I already know that one of the biggest fears of Trump’s opponents is that a reality TV host and his rag-tag band of Fox News employees, children’s book authors, and private business men will do a better job than their over-educated bureaucrats and life-long politicians. — NOS4A2

Well, there's a myth that Caligula appointed his horse, Incitatus, to be a consul, because there were too many jackasses in the Roman senate. The reality is that he just said it likely to gain popularity. And I guess many Romans were happy with the thought. Not much has changed, I guess.



And actually you are wrong. If there are people that are accepted to be talented, they are then said to be "the adults in the room". Yep, you have people even in the second Trump administration that are called so. :wink:

Meanwhile, me waiting for a ssu prediction to come true: — NOS4A2

Lol. You will not see anything wrong with Kash Patel, never.

While much is made about America’s eventual descent into authoritarianism, fascism, or whatever, the UK is already there saving a seat. I’m curious why the anti-Trump crowd doesn’t seem to care, but if Trump makes a post on truth social it’s world news.

Retired police officer arrested over ‘thought crime’ tweet

Pensioner held after Palestinian march post on social media, with ‘Brexity’ books in his home scrutinised

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/10/retired-police-officer-arrested-over-thought-crime-tweet/?ICID=continue_without_subscribing_reg_first

But, make no mistake, this is not a thought-bubble - it’s been the trend of the Trump administration right from the beginning of his first term. — Wayfarer

Another shortcut, cost saving exercise to make the Trump Admin look effective to the disinterested.

A possibility

Meanwhile, me waiting for a ssu prediction to come true: — NOS4A2

Shows a lack of friends, being left to skeletonize on a park bench.

An alt interpretation......just kidding

smile

It's paywalled. The Telegraph is a conservative outlet. But I'm sure there are leftist threats to free speech. A few years back I looked into the cases of prosecution of preachers in Canada for preaching against same-sex relationships. But both the UK and Canada are parliamentary democracies, and they're light years from anything like the totalitarian tendencies showing up under Trump. These include the abuse of the justice system to take vengeance on perceived enemies, the invocation of emergencies to justify wartime powers, the disregarding of Congressional authority - there's a long list.

The incredible stupidity of Trump's "Liberation Day" finally is getting to be over as Trump blinked and lower tariffs with China.

As Bessent said in an interview today: "Neither side wants a decoupling of trade". Well, Trump think trade is bad, but anyway.

When nobody is limiting this moron's actions in the White House, then they are then limited by the markets and the real economy. Still, 10% tariffs and the 30% tariffs on Chinese goods do have some effect... not of an embargo, but still something. Can we still avoid the Trump recession? Let's hope we can do that.



And has ever corruption been so evident? With the Qatari gift of a luxury jet for Trump, never. And this was the person the Trumpists believed to root out corruption and "drain the swamp"! :lol:



After the presidency, the 400 million or so luxury jet goes to the Trump Presidential Library Association... not to be part of the US Presidential fleet.

Retired police officer arrested over ‘thought crime’ tweet

You parroting gutter press again. Won’t you ever learn.

And has ever corruption been so evident? With the Qatari gift of a luxury jet for Trump, never. And this was the person the Trumpists believed to root out corruption and "drain the swamp"! :lol:

After the presidency, the 400 million or so luxury jet goes to the Trump Presidential Library Association... not to be part of the US Presidential fleet. — ssu

:D I can picture him retiring to Sochi with a chuckle going "Fooled ya' all dumbasses".

Still, 10% tariffs and the 30% tariffs on Chinese goods do have some effect... not of an embargo, but still something. — ssu

It becomes just another tax now. Maybe that was the intent in the first place, but he hyped it up, to try and get some bonus effect.

When nobody is limiting this moron's actions in the White House, then they are then limited by the markets and the real economy. Still, 10% tariffs and the 30% tariffs on Chinese goods do have some effect... not of an embargo, but still something. Can we still avoid the Trump recession? Let's hope we can do that. — ssu

The effects of the April 2nd announcement still haven't materialized yet so we don't know how bad it will get. I don't think we're out of the woods yet though given the existing tariffs and more importantly the uncertainty. I feel like the 10% global tariffs may be here to stay because no matter how much Trump backtracks, they always seems to remain.

It becomes just another tax now. Maybe that was the intent in the first place, but he hyped it up, to try and get some bonus effect. — Metaphysician Undercover

Inciteful smile

:D I can picture him retiring to Sochi with a chuckle going "Fooled ya' all dumbasses". — jorndoe

Well, I think they are laughing about the many millions the family has made with the Trump and Melania coins and their pump and dump schemes:

A small group of crypto traders made nearly $100 million by buying Melania Trump’s memecoin minutes before it went public, research by the Financial Times has shown.

The first lady’s $MELANIA coin was unveiled on Jan. 19, the day before her husband was sworn in as president. It followed a similar move by Trump himself, who launched his own $TRUMP coin several days prior. But analysis shows that in the two and a half minutes between the currency going live and Melania officially unveiling it to the public on Truth Social, two dozen digital wallets purchased tokens worth $2.6 million. Following Melania’s announcement the price of the coins surged rapidly by over 5000 percent and most of the wallets that had purchased the cryptocurrency immediately sold off their holdings, with around 81 percent of traders selling the coin within 12 hours for massive profit.

One of the wallets, the Times reports, purchased $681,000 of $MELANIA 64 seconds before the announcement was made public. Within 24 hours, the same account sold the majority of their stock for $39 million when the surge was at its highest, before dumping the rest and making an additional $4.4 million over the next three days.

But Americans wanted these grifters to be in power. To drain the swamp, as they promised. Well, the house of Trump is draining money for itself, that's for sure.

It becomes just another tax now. Maybe that was the intent in the first place, but he hyped it up, to try and get some bonus effect. — Metaphysician Undercover

I agree. The 10% to 30% tariffs will just mean a little bit of inflation and acts as lifting the foot from the gas pedal for the economy. But the idea that will promote US manufacturing is delirious and an insane idea.

The effects of the April 2nd announcement still haven't materialized yet so we don't know how bad it will get. I don't think we're out of the woods yet though given the existing tariffs and more importantly the uncertainty. I feel like the 10% global tariffs may be here to stay because no matter how much Trump backtracks, they always seems to remain. — Mr Bee

The market desperately hopes that Trump backtracks allways and in the end makes deals that won't effect much. The long term impacts are different: they are huge and consequential. I think the dollar crisis that will end the current dollar reserve system and replace it with a likely multicurrency system has gotten years closer now.

That this crisis happens is sure, only the timing is not known. But when by all forecasts in the 2030 you would have all the US government income going into servicing the debt and mandatory programs, this course cannot prevail. How long it takes for the crisis to happen is unknown. Usually it takes far more years as people anticipate.

The anti-Trump brigade says Trump "blinked" on China (the use of the same word among a sect indicates a social contagion), and siding with The Party, cheering for their win, and reiterating their propaganda has become the norm. Except the stakes seem much higher for China.

China's vast factory sector was already bearing the brunt of the tariffs. "The International Monetary Fund, Goldman Sachs and UBS all recently revised down their economic growth forecasts for China over 2025 and into 2026, citing the impact of U.S. tariffs - none of them expect the economy to hit Beijing's official growth target."

Discerning the state of China's economy is increasingly difficult because of the disappearance of Chinese economic data over the last couple of years. The last of that data indicates that China was already dealing with some difficulties.







Given that this data is still missing, and the Politburo has little to brag about, one can assume that it hasn't gotten much better over there. Recent strikes and protests and factory closures further indicate that it hasn't. The pivot to selling goods on social media further indicates it hasn't. And a recent liquidity injection indicates an opponent on the ropes.

So Trump "blinked"?

, and ...

White House for Sale: How Princes, Prime Ministers, and Premiers Paid Off President Trump
^{— Jamie Raskin · Oversight Committee · Jan 4, 2024}

Thanks for that document.

To be sure, we know about only some of the payments that passed into former President Trump’s hands during just two years of his presidency from just 20 of the more than 190 nations in the world through just four of his more than 500 businesses. Despite the Constitution’s requirement that a president disclose foreign emoluments and seek Congress’s consent to keep them, it took Oversight Committee Democrats years of aggressive litigation against the former President to obtain the subset of documents from Mazars, Donald Trump’s accounting firm, that form the factual basis of this report. And then, in January 2023, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer made the abrupt and outrageous decision to release Mazars from having to continue complying with the Committee’s subpoena and court-supervised settlement agreement. Despite Chairman Comer’s decision to bury further evidence, however, even this small slice of a picture of unknown proportions allows America to glimpse the rampant illegality and corruption of the Trump presidency. It is true that $7.8 million is almost certainly only a fraction of Trump’s harvest of unlawful foreign state money, but this figure in itself is a scandal and a decisive spur to action.

No other president had ever come close before to trying a rip-off like this simply based on vacuuming up foreign government money, which was the cardinal presidential offense and betrayal in the eyes of the Founders—an offense and betrayal made all the more striking here by the offender’s repeated laughable proclamations of “America First!”

Later the legal system should also go after people like James Comer, all the Republican enablers of Trump. But a great document, have to read it all. It will be interesting to read the history books about Trump administration in the 2030's or 2040's.

Yet it's now laughable how the Trump crowd was against corruption and hated the Clinton's having a foundation and getting those speech fees etc. Especially the idea of American politicians getting money from the Arabs. But now... it's smart!

So Trump "blinked"? — NOS4A2

Just like with the Liberation Day tariffs against the World, indeed yes.

And anyway, it's Trump who started this and whom the Chinese can blame. If the two countries go after 90 days back to embargo mode, China can take it, just like Russia can the embargoes. Both aren't democracies. Both don't have an opposition that is telling what an absolute disaster their policies are (in case of Russia, that could be done easily). Both countries can convince their people that they are a target of an US lead attack. If you economy takes a hit for that, so be it.

It's the Americans who can get angry if they have severe stagflation or empty shells, because it's a consequence of White House policies.

Yet it's now laughable how the Trump crowd was against corruption and hated the Clinton's having a foundation and getting those speech fees etc. Especially the idea of American politicians getting money from the Arabs. But now... it's smart! — ssu

Because people are biased and the majority of people cannot think outside those biases they have. If someone on the other side does something that their own camp judges immoral, then they will pour all their hate towards that person. But if they later do the same thing, then they will not think it's immoral, even when faced with the fact that they've shown this hypocrisy. It's biased behavior 101.

People who are able to act, think and see past their own biases are rare, like, 1-2 % of the population rare. The world rests on people's biases being somewhat moral, by good people in the lead (or at least good enough), but all it takes is a slight corruption of their thinking by bad actors to influence their biased thinking into becoming supporters of murderous, hateful, racist and criminal behavior.

This is why people are shit. Not just leaders and corrupt politicians, but the people, embodying the banality of evil.

Stagflation, eh? Inflation hit the lowest levels in 4 years last month. Is that a consequence of Whitehouse policies?

Big, consequential stories last week that the anti-Trump refuse to mention. Trump brokered cease-fire in India/Pakistan. Last known American hostage in Gaza released. Trump brokered peace’s talks between Ukraine and Russia. Executive order to slash prices of prescription drugs. China trade agreement. Big trip to Middle East, championing peace and prosperity. He’s done more in a week than most presidents and leaders do in 4 years.

“Joe Biden's physical deterioration was so severe in 2023 and 2024 that advisers privately discussed the possibility he'd need to use a wheelchair if he won re-election, CNN's Jake Tapper and Axios' Alex Thompson write in their new book, "Original Sin," out May 20”.

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/13/biden-book-wheelchair-2024-campaign-original-sin

It’s pretty wild how Biden supporters were routinely lied to, and his health deterioration was covered up by the captured press for half of Biden’s presidency. The lies only fell apart just last June. Why did everyone believe it for so long?

More business in the Middle East confirmed.

-An agreement for Qatar Airways’ purchase of Boeing aircraft. Trump said the agreement is for more than 160 jets worth over $200bn.

- A range of defence agreements, including a letter of intent on defence cooperation and a letter of offer and acceptance for MQ-9B unmanned aerial vehicles.

- A joint declaration of cooperation between the two states.

https://www.aljazeera.com/amp/news/liveblog/2025/5/14/donald-trump-live-president-to-lift-syria-sanctions-heads-to-qatar-next

And I can’t wait to see the flying palace gifted to the United States from Qatar. The meltdowns and peace in the Middle East is worth it.

Meanwhile, what are Euro leaders doing?

Now is the time act, let’s see if Trump will act to prevent a genocide when he has been given full warning. If he fails to act, he will have blood on his hands.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-15/un-aid-chief-urges-security-council-to-prevent-genocide-in-gaza/105293790

China trade agreement. — NOS4A2

You cannot be serious. This is basically a cease-fire on tariffs (at very high levels of 30%/10%) for 90 days. Trade agreement my ass!

Executive order to slash prices of prescription drugs. — NOS4A2

I wonder how this will happen.

Stagflation, eh? Inflation hit the lowest levels in 4 years last month. Is that a consequence of Whitehouse policies? — NOS4A2

Yes, assuming if there would be the tariffs that Trump proposed on Liberation day. But wait, he just backtracks them every time, when the market gets restless.

And I can’t wait to see the flying palace gifted to the United States from Qatar. — NOS4A2

Of course, the new Griftforce 1 shows how cool corruption during this Trump era is. :lol:

So, recently Jeffrey Sachs gave this talk on an online talkshow in which he expressed what I thought to be a surprising amount of optimism and positivity about Trump's approach to foreign policy.

Sachs's points in summary:
- Trump pursues the right policy on Israel and Ukraine, namely peace.
- Trump's approach is effective.
- If successful, this could end 30 years of aggressive US(-Israeli) foreign policy, which would be historic.

Sachs is a person I regard as exceptionally well-informed and as having a moral character, so even though his take surprises me somewhat, I am forced to take it seriously.

Surely if Trump actually succeeds on either front, that would be nothing short of revolutionary. I used to be (and to a large degree still am) skeptical whether he will be, but there seems to be a glimmer of hope.

Any takes?

Sachs's points in summary:
- Trump pursues the right policy on Israel and Ukraine, namely peace.
- Trump's approach is effective.
- If successful, this could end 30 years of aggressive US(-Israeli) foreign policy, which would be historic.

What? If Trump want’s to stop these two wars all he has to do is freeze military aid to Isreal and threaten Putin with serious action on blocking oil and bank transactions and increasing military aid to Ukraine. He could end both wars in one day if he did that.

That's probably what Trump thought as he entered office, but evidently it isn't so simple. Not only does he have to take on the US establishment, but also members of his own administration who are part of said establishment.

With regards to the course of action you propose, I think it is foolhardy.

Russia has been hit by probably the most extensive sanctions package ever, and it achieved nothing. Furthermore, increasing military aid to Ukraine probably will have the contrary effect, confirming to the Russians that a military victory in Ukraine is the only way they can achieve their goals.

Freezing military aid to Israel is another hot potatoe, considering the massive influence of the Israel lobby and the ramifications it may have for those who support pressuring Israel. This is why not a single US administration has managed to put meaningful pressure on Israel since ... Well, since ever?

Seems to me that these...people, Trumpers, continue eroding the US.

Pam Bondi makes another claim on the Epstein files. Even Republicans are skeptical
^{— David Catanese · Miami Herald via Yahoo News · May 7, 2025}

Any time any political official cites "Deep State" (especially capitalized) as the cause for something, we all know they are spewing nonsense. We also all know that the people involved with Epstein weren't limited to on particularly political party. Perverts transcend politics. People on "both sides" of the political aisle are involved. — StevenF · May 8, 2025

Trump is criticizing Walmart, one of the largest (if not the largest) US retailer, for saying that tarriffs will cause prices to increase. He says they should 'eat the tarriffs', presumably meaning that they should take the percentage hit out of their gross margin, instead of raising prices.

Pardon me, but isn't 'The Republican Party' the party of business, of free enterprise, of free-wheeling capitalism? So how anti-business is it to demand that a business reduce its margins, lest it embarass the President? I mean, Trump already refuses to admit what tarriffs are - namely, a tax on imports - but demanding that businesses bleed profit so as to meet his political aims, is about as anti-business as it gets.

We can predict the Republican congress will say nothing, as usual.

Kind of amusing :D

Trump finally meets his match
^{— The Daily Show · May 16, 2025 · 1m}

Unprincipled? Hypocrisy? Unreliable?

Wait, what? I thought tariffs were paid by abusive countries. :joke:

There appears to be some headway. Who will pooh-pooh it first?