Shiftless2
Well-known member
And this was referring to Republicans when they were still Republicans rather than MAGAts
The Second Term of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States of America
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Shiftless2
Well-known member
Nate White, a British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”
A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”
A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”
It's a grim image to be sure.
I think we could do better.
#284
The Cybertruck design disaster is complete as Tesla gets desperate
Joe Foley / Sat, March 8, 2025 at 7:00 AM ESTAh, the Tesla Cybertruck. It seems the 'edgy' electric SUV will go down in history as an example of what happens when one of the world's most valuable companies lets its CEO impose his personal taste in design.
Edsel ?
Tesla initially predicted that it could produce 500,000 units per year. But amid price hikes, multiple Cybertruck design fails, Elon Musk's divisiveness and the general ugliness of the car, that isn't going to happen. Tesla won't report how many it's actually sold, but estimates are around 40,000 in 2024. Now Tesla is offering discounted financing in a bid to shift its expensive low-polygon game asset on wheels.
The Cybertruck design disaster is complete as Tesla gets desperate
Ugly, unroadworthy, and now sales are struggling.
Here's an idea:
Let's find a faltering industrialist, one whose trucks are a joke, and his rockets explode.
Then let's put him in charge of down-sizing U.S. federal government.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Let's not forget that purchases get a tax credit of up to $7,500 so the US government is also subsidizing the purchase of these things.
Shiftless2
Well-known member
Fear and Loathing: Closer to the Edge
eorspdoSnti9h62lafm1mli6lg09afui0ic8lu34mt12f1ffi1uu8a3t49h2 ·Senator Jeff Merkley walked into the hearing room like a man who’d just been told his car got keyed and knew exactly who did it. On the other side of the table sat Christopher Landau, Trump’s nominee for Ambassador to Mexico, who looked like he hadn’t slept since Inauguration Day, and Matthew Whitaker, a former acting Attorney General who carries himself like a guy who still brags about his high school bench press record.
The setup was simple: Merkley had questions, and Landau and Whitaker had excuses — weak, sweaty excuses that couldn’t outrun a three-legged dog.
It didn’t take long for the whole thing to unravel. Merkley started calmly, like a guy setting mousetraps in a room full of blindfolded rats. Then the hammer dropped.
Senator Jeff Merkley: "I wanted to, uh... uh... ask you, Mr. Landau — is President Trump a Russian asset?"
That's how Merkley started — no warmup, no warning. Just kicked the door open and asked the question nobody else had the nerve to say out loud.
Mr. Landau: "Absolutely not, Senator. He's the President of the United States, duly elected by the American people."
Landau might as well have answered, "Please don't ask me anything else." Merkley wasn’t about to let him off that easy.
Senator Merkley: "Well, the reason I ask is many people back home have been asking me this question. And they say, 'If he was an asset, we would see exactly what he's doing now.'"
It’s the kind of thing that sounds conspiratorial until you start listing the evidence. And that’s exactly what Merkley did.
Senator Merkley: "For example... he proceeded to forward — or express from the Oval Office — propaganda that has been Russian propaganda... that Ukraine started the war... that, uh... Zelensky is a dictator."
Step one: repeat Kremlin talking points like they’re gospel.
Senator Merkley: "Second of all... he gave away key things on the negotiating table before the negotiations even started, ensuring the U.S. would absolutely oppose, um... any possibility of NATO membership for Ukraine."
That’s like showing up to a poker game and tossing your entire stack of chips across the table before the first card’s dealt.
Senator Merkley: "Uh... third... he's cut off the arms shipments to Ukraine completely — undermining their ability against a massive neighbor next door with short supply lines and... and huge resources."
Pause here and picture Vladimir Putin popping champagne.
Senator Merkley: "Fourth... he's undermined the partnership with Europe, which has been essential to security over the last 80 years — a major goal of Putin’s."
At this point, Merkley wasn’t describing bad policy — he was reading Putin’s wish list.
Senator Merkley: "And then... he's done everything to discredit and demean Zelensky on the international stage — notably with that shameful press conference in which he teamed up with the Vice President to attack Zelensky."
Ah yes, that infamous JD Vance press conference — the diplomatic equivalent of shoving Zelensky’s head in a toilet while Putin watched from the corner clapping like a seal.
Senator Merkley: "I can't imagine that if he was a Russian asset, he could be doing anything more favorable than these five points."
Boom. Merkley didn’t need to say “traitor” — he just pointed at the scoreboard.
Senator Merkley: "Uh... what else could a Russian asset actually possibly do that Trump hasn't yet done?"
What else, indeed? The room was dead silent — the kind of pause where you can hear chairs creak and paper shuffle.
Landau tried to squirm out.
Mr. Landau: "Senator, the President has made it absolutely clear that his top priority is to try to bring peace and end an absolutely savage war. I... I know you're familiar with the, uh... the... the savagery. This is turning into World War I-style trench warfare now in eastern Ukraine."
Translation: I have nothing, so let me ramble until you forget what you asked.
Mr. Landau: "The President is an exceptionally gifted dealmaker. He is probably the only individual in the entire universe that could actually stop this."
The entire universe. Not just Earth — the universe. Apparently Trump’s cutting side deals with Alpha Centauri now.
Senator Merkley: "Well, let's turn to another — thank you very much, since you're now off the topic I was raising."
That’s polite for “You're embarrassing yourself — let’s try someone else.”
Merkley turned to Whitaker.
Senator Merkley: "Mr. Whitaker, these five things that the President has done that are so favorable to Putin and so damaging to Ukraine and to our partnership with Europe... do you approve of them?"
Whitaker tried the old “blame Biden” routine.
Mr. Whitaker: "Well, Senator, thanks for that question. I'm just going to have to, uh... politely disagree with you, uh... on those five things and the way you've framed them."
"You know... the war in Ukraine would have never happened if President Trump was president in 2022. The war in Ukraine happened because of Joe Biden’s weakness."
Merkley didn’t flinch.
Senator Merkley: "Well, maybe you could some other time go on television and express those points of view, but... do you mind just answering the question I asked?"
And that’s where Whitaker realized he’d stepped into the bear trap.
Senator Merkley: "Do you agree with the five things that President Trump has done — starting with him expressing Russian propaganda from the Oval Office?"
Mr. Whitaker: "Well, you know... again, as I mentioned to your colleague, I am not here to assign labels. We're in the middle of a very, uh... important peace negotiation."
Senator Merkley: "I agree. Thank you. Uh... I... I do hope that we have an Administration that works to get the very best deal for Ukraine.
But what a Russian asset would do would be to work to get the very best deal for Russia — and that appears to be exactly what Donald Trump is trying to accomplish."
Merkley didn’t shout. He didn’t wave his arms. He just said it — clear as glass — and let the silence hang heavy in the room.
Landau and Whitaker sat there like a couple of guys who’d just realized their GPS was guiding them into a lake.
If Trump isn’t a Russian asset, he’s sure putting in the effort to look like one.
mole (mōl)
n.
A spy who operates from within an organization, especially a double agent operating against that agent's own government from within its intelligence establishment.
[Middle English molle; akin to possibly akin to MOLD3.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
The United States Constitution should never have been violated to return this convicted felon to the white house.
United States Constitution:
ARTICLE#14: Ratified July 9, 1868
SECTION3. No person ... who, having previously taken an oath, ... as an officer of the United States ... to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.
If the Constitution doesn't matter, if its enumerations are not treated as enforceable law, then why do we continue the ceremony of requiring an oath of fidelity to it?