Scrutable

Lew Dolby wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 1:33 pm Always thought Trump was pretty thick (and a bully and a coward) but worried what would happen if/when people with brains started using him as a handpuppet. Looks like that's exactly what's happened.

Yup

He’s almost certainly suffering from senility or the effects of a near fatal COVID infection. He’s always with a handler of some form, like Musk or Vance.

headshot wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 7:16 pm
Someone in the White House is a Putin stooge.

Given the US's winding down of Cyber security against Russia I can certainly believe that is the case - as that isn't a case of the "America first", quite the opposite, they're running against their national security interests. It's one thing for the US to not act in the interests of it's allies, but it's entirely another "circle of stupid" to so blatantly act against their own interests and yet for Russia's...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... mmigration

Brösche had her German passport, confirmation of her visa waiver to enter the country, and a copy of her return ticket back to Berlin, [her American best friend, Amelia] Lofving said. But she was still pulled aside for a secondary inspection by a US Customs and Border Protection agent.

Brösche said she then spent days detained in a cell at the San Diego border before being taken into custody by ICE. The agency brought her to the Otay Mesa detention center, where she’s now been for more than a month.

shpalman wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 7:53 am https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... mmigration

Brösche had her German passport, confirmation of her visa waiver to enter the country, and a copy of her return ticket back to Berlin, [her American best friend, Amelia] Lofving said. But she was still pulled aside for a secondary inspection by a US Customs and Border Protection agent.

Brösche said she then spent days detained in a cell at the San Diego border before being taken into custody by ICE. The agency brought her to the Otay Mesa detention center, where she’s now been for more than a month.

Poor woman, I hope the German's raise some hell over it, very vocally, which will do wonders for the US tourist industry.

TopBadger wrote: Mon Mar 03, 2025 4:59 pm

headshot wrote: Sat Mar 01, 2025 7:16 pm
Someone in the White House is a Putin stooge.

Given the US's winding down of Cyber security against Russia I can certainly believe that is the case - as that isn't a case of the "America first", quite the opposite, they're running against their national security interests. It's one thing for the US to not act in the interests of it's allies, but it's entirely another "circle of stupid" to so blatantly act against their own interests and yet for Russia's...

I listened to the Maddow podcast today (from last night’s show) and it started with parallels between the current US/Ukrainian situation and the US/UK situation from decades ago - it was frightening. Some really interesting archive audio too.

I’ll use the opportunity to recommend Maddow’s podcast Ultra for the game plan of what the facists tried last time in the USA https://www.rachelmaddow.com/rachel-mad ... nts-ultra/

And also the tie in book Prequel which I can’t recommend enough and happens to be 99p at the moment

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prequel-bestse ... 154&sr=8-1

Trump wrote:All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/tr ... l-funding/

Gimme an F…

Gimme an A…

Not content with failing to deliver on his promise to stop a war, he's now looking to start trade wars.

FlammableFlower wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 4:07 pm Not content with failing to deliver on his promise to stop a war, he's now looking to start trade wars.

How long until some US troops carry out activities in Mexico under the pretext of the war on drugs? Or how long until he engineers a small scale occupation of a patch of Canadian border land under a facile legal argument just to troll Canada.

Remember the Pig War? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pig_War_(1859)

Btw I’ve found a video clip of the Maddow segment last night. It really is worth 9 minutes of your time but if you only have 2 minutes just watch from 4.00 to 6.00.

https://youtu.be/hn_-OUa2tuk

How about this?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/homeland- ... der-stunt/

A line of black tape on the floor of a reading room of the Haskell Free Library and Opera House marks the spot where Derby ends, and Stanstead, Quebec, begins.

Noem reportedly stepped up to the tape and said, with a grin, “U.S.A. No. 1,” and then crossed the line into Canada and said, “The 51st state.”

“She did it at least three times and was very clear in saying, ‘U.S.A. No. 1,’ and didn’t even say ‘Canada.’ Just, ‘The 51st state’,” said Deborah Bishop, the library’s executive director

Brightonian wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 2:59 pm

Trump wrote:All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/tr ... l-funding/

What is an illegal protest? Regular protests are protected by the Constitution. And "allow" means what exactly? A university cannot allow illegal protests by definition.

dyqik wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 5:39 pm

Brightonian wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 2:59 pm

Trump wrote:All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/tr ... l-funding/

What is an illegal protest? Regular protests are protected by the Constitution. And "allow" means what exactly? A university cannot allow illegal protests by definition.

Yes, was thinking the same when when posting, and started thinking about each of the other words/terms. So could "Federal funding" be by proxy, such as services purchased from private institutions that have some sort of educational mission (and could be deemed "colleges"), for example?

Brightonian wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 5:49 pm

dyqik wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 5:39 pm

Brightonian wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 2:59 pm
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/tr ... l-funding/

What is an illegal protest? Regular protests are protected by the Constitution. And "allow" means what exactly? A university cannot allow illegal protests by definition.

Yes, was thinking the same when when posting, and started thinking about each of the other words/terms. So could "Federal funding" be by proxy, such as services purchased from private institutions that have some sort of educational mission (and could be deemed "colleges"), for example?

They mean grants, and student assistance for Federal funding. But they've already tried to cancel all of those already.

Elon Musk interested in getting a pardon for the murderer of George Floyd.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1896975871904505884?s=61

Chinese embassy in Washington wrote:If war is what the U.S. wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end.

https://x.com/ChineseEmbinUS/status/1897132043362034153

Stranger Mouse wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 8:35 pm Elon Musk interested in getting a pardon for the murderer of George Floyd.

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1896975871904505884?s=61

Well as he is the president I expect it will happen

Back in February a think tank hosted a retreat for ‘several dozen’ Democratic Party operatives: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/17/us/p ... uture.html

Politico has published a summary of the conclusions from the meeting: https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000195 ... 7121940000

It covers a lot of what has been covered here, that Democrats have alienated themselves from many working class voters. Some of the advice is remarkable for a progressive party eg “recognise that working class voters value upward mobility” and “listen to non-college voters without judgment”.

Looks like Disney is shutting down fivethirtyeight. Data driven analysis of elections will continue but it feels like the end of an era. Both in terms of the site being something I associated with the optimism around Obama’s first term, and also the model of people getting together and operating a free to view site offering high quality outputs. Seems like now anything that’s resource intensive needs to have a patron with deep pockets (including government) or be funded via subscriptions and a paywall.

That's surprising, and a shame. Strange that it's happening just as 538 was showing the presidential approval polls crossing from net approve to net disapprove...

dyqik wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 5:39 pm

Brightonian wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 2:59 pm

Trump wrote:All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/tr ... l-funding/

What is an illegal protest? Regular protests are protected by the Constitution. And "allow" means what exactly? A university cannot allow illegal protests by definition.

For the purposes of Trump's edict, an "illegal protest" is a pro-Palestinian protest which incorporates illegalities such as antisemitism or support for illegal terrorist organisations. I think it likely that the current administration will find those illegalities in just about any pro-Palestinian protest.

"Allow" means "fails to prevent".

Looks like Trump is commencing the procedure to deport loads of people including 240,000 Ukrainians.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump- ... 025-03-06/

Am I being cynical or is this in order cause problems for Ukraine by putting more women and children in the path of the missiles?

I don't think any level of cynicism is too great anymore tbh. Hard to avoid concluding that everything is f.cked.

El Pollo Diablo wrote: Thu Mar 06, 2025 2:35 pm I don't think any level of cynicism is too great anymore tbh. Hard to avoid concluding that everything is f.cked.

White House are now denying it but I’m not sure that carries any weight with these scumbags

https://bsky.app/profile/jenniferjjacob ... ps5bd3ts2i

IvanV wrote: Thu Mar 06, 2025 12:42 pm

dyqik wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 5:39 pm

Brightonian wrote: Tue Mar 04, 2025 2:59 pm
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/tr ... l-funding/

What is an illegal protest? Regular protests are protected by the Constitution. And "allow" means what exactly? A university cannot allow illegal protests by definition.

For the purposes of Trump's edict, an "illegal protest" is a pro-Palestinian protest which incorporates illegalities such as antisemitism or support for illegal terrorist organisations. I think it likely that the current administration will find those illegalities in just about any pro-Palestinian protest.

"Allow" means "fails to prevent".

And that's why the courts will strike this down in an instant. Antisemitism is protected by the First Amendment.