Credit Where Credit is Due: a shout out thread for Things Trump Did Right

[Politesse]

I don't think American pennies were ever called "coppers."

A copper is a police officer for the same reason though (the badges). We skimped on police budgets even then.

 

[jonatha]

if they help wallpaper the brothels in Trump-owned Gaza with gold foil.

You mean gold-plated zinc foil, right?

(Can you even make foil out of zinc? It doesn't seem terribly ductile...)

 

[ZiprHead]

I kinda liked it when he sent that MOAB into the cave complex full of Taliban or whatever terrorist group that was.

 

[KCFlyer]

Something Trump did right and he distanced himself from it for some reason....he fast tracked the Covid vaccine.

 

[Elixir]

I'm glad the guy is coming home.

Me too. But trading him for Ukraine is a uniquely bad Trumpian “deal”.

 

[Elixir]

Something Trump did right and he distanced himself from it for some reason....he fast tracked the Covid vaccine.

His base hated everything about that except how it shut up certain critics.

 

[bilby]

I don't think American pennies were ever called "coppers."

A copper is a police officer for the same reason though (the badges). We skimped on police budgets even then.

"Copper", meaning policeman, is a British slang term whose origins are in the Latin word "capere", to capture.

Badges have nothing to do with it (and were never made of copper, being typically either white metal, bronze, or brass).

 

[Politesse]

The US is not in Britain, and has different slang. Usually not in Latin. You have to drink tea to comprehend Latin, and we're coffee drinkers on the main.

 

[Elixir]

You have to drink tea to comprehend Latin

You didn't drink your tea today, and it shows.

 

[KCFlyer]

His base hated everything about that except how it shut up certain critics.

Not to introduce negativity into this thread, but I kind of view this as a "bright side"...Trump's Retribution tour 2025 has pulled us out of the WHO...cancelld then NIH, and gutted the CDC. In 2020 he blamed China and those organization as well as Dr Fauci for all the ills brought on by covid. Here we are with bird flu. All our resources for bird flu are gone. He is slashing research money for cancer, stroke, communicable disease and.....immunizations. Should bird flu spread to humans and becomd a killer disease, Trump will have nobody to blame but himself. There won't be a CDC to recommend masks. There won't be a WHO recommending steps to protect ourselves. There won't be Dr Fauci to blame for the direction of everything. That will all be on Trump. It would be fun to watch.

 

[Politesse]

You have to drink tea to comprehend Latin

You didn't drink your tea today, and it shows.

I mean I was joking. Seriously though, the "official story" involves 19th lower-class criminals in London coming up with street slang based on their Latin classes.... I'm not saying my etymology is more right as such, but I am saying that attributions as to the "real meaning" of slang terms tend to be pretty speculative just to begin with.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

The coins have it!

God, what a state of affairs.

I'll go with illegal immigration. It did go down during his previous admin and skyrocketed during Biden's. One of the things the Dems have been out of touch about it is this issue. Some 70+% of latinos were concerned or very concerned about immigration while only 12% of white liberals were. Talk about a bizarre disconnect.

What people don't like about it are the potential and likely abuses of taking a stronger stance on this issue, and I'm concerned about that too.

But all this pearl clutching talk that we're not going to have cheap fruits and vegetables seems really inconsistent with the idea that higher pay for fast food workers won't raise the price of a Big Mac.

Hey, I had to come up with something outside of Roman coins, ha' pennies, and change machines, so don't gimme no shit.

 

[bilby]

Seriously though, the "official story" involves 19th lower-class criminals in London coming up with street slang based on their Latin classes...

Don't be daft. The earliest confirmed use according to the Oxford Dictionary is in 1704, so 96 years prior to the C19th; And English has a shit-ton of words derived from Latin, not because some modern (or recent) oik took Latin classes at school, but because the Romans lived in England for a few centuries, and in France for even longer - Latin roots came across the channel with Caesar, and then again with William the Bastard a millennium later (and indeed the OED gives the latter as the path in this case, from Latin to English via Old French)

"Cop" has been a verb meaning "take", "seize" or "capture" for longer than there have been records of English street slang, and a "copper" is, fairly obviously, "one who cops".

 

[Politesse]

Seriously though, the "official story" involves 19th lower-class criminals in London coming up with street slang based on their Latin classes...

Don't be daft. The earliest confirmed use according to the Oxford Dictionary is in 1704, so 96 years prior to the C19th; And English has a shit-ton of words derived from Latin, not because some modern (or recent) oik took Latin classes at school, but because the Romans lived in England for a few centuries, and in France for even longer - Latin roots came across the channel with Caesar, and then again with William the Bastard a millennium later (and indeed the OED gives the latter as the path in this case, from Latin to English via Old French)

"Cop" has been a verb meaning "take", "seize" or "capture" for longer than there have been records of English street slang, and a "copper" is, fairly obviously, "one who cops".

Don't make it any less of a just-so story, until some material evidence can be presented.

 

[Elixir]

Don't make it any less of a just-so story, until some material evidence can be presented.

All I know is when I was a teen making out with girls, to cop a feel had little to do with metal unless it was a bra hook.

 

[TomC]

Honestly, I always thought "cop" was a reference to bribing beat police officers for protection.
Tom

 

[RVonse]

I think it will be a while before the average household runs out of pennies to flatten

I have big cans full of them, if anyone wants to buy them for a low low nickel apiece!

Copper is $4.59 per pound.
There are @ 146 pennies per pound.
1943-1982 pennies are 95% copper,5% zinc.
I'm too lazy to do the math.

Most of the pre ‘82 ones have been cashed in.

Using your numbers, each copper penny is worth 3 cents of material. That is also assuming that the 5% zinc impurity would not cause the scrap dealer to devalue the 95% copper since that is not 100% pure.

In consideration of the state of the US electrical grid and that copper should be in huge demand for green infrastructure I would think even the Democrats would want rid of pennies. Since they are worthless as money every small amount of copper that can be conserved for green industry should be conserved. The US government should certainly NOT be competing with green industry by making even more copper based pennies.

Really the only excuse for the Democrats is because it is Trump idea.

 

[RVonse]

On subject of the OP its early and remains to be seen. I think Trump is definitely performing according to campaign promises made to his voters so far. Will that help the country long term? I don't know. He already signed a ton of executive orders, going after border security, and auditing the government to get rid of waste most people don't find useful. He is doing so much so fast the other side is going nuts over Musk right now. There is another thread going into this but at least we have effort attempting to find out how to reduce government waste and spending now. For all the hate directed at Musk right now, he is showing us all how it is possible to do what everyone says is impossible (reducing government waste and fraud). He may not be able to cut the full $1 trillion like he pledged but if not at least he shows us that it can be done.

There is a lot of dust being kicked up right now. Just like when you renovate a house things also look the worst when you rip out tile and walls before you rebuild it better. It is hard to make something better without it looking worse first.

So I think it is too early to know whether Trump's early measures will yield any positive results but in fairness we should give him credit for going after campaign promises. Most early POTUS would not be this aggressive and that is why the country is in the state it is in. I could be wrong (and often times proven wrong here) but I believe Trump has already transported bad people who broke through our borders back to other countries they came from. That alone should be stabilizing our future in terms of criminal activity.

 

[laughing dog]

On subject of the OP its early and remains to be seen. I think Trump is definitely performing according to campaign promises made to his voters so far. Will that help the country long term? I don't know. He already signed a ton of executive orders, going after border security, and auditing the government to get rid of waste most people don't find useful. He is doing so much so fast the other side is going nuts over Musk right now. There is another thread going into this but at least we have effort attempting to find out how to reduce government waste and spending now. For all the hate directed at Musk right now, he is showing us all how it is possible to do what everyone says can't be done (reducing waste and fraud). He may not be able to cut $1 trillion like he pledged but if not at least he shows us that it can be done.

There is a lot of dust being kicked up right now. Just like when you renovate a house things also look the worst when you rip out tile and walls before you rebuild it better. It is hard to make something better without it looking worse first.

When we renovated our bathrooms, we did not demolish the kitchen or the garage. Trump is using a "Thanos" approach, hoping there will be some success somewhere without any regard whatsoever to any collateral damage that any reasonably intelligent and decent person would avoid.

 

[TomC]

Using your numbers, each copper penny is worth 3 cents of material.

Do you realize that the usefulness of an object is not just the value of the materials?
Coins serve the purpose of facilitating trade.

You really believe those idiots that sold you "Chelsea Clinton got 84 million dollars from taxpayers" don't you?
Tom