more great marketing optics with donald talking about no tax on tips & bringing up the period when there was no income tax
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more great marketing optics with donald talking about no tax on tips & bringing up the period when there was no income tax
Trump loves tariffs which is a tax on other countries but they will do it back and is inflationary. He is using it as a bargaining tool but I am sure he is making things up as he goes along with no real strategy.
The mass exodus of America’s biggest banks from the UN climate alliance will make no measurable difference to the global energy landscape or to the level of carbon emissions, and nor will Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement.
One can only laugh at the spectacle of Citigroup, Bank of America, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs hastily swapping the mask of Left-wing cultural wokeism for the mirror-image mask of Right-wing cultural wokeism, just in time to deflect Trumpian retribution. They are largely brown-washing in aligning with Trump’s fossil revivalism.
In the intervening years – above all since Paris in 2015 – clean technology has performed a market miracle. More than $2 trillion (£1.6 trillion) a year now goes into renewable capex, and just $1 trillion into the last hurrah of the hydrocarbon industry. That has little to do with climate policy. The money is chasing profit.
Renewable costs have fallen faster than ultra-optimists dared to think possible. They already undercut coal and gas plants on pure price and a 24/7 basis in areas holding 80pc of mankind, even in the fracking fiefdom of Texas.
“We’re seeing a stampede into solar plus batteries. Together they are the killer app of the clean energy age,” said Lord Turner, head of Energy Transitions Commission, which includes China, India and the global South, as well as the West.
The US energy department published a “Moon shot” paper in 2010 arguing that it was theoretically possible to cut solar costs to $1 a watt, and if achieved this would amount to fossil parity without subsidy. Sceptics said it was delusional. That target has since been beaten ten times over.
The price of Chinese solar panels has dropped to nine cents a watt, which is why the ill-run electricity grid in Pakistan is now shrinking at a double-digit annual rate. Every village and every neighbourhood in Lahore or Karachi is erecting off-grid solar panels in a dash for cheap power and energy freedom, lifting solar capacity by 22 gigawatts (GW) in a single year. The government had nothing to do with it. The free market speaks Urdu.
This is happening everywhere, to varying degrees, in latitudes from 40 degrees North to 40 degrees South, so long as regimes do not actively stand in the way, as they often do to favour cabals of vested interests. It is why Trump’s plan to flood the world with US liquefied natural gas at $6 MMBtu is make-believe. The International Energy Agency predicts an LNG glut by the late 2020s.
“Nobody is going to build coal or gas plants in Africa. Solar with storage is cheaper everywhere. The vast majority of the world’s population live in tropical climes where the sun shines almost every day. I don’t think we have woken up to how absolutely transformational this is going to be,” said Lord Turner.
Battery cell costs have been plummeting along the same vertiginous cost curve. They were $1,100 kWh in 2010. The US energy department said then that the holy grail was $100, the take-off point for mass adoption. Lithium ferrous phosphate (LFP) batteries in China are today selling at $50 kWh, and sodium batteries for solar back-up will come in below $25 with scale.
These LFP batteries do not require cobalt from child labour in Africa or nickel from Indonesia rain forests. “One challenge after another is disappearing in front of our eyes. Remember all that talk about running out of critical minerals? It was rubbish,” said Lord Turner.
Lithium carbonate prices have crashed by 87pc from the peak of the bubble, and cobalt prices by three quarters, even as global sales of electric vehicles rose a further 24pc last year.
Pakistan’s solar story is an apt analogy of what will happen as Chinese EVs flood Asia at prices near $10,000, with Indian EVs undercutting even that: the Indian-made MG Comet starts at $7,000, and the Tata Tiago at $9,000. Once cheap EVs meet cheap rooftop solar across the developing world, the direction of travel is only one way.
This ought to be some comfort for those in despair about rising global CO2 levels, rising temperatures, and rising levels of Luddite reactionary wokeism in the liberal democracies. The instant snapshot of where we are today is misleading. The “second derivative” tells us where we are going, and that points to a short-term plateau, followed by a cascading collapse of the old fossil order.
The world as a whole is quietly weaning itself off carbon fuels with remarkable success, contrary to the impression one might have from political noise in the Anglo sphere, in turn amplified by enemy cyber-manipulation urging us to commit self-harm.
Unfortunately, it is China that is running away with the prize, while America tries to turn back the technology clock, or if you prefer, commands the waves to retreat.
Trump can certainly slow things down with his blizzard of executive orders – some beyond his constitutional authority – whether by halting offshore wind, freezing permits for onshore wind on federal land, stopping the rollout of EV charging stations or suspending $300bn of funding for the Inflation Reduction Act. But there is much theatre in his daily provocations, and he has so far spared solar, calling himself a “big fan”.
At the end of day, America’s energy economy is driven by private contracts on private land under local state laws. It is the customer who buys, not the White House, said Joe Kaiser, from Siemens. What he has seen from Trump so far “doesn’t move the needle”.
If Trump goes further and actively suppresses the free market or violates state rights, he will clash with his own Republican base. Wind made up 59pc of Iowa’s electricity last year, yet the governor is Republican and so are two thirds of the state legislature.
Trumpian Texas is America’s renewable capital, with more installed wind power than Britain, and for good reason: off-take contracts in the Texas Panhandle can be as low as $20 MWh. Conservative Texans for Energy Innovation said royalties from renewables make up half the income of some counties, funding school gyms and the town pool.
Farmers can make $30m in rents from a 100 MW solar array on their arid empty land, and the panels shade livestock from extreme heat. A firm called Freedom Solar is rolling out panels across the state, proclaiming a war of liberation against big government and the utility mafia. Try telling Texans they can’t have it.
Trump cannot save his beautiful fossilised world, however hard he tries. It is too late, even in America. The “green scam” has already beaten him.
What Trump is up to in reality:
https://i.ibb.co/PZXrPKqh/Gh0d-B-9-XIAABjux.jpg
I'm sure this is all above board, like the twenty five million stop hitting me payment from Facebook and the similar ABC payment and the forthcoming please allow our merger payment from Paramount. That's getting on for fifty million dollars just with three settlements of bullshit lawsuits. Then there are the Trump memecoins which are a straight up payment system for unlimited amounts and all perfectly legal. It was a perfect payment.
There were deadly fires in Los Angeles... and Donald Trump's initial reaction was to blame the Democrats and criticize the firefighters.
There was a tragic airline-helicopter crash in Washington D.C.... and Donald Trump's reaction was to blame the Democrats and criticize diversity in FAA hiring.
At least we know where the priorities of the President of the United States lie.
the plane v helicopter collision seems very strange
Trump has no evidence to back his theory that diversity policies caused the crash. His common sense is warped and should not politicise tragic events. Trump is a low life.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFan
A scorecard so far of the Trump revenge presidency
Author Kevin DrumPublished on January 31, 2025 – 9:36 pm57 Comments on A scorecard so far of the Trump revenge presidency
Being the revenge president goes two ways. First, you have to screw your enemies. Second, you have to make sure your friends have impunity to break the law. After two weeks, here is Donald Trump's scorecard:
- Dropped prosecution of former Republican Rep. Jeff Fortenberry for lying to the FBI.
- Dropped charges against his pals in crime, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, Trump aides who helped him cover up his theft of classified documents.
- Ordered the firing of all DOJ prosecutors associated with the documents case.
- Pardoned Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, who founded an organization for large-scale drug trafficking and spent nearly a million dollars paying for the murder of five enemies.
- Dropped the investigation of Republican Rep. Andy Ogles over campaign fraud.
- Placed dozens of USAID workers on immediate leave over unspecified "insubordination" issues.
- Ordered DOJ to fire prosecutors involved in January 6 cases and ordered the FBI to "scrutinize" hundreds of agents who were involved in the prosecutions, in preparation for a possible purge.
- Demanded "details" about FBI employees involved in a case against a Hamas terrorist involved in taking Americans hostage on October 7.
- Pardoned or commuted the sentences of everyone involved in the January 6 insurrection, including rioters convicted of assaulting police officers.
- Pardoned two DC police officers convicted of covering up their role in the death of a man they chased at high speeds because he was driving a moped without a helmet.
All your personal information is now in the hands of a second-tier private company CEO who hasn’t been senate confirmed, isn’t following any ethics rules, etc etc
https://x.com/mattyglesias/status/18...194539030?mx=2
Trump seems very obsessed with tariffs and fentanyl. I think he wants to start his own trade in the US and make millions from the turmoil it will cause whilst claiming victory at every turn.
Trump has lost his damn mind. The way tariffs are supposed to work. Let's say workers in China make a dollar per hour. People in America makes 20 per hour. If tariffs are high enough it makes the China worker 15 dollars per hour. that makes sense. But Canada workers make more than we do. 25% tariffs on Canada but only 10% on China. now he wants Gaza. this is a very bad look for America.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrbig1
He isn't doing tariffs on Canada or Mexico or very likely on China. And I knew this as soon as he started talking about them. How was this possible? This will amaze you but here it is...... he already did this before.
Amazingly, Donald Trump has already been president. For four years! And he already threatened tariffs on Mexico and Canada twice before. Once they gave him bullshit concessions over things they'd already agreed to do before he became president and he claimed victory and backed down. The second time they renegotiated a trade deal that left them and America no better or worse off than before. This time they gave him bullshit concessions again. Mexico agreed to put ten thousand troops on the border but they've been there since 2021. Canada agreed to do something they publicly announced they were going to do last December. Trump claimed victory and backed down. Same thing happened with China four years ago too.
Interestingly some people who had made previous bets on stock market indexes in the past who clearly had advance knowledge did so again. But they did it in such a ham fisted way that they tipped the market off to who they were. They were clearly a. people who had had inside knowledge of previous Trump stunts over tariff threats and b. utter morons. Yeah. This time they were trying to bet that markets would crash then recover in just over a day so everybody knew Trump was not going to impose tariffs and nobody would take the other side of their trades.
Oh and Gaza. Nobody could have predicted that eh.
Trump is basically full of shit on everything. Tough talk on immigration but he's deporting less people than Biden did. And releasing a lot of people he's catching too:
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/nat...-us-rcna186360
A bit of theatre with Guantanamo and whatnot but no real change.
FBI turns over details of 5,000 employees who worked on January 6 cases to Trump Justice Department, as agents sue
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/04/p...ay?cid=ios_app
And his nominee for FBI head has taken the fifth amendment multiple times at his confirmation hearing. Really boundary breaking I have to say:
https://bsky.app/profile/macfarlanen.../3lhjjzcxsh22t
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/exclu...l?guccounter=2
Bank regulators are going to be run by banking lobbyists. The last time the GOP eased regulation it took seven years before we got the 2007 economic meltdown/financial crash. I bet Trump can do it in four years. I'm not even going to write down what's happening in the financial industry for various reasons. Quite bad though.
Ignore all the theatre and the cruelty. Watch the money. Watch the pooting and the criminality and corruption and the collapse of the rule of law and democratic indtitutions. That's the story of the next four years. The money.
Local grocery stores have started labeling produce "product of Mexico" here. Wonder why :D. He's rapid flooding the field and coverage with shiny distracting objects for his chimps while actually expanding and flooding the "swamp". The Gaza land grab talk is absolutely insanity. The DOJ has been immediately turned into a politicized machine to purge those not kneeling for the loyalty test. Autocracy moves.
Hey let's look at the bright side.
There's only 1,369 days, 1 hour, and 47 minutes left until the next Election Day.
You hope.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFan
The halfwits with the inside knowledge are still trying. They can't work out why nobody will do business with them and haven't spotted the market prices their position in as soon as they try and make trades. They're tipping their pitches and have no idea everybody knows. Epically stupid and corrupt.
Nice easy explainer on how stupid the aluminium tariffs are. Keep scrolling:
https://x.com/JGodiasMurphy/status/1889327978972058021
The financial industry have been after shuttering this for years. It's saved Americans hundreds of billions of dollars in rip offs of various kinds:
https://x.com/jonfavs/status/1887994950195028138
Fox News guy who was earning millions a year needs a government provided house:
Pete Hegseth is spending $49,900 of public funds on an “emergency” paint job he needs for the house that he needs provided for him at taxpayer expense.
https://x.com/mattyglesias/status/1888017612657016966
The paint job is just part of a hefty six figure renovation.
So, no, I don’t get excited when DOGE cancels $1 billion in govt contracts. Or saves $3 billion in federal workforce reductions out of a $7,000 billion budget. Not when Trump and Congress are also preparing to add $800 billion more annually in proposed new tax cuts and spending. And no, the huge savings are not coming. Even (unrealistically) eliminating 20% of the federal workforce would save $60 billion, and overhauling federal systems to sharply reduce payment errors may save perhaps $80 billion (and is probably unlikely too). For all of DOGE’s bluster, administrative and executive reforms would at best save 1-2% of federal spending and offset only a small fraction of Trump’s red ink agenda. That leaves trying to unilaterally impound spending such as USAID—which is wildly illegal—or actually going to Congress to pare back spending the constitutional way. But Trump has already taken Social Security, Medicare, defense, veterans, border (and interest) off the table, which is 2/3 of all spending and is driving deficits. And the GOP Congress seems ready to give up on cutting the remaining one-third of spending. Want to cut spending and the deficit? How about they stop passing budget-busting bills......
https://x.com/JessicaBRiedl/status/1886926358279864674
More at the link. Short concise overview of the budget situation from a conservative think tank person.
Jan. 6 defendant also wants pardon for 2022 plot to kill FBI agents
https://x.com/joshtpm/status/1888030020313956829
Elon Musk-Led Group Makes $97.4 Billion Bid for Control of OpenAI
Elon Musk is in a battle with Sam Altman over the company behind ChatGPT. Photo: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
A consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, raising the stakes in his battle with Sam Altman over the company behind ChatGPT.
Musk’s lawyer, Marc Toberoff, said he submitted a bid for all the nonprofit’s assets to OpenAI’s board of directors Monday.
The unsolicited offer adds a complication to Altman’s carefully laid plans for OpenAI’s future, including converting it to a for-profit company and spending up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure through a joint venture called Stargate. He and Musk are already fighting in court over the direction of OpenAI.
“It’s time for OpenAI to return to the open-source, safety-focused force for good it once was,” Musk said in a statement provided by Toberoff. “We will make sure that happens.”
https://www.wsj.com/tech/elon-musk-o...hare_permalink
See Elon's game? He's going to use his position in the regime to take over businesses that are kicking his businesses' arse. He's going to do the same with self driving cars too. He's got lots more plans coming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kirkland LaingYou hope.Quote:
Originally Posted by TitoFan
Damn, Kirk. You brought up an interesting point, and I don't like it. ;D
That's a long time in which to finish wrecking what's left of free and unencumbered elections.
I am more convinced than ever that Trump is in the pocket of Putin. He must have some compromising pictures or information about the US president.
Trump is selling out Ukraine and all its resources to appease the great brutal evil dictator.
stuff that has happened over the past 48 hours always makes me wonder just how much influence the troll factories of Russia had on the US election.... But this is just Trump spitting his dummy out because Ukraine wouldn't sign the mineral deal without security guarantees and I'm sure the Trump advisers will be making him soften his words before he totally destroys all of the USA alliances.Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
Still its very worrying times for the world atm
His advisors are all tenth rate yes men handpicked because they'll do what they're told. Probably the only guy he's listening to at the minute is Musk who some people allege is a straight up Putin supporting Nazi. Trump is more likely to double down than moderate his position and he'll probably end up threatening to send Putin military aid if Zelensky doesn't basically sign a blank sheet of paper. It is definitely worrying. I'm sure the Baltic states and Poland are looking into acquiring nuclear weapons quickly because they're next on the list for Putin.Quote:
Originally Posted by Saddostuff that has happened over the past 48 hours always makes me wonder just how much influence the troll factories of Russia had on the US election.... But this is just Trump spitting his dummy out because Ukraine wouldn't sign the mineral deal without security guarantees and I'm sure the Trump advisers will be making him soften his words before he totally destroys all of the USA alliances. Still its very worrying times for the world atmQuote:
Originally Posted by Master
How it's going in America right now. This is from the Wall Street Journal just now. Behind a paywall so here's the relevant bit:
https://i.ibb.co/C3F8CQLC/Gk-QSrw8-Ww-AA13z-M.jpg
So basically straight up extortion from Musk. Pay me money or your merger gets it.
More Musk. The Trump Department of Justice threatening to prosecute members of congress for criticising the free speech absolutist:
https://x.com/RobertGarcia/status/1892664373463683535
also threatening to prosecute the top Democratic politician in the country on bullshit charges:
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/washington...l?guccounter=2
Draining the swamp:
https://x.com/AASchapiro/status/1891845385494159631
More Wall Street Journal on Trump being paid millions for policy decisions:
https://x.com/IsaacDovere/status/1892036868872540350
More on Trump filling his pockets:
https://dnyuz.com/2025/02/17/with-co...ess-interests/
Then there are all the various DOJ resignations by prosecutors unwilling what they see as corrupt acts by the DOJ. Half a dozen just in New York last week. I could go on and on.
It's not looking good really. This is just them getting their feet under the table. Just wait a month or three until all the cosmetic bluster and bullshit of the first month or two is over and they're dealing with increasing inflation, a worsening economy and the fact that the only legislative thing any of them can agree on is a gigantic tax cut for the wealthy. The flip side of them getting so many working class votes now is that they now have a lot of voters who are going to be hammered by the spending cuts they're going to make so that Don and Elon can have a bigger tax cut.
Power, money, back door dealings, egos, stabbing people in the back. Politics and business is ruthless.
What you're saying is true but this is another thing entirely. Politics and business is corrupt and crooked because it's run by human beings who are corruptible. It's impossible to construct a system with zero corruption because any system you create is going to be run by human beings.Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
What we can say for certain is that democracy is the least worst system of government we have yet produced. Some versions of democracy are more corrupt than others but history shows us that democracies with all their faults are far and away the least worst option we have available. It's like Winston Churchill said, democracies are the worst system of government that there is, apart from all the others.
What we're seeing now in America is one of the other systems. Basically Trump admires people like Putin and wants to create exactly the same kind of authoritarian oligarchy in America. We're about to see how successful he is with that.
I'm sitting here scared to do my job now and surfing the internet instead and here are the very latest shenanigans. Remember Trump's pick to be FBI chief who took the fifth amendment multiple times at his confirmation hearing? Turns out he's on the payroll of a Chinese company for unknown reasons:
https://x.com/SollenbergerRC/status/...773767033?mx=2
This is what he might do to the FBI. Of course it could be worse than this:
https://www.rollingstone.com/politic...ge-1235273360/
You'd think government efficiency would include efficient tax collection but apparently not:
https://x.com/jbendery/status/1892579398089396421
Sacking all the department watchdogs who monitor spending for waste, fraud and abuse seems like a strange way to cut waste, fraud and abuse:
https://x.com/PeteButtigieg/status/1891486851006972246
More Elon:
https://bsky.app/profile/kimkelly.bs.../3limy2fnonc26
Trump has to leave after 4 years.
I am sure he will try a Putin 25 year type power grab. As you said democracy will prevail and Trump will have to leave no matter what he and his supporters try.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
I would caution against underestimating Trump and his MAGA machinery.
- Trump began stoking the fires of a (bogus) stolen election even before the 2020 elections, which he LOST.
- Once he LOST, he said "SEE??"... and worked his Minions up into a lather, resulting in the Capitol riots of January 6th.
- Although he finally left, after almost chaining himself to the White House columns... he already had a plan in place to ensure he'd be back.
- You think he and the MAGA machinery sat idle during Joe Biden's tenure? NO. He and the MAGA cult worked tirelessly behind the scenes to rig the system to ENSURE a Trump "victory" in 2024.
- All Trump had to do... was keep his ass out of jail.
- The 2024 elections came, and sure enough... Trump "wins." I'd bet what I don't have that many thousands of votes were either invalidated or tampered with.
- Trump is on record telling people "they'll never have to vote again."
- Now he's President... has control over both sides of Congress, and the Supreme Court.
- You REALLY think Trump is planning on going anywhere??
People still cling to the idea that the U.S. democracy is bullet-proof... and refuse to see the clear signs.
Meanwhile, others are posting comparisons in social media between the U.S. in 2025... and Germany back in the 1930's.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
Exactly who is going to make him?
On 2024 election night he was already making claims of massive cheating in case he lost. When it became clear he was going to win he dropped the cheating claims immediately. Next election will be exactly the same. His opponent will be under criminal investigation from the FBI and various swing states will have already made it basically impossible for the Democrat to win.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-v...fraud-quieted/
There is zero chance of a free and fair election next time out just based on what we've seen so far and you add another four years of corruption and criminality on? Even with Trump blanket pardons they're going to be so terrified of a rule of law government returning there's no way they'll allow it and whatever guardrails that currently exist will be guarded by tenth rate yes men. The guardrails of democracy are just people and they're all terrified of disobeying Trump. They'll be a lot more scared four years from now with good reason:
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/stor...tical-violence
When you are already threatening political opponents with investigations, what happens in six months or a year when you're getting hammered in the opinion polls for ruining the economy, setting off inflation again and slashing healthcare and other services so that Trump and Elon can have a huge tax cut? You look for scapegoats don't you. Political opponents you can turn into hate figures with your base and go after. Even just their legal defence costs in a federal investigation will bankrupt most politicians even if the investigation goes nowhere. Once the GOP house and senate and the other various guardrail operators see somebody out on the street with their family how many are going to say a word against Trump in public?
Being completely straight...the real time conduct and "dealings" with Zelensky/Ukraine...the singling out and piss poor verbal tear downs of "dictator" and repeatedly stating Ukraine is to blame for starting the war...well, I felt a rage. Accompanied by a complete betrayal, but mainly a literal anger that's hard to put into words. This is not us. This is not who we are. This is not for what literal family, friends and this Countries treasure have spilt blood for. This bloated senile bitch of a weak man who had multiple deferrals during Vietnam has zero interest in a peaceful resolution and now sets sights on an affective land grab of Ukraine's mineral rights. The absurd insane irony is listening to his defenders in the press sent out last night with the talking point of "well Zelensky needs to allow an election" and not a damn word spoken in the direction of the factual invader with blood on his hands, Putin. A delusional man Trump who spent the last 8+ years tearing down disregarding and attacking the US elections as corrupt, crooked and rigged. Now suddenly pretends to care let alone to even know how to define another sovereign Nations election. He's nothing more than a Putin stooge and asset.
It has gone way beyond parody now. The disdain with which he has treated Europe has shown his hand. We have had Trump supporters, those in his administration and his other staff on News programs here insisting that there are more people in UK prisons for exercising free speech than there are in Russia. Not only is this utter bullshit and just a victim fantasy of the Far Right supporting little boys pretending to be men who hang off Trump and Musk's every word, it ignores the fact that speaking out against Putin gets you killed. Not just in Russia either. He has had dissidents killed here in the UK and in Europe.
Cognitive dissonance on a massive scale. Just like this bollocks about the Jewish Zelensky being a Nazi while Musk and Bannon are throwing Nazi salutes and shutting down anyone that might get in the way of their funneling money and power back into Donald's shite filled swamp. Trump telling everyone that he is the law and threatening anyone who doesn't blow smoke up his fat arse. People outside of the USA need to accept the fact that things have changed, and that if standing up to Trump and telling him is full of crap means they have to suffer the consequences of bruising his massive ego, then so be it.
Kellogg, Rubio and Waltz are pro Ukraine. They also happen to be the only three people remotely qualified for the job they hold in the entire administration apart from the Treasury secretary. But the minute they step out of line with Trump over anything they're history. Just wait till Trump starts cosying up to China. All of the Trump supporters who've been calling various Democrats and Republicans CCP agents or employees or spies or whatever will turn on a dime when Trump wants to get close to China and claim it's the greatest foreign policy move in American history.Quote:
Originally Posted by Spicoli
This is the worst example of Trump having some unhinged idea of how the world works versus reality. He's itching to leave Europe to its own devices and will cheer Putin on if he invades the Baltics or Poland. He wants to go to war with Europe economically too.Quote:
Originally Posted by Beanz
There's a reason why America set up NATO and chose to backstop peace in Europe after WW2. Those guys were not a bunch of blustering blithering idiots and had read a bit of history. They knew ethnic conflicts in Europe had been ongoing for centuries including one war which literally lasted over a hundred years and it would be more of the same if they didn't put their thumb on the NATO scale. And it wasn't done for woolly headed liberal reasons, ultimately it was done to create peace and prosperity in Europe and huge markets for American goods and services.
And that translates to over a trillion dollars a year in trade heading to two which is a decent chunk of a twenty seven trillion dollar economy. America is the biggest investor in Europe with about sixty percent of all US foreign investment. Likewise sixty percent of European investment is in America. Both sides employ about five million workers in the other side.
Lots of US imports from Europe are highly specialised engineered parts that then go into American products that are only manufactured in Europe. There's a whole global trade ecosystem like this that makes us all reliant on other countries and fucking it up would cause huge economic loss, inflation, shortages etc. It's not all scotch, champagne and prosciutto. If there's suddenly a war in Europe and those firms are diverted to the war effort a lot of American companies are going to be fucked. A competent advisor would be telling Trump that but he doesn't have any, he has yes men. It would lead to significant economic damage, inflation and so on. And to save what? American troops have to be based somewhere. The extra cost in basing them in Europe versus America is basically a rounding error in the Pentagon budget, never mind the federal budget.
Again if he had competent advisors and actually took advice he'd know this but he's going to do what he wants like an out of control toddler. It'll all end in tears.
https://apnews.com/article/trump-opp...ad3a2fbc0df1c1
"The few Republicans who still oppose Trump gather in search of a path to oppose him"
There's a saying in the States. Don't know whether it's the same saying in the UK.
Quote:
A day late and a dollar short.
On a side note.
It is the Associated Press, normally considered a centrist news media, that is suing the Trump administration over getting banned from White House press conferences.
The reason?
AP refused to entertain Trump's childish lunacy in wanting to rename the Gulf of Mexico into the Gulf of America, thus wasting thousands and thousands of taxpayer dollars.
Fuckin Traitor
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spicoli
https://i.ibb.co/gMC6spnt/Gklf-Uq-CWUAAlr-Dl.jpg
You've joined the Axis of Evil!
Sorry. Bloody awful isn't it. Seen the new Deputy Director of the FBI? Some podcast host who terrifies his listeners that the world is about to end so he can sell them survivalist gear. Looks like a tinned ham covered in vaseline. He's now deputy to the Fifth Amendment guy.
Elon is sacking federal workers to save America. Sack every single federal employee and that cuts the deficit by about fifteen percent. Not government spending, just the deficit. Federal payroll is eight percent of the budget and most of it is the military. So he's going after three percent of the budget while the GOP are about to add somewhere between four and eleven trillion to the deficit over the next ten years in corporate tax cuts. I can see this being controversial when the public realise what's happening. They're likely to slash Medicaid spending to help ameliorate the trillions in extra debt from the tax cuts. This is what Medicaid covers:
Medicaid covers: - 21% of Americans nationally - 83 million low-income Americans - 4 in 10 children - 1 in 4 adults with disabilities - Nearly 50% of kids with special needs - 41% of births nationwide - 5 in 8 nursing home residents - 32% of people in Mike Johnson's home state
Zelensky is coming to America to sign his Don King contract. It's going to be years before America actually sees any kind of revenue from it, half a billion is never going to happen and while there are no security guarantees maybe it means America still sends weapons. Maybe it's political cover for Trump to do that. It probably isn't worth the paper it's written on though, Trump signed a new trade deal with Canada and Mexico five years ago and he's about to rip it up although maybe it's yet another tariff bluff.
Same with Europe. He definitely wants an economic war with Europe to try and sunjugate them but he's already sailing close to the wind with recession risks. If he does go ahead with his various tariffs and trade disruption he's staring down the barrel of a recession coupled with high inflation.
America's new chairman of the joint cheifs of staff:
https://i.ibb.co/8g4K0GYr/Gk-Z-j-QEWQAAsf-QL.jpg
The acting director of the Consumer Financial protection Bureau, or whats' left of it, did this:
https://x.com/mikulaja/status/1893739173812592894
And last but not least this hints at some of the stuff happening in the financial world right now:
https://www.semafor.com/article/02/2...eep-in-the-fed
I will have more to say at some point. Right now I'm pretty sure it's a matter of time before I have to retire. I don't want to but I can't do my job properly anymore.
The SEC has just halted its fraud prosecution of Justin Sun, a Chinese national who has put more than $50 million in Trump's pocket since November through the purchase of crypto tokens from a Trump-backed company, World Liberty Financial.
https://x.com/JuddLegum/status/1895272963282477308
The SEC is America's most powerful financial industry regulator. Some people are alleging that there is significantly more stuff like this happening in the last few weeks for some reason and some people are speculating that it could get even worse.
By the way, this is the situation at the SEC right now.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/t...ys-2025-01-20/
It's being run by an acting crypto guy who will eventually be replaced by the guy Trump has nominated for the job, a guy called Atkins. This guy Atkins previously held the job of SEC head, America's chief financial regulator, from 2000 until 2008. Of course things were plain sailing in the financial world in that time, especially around the 2007-8 period, so this guy Atkins looks like an excellent appointment. Of course now he's a crypto guy too. Really worth a look at his career to get some perspective on this whole thing.
Trump is lining his pockets as President and securing a nest egg when he leaves after his term. The next President should immediately arrest him and take back his assets.
I wish that was all it was.Quote:
Originally Posted by Master
Trump absolutely fucking SODOMIZED zelensky bwahaha ha
You still support that chump??
WTF am I asking... of course you do. :vd:
Trump and Vance were disgraceful and really shown up for stupid arrogant bullies that they are. Zelensky was respectful despite being cornered by these two clowns who repeated Putin lies. They are ball deep with the Russian dictator and the West is truly screwed.