What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[Zanza]

Disney just shut down 538 Polls so I need a new place to track this.

What's the story here?

Maybe polls are irrelevant if you don't expect future (fair) elections?

[crazy canuck]

S&P 500 fell over 3% today. Perhaps the only "poll" Trump now cares about?

[Valmy]

Disney just shut down 538 Polls so I need a new place to track this.

What's the story here?

No idea. 538 was owned by ABC apparently and I guess Disney didn't think it make financial sense to continue it. All 15 employees were fired and the website shut down.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/05/abc-news-538-shut-down

Which is weird because I think that was one of the most popular poll watching websites in the country.

Really frustrating because I really liked the format and the ability to look through months of past data.

[grumbler]

There have been two executive orders targeting law firms because they represented political opponents.  Not just random tweets but actual executive sanctions imposed.  The deputy AG openly attempted to extort the NYC mayor and continues to do so even after publicly called out for doing so by the SDNY US Attorney (who was fired) - a scheme that will fail only because the judge seems likely to dismiss Adams' case with prejudice, thus avoiding the extortion, but allowing Adams to escape justice for his crimes.  The DC US Attorney's office has been fully weaponized for real (not in fake way Jim Jordan et al bitched about) and Martin and Holman have threatened legislators and others for prosecution for exercising first amendment rights or promoting policy they oppose.

Less than 2 months in, that is a pretty disturbing and clear erosion of civic liberty.  Better to sound the alarm now then to wait for the alarms to be silenced.

That's an excellent argument - but not one that Civicus Monitor used, preferring instead to argue that the problem was more vague:

The group cited several of the administration's actions such as the mass termination of federal employees, the appointment of Trump loyalists in key government positions, the withdrawal from international efforts such as the World Health Organization and the UN Human Rights Council, the freezing of federal and foreign aid and the attempted dismantling of USAid.

the Guardian

I'm not saying that US civil liberties are not being eroded. I'm saying that condemnations of the erosion should focus on actual actions, not vague fears of what might happen or observations that Trump's administration is full of Trump loyalists (like Biden did with Biden loyalists and Obama did with Obama loyalists).

There are actual things to complain about and warn about.  Condemnation should focus on those.

[grumbler]

I didn't say it was a "kill switch", I said it would disable/cripple the stealth capabilities of the fighter.

Without these capabilities, the F-35 is at a disadvantage against other fighters.

And yes, I am aware of the differences vs the Rafale.

The article you cited doesn't say anything about disabling or crippling the stealth capabilities.

[The Minsky Moment]

I'm sure the Trump administration will be reasonably accommodating to anyone who wants to buy the F-35.  In fact, they are making noises about winning their good graces by buying American, which shows how out of touch they are with the reality they are creating.

The real issue is that if EU members are going to ask taxpayers to shell out a lot more for defense, there will be very powerful pressures to buy domestically, and if the US is no longer perceived as reliable, there will be little incentive to resist those pressures.

With the DoD projecting the service life of the F-35 for many decades, any significant decline in European sales will hit the unit costs for the USA as well.

[viper37]

I didn't say it was a "kill switch", I said it would disable/cripple the stealth capabilities of the fighter.
Without these capabilities, the F-35 is at a disadvantage against other fighters.
And yes, I am aware of the differences vs the Rafale.

The article you cited doesn't say anything about disabling or crippling the stealth capabilities.

It's the algorithms that process electromagnetic spectrum signals for conducting radio reconnaissance and electronic warfare. In layman's terms, they define the capability to counter the radars of enemy fighters and air defense systems. But this much is enough to consider the whole system compromised if a war with the United States were to break out.


Verbatim from the article.

So, Canada enters war with Russia.  USA does not like that.  USA disable the capabality to counter the radars of enemy fighters and air defense system. Essentially, what makes the F-35 so stealthy compared to other fighters.  Just like it's doing to Ukraine rn.

[grumbler]

It's the algorithms that process electromagnetic spectrum signals for conducting radio reconnaissance and electronic warfare. In layman's terms, they define the capability to counter the radars of enemy fighters and air defense systems. But this much is enough to consider the whole system compromised if a war with the United States were to break out.


Verbatim from the article.

So, Canada enters war with Russia.  USA does not like that.  USA disable the capabality to counter the radars of enemy fighters and air defense system. Essentially, what makes the F-35 so stealthy compared to other fighters.  Just like it's doing to Ukraine rn.

You (and maybe the article) seem to be confusing stealth capabilities with electronic countermeasures activities, which actually themselves decrease stealth. Not being able to update the ECM gear as new threats/radars are deployed does degrade, over time, the value of existing ESM systems, but those are not black box sorts of systems and many defense contractors offer them.

US non-cooperation is going to reduce the value of those systems that rely on US support and maintenance, but that's true of every complex weapons system and aircraft out there. That's very different from some kind of covert "kill switch" that there articles are claiming exists.  What country would buy a system that another country (or a hostile hacker) could disable whenever it wants to?

[Jacob]

I'm sure the Trump administration will be reasonably accommodating to anyone who wants to buy the F-35.  In fact, they are making noises about winning their good graces by buying American, which shows how out of touch they are with the reality they are creating.

It rings completely hollow given how countries who've had long standing commitments to buy American kit have been some of the first under the bus from Trump and his shitheads.

[Admiral Yi]

Trump responds to criticism of tariffs by Wall Street with talk of "big globalists."

[DGuller]

The first time I was ever exposed to "globalist" was from that KGB guy Panarin, the one who predicted the breakup of US into six parts.  Haven't seen that word around until RT and the likes popularized it.

[Jacob]

The first time I was ever exposed to "globalist" was from that KGB guy Panarin, the one who predicted the breakup of US into six parts.  Haven't seen that word around until RT and the likes popularized it.

"Globalist" has been around for a long time as a stand-in for "cosmopolitan elite" and "cultural marxist", aka Jew.

[HVC]

Looks like the market drove Trump into the Führerbunker as he canceled appearances planned for today.

[Jacob]

I assume most of you have had anti-Tesla / anti-Musk demonstrations. If you haven't, here's an article: https://www.theverge.com/news/626851/tesla-takedown-protests-elon-musk

A thought occurred to me that this may be where we're seeing the start of the push-back against the oligarch attempt to overthrow of democracy.

Part of the challenge in reacting to the dismantling of democracy and rule of law is how to grapple it and where to take a stand - which of the gish gallop of lies and gaslighting is the one to react to? How do you articulate the counter argument?

It quickly gets too nuanced. But "Elon Musk is a fascist prick, and Tesla is shit and symbol of all of this" is fairly easy to grasp.

[Razgovory]

I saw demonstrators outside the plaza where the gameshop is when I was going to my DnD game.  I just thought they were cheering because my Barbarian reached level 20.