Trump / Musk (other than DOGE)

[nycfan]

Military needs to act soon and take this administration out or it will be too late. Don't wait for NATO pullout. Just do it. Set up a coalition bipartisan government to run things until the next election cycle.

Wait, which government are you advocating be overthrown? The U.S. government?

 

[superrific]

Military needs to act soon and take this administration out or it will be too late. Don't wait for NATO pullout. Just do it. Set up a coalition bipartisan government to run things until the next election cycle.

There's only one American who could function as an interim president. Barack Obama.

 

[JCTarheel82]

 

[HesNaughtHere]

Our entire political system and government has degenerated into a reality television show. And the people running the government have about the same level of intelligence, morals, and ethics of most reality tv show stars, so it fits. And far too many people are lapping it up because all they watch are reality tv shows, "pro" wrestling, and the like. And it will remain that way until the shit really hits the fan - say, an economic collapse or serious foreign policy crisis - in which case we're all screwed because the loons we have running the government won't have a clue as to what they should do to fix it. Imagine Trump 2.0 trying to manage something like the Cuban Missile Crisis or the 2008 near-economic implosion and you'll get the idea.

Or, ya know, a global pandemic

 

[nycfan]

It wouldn’t surprise me if Musk is using the kid as a shield, but I think there’s a reasonable chance he likes taking the kid around because he’s poorly behaved. Telling adults to shush their mouths and wiping boogers on museum worthy furniture is the kind of thing that most parents would profusely apologize for. Musk seems to use it as a passive aggressive FU to those he meets with.

Speaking of the boogers, is this related?:

 

[nycfan]

“… whose weak of mind and body …”

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

Wait, is he implying that chemtrails cause autism?

“… it’s the autism stat [… ramble …] if you go back 15 years ago we had, like, nobody, it was one in 20,000, now we have one in 34 … kids have autism … that’s unbelievable. So there’s something wrong, there’s something wrong uh we’ve done something wrong, that’s something you’re going to figure out [pointing at someone]. Maybe it’s a spray that we spray all over the place that nobody else does, other countries don’t uhhh the Pennsylvania Dutch, they don’t do anything and they’re amazingly healthy …”

 

[UNCatTech]

He’s without question the GOAT troll.

So: GTOAT?

 

[Bobfripp]

Wait, is he implying that chemtrails cause autism?

Or maybe he's saying white people of German stock are healthier?

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

“…
The Department of Energy spent this week trying to contain the fallout from its DOGE-directed firing and rehiring of a brace of nuclear safety officials by painting them as non-critical staff who “held primarily administrative and clerical roles.”

But this wasn’t close to true, current and recently retired NNSA employees tell The Bulwark. In fact, one of the officials who was locked out of his work accounts was Acting Chief of Defense Nuclear Safety James Todd, a senior executive official and the top authority for all nuclear-safety matters in the agency.

… At the agency’s Los Alamos field office alone, there was the site’s emergency preparedness manager, who is responsible for maintaining plans to minimize the effects of a nuclear accident on site and in surrounding areas. There was the radiation protection manager, responsible for minimizing radiation exposure to on-site workers. There was the security manager, the fire protection engineer, and two facility representatives, who are the office’s day-to-day eyes and ears on site manufacturing facilities.

Media reports have treated the firings as a deeply unwise DOGE hatchet job that was, thankfully, quickly reversed. And it’s true that earlier this week, nearly all the affected employees were notified that they were welcome back at their jobs. But at the Los Alamos nuclear facility and across NNSA, shell-shocked employees remain unsure whether or how soon the axe might fall again. Many, sources say, are now eyeing early retirement or thinking about finding other work. …”

 

[BlueSteel]

“… whose weak of mind and body …”

Totally presidential commentary here. Super comforting to know this guy is in charge.

 

[superrific]

Countries with highest autism rates:

1. UK
2. Sweden
3. Japan
4. US
5. Netherlands
6. Ireland
7. Brunei
8. Canada
9. Singapore
10. Andorra

Lowest autism rates:

1. North Korea
2. Taiwan
3. Cook Islands
4. Niue
5. Tunisia
6. Syria
7. Libya
8. Turkey
9. Morocco
10. Northern Mariana Islands.

There's something each of those lists of 10 have in common, but I just can't quite figure it out.

 

[altmin]

Elon Musk Rants Incoherently in Sunglasses While X Shadowbans His Pleading Baby Mama

The world's richest man wants you to know he's having a lot of fun.

gizmodo.com

Grimes—the mother of three of Musk’s children, including the one he carries around with him for photo ops—took to X to plead with him yesterday. “Plz respond about our child’s medical crisis,” she said in a post on X. “I am sorry to do this publicly but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation. This requires immediate attention.”


She went on at length in several posts. She was replying to something Musk had posted unrelated to her and said Musk had stopped replying to her texts, emails, and phone calls. Newly revealed Musk mother Ashley St. Clair went through something similar earlier this week. Both women tried, and failed, to get Musk’s attention by replying to him on the social media site he owns. The result was the apparent “shadowbanning” of Grimes on the platform.

Musk was pretty busy all day getting into fights with astronauts and constantly posting. Later in the day was his big interview at CPAC. That’s the kind of thing a billionaire needs to focus on. Besides, the medical emergencies of your biological children can be so boring. Musk just wants to have a little fun.

 

[Paine]

Elon Musk Rants Incoherently in Sunglasses While X Shadowbans His Pleading Baby Mama

The world's richest man wants you to know he's having a lot of fun.

gizmodo.com

Grimes—the mother of three of Musk’s children, including the one he carries around with him for photo ops—took to X to plead with him yesterday. “Plz respond about our child’s medical crisis,” she said in a post on X. “I am sorry to do this publicly but it is no longer acceptable to ignore this situation. This requires immediate attention.”


She went on at length in several posts. She was replying to something Musk had posted unrelated to her and said Musk had stopped replying to her texts, emails, and phone calls. Newly revealed Musk mother Ashley St. Clair went through something similar earlier this week. Both women tried, and failed, to get Musk’s attention by replying to him on the social media site he owns. The result was the apparent “shadowbanning” of Grimes on the platform.

Musk was pretty busy all day getting into fights with astronauts and constantly posting. Later in the day was his big interview at CPAC. That’s the kind of thing a billionaire needs to focus on. Besides, the medical emergencies of your biological children can be so boring. Musk just wants to have a little fun.

Dude has sunglasses on inside and is actively geeking on stage (in more ways than one). How can anyone take this freak seriously, let alone think he’s some kind of genius? Say it with me: wealth is not meritocratic.

 

[Mulberry Heel]

Or, ya know, a global pandemic

Most people didn't get covid in the first year of the pandemic, they were personally affected more by the mandatory shutdowns and their kids going to remote learning and having to wear masks in public, all of which they conveniently blamed on everyone but Trump. If they lose their jobs or Grandma or Grandpa lose their SS and their house and can't pay their bills because of all of these cuts we'll see what happens.

 

[4thgenheel]

Personally, I’m fine with Musk fathering a lot of US citizens. Imagine the average IQ of the bunch. Plus, he can afford ‘em.

 

[nycfan]

Requiem For The West​

Trump and Vance have put a stake in the heart of the free world.​

Requiem For The West

Trump and Vance have put a stake in the heart of the free world.

andrewsullivan.substack.com

"...It is a fascinating moment, isn’t it, when Reagan’s vision of the West is finally swept into the dustbin of history by a Republican president.

And that is the only solid conclusion one can make after this week of astonishing incompetence and madness. We only saw Donald Trump’s foreign policy darkly in his first term — constrained, as he was, by a handful of white-knuckled Republicans in the executive branch.

Now we see it face to face. It’s a vision where international law disappears, great powers divide up the planet into spheres of influence, and the strong always control the weak. It’s Trump’s vision of domestic politics as well. And of life.

Control, plunder, gloat. This is the Trump way.

...What he is doing is not about making a tough peace deal with Russia, recalibrating NATO, or protecting Ukraine’s democracy. He is merely setting the terms of a new alliance and relationship with the criminal Russian dictatorship — directed against the European democracies.

More TDS from yours truly? But what other conclusion can one draw when the president cuts the Ukrainians and their European allies out of the dealmaking, has already conceded Ukraine’s conquered territory before any talks, insists that Ukraine started the war, that Zelensky, and not Putin, is the dictator, and is demanding reparations in advance ... from Ukraine, not Russia! The reparations amount to a US claim on 50 percent of Ukraine's mineral deposits forever. It’s the equivalent of “We’re gonna take Iraq’s oil.” It’s a form of imperial pillage. But it’s vintage Trump.

And notice that this isn’t part of full negotiations with Russia. Trump wanted Zelensky to sign away half his country’s mineral rights to the US in perpetuity before he had asked anything of Putin. And he gave Zelensky three hours to read and sign it. Trump, of course, was incensed when Zelensky refused. This is how a Trump official described the mood: “We created a monster with Zelensky. And these Trump-deranged Europeans who won’t send troops are giving him terrible advice.”

Zelensky is a monster but Putin is our friend. ...

... Vance’s speech and Trump’s remarks make it clear that the US is no longer in alliance with Europe at all, but with Russia against Europe, and Europe’s liberal elites. The goal now is to replace those elites with Moscow-friendly governments, bent on repatriation of illegal migrants. Hence the stunning endorsement of the AfD by Elon Musk — the second most powerful man in the Trump administration.

After what the president and vice president have said this week, it’s fair to say, I think, that NATO is effectively over. No one can even faintly believe that the US under Trump would abide by Article 5 to defend another member state. Trump has just told the Baltic states: you’re on your own now. If you resist Russian control, you’ll deserve what you get. ..."

 

[nycfan]

Cont'd

"... It’s not just the end of NATO, but a new doctrine of US power. That doctrine now reflects Trump’s deepest conviction: that might is right, that weak countries should surrender to strong ones, and that this is in America’s interests, because we are the strongest. Trump’s aggression toward Canada, Panama, Gaza, and Denmark is not just trolling the libs. It’s of a piece with his view that the strong should always control and bully and plunder the weak. This is Ukraine’s real crime to Trump. They dared resist absorption by a bigger, stronger neighbor. That’s why Trump had contempt for the protestors at Tiananmen Square:

When the students poured into Tiananmen Square, the Chinese government almost blew it. Then they were vicious, they were horrible, but they put it down with strength. That shows you the power of strength. Our country is right now perceived as weak.

Or, as he said on another occasion: “If you don’t dominate, you’re wasting your time.”

The logic of this might-makes-right worldview is why Trump believes that the US should now own Gaza. By which authority? he was asked. “By US authority,” he answered — meaning, of course, not US authority (we have none in Israel) but US power. Trump is clinically incapable of understanding any system of mutuality, because he cannot tolerate being anyone’s equal.

The replacement of international law with spheres of influence based on power alone means, in turn, that the US will have no case against China’s future absorption of Taiwan, Russia’s re-occupation of all of Ukraine and the Baltic states, or Israel’s looming ethnic cleansing of Gaza and the West Bank.

...This means, it seems to me, that the idea of the West is now over. By the West, I mean the idea that the democracies that beat the Nazis and outlasted the Soviets were and are instinctively America’s friends — “We were with you then; We are with you now,” in Reagan’s words — that the world is divided between autocracy and democracy, and that although we need to deal with tyrants realistically, and accept limits on our power in this new multipolar world, we are still emphatically the leader of “the free world.”

Those three words — “the free world” — mean nothing to Trump and never have. And he has now fatefully told the entire world, including our former allies, that this is America’s position now as well. He has updated Reagan with these words: “We were with you then. We see no reason to be with you now. In fact, we’re siding with a dictator who threatens you.”

This is a Rubicon, I’m afraid, that cannot be fully uncrossed. ... This is who Trump is. But it isn’t who Americans really are. I have faith that the West, now mortally wounded, can yet survive Trump and Putin, and re-emerge at some point. But it may be a dark, dark few years before the dawn’s early light breaks out again."