His MAGAsty Meets His Majesty - Trump Thread #163

[Spandauer]

America's very own mad king.
Oh, the irony.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ERYukmba5Vg

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5518997-schrodingers-strait-trump-thread-162a?page=1

Louisiana is in a bit of a pickle
GOP redistricting confuses voters and burdens election officials | AP News

There is a thread on it. TBH, I am feeling a bit washed out with all the pro reform threads ( below is not though), and all the "we are a Christian nation" posts.

Oh Lord! Kent County Council | Mumsnet

Yes. It stuck me, as usual, about how impressive the numbers are when I was watching the Scottish election result feed. How impressively similar they are in terms of total votes. The folk who do the UK election boundaries do a really good job of it.

The US however. Wow, just wow.

Img att.

Yes, I have spotted that too.
We are going backwards in time faster than the speed of light.

Divide and you shall conquer.

Now, few things are more divissive that the detailed rules of religions. It is all very personal and subjective indeed.

Instead of moving forward on separating politics and money (because we do need to be ridden of people like Trump, don't we?), there is this vibe of trying to bring religion back into full on politics. But it is not the "known" version of religion to those who actually practice it ( see Hegseth Bible quote, for example).
It is all quiet weird.

Maybe they could focus on getting on with the laws of their country and international. They cannot get that right, either. And that is not subjective!

Wow.

Neighbours voting in completely different areas then?

There was a ward boundary running through our garden when we moved here, and (as both DH and I are ex-LA) we asked Electoral Services - they were already reviewing it.
If i'd moved into our shed, I'd have a different local councillor to DH in the house. 😁

those boundaries look like extreme geographical reasons, like unaccessible mountains/lakes

It's a shame the first US civil was was so genteel. It clearly didn't learn them.

It's something I follow. Or I should say did follow. USA anyway.

For example, how the evangelicals are anti abortion of course. But some Jewish groups consider abortion a religious requirement (Numbers 5), so off to court then.

Church of Satan. Not a religion. A freedom from religion group who make good points about religious freedom. But many evangelicals just don't get it.

Ten commandments in Texas schools, teaching creationism in schools alongside evolution. All that stuff. Evangelical anti fornication book laws in Florida, that backfired and got the Bible banned from schools. All that stuff.

And Trump made the evangelicals his base.

No. They are mostly politicians picking this estate, that street. that area. And it does not help that when it gets to higher courts that the judges are mostly political appointments.

I do understand that we are all entitled to an opinion, but for me, there is also the issue of fairness.

Iran did not start this war and when they reopened the SoH to friendly nations, subject to the end of US blockade it was the US who did not accept that and kept up their blockade because they say they want a political deal as well.

I know that this is a simplistic view atm, but we have discussed its intricacies many times since the start of the war. In terms of the war on its own, not what the Iranian Regime is doing to its people, not the varying US reasons for it, but the war itself, I have no problem with a country defending itself, with all the means at its disposal, when it is being attacked.

The continuing existence of three immoral regimes is separate discussion .

Absolutely true story.

Decades ago, when I was on the Committee of a dual Scottish/X social club which did a lot of charity fundraising in the O&G community, my local council, in their bid to be all things to all men in the name of Equality, wrote to us asking whether the funeral practices of members were catered for.

I had the joy of replying that as X country had a considerable number of Hindus and the bodies of their deceased were burned in the open, on a small island about 200yards from shore, I didn't think that this would be possible in Scotland as the open cremation would have to be done on a public beach. Not a peep followed my response.

Now I want to be on the Kent County Council committee. Freedom of religion means freedom for all religions. I hear that Rastafarianism is a religion, and can smell the weed in council chambers as I type.

Hummm, I do not accept shooting commercial ships as defence.
I do get that they use the Strait as leverage in the unfair, indeed, war on them. But shooting cargo ships equals defending yourself in a war?.. not for me.

And the remaining Iranian embassies could give it a rest to call for martyrs, let's say.
Of course I agree Iran should not have been attacked. But this does not make the Iranians squeaky clean.

Fair enough, but when the US attacked commercial vessels it wasn't defending itself.

That's what they say when they shoot up speed boats off the coast of South America. Then make a pass to shoot survivors in the water.

Yeah, that's a whataboutism. But this is a general Trump thread, and not Iran war specific. And what he is doing off South America is really enough to earn him an ICC arrest warrant.

From The Atlantic:

Checkmate in Iran.
Washington can’t reverse or control the consequences of losing this war.
https://archive.ph/3UIBI

Depressing.

ironically the game of chess is of persian origin...

This stuff about Iran charging got me wondering. After all, Turkey charges. So is it really a massive affront to all if Iran do.

And it turns out the USA have an act going through now that would allow them to charge Chinese ships entering US ports. That's per ton of cargo. Not a pilotage fee.

SHIPS for America Act – another unexpected headache for shippers already feeling tariff and port fee pain (xeneta.com)

"A USD 5 per ton fee for ships owned or operated by Chinese carriers, as well as ships registered in China.

There will also be a USD 5 per ton fee for ships operated by non-Chinese carriers if more than 50% of new vessels on order are being built at a designated ‘foreign shipyard of concern’."

It's all a bit convoluted, but it appears to be an update to the Jones act. That's the one that says only US crews on US ships can sail between US ports. Trump has suspended that just now, cos of the war.

This new act is basically saying they want US built ships carrying cargo to the USA. Ultra protectionism ?

And the surprising thing is who introduced this bill. I will cut and paste the names from the bill. Senator Mark Kelly / Senator Todd Young Congressman John Garamendi / Congressman Trent Kelly

Here is the bill.

SHIPS-for-America-ActSection-by-Section12.19.24.pdf (senate.gov)

So yeah. Iran could maybe cut and paste this act and change a few things and say.... look. Pay please.

I suppose that's the thing with preaching from a high horse. Other nations might have just as high a horse to complain from.

There's also a 'toll' levied by Egypt on using the Suez canal

Sure. But that is a canal. It is not a natural sea. So capital investment and upkeep etc.

Oh. Looking this up I see that Turkey has not signed nor ratified UNCLOS. So that takes it out of the conversation really. It's still under the 1936 Montreux Convention.

Gets confusing.

And I hit a brick wall trying to find what part of UNCLOS applies. UNCLOS has been blocked again where I am.

The only "good" thing to come from this utter shit show, is Trump knows that this is what he will remembered for. A total and utter embarrassing fuck up that screwed the whole world over.

Nothing that the US has done is defensive. All attack.
There is no reason for US to have attacked Iran.
But... well, long are the days when Trump changed his "reasoning" every five minutes.

So unfortunately, it sounds as if Farage and Reform are using the MAGA playbook tactic of 'start small and work your way up'.

One of the things that the Dem Party missed here was that MAGA was working to 'stock' city and county councils, school boards, mayoral offices, hell even the dog catcher. MAGA realized that 'mighty oaks from little acorns grow' and that local governments can make big changes.

The Dem party pooh pooh'd those tactics as ineffectual. Obviously not.

Ok.... I swear I had missed this.
I have just googled it. So US military is shooting boats, involved in drugs dealing, but at a higher than usual occurrence, is it? With 181 people killed since September in Latin American waters?

I have not spottedthis reported in UK.