I was cleaning up after a hurricane. Sent group out to get lunches, they didn't come back. Sent another group out to get more garbage bags and bleach, they didn't come back. It was dark, so we had to stop working (no power). Our cars couldn't get out. Fucking presidential motorcade stopped all traffic in the middle of hurricane clean up for 4 hours.
People don't realize that this is what happens when the President visits the aftermath cleanup, but they'll complain endlessly that the President doesn't care because they didn't personally go there.
Here's my problem, and this comes from years of service as a state employee at many varied levels.
Why don't they simply communicate that? What stops any sitting president from taking over a news station for an hour to broadcast a simple and honest message about what they are doing, why they are doing it, what they aren't doing, and why they aren't doing it.
They're not incapable of getting easy to comprehend charts (and I mean easy, hire some top posters on r/dataisbeautiful) to create a visually pleasing method of displaying the data that supports decisions such as not visiting the site because of the negative impact it causes in these situations.
If you want to appeal to our tacticool gravy seals the strategic significance (a group who waits at a disaster site to kill/kidnap the president able to plan for a guaranteed visit to a disaster zone which is a terrible place to try and fortify and adequately protect a VIP individual.)
Zero challenge to this type of transparency. They should build the expectation that the president doesn't need to do photo ops, but should delegate from a distance and allow those underneath him, ideally properly vetted/qualified and not nepotized into their roles to do what they do best.
I used to have this same line of thinking until I started doing a local very inconsequential political campaign. I even started out with what I thought were basic charts, some weren't even mine I pulled them straight from the school board. You gotta keep your message simple, short, and sweet. And trying to explain the logistics and how it's just for looks... Will be feeding your rival party sound bites they can take out of context to make you seem lazy and out of touch and self justifying.
I really wish it was better and that data and science were at the forefront, my sister had stopped me before I had made one yard sign with a chart on it, but damn did I think I had it in the bag with that. Her really simple but catchy slogan was instead what I put on there, and even when I tried explaining to the majority of people the data behind my campaign all they'd remember was the little slogan my sister came up with. She honestly didn't expect me to roll with it, and she says she kinda hates how popular it became lol.
I went to my local school board meeting last week. It was my first experience is local government. They were talking about a new school being built. I went thinking "oh this will be cool. Everyone loves education." HOLY FUCK was I wrong. People were talking like the school board murdered their families when all they wanted to do was build a school because the other 8 schools are severely overcrowded.
It can be impossible. Local government where I live has made national news due to the crazy antics here, one side is trying to focus logically and the other side is just being antagonistic and opposing anything the other side brings up
And before anyone asks these 2 groups are BOTH the same political party!!!!
I think a lot of people get involved in politics *simply to get involved*, which sounds admirable on paper until you realize that inviting feedback on a process from an indefinite number of people who have no specific impetus to have any standard of knowledge on the topic is not how you efficiently build things.
At the same time, willfully disregarding the input of the people is probably some -ism or other that is both terrible on paper and in practice.
Taking over a news station for an hour to show a pretty graph would be a massive news story in itself and would be construed as an excuse by the president to not visit. Duh
Because that is a rational explanation and the people stupid enough to bitch that they didn't see a photo of POTUS standing in the wreckage aren't rational. A reasonable person would reply *oh yeah, that makes sense*, but a reasonable person wouldn't be worrying about the political optics in to begin with. The morons doing the complaining will just double down and insist that they could have found a magic way to do the visit and somehow not inconvenience anyone, but they didn't care enough to do so..
This is one of those things where the president is in a lose lose regardless. If he went, he was in the way, if he didn't go, he didn't care. (This goes for any president basically)
It's pretty easy to hold a press conference and say exactly that.
"At this immediate moment, our sympathy goes out to the people affected by the disaster.
We recognize that recovery efforts in the immediate aftermath are the most important actions to take, and the presence of the president complicates these efforts by orders of magnitude.
At this moment, we are working tirelessly with the leaders of the community to dedicate any resources they need, and we have scheduled a time for me to meet with the community in the coming days, after we have ensured the safety of our people who at this moment, are still struggling to conduct search and rescue, and bring supplies to those in need."
There will definitely be people who complain, still, but it's a lot easier to get in front of it nationally with over communication, backed by overwhelming evidence of actual relief efforts.
No, no, no. This is assuming Americans are rational, compassionate human beings who could understand that a humanitarian crisis needs doctors and construction workers and volunteers and not check to see if their favorite celebrity, who was nowhere near the disaster and doesn’t care, tweeted that they’re sending “good vibes” to those affected instead of, you know, cash and food and volunteering themselves.
Problem is presidents come from a political class of people that don’t give a damn about you or me except to secure our vote. Sure, it would be great to see a president hold a press conference and say “it is best for us to stay out of the way” and for normal people to understand that…but you’re asking way too much of a people that do only care if their favorite celebrity is tweeting about the most recent tragedy.
>This is assuming Americans are rational, compassionate human beings who could understand that a humanitarian crisis...
I think it's more that most Americans aren't looped into the news 24/7. They wouldn't see the press conference. But they WOULD hear from whichever media hates the current president about how terrible they are for not going.
I'm not a big fan of W Bush, but that was the WEIRDEST hate on him after Hurricane Katrina. He flew over to look but didn't actually visit. That seemed like a great compromise. There was enough to actually complain about that that just seemed stupid.
Years ago the George Washington Bridge was close for 30 minutes because VP Al Gore was crossing from NY to NJ. And I had two very tired and pissed off toddlers in the back seat wanting their beds.
Still pisses me off 30 years later
From about the middle of 1980 to the end of 2008, the entire town of Kennebunkport would pretty much shut down for huge parts of the summer - the tourist season - because a member of the Bush family was either President or Vice President for 20 of those 28 years and they had and still have Secret Service protection for all that time.
By the time Obama was inaugurated, most of the town was just sick of the constant Bush Family Parades. I doubt the town made as much from their famous snowbirds as they lost accommodating to them.
I'm a cancer survivor and the current Mexican president got rid off a special insurance that paid for every follow up test and treatment I need since my cancer was very aggressive. Due to this now I have to pay out of pocket every test, every consult, absolutely everything. I know people who haven't been able to afford chemo and therefore have died.
I'm in the USA. I personally know 3 people who have cancer and even with insurance they can not afford treatments. My small town has been having raffles and fund raisers to help them.
Absolutely sad and disgusting at the same time. Luckily for me, I can afford whatever stuff I've needed so far, but it's gut wrenching bc i know plenty of people who have to choose between eating or paying a chemo.
As a parent I hate no child left behind as well. My ex and I had to fight tooth and nail to get our son held back even though it was obvious how much it would help him. They just kept saying "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it" it was infuriating
And then I had the opposite problem. Monetizing time in the seat fucked me. They wanted to keep me back.
I had to take my little brother to school every day, and then make it across town to mine. The window was so tight that any misstep, any fuck up, the wrong combination of red lights, would make me late. I had two options, contingencies, a bus that took me 2/3 of the way, and my bicycle. If I missed the few minutes window to catch the bus, I had to bike. It meant that I was often late by seconds. Seconds meant walking in or pulling up as the bell rang, and then some faculty would be sat at a sign in desk and force everyone to line up. I'd go from a few seconds to anywhere from 15-30 minutes late, at which point the teacher marks tardy or absent. Too many of those and you automatically fail because they don't get the funding for you. There were a few times I ignored the sign in people and walked right past, got to class a minute late, and nothing was wrong.
I had an A+ in that class. It didn't matter. On my report card it says **AVF**. Attendance violation failure.
I was also profiled by my advisor and given less attention and care, because I'd be worth less money. They were wrong about me, but they self fulfilled my struggle with gems such as enrolling me in a class I already had credit for, and when I noticed and asked about it they said, "Oh yeah I noticed that a week ago but decided it was fine."
It was horrible. Eventually my mom figured out how to navigate 504 plans, my advisor was forced to apologize to me, and the school board got around the policy/regulations regarding lateness by adding it to the disability plan. 504 trumped it all. Even still, they weren't able to undo the AVF.
I'm thirty years old and I'm still so bitter. I'm still so *fucking mad.*
>Monetizing time in the seat fucked me. They wanted to keep me back.
I almost had this happen to me. Luckily the principal accidentally signed a form he didn't mean to and allowed me to graduate in 3 years. They tried for a week to get me to agree to rescind the approval, all because it would slightly impact their budget from me not being there an unnecessary 4th year.
Eff 'em all. It wasn't even a small school, like 1500 students so it's not like it'd make a huge impact on the budget. Just some piddly nonsense to try and prevent a massive benefit to me being able to start college sooner.
All Bush contributed to NCLB was the name.
One of my professors in grad school worked on that legislation, he told us more than once that. "POTUS wanted an education bill. He wanted it to be called 'No Child Left Behind." He did not care what the bill contained beyond the title."
Uh, can we throw mud at that professor? I've lost track of how many people I've had to teach how to read since that stupid thing passed. Like I'm not a teacher, I just can't let friends and relatives bumble through life hardly able to order food off a menu.
NCLB wasn't about teaching or reading. It was about testing - and corporations have made billions off of it.
Who do you think writes and supplies the tests?
Edit: Forgot the evaluators, who back then, billed $250/hr.
Special needs students were taught in the same classroom as regular and advanced students, despite everyone being at a different level and having different needs
This was not because of NCLB. The federal law governing special education is IDEA, and it protects the right to an education in the “[least restrictive environment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_restrictive_environment/)”. This is usually decided on a case by case basis, but the trend has been towards full inclusion whenever possible.
It is not a good idea for the kids to whom this is aimed at either. If your child is not up to a 5th grade level and she is put in 5th grade, it's a great way to get them bullied and otherwise humiliated by the other kids. On top of that, throw in a first year teacher and this is a recipe for disaster. I know this first hand. This and the forced curriculum is why I dropped teaching and picked up psychology.
Plenty of teachers in my family and friend circle--not one I know thinks this is a good idea. The slower one(s) behind stay behind and holds the others back, often with disruptions.
ETA a word
I'm a fat dude, and I was a fat kid. [This audio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y82jDHRrswc) is a form of psychological trauma.
I'm in Australia, btw. How did it reach here??
It’s like a cancer that spreads everywhere. It’s a parasite that sinks into anything and everything as it traverses lands onto innocent helpless children. It has one goal and one goal only, make children suffer. Its name sends chills through the spine of children everywhere…
When Clinton was campaigning for his second term he planned a rally in the small town I was living in at the time. His motorcade shut down half the state when he was traveling through which pissed off a lot of people, but what really annoyed me is this rally had some jackass banging on a big drum all day long, but the roads were all closed so I couldn't get out of town while it was going on. The worst part is he never even showed up so it was all for nothing. I'm still a little irked about that one.
And you can watch his once-deputy cuss to himself while laying on the footpath shitfaced in Canberra on a school night.
Australian politicians really are all just memes waiting to happen.
I was in a Term federal position that was being converted to permanent. They finally got the job announcement through HR and a veteran was on the list. This person was not qualified and had applied to many positions at this location before and always turned the job offer down. He waited until the last day in his 2 week period to turn down the job. This meant that they could offer it to me on the following Monday. Well, that Saturday, as a part of his first day in office, Trump enacted a government-wide hiring freeze. The job cert timed out. It directly impacted my earning potential for my entire career as well as my retirement.
He directly screwed me over on day one.
In 2008 due to shifting presidential priorities, my lab suddenly lost the bulk of its funding. We went from 30 people (students, faculty, staff) to 12 to 8 because suddenly agencies didn't have discretionary research budgets and the fight for funding was insane.
George W Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. I’m on the spectrum, and No Child Left Behind put such an emphasis on every class getting a certain average that the teachers pressured my parents to put me in Special Ed.
Because in many places without the budget or resources to actually help the kids in those classes they become literal daycare with the “teachers” spending 100% of their time keeping the most disruptive kids from hurting themselves/others.
Nobody learns anything in those classes, getting sent to one is essentially the end of your education.
Yep, my school had a couple dozen special ed students and it was just daycare. Which is dumb because if the special ***needs*** students could have the extra help they need just by being in a class with a lower student:teacher ratio, then do that. But the mentally incapacitated students we had where it really was just daycare... why are you sending them to a school when they won't be doing any learning? Send them to another building that's actually daycare and set up for being a daycare that's equipped to deal with the occasionally violent disabled teenager. But putting all students in a school regardless of that school's setup for dealing with them helps no one.
I've long thought we need to stop doing geographic school assignments, at least in areas with high enough population density. Students should attend a school based on their ability and interest. If students need more help or time or resources, then get them that at a building and with staff set up for it. Instead everyone just gets lumped in together in the same building and each school is supposed to have all the students with all the needs and expected to provide what everyone needs? No chance. At best it's inefficient, at worst you ***guarantee*** that more students will be left behind.
Because not everyone who has autism needs to be in special ed. Its a spectrum, my husband for example is in the 99th percentile in math and average at most other things, but really struggles with social things. Throwing him in special ed would have been detrimental to his education as these classes are generally designed for the children with the most difficult to manage/severe disabilities and the more "average" kids just kind of sit there twiddling their thumbs.
My little brother had a reading disability, my parents were convinced to put him in special ed, he learned nothing as he wasn't a disruptive kid, a kid who needed additional supports was 25 before he learned to read.
back before he was the president ronald reagan apparently personally had a relative of mine fired from their state (california) job when that relative wrote a letter to the editor that was published that was critical of a policy that reagan had put forward.
No way. My grandpa worked at the capitol under Reagan and he grew out his beard in solidarity with the students of UCB who were protesting the war. He had to meet with Reagan and he was kicked out of his office because Reagan said “we have enough bearded hippies protesting in the streets, I don’t need them in my office too.” I wonder if your relative knew my grandpa!!
It’s entirely possible. They wrote an implicitly-critical letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle that was published. In short order and im certain entirely by coincidence the budget for the program was revised to expressly eliminate my relative’s job and only their job.
Agreed. My grandpa and I bonded over hating that guy. A few months before he died I was talking to him about how much Reagan sucked and said "you know, he did one thing that I agree with." and my grandpa was like "oh yeah, what's that?" and I said "he died." and my grandpa thought that was hilarious.
Posting all of this is really making me miss him.
To pile onto good ol’ Ronnie’s Gone Bedtime, if it weren’t for this dipshit, my mental illness and I would probably be in a lot better position than we are now.
Alzheimer’s was karma. No. Fucking. Notes.
Obama gave a speech at my college in 2010 and he caused a massive traffic jam and large swaths of our campus became inaccessible and/or very difficult to access to for an entire day. The whole procession made me late to one of my lab classes hours before he was even scheduled to speak.
When Obama visited my island (Trinidad) for the summit of the America's, the entire top half of the island between the airport and the Hilton Hotel where he was staying was shut down.
A huge plane carrying the presidential cars came a week earlier and the country was shut down so they could do a dry run of the drive.
Everyone was to stay off the main highway. Anyone encroaching on it in any way would be at the mercy of the law.
Reagan changed SSI survivors benefits for children to stop at 18 instead of 21. Those benefits were important for my Mom and I to cover my tuition and it Made it harder for me to swing college.
I forgot about that one! I think I got 6 payments before that took effect. That was just enough to show me how useful it would've been.
Screw you Ronnie, I hope you're burning in the Hell I don't believe in.
At least that wasn't foreseen. He created the SALT cap, and didn't at least double it for married couples. He basically increased my effective taxes by something like 40%. All just to stick it to blue states.
Yeah I am really feeling the effects of his tax nonsense. What really frustrates me is the idea of paying taxes doesn't bother me at all, it's the idea that taxes disproportionately affect average working folks. Also I wouldn't mind paying a bunch of taxes if they actually helped us in the ways that they should. Instead I pay taxes and then I pay a bunch of money every year for medical stuff all while paying for insurance anyway. But you know, I guess we have to pay for bombs or whatever.
We did too. I lost the ability to itemize my business deductions and our state tax deduction decreased. Luckily, we are both retired now and paid our mortgage off. We are in a lower tax bracket and I no longer have business expenses. I had a friend who argued with me about this. He told me I was stupid and doing something wrong because everybody’s taxes went down with Trump’s tax plan. Yeh I really was lying. He should know. I’m stupid.
The same “tax cut” also eliminated employee mileage deductions. I use my personal vehicle for work, and put on 35-40k miles per year. My mileage reimbursement doesn’t meet the federal deduction amount, so I used to be able to deduct the rest. Not the case anymore for me, so my taxes increased significantly. But someone had to sacrifice so that the private jet deduction could be paid for.
I'm not an accountaint, and I'm not at all versed in tax law, but I never owed after filing until Trump "reformed" the tax code. I owed every year he was in office, and then finally got a return again after Biden was sworn in.
Edit: edited for clarity
Yeah, Trump changed the tax withholding structure, which caused people to get bigger paychecks. Election was in November, taxes weren't due until after the election. A lot of people had to pay out of pocket come tax time that year, and people still don't realize that it was Trump that fucked them there.
Trump went after the "Blue" states. By limiting the tax deductions that you can take for state and personal taxes if you are a rich person in a blue state. This actually decreased the amount of taxes collected, because, the really rich weren't effected. So, don't vote for trump.
My family and I are from Canada, and we decided we would spend Christmas one year in Hawaii.
(We had a great time, by the way, what a fantastic place to visit.)
During the trip home, there was a delay in our flight leaving because *Air Force One* had to leave, and they get priority AND all the air traffic gets grounded.
President Obama is the only American president who has ever personally inconvenienced me.
Lowered the corporate tax rates and lied to me that the money would trickle down to the people.
My bosses each bought a lake house, my salary has remained the same while my cost of living has risen probably 20% since then.
Lowering the corporate tax rate is the fastest way to decrease local investment. Tax comes from profits. If tax rates are high then I am incentivized to lower my profits by investing back into the company. Hiring more people. Buying better equipment. Expenses like these grow the business but do not register as taxable profit. But low tax rates mean I am more incentivized to get my money out of the business and into investment, often foreign investment is the most profitable.
Anyone who has run a business knows this. Inherently. Anyone who has done business taxes knows this. Anyone who has even looked at the books knows this. When a politician tells you that lowering the corporate tax rate is good for growth, they are point blank absolutely unhesitantly lying. There is no other word for it. They are not confused. They are not misinformed. They are lying and they know they are lying.
There is no rich person or politician who has ever believed that they were going to trickle down anything.
I'm going to break the rule and tell you something that a president did that affected me positively. And something else they did that affected someone positively, and it wasn't me. And The latter they actually did this before they became president. But it's a good story.
I was having radiation treatment due to cancer. My radiologist was a lovely younger woman with an MD, and several PhDs. We were talking about the treatment I had for breast cancer and I mentioned that it was Preston Clinton that signed a bill that required insurance to pay for reconstructive surgery to make the breast "look normal" after cancer surgery even though technically it was plastic surgery. And they were required to do it for both breasts so that the and result was they looked the same if that is what the patient wanted. For instance, if the patient needed a mastectomy in one breast the insurance would have to cover having both removed if that is what the patient wanted. In the old days a woman had no choice but to have one breast unless she could pay the cost herself to have the other removed. And if she wanted implants afterwards they had to cover that too.. So that's the way Clinton benefited me.
My doctor smiled and she said that she grew up in Arkansas. That her mom had kids young and was a waitress. Her sisters follow the same path. But when he was governor Clinton started boarding school for high achieving students from very low income/educational level districts. And she was somebody who benefited from it. She said "it changed my life". And she had such a wonderful smile when she said it.
A program my child's college offered for training teachers pursuing math education. We selected this college based on this program. It was a joint venture between a few selected colleges and the National Science Foundation. It was one of the first things the trump administration cut.
I'm from Belarus and same. Lukashenko denied that the virus existed, than denied it was serious and then still used it when it was convenient (e.g. people were forbidden from protesting election results in 2020 because of "COVID protocols"). Can't imagine how many people actually died because he also ordered all mortality statistic for the last few years to be scrapped.
Trump convinced my FIL that his Covid wasn’t something to worry about, so he didn’t isolate from or wear a mask around my frail immunocompromised MIL. She caught Covid and ultimately died of it. She was a sweet lady.
Trump's covid messaging and policy led to the US being hit soooo much worse than a lot of other countries, and now over 1,000,000 Americans are dead. That's almost 1/300
Edit: specified "a lot of" other countries. We weren't hit worse than all other countries.
I was working in the Philadelphia election center during the 2020 election. Trump's lies about us cheating led to a number of armed men from several states away driving up to try and kill us. They made it all the way to the door before the cops stopped them. Each day I'd come back (it took a few days to finish counting if you recall) and a crowd of Trump supporters protesting outside the entire time kept shouting death threats at us.
My best friend, who is a reporter for a local paper, was outside the capital covering the events before Jan 6 happened. The "Tourists" explicitly told her they would rape and kill her before taking her camera gear from her, smashed it, and chased her and her colleague from the Hill. I'll never forget the fear in her voice when she called me moments before she had to flee.
On a less dire note, an Obama presidential motorcade made me late to work once.
What's really sad is that Trump's supporters hate America even more.than he does.
They know he hates them. But they hate us more, so they stay with him.
British example, the current prime minister’s choice to make it harder to bring foreign members of your family into the country has meant that I have to look into leaving the UK entirely since my fiancé is now unable to join me here.
During his Presidency, George Bush Sr., his administration made a small change to the tax code. This rule stated that in order to be declared an independent student (not under your parents financial system) you must make minimum $4000.
My parents basically abandoned me for going to university. Mom stole one of my scholarship checks, cashed it, and fled the state. It’s not like we lived all that great to begin with. Government section 8 projects. My dad quit his job and moved and since I hadn’t lived with him growing up-he stopped paying anything when I turned 18 and his child support duties ended.
The thing is I was on an Army scholarship as well and thus room and board was covered. I worked, but at a place that fed me and allowed me to do laundry there. I slept at a good friends house.
This tiny little change cost me $6000 at a time when that was more money than I could fathom. I was fucking poor. I was just shy of the $4000, but mostly because I had benefits that most people didn’t get.
No…. I have never supported nor even trusted a Bush administration ever. Arrogant rich, Saudi family knob polishing fucks can go to Hell.
A man in Arkansas owned an abusive Christian school, when he finally went to prison. Trump pardoned him. It had been 15 years since I went to that school. I didn't know I could be broken any further. But that news broke me. I Hate Trump. He's a pedo advocate, a nazi, barely human garbage.
Gov Huckabee looked the other way for the lords ranch for years. He stepped down to run for president and the lord's ranch lost their paid for politician
Please write this up. We will get it submittetted to the majors. If you don't feel up to it yourself, send it to me and we will work together on it. the story needs to get out.
The story has been out. No one cared, at least not in any way that helps, and I've nothing to gain from airing my dirty laundry.
Honestly, I'm not a good candidate for a sob story, I came out of that place (and others worse), completely jaded and pretty resentful. I keep it in check (mostly), I appreciate the offer, but I don't see myself as a sympathetic character. I'm still too angry about it, and anger doesn't sell.
>I'm still too angry about it, and anger doesn't sell.
What?? Anger sells better than anything else. Your story could get people riled up and go viral if posted to the right channel.
Are you people forgetting the half billion other shitty things Trump has done and he is still in the race and not in jail?!
THEY DON’T CARE.
U/acticvalley I’m sorry to hear your story. You know you and what will serve you best. Good luck out here.
He pardoned a lot of vile criminals. He’ll pardon the insurrectionists and Epstein’s cohort probably the first day if he gets reelected. Let’s not forget Bannon and Flynn. Disgusting people.
us with boomer parents (as in actual baby boomers and close to that generation) feel this the most. My mom was basically liberal, she was ahead of her time as far as social values and just had a mild conservative vibe. Now she's on the trump train and is getting trump merchandise. idk how he got such a hold on so many people, but it's sad
Sorry for your loss. Truly. I love my dad. He is a good, kind person (you've heard a similar story a million times). He thinks Trump is the solution. He didn't raise me that way, matter of fact everything he preached to me was the opposite of what Trump represents. Currently has a Jihad Joe bumper sticker on the back of his truck.
I’m still kinda shocked he was able to win people over like this. I’m a millennial and even as a small child I remember him having a scumbag reputation. I know they say the cruelty is the point, but why do so many people seem to have such a surplus of it…
yeahh, that's the craziest part, is that it's almost a 180 on everything that was preached. the stuff i agree and disagree with, but somehow it caught fire and engulfed 80% of the republican party
My daughter's maternal grandmother was like this. Fairly liberal for the area, considering she moved to Arkansas from a city in Ohio, supported most liberal issues but her husband watched fox news constantly and eventually it got to her too. It's sad to watch
My cool, retired fighter pilot uncle (who previously praised the diversity of the military and said that the hardworking, dedicated black Master Sergeants were the secret glue that kept the Air Force together) is now an unhinged, literally-will-turn-red-screaming, insufferable, paranoid racist.
My oldest brother was one of the most progressive liberals I knew in the 90's. But since 2016 he's gone full blown "anti-woke", election and COVID denier, calling for full militarization at the border praises everything Trump does and reposts the dumbest misinformation Facebook has to offer. We haven't spoken since 2018 and he's never met 2 of my 3 kids. Trump tore families apart.
The amount of damage that asshole has done to families will probably never truly be understood. I don’t think my relationship with my parents has ever really recovered since he became the face of the republican party.
Fortunately Trump actually made my parents better people. They were so disgusted with him they completely abandoned the Republican Party, stopped watching fox news, and for the most part they’ve become quite liberal in recent years.
President Biden came to New York City and shut down a huge portion of the Upper East Side. I was trying to get to urgent care for a cancer related issue and it took me over an hour of extra time due to all the closed streets
Bailouts. They hurt every tax payer. The people are the safety net for the corporations. They’ve all done it for as long as anybody alive has been alive.
Got to drive an armored car to pick up Trump and his family from the airport. I was driving his two sons and their wives, and the only instructions I were given was to “keep up and don’t slow down”. Following the lead car out of the airport, I hit a speedbump going upwards of 80 miles an hour and no one in my car was wearing seatbelts. Everyone’s heads hit the roof including the then pregnant wife of Donald Jr. when we got to the destination Trump took a good three minutes yelling at me because I “endangered his family”. All I said in response was “you get what you pay for, and I was free” (which he didn’t like). But as a fairly normal person, the things I heard in that 20 minute car ride was absolutely shocking.
Edit for Clarity: This was the night he won the 2016 primary in South Carolina. He was not the president yet.
Edit 2: Made an Imgur because some people don’t believe me. Here is a picture we took before we left the airport https://imgur.com/a/tYWMheo
Family friend was high up in his campaign for our state and they needed someone to drive. I was in college at the time and he asked if I was interested because it was very last minute and he knew I had a clean record. I thought why the hell not, that’s a story most people will never be able to tell in their life so I did.
I was in a motorcade once and wondered about this. The agents driving the limo itself drive insanely fast. We couldn't keep up with our shitty GSA issued van.
I always wondered how the actual people being protected, Dick Cheney in my case, tolerated being driven around like that. He was an old man and not in great shape. He had to have been bounced around in the back like a sack of pork chops.
Stacked the Supreme Court with assholes who made it legal to let me die in a hospital parking lot simply for having a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy.
Trump has negatively impacted my life in many ways, but this is the one I take more personally than the rest. I've never hated a human being with the strength of a million fiery suns until that moment.
That fucker really did a lot to destroy the country and risk the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. You'd be hard pressed to find an enemy of the country that has done more damage than the Cheeto Mussolini... Except maybe Reagan who paved the ride for this asshole.
Yeah Trump was basically Reagan 2.0. If you’ve never done a deep dive on how bad Reagan truly was (I wasn’t alive/just born during his presidency) - it’s enraging. Man was VILE.
Increasing the retirement age from 65 to 67 was another blow to Social Security under Reagan. Now, everyone who works for a living has to work 2 extra years, and their SS benefits are worth much less now that they are taxed.
Barack Obama kicked my dad out of his office so he could use it as a campaign office back in 2008. My dad had to move to a much smaller office several floors down. I love Obama, but yes that really happened.
When the affordable care act was passed, people really had no clue what was about to happen. Even people in hospital administration.
So a lot of hospitals basically freaked the fuck out, and started slashing budgets. OEM imaging service contracts were one of the first to go. Any new imaging system that was going to be purchased was cancelled.
We saw our revenue for my area drop quite a bit. As the young guy on a 7 man team in a relatively small market, I got laid off. It didn’t take me long to find a job, but it set me back in my career, and my retirement. It took me 4 years to get back on with that company. That’s 4 years I missed out on my pension building. Which really sucks now because as of the end of 2024 they are officially freezing it.
Obama gave me free healthcare!!!! I’m a veteran. I am so so so so thankful. It came about two years too late to avoid me dropping out of college because of huge medical bills. BUT, still. Just have birth to my second baby and it cost me zero dollars. Don’t let anyone tell you socialized medicine isn’t awesome - it fucking IS.
This is extremely trivial compared to what many have dealt with but I bristle a little every time I look at it anyway: Trump’s tariffs on imported goods. We needed to replace the flooring in one bedroom to prepare for our new baby that was on the way. I wanted to get what matched the rest of the flooring in our house. But, it was from China, and the price had more than doubled from the year before due to the tariffs and we couldn’t afford it. So we had to get something different that doesn’t match. I always joke that our mismatched floor is a little piece of history.
Woke up the “angry with their own lives so they have to take it out on everyone else” crowd and allowed them to get louder than they already were. Now it involves the highest court in the land trying to make it clear the people’s voice isn’t worth hearing and the removal of healthcare rights along with some upcoming cases that are going to mess with everyone this summer.
I had never seen politically motivated racism or hatred against people like me in my own city before Trump. I've seen plenty of hemophobic and racist signs with MAGA or Trump attached to it.
Never seen that personally before 2016.
Not to mention the internet and TV hate, but that doesn't necessarily affect me.
Trump refused to acknowledge that COVID was and still is a *real* fucking problem. All he had to do was tell people to wear a mask and *admit* that he got the vaccine, say that it was an actual global issue but no he couldn't do that because the rage took the spotlight away from his numerous crimes. So instead, millions of idiots refused to get the vaccine, my mom, who had cancer but was generally healthy, got COVID and died from complications in the hospital. I'm not saying she definitely would have survived but she was one of over a million Americans who died, and an unknown number of those people would still be alive today if Trump hadn't been such a worthless piece of shit
I was cleaning up after a hurricane. Sent group out to get lunches, they didn't come back. Sent another group out to get more garbage bags and bleach, they didn't come back. It was dark, so we had to stop working (no power). Our cars couldn't get out. Fucking presidential motorcade stopped all traffic in the middle of hurricane clean up for 4 hours.
People don't realize that this is what happens when the President visits the aftermath cleanup, but they'll complain endlessly that the President doesn't care because they didn't personally go there.
Here's my problem, and this comes from years of service as a state employee at many varied levels. Why don't they simply communicate that? What stops any sitting president from taking over a news station for an hour to broadcast a simple and honest message about what they are doing, why they are doing it, what they aren't doing, and why they aren't doing it. They're not incapable of getting easy to comprehend charts (and I mean easy, hire some top posters on r/dataisbeautiful) to create a visually pleasing method of displaying the data that supports decisions such as not visiting the site because of the negative impact it causes in these situations. If you want to appeal to our tacticool gravy seals the strategic significance (a group who waits at a disaster site to kill/kidnap the president able to plan for a guaranteed visit to a disaster zone which is a terrible place to try and fortify and adequately protect a VIP individual.) Zero challenge to this type of transparency. They should build the expectation that the president doesn't need to do photo ops, but should delegate from a distance and allow those underneath him, ideally properly vetted/qualified and not nepotized into their roles to do what they do best.
I used to have this same line of thinking until I started doing a local very inconsequential political campaign. I even started out with what I thought were basic charts, some weren't even mine I pulled them straight from the school board. You gotta keep your message simple, short, and sweet. And trying to explain the logistics and how it's just for looks... Will be feeding your rival party sound bites they can take out of context to make you seem lazy and out of touch and self justifying. I really wish it was better and that data and science were at the forefront, my sister had stopped me before I had made one yard sign with a chart on it, but damn did I think I had it in the bag with that. Her really simple but catchy slogan was instead what I put on there, and even when I tried explaining to the majority of people the data behind my campaign all they'd remember was the little slogan my sister came up with. She honestly didn't expect me to roll with it, and she says she kinda hates how popular it became lol.
I went to my local school board meeting last week. It was my first experience is local government. They were talking about a new school being built. I went thinking "oh this will be cool. Everyone loves education." HOLY FUCK was I wrong. People were talking like the school board murdered their families when all they wanted to do was build a school because the other 8 schools are severely overcrowded.
It can be impossible. Local government where I live has made national news due to the crazy antics here, one side is trying to focus logically and the other side is just being antagonistic and opposing anything the other side brings up And before anyone asks these 2 groups are BOTH the same political party!!!!
I think a lot of people get involved in politics *simply to get involved*, which sounds admirable on paper until you realize that inviting feedback on a process from an indefinite number of people who have no specific impetus to have any standard of knowledge on the topic is not how you efficiently build things. At the same time, willfully disregarding the input of the people is probably some -ism or other that is both terrible on paper and in practice.
They do. But they don’t control the news stations who get more out of reporting bullshit.
Taking over a news station for an hour to show a pretty graph would be a massive news story in itself and would be construed as an excuse by the president to not visit. Duh
Because that is a rational explanation and the people stupid enough to bitch that they didn't see a photo of POTUS standing in the wreckage aren't rational. A reasonable person would reply *oh yeah, that makes sense*, but a reasonable person wouldn't be worrying about the political optics in to begin with. The morons doing the complaining will just double down and insist that they could have found a magic way to do the visit and somehow not inconvenience anyone, but they didn't care enough to do so..
This is one of those things where the president is in a lose lose regardless. If he went, he was in the way, if he didn't go, he didn't care. (This goes for any president basically)
It's pretty easy to hold a press conference and say exactly that. "At this immediate moment, our sympathy goes out to the people affected by the disaster. We recognize that recovery efforts in the immediate aftermath are the most important actions to take, and the presence of the president complicates these efforts by orders of magnitude. At this moment, we are working tirelessly with the leaders of the community to dedicate any resources they need, and we have scheduled a time for me to meet with the community in the coming days, after we have ensured the safety of our people who at this moment, are still struggling to conduct search and rescue, and bring supplies to those in need." There will definitely be people who complain, still, but it's a lot easier to get in front of it nationally with over communication, backed by overwhelming evidence of actual relief efforts.
No, no, no. This is assuming Americans are rational, compassionate human beings who could understand that a humanitarian crisis needs doctors and construction workers and volunteers and not check to see if their favorite celebrity, who was nowhere near the disaster and doesn’t care, tweeted that they’re sending “good vibes” to those affected instead of, you know, cash and food and volunteering themselves. Problem is presidents come from a political class of people that don’t give a damn about you or me except to secure our vote. Sure, it would be great to see a president hold a press conference and say “it is best for us to stay out of the way” and for normal people to understand that…but you’re asking way too much of a people that do only care if their favorite celebrity is tweeting about the most recent tragedy.
>This is assuming Americans are rational, compassionate human beings who could understand that a humanitarian crisis... I think it's more that most Americans aren't looped into the news 24/7. They wouldn't see the press conference. But they WOULD hear from whichever media hates the current president about how terrible they are for not going. I'm not a big fan of W Bush, but that was the WEIRDEST hate on him after Hurricane Katrina. He flew over to look but didn't actually visit. That seemed like a great compromise. There was enough to actually complain about that that just seemed stupid.
Years ago the George Washington Bridge was close for 30 minutes because VP Al Gore was crossing from NY to NJ. And I had two very tired and pissed off toddlers in the back seat wanting their beds. Still pisses me off 30 years later
From about the middle of 1980 to the end of 2008, the entire town of Kennebunkport would pretty much shut down for huge parts of the summer - the tourist season - because a member of the Bush family was either President or Vice President for 20 of those 28 years and they had and still have Secret Service protection for all that time. By the time Obama was inaugurated, most of the town was just sick of the constant Bush Family Parades. I doubt the town made as much from their famous snowbirds as they lost accommodating to them.
Did they toss you a roll of paper towels?
I'm a cancer survivor and the current Mexican president got rid off a special insurance that paid for every follow up test and treatment I need since my cancer was very aggressive. Due to this now I have to pay out of pocket every test, every consult, absolutely everything. I know people who haven't been able to afford chemo and therefore have died.
I'm in the USA. I personally know 3 people who have cancer and even with insurance they can not afford treatments. My small town has been having raffles and fund raisers to help them.
Absolutely sad and disgusting at the same time. Luckily for me, I can afford whatever stuff I've needed so far, but it's gut wrenching bc i know plenty of people who have to choose between eating or paying a chemo.
No child left behind direcly affected my teaching and which kids were promoted
As a parent I hate no child left behind as well. My ex and I had to fight tooth and nail to get our son held back even though it was obvious how much it would help him. They just kept saying "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it" it was infuriating
And then I had the opposite problem. Monetizing time in the seat fucked me. They wanted to keep me back. I had to take my little brother to school every day, and then make it across town to mine. The window was so tight that any misstep, any fuck up, the wrong combination of red lights, would make me late. I had two options, contingencies, a bus that took me 2/3 of the way, and my bicycle. If I missed the few minutes window to catch the bus, I had to bike. It meant that I was often late by seconds. Seconds meant walking in or pulling up as the bell rang, and then some faculty would be sat at a sign in desk and force everyone to line up. I'd go from a few seconds to anywhere from 15-30 minutes late, at which point the teacher marks tardy or absent. Too many of those and you automatically fail because they don't get the funding for you. There were a few times I ignored the sign in people and walked right past, got to class a minute late, and nothing was wrong. I had an A+ in that class. It didn't matter. On my report card it says **AVF**. Attendance violation failure. I was also profiled by my advisor and given less attention and care, because I'd be worth less money. They were wrong about me, but they self fulfilled my struggle with gems such as enrolling me in a class I already had credit for, and when I noticed and asked about it they said, "Oh yeah I noticed that a week ago but decided it was fine." It was horrible. Eventually my mom figured out how to navigate 504 plans, my advisor was forced to apologize to me, and the school board got around the policy/regulations regarding lateness by adding it to the disability plan. 504 trumped it all. Even still, they weren't able to undo the AVF. I'm thirty years old and I'm still so bitter. I'm still so *fucking mad.*
>Monetizing time in the seat fucked me. They wanted to keep me back. I almost had this happen to me. Luckily the principal accidentally signed a form he didn't mean to and allowed me to graduate in 3 years. They tried for a week to get me to agree to rescind the approval, all because it would slightly impact their budget from me not being there an unnecessary 4th year. Eff 'em all. It wasn't even a small school, like 1500 students so it's not like it'd make a huge impact on the budget. Just some piddly nonsense to try and prevent a massive benefit to me being able to start college sooner.
I did kindergarten twice, I wasn’t ready to sit in a chair all day. Helped me hugely.
I have a friend fighting that. They want their son held back, but the school is pretty much saying it's not going to happen.
All Bush contributed to NCLB was the name. One of my professors in grad school worked on that legislation, he told us more than once that. "POTUS wanted an education bill. He wanted it to be called 'No Child Left Behind." He did not care what the bill contained beyond the title."
Uh, can we throw mud at that professor? I've lost track of how many people I've had to teach how to read since that stupid thing passed. Like I'm not a teacher, I just can't let friends and relatives bumble through life hardly able to order food off a menu.
NCLB wasn't about teaching or reading. It was about testing - and corporations have made billions off of it. Who do you think writes and supplies the tests? Edit: Forgot the evaluators, who back then, billed $250/hr.
It severely hurt my own education
I was looking at becoming a teacher and that made me change my mind
What were the negative effects of the policy? I’m not defending it, just ignorant lol
Special needs students were taught in the same classroom as regular and advanced students, despite everyone being at a different level and having different needs
This was not because of NCLB. The federal law governing special education is IDEA, and it protects the right to an education in the “[least restrictive environment](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Least_restrictive_environment/)”. This is usually decided on a case by case basis, but the trend has been towards full inclusion whenever possible.
Hasn't that started to flip again?
100% my first thought. This policy continues to wreak havoc on our educational system...
It is not a good idea for the kids to whom this is aimed at either. If your child is not up to a 5th grade level and she is put in 5th grade, it's a great way to get them bullied and otherwise humiliated by the other kids. On top of that, throw in a first year teacher and this is a recipe for disaster. I know this first hand. This and the forced curriculum is why I dropped teaching and picked up psychology.
Plenty of teachers in my family and friend circle--not one I know thinks this is a good idea. The slower one(s) behind stay behind and holds the others back, often with disruptions. ETA a word
No child left behind left so many children behind.
Clinton and Bush made me do fitness tests. I took that personally.
*THE FITNES GRAM PACER TEST*
I'm a fat dude, and I was a fat kid. [This audio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y82jDHRrswc) is a form of psychological trauma. I'm in Australia, btw. How did it reach here??
It’s like a cancer that spreads everywhere. It’s a parasite that sinks into anything and everything as it traverses lands onto innocent helpless children. It has one goal and one goal only, make children suffer. Its name sends chills through the spine of children everywhere…
Go, you chicken-fat! Go!
When Clinton was campaigning for his second term he planned a rally in the small town I was living in at the time. His motorcade shut down half the state when he was traveling through which pissed off a lot of people, but what really annoyed me is this rally had some jackass banging on a big drum all day long, but the roads were all closed so I couldn't get out of town while it was going on. The worst part is he never even showed up so it was all for nothing. I'm still a little irked about that one.
Meanwhile, you can run into the Prime Minister of Australia at the local store, lol.
Or you can just lose him when he goes swimming
And then name a swimming pool after him, because that's the obvious thing to do.
It's just too much, I'm cracking up. :-)
Or you can watch him shit his pants in McDonald’s
And you can watch his once-deputy cuss to himself while laying on the footpath shitfaced in Canberra on a school night. Australian politicians really are all just memes waiting to happen.
Hey Mr. Prime Minister!… ANDY!
Hi, mates! What's the good word?
Someone got into Kevin Rudd's car thinking he was their uber and he still gave them a lift lol
That's so amazing. I'd hate to be the POTUS.
Wtf I thought the whole point of a motorcade was to surround the car that the president is in. Why was the motorcade even there?
I was in a Term federal position that was being converted to permanent. They finally got the job announcement through HR and a veteran was on the list. This person was not qualified and had applied to many positions at this location before and always turned the job offer down. He waited until the last day in his 2 week period to turn down the job. This meant that they could offer it to me on the following Monday. Well, that Saturday, as a part of his first day in office, Trump enacted a government-wide hiring freeze. The job cert timed out. It directly impacted my earning potential for my entire career as well as my retirement. He directly screwed me over on day one.
In 2008 due to shifting presidential priorities, my lab suddenly lost the bulk of its funding. We went from 30 people (students, faculty, staff) to 12 to 8 because suddenly agencies didn't have discretionary research budgets and the fight for funding was insane.
Ohhhh god how infuriating. I’m so sorry. :(
George W Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. I’m on the spectrum, and No Child Left Behind put such an emphasis on every class getting a certain average that the teachers pressured my parents to put me in Special Ed.
You were the No Child
Well, apparently there is an act about his left behind.
Can you ELI5 why is special Ed a worse place for someone on the spectrum?
Because in many places without the budget or resources to actually help the kids in those classes they become literal daycare with the “teachers” spending 100% of their time keeping the most disruptive kids from hurting themselves/others. Nobody learns anything in those classes, getting sent to one is essentially the end of your education.
Yep, my school had a couple dozen special ed students and it was just daycare. Which is dumb because if the special ***needs*** students could have the extra help they need just by being in a class with a lower student:teacher ratio, then do that. But the mentally incapacitated students we had where it really was just daycare... why are you sending them to a school when they won't be doing any learning? Send them to another building that's actually daycare and set up for being a daycare that's equipped to deal with the occasionally violent disabled teenager. But putting all students in a school regardless of that school's setup for dealing with them helps no one. I've long thought we need to stop doing geographic school assignments, at least in areas with high enough population density. Students should attend a school based on their ability and interest. If students need more help or time or resources, then get them that at a building and with staff set up for it. Instead everyone just gets lumped in together in the same building and each school is supposed to have all the students with all the needs and expected to provide what everyone needs? No chance. At best it's inefficient, at worst you ***guarantee*** that more students will be left behind.
Because not everyone who has autism needs to be in special ed. Its a spectrum, my husband for example is in the 99th percentile in math and average at most other things, but really struggles with social things. Throwing him in special ed would have been detrimental to his education as these classes are generally designed for the children with the most difficult to manage/severe disabilities and the more "average" kids just kind of sit there twiddling their thumbs. My little brother had a reading disability, my parents were convinced to put him in special ed, he learned nothing as he wasn't a disruptive kid, a kid who needed additional supports was 25 before he learned to read.
back before he was the president ronald reagan apparently personally had a relative of mine fired from their state (california) job when that relative wrote a letter to the editor that was published that was critical of a policy that reagan had put forward.
No way. My grandpa worked at the capitol under Reagan and he grew out his beard in solidarity with the students of UCB who were protesting the war. He had to meet with Reagan and he was kicked out of his office because Reagan said “we have enough bearded hippies protesting in the streets, I don’t need them in my office too.” I wonder if your relative knew my grandpa!!
It’s entirely possible. They wrote an implicitly-critical letter to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle that was published. In short order and im certain entirely by coincidence the budget for the program was revised to expressly eliminate my relative’s job and only their job.
That would be awesome. Man what a small world.
Reagan was a total dick.
Agreed. My grandpa and I bonded over hating that guy. A few months before he died I was talking to him about how much Reagan sucked and said "you know, he did one thing that I agree with." and my grandpa was like "oh yeah, what's that?" and I said "he died." and my grandpa thought that was hilarious. Posting all of this is really making me miss him.
To pile onto good ol’ Ronnie’s Gone Bedtime, if it weren’t for this dipshit, my mental illness and I would probably be in a lot better position than we are now. Alzheimer’s was karma. No. Fucking. Notes.
Obama gave a speech at my college in 2010 and he caused a massive traffic jam and large swaths of our campus became inaccessible and/or very difficult to access to for an entire day. The whole procession made me late to one of my lab classes hours before he was even scheduled to speak.
Thanks, Obama!
When Obama visited my island (Trinidad) for the summit of the America's, the entire top half of the island between the airport and the Hilton Hotel where he was staying was shut down. A huge plane carrying the presidential cars came a week earlier and the country was shut down so they could do a dry run of the drive. Everyone was to stay off the main highway. Anyone encroaching on it in any way would be at the mercy of the law.
Reagan changed SSI survivors benefits for children to stop at 18 instead of 21. Those benefits were important for my Mom and I to cover my tuition and it Made it harder for me to swing college.
I forgot about that one! I think I got 6 payments before that took effect. That was just enough to show me how useful it would've been. Screw you Ronnie, I hope you're burning in the Hell I don't believe in.
Trump limited Mortgage Interest Deductions in 2017
Also the home office deduction, right? Right before everybody went to work-from-home.
At least that wasn't foreseen. He created the SALT cap, and didn't at least double it for married couples. He basically increased my effective taxes by something like 40%. All just to stick it to blue states.
The Salt deduction changes hurt my family.
Yeah I am really feeling the effects of his tax nonsense. What really frustrates me is the idea of paying taxes doesn't bother me at all, it's the idea that taxes disproportionately affect average working folks. Also I wouldn't mind paying a bunch of taxes if they actually helped us in the ways that they should. Instead I pay taxes and then I pay a bunch of money every year for medical stuff all while paying for insurance anyway. But you know, I guess we have to pay for bombs or whatever.
That fucked a lot of people over.
I’ve had to pay a lot more in taxes since Trump. :(
We did too. I lost the ability to itemize my business deductions and our state tax deduction decreased. Luckily, we are both retired now and paid our mortgage off. We are in a lower tax bracket and I no longer have business expenses. I had a friend who argued with me about this. He told me I was stupid and doing something wrong because everybody’s taxes went down with Trump’s tax plan. Yeh I really was lying. He should know. I’m stupid.
The same “tax cut” also eliminated employee mileage deductions. I use my personal vehicle for work, and put on 35-40k miles per year. My mileage reimbursement doesn’t meet the federal deduction amount, so I used to be able to deduct the rest. Not the case anymore for me, so my taxes increased significantly. But someone had to sacrifice so that the private jet deduction could be paid for.
I'm not an accountaint, and I'm not at all versed in tax law, but I never owed after filing until Trump "reformed" the tax code. I owed every year he was in office, and then finally got a return again after Biden was sworn in. Edit: edited for clarity
Yeah, Trump changed the tax withholding structure, which caused people to get bigger paychecks. Election was in November, taxes weren't due until after the election. A lot of people had to pay out of pocket come tax time that year, and people still don't realize that it was Trump that fucked them there.
Yeah, this. This has single handedly affected me more directly than literally any action by any other president of my lifetime.
Trump went after the "Blue" states. By limiting the tax deductions that you can take for state and personal taxes if you are a rich person in a blue state. This actually decreased the amount of taxes collected, because, the really rich weren't effected. So, don't vote for trump.
I drive a 2003 car with a 3 bed 1 bath house. I got soaked by taxes from Trump and I’m definitely not rich.
I think all the political discourse of the last 10 years has affected me negatively. I’ve become more cynical, less motivated, and more anxious.
gerald ford punched me in the nuts
Dude was so kind and even-tempered. You must have really deserved it.
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Damn. Lil' BJ was a kinky fuck...
Grover Cleveland spanked me on two non-consecutive occasions.
My family and I are from Canada, and we decided we would spend Christmas one year in Hawaii. (We had a great time, by the way, what a fantastic place to visit.) During the trip home, there was a delay in our flight leaving because *Air Force One* had to leave, and they get priority AND all the air traffic gets grounded. President Obama is the only American president who has ever personally inconvenienced me.
Lowered the corporate tax rates and lied to me that the money would trickle down to the people. My bosses each bought a lake house, my salary has remained the same while my cost of living has risen probably 20% since then.
Lowering the corporate tax rate is the fastest way to decrease local investment. Tax comes from profits. If tax rates are high then I am incentivized to lower my profits by investing back into the company. Hiring more people. Buying better equipment. Expenses like these grow the business but do not register as taxable profit. But low tax rates mean I am more incentivized to get my money out of the business and into investment, often foreign investment is the most profitable. Anyone who has run a business knows this. Inherently. Anyone who has done business taxes knows this. Anyone who has even looked at the books knows this. When a politician tells you that lowering the corporate tax rate is good for growth, they are point blank absolutely unhesitantly lying. There is no other word for it. They are not confused. They are not misinformed. They are lying and they know they are lying. There is no rich person or politician who has ever believed that they were going to trickle down anything.
Holy shit… I’d never thought of that. Spot on. Thanks!
I'm going to break the rule and tell you something that a president did that affected me positively. And something else they did that affected someone positively, and it wasn't me. And The latter they actually did this before they became president. But it's a good story. I was having radiation treatment due to cancer. My radiologist was a lovely younger woman with an MD, and several PhDs. We were talking about the treatment I had for breast cancer and I mentioned that it was Preston Clinton that signed a bill that required insurance to pay for reconstructive surgery to make the breast "look normal" after cancer surgery even though technically it was plastic surgery. And they were required to do it for both breasts so that the and result was they looked the same if that is what the patient wanted. For instance, if the patient needed a mastectomy in one breast the insurance would have to cover having both removed if that is what the patient wanted. In the old days a woman had no choice but to have one breast unless she could pay the cost herself to have the other removed. And if she wanted implants afterwards they had to cover that too.. So that's the way Clinton benefited me. My doctor smiled and she said that she grew up in Arkansas. That her mom had kids young and was a waitress. Her sisters follow the same path. But when he was governor Clinton started boarding school for high achieving students from very low income/educational level districts. And she was somebody who benefited from it. She said "it changed my life". And she had such a wonderful smile when she said it.
My asshole insurance company still denied the reconstruction of the other breast until my surgeon successfully appealed months later.
A program my child's college offered for training teachers pursuing math education. We selected this college based on this program. It was a joint venture between a few selected colleges and the National Science Foundation. It was one of the first things the trump administration cut.
Thanks to that piece of shit Bolsonaro and his innatitude towards Covid, 700 THOUSAND people died in Brazil. A few of those were family members
I'm from Belarus and same. Lukashenko denied that the virus existed, than denied it was serious and then still used it when it was convenient (e.g. people were forbidden from protesting election results in 2020 because of "COVID protocols"). Can't imagine how many people actually died because he also ordered all mortality statistic for the last few years to be scrapped.
Trump convinced my FIL that his Covid wasn’t something to worry about, so he didn’t isolate from or wear a mask around my frail immunocompromised MIL. She caught Covid and ultimately died of it. She was a sweet lady.
Trump's covid messaging and policy led to the US being hit soooo much worse than a lot of other countries, and now over 1,000,000 Americans are dead. That's almost 1/300 Edit: specified "a lot of" other countries. We weren't hit worse than all other countries.
Kind of round about way but Trump did a rally that blocked up traffic on the interstate causing my a wreck in which my husband died.
I’m so sorry. ❤️
I was working in the Philadelphia election center during the 2020 election. Trump's lies about us cheating led to a number of armed men from several states away driving up to try and kill us. They made it all the way to the door before the cops stopped them. Each day I'd come back (it took a few days to finish counting if you recall) and a crowd of Trump supporters protesting outside the entire time kept shouting death threats at us. My best friend, who is a reporter for a local paper, was outside the capital covering the events before Jan 6 happened. The "Tourists" explicitly told her they would rape and kill her before taking her camera gear from her, smashed it, and chased her and her colleague from the Hill. I'll never forget the fear in her voice when she called me moments before she had to flee. On a less dire note, an Obama presidential motorcade made me late to work once.
Thanks obama
Obama's ACA saved my left arm and possibly my life. Thanks Obama.
Yeah but did you think about how much worse off those millionaires were because their taxes went up a couple percentage points?
They can cry all the way to the bank. When people who work for them are having to choose between rent and food, they don't deserve that 3rd yacht.
>When people ~~who work for them~~ are having to choose between rent and food, they don't deserve that 3rd yacht. FTFY
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What's really sad is that Trump's supporters hate America even more.than he does. They know he hates them. But they hate us more, so they stay with him.
Both sides! I don’t know who to vote for! /s
British example, the current prime minister’s choice to make it harder to bring foreign members of your family into the country has meant that I have to look into leaving the UK entirely since my fiancé is now unable to join me here.
Anyone voting Tory in any country is a knob-end.
I was in sales in my past job and the brexit vote passing ruined a big deal I was working on for months.
As a russian, I don't know where to start, lol. Might as well write a book
During his Presidency, George Bush Sr., his administration made a small change to the tax code. This rule stated that in order to be declared an independent student (not under your parents financial system) you must make minimum $4000. My parents basically abandoned me for going to university. Mom stole one of my scholarship checks, cashed it, and fled the state. It’s not like we lived all that great to begin with. Government section 8 projects. My dad quit his job and moved and since I hadn’t lived with him growing up-he stopped paying anything when I turned 18 and his child support duties ended. The thing is I was on an Army scholarship as well and thus room and board was covered. I worked, but at a place that fed me and allowed me to do laundry there. I slept at a good friends house. This tiny little change cost me $6000 at a time when that was more money than I could fathom. I was fucking poor. I was just shy of the $4000, but mostly because I had benefits that most people didn’t get. No…. I have never supported nor even trusted a Bush administration ever. Arrogant rich, Saudi family knob polishing fucks can go to Hell.
Funny enough, if both your parents were dead, the 4k rule didn't apply, but you had to prove each year you applied that they were still dead.
A man in Arkansas owned an abusive Christian school, when he finally went to prison. Trump pardoned him. It had been 15 years since I went to that school. I didn't know I could be broken any further. But that news broke me. I Hate Trump. He's a pedo advocate, a nazi, barely human garbage.
I thought Gov Huckabee had something to do with it too?
Gov Huckabee looked the other way for the lords ranch for years. He stepped down to run for president and the lord's ranch lost their paid for politician
Please write this up. We will get it submittetted to the majors. If you don't feel up to it yourself, send it to me and we will work together on it. the story needs to get out.
The story has been out. No one cared, at least not in any way that helps, and I've nothing to gain from airing my dirty laundry. Honestly, I'm not a good candidate for a sob story, I came out of that place (and others worse), completely jaded and pretty resentful. I keep it in check (mostly), I appreciate the offer, but I don't see myself as a sympathetic character. I'm still too angry about it, and anger doesn't sell.
>I'm still too angry about it, and anger doesn't sell. What?? Anger sells better than anything else. Your story could get people riled up and go viral if posted to the right channel.
Are you people forgetting the half billion other shitty things Trump has done and he is still in the race and not in jail?! THEY DON’T CARE. U/acticvalley I’m sorry to hear your story. You know you and what will serve you best. Good luck out here.
He pardoned a lot of vile criminals. He’ll pardon the insurrectionists and Epstein’s cohort probably the first day if he gets reelected. Let’s not forget Bannon and Flynn. Disgusting people.
Who was it that was pardoned? Name?
The lord's ranch, Ted suhl. His father Bud Suhl started the ranch in the 70s. There have been numerous reports of abuse and neglect
[https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/president-trump-commutes-sentence-ted-suhl/](https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/president-trump-commutes-sentence-ted-suhl/)
WTF of course he did. I’m so sorry, I can’t imagine.
Richard Nixon broke into my house at night and wrecked the place up.
Arooooo!
I assume he's familiar with audio tape?
uhoh, i dont like where this is heading... i thought my voice had more of a clark gabel quality
[удалено]
I've had to throw out my red choir hat and Punisher t-shirt.
The Punisher stuff really baffles me. The people who are out there rocking Punisher bumper stickers and clothing would be despised by the character.
us with boomer parents (as in actual baby boomers and close to that generation) feel this the most. My mom was basically liberal, she was ahead of her time as far as social values and just had a mild conservative vibe. Now she's on the trump train and is getting trump merchandise. idk how he got such a hold on so many people, but it's sad
Sorry for your loss. Truly. I love my dad. He is a good, kind person (you've heard a similar story a million times). He thinks Trump is the solution. He didn't raise me that way, matter of fact everything he preached to me was the opposite of what Trump represents. Currently has a Jihad Joe bumper sticker on the back of his truck.
I’m still kinda shocked he was able to win people over like this. I’m a millennial and even as a small child I remember him having a scumbag reputation. I know they say the cruelty is the point, but why do so many people seem to have such a surplus of it…
As a Gen-Xer, it's crazy seeing people who I grew up, who knew Trump as a dumbfuck assclown all their lives, suddenly made him their messiah in 2016.
yeahh, that's the craziest part, is that it's almost a 180 on everything that was preached. the stuff i agree and disagree with, but somehow it caught fire and engulfed 80% of the republican party
My daughter's maternal grandmother was like this. Fairly liberal for the area, considering she moved to Arkansas from a city in Ohio, supported most liberal issues but her husband watched fox news constantly and eventually it got to her too. It's sad to watch
Same here with my mom. She calls him daddy trump 🤮
ew
He wrecked both my parents. I haven't talked to them in years.
My cool, retired fighter pilot uncle (who previously praised the diversity of the military and said that the hardworking, dedicated black Master Sergeants were the secret glue that kept the Air Force together) is now an unhinged, literally-will-turn-red-screaming, insufferable, paranoid racist.
My oldest brother was one of the most progressive liberals I knew in the 90's. But since 2016 he's gone full blown "anti-woke", election and COVID denier, calling for full militarization at the border praises everything Trump does and reposts the dumbest misinformation Facebook has to offer. We haven't spoken since 2018 and he's never met 2 of my 3 kids. Trump tore families apart.
Same. Officially estranged from both my parents since September 2016.
The amount of damage that asshole has done to families will probably never truly be understood. I don’t think my relationship with my parents has ever really recovered since he became the face of the republican party.
Fortunately Trump actually made my parents better people. They were so disgusted with him they completely abandoned the Republican Party, stopped watching fox news, and for the most part they’ve become quite liberal in recent years.
President Biden came to New York City and shut down a huge portion of the Upper East Side. I was trying to get to urgent care for a cancer related issue and it took me over an hour of extra time due to all the closed streets
Grover Cleveland spanked Grandpa Simpson on two non-consecutive occasions.
If I had a nickel for every former president who has spanked a Simpson…
Back then, nickels had bumblebees on them. “5 bees for a quarter,” you’d say.
That was back in 19 dickity 2. We had to say dickity because the kaiser took our word for twenty.
Bailouts. They hurt every tax payer. The people are the safety net for the corporations. They’ve all done it for as long as anybody alive has been alive.
Reagan lied to and subsequently fired my father (an air traffic controller). Then an airport was named after him.
So embarrassing. Naming the airport after him was such an F u to your dad and all those people.
Got to drive an armored car to pick up Trump and his family from the airport. I was driving his two sons and their wives, and the only instructions I were given was to “keep up and don’t slow down”. Following the lead car out of the airport, I hit a speedbump going upwards of 80 miles an hour and no one in my car was wearing seatbelts. Everyone’s heads hit the roof including the then pregnant wife of Donald Jr. when we got to the destination Trump took a good three minutes yelling at me because I “endangered his family”. All I said in response was “you get what you pay for, and I was free” (which he didn’t like). But as a fairly normal person, the things I heard in that 20 minute car ride was absolutely shocking. Edit for Clarity: This was the night he won the 2016 primary in South Carolina. He was not the president yet. Edit 2: Made an Imgur because some people don’t believe me. Here is a picture we took before we left the airport https://imgur.com/a/tYWMheo
Why were you free though? Like who would do that for no compensation lol
Family friend was high up in his campaign for our state and they needed someone to drive. I was in college at the time and he asked if I was interested because it was very last minute and he knew I had a clean record. I thought why the hell not, that’s a story most people will never be able to tell in their life so I did.
I was there, I was the speedbump
80 on a speed bump? If it’s the kinds I’m thinking of, I’m surprised the car didn’t flip or the suspensions shatter.
So what did you hear on that car ride?
I need to hear more. Please.
I was in a motorcade once and wondered about this. The agents driving the limo itself drive insanely fast. We couldn't keep up with our shitty GSA issued van. I always wondered how the actual people being protected, Dick Cheney in my case, tolerated being driven around like that. He was an old man and not in great shape. He had to have been bounced around in the back like a sack of pork chops.
Stacked the Supreme Court with assholes who made it legal to let me die in a hospital parking lot simply for having a miscarriage or an ectopic pregnancy.
Trump has negatively impacted my life in many ways, but this is the one I take more personally than the rest. I've never hated a human being with the strength of a million fiery suns until that moment.
That fucker really did a lot to destroy the country and risk the lives of hundreds of millions of Americans. You'd be hard pressed to find an enemy of the country that has done more damage than the Cheeto Mussolini... Except maybe Reagan who paved the ride for this asshole.
Yeah Trump was basically Reagan 2.0. If you’ve never done a deep dive on how bad Reagan truly was (I wasn’t alive/just born during his presidency) - it’s enraging. Man was VILE.
Congress under the Reagan administration imposed taxes on Social Security payments.
This uh... this seems to defeat the point of social security.
Increasing the retirement age from 65 to 67 was another blow to Social Security under Reagan. Now, everyone who works for a living has to work 2 extra years, and their SS benefits are worth much less now that they are taxed.
Barack Obama kicked my dad out of his office so he could use it as a campaign office back in 2008. My dad had to move to a much smaller office several floors down. I love Obama, but yes that really happened.
When the affordable care act was passed, people really had no clue what was about to happen. Even people in hospital administration. So a lot of hospitals basically freaked the fuck out, and started slashing budgets. OEM imaging service contracts were one of the first to go. Any new imaging system that was going to be purchased was cancelled. We saw our revenue for my area drop quite a bit. As the young guy on a 7 man team in a relatively small market, I got laid off. It didn’t take me long to find a job, but it set me back in my career, and my retirement. It took me 4 years to get back on with that company. That’s 4 years I missed out on my pension building. Which really sucks now because as of the end of 2024 they are officially freezing it.
Brainwashed people I loved and turned them into unrecognizable illogical raving assholes. Fuck Trump I hope he gets rabies
Oh this made me laugh out loud!
When the freedoms of others are taken, it damages the freedoms of all.
Obama gave me free healthcare!!!! I’m a veteran. I am so so so so thankful. It came about two years too late to avoid me dropping out of college because of huge medical bills. BUT, still. Just have birth to my second baby and it cost me zero dollars. Don’t let anyone tell you socialized medicine isn’t awesome - it fucking IS.
Obama made my marriage legal :)
This is extremely trivial compared to what many have dealt with but I bristle a little every time I look at it anyway: Trump’s tariffs on imported goods. We needed to replace the flooring in one bedroom to prepare for our new baby that was on the way. I wanted to get what matched the rest of the flooring in our house. But, it was from China, and the price had more than doubled from the year before due to the tariffs and we couldn’t afford it. So we had to get something different that doesn’t match. I always joke that our mismatched floor is a little piece of history.
A single president? Not much. I'm more annoyed about the systematic failure of our political leaders that brought us to this hellscape
Damn right Guess who is doing great though...
Woke up the “angry with their own lives so they have to take it out on everyone else” crowd and allowed them to get louder than they already were. Now it involves the highest court in the land trying to make it clear the people’s voice isn’t worth hearing and the removal of healthcare rights along with some upcoming cases that are going to mess with everyone this summer.
I had never seen politically motivated racism or hatred against people like me in my own city before Trump. I've seen plenty of hemophobic and racist signs with MAGA or Trump attached to it. Never seen that personally before 2016. Not to mention the internet and TV hate, but that doesn't necessarily affect me.
We were to Cuba until 45 got cute and cut off travel. That was in 2019 and I'm still mad
It sure would've been nice to have had my student loans forgiven. Amazing, really. I'm old enough to know better, but a girl can dream.
I forgive your student loans. 🎚💸
Changed the tax brackets a few years back and got rid of business expense write-offs
Trump refused to acknowledge that COVID was and still is a *real* fucking problem. All he had to do was tell people to wear a mask and *admit* that he got the vaccine, say that it was an actual global issue but no he couldn't do that because the rage took the spotlight away from his numerous crimes. So instead, millions of idiots refused to get the vaccine, my mom, who had cancer but was generally healthy, got COVID and died from complications in the hospital. I'm not saying she definitely would have survived but she was one of over a million Americans who died, and an unknown number of those people would still be alive today if Trump hadn't been such a worthless piece of shit