Trump 2.0

[The Triangle]

Draining the swamp?


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Most frustrating thing about American politics is that no one seems to understand how the government and how regulators and how departments and how advisors all function.

There are already late fees on credit cards There are already overdraft fees. Most of these departments are only responsible for oversight which will just be transferred to a different department. The laws that regulate everything are done via Congress. There are so many departments in the US and there are so many overlapping jurisdictions that no one actually knows who has what authority to do what things that's why everything seems to end up in the courts.

I had American bank accounts there were no outrageous fees and gouging pre-2008. There was so much choice in banking and products that even if you got stitched up you could just dump your credit card or dump your bank account and get a better one the next day. Unlike Australia where the big four collude to have the same fees and same rates on everything so you literally have zero opportunity to change banks for a better product because they're all just going to do follow the leader.

 

[basilio]

Trump Scraps Aluminium Tariffs After MAGA Voters Voice Concerns Over Tin Foil Hat Prices​

Donald Trump has backflipped on plans to introduce tariffs on aluminium imports, after a large group of his supporters pointed out that it would make it more expensive to buy hats that protect them from the electromagnetic wave spectrum and liberal-funded mind control.

MAGA supporter John Phillips said that according to research he had carried out on Truth Social, aluminium foil made up 118% of the materials used to make protective anti-mind control headwear.

“If these tariffs are implemented, tin foil hat prices will go up, many regular Americans won’t be able to afford them, and we’ll be susceptible to chemtrail-based vaccine mind experiments from the Chinese Government. And lizards. And I don’t need to tell you the impact that will have on fluoride levels in our water supply”.

Trump said he would remove the tariffs and provide additional funding for the production of Make America Great Again tin foil hats.

 

[JohnDe]

the evacuation of devastated areas is hardly unusual. Recovery from natural disasters is an obvious case in point. From the clearing of Lisbon after the earthquake of 1755, which opened the way to the city’s brilliant reconstruction, through to the response to Hurricane Katrina, which displaced 1.2 million people, recovery has almost always required evacuating the inhabitants of the affected areas.​

​

That won’t, of course, cut any ice with Hamas, whose interests lie in perpetuating the misery that inflames the people of Gaza and ensures the flow of aid that finances its terrorist activities.​

Trump’s Gaza plan better than resumption of war

In what can only be described as a Pavlovian reaction, Donald Trump’s proposed reconstruction of Gaza has elicited howls of outrage, from Hamas’s terrorists at one end of the spectrum to European leaders at the other.
With “experts” interviewed by The New York Times denouncing the proposals as “a violation of international law, a war crime and a crime against humanity”, one might be forgiven for thinking the President had advocated the slaughter of Gaza’s widows and orphans.

But back in what we pre-postmodern types call reality, the evacuation of devastated areas is hardly unusual. Recovery from natural disasters is an obvious case in point. From the clearing of Lisbon after the earthquake of 1755, which opened the way to the city’s brilliant reconstruction, through to the response to Hurricane Katrina, which displaced 1.2 million people, recovery has almost always required evacuating the inhabitants of the affected areas.

That is even more clearly true in dealing with the damage wreaked by wars, which so often leave a legacy of unexploded ordinance, tottering buildings and contaminated water supplies.

Already in rebuilding those parts of France laid to waste in World War I, the broad rule was that where more than a third of structures had been severely affected the area should be cleared of inhabitants, preventing injuries and allowing systematic redevelopment.

The lessons of that experience helped shape the reconstruction of Europe and Japan at the end of World War II. With strikes against heavily populated cities taking place on an unprecedented scale, aerial bombardment and savage land battles had shattered urban areas. It was apparent to post-war planners that rebuilding devastated cities would require temporary, and in the worst-affected cases permanent, population movements.

Nor were those movements necessarily, or even normally, voluntary. In the occupied areas, they were typically mandated and enforced by the occupying authorities. But the British experience is telling of what was done even in longstanding democracies.

Thus, addressing the House of Commons in January 1941, Winston Churchill stressed that the goal of rebuilding was not to “to make a new world, comprising a new Heaven, a new Earth, and no doubt a new hell (as I am sure that would be necessary in any balanced system)”; rather, the policy framework had to enable “a number of large practical steps which it is indispensable to take”.

The result was the Town and Country Planning Act 1944, which was commonly referred to as the “Blight and Blitz” Act, since it encompassed both repairing war damage and clearing cities of slums.

That legislation allowed areas to be declared for demolition with little or no compensation for those losing their homes. Tenants, who accounted for 75 per cent of the affected population, were not even entitled to be informed that demolition orders were being considered, much less granted meaningful rights of appeal.

Palestinians walk amid the devastation in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip. Picture: AFP

And while new housing was to be built, there was no requirement to rehouse the hundreds of thousands of families evicted. Indeed, it was not until the Land Compensation Act 1973 – which was passed once post-war reconstruction had been safely completed – that tenants evicted by area clearance orders received a statutory right to be offered an alternative.

It requires considerable ignorance to believe the UK example, which was not particularly draconian by continental standards, only pertains to a grim, long buried past. The reconstruction that followed the conflicts in what had been Yugoslavia shows the opposite is true.

“Although we have previously been unwilling to countenance population transfers,” Madeleine Albright (the US representative to the United Nations) declared as a resolution of those conflicts was being designed, mandatory population movements are, if they facilitate a durable recovery, “politically and morally defensible”.

Reflecting those convictions, the 1994 Washington Agreement, which set the basis for rebuilding war-ravaged Mostar in Bosnia-Herzegovina, granted a European Union-nominated Administrator virtually unchecked powers over the reconstruction process.

The Administrator was required to consult local representatives, but had no obligation to take their advice, including on the designation of areas for clearing, demolition and redevelopment. Nor were the Administrator’s decisions subject to appeal, thus preventing local demagogues from sabotaging the recovery process, as they would otherwise have surely done.

The result was timely reconstruction. However, looking back, John Yarwood, who led the rebuilding effort, concluded that instead of eventually returning the city’s inhabitants to their former homes, it would have been better to permanently transfer a much greater share of the population out of areas plagued by ancient enmities and controlled by the stirrers of hatred.

“Surely it is preferable to have a safe house in a new area now than to have your old house in an unsafe area some time in the future,” he argued in a careful review of his broad-ranging experience with post-conflict reconstruction. Additionally, and even more importantly, “Making normal, everyday, people feel safe will allow authentic, unforced co-operation to begin and flourish, isolating extremists and allowing moderates gradually to take over”.

The remains of the Prefectural Industry Promotion Building after the bombing of Hiroshima.

That won’t, of course, cut any ice with Hamas, whose interests lie in perpetuating the misery that inflames the people of Gaza and ensures the flow of aid that finances its terrorist activities.

Nor will it calm the Arab states and their allies, who posture as staunch defenders of the Palestinian cause. They didn’t have a critical word to say in 1991 when Kuwait, in retaliation for the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s endorsement of Iraq’s attempted annexation, brutally expelled 300,000 Palestinians, driving many into the desert, where they were left to fend for themselves; but a proposal that would require those states to take some responsibility for giving Gazans a worthwhile future leaves them foaming at the mouth.

And it will scarcely satisfy the many governments, including our own, who insist that Hamas should play no part in Gaza’s governance yet have no strategy whatsoever for transforming that aspiration into reality.

Yes, Trump’s proposal, which is just a concept sketch, is nowhere near perfect. That innumerable details require fleshing out is undeniable.

But it is equally undeniable that even temporarily clearing Gaza’s cities would allow ordinance to be defused and Hamas’s massive terror infrastructure to be dismantled. As populations were transferred, weapons could be identified and removed, reducing the terrorists’ access to the means of coercion.

And a new administration, with powers similar to those deployed under the Yugoslav agreements, could be put in place and charged with rebuilding Gaza.

None of that will be easy. However, as things stand, there is only one likely alternative: a resumption, sooner or later, of war. By ensuring that comes to pass, the Pavlovian dismissal of Trump’s proposals is worse than foolish – it is a crime against humanity.

 

[JohnDe]

Draining the swamp?


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[Knobby22]

Everyone knows Greenland was a name invented by a Viking leader to get people to that ice bound island. Not a great name.

Love the new name!

Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) released the following statement today after introducing a bill authorizing President Trump to acquire Greenland and renaming it Red, White, and Blueland:

Carter introduces bill renaming Greenland

Rep. Buddy Carter, Serving Georgia's 1st District

buddycarter.house.gov

 

[sptrawler]

Well Trump has actually got western countries looking at the their vulnerabilities, rather than thinking life rolls along in an endless procession of sunshine and lolly pops. Lol
Trump exposing a countries reliance on being treated nicely, is no different to China raising the value of their currency and everyone having no other choice than having to pay it, because there is no other supplier.
Interesting times.

 

[Knobby22]

Everyone knows Greenland was a name invented by a Viking leader to get people to that ice bound island. Not a great name.

Love the new name!

Rep. Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (R-GA) released the following statement today after introducing a bill authorizing President Trump to acquire Greenland and renaming it Red, White, and Blueland:

Carter introduces bill renaming Greenland

Rep. Buddy Carter, Serving Georgia's 1st District

buddycarter.house.gov

Just looking into Greenland.
Mainly Innuit, everyone speaks Greenlandik, there own language.
A few speak Danish and they learn a bit of English in school but are pretty awful at it.

There are only 50,000 of them. They are generally for climate change as it frees up land for farms from the ice.

They rely on Denmark for defence.

80% of their exports go to Denmark and Sweden and 85% of imports are from Denmark, and a much smaller amount from Sweden. No trade with USA.

 

[sptrawler]

Just looking into Greenland.
Mainly Innuit, everyone speaks Greenlandik, there own language.
A few speak Danish and they learn a bit of English in school but are pretty awful at it.

There are only 50,000 of them. They are generally for climate change as it frees up land for farms from the ice.

They rely on Denmark for defence.

80% of their exports go to Denmark and Sweden and 85% of imports are from Denmark, and a much smaller amount from Sweden. No trade with USA.

I thought I read that they want independance from Denmark, as Denmark has a lot of say in the parliamentary process of Greenland.

 

[Knobby22]

I thought I read that they want independance from Denmark, as Denmark has a lot of say in the parliamentary process of Greenland.

They sort of have it.
Greenland is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark. Since 1979.
Denmark also supplies half the funds for the island.

 

[qldfrog]

Now for the side fed on ABC and Murdoch propaganda , outraged at every POTUS tweet and more interested in his hair colour than substance
this is Trump administration for you, and a welcome one for any western values supporter

FULL TRANSCRIPT: VP JD Vance Remarks at the Munich Security Conference

Read the full transcript of Vice President JD Vance's remarks at the Munich Security Conference, Feb 14, 2025. Listen to the audio version here: TRANSCRIPT: Introduction and Acknowledgments VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Well, thank you,

singjupost.com

Please take the time to read in full
@Dona Ferentes i ping you as i trust you might be interested
Have a great weekend

 

[DB008]

But it's a razor gang.....

.​

 

[DB008]

Trump team to start Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Saudi Arabia​

Negotiators from Kyiv will be joining the talks that launch in the coming days.​

MUNICH — Senior Trump administration officials are heading to Saudi Arabia to start peace talks with Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, according to a Republican lawmaker and two U.S. officials familiar with the plan.​

​

National security adviser Mike Waltz will join Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, the president’s Middle East envoy, in the coming days to start talks on ending the war.​

However, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine-Russia talks, retired General Keith Kellogg, will not be in attendance, the officials said.

The officials also said there are no plans for representatives from other major European powers to join the talks. That could rankle NATO allies which have publicly urged President Donald Trump to ensure they have a seat at the negotiating table.

The meeting could mark a major moment in Trump’s quest for a peace process, and would also mark the first major meeting of Russian and Ukrainian representatives since the onset of the war in 2022.

Mike McCaul , a Republican lawmaker from Texas, confirmed the plans for Waltz and Witkoff to join Rubio in Saudi Arabia to start talks between the two warring sides during an interview at the POLITICO Pub on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.​

https://www.politico.eu/article/tru...ine-peace-talks-saudi-arabia-putin-zelenskyy/

.​

 

[Knobby22]

Now for the side fed on ABC and Murdoch propaganda , outraged at every POTUS tweet and more interested in his hair colour than substance
this is Trump administration for you, and a welcome one for any western values supporter

FULL TRANSCRIPT: VP JD Vance Remarks at the Munich Security Conference

Read the full transcript of Vice President JD Vance's remarks at the Munich Security Conference, Feb 14, 2025. Listen to the audio version here: TRANSCRIPT: Introduction and Acknowledgments VICE PRESIDENT JD VANCE: Well, thank you,

singjupost.com

Please take the time to read in full
@Dona Ferentes i ping you as i trust you might be interested
Have a great weekend

Check the Vance thread.

 

[qldfrog]

Check the Vance thread.

Sorry, was not aware still alive, do you want me to ask Joe to move?

 

[qldfrog]

Check the Vance thread.

Can not find with search

 

[Knobby22]

Post in thread 'JD Vance' https://www.aussiestockforums.com/threads/jd-vance.38207/post-1317100

 

[basilio]

Didn't know about this incident . People still have enough integrity guts enough to refuse to behave dishonestly.

Moral strength in the face of criminal political corruption
On Thursday, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Danielle Sassoon resigned rather than obey an overtly political order from a top Justice Department official to drop a corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams.

Sassoon is not a liberal Democrat. She had been a law clerk for Justice Antonin Scalia and was appointed to her position only recently by Trump. But Sassoon has integrity. She explained that the order to dismiss the case was “inconsistent with my ability and duty to prosecute federal crimes without fear or favor and to advance good-faith arguments before the courts.” She continued:

“I have always considered it my obligation to pursue justice impartially, without favor to the wealthy or those who occupy important public office, or harsher treatment for the less powerful.”

Integrity can be infectious. Sassoon’s resignation was quickly followed by the resignation of five other Justice Department prosecutors.

On Friday, Hagan Scotten, the lead prosecutor on the federal corruption case against Adams, also resigned. Scotten condemned Trump’s political justification for dropping the charges against Adams, saying in his resignation letter that any federal prosecutor “would know that our laws and traditions do not allow using the prosecutorial power to influence other citizens, much less elected officials.” He added:

“If no lawyer within earshot of the President is willing to give him that advice, then I expect you [Emil Bove III, the acting deputy attorney general] will eventually find someone who is enough of a fool, or enough of a coward, to file your motion. But it was never going to be me.”

These resignations represent the most high-profile public resistance so far to Trump’s tightening control over the Justice Department. They demonstrate that Trump and Musk’s monstrous behavior has not been normalized.

Decency in the time of monsters

Friends,

robertreich.substack.com

 

[basilio]

The news report of the refusal of New York prosecutors to drop the Eric Adams charges.

Order to drop New York Mayor Adams' case roils Justice Department as high-ranking officials resign

Danielle Sassoon, a Republican serving as interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced her resignation in an email to her staff.

apnews.com

 

[JohnDe]

A US withdrawal from Europe would be a historic mistake, and damaging to American interests. But after last week Europe is on notice that Mr. Trump may be willing to leave the Continent to its own devices. Europe needs to act accordingly, and an economic revival and greater investment in its own defence are essential and urgent.​

The Trump shock comes to Europe

European allies knew their relationship with the second Trump Administration would be challenging. Even so, the shocks they’ve received from Washington in recent days constitute a crisis. The warning, more or less: Shape up or the Americans are shipping out.

Start with the Ukraine war. This is the largest military conflict on European soil since 1945, and the Continent’s leaders recognise the stakes for their security. But Mr. Trump’s message is that the US doesn’t care what Europeans think about how the war should be resolved.

Mr Trump spoke on the phone to Russian President Vladimir Putin last week about ending the conflict, a development that caught Europe by surprise. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced, also without consulting allies, that Ukraine shouldn’t expect to regain territory lost during Russia’s first incursion in 2014. Asked at a conference whether Europeans would play a role in peace talks, Mr. Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said “that is not going to happen.”

These are slaps to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies whose security is threatened by Mr. Putin’s imperial ambitions and that have contributed cash and equipment toward Ukraine’s defence. The insults also recognise reality, however. Too many European governments, especially the largest, have been too slow and stingy in providing support to Kyiv either for lack of strategic conviction or decades of spending on welfare instead of their militaries.

The Trump Administration appears unwilling to let Europe leverage its noisy but dilatory contributions to the Ukraine war into a seat at the negotiating table. Much of Mr. Trump’s approach to peace talks is all wrong for America’s own interests, including Mr. Hegseth’s hint that the US could agree with the Kremlin to reduce American troop numbers in Europe. But Europe has chosen to put itself in the position of taking others’ decisions about its security rather than making its own.

Which is what we take to be Team Trump’s bigger theme in Europe last week. At a summit on artificial intelligence in Paris, Vice President JD Vance offered a bracing warning that Europe will leave itself behind in the next industrial revolution if it overregulates today’s frontier technology. Europeans aren’t accustomed to being told so bluntly by US officials that Europe is impoverishing itself with its dirigisme, but someone had to say it.

Then in Munich Mr. Vance delivered a more surprising rebuke when he asserted that Europe’s biggest security danger is “the threat from within.” He cited a political culture that aggressively tamps down on dissent, often in the name of combating “misinformation” or other ills such as racism, as mainstream politicians worry their power will be eroded by insurgent parties of the right and left. The subtext is that if Europeans expect Americans to defend Europe for the sake of democracy, Europe needs to be recognisably democratic.

These interventions have triggered howls across Europe, sometimes with reason: German politicians have cause to be aggrieved at Mr. Vance for expressing veiled sympathy for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party a week before an election. It was a mistake, since he undermined centre-right Friedrich Merz, who’s likely to be the next chancellor and is much more pro-American than the AfD.

Yet in general Europeans are glumly conceding the Trump team has a point, at least on Ukraine and defence matters. French President Emmanuel Macron is convening an emergency summit of key European leaders this week to discuss their approach to Ukraine talks. They should heed Mr. Kellogg’s exhortation that the way for Europe to play a role is “coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defence] spending.”

On the latter point, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said this weekend he’d overrule his own chancellor of the exchequer and insist defence spending rise to 2.5% of GDP, rather than the Treasury’s preferred 2.3% goal. Yet military leaders think more is needed, and even this goal has no deadline and will involve messy politicking in an economy that’s barely growing and when the government finances are a mess. Hence Mr. Vance’s exhortations about the importance of economic growth.

A US withdrawal from Europe would be a historic mistake, and damaging to American interests. But after last week Europe is on notice that Mr. Trump may be willing to leave the Continent to its own devices. Europe needs to act accordingly, and an economic revival and greater investment in its own defence are essential and urgent.

The Wall St Journal

 

[mullokintyre]

Whatever we might think of Trump the person, you have to give him credit for his marketing skills.
After becoming the first president to attend a superbowl last weekend, his latest publicity stunt was hot a lap in the presidential limo, aka 'the Beast", at the Daytona 500.
Its probably no great surprise that in both of these sporting venues, the majority of attendees would be his supporters.
And its no great surprise that Indy Car no 47, which happens to coincide with Trump as president no 47, is the fan favourite to win.
He markets himself even better than Clinton.
Mick