Yep that's the problem, toothless as a result of not gaining enough support from the respective electorates.
President-elect Donald Trump wastes no time getting down to business in the Middle East.
It might not bring lasting peace, or even temporary peace, but it should bring in big fat profits and that's what really matters. To Donald Trump.
“Following the remarkable success of Trump International Oman, as well as our most recent ventures in Dubai and Jeddah, we are thrilled to announce two additional projects in Riyadh,” Eric Trump, the president-elect’s son who oversees the company's real estate interests, said in a statement.
Donald Trump named Time Person of the Year again
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c36e71wg7z9o
"For marshaling a comeback of historic proportions, for driving a once-in-a- generation political realignment, for reshaping the American presidency and altering America's role in the world"
If I know Trump he will be coy and feel embarrassed when he reads that.
Came here to post the same thing - I thought it was satire, then I remembered I was on the BBC website.
Wonder who their woman of the year will be.
An interesting article which might cast a bit of light on Donald Trump's voter appeal.......his strength might be that he himself and those around him are perceived to be oddballs and misfits, which I guess will attract those desperate for very significant change
https://archive.li/2024.12.13-052321/https://www.ft.com/content/2e2603bf-a297-445f-bbad-20a619af7688
Who will protect us from advancing Russian aggression then? Not France, Not Germany either…
France has a bigger military than the UK, along with nuclear weapons, Germany is about the same size.
I can easily see the US staying out of a European war.
Well, that approach worked for them last time.
But these things always come knocking
Russia couldn't even invade Ukraine properly. They wouldn't do well against Euro Nato forces.
Who will protect us from advancing Russian aggression then? Not France, Not Germany either…
How does Russia invade UK, but bypass France. Asking for a friend.
Softer targets like Moldova are more of a concern.
How does Russia invade the UK? By buying the property, the politicians, the businesses.
Why invade when you can destabilise? It worked in many of the former USSR states (and arguably the USA and UK).
Why invade when you can destabilise?
Or just blow shit up for fun - they haven't invaded much of Ukraine, but they've damaged a hell of a lot of it.
Or just blow shit up for fun – they haven’t invaded much of Ukraine, but they’ve damaged a hell of a lot of it.
To be fair that wasnt the plan.
Quick decapitation strike into Kyiv and then watch the country surrender and become part of the glorious new USSR.
Its only when that failed that they ended up going for trashing everything.
Got to agree with that ^^
And the UK is in no way comparable to Ukraine in terms of possible aggression from Russia. There are no Russian speaking regions in the UK nor pro-Russian elected politicians nor is it next door nor was ever part of one country.
There is no logical reason at all to believe that Russia has any interest in absorbing the UK. It's an overcrowded country with shit weather and frankly shit food and drink
It’s a...country with shit weather and frankly shit food and drink
You've clearly never been to Russia
Time person of the year is insane. 1938: Hitler 1939: Stalin.
Churchill won it a few times. Putin won it too. Then like Greta Thunberg is in there randomly alongside a few other none dictator types.
Problem with Person of the Year is that it's basically the most significant person of the year, not the most virtuous. Like it or not, Trump has led a massive realignment of U.S. and global politics. The old Republican party was out of touch with its base and the party establishment either had to join the MAGA crowd or get pushed out. The Democratic party completely misjudged the electoral climate and spouted silly slogans like "democratic socialism" and "defund the police" that have zero appeal to normal people. Trump will absolutely go down as one of the most consequential presidents of the modern era, along with F.D.R. and Reagan - F.D.R. remade America, Reagan ended the New Deal era, now Trump has killed Reaganism. That's a BFD, hence the Man of the Year award.
Apparently he's just won a defamation case as ABC labled him a 'rapist'....when in fact he was 'only' found guilty of being a 'sex abuser'...
15 million quid...
Words absolutely fail me..
The Democratic party completely misjudged the electoral climate and spouted silly slogans like “democratic socialism”
Kamala Harris spoke about democratic socialism? It sounds like the sort of claim that Trump supporters would make.
Have you got any links to back up that claim because it would represent a very significant change in stance from Kamala Harris?
"Sen. Kamala Harris says she’s no democratic socialist"
https://apnews.com/united-states-presidential-election-1d5789a50f854a5ab897292015343810
So the Trump/Musk axis of chaos is doing it's thing.
I've never quite understood how the US budget/government shutdown rodeo operates, but here we go again.
The fact that Musk, in his non governmental role to shrink the government he's not a part of, is using false statements on X to campaign against the budget is really very worrying. I fear these two are going to make Truss and Kwarteng look like rank amateurs at disaster capitalism.
BBC News - Trump-backed bill to keep US government running fails to pass
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz6l9e3jq7xo
Im sure more than one surrounding Trump are going to end up in court, so his term in office is going to be a bonanza for lawyers(again).
The whole Trump/Musk thing is going to explode at some point, two massive narcissistic egos, Trump with his agenda, Musk with his and X as his megaphone. Given that Trump is out at the end of this term King Maker Musk will start looking for someone else to back around the midterms.
The whole Trump/Musk thing is going to explode at some point, two massive narcissistic egos, Trump with his agenda, Musk with his and X as his megaphone.
I was going to say somehting similar...how long can Trumps ego tollerate playing second fiddle to President Musk, or is his title Regent Musk? 😉
Given that Trump is out at the end of this term King Maker Musk will start looking for someone else to back around the midterms.
This is bigger than Trump, Trump is just a useful puppet at the moment - one term is all his puppetmasters need to use him to rip up the rulebook in their favour, given the republicans control the courts and both houses... Once that is done, Trump is just a paperweight - Musk can just buy a new GOP presidential candidate for the term after.
I wonder if/when he will realise that?
I’ve never quite understood how the US budget/government shutdown rodeo operates, but here we go again.
The fact that Musk, in his non governmental role to shrink the government he’s not a part of, is using false statements on X to campaign against the budget
It works like this. The President has to get a budget approved by Congress. That involves a lot of horse trading, unless the President's party has large majorities in both houses, there will need to be compromises and deals to get a bipartisan majority.
However, although the budget authorizes the administration to spend money (a lot of which is mandated entitlement spending like social security), it doesn't authorize the administration to borrow money to pay for it. The President has to go back to Congress to get permission to borrow money to pay for the budget that Congress has already approved. A lot of Republicans just view any government spending as bad so they use the debt ceiling negotiations to try to hold the President hostage and extract budget cuts for future budgets. The commonsensical thing to do would be to do away with the debt ceiling and automatically approve whatever borrowing is needed to pay for the budgeted costs but there are too many people in Congress who want to keep the leverage.
This thread should really be renamed as Elon! Musk!..
Or merged with the existing one.
There's another BBC article gone up talking more about Musk's role in all this, and all I can visualise is the US heading straight for an iceberg towing quite a lot of the "western" world behind it.
There’s another BBC article gone up talking more about Musk’s role in all this,
Leaving aside the issue of whether Musk is actually a good businessman, the idea that business leaders would make good national leaders is pretty dumb. They are different jobs and I think most business leaders don't really understand the concept of the government providing public services. I don't think Musk has any idea what he's doing here and how brutally public opinion can turn when pension cheques don't arrive on time.
I don’t think Musk has any idea what he’s doing here and how brutally public opinion can turn when pension cheques don’t arrive on time.
I don't think his modus operandi involves being a public servant... deregulating his areas of business interest and paying no taxes on the other hand....
Time person of the year is insane. 1938: Hitler 1939: Stalin.
Churchill won it a few times. Putin won it too. Then like Greta Thunberg is in there randomly alongside a few other none dictator types.
I was Time's Person of the Year in 2006.
I much prefer The Onion's man of the year award.
https://theonion.com/the-onions-1997-man-of-the-year-1819564556/
There’s no way on earth that someone as narcissistic and thin-skinned as Trump is going to tolerate being referred to by both the democrats and sections of the media as ‘vice-president’ for very long.
I’d say Elon is on borrowed time already, now he’s served his purpose in helping get Trump elected. Can you imagine how funny their public falling out is going to be? As they both use their respective social media platforms to slag each other off
Apparently he’s just won a defamation case as ABC labled him a ‘rapist’
He didn't win. It was settled by a spineless corporation. They should have won it in court...
The latest shotshow has shown the Republicans to be just as inept and powerless as previously demonstrated.
And shown Musk as a poisonous supervillain happy to take money from a children's cancer charity to fund a tax break for himself.
It has brought forward the 'President Musk' concept that the fat fool will not like one bit. Trouble ahead!
Hopefully.
Wouldn't it be funny to get the phrase "Vice President Trump" trending on both Twitter and Truth nobhead, or whatever its called.
How long until Bubba and his mates who voted for Trump realise that his policies are going to cause inflation, that their lives will be worse with Trump as president?
How long for the penny to drop?
It'll still be because of the liberals/foreigners/gays/etc.
Their chosen one can never be at fault.
Looks like Panama's on Trump's naughty list...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98l9wj67jgo
ffs.
I expect the Chinese will not be happy with such a prospect.
Perhaps they'll sign a deal with Panama to protect it from the imperialist, warmongering hyenas
I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry when I saw the Panama story this morning. Presumably he'll be after Egypt and the Suez canal next?
Greenland is not for sale, its leader says in response to Trump
"For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98l9wj67jgo
To be fair, I think he wanted to buy Greenland, not just annex it.
Didn’t he have a been in his bonnet about Greenland last time around?
Yes - he offered to buy it. He was told NO!
For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity
I think the technical term for this sort of thing is "Anschluss"
#Elonald is trending on X. It'll bet that'll go down well.
I think the technical term for this sort of thing is “Anschluss”
Have you seen how big Greenland is? Think of all that Lebensraum!
Bet there's loads of lovely oil under all the boring snow and dumb reindeer too...
The US media falling into lockstep with the new autocratic regime. How long until they start calling him 'dear leader'?
Im looking forward to Trump trying to invade Greenland.
Either the Danes saw it coming, or they have fallen for Trumps cunning plan to boost their defence spending
BBC News - Denmark boosts Greenland defence after Trump repeats desire for US control
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgzl19n9eko
I think co incidence. Trump is incapable of planning like that. He just says what he thinks is needed
They have been talking about boosting presense in the arctic for years.
danish defence minister said they have been working on this plan for months.
But the US already have their space base up there ( formerly known as Air force base) what else do they really need.
To be honest, who's going to stop him?
The EU? Is he really going to go to war with the EU and the rest of Nato?
WRT Canada maybe Trump needs to look into why the White House is white.
But the US already have their space base up there ( formerly known as Air force base) what else do they really need.
I'd be surprised if this is not the real reason Trump has his eyes on Greenland
https://www.energymonitor.ai/sectors/industry/why-the-world-finds-itself-in-a-greenland-mining-rush/
Is he really going to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America? Or have I been duped??
If mad vlad can try it why can't he
I see he's misunderstood what the "special" in "special forces" actually means
BBC News - Trump Jr arrives in Greenland after dad says US should own the territory
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yv10knyd9o
Flying to Greenland on a 757 for a day trip
They are trolling all of us. Utter bell ends
Yeah, sorry but what a ****er.
The man's a complete fruit loop.
It’s terrifying watching them all cravenly cave in to the whims of a lunatic. As the Washington Post also kisses the ring, bear in mind that there is one last bastion of journalistic independence who called things absolutely right exactly 4 years ago today…
It's all getting to a fairly high level of batsh1t already, and the gibbon hasn't even been sworn in. As alluded to elsewhere, the direction of travel is fast becoming dystopian..
Under His Eye
Have you seen how big Greenland is? Think of all that Lebensraum!
It's all down to projection systems. It's not as big as people think it is
It's about the same size as the Congo.
Do they drink as much Um Bongo though?
El shalimo.
Only if you use the dreaded Mercator and anyone still using it needs a stern talking to
Genuinely worrying signs of ‘anything Vlad can do I can do betterer’.
Greenland is the equivalent of 103 Wales.
Bet there’s loads of lovely oil under all the boring snow and dumb reindeer too…
Of course there is, Greenland is very mineral rich, which is why Diaper Don is so keen on encouraging the use of non-renewable resources, to increase climate warming, to melt the icecaps so that mining for all those wonderful minerals is easier, so that all his ultra rich industrial buddies will pay him billions and keep him in power so that they can keep making more money.
Simples.
And Don probably thinks he’ll get away with it because he’s got Putin and Xi to keep all the other nations who aren’t run by authoritarian Fascist despots busy.
Trying to follow the machinations of all these assholes is enough to drive one crazy if you let it.
Greenland is the equivalent of 103 Wales
Blue or Humpback?
How many red London buses is that?
Even with Mercator Greenland is still effing massive
Genuinely worrying signs of ‘anything Vlad can do I can do betterer’.
Or more bigley
But yes, the rhetoric is dangerously ramping up, and despite him rarely following through on his weird outbursts, sooner or later he's going to have/want to demonstrate he can deliver.