It Costs A Lot Of Money To Be This Cheap - Trump Thread #169

[Spandauer]

(Title with apologies to Miss Dolly)

Griftin’ 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin’, Truth Social is the lie, it’s all takin' and no givin'.
(Thanks @Jaichangecentfoisdenom)

Tangerine, Tangerine, Tangerine, Tangeriiiiiiiiiine. I'm begging of you please don't bomb Oman.
(Thanks @dapsnotplimsolls)

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5559791-the-reaper-should-have-gone-to-specsavers-trump-thread-168

Trump’s Final Term Ends in: - Countdown Timer

This became highly controversial and was banned or restricted in many jurisdictions

those without a second amendment, I imagine ...

There are already drones that can shoot people (quadrocopters) and AI is already being used to enable drones to behave autonomously in the final stages thus increasing their range and meaning they don't need to be controlled by fibre optic cables always. The autonomous tech has been leaping ahead in Ukraine and I suspect there's progress we don't know about. Drones have also been allegedly used "elsewhere" to target civilians and AI/autonomous computer programmes has also been used to identify targets with little impact from humans (allegedly). So all of those scary possibilities are real and happening now.

Dogs with machine guns though are kind of
.. unnecessary at least to me. Machine guns have a recoil that would presumably push the dogs over or backwards as it ran along trying to fire and they have quite an uneven way of moving. I am sure someone could work really hard and engineer a robot dog with a machine gun that is capable of shooting people by working around those issues but at that point... Why? It's like humanoid robots engineered to work in factory assembly lines. Theoretically possibly and look impressive in a sci-fi way but also the most complicated way of doing things when robots working in factories already exist.

Trump jr's wedding was paid for by a Putin-linked Russian oligarch

His wife confirmed this on X, 'our dear friend Umar'

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metalhead_(Black_Mirror)

and

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hated_in_the_Nation

What a lovely philanthropic, no strings attached gesture!

Thanks for that, @DuncinToffee .

Umar Kremlev, born Umar Lutfulloyev. He's an oligarch close to Putin and a rather new personal friend of Donald Trump Jr.

According to this article, Kremlev paid for parts of the wedding and attended with a bunch of other Russian-speakers, who hung out as a group and puzzled the other attendees. The total guest list was only about 50 people.

' “It was really small, like, just really close friends,” Trump Jr. later said on his podcast. “Tried to keep it really tight. And it was just awesome.” '

The Trumps released lots of photos and videos of the wedding and partying, but the Russian-speakers don't appear in any of them. A friend of the bride posted a group photo on Instagram and the top part of Kremlev's head is just visible in that, but otherwise nada.

Donald Trump Jr.’s Bahamas Wedding Was Secretly Bankrolled by Russian Oligarch Close to Putin
https://www.propublica.org/article/donald-trump-jr-wedding-bankrolled-russian-oligarch-umar-kremlev-putin

https://www.instagram.com/p/DZ5RsMrFRuS/

Also at the wedding...

(Ivanka and Jared)

Guys, it's all a misunderstanding!!!!!

bettinatrump

Apparently our wedding is making headlines again, so a little clarity seems in order.

Don and I got married privately on Friday, surrounded ONLY by our family. It was intimate, deeply personal and one of the most beautiful days of our lives.

The weekend that followed had actually been planned well in advance as a fun weekend with friends. It was never intended to be our wedding weekend. When our original wedding plans changed, we simply decided to get married before it and arrived at an already planned weekend as newlyweds.

Our dear friend Umar very generously hosted two incredible nights of celebrations for us AFTER our wedding. It was an extraordinarily generous wedding gift from a friend, and something for which we were and remain incredibly grateful.

It’s unfortunate that something so personal and happy can be recast as something political or sinister simply because of who someone is or where they come from. Friendship doesn’t require a political motive. Generosity doesn’t automatically come with an agenda. And sometimes a wedding gift is simply a wedding gift.

We are fortunate to have wonderful friends from all over the world, and we will never be embarrassed or apologetic about being grateful for them.

So, for anyone determined not to let the facts get in the way of a good story: NO CONSPIRACY , NO MYSTERY. Just a private family wedding, a wonderful weekend with friends and one hell of a party❣️
And since fake news travels fast, we figured the truth deserved a few pictures
With love and gratitude,
Don & Bettina

Oh, well, that's all right then!

Not the brightest bulb, is she?

Does my memory play me false, or wasn't there that time when one of Trumpledum and Trumpledee decided to "get out ahead of a story" about a meeting with IIRC a Russian lawyer (fixer) ahead of a US election to discuss Russian leaks of US material, believing the material would help them in said election.

Except they got so far out ahead of the story they admitted a whole lot of stuff their Daddy Dearest was still denying, and chucked in a whole lot of other stuff which no one had even suspected them of, for good measure.

Maybe I have details of that wrong... But something like that.

And did it cost Trump an election ?

For sure. It's cyborg/Terminator stuff. But in this case, it is a commercial robot dog, a rip off of the Boston Dynamics robot dog...a Unitree B2, with a standard QBZ-91 rifle bolted on top. And check how the gun is mounted, at the bottom of the pistol grip. Now do the engineering moment calculations of that as 1700 Joules of energy is released per shot. It makes no sense to bolt it where it is bolted.

And it's a bullpup rifle. Check where the mag is. How do they reload it ? It holds 30 rounds. They need take the rifle off the dog. That has implications for zeroing it. And talking of aiming, where is the scope on the rifle with the vision system feeding into the AI to target , and zero the targeting?

It's Hollywood.

Hey, do a cyborg mounted gun. But do it properly with a robust stable platform, and a more reliable gun ( such as belt feed). Maybe add a bit of amour, robot wars style. Lots of ways to do it, much better than this.

Google Unitree B2 robot dog. It's exactly the same. I won't post a link cos I get shops. And Unitree is .... a state owned company. Although they say it's private. But check out the investors.

And that dog is all over Chinese state media. From being a Police dog to search and rescue.

It is propaganda.

See this one here. They seem to have gone for the easier option and just put wheels on it. But they forgot to add a mouth and teeth. So it's a toothless police dog.

Robot dog begins field patrol in Hangzhou, advancing AI powered urban governance - Global Times

It did not. But I think it only came out after the election, and then got tucked away under "it's all a Russia Hoax™".

It was funny to watch, in its own small way.

It's all tht Democrats fault.

https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/trump-linked-ventures-investors-lose-billions-1819529

...
Several investors told Reuters they do not blame the family. Matt is still holding his shares. He believes Democrats and investors hostile to Trump are short-selling the shares, which means betting the price will fall.
...

I'll be honest, I'd still rather be behind it when it fires.

Quote - " It's like humanoid robots engineered to work in factory assembly lines. Theoretically possibly and look impressive in a sci-fi way but also the most complicated way of doing things when robots working in factories already exist."

Yes. And my trade is..... automation engineer. My record is designing a line that had partial automation and 27 operators, to almost full automation and 6 operators. And not a humanoid robot anywhere.

In fact, the humanoid robots I have seen in the media would be terrible for a factory. Who needs a robot that can walk itself to a charging station and plug itself in to recharge ? Just plug it in at it's workstation. And why does it need legs when all you need is it's hands ?

There is loads of stuff that is wrong with this. I want properly designed components rated to millions of cycles. Not consumer level bearings and motors that break after a week.

Robots parking cars at Gatwick

Not humanoid. It's basically a motorized pallet truck. They have been around for yonks.

Applications such as this come down to cost and investment payback as you know. Time will tell if this specific application is vapourware.

Not all robots are humanoid.

And it's an autonomous system

https://www.gatwickairport.com/parking/parking-robotic.html

Notice how it's already providing a little extra for the less able. We live in hope of autonomous cars.

I totally get your point, and I should have specified robot dogs with shooting capability, not necessarily a physical machine gun. I can see the need for a ground covering robot where drones can't operate effectively eg forest. Mind you, they probably already exist.

@SerendipityJane Thank you for the video as I didn't know this. We need it at my gym where those wide luxury suvs take up one and a half spaces to allow the doors to open. Or the owners should change to self parking Teslas. 🤔

That would be worth a debate. If the gun is not in the hands of a human being, is any human being in fact "bearing arms"? If no human being is involved, is anyone exercising second amendment rights? Can an AI have second amendment rights?

My issue with AI is when the tools decide to grab energy or information from Utility service controls
eg water pumping stations

we have all relied on piped water for a few years
and many do not realise how computerised it is

🍊 declares he has a high IQ.

The internet.

Well, Rigor Tortoise aka Mitch McConnell has been spotted!

In a wheelchair leaving his house, loaded into a car and is apparently going to the Capitol.