I think they are more like cell mates. Stuck in the same small room. Can’t leave. Warden checks on them periodically and gives them terrible food to eat…

When you shit your pants regularly, having lots of the same suit makes it easier to do a quick change and not have it noticed.

Strong “don’t want to pick sides” vibes

If you give people no credit for admitting they were wrong or give them no chance to atone, then you give them no reason to do it and they will continue down the path they are on. To me it is preferable that she stops being toxic vs her continuing if those are the two choices.

I am not saying she should be forgiven, but if she is genuine, and that remains to be seen (she has a lot of work to do to prove that), then continuing to punish or otherwise vilify her, sends her the message that she’s damned is she does and she’s damned if she doesn’t so why not continue being toxic. Why should she try to be better?

If she continues to atone and does some very positive things in future (again doubtful) there should at least be some consideration given that she may have changed.

I didn’t actually say she was deprogramming anyone, just that she is in a position where she could.

That said, the fact that she is speaking out against him has unquestionably lead other people to doubt him.

Whether she is trying to take his place is not a point I tried to address directly, but I do believe she is behaving this way because she sees it as a way to further her own political career.

My most charitable thinking about this is that she s always just playing to win. The way she acted was just that, an act. She did it because she knew it appealed to a particular segment of society that could get her elected. Now there is a sea change she is smart enough to know MAGA is doomed and she had jumped ship early because she thinks it will be more politically advantageous in the long run.

She may be genuinely remorseful if she is good for her, but it doesn’t erase the things she had voted for, against, and the things she said that harmed people or incited violence deliberately or accidentally.

That said, she is somewhat uniquely positioned to assist in the deprogramming of MAGA members so, though I don’t trust her, the things she is doing and saying today are leading people away from Trump, and that is the most vital mission right now.

You don’t think it’s progressive that the USA has its first black president closely followed by it’s first orange president? I’d say that’s a society that is closer to saying it doesn’t see colour.

Seriously though, I think the fact America hasn’t had a female leader is strange for a country that used to claim to be the greatest nation on earth.

Well maybe I am, but I also think there is a tendancy to dismiss a lot of trump’s behaviour as delusional, or dumb when I see it as intentional malice with moments of dementia woven in.

I do think he is not very bright, but not so dumb as many want to believe. It feels good to think of him as dumb, but the fact of the matter is he convinced tens of millions of people to vote for him. He has steam rollered the USA and imposed his will. He is clever enough to have understood his to manipulate the public masterfully up to his second election, despite being a convicted felon by that point. To say he is stupid and somehow lucked his way into all of that is not impossible but improbable. I think his issue now is that he underestimated how the public would respond as he got positive reinforcement for many years even when doing harmful things because of his blind support from MAGA. He underestimated how much they would put up with.

It is entirely possible that he pulled the number out of the air but I don’t think that’s how he works. Some of what he says is rooted in a truth that he then distorts and exaggerates to serve him, which is why I think the number comes from his deliberate misunderstanding than from nowhere.

The deception doesn’t require him to accept he was wrong. It requires mental gymnastics. Something he has proven to be an Olympic gold medalist at.

Just to be clear I am not defending him I am advising caution. Writing him off as stupid means you are in some way excusing his actions as being accidental and leads to the “of its just trump being trump” rhetoric that has let him get away with so much. He is a dangerous, dangerous man. I can’t decide if he believes the things he says or simply wants you to believe the things he says. I lean towards the latter.

As I wrote this I am reminded of Boris Johnson who is someone who spent a great deal of time convincing the UK public he was a harmless, likeable idiot. He was not. He was an intelligent, deceptive man who wore his public image like a mask to hide his nefarious intent. Boris is not trump of course, but I see Boris as a cautionary tale and it makes me view Trump differently than I perhaps would if Boris had not existed.

Fully accept I may be wrong about all of this, but just want to share my opinion.

I’m not sane washing. I believe it’s how he sees it and now he’s probably been told that’s not how it works, he continues to use this method as a way to make the number bigger. So it crosses from idiocy to deliberate deception. IMO

Why is no one concerned about how unfair this is for the puppy?

More importantly does Tim Cook know he’s Ellen DeGeneres?

When he says he’s going to reduce drugs by thousands of percent, I think he looks at the price of drug x in, for example, Germany and sees a price of $10 then he looks at the price in the USA of $160. So the USA price is 1600% of the Germany price.

He claims to reduce them to the Germany price, and then screws up on how percentages work and says he’ll reduce it by 1600%, instead of what he should say, which is reducing it by 94%.

So that’s how I understand the comments he makes. Either way he’s full of shit and won’t actually reduce them at all, but I think I get why he thinks he is correct in stating percentages in the thousands.

Cue Ted Cruz: “Nice university ya got here. Be a shame if something happened to it”

UK president? Bloody hope not.

Seems to me though that that video was actually anti Trump, not pro Trump. As in “this is what Trump thinks of himself and you” and Trump thought it was funny because he actually does think like that, sees nothing wrong with his behaviour and so sees the video as validation of his point of view.

Does this not destroy his argument or betray his own lies.

Either:

A. His assertion is that the FBI under Biden’s direction or agents into the crowd to indie violence. This is demonstrably false since Biden did not control the FBI and therefore could not have done this. He could have said agents but he chose to lie that it was the FBI, and in doing so, crippled his own argument.

Or

B: There were agents in the crowds tasked with inciting violence. These agents must have been working under Trumps direction as it was his FBI. Therefore he is telling on himself. This time the lie is under whose orders the agents were acting.

I believe there were no agents there. Just a bunch of sycophants who revere trump so much they would be willing to root in jail for him and that their cause is so righteous that overruling democracy is fine.

That’s as clear an “I don’t care about the people” as you can get. If he is willing to cut popular programs to hurt the Democrats, then he does not care about the people because they are the ones who suffer the cut not the democrat politicians. In fact I argue that the cuts have nothing to do with the Democrats really. Just another way to inflate the cash pile for billionaire tax cuts.

So why would anyone think his motivations have anything to do with making things better for the people??

This is totally the wrong platform for this question but to any Trump supporters out there, how can you think this man is looking out for you? How long are you prepared to wait for the dividends to be paid back to you? How much pain are you willing to suffer before recognising the obvious truth?

The simplest explanation is usually the truth. It is not 4D chess it is a heist and by the time his supporters realise there is no twist coming at the end of the story, many will have died and it will be to late.

It takes a lot longer to build than it does to demolish. It will take many years for America to get back to the position it was in back in January.

The party that practically trademarked government shutdowns now want you to believe they aren’t responsible and would never want such a thing.

Even though we ordered our representatives not to negotiate and we ordered them not to show up when the Democrats all did. We really wanted to avoid this. Yeah right.

I kinda would have liked to see what would have happened if the Democrats said yes to all their demands.

These guys are so scared of having to face their confusing feelings that they will go to extraordinary lengths like running for office, rising through the ranks and using their power to avoid temptation.

Just admit it to yourselves and everyone will be happier.

I expect he thought it was showing strength to support one’s colleagues.

Instead he showed weakness. Strength would be to act first and expel him before the story broke. Of course innocent until proven guilty should stand, but there would be nothing wrong with saying something like “I’ve known him for a long time and always found him to be a trustworthy individual and am not personally aware of any wrongdoing. However, such allegations must be taken seriously and fully investigated. If it turns out that the right honourable gentleman has been involved in anything untoward, the British government will remove him from his post and I personally will be very disappointed and surprised but the integrity of the government and it’s officials is of the utmost importance.”

…but only if he didn’t already have the answers.

Why can politicians not just operate in good faith and for the best interests of the electorate. It seems we never get politicians who truly care about making life better for the average person and act according to their conscience. We only get politicians who play games and cover for each other while enriching themselves by pandering to business and the rich, as they engage in fraud and crimes that the rest of us would serve time for but they get a slap on the wrist simply because just by being a politician, they earn the trust of the establishment.

Not even out of spite. Out of Practical concerns about the smooth and uninterrupted operation of the factory. Any time they need to send an engineer from Korea or need to have inspections etc their workers are at risk of detainment. Even if they had a100% American workforce which is unlikely, they’d need to send staff from Korea every now and then. The US just told them there are better countries to operate in where such things won’t happen.