Opinion International Geopolitics

[Ford Fairlane]

Read one of those facts 'you didn't know' bios:

- was the first US President born in a hospital;

- helped develop the first nuclear submarine and when a Canadian nuclear reactor exploded in 1952, volunteered to enter the reactor to help dismantle the nuclear core to prevent a full melt down;

- installed solar panels on the White House in 1979 (removed by Reagan 7 years later);

- upset the Queen Mother by kissing her on the lips during a visit to Buckingham Palace in 1977 (but to be fair he didn't slip the tongue).

I think the only one I knew the bit about the solar panels, I think from the Cheney doco-drama (the Queen Mother faux pas rings a bell).

Remember when Jimmy was considered an incompetent president?

 

[Festerz]

Remember when Jimmy was considered an incompetent president?

He was the calm and considered President the US needed after the national trauma of Watergate. The botched Iranian hostage rescue mission destroyed his chance of a second term although he was never going to be a match for the folksy Hollywood campaigning of Reagan.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

He was the calm and considered President the US needed after the national trauma of Watergate. The botched Iranian hostage rescue mission destroyed his chance of a second term although he was never going to be a match for the folksy Hollywood campaigning of Reagan.

I was thinking more in terms of how far the benchmark for incompetence has fallen.

Jimmy would be a statesman president now (just keep him away from Camilla ).

 

[Festerz]

Fox News take on the death of former President Jimmy Carter at the age of 100:

 

[Festerz]

Interesting follow up to Carter's passing away - resurfacing of ABC Four Corners revelation that Carter apologised to then PM Gough Whitlam for US CIA interference in the context of GG Kerr’s 1975 dismissal of a twice elected Australian government.

Claims that the CIA interfered in Australian elections formed part of the plot for the 1985 movie,The Falcon and The Snowman, starring Sean Penn, as well as fodder for the Midnight Oil 1982 hit, US Forces.

 

[OneGreatClub]

 

[Festerz]

This bloke is a not just narcissistic fool but a genuine threat to world peace. Has not ruled out using military force to reclaim the Panama Canal and seize control of Greenland, insisting that both are vital for US national security.

Which of course gives the green light to China to invade and retake Taiwan by force using exactly the same reasons.

 

[Festerz]

Pissing off the US neighbours of Canada and Mexico appeals to his ignorant supporter base of course.

 

[TazD]

I love how this Greenland/Canada brainfart is the "Right" tacitly saying Climate Change is real.

 

[Festerz]

I love how this Greenland/Canada brainfart is the "Right" tacitly saying Climate Change is real.

Yep. Suddenly that once inaccessible oil underneath the ice cap on the North pole becomes accessible via climate change produced by the very substance that they want to get their hands on.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

I hope Trump puts tariffs on everything like he said he plans to, and inflation goes thru the roof and then the Idiot has to justify himself to all those people who voted for him, because they couldn't handle the cost of living crisis post covid/Ukraine invasion.

 

[OneGreatClub]

I hope Trump puts tariffs on everything like he said he plans to, and inflation goes thru the roof and then the Idiot has to justify himself to all those people who voted for him, because they couldn't handle the cost of living crisis post covid/Ukraine invasion.

They’ll just blame Hunter Biden and trans

 

[OneGreatClub]

Autocrats unite

 

[raptalia]

and now we see Zuckerberg sucking up to Trump. Meta has just announced it will dispense with independent fact checkers. I guess that is in line with the following...

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg pledged to work with Donald Trump to fight "censorship" from governments.

Albanese defends teen social media ban as Meta fights government 'censorship'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended his social media policies after the Meta chief pledged to work with Trump to fight government "censorship".

www.abc.net.au

The world should be very concerned at the rise of the plutocrats. Trump, Musk and now Zuckerberg will run our daily lives. Not only will western society be bombarded with fake news but it will be fake news generated by the likes of Musk and Zuckerberg.

 

[OneGreatClub]

There is no bottom to his evilness. He is no leader.

 

[JimmyBC]

There's nothing in the slightest evil about that.

 

[Ford Fairlane]

 

[wannabejack]

US Congress issues resolution to recognize Russian actions in Ukraine as genocide - Euromaidan Press

A bipartisan group of US House Representatives has reintroduced a resolution calling for Russia's actions in Ukraine to be recognized as genocide.

euromaidanpress.com

The allegations of genocide against Ukrainians by Russian forces are rooted in systematic patterns of violence, targeted killings, and cultural erasure, with evidence emerging, for example, from places like Bucha and Mariupol, where Russian troops executed civilians en masse.

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

Trump says he will invade Greenland if the Danes don't hand it over to USA.

I assume that triggers the NATO clause that if 1 member is attacked, all come to its defence. USA v NATO war would make Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, Pyongyang etc happy.

 

[Grave Danger]

and now we see Zuckerberg sucking up to Trump. Meta has just announced it will dispense with independent fact checkers. I guess that is in line with the following...

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg pledged to work with Donald Trump to fight "censorship" from governments.

Albanese defends teen social media ban as Meta fights government 'censorship'

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has defended his social media policies after the Meta chief pledged to work with Trump to fight government "censorship".

www.abc.net.au

The world should be very concerned at the rise of the plutocrats. Trump, Musk and now Zuckerberg will run our daily lives. Not only will western society be bombarded with fake news but it will be fake news generated by the likes of Musk and Zuckerberg.

Musk, Zuckerberg, Bezos, et al are America' s equivalent of the Russian oligarchs - stay onside with The Man and get richer and richer. Can't see Trump having any of them thrown off tall buildings though, but you never know...

 

[Festerz]

The ageing former Presidents/Wannabe Presidents and their partners turning up to the funeral of Jimmy Carter was like a scene from the Sopranos.

This was my fave.



But Bush using the official Funeral Program as a prop was pretty special too..

 

[OneGreatClub]

In other news…

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

 

[OneGreatClub]

The world is so unsettled

 

[RussellEbertHandball]

There is going to be a real bitch fight and 38s pulled out, me thinks.

Original article from Washington Post reproduced in today's AFR.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/01/12/bannon-musk-trump-maga/

President-elect Donald Trump’s former chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon is ramping up public attacks on billionaire Elon Musk amid an intensifying debate on the right about Musk’s influence in the incoming administration.

In an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera this past week, Bannon said Musk “should go back to South Africa,” where he was born, and be denied privileged access to the West Wing. Bannon has also criticized Musk’s support for a skilled-worker visa program that led to a bitter rift last month between far-right activists and Trump’s tech executive supporters, who see the program as a crucial lifeline for Silicon Valley.
.....

Bannon told the newspaper: “Why do we have South Africans, the most racist people on earth, White South Africans … making any comments at all on what goes on in the United States?”Bannon added he would “do anything” to keep Musk out of the White House.
.....
Bannon told the Italian newspaper that Musk’s ideas are “really about the implementation of techno-feudalism on a global scale.”