Comment by canuckintime | Hacker News Reader

Comment by canuckintime | Hacker News Reader

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>> Complaining about the name of the bill "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" is just dumb. Senators and Reps name bills all sorts of funny things aiming to be catchy or what have you, it's part of our process.

Senators and reps and bills all sorts of funny things aiming to be catchy by creating a succinct acronym. [1]. This cultural practice is sometimes called ‘backronym’. Trying to tie ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ as an example of that practice is ‘sane-washing’; ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act’ is a dumb person’s idea of a backronym [2]. Dissecting the bill name is not just complaining for complaining’s sake; it’s just another in the long list of examples of Trump doesn’t understand what he’s doing and his enablers are not serious people by going along with

[1] https://thehill.com/homenews/news/8710-lawmakers-turn-to-cat...

[2] Trump is a poor man's idea of a rich man, a weak man's idea of a strong man, and a stupid man's idea of a smart man etc

Every time I read the name of that fucking bill, I feel like I’m having a stroke.

OK, I hear you that OBBBA is a bad backronym. So bad it's not a backronym. But it's catchy; Trump is a master of catchy soundbites. I submit to you: we're talking about it by name on HN, when we could be discussing mechanistic interpretation theory, which IMO is much more interesting. In fact, I submit that it's the last bill I really registered the name of since the Affordable Care Act. Which was (checks notes) 15 years ago, shortly after Teddy Kennedy died.(!)

Look at Trump's career. Look at his skill set. Look at what he's doing in the white house. He's a lot of things but he's not bad at getting what he values; he is in fact perhaps the most successful American ever in those terms. If you care about America it is incredibly short sighted to think he's dumb. He's extremely effective, just not at the things that a) you might want him to be b) we hope a President will be c) he says he's doing to the media.

It’s catchy in the same way “Mexicans will pay for the wall”, “China will eat the tariffs”, “Lock her up” is catchy; all catchy slogans but also nonsense. And, to bring it back to Krugman, Trump’s enablers let it slide because they are not serious people.

>> He's a lot of things but he's not bad at getting what he values; he is in fact perhaps the most successful American ever in those terms.

Nonsense. He’s bankrupted casinos. He lost his first reelection bid. He started on third base and ended up back at first.

>> If you care about America it is incredibly short sighted to think he's dumb.

He IS that dumb. He really doesn’t understand how tariffs/trade balance works. But his enablers have let him run riot. Biden was old. Reagan had mental issues. But their teams had firm hands on the steering wheel. That’s a serious country with some checks and balances. Trump admin is trying to revoke all that

Agreed on the slogans. I think you may have misunderstood me: I think he values locking in some (actual) billions, playing golf, being on TV and securing his jailfree future post-office. He's out-Reaganed Reagan - a C list reality TV star that somehow levered into being one of the most powerful people in the world.

In what sense can "NY developer nepo baby" be third base while "guy with the nuclear codes, billions of dollars of graft and personal guarantees from the Supreme Court" be first base? I truly don't understand that thinking.

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