... over 'national security concerns'. Gee, it's almost like Putin claiming Russia needs to acquire Ukraine on the same pretext. Who knew Trump was such a brilliant parodist? Of course, he might be serious, or he might just be trolling. Let this take you wherever your paranoia and hatred of the US leads. By now, we know Putin isn't just trolling us.
Хлопнут без некролога. -- Серге́й Па́влович Королёв
Translation by Elbert Hubbard: Do not take life too seriously. You're not going to get out of it alive.
It's a rerun of Trump's last presidency. He was coming out with equally deranged stuff then (mainly on Twitter) and I remember one early comment being "Does he realise he's president of the USA?"
It's pointless trying to keep track of what he says, since most of it is gibbering insanity totally unhinged from reality. Like his last presidency, the utterances of the US government will be pretty much ignored outside the social media click-verse, zeroing out US diplomatic soft power. The only things of importance are what he actually does.
All critical alliances and non-guaranteed agreements with the USA will likely be put into hibernation pending a return to sanity (there's a huge case for making Five Eyes into Four Eyes for the next 4 years at least).
One brilliant move by our own Prime Minister though has been to make the Prince of Darkness the UK ambassador to the US.
None are so hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. - Goethe
Tortured_Genius wrote: ↑Jan 08, 2025 10:38 am
All critical alliances and non-guaranteed agreements with the USA will likely be put into hibernation pending a return to sanity (there's a huge case for making Five Eyes into Four Eyes for the next 4 years at least).
emphasis mine.
I've pondered that one as well, we've got a proper clown car of a government here though, I wouldn't trust them as far as I could kick them. Fucking unholy combination of tories, situational libertarians and nativists.
Lose it - it means go crazy, nuts, insane, bonzo, no longer in possession of one's faculties, three fries short of a happy meal, WACKO!! - Jack O'Neill
chango369 wrote: ↑Jan 08, 2025 8:11 pm
How does Lord Mandelson compare with Dame Karen Pierce?
Dame Karen Pierce is a diplomat (no doubt an excellent one) - but conventional diplomacy has gone out the window with Trump & co.
Mandelson is a superb political manipulator and spin doctor who won't get distracted by the crap being generated by the new administration. Thin skinned malignant narcissists like Trump and Musk are very open to being manipulated by someone with the appropriate Machiavellian mindset. It's not hard to join the dots.
None are so hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. - Goethe
"There are two ways to view the stars; as they really are, and as we might wish them to be." - Carl Sagan "If an argument lasts more than five minutes, both parties are wrong" unknown Self Taken Pictures of Wildlife
The US is gone. Permanently. You're not coming back from the next 4 years.
The effect it will have on all branches of US government and foreign relations. The supreme court is completely bought and paid for. The courts, the legislative, and the executive branch will be destroyed. The department of education will be abolished. Healthcare will be destroyed (being replaced by RFK Jr's worm-crankery) and anything that remains will be completely bent to serve a small cadre of billionaires.
The american empire is over. The neocons, evangelicals, and all the economic conservatives of their various stripes, ranging form the Coch brothers through the libertarians, created this situation with decades of conservative propaganda in radio and on cable TV.
Everyone I know, everyone, is saying we have to move away from being dependent on the US. The population is too dumb and their attention spans are too fleeting for another nation to be able to rely on a country that can so radically shift it's politics every 4 years. The isolationism is going to completely ruin the american economy.
Like that French politician said recently about relying on a country whose electoral system is at the whims of some dumbfucks in a relative small part of rural America.
Lose it - it means go crazy, nuts, insane, bonzo, no longer in possession of one's faculties, three fries short of a happy meal, WACKO!! - Jack O'Neill
Canada is prepared to accept the seceded states. California and New York will do.
Travel photos > https://500px.com/macdoc/galleries EO Wilson in On Human Nature wrote:
We are not compelled to believe in biological uniformity in order to affirm human freedom and dignity.