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Posted
2 minutes ago, bolverk said:

I guess making sure we have accurate economic data isn't going to be a thing anymore.

Experts worry about degradation of economic data after advisory committees disbanded
Here at Marketplace, we report on economic data from the government all the time: stats on housing, the job market, inflation, and much more. They help us help you understand where the economy is and where it’s heading. Government data informs business decisions, and assists policy makers to, well, make policy. 

But now, the Commerce Department has disbanded two groups that worked to ensure the government’s economic data paints a realistic picture. The Federal Economic Statistics Advisory Committee and the Bureau of Economic Analysis Advisory Committee have been around for decades. What happens next now that they’re gone?

Erica Groshen had no idea this news was coming: “This came out of the blue, nothing up until I got the email yesterday,” she said.

And she was on one of the committees. An economics advisor at Cornell University, Groshen was told that the decades-old committee was getting disbanded because its purpose had been fulfilled.

“You don’t fulfill an ongoing mission by canceling this communication mechanism,” she said.

That mission? To get a bunch of experts at the top of their economic fields to help the government.

“When the BEA wants to develop a new methodology or maybe go into a new area they haven’t been before, they can run their ideas by the committee,” said retired economist and committee member Marshall Reinsdorf.

He said advice was one major benefit. The other was government transparency — the committees opened their doors to the public.

“It gives them a chance to reach out and get their message out to a broader community,” Reinsdorf said.

Getting rid of these two committees doesn’t save much money. Mainly because the members weren’t getting paid, said former committee chair David Wilcox with Bloomberg Economics and the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

“So we’re talking about eight plane tickets, twice a year, one night at a non-fancy hotel. This was really inexpensive stuff,” he said.

And it was money well spent, Wilcox said.

Former committee chair Louise Sheiner with the Brookings Institution said with less input, the data that the government gathers will get worse over time. And that data is supposed to provide answers on GDP and productivity and jobs and inflation.

“Depending on what question you’re asking, you’re going to go to the data, and if the data are not good, your answers to those questions are also not going to be good,” she said.

Sheiner said disbanding the committees was a mistake. The Bureau of Economic Analysis declined to provide Marketplace with a comment, and the Commerce Department didn’t respond to our request.

 

i called this last week !

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Posted
6 hours ago, Red Five said:

I think we might have a messaging problem. 

It is supremely ironic that Maga dipshits, who have been completely converted into doing the will of their billionaire masters and voting against their self interests by decades of right wing propaganda, are completely unable to appreciate the value of investing in soft power around the world to advance our interests and goals.

Posted (edited)
2 hours ago, wood said:

That's not quite the transgenic/transgender mice thing, but it's got about zero to do with transgender anything.

What it is, partially, is testing to see what hormones, like those used in gender dysphoria, do to the body.  

And, it's eight million dollars.

Edited by TwiceHorn
Posted

Okay - I didn't listen to all of the speach last night - so did Prez Huff & Puff talk about Guantanamo detainees? I'm thinking he didn't because after sending down and additional 1,000 troops right after the inauguration to support housing up to 30,000 deportees, it turns out that only a few hundred were sent down; and the last report I heard about a week ago was that 17 were still there. 

Trump admin rethinking Guantánamo immigrant detention plan

Posted
2 hours ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

VW Jetta here. Basically the german version of that car

it wasn't a slight - was trying to keep with the bit. I'm not a car shamer. I could give two fucks what you drive.

image.gif.7600307d23fdf4e85619e6f7fb4d1e42.gif

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Posted
2 hours ago, Superhero said:

Bet the VW Jetta breaks down a whole more than the Camry.

Bought my wife a 24 Tiguan last summer.  It already has a recall.

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Posted
34 minutes ago, jimmyjazz said:

Bought my wife a 24 Tiguan last summer.  It already has a recall.

Yeah, have known enough folks with VWs over the years that they fall in the "absolutely no fucking way" bucket for us.  Doesn't matter how pretty or fancy it looks brand new.  "Pretty and in the fucking shop" doesn't do us any damned good.

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Posted
5 hours ago, C-Man said:

And that's fair (to borrow my kids' lingo.)

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRN_rMwhwJgCHN5piiRSbz

I have family guy reruns on in the background and this clip came up seconds after I read your post. 
 

 

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Posted
15 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah, have known enough folks with VWs over the years that they fall in the "absolutely no fucking way" bucket for us.  Doesn't matter how pretty or fancy it looks brand new.  "Pretty and in the fucking shop" doesn't do us any damned good.

Well, one of my closest friends is a VW specialty mechanic (did decades at Kenny Hill Automotive but he's moved on).  He assured us the Tiguan is legit.  To be sure, we haven't had problems, but the recall is still annoying.

Posted
2 hours ago, tx 3 putt said:

lolololololol .....

Crockett: Let me ask each of the mayors… Have any of you been made aware of any immigrant that has had 34 felony convictions that has still been able to roam in your cities? I’m just curious because we are so concerned about crime and I know that my Republican colleagues would never want anybody with 34 felony convictions roaming around because that could be a danger to the community.

Absolutely 100% fearless. If I ever have to go into battle, I want her fighting beside me.

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Posted (edited)
6 minutes ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

 

Batshit crazy, but there's probably an excellent chance that this happens.

They will do whatever it takes to rescind Joe Biden's pardon of Hunter Biden.  And I'd bet a pretty big amount that they'll succeed.  They'll just do whatever they want and justify it however they want.  Honestly, the Bidens and Faucis need to leave this country.

Edited by TexArcher
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Posted
35 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Yeah, have known enough folks with VWs over the years that they fall in the "absolutely no fucking way" bucket for us.  Doesn't matter how pretty or fancy it looks brand new.  "Pretty and in the fucking shop" doesn't do us any damned good.

Fool me once shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again.

I had a POS VW Jetta that I couldn't wait to get off my hands. My fiancé (now wife) had a Jetta that was in the shop every 3 months. I finally put my foot down and got her a new car. Her choice of small SUV was a... Nissan Rogue.

Nowadays, whenever I see a Nissan, I just think "STFU, you drive a Nissan Altima".

 

 

 

I remember when the Nissan Altima came out in the 90s. They were the cat's meow, toast of the town, comparable in quality to a Lexus but far cheaper. Now they are an embarrassment. (Sorry if you drive an Altima. But STFU, you drive a Nissan Altima)

Posted
1 hour ago, jimmyjazz said:

Well, one of my closest friends is a VW specialty mechanic (did decades at Kenny Hill Automotive but he's moved on).  He assured us the Tiguan is legit.  To be sure, we haven't had problems, but the recall is still annoying.

So the guy who knows you're going to go to him once your VW breaks down for the "friends and family discount" suggested you buy a VW?

Britney Spears What GIF

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Posted
15 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I mean what the fuck are Democrats or any other opposition to do when the incumbents win with baldface lies and idiocy.

118710345.jpg

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Posted

Helpful hint, dipshit: if the cartels actually were in Canada, it would only be because your disgrace to burnt orange Fat Bastard clone with a tiny dick was unable to deliver on his campaign promise in 2016.  Remember the wall that Mexico was definitely gonna pay for?  So, what, did the cartels use the Mexican navy to get all the way up there?

Also, all that border crisis shit you love to lay at Biden's feet for the last four years?  Yeah, that wouldn't have happened either if your sweet potato tub of shit had delivered on literally his biggest promise to us.

Misdirecting fucking liars, the lot of you.  Fuck you in your smug fat faces.

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Posted
54 minutes ago, Superhero said:

Fool me once shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again.

I had a POS VW Jetta that I couldn't wait to get off my hands. My fiancé (now wife) had a Jetta that was in the shop every 3 months. I finally put my foot down and got her a new car. Her choice of small SUV was a... Nissan Rogue.

Nowadays, whenever I see a Nissan, I just think "STFU, you drive a Nissan Altima".

 

 

 

I remember when the Nissan Altima came out in the 90s. They were the cat's meow, toast of the town, comparable in quality to a Lexus but far cheaper. Now they are an embarrassment. (Sorry if you drive an Altima. But STFU, you drive a Nissan Altima)

image.thumb.png.f65bd4c0eda9c6c3a509539def5cbf47.png

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Posted
1 hour ago, Francisco 2.0 said:

 

 


it’s like they just ingest nothing but LibsOfTikTok 24 hours a day, maybe take a 30 minute break to hear what Ben Shapiro has to say.  

Posted
2 hours ago, jimmyjazz said:

Well, one of my closest friends is a VW specialty mechanic (did decades at Kenny Hill Automotive but he's moved on).  He assured us the Tiguan is legit.  To be sure, we haven't had problems, but the recall is still annoying.

 

vw's are crap 

Renovate Channel 9 GIF by The Block

Posted
Yeah, have known enough folks with VWs over the years that they fall in the "absolutely no fucking way" bucket for us.  Doesn't matter how pretty or fancy it looks brand new.  "Pretty and in the fucking shop" doesn't do us any damned good.

I had an 01 Jetta with the V6 and an 11 cc. They were both solid cars that I hardly ever had to take in. But when I did, it was pricey. If they still made the Jetta with that engine I’d buy it again. So much fun to drive with the five speed manual.
Posted
1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

This guy has a PhD in economics from Harvard and has taught in the UC System (although not Berkeley or LA).

And he is a MOTHERFUCKING IDIOT.

The dumbest sonofabitch in the Trumpverse after der fuhrer himself.

Based on the evidence on display day in and day out of officials in the Republican party, we need to reconsider what universities are actually elite.

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Posted (edited)

We're screwed example #5,005

From NYT

Screenshot_20250305_213208_Chrome.thumb.jpg.fbc545f8eb67cd27860ec65150602df0.jpgScreenshot_20250305_213237_Chrome.thumb.jpg.63cacb6e14d4c6cf159e181a02767ae7.jpgScreenshot_20250305_213251_Chrome.thumb.jpg.7e9d71fd56c8ceff33f4512b37bf8664.jpgScreenshot_20250305_213301_Chrome.thumb.jpg.825bec82ddefaf0d9bd1a4ef3326bf28.jpgScreenshot_20250305_213311_Chrome.thumb.jpg.c68ff521971df0842b8661449b6d369d.jpg

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/05/us/trump-address-us-reaction.html

 

The article with their full quotes is even worse:

Quote

What Some Reluctant Trump Voters Thought of His Speech

For many reluctant Trump voters, there was a mixture of confidence, anxiety, hope and frustration — along with some anger directed at congressional Democrats.

 
  • Share full article

By The New York Times

  • March 5, 2025Updated 3:34 p.m. ET
 

In an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, President Trump denounced Biden-era policies, mocked Democrats and lauded his administration’s early hailstorm of executive actions. He was, he said, “just getting started.”

How did his speech go over? The New York Times talked with six voters — many of whom voted for Mr. Trump reluctantly — as part of a regular check-in over the first 100 days of Mr. Trump’s term.

It was very nice to see a lot of empathy.’

Tali Jackont, 57, from Los Angeles

Image
Tali Jackont standing in front of a window in a red-and-white-striped shirt with a rhinestone heart on it. Credit...Mark Abramson for The New York Times

What struck Tali Jackont, an educator, more than anything was Mr. Trump’s showmanship. The president, she said, showed off his magnetism — his ability, like it or not, to combine forcefulness with bristling digs. She also enjoyed his humor.

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“Listen, he understands the media, he understands TV,” she said. “He tried to say things here and there to break the seriousness of the speech,” she added, noting that there were a few times when she found herself laughing out loud.

The entire speech, she added, “was very impressive.”

An immigrant from Israel and longtime Democrat, Ms. Jackont changed political course in November, voting for Mr. Trump, hoping that he could help Israel achieve peace, while reducing crime and getting her adopted country moving in a better direction. Though she would have liked the president to have spent more time on the Middle East, she said, his speech addressed the issues she cared about to her satisfaction.

One thing that surprised Ms. Jackont: the time Mr. Trump took to acknowledge cabinet members and speak compassionately about guests in the audience, like Devarjaye Daniel, a 13-year-old known as D.J., who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018, and was invited to the speech.

“It showed a little bit of warmth of personality when he spoke about people,” she said.

“It doesn’t mean that he cannot behave the opposite and kick someone off like Zelensky,” she added, referring to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. “But it was very nice to see a lot of empathy. It was very nice to see.”

I’m ashamed of the Democratic Party.’

Darlene Alfieri, 55, from Erie, Pa.

Image
 
Darlene Alfieri stands amid buckets of flowers in a room. She wears a patterned shirt and glasses. Credit...Daniel Lozada for The New York Times

“In my opinion, as a Democrat, that was a Republican Party win,” said Darlene Alfieri, a longtime registered Democrat who had taken a chance on Mr. Trump in 2024.

She did not come to this conclusion primarily because of the president’s speech. It might have been a bit more professional than some of his past speeches, she felt, but it was still light on the specifics she craved.

“He’s still talking that we’re going to be great, that things are going to get better, but I’m not seeing them get better in my day-to-day life,” she said. “Talk is cheap.”

 

No, she believed it was a good night for Mr. Trump primarily because she thought it was a terrible night for the Democrats, some of whom heckled the president at the beginning and then mostly refused to stand and clap throughout, even for Devarjaye Daniel, the boy with cancer that the president recognized in the crowd.

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“I’m ashamed of the Democratic Party,” she said. “Deliberately being argumentative and refusing to acknowledge good when it’s good is ridiculous.”

As for Mr. Trump himself, her opinion has remained the same since the election: supportive of his broader goals, frustrated that he is not more forthcoming about how he plans to achieve them. She welcomed the elimination of waste in the federal government, but wondered whether there were measures to make sure it did not come back? Reviving U.S. manufacturing is a great goal, she thought, but how much economic pain would it require?

Mr. Trump’s speech did not answer many of these questions.

“How is this going to happen?” she asked. “How long is it going to take? What are we going to have to endure in the meantime?”

 Campbell Robertson

Skip to contentSkip to site indexSearch & Section Navigation
 
 
Account
 

What Some Reluctant Trump Voters Thought of His Speech

For many reluctant Trump voters, there was a mixture of confidence, anxiety, hope and frustration — along with some anger directed at congressional Democrats.

 
  • Share full article

By The New York Times

  • March 5, 2025Updated 3:34 p.m. ET
 

In an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, President Trump denounced Biden-era policies, mocked Democrats and lauded his administration’s early hailstorm of executive actions. He was, he said, “just getting started.”

How did his speech go over? The New York Times talked with six voters — many of whom voted for Mr. Trump reluctantly — as part of a regular check-in over the first 100 days of Mr. Trump’s term.

‘It was very nice to see a lot of empathy.’

Tali Jackont, 57, from Los Angeles

Image
Tali Jackont standing in front of a window in a red-and-white-striped shirt with a rhinestone heart on it. Credit...Mark Abramson for The New York Times

What struck Tali Jackont, an educator, more than anything was Mr. Trump’s showmanship. The president, she said, showed off his magnetism — his ability, like it or not, to combine forcefulness with bristling digs. She also enjoyed his humor.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
 

“Listen, he understands the media, he understands TV,” she said. “He tried to say things here and there to break the seriousness of the speech,” she added, noting that there were a few times when she found herself laughing out loud.

The entire speech, she added, “was very impressive.”

An immigrant from Israel and longtime Democrat, Ms. Jackont changed political course in November, voting for Mr. Trump, hoping that he could help Israel achieve peace, while reducing crime and getting her adopted country moving in a better direction. Though she would have liked the president to have spent more time on the Middle East, she said, his speech addressed the issues she cared about to her satisfaction.

One thing that surprised Ms. Jackont: the time Mr. Trump took to acknowledge cabinet members and speak compassionately about guests in the audience, like Devarjaye Daniel, a 13-year-old known as D.J., who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018, and was invited to the speech.

“It showed a little bit of warmth of personality when he spoke about people,” she said.

“It doesn’t mean that he cannot behave the opposite and kick someone off like Zelensky,” she added, referring to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. “But it was very nice to see a lot of empathy. It was very nice to see.”

 Kurt Streeter

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‘This was supposed to be a speech about how he was making America great again, but he was throwing out insults.’

Isaiah Thompson, 22, from Washington, D.C.

Image
 
Isaiah Thompson sits on gray furniture, wearing a gray vest over a blue collared shirt. A green leafy plant is seen behind him. Credit...Caroline Gutman for The New York Times

Isaiah Thompson, a college student, was expecting a finely tuned performance from Mr. Trump in his speech to Congress. After all, he said, the president has had a long career in entertainment.

What he was not expecting was the congressional response.

“On the Republican side, you had people standing, waving and chanting, ‘U.S.A.,’ and on the Democrat side, you had people sitting in silence and holding signs that said, ‘Musk steals,’” he said, referring to the tech mogul Elon Musk. “That one room showed how divided the country is. That divide worries me.”

Mr. Thompson said he was fine with the president listing his accomplishments in the first six weeks of his second term, much of it an echo of the promises made in his inauguration speech in January. He acknowledged that the volume of Mr. Trump’s actions is impressive, but remained troubled by the pace.

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The address, he said, was intentionally provocative, with Mr. Trump taking unnecessary swipes at Democrats. “This was supposed to be a speech about how he was making America great again, but he was throwing out insults,” said Mr. Thompson, who supports the Green Party but ultimately voted for Kamala Harris.

Mr. Thompson was particularly bothered by Mr. Trump’s use of tariffs as a bargaining tool and his description of certain programs — involving Africa, immigration or L.G.B.T.Q. communities — as a flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars.

 

“It feels like those programs were targeted by DOGE, when there are plenty of other programs that could be cut,” he said, referring to Mr. Musk’s effort to cut back the federal government.

 Audra D. S. Burch

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‘I’m ashamed of the Democratic Party.’

Darlene Alfieri, 55, from Erie, Pa.

Image
 
Darlene Alfieri stands amid buckets of flowers in a room. She wears a patterned shirt and glasses. Credit...Daniel Lozada for The New York Times

“In my opinion, as a Democrat, that was a Republican Party win,” said Darlene Alfieri, a longtime registered Democrat who had taken a chance on Mr. Trump in 2024.

She did not come to this conclusion primarily because of the president’s speech. It might have been a bit more professional than some of his past speeches, she felt, but it was still light on the specifics she craved.

“He’s still talking that we’re going to be great, that things are going to get better, but I’m not seeing them get better in my day-to-day life,” she said. “Talk is cheap.”

 

No, she believed it was a good night for Mr. Trump primarily because she thought it was a terrible night for the Democrats, some of whom heckled the president at the beginning and then mostly refused to stand and clap throughout, even for Devarjaye Daniel, the boy with cancer that the president recognized in the crowd.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
 

“I’m ashamed of the Democratic Party,” she said. “Deliberately being argumentative and refusing to acknowledge good when it’s good is ridiculous.”

As for Mr. Trump himself, her opinion has remained the same since the election: supportive of his broader goals, frustrated that he is not more forthcoming about how he plans to achieve them. She welcomed the elimination of waste in the federal government, but wondered whether there were measures to make sure it did not come back? Reviving U.S. manufacturing is a great goal, she thought, but how much economic pain would it require?

Mr. Trump’s speech did not answer many of these questions.

“How is this going to happen?” she asked. “How long is it going to take? What are we going to have to endure in the meantime?”

 Campbell Robertson

‘The way he said the American dream is alive, and coming back, that’s a message of hope.’

Hamid Chaudhry, 53, from Reading, Pa.

Image
 
Hamid Chaudhry, wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, rests his arms on gray furniture. He wear glasses. Credit...Caroline Gutman for The New York Times

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Hamid Chaudhry, a business owner, had cast a skeptical vote for Mr. Trump last year. He liked the president’s business-minded approach but was concerned about his harsh rhetoric on immigrants. Mr. Chaudhry, now an American citizen, had come to the country from Pakistan.

But Mr. Trump’s speech touched on many of the themes that drew him to this country in the first place. “I came to America for the land of opportunity,” Mr. Chaudhry said. “The way he said the American dream is alive, and coming back, that’s a message of hope.”

He liked Mr. Trump’s words of support for farmers, knowing many in rural Berks County, Pa., and he appreciated the talk of bringing manufacturing back. He liked the idea of spending money on problems here rather than in foreign countries.

Mr. Chaudhry was not yet panicking about the effect of tariffs on the farmers and small business owners, believing that the tariffs were simply a tough negotiating move. As an example of what he saw as Mr. Trump’s deal-making savvy, he pointed out that Mr. Zelensky had publicly committed to negotiating a peace deal after being berated at the White House a few days earlier.

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The president “called his bluff,” Mr. Chaudhry said.

The strident talk about immigrants still bothered him, and he worried that constantly blaming them for so many problems might unleash hatred that could prove difficult to control. But he said Mr. Trump’s actions — surrounding himself with Kash Patel and Usha Vance, born to immigrant families, and Mr. Musk, born in South Africa — suggested that his fiery talk was more rhetorical than substantive.

 

All in all, Mr. Chaudhry said, “I’m feeling more comfortable” about Mr. Trump. But, he added, “I hope, at the speed they’re moving, there’s no major screw up.”

 Campbell Robertson

Skip to contentSkip to site indexSearch & Section Navigation
 
 
Account
 

What Some Reluctant Trump Voters Thought of His Speech

For many reluctant Trump voters, there was a mixture of confidence, anxiety, hope and frustration — along with some anger directed at congressional Democrats.

 
  • Share full article

By The New York Times

  • March 5, 2025Updated 3:34 p.m. ET
 

In an address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night, President Trump denounced Biden-era policies, mocked Democrats and lauded his administration’s early hailstorm of executive actions. He was, he said, “just getting started.”

How did his speech go over? The New York Times talked with six voters — many of whom voted for Mr. Trump reluctantly — as part of a regular check-in over the first 100 days of Mr. Trump’s term.

‘It was very nice to see a lot of empathy.’

Tali Jackont, 57, from Los Angeles

Image
Tali Jackont standing in front of a window in a red-and-white-striped shirt with a rhinestone heart on it. Credit...Mark Abramson for The New York Times

What struck Tali Jackont, an educator, more than anything was Mr. Trump’s showmanship. The president, she said, showed off his magnetism — his ability, like it or not, to combine forcefulness with bristling digs. She also enjoyed his humor.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
 

“Listen, he understands the media, he understands TV,” she said. “He tried to say things here and there to break the seriousness of the speech,” she added, noting that there were a few times when she found herself laughing out loud.

The entire speech, she added, “was very impressive.”

An immigrant from Israel and longtime Democrat, Ms. Jackont changed political course in November, voting for Mr. Trump, hoping that he could help Israel achieve peace, while reducing crime and getting her adopted country moving in a better direction. Though she would have liked the president to have spent more time on the Middle East, she said, his speech addressed the issues she cared about to her satisfaction.

One thing that surprised Ms. Jackont: the time Mr. Trump took to acknowledge cabinet members and speak compassionately about guests in the audience, like Devarjaye Daniel, a 13-year-old known as D.J., who was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2018, and was invited to the speech.

“It showed a little bit of warmth of personality when he spoke about people,” she said.

“It doesn’t mean that he cannot behave the opposite and kick someone off like Zelensky,” she added, referring to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president. “But it was very nice to see a lot of empathy. It was very nice to see.”

 Kurt Streeter

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
 

‘This was supposed to be a speech about how he was making America great again, but he was throwing out insults.’

Isaiah Thompson, 22, from Washington, D.C.

Image
 
Isaiah Thompson sits on gray furniture, wearing a gray vest over a blue collared shirt. A green leafy plant is seen behind him. Credit...Caroline Gutman for The New York Times

Isaiah Thompson, a college student, was expecting a finely tuned performance from Mr. Trump in his speech to Congress. After all, he said, the president has had a long career in entertainment.

What he was not expecting was the congressional response.

“On the Republican side, you had people standing, waving and chanting, ‘U.S.A.,’ and on the Democrat side, you had people sitting in silence and holding signs that said, ‘Musk steals,’” he said, referring to the tech mogul Elon Musk. “That one room showed how divided the country is. That divide worries me.”

Mr. Thompson said he was fine with the president listing his accomplishments in the first six weeks of his second term, much of it an echo of the promises made in his inauguration speech in January. He acknowledged that the volume of Mr. Trump’s actions is impressive, but remained troubled by the pace.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
 

The address, he said, was intentionally provocative, with Mr. Trump taking unnecessary swipes at Democrats. “This was supposed to be a speech about how he was making America great again, but he was throwing out insults,” said Mr. Thompson, who supports the Green Party but ultimately voted for Kamala Harris.

Mr. Thompson was particularly bothered by Mr. Trump’s use of tariffs as a bargaining tool and his description of certain programs — involving Africa, immigration or L.G.B.T.Q. communities — as a flagrant waste of taxpayer dollars.

 

“It feels like those programs were targeted by DOGE, when there are plenty of other programs that could be cut,” he said, referring to Mr. Musk’s effort to cut back the federal government.

 Audra D. S. Burch

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
 

‘I’m ashamed of the Democratic Party.’

Darlene Alfieri, 55, from Erie, Pa.

Image
 
Darlene Alfieri stands amid buckets of flowers in a room. She wears a patterned shirt and glasses. Credit...Daniel Lozada for The New York Times

“In my opinion, as a Democrat, that was a Republican Party win,” said Darlene Alfieri, a longtime registered Democrat who had taken a chance on Mr. Trump in 2024.

She did not come to this conclusion primarily because of the president’s speech. It might have been a bit more professional than some of his past speeches, she felt, but it was still light on the specifics she craved.

“He’s still talking that we’re going to be great, that things are going to get better, but I’m not seeing them get better in my day-to-day life,” she said. “Talk is cheap.”

 

No, she believed it was a good night for Mr. Trump primarily because she thought it was a terrible night for the Democrats, some of whom heckled the president at the beginning and then mostly refused to stand and clap throughout, even for Devarjaye Daniel, the boy with cancer that the president recognized in the crowd.

Advertisement

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
 

“I’m ashamed of the Democratic Party,” she said. “Deliberately being argumentative and refusing to acknowledge good when it’s good is ridiculous.”

As for Mr. Trump himself, her opinion has remained the same since the election: supportive of his broader goals, frustrated that he is not more forthcoming about how he plans to achieve them. She welcomed the elimination of waste in the federal government, but wondered whether there were measures to make sure it did not come back? Reviving U.S. manufacturing is a great goal, she thought, but how much economic pain would it require?

Mr. Trump’s speech did not answer many of these questions.

“How is this going to happen?” she asked. “How long is it going to take? What are we going to have to endure in the meantime?”

 Campbell Robertson

‘The way he said the American dream is alive, and coming back, that’s a message of hope.’

Hamid Chaudhry, 53, from Reading, Pa.

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Hamid Chaudhry, wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, rests his arms on gray furniture. He wear glasses. Credit...Caroline Gutman for The New York Times

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Hamid Chaudhry, a business owner, had cast a skeptical vote for Mr. Trump last year. He liked the president’s business-minded approach but was concerned about his harsh rhetoric on immigrants. Mr. Chaudhry, now an American citizen, had come to the country from Pakistan.

But Mr. Trump’s speech touched on many of the themes that drew him to this country in the first place. “I came to America for the land of opportunity,” Mr. Chaudhry said. “The way he said the American dream is alive, and coming back, that’s a message of hope.”

He liked Mr. Trump’s words of support for farmers, knowing many in rural Berks County, Pa., and he appreciated the talk of bringing manufacturing back. He liked the idea of spending money on problems here rather than in foreign countries.

Mr. Chaudhry was not yet panicking about the effect of tariffs on the farmers and small business owners, believing that the tariffs were simply a tough negotiating move. As an example of what he saw as Mr. Trump’s deal-making savvy, he pointed out that Mr. Zelensky had publicly committed to negotiating a peace deal after being berated at the White House a few days earlier.

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The president “called his bluff,” Mr. Chaudhry said.

The strident talk about immigrants still bothered him, and he worried that constantly blaming them for so many problems might unleash hatred that could prove difficult to control. But he said Mr. Trump’s actions — surrounding himself with Kash Patel and Usha Vance, born to immigrant families, and Mr. Musk, born in South Africa — suggested that his fiery talk was more rhetorical than substantive.

 

All in all, Mr. Chaudhry said, “I’m feeling more comfortable” about Mr. Trump. But, he added, “I hope, at the speed they’re moving, there’s no major screw up.”

 Campbell Robertson

‘He’s constantly working angles.’

Perry Hunter, 55, from Sellersburg, Ind.

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Perry Hunter sits at a desk wearing a blue zip-up over an orange shirt. He wears glasses. Credit...David Kasnic for The New York Times

The Democrats’ behavior during the speech was also a huge turnoff for Perry Hunter, a high school teacher. He was disappointed, for example, that they mostly did not applaud — even when Mr. Trump announced that “a top terrorist” had been captured for a bombing in Afghanistan that killed American military members, or when the boy with cancer was awarded a Secret Service badge.

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“If they can’t get past their partisanship for these things, it just reinforces that the Democrat Party is not for regular Americans,” he said, adding that Mr. Trump knows exactly how to appeal to “regular Americans.”

The speech was Trump showmanship at its best, Mr. Hunter said, full of typical political bluster, which appears to be how Mr. Trump gets things done. Look how Mr. Zelensky was now agreeing to make concessions and participate in peace talks, he added, just several days after the tense and dramatic Oval Office meeting that led Mr. Trump to pause aid to Ukraine.

 

“Everyone thought it was the end of us helping them,” Mr. Hunter said. “But the way it was handled, correctly or not, Zelensky is now basically apologizing.”

He called Mr. Trump “a master negotiator,” adding, “He’s constantly working angles.”

“The thing that bothers me the most about him, though, is that he thrives in chaos,” he said. “It just seems like he wants that.”

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Mr. Hunter isn’t sure what to make of the tariffs just yet, but he said Mr. Trump has two years, until the midterm elections, to make them work for the American economy. While he personally would tolerate rising prices in the short term if that led to them dropping in the long term, he expects other Americans to “want everything now, immediately.”

“You have to have patience,” he said, “and I’m not sure how patient we are.”

Trump is accomplishing what many of the people who voted for him were hoping.’

Jaime Escobar Jr., 46, from Roma, Texas

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Jaime Escobar, Jr., appears in front of brown paneling. He wears a blue button-down shirt. Credit...Jordan Vonderhaar for The New York Times
 

It only took a few minutes, but for Jaime Escobar Jr., the mayor of a small town on the Texas border, the disruption of Mr. Trump’s speech by Representative Al Green, Democrat of Texas, was another reminder of the nation’s political divide.

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“It is expected, yet a little sad,” Mr. Escobar said, adding, “When a president speaks, regardless of the political party, I think there should be a sort of decorum.”

Mr. Escobar paid particular attention to Mr. Trump’s message on immigration. Roma, population 11,000, struggled with a migrant crisis under the Biden administration. Seeing his hometown overloaded by the daily arrivals led him, once a loyal Democrat, to vote for Mr. Trump. He was not alone. Starr County, home to Roma, also flipped for Mr. Trump.

“Illegal crossings have gone down significantly — and it didn’t take so much an act of Congress, but an executive order and a different type of leadership,” Mr. Escobar said. “Trump is accomplishing what many of the people who voted for him were hoping he would accomplish.”

But not everything in Mr. Trump’s speech left him brimming with optimism.

In fact, he went to bed worried about how the tariff wars between the U.S. and its trading partners would affect the local economy of Roma, which has close commercial ties with Mexico.

“We don’t know how that’s going to impact us,” he said, a tint of worry in his voice.

 Edgar Sandoval

 

Edited by SimonBolivar
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Posted
5 hours ago, elfenix said:

If the leopards eating faces thread would have some focusness it would be easier to find this out

you and my wife are in agreement. she can't deal with all the off topic chatter.

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Posted
8 minutes ago, troph said:

you and my wife are in agreement. she can't deal with all the off topic chatter.

I don't know, discussing VWs seems apropos to me considering who created them and where we are now as a country.

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Posted
1 minute ago, DixonHur said:

I don't know, discussing VWs seems apropos to me considering who created them and where we are now as a country.

This isn't the leopards eating faces thread 

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Posted
2 hours ago, Hermanator said:

So the guy who knows you're going to go to him once your VW breaks down for the "friends and family discount" suggested you buy a VW?

Britney Spears What GIF

I know you're trying to be funny, but he fixes any and all vehicles, and this thing is under warranty for years, so what?

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Posted
1 hour ago, Bateshorn said:

You can pry my VWs out of my cold dead hands. Then you can replace the timing belt and the water pump. 

And some random wiring harness you have to take half the interior out to get to

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