Panda-monium - Trump Thread #170

[Spandauer]

Mid-terms looming, approval falling, prices rising, wars ongoing - Ping Ping and Fu Shuang must be wondering what heinous crime they committed to be banished chosen as envoys of friendship between China and USA. 🐼🐼

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5572772-it-costs-a-lot-of-money-to-be-this-cheap-trump-thread-169

Trump’s Final Term Ends in: - Countdown Timer

I have several competing theories.

1. Iran wanting to punish the UK for allowing airbase use
2. US false flag to get the UK to join in
3. ditto Israel
4. Russia just to create chaos
5. Random nutjob groups for god knows what idiotic reason but they think it's a good idea
6. hare coursing/dog fighting/ badger baiting gangs out to intimidate farmers with arson.

TBH I'm discounting 3 & 4 because I'd expect a much higher level of professionalism.

Asking for a friend.

1. Is a tiny goatee under the bottom lip defined as a beard
2. What about extra long and bushy sideburns going down the jawline
3. Will females with a light menopausal beard be forced to resign

AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!AAAAHHHHHH!!!!! <runs screaming to the liquor cabinet>

PS the price of diesel in my state is just crazy, currently around $8.50/gal, some Bay Area stations are charging $9.00+. National average is around $4.75-$6.50. It's craaaazzy!!

I've just been thinking about what is so next level about Trump and MAGA in general's lies.

I don't actually like the line about 'all politicians are liars'. I think all politicians pretty much overpromise and/or their solutions to problems are the wrong ones, but I think most of them do at least intend to do what they say.

Not so Trump, he just knows what the suckers want to hear - cheaper eggs, lower inflation - but he can't be arsed to even think of how to deal with that. He'll just keep saying that he has done it or will do it soon. Aside from the performative cruelty - he and his ilk know it's easy to look like you're doing something if you just mistreat vulnerable groups more and take away money and services from the people you've told everyone are bad (say, homeless people) or worthless (eg people in the developing world). And the ICE/Immigrant stuff they will make an effort to do because they're racist and the enjoy it and it doesn't have to have any positive outcome for them to claim they've 'done something'/

He is just like the dumbest school jock imaginable.

Yeah, for a guy who went to Princeton and Harvard he does dumb (or is it dum?) extremely well.

It's a bit surprising he was willing to accept Trump lackey (and holder of billions of dollars worth of defense contracts) as one of his new board of war, or whatever it is, alongside Gingrich and Husk

At a Republican rally, Vice President JD Vance said Florida state Rep. Angie Nixon (D) “doesn’t belong in America.” She is facing Ashley Moody (R) in the U.S. Senate race.

I do wonder what it could possibly be about Ms Nixon, who was born in Jacksonville Florida that makes her unsuitable in Vance's eyes. Hmmm. I really just have no idea.

What I find odd about it all is the "please do not speculate" thing the cops always say. I just had a quick look, and they are not saying it. They are doing it.

And this story just goes to show why speculating is bad. Because Trump came out the blocks with his verdict done and dusted, most of us speculated that he was speculating, or just making it up, and now I find myself speculating that no matter what, the cops will try to fit whatever it was that happened into what Trump speculated it is.

Countr girl, you missed out Carp robbers from your list. There are lots of carp fisheries in that area. But now having seen your list, I want to expand your number 6. I want to add bare knuckle fighting. Because near every Guy Ritchie plot has bare knuckle fighting. And I reckon the cops have him working on the case now.

Good job her name's not Usha.

Hi all, been away for a few days so just place marking to catch up.

Also catching up on TRIPUS and gobsmacked to hear Hegseth’s hate speech, but reassured that it sounds like everyone in the White House, bar Trump, hates him.

I'm also a wary about speculating, but quietly have my money on (1) or (4).

The attack method du jour by Russia and now Iran is to hire local numpties to commit crimes/disruption. The numpties don't always know exactly who's hiring them or the full details of the job. They get told: set fire to this address; graffiti this slogan on that building.

Information now in the public domain:
– vans with a fake fuel company name;
– the police bailed the 5 guys caught on site;
– the apparent fact one of the guys called 999 an hour before the farmer;
– some other person, a British/Iranian dual national, has now been arrested in London "on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cmdx5xw36492o

So of course I don't know, but one could construct a story which fits this info whereby the British/Iranian national was involved in hiring a bunch of petty thieves to go do a fuel robbery at RAF Fairford, providing them with branded vans and a map location – but not the info that it was a military base.

The organiser's intention being that the break in to steal fuel would constitute an attack on the base.

It could be that the numpties got there, twigged what their target was, and got cold feet. Then one of them got so concerned he called 999, or he was undercover and always intending to raise the alarm.

Whether or not this particular incident does turn out to be such a proxy attack, there's certainly been a lot of it going on.

A weird criminal attack, where the first details don't seem to make sense.

Then further information comes out and it becomes clear it was numpty proxies directed by an organised, hidden, malicious actor.

So, Scrotus & Vance hitting the campaign trail hard for the next month. Sounds like Scrotus' speeches are the usual diatribe against Biden and a paean to himself with a couple of throwaway comments on the person he's supposedly campaigning for (and a few insults when it came to Paxton in TX). Vance seems to be doing a better job at actual campaigning for the candidates rather than praising himself.

https://www.scrippsnews.com/politics/trump-and-vance-hit-the-campaign-trail-in-deep-red-areas-where-gop-candidates-seek-a-boost

Useful explainer on what and who is in play re the midterms. Whether the Dems can do it...?

www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2026/oct/02/midterm-races-control-congress-charts-visuals?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

If I were the Dems I would very strongly be playing two messages right now:

• GOP will are going to, in the very least question, or at the worst fully overturn results where Dems make big gains, or even call a state of emergency to prevent the midterms.
• They will create pressure to end the war in Iran and get people's fuel back/affordable (tbh, I don't know how possible this is)

That last one is important. Because right now fuel costs will probably be the top thing infuriating Trump's core vote. Freedom to drive is everything to this demographic. Saying you'll get fuel supplies affordable and that Trump wants to prevent that happening by overturning/refusing the midterms results is messaging that helps reduce support for GOP cheating.

Can you have too much Sarah Paine ?

Decline of the US compared to Brexit ...

I've been absent for few days. Has Trump's Super intelligent AI platform been discussed? The one that on its launch day answered "Biden" to the question Who won the 2020 election but now declines to answer the question.

Apologies that I can't remember where I read this, but Russia's misinformation strategy for the future includes using other people's AI chatbots.

The plan is to deliberately seed misinformation on the internet in places where the chatbot will pick it up and process it. The chatbot then launders the misinformation, repeating it to unsuspecting enquirers without identifying sources.

OK lots of people already believe any old shit they read on the internet. But this practice will further degrade the likelihood of a reader hunting down sources to assess the reliability of information.

The plan is to deliberately seed misinformation on the internet in places where the chatbot will pick it up and process it.

I thought that was well underway. Anyone spending money to make AI shite really is wasting it. AI can manage to enshittify itself quite capably thank you.

In fact trying to deliberately seed AI with crap could backfire and trigger Ai to clean itself up.

I'd leave well alone myself.

Seeding misinformation for direct consumption and for chatbots is definitely Russia's current strategy too, but there's a big expansion of this planned (and probably already underway).

Was AI developed for mass public consumption?

It feels like UPFs

Honestly it's totally unnecessary. And rather suggests that Russia don't really know how AI works.

The main thing is while Trump was still speaking about this wondrous new America.gov ai (sorry si) site, journos were asking it pertinent questions which trump normally lies about. Then his eejits finally realised that his chat bot wasn't singing from his hymn sheet, and tweaked its answers
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-ai-2020-election-biden-b3058984.html

As Armando Ianucci ("AI") learned, ChatGPT will really push answers it thinks you want to hear over the reality. That's not a flaw or bug. It's exactly what it was programmed to do. This is why it hallucinates. The metric to provide an answer outweighs the metric that knows you will be disappointed if it doesn't know.

Tearing down the Oval Office? Trump says he rejected Secret Service plan

Did Trump have a fever dream?

https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/10/01/trump-take-down-oval-office/92036769007/