I don't approve of it, but I don't really care if he tears it down. Actually, I think the whole White House should be torn down, preferably with Trump and all his friends inside it.
What I oppose is him using tax dollars for this ballroom that none of his subjects will ever be allowed to use or get utility from. Plus the literally everything else he's ever done đ
To be fair, in the pursuit of accuracy, they have said it's all private funding taking care of it with some coming from strongarm lawsuits. I think that's easy to verify with receipts, no details released yet. The honourable thing to have done would be to fund government paychecks with that money, and that would probably be a good move politically, but obviously not happening.
Yes, the $250 million is all private funding. Completely above board.
Also, totally coincidentally and not at all related, Trump wants the DOJ to pay him $230 million of tax payers money. Totally unrelated. Don't know why I brought it up.
No one said it's fine, it was just wrong information. Are corrections unwelcome here or are we just upset we can't be angry about the thing that was wrong?
Yeah, but didja see how he owned the libz? I might not have clean air, clean water, health care, food, shelter, or a job with dignity, but I get to fly some Chinese junk with Taco's name on it!
And it is "modernizing" things, too! Like every other asshole on this planet, Taco has learned that saying meaningless words like "modern" stops at least a certain set of people from asking more questions or having any more independent thoughts about the thing under discussion. I mean, because, gee, you don't want to question something that is MODERN, now, do you?
Don't think about it too hard [1], because: "modern".
</Jedi mind trick>
I see this tactic employed on the job nearly every day - I work in tech, so the word "modern" is usually sprinkled in abundance all over completely bullshit and harebrained schemes, plots, claims and projects. Because so many vapid thinkers abound all throughout tech, and we have a steady influx of people that barely have any experience who now rely on Youtube influencers for their gurus, this tactic works a depressingly high amount of the time. Increasingly over time, tech operates more like the fashion industry (but instead of following whatever someone likes in NYC, London, Paris or Milan it's about following whatever FAANG, or someone that supposedly works/worked at FAANG has said) than it does anything resembling real engineering... But I digress. :)
[1] I mean, definitely don't think about how the term "ballroom" really invokes, for most people, maybe flappers in the 1920s, and that's probably the most recent of references? 1700s Europe comes to mind...
I've seen things like "lightweight", "robust", "scalable" just kind of loosely applied to everything as well. These kinds of things are the purr words. Then the snarl words are applied to things you are trying to denigrate - for example, make sure you label something you don't like "legacy" even if it's still actively maintained and used by most everyone and is actually battle-tested.
Even better if you can say that some Youtube influencer with X amount of followers likes it...I swear, this industry has always been a bit susceptible to the new and the shiny, but because so many people are worried about being considered a "dinosaur" even if they are still in their early 20s, the amount of critical thought given to some highly impactful engineering (and also business) decisions seems to amount to little more than "so and so likes it".
Don't get me wrong, there was a bit of this even in the 90s where a certain type of engineer would always be looking to what Gates thought or whatever. But those kinds of engineers were often kind of mocked and thought as rather unserious. I'm not so sure the engineers that just look to what FAANG is doing/saying are mocked enough these days.
He's been a full-blown asshole for decades. Probably his whole life.
Also, his taste in everything is just so...chintzy. I mean it's literally the gaudiest shit.
I remember people adoring him in the 80s, and even in Peak 80s money-grabbing yuppie hype with everyone thinking the surface glitz of Miami Vice and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (and Less Than Zero, and Secret of My Success, and and and) was what you were supposed to aspire to....anything associated with Trump that I saw looked like total dogshit.
His obsession with gold makes me think of the 80s, where gold gilded things was a mark of wealth. It makes me wonder if Trump's head is still in that world where everything needs to be gold so that he can look good.
Because Trump is all about how it looks on the outside. Hell it wouldn't surprise me if he couldn't tell the difference between gold and brass.
Even by the metric of Peak 80s gaudiness, Taco stood out as someone exceptionally tacky.
But at the time, I remember some of my peers and many adults worshiping the guy because of Worthington's Law. People tripping over themselves to get down to his "Taj Mahal" and getting pictures of themselves at the entrance, etc...
I just thought the guy looked like a Daddy's boy with an exceptionally loud mouth, seeking lots of attention and self-promotion and truly awful taste.
IMO, nowhere near the top 100 shittiest things he's done (like, this act of vandalism is a way smaller crime than the murders we've been doing to people on boats in the Caribbean), but it is shitty (I know most of our presidents have sucked and the white house was built by slave labor, but tearing it down isn't going to undo any of that, it's just going to make history harder to understand for people in the future)
My house was built in 1902 overlooking our state capitol which was also under construction. Prison labor was used to dig the foundations, there was already a prison on that site. Guess what color everyone in that prison was.
Also in the 1910s my great grandmother had a black girl her own age who dressed her, cooked for her, etc but didn't go to school. My great grandmother said they were "like sisters." I'm like, damn grandma, you had yourself a functional slave.
Changes course? I bet this asshole planned on doing this the whole time. Wasn't this stupid ballroom not even supposed to actually touch the WH originally?
Perhaps it just dawned on them that if they trigger a civil war they won't have total support of anyone particular group let alone in DC. It probably would only take a rouge fighter pilot or two to nock out air force one assuming that command has collapsed. Not that I think they'll stop trying to start shit.
Honestly, having a foreign enemy worthy of respect torching the white house would be comforting. America is letting awful incarnate just do what it feels like. It is an humiliating self-own.
Tear it halfway down, pause construction due to government shutdown, declare Mar-a-Lago "Presidential Estate", collect rental fees from the government...
Nukes. Europe will never liberate us. We have nukes. And drone strikes. Raiding the shore of the USA would be an act of war, and the response to a nation-ending threat like that fr a nation with nukes is Mutually Assured Destruction.
I'll also note that the whole world right now is trending towards Fascism; So support for a War with the USA is unlikely. Wars always suck; and there's a good portion of every European nation who would want the USA to win, who could leverage the impact of war to breed discontent.
As soon as the republicans finish consolidating their power in the US they will turn outward, maybe Canada,maybe mexico but Europe is not out of reach, flexing the military muscle, using the Russian playbook of propaganda and dissent they could easily create puppet governments... already the right wing parties are influencing the EU to drop regulations on chemical and other industries
Well, the people in charge of maintaining the nukes are all furloughed indefinitely so pretty soon the nuclear threat of the USA will be similar to that of Russia.
81 Comments
MisterOwl@lemmy.world · 169 pts · 320d
A convicted felon is literally destroying the White House. And half this country approves.
PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org · 74 pts · 320d
I don't approve of it, but I don't really care if he tears it down. Actually, I think the whole White House should be torn down, preferably with Trump and all his friends inside it.
What I oppose is him using tax dollars for this ballroom that none of his subjects will ever be allowed to use or get utility from. Plus the literally everything else he's ever done đ
techt@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 320d
To be fair, in the pursuit of accuracy, they have said it's all private funding taking care of it with some coming from strongarm lawsuits. I think that's easy to verify with receipts, no details released yet. The honourable thing to have done would be to fund government paychecks with that money, and that would probably be a good move politically, but obviously not happening.
hitmyspot@aussie.zone · 32 pts · 320d
He's said similar before with his salary, while going on to take bribes and use the government to pay for services at his businesses.
Being fair does not mean swallowing lies if intentions from a known liar. Sure, if receipts are forthcoming, we change. They won't come.
TeamAssimilation@infosec.pub · 7 pts · 320d
Right. Trump is a known liar, at this point it takes more than his word to give him the benefit of the doubt.
techt@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 320d
No disagreement here, just want to make sure we get the nuance into the conversation where appropriate.
Voroxpete@sh.itjust.works · 24 pts · 319d
Yes, the $250 million is all private funding. Completely above board.
Also, totally coincidentally and not at all related, Trump wants the DOJ to pay him $230 million of tax payers money. Totally unrelated. Don't know why I brought it up.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 6 pts · 319d
Ohhhh it's just private donors guys, it's fine.
Jesus fucking Christ
techt@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 319d
No one said it's fine, it was just wrong information. Are corrections unwelcome here or are we just upset we can't be angry about the thing that was wrong?
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 319d
I would like the peasantry to just tear through that ballroom and take all the valuables. After all, it is our money.
moakley@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 319d
Presidents don't have "subjects".
MonkeMischief@lemmy.today · 7 pts · 319d
We should get a committee together to go knock on his door and remind him of this.
D_C@sh.itjust.works · 6 pts · 319d
You should go up to him on his gold throne, knock his gold crown off his badly weaved head, and tell him that.
Until someone does that I don't think king Donvict Drumpf will agree with you.
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 319d
And we donât have a president.
PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org · -4 pts · 319d
Yeah they kinda all do. Amerikkka never was a democracy.
WhatGodIsMadeOf@feddit.org · 2 pts · 319d
Right? The way people are complaining about this happening just sounds weird to me.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 319d
Yeah, but didja see how he owned the libz? I might not have clean air, clean water, health care, food, shelter, or a job with dignity, but I get to fly some Chinese junk with Taco's name on it!
aarch0x40@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 320d
Well, their SNAP and Medicaid havenât been cut yet.
DarkCloud@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 320d
They know they'll be an emergency. They will want command and control at that point.
Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 144 pts · 320d
W3dd1e@lemmy.zip · 46 pts · 319d
glitch1985@lemmy.world · 34 pts · 320d
It's up to $300M last I saw.
miked@piefed.social · 11 pts · 320d
He can we know the cost when there are no plans?
glitch1985@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 320d
Concept of a plan?
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 319d
Is Metrolinx building this ballroom?
whoisearth@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 319d
Nah I'm sure this will get finished
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 319d
A golden ballroom.
And it is "modernizing" things, too! Like every other asshole on this planet, Taco has learned that saying meaningless words like "modern" stops at least a certain set of people from asking more questions or having any more independent thoughts about the thing under discussion. I mean, because, gee, you don't want to question something that is MODERN, now, do you?
Don't think about it too hard [1], because: "modern".
</Jedi mind trick>
I see this tactic employed on the job nearly every day - I work in tech, so the word "modern" is usually sprinkled in abundance all over completely bullshit and harebrained schemes, plots, claims and projects. Because so many vapid thinkers abound all throughout tech, and we have a steady influx of people that barely have any experience who now rely on Youtube influencers for their gurus, this tactic works a depressingly high amount of the time. Increasingly over time, tech operates more like the fashion industry (but instead of following whatever someone likes in NYC, London, Paris or Milan it's about following whatever FAANG, or someone that supposedly works/worked at FAANG has said) than it does anything resembling real engineering... But I digress. :)
[1] I mean, definitely don't think about how the term "ballroom" really invokes, for most people, maybe flappers in the 1920s, and that's probably the most recent of references? 1700s Europe comes to mind...
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 319d
I see many similar words used without evidence or justification.
Agile
Sustainable
Efficient
Future proof
ClanOfTheOcho@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 319d
You left out âAIâ you silly goose
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 319d
LOL, 100%.
I've seen things like "lightweight", "robust", "scalable" just kind of loosely applied to everything as well. These kinds of things are the purr words. Then the snarl words are applied to things you are trying to denigrate - for example, make sure you label something you don't like "legacy" even if it's still actively maintained and used by most everyone and is actually battle-tested.
Even better if you can say that some Youtube influencer with X amount of followers likes it...I swear, this industry has always been a bit susceptible to the new and the shiny, but because so many people are worried about being considered a "dinosaur" even if they are still in their early 20s, the amount of critical thought given to some highly impactful engineering (and also business) decisions seems to amount to little more than "so and so likes it".
Don't get me wrong, there was a bit of this even in the 90s where a certain type of engineer would always be looking to what Gates thought or whatever. But those kinds of engineers were often kind of mocked and thought as rather unserious. I'm not so sure the engineers that just look to what FAANG is doing/saying are mocked enough these days.
themaninblack@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 319d
Thatâs so well put. Iâm thinking of finishing my electrical engineering degree just so I can get out of the increasingly strange web app industry
Treczoks@lemmy.world · 91 pts · 320d
And he lied. Again.
Empricorn@feddit.nl · 9 pts · 319d
Add it to the endless list...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_or_misleading_statements_by_Donald_Trump
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 319d
âThis article may be too longâ lmao
dhork@lemmy.world · 78 pts · 320d
New Yorkers know he has done shit like this before
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaellisicky/2020/10/03/how-donald-trump-took-down-bonwit-teller-a-fifth-avenue-landmark/
CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 12 pts · 319d
Jfc here I thought Trump had grown into being a dick. Turns out he was always a dick.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 319d
He's been a full-blown asshole for decades. Probably his whole life.
Also, his taste in everything is just so...chintzy. I mean it's literally the gaudiest shit.
I remember people adoring him in the 80s, and even in Peak 80s money-grabbing yuppie hype with everyone thinking the surface glitz of Miami Vice and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous (and Less Than Zero, and Secret of My Success, and and and) was what you were supposed to aspire to....anything associated with Trump that I saw looked like total dogshit.
CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 319d
His obsession with gold makes me think of the 80s, where gold gilded things was a mark of wealth. It makes me wonder if Trump's head is still in that world where everything needs to be gold so that he can look good.
Because Trump is all about how it looks on the outside. Hell it wouldn't surprise me if he couldn't tell the difference between gold and brass.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 319d
Even by the metric of Peak 80s gaudiness, Taco stood out as someone exceptionally tacky.
But at the time, I remember some of my peers and many adults worshiping the guy because of Worthington's Law. People tripping over themselves to get down to his "Taj Mahal" and getting pictures of themselves at the entrance, etc...
I just thought the guy looked like a Daddy's boy with an exceptionally loud mouth, seeking lots of attention and self-promotion and truly awful taste.
kersploosh@sh.itjust.works · 63 pts · 320d
Good photo.
JoMiran@lemmy.ml · 17 pts · 320d
Lumidaub@feddit.org · 55 pts · 320d
This is such good imagery for the state of... everything.
nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 22 pts · 320d
Carl Jung would cream his jeans if he saw this in context with, well everything else.
DirkMcCallahan@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 320d
The symbolism of this is astonishingly perfect.
CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 10 pts · 319d
Honestly I was thinking the same thing.
The only thing that would make this a chef's kiss is that they accidentally bulldoze the oval while they are doing a press conference in it.
gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 320d
IMO, nowhere near the top 100 shittiest things he's done (like, this act of vandalism is a way smaller crime than the murders we've been doing to people on boats in the Caribbean), but it is shitty (I know most of our presidents have sucked and the white house was built by slave labor, but tearing it down isn't going to undo any of that, it's just going to make history harder to understand for people in the future)
milkisklim@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 320d
Not disagreeing with the sentiment in general, but the East Wing that's being "renovated" was built in 1902 so no chattel slavery there.
bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 320d
they probably watched this music video and took the white house in the background literally
BanMe@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 319d
My house was built in 1902 overlooking our state capitol which was also under construction. Prison labor was used to dig the foundations, there was already a prison on that site. Guess what color everyone in that prison was.
Also in the 1910s my great grandmother had a black girl her own age who dressed her, cooked for her, etc but didn't go to school. My great grandmother said they were "like sisters." I'm like, damn grandma, you had yourself a functional slave.
CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 35 pts · 319d
Changes course? I bet this asshole planned on doing this the whole time. Wasn't this stupid ballroom not even supposed to actually touch the WH originally?
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 9 pts · 319d
he conveniently announced during charlie kirks aftermath
DarkCloud@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 320d
It's about Hitler having a better bunker/operations center this time:
Bronzebeard@lemmy.zip · 13 pts · 320d
Does that mean the bunker is...not available?
MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip · 7 pts · 319d
It means they may have better access to improve rhe bunker.
mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 6 pts · 319d
It also means they could expect to need it after the renovations are complete. Could be part of why things seem so rushed.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 319d
Perhaps it just dawned on them that if they trigger a civil war they won't have total support of anyone particular group let alone in DC. It probably would only take a rouge fighter pilot or two to nock out air force one assuming that command has collapsed. Not that I think they'll stop trying to start shit.
angband@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 319d
a rouge rogue, even.
MajorasTerribleFate@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 319d
Rouge One, the story of capturing the plans to the Drag Star.
Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 319d
Politically, Bunker upgrades have a much greater significance than a Ballroom.
Xaphanos@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 320d
Ah. That makes a bit more sense.
WhiskyTangoFoxtrot@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 319d
As a Canadian, I'm very disappointed. That was our job.
SabinStargem@lemmy.today · 9 pts · 319d
Honestly, having a foreign enemy worthy of respect torching the white house would be comforting. America is letting awful incarnate just do what it feels like. It is an humiliating self-own.
recently_Coco@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 28 pts · 320d
Should just keep going and tear the whole thing down. Don't think we need it anymore.
VieuxQueb@lemmy.ca · 13 pts · 319d
I would not trust it, after his handlers passage, the place will be more bugged than an ant hill.
MyOpinion@lemmy.today · 19 pts · 320d
I am surprised the Orange Turd did not just level the White House in total.
comrade_twisty@feddit.org · 22 pts · 320d
He still has 3.25 years and then probably his next illegitimate term.
ouRKaoS@lemmy.today · 9 pts · 319d
Tear it halfway down, pause construction due to government shutdown, declare Mar-a-Lago "Presidential Estate", collect rental fees from the government...
Kirp123@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 320d
There's still time.
Archangel1313@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 320d
Give it a minute.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 319d
He will eventually, it will replicate one of Putins palaces, or sadams palaces. with gold plated everything, which he is obsessed with.
PM_ME_VINTAGE_30S@lemmy.sdf.org · 1 pts · 320d
I mean that would actually be cool
Ironfist79@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 319d
Of course he would but the company and workers doing the work should also not escape blame.
kreskin@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 319d
just demolish the whole thing at this point.
webdox@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 319d
KelvarCherry@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 319d
Nukes. Europe will never liberate us. We have nukes. And drone strikes. Raiding the shore of the USA would be an act of war, and the response to a nation-ending threat like that fr a nation with nukes is Mutually Assured Destruction.
I'll also note that the whole world right now is trending towards Fascism; So support for a War with the USA is unlikely. Wars always suck; and there's a good portion of every European nation who would want the USA to win, who could leverage the impact of war to breed discontent.
lostlittletimeonthis@lemmynsfw.com · 1 pts · 319d
As soon as the republicans finish consolidating their power in the US they will turn outward, maybe Canada,maybe mexico but Europe is not out of reach, flexing the military muscle, using the Russian playbook of propaganda and dissent they could easily create puppet governments... already the right wing parties are influencing the EU to drop regulations on chemical and other industries
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 319d
Well, the people in charge of maintaining the nukes are all furloughed indefinitely so pretty soon the nuclear threat of the USA will be similar to that of Russia.
WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca · 2 pts · 319d
You spent the last 30 or so years alienating your European âfriendsâ
webdox@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 319d
WizardofFrobozz@lemmy.ca · -2 pts · 319d
30 years ago it was the mid-1990s- you were very much starting to to burn bridges with international allies by that point, and we told you so.
âTheir problem tooâ? No- itâs your problem that youâve foisted on the rest of us by not fucking listening for decades.
Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works · 11 pts · 320d
Shit, I bit the apple! As in, my first thought was, "haha, funny headline, The Onion!"
fox2263@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 319d
Youâd think theyâd need congressional approval and like a long time of back and forth of people agreeing on stuff.
Nah. Trump treats it like his own house.
Fedizen@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 319d
At this point we should move the presidential mansion outside DC and make DC a state.
Montreal_Metro@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 319d
We donât even need to go there, they demolish it themselves.