America - take over

[littlebilliie]

There is a LOT going on in America today

From Washington Post

"Billionaire Elon Musk’s deputies have gained access to a sensitive Treasury Department system responsible for trillions of dollars in U.S. government payments after the administration ousted a top career official at the departmentt_, according to three people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe government deliberations."

Project 2025 is being carried out.
Even the EOs that the feminists are happy about are part of it.

This is "a bad thing"

Not all feminists by the way. Many of us aren’t in line with so-called ‘GC’s and not even all of the gender board are in favour of what Trump is doing.
Although a worrying number are.

@GrammarTeacher
I am pleased with the two gender EOs - they are beautifully written by a lawyer who knows her stuff.
I doubt that Trump has actually read them.

I did not vote for Trump because I read HCR and have read Project 2025.

Trump has just reiterated his desire to turn Canada into the 51st state!
Things are going to get much, much worse and it’s not hysterical to point it out.

I am even more convinced that he is literally insane. He thinks he can ' buy ' Greenland, reclaim the Panama Canal.and take Canada as an American state. He is delusional ! Why can't they find an American president that is of sound mind ! It can't be that hard surely !

I don't know why anyone in the UK is bothered by this. It's not our country, he's not our president and we can do fuck all about it.

If you think that global political events don't affect everyone's lives you are blissfully naïve

He would argue he is of sound mind. The USA is the most powerful country in the world. If they wanted to do all of those things they could and it's unlikely anyone could stop them.

Trump wants to put that power to use, to bully other countries into giving him something. He isn't seriously going to invade Canada but he can use the USA's power to get financial concessions from Canada and other countries. That is what he is doing.

Well if course HE thinks he is of sound mind . What else would you expect.
And you seriously think he could waltz in and take Canada? And everyone would just shrug their shoulders . Ditto Greenland ?
So like Putin expected to you mean ?

Because we are a global society and when America sneezes, Britain catches the cold. We have economic and cultural relationships with the States that go back centuries, all of which is impacted if the USA take a deep dive into fascism.

Extremely naive.

Bear with me on this it’s relevant. In 2017 I was on the QM2 doing a transatlantic crossing. Cunard has an enrichment programme with high quality speakers. There were c2500 passengers and the theatre holds c1000.

The speaker was a White House Press Correspondent, he filled the theatre beyond capacity with people sitting on the stairs and standing as he was brilliant.

He explained that when the presidents change over the departing president takes all the White House staff with them. Normally the incoming president has prepared for this by having a full team ready to go and fully briefed. In 2016/17 Trump didn’t have this and rapidly had to get people in place.

I believe he struggled in his first term because of this but Trump, or his team/family, learned from this. For 2020/21, and then 2024/25 Trump is far better prepared for example all the EO’s on day 1. He has a team that is slotting in and taking over, this four years is going to be different.

Having read Obama’s autobiography of his first term it clear how much diplomacy and basic horse trading goes on with both the Senate and House of Representatives to get legislation passed. Both have a republican majority making it easier (not easy) for Trump to get legislation passed.

Trump is far more prepared and has four years experience of being president. He is used to being a leader, top dog, his ego means he has to be the biggest, the best, the most magnificent and the most right! Some things he will get right, like a stopped clock, but his mercurial character and what appears to be instant decision making means he could do real damage.

The saving grace is the two terms limit, but I can see this could be changed which would be bad for everyone.

You really think that what goes on in the US has no impact on us? You are horrifyingly naive.

But the majority of government is made up of non-political career civil servants, which is why you can transition from one administration to the next without everything coming to a grinding halt. What Trump is doing is not limited to his cabinet/advisors/appointees. He is trying to decimate the non-partisan workforce and replace it with partisan loyalists. It's a stated objective of project 2025

Honestly, it's terrifying. He is a dangerous man - I'd say more so than Putin even, because at least we all know he's the bad guy. Trump has convinced too many people he's the saviour.

I wouldn't be surprised if he changes laws as well to put Musk in charge after he's done. I think Musk could be the bigger threat and he's engineering himself into a lot of political situations across the world.

Between the two of them they are going to set so many things back in terms of equal rights etc. Unless you are a rich, white, straight, non-disabled male, the USA is going to be a dangerous place for you...

Adding - he struggled in the first term because he appointed 'normie' Republicans to positions and they pushed back and sometimes outright refused to do his bidding when it was dangerous and/or illegal. It was like a revolving door in his first administration. This time he's deliberately surrounding himself with often unqualified hacks and toadies.

Trudeau’s message and that of the premiers were well scripted and delivered.
I can see the potential for Canada to grow from this experience.
As for the UK, well Trump is looking for money, your tariffs will eventually be announced.

‘Strong rumours’ doesn’t equal fact. People were condemning Trump for elaborating on what caused the air crash, without having concrete evidence. Yet we then have people referring to strong rumours about PubMed as if it’s truth. And then all subsequent responses responding as if this is actually going to happen. So much rubbish being talked about in the media at the moment, based purely on rumour.

Unsurprising. It's not as if people weren't warned how dangerous Trump and his cronies are...

Don’t be ridiculous. Trump was in power from 2016 to 2020, and nothing of any real significance happened to suggest he is anywhere close to being like Hitler. This is pure hyperbole, and not helpful at all. He is not Hitler, he is not going to round up the disabled and LBGT community in America and murder them. People should actually have been having all these concerns during Biden’s last 12 months in office, when he was clearly unwell mentally, and shadowy figures working him like a puppet. Did anyone really not give a toss then about the scary situation America was actually in?

‘Strong rumours’ doesn’t equal fact. People were condemning Trump for elaborating on what caused the air crash, without having concrete evidence. Yet we then have people referring to strong rumours about PubMed as if it’s truth. And then all subsequent responses responding as if this is actually going to happen.

Tbf it is slightly more significant for a president to make comments like that, vs some speculation on a MN thread.

What's the end game here?

I would say storming the Capitol and refusing to acknowledge defeat were pretty significant. I’m not saying Trump is like Hitler even, I’m saying that we need to be alert to the fact that democracies can fall, I believe we should understand how that has happened in the past and be alert to it.

This term has not started as his first term did. He has already pardoned and released some pretty violent men who happen to be his supporters, declared a state of emergency to bypass the rest of government, had a pretty radical cull of government media and falsely accused minority groups for a disaster without any evidence at all.

US has a number of systems in place to safeguard its democracy. I hope we’ve seen the worst of his actions. It certainly is much more robust than Germany was. I do think populism is dangerous.

And Biden also released many prisoners and gave out pardons in the final few months of his presidency. Also inputting dangerously, and irrationally into the Russian/Ukraine situation.

This 👆❓️

Lots of assertion on this thread about how terrified we should all be. Terrified, tell us explicitly, of what eventuality?