Has the US crossed the Rubicon? - Trump thread #142

[Spandauer]

Here be dragons.

Previous thread:
www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5307874-are-we-feeling-liberated-yet-trump-thread-141

I have misread this caption every time I have seen this posted.

I’m catching up on all my podcasts from while I was away. I really recommend the Leading interview with Ezra Klein from a few weeks ago. He talks about Vance and that he re-read Hillbilly Elegy during the election. He said the book, with hindsight, reads like a premonition where Vance has turned into everything he criticised those around him as he grew up being - narrow-minded, bigoted, etc.

Solar Panel tariffs? "We don't want no renewable solar energy! We want to burn 'beautiful clean coal' for energy'! I know, let's jack the tariff up to a 3500%!! No one will be able to afford solar!"

Hegseth? "He's shown NO disloyalty to ME, why should I care what he does? Keep him!!!"

Elon is cutting back on his time at DOdGE.

www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0x50yr46lo

As some bright spark commented on SM, once they start burning coal, solar panels won't work anyway! Trump will be taking the US back to Victorian London times. Cough! Cough! Wheeze!

Off to find out which one of his donors made a recent, big investment in US made solar panels.

Koch Industries, a major donor to Republican causes, has invested in the U.S. solar energy sector. In 2021, Koch Engineered Solutions acquired DEPCOM Power, a leading engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) firm specializing in utility-scale solar power plants. Additionally, Koch Strategic Platforms invested $150 million in GameChange Solar, a provider of racking and trackers for utility-scale and commercial solar projects.

Jared Kushner, former senior adviser to President Donald Trump and his son-in-law, has made significant investments in the U.S. solar energy sector through his private equity firm, Affinity Partners. Established in 2021, Affinity Partners received a substantial $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF). It is not clear whether Kushner has any personal investments in solar energy.

Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, a top donor to Trump's 2024 campaign, pledged to invest $2 billion in U.S. manufacturing, including renewable energy projects.

However, Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, a blueprint for a second Trump administration includes detailed plans to roll back the Inflation Reduction Act. It also calls for eliminating renewable energy offices within the Department of Energy as well as other parts of the federal government that support the clean energy industry.
But:
https://www.cfr.org/article/repealing-ira-has-trade-offs-tweaking-it-has-advantages
What's the strategy here then?

Strategy? They have a strategy? (Said in Maureen Lipman's 1988 BT ad voice.)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/22/trump-china-tariffs

I see he's blinked again.

Too late really. Once you’ve revealed yourself as a fascist people won’t forget.

He really is incompetent.

Interesting on Musk. He has become a lot less visible in this last week or two. But reading how tesla's profits have absolutely tanked, reality is hitting. I also read that the China tariffs are hitting Tesla far more than is being said.

I honestly don't think Tesla will repair their image easily, I think it is damaged for good

When I was searching online for @CaveMum's podcast recommendation, I stumbled upon the Why we're getting China dangerously Wrong episode of the Ezra Klein podcast.
tl;dr Trump was bound to blink in his tariff war with China and China knew it.

Musk seems to have dialled back on using the Oval Office as a crèche but on SM there's plenty of photos showing he's still at all the Mar a Lago tacky sparkly dinners and schmoozing events.

Agree that for many potential car purchasers, Tesla is not going to be anywhere near as popular as it was and the company will struggle to shake off the bad smell.

In case you haven’t found it, here you go:

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/leading/id1665265193?i=1000703158206

I can hear her now.

Yep, this. He's give up the wrong job. Joining the Trump Swamp is a one-way ticket and he'll never escape the consequences.

Rightly so, given the consequences so many other people are suffering.

Meanwhile, he has almost every American citizen's deepest, darkest personal data. The consequences of that are going to be played out in the decades to come.

Whatever data his has - unless he has connected a real time pipeline into it - will be slowly decaying exponentially in his grasp.

"Never underestimate the predictability of stupidity"

A recurring motif in the lives of those who outsource their thinking to others is the total inability to comprehend the effects of time. Everything changes. Including people.

Sure, but what he has will be enough to do damage we can as yet only imagine.

I have in mind the sort of uses to which Cambridge Analytica put Facebook data, or which Ancestry was trying to do with the genetic data it harvests from mugs who pay for DNA ancestry tests. But I'm sure they'll manage to come up with creative new horrors.

Also the decaying of the data will cause its own problems, where people are misidentified or mislabelled according to an out-of-date "Computer says".

If Kara Swisher is right, it's all eventually being fed into his AI database. Presumably so he can monetise selling yourself back to you once the singularity has been reached and we're all hooked up to neuralink. Or something.

But you know, the black lady had a weird laugh.

Your first para made me laugh! I saw footage recently of Trump get in the beast car, and in climbs the 4 yo and is jumping around inside. Musk dad hasn't even walked down the plane steps so Trump had to cope with a 4yo on his own for a few minutes. It was hilarious, given Trump was hands off with his own kids let alone anyone else's!

https://bsky.app/profile/altnps.bsky.social/post/3lngagr2fhk22

The assault on Art continues. I say put trackers on the good stuff so they can be recovered after they disappear into Mar a Largo.

It didn't take long for this 21st Jan 2025 article on US fascism to become redundant, did it?

https://www.newstatesman.com/international-politics/2025/01/can-the-united-states-resist-fascism

I heard the black lady was going to tank the economy.

I really do despair at the BBC.
They have clearly done no research.

Musk could only stay in post until 30th April without Senate confirmation.
That has been known since January (and before)

Yes. We've had a very narrow escape.

I know! I mean can you imagine the chaos if folk still had all of their rights and other awful things like that.