A mandate doesn't come from what margin you think is acceptable. He won the electoral college, popular votes and all the swing states. And all this DOGE stuff he has been going on about it since the summer.
Yes Obama had a mandate and a shame he didn't use his mandate to go after the banks and put people in jail after their fucks up tanked the world economy. Living a nice cushy life now I hear though.
JazzG stop trying to pretend the way DOGE is conducting itself was always part of the agenda. it was sold as an external consultancy that would only be making cost cutting recommendations to the executive and congressional branches to decide on. I knew that was an utter load of horseshit, just like their denials abour P25 being their agenda despite them now enacting it basically line for line. no-one voted for elon musk to delete entire govt departments and have hiring/firing power over the federal workforce with no oversight, no matter how many times the word mandate is thrown around.
This tweet goes into the detail about DOGE, if this is correct they have repurposed one of Obama's agencies and turned it into DOGE.
@JazzG , mate, your sources are about as neutral as an Arsenal fan at Spurs' stadium: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2021/09/20/vaccine-lawsuits-thomas-renz-covid/
Jazz, I don't mean to go at you so hard mate, honestly. we've shared the same digital space since like 2003 and i know you to be a top poster. to be completely candid, OMITT is one of the last pockets of the internet I actually frequent, since I've watched the rest of it go to hell over the last 15 years. there's so much fast moving bullshit out there, that I feel doubly compelled to call it out when I see some of it in here. chalk it under being overly protective perhaps. anyway I'll probably post in this thread a bit less. the political climate is aimed to demoralise and get people disengaged and I fear it's working to a tee.
Maybe we can get an ignore button.
It’s tempting, but I’d very much advocate against this. I like to know what people think and how they think. Folks here recently have heard my views on the transgender debate. It may not be popular, but I feel unless people are being genuinely and deliberately reckless and malicious with their words, then by all means, I want to hear their views. You learn a little in every discussion, whether or not you end up in agreement eventually.
Plus, eda o laropin. People experience shit, perspectives change.
I agree with you both on that @Gazza M @flobaba.
It's a non echo chamber type space online, which is a bit of a rarity. We've also still got people from quite a few different places and walks of life on here. No bad thing we don't agree on everything.
My views on politics are actually a bit more relaxed (believe it or not) than they used to be. But I am damn sure I don't think what's happening in the US currently is a democratic restoration.
Gazza M he had the lowest popular vote margin since Gerald Ford
And that was competing with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, between them comfortably the two shittest candidates I've ever seen the Democrats put in the field, running the worst campaign.
Biden or Harris versus Trump: suggesting that Clayton's choice proves what's occurring now is the will of the people is like saying Burger King must be good food because I chose it over Wendy's.
The shocking state the Democrats are in is pretty good evidence of system capture.
According to this data (haven't vetted it) that age bracket is already the cohort with the worst nett negative on Trump.
What we're looking at is the next stage of disintegration, not a bright new movement.
Kel is right, Trump's doing the will of the people. Some really weak-willed dumb people.
LOL at the gall of this orange clown who did all he could to avoid disclosing his own financial records in his last term and will also avoid any scrutiny of the massive conflicts of interest at play in this DOGE scam. I'm sorry, but anyone who thinks there is any genuine 'public interest' motive or outcome in what these lot are up to is also a clown.
I mean, if you want to lick Trump and Elon's balls, then go right ahead if that's your jam. But please spare us from any attempts to paint this as some benevolent strategy to restore democracy and transparency in government.
est Definitely not elitist in any way.
nope definitely not. When a group of people vote against their best interests despite other groups in their own demographics warning them of such, there's little else that can be said. You don't have to be an elite to make that analysis. Their own peers are doing it.
The good thing though is that they can treat it as a learning experience and do better next time.
The bigger problem is that a trans people don't even have to do that to gain access to women spaces. A biological male can have his genitals intact and have no hormone therapy undertaken, but if they identify as a woman they can use female changing rooms which is scandalous.
JD Vance with a very strongly worded speech in Munich. A lot of hard truths there which people need to take on. There is a bit of hypocrisy which he conveniently misses out. He talks about the EU overturned the Romanian election and how Thierry Breton boasts about about they'd do the same in Germany if needed which is obviously about authoritarian as you can get. Unless there is some pretty hard evidence of election interference you can't go around cancelling elections because you don't like the votes. Then again Trump still hasn't accepted he lost in 2020! The migrant crisis from the middle eastern countries I'd argue has come about from American policy. The Americans triggered Article 5 for the war in Afghanistan and if they had left it there maybe we wouldn't have got into this mess. It was imo the war in Iraq literally opened pandora's box and destabilised the whole region and they didn't stop at Iraq. Out of that we had ISIS and this migrant crisis and even now people are suffering.
But Vance is completely right in saying we've got absolutely batshit crazy policies here. Europe needs to get its act together. These populist parties aren't just rising up because of people are stupid and falling for misinformation, which seems to be the popular view among some.
Mirth I did say "if this is correct" but again people going after me for the source but not the actual content which has become common. If what he is saying is wrong I'd love to hear it. I just found it interesting as there has been a lot of talk about the legality of this DOGE and how an executive order would give them this much power. From having a quick google and even running through AI broadly what he is saying is right, USDS was reorganized and renamed as the United States DOGE Service (USDS).
Gazza M I don't take it personally mate, go as hard as you like 
I've always been able to keep the politics separate, we don't agree and I leave it at that. I have plenty of disagreements here but never hold it against anyone or not respond on other parts of the forum.
flobaba Agreed and I think it is something which has gone wrong in society. Nobody has time or wants to hear the other side. No matter where you stand politically I don't think we should ever take it personally nor should we ever let it ruin long standing friendships/relationships. The thing to realise is these politicians do take their supporters for mugs, on camera they slam the other side but behind closed doors they are usually very friendly with each other.
banduan This is what happens when the so called normal politicians let people down, they look elsewhere. I think most people in the UK know Farage is a knob but his party is pretty much just ahead in the polls, not because they like him but because they are sick of the Conservatives and now Labour.
