President Trump

I deal with lots of people who’s first language isn’t English, from all sorts of nationalities and over the years I’ve become adept at dissecting what they are saying to me (often) in broken English, and tellingly it’s never left me exposed. I have a great knack of getting the gist of what they are saying based on certain triggers. And I’m never afraid to tell them to repeat it if I haven’t followed. And I always repeat what I understand they’ve said back to them as a safeguard. But that’s communicating in English.

There is no way I would enter into a discussion of that gravity, even if I was fluent in the other language, without at least having an interpreter to hand.

Sure, my understanding is that the conversations of this type will always use an interpreter on each side, and that it's done aloud so both sides hear and can correct any errors.

I'd also expect that certain Trumpisms may be acknowledged by a non-verbal sign (a pen click, a cough, etc).

I'd even expect there to be occasional times where Putin will deliberately misunderstand to let Trump think he's winning more. But that's because I think Putin knows what he's doing, and Trump just expects people to agree with him.
 
Sure, my understanding is that the conversations of this type will always use an interpreter on each side, and that it's done aloud so both sides hear and can correct any errors.

I'd also expect that certain Trumpisms may be acknowledged by a non-verbal sign (a pen click, a cough, etc).

I'd even expect there to be occasional times where Putin will deliberately misunderstand to let Trump think he's winning more. But that's because I think Putin knows what he's doing, and Trump just expects people to agree with him.
The other thing an interpreter does, if you speak the other language well enough, is it gives you more time to formulate your answer.
 
The other thing an interpreter does, if you speak the other language well enough, is it gives you more time to formulate your answer.

Good point, yes.

The standard approach for translations (part of the company I work for deal with translations) is that you should ideally only translate into your own language - obviously this means that you're only translating for the benefit of your own side.
 
Looks like MAGA is so woke they gave us our first drag queen POTUS. Bleached blonde bouffant, lifts, girdle, caked bronzer, silly outfit, and likes to hang around teenagers.

One of the positives of listening to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Howie Carr and watching Republicans on the old Sunday morning talk shows is it lends itself to spotting bullshit from Trump and his supporters.

You know, I have no memory of anyone recommending tariffs as the way forward until Trump showed up. Now they all know about tariffs and think they are marvelous, especially the part where they pay more and Trump benefits from the opacity of tariffs and the opportunity for graft through back room deals and exceptions and market distortions. MAGA has no idea of the opportunities for graft tariffs have given Trump and his business associates who have positioned themselves to benefit from Trumps behavior.

MAGA complain - and rightly so - about the "lucky" nature of elected officials in the House and Senate who leave office with millions in the bank. They've been banging on about this since the Post Office scandal back in the early 90s when Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America (another Republican scam which they admitted to all smoke and mirrors) emerged.

Now? They either cheer on Trump's self-dealing or studiously ignore it. They once breathed fire and brimstone over an abuse of franking privileges, today, they couldn't care less if Trump enriches himself, he deserves it, after all as Trump says to his supporters, "They're not after me, they're after you, I'm just in the way."

"Trump's a victim! He deserves it! He's saving the country and he's a genius business man!"

Yeah, cos a bullshitting real estate guy from NY with a VERY sketchy business past whose sham wow superpower is branding himself and running from banks is exactly the guy to save and modernize the world's most complex economy in history.

Imagine threatening price hikes on your own citizens as part of your so-called negotiating with foreigners and they clap as you lie to their faces and raise their costs. MAGA are so fucking brainwashed at this point when Trump the charlatan says he's going to reduce drug prices by up to "1400%" they cheer madly (math is hard), and when THREE days later he says he's going to phase in 150-250% tariffs on drugs over 18 months they cheer madly again!

Trump Monday: I will reduce the cost of prescription drugs up to 1400%.
MAGA: He's a genius and he cares.
Trump Wednesday: I will phase-in price increases on prescription drugs 150-250% over 18 months.
MAGA: He's a genius and he cares.

I'm especially enjoying Republicans who were once obsessed with a strict, textualist / originalist reading of the Constitution defend Congress' attempt to divest itself of its own proper powers by authorizing the executive branch to lay duties and imposts in case of an "emergency."
 
Looks like MAGA is so woke they gave us our first drag queen POTUS. Bleached blonde bouffant, lifts, girdle, caked bronzer, silly outfit, and likes to hang around teenagers.

One of the positives of listening to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck, Howie Carr and watching Republicans on the old Sunday morning talk shows is it lends itself to spotting bullshit from Trump and his supporters.

You know, I have no memory of anyone recommending tariffs as the way forward until Trump showed up. Now they all know about tariffs and think they are marvelous, especially the part where they pay more and Trump benefits from the opacity of tariffs and the opportunity for graft through back room deals and exceptions and market distortions. MAGA has no idea of the opportunities for graft tariffs have given Trump and his business associates who have positioned themselves to benefit from Trumps behavior.

MAGA complain - and rightly so - about the "lucky" nature of elected officials in the House and Senate who leave office with millions in the bank. They've been banging on about this since the Post Office scandal back in the early 90s when Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America (another Republican scam which they admitted to all smoke and mirrors) emerged.

Now? They either cheer on Trump's self-dealing or studiously ignore it. They once breathed fire and brimstone over an abuse of franking privileges, today, they couldn't care less if Trump enriches himself, he deserves it, after all as Trump says to his supporters, "They're not after me, they're after you, I'm just in the way."

"Trump's a victim! He deserves it! He's saving the country and he's a genius business man!"

Yeah, cos a bullshitting real estate guy from NY with a VERY sketchy business past whose sham wow superpower is branding himself and running from banks is exactly the guy to save and modernize the world's most complex economy in history.

Imagine threatening price hikes on your own citizens as part of your so-called negotiating with foreigners and they clap as you lie to their faces and raise their costs. MAGA are so fucking brainwashed at this point when Trump the charlatan says he's going to reduce drug prices by up to "1400%" they cheer madly (math is hard), and when THREE days later he says he's going to phase in 150-250% tariffs on drugs over 18 months they cheer madly again!

Trump Monday: I will reduce the cost of prescription drugs up to 1400%.
MAGA: He's a genius and he cares.
Trump Wednesday: I will phase-in price increases on prescription drugs 150-250% over 18 months.
MAGA: He's a genius and he cares.

I'm especially enjoying Republicans who were once obsessed with a strict, textualist / originalist reading of the Constitution defend Congress' attempt to divest itself of its own proper powers by authorizing the executive branch to lay duties and imposts in case of an "emergency."
They decide on the required result first and afterwards create the ratio decidendi.
 
If you've noticed Democrats leaving Texas, you won't have noticed them talking about the real issues.

They won't. They can't. Neither can Democrats nationally. Why they have decided to draw attention to this is beyond me. They just woke millions of people up.

There are two interconnected issues involved.

First
, the question of racially-based gerrymandered seats and their explicit race based boundaries and violation of Equal Protection using the 1965 Voting Rights Act and 60 years of SCOTUS and Congressional hypocrisy to do so.

It's one thing to use the law to protect the rights of black Americans to vote, organize, petition, fund-raise, the same with white Americans, pink Americans, brown Americans or anyone else. It's quite another thing - and top drawer mental gymnastics - to use Equal Protection to authorize and condone and celebrate drawing electoral boundaries explicitly and unabashedly based on race and racial electoral power.

Simply put, in America it is unlawful and unacceptable to draw electoral boundaries for the explicit intention of creating majority white districts to promote white voting power. It is lawful and good to draw electoral boundaries for the explicit intention of creating majority black / Hispanic districts to promote black / Hispanic voting power.

I'm not using words, phrases etc of my own making to describe or characterize this, it's their words, phrases, concepts, justifications and they are blatant about it.

In any case Democrat activists are sounding another alarm that racially gerrymandered seats are under threat, especially from the Roberts SCOTUS.

Here is an example from July 2025. Pay attention to the language.

WINSTON-SALEM — The latest federal trial over claims that North Carolina’s election district plans dilute Black voting power in violation of federal law concluded Wednesday with competing expert testimony.


You get that? "Black voting power"? They're not hiding. It's repeated over and over again. They're admitting without any leading or prompting and without a moment's pause to race-based electoral districts. They're proud of it. They talk about "systemic and structural racism" and here you have it in plain sight, but it's good when they do.

Bottom line? The Article 1, 2 and 3 powers and the entire weight of the federal government have for 60 years promoted black voting power. They're proud of it. Fair enough. Should be easy to finally be honest about this and persuade the American people - in 2025 - that race-based districts are the wave of the future.


Second issue for Democrats -

What these Democrats inadvertently illuminated was not Republican overreach but their own decades-long monopoly on congressional cartography in the states they dominate. In trying to indict Texas, they put their own acts on trial.

To begin, one must understand the stakes. Texas, having gained population at a blistering pace, should have been awarded two more seats in the House of Representatives after the 2020 census. Instead, bureaucratic errors by the Census Bureau cost Texas those seats, effectively disenfranchising millions. No coincidence, those seats would almost certainly have landed in Republican hands. The math is simple, and so is the motive.

Next came the knife of the Voting Rights Act, twisted with activist interpretation. The VRA, which once nobly sought to protect minority voters, metastasized into a legal cudgel forcing Texas to create racial coalition districts. These districts, drawn not to represent natural communities but to guarantee preferred racial outcomes, diluted Republican voting strength across the map. The cost? At least five House seats. Five Republican seats.

But then came Petteway v. Galveston County, a quiet case in the Fifth Circuit with thunderous implications. The court ruled that such coalition mandates were not required under Section 2 of the VRA. The decision cleared a path for Texas to redraw its maps in line with both demographic reality and constitutional clarity. Hence, Governor Abbott’s special session. Hence, the Democrats’ flight. Hence, the national spotlight.

Across the nation, in state after blue state, Republicans are ghosts in their own democracy. Let us count the ways.

Massachusetts. Trump won over a third of the vote in 2024. Zero Republican House members. None. Not since 1997 has the Bay State sent a Republican to Congress. This means nearly 2.5 million people vote Republican in a state that pretends they do not exist.

Rhode Island. Over 40 percent of the vote went to Trump in 2024. Representation? Zero. The last GOP representative served in 1989. It has been thirty-five years.

Maine. Trump claimed 45.5 percent of the vote. Still, every congressional seats are controlled by Democrats. Not since Olympia Snowe left office in 1995 has a Republican voice echoed from Maine in the House chamber.

Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, New Mexico, and Hawaii all tell the same story: Republican votes cast, none counted. Collectively, in these states alone, almost ten million Republican voters live under a de facto congressional gag order. Not a single voice in Washington to speak on their behalf.

Even where Republicans do gain a foothold, it is a toe clinging to the edge of a cliff. In Maryland, Republicans received over a third of the vote in 2024 but hold just one of eight seats. In Oregon, 41 percent of voters cast ballots for Trump, but Republicans hold just 17 percent of House seats. The pattern repeats in New Jersey and Illinois. Nearly half the population votes red, but their congressional delegation is overwhelmingly blue.

And it is not just Republican voters who are waking up. Even Democratic strategists, when recently gamed out scenarios for counter-redistricting in states like Massachusetts or Rhode Island, expressed surprise. Why? Because there were no Republican districts left to target. You cannot draw maps to flip what has already been obliterated.

This is not democracy. It is cartographic tyranny.

 
If you've noticed Democrats leaving Texas, you won't have noticed them talking about the real issues.

They won't. They can't. Neither can Democrats nationally. Why they have decided to draw attention to this is beyond me. They just woke millions of people up.

There are two interconnected issues involved.

First
, the question of racially-based gerrymandered seats and their explicit race based boundaries and violation of Equal Protection using the 1965 Voting Rights Act and 60 years of SCOTUS and Congressional hypocrisy to do so.

It's one thing to use the law to protect the rights of black Americans to vote, organize, petition, fund-raise, the same with white Americans, pink Americans, brown Americans or anyone else. It's quite another thing - and top drawer mental gymnastics - to use Equal Protection to authorize and condone and celebrate drawing electoral boundaries explicitly and unabashedly based on race and racial electoral power.

Simply put, in America it is unlawful and unacceptable to draw electoral boundaries for the explicit intention of creating majority white districts to promote white voting power. It is lawful and good to draw electoral boundaries for the explicit intention of creating majority black / Hispanic districts to promote black / Hispanic voting power.

I'm not using words, phrases etc of my own making to describe or characterize this, it's their words, phrases, concepts, justifications and they are blatant about it.

In any case Democrat activists are sounding another alarm that racially gerrymandered seats are under threat, especially from the Roberts SCOTUS.

Here is an example from July 2025. Pay attention to the language.

WINSTON-SALEM — The latest federal trial over claims that North Carolina’s election district plans dilute Black voting power in violation of federal law concluded Wednesday with competing expert testimony.


You get that? "Black voting power"? They're not hiding. It's repeated over and over again. They're admitting without any leading or prompting and without a moment's pause to race-based electoral districts. They're proud of it. They talk about "systemic and structural racism" and here you have it in plain sight, but it's good when they do.

Bottom line? The Article 1, 2 and 3 powers and the entire weight of the federal government have for 60 years promoted black voting power. They're proud of it. Fair enough. Should be easy to finally be honest about this and persuade the American people - in 2025 - that race-based districts are the wave of the future.


Second issue for Democrats -

What these Democrats inadvertently illuminated was not Republican overreach but their own decades-long monopoly on congressional cartography in the states they dominate. In trying to indict Texas, they put their own acts on trial.

To begin, one must understand the stakes. Texas, having gained population at a blistering pace, should have been awarded two more seats in the House of Representatives after the 2020 census. Instead, bureaucratic errors by the Census Bureau cost Texas those seats, effectively disenfranchising millions. No coincidence, those seats would almost certainly have landed in Republican hands. The math is simple, and so is the motive.

Next came the knife of the Voting Rights Act, twisted with activist interpretation. The VRA, which once nobly sought to protect minority voters, metastasized into a legal cudgel forcing Texas to create racial coalition districts. These districts, drawn not to represent natural communities but to guarantee preferred racial outcomes, diluted Republican voting strength across the map. The cost? At least five House seats. Five Republican seats.

But then came Petteway v. Galveston County, a quiet case in the Fifth Circuit with thunderous implications. The court ruled that such coalition mandates were not required under Section 2 of the VRA. The decision cleared a path for Texas to redraw its maps in line with both demographic reality and constitutional clarity. Hence, Governor Abbott’s special session. Hence, the Democrats’ flight. Hence, the national spotlight.

Across the nation, in state after blue state, Republicans are ghosts in their own democracy. Let us count the ways.

Massachusetts. Trump won over a third of the vote in 2024. Zero Republican House members. None. Not since 1997 has the Bay State sent a Republican to Congress. This means nearly 2.5 million people vote Republican in a state that pretends they do not exist.

Rhode Island. Over 40 percent of the vote went to Trump in 2024. Representation? Zero. The last GOP representative served in 1989. It has been thirty-five years.

Maine. Trump claimed 45.5 percent of the vote. Still, every congressional seats are controlled by Democrats. Not since Olympia Snowe left office in 1995 has a Republican voice echoed from Maine in the House chamber.

Vermont, Connecticut, Delaware, New Mexico, and Hawaii all tell the same story: Republican votes cast, none counted. Collectively, in these states alone, almost ten million Republican voters live under a de facto congressional gag order. Not a single voice in Washington to speak on their behalf.

Even where Republicans do gain a foothold, it is a toe clinging to the edge of a cliff. In Maryland, Republicans received over a third of the vote in 2024 but hold just one of eight seats. In Oregon, 41 percent of voters cast ballots for Trump, but Republicans hold just 17 percent of House seats. The pattern repeats in New Jersey and Illinois. Nearly half the population votes red, but their congressional delegation is overwhelmingly blue.

And it is not just Republican voters who are waking up. Even Democratic strategists, when recently gamed out scenarios for counter-redistricting in states like Massachusetts or Rhode Island, expressed surprise. Why? Because there were no Republican districts left to target. You cannot draw maps to flip what has already been obliterated.

This is not democracy. It is cartographic tyranny.

Half of your complaints are really about first past the post electoral issues. FTP is not designed to produce proportional representation. Unless you look at the other side of the coin, ie nil representation of democrats in red states where they repeatedly come second, your argument is fatally flawed.
 
why do people love to talk their country down - with lies !!



According to this, America as a whole is more violent than South Africa and Rwanda despite being immeasurably richer, so what’s the **** going to do about that?
 

According to this, America as a whole is more violent than South Africa and Rwanda despite being immeasurably richer, so what’s the **** going to do about that?

rant on about immigrants and rapists?
 

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