Tyrangle

What's the alternative? I want to protest, but if I miss work then I might lose my job, which would cost me my health insurance and likely my house. I want to get back on social media and show people where I stand, but these MAGA people are rabid and will come after me for it. I'm ready to step up, but not while Trump has half the country behind him. I'm waiting for a numbers advantage. His approval rating is tanking, and once it gets low enough, I think people like me will be more willing to take bigger risks. Until then, we're doing what we can while keeping our heads down.

Has he considered restoring funding to USAID? That might legit qualify.

"They say, 'Evil prevails when good men fail to act.' What they ought to say is, 'Evil prevails.'

Bleak quote from Lord of War that has stuck with me. Reminds me of Sophie Scholl.

Apologies, assumed it was implied by community rules. To be fair it is a serious conservative statement, and IMO one worth mocking.

Then why aren't you nicer to Trump? Hmm?

Edit: /s

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_US_arms_sales_to_Taiwan

The US has been arming Taiwan for decades. Why would that be necessary if the US considered Taiwan to be part of China? You're confusing diplomacy for policy.

Really curious what this means for Taiwan. Their sovereignty depends on US support, but with Trump at the helm, we're just as likely to cut a deal with Xi and stay home when the fighting starts.

Trump just wants peace. He wants the killing to stop. And he wants to cut life-saving aid to impoverished countries. And Medicaid.

Social security and Medicare are considered mandatory spending. The chart above is presumably showing discretionary spending, which is a subset of the overall budget. I can't speak to it's accuracy beyond that.

I wonder if Taiwan is mulling over a peaceful reunification with China as a result of this mess. Their independence depends in large part on US support, but with Trump at the helm they're likely to face extortion when they need it most.

I'm curious to see how DOGE ends up handling this. Given the scale of potential fraud, you'd probably need a dedicated task force just to help sift through cases and figure out what's going on. If you do uncover fraud, then you'd need more people to hold the guilty parties accountable. It might take a few years to work through such a huge number of cases, and with more people aging out of the system each year, it'd likely need to be an ongoing effort. You'd basically need to create a whole new fraud agency to deal with this problem, which is ironic given that the IRS already does this and we're actively trying to downsize them.

There's a simple way for the Republicans in Congress to reassure critics that this is not a dictatorship: define it. Make a list of things that would obviously not be okay. If the rest of us are right about Trump, he'll cross those lines sooner or later. Then there will be no more denying it.