Invest your own money, let compound effect be your leverage, and avoid debt like the plague.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 9
The first quality poll, Yahoo News - YouGov, had some interesting results because apparently lots of Americans hate red tape and delays and they like quick, decisive action.
It shows Americans disapproved of Trump’s demolition of the East Wing (57%-26%), his plans for replacing it with a 90,000-square foot ballroom (61%-25%) and his broader handling of the situation (55%-28%) all by around a 2-to-1 margin.
…… just 55% of Republicans approved of both demolishing the East Wing and building a ballroom.Oops.
But hey, it kept the Epstein Files out of the news for a few days.
Next up: The Washington Monument. Trump is extremely jealous because his is bigger. His hands, I mean his hands are really bigger.
https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/29/politics/white-hous...
No. of Recommendations: 3
The first quality poll, Yahoo News - YouGov, had some interesting results because apparently lots of Americans hate red tape and delays and they like quick, decisive action.
Again, there's a difference between saying it's a bad decision and saying it's a decision that Trump couldn't lawfully make.
People may hate the idea of tearing down the East Wing for a ballroom (especially a Trump ballroom)...but that doesn't mean they think that this is something that isn't within the President's purview.
No. of Recommendations: 11
Again, there's a difference between saying it's a bad decision and saying it's a decision that Trump couldn't lawfully make.
Neither the poll nor my post mentioned anything about whether the action was lawful or not.
No. of Recommendations: 1
"Ballroom"!!!!
"he him they them"!!!!!
As the sea levels rise :)
Enjoy the priorities
No. of Recommendations: 8
Neither the poll nor my post mentioned anything about whether the action was lawful or not.
My bad - I foolishly (and perhaps arrogantly) jumped in with a reiteration of my earlier point, without really giving much note to the fact that this is a different thread and making a new point.
Sorry!
No. of Recommendations: 7
My bad - I foolishly (and perhaps arrogantly) …
Neither bad nor foolish nor arrogant.
On more than one occasion I will answer a post and when proofing, reread the original post only to find I’ve answered a point that wasn’t made.
Human nature.
No. of Recommendations: 3
Hello, this is my first post on this message board. It looks very interesting.
It needs to be pointed out that the Washington Post published a recent editorial in favor of the East Wing renovation.
Think about that for a while.
No. of Recommendations: 8
"My bad - I foolishly (and perhaps arrogantly) jumped in with a reiteration of my earlier point, without really giving much note to the fact that this is a different thread and making a new point."
Can't speak for anyone else, but I appreciate your stone-cold reality
checks on all of these issues. I don't agree with some of your opinions,
but sure ponder them.
One thing that is exasperating to me, is that you think that the Law of the Land
means something to Trump and his cronies. That it means something to ICE.
It sure doesn't appear that way to me, but I most definitely do not know the
Law. To the non MAGA layperson, just the fact that ICE henchmen wear masks
while operating in American Cities screams to me that they are up to no good.
But I guess it's not illegal to do that. Cowardly AF, but not illegal.
Oh well, it's Trump's World, we all just living in it.
No. of Recommendations: 14
It needs to be pointed out that the Washington Post published a recent editorial in favor of the East Wing renovation.
Think about that for a while.
No need to think long about it.
Jeff Bezos telegraphed his editorial policy one year ago.
Same thing with CBS, NBC, NYTimes et al.
The “liberal mainstream media” no longer exists. Objective reporting and writers have fled to Substack as corporate media outlets bend the knee to Trump.
No. of Recommendations: 5
One thing that is exasperating to me, is that you think that the Law of the Land means something to Trump and his cronies.
Because it does. You'll note that for all of his barrier-breaking, the Administration has generally avoided actually violating a court order telling them not to do something. They'll exploit every procedural trick and textual ambiguity to an inch of breaking....but they do not unambiguously do anything a court has expressly told them they can't do (which is why Kilmar Abrego Garcia is still in the U.S., even though they really want him not to be).
I don't pretend this is because they have an inherent, deep respect for the sanctity of the law. Rather, I think it's because they are very much legal realists. The law isn't special, in the sense that there's any deep moral or 'sacred' reason to obey it - but virtually everything that you want to do will be easier if you don't do it in a way that gets you in trouble with the law.
For example, the Administration wants to detain and deport millions of undocumented people from the U.S. It is easier for them to do that if they have ICE only detain non-citizens. Because if they detain citizens, it makes it harder to detain and deport the non-citizens - it clogs up the system with cases that will never result in a deportation, it makes all the other ALJ's and Article III judges take a little more time looking at the prima facie basis for the deportation case in the first place, it gives political opponents of the deportations more of a hook, etc. The Administration might not give a rat's patootie about whether a citizen were to get deported through inadvertence or carelessness substantively - but since a citizen deportation would probably cost them many thousands of non-citizen deportations in a given year, they have a practical reason to try to make sure that it doesn't happen.
No. of Recommendations: 4
And of course...the law of the land (including immigration law) was highly respected and enforced by the Biden administration (actually, by whoever was actually running the country when Biden was the nominal President).
No. of Recommendations: 8
Well...
"The ballroom is really the president's main priority at this moment in time." ~Karoline Leavitt
"Americans oppose Trump’s White House ballroom by 2-to-1 ratio, new poll finds." (Of course what Americans want does not matter.)
"While Trump initially insisted (lied) the project would not interfere with the existing White House structure, the administration has now fully demolished the East Wing of the White House,
historically home to the first lady’s office and other reception rooms."
"The administration has solicited donations (unethical bribes) from several dozen high-profile Trump donors, including two Cabinet officials, multiple billionaire investors and some of the biggest tech and crypto companies in Silicon Valley to pay for the renovation."
"Trump also ousted six commissioners on Tuesday who sat on a panel responsible for advising on planning federal projects and memorials in Washington, including White House renovations."
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/30/trump-eas...
No. of Recommendations: 15
It needs to be pointed out that the Washington Post published a recent editorial in favor of the East Wing renovation.
It wasn’t a renovation.
Trump had the entire structure demolished.
No. of Recommendations: 5
It wasn’t a renovation.
Trump had the entire structure demolished.
There you go again- using “accurate language”.
Accurate language is fake news.
No. of Recommendations: 3
No need to think long about it.
Jeff Bezos telegraphed his editorial policy one year ago.
Same thing with CBS, NBC, NYTimes et al.
USian media is sensationalist garbage.
Last night, the NBC national "news" ran video of a senior citizen apartment building, burning, in Southgate, MI. The local Detroit media has been blabbering about that fire, for days. You could see the date stamp on the body cam video: 10/24. So, last night NBC "news" was running five day old video, but showing their "BREAKING NEWS" banner, as they do with nearly every story, as if it just happened.
Nothing but sensationalized garbage.
Steve
