The Trump Presidency - how I stopped worrying and learned to love the Hair

Describing the media's support of the Obama administration (including the press and, yes, even selectively-censored internet forums/comments) as Orwellian is not an abuse of the term. The gatekeeping and one-sided coverage was so prevalent that I've seen plenty of folks try to describe him as "scandal-free" on his way out. Back during the campaign, we got a preview of just how much worse the narrative-pushing would have gotten under an HRC admin.

Trump and and plenty of conservatives are liars and buffons, but you don't get parlay that into "Our guys are good guys who tell the truth, because the press will never call them out!" Gamergate and a hundred other incidents exposed that game. Deal with it.

EDIT: For anyone who missed it:
 
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Describing the media's support of the Obama administration (including the press and, yes, even selectively-censored internet forums/comments) as Orwellian is not an abuse of the term. The gatekeeping and one-sided coverage was so prevalent that I've seen plenty of folks try to describe him as "scandal-free" on his way out. Back during the campaign, we got a preview of just how much worse the narrative-pushing would have gotten under an HRC admin.

Trump and and plenty of conservatives are liars and buffons, but you don't get parlay that into "Our guys are good guys who tell the truth, because the press will never call them out!" Gamergate and a hundred other incidents exposed that game. Deal with it.


No it isn't. 1984 was an allegory of the Soviet Union (if you study the Stalinist period you'll see Orwell's inspiration). Neither Trump nor Obama sent anyone to a gulag, nor did they create any kind of Ministry of Truth as anyone can speak out against them without fear of state persecution. You are both underestimating the scope of horror that was the Soviet Union Orwell was describing.

Anyway, so Trump finally signed some things and his actions can be judged.

1) He pulled out of the TPP, effectively killing it. Good.
2) Hiring freeze. Assuming it doesn't last any longer than a couple months I don't see a problem with this.
3) Reinstating the Mexico City Policy (NGOs can't use Federal funds to pay for abortions). This is idiotic, as access to abortions is what the third world needs as it reduces crime.

The positive of killing the TPP outweighs the other two for me.
 
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2) Hiring freeze. Assuming it doesn't last any longer than a couple months I don't see a problem with this.
3) Reinstating the Mexico City Policy (NGOs can't use Federal funds to pay for abortions). This is idiotic, as access to abortions is what the third world needs as it reduces crime.

2) The executive order hiring freeze lasts at most 90 days, but who knows what the OMB plan that will replace it will entail. Honestly, the simplest plan they can come up with is simply waiting; about 1/3 of my department is eligible for retirement within the next 3 years, and other federal agencies have similar dispositions. However, my bosses at work are worried about a hiring freeze impacting transfer of knowledge; the Corps experienced a huge problem with that once before, when a reduction in force retired a lot of the experienced workers before new hires were onboarded, and the collective knowledge lost lead to a lot of issues maintaining the locks and dams. Guess we can only wait and see what the OMB plan is.

3) Not wholly unexpected. Every Republican president since Reagan has instituted it, and every Democratic president has removed it. I think it's stupid. Curious, though, argatoga, since there are now some actions you can judge: do you still think Trump is more of a centrist Democrat than a Republican?
 
2) The executive order hiring freeze lasts at most 90 days, but who knows what the OMB plan that will replace it will entail. Honestly, the simplest plan they can come up with is simply waiting; about 1/3 of my department is eligible for retirement within the next 3 years, and other federal agencies have similar dispositions. However, my bosses at work are worried about a hiring freeze impacting transfer of knowledge; the Corps experienced a huge problem with that once before, when a reduction in force retired a lot of the experienced workers before new hires were onboarded, and the collective knowledge lost lead to a lot of issues maintaining the locks and dams. Guess we can only wait and see what the OMB plan is.

3) Not wholly unexpected. Every Republican president since Reagan has instituted it, and every Democratic president has removed it. I think it's stupid. Curious, though, argatoga, since there are now some actions you can judge: do you still think Trump is more of a centrist Democrat than a Republican?

I'd say it's still too early to judge. TPP had supporters and detractors from both camps, and the hiring freeze isn't much of a stance in either direction. The Mexico City Policy leans Right, but not enough to push him into a "traditional" Republican.
 
No it isn't. 1984 was an allegory of the Soviet Union (if you study the Stalinist period you'll see Orwell's inspiration). Neither Trump nor Obama sent anyone to a gulag, nor did they create any kind of Ministry of Truth as anyone can speak out against them without fear of state persecution. You are both underestimating the scope of horror that was the Soviet Union Orwell was describing.

I concede that I'm accustomed to a lower standard of applying the word. For example, when the XBox One was launched, it included a mandatory peripheral called the Kinect--an HD camera + microphone that was powered on 24/7 in the living room (or bedroom)--and the console itself required daily (if not constant) connection to the internet to function. It could have been recording who-knows-what data (video and audio) then sending it who-knows-where (and who-knows-why). Because of its capabilities and Microsoft's insistence on forcing the thing down every buyer's throat, many described the Kinect as Orwellian (or just compared it to the telescreens, I forget) and I didn't have much objection to that. But, like you say, it wasn't forced by the government and folks had another choice in the PS4 (which they took by the millions, forcing Microsoft to abandon the Kinect), so maybe that was wrongheaded.

I'm aware of the Soviet allegory but my copy came with an attached essay cautioning readers not to get too hung up on that, because the story is also a warning about trends in the West. Of course the essay's not canon--Hell, maybe it was commie propaganda--but it stuck with me.

Killing TPP (for the moment, at least) is sweet. Speaking of reddit, does everyone remember when the SOPA and PIPA bills threatened to pass, so many sites including Reddit held an "internet blackout" to protest them, which worked? Well, for the TPP they did fuck-all to protest it and, in fact, went out of their way to censor discussion of it using a completely bullshit excuse:
Code:
http://i.imgur.com/fT11pIg.png

Anyway, that's part of why I don't like the way that redditor tries to downplay internet censorship.
 
I concede that I'm accustomed to a lower standard of applying the word. For example, when the XBox One was launched, it included a mandatory peripheral called the Kinect--an HD camera + microphone that was powered on 24/7 in the living room (or bedroom)--and the console itself required daily (if not constant) connection to the internet to function. It could have been recording who-knows-what data (video and audio) then sending it who-knows-where (and who-knows-why). Because of its capabilities and Microsoft's insistence on forcing the thing down every buyer's throat, many described the Kinect as Orwellian (or just compared it to the telescreens, I forget) and I didn't have much objection to that. But, like you say, it wasn't forced by the government and folks had another choice in the PS4 (which they took by the millions, forcing Microsoft to abandon the Kinect), so maybe that was wrongheaded.

I'm aware of the Soviet allegory but my copy came with an attached essay cautioning readers not to get too hung up on that, because the story is also a warning about trends in the West. Of course the essay's not canon--Hell, maybe it was commie propaganda--but it stuck with me.

I haven't read the essay, but it may have been making the point that totalitarian governments are the same regardless of the ideology. If you strip down the governments of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union to their core they were fundamentally the same. Saddam Hussein was a Baathist (Arab fascism), yet he praised Stalin when he had a policy of publicly executing Communists on prime time TV.
 
I think you should consider alternative facts :p

You know, because lies from the White House are no longer lies but alternative facts ;)

Face it: Big Brother is watching you, the brainwash has already begun and I'm waiting for Newspeak to become the official government communication to the people.

Of course, when Trump speaks, he only adresses HIS voters and nobody else. In contrast to prior presidents he doesn't even bother giving the impression to care about the rest of the population.
 
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So, less than a week in and Trump has spent his time:

  • Lying about the size of the federal workforce
  • Whining about crowd sizes to the CIA
  • Calling press conferences just to yell at reporters for not lying about crowd sizes
  • Gagging the USDA and not allowing them to inform the public of any findings.
  • Lying about receiving awards "for the environment"
  • Undermining NATO
  • Undermining the US's status in the UN
  • Saying "environmentalism is out of control" despite claiming to get awards "for the environment"
  • Claiming that there were 3-5 million fraudulent ballots cast that cost him the popular vote, despite zero evidence that this is the case.
  • Dodging the Ethics Office and not turning over required documents
  • Suspends all EPA grants, still claims he gets "awards for the environment"
  • Watching TV for so long that his aids are "worried"
  • Meets with Congressional leaders, whines that illegal immigrants cost him the popular vote.
  • Managed to alienate China and Germany, both of whom have stated they will take over global leadership.
  • Merkel's aids report Germany has "given up hope that Trump will act like a president" due to Trump's behavior
  • Changed the White House website to include lies about DC homicide rates
  • Named his inauguration day "National Day of Patriotic Devotion"
 
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So, less than a week in and Trump has spent his time:

Don't forget a possible conflict of interest regarding the pipeline executive orders:

USA Today said:
The president also signed a similar order on the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile pipeline from North Dakota to Illinois that has been the subject of heated protests. Trump once owned stock in Energy Transfer Partners, the company building the pipeline, although his campaign said he sold off all individual stock holdings last August. Trump has not yet filed a financial disclosure report to confirm the sale.

Where are his tax returns? That's right, they're not coming.
 
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Yeah, wonder when America will stop laughing and start worrying because all this isn't really funny.
 
It is too scary to consider, so we laugh.
 
Don't forget a possible conflict of interest regarding the pipeline executive orders
C'mon, by definition the president can't have a conflict of interest, Trump stated it himself:
From here
As far as the, you know, potential conflict of interests, though, I mean I know that from the standpoint, the law is totally on my side, meaning, the president can?t have a conflict of interest.
So that's that settled (for him at least)...

That guy is insane, everybody except his voters sees it, and he chooses to address only his voters, for him that's the problem solved...
 
Will that be his version of "When the President does it, that means that it is not illegal"?
 
So, less than a week in and Trump has spent his time:

  • Lying about the size of the federal workforce
  • Whining about crowd sizes to the CIA
  • Calling press conferences just to yell at reporters for not lying about crowd sizes
  • Gagging the USDA and not allowing them to inform the public of any findings.
  • Lying about receiving awards "for the environment"
  • Undermining NATO
  • Undermining the US's status in the UN
  • Saying "environmentalism is out of control" despite claiming to get awards "for the environment"
  • Claiming that there were 3-5 million fraudulent ballots cast that cost him the popular vote, despite zero evidence that this is the case.
  • Dodging the Ethics Office and not turning over required documents
  • Suspends all EPA grants, still claims he gets "awards for the environment"
  • Watching TV for so long that his aids are "worried"
  • Meets with Congressional leaders, whines that illegal immigrants cost him the popular vote.
  • Managed to alienate China and Germany, both of whom have stated they will take over global leadership.
  • Merkel's aids report Germany has "given up hope that Trump will act like a president" due to Trump's behavior
  • Changed the White House website to include lies about DC homicide rates
  • Named his inauguration day "National Day of Patriotic Devotion"

Yes, he has been hard at work. Tremendous sacrifice you know...
 
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