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An unholy trinity or just a seedy threesome: Trump, Musk and Putin? - Trump thread #138

1000 replies

Spandauer · 15/02/2025 20:11

With a side order of Vance, Zuckerberg and Netanyahu.*
(*Other flavours are available)

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.
George Orwell

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5258416-trumpmusk-folie-a-deux-trump-thread-137

OP posts:
Thread gallery
59
Wallaw · 17/02/2025 19:00

Spandauer · 17/02/2025 17:30

Read that "transition" is also being flagged as a no-no word so federal programmes that help disabled kids for e.g. transition from grade school to high schools etc are being shut down. But I wonder if they just don't care either way and see any funds going to support those living with disabilities as a waste of money as well. 😔

As for the Tate wankers... they'll probably be invited to run the Office for Women's Health... if it hasn't already been shut down. 🤬

They're quite sensitive about words for such avowed freedom of speech warriors.

Spandauer · 17/02/2025 22:23

President of NYU College Republicans forced to resign after calling Barron Trump “an oddity on campus.”

So let's think about what Trump and his mates said about Obama's daughters, and Harris' step daughter, and Waltz's son...?

Nothing is too small for these poor sensitive souls.

An unholy trinity or just a seedy threesome: Trump, Musk and Putin? - Trump thread #138
OP posts:
BustingBaoBun · 18/02/2025 10:29

Another terrifying article. I don't understand all of it but what I do is enough for me to feel chills.

https://bylinetimes.com/2025/02/07/silicon-valley-whistleblowers-warn-elon-musk-hijacking-republicans-to-control-entire-us-government/

How can there be a fight back?

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

BustingBaoBun · 18/02/2025 10:43

Some push back

https://www.axios.com/2025/02/18/democrats-trump-judges-constitution-doge

Spandauer · 18/02/2025 13:22

So many articles all predicting doom and gloom.

What I can't understand is the lack of anger/outrage/defiance - whatever you want to call it. I fully realise that it's easy to sit here in my suburban UK kitchen and demand action but if something like Trump/Musk's takeover of government/sacking workers without cause etc happened here, surely we'd take to the streets? Or am I an old leftie, living in a Che Guevara Neverland in my head?

Where are the Democrats?

I see some 'protests' are being censored (in this case by Bezos)
From NYT:
An advertisement that was set to run in some editions of The Washington Post on Tuesday calling for Elon Musk to be fired from his role in government was abruptly canceled, according to one of the advocacy groups that had ordered the ad.

Common Cause said it was told by the newspaper on Friday that the ad was being pulled. The full-page ad, known as a wraparound, would have covered the front and back pages of editions delivered to the White House, the Pentagon and Congress, and was planned in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.

A separate, full-page ad with the same themes would have been allowed to run inside the newspaper, but the two groups chose to cancel the internal ad as well. Both ads would have cost the groups $115,000.

“We asked why they wouldn’t run the wrap when we clearly met the guidelines if they were allowing the internal ad,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, the president and chief executive of Common Cause. “They said they were not at liberty to give us a reason.”

OP posts:
CaveMum · 18/02/2025 14:16

Today’s Pod Save America is good, particularly the interview in the last 30 mins or so with Steven A Smith (I’m not familiar with him but apparently he’s a sport’s pundit). He speaks a lot of sense in so far as his the Dems need to start stepping up.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/pod-save-america/id1192761536?i=1000693204683

Wallaw · 18/02/2025 14:47

Spandauer · 18/02/2025 13:22

So many articles all predicting doom and gloom.

What I can't understand is the lack of anger/outrage/defiance - whatever you want to call it. I fully realise that it's easy to sit here in my suburban UK kitchen and demand action but if something like Trump/Musk's takeover of government/sacking workers without cause etc happened here, surely we'd take to the streets? Or am I an old leftie, living in a Che Guevara Neverland in my head?

Where are the Democrats?

I see some 'protests' are being censored (in this case by Bezos)
From NYT:
An advertisement that was set to run in some editions of The Washington Post on Tuesday calling for Elon Musk to be fired from his role in government was abruptly canceled, according to one of the advocacy groups that had ordered the ad.

Common Cause said it was told by the newspaper on Friday that the ad was being pulled. The full-page ad, known as a wraparound, would have covered the front and back pages of editions delivered to the White House, the Pentagon and Congress, and was planned in collaboration with the Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund.

A separate, full-page ad with the same themes would have been allowed to run inside the newspaper, but the two groups chose to cancel the internal ad as well. Both ads would have cost the groups $115,000.

“We asked why they wouldn’t run the wrap when we clearly met the guidelines if they were allowing the internal ad,” said Virginia Kase Solomón, the president and chief executive of Common Cause. “They said they were not at liberty to give us a reason.”

That's awful, but it also speaks to the opposition's lack of understanding or willingness to take on reality that they think a full page ad in the LA Times is the way to reach the people they need to be reaching.

Editing - sorry, WaPo, not LAT. Same sentiment, though

TopPocketFind · 18/02/2025 15:09

https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/egg-prices-bronx-bodegas/

Bronx bodegas are selling "loosie" eggs because of soaring prices

HereForTheFreeLunch · 18/02/2025 18:42

What I can't understand is the lack of anger/outrage/defiance - whatever you want to call it.
Anecdotal I know... but a friend in Seattle told me the streets are full of either Immigration Control cars or protests.
Where she is, people are out in anger but it may not be everywhere and it may not be reported on

Wallaw · 18/02/2025 18:43

https://bsky.app/profile/piperformissouri.bsky.social/post/3liht4iexpc2i

This is beyond chilling

TopPocketFind · 18/02/2025 19:29

What could go wrong

FDA staff were reviewing Elon Musk’s brain implant company. DOGE just fired them

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/02/17/fda-elon-musk-neuralink-doge-trump/79000197007/

prettybird · 18/02/2025 19:43

Sounds like a similar attitude towards "due process", "safety inspections" and regulations that resulted in the Titan submersible implosion Hmm

ohreallyIsee · 18/02/2025 20:36

Thought you all might like this one😂

An unholy trinity or just a seedy threesome: Trump, Musk and Putin? - Trump thread #138
PerkingFaintly · 18/02/2025 20:52

Bomb-plot trial of neo-Nazi leader pulls back veil on US extremist networks
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/10/brandon-russell-neo-nazi-bomb-plot-trial?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

PerkingFaintly · 18/02/2025 21:01

That article is long and informative about the specific group Terrorgram Collective, which organises on Telegram, and also about the wider landscape they're operating in.

Russell, a 29-year-old native of the Bahamas, had thrown away a promising future involving a college degree at the University of Florida and a national guard position to become a dedicated far-right figurehead previously imprisoned in 2017 over a murderous spat between comrades in the Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi guerrilla group he had founded that was involved in five murders and a number of bomb plots before federal agents dismantled it in 2020.
[...]
There are currently more than two dozen Terrorgram-related cases active in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and South America. The group is accused of inspiring the 2022 mass shooting in Slovakia, a knife attack in Turkey, and recent school shootings in Madison, Wisconsin, and Antioch, Tennessee. The justice department views the Terrorgram Collective as a “tier one” terrorism priority, its highest such classification.

Talkinpeace · 18/02/2025 22:05

The USA does not have a formal "opposition"
there are no "shadow" ministers
there is no funding of party structures other than the ruling party

it worked OK for a while

Llttledrummergirl · 18/02/2025 22:47

Fucking hell, Victoria Derbyshire has the most stupid, idiotic dumb woman being interviewed. I thought the mn she interviewed last week was scraping the barrel, but this one- wow. Carla Sands apparently.

She seems to think that their are more people in British prisons for free speech, than in Russia. She also thinks Trump is going to be be remembered as the greatest president ever. Wtf, they are fucking deluded.

CaveMum · 18/02/2025 22:51

Trump just blamed Ukraine for being invaded. I mean, WTAF?!

Spandauer · 18/02/2025 23:03

Trump is gaslighting Ukraine and Zelenskyy. It's all Zelenskyy and Biden's fault apparently and they had 3-4 years to end the war and the Ukraine government isn't legitimate. So poor old Putin had to defend himself.

OP posts:
TopPocketFind · 18/02/2025 23:16

Llttledrummergirl · 18/02/2025 22:47

Fucking hell, Victoria Derbyshire has the most stupid, idiotic dumb woman being interviewed. I thought the mn she interviewed last week was scraping the barrel, but this one- wow. Carla Sands apparently.

She seems to think that their are more people in British prisons for free speech, than in Russia. She also thinks Trump is going to be be remembered as the greatest president ever. Wtf, they are fucking deluded.

Former US ambassador to Denmark Carla Sands

This is one of her tweets

An unholy trinity or just a seedy threesome: Trump, Musk and Putin? - Trump thread #138
Spandauer · 18/02/2025 23:26

Trump’s Cuts Could Make Parks and Forests More Dangerous, Employees Say
Thousands of employees who helped oversee vast areas of wilderness have lost their jobs in President Trump’s moves to shrink the federal work force.
^^
Public lands in the United States have long been considered a national treasure.
But, since Thursday, at least 3,000 employees have been laid off across the United States Forest Service and the National Park Service, part of a wave of Trump administration cuts to the federal work force. Together, these agencies oversee 278 million acres of land, roughly the size of Texas and Montana combined.
^^
With whole teams slashed and fewer staff to provide basic functions like cleaning up trails, emptying pit toilets, carrying out trash and staffing visitors centers, employees say these vast public lands are in danger of falling into disarray.

Not long before this 'joke' becomes reality.

An unholy trinity or just a seedy threesome: Trump, Musk and Putin? - Trump thread #138
OP posts:
Wallaw · 18/02/2025 23:37

I dare you to click on it

Sensitive content
An unholy trinity or just a seedy threesome: Trump, Musk and Putin? - Trump thread #138
RafaistheKingofClay · 19/02/2025 00:55

Oh that Carla Sands. Had forgotten about the Danish biking tweet.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/doge/usda-accidentally-fired-officials-bird-flu-rehire-rcna192716

In other news the people working on bird flu in the Agriculture Department are the latest group to need rehiring after being fired. This could be quite a theme.

I do hope that DOGE will be reporting on exactly how much government / federal agencies have had to spend on rehiring people that got fired.

AcrossthePond55 · 19/02/2025 01:27

Talkinpeace · 18/02/2025 22:05

The USA does not have a formal "opposition"
there are no "shadow" ministers
there is no funding of party structures other than the ruling party

it worked OK for a while

"The Opposition, formally known as HM Official Opposition, refers to the largest political party in the House of Commons that is not in government. The leader of this party takes the title Leader of the Opposition. The role of the Official Opposition is to question and scrutinise the work of the Government. More generally, any party that is not a part of the government is described as an opposition party."

Based on this definition from the Parliament website, no, we don't have a 'formal' opposition party. But in the US Congress this is what the minority party does. They watch what the majority party are doing. And it is what the Dems are doing. The problem is that what is needed is for GOP members 'disaffected' with Pres Musk, excuse me, I mean Scrotus, to actually act on their principles and join with the Dems in bi-partisanship and oppose him. And vote against anything they can vote against.

Question; So let's say the UK opposition party doesn't like something the 'ruling' party is doing. What power do they have to actually change it? Can they 'veto'? Can they prorogue or dissolve Parliament (or ask the King to)? Can they call for an election off their own backs? Or are they stuck with what the Dems are stuck with; screaming the Heavens down but unable to really DO anything other than stall what they can by delaying votes, lobbying 'across the aisles', and getting out with their constituents and protest?

At this point it appears the only real actions that can be taken are filing lawsuits. And that they are doing, along with various states and organization. But Musk's philosophy of "Move fast and break things" vs a court system that moves at its own pace means that it's going to be a long time before any of this is settled.

cakeorwine · 19/02/2025 07:13

I presume there are attack ads showing the people who Musk has fired and how they have had to have been rehired because of their role protecting people.

And attack ads showing how the things poorer Americans need are being defunded by the Federal Government.

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