9 ms·
We are 1 Year and 3 months into this current administration, 2 years and 9 months remain. Despite the short period in office, so much damage and chaos has being
by e2le 6mo ago
We are 1 Year and 3 months into this current administration, 2 years and 9 months remain. Despite the short period in office, so much damage and chaos has being caused by one individual and the sycophants who surround him.
It is a fact that the reputation of the USA has being damaged, perhaps not repairable for decades or more. This will have consequences.
Perhaps, I hope, Americans will take action to save the democratic norms and institutions that so many of them have claimed to cherish. Before he has dismantled and replaced too many to salvage. Or perhaps they have work tomorrow.
- shrubby 6mo ago[flagged]
- cyberge99 6mo agoHonest? Trump is the most dishonest president in history. He literally says two diametrically opposite things: - we don’t need any oil - open up the strait or else severe consequences Which is it? Only fools think his opacity is a feature not a terrible bug.
- shrubby 5mo agoHonest in the moral corruption and the endgame of the current political system, which is the power from the many to the few to the one ultimate authoritarian messiah. But yeah, lots of lies that emphasize the honesty of the endgame.
- iJohnDoe 6mo agoWorst case there will be another Republican president from the same tribe. We could be in for the same exact chaos and damage for another four years. This could go on for a long time. Remember, Republicans get out and vote. They would rather suffer and destroy America just so the democrats don’t win.
- ronnier 6mo agoI think a large part of why they do this and vote the way they do is because of comments like yours. Hacker news, Reddit, award shows, movies, universities, etc all have a constant drum beat of disdain and hate towards them. I think this motivates them into voting even if the vote is against their own interest.
- watwut 6mo agoEverything republican party do and everything republicans vote for ... are fault of the opposition. Always. Republicans are little helpless souls having no choice but cause maxinum harm as long as opposition in any for exists. Look at what that party collectively stands for now, who they kick out and who they keep. They all stand behind trump.
- devinplatt 6mo agoI learned recently that there's actually a name for this concept. Murc's law states that in American politics, only Democrats are assumed to have agency. Presumably democratic reforms could help change the dynamic if they changed the incentives. Right now, it's a politically viable strategy to just obstruct the other party when out of power, and politically unviable strategy for Congress to oppose a president from the same party. Both of which lead to a lot of dysfunction. As an example, if Congress had multimember districts with an appropriate voting system (e.g. ranked choice voting for all members at the same time), then you can effectively nullify the power of gerrymandered voting districts (the current system, where effectively politicians choose voters rather than the other way around). Doing so would elevate the influence of general elections over party primaries. Then representatives would be less afraid of challenges in those primaries, which is currently one of the major disincentives in opposing the president of the same political party (fear of being "primaried").
- Jensson 6mo agoThat is just progressive vs conservative, ie changing things vs conserving things, humans are biased to conserve things unless the set of changes are overwhelmingly better. So conservatives win when progressives push for too many changes, not changing things is the default. So saying that the democrats lost the election by pushing too fast is not weird, that is just how humans works.
- gosub100 6mo agoMy hope is that this will show weaknesses in our supposed "checks and balances" that can be patched later. If that means it takes an act of congress to even fire a single military weapon, so be it. That's just one example, but basically "they" need to backtrack and find every "hack" trump used and plug it so this never happens again.
- freedomben 6mo agoAgreed, but the problem is that whichever party is in power wants to expand presidential authority, and only the minority party wants to reign it in. When the president flips, usually so do the parties in power. Plus you have to be enough majority to override a presidential veto. I don't see this ever workign out :-(
- LeFantome 6mo agoWhat “checks and balances”? The SCOTUS ruled that presidents cannot be held accountable. The constitution is pretty clear. Trump does not have the authority to invade Iran. Yet he did. What are you planning to patch? Despite everything, Trump has 35-40 percent approval right now. You cannot patch that out.
- gosub100 6mo agothe ones that were printed in my middle school government McGraw Hill textbook...
- ceejayoz 6mo ago“First, your return to shore was not part of our negotiations nor our agreement, so I must do nothing. And secondly, you must be a pirate for the Pirate's Code to apply, and you're not. And thirdly, the Code is more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules.” Turns out that last bit is how the US was setup. Oops.
- pjc50 6mo agoChecks and balances mean nothing when the same party controls house, senate, president, and supreme court.
- temp8830 6mo agoApproximately the same things were said about Dubya Jr's war with invisible WMDs. If you've forgotten - listen to some songs that came out at the time. It's not about a particular president, it's that the US seems to have a systemic dependency on starting these wars.
- chaostheory 6mo agoBack then we had approval from our coalition. We also shared the spoils, which the Russians noted. Also, none of the Bush’s ran on an “America First” isolationist political campaign. Even own base is fracturing because of this.
- LeFantome 6mo agoYour point seems to be that the US has not changed. Regardless, the world thinks it has. The “coalition of the willing” is not behind the US this time.
- anjel 6mo agoAnd so this Easter day a new oxymoron is born: the coalition of the unwilling. Do with that, in terms of foreign policy, what you will.
- 6mo ago
- nozzlegear 6mo ago> Perhaps, I hope, Americans will take action to save the democratic norms and institutions that so many of them have claimed to cherish. Before he has dismantled and replaced too many to salvage. Or perhaps they have work tomorrow. I'm going to take action by voting in November. Or are you suggesting revolution is more prudent, that I should put my life on the line right now because the global economy is a little fucky?
- vntok 6mo agoInteresting question. Do you believe that waiting is fine because the election will be fair in November?
- nozzlegear 6mo agoYes? I've been a poll worker for every election since 2018, I have no reason to believe they won't be this time around. Do you have reason to believe that Trump isn't just full of hot air, bluster and bullshit like usual (TACO)?
- vntok 6mo agoWell yes, of course. For example this a month or so ago seems worrying: https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/02/14/trump-threatens-to-bypass-congress-and-order-new-voting-laws-ahead-of-midterms_6750474_4.html https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2026/02/14/t... > US President Donald Trump, on Friday, February 13, threatened to try to bypass Congress and force new voting laws ahead of the November midterm elections, where his Republican Party fears losing control of the legislature. Trump said he would soon issue an executive order attempting to impose the rules if Congress does not pass a law requiring photo identification to vote and other nationwide reforms. > "There will be Voter ID for the Midterm Elections, whether approved by Congress or not!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "If we can't get it through Congress, there are Legal reasons why this SCAM is not permitted. I will be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order," he wrote.
- 6mo ago
- swarnie 6mo ago> 2 years and 9 months remain You think. Peaceful transfers of power are always tricky in younger democracies.
- Arubis 6mo agoMy strong suspicion is that the current POTUS will leave the White House in a box. My hope is that this precedes the next election cycle.
- actionfromafar 6mo agoDo you think the ThielVance will leave peacefully?
- bebop 6mo agoThey don’t have the cult of personality to hold on to power in the same way djt does.
- actionfromafar 6mo agoWho needs personality when you got your own stormtroopers with guns?
- MarsIronPI 5mo agoYou need to stop the people with guns from killing you and your stormtroopers. That's what the Second Amendment is for.
- mrguyorama 5mo agoThe people who bay loudest about that second amendment have long signaled that they will kill to keep Trump in power. They've been salivating for an excuse to shoot democrats for decades. They have been openly advocating for the murder of democrats for ages. Democrat politicians were literally murdered in the past few years and they don't give a fuck, because they support it. Trump is already well beyond the confines of the Constitution. If the 2A crowd gave a fuck about rights other than larping soldiers, they would have already marched on him. He has openly declared that guns should be taken away from people and that having a gun on you at a protest should justify shooting you. The 2A crowd continues to support him fully.
- andy_ppp 6mo agoIf you could design a perfect plan to destroy the United States, Donald Trump, probably through sheer buffoonish incompetence seems to be implementing it.
- SilverElfin 6mo agoI don’t think he’s incompetent. He’s actually quite good at extracting wealth for himself/family/donors/friends out of whatever the administration is doing. Iran is a distraction from the Epstein files, and the fact that many from the Trump circle appear in it - Trump himself, some of his children, Elon Musk, Steve Bannon, Peter Thiel, etc. The war with Iran is also a way to make a few more suspicious trades on the market swings, especially the ones following each speech or decision. It would be easy to time trades if you know what will happen because you’re deciding it. The US may be destroyed but it’s because it’s just collateral damage to the billionaires and Epstein class. Not because they’re incompetent. We need to contain their wealth and power with totally new laws.
- throw310822 6mo agoYou mistake for competence his greed and that of those who surround him. I don't think there was a plan to profit from the disaster; rather, they're so incompetent that they even lack the basic self-control to avoid publicly taking advantage of the mess they unwillingly caused, however bad and dangerous that might be.
- Jensson 6mo agoI imagine Trump wanted to do some fun new things when he is old and will soon die. Its not many who get to experience what it feels like to start a war and kill world leaders, and when you are gonna die soon anyway why not?
- sieste 6mo agoI think this is the correct lense. He's a malignant narcissist on his way out, with absolutely nobody to stop him. I'm genuinely worried that he secretly wants to go down in history as the crazy guy who set the oil fields on fire and dropped a nuke on Tehran or something.
- aaa_aaa 6mo agoNot one individual. You forgot the ones put the yoke.
- KellyCriterion 6mo ago> take action to save the democratic Im beting 1000 USD that Trump comes up with whatever story/issue/incident to "manipulate" all upcoming elections to his favour
- petre 6mo agoIf the doesn't turn up as the first US president to actually be impeached. You've got other two who got assasinated. The right to bear arms mskes that sort of thing a bit easier than impeachment.
- ceejayoz 6mo agoAndrew Johnson was the first US President to be impeached. Clinton too, then Trump twice.
- petre 6mo agoDidn't go through. None of them were removed from office.
- ceejayoz 6mo ago> None of them were removed from office. Correct. But that's not because they weren't impeached. Impeachment is part of the process; three presidents have been impeached, Trump twice. Then comes the trial, and conviction/acquittal.
- augusto-moura 6mo agoThing is, that is not just the individual, the world lost the trust in the american vote. Trump was elected twice, it is easy to imagine that another megalomaniac might be elected next. In a democratic system, the ruler is a reflection of the majority of the population. Of course it can change during the course of the administration (as seen in the approval ratings), but the trust is lost and most countries now believe that, one way or another, the majority of the US population agree with some of the ideas behind Trump. The damage will not stop by the end of Trump's administration, it is truly the end of multilateralism as we knew it
- jmye 5mo ago> the majority of the US population agree with some of the ideas behind Trump And will happily vote for it again and again, provided the better next to the name is an R, no matter how they answer approval polls. This is what happens when your entire media (social and traditional) and tech ecosystem is complicit and encouraging.
- simgt 6mo agoHow many people voted for that "one individual causing chaos" again? 70 million? He's also backed by billionaires and an administration that seems to be just as unhinged. It's not one person causing chaos, it's a whole country with its violent culture. The scale changed slightly, but it's also nothing new.
- villedespommes 6mo agoThis. There are really two explanations here. Either the US hasn't been a democracy in the first place. Or the majority of the US voters prefer autocratic amoral psychopaths running their country.
- pas 6mo agoBrits also voted to leave the EU where they had the absurdly privileged position of picking (almost freely) which rules applies to them, while benefiting from others applying them fully. ... Democracy is only as good as the people doing the voting, who are about as good (as the rules they don't protest againsts) and the content they consume, which is about as good as certain groups make it to be.
- WickyNilliams 5mo agoB-b-but the bananas, and the bureaucrats!! What's particularly amazing about Brexit is that many of its chief architects have not been shamed or exiled from society for spinning a yarn that fell apart when confronted with the smallest slither of reality. No, instead, the primary advocate may very well be our next prime minister.
- rkomorn 5mo agoA slither of reality sounds snaky... and I ended up googling it and Google AI convincingly says both that it exists and also that it is confused with "sliver of reality", and its examples of "slither of reality" point to pages that use "sliver" instead. What a time to be alive.
- Cyph0n 6mo ago1. A non-trivial proportion of us voted for Trump. 2. Blatantly kidnapping and assassinating heads of state is the culmination of US foreign policy and not an anomaly. The machine is working as designed. The only foreign policy blunders I would attribute to Trump are the completely unnecessary spats with Canada and Denmark/the EU, although neither blunder seems to have made a dent in the ass kissing.
- csa 6mo ago> It is a fact that the reputation of the USA has being damaged, perhaps not repairable for decades or more. The MAGA base does not care about the international reputation of the US. They lean heavily towards isolationism (irrationally, imho).