‘Insightful words from the FT’
exactly
That's all very nice, but what is being built in the states goes way beyond Trumps narcissism, those standing behind him aren't hanging onto his coattails, they are building an empire that will continue with or without him. And they are not going to stop with the US. It has long been theorised that the next world war will be an information war, I think what they got wrong is it won't be between nation states, it is the rich and powerful against everyone else, and it has already started without anyone realising.
I wonder if he’s thought that as his promised “end Ukraine war in 24hrs” boast won’t work, then this is a new brain fart to big himself up?
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/05/musk-doge-takeover-usaid
On the subject of what's going on back in the US, this article on the shutdown of USAid is pretty telling - Musk basically being empowered to pull the same moves as he did with Twitter/X. The impact on global healthcare is going to be pretty horrific, and the consequences for the US population, when combined with the withdrawal from WHO, has the potential to be catastrophic. I saw one medical consultant talking about it in terms of "why we don't have Ebola in the US" - because their input to WHO and USAid means it's managed and contained overseas. He clearly anticipated that, with these defences shutting down, the US was now much more exposed to the likelihood of a significant outbreak of something like Ebola or Marburg in the continental US.
He's not just shutting down USAID, he's pulled all the info updates from the Center for Disease Control (cos they made him look bad on Covid), they are doing DOGE sh1t at the Medicare/Medicaid HQ and the VA, they are apparently doing DOGE sh1t at the FAA (25yr olds with root access etc) so this is pulling down all the elements of the administration that the US depends on.
So much FAFO happening - how do those POC/vets/pensioners who rely on Medicaid/CIA/FBI folks who voted Trump feel about it now
They have also apparently (Musk says it has been but so far its online) shutdown the 18F department which despite a truly crap name has produced some rather good software including the IRS "direct file" program.
This was created when the democrats finally lost patience with the commercial tax prep firms like Intuit who although they should have offered a free version used every dark pattern under the sun to get people to buy the commercial version.
Apparently though allowing people to pay taxes without needing to pay for commercial software is an infringement of peoples rights, somehow.
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.
This is what I think too. He's such a weak man - he has to feel like people are hanging on his every word, and is thereby "controlling" the dialogue/discussion. It's interesting because he'd rather be in the spotlight for saying something completely stupid/inappropriate, than not be the centre of attention. The whole injecting-bleach thing feels very relevant here - that was obviously something that he thought he heard in the preceding meeting, and felt this compulsion to say something, anything to be back in the spotlight during the press conference. I think he just gets a kick out of people hanging on his every word.
I think Donald desperately wants to demonstrate the power he has at his fingertips - therefore his answer to any problem seems to be bully/tariff/invade/use the military. In his his preceding discussion with Netanyahu I expect they were talking about awarding the reconstruction contracts for Gaza to US companies, and how Trump could leverage that to his personal financial advantage (because of course they were), and Netanyahu's plan to forcibly relocate the Palestinians from Gaza. It's easy to imagine how Trump's brain has extrapolated that into the idea that the US can "go in" to Gaza and rebuild it once the troublesome local population have gone. Verbalised in a ham-fisted way during a press conference - an suddenly the news cycle is all about his "plan" for Gaza. He has no plan - what we are seeing is the brain of a maliciously ignorant narcissist, who the American people have inserted into the worlds most important, complex and delicate situations, freewheeling live on tv.
The problem is - the more we scruitinse/discuss this (even negatively), the bigger the dopamine hit he's going to get from it, and the more he'll keep pushing it.
We shouldn't be ignoring anything he does - but I think the media need to stop legitimising his brain-farts by calling them "plans", and retain their focus on what he/Musk are actually DOING.
I think it was Ian Hislop who pointed out that had DT simply sat on the wealth he inherited, maybe employed somebody to help him invest it, he'd be far more "successful" than his various business and political endeavours have achieved. So burns the world.
It's just eugenics with a shit disguise. Cut billions of dollars of aid to the world's most vulnerable people, including those in your own country. Sack anyone with any strand of humanity.
freewheeling live on tv
It’s worth noting that he was actually carefully reading a pre-prepared statement.
You can check the video of that here:
a lot of the reports on this i heard mentioned that he was reading this - not just riffing.
it's a volte face on US policy irrespective of the practicalities of your interpretation of the realities of the last administration's behaviour towards the support of israel and the plight of gazans. US policy has for years been for a two-state solution. in fact the abraham accords signed under trump's last administration, are predicated on it.
"oh that Gaza, we thought you meant..."
“oh that Gaza, we thought you meant…”
Ahh yes...the classic misunderstanding, we thought they were talking about fishing rods and cans of stella, but it turns out we were talking about genocide, oops..
An interesting and plausible analysis by Jeremy Bowen here :
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2pwjgp59do
I have to admit that Trump's overture to Iran did really take me by surprise, and I wasn't aware that his first administration's hardline position on Iran was heavily influenced by pressure from Israel.
So the ethnically cleansed Gaza as red meat to the Israeli far-right does seem to make some sense, even if there is no risk of it actually happening.
And desperate for the Nobel Peace Prize also makes sense in the case of a narcissist like Trump. As Bowen points out you don't actually have to be an effective peacemaker to win it.
It’s worth noting that he was actually carefully reading a pre-prepared statement.
He is clearly reading some of it - but he is doing his usual thing of "infilling" around each point. You can tell when he's not reading, because he looks up from whatever notes are in front of him and waffles. It's part of the same behavior - he won't just read something out - he has to add his own little nonsensical flourishes. We also know he likes to take a sharpie to his prepared speeches - so just because he's reading it out, doesn't mean that it's a carefully prepared statement.
The bits that he's reading are all about infrastructure/buildings/redevelopment (as expected, contracts for US companies) - all the mad shit is him either infilling (ie: "own Gaza", or "go in there and really do a Job" etc) or responding to reporters questions.
As Bowen points out you don’t actually have to be an effective peacemaker to win it.
Best to start a Henry Kissinger thread if you want to discuss that.
desperate for the Nobel Peace Prize also makes sense in the case of a narcissist like Trump.
Given that the entire rage of the MAGA movement is reaction to Obama, it makes sense (that he craves it)
Yep, that 2016 roast of Trump keeps looking like the biggest mis-step in recent US political history. I wonder if Obama would do it again, if he had a crystal ball.
The missteps were making Clinton the dem candidate in 2016, then Biden in 2020 not realising that the vote was against Trump and not for him, so just continuing the status quo rather than changing anything, then anointing Harris in 2024 to do the same.
Like your worst zombie nightmare....the D! T! thread is back.
Blackmailing Ukraine for lithium is reprehensible. Not hard to see which South African is driving that particular crusade.
Starting to get some quite upset people in the US now:
And a ton of red everywhere on the US stock market on Friday. I don't know why, but for me, a fish rots from the head down, and I would rather not have my savings somewhere with such dangerously bizarre economic policies.
Starting to get some quite upset people in the US now:
There are a lot of her clips, and similar ones on my YT feed that confirm that there are a lot of folks in the US who are pushing back by highlighting the utter bollockness that is going on.
Some of the comments on the various impending meteor YouTube videos are quite a chortle with many contributions hoping it hits mar a lago.
Speaking to many friends, we have all decided to 'switch off' the orange narcissist, when he appears on any screen. He needs to be given a wide berth. Why this criminal is not locked up is beyond me.
When the hill billies start turning on Trump I’m sure throw Skum under the bus and seize his assets……or vice versa.
When the hill billies start turning on Trump I’m sure throw Skum under the bus and seize his assets……or vice versa.
we have all decided to 'switch off' the orange narcissist
Something the press are guilty of is pandering to that narcissism. Its a byproduct of the sheer volume of crap that the Whitehouse is throwing out that theres not enough time and resources to verify and report stories properly but one outcome is newspapers and news sites have multiple Trump stories all running at the same time on the same page and each one is illustrated with a picture of Trump.
When trump announces cuts or suspension of foreign aid - that should be illustrated with a picture of delivery of, or the recipients of, that aid. But theres not time to do that so you just get a picture of Trump instead. Same with sacking federal workers, same with removing FAA workers, same as dismantling equal opposites and civl rights, same as the cuts of grants to health and education programmes, same as the dismantling of labour protections. Each one another picture of Trump, not a picture of who or what is being impacted.
That is a very good point macccruiskeen. The Manchester Guardian online has an interesting article with little bios of a number of laid off national parks workers this weekend. Just the kind of focus you are suggesting.
That is a very good point macccruiskeen. The Manchester Guardian online has an interesting article with little bios of a number of laid off national parks workers this weekend. Just the kind of focus you are suggesting.
Edit - refound it. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/feb/22/forest-land-workers-firings-trump
Canadians demonstrating what they think about proposals of joining the US
https://bsky.app/profile/jamesbicycle.bsky.social/post/3lhockhempc2s
@tthew I don’t think it’s been called the Manchester Guardian for some time. You’ll be talking about the Glasgow Herald next.
I don’t think it’s been called the Manchester Guardian for some time
But.... but.... surely they still have a 'North of England Correspondent' 🙂
The Manchester Guardian online has an interesting article with little bios of a number of laid off national parks workers this weekend
None of the MAGA types understand nor care about these jobs.
For the umpteenth time I'll recommend everyone reads The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis which addresses this very issue of the last Trump presidency and the roles that were abolished back then. What they're doing now is thousands of times worse than last time
Funnily enough I was thinking about all 'the little people' who have lost their lively hoods', with one swoop of the 'orange selfish gits' arm.
Conspiracy theorists and liars Kash Patel and now Dan **** Bongino as Director and Deputy Director of the FBI. This is the bit in 'Dark Knight Rises' where Bane lets everyone out of Arkham Asylum and lets them run kangaroo courts in Gotham.
Its fascinating isnt it, this aint going to end well.....cept maybe for China, they get to lean into the soft power vacuum and they can play the long game.
Kash Patel and now Dan **** Bongino as Director and Deputy Director of the FBI.
The FBI is staffed with a lot of smart people, very loyal to the organisation. I suspect he's going to find out fairly quickly, that he can't swing the wrecking ball quite as hard as he'd like. Same applies to the DoD and others. In fact I think there is going to be huge pushback across government, the financial markets, and even from a fair few Trump voters with buyers remorse. The wheels are going to fall off quite spectacularly I reckon and it's going to be quite delicious to watch 🙂
The wheels are going to fall off quite spectacularly I reckon and it's going to be quite delicious to watch
I've been pondering this point for a few days now. Is it better for Trump to be left to do what he can and it to then fall apart, leaving the next president to pick up the pieces and the US voters actually learn the errors the hard way or to intervene in some way now, stop the wheels coming off fully but run the risk of the whole 'We was robbed!' narrative to remain and no lessons be learned? Either option is scary and has pros and cons.
Is it better for Trump to be left to do what he can and it to then fall apart, leaving the next president to pick up the pieces
I think in some instances there won't be pieces to pick up - internationally, having burned bridges twice, who's going to waste political time and effort again on rebuilding them if theres no reason to believe American voters won't elect another fud.
Domestically theres some stuff that in realty isn't happening - many of Trumps orders are either out of his remit or when he gets push back from courts he yields (he say he'll appeal rulings but he's in fact abiding by them pending any appeal if it ever happens). But the presidentially 'theme' of wreaking stuff does provide cover for Congress to do quite a lot of irreversible damage. (Trump's orders are largely reversible as most of them seem to be reversing previous presidential orders, some of which are orders that reversed some of his ones)
However theres a tool at congressional level called the Congressional Review Act - its a mechanism that allows congress to repeal an existing piece of legistion, it has a very low bar to pass that repeal - a simple majority, and its not something that can be subject to filabuster. In a time when the two houses are practically deadlocked and barely manage to legislate at all, its the one thing a party with slim majority can actually do (or rather undo)
It's time-limited in that it can only be used to reverse recent legislation - basically any legislation from the latter part of Biden's presidency. But crucially - anything repealed by this mechanism can also never be reinstated again - not just the law that was repealed itself, nothing substantial similar can be put forward again as legislation- ever. No pieces to pick up.
The FBI is staffed with a lot of smart people, very loyal to the organisation
The problem with staff, as we have already seen, is they can be sacked.
I think a lot of damage is going to done and don’t forget Trumps narrative is that the last election was stolen and he’s only been in a month so plenty more time to really get going.
Once you’ve been sacked and you’ve got a vexatious legal case hanging around your head your screwed.
I don’t think we’ve seen the complete floodgates open on the madness that he will unleash.
First month and the future of nato is already in doubt and we still have to see how Ukraine plays out.
Where there hell is the opposition? Where are the Democrats? Why don’t they have a leader of the opposition to speak out? Why is everyone so mute?
