Donald Trump

[stylofone]

Cory Doctorow summarises Piketty. Eventually the oligarchs and kleptocrats run out of things to steal. Trump is squeezing the last droplets out of the sponge as he accelerates "National Capitalism"..

National capitalism walls its oligarchs off from the possibility of draining the riches of other countries, limiting them to domestic looting. Eventually, all the wealth in the country is held by its looter class, and the only way they can grow is by attacking each other. No one has more direct, recent experience with this phenomenon than Europe, a wealthy trading bloc of 500m.

https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/18/pike ... cs-revenge

George Monbiot with a parallel take:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ial-crisis

[stevebrooks]

Yeah they just fired everyone working on bird flu, it's quite possible a bird flu pandemic will stop everything in it's tracks. Compared to bird flu Covid was a mild illness, if bird flu mutates to a higher contagion factor it will be like the black death in the middle ages Europe under the current maga anti-mask mentality, entire population centers will just vanish, eventually panic will set in as people around them drop like flies, they will flee, spreading the contagion faster. There are so many ways this could end now it's just a matter of waiting to see which one hits first.

https://imgur.com/gallery/this-is-crazi ... ur-McH4PcR

[stevebrooks]

Apparently one of RFK's first tasks as the new leader of the health in the US is to remove the childhood vaccine schedule because it's responsible for....wait for it....chronic diseases in the US, what a fucking idiot!

He said before he was confirmed that he would investigate to determine whether vaccines were safe, that was a lie, he already believes they are dangerous therefore he is just going to stop them...yes stop them altogether! In some states, you know the ones, it will probably be made a felony for doctors to vaccinate children.

https://imgur.com/gallery/f-ckface-want ... en-M4uKDyi

[Hambone]

Sadly, I confess, my instant reaction to RFK Jr is to think, an epidemic of measles might be the only way to redress this barking lunacy... and then I realise it probably wouldn't work anyway when you're dealing with PCT nutbags.
It really is a miserable prospect.

[pipbarber]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... t-children

I don't know if anyone here has Trump supporters in their life but if they do, like me, this is a story to note. To withdraw legal aid from unaccompanied minors, some of whom may have experienced inconceivable levels of trauma, is to condemn these minors and children to cages. It is torture. This is the politics of cruelty.

And when the Trump supporter in your life says 'what's wrong with that,' there is no need to directly answer but rather re-frame the question as 'what is wrong with child torture?' If that is a question someone needs to ask, they have lost everything. They are embracing an ideology of psychopathy. They need help.

[stylofone]

I don't know if anyone here has Trump supporters in their life

I know a couple but don't have regular contact with them now. If they are conservative patriotic Aussie types, I'd be asking them how they feel about the prospect that Trump will screw Australia at the first chance he gets, just like he told Canada he wanted it to be the 51st State. You can't love Canada/Australia/Europe and love Trump, if you want to be all Trump-Trump-Trump why don't you fuck off to America?

Somewhat disingenuous of me because I am a treasonous non-patriot at heart. The child torture argument is actually better.

[pipbarber]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/ ... bout-trump

Thus dispelling any doubt the US has changed sides. The US is against democracy as a principle, whilst calling itself the only democracy. It's all very Democratic people's republic of North Korea stuff. They've become a super power for hire, and because democracies don't generally incorporate a process for large scale bribes, authoritarianisms are far better placed to befriend magaworld.

Perhaps there's no way back for 'merica. Even when the orange turd is dead buried and maga movement squashed, who would ever trust them again? Perhaps the best thing that can happen is a full scale US civil war, just to distract it from all the damage its doing to the rest of the world.

[stevebrooks]

and because democracies don't generally incorporate a process for large scale bribes, authoritarianisms are far better placed to befriend magaworld.

Interesting you should mention that, Trump signed an EO essentially making the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) irrelevant. Essntially he claims because US companies aren't allowed to bribe foreigners it puts them at a disadvantage against countries where they are allowed to do that.

Specifically, Mr. Trump said the law is being enforced in "excessive, unpredictable" ways that U.S. companies are competing on an uneven "playing field" with foreign rivals. He also said the law was "draining resources" from law enforcement and harming U.S. national interests because companies were being held back from deals that would give the U.S. access to deep water ports, critical minerals and other assets.

Of course what it actually does is guarantees that agreements made with American Companies are actually what you get, and not subject to future strong arming if the execs decide they want to squeeze the marks for more money.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-fcpa ... ive-order/

As for surrendering to Putin, even our own Dutton found that a step to far;

Asked about Trump’s comments, Dutton issued a rare public rebuke of the US president.

“Australia should stand strong and proud with the people of Ukraine. It’s a democracy and this is a fight for civilisation. Vladimir Putin is a murderous dictator and we shouldn’t be giving him an inch,” the Liberal leader told 2GB radio on Thursday.

It's becoming clear that Trump is stepping over that line that separates conservatives who operate within a democracy from conservatives that want to go full fascist, it remains to be seen if any of them really have the guts to stand up and be counted of course. If Dutton gets in at the next election will he just do a Vance and kowtow to the Trump King?

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-n ... r-comments

[pipbarber]

Dutton's comments are fascinating. I think it shows that he's not confident a Palmer style Trump flag waving approach will go down well in Australia. On the one hand it's disturbing that some strategists are smart enough to put some distance between the coalition and Trump and that's bad news in so far as it will enhance Dutton's electoral chances. However, credit where it's due...and i can't believe i'm typing this...but good for you Peter Dutton, keep it up. Stand up to Trump, we have to resist!

The ALP? Well...Albo isn't prepared to comment on the Trump presidency...it would be undiplomatic to comment on day to day policies...we'll have to wait for the focus group...we're not sure at this point...

Peter Dutton could out flank the ALP and become a bigger critic of Trumpism than Albo. He'd win the election on that alone, via the two party preferred.

I'm an anarcho-socialist, but if Dutton is going to start standing up to Trump and the ALP say fucking nothing, i'll cast my two party preferred on that basis. (A wee bit of vomit just came into my mouth from saying that).

ALP!!!! Stand up, FFS!

Sorry, off topic

[pipbarber]

Well, in the light of day, reading my above post, Dutton will have to do a lot more to get my preference over the ALP (although that's symbolic as they don't even stand a candidate in my electorate). However, i stand by my growing fury at ALP silence. They look weak and scared.

Anyway, here's Robert Reich pointing out the bleeding obvious.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -far-right

Yes, the US has changed sides. AUKUS looks utterly ridiculous, as it always did, but we recently sent the US $900 million as part of the deal and that now looks like nothing more than the tribute payment of a client state.

We can't fight the battle for decency in the US. Our resistance has to be around how Australia positions itself in relation to oligarchic takeover. It needs to be openly talked about, it needs to be an election issue, imo.