President Trump

ChicagoBlue said:
Afar?

As a frequent visitor with all my remaining family in and around Manchester, plus consuming aLindy as much UK media as US, I’d like to think I can separate some of the wheat from the chaff.

Maybe, you just don’t know what real freedom feels like? For good or bad.
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Sorry, what freedom exactly is being suppressed in the UK ? Are you confusing us with Russia?
 
Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese said:
No, I don't agree with you. The far right is flourishing because of increasing wealth inequality and for the first time in the post ww2 world we in the west are facing the prospect of each successive generation being poorer than the last.
The mainstream/centrist parties in our countries seem unable to offer a solution to this so the far right offer simple solutions to these complex problems - solutions which I personally think won't work.
I agree that social media is a tool in this.
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If you think the perception of wealth inequality is the problem, then you agree with me precisely. The data hasn’t changed enough for you nor anyone else to be aware. I doubt thirty years ago many Americans could have named the nation’s ten richest people. Now I’d bet a much larger percentage can. Your perception of the existence of said inequality has changed, dramatically. And it’s more than wealth. It’s influence and popularity too.
 
Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese said:
I'm afraid that's democracy for you. The fact that the opposition didn't manage to defeat the candidate you describe isn't a good look for them.
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It's primarily because a significant majority of trump voters voted for him purely because he said he was going to bring prices down, and they believed him. What's fucked is that they're going to find out pretty damn quickly that they've been completely conned, and they've allowed this man into a position where he can destroy a lot of the institutions they love, and prices are going to soar. And there's not much they can do. (that isn't to invalidate your point btw, the opposition were shite and did nothing to counter the con).
 
FogBlueInSanFran said:
If you think the perception of wealth inequality is the problem, then you agree with me precisely. The data hasn’t changed enough for you nor anyone else to be aware. I doubt thirty years ago many Americans could have named the nation’s ten richest people. Now I’d bet a much larger percentage can. Your perception of the existence of said inequality has changed, dramatically. And it’s more than wealth. It’s influence and popularity too.
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Yes, true re the notoriety of the super rich. I think future generations are looking at a much bleaker picture than ourselves and our parents in terms of home ownership, retirement and health care etc. This makes it easier for the far right to hijack social media and blame these issues on immigrants, overseas aid etc.
 
Vic said:
I'm not sure whether you're just wildly optimistic, or you had the koolaid rather than the fish on your last flight.

On that Sao Paulo flight, did you announce to the cabin that you were flying over the Gulf of Mexico?
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Haha! Positive mental attitude.

Good memory!

In all honesty, even though it would be easy to lie, I did not, because we were delayed by almost 3 hrs, didn’t leave until around midnight, had to climb out through weather and bumps, and I had no desire to wake anyone who had (thankfully) fallen asleep!

I do the same flight next week! I’ll try to remember to say it then if everything goes to plan. I’m sure all those Texans will LOVE it!!

(P.S. The delay was not the weather, which was just offshore in the Gulf of Mexico! One of the aircraft’s many batteries, in this case the one that provides emergency back up power for the flight control system, needed replacing and took 7 hrs to charge to the prescribed voltage!)
 
Mazzarelli's Swiss Cheese said:
Yes, true re the notoriety of the super rich. I think future generations are looking at a much bleaker picture than ourselves and our parents in terms of home ownership, retirement and health care etc. This makes it easier for the far right to hijack social media and blame these issues on immigrants, overseas aid etc.
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This one is tougher to parse but I think that's more a nagging long-term fear than an immediately-exploitable one, at least in America. That said, the house-affordability problem is definitely a significant one, though in a nation like this, there are lots of affordable places to move if one has the will and the job opportunity. That doesn't make it nice or easy though, for sure.
 
bluethrunthru said:
But its not fascism

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This may be a bit misleadingly cut, but it seems to refer to this:

www.whitehouse.gov

Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Reins in Independent Agencies to Restore a Government that Answers to the American People

RESTORING DEMOCRACY AND ACCOUNTABILITY IN GOVERNMENT: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order ensuring that all federal agencies are
www.whitehouse.gov

  • The President and the Attorney General (subject to the President’s supervision and control) will interpret the law for the executive branch, instead of having separate agencies adopt conflicting interpretations
Someone will have to tell me what that all means.
*
Separately, they've also pointed out that Musk isn't administrator of Doge, or even an employee of Doge. They seem quite unwilling to say who is in charge...
 
Mr Kobayashi said:
We've gone from maybe we shouldn't have complete freespeech to no democracy
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What do you mean “no democracy”? They vote in Russia, don’t they? Free speech, though? Not so much.

Mr Kobayashi said:
Your bullshit freespech means you don't have a democracy. Because the bullshit spread by their propaganda has infected the minds of your countryman. Voting for a mad rapist over the price of fucking eggs.
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I readily agree that my yard signs and one vote in Illinois did nothing to gain Harris the presidency, only the Electoral College votes of IL, and that a propagandist helped elect someone else. Got it! Now what? Remove free speech? Did I mention that I don’t want to wear that diaper?!

And, until only us “smart folk” get to vote, I’m going to have to live with the fact that dumb Americans exist in great numbers and they must outnumber us smart folk!

Is that what happened with Brexit?

Mr Kobayashi said:
If Farage becomes PM in 2029 I'm on the first flight out.
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Which bastion of democracy are you going to flee to?

Mr Kobayashi said:
You've got two mental nonces running the government and one of them is unelected and snooping around in social security data.
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Can you say “nonce” in England?

I share your concern about Musk & bros harvesting SS data. Is it illegal? U.S. Federal Judge says “Not without showing harm.” Foggy is probably right that “harm” is a “too late yardstick!”

Mr Kobayashi said:
And your (sic) still ranting about freedom whilst The house you live is on fire.
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To continue your tortured analogy, my house is fine, thank you, but the country is smoldering.

Change is never comfortable and all this change, all at once, is even less comfortable than normal. I see it, I feel it, and I’m ready to speak out against it (and have!), but I’m amazed at the personal lengths non-Americans go to tell Americans how stupid they are, how they’re bat shit, gun nut crazy, and yet seem to LOVE American culture, consumer goods, and military protection, amongst other things.

Now, I’m playing some Devil’s advocate there, because every now and then you seem to pluck me from the “smart folk” crowd and lump me in with the “bat shit crazy gun nuts who elect nonces who pick unelected nonces to rifle through their protected government data,” but I ain’t that guy and I don’t appreciate that tone. After all, I don’t tell you how dumb you were to elect Conservatives for 14 yrs of dumbfuckery and wasting of Britain’s last vestiges of prestige in the world. Nor did I laugh when you chose the “We’re still great and we’re going to go it alone…Fuck Europe!” But, hey, that’s democracy in action…love it or loathe it!

Mr Kobayashi said:
The only hope of you having a country in one piece in 4 years time is if they start fighting between themselves and don't get any work done.
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Don’t get ahead of yourself, Nostradamus!

I know you’re on a roll and feeling your oats (pun intended), but sometimes your opinions, righteous as you believe them to be, might be taken as derogatory, a personal affront, or even elitism in an ironic kind of way.

I realize the British Empire has long since died, and as glorious as the American Empire may have been in the 20th century, it’s not been quite so grand in the 21st, but when you’re on your knees punching up, you’d best be aware that others might feel inclined to punch down every now and then at the ankle biters.

Now, what was it you were saying about me, Trump and Americans?
 
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MillionMilesAway said:
Newsnight are interviewing some Trump-aligned think tank chair Carla Sands (clearly a multimillionaire). Oh my.

"The UK has more people in prison for what they believe than Russia has".
Darbyshire laughed at her.

My goodness, she's not just swallowed the KoolAid, she is the KoolAid.
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Whoosh!

Maybe she missed the word “put” or simply truncated the sentence, but pedantry when it comes to serious communication often says more about the hearer (who isn’t listening) than the speaker.

And I don’t even think it’s a serious metric for anything, except it’s an easy “no, you are, not me!” retort!
 
ChicagoBlue said:
Whoosh!

Maybe she missed the word “put” or simply truncated the sentence, but pedantry when it comes to serious communication often says more about the hearer (who isn’t listening) than the speaker.

And I don’t even think it’s a serious metric for anything, except it’s an easy “no, you are, not me!” retort!
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eh, what? I don't understand your point, sorry.
 
MillionMilesAway said:
eh, what? I don't understand your point, sorry.
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“More people in jail in the uk for saying things online than there are people in Russia.”

If you simply read it as “The UK has put more people in jail for saying things online than Russia has (put in jail for the same thing),” it is much more meaningful.

Whether true or not, I have absolutely no idea, but I definitely think that is what she meant.

In our collective zeal to collect “bat shit crazy American Trump lover” trophies, we may be getting a little too giddy over a missing word or mistaken sentiment.

Don’t worry, though, they’ll be another bat shit crazy American Trump lover coming along shortly…we keep millions of spares handy!
 
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