

One question for you "are you true to your nickname"?

 

[sealybobo]

I don't understand you Nazis. You claim to believe Ukraine has a right to defend it's border, but we don't.

Why don't you pick up a rifle and go fight Putin?

We have a right to defend our borders. So does Ukraine. It's how. Are you going to send Proud Boys out hunting illegals on the border? Then don't cry about Ukraine using land mines like someone did yesterday. It's like Trump pretending to care that wind mills kill birds.

 

[sealybobo]

I am putting up this thread where all of Trump's picks (so far as of 11/20) are shown. At this time, I am not making any comment on any of the candidates as this thread is put here so any or all of the picks can be discussed.

The link enclosed below is also non-partisan as there are no political comments there either. It is just a list of all of the picks and some information about them.

As any of the picks are picked individually and discussed here, we can all put our comments. Nonetheless this means that this OP itself should not raise any comments itself as it is just a list (information)

Here is the link to the list:

Tracking Trump's picks to serve in his Cabinet, administration​

Jon Stewart had an interesting take on people complaining about Trump's picks.

“These picks are there to do exactly what the Trump voters wanted them to do,”

“And, in a large degree, [what] a lot of Democratic voters have been begging the Democrats to do, which is get out of the status quo institutional thinking and make government more responsive and agile.”

Stewart dismissed the argument that it’s a “downside” for the president-elect to pick allies who won’t be “stewards of these agencies,” arguing that that’s not what they’re there to do.

“It’s like when they say, ‘I don’t think Linda McMahon will be an efficient steward of the Department of Education,’. She’s not there to do that,’”.

“She’s there to dismantle it in the same way that RFK Jr. is there to dismantle HHS.”

The president-elect pledged during his campaign to dismantle the education department in a move that he toyed with when he first ran for president.

Trump, during a campaign rally said he’d pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “go wild” on health policy.

“They ran on, ‘These institutions are not serving us well,’” Stewart said.

“It’s the thing that we’ve been hammering Democrats on for decades. These bureaucracies have to be addressed and they didn’t do it and they weren’t able to do it efficiently and they weren’t able to do it”

 

[Luckyone]

Jon Stewart had an interesting take on people complaining about Trump's picks.

“These picks are there to do exactly what the Trump voters wanted them to do,”

“And, in a large degree, [what] a lot of Democratic voters have been begging the Democrats to do, which is get out of the status quo institutional thinking and make government more responsive and agile.”

Stewart dismissed the argument that it’s a “downside” for the president-elect to pick allies who won’t be “stewards of these agencies,” arguing that that’s not what they’re there to do.

“It’s like when they say, ‘I don’t think Linda McMahon will be an efficient steward of the Department of Education,’. She’s not there to do that,’”.

“She’s there to dismantle it in the same way that RFK Jr. is there to dismantle HHS.”

The president-elect pledged during his campaign to dismantle the education department in a move that he toyed with when he first ran for president.

Trump, during a campaign rally said he’d pick Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to “go wild” on health policy.

“They ran on, ‘These institutions are not serving us well,’” Stewart said.

“It’s the thing that we’ve been hammering Democrats on for decades. These bureaucracies have to be addressed and they didn’t do it and they weren’t able to do it efficiently and they weren’t able to do it”

what Trump and the Republicans are trying to do is get rid (mostly) of government and basically outsourcing those services to the private sector. Nonetheless, dismantling government and basically outsourcing the services to private companies has few benefits and lots of negatives.

The Pros and Cons of Privatizing Government Functions​

Outsourcing may seem like a perfect solution for deficit-plagued governments, but the morning after can bring some unpleasant surprises.

According to analysts, outsourcing is by no means a perfect solution. Some agencies don’t have the metrics in place to prove in advance that outsourcing a service will save money. Problems from poorly conceived contracts can create cost increases that surpass the costs of in-house services, and if there’s shoddy contract oversight, a government is vulnerable to corruption and profiteering. The privatization of public services can erode accountability and transparency, and drive governments deeper into debt. “Governments at all levels are just desperate to balance their budgets, and they’re grasping at privatization as a panacea,” says Susan Duerksen, director of communications for In the Public Interest, a project that examines privatization and contracting. “But there’s evidence that it often is a very bad deal with hidden costs and consequences when you turn over public service to a for-profit company.”

This is what Trump and the Republicans are trying to do but it has been done before and failure (and/or bigger problems) has been the norm.

It is Capitalism at its extreme and extremes never work.

 

[sealybobo]

what Trump and the Republicans are trying to do is get rid (mostly) of government and basically outsourcing those services to the private sector. Nonetheless, dismantling government and basically outsourcing the services to private companies has few benefits and lots of negatives.

This is what Trump and the Republicans are trying to do but it has been done before and failure (and/or bigger problems) has been the norm.

It is Capitalism at its extreme and extremes never work.

I know. But it's all going to happen despite our concerns/warnings. The American people aren't smart enough to understand this. They also don't understand the importance of government. Regulations. The EPA.

But at least they are going to eliminate some government waste. There is waste we can all agree on that. And like Jon Stewart said, Democrats should have listened to voters. Instead Democrats (like Biden and Pelosi) let Trump run on it.

The border. We let Trump run on it. We tried to fix the border but Trump shut it down. I'm surprised the American people gave Trump a pass on this, but they did.

Unions. I think the middle class doesn't realize how important unions are to raising all our wages. And I think Trump and Elon are going to be anti union. But too many union people voted for Trump so fuck them. But this is going to hurt all of us.

Or how Dr. Oz is going to privatize medicare and what that's going to mean to them.

We warned them though. Now just prepare. Remember Republicans for decades have told us not to count on social security being there? That would be a bad idea too. But it just might happen.

 

[Luckyone]

I know. But it's all going to happen despite our concerns/warnings. The American people aren't smart enough to understand this. They also don't understand the importance of government. Regulations. The EPA.

But at least they are going to eliminate some government waste. There is waste we can all agree on that. And like Jon Stewart said, Democrats should have listened to voters. Instead Democrats (like Biden and Pelosi) let Trump run on it.

The border. We let Trump run on it. We tried to fix the border but Trump shut it down. I'm surprised the American people gave Trump a pass on this, but they did.

Unions. I think the middle class doesn't realize how important unions are to raising all our wages. And I think Trump and Elon are going to be anti union. But too many union people voted for Trump so fuck them. But this is going to hurt all of us.

Or how Dr. Oz is going to privatize medicare and what that's going to mean to them.

We warned them though. Now just prepare. Remember Republicans for decades have told us not to count on social security being there? That would be a bad idea too. But it just might happen.

This is no longer the time to look back and throw blame. Life has a way of putting obstacles in our life and we need to face them and cope with them. It no longer matters how it happened, other than as a lesson of what does not work so it is not done again.

I am personally not likely to have to learn to cope with this problem because I am old and my body is deteriorating rapidly, meaning that I will probably be dead before it affects me personally. Nonetheless, I am trying to address it and learn what can be done so I can pass it on to others, especially those I love. I do care about others in general.

Unfortunately for most everyone, suffering and pain are the best teachers and that seems to be what is coming, and there is very little that can actually be done about it (on a personal basis)

 

[sealybobo]

This is no longer the time to look back and throw blame. Life has a way of putting obstacles in our life and we need to face them and cope with them. It no longer matters how it happened, other than as a lesson of what does not work so it is not done again.

I am personally not likely to have to learn to cope with this problem because I am old and my body is deteriorating rapidly, meaning that I will probably be dead before it affects me personally. Nonetheless, I am trying to address it and learn what can be done so I can pass it on to others, especially those I love. I do care about others in general.

Unfortunately for most everyone, suffering and pain are the best teachers and that seems to be what is coming, and there is very little that can actually be done about it (on a personal basis)

The middle class has bent over and took it for 45 years now. Not only taken it, voted for it. They loved Reagan and Bush 1, who invented NAFTA.

How about unions. Unions won big in 2023 and 2024. With Biden's support. But clearly Harris did not get the unions support. Only half. So unfortunately for all of us, Republicans are going to now punish unions. Who's fault is that? And I'm kind of glad the half who voted for Trump are going to get fucked.

A lot of them are old timers who won't be hurt. They're ready to retire older dudes with pensions. They can afford to be ignorant. They don't care about future generations.

And since 90% of us aren't in unions, we don't care. But we should. Because unions bring all our wages up. Republicans love to say "unions have outlived their usefulness" but that's a lie from the 2000's What we've learned these last couple years is unions are more necessary than ever. CEO pay up 1322% since Reagan. Our pay up 18% in that same time. And we keep on voting GOP.

Well, Trump MAGA Republicans say they are going to make America great again for uneducated blue collar workers. Garbage. Deplorables. Let's see if they do.

 

[Luckyone]

The middle class has bent over and took it for 45 years now. Not only taken it, voted for it. They loved Reagan and Bush 1, who invented NAFTA.

How about unions. Unions won big in 2023 and 2024. With Biden's support. But clearly Harris did not get the unions support. Only half. So unfortunately for all of us, Republicans are going to now punish unions. Who's fault is that? And I'm kind of glad the half who voted for Trump are going to get fucked.

A lot of them are old timers who won't be hurt. They're ready to retire older dudes with pensions. They can afford to be ignorant. They don't care about future generations.

And since 90% of us aren't in unions, we don't care. But we should. Because unions bring all our wages up. Republicans love to say "unions have outlived their usefulness" but that's a lie from the 2000's What we've learned these last couple years is unions are more necessary than ever. CEO pay up 1322% since Reagan. Our pay up 18% in that same time. And we keep on voting GOP.

Well, Trump MAGA Republicans say they are going to make America great again for uneducated blue collar workers. Garbage. Deplorables. Let's see if they do.

Nonetheless and having said that, let me cheer up your day and make you feel better. Here is George Carlin talking about Trump



I hope this helped you

 

[sealybobo]

Nonetheless and having said that, let me cheer up your day and make you feel better. Here is George Carlin talking about Trump



I hope this helped you

Here's what helps me. If you were broke before Trump won, you're going to remain broke for the next 4 years. Maybe even more broke.

 

[skye]

 

[Luckyone]

View attachment 1046519

One thing for sure, he sure has a lot of this:

Then again, how can people do their jobs when their noses and their attention are constantly on Trumps ass?

 

[sealybobo]

View attachment 1046519

I can't wait till you have to pay for billionaire tax breaks with medicare and social security cuts. Can't wait. You're broke. How you gonna handle that?

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

I can't wait till you have to pay for billionaire tax breaks with medicare and social security cuts. Can't wait. You're broke. How you gonna handle that?

Be sure to ping me when Medicare and Social Security cuts are passed.

 

[sealybobo]

Be sure to ping me when Medicare and Social Security cuts are passed.

History suggests Oz will seek to boost the use of Medicare Advantage, further privatizing the program leaving many seniors poorer .

Instead, Medicare Advantage costs the government billions of dollars more a year while offering up narrow doctor and hospital networks and throwing one bureaucratic hurdle after the other in the way of patients seeking treatment. In many cases, this leads to poorer health outcomes than for those enrolled in the original program.

Traditional Medicare offers more and is a better bang for the buck. It spends an estimated 2% of its operating revenues on administration. Medicare Advantage, on the other hand, spends 550% more, with 13 cents of every dollar going to pay for everything from claims agents to executive salaries.

The gross margins on the plans covering Americans over the age of 65 are more than double those of other health insurance offerings, including the coverage Americans receive via their employers. Such profits are helping fuel an epic mergers and acquisitions spree by the health care giants, which puts further strain on the American health care system.

As if all this weren’t enough, Medicare Advantage is rife with suspected fraud. The government is suing United Healthcare, alleging it reviews its enrollees’ medical records to make them appear more ill so it could collect more money from the government.

So why would anyone sign up? Medicare Advantage can seem like a great deal for seniors living on fixed incomes who are younger and healthier, for whom a free gym membership is a more sought-after perk than ensuring that a convenient and well-regarded hospital or rehab facility is included in the coverage.

The infamous Project 2025 continues this policy, recommending that it be the default option for people initially signing up for coverage under the government plan that offers all seniors health care.

between 2016 and 2022, people in their final year of life switched from Medicare Advantage to traditional Medicare at double the rate of other enrollees, costing the government billions of dollars. That’s likely because they — or their families — discover they need more care than Medicare Advantage plans provide.

There’s nothing in the record that suggests Oz is the right man for that job — and much to suggest that he’s not.​

 

[sealybobo]

Be sure to ping me when Medicare and Social Security cuts are passed.

I know you'll just blow off what I posted because it came from the liberal media. But tell me. What does your right wing sources say Oz and Elon and Vivek are going to do? They don't say? Weird they don't know. We know but they don't know. And looks like it's right out of, you guessed it, the Project 2025 playbook.