[Andy McDandy]

Melania wears that mourning black well.

More of this please.

Two great comments I've seen:

Dress for the job you want.

First time he's slept next to her in a while.

[Youngian]

The Fentanyl quality isn’t what it used to be if Trump's missus dressing correctly for a funeral gives you a lift.

[Boiler]

Just when you thought he'd had a moment of revelation about being played by Putin when he spoke to Zelensky at the Pope's funeral yesterday, this appears:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... ker-bleach

Donald Trump’s private golf resort in South Florida will next week host one of the world’s leading purveyors of chlorine dioxide, a potentially life-threatening form of industrial bleach that is claimed without evidence to be a cure for cancer, Covid and autism.

Andreas Kalcker is among 50 listed speakers at the “Truth Seekers Conference”, a two-day event opening on Thursday at the US president’s resort, Trump National Doral Miami. The event features several anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy theorists who have been brought together by the far-right commentator Charlie Ward.

[RedSparrows]

I'm all for these types to put their ideas to the test, at an exclusive event. Let them test them out on each other and get back to us with the results.

[Abernathy]

The news programmes have been playing clips from Trump's speech to his followers marking his 100th day in office.

It was typical bombastic Trump bullshit, full of exaggeration, distortion, and outright, barefaced lies. Lots of "greatest ever"s, "like nobody has ever seen before"s, and "beautiful"s.

And the assembled dickheads of course lapped it up, though apparently there were significantly fewer of them there in Detroit than at the peak of Trump's election campaign.

It's like water off a duck's back to me now - it makes me bristle with incredulous frustration, but ultimately it's just bluster.

Yet the persistent question won't go away : how can so many Americans have failed to see what Trump is?

When I first became aware of Trump's existence - years ago, even before he decided to be a crazed megalomaniacal president, I knew instantly that here was an absolute grade 1 arsehole who could not be trusted to run a bath.

And I'm just an ordinary, albeit mildly politically geeky Brit. I'm not spectacularly intelligent, but I like to think I am possessed of emotional intelligence and perhaps better-than-average powers of perception. And I got it, immediately. How come all those Americans did not, and still don't?

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Quite. The American psyche is aberrant.

He still has an approval rating of 41%. This isn't a Trump problem, it's an America problem.

[Yug]

A quote from Churchill comes to mind:

"America always does the right thing, after trying everything else."

[Youngian]

Any significance in Trump choosing a city across the water from Canada the day after their election to deliver his bellicose speech?

[Spoonman]

Pseudo-dictator lies more often than he shits in his adult nappies. If it wasn't for their military, the USA would be written off now as a banana republic run by a fantasist that the civilized world would largely ignore.

[Youngian]

This is potentially a great relief to Ukraine to keep them in the game. And a clear sign to Europe that Trump is just a transactional blackmailer at best.

US and Ukraine sign minerals deal that solidifies investment in Kyiv’s defense against Russia
Move seals a deal to create a fund the Trump administration says will begin to repay roughly $175bn provided to Ukraine
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... eal-russia

[Killer Whale]

Obvious protection racket.

[Samanfur]

I'm currently reading The Racket by Matt Kennard. The author's a bit too keen on Edward Snowden for my tastes, but it has some interesting insights into how the US creates its client states in Latin America et al.

I suspect it may be a manual for what's about to happen next in Ukraine.

[Youngian]

Pseudo-dictator lies more often than he shits in his adult nappies. If it wasn't for their military, the USA would be written off now as a banana republic run by a fantasist that the civilized world would largely ignore.

If you emigrated to America but came of age in 70s Argentina, Uganda or Philippines, does Trump look like an unusual leader?
It must seem like Film Noir nightmare descending on them.

[Youngian]

I'm currently reading The Racket by Matt Kennard. The author's a bit too keen on Edward Snowden for my tastes, but it has some interesting insights into how the US creates its client states in Latin America et al.

I suspect it may be a manual for what's about to happen next in Ukraine.

Don't know where Kennard ends his story but Trump will have done more for Latin American confidence to diverge from Washington than Simon Bolivar or Che Guevara.

When the Russian sympathising left opposed the West arming Zelensky they were strangely quoting Kissenger and prominent IR Realist John Mearsheimer who also opposed Ukrainian resistance.
Their view of the globe is that big powers overseeing the world by dividing into spheres i
of influence is what will prevent chaos and war.
To the likes of Kissenger, Castro's Cuba or Nicaragua in the 80s are little different to Balitc and Ukrainian independence, pain in the arse minnows jeopardising peace through big power strength and alledged wisdom .

[Youngian]

Jon Stewart in discussion with the Kentucky governor who explains how his state was doing fine with reshoring jobs. But now Trump's tariff economics is throwing this success into jeopardy despite reshoring being the raison d'etre of Trump's plans.
Kentucky now houses the largest Toyota plant outside Japan and has clinched a South Korean partnership for large scale battery production. These countries are weary of China but now Trump has managed the impossible of warming their relations with Bejing.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yeah, I think that's an underrated point. Lots of Central America is very violent, even compared with the US. The last thing you want is the sort of people who've run amok "back home" moving into your relatively peaceful new country. Your idea of someone who'll stop that happening might look very much like Trump.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Of course, Trump looks a lot like white Americans think of as someone who'll sort the bad shit out too...

[Samanfur]

Don't know where Kennard ends his story but Trump will have done more for Latin American confidence to diverge from Washington than Simon Bolivar or Che Guevara.

I've not finished it yet, but it's pre-47, and USAID as an organisation is coming in for a lot of criticism.

The phrase "Oh, my sweet summer child" may have been uttered under my breath at points.

[Youngian]

Portraying soft power and foreign aid as cynical and self serving at least makes it easier to voters.

Matt Kennard is more lefty polemcist than reporter whose startling conclusion here is the one he had before writing the book. Did sinister establishment suits really censor him at the FT or just explain what a reporter's job is?

While working for the Financial Times, investigative journalist Matt Kennard had unbridled access to the crème de la crème of the global elite. From slanging matches with Henry Kissinger to afternoon coffees with the man who captured Che Guevara, Kennard spent four years gathering extraordinarily honest testimony from the horse's mouth on how the global economic system works away from the convenient myths. It left him with only one conclusion: the world as we know it is run by an exclusive class of American racketeers who operate with virtually unlimited weapons and money, and a reach much too close to home.

Owing to the very nature of the Financial Times, however, Kennard was not able to publish these findings as part of his day job.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy to leave posts in White House - reports
Trump’s national security adviser Mike Waltz and his deputy, Alex Wong, will be leaving their posts, CBS News reports citing multiple sources familiar with the matter. They are expected to leave on Thursday.

Waltz has been under intense scrutiny over the Signal group chat scandal. Infamously, Waltz put together a Signal chat – and mistakenly included the editor of The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg - disclosing sensitive discussions with top national security officials about plans for a military strike on Houthi targets in Yemen. The information shared included the timing of the strikes and the weapons packages used.