Politics Thread!

[zip accident]

Trump thinks the helicopter crashed because the FAA recruits dwarfs.

And, it would seem, people with "complete paralysis".

In fairness, I could see how a completely paralysed dwarf piloting the helicopter would be unable to prevent the crash.

But, by the same token, how did they take off in the first place?


No, jokes aside, one of the early warning signs of fascism is that they start going after disabled people and mistreating criminals.

They start rounding up and "disposing" of "the undesirables" - and these people, who are a "burden on the nation", are not seen as human beings. So they're just shovelled around like shit and treated like cattle. So that's your early warning sign.

Churchill warned of this. Saying that the way you judge how "civilised" a nation is, is by looking at how it treats its most undesirable members - criminals, the disabled, the elderly, the poor - because no matter how well they treat everyone else in their society, this shows you their true colours and who they really are.

Such as shuffling immigrants off to Guantanamo Bay, that American facility that's not on US soil, so none of the states have any legal jurisdiction there and the military governs its own oversight.

Basically, they previously sent terrorists there, because you could conveniently bend the rules and ignore human rights and legally get away with it, because only the military have oversight and jurisdiction there... and they'll do whatever the Commander-in-Chief orders, as he's top of the chain of command.

(Under international law, soldiers are still obligated to refuse bad orders - as the Nuremberg trials confirmed, "I was just following orders" does not absolve you of any blame from committing the heinous act. But guess which country is not a member of the International Criminal Court?)

And a really big problem is that if the USA turns full-on neo-Nazi on us, then could the rest of the planet, combined, actually stop them? America has a bigger defense budget than the rest of the world combined so, in those economic terms, the answer is currently "no".

The rest of the world probably wouldn't try, yesterday on radio one they had a feature about who should you keep an eye on. It was jokey, with people who don't like tea or coffee as one, they were kind enough to grudgingly allow decaff, but overall it is extremely worrying.

[PFVA]

First sentence I heard this morning when I turned on the TV:

"What the European Union has done is an atrocity".

Guess who said that?

[F-ZeroOne]

And everyones first answer doesn't count.

Do you know how big an arsehole you have to be to make one Canadian slightly disappointed with you? Yet Trump has managed it for the entire country:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3348gk8my0o

Live footage of US government announcing new tariff policy:

[F-ZeroOne]

Musk is suing Lego.

Lego.

[KlaxonCow]

More over, he's suing Lego and Nestle and others for not advertising on X.

Which is a ridiculous concept for a lawsuit.

Because what's the implication of this? It's against the law not to advertise on X? It's against the law to choose not to advertise your business?

Like, can ITV or YouTube or whoever start randomly suing businesses for not advertising on their platforms?

Say, Twitch suing Waterstones because it doesn't run any ads on its platform. And we just ignore that, like, they don't run ads on anyone's platform at the moment.

A business is not allowed to tailor its advertising to reach its target audience? Pornhub MUST advertise on all platforms - even children's TV - because it's apparently against the law to have any strategy or discernment in your advertising campaigns.

Which, you know, to my mind, makes boycotting X completely legitimate. I do not want to advertise my business to bots, trolls, white supremacists, neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists, who are increasingly the only audience found on Musk's degenerating platform.

Elon's all for "freedom of speech" unless the message is "you're a charlatan and your platform is shite and we don't want to have anything to do with you or it".

[F-ZeroOne]

I can only assume its because their cars have better build quality than his cars.

Or to distract from these totally legal actions...

https://www.wonkette.com/p/what-illegal ... ng-is-elon

[zip accident]

More over, he's suing Lego and Nestle and others for not advertising on X.

I notice those are EU companies that do business in the USA, what about the others?

[KlaxonCow]

More over, he's suing Lego and Nestle and others for not advertising on X.

I notice those are EU companies that do business in the USA, what about the others?

From https://www.documentcloud.org/documents ... dckt-74-1/:

Plaintiff X Corp. (“X” or “Plaintiff”), by and through its undersigned counsel, brings this action for trebled compensatory damages and injunctive relief under the antitrust laws of the United States against the World Federation of Advertisers; Mars, Incorporated; CVS Health Corporation; Ørsted A/S; Twitch Interactive, Inc.; Nestlé S.A; Nestle USA, Inc.; Abbott Laboratories; Colgate-Palmolive Company; Lego A/S; LEGO Brand Retail, Inc.; Pinterest, Inc.;Tyson Foods, Inc.; Shell plc; Shell USA, Inc.; and Shell Brands International AG, demanding atrial by jury. For its Complaint against Defendants, X alleges the following:

1. This is an antitrust action relating to a group boycott by competing advertisers of one of the most popular social media platforms in the United States.
2. Acting with and through a World Federation of Advertisers (“WFA”) initiative called the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (“GARM”), the Defendants conspired, along with dozens of non-defendant co-conspirators, to collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue from Twitter, Inc. (“Twitter,” now X Corp.). Concerned that Twitter might deviate from certain brand safety standards for advertising on social media platforms set through GARM, the conspirators collectively acted to enforce Twitter’s adherence to those standards through the boycott.
[...]

So the full list is World Federation of Advertisers, Mars, CVS Health, Ørsted A/S, Twitch, Nestlé, Abbott Laboratories, Colgate-Palmolive, Lego, Pinterest, Tyson Foods and Shell. Plus "dozens of non-defendant co-conspirators".

And, yes, the charge being made is that they withheld advertising from X, because they were concerned that X did not reach "certain brand safety standards for advertising".

Which, to my mind, is a perfectly legitimate thing for businesses to do.

After all, I'm pretty sure that GARM members also do not advertise on that other popular website called "Pornhub", due to concerns that they don't want to be associated with pornography. If it's deemed illegal to not give money to Elon, because you don't want your brand associated with his right wing crap, then the implication is that it's also illegal to refuse to advertise on Pornhub or any other advertising platform.

This is a preposterous idea, because a win for X on these grounds implies that it's illegal to choose which platforms a business may advertise on. X exists, Pornhub exists - so you MUST advertise on it.

The list includes Twitch and Pinterest, which brings another "snake eats its own tail" dimension to this as well, because platforms that themselves run ads must advertise themselves on X?

Okay, cool. Then why have I never seen an advert for X on Twitch, then? Why is X not advertising itself on every possible media platform, if its rivals are not allowed to show discernment of where they wish to advertise? Good for the goose, good for the gander. Elon must stop "withholding billions" from every media platform in existence. He must advertise X everywhere, at his own expense, whether he likes it or not. Because otherwise he is "conspiring" to "withhold billions" from every advertising platform in existence and, according to this lawsuit, he's not allowed to withhold his money from anyone and everyone who wants a piece of that pie.

[zip accident]

I was wondering whether he was aiming for any easy win by only targetting companies without bases in thw USA, seems that's not the case.

Against serious opposition this seems like an open and shut case.

On the other hand, USAian law is very slow, perhaps the aim is to interfere with advertising on other media by these companies while the case is pending, that could be very harmful even if the case eventually went against him.

I'm reminded of the Apple case against Atari, Commodore, Microsoft and Digital Research claiming that they were ripping off the idea of the GUI. It was a stupid claim since they were all licenced by Xerox as Apple was, but DR were skint and folded, agreeing to never built any further versions of GEM, the rest said "see you in court", but only Microsoft survived to rightfully win the case.

[KlaxonCow]

Trump actually has a useful "realpolitik" to him, I guess.

"Sort out your border security... or I'll charge you 25% tariffs".

And he's a mad bastard, so he probably would actually do it. No-one wants to call his bluff, as we're all shit scared that he really isn't bluffing at all.

So Canada and Mexico scramble to agree concessions at the last minute to stave off the tariffs and Trump, at his leisure, grants them a 30 day reprieve, pending evidence of progress.

Trump gets whatever the hell he wants from these countries, providing them no concessions in return, just by threatening some insane bullshit at them.

And it's entirely possible that it was all a bluff and he never meant a word of it, as even the Orange Idiot realises that tariffs against every nation on Earth is hardly going to help the American economy and inflation (you know, the thing he promised in the election to fix).

I'm also amused by his complaints about the EU: "We take their cars and their farm products and food, but they take almost nothing from us".

Yes, the underlying reason for that, Mr.President, is that American products are shit and often fail to pass our safety and quality standards.

We don't take your farm products, because we don't want chlorinated chicken, washed eggs, atrocious industrial animal processing and to have absolutely everything injected with ridiculous amounts of high fructose corn syrup because you over-produce that shit on subsidies.

And we don't take your cars because they don't fit on our roads, while you happily take German cars because, you know, they're just far better made products.

Call his bluff. As he points out, we barely get anything from them and 25% tariffs will kill off what little exports they do have. We should be getting off oil and gas anyway - and we're well on the way, thanks to Putin's war - so leave America be.

He wants attention. So ignore him.

[PFVA]

As for the Fentanyl it's getting into Europe thru harbours and airports inside legit cargo coming fm South America with the help of local importers, etc, etc in the same way coke does*.
I'm sure organised crime in the US and South America will figure out a way to do the same if they are not doing it already.

This reminds me, I know I'm getting old, that during the George Bush (father) administration they decided to fight the consume of cocaine by establishing military bases in Colombia. They was also a big fuss at the time. The result, cocaine cartels expanded, their businesses got larger, made agreements with mafias in the US and Europe.

During George Bush (son) they put fences against the borders, particularly in California to stop the ilegal aliens fm easily crossing. Result organized crime often connected to the cartels now runs the ilegal crossing.

*Note: I know about the cargo because every so often our police working together with Europol and the US DEA are able to stop some of the operations and cease merchandise that comes thru our harbours and arrest the distributors. The same has been happening in France, Belgium, etc, etc.

[Dio]

Trump actually has a useful "realpolitik" to him, I guess.

Yes. This has actually been known in military circles for years. Unpredictable apparent-nutters are by far the most difficult people to deal with and they tend to get a lot of what they want. I mean, how do you think Munich came about?

[F-ZeroOne]

https://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula ... uckin-guy/

"Other strange after-hours occurrences tread the line between outrage and black comedy, federal employees say. A worker at an intelligence agency says that unidentified outside staffers arrived to sweep the office of anything they felt was related to DEI, a target of a Trump executive order. That included a plaque, confiscated from a supervisor’s desk, which read, 'Be kind to everyone.' "

Sean Duffy: "The (US) Department of Transport will no longer participate in celebrations based on immutable traits or any other identity based observances."

Well done, the US Secretary of Transportation has just managed what the EVIL FORCES OF RADICAL WOKEISM have failed to do for decades - hes just killed Christmas!

[Harlequin]

I'm also amused by his complaints about the EU: "We take their cars and their farm products and food, but they take almost nothing from us".

Yes, the underlying reason for that, Mr.President, is that American products are shit and often fail to pass our safety and quality standards.

We do, however, take their most vitally effective tool for USAmerican cultural hegemony: their media.

[PFVA]

In the meantime big scandal here.
The second in the hierarchy of our 'noisy right wing'* party is being charged with pedophilia and intent to prostitute for having sex with a 15 years old.
The political leader admits to it but states he didn't know he was was a minor, says he thought he was an adult. It was paid sex arranged thru an internet site.

It seems these people really want to go back to the times of the fascist dictatorship.

* Note. the party I call 'noisy right' because they area always shouting about everything is part of the group Trump's friends call 'The True Patriots" that were invited to the inauguration In DC.