US US Politics General 2 - Discussion of President Trump and other politicians

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Should be a wild four years.

Helpful links for those who need them:

Current members of the House of Representatives
https://www.house.gov/representatives

Current members of the Senate
https://www.senate.gov/senators/

Current members of the US Supreme Court
https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/biographies.aspx

Members of the Trump Administration
https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/
 
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Flatter than a tire I threw out two weeks ago
My vision of MURRICA needs more tiddy and probably abs
So basically the chick from Outlaw Star
Check out Paul Stahr's renditions of her, you'll get what you're after.
EDIT: Lots of the earliest renditions got tig ol biddies and a big fucking sword or musket.
 
Anybody got any good streams of the protests? I'm trying to look and other then that Nick Shirley stream I can't find one.
 
Protests in France are just their version of sportsball. And when anything real and not kicked off by the vibrant diversity comes up like the yellow vests they shut it down once they realize it's not the daily sportsball match.
sportsball in 2025 is wild bro.
 

Protesters tee off against Trump and Musk in “Hands Off!” rallies across the U.S.
Associated Press (archive.ph)
By Dave Collins
2025-04-05 20:13:01GMT
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Demonstrators hold up signs during a "Hands Off!" protest against President Donald Trump at the Washington Monument in Washington, Saturday, April 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Opponents of President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk rallied across the U.S. on Saturday to protest the administration’s actions on government downsizing, the economy, human rights and other issues.

More than 1,200 “Hands Off!” demonstrations were planned by more than 150 groups, including civil rights organizations, labor unions, LBGTQ+ advocates, veterans and elections activists. The protest sites included the National Mall in Washington, D.C., state capitols and other locations in all 50 states.

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Pro-Palestinian protesters carrying a depiction of President Donald Trump gather at a rally before marching toward the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters, Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Protesters assailed the Trump administration’s moves to fire thousands of federal workers, close Social Security Administration field offices, effectively shutter entire agencies, deport immigrants, scale back protections for transgender people and cut federal funding for health programs.

Musk, a Trump adviser who owns Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, has played a key role in government downsizing as the head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency. He says he is saving taxpayers billions of dollars.

Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign advocacy group, spoke at the Washington protest, criticizing the Trump administration’s treatment of the LBGTQ+ community.

“The attacks that we’re seeing, they’re not just political. They are personal, y’all,” she said. “They’re trying to ban our books, they’re slashing HIV prevention funding, they’re criminalizing our doctors, our teachers, our families and our lives. This is Donald Trump’s America and I don’t want it y’all. We don’t want this America, y’all. We want the America we deserve, where dignity, safety and freedom belong not to some of us, but to all of us.”

Thousands of people marched in New York City’s midtown Manhattan. In Massachusetts thousands more gathered on Boston Common holding signs including “Hands off our democracy,” “Hands off our Social Security” and “Diversity equity inclusion makes America strong. Hands off!”

In Ohio, hundreds rallied in the rain at the Statehouse in Columbus.

Roger Broom, 66, a retiree from Delaware County, Ohio, said at the Columbus rally that he used to be a Reagan Republican but has been turned off by Trump.

“He’s tearing this country apart,” Broom said. “It’s just an administration of grievances.”

Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, a few miles from Trump’s golf course in Jupiter, where he spent the morning at the club’s Senior Club Championship. People lined both sides of PGA Drive, encouraging cars to honk and chanting slogans against Trump.

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Activists protest President Donald Trump, who was a few miles away at his Trump National Golf Club, during a "Hands Off!" demonstration Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Protesters carry signs and chant slogans against the policies of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Miami. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)

Archer Moran from Port St. Lucie, Florida, said, “They need to keep their hands off of our Social Security.”

“The list of what they need to keep their hands off of is too long,” Moran said. “And it’s amazing how soon these protests are happening since he’s taken office.”

The president plans to go golfing again Sunday, according to the White House.

Asked about the protests, the White House said in a statement that “President Trump’s position is clear: he will always protect Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid for eligible beneficiaries. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ stance is giving Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare benefits to illegal aliens, which will bankrupt these programs and crush American seniors.”

Activists have staged nationwide demonstrations against Trump or Musk multiple times since Trump returned to office. But the opposition movement has yet to produce a mass mobilization like the Women’s March in 2017, which brought thousands of women to Washington, D.C., after Trump’s first inauguration, or the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that erupted in multiple cities after George Floyd’s killing in 2020.

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Activists protest President Donald Trump, who was a few miles away at his Trump National Golf Club, during a "Hands Off!" demonstration Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Activists protest President Donald Trump, who was a few miles away at his Trump National Golf Club, during a "Hands Off!" demonstration Saturday, April 5, 2025, in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

In Charlotte, North Carolina, protesters said they were supporting a variety of causes, from Social Security and education to immigration and women’s reproductive rights.

“Regardless of your party, regardless of who you voted for, what’s going on today, what’s happening today is abhorrent,” said Britt Castillo, 35, of Charlotte. “It’s disgusting and as broken as our current system might be, the way that the current administration is going about trying to fix things — it is not the way to do it. They’re not listening to the people.”

“All they’re doing is making sure that they have a parachute for them and their rich friends, and everybody else here that lives here — that makes the gears turn for this country — are just screwed at the end of the day,” she said.
Thousands rally in D.C. as Trump protesters gather across U.S.
The Washington Post (archive.ph)
By Dan Morse and Dana Munro
2025-04-05 19:59:24GMT
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People gather for the “Hands Off” rally on the National Mall. (Valerie Plesch/For The Washington Post)

Thousands of people crowded in front of the Washington Monument on Saturday to protest President Donald Trump and top adviser Elon Musk’s dismantling of federal agencies, alleged circumventing of due process and introduction of tariffs.

Rallygoers dressed in Statue of Liberty costumes, wrapped themselves in transgender rights flags, and had their canines wear “dogs against doge” collars. They carried signs decrying the administration’s deportation efforts, defunding of public health and reversal of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

The gathering was part of what organizers said at least 1,300 more “Hands Off” rallies planned by more than 150 groups in all 50 states. Photos and videos on social media showed crowds gathered in public squares or marching through the streets Saturday in Boston, Chicago and other cities throughout the country.

By around 1:30 p.m. the crowd swelled as far as the eye could see from all sides of the stage. A jolt of energy surged through the crowd when Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland) got up to speak. Raskin attacked the Trump administration for the stock market downturn, coming after law firms and aligning with international dictators.

“No moral person wants an economy-crashing dictator who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing,” Raskin said.

Organizers said they hoped Saturday’s events would be the largest Trump protests since he returned to office in January. In their permit application to the National Park Service, rally organizers in D.C. said they anticipated a crowd of 10,000. By Friday night, though, the organizers said they expected at least 20,000. Saturday afternoon, they were guessing the crowd was five times as big as they predicted.

The White House postponed spring garden tours scheduled for Saturday because of the potential size of the protest. Police began closing streets around the National Mall on Saturday afternoon as the crowd swelled beyond the figures predicted by organizers.

Political protesting was a new experience for Jac Behrends, a 28-year-old livestock farmer from New York’s Hudson Valley. She drove down at 4:30 a.m. to be there. She’s never been particularly political, but seeing Musk mimic a “Nazi salute” and seeing Trump’s rhetoric sway her parents into fearing immigrants spurred her to action, she said.

“I wanted to be at the heart of it and D.C. is definitely the heart of it,” Behrends said. “I really hate that billionaires and the rich are in control of our political system. That is not what this country was founded on.”

People gathered in response to what they see as the administration’s overreach on a variety of issues: NATO; schools; libraries; courts; veteran services; fair elections; and “our jobs, our wallets, our bodies.”

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Washington, DC — APRIL 5, 2025: People gather for the Hands Off! rally on the National Mall, expected to be the largest anti Trump/Mask protest during the second term, in Washington, DC on April 5, 2025. (Valerie Plesch/For The Washington Post)

Britt Jacovich, a spokesperson for the liberal group MoveOn.org, which was one of the organizers, said people not only want Trump to get his “hands off” abortion rights and civil rights issues, they want his hands off Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the federal workforce, the value of their 401(k), the broader U.S. economy, and much more.

Jacovich said the breadth of the groups organizing reflects the growing opposition to Trump, Musk and the Republican Party in Washington.

She recalls how she’s in group chats with friends and family where “everyone was watching their 401(k)s plummet in real time.”

“If you’re worried about Donald Trump or Elon Musk or the Republican Party, this rally is for you,” she said.

During Trump’s first term, protests tended to concentrate in Washington but organizers want to spread the rallies out around the country, Jacovich said. Many of smaller rallies are forming organically among neighbors and friends, she said, reaching people who may not have protested last time he was president.

“We are rallying to demand an end to Trump’s craven power grab and his acting like the law does not apply to him,” said Rachel O’Leary Carmona, executive director of Women’s March, a group that is helping organize the rallies.

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Organizers said they hoped Saturday’s demonstrations would be the largest Trump protests since he returned to office in January. (Valerie Plesch/For The Washington Post)

Carmona is seeing a broader array of people who want to rally against Trump. The rallies that Women’s March has organized, she said, have focused more on abortion rights and women’s issues. The rallies on Saturday were more wide ranging in scope.

“It’s hard to get narrow in opposition when his attacks are so broad,” Carmona said.

She said that core progressive groups are growing. Women’s March, she said, has added 600,000 members just this year.

Howard Bass, 77, a retired Smithsonian Institution employee, arrived to the rally Saturday from Arlington, Virginia, with a sign listing 11 Hands Off subjects. Among them: the Smithsonian, academic freedom, Greenland, free speech and Social Security. Bass is not stranger to protests.

“I was out in the streets when Nixon was president,” Bass said. When he heard about the rally, Bass said, he decided to come in “two seconds, maybe less.”

Bass, a musician who plays the lute and guitar, said about half his income comes from Social Security. He also draws a pension from his Smithsonian employment. He said he’s concerned about the future of both.

And he worries about his friends still at the Smithsonian: “I know they’re under a lot of pressure,” Bass said.

Bass described his central emotion of these days as “fear.” And he compared his protests against Nixon with those against Trump.

“It many ways it was a simpler time,” he said of the Nixon days. “There was one big target: Vietnam. Now there are hundreds of targets to protest against.”

Janice Benton, 68, and Martin Benton, 77, took Metro trains from their home in College Park, Maryland, and headed to the rally in D.C. — Janice on foot, Martin on his mobility scooter. He was born with cerebral palsy and in recent years has developed stenosis of the spine.

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By Friday night, rally organizers said they expected at least 20,000 participants. Saturday afternoon, they were guessing the crowd was five times as big as they predicted. (Allison Robbert/For The Washington Post)

“We can’t give up,” said Martin, wearing a T-shirt that read “Make Orwell Fiction Again.”

On the front of the scooter was this sign: “Denying History is ‘Anti-American Ideology.’” On the back: “Resist.”

Janice held a sign reading: “Chose Empathy Not Vindictive Revenge. People are Dying and Suffering.”

Martin, a native of Monticello, Georgia, spent his career a federal employee. He worked at the IRS, the Library of Congress and, lastly, 22 years at the Department of Education, where he monitored and audited grants used for special education. He worries that cuts or abolishment of the Education Department will diminish funding and attention to children with disabilities.

“He was doing what Musk is supposed to be doing,” Janice quipped about her husband of 44 years.

She’d spent her career in disability advocacy and ministry. Janice said she had plans to spend Saturday with deaf friends at a retreat — an important event that she said gave way to the importance of supporting the hands-off message.

She and Martin worry about how many people could be impacted by cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. A graduate of the University of Georgia law school, and wearing a Master’s golf cap, Martin also worries about law firms giving in to the Trump administration’s demands.

In a speech on Thursday, former president Barack Obama urged law firms, universities and people across the country to stand up for democratic values and resist Trump.

“It is up to all of us to fix this,” he said, including “the citizen, the ordinary person who says, no, that’s not right.”

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Members of the Simms family take a photograph with Bob Sledzaus dressed in a Donald Trump inspired costume at the rally on Saturday. (Allison Robbert/For The Washington Post)
 
Whenever Europeans think of America they think that
1: our country is a fraction of the size it actually is
2: that every square inch of America is picrel
View attachment 7181074
It's fine that they're ignorant. We often judge European countries by how much of a shit hole some of their cities are, but their smug elitism is starting to extend past ignorance and heading towards completely delusional territory
Fun fact, this image is taken in the most unflattering angle possible to make it look like this. I can't find the original, but the town looks nice from overhead.

Also, fun fact: the reason these towns exist is that they are basically surrounded by large swathes of nothing, so they are made to have evrything you need in a small area for when truckers pass by.
 
While everyone has been fucked by healthcare, some people like their jobs and don't want a repeat of 2008.
If you don't want a repeat of 2008, the economy needs to be fixed NOW. It will cause some short-term pain, but in the long run it's necessary.

If you think the economy can be fixed without pencil-whipping all those "too big to fail" corporations that got bailed out in 2008 with a bit of "line go down" economic readjustments, then you don't understand that our current economy is based on unsustainable smoke, mirrors, and printer-go-brrr. Or you don't WANT to understand, because the Wall Street Griftworks benefits you personally, and you don't want your particular piece of the grift pie to disappear.
 
Trump has planted a forest of trees whose shade he might never sit under. Time will tell if any of the Presidents of the future choose to destroy the saplings before they can grow to bear fruit. Long-term thinking is often the bane of democracies.
There is the one situational benefit that the western elites can either have globalism or WW3, but not both. And they can't rule out WW3 or hope to win it without manufacturing capability, so globalism loses.
 
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