Name a better trio than Onion, Garlic & Ginger - Trump Thread #155

[Spandauer]

Blood clot, Announcement, Champagne.

(Shamelessly stolen from @Justsaynonow 's
post on the last thread)

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5482659-whatever-atrocity-is-next-trump-thread-154

Good job she has that Einstein visa.

Melania Trump to lead UN security council session, White House says.
First lady to preside over meeting on ‘children, technology and education in conflict’ in New York next month.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/26/melania-trump-un-security-council?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Don't know if the photo has been manipulated but it was definitely leaked.

From NYT:
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton briefly halted her closed-door testimony before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday afternoon after learning that a Republican attendee had leaked an image from inside the deposition, prompting an eruption in the room as her lawyers vociferously objected.
Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado shared a photograph of Mrs. Clinton answering questions, which was posted on social media by Benny Johnson, a right-wing podcaster. Mrs. Clinton’s attorneys immediately asked to pause the proceedings, noting that the former secretary of state had been denied her request for a public hearing. The deposition resumed about 30 minutes later.

I was pretty clear that I wasn't talking specifics.

I'm referring to the fact that the NHS often denies or skimps on preventative or early care for people, resulting in serious, long-term illness and disability that cost the system, both in medical and social costs, exponentially in the long run.

Very different systems, very different issues, but some similar problems with policies that are penny wise and pound foolish at great human cost.

That's simply not true regarding the follow up and the drugs needed for support following a kidney operation or failure. I speak from personal experience, not myself.

Only in the USA
will the state fund a kidney transplant for a 25 year old too ill to work
but NOT pay for the correct anti rejection drugs
so preventing them ever returning to the workforce
and being back on dialysis at huge cost to the taxpayer
within five years
for the rest of their life
(its been over 20 years so far)

Sigh. I am not talking the specifics of transplants or kidneys, as I've said.

I am saying that the NHS also makes decisions that save money in the first instance but ultimately cost the patient and the system more in later stages.

One of the things I do is help people navigate the system and access various forms of care and support. I haven't run across this specifically, no, but I see, on a daily basis, instances that are not so terribly different to this. i.e. Someone being crippled by RA as they were given a knee replacement but are now slowly becoming incapacitated due to being denied the biologics that are the only thing that keep the RA from flaring. An appeal might eventually work, but the odds are good they'll be completely out of the workforce and housebound before then. Happens every day. Sadly.

i.e. Someone being crippled by RA as they were given a knee replacement but are now slowly becoming incapacitated due to being denied the biologics that are the only thing that keep the RA from flaring. An appeal might eventually work, but the odds are good they'll be completely out of the workforce and housebound before then

Say what? Are you talking about? @user3398721

I certainly wouldn't want you to advocate for me.

Y'know, I'm tired, it's been a long day. I don't know if you're denying the NHS sometimes makes decisions that are fiscally inexplicable in the long-term, and that there are human costs to those decisions, or if you're arguing something else, but I'm not about to spend more time trying to figure it out, not to mention detract from the point of the thread.

And, no worries, I too hope you don't need someone like me advocating for you, because the people who do are generally not leading their best lives. Quite a few people lack the education, the knowledge and sometimes the capacity to advocate for themselves or untangle the system, so I'm happy to help them as best I can.

Three births and three late miscarriages. Psoriasis treatment. Car accident treatment. Treatment for a non malignant tumour. All free and all great.

@user3398721

That's great. I'm glad the system was there for you and functioned in the way it should.

However, if you think that means it always does, or that decisions are not often made in a way that saves money at the first point of contact and ultimately costs more down the line, both fiscally and in terms of human suffering, I think you must be living either under a very lucky star or in a limited information environment. I'm not saying anything new or ground breaking or heretical.

Good night.

The NHS is great but there are definitely issues with short term savings at the expense of much greater costs down the line. That's not always to do with things that fall directly under the NHS remit (and sometimes it's things that should fall under the NHS remit but don't). So cuts to services for older people to keep them active leading to greater costs treating falls etc in hospital (which can cost 10s of thousands potentially. Or the issues of waiting lists for things like knee surgery.
But that's in a different world to America where the system is so different "efficiency" means something completely different. In the NHS maximum efficiency is getting the best treatment/treating the most people for the least public outlay. In any private system maximum efficiency is directing the most money possible to insurance companies (if you are the insurance company)/medical providers (if you are the medical provider)/drug company etc whilst spending as little as possible. So there's competing interests there. But it's about profit for each. So crazy situations like the organ transplant situation isn't the system working badly. It's the system working efficiently.

Trump, Epstein and Maxwell. The three most mentioned names in the files.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gq7vdld80o

So Boebert is basically like a judge in her own courtroom, a courtroom with a strict no photos policy, taking a photo of a witness and sending it to social media.

Is that not contempt of congress ? The very thing they threatened the Clintons with ?

Clinton:

"She said: "It then got, at the end, quite unusual, because I started being asked about UFOs and a series of questions about Pizzagate, one of the most vile, bogus conspiracy theories that was propagated on the internet."
Pizzagate was a conspiracy theory used to smear Clinton when she ran as the Democrat candidate at the 2016 US election."(Sky)

UFOs and Pizzagate.

So while the UK are doing actual police investigations and arrests, and other nations are suspending officials/investigating, the USA Repugs are banging on about UFOs.

We have another war for Trump to wave his magic "war ending" wand at

Pakistan in 'open war' with Afghanistan, Pakistani defence minister says | World News | Sky News

This could be interesting wrt Trump. Because he wants Bagram airbase that the Taliban hold, but he also wants to be pals with Pakistan, while Pakistan get closer and closer to China. And China has courted the Taliban, but the Taliban did pretty much reject China.

So this is potentially a complex China V US influence showdown ?

This post is not Trump really, but an example of his language and methods making it to the UK.

The Manchester election, GB news has this line at the top of it's report.

"Reform UK's Matt Goodwin came in a close second, bettering the party's performance in the 2024 General Election but relegating Labour to third place in an historic wipeout."

Then just below this statement, the results:

• Hannah Spencer (Green Party): 14,980 votes
• Matt Goodwin (Reform UK): 10,578 votes
• Angeliki Stogia (Labour Party): 9,364 votes

Close second ?

And of course, the claims of "fixing" are creeping in

I have no real interest in the election, just the language used in the reporting.

To expand on the Afghanistan / Pakistan war, and at risk of showing myself up for my poor knowledge of geopolitics, I think this is about Balochistan. The province at the west of Iran. But the separatists there claim part of Pakistan and Afghanistan too.

From sky, this snip:

"Khawaja Muhammad Asif said Islamabad's patience had run out as tensions escalated, with casualties reported on both sides.

"Our cup of patience has overflowed," he said in a social media post. "Now it is open war between us and you (Afghanistan)."
He alleged the Taliban had turned Afghanistan "into a colony of India", gathered militants from around the world and begun "exporting terrorism"."

Balochistan separatists have been doing terror attacks against Chinese workers and projects in the south of Pakistan. So China don't like them.

China said this yesterday re Iran:

Chinese FM responds to question of whether China will support Iran alongside Russia if the US attacks Iran - Global Times

"Mao added that China supports the Iranian government and people in safeguarding the nation's interests and legitimate rights. "

Of course they do. And of course India will be all for anything that causes pain for Pakistan. And China will not want a territorial war in Pakistan. Not when they have major road and belt stuff going on there.

I assume Pakistan are pro Iran too, because of this border tribal state.

So this is linked to Trump and Iran ? If he destabilases Iran enough, all hell might kick off.

Note, I take no sides on this. Just saying that this does appear to be a big issue for Trump.

Just a suggestion for the next thread title:

Feeling like a boiled frog? Roll up, roll up and join the rest of us suffering from Trump Exhaustion Syndrome on yet another Trump Thread, #156.

Also the fear mongering about "Muslim Block Voting" (I think the implication is it's the Muslims who have been up to dodgy tricks at the polls)**. Even if every single Muslim had voted the same way after they all got together and agreed it still wouldn't explain the Greens result unless lots of white people and non Muslims voted for them as well. Given Gorton and Denton is 57% white, most white voters and most Non-Muslims didn't vote for reform either.

Attempts are being made however to frame this as an existential conflict between Islamism and good old British values. Which is odd because the right is always banging on about the Muslims wanting to impose Sharia Law but fail to explain why voting for a socially liberal, lefty party will do that.

It's extremely divisive. Other parties can play that game as well. But not to the same level.

**Of course if family voting is happening that needs attention. But there are lots of GB references to "record levels" which means nothing without some idea of numbers. Record levels could mean it happened 5 times or 5000. There don't seem to be any stats for reports in previous elections so maybe it is record levels since records began (1 day ago).

Also it's a bad result for Labour but not being able to come in at even a close second placé isn't great for Reform either given the amount of effort they put in and the fact that the area contains a large number of white working class disillusioned former red wall Labour voters. Reforms natural voting base according to the narrative. But though they beat Labour they can't have done as well as they should have done it those voters had all/mostly swung their way. Most still went to the left.

Yup I got that about Muslim voters. The Reform byelection thread on here is full of it. Straight from the Trump playbook.

I am just Happy that George Galloway was not standing. That fella is a full on CPC/Putin/Authoritarianism shill.

Edit... and Reform too of course.

:-)

George Galloway is awful. But he would never have got anywhere if it weren't for the level of anger caused by the Iraq war. So in a sense he is Labours fault. In a sense I guess Farage is also the fault of mainstream parties but they've been holding tight to the idea Reform is the place disenfranchised voters go for a while now. I have my issues with the Greens but it's good that narrative is being broken. And typical it's being spun as all the fault of Islamism infiltration not the fact not enough people wanted to vote for Reform

Reform's reaction is straight out of the Maga handbook.

I saw that Tommy Robinson was invited back in to the US by the State Dept.

My recollection is that strategy is very high risk. Pushing the suggestion the system is rigged can create a "Why bother" vibe in the thick and lazy.

Most racists are thick and lazy.

Ahh. So his being banned from there for entering on someone else's passport has been lifted ? His convictions overlooked ?

MAGA handbook again I suppose.

It's high risk for the party doing it. It also really bad for democracy overall. Less affluent socio-economic groups already vote at much lower rates than higher socio-economic groups. In part that's probably due to not feeling represented. But that's self fulfilling - parties are more likely to court the vote of groups that vote.

I had a similar disagreement with a young person in my family "all the parties care more about supporting pensioners than young people's problems". Well, that's because pensioners bother to vote - you can't blame them for that.