Trump+Musk: Folie à Deux - Trump thread #137

[Spandauer]

The clock is already ticking and he's an old man. Mid-terms: November 3, 2026

Thanks to @AcrossThePond55 for the thread title.

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5206120-the-grown-ups-have-left-the-building-trump-thread-136

That’s the US. We were in Scotland.

Yes, but the conversation wasn't happening in a vacuum. It was about RFKjr advocating for raw milk. In the US.

I realise that. I know it will never happen because of the fear of disease but whole raw milk should be available for consumption. US farming standards stink.

JD Vance in Munich:

"Speaking up and expressing opinions isn't election interference, even when people express views outside your own country and even when those people are very influential ... you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk."

Putin will be proud

Vance tells Europe he's not worried of Russia or China but instead the "threat within Europe".
Goes on to complain about "free speech" (anti-hate laws existing), refugees (being allowed), and deny Russian disinformation is a danger to Europe.

You have to remember how big the US is. each state comfortably the size of the UK. "Fresh" has a different meaning on that scale. Especially if you want to start selling across the country.

My DB noted when he settled there in the 90s how everything - everything - was pasteurised.

My head is spinning. The point is that this was literally about the newly confirmed crackpot health secretary in the US promoting the drinking of raw milk in the US, where it is known to be a vector for a flu strain that looks to have every chance of mutating to human to human transmission, and for which the country is currently unprepared.

Interesting. I’m the world’s least fussy eater but the thought of eating US food makes me queasy. This brings me back to my favourite subject. We UK farmers bust our guts trying to raise standards. Our reward is the PM saying that you can have more money for the NHS or tax breaks for farmers. Yesterday the weasily little coward had to be airlifted from a location to avoid some scary farmers.

In a other world-upside-down moment, here is arch Brexiteer JHB forensically tearing Dubai-botherer Richard Tice a new one. Look at him flapping and completely being buried.

The takeway here is Reform would not protect the UK if threatened. They'd do whatever the aggressor said.

If she had deployed 1% of this skill over Brexit, things may have been completely different

I urge anyone with time to watch it. JHB has just gone (back) up in my estimation.

(I take it we all saw North Korea lecturing the US on human rights yesterday ?)

https://www.usnews.com/news/business/articles/2025-02-14/treasury-watchdog-begins-audit-of-musk-doge-teams-access-to-federal-governments-payment-system?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=bluesky

How long until this one gets fired?

In case you can't tell, I'm home in bed with flu, too ill to do anything, let alone any work and am getting very bored!

You have my sympathy. I have been three days in bed but I just have to be better by tomorrow because I'm going on a special birthday treat

@derxa are all farmers going to be affected by the tax break for farmers changes? If not what percentage will be please?

The fucking basic fact being the US /= the UK. And not everything that makes sense in the US makes sense in the UK. Look at energy. The US can support 1,298 different "energy providers" because the framework of state to federal and the spread of people and land makes it sensible.

It never made sense in the UK. A country that could fit into most US states and have another country left over.

That's before you start to look at the cultures.

If you could blend the positives of the US into the positives of the UK, then the UK could be a very different and better place. Instead we imported the very worst of the US that (re) enabled the very worst of the UK and ... well here we are. The worst of both worlds.

I say "UK", I am aware I may be more thinking of England.

Trump is planning a bigly year long celebration of 250 years of independence next year.

To help it go with a swing, we're sending a new king for him to insult.
https://www.itv.com/news/2025-02-14/king-set-to-use-americas-250th-birthday-for-official-visit-to-us

Maybe Charles can manage a verse or two of this?
m.youtube.com/watch?v=ukfNXFgUEiU

Thought for new thread title: "Will nobody Face Musk Trump?"

It already has. And a case involving a whole new strain of the disease was reported in a dairy farmer in Nevada.

BTW, this report was originally set for release in late January. Trump put the kibosh of all reports from the CDC which delayed the release until just now. So who knows how many people have been unwittingly exposed to the disease.

https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/02/13/nx-s1-5296672/cdc-bird-flu-study-mmwr-veterinarians

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poultry_litter

Historically, it wasn't all that long ago that cows were fed other cows here, if I recall correctly. And that ended well. Glad the US learned a lesson there.

@SerendipityJane thanks for that clip; it's made my week!

Maybe JHB could have the Reform gang back and see what they think of this ?

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/doge-hearing-blind-witness-online-response-b2697878.html

How about "Trump now wearing a faceMusk". Kind of a reference to Musk doing his dirty work? If I could do photoshop I'd post a pic of Trump with a small Musk-face covering his mouth with strings going behind Trump's ears.

Or maybe it's actually the other way round? Trump is doing Musk's dirty work by letting him run riot.

For some reason today I keep typing Mush instead of Musk. Freudian slip?

Thinking forward, I wonder if the actual word "trump" could be slowly removed from the vernacular ? I am already finding I would rather not say something "trumps" something (and I used to play bridge a lifetime ago).

"Beats" would do. "This beats that" still has the same ballpark sense.

(
"An Archer ?! That's two grand !" - The New Statesman for those who remember
)

Susie Dent on form as usual.

and in other news:
One of the two lawsuits seeking to invalidate Elon Musk's role in the government has been assigned to Tanya Chutkan.