On and On and On It Goes - Trump thread #148

[Spandauer]

It's been 9 horrible months and I find myself looking back on those "eating the cats and dogs" days with nostalgia.

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5392716-grotesque-greedy-gullible-graceless-gaslighting-gormless-god-forsaken-grifter-trump-thread-147

She did over the Epstein files release.

From CNN Utah Governor Cox confirms

Investigators have been interviewing Robinson's roommate, with the official saying "there appears to be a romantic relationship" and that the roommate is transitioning from male to female. The roommate has been cooperating, but there still is "not a solid understanding" of how that personal relationship are factors, the official said.

Asked on CNN how the roommate transitioning was relevant to the suspect’s motive, Cox said, “That’s what we’re trying to figure out right now.”

So bizarre but true

Maybe US trans activists will have to worry about more than pronouns now.

Don't you just hate it when you agree with the orange one

https://bsky.app/profile/patriottakes.bsky.social/post/3lysipwu4fk2e

WTF

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly7wzp23lpo
Fourteen staff members at a US animal shelter have been taken to hospital after the FBI used an incinerator at the facility to burn two pounds of seized methamphetamin

What do you expect when the current head of the FBI has shit for brains and we all know that shit flows downwards.

Roommate in American English is a flatmate in UK English.

Nicely camouflaged stairs, there. Just enough to be a bit humiliating, like.

Thanks for the reciprocal translation, @YankTank .

Teamwork!

Ah - you had me worried he’d said something about his policies, personal views - which would have blown my mind too much!
But yeah - I can get on board with this 🤣

Some SM posts are saying that Erika Kirk's statement on the loss of her husband was really a career launch.

The Utah governor has said Robinson is not cooperating so all their assumptions come from other sources.

Musk will tell us what to believe.

The Telegraph is a right wing newspaper but interesting to see how some people in Germany are viewing CK's killing.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/0db3a5e2a0ff476c

Wow - I did have concerns of AI being able to be accurate tbh due to I think just mining stuff out there without ‘thought’
Now I have bigger concerns of AI being manipulated by rich guys with agendas. Shocking but not surprising is the term I think.

This is chilling;

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/12/uc-berkeley-trump-administration-antisemitism

This is a horrifying report. Maternal deaths in Afghanistan predicted to rise by 50% this year, with newborn deaths already up a third.

Of course the blame lies with the Taliban after they banned the training of new midwives and the restrictions on women being able to access adequate healthcare, but Trump et al must shoulder some of the blame with their cuts to USAID who ran several of the clinics for women in rural areas.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckgqdneev1no

I exercising my free speech to state that Henry Donovan appears to be a bit of a pillock.

That was my take, too.

On a personal level, becoming a widow – especially like that and so young – is appalling.

Professionally, being a high-status widow can be one of the most powerful positions a woman can hold when in a highly patriarchal, mysogynist culture. Widows are seen as subsumed in and the continuity of their late husband's identity, rather than a dangerous example of women achieving things on their own personal merit in equality with men. They do not constitute the female class posing a threat to the male class. What this means is that when a widow is in fact talented in her own right she can conduct her own career under the cover of carrying out her husband's wishes, or (in a different context) of not allowing his business to fail.

This has been true in patriarchal societies since year dot.

I only know a little about Erika Kirk, but what I know is a series of little flags. So I think she's probably an intrinsically talented woman who until now has been careful only to express that talent in ways socially acceptable to her group. Now she can take the lid off.

Yes but relevance no longer matters with those who gleefully froth at the mouth and somehow insist this was a trans activated murder of a man who held disgusting right wing extremist views that ultimately damage women and girls. Also left wing extremism because no trans person is ever Conservative.

Kirk's assassination was horrific.

Yes, I'm seeing a lot of mileage being got out of the line that "his only mission was to debate".

It's not true, of course.

There are organisations whose sole purpose is to debate: toastmaster's clubs, Cambridge Union, etc. If you ask what the political position of any of these organisations is on climate change, or the trinitarian nature of a Christian god, they will look at you blankly – because they do not have a position. Their job genuinely is to facilitate debate by folk who do take positions.

Turning Point USA is a proselytising organisation. It has beliefs and positions, and it exists to propagate those beliefs and positions.

I haven't had much time to research this, but from what I've seen, it uses a variety of formats to proselytise. One format is essentially pulpit preaching (Kirk's podcast show). Another format is "debates", which are akin to push-polling.

From what I've seen so far, it's been very slickly done. Even the choice of "Prove me wrong" as a slogan is clever. It arouses the superficial feeling that this is an open discussion. But the moment you pay a bit more attention, you realise much of what Kirk was saying was not fact-based (indeed he repeated stuff in defiance of facts), but belief-based. And belief-based stuff isn't really susceptible of being proved wrong.

Eg If you say, "I believe god wants you to wear pink socks," then it is quite true that you believe this. I can't prove that you don't. But conversely you can't prove that god actually does want me to wear pink socks. Fortunately, you've set it up with the slogan "prove me wrong", so that the onus is on me to do the proving.

It's very clever.

Referring back to the USAID cuts, this will be happening across the world. In Afghanistan, its being compounded by their genocidal laws against women, so there are no new midwives or ways to get help. The Taliban may end up getting exactly what they want - a country with less and less women in it.

I have serious doubts about the efficacy of AI but ironically something that you would expect Grok to be good at is identifying political memes given that it was apparently trained in 4Chan of all things. And that is basic pattern recognition
that's all irrelevant anyway because Musk will just make it say what he wants

Don't let the grift drift.

re room mate

in many US universities dorms are tiny flats. a couple of bedrooms shared between 2 or 4 people, a bathroom and a common room.