I am staggered by the amount of self control Biden and Harris must have to be able to sit there
They don’t give a *. They had their moment in the sun, and their loyalty to the system is greater than their commitment to the American people and rest of the world. them! Fascists always succeed with the help of ‘opponents’ who refuse to fight them.
Jonathan Pie’s take on it…
In a similar vein from Broken News:
We're at Day 1, we've had a Nazi salute and the pardoning / release of a load of violent rioters. I'll give it until Day 8 before the US goes to DEFCON 1. Unfortunately, it'll probably be against Ukraine and in support of Russia or against Taiwan in support of China...
Can't be a coincidence this is happening as the memory of the 2nd World War disappears from living memory.
It was only a few years ago my grandad passed away at 100 years old. He'd hate to see whats going on now. It was bad enough with Brexit. He used to say he wasn't fighting the Germans he was fighting fascism.
‘They’re all the same’
Close enough?
Sounds like you’re part of the problem tbh.
Nope. It is just that, if you go around targeting civilians with modern munitions, killing tens of thousands of them, you haven't got much of a moral high ground to complain from when people start lumping you together in some way.
I personally don't/won't do it. But I'm not very inclined to be that arsed when someone else does. Maybe the IDF should have thought about that, if they are that bothered.
obvious troll is obvious.
I use to think like you too, but I now know they're just idiots instead.
Nope. It is just that, if you go around targeting civilians with modern munitions, killing tens of thousands of them, you haven’t got much of a moral high ground to complain from when people start lumping you together in some way.
I personally don’t/won’t do it. But I’m not very inclined to be that arsed when someone else does. Maybe the IDF should have thought about that, if they are that bothered.
I think you've got this backwards.
What you're saying would make sense if you were comparing the IDF to someone else (eg, Nazi Germany...) but you are saying it's Jews doing it, which is effectively saying all Jews are complicit because some are doing bad things.
It's a bit like saying "look that cyclist jumped a red light, let's ban all cyclists" instead of saying "look that cyclist jumped a red light, let's ban all cyclists who jump red lights". I have not lost any moral high ground when arguing with drivers who go through lights, just because I'm a cyclist and most cyclists go through red lights.
But hey I'm a Jew so maybe I'm biased. Not shooting anyone FWIW, or even remotely supporting those who do.
And yes I'm putting this here instead of the Gaza thread 😉 It's been done to death there ages ago, but it seems some people missed it. Hope this doesn't derail the thread, but I strongly disagree that it's ok to compare in this way.
So I'm assuming that Trump and Musks masterplan is to stir up enough shit to make it impossible to hold a democratic election in 4 years, emergency powers etc etc....
I do agree with only two genders and did smile
I see a lot of people that say this - there are only two genders. There is a fair bit of scientific research on people who fall between that binary Male/Female measure (often referred to as intersex). Most research finds this is as common as being red-haired (1.7% of people have some form of intersex condition, 1-2% of the population are red haired).
Whatever your views on people choosing to change gender, the medical facts that there are many many people who are not entirely male or entirely female cannot be ignored.
And having had several (cis female, straight) friends challenged in the UK over why they are using the female toilets, because they look like boys (!) this fixation on dictating how people choose to live is definitely not a good thing
From Norwegian newspaper VG
.
You’re conflating sex with gender. There are, largely, two sexes (male and female) and a small number of people who are intersex.
Gender is just a social construct dictating how people of the two sexes should dress and behave.
You can’t escape your biology but you can try to identify as you want. Whether other people accept this is what is causing all the recent arguments.
On the climate agreement and in particular his obsession with drilling gas and oil.
Will it actually increase US drilling? As surely the international price will drop significantly unless OPEC vote to sabotage themselves.
I can only assume he intends on putting tariffs on oil and gas imports otherwise how would it be profitable to drill more in the US?
Suggestion on SoMe that the reason he's anti-wind is that there's a wind farm near one of his Scottish golf courses.
He's vindictive enough that this can't be discounted. What I'm not clear about here is how much power the 50 states have to go "that's nice, we're going to do our own thing anyway"
"I can only assume he intends on putting tariffs on oil and gas imports otherwise how would it be profitable to drill more in the US?"
All he is doing is making it easier for the market to decide and removing restrictions. For example opening up parts of Alaska. If oil companies think they can produce oil there profitably they will. They only need to have a cost of production less than the market rste to be profitable. Tarrifs not required.
Unlike UK where exploitation on the remaining North Sea reserves is positively discouraged and punitively taxed.
Suggestion on SoMe that the reason he’s anti-wind is that there’s a wind farm near one of his Scottish golf courses.
Trump objected to a proposed offshore wind farm on the basis it would spoil the view from his golf course at Menie. The objection was rejected and the wind farm was built.
Trump talks down renewable energy and promotes hydrocarbons because it plays well with many of his supporters (who believe renewables are costing them money and climate change is not an issue) and because the hydrocarbon industry are one of his key backers (he allegedly offered industry executives a straightforward quid pro quo last year; give him $1 billion in campaign donations and he would remove barriers to hydrocarbon extraction and maintain tax breaks Biden was threatening to remove: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/may/16/donald-trump-big-oil-executives-alleged-deal-explained).
You'd hope the rest of the world will see this and accelerate decarbonisation, as, even if the environmental considerations are put to one side, it reduces dependence on unsavoury regimes across the world, now including the US.
Jesus. America really is on fire.
The big question is, do the rest of the world call them out on it, or do they continue to tip their hats to the empire, even if the empire currently doesnt resmble anything that made it in the first place.
If they want to burn themselves down, or model themselves on "the purge", then we cant stop them. But we dont have to pander to them.
ALSO, the big orange baby seems to be able to sign off on scrapping the 14th ammendment. But weve been told for years that its impossible to ammend ammendments,by those 2nd ammenment lunatics. Does this accidentaly open the gates to some form of sensible gun control?
Trump talks down renewable energy and promotes hydrocarbons because it plays well with many of his supporters (who believe renewables are costing them money and climate change is not an issue) and because the hydrocarbon industry are one of his key backers
Climate scepticism isn't a Trump thing, it's a Republican thing. Americans pretty much split down party lines as to whether or not the 'believe' in manmade climate change. It's because it's basically an existential issue for republicanism. Republicans define themselves as the party of small government, low regulation and individual liberty. The problem climate change creates for republicans is that all the credible responses require a government that governs, a government that regulates and so on. If you accept the reality of climate change you have to also accept that theres no role for republicanism in government.
Its a difficult sell to say 'Vote for us, the party who will do nothing about the threats you face - we'll be cowards on your behalf - when your homes burn, or flood or freeze you'll know its becuase you voted for us to ignore the issue like you asked'
They can't sell themselves as the party who'll do nothing about the problem so they need their voters to tell them there is no problem. What they also have to do is tell themselves that taking that position - sticking their head in the sand - is the brave, clever, patriotic thing to do.
Channel 5 out here doing the Lord's work as always
ALSO, the big orange baby seems to be able to sign off on scrapping the 14th ammendment.
The President can't amend the constitution, that requires large majorities in both houses of Congress and the states. In other words, a big bunch of Democrats would have to vote for it even if all Republicans supported it, which is unlikely. Trump might try to ignore the 14th Amendment, but that's a different thing and the Supreme Court would kill it dead.
On the climate agreement and in particular his obsession with drilling gas and oil.
Will it actually increase US drilling? As surely the international price will drop significantly unless OPEC vote to sabotage themselves.
I can only assume he intends on putting tariffs on oil and gas imports otherwise how would it be profitable to drill more in the US ?
Never let the reality of anything get in the way of the bigliest sound bite he can muster. It's all still me, me, me.
What I'm more surprised at is how many Americans seem to buy such lies, not realising that the reality of his fantasy will be to hurt them.
deleted, didn’t load correctly.
it was just a pic of a chihuahua furiously humping a trump doll
You’d hope the rest of the world will see this and accelerate decarbonisation, as, even if the environmental considerations are put to one side, it reduces dependence on unsavoury regimes across the world, now including the US.
The rest of the developed world has a problem with electorates exhibiting xenophobia, racism, general bigotry and stupidity in varying degrees - enough to be electorally interesting to populists.
So, I doubt it.
The escalating problem for those wedded to fossil fuels and denying climate change is capitalism.
Great, you can enjoy your F-150 with it's Cummins diesel for a few more years as fuel feels more affordable.
Meanwhile your neighbor bought some solar panels and an electric car and isn't paying a penny. Their car is faster than yours, more comfortable, more refined, more reliable, and they go on more holidays than you with the cash they're saving.
Same here, capitalism will kill off ICE vehicles and the gas boiler in your house long before a politician has the backbone to do anything about it.
Good to see the Presidential marker pen back in use.
Presumably he'd eaten all of the crayons?
all the tools of USAican soft power are now labelled as a rip-off, rather than 'this is how we influence the world for our benefit'
just had to turn newsnight off. wow.
I'll bet anyone 100 dollars, he doesn't have the dexterity to use a ball point pen, let alone a fountain pen.
I mean, what the hell is that? a Crayola felt tip?
What strikes me here is the instability.
Because he's a continuous fountain of bullshit, hyperbole and lies, we really have no idea what he's going to do.
We know what he has said he's going to do - but really we have no idea if he's actually going to do those things. Also - we have no idea what things he's going to do which he hasn't previously announced. In the least couple of weeks he's suggested that the US "aquire" Greenland, Canada FFS and....... (checks notes) the panama canal, and now a flagship policy is that he wants to-rename the gulf of Mexico.
My take on this is that we are still persisting at viewing him through the lens of a politician..... whereas we really need to regard him as an amoral and corrupt "businessman", for whom everything is a hustle.
I suspect that these threats of XYZ are really just hustles.... threatening to pull out of whatever, in order to gain some concession. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if 99% of them had the aim to enrich in personally, or as a favor to donors, or in aid of bolstering his popularity. He's freely admitted that the whole tiktok ban is a hustle. He was pushing for some joint venture whereby the US would own half of the company, the data, and presumably control of the algorithm. It's not because of concerns about tiktok on kids/national security etc. It's all just a grift.
I don't know if Trump is the most corrupt modern president (I strongly suspect he is), but he's certainly the most open about his corruption - he's made it very clear that his favor can be bought - whether for votes, or just cash in his pocket.
What will be interesting is not who's money he takes, but who's favors he actually bothers to follows-up on. He's got elected, so he doesn't need to chase votes now (unless he plans another term), so where's the benefit in actually delivering deportations etc?
I think actual ACTIONS will be limited to those things that benefit him and his cronies financially - and decisions that he makes off-the-cuff based on what he hears on fox news about it that morning over his pop-tarts, or whatever petty grievances he harbours.
F-150 with it’s Cummins diesel
Nah, you gotta be rednecking around in a 1 tonne if you wanna do any serious coal rolling or ice'ing
The pardons are a signal to his supporters, it isn't a reward for what they have done, it is about telling them he will protect them for what they will do.
I think this is going to be worse than we suspected, not necessarily the invade another country stuff in the first wave, but the internal divisions and violence, the attacks on minorities and political opponents. I think we really are probably at about 50/50 now as to seeing a repeat of Germany in the 30's, but given the global position of the US god knows where that leads, especially with Putin and China in the background. Axis of evil might be a rather quaint term for what is coming.
I watched him signing the WHO away on the news last night and after the shock of it, thought of the Pen thread on here. Maybe we could all club together and order a set for him. Something metal so he can't eat it, non refillable so he can't drink it. Crayola maybe so when the grown ups get back in charge it can be wiped clean?
So far it looks like it's all working out perfectly for the straight rich white man.
Not so much for everyone else. I had forgotten the daily morning headlines of his last term of the batshit thing he'd done the day before.
Nice of him to remove the prescription drug price caps Biden introduced to, if only it were just the idiotic Americans that voted for him suffer as a result
the big orange baby seems to be able to sign off on scrapping the 14th ammendment.
He can't and that executive order already has a lot of legal challenges, typically the order is stayed until resolved in the courts but not sure if that's always the case. It's one that will likely drag on a long time and end up in the SCOTUS - will be interesting to see how the corrupt judges there manage to twist their arguments to support it.
Not so much for everyone else. I had forgotten the daily morning headlines of his last term of the batshit thing he’d done the day before.
Yep,off we go again all the news will be continually chattering about everything he does.
All part of the Trumpshow a continual stream of shite , it’s just a TV show to him and being continually in the news means better ratings.
The continual fact checking and faux/real outrage will continuously churned out and weaponised by him for the season three renewel.
it will also obscure the real work that will be making sure future seasons continue without the ‘steal’ the next times.
capitalism will kill off ICE vehicles and the gas boiler in your house long before a politician has the backbone
I agree.
I think we're in a place where it's becoming financially and geo-politically savvy to use less power, generate your own energy, keep local on supplies, use nature to shade, shelter and provide in your own 'back yard' etc.
I quite like Bernie's concise take on things:
Concisely point out the gaps in Trumpism rather than rise to the bullshit, is that going to be the Dems do business for the next 4 years? I do wonder where they go from here...
