President Trump and US politics catchall

[Biffer]

Something else DOGEwont query - State Department set to order $400 million order for trucks from Tesla.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/13/g-s1-485 ... red-teslas

This is out and out corruption.

Oh, sorry, I’m just a lefty whiner, they were elected and are allowed to do this. Right PB?

[tabascoboy]

[sockwithaticket]

Judges applying the law should be impeached apparently, all the while being deplored as 'evil' and 'scammers'. By President Musk and Vice President Trump.

Nothing undemocratic or fascistic here, no sir.

Also seen a couple of things saying that Musk has doxxed the daughter of one of the judges in the article, but nothing as reputable as reuters reporting it yet. If true, that is a particularly sinister escalation.

[tabascoboy]

In the latest dildo of consequence episode it turns out

The government has evidence of trump's crimes.

People aren't allowed to see that evidence because it could influence a jury if he were to be charged.

Trump asked the Supreme Court to say he is totally immune from prosecution for crimes relating to that evidence.

They did (basically), and as a result, the government can no longer say that evidence must remain private, because it can't be used against trump in court.

Basically, to keep the information private, trump has to argue he isn't immune from prosecution.

[tabascoboy]

In the latest dildo of consequence episode it turns out

The government has evidence of trump's crimes.

People aren't allowed to see that evidence because it could influence a jury if he were to be charged.

Trump asked the Supreme Court to say he is totally immune from prosecution for crimes relating to that evidence.

They did (basically), and as a result, the government can no longer say that evidence must remain private, because it can't be used against trump in court.

Basically, to keep the information private, trump has to argue he isn't immune from prosecution.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-suprem ... 09019.html

[Hal Jordan]

From an American acquaintance, in his travel plans.

"That said, not sure how much I want to be flying these days. We've gone from "The trains will run on time" 1930s fascism to "the planes will crash all the time" 2025 fascism."

[JM2K6]

The carnage in New York regarding the Mayor's case with DOJ people resigning rather than following illegal orders to ditch it is something. Half of them are Trump appointees!

Meanwhile RFK is as nuts as you'd expect

[Biffer]

USAID's closure means there's half a billion dollars of food aid in limbo. It'll go bad soon.

A whistleblower told the press. Trump fired them.

But it's fine, because this is what they were elected to do. Right?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 96917.html

[Sinkers]

On the health thing: CDC prohibited from giving updates on the avian flu thing.
Associations like AMA stepping in to do so.

[Sinkers]

I now have an American neighbor. Chatting to him a couple of weeks ago I’d say that he’s the type that would have voted RFK jnr if he’d staid in the race.

A couple of noticeable comments:

We needed a change because:
- the dems are so corrupt, look at how Biden pardoned his family.
- we’re in too many wars and Trump will get us out.

It’s like they don’t follow actual news but will believe any conspiracy theory.
Will be interested to catch up with him in a couple of weeks and see what his thoughts are now.

[Raggs]

I now have an American neighbor. Chatting to him a couple of weeks ago I’d say that he’s the type that would have voted RFK jnr if he’d staid in the race.

A couple of noticeable comments:

We needed a change because:
- the dems are so corrupt, look at how Biden pardoned his family.
- we’re in too many wars and Trump will get us out.

It’s like they don’t follow actual news but will believe any conspiracy theory.
Will be interested to catch up with him in a couple of weeks and see what his thoughts are now.

Looking at what's going on, I think Biden is feeling fully justified in his decision to hand out pardons.

[Kiwias]

USAID's closure means there's half a billion dollars of food aid in limbo. It'll go bad soon.

A whistleblower told the press. Trump fired them.

But it's fine, because this is what they were elected to do. Right?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 96917.html

Is it true that the freeze on payments by USAID means that the domestic producers of that food do not get paid?

[Slick]

USAID's closure means there's half a billion dollars of food aid in limbo. It'll go bad soon.

A whistleblower told the press. Trump fired them.

But it's fine, because this is what they were elected to do. Right?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 96917.html

It would be good if we could get some reports of what various groups that voted for Trump actually are thinking. I'd imagine that there is a pretty hefty proportion that are absolutely delighted with whats going on, but what are the Muslim block thinking, what about Federal employees that voted for him and are now losing their jobs, or factory owners or farmers that are seeing their costs rise.

[Guy Smiley]

USAID's closure means there's half a billion dollars of food aid in limbo. It'll go bad soon.

A whistleblower told the press. Trump fired them.

But it's fine, because this is what they were elected to do. Right?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 96917.html

It would be good if we could get some reports of what various groups that voted for Trump actually are thinking. I'd imagine that there is a pretty hefty proportion that are absolutely delighted with whats going on, but what are the Muslim block thinking, what about Federal employees that voted for him and are now losing their jobs, or factory owners or farmers that are seeing their costs rise.

I watched a clip yesterday of some Florida / Texan lady complaining about how, after voting Republican their whole lives and for Trump three times now, she and her husband were watching their farming business fold because all of their employees were too scared to come to work due to all the raids being carried out...

it's too easy to stage these types of clips of course, but the theme is close enough to the mark to carry.

The pain being exacted by their policies won't bother the administration at all though. The long game is the demolition of order, the creation of chaos and the profits to be made as a result.

[Sandstorm]

I watched a clip yesterday of some Florida / Texan lady complaining about how, after voting Republican their whole lives and for Trump three times now, she and her husband were watching their farming business fold because all of their employees were too scared to come to work due to all the raids being carried out...

On noes. They've hired cheap, immigrant workers for generations....but when the party they vote for clamps down on it, they lose their farm. Tough shit.

Saw dozens of surprised Brexit farmers crying into their wellies too.

[sockwithaticket]

USAID's closure means there's half a billion dollars of food aid in limbo. It'll go bad soon.

A whistleblower told the press. Trump fired them.

But it's fine, because this is what they were elected to do. Right?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 96917.html

It would be good if we could get some reports of what various groups that voted for Trump actually are thinking. I'd imagine that there is a pretty hefty proportion that are absolutely delighted with whats going on, but what are the Muslim block thinking, what about Federal employees that voted for him and are now losing their jobs, or factory owners or farmers that are seeing their costs rise.

It's by no means scientific, but the sub-reddit Leopard's Ate My Face is filling up with social media posts from Trumpers who are apparently gobsmacked that he's enacting the policies he campaigned on.

Some of those the posts are definitely from Muslim Americans, they seem to fall into two camps. Those who abstained from voting for the Dems because they viewed the stance on Palestine as overriding everything else and those who, for reasons only they'll know, thought Trump would change the US stance for the better. The former seem to be flailing around wanting the Democrats to intervene substantively while the Republicans hold all three branches of government, further displaying their complete lack of understanding as to how politics works.

There's also been plenty from Latinos For Trump type groups who seemed to think they weren't the ones being talked about, when Trump banged on and on about mass deportations and ending birth right citizenship.

[Paddington Bear]

Something else DOGEwont query - State Department set to order $400 million order for trucks from Tesla.

https://www.npr.org/2025/02/13/g-s1-485 ... red-teslas

This is out and out corruption.

Oh, sorry, I’m just a lefty whiner, they were elected and are allowed to do this. Right PB?

Your creation of a strawman that I never said and continued posts on it un-responded to for a week suggest that ‘whiner’ might prove to be a challenging accusation to beat

[Yeeb]

USAID's closure means there's half a billion dollars of food aid in limbo. It'll go bad soon.

A whistleblower told the press. Trump fired them.

But it's fine, because this is what they were elected to do. Right?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 96917.html

It would be good if we could get some reports of what various groups that voted for Trump actually are thinking. I'd imagine that there is a pretty hefty proportion that are absolutely delighted with whats going on, but what are the Muslim block thinking, what about Federal employees that voted for him and are now losing their jobs, or factory owners or farmers that are seeing their costs rise.

It's by no means scientific, but the sub-reddit Leopard's Ate My Face is filling up with social media posts from Trumpers who are apparently gobsmacked that he's enacting the policies he campaigned on.

Some of those the posts are definitely from Muslim Americans, they seem to fall into two camps. Those who abstained from voting for the Dems because they viewed the stance on Palestine as overriding everything else and those who, for reasons only they'll know, thought Trump would change the US stance for the better. The former seem to be flailing around wanting the Democrats to intervene substantively while the Republicans hold all three branches of government, further displaying their complete lack of understanding as to how politics works.

There's also been plenty from Latinos For Trump type groups who seemed to think they weren't the ones being talked about, when Trump banged on and on about mass deportations and ending birth right citizenship.

Politicians actually doing the policies they said they would is quite a rare phenomenon though . A quick google seems to show Trump approval ratings still pretty high, but with a drop in young voters approval of 11% in 2 weeks.

[dpedin]

It would be good if we could get some reports of what various groups that voted for Trump actually are thinking. I'd imagine that there is a pretty hefty proportion that are absolutely delighted with whats going on, but what are the Muslim block thinking, what about Federal employees that voted for him and are now losing their jobs, or factory owners or farmers that are seeing their costs rise.

It's by no means scientific, but the sub-reddit Leopard's Ate My Face is filling up with social media posts from Trumpers who are apparently gobsmacked that he's enacting the policies he campaigned on.

Some of those the posts are definitely from Muslim Americans, they seem to fall into two camps. Those who abstained from voting for the Dems because they viewed the stance on Palestine as overriding everything else and those who, for reasons only they'll know, thought Trump would change the US stance for the better. The former seem to be flailing around wanting the Democrats to intervene substantively while the Republicans hold all three branches of government, further displaying their complete lack of understanding as to how politics works.

There's also been plenty from Latinos For Trump type groups who seemed to think they weren't the ones being talked about, when Trump banged on and on about mass deportations and ending birth right citizenship.

Politicians actually doing the policies they said they would is quite a rare phenomenon though . A quick google seems to show Trump approval ratings still pretty high, but with a drop in young voters approval of 11% in 2 weeks.

Just wait until the Medicaid and Medicare cuts filter through!

[tabascoboy]

This is America 2025

[Hal Jordan]

Not even pretending it's anything other than a straight white man's right to be in front of everyone else anymore.

What a cunt.

Meanwhile, DOGE investigates and intends to shut down a load of agencies that are, by a curious coincidence, investigating Elon Musk's companies.

<Claude Rains>

[tabascoboy]

Let's not forget after the Brexit vote there was a strong push for the UK to join NAFTA ( as it was named then). As Canada and Mexico have found, that would have worked out well...

Trump’s Latest Tariff Plan Threatens UK With £16 Billion Hit

Donald Trump’s latest plan to slap tariffs on US imports based on sales taxes in their country of origin could shave £16 billion ($20 billion) off UK economic output over the next two years, in what would be a blow to Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s promise to fire up growth.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... illion-hit

[Raggs]

Trump in not understanding what VAT is shock.

[TB63]

DOGE investigating overspend and corruption at the bargain price of 8 million a day..

Trump slags off electric vehicles in the forces as unusable.

Tesla picks up a 440 million contract to supply armoured Teslas to the military..

Yup, all good ..

[sockwithaticket]

The government Tesla procurement was dropped as soon as it came to light last I read.

Musk and his little goblins have shut down a department that protects consumers and has a budget of less than $1b also unilaterally taken away $80m dollars of Congress approved funds from a New York City bank account.

The DOGE website was left so unsecure that members of the general public have been able to access it without doing any proper hacking and have some fun with it.

Musk continues to have tantrums about judges pushing back on all the things he and his bitch pet in the Oval Office are doing that could generously be described as dubious in their legality.

[Firewater]

In the latest dildo of consequence episode it turns out

The government has evidence of trump's crimes.

People aren't allowed to see that evidence because it could influence a jury if he were to be charged.

Trump asked the Supreme Court to say he is totally immune from prosecution for crimes relating to that evidence.

They did (basically), and as a result, the government can no longer say that evidence must remain private, because it can't be used against trump in court.

Basically, to keep the information private, trump has to argue he isn't immune from prosecution.

Trump's crimes. The Democrats have had 8 years to find stuff. All of the states resources and money and yet nothing. Except for a non crime bookkeeping error.

I'm sure Trump and his team doing the same (as they will) will find lots. Look at the wealth the Democrats and the likes of Mitch, have accumulated on their small salaries. They are either the greatest investors ever. Or something else. Just start tracing the final recipients of USAID money etc. and make everything very public

The Democrats started it and found nothing. Now it the orange mans turn

[Raggs]

In the latest dildo of consequence episode it turns out

The government has evidence of trump's crimes.

People aren't allowed to see that evidence because it could influence a jury if he were to be charged.

Trump asked the Supreme Court to say he is totally immune from prosecution for crimes relating to that evidence.

They did (basically), and as a result, the government can no longer say that evidence must remain private, because it can't be used against trump in court.

Basically, to keep the information private, trump has to argue he isn't immune from prosecution.

Trump's crimes. The Democrats have had 8 years to find stuff. All of the states resources and money and yet nothing. Except for a non crime bookkeeping error.

I'm sure Trump and his team doing the same (as they will) will find lots. Look at the wealth the Democrats and the likes of Mitch, have accumulated on their small salaries. They are either the greatest investors ever. Or something else. Just start tracing the final recipients of USAID money etc. and make everything very public

The Democrats started it and found nothing. Now it the orange mans turn

[Biffer]

Reports from Munich that the US delegation presented Zelenskyy with an agreement signing over 50% of Ukraine’s future mineral wealth to the US.

Zelensky politely declined.

[Sinkers]

In the latest dildo of consequence episode it turns out

Trump's crimes. The Democrats have had 8 years to find stuff. All of the states resources and money and yet nothing. Except for a non crime bookkeeping error.

I'm sure Trump and his team doing the same (as they will) will find lots. Look at the wealth the Democrats and the likes of Mitch, have accumulated on their small salaries. They are either the greatest investors ever. Or something else. Just start tracing the final recipients of USAID money etc. and make everything very public

The Democrats started it and found nothing. Now it the orange mans turn

As per my earlier post re people that don’t seem to follow the actual news but will believe every conspiracy theory.

[TB63]

Firewater meet Convoluted, Convoluted, meet Firewater, I'm sure you two will get on well...

[Gumboot]

Firewater meet Convoluted, Convoluted, meet Firewater, I'm sure you two will get on well...

My thoughts exactly.

[Kiwias]

Firewater meet Convoluted, Convoluted, meet Firewater, I'm sure you two will get on well...

[TB63]

I am incandescent with rage right now. I feel sick to the stomach. A US Vice President stood today on the soil of where so many Americans gave their lives to defeat fascism in Europe. He delivered a disgraceful speech that spat on their graves. Not that we should expect any different, given his boss skipped visiting the graves of fallen Americans in Europe for fear of getting his hair wet. The same man who called the same fallen heroes suckers and losers.

As a Brit that loves America and the American people, I am deeply disturbed at the insults delivered by a man who once described Donald Trump as an “idiot" and said he was "reprehensible." Privately, comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

How times have changed. Vance is now part of the most authoritarian administration in American history. An administration actively seeking to deny bodily autonomy to women. An administration pursuing the same mass deportation of immigrants that Europe witnessed in 1930s Germany. Vance is a man that his own president doesn’t even see as his successor.

He came to Europe to vomit his Christo-fascist bile on leaders from the UK and across Europe, in what appears to be a retribution tour designed to assert American power.

The U.S. are to my knowledge the only NATO country to have invoked Article 5 of the NATO charter after 9/11. We, his European allies, met that call with no questions asked. We sent thousands of soldiers to the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq to fight a war on the false premise of Donald Rumsfeld’s ‘known unknowns’. We did this despite millions of our own citizens protesting in the streets of our cities.

Our military stood shoulder to shoulder with his military and we, like many Americans, stood to salute our fallen young men and women returning home day after day. I have tears in my eyes as I write this, thinking of them and their loved ones. Our brave men and women willingly gave their all and far too many made the ultimate sacrifice in support of an American led war.

For the record, 6000 Ukrainian solders server alongside American soldiers in Iraq. This, despite Ukraine not being a member of NATO. In 1994 upon signing the Budapest Memorandum they gave up their nuclear weapons in return for security assurances from the US and the UK. These were then reneged upon in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea. They were told ‘An assurance is not a guarantee’.

Now, despite their friendship and their brave sacrifice on the battlefields of Ukraine, the President of the United States has decided to abandon them and hand a victory to an indicted war criminal, who illegally invaded the sovereign territory of a US ally. An ally who’s soldiers had previously lost their lives supporting America in its war on terror.

SHAME ON HIM. Shame on the man who dodged the draft and never served a day in defense of his nation. He is a coward and I would gladly call him that to his face. To all those Americans on social media currently posting vile insults to those who have always been there for America, I say, democracy is bigger than you, as you sit anonymously behind your phones posting poison.

America might have the most powerful army on the planet, but remember, that same army fled from Saigon after being handed their ass by a bunch of peasant rice farmers, armed with grenades made from discarded US coke cans. Ukraine have been to the Russian army what the Vietnamese were to you and we salute them.

You might want to throw Ukraine under the bus while stealing there mineral deposits, BUT EUROPE WILL NOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN. I know for sure that the UK will not abandon the Ukrainian people. Our aid to GDP contribution already exceeds that of the US as does Poland, Germany Finland and others.

The U.S. is no longer a reliable ally and if need be, we will stand with Ukraine without America.

As for your pathetic tariffs, do your worst. You will soon have no friends but thugs and autocrats, so I’m sure Wun Dum Fuc will be right at home.

[TB63]

Convoluted lives in a Third World Country according to his dear leader..

[Guy Smiley]

I read or viewed something somewhere today suggesting Zeleskyy is talking to the EU about a resources access deal that would see Ukraine offering a share of their untouched reserves in exchange for security deals...

and UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese came out last week in response to Donny's proposed land grab in Gaza ridiculing the illegality of it all and suggesting other nations give the US what it really wants... isolation.

The risk of that must be growing... alienating allies and trading partners with heavy tariffs while strutting about belligerently trying to bully everyone into doing the US's bidding must be leading other leaders to look for alternatives... and alliances will shift. Canada is leading the way with a proactive response and pursuit of trade deals, others will follow.

[Guy Smiley]

[Enzedder]

Firewater meet Convoluted, Convoluted, meet Firewater, I'm sure you two will get on well...

Not for long, I fear.

[TB63]

"There was a lot Trump didn't know"..No shit sheriff..

[Niegs]

Just saw this on the socials, learned it’s from a couple of weeks ago, but damn America missed out on this guy being a bigger leader for them than he currently is.

[Niegs]

I may have shivered a bit when he called for a ‘new act of Confederation’. That, and for this same reason, is how the separate provinces of British North America banded together in 1867. America had tried to invade 1812, harboured and maybe goaded rebellions in the 1830s, and Irish Americans invaded again after the Civil War in what was called the Fenian Raids, so we not only sought unity against threats from the south but also to strengthen east-west ties. Fighting against the notion of 'manifest destiny', words Trump has actually used recently!

There’s been a lot of talk the last few weeks about the trade and policy barriers that, while probably do some good to protect local interests, do prevent us from being more prosperous as a nation. The provincial premiers seem much more focused on working these kinks out. We send a lot of business south and it looks like Trump’s threats will actually make us stronger both by not giving so much away and building ties with other markets.

I have’t watched it yet, but saved a news clip I found analysing the potential of us joining the EU.




.... f'ing yes! I'm sure a lot of Europeans would love to come here and help take advantage of untapped potential (but also, it'd let me move over there and enjoy cycle culture, French rugby, buy a little chateau and be a gentleman farmer )