The grown-ups have left the building - Trump thread #136

[Spandauer]

As we descend into 4 years of madness...

(thanks @Jaichangecentfoisdenom and* *@AcrossthePond55 for the suggestions)

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5200273-hands-across-the-water-trump-thread-135

Speaking as an American
I LOVE that picture

Apologies - the photo above is from outside a coffee shop in London - but I suddenly thought it might give offence to our US Mumsnetters! And I'm fully aware it's a cheek coming from the U.K. where we did our own "foot shooting" with Brexit!

I'm just pretending to be Canadian for the time being 😂

We're off to friends' for dinner where I'm sure the conversation will be mostly election. I've been promised a string of Martinis.

Too many of my fellow Americans do not 'get' satire, cynicism and sarcasm.
Its a them problem not a you problem.

@Wallaw You have to say "about" correctly while you down the Martinis 😎

In your bubble.

@Spandauer Thanks for the new thread. And I'm not offended by the sign at all. These days, it's probably a good idea!

@Wallaw

DH and I are going to Yellowstone & the Black Hills next summer. Since we have California plates and will be traversing all red states I suggested that we get a license plate holder with either a maple leaf or a Canadian flag.

DS1 and a friend were in Austria during the height of the unpopular GW Bush era Gulf War. They were accosted so often it got to the point that when they went out in public they spoke Spanish to each other or if they were directly asked if they were American they responded "No, we're Canadian".

@AcrossthePond55 could you not just buy a "Shasta County" or "Calaveras County" plate cover
as nearly all the inland Californian counties voted red !

Thanks for the thread and contributors, listening quietly in the background. Seems obvious to me that all the plans Trump has, esp re tariffs are going to leave everyone worse off. Dreading where that leads. More extremism is my guess.

@Spandauer Thanks for new thread

☺️🍷🌞

Thanks for the new thread OP.

Oh God no!! I lived in Shasta Co for 9 years and was so glad to get the hell out of there. You may as well be living in a holler in Kentucky as live in Shasta.

I'll fake being Canadian (begging the pardon of Canada), but would never fake being from the San Joaquin or Central Valley! My So Cal-raised heart just can't do it.

for all.

Thanks Spandauer

Thanks for the new thread!

I remember years ago (pre-Trump, Season 1) a joke article about the UK revoking US independence doing the rounds. I shared it with work contacts in Kentucky who thought it was absolutely hilarious!

Hope it’s taken in the spirit in which it is meant: https://gristlyhistory.blog/2018/09/06/letter-to-the-usa/

An oldie but a goodie

Having spent much of Wednesday in a vodka haze I've managed to emotionally distance myself from the shit storm.

A couple of thoughts - on the positive side I think it will force Europe into closer collaboration and there will be a cross European Army sooner rather than later to protect the eastern states. The USA will become increasingly irrelevant.

For the Americans they are going to have to own it, as the UK had to with Brexit but with absolutely no checks and balances and - very soon - no press to hold them to account. There's going to be a small, incredibly powerful group grabbing everything in sight and fuck the poor and the illegals to start with, moving up the chain until everyone is petrified. This is 1933 for the States. They'll survive but it may take generations to recover.

Thanks for the new thread. Just as placemarking, with all the TV talk, I’m surprised to see that The Diplomat hasn’t been mentioned. It’s been a huge help to me as a distraction!

Oh that's on the next to watch list! But need to watch the last episode of the first series to remind myself who's who and what's what.
(slight crush on Rufus Sewell as well 😉)

I've managed to avoid any news programmes since Wednesday and am reliant on a couple of MN groups to keep me a little in touch without raising my blood pressure. So thanks for this thread @Spandauer

It's not only the military side of it. America has sort of put itself forward as leader of the free world/shining beacon on a hill kind of thing. While that could make people in other countries a bit eye rolly, the fact is that if Americans seem to massively lose confidence in their democratic institutions and democracy itself (which is a part of Trumps success. Exasperation at the system as it exists and loss of faith possibly justified in how it works) that is going to dent faith elsewhere. Especially when the rest of the world gets a lot of American media and most social media comes from the US. Twitter in particular is going to be a malign prescence (eg Musk eagerly anticipating a civil war in the UK basically as a way of supporting his own political arguments). So Europe is going to have to figure out why democracy is important by itself and make a really strong argument for it. And also figure out how to address the real problems it has, in the face of permanently online people getting most of their info about their own country from elsewhere (Twitter) which may be exaggerating some problems and down playing others. And hopefully avoid a knee jerk reaction of just banning "misinformation" because that would backfire. It's something that would need to be figured out anyway, but hopefully this will concentrate minds.

It’s a great watch @Spandauer It’s probably my favourite series of all time.

For the Americans they are going to have to own it, as the UK had to with Brexit but with absolutely no checks and balances and - very soon - no press to hold them to account.

What are you going on about with “no press to hold them to account”?

The type of comments on this thread are indicative of precisely why you’ve got President Elect Trump.

With the ownership of MSM mostly in Trump supporting hands it will be an uphill struggle for journalists to report the truth.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/commentisfree/ng-interactive/2024/oct/27/trump-press-freedom-stakes?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Morten Morland in The Sunday Times.

Does Trump own the likes of CNN?

Mindful that I had a reaction to my posts on the last thread but I'm going to sayt this anyway ... this puts me to mind of what has been going on with the press and the women's rights/ trans issues.

The press definitely has not been truthfully reporting on those. The amount of times an article will say something along the lines 'a woman has been charged with a violent murder/ sexual assault'. Dig a little deeper and that person is a trans woman (a man). The press is too scared to report the reality of the sex of the person, as are the judiciary and, hey presto, crime reporting no longer reflects reality and the numbers of 'women' committing violent crimes is increasing. I'm not suggesting that all men who identify as women are violent, far from it, but a proportion are, and where this happens the media is complicit in 'hiding' it.

I think that a broader discussion needs to be had over the fact that the Media is biased and heavily influenced by pressure groups (often due to their owners politics) but I don't personally think that this is a right wing issue.