Potus ???

[Johnsond]

15 minutes ago, Big J said:

I swore that I would stay away from this thread......

My 2 cents on the situation now is that the US is unashamedly an oligarchy. And most of the people that voted for Trump couldn't give a toss. 

 

The US government now exists principally as a money making device for those that buy into the Maga ideology. Musk invested $250m to get Trump elected and made $70b as a result. All the tech bros are lining up behind him now too. When you have more money than you can every spend, the pursuit of power and influence must be the only way to pass the time.

 

You've got Pam Bondi nominated as the Attorney General, having previously been a lobbyist for private prison companies. 

 

Pete Hegseth, a weekend Fox news anchor, serial sex abuser and drunk is now running the world's largest military with three million employees and a budget of nearly a trillion dollars.

 

Tulsi Gabbard, a recognised security risk, Al Assad sympathiser and Russophile is nominated as director of National Intelligence.

 

Kash Pattel, someone who has expressed in categorical terms a desire to use law enforcement agencies to enact retribution on Trump's polical adversaries, is nominated as FBI director.

 

RFK Jr as HHS Sec, despite being a vaccine efficacy denier and with a whole host of crazy ideas about health.

 

The list goes on.

 

Trump's withdrawel from the Paris climate accords is a financial own goal. The US is already lagging badly behind China in terms of green technology and the estimated trillion they'll save by pulling out would be dwarfed by the estimated 10 trillion they'd make by being at the forefront of the green energy wave.

 

Project 2025 is in full force. Tens of thousands of experienced civil servants are being removed and being replaced by sychophants whose primary qualification is fealty to Trump.

 

The anti-immigration rhetoric is an economic own goal. Even Musk acknowledges this. 

 

I agree that DEI has gone a little too far, but equally, the Trump reaction to it is a massive over reaction. As an avid cyclist, I don't want to see biologically male athletes in women's sport, but I also acknowledge that gender is a touch more complicated than what you're born as.

 

Trump has rowed back on so many of his campaign trail promises:

 

* he'll stop the war in Ukraine in 24hrs. Well it turns out it's a bit more complicated than that. Wouldn't want to piss off Putin either, now would he? 

* inflation - the price of eggs is now higher than ever

* end birthright citizenship - clearly unconstitutional and has already been ruled as such.

 

Also, consider how in the intervening time between reelection and taking office that Trump launched a digital currency for his own personal enrichment. Effectively taking advantage of the office of POTUS to make money. It's ethically deeply questionable. 

 

And then the release of the Jan 6 rioters. In the weeks prior to the pardons, Vance stated that violent offenders obviously wouldn't be released. Then Trump let them all out. White supremecists and people that brutally assaulted police officers, some of whom have since taken their own lives. It's mortifying.

 

Greenland, Canada and Panama - what the actual f**k?

 

I believe that we are witnessing the beginning of a sharp deterioration in the morality of western society, but with the US being the focal point for the time being. 

I also believe that sadly, the memory of WW2 is so distant now, present only in a few thousand very elderly people, that the sacrifices of those that fought for a generally peaceful and prosperous world order are being forgotten. History is doomed to repeat itself, and every period of peace is sadly followed by something far more unstable.

 

As a side note, please try to keep the debate and discussion on this thread civil. If everyone avoids personal insults, it's far easier to have a productive conversation. I'm 90% a left winger, but it's not to say that there aren't arguments outside of my normal political orbit that don't resonate with me. So please, keep it civil - imagine you were having the conversation face to face rather than furiously bashing a laptop keyboard

Face to face would be so much better J, you certainly made up for your absence with that post. 

Edited January 27 by Johnsond

[Welshfred]

1 hour ago, Big J said:

price of eggs

 

That'll be down to avian flu. Think RFK can handle that? 

[peds]

34 minutes ago, Welshfred said:

 

That'll be down to avian flu. Think RFK can handle that? 

 

Shhhhh! Don't mention bird flu!

 

That's not my input. That's official government policy. Just don't talk about it, and it'll probably go away.

[GarethM]

1 minute ago, peds said:

 

Shhhhh! Don't mention bird flu!

 

That's not my input. That's official government policy. Just don't talk about it, and it'll probably go away.

Egg price went up by £2 a tray since COVID only because wheat price 2 years ago.

 

But unsurprisingly the eggs price hasn't come down, and yes I buy a full tray every 2 weeks from the butchers.

[Mark J]

Avian flu could be a big problem. 

 

Lack of eggs is a problem, my mate can't get his Creon medicine, for pancreatic cancer, due to the egg shortage. 

 

 

Edited January 27 by Mark J

[peds]

4 minutes ago, Mark J said:

Avian flu could be a big problem. 

 

Lack of eggs is a problem, my mate can't get his Creon medicine, for pancreatic cancer, due to the egg shortage. 

 

I recommend growing them at home, I'm taking half a dozen to my customer tomorrow because I have too many.

Not sure how I'd turn them into Creon medicine to be honest, but at least if we cover some of the culinary side of production, that'll leave more for medical purposes.

Any more knowledge on the subject? 

[GarethM]

1 minute ago, peds said:

 

I recommend growing them at home, I'm taking half a dozen to my customer tomorrow because I have too many.

Not sure how I'd turn them into Creon medicine to be honest, but at least if we cover some of the culinary side of production, that'll leave more for medical purposes.

Any more knowledge on the subject? 

Me thinks it might be a bit more involved that making moonshine in your potting shed.

[sime42]

9 hours ago, Stere said:

 

MAGA caps may as well have skulls on them

 

The rightwing are obessed with ladyboys etc......

 

 

I think its a topic with  100's of others of more importance, though I can see it might be impotant if you are LGBT etc & as now they are gonna be  very likely, increasingly  persecuted.

 

 

& then whos next.....

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

 

Well worth reminding the MAGA, especially on this of all days.

 

I imagine that if LGBT people were around in such numbers at that time they would definitely have been on the list. Before or after gay folk or Roma? Not sure. Probably green folk and "Climate Zealots" and Wokers wouldn't have stood a chance either.

 

It all started with "othering" of groups of people they didn't like/understand/envied/felt threatened by, etc. Subtle othering at first and then less and less subtle. Just like we're seeing again these days. I think we do actually need to be very careful at this juncture, people need to wake up to what's going on in the Western World.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Johnsond]

16 minutes ago, sime42 said:

 

Well worth reminding the MAGA, especially on this of all days.

 

I imagine that if LGBT people were around in such numbers at that time they would definitely have been on the list. Before or after gay folk or Roma? Not sure. Probably green folk and "Climate Zealots" and Wokers wouldn't have stood a chance either.

 

It all started with "othering" of groups of people they didn't like/understand/envied/felt threatened by, etc. Subtle othering at first and then less and less subtle. Just like we're seeing again these days. I think we do actually need to be very careful at this juncture, people need to wake up to what's going on in the Western World.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

100% 42, 

Next they will be enforcing restrictions on public gatherings, shutting pubs and places where people gather to socialise. Keeping families apart. Stopping people travelling, restricting kids education, state sponsored propaganda encouraging the use of experimental  vaccination in the name of restoration of personal freedoms. Silencing those whom disagree with the state line. Utilising the full weight and power of the state to enforce draconian measures in the name of “ public safety” 

Yep you have to be aware of what’s going on around you  as you say, strange you have just mentioned it since Trump won 👍

[Steven P]

2 hours ago, Big J said:

I believe that we are witnessing the beginning of a sharp deterioration in the morality of western society, but with the US being the focal point for the time being. 

 

as they say, when the US sneezes, the world wipes their noses. Which is what is worrying, and can be seen above in this thread how idolising The Rapist is blinding people to repeat of history.

 

I don't go down the Nazi / WW2 path often but on the anniversary of 80 years of Auschwitz it is a fitting lesson to look back at history and the rhetoric of the Nazi party.. to how it started.. divide and conquer... and how it ended.

 

Preventing that is a fight worth fighting. To me this stems from a basic respect that a person is a person regardless of race, colour, religious, sexuality wealth or birthright. No one is born better or worse than any other. We're just born. Hatred is a thing we learn, and is a thing we pass on to our children.

 

just a lesson to look to history to see our future.