President Trump 2.0

[Pierre]

As I’ve always said.

This only ends with a negotiated peace and I also think a demilitarised zone, well I say demilitarised but either that or a UN controlled zone.

Ukraine could never win, and could never reclaim pre-2014 borders, and talk of such was folly.

I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think at least dialogue will be opened up for the first time…………take it from there.


If I recall, it was suggested Trump would say to Zelenskyy, talk to Russia or we will pull our support. And Trump would say to Putin, talk to Ukraine or we will arm Ukraine to the teeth.

Originally Posted by jfman

These things can all be true at once. If the Trump administration decides he’s not legitimate, and he’s threatening to build a dirty bomb, that ends one way.

Originally Posted by Pierre

As I’ve always said.

This only ends with a negotiated peace and I also think a demilitarised zone, well I say demilitarised but either that or a UN controlled zone.

Ukraine could never win, and could never reclaim pre-2014 borders, and talk of such was folly.

I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I think at least dialogue will be opened up for the first time…………take it from there.


If I recall, it was suggested Trump would say to Zelenskyy, talk to Russia or we will pull our support. And Trump would say to Putin, talk to Ukraine or we will arm Ukraine to the teeth.

Those were indeed the lines he was going to say.

However, he has never said what would happen when Russia and Ukraine talk and then fail to agree.

Russia has declared that it has annexed parts of Ukraine that it does not control. Furthermore Ukraine currently controls Russian territory, if only a very small amount. Ukraine might offer to get out of Kursk in return for some of its own territory, but any territory it would want back is territory Russia has declared to be Russian. Even if they freeze the conflict on the current lines within Ukraine, that leaves territory that the Russian constitution says is Russian, inside Ukraine. All of this is a tough sell even for Mad Marge Simonyan.

Add to that, he hasn’t accounted for the fact that the Baltics and most of Eastern Europe has been utterly triggered by all of this and tends to believe Russia will eventually accept a ceasefire only to allow it to rearm. In that scenario, the Poles see Russia arriving at their eastern border some time in the next decade. Up with that, they will not put.

Trump talks a tough game but he genuinely isn’t very astute. He has spent his life slowly losing the vast fortune he inherited. He’s not a genius; he’s a con artist. He’s conned a fraction over half the American voters who liked his patter but he has a lot less control over what actually happens in Europe than he thinks he does.

PS predicting that a war ends with two sides talking is hardly a bold prediction - they almost always do. But the talking only ends the war when one side or the other believes it can get more (or lose less) by talking than it can by fighting. It is unclear that either side in this war thinks that way at this time.

[Stephen]

So RFK nominated by Trump as Health Secretary. What could possibly go wrong there.

Goodbye vaccines and food safety.

[jfman]

Originally Posted by Chris

True, but you’re making assumptions about Trump’s likely response in Ukraine that are untethered from the things Trump has already said. He wants to decouple himself from expensive international distractions that cost America money (leave aside whether that’s a sound analysis on his part for the moment).

I agree that a rational US administration modelled on almost any one of those that has held power since WW2 might well attempt to remove Zelensky rather than allow nuclear proliferation in the dead zone between Nato and Russia, but your problem is right there in the word ‘rational’. Trump isn’t a 4D chess player. He’s a narcissist. He does the next thing that has something in it for Trump. If he asks someone to plan an intervention against Ukraine’s interests he will be confronted with more follow-up questions than he could ever be bothered to think about, starting with the explicit support for Ukraine across Europe and the presence of more than one western power’s special forces in-country.

And if they did decide to go for it, let’s not even get started on the logistics - Russia has had operatives infiltrated across Ukrainian society who look and talk like Ukrainians and yet they haven’t managed to whack him in more than 2 years. I can’t see the Americans getting anywhere near him.

Does Europe's unwavering support for Ukraine extend to both filling the void left in the event of the USA pulling the plug and supporting the development of a dirty bomb?

I'd contest that the presence of more than one set of special forces in Ukraine makes the task easier, not harder. Trump gives that order and Starmer falls one way only. He wouldn't be the only one. The only question is how to achieve plausible deniability. A poisoning would have a very Russian twist on his demise. A car bomb? A shooter? Could be rogue elements on either side.

I realise we are quite far down a hypothetical rabbit hole.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Stephen

So RFK nominated by Trump as Health Secretary. What could possibly go wrong there.

Goodbye vaccines and food safety.

Good bye to research into infectious diseases for eight years

and the worst thing is he's not even the most ridiculous pick donnie has made today/ yesterday

Tulsi Gabbard the girl Hillary Clinton called a Russian asset and has been accused of spreading Russian misinformation is now the director of national intelligence

Pete Hegseth tv presenter on fox news is the defense secretary

Donnie is well over 60 days from being sworn in and the shithousery is off the scale, if the object of these ludicrous appointments is to own the libs then well done you've succeeded, if however it is to make the lives of ordinary Americans better then I can't see it, unqualified people with no experience and horrifically compromised in some cases, plus I keep seeing donnies fans saying he's going to do a 3rd term of office but it's okay donnie has told them be won't, unless the find a way to allow it, mind boggling times.

[thenry]

Originally Posted by Hugh

That reminds me of Oleksandr Zinchenko, the c tech Bart Simpson.

Originally Posted by Stephen

Goodbye vaccines and food safety.

I don't think they'll ban vaccines but if they do - or limit them massively - then they're about to get quite a rude awakening in how science doesn't care about your politics and online research.

Measles doesn't care what you've read on Twitter. It doesn't care about your healthy living habits, supplements or lack of fluoride. If they have fewer measles vaccinations they'll have more measles outbreaks and subsequent complications.

JFK Jr has said he isn't anti-vaccination but he was a big critic of the COVID vaccine and has said that vaccines cause autism . He seems to be one of these people whose distrust of authority has led to a distrust of scientific consensus and therefore pretty much any public health intervention made on scientific grounds. He is against fluoride in water for example, additives in food (not a bad thing necessary in that case) and even promotes raw milk. Pasteurisation is from the 1800s. It's fine. It's safe. Pasteurised milk is safer than raw milk even if raw milk is now a lot safer than it was then due to better hygiene standards.

I don't understand people who think natural means better. Natural milk, natural exposure to viruses for which we have vaccines, natural treatments for conditions that we have better medication for. Have they seen how life expectancy has changed from when medical science was less advanced?

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Damien

I don't think they'll ban vaccines but if they do - or limit them massively - then they're about to get quite a rude awakening in how science doesn't care about your politics and online research.

Measles doesn't care what you've read on Twitter. It doesn't care about your healthy living habits, supplements or lack of fluoride. If they have fewer measles vaccinations they'll have more measles outbreaks and subsequent complications.

Vaccines = big pharma = big bucks = good economy =happy citizens

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Tulsi Gabbard the girl Hillary Clinton called a Russian asset and has been accused of spreading Russian misinformation is now the director of national intelligence

Tulsi Gabbard, exDemocratic presidential candidate in 2020 and congresswoman for many years.

Served in the US military for many years, and received many decorations and did a tour in Iraq.

Undoubtedly a patriot and someone that has given their life to the service of their country

Pete Hegseth tv presenter on fox news is the defense secretary

A decorated soldier that served in both Iraq and Afghanistan, was then a Director of a Veterans organisation.

Then joined Fox in 2014

Ex Military that's media savvy.

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

Good bye to research into infectious diseases for eight years

and the worst thing is he's not even the most ridiculous pick donnie has made today/ yesterday

Tulsi Gabbard the girl Hillary Clinton called a Russian asset and has been accused of spreading Russian misinformation is now the director of national intelligence

Originally Posted by Pierre

Tulsi Gabbard, exDemocratic presidential candidate in 2020 and congresswoman for many years.

Served in the US military for many years, and received many decorations and did a tour in Iraq.

Undoubtedly a patriot and someone that has given their life to the service of their country

Both these things may simultaneously be true.

Effective psy-ops convince patriots that their treachery is patriotic.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Chris

Both these things may simultaneously be true.

Effective psy-ops convince patriots that their treachery is patriotic.

I'm just here to counter the narrative.

[Itshim]

Originally Posted by TheDaddy

unqualified people with no experience and horrifically compromised in some cases,

Isn't this a description of most MPs and of cause the prime minster and most of cabinet

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by Itshim

Isn't this a description of most MPs and of cause the prime minster and most of cabinet

Most of Trump's 'cabinet' seem to be linked with money or sex crimes.

The US goes downmarket with populists, and we will undoubtedly follow.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by Pierre

I'm just here to counter the narrative.

The narrative that nato won't share intelligence with the new national intelligence director and Matt gaetz now has direct access to the witness statements and personal details of the people he's accused of doing unspeakable things to