Trump

[zetecspit]

11 hours ago, Hamish said:

May be not …..

and he may keel over naturally. 
 

but then you have JD Vance inheriting the top job  

and going for a second term himself. 
 

sorry. 

What I have observed with Trump is that he is the focus. It is all about him. Just like other historical despots. The people around him constantly chage, either through their conscience or sacked or turn against him. Just look at his last VP. 

The republicans will leikely be in a mess when Trump goes. They have turned into a one trick pony donkey. 

I have also been reading some news stuff about why Trump won. The one that stuck out was that "things were betterwhich doe under Trump" . On top of that the parallels to the Brexit vote are striking. Keeping the same old Democrats in power, who have been running the show during a very bumpy time. Or change to somebody who is making (hollow) promisies that appeal to so many. 

[Nick Jones]

3 hours ago, zetecspit said:

On top of that the parallels to the Brexit vote are striking

Some of the same people behind the scenes driving the strategies.

Distressingly good at influencing the result. Distressingly poor at actual government.

Or rather, poor at government for the general population. Just fine for their sponsors and themselves.

[BiTurbo228]

Yeah that's one of the reasons I don't discount Trump as a driving factor for this. It's his cult of personality that's crucial to getting the rest of the tossers into power (much like Boris over here). Trump goes, and we get to see how much charisma the rest of the slimy gits have. One would hope not enough to win an election, provided they don't manage to seize power before that. Ideally we'd have him die midway through the next election campaign so they don't have time to get their act back together.

I do think a fair bit of blame lies on the incumbent governments (Cameron for us, Biden'/Harris for you). Them not acknowledging the threat that is facing them, and not promising change and improvement when it seems clear that's what the public want.

[mattius]

Having actually watched a lot of his speeches today, I'm scared.

[Nick Jones]

Government by senile narcissist and a rotating cast of cronies with their own narrow agendas. What could possibly go wrong?

He’s unhinged and I don’t believe the democratic systems are enough to keep him in check

These are abnormally dangerous times for America and the world.

[zetecspit]

Musk is the one who worries me.

A while ago it was a bit of a joke that he was a supervillan from a Bond film. Now the reality is that he has bought his way to power, and I worry Trump is just a useful idiot to him. Rather like Dick Cheney using Bush minor.

And it seems Musk has his eye on power/influence around the world, which is even more of a worry. 

[PaulAA]

4 hours ago, zetecspit said:

Musk is the one who worries me.

A while ago it was a bit of a joke that he was a supervillan from a Bond film. Now the reality is that he has bought his way to power, and I worry Trump is just a useful idiot to him. Rather like Dick Cheney using Bush minor.

And it seems Musk has his eye on power/influence around the world, which is even more of a worry. 

I would extend that to the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse - Zuckerturd, Bezos, Musk and Pichai - who were sat in front of his principle Cabinet nominations, indicating that he sees their power, influence and support as more important than his governing minions.

[Hamish]

It amazes me that the American system allows non elected people into such positions of power. 
imagine our cabinet of non elected mates of the boss. 
 

( I know we’ve had some prominent advisors - that went well !!!)

[JohnD]

Here, they're called 'SPADs' - SPecial ADvisors.   They have offices at No.10, just like the White House.

[mattius]

The concern is with trump and his "special advisors", is he's got Meta ( Facebook and WhatsApp ), Elon Musk and Jack Dorsey ( Twitter ), Tiktok owes him one and Bezos for the mix.

Basically all social media are now in the palms of Trump. So he now controls the narrative to the youth.

It's already started, certain hashtags now redirect to the opposition, search for #democrat and you are given trump's republican posts.

You think Meta ditching fact checkers happened by accident last week, now way.

He's famous for pushing fake truths until people believe him, now there is limited resources to fact check him.

[Escadrille Ecosse]

4 hours ago, JohnD said:

Here, they're called 'SPADs' - SPecial ADvisors.   They have offices at No.10, just like the White House.

I would aver that there are differences of degree that matter

[Toronto Tim]

Well, so far he seems to be at least as bad as anyone feared and likely worse. 

It's going to be a long four years, especially viewing it from north of the border...

[Hamish]

1 hour ago, Toronto Tim said:

Well, so far he seems to be at least as bad as anyone feared and likely worse. 

It's going to be a long four years, especially viewing it from north of the border...

I’m afraid so Tim. 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

2 hours ago, Toronto Tim said:

Well, so far he seems to be at least as bad as anyone feared and likely worse. 

It's going to be a long four years, especially viewing it from north of the border...

I have a lot of family in Canada and yup...

[Nick Jones]

Well, I hope Canada (and Mexico) serve him a dose of the same medicine straight back (as Canada seem to be saying they will) ‘cause the  effect on prices should get the attention even of those dim enough to have voted for him!

[mpbarrett]

unfortunately he is following the Project 2025 plan which is very scary, basically it means the end of democracy in the USA.
He denied having anything to do with it but he is not one to follow any laws or conventions or even the constitution.
Not sure where the democrats are or any opposition is... Musk now has control of the whole of the federal personal database and is going for control of the spending and yet all of this is illegal, usually controlled by the congress,  but no one is opposing him. 
Not sure I understand what is happening in the USA any more.... but it will effect the whole world. I have family in Canada so feel for them.
Its  all deeply depressing and slightly unbelievable...

[zetecspit]

He seems to be using fentanyl as the reson for these "emergency" measures, which allow him to bypass the usual rules/balances etc. Bit like Boris prorogueing parliament.

It won't take long for the courts to get involved, or to see a lot of unhappy americans.

With the turmoil in the stock markets, I wonder if it will soon be a good time to chuck this years pension contributions in....

[Nick Jones]

Is it time to get the lettuce out do you think?

[JohnD]

Cabbage more likely.

The man is demented.

[Nick Jones]

43 minutes ago, JohnD said:

The man is demented.

He actually is….

[zetecspit]

6 hours ago, Nick Jones said:

Is it time to get the lettuce out do you think?

Sadly I very much doubt he will be ousted. Far too many invested people behind him, especially Musk . And no doubt his loony followers will think their pain is worth MAGA. The poorest will be the ones to suffer for his ideals. I suppose the (what we would call) professional classes will have to fork out a lot extra to buy their German cars.

 

[Escadrille Ecosse]

The Canadians certainly haven't been slow to respond. "Remember Chateauguay"

But the man will cause untold damage before it all calms down again.

[PaulAA]

12 hours ago, zetecspit said:

Sadly I very much doubt he will be ousted. Far too many invested people behind him, especially Musk . And no doubt his loony followers will think their pain is worth MAGA. The poorest will be the ones to suffer for his ideals. I suppose the (what we would call) professional classes will have to fork out a lot extra to buy their German cars.

 

No, he won't be. He has all instruments of Govt under control and has been swift to appoint lackies and sycophants to key positions they are ill-equipped to manage. Lower-level judges may find against individual policies but, ultimately, the SCOTUS will overrule in his favour. The lack of coordinated opposition was illustrated by the Democratic's leadership convention a couple of days ago, where they convinced themselves that they'd led a good campaign and saw no problem with the excessive influence of certain minority interests. Hopeless.

This senseless implosion is what Americans chose for themselves and, painful as it will be, hopefully the world will learn to recalibrate to live without them. It seems likely that the changes being introduced are so fundamental that they won't be swept aside by the next election (such as it may or may not be). Certainly, the access to Federal information given to Musk last week has changed the landscape irrevocably. If Trump hadn't been beatified by SCOTUS, this alone should have justified impeaching him for treason.

I see that certain quarters in the UK are gleeful that the EU will be subjected to 10% (or higher) tariffs and the UK not. I would suggest that they need to consider what the cost of being tariff-free will actually be, especially as the South African Turd is intent on buying a swift replacement for the current UK Govt. Farage was boasting in the Telegraph about being PM before the end of Trump's tenure... he might just find that he's dangling head down from a lamppost instead.

[RogerH]

I have just had this vision of one of TRumps sycophants  imagine a brown nosed Elephant with it nose stuck up its arse.

Or it could be stuck up the arse of the sycophant in front of him/her - leading all the way to the front of the queue where TRump is standing.

Don't get me on to Phsycophants - they are just crackers.

 

Roger

[JohnD]

Speaking of sycophants, why does the BBC or any other media, ever interview Farage?   He is the absentee 'leader' of five MPs, less than 1% of the total.  His opinions are worthless, yet he 'appeared' on this morning's Today programme.   A hostile interview, but why waste our time ad that of the BBC?