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

Interestingly, the town where I live has a building that rumour says is going to be used for refugees. The local Facebook groups keep seeing posts about how awful this is, lock up your daughters cause of the illegals.

There are about 10 people stating this bollocks but a hell of a lot more giving facts. Refugees can't work or claim your benefits. These posts are inevitably deleted due to the misinformation and racism being demonstrated.

A few loud mouths are not going make reform the biggest party and Farage PM.

I caught a bit of CNN the other day and they were saying that the orange one bigly likes H-1B visas

Bit like Reform quietly admitting that the UK needs immigration.

This was posted on my football forum about Jimmy Carter

In another lifetime, I worked as a croupier on world cruise liners. Rosalind Carter was godmother of RCL Crown Odyssey, she launched the ship & would travel onboard with husband, Jimmy Carter

There’s a hierarchy on board - the hardest workers with longest contracts were the Chinese crew

They worked below deck and rarely saw the light of day. They ran the laundry, a tough, hot, never ending mission. JC would spend most of his time below deck with the laundry guys who would make a huge Chinese banquet on his arrival: we always ended up being fed too because we were great tippers.

He said he loved to be amongst the real hard workers, it’s where he felt most at home and all the crew who knew him, loved him. Rest in peace, Mr President 🙏🏼 🛳️

I saw that in the news here.

It's just another step towards what Scrotus wants, and that's to get this before the his personal Supreme Court.

There is nothing quiet about Trump or "FUCK YOU" Musk.

It will be interesting to see Farage trying to establish an equilibrium where he's besties with Musk, and yet having to spend most of his time re-interpreting Musks "I love clever immigrants" spiel into a more Reform-friendly "I hate immigrants and want to send them all home". Something that could crush a lesser man. Or indeed any person with scruples.

Luckily the way Reform has been setup is to ensure that the great unwashed will have fuck all say in anything they do. They won't choose the people, the policies, or the uniforms.

(Pictured has a couple of extra stiches around the yoke of the right shoulder to allow the arm to be extended without creasing the line of the jacket. Who says we don't learn from history ?)

Just a bit of info on H1-B;

"H-1B visas are typically reserved for specialised foreign workers with a bachelor's degree or higher who have been offered a temporary job paying an industry-standard wage in the US. The US authorities can issue 65,000 H-1B new visas a year, with a possible extra 20,000 for people with master's degrees."

I have a feeling that there probably aren't a whole awful lot of H1-B visas in the Trump organization as so many of them are 'tech' positions, invaluable to Musk and the Tech Industry.

Doofus 'likes them' because Musk has told him to. And probably because Doofus has any number of H2 A & B workers at his various properties and can't be bothered to learn the difference.

As I see it, the TL;DR is that the US - like the UK - by commoditising education has arrived at the point where the people who have paid for the privilege simply have to earn more than their predecessors. Which doesn't suit the ponzi scheme nature of global capitalism.

So to get more for less, you ship it in from a country where people don't need so much as the loan-saddled natives.

Of course what will eventually happen is that will drive educational inflation in those countries and their graduates will demand more. This cycle has already happened where offshored developers have started to cost more and more.

2025 looks to be a very interesting year.

https://www.rawstory.com/tesla-h1b-visas-elon-musk/

Leon has gone full nazi

https://bsky.app/profile/sethabramson.bsky.social/post/3lemnqjsn722l

20 days to go.

Blimey. I thought he’d gone full nazi when he started praising AfD but it it seems there is more Nazi.

😳
Surely melon husk is overplaying his hand?!?!

https://www.independent.co.uk/politics/bannon-musk-rip-face-h1b-visa-b2672259.html

The Orange One doesn't care about the MAGAs anymore. He got what he wanted - a 'get out of jail free' card, now he just wants to swan around with the rich kids and look cool. He has no real interest in governing - as long as he's able to get his own back on those who wronged him and is being cheered and applauded every evening at Mar a Lago he'll think he's The Man.

Musk isn't going to give up easily so it's going to be "interesting".

Well said @Spandauer what a mess.

Happy New Year all, here's hoping (all appendages crossed) that 2025 is terribly, terribly dull!

On the Farage front, the only way he gets within sniffing distance of power is if the Tories are stupid enough to make some kind of deal with Reform to merge. On the basis of 2024's "anything can happen" narrative, I wouldn't rule it out: there are plenty of very twitchy Tories on the right of the party that think they need to be making themselves more attractive to Reform voters. Unfortunately a lot of the more right-of-centre Tories lost seats in the GE so the brakes being applied from that side of the party are no longer as effective as they once were.

Kemi needs to start formulating some proper opposition policies to strengthen the Tories and stop all the headless chicken stuff that is going on right now.

Kemi needs to start formulating some proper opposition policies to strengthen the Tories

for when her successor takes over.

True!

Horrific news from New Orleans, 10 people dead

Oh god, awful.

Vehicles seem to be the weapon du jour, don't they? So accessible and unsuspicious-looking, and then so effective as a mass weapon when used thus.

absolutely awful 🙁

what is it with men and it usually IS men trying to terrorise the general public?

Absolutely heartbreaking news from New Orleans. And trying to remain far eyed about it, this probably isn't going to help with Musk (and Trumps) new found love for immigrants with the MAGA base - who I suspect will have a typically xenophobic testosterone filled take on all of this.

Tragic start to the New Year.

In other news, a Tesla cybertruck exploded in front of Trump's Vegas hotel, there is a metaphor in there somewhere

The Tesla fire - one person has died and 7 injured.

What the...?

I thought that Tesla story was going to be about an ordinary vehicle fire in a parked vehicle, just in an ironic location.

Now I've read it... Will have to wait to see what emerges, of course, but the details in the story make it look not accidental.