Trump 2.0

[jimbob]

Jmail has collaborated with Wikipedia to produce jkpedia

https://jmail.world/wiki



The whole Jmail sure is far easier to navigate than the US DoJ sitg. Almost as though the latter is designed to be unhelpful.

[TopBadger]

Interesting to see the Supreme Court rule that Trump overstepped executive power.

Obviously the right result... but still... can we hope that this is the first of many set-backs for Trump?

[Gfamily]

Interesting to see the Supreme Court rule that Trump overstepped executive power.

Obviously the right result... but still... can we hope that this is the first of many set-backs for Trump?

Particularly this Supreme Court.

[IvanV]

Interesting to see the Supreme Court rule that Trump overstepped executive power.

Obviously the right result... but still... can we hope that this is the first of many set-backs for Trump?

And far from certain it would be the result.

Unfortunately I think it may prove less of a setback than it might initially appear to be.

I read quite a few article over the midwinter period looking at the things Trump might win or lose in the Supreme Court. Those suggested that this case wasn't the among the highest priority for the would-be authoritarian ruler of a compromised democracy. So if the Supreme Court was going to give the impression of not being in his pocket, while actually in the end largely facilitating him, then this one was a clever one for them to pick. It is very visible, and doesn't constrain him very much in reality. There will probably be other ways of asserting many of those tariffs by presidential power.

We will need to see more rulings to decide whether the likes of Roberts, Gorsuch and Barrett (ruling against him this time, the latter two appointed by him) have really decided to get out of his pocket.

[headshot]

I listened to a podcast where they thought the Supreme Court were actually doing Trump/Miller a favour here by gently restraining their worst impulses.

The tariffs are so universally unpopular, if they limit his ability to impose them, it might not be such massive vote-losing issue in the midterms.

[jimbob]

Meanwhile, he's apparently sending one of the Mercy class hospital ships to help with the crisis in... um ... Greenland.

One is on its way, which is literally incredible because both are berthed in Alabama and apparently require 5 days preparation when they are at their base in San Diego.

The nonexistence of any such medical crisis that the Greenland authorities are aware of is a minor additional issue.

Donald J. Trump

@realDonald Trump

+

:

Working with the fantastic Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there. It's on the way!!!

President DJT

[bjn]

Meanwhile, there was a medical emergency on a US nuclear sub off of Greenland where the Danes airlifted the sick crewman off the ship and evacuated him to a hospital in Nuuk.

Trump’s announcement looks like b.llsh.t to distract from the fact that Danes are nice people, helped the US military and are doing perfectly OK without being part of the USA.


https://abcnews.com/amp/International/u ... =130377835

[jimbob]

Meanwhile, there was a medical emergency on a US nuclear sub off of Greenland where the Danes airlifted the sick crewman off the ship and evacuated him to a hospital in Nuuk.

Trump’s announcement looks like b.llsh.t to distract from the fact that Danes are nice people, helped the US military and are doing perfectly OK without being part of the USA.


https://abcnews.com/amp/International/u ... =130377835

It gets "better"

HBzPZUjWAAA3aaT.jpeg

Sending boats that don't exist, fitted out with equipment that's not procured, in place of ships that aren't ready, to attend an emergency that only exists in the imagination of a confused old man.

[FlammableFlower]

I'm getting to the point where I think that The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was highly prophetic...

MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT:
But, we have also run into a small inflation problem on account of the high level of leaf availability. Which means that I gather the current going rate has something like three major deciduous forests buying one ship’s peanut. So, um, in order to obviate this problem and effectively revalue the leaf, we are about to embark on an extensive defoliation campaign, and um, burn down all the forests. I think that’s a sensible move don’t you?

MARKETING GIRL:
That makes economic sense.

[Murmurs of agreement from crowd]

FORD:
[Yells] You’re absolutely barmy! You’ve a bunch of raving nutters!

[Gfamily]

How's the peace process headed by the peace prize winner going?

reduced_1000029370 (1).jpg

[TopBadger]

Board of peace members are peacing the crap out of Iran...

[jimbob]

Board of peace members are peacing the crap out of Iran...

When you are so good at peace that there are no other wars to stop, the only way to stop more war is to start them first.

[Chris Preston]

Yes, but this is one of the 8 wars Trump has already stopped.

[IvanV]

And, as in Venezuela, just killing the boss and a few of his mates doesn't do much to replace the deep institutions in control of the country, in control of most of the weapons, and who have a large vested interest in the perpetuation of those structures.

A new supreme leader is being selected. Maybe, like Delcy Rodríguez in Venezuela, he (for it will be a he) will have some palliative words and new appearances for Trump's eyes. But it will probably turn out to be fobbing off rather than any real change. Or maybe he'll think that defiance would better preserve him in power locally, the better to cement control. The Houthis in N Yemen have never buckled under, for all the bombs that have been dropped on them over extended periods of time.

[FlammableFlower]

Which is very pertinent. Since the attack in Venezuela and arrest of Maduro, the media gaze has moved on. Did it actually achieve any stated aims?

[Fishnut]

Well it let him know that noone would stop him from doing whatever the f.ck he wanted so I'd say it achieved at least one of its aims, even if it wasn't one that was explicitly stated.

[Gfamily]

An interesting graphic showing the destination of oil/LPG cargos passing through the Straits of Hormuz - or rather the cargos not passing through the Straits as Lloyds has massively increased the cost of Hull Loss premium since, well, since.

China might want a word

Hormuz Oil.jpg

[Formerly AvP]

Meanwhile, there was a medical emergency on a US nuclear sub off of Greenland where the Danes airlifted the sick crewman off the ship and evacuated him to a hospital in Nuuk.

Trump’s announcement looks like b.llsh.t to distract from the fact that Danes are nice people, helped the US military and are doing perfectly OK without being part of the USA.


https://abcnews.com/amp/International/u ... =130377835

Sending boats that don't exist, fitted out with equipment that's not procured, in place of ships that aren't ready, to attend an emergency that only exists in the imagination of a confused old man.

Small beer in the light of recent events, but one of the two US hospital ships left harbour recently, USNS Mercy, and is located by Marine Traffic in the Panama Canal, so heading off to Portland Oregon for the planned work she needs, rather than exercising the quality of Mercy to the Greenlanders.

[jimbob]

Meanwhile, there was a medical emergency on a US nuclear sub off of Greenland where the Danes airlifted the sick crewman off the ship and evacuated him to a hospital in Nuuk.

Trump’s announcement looks like b.llsh.t to distract from the fact that Danes are nice people, helped the US military and are doing perfectly OK without being part of the USA.


https://abcnews.com/amp/International/u ... =130377835

Sending boats that don't exist, fitted out with equipment that's not procured, in place of ships that aren't ready, to attend an emergency that only exists in the imagination of a confused old man.

Small beer in the light of recent events, but one of the two US hospital ships left harbour recently, USNS Mercy, and is located by Marine Traffic in the Panama Canal, so heading off to Portland Oregon for the planned work she needs, rather than exercising the quality of Mercy to the Greenlanders.

Well, he'll have forgotten about that now

[sTeamTraen]

This is awful and yet very funny... https://www.instagram.com/reels/DVUwsigDAF_/

[Gfamily]

The US argument for 'legitimate self defence' seems to be along the lines of:
"I saw this guy walking down the street and I knew my mad mate was going to thump him - so it was really an act of self-defence to hit him first, coz obviously he'd have been up for a scrap after that"

[TopBadger]

The pre-emptive attack of Iran is just another nail in the coffin of "Rules based international order" - which was something of a facade in the first place.

Hopefully the US will successfully neuter the IRGC and Iranians will choose democracy because now is their time to choose.

[Grumble]

The pre-emptive attack of Iran is just another nail in the coffin of "Rules based international order" - which was something of a facade in the first place.

Hopefully the US will successfully neuter the IRGC and Iranians will choose democracy because now is their time to choose.

Choosing democracy in a war zone is pretty hard. Maybe more likely Iran will fall into warlord rule.

[IvanV]

The pre-emptive attack of Iran is just another nail in the coffin of "Rules based international order" - which was something of a facade in the first place.

Hopefully the US will successfully neuter the IRGC and Iranians will choose democracy because now is their time to choose.

Choosing democracy in a war zone is pretty hard. Maybe more likely Iran will fall into warlord rule.

And you don't get a choice, because the regime remains completely in charge and doesn't offer any such choice.

This is not remotely the level of military intervention that is going to cause societal ructions, loss of local control, in a state of this size and established central control. Iran is 1.6 million sq km, or in American units, about 6 Texases. It has about 92 million people. It has a long-established centralised state, arguably continuously for around 2500 years, in thorough control of all its lands. There are no insurgencies, for all that 50% of the population isn't ethnically Iranian.

The Iraqi army got trashed and humiliated in the recapture of Kuwait, but the Iraqi state survived. It took a much larger military build-up and a land invasion to topple the Ba'athist regime.

The Houthis in N Yemen have been bombed to pieces for years by the Saudis, who eventually stopped because they weren't achieving anything. The Americans recently bombed them too, specifically to reduce their military capabilities to interfere with shipping and bomb Israel. But the Houthis remain in charge. The US had no ambition to change that, because it knew it had no realistic ability to effect such a change with just aerial bombing.

This is not Syria, which was infested by jihadists able to call on international supplies from international jihadist groups. The Syrian Ba'athists very nearly held out, willing to commit appalling atrocities to stay in control. The Iranian regime will likely be as ruthless as the Syrian, if it has to be.

Maybe the Iranian Kurds are a potential source of resistance to the regime, in the area where they live, as they were in Syria and Iraq, and with routes through the mountains to be supplied by their ethnic compatriots over the border. But the Turks will be keeping a close eye on the Kurds, keen to ensure no independent Kurdish nation emerges.

So I don't see anything other than decorative changes occurring to the Iranian regime. And frankly I hope nothing as terrible as the Syrian civil war occurs. But I think the Iranian regime is sufficiently in control that such an intense civil war is unlikely.

[jimbob]

https://youtu.be/LvSc7j_8Dvs


Belle of the Ranch (a level headed us commentary channel that used to be fronted by "beau") on why she was saying there's no plan, and pointing out some particularly dim statements.