Trump's Second Term

[Caela]

I've always found his thinking insightful and refreshing. That said, I'm still having hard time wrapping my head around his human trafficking record...

Got a link that explains that last line?

[TheGlyphstone]

https://www.dailydot.com/news/beau-fifth-column-conviction/

This daily dot article seems to hit the high points - could be biased but it includes a link to the actual court documents.

[Aiden]

• I am familiar with Beau's past. 
• Was it right? No. 
• Am I going to stop listening to Belle? No. 
• Is Justin King a fake? Maybe
• Beau/JK  has given me insight on topics I would never have given a second thought to. Yes 

I'd rather listen to this fake guy trying to do good than Right Wing Media.  

[Callie Del Noire]

• I am familiar with Beau's past.
• Was it right? No.
• Am I going to stop listening to Belle? No.
• Is Justin King a fake? Maybe
• Beau/JK  has given me insight on topics I would never have given a second thought to. Yes

I'd rather listen to this fake guy trying to do good than Right Wing Media. 

Ditto. I can get a honest ‘no bull shit’ vibe from his posts.

[Oniya]

So, we can rest assured that Donny Boy not only fell asleep in Civics class, but also didn't watch his Saturday morning cartoons.

After deciding that New York's 'congestion pricing' needed to go, he declared 'Long live the King!', complete with fake Time magazine cover.

Let me break it down for literal 6-year-olds

[Lilias]

He wants so bad to be Louis XIV, he can't even get that he's most likely to be XVI. 

[TheGlyphstone]

So, we can rest assured that Donny Boy not only fell asleep in Civics class, but also didn't watch his Saturday morning cartoons.

After deciding that New York's 'congestion pricing' needed to go, he declared 'Long live the King!', complete with fake Time magazine cover.

Let me break it down for literal 6-year-olds

The music started playing in my head before I even clicked on the link.

...I'm old.

[Samael]

I am extremely worried about Ukraine at this point.
The European countries are scrambling to try and fill the hole that opens up with the US withdraw from supporting Ukraine, but Russia is literally waging a war of genocide in that country.
Daily war crimes, schools and hospitals and cribs bombed, people openly executed on the streets when they are not being raped.

The atrocities are... Bucha alone was beyond words, and Russia has grown more aggressive and violent and murderous since then.

[Al Terego]

I am letting my anxieties get the better of me but there are 3 scenarios that keep playing in my head.

1. Somebody decides to remove him from office with the help of their two friends, Smith and Wesson.

2. The constitutional crisis leads to a civil war.

3. He exits Nato, tries to annex Canada/Panama/Greenland/Whatever by military force while his pal Putin moves to attack the Baltics or the Nordics, leading to WW3.

[Oniya]

I'm kind of hoping for 'fit of apoplexy', myself. 

[Callie Del Noire]

I’m hope that he kicks ff in bed (or the bathroom) one day soon.

[imalux]

I mean, with an anti-vaxxer best bud, a steady diet of Filet O' Fish, his general (and obvious) declining physical and cognitive health, and a right hand man who is a spiraling, billionaire substance abuser, I don't imagine any of them are going to endure all four years lol

[Callie Del Noire]

Well if he kicks off Musk is gone. And JD Vance would be eaten by the party. P

[imalux]

JD doesn't stand a chance as Trump's successor - he's arguably worse, in terms of his personal Christofacist rhetoric - but MAGA is loyal only to the Orange Man and Vance being married to a WOC is a literal point of contention within the party (not to mention that his own racist spiels negatively impact his wife and mixed children, as if he cares). He's deeply uncharismatic and already disappearing because of the Trump/Mask shadow. 

[Al Terego]

It all makes sense now

[Oniya]

Little Oni has told me that she refuses to pronounce his agency with a long o sound.  Considering the points raised in that article, I'm inclined to agree.

[Sofia Grace]

I am letting my anxieties get the better of me but there are 3 scenarios that keep playing in my head.

1. Somebody decides to remove him from office with the help of their two friends, Smith and Wesson.

2. The constitutional crisis leads to a civil war.

3. He exits Nato, tries to annex Canada/Panama/Greenland/Whatever by military force while his pal Putin moves to attack the Baltics or the Nordics, leading to WW3.

I personally have been assuming we’re cruising toward #3.

[Ollumhammersong]

It would be the time to do it...... If he pulls out of Nato and Putin invades the baltics, triggering a nato reponse they would be too busy to help us in Canada.

Unless the Pols and the Finns really jump on Russia like a pair of snow leopards. Which Poland seems like it's been looking for an excuse to start a war these past three years. So they're probably all ready for this to go down

[Ollumhammersong]

Things are getting weird. Germany just told the US to fuck off. France is kinda toeing the line between being friendly to the US and helping Ukraine. The US and Russia agreed on something in the UN and Tariffs here in North America are due to start again, so counter rhetoric is already picking up again here in Ontario. 

A month ago I said that the US would never us military force to annex Caanda and that he was probably just saying that to goad us I to doing g something stupid he could us at negotiating. But not I'm not so sure.

[Oniya]

I'm actually hoping this goes through.

It would serve the Edgy Man-child right: sickest burn since Bladensburg.  ;-)

[imalux]

I'm actually hoping this goes through.

It would serve the Edgy Man-child right: sickest burn since Bladensburg.  ;-)

Elon's response to that being 'Canada isn't a real country' is especially fucking funny when you consider that it would mean he's denied entry to a place he doesn't 'respect'. Nevermind the fact that 99% of his reactions are ketamine fueled rage-spirals that he has to play off as rage bait like he's a 15 year old redditor lmao 

He's so deeply pathetic. I hope Canada does it. 

[Ollumhammersong]

I wasn't aware this was a thing. But I just signed it and sent to to my friends

[Oniya]

Elon's response to that being 'Canada isn't a real country' is especially fucking funny when you consider that it would mean he's denied entry to a place he doesn't 'respect'.

There was one major reason that a 17-year-old white male would leave South Africa:  To get out of military service.  And while Musk's father has said that he disagrees with apartheid, he's also said some pretty weird crap about horse breeding in context about human reproduction.

"I wouldn't call it eugenics as such, but every nation has practiced a certain form of survival of the fittest.

"One need only go to England and go to the Cheltenham area, the horse breeding area, and say, 'Look, we're not going to breed the horses anymore by any form of standard. I've got a few old horses I've found in Nigeria and we're going to just mix them with your race horses…'

"They'll say, no, no, no, no, no," he added.

[midnightblack]

Unless the Pols and the Finns really jump on Russia like a pair of snow leopards. Which Poland seems like it's been looking for an excuse to start a war these past three years. So they're probably all ready for this to go down

That is not going to happen. There's an entire ocean of escalation, crimes against humanity and insanity that Russia would still have to cross from where it is today in order for any European country to take direct military action against it. And said country would have to be prepared, which isn't the case for anyone at present. The extent to which the EU as a whole could mount an effective defense on its own against the Russian army, even in its decrepit state, is problematic. And there's also the aspect of Russia having four times more nukes ready for deployment than France and the UK combined.

Poland in particular has been involved in a rather embarrassing incident in the first year of the war, so I really wouldn't put my hopes there. The truth is that the EU has dug its own grave through decades of neglect of its military sector, while everyone else in the world who's in the same league has increased their military spending. Unfortunately, ideals don't really matter much when the other side has bigger guns and it would rather let them do the talking. Granted, the EU becoming a military power in its own right would probably be the best case scenario in order to stabilize the situation, but it will take years to get there at best. Most likely it would be decades, and given the volatile quality of the political stage and the general inadequacy of this generation's politicians, it's almost impossible to predict anything so far in the future. The kind of Orwellian situation in which we find ourselves now with three military actors (US, China, Russia) vying for supremacy is probably the worst, as such a system can easily become permanently stressed, with any two actors teaming up against whoever is in the lead.

[Alastoryevich]

WELP.

Trump managed to piss off the Irish today.

Genuinely one would think that pissing off people who hate kings and have a bone to pick with anyone implying that Ireland is still fully under British rule would have been something the god-emperor would have been briefed against... I'm grabbing my popcorn for this one.