Trump: Impeach is the new Orange

[eny]

https://ethics.house.gov/wp-content/upl ... Report.pdf

[Wrathbone]

Noncegaetz.

[Hatredsheart]

Blimey, no wonder he didn't want it to be released.

[eny]

Federal Mandated U.S. flag code stipulates flags must remain lowered for 30 days after the death of a former president, how apt that twunt's inauguration and fake oath will have half-mast flags.

[Hatredsheart]

https://bsky.app/profile/ronfilipkowski ... pbxk5epk2x

[eny]

[Raid]

Wasn't sure whether to put this in the UK or US politics thread.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70ep8lp4jjo

Yeeees, yeees, eat each other you right-wing fuckwits. Realise that not bending the knee to Elon gets you immediately blacklisted and that he's an incredibly dangerous person to be involved in politics of any country.

[eny]

That fucker Musk is finally showing his true fascist colours, pleased for his eventual downfall. Drunk on what money may bring him, even MAGA has backlashed against him somewhat...whether that stops his and thiel's accelerationism is another matter.

[Animalmother]

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gzn48jwz2o
I wonder who put that idea in his head because he certainly couldn't have come up with it himself? Also the bit about the US/Canada border being an imaginary line is bizarre.

[Raid]

Sure he could have. My understanding of the inner workings of Donald Trump are that everything, everything is transactional, and he has no concept of ethics, and something in that article that I didn't know about has put the pieces in order for me and I think I get it now. So, how does this all work in his little brain?

Well, the US military is one of the most expensive elements of the US budget, yet there's no return on investment with it. Deterrent doesn't factor into it - people don't attack America because America's the biggest and best. As Commander-in-Chief, he has all of these fabulously advanced and expensive weapons at his disposal, and they're just sitting there not killing anything. So that's a useful, valid tool to achieve his goals. Let's face it, I think only China or the combined efforts of NATO stand a chance of effectively fighting the US; Europe has too many economic problems to consider that massive an engagement, and China can't project their military power in the same way as they only have two aircraft carriers (America has 11 with a 12th due to enter service this year). If Donald Trump declares war on anywhere but mainland Europe or China, he'll win.

China is not going to co-operate with him. If he does put these tariffs he's saying he'll do on Day 1, China immediately looks at suspending any transfer of their enormous high-value natural resources to US companies, or at least adds their own tariffs that will increase the cost. America now needs to secure access to precious metals, and that's the bit I wasn't aware of; Greenland has them. He now has two reasons to own Greenland - it's an important strategic location, and it has resources that he can mine and not worry about the environmental issues with doing that, because it's not happening in America.

Some of the language he's using around Panama suggests that he just doesn't understand how it works, but it still just boils down to Panama Canal transit costs are an economic burden on US companies; let's seize it and remove that outlay and make his CEO friends lots of money as those savings may not be passed on to the consumer (I think that's questionable as the tariffs are going to reduce demand for a lot of goods because the prices will go up, it's possible that some savings will *have* to be passed on to consumers to keep prices relatively stable and demand high).

Basically, I think Trump wants an economic empire. He has no interest in history and doesn't understand the sheer hypocrisy of this when you consider the American psyche's reliance on their founding being the result of breaking free from an evil empire. Nor does he understand that every single part of his personal business empire has failed because he's a bloody awful businessman, and the only bits that didn't are the result of him not paying for anything.

[eny]

The thieliverse wants to set up a a bit-coin, internet-native, networked sovereign city there, a proto-Mars society...Praxisnation.


https://techcrunch.com/2024/11/15/i-wen ... -on-earth/


Also:


https://www.mining.com/greenland-bans-u ... s-project/


Nuke tech for Mars...needs resources...hence China and Russia are Muskie's best friends...


https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/ar ... e4tXyUlbTo

[Wrathbone]

Basically, I think Trump wants an economic empire. He has no interest in history and doesn't understand the sheer hypocrisy of this when you consider the American psyche's reliance on their founding being the result of breaking free from an evil empire. Nor does he understand that every single part of his personal business empire has failed because he's a bloody awful businessman, and the only bits that didn't are the result of him not paying for anything.

The most chilling part of all this is that he no longer has many (or any?) voices of something resembling reason surrounding him in office. Last time he started by appointing, mostly, actual politicians and people who knew how the world works, how to run a government. One by one they all told him no for various things, and that’s the only ‘lesson’ he appears to have learned - if you want to bypass all common sense and sanity checks, surround yourself with sycophants and people whose only motivation is how much they’ll profit from being at the table. As stupid as it sounds, who among them is going to say “No, sir, you can’t declare war on Denmark to steal Greenland”?

I wish I could hibernate for 4 years.

[Raid]

The thieliverse wants to set up a a bit-coin, internet-native, networked sovereign city there, a proto-Mars society...Praxisnation.

The nerd in me can't help pointing out that Praxis was a a Klingon moon in Star Trek 6. The setup for the film is that over-mining causes the entire moon to explode, and throws the Klingon Empire into economic chaos. It feels appropriate.

[eny]

What worries me is that there is a wave effect where parasitism is realising "who is going to stop us?" Laws are nothing if they aren't enforced, no sanction = permission = escalation. Mediaeval 2.0 is in full swing, hello serfdom and feudal reign.

[Wrathbone]

What worries me is that there is a wave effect where parasitism is realising "who is going to stop us?"

Well, in the unlikely event that it comes to Trump actually poising troops to take Greenland (or Panama, or Canada), I'd hope that the rest of NATO would collectively respond and point out that they would be obliged to intervene to defend Denmark (or Canada - not so much Panama, I guess). And while the rest of NATO by itself probably couldn't take the US in a straight up war, it could lead to enough infighting to trigger another US civil war, and China would inevitably seize their opportunity during the chaos. So that would stop them, and I sincerely hope even Trump and his cronies aren't dumb enough to not realise that.