Or he would be, except your story isn't true.
Or he would be, except your story isn't true.
Indeed.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
*American
Actually they're playing football, so presumably it's either a woman or an immigrant.
No immigrant would do such thing.
I used to love playing in goal, especially in kickabouts where it doesn't even matter if you concede. Always in the game, don't have to run around, occasionally get to do something spectacular. No idea why everyone hates it so much.
Because I want to play football and run around, not stand around doing nothing. I've been enjoying it a bit more in this place, since it is five a side so there is more action and it is only five minutes at a time but still, rather be on the field.
Perhaps you should've been a surgeon and then you wouldn't have to play in goal.
Starting to sound like this guy has donned you senseless.
There's a guitarist I play with sometimes who says the same thing. It seems fair enough to me. I think he broke a finger going in goal once, but it's only because he's of the very rare breed who actually practice goalkeeping (makes diving saves rather than just halfarsedly attempting to kick shots away).
I never hurt myself diving or charging out, I did fuck my hand once foolishly trying to stretch and palm away an absolute thunderbastard I had no business going for though. It went in regardless.
If they blast them, I just ignore them. No way I'm putting my hand in there .
That is very good. :D
Living in Tory Malvern I've seen a large amount of Teslas with 'I didn't know he was mental when I bought one' bumper stickers attached to them.
Yeah, I've heard of that although have not seen it in Tory heartland turned lib dem Horsham yet. Did get a pic sent of a Trump flag flying in a small village outside of Brighton. We be deeply fucked.
Measles outbreak in the US now.
Anti-vaxxers really are particularly unbearable in that it's not even them that is the primary victim of their stupidity, it's some poor kid who had no say in the matter.
This is obviously moronic, but insisting people had a Covid vaccine when they manifestly didn't need one has contributed to where we are now and I think it's important that that isn't forgotten.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
Which people "manifestly didn't need one"? All the research I've seen is still saying the risk-benefit was in favour of vaccination in all age groups, even children. That's ignoring the benefits to the vulnerable of community immunity, although you may have been in favour of attempting to to euthanise the elderly by pandemic.
Taz "manifestly didn't need one" and ended up with permanent brain damage from covid. That's not me taking the piss, he literally did.
I didn't need a second one yet I was forced to if I wanted to go on holiday.
And more elderly people died catching the fucking thing in 'care' environments than they did by bumping into you or I.
Everything after the first vaccine was a shit show and we fucked up. Hiding behind the 'science' and then wondering why vaccine uptake has diminished is just being wilfully tone deaf.
It actually staggers me that people are still maintaining this view after the practical effect it had in long term vaccine uptake are as clear as day to see. Also not helped by the fact that as far as vaccines go, this one (or the variants thereof) was/were absolute shite.
Staggers me that people are so desperate to feel like they are in the smart group who knows something everyone else doesn't that they no longer see evidence as something with value.
Which is what the anti-vax movement is itself borne out of.
We shouldn't be predicating our response to a pandemic based on what impact it will have on stupid people's vaccine uptake rate.
Anyway, I have about as much interest in rehashing this argument as I do deep-frying my own scrotum, so I'm off to bed.
The evidence is bollocks, which is as clear as day to see for anyone who lived through it. If you were elderly, ill, immunocompromised then absolutely - inject it into their nuts - for everyone else it put the scientific method back about forty years.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
Which isn't to say that it particularly endangered people who had it, don't get that twisted, I'm not saying that for one minute, but we were told we all needed it when we didn't. It didn't even stop you catching or spreading it FFS.
Just to quote this edit. If we want people to take vaccine uptake as seriously as they should then we absolutely should be. 'Stupid' people make up a significant portion of the population and therefore are crucial to the overall and sustained success of any vaccine programme.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
Why do the left or your ilk refuse to be pragmatic? "I'm intelligent, everyone else should be the same, therefore they should do what I do". It's moronic as it absolutely isn't, never has been, nor ever will be, how the majority of humans work and they're not remotely persuaded by that line of thinking. What more evidence is needed to demonstrate that?
EDIT: Actually, maybe they once were but in this post internet age they sure as shit aren't now and we can either put our fingers in our ears or accept it and try and deal with it. I know which approach I'd prefer.
Not in America, they've always had an antivaxx movement there.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
They have, but the approach to Covid ultimately emboldened that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
Pre-existing condition.
I genuinely had no idea that people still think Covid vaccinations were a waste of time. The clinical trials seems to have been pretty conclusive in their efrectiveness.
Yev didn't die from COVID so it was clearly a waste needing to be vaccinated.
That's the crux of it, yeah. I don't think for one second vaccination mandates should've been on the cards like they were in North America. Vaccination is a choice. It's more often than not the right choice.
People only learn by bad things happening directly to them, and even then it's hit and miss as to whether they learn something useful or 'the right' thing.
I'm not sure anyone really knows how to square the post truth circle. Deceit on an industrial scale has been completely normalised to the point where we've just had a month or so of the absolute maddest shit from the fucking President of America. We're all Waiting for Superman and he isn't coming / he isn't Elon Musk.
This shit is just mad though. He's not even a proper cabinet member and he just stands around lording it over them.
Still surprised Trump and him haven't fallen out yet.
He really doesn't lord it over anyone in that meeting. He's pretty deferential to them all and particularly to Trump.
Although I will concede that dressing like that really doesn't help his cause.
If you criticise Musk in that meeting your cards will be marked, according to the book Character Limit about his Twitter takeover if you get him one on one he is receptive to criticism and pushback on his ideas but if you do it in front of an audience you're committing career suicide.
Vaccination can be a choice for adults; if they wanna take themselves out of the gene pool then all power to them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shindig
The childhood vaccination programme should be made mandatory. As should IM vitamin K at birth.
Putting at risk my sanity, I'm going to engage with you on this in good faith because I'm bored.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
When I talk about "the evidence" what that means is that it has been shown - on a population level - that the covid vaccine (even in low risk groups) is of overall benefit.
I think where this falls down is you are purely looking at this from an individual level, which makes it very difficult to see the benefit of these kinds of interventions. This is a very common problem faced in medicine and public health.
Yes, it is very unlikely that you - as an individual - were going to suffer a serious adverse outcome from contracting covid. But when it comes to vaccinating a pandemic, what is important is population level stuff.
Virtually everyone will have contracted covid at some point during the pandemic. That means you are dealing with extremely large numbers of patients, in the order of tens of millions.
The following aren't real numbers for covid because I can't be bothered to dig into them, they are just a worked example to get the point across. But they are probably not wildly unrepresentative.
Say Yevrah's risk of a serious adverse outcome from covid is 1% without vaccination. There's a good chance neither Yevrah nor anybody he knows like him would suffer a serious adverse outcome from covid if they were unvaccinated.
However, there are 10 million Yevrah-like people (i.e low risk adults) in the country. Say vaccinating all the Yevrah's reduces their risk of an adverse outcome by 50% i.e to 0.5% overall.
For an individual Yevrah that doesn't seem very worthwhile. On a population level that's 50,000 Yevrahs. For a health service (particularly one dealing with a pandemic) that is HUGELY significant and it is also hugely significant for those 50,000 Yevrahs. For context, from a quick scan there's roughly 150,00-200,000 ITU admissions in the UK per year.
The covid vaccine has been clearly demonstrated to have been beneficial on that kind of risk-benefit analysis in even low risk patients, even with the benefit of hindsight and post-hoc analysis. Remember that these decisions weren't even taken with that benefit, it was people trying to establish the best thing to do on a population level with incomplete data, little time and a new illness. The evidence is they absolutely got it right.
This is why we do things like the newborn screening. Do you know anyone with glutaric aciduria type 1 or medium chain acyl-coA dehydrogenase deficiency? No you don't. But we still screen ALL neonates for them. Why? Because on a population level, the risk benefit equation is in favour of doing so.
To make a slightly more flippant point, you also were vaccinated. You don't know what would've happened to you if you weren't; it's perfectly possible you could've lost your sense of smell forever or had an ITU admission. Vaccination is not a major or unpleasant intervention. Even if the absolute risk reduction is small on a personal level, I'd still argue it makes no sense not to have it given it all it subjects you to is about two seconds of very minor pain and maybe 24-48 hours of feeling a bit under the weather.
That's an excellent post and a very well constructed argument. if the evidence shows that vaccinating each indvidual age group (in and of itself) was beneficial, then fine, I stand corrected. If I've read your post correctly this is what I think you're saying.
If however the evidence shows that it was beneficial to vaccinate everyone as one group (with the vulnerable getting huge benefit, the not vulnerable getting none/a negative benefit but a net benefit overall) then I'm much less convinced.
If we went with the first approach for the second vaccine (I'm absolutely fine with everyone having the first btw) then I don't quite get why we were still giving it to 18 year olds. If the answer is because there was a net benefit of doing so across that whole age group, why did we then pull back from continuing to vaccinate actual kids?
An excellent post.
It is, isn't it. I guess my other beef with the whole thing was the messaging around it (particularly at the second vaccine stage), but I suspect the medical people would have loved to relay it in the way RL has, but were overruled by people who thought we'd get better uptake if we strong armed/guilt tripped people into doing it. Which, given how much I bang on about pragmatism, has me squarely hoisted by my own petard if that is the case.Quote:
Originally Posted by niko_cee
Yes, the evidence is of benefit in all adult age groups.
The "actual kids" question is more difficult to answer. The serious adverse outcomes become so rare once you get to down to that age group (you're talking 1 in hundreds of thousands or even millions for risk of death) that the benefit is less clear. We also didn't have the same concerted effort to vaccinate all children in the same way so we don't have the same quality and quantity of data. Paediatric care is also essentially entirely separate to adult care so the strain on the system was less of a concern (and the absolute numbers were much smaller both because the risk is lower and there's less children). My understanding is it's probably still an unanswered question but one that's probably not all that important to answer.
Vaccinating a child is probably more of a traumatic thing than vaccinating an adult, that alone should [and probably was] part of the overall calculation.
I think one of the main problems is that people are often unable to realise that evidence based decisions are preferable even if they end up being wrong [not saying that applies to covid or vaccines generally] than the often more conspiratorial alternatives, as they give you no basis for making sensible decisions in the first place or going forward. It's like predicting a stock market crash. Anyone can do it, and it will eventually happen, but the skill is in knowing when - I think people struggle with this and you just end up with "well X has been saying this for years" or "X was right all along" when there was no foundational reason for that rightness so it was essentially meaningless at best and dangerous/harmful at worst.
Last question and we can probably put this to bed on this forum once and for all. Why when the South African variant came along did the scientific community over here collectively shit itself, wanting us all back indoors/having no fun, despite the South African scientific community saying it was manifestly fine? Which it turned out to be.
Yes I wanted to make this point but wasn't sure how to word it in a way which did it justice.Quote:
Originally Posted by niko_cee
In my opinion, even if it turned out that the vaccine was not particularly beneficial in younger people with the benefit of post-hoc analysis of the data, I would still think it was the right thing to have done at the time.
Decisions had to be taken on the basis of the evidence we had and when you have incomplete evidence you have to use a degree of extrapolation and...I guess educated intuition.
We were in a position where it was so important to get things under control that if our extrapolation turned out to be slightly wrong for one age group, that would have been an acceptable "mistake".
Monitoring of adverse effects of the vaccine was ongoing constantly so if there'd have been a major problem in a certain age group that would've been picked up.
That's probably a question you'd need a virologist to answer. My vaguely educated guess would be that you can't automatically assume a variant will behave the same in a new population as it does in the one in which it arose.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
I think ultimately there was a (correct in my opinion) feeling that it was better to over-egg the initial response and then back off if things were less bad than you thought than it was to under-egg it and then be trying to reel back in something that's run away from you.
Another excellent post.
Just to come back to this; the way you have to think about how people were making these decisions is again all about risk-benefit.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
"What if we're wrong?"
If they recommended vaccinating young people and they're wrong, what were the likely consequences? In all likelihood, it would simply be a lack of benefit or at worst a small amount of harm from vaccine side effects outweighing the reduction in serious covid outcomes. It was very unlikely there was going to be huge harm from some unforeseen vaccine side effect which only happens in young people, and even if that became apparent it was being heavily monitored for and could be stopped.
If they recommended against vaccinating young people and they're wrong, what were the likely consequences? Probably catastrophic. If significant numbers of young people were suffering serious outcomes from covid because of not being vaccinated, that would've been disastrous both on an individual level and a healthcare provision level given the stress on the system at the time. If it turned out unvaccinated young people were just a big vector of transmission to the vulnerable (which they probably weren't, but we didn't know that at the time and based our thinking on what happens with other viruses) then again; disastrous. Etc etc.
These were very difficult decisions made based on incomplete knowledge and data, and that means sometimes you have to hedge for what you believe has the least likelihood of terrible outcome based on what you do know from the data you do have and your knowledge about similar entities.
Excellent.
I come in here and it's like Stone Cold stunnering the McMahon family one after another.
What?
I had no problem with the initial response, if anything we shut things down too late, but by the time we were 2 vaccines in and we had it relatively under control anyone calling for another lockdown (safe in the knowledge by this point of the damage those things were doing in an of themselves) wasn't remotely looking at it holistically and was suggesting something that was going to do far more damage than just asking the vulnerable to shield.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
:DQuote:
The BBC's political editor Chris Mason points out that Trump previously referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a "dictator". Does he still believe that?
"Did I say that, I can't believe I would say that", Trump replies.
I see Sir K duly turned up with a letter from the king.
You're looking at it with the benefit of hindsight and saying nothing went wrong therefore it was mad to suggest a lockdown. I know you said the same at the time and have been "proved right", but that doesn't mean a risk didn't exist.
If that variant had arrived here and it turned out the vaccine wasn't particularly effective against it and it was more virulent, we'd have very quickly been back in the big shit. I don't know how likely an outcome that was - I have no expertise in that field of medicine. But if the people who are experts in that field are spooked, I think it's wise to listen and not just label them as mental. Nobody becomes a virologist because they have a fetish for calling for lockdowns.
I can't explain why they seemed to have such a hard on for us to go back inside, particularly against the backdrop of South Africa telling them it was fine, but they did and I can't see how someone can weigh up a potential risk to an increasingly small number of people against an actual one caused by lockdowns to everyone (suicide, depression, domestic violence, creating a generation of socially retarded children etc.) and decide we should prioritise the former.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
Now I know virologists are only concerned with the virus side of things and I'd struggle to call them mental as a result, but what I would call mental is the amplified voice those who were in charge of everything continued to give them against the well established backdrop of the damage lockdowns were causing.
Anyway, how's Kier getting on? He's going to look like Ed Miliband eating a sandwich next to Trump, isn't he?
You spout some nonsense.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
Catching up on events at the Whitehouse, Kier seems to have done ok during the intro bit. Seeing David Lammy there strikers fear into my heart though.
It's ok, it's so Sir Keir can lament him as a DEI hire behind closed doors to bond with the Donald.
Because that's probably not the risk they were concerned about; it's absolutely possible a variant could've become dangerous to everyone, including young people.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Why they still had that concern (or possibly a different but equally serious concern) despite it seemingly not being borne out in South Africa I don't know, as I said I think that's a question you'd need to pose to someone with more expertise. I postulated a theory above but it's really out of my wheelhouse. I would imagine they had some fairly solid reasoning behind their concern, but yeah they are also probably a relatively risk averse bunch.
You're right that the scientists are primarily only able to give advice from the perspective of their own expertise. Would it be a good idea to put virologists and public health doctors in sole charge of relevant policy? Probably not, and the role politicians are meant to play is to balance up the various factors and make pragmatic decisions. Maybe they did exactly that. Maybe we got extremely lucky. I don't think that's really a knowable thing.
Have to go to the US next week. Between the plane crashes and near misses and the measles outbreaks, I'm not sure I'm gonna make it home.
It's probably too early for their civil war to start yet, isn't it? Hopefully I won't have to go next year at least.
Who are you flying with?
Hopefully no dead people.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shindig
https://www.theverge.com/news/620777...unication-muskQuote:
Originally Posted by Boydy
Don't worry mate, SpaceX are taking it over and Musk's companies have stellar safety records.
Spinzone: If you fill out that immigration form and tick the box asking if you were ever a member of the Nazi party between 1933 and 1945 there's a 50/50 chance that you could be made head of a federal department by the time you land.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boydy
:DQuote:
Originally Posted by phonics
Unfortunately I've already filled it in so it's too late to try that.
In which case let’s hope your plane is super woke because it seems that DEI was the only thing keeping Boeing in business.
Or get lucky on plane roulette with a couple of Airbuses. Although transatlantic usually means you're in a 787 Dreamliner.
Grope a stewardess on the way over as well and they'll put you in the cabinet.Quote:
Originally Posted by phonics
Detransatlantic.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shindig
Looks like Starmer did well. Pragmatism for the win. Bit of a moment when JD popped up with his free speech grenades, but he's probably right (to some degree at least) and I suspect we'll get there in the end.
A hearty lol will be had if the EU gets whacked with tariffs for the next four years and we don't.
It's going to be hilarious if Trump gets his minerals deal and then says to Putin something along the lines of no more gainz for you Vlad and if you want to be part of the big boy digging club then you're going to have age to give some back. Fire and fury or whatever the term was if US contractors get nuked on the ground, although maybe that would be the first time Trump would have ever cared about contractors.
Say what you want about Starmer, but pulling that letter out from Charles was a brilliant move to stroke Trump's ego.
Macron seething at home with his shitty republic.
Yep, that was a masterstroke.Quote:
Originally Posted by SvN
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7le4hf9djWQ
Quite the skill to do that while not looking like you've gone full gun arse kiss.
The royal seal of approval getting a lot more traction here than it did for the world cup bid, anyway.
Chuck Blazer is not so easily bought.
Imagine the insane places the world cup would have been held had FIFA been this cartoonishly easily to manipulate.
:eyemouth:
I'm not really sure what Zelensky thinks he's doing, given he has no legs to stand on.
Zelensky should drop the 'dress like in the frontlines' schtick.
I can't blame him for being mad. If the yanks saved anything, why are Ukraine's borders going to look very different in this deal?
Surely the leg to stand on is “does the world want good or bad to prevail”.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Clear that trump gives zero shit about that illusion and has kicked him out.
Americas reputation in tatters.
How do you take away from that video Zelensky is at fault?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Trumps deal amount to "Fuck you and your country, give me all your stuff" with no guarantees, why would any sane leader act differently in his situation?
Because he literally has no other option.Quote:
Originally Posted by Disco
This is just classic Donald J Trump really. Treating geopolitics like he's taking over a failing hotel. Screw the old owners and humiliate them to keep lowering the price.
They’re not his legs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Foe
The confederacy of dunces being surprised Zelensky doesn't roll over to have his tummy tickled after they've told him to give up 20% of his country and them a load of money. Unless they've managed to fire them all and replace them with same tier spastics, which I wouldn't rule out entirely, there must be some serious diplomatic heads in hands behind the scenes.
Still think Europe should step in with the seized Russian stuff to do this deal under Trump's nose for maximum bants.
He's not going to let Ukraine be ransacked by a different burglar. Trump is only like this because he's intimidated by an actual strong leader.
Fault is neither here nor there. He needs the US’ support and he’s been there 5 minutes before an argument broke out. If that was the plan, why did he bother going?Quote:
Originally Posted by Kikó
I know everyone is on his side at the minute and it’s only Lewis and I with an opinion that differs at all from the one behind that stance but public opinion will change eventually the longer this waste of life and money continues.
Why has he bothered going then? He’s got delusions of grandeur if he thinks he can change Trump’s stance or the Americans that voted for him with this approach.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kikó
Absolutely mental. Lol the news conference cancelled.
Everything's coming up Milhouse (with an e, natch) for Britain though. We'll soon be the great intermediaries of the world.
Has he actually kicked him out? :D
You think he had choices about this? They only invited him so they could immediately humiliate him in the most theatrical way possible.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
So what are allies for? How Europeans respond to this will dictate the way forward but I guess a lot of European leaders will now doubt they can trust America for the next 4 years and then who knows.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
I would be interested how fox is reporting this, but I tend to have Bloomberg on and they’re in complete shock at what they just saw.
Also interested how republican senate and congress persons feel about trump threatening to abandon Ukraine.
We are not Ukraine’s allies. Were we we wouldn’t have sidled up to Russia for 20 years, ignored what happened in Crimea and let them into NATO.Quote:
Originally Posted by Foe
He had a choice as to whether he went or not.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
None of this will have been planned. Trump is completely uncontrollable, his little lap dog is an ostensible idiot and no one behind the scenes will have had the nous to wargame "what if Zelensky doesn't go for it?"
It's all sycophants this time around, which means it will be much more entertaining.
It can't be stated enough how thick JD Vance is. One of the worst type of Americans, who think that being the smartest guy in Shitbucket, Alabama (population 17) means you are also the smartest guy in the world.
:lol:Quote:
At one point, Ukraine's ambassador to the US appeared to have her head in her hands, clearly displeased with the way the meeting was going.
Just seen it. Zelensy donned Vance absolutely senseless.
More coherent in a second language. Damning.
I think Zelensky has got a bit used to turning up in his workwear and playing on politicians desperate to associate themselves with him. He should have just praised American support and batted away any questions about disagreements, pricing in the fact that Trump will just blurt out the very same shit he will normally be told in private, but he thought he could big man it for the journalists like he usually does, and then you get this all-round embarrassment.
Zelensky still slated to appear on Fox at 11.
:drool:
That will be dynamite. :drool:
This.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Vance is a slimy prick.
This all goes back to that "beautiful phone call" in 2019.
Vance is a legend. Your next president.
Long live Xi Jinping.
I was wondering the other day what the mechanism for getting rid of Xi (71) would/will eventually be. Normally they call some conference of about 600,000 delegates entitled something like 'The People's Committee for Propagation and Reconstitution of Public, Adminstrative and Municipal Conventions' and at the end of it whoever hasn't been taken ill with a mysterious sweating sickness is the new chairman.
Haven't heard of any rivals or anything to him though, so he must be good at murder.
Any billionaire that you’d think could harm him ends up mysteriously disappearing for a few months ala the AliBaba guy. Meanwhile the entire American system is getting rail roaded by an autist nazi with a ketamine problem and Trump tickles his balls. I know who the real leader is. Silk and road time.
It’s a perfect summary of the hollowness at the soul of that country that Andrew Tate is granted more grace than the President of the country who got invaded.
I was initially really hoping our limp wristed far left cunts of politicians wouldn’t get an invite for Patricks day this year, but I can’t wait for it now :drool:
That...interview? Debate? Is so fucking cringe. Zelensky is like an adult trying to deal with a couple of petulant toddlers. America is a fucking embarrassment.
This seems an odd critique from Trump:
Quote:
Zelensky "overplayed his hand" and "wants to fight, fight, fight".
Good god, just seen the actual full spat.
Also, why didn't you wear a suit? I thought Vance was some sort of tech bro wannabe, who the fuck wears a suit?
Trump (and by extension Vance because he's a skinsuit with no agency of his own) both go on about gratitude and I think this is what it boils down to. Not something that Zelensky could do for the US as a state but what he was unwilling to do for Trump the person, Trump doesn't separate those two things and sees helping Ukraine as a personal favour so if there's nothing in it for him then he isn't interested. It makes the piss tape theory so much more compelling when considered in these terms.Quote:
Originally Posted by Manc
Just started my 60 minute free pass for fox news.
Not sure I can make 15 minutes until the actual interview as weird right wing Matthew Perry whamps on to some botoxed 'females'.
One of them has just described DR Congo as one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
:face:
There is no hope. Maybe we'd be better off if these idiots just stuck to their own landmass.
Yeah bit weird mugging Zelensky off as disrespecting the Oval Office by not wearing a suit: Musk is in there all the time not wearing a suit?
I think the key takeaway from the whole thing is the perfect illustration of Dunning-Kruger situation that society finds itself in.
If you support Trump theres 3 takeaways
To a dumb guy, they see Trump and Vance disrespecting Zelensky and think "America, fuck yeah"
To a dumb guy that thinks they're smart, they think that by acting tough that the guy who's been fighting a war against a country 5 times the size of him for years will cave.
To the actual smart guy, he's just hoping Trump forgets about it next week because the two other group outnumber them.
The final thought before the next batch of ads is please buy our fox news pickle ball [wtf?] set, only $70. Again, all hope is lost.
They actually said golden age. Are the aiming for a new roaring twenties?
Interview not that interesting.
Let's see what 11 minutes of adverts for drugs and/or their commentators reaction looks like.
I'm amazed they think Dr Congo is anything other than someone ICE should be rounding up any day now.
Come on, man. He's trying to save his country without giving up everything. Trump trying to strongarm him in public is fucking gross.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
The arrogance of Vance trying to tell Zelensky about the conditions in Ukraine from "seeing stories on TV". School yard bullies who are thick as fuck.
The whole have you said thank you, be grateful episode was just awful.
Zelensky could have dealt with it better, maybe, but it must be hard when you've got people just shouting lies at you. Surely his strongest line would have been to try to impress on them that whenever they signed that agreement with Russia [2019?] Trump was President and 3 years later Russia broke it. They need to know that if they sign a deal with them all again in 2025 then, in 4 years time, when Donald is no longer the President, AGAIN, that Russia won't do exactly the same again [it will] - but then Trump would probably get mad about you suggesting a future time when he wasn't going to be president anymore.
I still don't really understand how this all blowing up and them [The yanks] taking their ball home is really going to help them in the long run.
He should have called him President Krasnov.
Can totally understand why JD Vance's mum chose taking heroin instead of spending time with that cunt
Having watched it all now (by which I mean including before it turned) it’s all on Vance. He’s massively out of his depth and can’t remotely cope with being schooled by Zelensky.
To be fair, that part of Zelensky saying to Vance that Russia continually break every truce and agreement was the start of the argument.Quote:
Originally Posted by niko_cee
I think there's a slightly romantic tendency among some of the more 'realist' observers to view Russia as its 19th century imperial self, or as the Soviet Union at the peak of its powers, or as the great Russian bear, or whatever, rather than the kleptocrat gangster state that it actually is. There is absolutely no guarantee that anything about it will survive Putin's personal rule.
:lol::lol::lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Revolution
It had absolutely not occurred to me up until Googling his mother on the back of this that the Hillbilly Elegy film (which I did see at the time, not quite as bad as it was made out to be but still not very good at all) was based on his life. I knew it was based on a book by someone but I had not put two and two together since and realised that someone was him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Revolution
Vance was saying that there needs to be a diplomatic solution to this. Zelensky said that there can't be any diplomacy with Russia, and suggested that Vance would realise this if he went to Ukraine and did the concerned face tour. Putting aside whether or not attempting to show the Vice President up in front of the media to bounce the Americans into open-ended security guarantees was a good idea, consider the implications of what he was saying. No diplomacy? How does he expect this to play out then? This returns us to the enduring question of how Ukraine wins without a general Russian collapse or a direct American intervention.
Him citing the Minsk Agreement[s] was a bit of a bold move as well given that all of the non-Russian parties have subsequently said that they never intended to abide by them, and that they were merely signed to allow Ukraine to build its forces up for renewed conflict against the separatists. Those statements have probably done more to put the Russians off a diplomatic solution than anything, and all stated at times when they would have been more open to one because Ukraine had a lot more fight left in it.
What is a "diplomatic solution"? Giving Russia some Ukrainian territory? What kind of precedent does that set? Russia just restarts the war every couple of years until the whole of Ukraine is signed over?
You're obviously far more knowledgeable than me on this, but is that not quite literally the appeasement policy circa WW2?
What Vance was saying was show fealty and do what you're told.
But Russia aren't going to pull out just because Ukraine bends the knee to the US, nor would it make Trump suddenly put in the required sanctions/military might/funding/whatever would be required to drive Russia out. So that's not really a diplomatic solution to actually ending the war.
If I'm perfectly honest, I think Trump is fully in Putin's pocket and went into yesterday with the decision to cut support already made. That show was created purely to give him an excuse.
The US' cyber security department have just been told to cease all work against Russia. Insane move unless you're on the same side.
What's the alternative? We keep pumping billions into this and (more importantly) Ukranians and Russians keep being killed at least until Putin dies?Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
Signing any land over is obviously unpalatable, but this is literally a war Ukraine cannot win (even with our and everyone else's continued support) so it strikes me that continuing to try to is just delaying the inevitable while costing thousands upon thousands of lives in the process.
Ok, but if you sign land over and then Russia tries for more, what then? When does it end?
It doesn't set any precedent. It's simply what happens when one side wins a war and the other side loses it. Israel, Turkey, Azerbaijan... All friends of ours, all currently sitting on land that officially doesn't belong to them because they took it and nobody cares enough to do anything about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
There will inevitably be some sort of diplomatic solution, even if it merely consists of some shell Ukrainian authority agreeing to things Russia wants. At the moment the solution might look something like Ukraine remaining neutral, having limits imposed on its armed forces, and losing slightly more land than Russia currently occupies. Further down the line, should its capacity to resist completely collapse, they might lose even more territory. What happens beyond that nobody knows. Russia could have another nibble at them, but doing so would be pointless if they have already achieved the above. Plus Poland might backstop rump Western Ukraine. They would be quite sensible to do so. It doesn't mean we should.
Isn't the thing here that 'diplomatic solution' and 'surrender and give me whatever stuff the other guy hasn't nicked' aren't really in the same part of the war outcomes Venn diagram?
Ukraine were clearly being somewhat willingly herded towards some kind of outcome away from their absolute terms until shit for brains and co started looking at it as some sort of mortgagee sale.
Other than as a bit of a fuck you to Donald, which seems insane, why is Zelensky meeting the king tomorrow?
I think there's some truth to that theory but not in the direction most people seem to think. Apart from about half an hour in 1945 when they got to fight half dead nazi pensioners and children they've always been a shit show, I'm yet to find a single competently executed military action in their entire history.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
We (the West) should scale a full invasion.
Alright Keir.
Waiting for the 'Russian lives matter' narrative to take off online, instigated by Trump and Putin.
What a mess.
If there's one thing the West and Russia have always agreed upon, it's that Russian lives very much do not matter.
Make Russia Great.
Still lolling about them bringing in North Korean reinforcements only for the slav mercenaries to introduce them to tik tok and online porn, reducing their effectiveness to zero.
I read a similar thing about some recently contacted jungle tribes bemoaning since they were given the internet all the young men have sacked off firewood collecting etc in favour of watching big plastic american tits bouncing about all day.
From preindustrial to end-stage capitalism in the stroke of a wank. That's some zeitgeist shift.
US military aid to Ukraine now paused.
Rather ironic that a nation that wouldn't exist without foreign intervention is now led by people so venal and short sighted it no longer sees the value in doing the same thing itself.
Tariffs on too. Tanking the US economy and world standing in less than 2 months. What a guy.
Taking away the big stick is another thing which makes no sense to me. Both ends of the outcome scale are bad. Either Ukraine collapses and Russia gets what you wanted [all their stuff], or it doesn't, and people question the value of the big stick.
Presumably it ends up with four or five new nuclear powers, which can't be a great idea. He's chirping at the head of the Fed about interest rates now as well, if he ends up sacking him and putting another Richard Madeley type in charge then you suddenly have an economy in recession that nobody has any confidence in. It'll be about forty quid an egg by then and they'll have emptied the treasury bailing out farmers (again) and buying up all the wanker-coin. Amazing how quickly it can be done really, makes Liz Truss look like even more of an amateur.
So we're just "some random country" now. Lol.
Was trying to work out why the state of the union was no longer being used as a description [too woke / not woke enough?] and to be honest I still don't really understand.
Is he gunning to announce Ukraine's unconditional surrender as part of it?
It strikes me that if I were an American mining contractor or whatever then completely fucking over a country and then going in and overseeing the removal of all their stuff might be a somewhat fraught situation to be putting yourself in. Sounds like Iraq all over again. What could possibly go wrong?
Less all the allied countries that stood by you.
The first one in a term is never called State of the Union I don't think, a meaningless convention because it's the same thing in all but name.
I'm awake for the start of this so I thought I'd have a look, there's already been baseball caps, chewing gum, and chants of USA. They really do have zero class.
Trump bringing the Tate brothers back only for them to be immediately hit with criminal investigations stateside. :D
Cutting off intelligence sharing now as well.
Literally couldn't go Russia's way more even if they had Medvedev installed as US president.
I mean they essentially do.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bernanke
Gasoline under $2.50 per gallon today though. :drool:
Can someone tell me what the American national interest is here?
I don't think that anyone could even come up with some sort of plausible scenario.
Ok, how about: Europe steps up to help Ukraine, they beat the Russians. Trump calls e-victory because he forced the Europeans to step up and he saved Americans billions. Something like that?
Does petrol work as a substitute for eggs?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepe
Isn't this all in the Trump-interest?Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
ie he said he'd end the war within 1 [100] day[s], the only way to do that is to force Ukraine to effectively capitulate. Another promise delivered.
As to the rest of it, there was a funny video going round of some Fox economics presenter woman losing her shit at some outside broadcast guy where a car dealer was saying how some truck was now going to cost 100k not 80k and so the person who had ordered it wasn't buying it. She went off one one about why Europeans don't drive giant American trucks . . .
The COVID bleach crew could well think so.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
I get a dozen of eggs per week ($6 this time) at most. We probably go through 15 gallons of gasoline per week. I know which one I prefer being cheap.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
But to answer your question: they go well together.
15 gallons a week? That sounds a lot.
It's the US, we drive everywhere unfortunately.
$1.60 for dozen eggs here :drool:
And the yolk powers our scooters.
If the tariffs make my avocadoes expensive I will join the local protests.
They need eggs or they won't know how hot their car bonnets (you heard me, bonnets) are in Death Valley.
A bonnet is a hat.
Whereas the American version has no headwear link whatsoever.
So is a hood, really.
They’ve bombed South Korea by mistake.
It was the South Korean airforce, not the US. Although, I suspect that it is a matter of time...
Sounds a bit like an unintended consequence, which appears to be their government M O.
Got to move fast and break stuff.
Those could be 24,000 or 2,400,000 Ukrainians at the stoke of a key.
More should do it, it's some scam.
How is people fleeing war a "scam"?
He's properly thick.
All of this has to do incredible damage to the US military industrial complex ability to sell gear abroad. Who wants to own a fleet of F-35s or Patriot batteries if the US admin can just switch shit off remotely when they decide they need to bully you into submission in order to capitulate?
Fascinating that no Lockheed Martin lobbyist has shanked Keith Kellogg yet. Maybe they were never as powerful as they were made out to be.
Donaldinho threatening Russia with sanctions now. Maybe he just loves a threat?
Hang on, I thought 'we'd' already put large scale sanctions on Russia? If we have but there are other large scale sanctions that could have been employed what the fuck have we been doing for the last three years? I thought the only plan we had was:
1: Sanctions
2: ????
3. War ends
Jesus wept.
He's already bottled the Tariffs - no doubt due to Pepe's threats - against Mexico and Canada. Let's not make the mistake of believing anything the deranged cunt says. He makes his mind up on a minute by minute basis.
That was my first thought, but then it did make me wonder if there’s more we could have sanctioned. Hopefully BBC verify are on it as I type.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spikey M
There might be, but as we all figured out pretty much immediately, in a globalist world the sanctions are pretty much useless and Scumlords - like our friend and national traitor, Jimmy - will just buy their Russian Tractor spark plugs from Uzbekistan or Tajikistan. Having to do business through a third party doesn't do a whole lot of harm to them.
Raiding Russian billionaires in Britain has made a difference, but only in terms of funding Ukraine. I doubt Putin gives much of a shit about Yuri Kalashnakovs impounded yacht.
It was said last time round Trump is influenced by the last person he talked to, even if that is the exact opposite of what he was thinking prior. Maybe it's just more extreme now?
I would imagine America could lean on Russia's biggest post sanctions supporters if they really wanted to, or, you know, nuke the oil price for lolz, which is probably something Donald would be in favour of. As he said himself though, his policy decisions are based on things that ONLY HE KNOWS so good luck trying to second guess them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
He's going after Japan now. :cool:
Are we the only ones to get away with this? Keir might not actually be all that bad.
With regards to Russia, have the Kremlin responded to Don yet? I guess the tone of that response will indicate how quickly they’re willing to settle this now Ukraine are back at the table.
The circle that needs squaring is that Russia will concede nothing, so the only way to force peace, as per the promise, is to essentially ensure a capitulation from Ukraine on Russian terms, but this will massively piss off / alienate / sour relations with Europe which might seem like a fun thing to do from a lol Make America Great Again perspective but in reality is really quite bad for America as Europe has a lot more to offer economically than the other side of the argument where Trump and hs crew think they more naturally sit. It almost feels like we're back at an immediately post-2008 place with 'America' thinking the only thing valuable in the world is the ability to dig stuff out of the ground, which really isn't the case.
I'm not sure Donald not going after you is a marker of you being good.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben
Plus, what would he Tariff? Shortbread? We don't make anything.
A quick google has our biggest exports as machinery (keep those sales numbers up, Jimmy), computers and precious metals.
Occupancy.
The ones against Mexico were postponed because they made a really big graph with 'line go down' and Trumps name. It's that easy.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spikey M
https://i.imgur.com/pXozMWh.jpeg
That sounds like something that exactly happened.Quote:
Originally Posted by Disco
I'll bow to your limitless ignorance on the matter.
I liked the theory that Trump keeps applying and then lifting the Mexico tariffs just cause he likes Claudia and wants a chat. Like the playground bully knocking over sandcastles and pulling pigtails.
Starmer waved a big shiny Letter from the King under his nose and he loved it, he's comically easy to manipulate.
Trump on the Irish: “They’re a great people. And they voted for me in heavy numbers so I like them even more. You have to like them. You know, you’re not supposed to but you have to like them.”
"You're not supposed to but you have to" is one of the funniest things I've heard from a President.
edit: shit i got got. fake.
I know he's never been a fan of Wall Street, but tanking the American economy is another gambit I didn't necessarily have down on the first 100 days of Trump's presidency bingo card.
No no, this is Biden's economy and his fault.
Exactly, but the 2016 economy that he took over was all him.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kikó
This Tesla promotion event. :D
https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/pB...751777bb533420
https://i.imgur.com/ToUvQYW.jpeg
Deeply unserious country.
Living in super Tory Malvern, the sheet amount of Teslas I see with bumper stickers along the lines of 'I bought it before I knew he was a nazi' has been surprising.
There's a group of Russian military guys who post on Telegram that have a lot of influence in the Kremlin, and safe to say they are not entertaining this US-negotiated ceasefire at all. If Putin agrees to the ceasefire, he'll have a bit of a shit storm in-house.
I’m bracing myself for a barrage of “Trump hasn’t done anything, as it won’t be lasting peace”.
The left will fully support a deal as long as Ukraine agree to it, and Russia abide it. If Trump can pull this off, all credit to the absolute cretin.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
EDIT: Of course there are mongs on both sides who will still disagree with anything the "opposition" achieve.
But what Ben said is the key thing, do Russia want to stop and will they abide by it. It's all good having Ukraine agree (which is an achievement considering they're giving up their land) but Russia are not a reliable partner.
This will have been a whole lot of theatre if Russia just say lol no thanks.
I assume they won't, and risk having angry Donald on the other team, but will rather 'agree' and then just go maximalist with their demands in establishing a peace which won't actually hold in the long run.
Yeah, I reckon Putin will agree eventually. They're just having to work out how to spin it domestically so the Z lot don't revolt.
I'm pretty sure he could 'sell' anything to the Russian people, I mean, what are they going to do? Also, all of our objectives have been met, even if they haven't, is what will be sold, so pretty easy sell to a feckless, disparate and entirely useless population.
Only problem will be how to go about a rapprochement with Europe to prevent their economy from further collapsing. Are Germany really going to just turn the gas taps back on?
Can't help but think that, in the long term, this peace will be enormously damaging to both the US and Russia.
Germany will be gagging to turn the gas taps back on. There are large men called Hans beating off at night to the thought of it as we speak.
And it starts...Quote:
Originally Posted by Kikó
100%.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
VW licking their lips.
Given that desire to turn the taps back on, one does have to wonder how Europe have been so utterly useless at dealing with this and a perma-tanned chimp who is widely regarded as incompetent can rock up and seemingly make more ground in a matter of weeks than everyone else combined has in 3 years.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
What starts?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Putin will agree then send a blue and yellow painted drone to Moscow after two weeks and claim the Ukrainians broke it.
I hated the turbosperg before it was fashionable. :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by phonics
That's been his problem from the outset, the war was a solution to other issues and he will only want a way out that doesn't look like backing down. Either he manages to strike a deal and appease his detractors at home or he picks some things to whinge about and blames Ukraine for scuppering the deal so he can save face and carry on. Lucky for him that Trump is a moron, compromised, or both and will happily hand over whatever he asks for.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben
For anyone enjoying a good laugh at Musk watch the most awkward geek in the world struggle through the softest questions imaginable, I actually thought he was going to start crying at one point.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6DiMIJIvYw
Remember when Prigozhin and his mercenaries were marching on Moscow and then they just stopped? That was mad.
All part of the plan mate.
Everything's computer. :D
Trump throwing a tantrum at being tariffed is pretty lol.
Putin hasn't told US-Ukraine to fuck off straight out of the gate, which I kind of expected him to. Obviously he's making demands but considering the situation right now, he'll probably get most of them. There'll be a lot of to-and-fro but I reckon this ends in the next few months with Ukraine bent over a barrel.
Has Felon really just retweeted a post on Xitter blaming public sector workers for genocides?
That's how they always operate though. Don't say no, just hold the line on the demands you're making and wait for the other side to flinch and start negotiating with themselves.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben
The Western press reporting on it was crap compared to what he actually said in Russian, which effectively was an unchanged position of "of course we want peace, our fundamental problem is not having control of Ukraine. Solve it for me, and there'll be no war.".Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben
White House press secretary on the suggestion that maybe the United States should give the Statue of Liberty back to France, presumably on the basis of them no longer wanting your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
:happycry:Quote:
“And my advice to that unnamed low-level French politician would be to remind them that it’s only because of the United States of America that the French are not speaking German right now,”
“So, they should be very grateful to our great country.”
Should probably be thanking the Japanese really.
The historical illiteracy of the American ruling class is just one of the many attractive things about them.
Undefeated back to back World War champions mate.
Shame about the Asian Competitions.
My in-law would be speaking English if it wasn't for the Americans.
:lol:
I look forward to the calls for the impeachment of the chief justice of the supreme court.
Some serious testing of the judicial system going on this week, it'll be fun when this gets to the supreme court seeing as at least three are in Trumps pocket. You also have to wonder what happens when they go after some 2nd amendment type, they've been oddly quiet given how much they bang on about needing guns to oppose tyrannical governments. When they came for the Venezuelans I was quiet etc etc.
Amy Coney Barrett is in no one's pocket.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...-b2717730.html
"Whoops".Quote:
A Yale source said the US state department deleted the evidence which would have been used as part of rescue efforts to get the children home to Ukraine. It would also have been used to prosecute those behind their abductions – including Russian president Vladimir Putin.
”It is unclear whether it was by accident or intent"
I hope they give out nobel peace prizes for bombing schools and hospitals otherwise someone is going to be very sore.
PuZin making Drump wait for an hour. :D
Butter fingers.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bernanke
It's all a bit Tucker Carlson with the bombastic rhetoric and acting the big dog, until you're sat in a room with Putin and realise he is a hardened killer, you could fall out of a window after your meeting and nothing would be done about it.
I reckon if Donald Trump 'fell out of a window' during or after a meeting with Putin something might be done about it.
A Shane Warne hot shot of hard on medicine when he's back though?
Wait, Putin knocked Shane Warne off?
Maybe he's not so bad after all.
As if Putin kills Trump after all the trouble he went to to get him elected. Еще четыре года!
Can someone digest all of the newly released JFK files and give me a tl:dr please.
It was the balloon.
You have one fucking job ffs.
JFK killed himself.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir Andy Mahowry
Turns out Red Dwarf got it right.
Of course, it can time travel.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spikey M
How did I not realise that?
Lee Harvey Oswald shot him with a chemically enhanced hard on.Quote:
Originally Posted by Sir Andy Mahowry
Shillary killed him with Hunter Biden's laptop.
Fell in a river.
Murdered by the Secret Service after he put a microwave into his desk at the Oval Office to make poached eggs.
Now you're stretching credulity, the SS were far too drunk that day to kill anyone.
I believe the preferred terminology is 'entered the water'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Manc
They were very upset the chainsaw South African told them not to come in on Monday.
Failed state. Praise Xi.
'Space researcher' lol.
The revelation in this 'controversial' book that Mark Zuckerberg asked Xi Jinping to name his unborn child, and that the premier said no thanks, is one of my favourite things ever about the current class of lizardmen.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics...campaign=share
https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/...8/original.jpgQuote:
U.S. national-security leaders included me in a group chat about upcoming military strikes in Yemen. I didn’t think it could be real. Then the bombs started falling.
https://cdn.theatlantic.com/thumbor/...9/original.jpg
S M is Stephen Miller.
Fuck knows why the dude left the group chat. Is there like an anti Pulitzer prize?
Because (((Jeffrey Goldberg))) was included to report their extremely press release manufactured texts about how they’re being awesome and Europe owe them money for doing something against an issue that only exists because Israel cannot stop killing Palestinians.
Meanwhile, remember the guys who won the Oscar for their Israel Documentary?
One of them has just been murdered by Israeli settlers. Good people who we should be funding.
I love how stupid you have to be to discuss military ops on a public app and then also accidentally out all of that to a journalist.
DOGE losing the US government half a trillion of tax revenue :D
They did want people to pay less tax. Mission accomplished?
He was caught and handed over to Israeli military. They are still cunts, but didn't kill him (yet)...Quote:
Originally Posted by phonics
Lol they're selling the govt gold for bitcoin.
Calling this journalist's bluff seems to have been a great strategy.
Another thing I've noticed in all this is that this Waltz character has one of those prototypical American faces. I've always thought of it previously as the dad from Home Alone face. It is impossible for someone to look like that and not be American and / or possibly a complete muppet.
Watch them justify it by saying there was nothing classified being discussed then prosecute the journalist for releasing classified information.
A serious country doesn't do this shit.
The maddest part of all this (in my mind at least) is the fact that it's a huge departure from the ultra-earnest schmaltz that has characterised the first 240 years of American self-narrative. What would the people writing letters home in Ken Burns documentaries think about this? Are the founding fathers in the bin?
I might workshop a theory that the Confederacy has finally won by stealth.
They've taken all the shady bag over the head stuff and made it the norm right out in the open. RIP Pepe etc.
It does make me seem like a massive anti-semite but the whole 'The 1st Amendment is the most important thing in the world unless you criticise Israel' is so gross.
Land of the free!
If I was a darker I'd be getting the fuck out of there ASAP. Or at least weaponing up.
I wonder if it might have been possible within the first few days of their government to predict this sort of thing happening. I guess we'll never know now.
If I'd voted for Trump I think I'd wonder when he was going to get around to his central campaign issues of Hannibal Lecter and Arnold Palmers dick.
Yeah Biden had a great record on this specific issue.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
The world was getting progressively more democratic, on the whole, for decades but there's been a noticeable swing back to authoritarianism since about 2016. Pretty much every big power has rolled back rights in the last decade, accelerated by the COVID pandemic.
This should not be a museum's problem.
The African American Museum's completely up the spout, then.
DT's back from the golf course early this week I see.
"No ability to bring him back"
Jesus Christ these people are truly evil.
The air jordan logo is on their list of tattoos that mark you out as a gang member.
10% tariffs for us, 20% for the EU. I wait to see how James O'Brien spins this so as to continue his stance of no good things coming from Brexit. He's probably furiously masturbating into a mirror while working through tomorrow's opening monologue as I type.
Seems we've been rather fucked by the 10% floor.
Everyone else gets their reciprocal tariff at half rates, we get the full 10/10.
That'll be the angle then.
When you say 10/10, do we have tariffs on goods to the US already?
Pretty tenuous to claim this as any sort of vindication for Brexit but ok.
So Ameri-nerds, do you feel liberated yet?
Not what I said, but ok.Quote:
Originally Posted by Disco
In fact this would be a great time to have much easier and better trade with our closest neighbours.
Probably, there are tariffs on everything. They've also been calculating 'non-tariff barriers' although seem to have fallen short of declaring VAT an import tax at least.
It is the same as Brexit to an extent in that everyone shits themselves over how important international trade is when it really isn't.
As long as it doesn't completely tank the global economy you can sort of see the sense of it. Maybe everything shouldn't be made in China. Maybe things becoming more expensive will have some unforeseen benefits, like the death of fast fashion etc. It'll probably go badly wrong though.
The thing that seems to be being focused on whenever I see any critique of the approach is that the consumer ends up paying the tariff as if that's some sort of gotcha. It isn't because Trump's been fairly clear that one of the aims of this is to encourage businesses to the US, which seems like pretty sound logic. Whether it will work or not is another story.
Oh and on the tariffs are on everything point, lol if he's only doing to other countries what they're already doing to the US.
Didn't they choose to outsource it to slave labour because capitalism...
Absolutely, and it's made them the richest country in the world / ever.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
Which is a bit where the whole you're going to be rich again might fall down a bit. This won't help 'Ordinary Americans' in all likelihood.
Companies definitely did.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
I think it could work out reasonably well for America. They can produce pretty much everything they need, and they lots of cheap energy, so that should level it all out somewhere along the line. Everybody else no idea. Europe probably lol, us maybe not as lol.
Based in...?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Isn't there a slight flaw in the immediate plan, highlighted by Trump himself, that all advanced microprocessors are made in Taiwan and they're now however much more expensive tomorrow. Yeah, you can make your own eventually, but you can't make them this year.
Surely if your tariffs are supposed to promote goods manufactured at home and they're making you loads of money then they aren't really working. Not that logic has ever bothered Trump, he's only in this so people can put money in his pocket in exchange for carve outs. He's already said he doesn't give a fuck if things get more expensive.
He has at least continued his obsession with holding up big dumb charts, what a fucking goober.
https://i.imgur.com/2FIvo4l.jpeg
I wanna see the details on what crazy shit Laos and Madagascar was getting up to that managed to get them into mid 90s of tariffs on US products.
I don't normally like to talk about these private matters, but the 34% additional tariff on China was a genuine instant boner. First thing I'll spend my extra commission on is a tee time at Trump Turnberry.
All joking aside I'll probably be made redundant again because tech kit is going to rocket in price. Oh well.
As for the Brexit angle, unfortunately for Remain fans this is exactly the sort of far-off development - completely unforeseeable in 2016, with Obama in the White House, woke on the rise and globalism in full swing - that made Leave the far superior long-term strategic choice than Remain. It doesn't mean that Farage gets to swing his shirt around his head and say I told you so - because he didn't tell you so - but it is still undeniably the case. Covid was another, war might be another. You have to be nimble. Short term inconvenience is not important and does not matter.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disco
This seems really smart as a country that devalued it's currently 20 years ago specifically to boost its export ability.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Disco
This seems really smart as a country that devalued it's currentcy 20 years ago specifically to boost its export ability.
It's some of the thickest shit imaginable. As if the modern American youth is gagging for a 40 year stint in a re-opened steel mill.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Problem is, even things made in the US are rarely made with 100% American inputs. You need to get materials, parts, etc. from other places and pay tariffs on them, so even stuff made in the US becomes more expensive. Also, even if it were to lead to people buying more things Made In The U S of A (as opposed to just buying less stuff), it means that people are paying more than they should for things. Good for the company making the items, bad for the (far more) consumers of the item. Plus, even if it benefits the workers of said company, even they have to pay more for everything else. Yet another system were a few people win while the vast majority lose.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewis
The full list is great. Bits of France get different tariffs despite being in the EU, they've tariffed a volcano, and an island full of penguins.
Aye, they've also tariffed Heard & McDonald Islands off the coat of Australia with a population of... zero.
Damn coastal elites.
Unfortunately we appear to have got off lighter than expected with the pharma exemption.
Fuck looking at numbers at this time of morning to see if it's viable, but won't this give us leverage to become the EU's export hub?
The Isle of Shite :drool:
The main question is how will this affect my Costco shop?
One thing I noticed during the freewheeling was that he called the Nvidia Nuh-vidia, I've always said En-vidia, although in fairness I also always wanted to say Bruno En-gotty, which I know is wrong.
Taiwanese semiconductors are exempt. Makes this a very slightly less massive shit show.Quote:
Originally Posted by niko_cee
He also says 'groceries' like it's a word he discovered yesterday so I wouldn't worry too much.
Bow to your AI overlords.
Ah, I see. Much like most of Ireland's €50bn trade deficit with them. I mean, what the fuck? Germany, industrial powerhouse of Europe, maker of things, 83m hard working drones, only manages a £90bn deficit. What the fuck are 5 million people on a rock in Atlantic 'exporting' [other than tax avoidance]?Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepe
Viagra.Quote:
Originally Posted by niko_cee
What do you mean other than tax avoidance? It's all tax avoidance.Quote:
Originally Posted by niko_cee
Yeah, but it's hard to imagine how tax avoidance can be classed as a 'good'.
Do they actually make the drugs there or do they just licence the IP / shelter the profits as per all of the other big US companies making theirs a triple?
I see 'the markets' are taking this well.
I was reading earlier how the likes of Nike etc are essentially uninvestable in now due to their reliance on far eastern manufacturing.
What happens when the foreign made stuff is still cheaper with the tariffs than making it in the US would be? More tariffs?
It'll be classed as Consultancy Services or something nebulous like that.
Manufactured here. The place is covered in pharmaceutical manufacturing plants.Quote:
Originally Posted by niko_cee
Massive drops on Wall Street. Will be interesting to see if this continues whether there's a mechanism for those in the background pulling the strings to get rid of him sharpish, ala Truss over here.
I suspect there isn't.
Imagine if there is though. :drool:
It's a cult at this point, the whole point of surrounding himself with idiots and sycophants off the telly was so he could do whatever he wanted without being gainsaid by anyone with a brain which happened occasionally the first time around.
The mechanism is Republicans in Congress. Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell and some other Republican I can't remember already came up with a bill to stop the Canada tariffs, but I doubt that there are many others with balls.
As for the markets, they haven't crashed enough, if anything.
Trump trying to force us to buy chlorinated chicken for tariff relief.
Isn't the whole chlorinated chicken an actual non-tariff barrier to trade largely invented to prevent US chicken being sold in the EU?
Don't get me wrong, I'm sure their mass produced meat is terrible, but is it worse than Dutch chicken pumped full of water or Danish pigs?
I've seen what some of you eat in the food thread. You'll survive eating Tyson chicken just fine. That's what my cats eat and they are going strong.
Yeah, it's not good for anybody (at least not applied like this), but once the dust settles it will be better for them than most.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepe
Maybe, but I'm not sure that 'everyone will go to shit but we will go to shit a bit less' is a great plan. I guess we'll have to wait and see.
I think the most questionable longer-term part is wrecking the economies of the countries near to China, Vietnam etc., that seems like a certain way to force them into throwing their lot in with Team Panda and wrecking their entire Pacific strategy.
I guess it might make everyone else decide that tariffs are stupid and drop all of theirs, just to screw the US if anything.
This is without doubt the most insane thing he's done since returning. The more I read about it the closer it looks to the old 1,2,3 meme as you're ever likely to see.
Unless those delicious Ukranian rare Earth minerals provide the US with almost all of the shit they need to build stuff that is.
"At this point".Quote:
Originally Posted by Disco
:lol:
What a ridiculous set of lazy cunts.
The world is fucked isn't it. :facepalm:
Spikey was right.
:cool:
Vote for me in 2029 (or whenev's).
I like this as a theory, but Guernsey and Jersey seem to have swerved being singled out and they have .gg and .je domain names so I'm not sure. Are they not 'top level '?Quote:
Originally Posted by Boydy
No, a penguin inhabited island trumps your backwater floating trash heap.
You've got to admire the grift. :DQuote:
Trump says his tariffs rollout is going "very well" and the economy is going to "boom", after US markets closed on Thursday with the biggest one-day loss since the pandemic hit in 2020
One of my UK customers designs stuff, gets it manufactured in China, gets it shipped back here and then distributes it to the US.
54% tariff. :harold:
Best bit is they cover the original tariff for their customers to make things easier...not anymore.
34% reciprocal reciprocal tariffs from China. :lol:
What does China buy from America?
Soybeans.
Presumably everyone just starts doing things via the black market soon. Tariff that, you giant orange fringe.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
https://tradingeconomics.com/china/i.../united-statesQuote:
Originally Posted by Ben
Industrial equipment and agriculture products largely it seems.
They're looking at loopholes i.e if they stick a BRITISH STICKER on it it's not technically been 100% manufactured in China...absolutely insane.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spikey M
Really thought they'd have ripped that off by now...hmm.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bernanke
Oil is absolutely cratering. OPEC increasing production will kill the US oil industry as well. Looking good for the Americans for sure. :rasta:
It's just what Russia have been doing for 3+ years.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
The economic impact of these tariffs really is pretty massive. Even for the US, which will probably now creep into stagflation territory which could involve falling interest rates (5 more quarter point drops now factored in this year, was only 3 pre-tariffs), slowing growth (possible recession), and pretty high inflation.
Although tbf, gonna be reciprocal recessions for everyone!
Also an indication that the market expects less economic activity.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bernanke
Boeing look to benefit massively from this.
https://www.mdpi.com/sustainability/...6-g001-550.jpg
That's an in flight image I think.
:lol:
:DQuote:
Originally Posted by Disco
And Tesler.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben
:lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Disco
Very good.
Nintendo have delayed the release of the Switch 2 in the US indefinitely until the tariff stuff gets sorted out haha
He's doubling down.
Either this is a masterstroke and literally everyone else is wrong or we're completely in the hands of capitalism doing its thing now.
What does "capitalism doing its thing" mean?
Tariffs are anti-capitalism, if anything. Most pro- capitalism people are into open markets.
Means Trump goes the same way Truss did.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boydy
Indeed and they won't be liking this shit, not one bit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepe
Warren Buffet is. And also if it's that bad why aren't they complaining? The elites know they can weather this and buy up everything when it all collapses. Wealth. Transfer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
How though? There's not really a similar mechanism to get rid of a president like there is with a PM.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
There's a reason shares in these companies are worth what they are, the trousering of cheap foreign labour and materials. Take that out of the equation forever and there's no wealth to transfer.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
And they are starting to complain, one of Trump's billionaire backers has done just that today.
Now that I do not know, but there must be something, surely?Quote:
Originally Posted by Boydy
Hiring someone that won't miss would be a start.
What is the mechanism to get rid of a PM?
Congress could get rid of him, but that would require enough Republicans to grow some balls.
The only 'wealth transfer' caused by tariffs is from people to the state. They basically end up being a sales tax.
No confidence vote.
Ah yes. There is nothing that direct, but could be done.
Any legal methods need the republican house or members of the government to cooperate and they're now all grovelling sychophants, drunk tv hosts or conspiracy theory podcasters.
Is he really pouting about China retaliating with tariffs of their own?
I would say someone should tell Trump to stop triumphantly staying that everything is down but it wouldn't make any difference.
He's going to get his military parade this time around, I can't wait.
Re the China tariffs, reminds me of Mark Corrigan bargaining to get his Blackberry back: 'obviously, this dynamic could continue indefinitely'
Everyone is calling him apparently to kiss his ass.
Another red day ahead.
US Bonds being sold off at record rates. China (the biggest holder of US Bonds) has the opportunity to to the funniest thing ever.
https://www.investing.com/news/econo...suries-3975344
Dump them, mygXi.
:cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Spikey M
It will only end with Xi asking Trump to lower the tarrifs in a lady's voice.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lofty
There's obviously a long list of stupid actions and outcomes in all this but where we are now, where the countries most 'disadvantaged' are the countries with no trade imbalance or even negative trade balances seems particularly contrary to the idea the idea of these things is to address those imbalances. All part of the plan. Scott Bessant also had another particularly stupid American face.
He did confirm the bonds spooked Drump.
This was the President's plan all along.
President says he's flexible and changed course.
:face:
That blonde harridan Leavitt must be one of the worst people alive.
Trump tariffs penguins, penguin crashes helicopter in South Africa, helicopter crashes in New York. :sherlock:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-...rritating-musk
Lol, everyone hates Elon. Who'd have thought?
Imagine how bad you have to be to stand out in a cunt soup.
Supreme Court have now ordered the return of the MS13 hairdresser in chief. Trump admin are apparently not content with destroying confidence in their treasury bonds but are having a proper go at further fucking over their own rule of law by refusing to comply. This really is a speedrun of turbo-fucking your own country back to the tinpot status it had before WW2.
This shipping people off to El Salvador is actual Nazi stuff.
sToP bEiNg So DrAmAtIc
That guy the Supreme Court are telling them to bring back is 100% dead.
I was wrong, it's not the hairdresser it's the guy with a Jordan tattoo (Michael not Eddie) that they admitted was wrongly scooped up. And they still won't bring him back, very close to being able to disappear anyone they want as long as they get them out of the country.
Wasn't he an enemy of El Salvador as well? He's 100% dead.
It’s not Nazi stuff and “disappearing people” means actually killing them at your own hand, so why are we using that phraseology too?
There are a million things one can get Trump on, making shit up only plays into his hands.
Might not be 'Nazi stuff' but it is pretty fucked up, especially the ignoring the Supreme Court part.
Disappearing people (which it absolutely is) is not just a fascism thing, it's a totalitarian thing. Trump says he's powerless to get them back and the president of the country they've been imprisoned in says he can't do anything about it, these are obvious lies but it's telling that they don;t feel the need to disguise it.
It's easy when it's not white people, basically.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Fucking lol. Absolute cuck. Just say you agree with what he stands for.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Braindead.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
They would be better off getting him back and then just deporting him for having entered the country illegally. Why let it run like this?
That would be the smart move. Bring him back, claim his asylum case is bogus, deport. Maybe they really lost him.
Quote:
Originally Posted by phonics
Serious question. Why are the comparisons to Nazi Germany (one of the worst regimes in all of human history let’s not forget) needed? What’s wrong with saying what he’s doing in this instance is appalling, or even evil? Do you feel dropping the N bomb gives your quite correct point of view credence? Or that you’ll convert people to your way of thinking if you do it?Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
Might have something to do with his top dog dropping a Nazi salute at his inauguration but idk. Maybe that was just an appalling, evil salute too.
(My serious answer would be: unlike a lot of totalitarian regimes who came to power by force, the Nazis were actually democratically elected and then proceeded to tear apart the entire system from the inside, and very quickly and efficiently too. There’s an understandable fear about his administration making similar moves, undermining the rule of law, etc. which these deportation cases exemplify. It’s not just because of how “evil” it is but the specifics of what’s being done.)
Where do you live now?
Serious question, why does 90% of what you express annoyance at is along the lines of the inelegance of the language used by those in opposition to the really hanus, evil shit that’s going on rather than said hanus evil shit.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
The 51st state. :cool:Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepe
Still? Nice. Working or still in school?
How's Luca?
Finished masters, now working as a roving research assistant and editor like the nerd I am. Also waiting for a permanent residency application to be processed.
I lost track, are you in France or Pennsylvania now?
Ohio :harold:
:D
Anyone who likes capitalism as much as you should be forced to live in Ohio.
Luca's still living the good life in Toronto. Less sure about Panda Bear but I would presume he's also living the good life in an anarchist squat in Vancouver.
Lol Nazi salutes etc but also it didn't start by killing 6 million of my relatives.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Because that is what it is.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Waiting for my citizenship and then to France. At least that's the plan.
Donald, if you are reading this: I love you and everything your stand for.
You could try answering my question.Quote:
Originally Posted by phonics
As for yours, I don’t often have anything to add to the matter so I don’t bother. Most of which stems from just not caring that much about the US, bar the actual elections, which are always worth a watch.
I don’t even know what that means.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
The Nazi comparisons were a bit hyperbolic until Bannon et al started doing straight arm salutes (not to mention all the soft references from Trump and others), you can call them 'roman' if you like but it makes you look like a fucking idiot. The comparison goes a lot deeper than that and has nothing to do with ideology, if you know much German history of the 20s/30s then Musk is almost an exact copy of Alfred Hugenberg, and his facilitation of the Nazis journey into government bears a really creepy amount of resemblance to Trump getting in the second time. Add in the similarity between Hugenberg/Krupp and how the american right uses the media and the comparison is undeniable.
If I was being unkind I might suggest that the comparison only seems overblown if you have no idea what you're talking about or your understanding of the Nazis boils down to Ooh weren't that Hindenburg a bit old.
Toggle Spoiler
Equally, most people think fascism is a funny man spouting off and the Holocaust, when the defining feature across its various schools is all of the national institutions running alongside the government as part of the 'total state'. We will have to see how that one pans out, but his first administration was characterised by a complete inability to get any of them on side (Supreme Court aside, because he was actually able to press easy buttons to do so), and the fact that his new administration is having running battles across the board suggests it won't be so easy this time round either. You will know the 'total state' has arrived when you see things like sports leagues pushing the same social causes, and the entire media conspires to cover up Trump having dementia when people can clearly see otherwise.
I don't think Trump has any real ideology or goal beyond give me some money and I don't want to go to prison, it's what makes it so hard to discern whether their actions are part of a plan to destroy representative democracy or the flailing of a bunch of idiots making it up as they go along. Trump just did/said things that he knew would energise his base, the racism was easy because he himself is a racist but he tied himself in knots with stuff like abortion because he personally doesn't give a shit and just tried to pander to whoever was stood in front of him at that moment. The rest was either ignored by right wing media or simply glossed over like tariff stuff while they hooted about inflation etc. First term it didn't matter because his rambling insanity was quickly forgotten or they got Ivanka in to flash her legs and get him a hamburger, this time you have ghouls like Steven Miller obsessed with replacement theory and a republican party so compromised that they happily confirmed as many podcasters, drunken tv hosts, and sweet zombie Lindas as he wanted. What they've ended up with is a rotting corpse at the top and a mixture of frothing mentals and complete incompetents who can;t really get anything done beyond sacking people and either getting sued out the wazoo or having to hire them back anyway. None of his legislative ideas are going to get anywhere because his majority is too slim and most of them are electoral suicide so sweeping browns off the street and seeing how far they can get with ignoring the courts about it is all they've got. Even then that's partly a sop to Trump because the man is so incapable of making a friend that he can't take criticism or even slightly admit failure so going after dissenters is a pretty central pillar of his administration and he's been sold the idea that disappearing people who are mean to him starts with doing it to the ethnics.
Murdering the GPU market (More than it already is) is a bold move for a government with a crypto reserve and big hopes about AI.
He's absolutely not a fascist or a Nazi, those are both very specific things. He is just Trump, he can be absolutely terrible without having to be the same as those things.
He might not be a nazi (he's a fascist) but he's surrounded by people who are.
I don't know what the obsession is with "Well ackshually"ing whether he is or isn't technically a Nazi.
The point is they are doing Nazi-level heinous shit, like grabbing people they don't like off the street and exiling them without due process to hell-hole prisons/death camps in El Salvador. Then refusing to bring them back despite being ordered to buy the Supreme Court.
Whether he technically fits the definition of a Nazi is a childish distraction.
So Nazi to you just means anyone doing very bad things?
And I would actually say labelling him a Nazi is the real childish distraction as it’s such an easy thing for him and his brethren to bat away from his following and he keeps winning, so it clearly isn’t doing any good.
The "not a Nazi because..." and start to quote extremely specific things brigade are the worst.
I don't see any batting away lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Why always Nazi? Why not Salazar's Portugal, Suharto's Indonesia, or any of the other myriad states across the last 100 years that have done similar bad things?
The answer is because Nazis are famous and glamorous, which Trump also is, so all you're doing is playing into his hands.
I think it was the salutes m8Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
EDIT: Why are you trying to be clever about this?
Yeah I'm playing into his hands. The language I use is whats turning 12 thousand voters in the Wisconsin Dells. Fucking nonsense.
I think it's the most lazy possible criticism of Trump and also historically illiterate, both of which are bad things and among the reasons shit tons of people vote for him.
Disagree. Just keep it simple and call it out for what it is. There's no nuance here. We can debate whether he's more historically aligned with Salazar or Suharto whilst he marches off home grown journalists and protesters to El Salvador death camps.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jimmy Floyd
Two election victories would suggest otherwise. Including demographics of voters that absolutely wouldn’t be voting for him were he an actual Nazi.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
That isn't batting away.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
And who is that, then? You mean some blacks and Hispanics?
I mean anyone who isn’t a Nazi sympathiser. But if you want to be specific, yes, why would black people vote for an actual Nazi?
Do you think people who voted for the actual Nazis knew everything that was going to come after? Do you think they voted for the Holocaust?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Plenty of demographics voted for him despite him making it clear he planned to fuck them.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
They did if they read his book.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boydy
I think Hitler seized power. These dumb yank cunts have given him it lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by Boydy
Hitler had power given to him. Albeit by Hindenburg, rather than the electorate.
No and no, but do people genuinely think Trump is going to do something on the scale of the Holocaust?Quote:
Originally Posted by Boydy
We know everything the Nazi’s did, why are we calling trump one on the basis of what he might do?
Which sort of leads us to the two main arguments against him being people are stupid and he’s a Nazi. Which are both clearly useless as he keeps winning.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
You actually sound like a domestic abuse victim.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
And you sound like a whiny lefty loser that sticks to the same tried and tested lines of failure that keep Trump in the Whitehouse.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
It’s genuinely tragic. One would have thought some form of assessment would have occurred last time and tangibly different actions taken to ensure he never won an election again, but no, people are just doubling down on that failure.
It’s the lack of pragmatism that sickens me and similar shit is happening here. Is it match fixing? Do the left want these arseholes in power?
Are you insane? It's that exact weak-minded bullshit 'pragmatism' people pleasing crap that sees him in power again rather than in fucking jail where he belongs.
Just come out with it. You agree with him. We all know it.
Your head can’t rationalise any other point of view on the subject other than if it’s pointed toward the person holding said point of view agreeing with Trump on everything he says and does.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
I guess safety in numbers must be of some comfort (with the millions of others like you) as it’s really not a good place to be.
I appreciate the effort Yev, but I fear it's being wasted.
Yeah imagine "whining" about them kidnapping people and sending them to hell/death camps. Can you hear yourself?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
The reason Trump is in power again is precisely because he's pulled the wool over the eyes of absolute dribbling idiots like you enough that you can't see/don't care how dangerous and abhorrent he is. Apathetic morons who didn't vote is what allowed him back in.
A few weeks ago you were droning on about how he won't actually do anything bad. Now he's doing incredibly bad shit, and it's "yeah but it's not as bad as the holocaust".
They might as well be a few Man Utd and Liverpool fans arguing at a bar. One extreme or the other but never give any semblance of leeway towards the other side.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spikey M
No leeway is warranted.
Of course there is when you're being as dramatic as you're being.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
They should have just sent him to Guantanamo Bay and we could have filed it under Decency/Grown-Up Government.
I mean we all know you're deeply racist so it's hardly surprising you're unbothered whilst it's happening to brown people.
Plus I don't live in America.
Was at giggles.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewis
Bat it away.
This is Magic shit 2.0. You’re an hysterical mess and playing into exactly what keeps Trump winning.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
That you think he’s pulled the wool over my eyes because I don’t agree entirely with your take (despite consistently agreeing he is far from a force for good) shows you don’t even know who you should be appealing to to stop him winning, let alone what actually makes those people tick.
And to put it even clearer, your (and many others) approach is:
People are idiots
He’s conned them
He’s a Nazi
It.does.not.work. People have heard the same lines for a decade now and they don’t care (in anywhere near enough numbers). It.does.not.work.
Your best hope is that whatever follows Trump is incompeteence of a level that makes them unprecedentedly bad. And that’s absolutely pathetic.
Get a grip and sort it out.
The state seemingly controlled a lot more under Nazism. Trump's got a lesser grip on power. I suspect he doesn't really want that and prefers to just get by on cult of personality. I'm not sure there's a con on because, for a world leader, he's incredibly indecisive. Didn't he chop and change his staff every few weeks in his first stint?
All his gameplan has been, "I want to look like I'm doing stuff." Antithetical to the slow nature of politics but the MAGA crowd will eat it up. And then he'll die.
He’s been utterly clueless since day 1 nine years ago. Lurching from one recent idea to the next, seemingly based on whomever he last spoke to.
They've already had some pushback from the crazies, you;ve got the mong they put in charge of the FBI trying to placate people by saying they really are doing stuff because they didn't arrest Oprah Winfrey and Hillary Clinton on day one. They did the Epstein folders for some internet wankers that had noting in them etc. Of the groups who supported him this time there's the mentals who he simply lied to and is now fobbing off (with the exception of the deportations which tells you everything), the tech wankers who didn;t believe he would do the things he said he would, and the finance idiots who thought they were getting a tax cut but got financial armageddon instead. Quite funny really.
He has pulled the wool over your eyes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
We should placate and be nice to the wee Nazis, see if that works xxx
In what way? What do you think I think?
Let’s get it all out.
@ RL.
You tell me mate. You're the one that's saying IT. DOES. NOT. WORK.
I think you think what you've said you think in your posts. What do you want me to do, quote them back at you?Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
You’re incapable of answering simple questions.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
And I’m not saying it does not work out of thin air, your approach keeps fucking losing elections, to someone that should never be winning them. Maybe contemplate that?
So instead of calling out bad things, we should do what, exactly?
Close this thread ffs.
Call out the bad things, but go about it in the right way. Trump’s biggest weakness is his competence, he simply is not fit to be president. Not because he’s a Nazi but because he simply doesn’t know what he’s doing. Go after that with a credible alternative and you can get him. Think Capone, mass murderer but done on tax fraud.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
On the contrary, this is hitting the heart of the matter.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben
Yeah if only he'd committed some crimes. Ah well.Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
Ok, let’s just keep calling him a Nazi.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b2733806.html
They are such freaks.
He also said recently that Britain could be the first Islamic nation with a nuclear weapon, apparently forgetting that we already have them or that Pakistan have had them since 1998. I wonder what audience this sort of stuff is for because you have to be engaged enough to hear it but also both completely ignorant and incapable of critical thought to not see through it.
But we aren't (yet?) an Islamic nation.Quote:
Originally Posted by Disco
:D The UK may fall to Islam in time, but TTH has already become a YouTube comment section. RIP.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben
Please like and subscribe.
Now threatening to federally charge anyone defending the innocent El Salvador guy. :sick:
He's not a nazi, but he is obviously a fascist, and surrounds himself with those willing to break law to get rich...
Quote:
NEW YORK, April 10 (Reuters) - In the minutes before President Donald Trump's social media post on Wednesday pausing tariffs sent the U.S. stock market rallying, some unidentified options traders placed bets worth millions of dollars that the market would rebound, data shows.
The well-timed bets likely paid off handsomely. Now, some Democratic lawmakers are calling for investigations into whether Trump's policy reversal led to any market manipulation or insider trading.
https://www.reuters.com/business/fin...ns-2025-04-10/
There's no doubt they've been up to this shit all the way through.
But it's not insider trading if you're rich enough.
Apparently the El Salvador dude was a domestic abuser which is not gonna help the case for his release, regardless of gang affiliations.Quote:
Originally Posted by Magic
As his lawyer rightly pointed out:
This kind of stuff is diametrically opposed to all the magna carta bullshit the American right are usually all about. It's a mess.Quote:
"Is the government allowed to admittedly break the law if an individual is alleged to have broken the law?"
Written constitutions once again in the mud.
And still undefeated . . .
Doesn't read that way in here: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/wife-ma...abrego-garcia/Quote:
Originally Posted by Bernanke
(Also a dropped case isn't justification to remove due process)
Can't believe anyone would doubt the Trump administration's intense desire to protect women.
Then stop saying it. Fucking hell.Quote:
Originally Posted by randomlegend
Finding it harder and harder to believe we aren't living in a simulation.
Lol my favourite is MGT saying evil has been defeated now he's dead looool.
I can’t hear the audio, so why is there a giant rabbit there?
It's Easter innit
Because it's Easter, obviously.
I’d have wheeled the rabbit out afterwards, but I guess that’s the least of his crimes.
I thought that was JD Vance.
What giant rabbit. I don't see anything :confused:Quote:
Originally Posted by Yevrah
:D
Always good when one of your most senior intelligence people [no, not the rabbit] appears to operate a cash only policy. I mean, aside from organised criminals, who bowls around with thousands of dollars in cash to pay for 'activities'?
I guess maybe their tipping culture / black economy requires it. Another resounding win for the Secret Service.
Such a weirdly backward place.
Completely anecdotal but I'm suddenly seeing BYD cars everywhere. Tesla have peaked, at least outside of the US borders.
Look at the share price now.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spikey M
Two blokes in my company have suddenly got them. Having a Tesla rapidly becoming a social faux pas.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben
The resale market on Tesla (and electric in general) is going to be very interesting when there is a huge stock of used cars on the market with batteries out of warranty.
Four-year old Model 3s are going for less than an age and mileage equivalent Peugeot 2008.
I'd still take the Nazi mobile.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ben
Probably, but new it cost over £10k more than the Peugeot. That's some incredible depreciation.
Aren't Teslas generally shite in terms of build quality etc?
Or is that just all EVs?
Is see trade negotiations with Japan went well.
:DQuote:
Indeed, speculation was rife that the visitor from Tokyo might even secure the “first mover” advantage touted by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent: winning advantageous terms as the country quickest to agree to a deal with the Trump administration.
And yet Ryosei Akazawa, Japan‘s economic revitalization minister, has gone home without an agreement in place—telling local media he had urged the Americans to reconsider their “extremely regrettable” action.
We have the 50th anniversary of Vietnamese farmers slapping the yanks about this month, and relations between the two nations are really good.. however, the Trump admin have just instructed all staff in Vietnam to not talk to the media, and basically only turn up to events if absolutely necessary. #Seething
Seeing as Labour are going all out in Washington at the moment, on the subject of non-tariff barriers to trade I came across a brilliantly baffling thing today. A pack of Sainsburys prosciutto. Made with pork from the Netherlands. Processed in Italy, as I presume is required for DOP reasons. A massive NOT FOR EU badge on the back of it. Other than willful obstructiveness how can that possibly be the case? At what point in the process has it fallen foul of EUROPEAN STANDARDS?
They should just call it 'fancy ham' and process it in Lincoln. One in the eye for naysayers of British cuisine.
By next month I'll be grating Thanet Flake cheese over my Coventry spagets. This is the entire basis of the Chinese economy, so why not us.
Italian style ham.
Aldi, as always, ahead of the curve. The Nazi cunts.
Everyone lols at Aldi's memes mocking M&S as if they aren't the grey squirrel slowly killing off the red.
Trump now selling "Trump 2028" hats.
Obsessed.
Are they made in China?
Chy-na
Forgot she was doing full on hardcore filth vids before she croaked, these days she'd be lauded for it.
She even did one as She Hulk.
Or so I've been told...
Now he's got the FBI arresting judges for upholding laws he doesn't like.
And openly selling access to himself and the white house through some unbacked crypto currency.
This Virginia Giuffre suicide has got to be suspicious right?
Very much so I'd say. What was all that nonsense about her being terminally ill as well? Something stinks a bit.
Post it in the Randy Andy thread you heathens.
The photo of the judge being arrested is absolutely insane.
If she did what has been alleged what is the issue? The 'rule of law' applies to judges as well.
They are now deporting toddlers with cancer.
https://americasvoice.org/uncategori...e-deportation/
Lucky kid will be able to get the care he needs.
Lol touche.Quote:
Originally Posted by Pepe
:lol: :lol: :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewis
What are the odds that the Trump / ICE line is in any way accurate? 50/1?Quote:
Originally Posted by Lewis
And if it is accurate, should judges be allowed to do that?Quote:
Originally Posted by niko_cee
I don't know. Even on those facts it might end up quite a complicated question. If the powers of law enforcement are largely going to ignore due process and the actual laws of the country is there a positive obligation on everyone to aid and abet unlawful conduct?
Tell you one thing though, arresting judges isn't normally emblematic of a system dedicated to the maintenance of the rule of law.
:lol:Quote:
if you are destroying evidence, if you are obstructing justice ... it will not be tolerated.
Not up to speed on this one and the BBC is full of the funeral of a dead (at best) paedophile apologist, so what’s happened here?
Well I’ve read it but it doesn’t go any way to explaining the stance RL and you appear to have taken vs the one Lewis has. I’d have garnered more by just assuming to type.
The stance that I have taken, such that it is having looked into it to the extent of reading that article, is that I doubt the credibility of what the Trump administration and it's subordinate agencies say, given their somewhat dubious track record to date, and that in general terms arresting judges isn't the hallmark of what one would consider a normal western democracy.
There is also the blinding hypocrisy of it all, not least in the comments from the attorney general or whatever Pam Bondi is. I mean, obstructing justice, isn't that essentially what Donald and Co have been up to for the last four years?
RL is more right that wrong on this. They are rewriting the norms of American / liberal society.
I should have added your to type would be more of a balanced legal based one.
I don't if anyone has seen the 'evidence' of Abrego Garcias gang connections that showed his hand tattoos that had 'MS13' superimposed over his knuckles to show what each symbol was supposed to mean but Trump has just done an interview where he earnestly argues that those were real. He really is beyond parody.
I can only find it in a reddit thread so that will have to do.
https://www.reddit.com/r/confidently...s_lie_exposed/