Donald Trump

[stevebrooks]

Well, it appears the beautiful plane that Trump was "gifted," the fabulous 747-8 with gold plated this and luxurious that, is actually a literal junker. You know one of those cars that sits in your front yard that you try to sell but no-one wants it so you eventually give it away to some poor or homeless person who desperately needs transport and will take anything on offer as long as it free? Yes, that's exactly what this Saudi jet is, a junker!

The Boeing 747-8 being offered to U.S. President Donald Trump by Qatar once served the Qatari royal family and has been sitting unsold for years.

The jet, a lavishly configured version of Boeing's largest passenger aircraft, has been lingering without a buyer since being put up for sale in 2020, according to aircraft listings and aviation analysts.

Yep, they simply can't sell it, and since it has to be in working condition to actually be sold they are spending endless amounts of money just to keep it in working condition, it's like you paying car insurance and registration on that junker out the front that no-one will buy! It just keeps getting better!

Ben Schlappig, writing in the aviation blog One Mile at a Time in 2020, said the aircraft offered to Trump had flown 1,069 hours since its delivery in 2012, averaging about two hours per week.

John Goglia, a former member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told Forbes that giving the 747-8 to the U.S. would allow the Qataris to avoid maintenance costs that were only getting higher—with the 747 fleet shrinking worldwide and fewer mechanics available who know how to work on them.

So an expensive and costly "gift" to accept indeed, this is what Trump said:

"Why should our military, and therefore our taxpayers, be forced to pay hundreds of millions of Dollars when they can get it for FREE from a country that wants to reward us for a job well done. This big savings will be spent, instead, to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! Only a FOOL would not accept this gift on behalf of our Country."

He obviously hasn't thought this through, I doubt of he even can think it through, but a lot of people have. Upgrades to make it suitable to be AF1 would require stripping the interior down the frame, got to check for bugs as well, hardening the plane for radiation, replacing the engines, equipping countermeasures and setting it up for in air refueling, installing all the required secure communication equipment and etc, a process that is estimated by experts in the field would take 2 years and cost $750m, so the jet would be all ready for use in 2027, curiously the exact same time frame for the two current AF1 jets being built by Boeing!

So the only possible reason to accept this "gift," because no-one in their right mind is going to actually spend the time and money to do a refit on this piece of junk, is for Trump to use after he is no longer President. What to do then? Hmm, some smart bod in the DOD should go in, get the the entire interior of the 747 ripped out and dump it all in a big pile of junk next to it then get some aircraft engineer to come in and declare the air-frame unflightworthy and then give it to Trump and tell him to move his piece of shit plane out of airport! The question is, is anyone smart enough to do that?

https://www.newsweek.com/qatar-gift-tru ... ne-2072564

[stevebrooks]

The US weather service, NOAA, will no longer be able to warn US citizens of impending events such as Hurricanes, Tornadoes and extreme heat and cold events like blizzards.....oops! And guess who just cancelled FEMA, so no warning, no help, US citizens, you are fucked!

The nation’s forecasting agency is in tatters as what could be a destructive hurricane season nears. Several current and former agency meteorologists told CNN they are concerned forecasts and life-saving warnings are not going to be issued in time.

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/05/02/weat ... offs-trump

[pipbarber]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... nding-bill

Trump also lost again at the Supreme court, so a bad day for orange fascism. However, as you read about why republicans blocked this ridiculous bill from passing, it's pretty obvious it'll get through eventually. The problem is that in order to pay for these giant tax cuts, de-funding social programs like medicare and medicaid do not go far enough. It would just be fiscally irresponsible to give everyone (mainly the top 20%) tax cuts and also maintain public health, can't be done! No sir, you have to completely get rid of public health to get this through. Negotiations continue.

In fairness, it seems some republicans are nervous about their electoral chances should the bill pass. This group are wanting tax breaks at the state level so that each state can increase its public health options as compensation for the collapse of federal support.

It's all very well to undo executive orders, it just requires another executive order, undoing legislation that has passed through congress is a different matter. So far, Trump has governed by executive order so this bit of legislation is a very big deal, this will be hard for future governments to roll back. It will probably get passed next week. A gigantic shift of wealth toward the top end, but at some point, the poorest 100 million people won't have anything left to give up. What then, i wonder?

[stylofone]

He obviously hasn't thought this through, I doubt of he even can think it through

I'm still taken aback at how stupid he is, even after all this time. His supporters see him as a figurehead, for example the Christian right think he's great even though he is so obviously not a Christian himself in most senses. A weird one I saw was a comment by a Musk/Tesla lover who claimed Trump was going to pivot and support EVs and renewable energy. Trump can be anything you want him to be if you are a true believer.

Unfortunately, Trump is not acting like a figurehead, he is acting like an absolute monarch and not like the figureheads in the UK or the bicycle monarchies of Europe. He gets to make real decisions based on his own stupidity, avarice and vanity.

at some point, the poorest 100 million people won't have anything left to give up. What then, i wonder?

I expect a lot of things to come crashing down as a result if his rule by the stupidest. It takes time to filter through and destroy systems set up over decades, but there can also be Jenga style crashes, we had a glimpse of one after his tariff madness spooked the markets, but he backed off. So maybe he won't trigger a new GFC, but bad things are coming and I think it will be this year.

Cory Doctorow recently looked at it from the point of view of tech-bro ripoffs and exploitation, but he also broadened it out, saying Trump has got nothing to offer the vast majority of his voters except more pain.

Here's the thing: Trumpism relies on the fusion of two groups of people: a tiny number of oligarchs, and millions of everyday people who are constantly victimized by those oligarchs. To get this latter group of Christmas-voting turkeys to stay in the coalition, Trump needs to deliver something that keeps them happy. Mostly, Trump delivers negative things to keep them happy – the spectacle of public cruelty to immigrants, women, trans people, academics, etc. There is a certain libidinal satisfaction that comes from watching your enemies suffer – but you can't eat schadenfreude. You can't make rent or put braces on your kids' teeth or pay your medical bills with the sadistic happiness you feel when you hear the sobs of people you've been taught to despise.

For Trump to keep the turkeys voting for Christmas, he needs to do something for them. He can't just do things to scapegoats. But America's eminently guillotineable oligarchs have found so many ways to turn working peoples' torment into riches, and they are so greedy and unwilling to give up any of those grifts, that Trump can't manage to deliver anything positive to his base. Last week, his FTC killed the "click to cancel" rule that required companies that tricked you into buying subscriptions to make it easy for you to cancel them:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/15/asshole-to-appetite/