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

[bilby]

When Musk first took over Twitter many said that he ruined that company when he demolished the kitchen and the garage. But look at X now

I did. Those people? They were right, he fucked it up massively. It's ruined.

 

[bilby]

Musk has unusual skills at succeeding where normal people routinely fail.

Musk is a very normal person indeed. He has zero special skills; He isn't a God, or a genius, or even a good manager.

He is an ordinary person, who happened to inherit a shitload of money, and got a few other lucky breaks.

Trump is much the same.

Neirher person is special, and neither has even had to learn how reality works, because they have been sheltered from reality by their daddys money for their entire lives.

Literally any random person could likely do a better job than either, if only because most people would grasp that they are not competent nor experienced, and so need to listen to the people who are those things.

 

[bilby]

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 you are saying "The end justifies the means".

RVonse has very clearly been advocating for a dictatorship, not a constitutional republic. Primarily because the dictator would do things he likes. If a Democrat were the dictator, he'd likely be scrambling to uphold the checks and balances inherent in the constitution.

No one has become dictator quite yet.

Why did he fire inspectors general, who oversee executive actions, without proper legal warning and reason?

Why is he stopping payments that are legally appropriated by Congress?

Why is he dismantling departments that can’t be dismantled without congressional action?

So, he’s not a “dictator”, he just does what he wants with the government even if it is illegal and unconstitutional?

You have said that you would rather see him take actions that you like rather than go through the constitutionally prescribed methods, right?

Because Trump could and he did. And the courts did what they thought was appropriate as well. So we will soon find out where this leads to.

Do I want a dictator...no. But look at what is getting done compared to the uniparty president we usually have warming the chair in the oval office.

The entire fucking point of democracy is to prevent any holder of executive power from getting stuff done.

This is essential, because we know from history that any such person always fucks things up for the majority of the population.

Even the best intentioned dictator always fucks up the lives of the people he rules. So a bunch of fairly smart guys came up with a system wherein the holder of executive power has to get permission from a bunch of people (congress, courts, parliaments, civil servants, etc.) before he can do anything.

It's slow; It's inefficient; It's expensive. But it works. It makes ordinary everyday people across the nation safe, prosperous, and free. No other system in history has been able to do that.

And now Trump and Musk are demolishing it. And you are cheering, because you have no idea just how shit life always is (and always was) for ordinary people in dictatorships.

 

[laughing dog]

When Musk first took over Twitter many said that he ruined that company when he demolished the kitchen and the garage. But look at X now. Look at Tesla and SpaceX. Tesla is doing what GM said couldn't be done and SpaceX is doing what normal people thought couldn't be done. Musk has unusual skills at succeeding where normal people routinely fail.

Tesla Has the Highest Fatal Accident Rate of All Auto Brands, Study Finds: Tesla vehicles suffer fatal accidents at a rate that's twice the industry average

​

That’s pretty impressive looking but … “deaths per million vehicle years”?
WTF is that X axis label? Why is it a better measure than “deaths per million passenger miles”?
For that reason I reject it as garbage unless someone here can set me straight.

Apparently it is a standard measure. It is deaths per million vehicles registered in a year.

 

[bilby]

When Musk first took over Twitter many said that he ruined that company when he demolished the kitchen and the garage. But look at X now. Look at Tesla and SpaceX. Tesla is doing what GM said couldn't be done and SpaceX is doing what normal people thought couldn't be done. Musk has unusual skills at succeeding where normal people routinely fail.

Tesla Has the Highest Fatal Accident Rate of All Auto Brands, Study Finds: Tesla vehicles suffer fatal accidents at a rate that's twice the industry average

​

That’s pretty impressive looking but … “deaths per million vehicle years”?
WTF is that X axis label? Why is it a better measure than “deaths per million passenger miles”?
For that reason I reject it as garbage unless someone here can set me straight.

Apparently it is a standard measure. It is deaths per million vehicles registered in a year.

It should be roughly in proportion to deaths per passenger mile, unless Tesla owners tend to carry dramatically more (or fewer) passengers, and/or to drive dramatically more (or fewer) miles, than do owners of other makes of vehicle.

As long as the comparison is between cars (and is not comparing cars with eg. trucks, buses, or trains); And as long as Teslas are not over- or under-represented in various use categories (eg taxis), the graph will be much the same shape for either measure.

I could imagine that the graphs of the two measures would be quite different if (for example) a lot more Teslas than other makes were employed as taxis, as taxis tend to carry more passengers per journey, and to drive far more miles per annum.

Are Teslas commonly used in a very different way from the other vehicles shown on the graph?

 

[Politesse]

Well, they are disproportionately driven by terrible, terrible drivers.

 

[bilby]

Well, they are disproportionately driven by terrible, terrible drivers.

But that's in large part because of the way they are designed and marketed, so it's arguably a relevant characteristic of the brand.

IMO the entire design philosophy for the driver experience in a Tesla is asking for trouble; It would be difficult to design a dashboard and control layout that was worse, in regards to distracting the operator from their primary duty of observing the external environment.

The ancilliary controls are on a zero haptic feedback touchscreen, which is used for even such direct vehicle management tasks as selecting reverse gear; The vehicle manages far too much of the routine work without input from the operator, and then dumps responsibility back on the operator without warning when the going gets tough (particularly in vehicles with the horrifically mis-named 'FSD' option); And there is a huge display screen that competes for visual attention with the primary task of looking out of the windscreen.

Even the best drivers would struggle to give their full attention to their primary task in such an environment.

 

[Politesse]

I've had the same thought. Driving a Tesla feels a lot like being on an amusement park ride. Which is fun, but is it conducive to good decision-making?

 

[Tigers!]

Also, I thought it would be interesting to give our forum conservatives a space to talk about the positives of their guy as they perceive him. I predict they will actually be giving this thread a wide berth. They are not, on a fundamental level, truly proud of what they have done to our country. But who knows? Maybe we can all learn something.

You would call me conservative but I'm not a Yank so did not get a vote.

Though I might been like all those 90 million (!) wallies who did not bother voting.

 

[Tigers!]

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".

I learned that "cop" stood for "Constable on Patrol" i.e. on foot and coppers is the plural of cop.

 

[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".

I learned that "cop" stood for "Constable on Patrol" i.e. on foot and coppers is the plural of cop.

Yeah, that's also utter bollocks.

It astonishes me how rapidly shit someone makes up because they hate saying "I don't know" becomes recieved wisdom believed by millions.

There are experts who put in the very hard work needed to establish etymologies. They mostly work for dictionaries like the OED. And they must cringe every time some idiot repeats a nonsense etymology that they heard from the professional equivalent of "some bloke down the pub".

I am no expert, but I know enough to trust the OED over an unattributed "I learned that..."

 

[Tigers!]

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".

I learned that "cop" stood for "Constable on Patrol" i.e. on foot and coppers is the plural of cop.

Yeah, that's also utter bollocks.

It astonishes me how rapidly shit someone makes up because they hate saying "I don't know" becomes recieved wisdom believed by millions.

There are experts who put in the very hard work needed to establish etymologies. They mostly work for dictionaries like the OED. And they must cringe every time some idiot repeats a nonsense etymology that they heard from the professional equivalent of "some bloke down the pub".

I am no expert, but I know enough to trust the OED over an unattributed "I learned that..."

I was about 7 years old around 1970

 

[bilby]

I was about 7 years old around 1970

So not just wrong - wrong and out of date!

 

[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".

I learned that "cop" stood for "Constable on Patrol" i.e. on foot and coppers is the plural of cop.

Yeah, that's also utter bollocks.

It astonishes me how rapidly shit someone makes up because they hate saying "I don't know" becomes recieved wisdom believed by millions.

There are experts who put in the very hard work needed to establish etymologies. They mostly work for dictionaries like the OED. And they must cringe every time some idiot repeats a nonsense etymology that they heard from the professional equivalent of "some bloke down the pub".

I am no expert, but I know enough to trust the OED over an unattributed "I learned that..."

Says someone who blindly trusts the OED! This world is full of many a folk etymology, for exactly the reason you diagnose: people hate admitting that some things are simply not discoverable, scholars included. Unless the original coining of a word or phrase is known, all etymological trees are hypotheses.

 

[Politesse]

Also, I thought it would be interesting to give our forum conservatives a space to talk about the positives of their guy as they perceive him. I predict they will actually be giving this thread a wide berth. They are not, on a fundamental level, truly proud of what they have done to our country. But who knows? Maybe we can all learn something.

You would call me conservative but I'm not a Yank so did not get a vote.

Though I might been like all those 90 million (!) wallies who did not bother voting.

You are welcome to contribute to the thread, no matter what you would consider yourself, or who you voted for. Sometimes I think our friends Down Under have franchise envy about US elections, your media certainly seems to get invested in the race.

 

[Tigers!]

Also, I thought it would be interesting to give our forum conservatives a space to talk about the positives of their guy as they perceive him. I predict they will actually be giving this thread a wide berth. They are not, on a fundamental level, truly proud of what they have done to our country. But who knows? Maybe we can all learn something.

You would call me conservative but I'm not a Yank so did not get a vote.

Though I might been like all those 90 million (!) wallies who did not bother voting.

You are welcome to contribute to the thread, no matter what you would consider yourself, or who you voted for. Sometimes I think our friends Down Under have franchise envy about US elections, your media certainly seems to get invested in the race.

We do not envy your elections.
Its amazement mingled with disgust, leavened with bemusement and garnished with "What have you done!"

 

[Politesse]

You know, were I an Australian in particular, I might have some sympathy for Trump based only on the relative pacifism of his first term. Horrifying as most of his foreign policy is, he dragged us into no new wars, almost uniquely for a US president, which means we didn't drag any of our allies into any new wars either.

Will that continue? Hard to say. Two weeks in, he's threatened two campaigns of conquest and colonization, one for Greenland and one for Gaza. He likes the letter G, apparently, so Gambia and Grenada should probably consider themselves on watch as well. But a threat is not troops landed. This might be a version of that famous American presidential dictum "Walk loudly but carry a small stick".

 

[Politesse]

Also, I thought it would be interesting to give our forum conservatives a space to talk about the positives of their guy as they perceive him. I predict they will actually be giving this thread a wide berth. They are not, on a fundamental level, truly proud of what they have done to our country. But who knows? Maybe we can all learn something.

You would call me conservative but I'm not a Yank so did not get a vote.

Though I might been like all those 90 million (!) wallies who did not bother voting.

You are welcome to contribute to the thread, no matter what you would consider yourself, or who you voted for. Sometimes I think our friends Down Under have franchise envy about US elections, your media certainly seems to get invested in the race.

We do not envy your elections.
Its amazement mingled with disgust, leavened with bemusement and garnished with "What have you done!"

I meant that you seem to sort of wish you had a vote in it. This would be understandable, imo. It is frustrating to watch an allied nation - for me, this was France recently, and the Brexit and Remain fiascos before that - make terrible mistakes in the ballot box that are likely to have global consequences. Though it seems in your personal case, your plan would have been abstention in any case.

 

[KCFlyer]

And now Trump and Musk are demolishing it. And you are cheering, because you have no idea just how shit life always is (and always was) for ordinary people in dictatorships.

Because "owning the libs" is way better than any democracy.

 

[Elixir]

When Musk first took over Twitter many said that he ruined that company when he demolished the kitchen and the garage. But look at X now.

It would REALLY be funny if it wasn’t the same thing he’s going to the USA. But yes,
LOOK AT X NOW!!!

Read and learn, @RVonse

Twitter, now known as X, has faced significant financial challenges since Elon Musk’s acquisition in October 2022. The company’s value has plummeted by approximately 80% since the takeover. X generated $3.4 billion in revenue in 2023, a 22% decline from the previous year. The platform’s primary revenue source, advertising, has been severely impacted, with a reported 50% drop in advertising revenue.
X is struggling to break even, with Musk stating that “user growth is stagnant, revenue is unimpressive, and we’re barely breaking even”