As mentioned, the uptick started under Trump. Biden policies led to 2024 being the first downtick in 5 years. Those same policies have led to more fentanyl seizures at ports of entry over the past 2 years than the previous 5 years combined. Biden also invested 40% more than the Trump administration in making Naxolone widely available over the counter.

This all started in 2021, the year he became President, when he signed executive orders targeting people and entities involved in bringing drugs into the US.

Everyone here gets that you don't like Biden, but pretending he did nothing while you yourself didn't do the slightest bit of research to back your Newsmax/Fox News narratives is exhausting.

At least put minimal effort into your propaganda posts.

Also fentanyl is shipped in, not smuggled over a border. Unless that wall blocks planes and ships, it ain't doing shit to slow that down.

JFC

I think it's funny that he loved Crusader Kings so much he got a tattoo from the game on him.

Nice pic.

I'd think the lower levels would have met for months, agree on a framework, and then the leaders meet. Trudeau coming down for a visit shows how serious he takes Trump's blustering. It'll be interesting to see what Trudeau comes up with to please Trump.

I don’t care if Trudeau pleases Trump. I want him to be a friend to us, the American citizens across his southern border.

The uptick cannot happen in the 11th hour, that’s meant to try and win an election and a victory would have meant the repeal of any 11th hour uptick, the Biden-Harris core belief is open borders and it’s because they believed it was votes for them. The good news for GOP is that Hispanics are swinging heavily more so to the GOP and the DEM’s insane plan to grab votes has failed them.

To Rainmakers point on apathy of government, who do you think has cared less about the border crisis? The biden admin clearly wins here. The crisis reached wild record highs under his watch and he simply refused to do anything. People have been begging him for 4 years and he laughed at those people. Biden, Kamala-the Border Czar, and their front-man Myorkas said IDGAF 11 million+ times as Americans (first those on the border, then in Martha’s Vineyard, then in downtown Chicago, and ultimately everywhere across the nation) and the expectation is that the U.S. government needs to care a little bit more than that.

If Biden enforced mass deportation, he would have had to move how many people? A million? Now it’s 11+ million on top of whatever Biden could’ve managed. And FOFC’s majority crowd is mad that Mexico is going to be mad at Trump? My expectation is that Trump will take the PR hit to clean up Biden’s mess and make our country less dangerous to Americans and honestly, to these poor people from South and Central America that have suffered so much so the Dem’s could use them as pawns.

The USA still has a quota of allowing 1 million immigrants per year. These are legal entries that dwarf the second most generous nation on Earth (Germany, 500,000) and we cannot simply ignore that generosity.

This is just 100 octane nuts.

Open borders - No
Votes for them - No
Didn't try to do anything - No
11+ million - No
Only a million undocumented in 2021 - No
1 million immigrants a year - No

Other than that, you really nailed this post.

Don't forget there was a bipartisan solution that was agreed upon, but then the Donald skunked it so he could campaign on it.

I still want to know what makes this a “crisis.” Are millions of people dying from starvation, are hundreds of thousands homeless and roaming the desert, are there dire water shortages? Are there pitched battles happening in our streets, neighborhoods being leveled? Is the economy tanking, are we spiraling into depression?

I get that we may not want an uncontrolled population boom (well, some want that they just want the right population), but why are we at crisis levels?

(Meanwhile, climate - no problem!)

Someone's dog was missing for a few hours.

I mean, my mom — who can’t stand Trump — has even expressed worries about immigration. And I try to ask her why; does she ever encounter undocumented immigrants in middle Bucks County? Are they encroaching in the woods behind her house? Are they somehow stealing her retirement money? I don’t ever get a firm answer other than that “they need to do it the right way” or the impression she is vaguely uncomfortable that they are not like her. To that I ask, “How are they going to prevent you from living your 75-yo life the way you already are? Not the way you did in the 50s, which is long gone and didn’t even exist when I grew up in the 70s. Are they making you eat weird food, forcing you to speak Spanish? No?” And if she’s considered that we have made it increasingly difficult to immigrate “the right way”?

If only they had the same outrage about school shootings.

A fucking invasion by criminals violating the single most important claim to existence as an actual nation - a fucking border - is about as crisis as it gets.

And it ought to be a capital offense ... as should aiding and/or abetting them.

If you feel it is that important perhaps you shoud go down to the border and take some out yourself. Preferably young ones (four, five years old) they would have more time to crime here.

I know, that makes me sound too much like RaimMaker saying I should go over to Ukraine. But Texas, Arizona, or even finding someone at Publix is a lot more realistic.

Yes, I am being flippant. I just find it hard to wrap my head around how someone can grow into the mindset of EVERYONE IS MY FUCKING ENEMY AND DESERVES TO DIE. I just don’t understand how someone winds up there.

During the USA's history, how many years has it met your number 1 qualification as a Nation?

Lots of conservative media consumption.

If Kamala had won a lot of dems would be celebrating the possibility of better healthcare, student loan forgiveness, and other things to improve people's quality of life. Conservatives are celebrating how many people they can punish.

You say that as though I'd have even the slightest hesitation were it legal.

If you think I'd bat even a single eyelash you've badly misjudged me. I'd lose more sleep over a shitty round of Balatro.

I know you would, I guess I’m mildly surprised you wouldn’t roll the legal dice as things currently stand.

That's ok. Liberals generally are, just as conservatives use a lot of over-the-top hyperbole. What this country really needs is some nuance.

No one ever answers this question, so you might as well be flippant about it.

Never trust a jury.

Kash Patel for FBI Director.

It's going to get bad.

Phony masculinity to compensate for their deep-seated hatred over their own closeted homosexuality.

I think Dutch is trapped in a right wing echo chamber to believe that stuff.

Do you want Trump to be a friend to the Canadian and Mexican citizens across our borders?

100%

It's a party without ideas on how to really help people inside our borders so it's easier to make enemies outside our borders while cutting taxes for rich and stacking their administration with people wholly unqualified for the jobs they've been nominated and pushing us further into an oligarchy. It's a new level of absurd that they claim Kamala was a DEI hire while Trump nominates people with zero experience into high level government positions.

They cried about Twitter being used to influence the election in 2020 and weren't able to prove anything although Gym Jordan tried his best. Musk has openly bragged about his election influence. Suddenly they don't really care.

For the border, data shows migrants commit crimes at a much lower rate, play a huge role in boosting our economy, and pay into our social systems without receiving anything in return. They cherry pick the small number that commit crimes and condemn all people of color for them while turning their head to the massive number of white domestic terrorists and school shooters. If they spent a small fraction of the money and energy on mass shootings that they do on immigration we could get somewhere on solving one of the real problems the country faces.

They think inflation was created by the Biden administration while being unable to point to a single policy that supports that idea and ignoring the fact that we had a global inflation problem that we actually stayed ahead of. They also ignore the fact that Trump approved $3 trillion in stimulus that was widely acknowledged would lead to inflation at the time. It was for the greater good during a global pandemic but we knew what we were getting ourselves into at the time.

Dutch comes in here with either bad information, misleading information, or just flat out no information while parroting right wing news talking points from an organization that has admitted in court that they are not news but opinion and entertainment instead. As I mentioned, I get that he doesn't like Biden but it's one thing to not agree with policy from the opposing administration and it's another thing entirely to believe they're doing nothing. Instead of stopping to think that maybe his thinking is flawed by believing the Biden administration isn't doing anything at all he just continues to double down on it.

I wonder how much of this is confusion about what it means to have a border. Sure, of course countries have to have borders -- that's how you know where one ends and the next one begins. Even then, I'd say you can have disputed borders and still have a "claim to existence as an actual nation" if you had some kind of identity regarding how it's run. But you're using the word "border" and implying a lot more than what it means.

He's just making fun of my comment from a few days ago about how we're supposed to be friends with our closest neighbors and not bullies, it was just a troll post.

*Chef's kiss*

We already are. Mexico and Canada both export 75% of their products to the USA. We are the very best friends anyone could have, essentially employing millions of their people. Asking for them to help protect our borders isn’t the terrible ask some think it is.

You may need to re-read that bill.

The one that not only had enough bi-partisan support to pass but was endorsed by the Border Patrol?

And was largely written by a GOP Senator.

It was co-written by James Lankford, a single GOP senator with help from two Democrats. He was largely distrusted as pandering to the Democrats.

The CBP union bosses endorsed it, not the employees. Much like how the UAW employees largely supported Trump but the union bosses decided for the first time to not endorse Harris. It’s just the opinion of the executive.

As this was written by senators, the GOP led House was not afforded a vote on this bill.

The Senate voted with all GOP senators voting against it (including Lankford!) and 5 Democrats as well.

Bipartisan in this sense typically was simply a talking point by Harris-Walz and ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and MSNBC. But it clearly needs bipartisan support to truly be bipartisan.

It's clear Hegseth wasn't vetted at all. More stuff just keeps coming out on this guy.

We don't have to guess about what happened. Trump wanted to run on immigration and told GOPers to vote against the bill. It was all out in the open.

Honestly, the entire “vetting” process is just “saw on Fox and I like what they said about me.”

What's the point of the vetting process? Donald Trump is going to be President again. It's not like putting particular evil and unqualified people nominally in charge of things is going to make it worse.

How are those protest votes working out?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/02/w...uguration.html

S. Korean President declares martial law to remove N. Korean and anti-state forces.

Probably won't work out well for him.

Hope they impeach and toss him in jail.

Given the number of people that didn't vote, along with those who voted for Trump not as protest, getting exercised about protest votes is ludicrous. Talk about majoring in the minors.

From what I can tell, the S. Korean parliament can override the martial law declaration with a smile majority, but the military and/or police are currently blocking access to the parliament building.

Maybe it's just my feeds, but fascinating that Blusky is all over this S. Korean coup and Twitter is all over the Biden pardon.

The S. Korean Assembly voted to override the declaration of martial law. Seems to be consensus that the only remaining question is how far will the military go. Even then, if the coup is still ongoing when the sun comes up the expectation is that the people will protest in absurdly high numbers. The current president is not expected to survive this for long.

A reporter was at the scene of the National Assembly, and live skeeted the action. She said the military tried to stop the assembly people from coming in but they pushed right passed them. She the soldiers looked frightened. Looks like there is no real will in the military for a coup.

Sent from my SM-S916U using Tapatalk

Yeah, sounds like the military has withdrawn.

The guy that helped arrange the protest votes in Michigan going on CNN a couple of weeks ago saying Biden has to do something before Trump takes office after bragging that he played a role in dems losing was wild.

What can I say. I like to see people getting what they deserve.

I am gonna laugh my ass off when all these hillbillies who don't understand the ACA and Obamacare are the same thing lose their benefits.

Not Trump, but maybe worth noting.

https://amp.newsobserver.com/news/po...296431214.html
@mjsdc.bsky.social on Bluesky

Democracy doesn't work if only one party is permitted to wield power.

Dems as a whole, from voters to politicians, haven't gotten the memo on this. Trump is going to walk all over the norms while laughing at Biden trying to stick to them.

And all of the fucking Dems now calling for bipartisan solutions.

Trump is a threat or he isn't but he can't be both.

dola

This is weird. Trump's pick to head the DEA has withdrawn because he says he has a lot of unfinished work to do as a FL sheriff.

Code for I don’t want them digging into my past.

Seems like you never really cared for those issues or people at all and just treat this like a game where you're now crying that your team lost.

Basically, Hegseth's confirmation is going to be bumpy and not a given. But what's interesting in the article are the possible alternatives

Hegseth future in doubt as even Trump allies raise questions | CNN Politics
Didn't know who Ernst is, her wiki page ...

Joni Ernst - Wikipedia

Rainmaker, if you thought the Dems were committing genocide, this isn't looking very good for the people in Gaza starting Jan 20th.

hxxps://nationalpost.com/news/world/israel-middle-east/hell-to-pay-if-hamas-doesnt-release-hostages-by-inauguration-day-trump-says

I voted for the candidate who didn't promise to let Bibi turn Gaza to glass so his son in law could then develop it into waterfront condos but tell me again how I don't care.

A little tip on how not to be the enemy of the world, December edition:
Don't tell other country leaders that you're going to annex them, even if it's a joke.
Also don't post AI generated pics on Truth Social of you standing over their flag to follow up the "joke".

Not much of surprise, thought. Trump enjoys humiliating others that try to suck up to him. This is a FU to Trudeau, who came down to Florida to try to get in his good graces.

Jill Stein?

Trump and DeSantis have apparently talked about SecDef and Lara Trump being appointed to Rubio's Senate seat. Everything is a corrupt deal for these folks.

That feels right. Desantis gets a position probably better than the Senate to prepare for a possible run in 2028, and Trump only puts him in the administration to get a Trump into the Senate. Yes, everything is a transaction for Trump.

Hegseth is telling Senators that he'll stop drinking if he's SecDef.

I mean come on...

This is pretty much on brand, expect this for the next 4 years. Supporters will find quips like this a light-hearted entertainment and enemies of Trump will be really angry about it.

But, but, but…she needs to be voted in…this is unconstitutional…

Am I doing this right?

Looks like Hegseth most probably won't make it.

Access to this page has been denied
And Trump doesn't seem to be pushing it ...

From a service perspective, DeSantis is less qualified than Hegseth. The governor experience at least gives him something beyond that other than Fox and Friends, raping women, and being drunk.

GOPers now saying that cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are on the table.

That'd be my fn luck.

Lose the best governor in the nation juuuuust as I move to Florida.

I wouldn't worry about it. I'd think Lara Trump will follow in the same footsteps if not even more to the right.

That's Lara to the Senate seat, not the gubernatorial seat though. The LtG takes over by rule through DeSantis term ending in 2027 and while Will is relatively confident in her being fine, I'm more cautious.

Tentatively I'd like to maybe see the current AG Ashley Moody in the spot as the true successor, though I could easily enough see her being drafted to DC before then as well.

Ah, sorry. You're right.

My first thought was why isn't Joe there instead of Trump. I get Zelensky needing to talk to Trump but Macron/William meeting with Trump is a big slight to Joe (or did they ask Joe first and he okayed not being there?).

But then, this does feel like a real transition happening in real time over the 2.5 months. Joe lost, he's a caretaker/lameduck now, it's good to move on with country's business.

The other thing I realize is Trump seems more careful with what he says/tweets now.

Compared to his first term, it's not near as crazy vs. waking up every 1-2 days to some crazy crap that he said. He seems more guarded, less unnecessarily confrontational, less pettiness etc.

I really hope this keeps up.

Don’t count on it. The dog may not shit on the rug for a bit.

Nice summary of NBC interview with Trump and his plan.

Analysis: Trump lays out 100-day plan in interview | CNN Politics

And this stands out immediately

Can Trump guarantee tariffs won’t raise prices for American consumers?
"I can’t guarantee anything. I can’t guarantee tomorrow."

He knows damn well they will raise prices and this is just hedging his bet to pass the blame somewhere else when it happens.

I mean, he literally said he is going to deport US citizens....

He also threatened Canada's sovereignty again last night by calling the Prime Minister Governor of the State of Canada.

Oh he's not serious, he's just joking. Putin also joked about the Ukraine, and we know how that has turned out.

Plus he doesn't want Canada to be a part of the USA anyways, it would mean the Republicans would never be in power again. They would overwhelmingly vote Democrat. Canada is a much more left-leaning country than the USA. our right wing party is probably the equivalent of the Democrats.

He'll be your savior, he'll fix literally everything. He'll lower prices, make healthcare better. He'll even love America better than anyone else has ever seen in the history of America. He's made America great, and he'll do it again but.........he can't guarantee anything and he can't even guarantee there will be a tomorrow.



Way to cover your bases there guy.

Say hello to our new US Ambassador.

Many Ambassadorships are political appointees. But this time, I wonder how Greece feels being a consolation prize for an ex-girlfriend.

Good to be (son of) King

Why does she look so sad?

She heard children laughing and she couldn't put them in her cauldron.

Where do we think Stormy will be named the ambassador to?

Most clowns wearing that much makeup look sad.

LOL

Trump admitted in an interview that there probably isn't anything he can do to lower consumer prices.

it's always a con but we knew that already

So long as he controls the Housr, Senate, and the courts he can do whatever he wants. He won’t though because any fix of price gouging would also hurt himself, his family, and his friends. Would be nice if they would just tell the truth for once. Biden didn’t have the stomach for it either but he wouldn’t have been able to accomplish anything without the house and the courts.

WSJ is reporting that Trump is exploring the possibility of eliminating the FDIC.

I'm going to need a bigger mattress.

Hasn't the government already shown they will bail out any bank? Kind of makes the FDIC pointless.

Nah, eliminating FDIC doesn't mean removing the actual $250k insurance.


Nothing wrong with exploring what areas to cut or consolidate. Pretty standard to consider the options when doing a "re-org" (e.g. consolidating areas, removing redundancy etc.), especially if you are brought in promising to cut size/waste.

With that said, they should do something about the sham $250k limit which seems to be subjectively upped at a whim. I do think $250k is okay for regular folks but needs to be higher for small-med-big businesses. So fix it by updating the rules/limits.

In a vacuum, sure. In this instance it's like letting Ben Johnson pick who starts for the Bills' defense this Sunday

Trump is now praising project 2025. I'm a little surprised he didn't at least wait until after the inauguration to backtrack on the shit he said while campaigning.

Gotta gut the FAA right? Such government overreach to control the airspace. Should be privatized to the highest bidder. Fewer regulations. Cheaper tickets!!!