Welcome President Trump.

[Machinebuilder]

Having been "off Grid" for 2 weeks I'm just seeing some of whats going on.

I remember taking to an ex-patriot Iranian over 15 years ago. The problem with Iran is after the Shah fell all the intelligent educated people left.
what was left are the uneducated people that do and think what the ayatollah tells them to. So now its all extremest religious types.

The news blurb I saw last night saying there are several country's including Russia that may be willing to send nuclear warheads to Iran scares me.

I have a lot of respect for President Trump, but remember he is a big businessman from NY. He is willing to make BIG gambles and not win.

[fluidpowerpro]

And unlike in business, you just can't file bankruptcy and walk away.

[Mooseherder]

https://www.whitehouse.gov/articles/2025/04/memo-first-100-days-economy/

9,000 new manufacturing jobs so far.

[Plankton]

Not sure if that fueling comment was directed at me but the make america great again that I voted for was to bring healthy food back to our people and support the farmers who grow it. To bring manufacturing back to america instead of outsourcing and importing all of our goods and even selling land to foriegn entities. To bring all our boys home and create a strong unified country again.

Our great country was built on the backs and the blood of farmers and revolutianarys to be our own individual nation. why we need to be some global super power spending our countrymens taxdollars money on war and subsidizing anything at all for other countrys is beyond me. Ive known too many friends and family members who have given their life in service for there country to ever be in support of war that is not ABSOLUTLEY necessary and for the good of the american people. and I will never apologize for that viewpoint.

[beenthere]

We are all part of this world, and to isolate oneself from that world doesn't work well in the total picture. Even the farmers need someone to eat the food that they toil so hard to supply. 

[barbender]

I am not trying to take digs at Trump in this, I'm just expressing my honest concerns. I think we as Americans have this idea that a big button can be pushed to eliminate a major problem on the other side of the world, with no affect on us. And statements I've seen from Trump and Vance reinforce that idea.

One thing I always think of, is would I send my own son over there to fight for anything that is going on? Hell no!! We don't have the money to be the world police. Our government is broke.

[Jeff]

I'd like to hear reactions on what we would or should or should not do with this scenario.

We just mind our business. Keep are asses at home and let what ever might play out play out.  Iran does create a nuclear weapon unbeknownst to us, and they do what they say they want to do, because they have the opportunity. They detonate  a heroshima grade bomb in downtown Tel Aviv.

What then? 

[WV Sawmiller]

One thing I always think of, is would I send my own son over there to fight for anything that is going on? Hell no!! We don't have the money to be the world police. Our government is broke.

My son did go over to Iraq in support of our policies. I even met up with him there on Thanksgiving Day 2004 and we visited the temple at Ur where Abraham was a child.

  Was I happy to be there? No but I figured better meeting up with him there than us both seeing the same idiots here.

    I think being friends and allies with Israel is a good thing and supporting them in defending themselves is another good idea. Who do you think funded and sponsored the October massacre of 1200 of them and kidnapping of 251 more? I'm surprised they have waited this long to get to the source but figure they have beat back the immediate threat next door and are working their way to the source to prevent it from happening again.

[barbender]

2 things that really made me take another look at Israel. In the first place, I don't believe for a second that the Israeli military and security agencies could've been caught that off guard. Something g about the October 7th attack really didn't smell right to me. Second, when they were pushing laws, in the United States of America, banning "antisemitic speech"- which wasn't even defined.  I value the First Amendment as much as I do the Second. Seeing a lot of Republican lawmakers mindlessly endorsing that was very disheartening to me. 

When your friends start acting like your enemies...

[gspren]

In my opinion, the Islamic extremists don't just hate us, they want to kill us. They won't leave us alone if we leave them alone, they'll come here to kill as many "non believers" as possible and if they could use a nuke they would with no care who all dies. Fight them over there now or fight them here later. My opinion.

[barbender]

So don't let them come over here. 

[Jeff]

Isnt that why they are rioting in our streets now? Is it because they are here, or that we dont want them here.

[beenthere]

Agree with gspren, and believe our move to blow the underground bomb making facility was the right move, at the right time, and with the right force.

We witnessed what "doing nothing" amounted to the last 4 years. That was lesson enough for me.

Stock market approves too.

[Jeff]

Id like to address the hopes of the Farmer and loggers comment and the insinuation that President Trump has come up short.

Farmers first. Lets use this analogy. When Our president was inaugerated, this years crops were in the planing stage. The fields were frozen, probably covered in snow. Since he was inaugurated the ground has thawed, planting is finished,  fertilizers and weed killers applied, hopefully the weather is conducive to a successful growing season, but its only the first days of summer and you are already diappointed on a harvest that is not even in sight.  Short sightedness that doesn't allow you to see the prospects of a bountiful harvest, so you just ney say, turn off the irrigation, and hope that you get a subsidy or perhaps you just scrimped on the fertilizer so you could buy crop insurance.

The man has not been in office long enough to blame or give credit for any of what your discrediting thoughts to apply.

Logging
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/03/immediate-expansion-of-american-timber-production/

Enough said. The wheels are now in motion to make U.S. Forest Product Industry great again.

[JD Guy]

"So don't let them come over here."

Okay, so much for that idea.......

That sounds great until you have a President and administration that opened our borders for 4 years to who knows what kind of people. (President Trump was absolutely correct, those countries weren't sending us their best and brightest). They weren't properly vetted and you can see that from the rap sheets on those who are now being shown the door that is the case.

In fact it is highly likely that there are terror cells in the good old USA right now from Iran. Not to mention the numbers of Chinese nationals and others who are not here to do us any favors.

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[barbender]

I get that. But porous borders and wars on the other side of the world are two different issues. They might have consequences that intertwine. 

Trump is now announcing a ceasefire has been reached between the US, Israel, and Iran. If he pulled it off, my hat is off to him and I'll shut my mouth. My foot fits in it nicely🤪

[Magicman]

  I just read this yesterday:

A closed mouth gathers no feet.

(Not meant to be derogatory, just fit the conversation.). 

[Corley5]

And just that quick Iran has violated the cease fire. Not surprised. 

[Machinebuilder]

When your friends start acting like your enemies...

and the old saying comes to mind

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer"


Iran has been saying death to america for over 40 years now.
How many assassination attempts have been thwarted?
How many terrorist attacks have been financed by Iran?

I glad to see that we and other countries have had enough. and hopefully we avoid another ground war in the middle east.

[aigheadish]

I've gotten to the point where I don't believe anything the media has told me for my entire life. I really love America but my conspiratorial beliefs are that most of the junk the US gets into is manufactured by "intelligence" agencies to overthrow foreign nations for our economical benefit, in one way or the other. 

I do think there is evil out there but but I think we'd be better off as isolationists. Unfortunately, the horse is already out of the barn, so we are forced to police other places on the planet due to a lot of our own poor decisions, that as a populace, we had nothing to do with. Similar, I think, to how the Iranian people are pretty cool, but the guys in charge are turds. 

I've been a Trump fan for his political career but I still have a hard time trusting him. I don't trust any of them. 

[WV Sawmiller]

The Farm

I grew up on a huge award-winning farm. It was the envy of all the neighbors. Many of them had land and resources just as good as ours but they never seemed to use them as well as we did. Many of them were jealous and some just wanted to come work for us. We were very successful and had everything we needed to thrive but it took hard work and we had to be watchful all the time to adjust to changing weather conditions, pests, diseases and predators that affected or destroyed the livestock and we had to keep ourselves strong and healthy.

I had a very big family. We all had different chores to do. Some of my siblings and cousins did a really good job on their chores while others were careless or just lazy. I think some of them actually hated the farm and looked for ways to shut it down so they could go somewhere else. I never understood that as they were always free to leave and go live and work on one of the other farms or in the city somewhere else.

The farm and my family was so big one person could not run it by himself or for too long so we would select a new Farm Manager periodically to manage and protect it. That worked pretty well. Each Farm Manager naturally had certain areas they preferred and tended to concentrate on them. Under one guy we would build up the farming of row crops, the next would concentrate on the livestock and others would plant or harvest more timber or minerals around the farm. Under each of them their preferred areas grew and thrived but they still took care of the other parts of the farm too. Each Farm Manager had helpers assigned to chores. One took care of the livestock, another ran the orchards, one took care of the poultry, and other the woodlands. A couple were responsible for the fencing to keep the predators away. Sometimes there would be disputes about areas of overlap so the Farm Manager would decide the priority and we would work together to get it done whether it was building more livestock barns, clearing more pasture or putting more land into row crops.

A few years back we put a new Farm Manager in charge. He took over right after a drought hit us after several really good and profitable years. I still can't figure why we selected him to manage the farm. He talked about all the things he was going to do to improve the farm but he didn't do any of them. He put family members in charge of the different areas of the farm who did not understand their tasks not because of what they had done or studied in school but because he liked the way they dressed or how much fun they were to be around at the family reunions. These family members did not do their work well and let the farm go fallow. The fences fell down or got holes in them and feral pigs and goats go in and began eating up the crops, killing the orchards, fouling the waters and hurting the livestock. The farm manager and his lackeys thought the baby pigs and goat were cute so instead of fixing the fences and chasing the pigs and goats off the farm he actually started taking the food from the grain bins and such to feed the feral animals. Of course, the feral animals thrived and some even tore into the henhouses and barns and such while the family members saw their work and efforts and assets eaten up or fouled by the feral swine and goats. The feral animals were just doing what came natural to them so many of us did not hate them but they did not belong on the farm.

The Farm Manager, as it turned out, was not up to the task of running the farm and could not understand the basics of farm life. He had really never done any of the farm work himself and did not know what to look for or go check on the different parts of the farm. He was negligent and just listened more and more to his helpers (Many of whom had also never worked on the farm) – not all of the helpers, just a few. They told him what he wanted to hear instead of what was actually happening. 

The neighbors noticed and the farm was becoming run-down. Some of the neighbors would even dump stray dogs and cats and such on the farm and raided the larders which contributed even more to the expense and downfall of the farm.

The only thing that kept the farm from totally failing and being broken up or sent to the auction block for taxes was that the majority of the family actually love the farm and continued to work to keep it afloat. It was difficult because we all saw other lazy and incompetent family members taking and using the farm assets for their personal use and not replacing what they took or used.

Finally, the family got together and fired the Farm Manager. We rejected his lackey who he said was the best qualified to take over from him because we saw she had never done anything to help the farm and did not understand or care that farms need work and tending to produce crops.

Farms are like living people. They have to be nurtured and tended and nursed back to health sometimes. They have to be fed healthy foods and fertilized at the same time the weeds are hoed up and burned and the insect and other pests are irradicated. Scavengers and predators destroying the livestock and crops and threatening the family have to be removed and kept away from the farm.

The farm still has problems but at least there is a plan and work is on-going to fix the fences and feral animals running loose on the farm. Poachers are learning it is easier and safer to steal from other farmers  because the farm manager will send the guard dogs out to chase them off and the guard dogs will bite.

The farm is America.