Donald! Trump!

it is absolutely fine to work with the “deluded, dishonest, xenophobic, narcissistic, serial liar and cheat”

Reality bites. Ministers work for us, they can’t choose to ignore the USA because a **** is in charge and they don’t like it. It smells like hypocrisy, because it is. They still need to get on with working for the UK, even when it makes them look two faced. Same goes for working with a number of European leaders… plenty of despicable politicans in positions of power right now, in countries the UK needs to work with.

Any reasonable person might have hoped that Donald Trump’s election as US president would have jolted a “centre-left” Labour UK government to re-evaluate its”Special Relationship” with the United States. Sadly that is probably an unrealistic hope.

I think when you said “reasonable”, you meant to say “naive and deluded”

you meant to say “naive and deluded”

Nah, the naive and deluded are those believe in the “Special Relationship”. It only exists in the minds of UK politicians, no US politician believes in it.

And it is this naivety and delusion which results in the Special Relationship being nothing more than a case of the US telling the UK what to do and the UK doing what it is told to do.

Now that’s pretty “special”.

Try selling that shit to the French, or any other country above the status of banana republic.

I didn’t say I believed in a special relationship.  But the 7th (?) Largest economy in the world needs to work with the largest, regardless and to believe we could just cut ourselves off is idiotic.

Plenty of people around here were travelling in taxis with nothing but a cursory barrier that was going to stop nothing? After a very few minutes you were getting a lung full of whatever the driver had.

No they weren’t.

There was never any evidence of outdoor transmission. Being outside should have been THE way to let life carry on as normally as possible.

That’s the thing about novel outbreaks – there’s no evidence of anything to start off with.

Mask on to walk to your table, mask off to eat. I mean what a shower.

Bullshit.

And that’s not even to speak to the matter of personal choice. I mean, obviously we had to make sure nurses had enough tic-tok time for propaganda purposes so I understand a bit of caution about overwhelming the NHS…

Bullshit trope.

Anyone that supported a policy that let people miss their loved ones funerals deserves a special place in hell.

Bullshit.

I managed to break both my legs early on so was in hospital as wards were being converted to Covid wards etc…

Did that hurt?

…and quite frankly, most of the chatter from the doctors and nurses in there was about the lunacy of it all.

Bullshit.

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Except you’re making it up.

We should have gone full Sweden and let the bodies pile high (oh wait, I mean not had any worse an issue than anyone else).

Worst per capita death rate in the world for awhile, you’ll be pleased to hear – not so good for all those funerals you were forced to miss.

I suppose you’re going to tell me that the changes to how ‘excess deaths’ have been counted since the Psy-op is just some logical statistical necessity lol

No change made.

The freedom with which this bad faith bullshit can be posted is why we have a racist rapist felon as president incoming.

All Hail Emperor Trump.

Should be interesting to see what old scores he settles and how quickly.

to believe we could just cut ourselves off

How does ‘re-evaluating our special relationship with the United States’ translate  into ‘cut ourselves off’ ??

I am talking about a more healthy relationship with the United States, along the lines that other countries have.

What is unreasonable about that? And not least when the US chooses a deluded, dishonest, xenophobic, narcissistic, serial liar and cheat as president?

Turns out Donald Trump is an anagram of Mad Lord Punt.

Fits.

All Hail Emperor Trump.

Should be interesting to see what old scores he settles and how quickly.

Getting the self-pardoning out the way should keep him occupied for about a year?

I have some other views that I didn’t mention which apparently make me an extremist like abolishing national administrative borders and armies, replacing representative democracy with direct democracy and implementing an economic system which aims for 0% growth and zero net consumption of natural resources.

Excellent.  My greengrocer grandfather would have agreed with you.
I’ll stick borders and armies down as reasonable excellent aspirations (though I have no idea how to achieve them).
Not a fan of direct democracy to be honest – too easy for a populist to subvert (though representative democracy isn’t doing much better).
Zero (GDP?) growth and zero net consumption are going to be a struggle simply because it will probably fan the flames of the intergenerational problems we are already seeing.

Well here is an old score he might want to settle:

Trump campaign files complaint against ‘far left’ Labour Party’s ‘blatant foreign interference’ in US election

https://www.lbc.co.uk/news/donald-trump-labour-party-us-uk-politics-kamala-harris/

The question is can the UK’s Foreign Secretary and PM grovel enough to be forgiven?

So let’s think back to Trumps first tenure in office, what did he actually do? Short answer “**** all”

Time will fix Donald he’s 78 and a lard arse. Lucky to see the term out.

So let’s think back to Trumps first tenure in office, what did he actually do? Short answer “**** all”

The Democrats were in control of Congress during his 1st presidency,  Republicans are not going to vote against him so anything goes this time

To be fair Donald Trump did do quite a lot when he was president, whether or not you agree with what he did. And the US economy did reasonably well until the covid pandemic came along.

All of which explains at least in part why American voters have given a second term.

Zero (GDP?) growth and zero net consumption are going to be a struggle simply because it will probably fan the flames of the intergenerational problems we are already seeing.

Well we don’t really have any choice on this one as eventually we’ll run out of space and resources, civilisation will collapse and the human race will go extinct. Unless of course Elon manages to colonise Mars before then which I think even the most enthusiastic Musk acolyte will admit is unlikely.

Should be interesting to see what old scores he settles and how quickly.

I’d settle for locking up Nancy Pelosi. I have always despised that woman, the single greatest blockage to progressive policies and govt in the US (and beyond) in recent history. Although given she’s one of the main instigators of the Harris candidacy Trump might give her a medal instead.

@dazh

civilisation will collapse and the human race will go extinct

Only a matter of time

To be fair Donald Trump did do quite a lot when he was president, whether or not you agree with what he did.

He sure did:

https://seattlemedium.com/donald-trump-spent-almost-a-year-playing-golf-during-presidency/

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/10/31/fact-check-taxpayer-burden-trumps-golfing-hard-pin-down/3718413001/

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/07/trump-falsely-claims-obama-played-more-golf-president.html

Thank goodness they’ve reinstated a real grafter in the White House eh?

Trump does not give one flying fig for ‘Green issues’, the ‘environment’, ‘controlling climate change’, or nature. All the baby robins of this world are in jeopardy. This really is a huge problem.

Thank goodness they’ve reinstated a real grafter in the White House eh?

It has nothing to do with him being a grafter. The reality is that his administration did quite a lot during the period that he was president, and presumably quite a lot of people liked what he did – he has just been elected US president for the second time.

I would be reasonably happy if I thought that Trump will be mostly playing golf for the next 4 years and the US was left to cruise on autopilot, unfortunately I don’t think that will be the case

Eerrr like what? Started a wall, put tariffs in that nearly destroyed some American brands and…… oh bleach injections.

Eerrr like what?

If you think that Trump did nothing more than play golf during his first term I am guessing that you don’t think him winning a second term is a disaster?

I do agree that the claimed negative effect of his first term is probably exaggerated but I wouldn’t go as far as dismissing it as inconsequential.

I suspect that the average American has a better idea of what Trump did in his first 4 years as US president than the average Brit.

Edit :

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/01/29/how-america-changed-during-donald-trumps-presidency/

Trump’s policy record included major changes at home and abroad. He achieved a string of long-sought conservative victories domestically, including the biggest corporate tax cuts on record, the elimination of scores of environmental regulations and a reshaping of the federal judiciary. In the international arena, he imposed tough new immigration restrictions, withdrew from several multilateral agreements, forged closer ties with Israel and launched a tit-for-tat trade dispute with China as part of a wider effort to address what he saw as glaring imbalances in America’s economic relationship with other countries. 

Getting the self-pardoning out the way should keep him occupied for about a year?

I would imagine that will be his primary consideration.

As we’ve heard, during his first term there were a lot of people either actively or passively working to slow down or stop the worst ideas he had. There also seemed to be a slight level of buffoonish incompetence around some stuff, remember “Space Force”?

This time around the project 2025 masterminds will have the plans all laid out and get exactly what they want. I’m sure they’ll be perfectly happy to have Trump out of the way, down in Florida playing golf, while they get on with the real work.

Drill, drill, drill is the most disheartening thing I’ve read so far. That and talk about raping the Arctic for fossil fuels. America, **** yeah!

Getting the self-pardoning out the way should keep him occupied for about a year?

I’m betting these will be the first parts of his great work and handled rapidly.

I’m wondering if Rudy will be getting his TV back and whether all his insurrectionists get released from prison.

I just can’t see him not having a night of the long knives.

What’s  the point of having the rule of law when a criminal can rise to the top then exonerate themselves.

A lot of Italians thought that too!

On one of the many occasions that Silvio Berlusconi became Prime Minister of Italy the first law he passed was to give himself immunity from prosecution.

How much of this is on the democrats for putting forward someone not matching the job description?

Like what Labour did with Corbyn in the 2017 and 2019 elections.

That is, in the view of the wider electorate not just the party’s own supporters.

ie – US president isn’t a job for a youngish looking 2nd generation immigrant non-white woman, UK PM isn’t a job for a socialist protester type.

Nasty stuff I know but these things are at play in the analysis of the fallout so we shouldn’t avoid discussing it.

What are we all thinking about

1. pollsters not spotting the huge swing to Trump – it was still neck-and-neck right until they started counting votes – and they counted bloody quick
2. the Twitter discussion that the votes cast don’t match the numbers of registered voters, are v different from 2020, and there must be some votes missing for Dems…….

Idiots excepted, we’re all feeling pretty depressed about this. How should we react? Some thoughts here:

https://www.popehat.com/p/and-yet-it-moves

Like what Labour did with Corbyn in the 2017 and 2019 elections

don’t go there – when you utter that curse the thread will self-combust

What’s  the point of having the rule of law when a criminal can rise to the top then exonerate themselves.

That, my friend, is NOW the American Dream.

2nd generation immigrant non-white woman

not all trump voters are racist misogynists, but many racists and misogynists probably voted trump.

new levels of hypocrisy

You say hypocrisy, I say diplomacy. Let’s call the whole thing off

One of the worst things in all this is we are forced to continue to hear his **** whiny **** disgusting voice going on with all of his bullshit, everyday on the daily narrative. For another four years! minimum.

And I’m already sick of him.

You say hypocrisy, I say diplomacy.

I am talking about David Lammy’s intense attack on Teresa May’s government for inviting Donald Trump to the UK, that is what I am calling hypocrisy.

Apparently diplomatic niceties are absolutely fine for a Labour government, but in the case of a Tory government they are a disgrace, according to David Lammy.

How much of this is on the democrats for putting forward someone not matching the job description?

There are many questions for the Democrats to answer, but given they kicked Biden out last minute, I thought Harris stepped up, did a pretty good job and surprised a lot of people, and ran a decent campaign with an energised and uplifting message. It’s difficult to see what more they could have done under those circumstances.

We can talk all day about what if they did this, or what if they did that, but the fact is absolutely none of it seems to be resonating with a great number of people.

If there’s anything to learn from any of this, it appears that we maybe need to take the current rule book and burn it, then start again from scratch. People feel there is something fundamentally broken in society (and I don’t think that’s limited to the far right, we all feel it to some extent or other) and the face you put in front of people is inconsequential unless they feel that face is going to do that.

We’re at a point we’re a lot of Trump supporters don’t even like or trust him. They just know he’s going to shake shit up and they want stuff to happen.

Can’t wait to see Sir Keir holding hands with him

pollsters not spotting the huge swing to Trump – it was still neck-and-neck right until they started counting votes – and they counted bloody quick

He’s sitting at 50.7% of the vote, that’s within the tolerance of the polls.

We’re at a point we’re a lot of Trump supporters don’t even like or trust him. They just know he’s going to shake shit up and they want stuff to happen.

To be fair that isn’t totally dissimilar to many peoples attitude of Thatcher when she was prime minister. On a personal level not many people actually liked her but they were swayed by her message.

Edit : And putting the great back in Great Britain also isn’t totally dissimilar to Make America Great Again :

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-wales-22063441

Maybe trumps stance on abortion has some logic.

if musks am is to repopulate mars, he’ll need candidates that can survive hurtling through space in a tin can for 15 years.

the spermatozoa that produced all the unwanted (unaborted) Americans have already outwitted every kind of birth control. What possible harm are some gamma rays on the barren planet mars going to do?

they’d have spent an equivalent amount of time in childhood neglect. Small beer?