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

And of course if you declare something… so the cognitive tests have been for Mensa? 🤣

I sure hope this link works. it's hilarious!

https://x.com/Suzierizzo1/status/2099340952603185515/video/1

A fool and his money etc etc

This just in: SCOTUS blocks Scrotus'mail in voting restrictions. (Rachel on MsNOW)

A lot of us were really sweating this one and it's come as a bit of a very very happy surprise.

ETA link

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/09/14/supreme-court-blocks-trump-mail-in-ballot-plan-01076079

That is good to hear. It sounded like blatant manipulation ahead of the midterms.
Time is running out for any more stupidity hopefully

I am no fan of AI, but I can maybe help ease your mind a bit on this. I know almost nowt about water supplies, but I do know how such automation works. Apologies if this is stuff you know.

Systems such as water supply do have a top level PC control system, and yes they can be hacked and shut down, but they can't be "fiddled with", for example to poison the water. Because the top level control does the monitoring and has limited control, but there are loads of subsystems, not PC controlled. They are PLC controlled. And in a well-designed system, that is where the safety interlocks are. And they can't be over-ridden by the master control. They need someone to physically go in and flick a switch. before they can be reprogrammed. In a different language.

When we have had water scares in the past, and boil water warnings etc, that comes from physical things. A broken pipe, or an operator physically pouring the wrong treatment chemical into the wrong tank at the treatment station.

Moving from water that I do not know, to factory automation, that I do know. The terminator "rise of the Machines" scifi scenario where a computer program takes over a factory and makes "killer robots" can't happen. Because there is a massive number of separate systems with no reprogramming interface between them. These robot arms for example are manually programmed by someone with a programming device. The next level control up, the module PLC can only tell the robot arm to go, or stop And the robot can pass error signals back.. It cant reprogram it. They use a different language. And the next level up from the PLC, is the same. Different language and limited interface. Add in cost of course. The factories in these films would simply be too expensive. Because why would a company spend loads of money a system giving the master control direct programming connections to a motor control, for example, when there is no cost effective reason for doing so ? Yes, I know PLCs can be programmed remotely, but it needs people at the PLC side to flick a switch.

And then there is the estop system. Push that red mushroom button, and by law that is a physical mechanical switch arrangement that needs physical input to reset.

I HAVE A NEW NICKNAME FOR TRUMP.

I just done a post on another thread, and I wrote that Trump is so anti green that a weedkiller could be named after him. That kicked in memory associations or whatever they are called, so from now on, my name for Trump is.....

Agent Orange.

Does that work ?

I think it does.

Remember, you saw it here first.

:-)

Re humanoid robots - that Mitch McConnell one is incredibly realistic

Good news!
Presumably they'll push forward with this for 2028 though?

I see Agent Orange is doubling down on his $5k

Tuesday, September 15, 202612:02 AM Truth Social

Just like I delivered on the Great Big Beautiful Bill, which everyone said was impossible to pass, and the $1,776 to our great Military Warriors, I will get the $5000 for adult citizens if the Republicans win the House and Senate. JUST GET OUT AND VOTE!!! President DJT

I wonder if printer girl/iPhone girl/ ballroom girl have shown him the sums yet ?

WTAF? How can he get away with this?

It's vibes and showmanship, just like in WWE. Nobody expects him to do it, except perhaps for a few hard core Trump supporters who would vote for him anyway,

Sorry, Alan: I've been been calling him that on and off since 2017.

He will deliver on this promise just like he delivered on the previous two.

That is, he won't.

Meh.

So far we have seen zero consequences for anyone in the administration who has defied a court ruling. Indeed wasn't there a story that despite the injunction the USPS was happily continuing to implement Trumps demands ?

Nothing I have read or heard suggests that won't continue.

GLORIOUS, reminds me of the old Renault Clio ads

@RedTagAlan
re AI - you gave it away with "in a well designed system"

there have already been cases of the Iranians and Russians hacking into water works in the USA and messing with chemical feed controls.
Pushing a system into "service" mode rather than "supply" mode is eminently doable
and I do not doubt that the AI agents would do it if they found the vulnerability and thought it helped the task they have been set.

Far, far too many Utility systems have been built "safety as an afterthought"

Whoah, Mitch is alive??

"It's life Jim, but not as we know it."

With apologies to Star Trek.

I have worked on some US machines/ auto lines, and I can conform many do not meet UK safety specs. E-stops just having a supply feed through a normally closed contact and the like. In the UK e-stops need to go through an approved safety monitor. Many US machines, just pull the e-stop button out and the system is energized again. Uk, it's pull the button out AND press a physical N/O button.

From what I have seen, limited experience, the US can be a bit sloppy with H&S that way. So I am not disagreeing with you.

Oh, and what does Agent Orange and his gang do ? They work on reducing safety specs. Because the companies do not like paying for safety. Because it can be, and is, expensive.

Putting this t-shirt here to lower the tone again.

Or something similar, I'm sure. I do think that some of that will depend on the midterms. If a blue wave, definitely. If the GOP retains both houses, then probably, especially if a lot of the MAGA hardliners lose.

https://www.npr.org/2026/09/14/nx-s1-5962190/supreme-court-mail-in-voting-trump

It's interesting. The ruling was that the USPS doesn't have the authority to oversee mail in voting, period. But Kavanaugh concurred but added his own opinion;

"(T)here is at least a fair prospect that the final rule falls within the Postal Service's statutory authority." But, he added, "applying the rule in the 2026 elections would be arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act because state and local election officials do not have sufficient time to reasonably implement the rule before the elections."

So (per usual) Kavanaugh appears to be trying to give the Administration a 'crack in the door' to try again. But any new EO or 'vehicle for change' would require new reasons/grounds and I think a new methodology for implementation. If it's basically the same as this case, then it will be an issue of 'res judicata' and the prior SCOTUS decision will apply.

He can't. Not on his own. POTUS doesn't have the power to willy nilly issue checks. The 'power of the purse' rests with Congress. Unless he's completely deluded (a real possibility) he either thinks the GOP in Congress will simply rubber stamp this as they have done with some prior 'rebates'/'bonuses' we've gotten in the past or he thinks that 'his word is law' and that he does have the power to order it.

Or, and the most likely, is that it's a big fat lie and he knows it.

The trick is to not use the USPS to handle mail in ballots, but use an in state method that is outwith the clutches of the federal government.