1

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 11, 2025, 07:55:56 PM »

If a president wants to lie repeatedly, use his position of power to further enrich himself and his mates, make decisions which push the country in to the brink of recession, take no responsibility for anything and blame everyone but himself for his failings and just generally act like a complete asshat on the world stage and make himself and by association your country a complete laughing stock then you're right, there's no requirements to stop him doing any of that.

And yes, because of the MAGA Cult he gets away with it.
Where we differ is I don't actually think it's a good thing. I'd rather have a world leader with honestly, integrity and competence.
I'm a bit of an old traditionalist when it comes to stuff like that.

Trump does not have control over whether he is successful in his meme coin business.

He does if he's saying "Buy my coin and meet me!  Influence me!" Which anyone from high ranking rich poeple to maga folk, to literal assassins will buy as much as possible.  If that's not influencing, you're clearly just a hypocrit.

2

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 10, 2025, 05:48:31 AM »

Selling Trump merch is one thing.  Using meme coins to sell direct access to the president is a whole new level of corruption.
https://news.sky.com/story/us-senators-attempt-to-ban-trumps-profoundly-corrupt-crypto-schemes-13363230

You actually don't need to own a meme coin business to accept money from people. Trump and his family were making multi-million dollar deals as he was President during his first term, and I am still waiting for you guys to prove that bribery occurred as has been alleged.

Be honest: would it even matter if we did?  Would you suddenly go "Oh, Trump is corrupt.  I should stop supporting him!"
I'm 90% sure it would not.  You would simply dismiss the evidence, twist it to be a positive, or just ignore the entire situation.

3

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 09, 2025, 06:09:33 AM »

It doesn't matter.
MAGA will happily let Trump di as he wants then condemn anyone else who does the same if they're against Trump.

Profiting off the office of the VP?  Condemnation!  Jail!
Profiting off the office of the President when Trump?  Yes! Bravo!  This is a smart president!

The hypocracy is so thick, it may as well be a concrete wall.

4

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 08, 2025, 05:20:21 PM »

Up to a point. Zelensky was a comedian before he went in to politics. I don't think the people of Ukraine elected him and then expected him to go on another standup tour or launch a new TV comedy series. Whatever background someone has, you elect someone to run the country, not to enrich themselves.

Actually Zelensky proves that the rules of traditional politics don't apply to stars. There is a video segment of Zelensky playing the piano with his testicles in front of an audience. If a traditional politician went on stage and did it, or if previously filmed segment was uncovered and publicized as they were campaigning, this would be campaign ending for them. For a traditional politician a video of them pants down in front of a piano would be professionally embarrassing and they would have to resign or get rejected by their party. Zelensky got away with it because he was a media and comedic star, and his antics even gained him popularity.

Zelensky may not be using humor anymore in his role as president, but if he had continued with it he would assuredly get away with a lot.

You do know American and Ukrainian culture is different, yes?

5

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 08, 2025, 04:20:49 AM »

And thus Tom is now fully in the  "The President should be able to be corrupt if he wants to" mindset.

6

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 07, 2025, 07:15:23 PM »

The problem with the criticism and why it goes nowhere is because Trump has a background as a reality television comedian star, and therefore it is water off the duck's back. He has been trolling you for years, this entire time. This is why Trump can do and say things that are career ending for traditional politicians, and even get more popular for it. Your attacks are powerless against this.

And yet, he lashes out at anyone who criticizes him.  News agency says he's doing bad things?  Attack!  Law firm argues a court case against him?  Attack!  Neighboring country he things is mocking him?  Attack.

His seemingly immunity to career ending actions is simply because he is, as you said, a star.  He's popular.  He says the right things to make his base love him with a passion.  He's the kind of person who oversimplifies a situation, promises big, and forces himself upon everything.  He's the authoritarian dictator a good portion of America wants.  He's ruthless.  He's relentless.  He blames everyone else.  And he acts tough.

7

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 07, 2025, 06:58:54 PM »

Reporter: "When dees it become the Trump economy?"

Trump: "It partially is right now. And I really mean this I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy"

lol

I mean.. that is Trump.  What is good, is his doing.  What's bad is someone else's fault.  Man has never admitted to losing or making a mistake.

The buck stops literally anywhere else but here.

He is beyond parody. It’s a quote which wouldn’t look out of place on SNL.

It would.  They have good writers. This isn't even good comedy or parody. 


In other news...
Trump thinks Lybia is a great place to send latin american migrants.
https://www.npr.org/2025/05/07/nx-s1-5389739/libya-immigration-crackdown-trump-deportations

8

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 07, 2025, 04:19:48 PM »

Reporter: "When dees it become the Trump economy?"

Trump: "It partially is right now. And I really mean this I think the good parts are the Trump economy and the bad parts are the Biden economy"

lol

I mean.. that is Trump.  What is good, is his doing.  What's bad is someone else's fault.  Man has never admitted to losing or making a mistake.

9

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 07, 2025, 02:40:03 PM »

Troops would mean we are now an active military target. Ie. The US/EUgoes to war with Russia.  A step we probably should have taken but it could have led to WW3.

Russia stated that they wouldn't be in Ukraine if Ukraine was in NATO, so Ukraine having actual allies would have solved the problem without WW3. Russia already has NATO allies which share its border, and this would have been another one. Unfortunately NATO members did not care enough about Ukraine to be its ally, leaving them to the slaughter as they stood around watching and virtue signaling in limited support. The problem with Ukraine was its lack of allies.

Nice doublespeak.
"Russia doesn't want Ukraine in NATO but wouldn't have done anything if they were in NATO." Speaks volumes.  Means that NATO membership would have done exactly what Ukraine wanted: protection from invasion.  Which is why Putin invaded to stop it: because he wanted to take the nation.

As for the streets:
You are correct: Per Axel.  Tanks don't have axels so the weight is distributed across the whole tread.  But that being said, it's still 50% over the gross weight limit.

Gross vehicle weight: 80,000 pounds
Weight on any one axle: 20,000 pounds
Weight on any two consecutive axles less than 10 feet apart: 34,000 pounds

It also says in the link in the text below that section that if the vehicle weighs more to contact them for a permit:

"Any vehicles exceeding these restrictions require an oversize/overweight vehicle permit to travel within the District of Columbia."

So it doesn't appear to be a hard limit.

Sure but it gives an idea of the normal wear and tear limit.  Which means anything over has a chance of causing damage with prolonged use.  Like say... A column of tanks.  Which is what happened every time.

10

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 05, 2025, 07:54:22 AM »

Might makes right, does it?  Well, never underestimate the “weaker” country.  Ukraine has been doing a pretty good job of holding its own against Russia for three years longer than anyone, especially Putin, expected.

This is incorrect, they did not hold their own. I don't think you understand the meaning of "holding its own".

That remains to be seen. Ukraine's strength, in part, comes from soft power - something Russia sorely lacks. It has allies, and some of them haven't even betrayed it out of cowardice. Making a reliable comparison between the two will likely not be possible for a few decades... unless Russia suddenly collapses on itself.

Those are clients, not allies. Allies in a military alliance help each other directly in battle when they are attacked, an example being the NATO military alliance. Over the past several years Ukraine was begging for direct participation from western powers, but was refused at every turn. Only money and equipment were provided, skirting around the alliance issue.

Ukraine was despicably given a wad of cash and was told to sacrifice its people to fight a war for others, the benefactor countries being unwilling to fight themselves. Because of this, we now have an entire generation of Ukrainian men which have been nearly erased and Ukrainian families in untold suffering, all while the benefactor countries remain unharmed and safe, fat and happy.

This is terrible and unjust, to say the least. Luckily for the people of Ukraine Trump was willing to step up once he became president and halt the US military aid to the mercenary government. If you want a war fought you should do it yourself, not send some third world backwater country to fight your battles and die for you.

You... You think rubber pads will help against weight?  Really?
You do know DC is literally built on swamp land, yes?
Also, max weight limit for a city streets in the DC area is 20,000 lbs.
And M1 Abrams tank weights 125,000 lbs.  So you really think rolling a bunch of somethings 6 times the maximum weight is gonna be ok so long as you use rubber pads?  Really?

The 20,000 pound figure is the weight on one vehicle axle. See in that link "Weight on any one axle: 20,000 pounds". The weight of a tank is distributed over a wide area, allowing them to roam city streets with proper treads.

Tanks have paraded Washington DC a number of times, so I don't know why you guys are pretending that this is anything new.

Troops would mean we are now an active military target. Ie. The US/EUgoes to war with Russia.  A step we probably should have taken but it could have led to WW3.

As for the streets:
You are correct: Per Axel.  Tanks don't have axels so the weight is distributed across the whole tread.  But that being said, it's still 50% over the gross weight limit.

Gross vehicle weight: 80,000 pounds
Weight on any one axle: 20,000 pounds
Weight on any two consecutive axles less than 10 feet apart: 34,000 pounds


As for "from before"
Yes.  And much more recently.
Still caused damage to the roads.  And with Trump trying to save money .. this seems like an unneeded expense.

11

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 04, 2025, 07:15:03 PM »

Why is it suddenly ok for a president to troll the fake media?  And how is it troling when the most powerful man on Earth says "I'm going to run a third term.  Not joking!" and then laugh when the media reports that he said it.

12

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 04, 2025, 12:56:06 PM »

... unless Russia suddenly collapses on itself.

Again.

13

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 04, 2025, 07:01:23 AM »

Look I know you think it's ok for a President to ignore the constitution, but not everyone else does.

Also, this isn't a 'we'll get it back at this negotiation" it's 'we won't let you keep it forever.'

It appears that disagreement over Crimea is currently holding up negotiations:

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/russia/why-crimea-important-russia-ukraine-negotiations-rcna203652

Crimea is at the crux of negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Here's why it's important.

"Though a deal was signed Wednesday giving the United States access to some of Ukraine’s critical minerals, large disagreements between these parties and Russia continue to stymie the wider peace talks.

Crimea is the crux.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has rejected outright acknowledging Moscow’s control over it, while Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted the peninsula is his."

Yep.  I mean, if I came in, beat you, then kicked you out of your house and stayed there for 10 years, I'm sure you'd be happy to just give me the deed so long as I pinky promised not to attack you again in your next home. >_>
The real question is, why is that an issue for Russia?

City streets aren't built to endure tanks.

They have figured that one out. Rubber pads are put on the treads for city streets.

You... You think rubber pads will help against weight?  Really?
You do know DC is literally built on swamp land, yes?
Also, max weight limit for a city streets in the DC area is 20,000 lbs.
And M1 Abrams tank weights 125,000 lbs.  So you really think rolling a bunch of somethings 6 times the maximum weight is gonna be ok so long as you use rubber pads?  Really?

14

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 02, 2025, 07:05:11 PM »

Also
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crkx3jgyvyzo

"I can solve it very easily... Soong as both sides agree to whatever I say."

From that article:

Trump suggested this week that Ukraine might be willing to cede Crimea - which Russia invaded in 2014 - in order to reach a truce settlement.

But Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier implied that he would be unable to accept Russian control of the peninsula, citing the Ukrainian constitution.

It appears that the problem has been identified. Zelensky appears to think that getting back Crimea is on the table. This is a clever negotiation point from Trump, since it shows that Zelensky is being unreasonable in the effort on his side to end this.

Look I know you think it's ok for a President to ignore the constitution, but not everyone else does.

Also, this isn't a 'we'll get it back at this negotiation" it's 'we won't let you keep it forever.'

15

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 02, 2025, 05:58:25 AM »

Also
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crkx3jgyvyzo

"I can solve it very easily... Soong as both sides agree to whatever I say."

16

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 01, 2025, 09:46:57 PM »

Waltz to leave his post.
Strange as he didn’t do anything wrong.
ThisIsFine.jpg

"US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz will leave his post and be nominated to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, President Donald Trump says"

I actually thought you were joking.
Genuinely impossible to tell reality from satire these days.

Yeah, this just screams 'I want to fire you but then the media wins so I'll just put you in a job that's almost as secure but we'll scrap in 2 years.'

17

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 01, 2025, 08:42:58 PM »

Waltz to leave his post.
Strange as he didn’t do anything wrong.
ThisIsFine.jpg

"US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz will leave his post and be nominated to serve as ambassador to the United Nations, President Donald Trump says"

18

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 01, 2025, 05:37:25 PM »

So what you mean to say is that Trump meant that the typically cheap gas, UNL88, is cheap?

Tell me... What was UNL88 in January?  Because we can't say if it's cheaper if it isn't really cheaper, ya know? If it's always been lower than regular unleaded (it has) then its rather dishonest to compare the price of regular unleaded to UNL88 isn't it?

Just for fun, I looked up prices historic.  It's not easy as all the grades are lumped together.

But found this post.

https://bobistheoilguy.com/forums/threads/whats-the-deal-with-unleaded-88.376118/

$1.99 in 2023. Wow!  That prices that the price hasn't changed at all, right?

19

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 01, 2025, 09:57:36 AM »

Wait wait wait...

You're using E85 as 'gas'?
No wonder we couldn't find it!  E85 is normally cheaper than regular unleaded so this went from:

Gas in many states
To gas in some states
To gas in 3 states
To gas at a few stations
To E85 at a few stations.

My my how the goal posts keep shifting.

lol
Tom will move them as far as he needs to in order to make it seem like his cult leader is right.
I wonder if he'll ever realise that the emperor has no clothes on. If he does then he will never admit it.

I wonder if Tom is a politician.

20

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: May 01, 2025, 08:06:20 AM »

In the video of his statement Trump says that gas "hit" 1.98 in a "couple" of states[/url]. He does not say "a lot of states", so this quote they gave us which allegedly comes from Trump is a lie as well.

Nope.

This is the video where he says it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn1Fr4dtRZU

Very clearly says "a lot of states", so please retract that accusation.

Even this version of the claim is deceptively edited. Here is the full video:

34:48
Your energy your car your gasoline and they have three states this week a
couple of days ago that were $1.98 a gallon So gasoline prices are down by
a lot Energy prices are down Mortgage

36:15
prices down Every price has gone down What am I going to do i mean think of it Gasoline was almost $4 not so long ago. And now Mike we just hit 1.98 in a lot of states Think of it

Less than two minutes beforehand he says it is in "three states". The BBC clearly wanted to do some creative editing and remove that part. Obscuring this part and only showing the later sentence and pretending that he is talking about a majority of 50 states makes it a lie. The journalists at the BBC are liars and have no journalistic integrity.

As usual, the opposite is true. If someone promises to bring down the price of something and the average price goes up then they haven't kept that promise. Even if the price at one or even a handful of gas stations is as low as he claims, it's a dishonest representation to take the minimum price you can find and use that as evidence that you kept your promise when the average has gone up.

Replace gasoline with womens purses in your argument and you will see how poor that argument is. Gas is often sold at a premium with psychological tactics at a central shopping or food convenience area, strategic waypoints, or more commonly simply because it's sold in middle or upper class areas at a price calculated to what the market will bear and is willing to psychologically pay. The goal of companies is to sell at the highest possible price. Therefore the lowest prices of gasoline tells us more about the the cheapest viable product and cuts out market factors and companies trying to capitalize on gasoline.

According to Gas Buddy, Texas is now down to $1.97 a gallon for E85 type fuel in Waxahachie, TX , and $1.99 a gallon for UNL88 type fuel in Greenville, TX, with the lowest Regular type at $2.14 in Cleveland, TX.



From the maps we can see that the lowest costs are concentrated on the east side of Texas.  These are prices around what Trump claimed. Gas is cheap in multiple cities in Texas on the east side, yet is more expensive in other Texas cities.

In the California coastal cities the price of gas is dollars more per gallon than the rest of the country, but we know that gas is "really" at the price of the states where it is lowest, specifically if we are trying to use the number as a gauge of the health of the economy as a whole and not the complex markets of rich Californians. Minimum gas prices affects transportation, industry, and a whole host of fields which capitalize on wholesale fuel. Maximum and average gas prices, not necessarily so.

Trump is using gasoline as a national indicator of health, and so the lowest prices in the country should be used. Since Trump has additionally pointed out that this is occurring in three different states it also strengthens the argument that this number is not a localized phenomenon and represents the optimized minimum viable product.

Wait wait wait...

You're using E85 as 'gas'?
No wonder we couldn't find it!  E85 is normally cheaper than regular unleaded so this went from:

Gas in many states
To gas in some states
To gas in 3 states
To gas at a few stations
To E85 at a few stations.

My my how the goal posts keep shifting.