The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues

[Coriolanus]

@Pardel-Lux

The Europeans who are demonstrating against Israel do so because of Gaza.

And not a thing is being done to get Netanyahu to “quit it”. Though I suppose if Switzerland’s remarkably long-lived stability and carefully guarded neutrality gets them to take a strong stance and actually switch from defense to offense might matter. Yet realistically, no more chance than protests in (even more neutral) Ireland will get them to - I dunno - build a navy and take the Golan-Heights.

It’s just that the USA has enough resources to help Israel out, screw Ukraine and since Article V has been preemptively cancelled by trump for non-Atlantic-shoreline NATO (which makes Norway’s relatively-small border with Russia all the more interesting). And if Putin fucks with Finland yet not quite Norway, Norway will - I reckon - almost certainly aid the Finn’s and Trump can write them off too (He will someday anyway).

What European country can project influence on Israel, Putin and Trump all at once?

What country can project influence on Israel, Putin, Denmark/Greenland and somehow prevent China (this one confounds me) from doing as it wishes in the South China Sea?

[Alessan]

@Pardel-Lux

Well, thank Godott that in your eyes we are only big, fat losers and not anti-semitic.

I don’t accuse people of things without proof.

[Pardel-Lux]

@Alessan

There were some Eurovision-related anti-Israeli demonstrations in Switzerland last week.

@Alessan

Well, yeah - of course they were protesting about Gaza.

So nice when you agree with me after all.

@Alessan

I’m just saying that the massive protests in Basel a few blocks away from where the Eurovision was taking place might have had some tangential connection to the fact that the Eurovision was taking place.

…only to go back to your

@Alessan

baseless accusations

The demonstration were not because

@Alessan

Eurovision was taking place

but because Israel was participating in Eurovision, which some people believe shows double standards: Israel gets away with war crimes and Russia does not. That is what they were demonstrating against.
And don’t tell me that it is not a war crime when you reply to an aggression, because it is. Just like I (and many other people I know personally) were all in solidarity with the USA after 9/11 and were later extremely disappointed with the war in Irak, so I (and many people I know personally) were all in solidarity with Israel after October 7th, only to become just as disappointed with the war on Gaza later. And indeed, I don’t believe that

@Alessan

there might be a large portion of Europeans who actually support Israel.

Not Netanyahu’s Israel, to be sure.

[Norse]

@Pardel-Lux

Just like I (and many other people I know personally) were all in solidarity with the USA after 9/11 and were later extremely disappointed with the war in Irak, so I (and many people I know personally) were all in solidarity with Israel after October 7th, only to become just as disappointed with the war on Gaza later.

Back in 2001 after 9/11, the US had more political goodwill than any other country. Dubya squandered it all - and some more - by his (or rather, Cheney’s) war in Iraq. Bibi managed to top that. After 7 Oct 2023, the whole international community was on Israel’s side. But after all, the US’s efforts in Iraq were nothing compared to the war crimes that IDF have been guilty of the last couple years. With Bibi’s blessing.

[smithsb]

**TRUMP ADMINISTRATION!! TRUMP ADMINISTRATION!! WHOOP WHOOP, TRUMP ADMINISTRATION. **

Trump Clusterfuck, not Eurovision

/unsanctioned (but perhaps soon to be sanctioned, junior mod off/

[Johnny_L.A]

Trapeze act.

[Horatius]

@Chefguy

which means he’s using his office to make money and peddle influence.

I’m sure you must be mistaken. Review your memory, and I’m sure you’re realize it was Hunter Biden up there, doing those things.

[crowmanyclouds]

The Aristocrats! The Deplorables!

[carrps]

@Elendil_s_Heir

Welcome to the second fucking Gilded Age:

https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/23/politics/trump-crypto-meme-coin-dinner

Another site showed a picture of that plate of food, and I don’t think I’ve ever had a worse looking plate of food at any function – banquet, wedding, whatever. The comment compared it to airplane food.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

On the other hand, it was very, very expensive.

[dasmoocher]

@Horatius

I’m sure you must be mistaken. Review your memory, and I’m sure you’re realize it was Hunter Biden up there, doing those things.

“I think it’s frankly ridiculous that anyone in this room would even suggest that President Trump is doing anything for his own benefit,” --Karoline Leavitt

Well, if by “his own benefit” she meant this crypto dinner, Trump didn’t do anything about the food.

[Buck_Godot]

Here’s and article I found about it. That includes this image and description of the food.

“Trump Organic Field Green Salad” — cucumber, carrot, pickled red onion, and cherry tomato under a honey vinaigrette — followed by pucks of filet mignon and halibut. On the side, they were served a dollop of mashed potatoes and what sure looked like frozen vegetables.

I’d put it on the level of Sizzler.

[Pardel-Lux]

Tell me more:

[dougrb]

Be a good appetizer.

[crowmanyclouds]

Did you Photoshop out the knuckle tattoos?

[Pardel-Lux]

DuckDuckGo did it for me.

[mnemosyne]

A “puck” of filet mignon means they cut a filet mignon into pieces to save money.

[Spoons]

I thought it might mean that they cooked it until it could be used to play hockey. Sure looks like that.

[Monty]

This is going to be a long one. Sadly, so’s the Second Felonial Era. Anyway, here’s the roundup as of approximately 08:30 a.m. China Standard Time.

A 23 year old Belgian named Elisabeth is caught up in the asinine and likely illegal Harvan ban. Who’s she? Just the next queen of Belgium!

The future queen of Belgium may face complications pursuing her master’s degree at Harvard amid the Trump administration’s move Thursday to ban the Ivy League school from enrolling international students.

Princess Elisabeth, 23, is the eldest of the four children of Belgium’s King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, and the future heir to the throne. The Duchess of Brabant is currently pursuing a master’s degree in public policy at Harvard, following an undergraduate degree in history and politics from Oxford University in the United Kingdom.

Good job, Donnie! That’s really not the way to inculcate good will, you dumbass.

But, hey, she can go to another university rated top in the world, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

A university in Hong Kong is extending “unconditional offers” to international students at Harvard after the Trump administration moved to block the Ivy League college from enrolling them.

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) on Friday announced an “open invitation” to foreign students currently studying at Harvard, as well as those with confirmed offers, to study there instead. The attempt to lure students away from one of the most prestigious schools in America comes amid Trump’s sweeping attacks on U.S. educational institutions, which Beijing says are damaging Washington’s international standing.

“As a leading international institution ranked among the top universities globally, HKUST is extending this opportunity to ensure talented students can pursue their educational goals without disruption,” the university said in a statement. “We will provide unconditional offers, streamlined admissions, and academic support to ensure a seamless transition for interested students.”

The felon’s stupid tariff threat on Apple is also against other phone companies.

Trump threatened on Friday to impose a 25% tariff on Apple for any iPhones sold, but not made, in the United States, as part of his administration’s goal of re-shoring jobs.

He told reporters later on Friday that the 25% tariff would also apply to Samsung and other smartphone makers. He expects the tariffs to go into effect at the end of June.

“Otherwise it wouldn’t be fair” if it did not apply to all imported smartphones, Trump said. “I had a understanding with (Apple CEO) Tim (Cook) that he wouldn’t be doing this. He said he’s going to India to build plants. I said that’s OK to go to India but you’re not going to sell into here without tariffs.”

Yeah, right. South Korean megacompanies are not going to put a total of over a hundred thousand (the most likely number of domestic employees) Koreans out of work to stoke the felon’s ego. That article also discusses why iPhones simply are not going to be made in America.

The Departent of Grift, Excellency is screwing up the Social Security Administration. This is a video with this blurb:

Jen Psaki shares reporting from the Washington Post on how the celebrated A.I. chat bot meant to save money on human operators only talks in maddening circles. Meanwhile, ABC News reports that Trump’s new Social Security commissioner says he had to google his job.

The video talks about the incompetent chatbot answering the phone if you are unfortunate enough to have to call for assistance.

The grifter-in-chief regrets not breaking the law more egregiously than he did during the First Felonial Era. That’s another video report with this blurb:

According to Rolling Stone reporting, “one of the lessons Trump took away from his previous stint in the White House is that he was wrong to leave a ton of money on the table as president.” Senior Political Reporter Asawin Suebsaeng joins to discuss.

Fear not, though. His administration will still support higher education. What’s that? WTF?

Asked how the U.S. would secure the workforce needed for manufacturing, Lutnick said community colleges need to start training people for “jobs of the future” based on a “new model” where American families would work in major manufacturing plants.

“It’s time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future,” Lutnick said. “You know, this is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here and your grandkids work here.”

Lutnick called his proposed model the “future” of American manufacturing and said it would create job opportunities with salaries starting around $80,000 and rising to as much as $200,000.

“This is tradecraft. This is high school-educated, great jobs that start in the 80s and 90s and go up to one hundred and fifty to two hundred thousand dollars,” according to Lutnick. “We are going to drive the high-value, high-performance jobs to America.”

I didn’t post the next part of the article because the lack of logic endangered cognition, both bio- and electro-, with its stunning inanity.

You have been warned. Don’t blame me if you suffer, as I did, from reading it.

With here a tariff, there a tariff, everywhere a tariff

President Trump on Friday suggested ramping up tariffs against the European Union, indicating that his trade wars are still only just beginning.

The president called for a 50 percent tariff on products from the EU, to begin on June 1.

“The European Union, which was formed for the primary purpose of taking advantage of the United States on TRADE, has been very difficult to deal with. Their powerful Trade Barriers, Vat Taxes, ridiculous Corporate Penalties, Non-Monetary Trade Barriers, Monetary Manipulations, unfair and unjustified lawsuits against Americans Companies, and more, have led to a Trade Deficit with the U.S. of more than $250,000,000 a year, a number which is totally unacceptable,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Our discussions with them are going nowhere! Therefore, I am recommending a straight 50% Tariff on the European Union, starting on June 1, 2025. There is no Tariff if the product is built or manufactured in the United States.”

More stories later. I’m off to church, where I’m going to be prayig like H…I mean, where I’m going to be praying.

[ThelmaLou]

@Monty

“It’s time to train people not to do the jobs of the past, but to do the great jobs of the future,” Lutnick said. “You know, this is the new model where you work in these kinds of plants for the rest of your life and your kids work here and your grandkids work here.”

Well, those were the jobs of the future. In 1900.