Trump/Admin Policies

tbergs

Bentleyspop said:

tbergs said:

tbergs said:

So the executive order to pursue criminal charges against people who burn the flag seems like a way to bait a lawsuit to get it back up to the sycophant SCOTUS so they can get the 1989 case flipped in a 6 - 3 decision that will suppress 1st amendment rights. The continued government over reach is astounding.

It's another topic that democrats will lose on though because more Americans agree with him about it then don't. Maybe bible burning bans can be next. Nationalism digs in for the long haul.

“All over the country they’re burning flags,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday when he signed the order. “All of over the world they burn the American flag, and as you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a 5-4 decision, they called it freedom of speech.

Trump also claimed “you burn a flag, you get one year in jail” as he signed the executive order, but the order itself doesn’t include details about a potential jail sentence.

Trump has long advocated for criminalizing flag burning. In 2016, he posted on social media: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”

Most Americans tend to agree with Trump on this issue. Polling conducted by YouGov in 2020 showed nearly half of Americans support making flag destruction illegal, while about one-third believe it’s permissible. An updated YouGov survey from September 2023 found that 59% of Americans now consider burning an American flag during protests to be “always unacceptable”.

Trump signs order to criminally charge those who burn US flag in protest | Donald Trump | The Guardian https://share.google/x4YHoIFUrRPxHQVFk

That makes it more patriotic. I'm surprised he doesn't want to put gold leaf on it.

Gern Blansten

Crime, military, flag, etc....all buzzwords that get magats all googly eyed

Vitalogensia

Does the whole flag thing remind anyone else of The Simpsons “I’m An Amendment To Be”?

https://youtu.be/061Y_Wa8Byg?si=eqeMcHMVwqsoEurV

Lerxst1992

Go Beavers said:

Lerxst1992 said:

Go Beavers said:

Lerxst1992 said:

tbergs said:

tbergs said:

So the executive order to pursue criminal charges against people who burn the flag seems like a way to bait a lawsuit to get it back up to the sycophant SCOTUS so they can get the 1989 case flipped in a 6 - 3 decision that will suppress 1st amendment rights. The continued government over reach is astounding.

It's another topic that democrats will lose on though because more Americans agree with him about it then don't. Maybe bible burning bans can be next. Nationalism digs in for the long haul.

“All over the country they’re burning flags,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday when he signed the order. “All of over the world they burn the American flag, and as you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a 5-4 decision, they called it freedom of speech.

Trump also claimed “you burn a flag, you get one year in jail” as he signed the executive order, but the order itself doesn’t include details about a potential jail sentence.

Trump has long advocated for criminalizing flag burning. In 2016, he posted on social media: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”

Most Americans tend to agree with Trump on this issue. Polling conducted by YouGov in 2020 showed nearly half of Americans support making flag destruction illegal, while about one-third believe it’s permissible. An updated YouGov survey from September 2023 found that 59% of Americans now consider burning an American flag during protests to be “always unacceptable”.

Trump signs order to criminally charge those who burn US flag in protest | Donald Trump | The Guardian https://share.google/x4YHoIFUrRPxHQVFk

As a minority party losing nearly five million net registered voters, democrats need to do a much better job picking its battles.


supporting the freedom to burn the flag should be one they don’t waste their energy on, while the party reels in its lack of overall voter support.

Ditch the First Amendment. Great idea

No one is saying ditch it. But your gang doesn’t have the votes to do anything about it, and whining about it will not get your party any more representation in dc.


isnt the point in politics to win elections, then shape the agenda to its view?


mahers point made again. 

You think Maher’s going to say just ignore it? I thought most of his schtick centered around free speech? 

Yes technically you are correct on the narrow point of first amendment, which I do agree with, and so would Maher.


but when the party so so far in a ditch, they don’t have the luxury to play this game. Win the senate, appoint another liberal justice sure, do it then. Now it should be about all hands on deck figuring out why the other side is registering more voters and figure out how to turn that around, or 2028 will be out of reach.

mickeyrat

Go Beavers

Lerxst1992 said:

Go Beavers said:

Lerxst1992 said:

Go Beavers said:

Lerxst1992 said:

tbergs said:

tbergs said:

So the executive order to pursue criminal charges against people who burn the flag seems like a way to bait a lawsuit to get it back up to the sycophant SCOTUS so they can get the 1989 case flipped in a 6 - 3 decision that will suppress 1st amendment rights. The continued government over reach is astounding.

It's another topic that democrats will lose on though because more Americans agree with him about it then don't. Maybe bible burning bans can be next. Nationalism digs in for the long haul.

“All over the country they’re burning flags,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday when he signed the order. “All of over the world they burn the American flag, and as you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a 5-4 decision, they called it freedom of speech.

Trump also claimed “you burn a flag, you get one year in jail” as he signed the executive order, but the order itself doesn’t include details about a potential jail sentence.

Trump has long advocated for criminalizing flag burning. In 2016, he posted on social media: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”

Most Americans tend to agree with Trump on this issue. Polling conducted by YouGov in 2020 showed nearly half of Americans support making flag destruction illegal, while about one-third believe it’s permissible. An updated YouGov survey from September 2023 found that 59% of Americans now consider burning an American flag during protests to be “always unacceptable”.

Trump signs order to criminally charge those who burn US flag in protest | Donald Trump | The Guardian https://share.google/x4YHoIFUrRPxHQVFk

As a minority party losing nearly five million net registered voters, democrats need to do a much better job picking its battles.


supporting the freedom to burn the flag should be one they don’t waste their energy on, while the party reels in its lack of overall voter support.

Ditch the First Amendment. Great idea

No one is saying ditch it. But your gang doesn’t have the votes to do anything about it, and whining about it will not get your party any more representation in dc.


isnt the point in politics to win elections, then shape the agenda to its view?


mahers point made again. 

You think Maher’s going to say just ignore it? I thought most of his schtick centered around free speech? 

Yes technically you are correct on the narrow point of first amendment, which I do agree with, and so would Maher.


but when the party so so far in a ditch, they don’t have the luxury to play this game. Win the senate, appoint another liberal justice sure, do it then. Now it should be about all hands on deck figuring out why the other side is registering more voters and figure out how to turn that around, or 2028 will be out of reach.

Isn’t the registration data from last year? A lot of people got suckered and younger voters figured it out quickly based on his approval rating. 

Halifax2TheMax

The data behind the data.

The most common political party for new voters is no party at all | Weekly roundup for August 24, 2025

The big NYT party registration story

1. Leading or lagging indicator?

The New York Times made quite a splash with a fresh analysis of state-by-state party registrations this week. Reporters Shane Goldmacher and Jonah Smith write that “Of the 30 states that track voter registration by political party, Democrats lost ground to Republicans in every single one between the 2020 and 2024 elections — and often by a lot.”

They write that in 2024, new registrants leaned GOP “for the first time since 2018” and “Democrats held a roughly 517,310 registration advantage among active voters in Pennsylvania in November 2020, according to state records, but that edge dwindled to 58,530 voters this summer.” In North Carolina, the Democratic edge is now just 17,000 votes, compared to nearly 400,000 in 2020.

So here’s where I add my take. First, the trend is undeniably bad for Democrats. It’s possible this is the worst 4-year decline in registration for either party over the last 20 years. At the same time, I’m not sure if we are learning anything shockingly new with this analysis: voter data showed the party losing ground last year, and of course the Democrats lost 6 points in popular vote margin from 2020 to 2024. Of course their voter registration numbers took a beating too! So should the new data cause us to massively update our priors?

But the voter data does raise an interesting puzzle for us to solve: The party registration statistics cited by the NYT imply that across NC and PA, Democrats lost over 800,000 voters from 2020 to 2024. However, over that time period net Democratic votes in the presidential election “only” fell by 300,000 — less than half the size of the shift in registration.Maybe if everyone voted, the net decline would have been larger?

Maybe, but I don’t think that’s what’s going on. Looking within years, you can see there is a sizable share of the population that is Democrat In Name Only. Joe Biden lost North Carolina by ~75,000 votes in 2020 (while having that 400k-voter advantage) and won in Pennsylvania by just ~80,000 (despite the 517k lead).

And there’s more to the puzzle: Democrats have held an advantage in party registration in North Carolina for the past 40 years. It was 30 points at the beginning of the century. For most of this period, many of those “Democrats” by voter registration have been Republicans by vote choice. In 2012, Obama’s vote share was 20 points behind the Democratic Party registration advantage in North Carolina.

What’s happening is that many of these registered “Democrats” changing their party registration were not previous Democratic voters. This is not uncommon, especially in the South where there is a high proportion of so-called “ancestral Democrats” — people who are registered as Democrats due to local and regional historical factors but now vote Republican.

So hidden in the toplines of the NYT’s math is a combination of (1) “ancestral Democrats” both aging out of the electorate and changing their party registration to match their newer identities (and vote intention), (2) other genuine Democratic voters changing their label to Republican or No Party because they’re unhappy with the Democrats, and (3) real Democratic struggles recruiting new voters.

So there is quite a large mismatch between the Democratic lead in registration and how this translates to voting. Obviously, a decline in your registered voter base is not good no matter the reason — but depending on the reason, it’s also, evidently, not a death knell. At least not yet.

2. The rise of non-partisan and minor-party voters

The other thing to address is the growing trend of new voters identifying as neither Democrat nor Republican. According to the Times, just 24% of new voters nationwide in 2024 registered as Democrat, while 29% identified as Republican. That leaves 47% who registered without a party or with a minor party (such as e.g., Green, Socialist, Libertarian).

If you ask me, this is a trend worth diving into as well. The most common party registration in America is not with either of the two major parties, but explicitly against them both. Democrats should be worried about their recent political headwinds, but Republicans should be thinking about their shrinking position as well. The act of registering against both major parties reveals something about the psychology of the public. A deep sense of frustration with politics is leading to a systematic shedding of major-party political identities in voters’ psyches, and a growing appetite for minor-party candidates.

And this trend does not show any signs of slowing down.

I loaded up the L2 voter file on my computer and looked at the party breakdown of all the new voters who have registered since November 6, 2024. In Pennsylvania, 33.7% of new registrants chose Republican, 33.3% chose Democrat, and 33.0% chose no or a different party. In North Carolina, the breakdown of new voters was 51.2% no party/other, 27.2% Republican, and 21.6% Democrat.

I think it is notable that the Times analyzed these data through the horse-race angle, focusing on which major party was up or down. The reporters focused on the margins between registration percentages, but there seems to be an equally important story about the percentages themselves just waiting for anyone willing to see the data through a different lens…

The most common political party for new voters is no party at all | Weekly roundup for August 24, 2025

Pew: Trump has lost 30% of his young 2024 voters | Weekly roundup for August 17, 2025

Pew: Trump has lost 30% of his young 2024 voters | Weekly roundup for August 17, 2025

gimmesometruth27

so trump wants to rename the department of defense to the department of war.

good move if you want to win a peace prize....

mickeyrat

AltNatParkService adbook post

At today’s press briefing, Trump was asked how long he plans to keep troops stationed in Washington, D.C., and what his plans are for Chicago. He didn’t give a direct answer. Instead, he said: “I really want to be appreciated.” 

That comment came the same day he signed a new executive order directing the Defense Department to take on a bigger role in domestic law enforcement. The order authorizes the military to step in for “civil disturbances” and sets up specially trained National Guard units in D.C. and every state that can be quickly deployed to “maintain public safety and order.”

What that actually means is troubling. “Ensuring public safety and order” is broad, catch-all language that gives the administration enormous discretion, allowing it to deploy these forces in almost any situation the White House labels a “disturbance.” And “quelling civil disturbances” has historically referred to protests and demonstrations, not foreign threats or national emergencies. In other words, these units are designed to police civilians, not defend the country from outside enemies.

The priority isn’t protecting communities. It’s creating a standing rapid-response force that can be dropped into politically unfriendly cities under the banner of “public safety.” And with Trump openly tying deployments to his personal need for “appreciation,” this move looks far less about security and far more about authoritarianism.

Halifax2TheMax

Well, duh.

cincybearcat

gimmesometruth27 said:

so trump wants to rename the department of defense to the department of war.

good move if you want to win a peace prize....

The he can add spending for military instead of tax cuts and rightfully claim that the DOW is way up!

cutz

Bentleyspop said:

tbergs said:

tbergs said:

So the executive order to pursue criminal charges against people who burn the flag seems like a way to bait a lawsuit to get it back up to the sycophant SCOTUS so they can get the 1989 case flipped in a 6 - 3 decision that will suppress 1st amendment rights. The continued government over reach is astounding.

It's another topic that democrats will lose on though because more Americans agree with him about it then don't. Maybe bible burning bans can be next. Nationalism digs in for the long haul.

“All over the country they’re burning flags,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Monday when he signed the order. “All of over the world they burn the American flag, and as you know, through a very sad court, I guess it was a 5-4 decision, they called it freedom of speech.

Trump also claimed “you burn a flag, you get one year in jail” as he signed the executive order, but the order itself doesn’t include details about a potential jail sentence.

Trump has long advocated for criminalizing flag burning. In 2016, he posted on social media: “Nobody should be allowed to burn the American flag – if they do, there must be consequences – perhaps loss of citizenship or year in jail!”

Most Americans tend to agree with Trump on this issue. Polling conducted by YouGov in 2020 showed nearly half of Americans support making flag destruction illegal, while about one-third believe it’s permissible. An updated YouGov survey from September 2023 found that 59% of Americans now consider burning an American flag during protests to be “always unacceptable”.

Trump signs order to criminally charge those who burn US flag in protest | Donald Trump | The Guardian https://share.google/x4YHoIFUrRPxHQVFk

Throw him in jail.

shecky

https://www.foxnews.com/us/blue-city-residents-plead-trumps-help-out-control-crime-leads-another-bloody-weekend

The promise to fight crime is one of the big reasons why President Trump won the election!

HughFreakingDillon

shecky said:

https://www.foxnews.com/us/blue-city-residents-plead-trumps-help-out-control-crime-leads-another-bloody-weekend

The promise to fight crime is one of the big reasons why President Trump won the election!

Yes, cuz his idiot voters believe his bullshit. 

Tim Simmons

He’s not gonna put soldiers there though. 

Tim Simmons

It’s also a shame he doesn’t back the blue. Can’t believe he’s making police feel sad because he doesn’t trust them to do their jobs. Cold. 

Gern Blansten

Tim Simmons said:

It’s also a shame he doesn’t back the blue. Can’t believe he’s making police feel sad because he doesn’t trust them to do their jobs. Cold. 

Or just provide funding for more police...all of this is just temporary bullshit. At some point he will have to pull out and then receive the blame for an increase in crime. Better to just have Congress pass a bill to increase funding for more police. Problem solved.

Bentleyspop

mickeyrat

Just 38% of Americans support Trump's use of troops to police DC,  Reuters/Ipsos poll finds - https://www.reuters.com/world/us/just-38-americans-support-trumps-use-troops-police-dc-reutersipsos-poll-finds-2025-08-26/

Tim Simmons

Seems bad.

https://www.npr.org/2025/08/26/nx-s1-5517977/social-security-doge-privacy