MAGBA. Make Gaza Beautiful Again.
Shit the bed, I’m kind of glad I don’t have children as we’re on a one way rocket to oblivion.
Yep no-one really saw Trump Gaza Golf Club as a thing in the new hot destination in the Riveria of the Middle East.
He has just signed an order to scrap the education and schools department.
Source on ****ter not linking it
Yep no-one really saw Trump Gaza Golf Club as a thing in the new hot destination in the Riveria of the Middle East
He saidhe wantedto do this. Lots of lovely seafront real estate. Its long been a part of his plan
He has just signed an order to scrap the education and schools department.
Idiocracy vibes getting stronger. Pulled from a department of education FB post:
For many parents, homeschooling can provide the flexibility to craft an education as unique as their children. Stephanie, a homeschool mom in California, shares how it's given her kids the chance to grow into their best selves: https://blog.ed.gov/2025/01/homeschooling-the-lifeline-we-didnt-know-we-needed/ #SchoolChoiceWeek
I can only think this Gaza thing has been whispered in his ear by the fundamentalist Christian nationalists who see this as the quickest route to the end times and the second coming. Perhaps they dressed it up as a real estate opportunity to get his attention.
He has just signed an order to scrap the education and schools department.
Well, he loves the poorly educated, they vote for him.
Sanctions and tariffs can be dialled whereas his latest brainfart is somewhat binary. Unclear where this one might go…
Crazy ****er probably has no idea about Suez but plenty experience with waterside living.
Shit the bed - that ‘Riviera’ press conference - even the genocidal maniac Netanyahu seemed more measured than The Orange Shitgibbon.
This is the president that pledged to keep the USA out of foreign wars right? And he want to put US troops into the middle of the worlds hottest tinder box.
The Gaza thing is just an excuse to funnel public money to the likes of Haliburton and TrumpCo. There's no strategy, no plan, and no hope of success. It's just a massive grift, like everything else he does.
When I read this latest idea this morning my jaw literally hit the floor
He won't do it, but if he did he'll be on his own. I can't see even the uk, desperate to protect the 'special relationship ' going along with that one. If they did there would be rioting in the street...justifiably tbf
What really needs saying now by our politicians is 'don't be xxxxing daft, we are having no part of this...' but they won't.
It's funny that, when I was about 14 I got in trouble with the law for doing something daft. My excuse to my mum was I only did it to keep in with the cool kids who were also doing it...she flamed me. Yet whole countries are not prepared to stand up to this bully for fear of getting in his bad books.
Fxxx him and the US. The world is a big place, we don't need them.
And he want to put US troops into the middle of the worlds hottest tinder box.
Imagine getting that posting, to be at the focal point of anti-American sentiment in the entire Middle East. The car bombers would have to come up with a scheduling system to avoid congestion on the approach road to the US base.
Many Americans like to wang on about freedom and liberty, how do they square that with Shitlers plan to build a resort on land he wants to ethnically cleanse?
America has been exporting this type of 'freedom and liberty' for decades.
I'd say they have some pressing problems with fundamental rights and freedoms domestically. They just elected a King and gave him the means to rule via decree, and whether or not they get the chance to un-elect him is not entirely certain.
how do they square that with Shitlers plan to build a resort on land he wants to ethnically cleanse?
Easy, just don't think about it much. That's how these things work. This is different to those other things, because Trump's our guy and he wouldn't do anything bad. Everyone does this by the way, including me and you; the reason we are aware of how stupid it is and how quick we are to condemn is because Trump isn't our guy. We know that it's objectively wrong but we're getting a bit of a dopamine hit from this understanding so we're quick to accept that position. If you get your dopamine from supporting Trump and his claims to be improving the country you love and care about, then you have conflicting motivations which makes things a lot more difficult to think about.
and whether or not they get the chance to un-elect him is not entirely certain.
The one saving grace is I genuinely think he'll be dead within 4 years, so unable to run again. That's a long time for a man his age.
That's not to say I'd relish whoever replaces him. But at least they won't have the same cult following..
And not only is he closing the education dept, he's effectively sacking the whole CIA.....
Of all the bat sh1t crazy ideas I’ve heard - US boots on the ground in Gaza is the most fing insane one yet.
The one saving grace is I genuinely think he’ll be dead within 4 years, so unable to run again.
At least he's so self-absorbed that he hasn't, so far at least, tried to anoint one of his degenerate children as a successor. Although there's still time for someone to push proto-sociopath Barron out into the spotlight as a figurehead.
Does everyone else wake up in the morning and take a look at the phone primarily to see what Trump has been up to overnight? It is amazing how frequently he manages to be a worse human than he was the day before.
If this was a movie it would be a dark comedy, no-one could take a script like this seriously.
What he is said about Gaza is basically ethic cleansing and a war crime.
It's insane.
Where does he go from here?
How can he back down?
Can he be stopped or will the Senate go along with him?
Well at least it should help withe CIA voluntary redundancy push. I imagine the entire middle east section are on indeed right now
He has no domestic political opposition. The Senate will be go along with whatever he says, as seen by them endorsing some absolutely batshit picks for key government roles. Musk is being allowed to scrap all the norms of protocol and governmental policy. Hopefully the pair of them can be stopped before they dismantle all the checks and balances, including free and fair elections.
I would say that our government needs to grow some and stop trying to keep relations on an even keel by appeasing or indulging him with state visits and pleasant phone calls. We need to stand foursquare with the rest of our allies, particularly in the EU. He is already trying to export the same kind of chaos to our political system. Labour needs to move quickly to shore up our political and electoral system before people like Musk can exploit its clear vulnerabilities.
From an academic point of view it's interesting to watch the collapse of Western democracy in real time.
Just in case anyone has forgotten why U.S. military leaders tend to argue against getting involved in situations like Gaza:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombings
I know a lot of people think the generals are war-mongers who see bombs as the solution to every problem. In many cases, it's the generals who talk politicians out of rash military adventures by pointing out the practicalities of things: What are the objectives?; How will we decide when we have met the objectives?; What will we do if we don't meet the objectives? How many dead soldiers are we willing to incur?
Also, to steal someone else's idea, "boots on the ground" means "soldiers on the ground." Nobody cares if a bunch of busted up boots get shipped back, shipping back busted up soldiers is a different thing.
My guess on this is that Trump will lose interest after a day or two and find some other shiny thing to chase.
Absolutely barmy
But permitting a private citizen to override the will of our representatives in Congress destroys the U.S. Constitution. It also makes Congress itself superfluous. And it takes the minority rule Republicans have come to embrace to the logical end of putting government power in the hands of one man.
Musk’s team in the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, has taken control of the U.S. Treasury payment systems that handle about $6 trillion in annual transactions for the U.S. government, thus gaining access to Americans' personal information as well as information about Musk's competitors. From there, Musk claims to have been cancelling those transactions he thinks are wasteful. He claims, for example, to have “deleted” the popular Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Direct File system that enabled people to file their taxes online for free, without the help of paid tax preparers."
Musk’s team apparently consists of six engineers, aged 19 to 24, who are taking control of the computers at government agencies. From the Treasury Department, they went on to the U.S. Agency for International Development, which receives foreign policy guidance from the State Department. Their breaching of the computers there compromises our national intelligence systems, which must now be considered insecure.
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-3-2025
In many cases, it’s the generals who talk politicians out of rash military adventures by pointing out the practicalities of things: What are the objectives?; How will we decide when we have met the objectives?; What will we do if we don’t meet the objectives? How many dead soldiers are we willing to incur?
The last military chief who disagreed with Trump needed a pre-emptive pardon from Biden.
He won’t do it, but if he did he’ll be on his own. I can’t see even the uk, desperate to protect the ‘special relationship ‘ going along with that one. If they did there would be rioting in the street…justifiably tbf
In case you hadn't noticed, it is now illegal to protest, on pain of lengthy prison sentence. And you thought it was just long-haired tree huggers and geriatric do-gooders? When Trump says "jump", Starmer will be launching himself skywards.
Inverse relationship between intelligence and common sense
I've got a Cambridge (Maths) and an Oxford (Engineering) graduate working for me at the moment. Are they a bit naive? Sure. Do they learn with almost terrifying speed? YES! They really are phenomenally capable of ingesting and processing information and then turning that information into informed actions. They both performed terribly in interviews.
Is the whole Gaza talk similar to the tariffs position - he goes in with a massively asymmetric position in the hope of gaining a much more modest outcome in another area? i.e. put the world economy at peril for the sake of a few troops on the Mexico/US border? Is he doing the same with Gaza, when his true aim might be something less then he is outlining? It would fit into his M.O. of being a complete bully, transactional, and wanting to negotiate from a perceived position of strength. It also fits with his history of proposing wild things but outcomes being somewhat different.
That's not to undercook how insane and dangerous and utterly wrong everything he is doing and saying is....I don't understand how breaking the world order they ultimately benefit from, will help them in any way...
Is the whole Gaza talk similar to the tariffs position
I think he just gets excited and wants to show that he's in charge, kinda like the injecting bleach idea. In that case, he was in a press conference and other people were talking technical stuff so he needed to remind everyone that he was the boss and in control of it all.
In this case, he can't just admit that much of the situation is out of his control so he just announces a "plan" so that everyone can see that he's the boss.
The BBC journalists reporting on this Gaza 'plan' this morning need a medal for keeping comments sane. The disbelief was there to see on their faces.
It's a 'trait' of a narcissist to come out with shocking statements that give them more attention, for attention is what they seek. They don't give a 'flying fig' about a single living thing, other than themselves.
From an academic point of view it’s interesting to watch the collapse of Western democracy in real time.
It was collapsing long before Trump arrived. He's just the cake topper. Who knows, western democracy is so corrupt, self serving and hypocritical maybe it's not worth preserving? We're heading for a global reset on the scale of the 1940s. Whether that will involve war or not is an interesting question. The existence of nukes probably means we won't get that far and fascism will be here to stay this time.
Do they learn with almost terrifying speed? YES! They really are phenomenally capable of ingesting and processing information and then turning that information into informed actions. They both performed terribly in interviews.
They sound a bit like me (apart from the Oxbridge bit). Are they autistic by any chance?
Anyone who complains gets 25% tariffs. Developed nations will mostly do nothing.
Be more interesting to see what the global south does, given they arent going to affected by tariffs so much, and the aid programes have been binned anyway. Xi must be having a great time.
Perhaps they dressed it up as a real estate opportunity to get his attention.
This is the problem with most people… no imagination
Where we see only piles of smouldering rubble, he sees a golf course with some nice hotels and a helicopter landing pad. He could even let a few hundred Palestinians remain to water the greens, clean the rooms and work behind the bars?
He’s a visionary
And not only is he closing the education dept
Probably worth pointing out (well, I didn't know) that the DOE in the US doesn't actually "do education" like we would expect here - that's done at a state level.
From Wiki:
The department identifies four key functions:
* Establishing policies on federal financial aid for education and distributing as well as monitoring those funds.
* Collecting data on America's schools and disseminating research.
* Focusing national attention on key issues in education, and makes recommendations for education reform.
* Prohibiting discrimination and ensuring equal access to education.
The DOE basically manages budgets and distributes funds for the above endeavours.
Closing it is still a sh*t-show in terms of funding for disabilities, student loans, pre-school etc. (which is probably why it's a target - it sounds rather DEI) but it is not directly involved with general education issues like curriculum etc.
meanwhile in the telegraph
I think he just gets excited and wants to show that he’s in charge, kinda like the injecting bleach idea. In that case, he was in a press conference and other people were talking technical stuff so he needed to remind everyone that he was the boss and in control of it all.
Yup,remember him barging to the front of that NATO photo shoot.
A sad manchild,always desperate for any attention.
The BBC journalists reporting on this Gaza ‘plan’ this morning need a medal for keeping comments sane.
Fine, but when someone is advancing a plan which is the definition of an obvious war crime, it's OK to make that your starting position in reports, rather than treating it as a controversial thing and sticking some Palestinian comments on to 'balance' it.
The BBC Breakfast report on it certainly didn't come from the standpoint that 'Trump wants to break international law and commit war crimes'.
Whilst everyone is getting hot under the collar about the Gaza thing which will obviously never happen, I'm far more worried about what's going on behind the scenes and not front page news distractions.
The wholesale ransacking of govt computer systems by Musk and his Hitler youth is bad enough for Americans though my patience with them is fairly low given they voted in this criminal twice - however US does not exist in a vacuum and you can be sure China and Russia are paying close attention. They may never get the chance to see the US in such extreme disarray ever again....I'm very worried what they might now think is possible to get away with. Who knows what Musk has disconnected..who knows what systems may be taken offline which interfere with basic world protection scenarios. Its very very scary.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/04/doge-noaa-headquarters
Everyone's favourite band of plucky upstart tech bros seem to be targeting the Gov dept that monitors Weather, Hurricanes and Climate Change.
Can't see how that will go badly at all...
