Is anyone watching this Trump car crash?

[soundsys]

WTF is happening? It’s like some bizarre performance art piece.

He’s holding up signs and shouting and throwing out hats it’s just 🤯

Yes, it is, but that's a whole different level from a president engaging in market manipulation.

Yes, and then stood in the Rose garden with some donors/cronies/billionaire friends going through what each one of them had made in that 24 hours. How obscene is that when they're cutting Medicaid?

Can you imagine Obama doing that?!

I worked in the 'city, not as a trader i hasn't to add! its very easy for traders to make millions, i watched as a hedge fund manager bet on something happening, it did, he made £2m... on a falling stock.

I don't know if the Democrats do insider trading, rumors aren't evidence but no POTUS ever has done what Trump has done, he has turned the worlds trade on its head, with a fallout that may last many years, its easy to see, given how he operates, that some of this has been taken advantage of.

Banning politicians from share dealing is difficult, it would need to extend to family members/friends/advisors... how far would the net spread?

Aside, i have always wondered how UK politicians, often from relatively humble backgrounds, leave office with huge wealth.

But that’s what hedge funds and traders etc do, bet on something happening. It’s the access to insider knowledge which makes it illegal. The regulations around insider trading in the UK are incredibly tight and of course extend to family members and associates. There are plenty of ways to invest without making direct stock market investments.

It would certainly be interesting, with all this tariffs on tariffs off, to be able to see which foreign actors bought themselves into that very lucrative Trumpcoin when he sold himself off right before being inaugurated.

Yes exactly and their clients are very often the rich and famous...

btw i don't disagree with you i just think that the practicalities of banning people from S&S investments world be easily evaded.

No I can't.

It's vomit inducing.

Just watching Youtube. 3 European companies are in talks to join forces and provide satellite coverage for Europe. So Starlink will lose those contracts. That is why Musk is recoiling LOL
Please, let some IT genius build us our own Facebook.
And banking system like Paypall.
And coding itself, to keep our data free from this lot!
I am sure we have tonnes of very capable people.

OElbowsUp
nly 14% of Fox (et al) viewers even know what a tariff is.

You're right there. Not sure they do over here either.

I hope this happens. I know India are also seen as a bit dodgy, but they have managed to build a satelite system for a fraction of the price, and we have just done a trade deal with them.
That goes for defence spending too. We shouldn't be relying on a country with an unstable President who looks suspiciously like he is cosying up to a few of the worlds dictators to be making our military planes.

It is the way he says - and obviously thinks - that he is right and everyone else is wrong.

It is unbelievable that people actually voted for him, because when you listened to his rallies he really had nothing to say. He speaks down to people and they think he understands them. They don't realise that he is pretending he knows what he is talking about.

Also, it is the childish way he holds up every signature he makes on the contracts he signs. I would rather see what else is written on the page than his signature.

I still cannot believe that he thought Russia invaded and took the Crimea in 2015, actually arguing with President Zelenskyy about the date! What I picked up about that was that throughout his campaign, in 2024, the taking of the Crimea was ten years ago. Now it is 2025, and in his mind it was still '10 years ago', which is why, when President Zelenskyy brought up the subject and said '2014', Trump was still thinking 'ten years ago'. Then Vance realised and started shouting.

There is a belief that many CEO's/Business leaders are psychopaths, Trump re-enforces this view.

Europe has already built is own GPS system, Galileo, how much more would it take for the EU/Europe to expand this to inc communications as well?

Starmer needs to get off his arse and re join the CU, even if we ever got a FTA with the USA, who in their right mind would trust Trump not to rip it up or threaten too if we don't jump to their tune?

I’m not sure about a cognitive impairment, I think he’s just completely out of his depth, politically and intellectually. He knows this, but doesn’t care.

I think the politics is the boring bit he has to get through in order to achieve his real goal, which is to make as much money for himself and his cronies as possible. He’s like a toddler who has sole charge of the sweet shop. I bet he can’t fucking believe it.

He knew who he would have to target to get him where he needs to be, and he knew they wouldn’t care or even know whether he was talking utter bullshit. All he had to do was give them slogans, baseball caps and someone to hate, which he has done and it has worked.

The only thing he’s ever known is ‘close the deal and fuck everyone and everything’. He’s like a fucking shark in the water, evolved to do just one thing and one thing only. Amoral, programmed to consume and reproduce.

He’s end-stage capitalism in human form.

Add to that his extreme narcissism and you realise how dangerous he is.

How so many people chose to ignore or refuse to see this is a great mystery.

Regarding Galileo, a satellite internet system is completely different from a GPS system. Different satellites, in different orbits, and many more of them. There’s literally no crossover between the two.

There are already European rivals to Starlink building their constellations out: IRIS2 is the big one but OneWeb (partially owned by the UK government) is further along with 500 satellites already launched. The problem with OneWeb is that it is aimed purely at commercial and government customers with no consumer/domestic offering. IRIS2 will provide commercial and government services and in addition consumer broadband so will be a direct Starlink rival.

Yes, all of this, @LunaNorth and @Maggiethecat.

The only thing I'd disagree with is

I think he’s just completely out of his depth, politically and intellectually. He knows this, but doesn’t care.

I think, due to the extreme narcissism, he actually believes he's a whole other level of intelligence, which, of course, is why he's so easily played by people like Putin and Xi.

And I do think he's cognitively impaired on top of all that. If you've had the misfortune to listen to him recently, the meandering word salad is jaw-dropping. He sounds like a toddler who got into the liquor cabinet.

Quote in the FT

I think it's time for one of these, join in if you wish. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh! How the f has it come to this?

Trump exempts smartphones and computers from new tariffs
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20xn626y81o

Wouldn't it be funny if China now slapped an export tax on those desirable items! 😁

DOGE is an existential threat to the safety of everybody in America.
It will declare people dead
They will then lose access to all finance and Government services.

And have no NI number so can't work and Trump and his henchmen want them to 'self-deport'.

The president is enthralled that RFK is due to release seminal information about autism and the measles vaccine while the measles outbreak confines.

Dr Peter Marks, who was in charge of vaccines recently resigned, he says, because he was being asked to support conspiracy theories surrounding vaccines which he refused to do.

These are the conspiracy theories that people need to be getting exercised about.

It would, and I think they have.

Going further, I think the EU and Britain would do well to listen to China's offer of discussions.

Their human rights might be questionable by a lot of people (though how else can you control such a large population) but they certainly know their way round manufacturing and enabling people to have the opportunity for goods they otherwise wouldn't afford.

However, we must guard against being flooded with cheap goods no one wants. Having said that, I don't think China would flood the market, because they can change their factories to produce anything else, so the cost of changing products is not so great as it is in the west.

Plus, I thought half the reason we left the EU was so we wouldn't be burdened by their pesky human rights courts.

(sort of joking)

I know, but will this government be brave enough to get us out? Do you know of anyone in UK, a national from birth, whose case against someone even got as far as court?

I do believe that there are so many instances of human rights in this country which are ignored.

The human rights lawyers, and those of Liberty spend all their resources helping migrants get their feet in our door.