I have a story that fits well for this thread, though I’ve hesitated to tell it because it’s very personal-- about my own son. He found out who I am on this board awhile back so he may read this, though when he did discover who I was he was so bored to tears with my posts I doubt he’s a regular reader (I expected to find some good dirt on you dad, but it’s mostly boring stuff about recipes and politics!).
In the 2024 election, his first eligible, he voted for trump. I know this not because he told his mother and me, since he knows how we feel about trump- he told his older brother and his brother told us. I guess it makes sense because my younger son, a very smart young man into programming and science, seems to have been part of the ‘tech bros’ who admired Musk before the election and were planning to vote for trump.
Now he’s in college, and even though he’s only a Freshman, he quickly secured a paid internship doing work for a research team working to develop a new diagnostic computer app for the medical field. This is important work in the field of medical science. He told us a month or two ago that he secured a few grand in grant money to keep doing his work over the summer break. Then suddenly, the grant was rescinded. He said he didn’t know exactly why, just that everyone on the research team, who usually have gotten the grant money in the past, were all denied this year. This grant money-- you guessed it-- is (was) federally funded.
It’s going to be interesting to hear what his take is now on the trump admin, Musk and DOGE when he comes back home for the summer. He’s young, though. His face will heal, and hopefully he’s learned not to trust leopards.
TBF, I get from the reading that what’s impossible is for his business to onshore to the US in response to these measures. I will fault him thus for having expected to begin with, against all visible evidence, that there would be a well thought-out sensible strategy that he would be able to adapt to, behind the campaigh trail bullshitting.
We may ask even then why would a New Zealander mogul whose business is shipping China-made products into the USA, have talen it for granted that any US reshoring policy would give him adequate wiggle room or even spare him sltogether. Here we have someone who adopted the “oh, he means going after someone else” POV, so yeah, leopards, assemble.
TBH, it’s not 100% clear to us even that it’s definitely the fault of trump/Musk. I may try to look into it further just to know for certain. But the writing on the wall is pretty clear:
Federally funded grant money which the professor and his team received in the past.
Was scheduled to get it again this year, when it’s suddenly canceled.
Probably some variation of “he won’t really do anything that crazy.” Trump supporters often ignore what he actually says and does in favor of what they imagine he’s saying and doing.
That’s why they are always surprised when the Face Eating Leopards eat their face.
A true MAGA is ready to accept personal sacrifice (like having a big chunk of their 401k wiped out) in order to help get the country back on the path to greatness.
My son is not a true MAGA. I have every confidence that he’ll be able to learn from his mistake, UNLIKE that of a true MAGA. He’s a very intelligent young man who made a youthful mistake at the voting booth and, I hope to God, learns a tough but valuable lesson.
You know, I could respect that attitude if I thought that any of this >vaguely gestures around< might actually work, but these guys can’t seem to explain how Trump’s chaotic nonsense is supposed to accomplish that, beyond simple assertions that it must be working. They’re clearly ignoring physical reality when they blather on about the US “being respected again”, they ignore the massive losses in trade and tourism, they ignore the destruction of the rule of law, and all that.
To repeat something stated ad nauseum by this point - they don’t care if they get burned as long as somebody else (trans, wrong skin color, whatever) gets burned worse.
When he “hurts the wrong people” is the only time they really care about the state of their own faces.
The new poll from the University of Massachusetts Amherst showed that 26 percent of Trump’s 2024 voters have at least some concerns about their choice, though notably the majority, 74 percent, still are confident in their vote.
Only two percent said they wish they could have voted differently, and an additional one percent said they “might” have voted differently. Four percent said they have mixed feelings about their vote, while 19 percent said they feel confident about their vote but do have “some concerns.” An additional one percent of Trump voters said they would have rather not voted at all. [my bold]
Only 2% wish they voted differently? That’s a little discouraging.
If we could magically bring back manufacturing of say, 1/2 of all that we import now, has anyone tried to determine how many workers that would require and if we even have the manpower for it?
I know from some of my MAGA contacts that a big part of what they want is for factories to return to the rural rust belt areas. They simply won’t believe me when I point out that modern factories require so much support from things like chemists, IT professionals, engineers, programmers, etc. that you’ll note almost all new factories are built near population centers. The chip fabs are being built in Columbus and Phoenix, not East Overshoe PA.
I’ve spent many years in pharmaceutical manufacturing, and we have lots of good working class jobs. But those factories ALSO need chemists, biologists, etc. We put a factory in Idaho (I begged TPTB to go someplace with the talent we needed but they loved the cheap land and construction) and we were never able to fully staff it. It was a disaster. We ended up selling it.
It’s harsh medicine, but if these rural rust belt towns don’t work in the modern economy we can’t force-fit them.
