President Trump and US politics catchall

[Yeeb]

RTE news : Trump calls Washington bishop 'nasty', demands apology

http://www.rte.ie/news/us/2025/0122/149 ... -trump-us/

He's incredibly thin skinned.

Reminds me of a certain dead poster on that front , together with wild claims of success like Gaza peace , performing autopsies etc

[Yeeb]

The Don sabre rattling with the EU as well - does anyone think he may also be including uk in that and he’s just forgotten Brexit ?

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/artic ... 84_19.html

Add in some ruffled feathers with Spain not paying for nato & Gibraltar tit for tat , and Trump clearly is no real pal to EU or its nato allies. Brexit and the fact Uk has in fact paid its military sure since ww2 may just help us with trump vindictive nature (doubt it though)

[laurent]

The Don sabre rattling with the EU as well - does anyone think he may also be including uk in that and he’s just forgotten Brexit ?

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/artic ... 84_19.html

Add in some ruffled feathers with Spain not paying for nato & Gibraltar tit for tat , and Trump clearly is no real pal to EU or its nato allies. Brexit and the fact Uk has in fact paid its military sure since ww2 may just help us with trump vindictive nature (doubt it though)

You actually read a proper newspaper ? I thought you only read page 3's

[inactionman]

US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold.

Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

This, even for Trump, is weird.

"The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me," Trump said in his post online on Tuesday evening. "He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!"

The article appears to imply Trump has only pardoned him as he was prosecuted by the same people involved in Trumps' various legal woes. A perfectly sane reason to pardon someone who used his dark web site to plan (even if not execute) a number of murders.

Additional credit for use of the term 'scum' to describe a federal employee.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o

[Yeeb]

The Don sabre rattling with the EU as well - does anyone think he may also be including uk in that and he’s just forgotten Brexit ?

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/economy/artic ... 84_19.html

Add in some ruffled feathers with Spain not paying for nato & Gibraltar tit for tat , and Trump clearly is no real pal to EU or its nato allies. Brexit and the fact Uk has in fact paid its military sure since ww2 may just help us with trump vindictive nature (doubt it though)

You actually read a proper newspaper ? I thought you only read page 3's

Mais oui, Paris Match, Masculin, Noir et Blanc - Jaime beaucoup touts Les articles …

[TB63]

[Yeeb]

Lolz

That’s exactly the response Trump wants though, weird how Denmark can’t see that

[Calculon]

Lolz

That’s exactly the response Trump wants though, weird how Denmark can’t see that

He's not the spokesperson for the Danish governemnt. He's a single MEP who (according to a quick search) is from a tiny nationlist party that's never formed part of any government. Although I'm sure his sentiments are widely shared in Denmark. Whatever the response, and it's probably best to ignore Trump on this, the chance of Denmark selling Greenland is about the same as Mexico paying for the wall.

[Yeeb]

Lolz

That’s exactly the response Trump wants though, weird how Denmark can’t see that

He's not the spokesperson for the Danish governemnt. He's a single MEP who (according to a quick search) is from a tiny nationlist party that's never formed part of any government. Although I'm sure his sentiments are widely shared in Denmark. Whatever the response, and it's probably best to ignore Trump on this, the chance of Denmark selling Greenland is about the same as Mexico paying for the wall.

My gut feel he has no real interest in Greenland as they already have military there and more about trying to generate an excuse to hit some tariffs or some other bargaining chip

[Sinkers]

US President Donald Trump says he has signed a full and unconditional pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who operated Silk Road, the dark web marketplace where illegal drugs were sold.

Ulbricht was convicted in 2015 in New York in a narcotics and money laundering conspiracy and sentenced to life in prison.

This, even for Trump, is weird.

"The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me," Trump said in his post online on Tuesday evening. "He was given two life sentences, plus 40 years. Ridiculous!"

The article appears to imply Trump has only pardoned him as he was prosecuted by the same people involved in Trumps' various legal woes. A perfectly sane reason to pardon someone who used his dark web site to plan (even if not execute) a number of murders.

Additional credit for use of the term 'scum' to describe a federal employee.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cz7e0jve875o

Ulbricht is apparently a Libertarian poster boy. So this is a sop to RFK and his mob I guess.

[laurent]

Lolz

That’s exactly the response Trump wants though, weird how Denmark can’t see that

He's not the spokesperson for the Danish governemnt. He's a single MEP who (according to a quick search) is from a tiny nationlist party that's never formed part of any government. Although I'm sure his sentiments are widely shared in Denmark. Whatever the response, and it's probably best to ignore Trump on this, the chance of Denmark selling Greenland is about the same as Mexico paying for the wall.

My gut feel he has no real interest in Greenland as they already have military there and more about trying to generate an excuse to hit some tariffs or some other bargaining chip

Strip Mining the various mineral deposits (EU rules are to much constraint for US companies)

[Yeeb]

He's not the spokesperson for the Danish governemnt. He's a single MEP who (according to a quick search) is from a tiny nationlist party that's never formed part of any government. Although I'm sure his sentiments are widely shared in Denmark. Whatever the response, and it's probably best to ignore Trump on this, the chance of Denmark selling Greenland is about the same as Mexico paying for the wall.

My gut feel he has no real interest in Greenland as they already have military there and more about trying to generate an excuse to hit some tariffs or some other bargaining chip

Strip Mining the various mineral deposits (EU rules are to much constraint for US companies)

Surely they have loads of Alaska left for that ?

I own shares in a mining firm with interests in Greenland for batteries / I’m about 80% down !

[Sandstorm]

Surely they have loads of Alaska left for that ?

Native Alaskans kicked off and the mining companies have very strict rules around what they are allowed to do these days.

[Slick]

Surely they have loads of Alaska left for that ?

Native Alaskans kicked off and the mining companies have very strict rules around what they are allowed to do these days.

Hasn't he already signed one of his black folders rescinding all that?

[Niegs]

Surely they have loads of Alaska left for that ?

Native Alaskans kicked off and the mining companies have very strict rules around what they are allowed to do these days.

Happened here with indigenous groups even disagreeing with each other over what to do about oil pipelines stretching from Alberta to the coast (some wanted the economic benefit, others cared more for environmental impact). But a leader for BC indigenous communities has apparently taken a 180 view because of Trump's threats/unpredictability.

https://financialpost.com/commodities/e ... y-pipeline

... it almost feels as if his his threats will do (iirc) what Putin's attack on Ukraine did, causing customers to restructure and look elsewhere. Lots of chat here about expanding our own capabilities and looking east / west rather than always going for the easy (and possibly disadvantageous) American option.

[sockwithaticket]

I was saying to my no-interest-in-the-internet 85 year old grandmother recently that the big downside of it is that it's brought together so many loons, amplified their misinformed thoughts to others, allow them to spread disinformation with increasingly sharper quality. When I first started as a librarian in 2010, we were teaching basic information literacy to kids with simple cues. Amateur designed websites that weren't far off gluing random words onto a sheet in their aesthetics or so rambling that it was clear the creator was off. Now it's much harder to tell given how 'professional' some are, not to mention bite-sized boldly stated mis/disinfo in social media, and it seems information/media literacy isn't taught or at least not very well.

And now you have the extra obstacle of all the AI-generated slop. Whether it's fake images on social media websites that you can only spot by scrutinising the number of fingers people have or the Chat-GPT generated 'websites' that flood the first two pages of any Google search these days.

[Calculon]

Lolz

That’s exactly the response Trump wants though, weird how Denmark can’t see that

He's not the spokesperson for the Danish governemnt. He's a single MEP who (according to a quick search) is from a tiny nationlist party that's never formed part of any government. Although I'm sure his sentiments are widely shared in Denmark. Whatever the response, and it's probably best to ignore Trump on this, the chance of Denmark selling Greenland is about the same as Mexico paying for the wall.

My gut feel he has no real interest in Greenland as they already have military there and more about trying to generate an excuse to hit some tariffs or some other bargaining chip

It's the negotiating strategy he has always used, but I'm sure he would take Greenland if it was on offer

Trump the performer also anchors high – i.e., makes the first move
and asks for a maximum possible value to get the most out of the
negotiation. “My style of deal-making is quite simple and straightforward. I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and
pushing to get what I’m after. Sometimes I settle for less than I sought,
but in most cases I still end up with what I want” (Trump 1987: 45). For
example, “I went in and asked for the world – for an unprecedented tax
abatement – on the assumption that even if I got cut back, the break
might still be sufficient,” Trump wrote, describing one of his negotiations with the New York City government (Trump 1987: 131).

[The Party Line]

I am very much reminded of the following from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when describing Zaphod Beeblebrox as the President of the imperial Galactic Government,

"The President is very much a figurehead - he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it."

It seems to sum up Trump brilliantly.

[Yeeb]

In business terms , it’s not always a bad business strategy , just not sure it exactly works well for politics or actually being best overall outcome for the people he was elected to run. I do admire how he gives zero shits about pissing people off, in this case the Danes (a lovely bunch in my extremely limited experience of them). Every negotiation business course I’ve been on does sort of say aim high and negotiate down.

Personally I think a far more effective way would just be to say ‘hey mr member of nato, by my calcs you have paid 45 years at only 0.1% GDP when it should be two, we’ve been subbing you $20 billion - either pay this back or I’m gonna hit your country with some fees’. Uk, Greece and perhaps a few others would escape his financial wrath at least.

[Biffer]

Some chatter online that Trump is starting to view Putin as a loser. He doesn’t like losers, doesn’t want to be associated with them. He wants to be seen to screw them over in negotiations. If true, it might be beneficial for Ukraine, and European security generally.

[yermum]

We can but hope that the MIC and its apparatus has explained that it would like the US to maintain its dominance over arms sales to Europe.

[sockwithaticket]

We can but hope that the MIC and its apparatus has explained that it would like the US to maintain its dominance over arms sales to Europe.

Yes the 'Europe's not paying its way' rhetoric is particularly irksome because the US engineered it this way.

European dependence and the US being the world's policeman has made their arms industry a lot of fucking money.

[dpedin]

I am very much reminded of the following from the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy when describing Zaphod Beeblebrox as the President of the imperial Galactic Government,

"The President is very much a figurehead - he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power but to draw attention away from it."

It seems to sum up Trump brilliantly.

Douglas Adams was a genius! I agree 100% with that quote and its application to Trump. There will be some almighty fights behind the scenes as they all battle to take control of him - the Big Tech Bros v Religious Far Right v Original MAGAs v Old School Trad Industrial Based Republicans, etc. It is going to be interesting but I fear the collateral damage for everyone will be huge!

[Yeeb]

We can but hope that the MIC and its apparatus has explained that it would like the US to maintain its dominance over arms sales to Europe.

Yes the 'Europe's not paying its way' rhetoric is particularly irksome because the US engineered it this way.

European dependence and the US being the world's policeman has made their arms industry a lot of fucking money.

It’s boots on ground as well not just $

Ukraine + Gaza has caused European countries to realise they need to have more of their own capability for arms and not rely on the US for gun shells and bombs

[Paddington Bear]

We can but hope that the MIC and its apparatus has explained that it would like the US to maintain its dominance over arms sales to Europe.

Yes the 'Europe's not paying its way' rhetoric is particularly irksome because the US engineered it this way.

European dependence and the US being the world's policeman has made their arms industry a lot of fucking money.

It’s worth considering though how run down European armed forces are. There’s ‘we want them within our orbit’ and there’s the farce of the British French and German armies having a week’s ammunition and being unable to each fill Wembley

[Yeeb]

We can but hope that the MIC and its apparatus has explained that it would like the US to maintain its dominance over arms sales to Europe.

Yes the 'Europe's not paying its way' rhetoric is particularly irksome because the US engineered it this way.

European dependence and the US being the world's policeman has made their arms industry a lot of fucking money.

It’s worth considering though how run down European armed forces are. There’s ‘we want them within our orbit’ and there’s the farce of the British French and German armies having a week’s ammunition and being unable to each fill Wembley

You can also blame ze Germans as to why Europe has Us arms and US arms dependency anyways.
World would have been a better place today had they not caused two global conflicts.

[Biffer]

Trump’s executive orders could have a severe impact on all of us

https://www.kcur.org/news/2025-01-21/eg ... e-bird-flu

H5N1 bird flu is rampant in the US just now, and there have been a number of cases of human infection. There hasn’t been any known human to human transmission yet, fortunately.

However his EOs include

Pausing the activities of the CDC and FDA on disease communication
Stopping H5N1 research funded by the NIH
Withdrawing from the WHO

So, reduced monitoring of and testing for H5N1, no research into it and no exchange of flu strains with the rest of the world for vaccine production.

We will have another pandemic on our hands in the next four years, and it might be a bad one.

[fishfoodie]

Trump’s executive orders could have a severe impact on all of us

https://www.kcur.org/news/2025-01-21/eg ... e-bird-flu

H5N1 bird flu is rampant in the US just now, and there have been a number of cases of human infection. There hasn’t been any known human to human transmission yet, fortunately.

However his EOs include

Pausing the activities of the CDC and FDA on disease communication
Stopping H5N1 research funded by the NIH
Withdrawing from the WHO

So, reduced monitoring of and testing for H5N1, no research into it and no exchange of flu strains with the rest of the world for vaccine production.

We will have another pandemic on our hands in the next four years, and it might be a bad one.

It's okay; with the strong leadership of the traitor, & public health being managed by RFK Jr, we can expect only good things.

[Niegs]

[Raggs]

So Trump is apparently aiming to close the Pentagon office that helps prevent civilian deaths.

A building site was raided, and everyone was rounded up, to check for undocumented migrants. Including military vets etc. Soon they'll just make sure that legal migrants wear a patch or something, so they don't get confused with the illegal ones.

Oh, he's also shut down the new School Safety Board, who were going to work towards preventing school shootings.

[Sandstorm]

Oh, he's also shut down the new School Safety Board, who were going to work towards preventing school shootings.

That one was guaranteed. The inevitable recommendation will be stricter gun control and US weapons manufacturers can't have that!!

[Dogbert]

Carl Sagan from the 1990's

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time -- when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness...

The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance”

I think he may have something

[Yeeb]

Has American manufacturing slipped away though ?

That speech could apply for other countries too, especially UK

[Guy Smiley]

Have something?

He nailed it.

I’ve kinda cynically joked about the Fall of the American Empire for years. Maybe this the beginning of the end.

[Rhubarb & Custard]

Oh, he's also shut down the new School Safety Board, who were going to work towards preventing school shootings.

That one was guaranteed. The inevitable recommendation will be stricter gun control and US weapons manufacturers can't have that!!

It was telling just how much he opined drugs shouldn't move north from Mexico set against how content he was US made guns were shipped south into Mexico

[Conor]

[/quote]

It was telling just how much he opined drugs shouldn't move north from Mexico set against how content he was US made guns were shipped south into Mexico
[/quote]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... artels-nra

[Deepsouth]

Have something?

He nailed it.

I’ve kinda cynically joked about the Fall of the American Empire for years. Maybe this the beginning of the end.

And yet you buried your head ...

[Rhubarb & Custard]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... artels-nra

Well there we go.

Of course he hasn't acted yet, but perhaps any day now. One of course notes he's already running late on delivery, what with world peace not actually arriving by the end of his first day, but still, any day now

[_Os_]

We can but hope that the MIC and its apparatus has explained that it would like the US to maintain its dominance over arms sales to Europe.

Yes the 'Europe's not paying its way' rhetoric is particularly irksome because the US engineered it this way.

European dependence and the US being the world's policeman has made their arms industry a lot of fucking money.

100%. None of the old European great powers were allowed to take unilateral military action in any meaningfully strategic way. That's what Suez was about.

The US decided the role for Europe was to be a buffer, German/European conscripts would fight WW3 against the Soviets and not Americans. After that threat disappeared and the US embarked on its ME forever wars, Europe's role was to take the refugee waves not America, it is again the buffer. You can bet if America was taking the refugee waves they would stop bombing the place as their first and only solution to anything that ever happens there.

The Wolfowitz Doctrine bluntly states they want to dominate every region of the globe, and they oppose any regional power reaching the level of the Soviet Union and being capable of challenging the US. The European security situation is the way it is because that's what the US wanted. If all the big European players start spending 5% on defence, that's the end of American control of Europe through NATO, they will not have to listen to the US if there's any disagreement.

The US will absolutely see Germany as an existential threat if: it's spending 5%+ on defence, integrated militarily with neighbouring states (already happening with the Netherlands), dominant in the European arms sector. That all basically automatically happens as a first order impact of German building up its military and arms sector, without the possible second and third order impacts: threshold nuclear weapon state, acting independently outside its region. Trump himself used to rant about Japan as a threat during the Cold War, not the Soviets but Japan, for daring to out compete US car manufacturers.

It sounds a lot like the US wants to retain their dominant position outside their own region, without paying for it. They actually do have to pay heavily for Ukraine though whilst Ukrainians pay with their lives, that was always the deal.

[Niegs]

If you're wondering from the start what the "It's crazy!" bit is about ... she calls out Democrat insider trading as not just unethical, but also fueling right wing distrust. (There's also a podcast of the interview if you'd rather listen.)