If I can only mention one thing I like about this man, and hope the rest of the world would learn from, its his policy that could create a world without pronounce. The world is so much less complicated with only him and her and their cats and dogs in it, or at least, to me it is.
(I know, and it was deliberate)
Pronouns are a difficult matter.
On the one hand… you and I both know someone who is Trans, and “her” and “she” does not seem to be hard to use.
On the other hand, there are the more extreme end where people start to identify as something in the middle, and insist that you call them something specific. Again, insisting that you use they/them is not unreasonable, that’s pretty much what you do in English if you want to be non-specific.
It does however start to encroach on another important right: Speech. The question is which one is the higher right: My right to express myself as I see the world, or your right to be addressed in your preferred manner. Personally I feel the right to expression is a slightly more important right. I might not like what you have to say, but I will defend your right to say it.
In the end, all human interaction works according to a kind of social contract. Certain things are expected of you, certain things you can expect of others. These contracts are never unilateral.
Finally, I think the most important thing to remember is that pronouns are a LANGUAGE function. They are place holders for the proper name, and they are there to streamline speech, so that I don’t have to repeat Jacob’s name every time I’m referring to him. Would Jacob like some tea? Oh, and does Jacob take sugar in Jacob’s tea? Jacob doesn’t, oh, looking after Jacob’s health are we?
So, in that sense, yes, I agree that some sanity returned in that space. Also, only flying the flag of the country and not some extra flag to indicate compliance with a social justice cause. He got that right. But that’s more or less all he got right in my book.
There is this joke on the web … goes something like this … John invites his pal for dinner.
Pal says thank you, they will come.
John gets a skrik. He buys food for more people not wanting to cause a scene asking how many are “they”.
So his pal, called they/them arrives, Johan asks where are “they” …
His pal tries to explain … John shrugs and says, better “they” stay until “they” have eaten all the food I rushed out and bought.
Family member meets this new lady.
She makes it clear to family member and his group of friends that she identifies as they/them.
Family member looks at here intently, shrugs and says “Ok, that’s me, I’m outa here …” and promptly walks aways.
As they/them have a right to be called whatever they like, even identifying as a cat, others have the right to excuse themselves from their presence.
Why did I mention a Cat, because this was epic …
The majority, and here I stand with Trump, we have enough daily shiite to deal with in life, we do not have the time to tiptoe around people who demand we play into their delusion, who insists it is enforced, instead of they/them, and the Cat, going to see a phycologist to figure out why they feel like they feel.
Thats why I included Cats and Dogs in my post above. This vid is epic, I used to show it to everybody in my close vicinity as i though it is one of the best shorts I have seen in my life, and then my screwed mind kicked in one day. Taking into consideration, some other videos i watched of people identifying as cats and what they do, and then the size of this guy behind the steering wheel (his not small at all) I could not stop wondering “What does the litter box look like after a bad meal or serious party?”
And it starts… I know many programmes which will suffer in a big way!
I agree with that … it should always start “at home” before you try and reach out.
Not if you have commitments and agreed programmes… It’s like being fired with no notice… I don’t agree…
To bake a cake, you need to break some eggs.
Allow some authors freedom to make a point …
The USA has been bothering too many other countries for far too long costing them, USA, trillions of dollars… even started wars they could not win (bar for industry generation).
Me like, get out, focus on yourself Mr USA.
And lead by example.
The Panama thing, the Greenland matter … focus on yourself Mr USA.
That monies being paid out by the USA to “help” other countries:
a) It does not alwasy reach the ground where it is needed.
b) USA have some serious issue themselves ito medical care for their own.
Note, I do not mention the veterans, that is because of wars fought that no-one won with the USA retired military paying the price. Sort that too …
USA needs to focus on themselves … and leave the rest of the world alone.
Look at China, USA can become a leader again and THEN they can start helping others in need, by starting industries all over the world … like China is doing.
This! I think that is also why I am so irritated by him pulling (or at least attempting to, this will be fought) back funding that was already allocated to more EV chargers. That was a commitment. People made decisions based on that.
In most elections, be it here or abroad, the winning party/candidate typically extends a hand to the rest, those did not vote for him, and pleads for setting differences aside and working together. Even if this is often no more than skin-deep rhetoric, as if such differences can be erased that easily, it is at least an important gesture. What Herr Trump is doing, is to immediately trash everything dear to his opponents.
This is going to backfire. Hugely! Back during his previous term, he put tariffs on Chinese imports. The Chinese immediately responded by placing similar tariffs on American agricultural goods, and instead importing from Europe where they can. He almost bankrupted the American soy bean farmers… many of whom voted for him, and probably did again. Some of them have hardly recovered.
If people thought the price of groceries was coming down, I have bad news for them.
Edit: Next time, I think Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Camacho would be a better candidate.
I agree, there is going to be massive pushback … but at the end of the day, there is a imbalance.
The world needs the USA to become strong again, as there are no other leaders out there today.
Or USA will go bankrupt and BRICS steps in that void left behind.
We also need to take cognizance of the Middle East factor …
And in the “perfect storm” scenario, that will make expensive food prices the least of our worries, as worldwide panic and desperation could set in, and the next moment we fight wars with sticks and stones …
Agreed
Just to be clear … I’m no Trump fanatic.
But we need the USA strong again.
And the best candidate the USA could produce, was Trump … for now.
Maybe another leader steps up, as the Trump/Zuma/Bidens are reaching EOL fast.
We need new strong leaders … world wide.
For them to step in/up … there are going to be bad times.
Grab onto the rope and HODL!
Their brand of strong also makes them a big bully. They need to be cut down to size a bit, but not in this manner. In some ways this reminds me of Mao’s “great leap forward” that ended up in a big famine, and 80 million dead. In some ways it made China what it is today, but surely there are better ways?
Some days I wonder if that might not be a good thing. I mean, we still need to kick the R out, but China is going places man. They are already moving into aviation as well (with Boeing having had more than their share of bad luck recently). Not a bad thing to have them in our corner.
Car dealers are apparently quite happy about some of the changes. Granted, it is not clear how representative the surveyed sample was, and it was only 65% in favour (which means that over a third thought differently), but the car dealers are happy to have something that sells easily and brings in money.
They are a little worried about the tariffs they say, because they import from Mexico and Canada. Car prices will probably go up. And people are already not buying…
Not on face value. But when we are not allowed to “speak our minds”, that could become a problem for South Africans. 
But yes, China wants to “take over the world” and they do understand how to control billions.
Unfortunately, there is no “easier” manner.
Maybe in the year 3050 when humans have “evolved” mentally. (Star Trek comes to mind, how they deal with strife and conflict.)
History is rife with great leaps forward:
Roman Empire and all they achieved and brought the world, and what happened then.
Mao as you said.
Genghis Khan?
… to name but a few big points.
To get millions/billions to move in the same direction at the same time is not easy by any means and tends to be with bloodshed.
Either get the factories going inside the USA, and SA, or “pay in the difference” in tariffs?
You can argue that that never ended. It grew into what we today would call “The West”. Which is a bit weird, because you have to argue that the empire continued as the Byzantine empire (which it kinda did), that it also survived the attacks from the Germanic tribes (which it did in some ways, since many of them learned Latin and took on the ways of the country they invaded), and that it also survived the Islamic conquests (which it did, after the French halted that excursion in 732). To this day, in some extremist circles, the west is still referred to as “The crusaders”.
Genghis Khan was a warlord. I’m not sure he was really into nation building.
Mao on the other hand was interested in building a nation, and getting it done quickly! He wanted the results to show within his own lifetime. He implemented reforms very quickly. Some of them were not all bad: Education and women’s rights advanced a lot under him. But his decisions around agriculture was disastrous, and on a political level, he was probably responsible for more deaths than Stalin.
Jip, he got his people together …
Jip, Roman Dutch Law comes to mind, AI says, Roman-Dutch law is used in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, and Sri Lanka.
Be that as it may, but I can never promote such behaviour on the basis of the ends justifying the means, because somehow that will result in stronger leadership. It could equally well just push the pendulum the other way again, leading to even more lashback.
When you are going the wrong way, the man who turns back first is the most progressive (CS Lewis). Trump is going the wrong way for the most part in leaving the Paris accords (again!) and leaving renewables out of his grand plan for American energy. To mention just two main ones.
I never said that.
Although I implied “ripping the band aid off” … maybe nefariously forcing things to a point?
Merely pointed out HKGK … as there are no leaders that …
Let me also add … is Trump the “be-all-end-all”?
No.
Can he cause drama?
Probably maybe.
Will it be lasting?
Probably not.
What is happening all over the world, it should be noticed … can he, as the President with the “Big Red Button” stop it … sincerely hope so.