Who are they kidding? It's Oil, Oil, Oil, baby - Trump Thread #152

[Spandauer]

Back on US soil, an American citizen in a peaceful neighbourhood is gunned down by masked agents sent there to make people afraid.

Despicable, wretched people lying, lying, lying - all day, every day, about everything.

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5458156-war-crimes-and-peace-prizes-trump-thread-151?page=1

It's amazing how quickly people adapt when the software rug is pulled out under them. I agree; it would be painful. If Trump hit the button, put up trade barriers and imposed tariffs, we would hurt; no question. But Europe is a continent that takes a lot to piss off and carries very long memories. We would change, trade with each other (I suspect this would bury most of Brexit in the process) and carry on. If America wants an independent rival, thats a great way to go. I'm sure China and India will still trade with us.

I think America grossly underestimates European resilience. We've been through a lot worse.

It's not just the software. It's all the US hosted services.

US law requires any US company to hand over any data it can access regardless of where it is stored. That cannot be contractually negated.

If you use any US company then your data belongs to the US government. No matter what you think. Or more accurately what your compliance department have been bribed to think.

Use Office 365 ? Guess who can have your data ?
Use Google ? Guess who can have your data ?
Use AWS ? Guess who can have your data ?
Use Apple ? Guess who can have your data ?

And there is nothing you can do to stop it.

(UK victims) does your local authority use any US services ? Guess who can have your data ?

Seems there is no way to enforce the Epstein transparency act.

What a shame.

Here he goes again

I really hope no one caves on this. Crawling and wheeling out Prince Charles has gotten us nowhere.

And where and how will he find the money to ‘buy’ Greenland?

He can raid his Qatari oil account

Very curious to read a response, if any from Starmer on this.

I hope we choose Europe

The US tends to end wars in profit

#justsayin'

Perhaps the long term effect of Trump will be to break the near monopoly power of US tech firms. Which wouldn't be a bad thing.

Meanwhile, at home, their legal brilliance continues

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/man-charged-with-pointing-laser-marine-one-acquitted_n_696bb597e4b043a36423476b

..."journeyed to Greenland, for purposes unknown"... is he channelling his inner Hans Christian Andersen now?

Burst the US tech bubble, maybe?

I have already heard people say that the US is going from superpower to mere world power.

Dont you mean global laughing stock!

Well not to their face.

However "superpower" is a fairly clear concept. It means an entity that is capable of conducting parallel independent strategic and military campaigns, as opposed to an entity which is only capable of a single strategic and military campaign.(My paraphrasing).

When NATO eases the US out, it will pretty much have lost it's European capability.

Birthday treat for US's version of Lindow Man Pete Marsh?

Roadkill?

I hope Starmer tells him he can fuck right off. We won't be blackmailed and held hostage to the whims of a madman.

What a fucking clown.

More than 200,000 Danish citizens have signed a petition to buy California as a response to Trump’s attempt to take Greenland.

They say they will provide Californians with “rule of law, universal health care, fact-based politics, and a lifetime supply of Danish pastries.”

Combative tone from Keir Starmer on the Trump tariffs tonight, as he stands up for Greenland/Denmark.

"Applying tariffs on allies for pursuing the collective security of NATO allies is completely wrong. We will of course be pursuing this directly with the US administration."

I thought that would be an automatic result of getting out of NATO, because being a superpower relies on having allies, and the NATO countries are the US' allies. If they are gone, then the USA will have to stand alone and naked of treaties with most of the rest of the world. (And the places they don't have treaties with at present are likely not to love them all that much: Cuba, most of Africa, most of Latin America...)

I can only imagine the next tranche of Epstein files are explosive. If they ever come out

It's important to take a genuine laughing break (not one of disbelief at what's coming out of the WH) every now and again.
This was in @walllaw 's article from the Huffington Post and I immediately imagined a Blackadder sketch.

In the most high-profile case, a D.C. man was charged with assaulting a U.S. Border Patrol agent after hitting him in the chest with a turkey sandwich from Subway. A grand jury declined to return a felony indictment in the case, so Pirro’s office pursued a misdemeanor assault charge against him. A D.C. jury found him not guilty as well.

Realistically, what can Trump expect from his application of "pressure politics" aka tariffs re Greenland?

Is Greenland flooding the news cycle partly a distraction from the odd Gaza Board of Peace composition or just serendipitous?

... Epstein files, what Epstein files?

You are asking this about a guy who is famous for not paying his bills ?