The Second Term of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States of America

[sear]

This should say DJT and RFK Jr, not America #20

That's a practical insight.
Not sure why they didn't.
Perhaps because maintaining membership cohesion was more important than finger in Trump's eye.
Such alternate wording might have seemed more likely to put Trump even more on the defensive. It's well known how Donald reveres the Trump name.
W.H.O. might have expected President Trump to double-down, if they invoked the Trump name directly.

BUT! I appreciate the distinction.

- four years of this ?!! -

 

[Shiftless2]

No idea what Trump's end game is here

Trump pardons Silk Road dark web market creator Ross Ulbrich​

Christal Hayes

US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold.

Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money-laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

Trump championed Ulbricht's cause, joining libertarians who said the conviction was an example of government overreach. On Tuesday, he said he had ....

Trump pardons Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht

Trump said he had called Ulbricht's mother to let her know he had granted her son a full pardon.

www.bbc.com

From the article

"The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponisation of government against me," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social site on Tuesday. "He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!"

 

[sear]

No idea what Trump's end game is here #22

Megalomania? The Gulf of America? Panama? Canada? Greenland? Hitler didn't stop w/ Sudetenland.

As a lay non-expert my unsubstantiated opinion is Putin & KJU want power, while Trump wants attention, an audience. *
If so, as long as Trump receives / perceives the lime light, ...

Trump pardons #22

"If we do not maintain justice, justice will not maintain us." Francis Bacon 1561 - 1626

* "Children would rather be praised than punished. But they'd rather be punished than ignored." psychologist Joy Browne

 

[sear]

Trump wants to be a unifier? *
It appears Trump is unifying, strengthening ties among the U.S.' potentially most formidable enemies.

Panama and China push back against Trump’s canal threats​

Panama’s president insists canal ‘was not a gift’ from the US; China declares it does not interfere.
Published On 22 Jan 2025
Panama and China have pushed back against United States President Donald Trump’s controversial claims regarding the Panama Canal.
The Panama Canal “was not a gift” from the US, Panama’s President Jose Raul Mulino said on Wednesday in response to Trump’s threat to seize control of the strategic waterway. Beijing, meanwhile, rejected the US president’s assertion that it is effectively in control of the canal.

Panama and China push back against Trump’s canal threats

Panama’s president insists canal ‘was not a gift’ from the US; China declares it does not interfere.

www.aljazeera.com

* "I'm a unifier. This country is totally divided. Barack Obama has divided this country unbelievably. And it's all, it's all hatred. What can I tell you? I've never seen anything like it.
Now: I'm going to unify the country. I'll be a unifier. I think I'll bring people together. And that includes Blacks and Whites and everything. I think people will come together." Republican primary candidate Trump October 2015

 

[sear]

Bird flu has killed millions of hens in recent weeks, shrinking the supply of eggs and hiking prices at grocery stores.​

You can blame bird flu for high egg prices at the grocery store.
A dozen large, Grade A eggs cost an average of $4.15 in the U.S. last month – a nearly 37% increase from the year before – according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s a much larger jump than the 2.5% increase of overall food prices.

Egg prices are soaring again. Here’s why and what to expect

Bird flu has killed millions of hens in recent weeks, shrinking the supply of eggs and hiking up prices at grocery stores.

www.kcur.org

Trump now says bringing down grocery prices, as he promised, will be 'very hard'​

The president-elect said he won in part because of his vow to slash food bills.
By Alexandra Hutzler / December 13, 2024, 12:07 PM
President-elect Donald Trump campaigned relentlessly on grocery prices in the 2024 race, vowing to bring down costs quickly for American families if given four more years in the White House.
But in an interview with Time in conjunction with being named the magazine's "Person of the Year," Trump now says doing that will be a "very hard" task.

Trump was asked if his presidency would be considered a "failure" if he didn't deliver on his promise to slash Americans' food bills.
"I don't think so.

Trump now says bringing down grocery prices, as he promised, will be 'very hard'

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned relentlessly on grocery prices in the 2024 race. Now, he says lowering costs will be "very hard."

abcnews.go.com

 

[Shiftless2]

Following on #9 - an apt comparison

 

[Shiftless2]

Funny what happens when you don't understand biology

 

[Shiftless2]

Quite the list​

Donald Trump's executive orders issued on the first day of his second term, 2025​

Donald Trump's executive orders issued on the first day of his second term, 2025

Ballotpedia: The Encyclopedia of American Politics

ballotpedia.org

 

[sear]

Following on #9 - an apt comparison #26
View attachment 855 Sigourney Trump

Psychologist Joy Browne says those that marry for $money, earn it.
DESPITE the fact that Melania's spouse / president adversity is self-inflicted, I can't help but share her cringe.

What leaves me puzzled, recent reports indicate Melania Trump is a $millionaire X 70.

https://www.oneindia.com/international/melania-trump-net-worth-modeling-career-business-success-real-estate-investments-her-financial-stabi-4048523.html

Does she really need him? Is the occasional ride on Air Force One really worth it?
Perhaps worth noting, possibly a factor:
Some reports indicate:
In addition to the signature orange Pan-Cake, Donald reportedly also may use steroids to reduce hair-loss, ref: the president's familiar comb-over.
Those same reports indicate such steroid use often degrade libido, and or ability.

Perhaps Donald wants Melania not as a bed partner, but as arm-candy. Another acquisition Donald can boast about, as he already has in the past?

Here's a clue for you Donald. On her husband's second inauguration day, if Melania actually had the spousal emotional involvement of all previous First Ladies, she could have temporarily removed her own hat. Melania didn't.
You Mr. President know that. What you may have overlooked, the rest of us know it too. Melania seems less a loving wife, than an obliged woman, fulfilling an obligation of attendance.

Funny what happens when you don't understand biology #27

Funny
Hilarious.
Thank you S 2.
I did not know that.

 

[Shiftless2]

This from a sitting Congressman ...

 

[Shiftless2]

 

[sear]

This from a sitting Congressman ...

#30

That's about as close to Trump having his face ground in the dirt as ever I've seen. Melania's scowl helps complete the picture.

"The person giving this sermon should be added to the deportation list." Rep. Mike Collins #30

If what is right is to be subordinated by what embarrasses Trump, indeed so.

btw:
For those not quite clear on where Trump's stage one is headed, an insight from pastor Niemöller:

"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out- because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me." pastor Martin Niemöller

So President Trump has begun with mass deportations * of ostensibly violent criminal illegal aliens. But if violent criminals were Trump's true concern, would he have pardoned his violent criminal January 6 co-conspirators?

And what rational reason do we have to believe it will stop there?
First the "violent" illegal aliens. Then who's next?
The not so violent illegal aliens?
And after that?
How long will it be before Trump tries to send Blacks back to Africa?

- If you're black, you literally have to be a brain surgeon to get a Trump cabinet post. -
An allusion to Dr. Ben Carson, one of the few minorities of the previous Trump administration.

And how many cabinet officials today are Black?

"Bishop takes king" with a finger flick #31

Trump would have had to have done the Machiavellian calculation. Evidently he thinks it's worth it. Whatever reward Trump deems himself to receive constitutes a price Trump is willing to pay.

* Early reports raise questions about how zealously Trump is actually deporting them. Some reports indicate the rate hasn't changed much.

 

[sear]

Apparently in an effort to address illegal aliens, Trump promised to, & attempted to circumvent the Constitutionally enumerated specification that persons born in the U.S. are citizens of the U.S.
The following Associated Press article reports President Trump has been at least temporarily blocked.

A presidential edict does not overrule the Constitution.

A federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s executive order redefining birthright citizenship​

EUGENE JOHNSON and MIKE CATALINI / Updated Thu, January 23, 2025 at 2:09 PM EST
SEATTLE (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order redefining birthright citizenship, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional” during the first hearing in a multi-state effort challenging the order.
U.S. District Judge John Coughenour repeatedly interrupted a Justice Department lawyer during arguments to ask how he could consider the order constitutional. When the attorney, Brett Shumate, said he’d like a chance to explain it in a full briefing, Coughenour told him the hearing was his chance.
The temporary restraining order sought by Arizona, Illinois, Oregon and Washington was the first to get a hearing before a judge and applies nationally.

A federal judge temporarily blocks Trump’s executive order redefining birthright citizenship

A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order redefining birthright citizenship, calling it “blatantly unconstitutional” during the first hearing in a multi-state effort challenging the order. U.S. District Judge John Coughenour repeatedly interrupted...

news.yahoo.com

 

[Shiftless2]

What Trump’s Blitz of Executive Orders Means for Science​

After his second inauguration, President Donald Trump signed a host of executive orders, some with important implications for science
By Dan Garisto, Max Kozlov, Jeff Tollefson & Nature magazine

Soon after being sworn in as the 47th President of the United States on Monday, Donald Trump signed a slew of executive orders that could reshape science at home and abroad. The orders — which direct the actions of the federal government but cannot change existing laws — are designed to shift policies and priorities on several scientific issues, including climate and public health. They also aim to cut the government workforce, which includes scientists, and potentially reduce its authority.

It remains unclear how much weight many of the orders will carry, but policy specialists who spoke to Nature say that they clearly mark the direction Trump intends to steer the United States during his second term in the White House.

“A lot of the power of executive orders is in the messaging,” says Gretchen Goldman, president of the Union of Concerned Scientists, an advocacy group based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And the message thus far is clear, she says: “The administration is trying to undermine the government experts themselves, as well as the processes by which we make science-based decisions in government.”

Here Nature examines some of the executive orders that are most relevant to .....

CONTINUED

 

[Shiftless2]

An Irish politician speaks up

 

[sear]

After his second inauguration, President Donald Trump signed a host of executive orders, some with important implications for science #34

"some with important implications for science" the way Joseph Merrick had important implications for beauty?


Joseph Merrick
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Elephant-Man

"Honor means sacrificing yourself for the benefit of others. Dishonor means sacrificing others for the benefit of yourself." Lanny Davis, Special Counsel to President Clinton


Dr. Freud:
Sometimes a cigar is just a MIRV ICBM.
Science is the criterion of truth in our culture. BUT !
Science has also been a mainstay of U.S. prosperity.
Working for Germany Werner Von Braun blitzed London.
Working for the United States he helped put diapered Americans on the moon.

Earth has been a competitive planet for a billion years or so.
But leveraged by science, our formidable enemies wouldn't need much advantage to do incalculable harm, potentially terminal, unrecoverable harm.
In the United States, no time is a good time to abandon science.
At this dawn of A.I., CRISPR, and other technologies, science may not merely be successful methodology, but salvation.

Turning our back to science may mean turning our back to survival, to existence.
Donald, we might ask if you know what you're doing, but we already know the answer.

"The only crime that I've committed is to fearlessly defend our nation from those who seek to destroy it." Trump 23/04/09 on FOX Easter Sunday

#35

The horses are gone boys. Lock the barn door all you like.

 

[Shiftless2]

Q. What do the surrounding towns and villages do when one village is in the throes of a lethal plague?

A. quarantine, isolate and boycott it.

 

[sear]

Q. What do the surrounding towns and villages do when one village is in the throes of a lethal plague?

A. quarantine, isolate and boycott it.

Fine. - but -
We know Trump knows about the risk of trade war occurring. He's said so.

"... trade wars are good, and easy to win." Donald J. Trump@realDonaldTrump 18/03/02 02:50

Unfortunately, if Trump ever learns it, he'll have to learn it from experience. In that case, dragging the globe through it with him.

"We know that protectionism makes the world poorer." George Will

"The updated World Health Organization map is a sick joke." #37 [italic emphasis sear's]

- oh -
World "Health", a "sick" joke. If not so alarming, might be amusing.

By Easter, the numbers will reveal Trump's efficacy at M.A.G.A.
No need for anticipation anxiety. This is a trend a 12 year old could extrapolate.

 

[Shiftless2]

The only silver lining of Trump's rise to power is that he has completely exposed evangelical Christianity for what it is

 

[sear]

The only silver lining of Trump's rise to power is that he has completely exposed evangelical Christianity for what it is #39

In bullet-hole in the ear context, Trump has already invoked the divine for his MAGA agenda.

The only silver lining of Trump's rise to power is that he has completely exposed evangelical Christianity for what it is #39

Even if so, what consequence?
Those that knew this before are not enlightened by the reminder. They already knew.
Those that did not know before, even if now enlightened, don't seem to care.