Holy sheeeeit. You guys are really taking this whole Trump's base is uneducated thing to heart! I will say though, a few of you are likely more qualified than Gaetz for AG. So there's that,
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Can you provide an example of how anything I’ve stated is inaccurate or unreasonable? Or do you enjoy making mindless comments without any basis?


Streamer

I’m personally not a huge fan of Gaetz either, so at least we have that in common.


Streamer

Yeah. That guy is an ass. I am not excited about some of the clown show Trump has selected so far. Others seem like good picks. Been fishing Chums lately, Ready to hit some B run silvers tho..Have to say it's been nice to get on this site and hear something besides the history and biology of various runs of fish...while wringing your hands but taking no political action or joining groups that do...blah blah. One thing that is still sparse is actual posts of fish caught

Tug,

It's all the same world, but perhaps not the same version of reality. It was Trump's first mouthpiece Kelly Anne Conway from whom I first heard the term, "Alternative facts." Anybody who understands the English language knows that alternative facts are not facts at all but instead are outright lies at worst or misunderstandings at best. Alternative facts are less real than Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.

I think Trump is a despicable excuse of a human being. Why? Let's start with, (and stop me when I'm wrong), he's a con artist, a grifter, a narcissistic megalomaniac, a pvssy grabbing rapist, an incessant liar (over 50,000 counted in the past 8 years), disrespects American military calling them "suckers and losers," guilty of business fraud, advocated suspending parts of the U.S. Constitution after the 2020 election, denies losing the election even though many of his own staff informed him that he lost, and he acknowledged it in private, incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol ("be there Jan. 6; it'll be wild," "go fight like hell!". And the protestors did just that and tried to prevent the certification of the election for the first time in US history. He finally called it off after 4 hours or so when it was clear he wasn't going to succeed. He used his position in office to enrich himself. During the recent campaign he said he wants to get rid of "the enemy within," without specifically saying who that is, but suggesting that it includes Pelosi, Schiff, Biden, Harris, and probably anyone else he picks at whim. He acts with the impulses of a 13 year old. And as he's choosing his new cabinet, the primary qualification for consideration appears to be fealty to Trump and not the US Constitution. Does any of that not bother you?

When over 200 died in the wool Republicans announce Trump unfit for office and endorse their Democratic opposition, doesn't that carry at least a little weight?

Lest you think I'm in some blind rage against Trump, I'll give him credit where it's due. Although I think he went about it badly, he did make more progress on the southern border than any other administration. As for managing the economy, one could rightfully say that Trump inherited the good Obama economy and kept it going until Covid knocked the hell out of everything. And Trump handled Covid like an ignoramous, except for expediting vaccine development - he deserves some credit for that.

Biden has received credit for inheriting the tanked Covid economy. I don't think that's fair because, to my surprise, he has done an amazing job of pulling the economy back up. Unfortunately, it hasn't rebounded fast enough for lower middle class Americans, and they blame Biden/Harris for that. It probably won't rebound much, if at all, under Trump either, but that's conjecture. But his proposed economic policies don't look like they'll do much for those in the bottom half.

But we're going to see what Trump can pull off. Matt Gaetz - the child sex offender - for AG; that's rich. Good timing too, as Gaetz resigned from the House just before the House report on his sex trafficking comes out. A Pete Hegseth Defense Secretary that insiders say is the least qualified candidate they can think of. If Trump wants to fire the people responsible for the debacle Afghanistan withdrawal, he should begin with himself because it was Trump who negotiated directly with the Taliban and agreed to be gone by May, but Biden held off until August on the advice of the Generals in charge who said it would be a sh!tshow to withdraw early. As Trump continues once again to appoint "all the best people," we'll get to watch another Gong show of unAmerican administration.

Spoon, it might surprise you, I don't watch Maddow, or a lot of others that are too far left for my taste.

Streamer, I do need help. I need help understanding why anyone with any critical thinking skills at all could so enthusiatically support a person with the characteristics I listed above. Or are you saying Trump isn't all of those things? BTW, Trump didn't grow the economy coming out of the pandemic. It was the pandemic that crashed his economy in the 4th year of his term. Your notion that Trump checks all the boxes couldn't be more dissimilar to my observations. He didn't start any wars, nor did he end any. And he left to Biden to end Afghanistan under the terms Trump himself agreed to. You see Trump having "friendly" relations with Russia and NK. I saw Trump as a Putin azz kisser and ball washer. It's been in the news; Trump adores dictators and has a low opinion of democratic leaders. Ergo, Trump will be a dictator on Day One, as he was quoted saying.

And why is DEI nonsense? Is diversity bad? Is inclusion bad? Was affirmative action a bad thing? I know a lot of whites didn't like it. But seriously, would Blacks have done as well without it? Not so fun fact, people discriminate, and they often discriminate based on race or gender. I think we're a better society by assimilating people different from ourselves. But I'll be among the first to admit, it ain't easy. That's partly why I prioritize social issues that really don't affect me directly.

Twister, I'm no expert about DEI. Generally speaking, I don't know how diversity and inclusion can be a bad thing. Unless there is a mandated quota. Mandating quotas can produce undesirable outcomes. Equity is a horse of another color. I have tried to understand what the proponents mean, but the science in me says that the intended equity defies the laws of physics. The only way I can see equity as an outcome is with identical inputs, and that, my friend, is nigh on impossible when we're talking about people.

C'man, yes, but not just Stalin. I think that's how every dictator goes about grooming a self serving military.

RnG, don't take me to seriously here. After all, it's only politics.

Fishbadger, You make kind of an interesting point. Just yesterday I saw a map of the US depicting how red or blue the country would look if only college educated citizens voted. Only 4 red states; all the rest were blue to light blue. Education does teach critical or analytical thinking. Analytical thinkers typically lean liberal. Just a fact.

Obviously the mgaetz bait has been so well trolled, it looks like they hooked A few more Flounder here !

Hey, it’ll only take four years or so for the Starry Eyes to rotate over to the right side.

lol. Wut. That was worse than Maddow. Diversity and inclusion is bad when it trumps merit and qualification. And its not 'the whites' that didn't like it. Its the people that put the time and hard work in, regardless of race. Thank you for sharing some racism here salmo. Same feeling that a legal immigrant that went through all the hoops to become a us citizen feels, just to see millions of illegals getting hand outs, for Nada.

Spoon, Glad you got a laugh. But, you didn't bother to mention that I got any of the criticisms of Trump incorrect. Apparently being a person of character who both upholds and obeys laws is no longer of any concern to conservatives. Is that right?

Im not laughing. Head to the ds if you want a laff. Ill leave this thread for fishing.

Salmo,

I think you have the same sort of sense that Biden's "accomplishments" in government are equal to WDFW's accomplishments in steelhead management! The successes are few, and the failures are many. It's all going to get better now. Many good changes are ahead for the U.S., maybe not perfect but vastly improved.

Good post Salmo and I see nothing in need of correction.

Salmo don't use your logic and reality-based thinking around here, you know what they say about arguing with an idiot. . .
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Tug,

More recent info on the Biden administration:

"Since Biden took office, entrepreneurs have filed more than 20 million applications for new businesses, the most of any presidential term in history. This averages to more than 440,000 applications a month, a rate more than 90% faster than averages before the pandemic. Black business ownership has doubled, and Hispanic business ownership is up by 40% since before the pandemic.

The administration encouraged that growth with targeted loans, tax credits, federal contracts, and support services. Small businesses are major job creators and employ about 47% of all private sector employees. Biden’s policies worked, enabling the U.S. to recover from the pandemic more quickly than any other country with a modern economy, sending unemployment to historic lows, and raising wages faster than inflation for the bottom 80% of Americans."

I get it. Voters see inflation and automatically blame whoever is in office at the time, even though the inflation was the result of both Trump and Biden actions that were in response to Covid. "But I can't afford eggs!" Uh, does anyone remember avain flue and that millions of chickens were killed to combat it? Low information voters act on, you guessed it, low information.

The plug about WDFW's steelhead management would almost hurt, but I and others have posted numerous times about the causes of steelhead population decline. And WDFW has very little to do with it. It's fun to bash WDFW, and I do it when and where Department actions deserve it.

I seldom get excited about much, but I almost can't wait for the " Many good changes are ahead for the U.S." Are you one of the billionaires about to make a $$ killing thanks to Trump? I'm not.

I’m still waiting for you to answer and provide an example of anything that I have said that is inaccurate or unreasonable.

Salmo’s arguments have repeatedly been disproven and he has shown himself to be a man not of science, but of bias. He has not provided valid counter-arguments and should not be taken seriously.


Streamer

Streamer,

Couldn't have said it better myself. Now, onward and upward under new leadership. I don't expect miracles, but I'm optimistic. Breaking from the Woke (am I spelling that right?) era of decline has begun. Back to accountability, transparency, and lawfulness. (Seattle should pay attention and get on board.)

Streamer,

I don't agree that my arguments have been disproved. FP said I got the definition of inflation wrong, but I've since read more articles by economists and financial experts who say that the increased prices caused by tariffs are inflationary. I have to give these experts at least as much credence as I give FP. What you call disproved seems more like differences of opinion than differences of fact.

I'm still a scientist. Show me clear, cogent, and convincing evidence and I'll accept it every time.

Tug,

Yes, onward and hopefully upward, but how about this for your accountability, transparencey, and lawfulness:

“The same people who’ve spent the last several years decrying ‘unqualified DEI hires’ are now shoehorning through Cabinet nominations who can’t even pass a basic background test.”
Trump’s transition team is skipping background checks by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, claiming that they are slow and intrusive.

Trump nominated Pete Hegseth, an Army National Guard veteran and co-host on the weekend edition of Fox & Friends, to become the secretary of defense. Since then a fellow service member who was the unit’s security guard and on an anti-terrorism team flagged Hegseth to their unit’s leadership because one of his tattoos is used by white supremacists. Extremist tattoos are prohibited by army regulations.

A woman accused Hegseth of sexually assaulting her after a Republican conference in Monterey, California, in 2017. According to the Washington Post, the woman who made the allegation said the alleged victim had signed a nondisclosure agreement with Hegseth.

Immediately after Trump said he would nominate Gaetz, the representative resigned his congressional seat, forestalling the release of a House Ethics Committee report concerning allegations of drug use and that Gaetz had taken a minor across state lines for sex.
It is reported that the victim, who was a seventeen-year-old high-schooler at the time, testified before the committee. House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said that publishing the report would be “terrible” and that he would “strongly request that the Ethics Committee not issue the report because that’s not the way we do things in the House.” (Unless it’s a Democrat.)

Trump’s picked former Hawaii representative Tulsi Gabbard to be director of national intelligence (DNI). Gabbard’s ties to US adversaries like Russia’s president Vladimir Putin and Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, have raised serious questions about her loyalty. Making her the country’s DNI would almost certainly collapse ongoing U.S. participation in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance in which the U.S., the U.K., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have shared intelligence since World War II.

As former Illinois representative Joe Walsh wrote: “Donald Trump just picked someone to oversee our intelligence who, herself, couldn’t pass a security clearance check. She couldn’t get security clearance. She couldn’t get a job in our intelligence community. Because she’s too compromised by Russia. Yet Trump picked her to run the whole thing.”

When Texas senator John Cornyn said he would like to see the Gaetz report, Trump sycophant Steve Bannon said: “You either get with the program, brother, or you're going to finish third in your primary.” A member of Trump’s transition team said that Trump wants to bend Republican senators to his will “until they snap in half.”

Trump demanded that the Senate recess in order for him to push through his choices as recess appointments. Even the right-wing Wall Street Journal editorial board came out against this scheme, calling it “anti-constitutional” and noting that it would “eliminate one of the basic checks on power that the Founders built into the American system of government.”

Aside from political calculations, hopefully enough Senate Republicans take seriously their oaths to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States” as well as the Senate’s role in the constitutional system of checks and balances that they will judge Trump’s antics with that in mind.

How's that for not being a dictator? I just love accountability, transparency, and lawfullness, but that ain't Trump.

Salmo,

The people have spoken, and we're going to see new, younger leadership, abandoning the status quo like we have never experienced. I welcome it. Now, if we could only get good leadership at WDFW, maybe I could catch and release a steelhead on an Olympic Peninsula river again.

Yes, the people have spoken. Younger leadership, a 78 year old president instead of 82. And a Cabinet of the most unqualified leaders in the nation's history. Yeah, DJT picks only the "best" people, people that cannot pass the basic FBI background check for federal employment.

How's that for some FACTS! Well said! As I stated earlier. My biggest fear with Trump winning was who would be appointed to important cabinet positions. They are the ones that will run the country and keep it secure. It's already starting out to be a fiasco. Unqualified, unsecured BUT, are loyal. Whats next? KKK leaders? Felons? Oh wait! Already happened. Blocking/bypassing legal processes that vet appointees is not a good thing. They are in place for a reason. Even Republicans in both chambers are asking questions and Trump is trying to strong arm them into submission. He also is mentioning to bypass the Senate approval process by waiting for the Senate recess. FBI security checks? Who needs them? Hope things work out, or we are in for it, and all you loyal blind/deaf followers will be eating your vote.

Just to give folks some breathing room. Trump is not the President until January 20. Until then, he is not the President and can't send names to Senate for approval because that is the job of the President. Hopefully, the Federal Courts will support the Constitution on this.

So, this current Senate/Congress can adjourn or not; it is their choice and they deal with President Biden. After the 20th, Trump is inaugurated and in charge. The new Congress is formed earlier in January. But, once he is in charge we will see the spine present in Congress.