Is it Vance who will have to call the men in white coats?
Him and half the cabinet. And if Trump opposes it, which of course he will, two thirds of the House and the Senate. In other words, it's even more difficult than impeachment.
Interesting procedure, I suppose it fits with other similar processes.
IIRC from the last impeachment the most loyal Trumpers were arguing that impeachment itself is fundamentally unfair because it is not a criminal level standard.
And of course they argue (and the SC agreed) you cannot criminally charge even an ex-President for most things, even non-presidential acts, which is convenient.
"You know who else didn't help us? South Korea didn't help us. We've got 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect them from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well. He said very nice things about me. He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person."
South Koreans are just about the most America-loving people on earth. He is deliberately destroying all the USA's most valuable alliances. And he's doing this because he likes the leader of North Korea???
Taking him at face value he genuinely gets swayed by people saying nice things to him, and that is worth more than decades of alliances. It's an odd, odd approach even for a narcissist, if it is true.
In that one 60 seconds of speech he manages to grievously insult South Korea, Japan and Australia, who are his three most important non-NATO allies in the world (with the questionable exception of Israel). Hilariously, if you like dark comedy, they are the countries MAGA Republicans have loudly been proclaiming as America's best new friends, now that the Europeans and Canada have been exposed as cowards and chancers
Only Trump has just binned them off, too. Where next, America?
If anything like normality survives until more normal times return, the readjustment between the USA and other nations is going to be an interesting period to witness.
Mm. The mildly vengeful side of me - or maybe just the side which likes to see the good guys win - would like to see some sort of negative consequence to all this for America. Sorry Americans. It's a base instinct and I try to keep this sort of thing in check, and when my rational mind takes over, which is most of the time, I succeed. But my realistic expectation is that America rides out the Trumpsterfuck less unhappily than the rest of the world.
Is it Vance who will have to call the men in white coats?
Only with the support of over half the cabinet. How do you imagine a Hegseth or an RFK will vote on that ?
If they both believe they'll be the next VP?
I don't think the 25th is happening though. Apart from anything else I think most of Trump's cabinet are happy with the way things are going. What would they want to do differently if they did get rid of him?
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Anyway - look at this nice picture of a sunset over the Yorkshire coast. A day in the North York Moors. The light is fantastic.
Great photo.
It's got me trying to work out where on the Yorkshire coast you can see the sun setting across a bay like that. I'm guessing Cayton Bay between Scarborough and Filey?
Thanks! It's from the pier at Whitby - which juts vaguely north into the North Sea - facing west off the pier. I haven't been here for about 20 years and I am absolutely loving it. I've nipped out for to explore the available pubs - they are far better than I remember - I'm in tge Esk Vaults, which is splendid - but a little dead on a Monday night. I'd quite like a full on goth pub for the full Whitby experience.
Little Angel, as it is known, up the hills (to distinguish from the big Angel down in the town centre). On Flower gate. Loadsa real ales and very gothy.
Edit. I see it is now called Little Angel, rather than known as.
I think one of the real legacies of the second Trump term will be more and more countries will get nuclear weapons as America is no longer seen as a reliable ally.
Trump: “We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well, as you know. Do you notice he said very nice things about me? He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person... He was so nasty to Biden”
There is nothing to Trump outside of his narcissism. And his followers have swallowed the nonsense whole.
He said this just a few days ago.
They said, what do you mean you have regime change? My friend, great show. I love this guy. He's so nice to me every time I watch and I -- you know, we're not supposed to be seduced that way, right? But I am. When somebody is nice to me, I love that person. [Laughter] Even if they're bad people I couldn't care less.
Is it Vance who will have to call the men in white coats?
Only with the support of over half the cabinet. How do you imagine a Hegseth or an RFK will vote on that ?
If they both believe they'll be the next VP?
I don't think the 25th is happening though. Apart from anything else I think most of Trump's cabinet are happy with the way things are going. What would they want to do differently if they did get rid of him?
Quite - they might be a little less dramatic in public pronouncements, but apart from Vance theoretically being a believer in not getting embroiled in Middle East wars, who else is supposedly unhappy?
"You know who else didn't help us? South Korea didn't help us. We've got 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect them from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well. He said very nice things about me. He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person."
South Koreans are just about the most America-loving people on earth. He is deliberately destroying all the USA's most valuable alliances. And he's doing this because he likes the leader of North Korea???
Taking him at face value he genuinely gets swayed by people saying nice things to him, and that is worth more than decades of alliances. It's an odd, odd approach even for a narcissist, if it is true.
In that one 60 seconds of speech he manages to grievously insult South Korea, Japan and Australia, who are his three most important non-NATO allies in the world (with the questionable exception of Israel). Hilariously, if you like dark comedy, they are the countries MAGA Republicans have loudly been proclaiming as America's best new friends, now that the Europeans and Canada have been exposed as cowards and chancers
Only Trump has just binned them off, too. Where next, America?
If anything like normality survives until more normal times return, the readjustment between the USA and other nations is going to be an interesting period to witness.
Mm. The mildly vengeful side of me - or maybe just the side which likes to see the good guys win - would like to see some sort of negative consequence to all this for America. Sorry Americans. It's a base instinct and I try to keep this sort of thing in check, and when my rational mind takes over, which is most of the time, I succeed. But my realistic expectation is that America rides out the Trumpsterfuck less unhappily than the rest of the world.
America as a country has some pretty big advantages - access to most of the resources it requires domestically, no threat of invasion, for example - that make it well set if it can avoid falling apart internally.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
This is why the whole argument about Prime Ministers having a mandate is so wrong-headed. Trump has a mandate, because he was directly-elected and that makes it harder to remove him from office. Prime Ministers only have an indirect mandate, and so it's easier for MPs, who have a direct mandate, to remove them from office when required.
Trump could remain in office if the rest of the Government did what they were supposed to do. They could stop the war. They could stop all his crazy shit.
THEY DON'T WANT TO
To give them the benefit of the doubt, the people who should be stopping this are in a weak position to do so.
Trump's Cabinet are there purely because Trump wants them to be there. So the 25th only works as a mechanism once Trump is in a coma. Otherwise, they have to agree that he is gaga without Donald the Dyed Dictator finding out. Because if he does find out, he will sack them for disloyalty. (Think what Boris did to Gove as his Premiership collapsed, only on whatever drugs Trump is on right now).
That leaves impeachment. That only works if a bunch of Republicans in both houses find sufficient spine to impeach a President from their party. That might have worked a few decades ago; had push come to shove, it presumably would have worked for Nixon. But it wouldn't work now, because any Republican politican who goes against Trump will be primaried out by their party. And they all know that.
Back when I was Stuartingosport, yet another brightish young thing living in nowhere and looking for something to be bright about, I bingeread the essays of Clive James. He wrote a lot about Watergate, and how the writers of the Constitution really didn't want a Presidential Party. I was never quite sure what he meant, but I guess Nixon was a hairsbreadth escape and Trump (especially Trump 47) is what they were worried about.
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom · 3h At least I have the consolation of having lived through the years when we were actually a serious country and a superpower
Anyway - look at this nice picture of a sunset over the Yorkshire coast. A day in the North York Moors. The light is fantastic.
Great photo.
It's got me trying to work out where on the Yorkshire coast you can see the sun setting across a bay like that. I'm guessing Cayton Bay between Scarborough and Filey?
Thanks! It's from the pier at Whitby - which juts vaguely north into the North Sea - facing west off the pier. I haven't been here for about 20 years and I am absolutely loving it. I've nipped out for to explore the available pubs - they are far better than I remember - I'm in tge Esk Vaults, which is splendid - but a little dead on a Monday night. I'd quite like a full on goth pub for the full Whitby experience.
Little Angel, as it is known, up the hills (to distinguish from the big Angel down in the town centre). On Flower gate. Loadsa real ales and very gothy.
Edit. I see it is now called Little Angel, rather than known as.
Perfect. Staring at the 'What's on in Whitby' board opposite me, I can see three Goth weekends, two steampunk weekends and a pirate featival here in the course of a year. In another life I can imagine myself taking root here.
"You know who else didn't help us? South Korea didn't help us. We've got 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect them from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well. He said very nice things about me. He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person."
South Koreans are just about the most America-loving people on earth. He is deliberately destroying all the USA's most valuable alliances. And he's doing this because he likes the leader of North Korea???
Taking him at face value he genuinely gets swayed by people saying nice things to him, and that is worth more than decades of alliances. It's an odd, odd approach even for a narcissist, if it is true.
Anyway - look at this nice picture of a sunset over the Yorkshire coast. A day in the North York Moors. The light is fantastic.
Great photo.
It's got me trying to work out where on the Yorkshire coast you can see the sun setting across a bay like that. I'm guessing Cayton Bay between Scarborough and Filey?
Thanks! It's from the pier at Whitby - which juts vaguely north into the North Sea - facing west off the pier. I haven't been here for about 20 years and I am absolutely loving it. I've nipped out for to explore the available pubs - they are far better than I remember - I'm in tge Esk Vaults, which is splendid - but a little dead on a Monday night. I'd quite like a full on goth pub for the full Whitby experience.
Little Angel, as it is known, up the hills (to distinguish from the big Angel down in the town centre). On Flower gate. Loadsa real ales and very gothy.
Edit. I see it is now called Little Angel, rather than known as.
Warning. Haven't been for 10 years. Last time I was there I ended up going home with a delightful goth lass to her place. Went for a wee, fell down her stairs and broke both bones in my forearm, dislocated my elbow and tore my groin muscle so badly I couldn't walk for a month. All that before any sex too. So you can't have a worse night.
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
Anyway - look at this nice picture of a sunset over the Yorkshire coast. A day in the North York Moors. The light is fantastic.
Great photo.
It's got me trying to work out where on the Yorkshire coast you can see the sun setting across a bay like that. I'm guessing Cayton Bay between Scarborough and Filey?
Thanks! It's from the pier at Whitby - which juts vaguely north into the North Sea - facing west off the pier. I haven't been here for about 20 years and I am absolutely loving it. I've nipped out for to explore the available pubs - they are far better than I remember - I'm in tge Esk Vaults, which is splendid - but a little dead on a Monday night. I'd quite like a full on goth pub for the full Whitby experience.
Little Angel, as it is known, up the hills (to distinguish from the big Angel down in the town centre). On Flower gate. Loadsa real ales and very gothy.
Edit. I see it is now called Little Angel, rather than known as.
Warning. Haven't been for 10 years. Last time I was there I ended up going home with a delightful goth lass to her place. Went for a wee, fell down her stairs and broke both bones in my forearm, dislocated my elbow and tore my groin muscle so badly I couldn't walk for a month. All that before any sex too. So you can't have a worse night.
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
Anyway - look at this nice picture of a sunset over the Yorkshire coast. A day in the North York Moors. The light is fantastic.
Great photo.
It's got me trying to work out where on the Yorkshire coast you can see the sun setting across a bay like that. I'm guessing Cayton Bay between Scarborough and Filey?
Thanks! It's from the pier at Whitby - which juts vaguely north into the North Sea - facing west off the pier. I haven't been here for about 20 years and I am absolutely loving it. I've nipped out for to explore the available pubs - they are far better than I remember - I'm in tge Esk Vaults, which is splendid - but a little dead on a Monday night. I'd quite like a full on goth pub for the full Whitby experience.
Little Angel, as it is known, up the hills (to distinguish from the big Angel down in the town centre). On Flower gate. Loadsa real ales and very gothy.
Edit. I see it is now called Little Angel, rather than known as.
Warning. Haven't been for 10 years. Last time I was there I ended up going home with a delightful goth lass to her place. Went for a wee, fell down her stairs and broke both bones in my forearm, dislocated my elbow and tore my groin muscle so badly I couldn't walk for a month. All that before any sex too. So you can't have a worse night.
*wistful sigh* I have a soft spot for goth girls. Particularly if they're carrying a few pounds around the edges. (It's a pecadillo I can't quite reconcile with my normal revulsion for cosmetics. The ideal would be a fat goth girl but with a clean face.)
I think one of the real legacies of the second Trump term will be more and more countries will get nuclear weapons as America is no longer seen as a reliable ally.
Trump: “We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well, as you know. Do you notice he said very nice things about me? He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person... He was so nasty to Biden”
There is nothing to Trump outside of his narcissism. And his followers have swallowed the nonsense whole.
He said this just a few days ago.
They said, what do you mean you have regime change? My friend, great show. I love this guy. He's so nice to me every time I watch and I -- you know, we're not supposed to be seduced that way, right? But I am. When somebody is nice to me, I love that person. [Laughter] Even if they're bad people I couldn't care less.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
This is why the whole argument about Prime Ministers having a mandate is so wrong-headed. Trump has a mandate, because he was directly-elected and that makes it harder to remove him from office. Prime Ministers only have an indirect mandate, and so it's easier for MPs, who have a direct mandate, to remove them from office when required.
Trump could remain in office if the rest of the Government did what they were supposed to do. They could stop the war. They could stop all his crazy shit.
THEY DON'T WANT TO
To give them the benefit of the doubt, the people who should be stopping this are in a weak position to do so.
Trump's Cabinet are there purely because Trump wants them to be there. So the 25th only works as a mechanism once Trump is in a coma. Otherwise, they have to agree that he is gaga without Donald the Dyed Dictator finding out. Because if he does find out, he will sack them for disloyalty. (Think what Boris did to Gove as his Premiership collapsed, only on whatever drugs Trump is on right now).
That leaves impeachment. That only works if a bunch of Republicans in both houses find sufficient spine to impeach a President from their party. That might have worked a few decades ago; had push come to shove, it presumably would have worked for Nixon. But it wouldn't work now, because any Republican politican who goes against Trump will be primaried out by their party. And they all know that.
Back when I was Stuartingosport, yet another brightish young thing living in nowhere and looking for something to be bright about, I bingeread the essays of Clive James. He wrote a lot about Watergate, and how the writers of the Constitution really didn't want a Presidential Party. I was never quite sure what he meant, but I guess Nixon was a hairsbreadth escape and Trump (especially Trump 47) is what they were worried about.
Yep, the 25th is deeply flawed as it relies on the cabinet who are appointed by the president.
And in this case none of them would be anywhere near government under a normal administration as they are either batshit crazy or incapable of governing or both.
I think one of the real legacies of the second Trump term will be more and more countries will get nuclear weapons as America is no longer seen as a reliable ally.
Trump: “We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well, as you know. Do you notice he said very nice things about me? He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person... He was so nasty to Biden”
There is nothing to Trump outside of his narcissism. And his followers have swallowed the nonsense whole.
He said this just a few days ago.
They said, what do you mean you have regime change? My friend, great show. I love this guy. He's so nice to me every time I watch and I -- you know, we're not supposed to be seduced that way, right? But I am. When somebody is nice to me, I love that person. [Laughter] Even if they're bad people I couldn't care less.
If you listen to the clip, he's clearly not hallucinating but just trying to take the credit for pointing out that Osama Bin Laden was a threat after the first WTC bombing.
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
I'm not sure the USA will be able to cope with the debt, bad will, internal division and inequality Trump is creating.
It will also need to have a reckoning that its precious constitution is functionally worthless.
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
Well I have some sympathy for the spirit of this, and Hunter Biden is clearly a wong 'un who should be in jail - but the Buden cabal were surely nothing like as malign as Hesgeth and RFK and Tulsi and pretty much the whole lot of them? And the current Labour cabinet are useless - I'd rate them as the worst government if my lifetime, if only because Liz Truss was over before she did as much damage - but again, I'd quibble with 'equally badly governed' as the Trump lot.
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
No matter how hard you try, you can't get away from the fact that your political instincts are utterly crap.
Putin, Truss, Trump... all promoted by you, all mad and/or bad.
Who is your next hot tip? So that we know who to be worried about.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
I think one of the real legacies of the second Trump term will be more and more countries will get nuclear weapons as America is no longer seen as a reliable ally.
Trump: “We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well, as you know. Do you notice he said very nice things about me? He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person... He was so nasty to Biden”
There is nothing to Trump outside of his narcissism. And his followers have swallowed the nonsense whole.
He said this just a few days ago.
They said, what do you mean you have regime change? My friend, great show. I love this guy. He's so nice to me every time I watch and I -- you know, we're not supposed to be seduced that way, right? But I am. When somebody is nice to me, I love that person. [Laughter] Even if they're bad people I couldn't care less.
If you listen to the clip, he's clearly not hallucinating but just trying to take the credit for pointing out that Osama Bin Laden was a threat after the first WTC bombing.
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
No matter how hard you try, you can't get away from the fact that your political instincts are utterly crap.
Putin, Truss, Trump... all promoted by you, all mad and/or bad.
Who is your next hot tip? So that we know who to be worried about.
Liz Truss is becoming quite a decent interviewer.
It's obviously very soft ball in the following example but it's a proper interview nonetheless - which is no small compliment.
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
No matter how hard you try, you can't get away from the fact that your political instincts are utterly crap.
Putin, Truss, Trump... all promoted by you, all mad and/or bad.
Who is your next hot tip? So that we know who to be worried about.
I marvel at my own power! I’m like the Elders of Zion, secretly ordering the world
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
Well I have some sympathy for the spirit of this, and Hunter Biden is clearly a wong 'un who should be in jail - but the Buden cabal were surely nothing like as malign as Hesgeth and RFK and Tulsi and pretty much the whole lot of them? And the current Labour cabinet are useless - I'd rate them as the worst government if my lifetime, if only because Liz Truss was over before she did as much damage - but again, I'd quibble with 'equally badly governed' as the Trump lot.
Nothing like as malign as Hegseth, Boy Kennedy and Gabbard is a barrier so low that its none existent.
But comparing against previous administrations Garland and Mayorkas were incompetents with few, if any, rivals.
Anyway - look at this nice picture of a sunset over the Yorkshire coast. A day in the North York Moors. The light is fantastic.
Great photo.
It's got me trying to work out where on the Yorkshire coast you can see the sun setting across a bay like that. I'm guessing Cayton Bay between Scarborough and Filey?
Thanks! It's from the pier at Whitby - which juts vaguely north into the North Sea - facing west off the pier. I haven't been here for about 20 years and I am absolutely loving it. I've nipped out for to explore the available pubs - they are far better than I remember - I'm in tge Esk Vaults, which is splendid - but a little dead on a Monday night. I'd quite like a full on goth pub for the full Whitby experience.
Little Angel, as it is known, up the hills (to distinguish from the big Angel down in the town centre). On Flower gate. Loadsa real ales and very gothy.
Edit. I see it is now called Little Angel, rather than known as.
Perfect. Staring at the 'What's on in Whitby' board opposite me, I can see three Goth weekends, two steampunk weekends and a pirate featival here in the course of a year. In another life I can imagine myself taking root here.
Goth weekends are a bit mad, but in a good way. I accidentally coincided with one after visiting Ravenscar (the town that never was) and the whole place was completely rammed.
If you like Goth things, you'll have to find some Whitby Jet, although usually the shore is scoured by the collectors after every storm. Runswick Bay is probably the best bet. There's loads of ammonites too although the same applies. Both can be bought, of course, but that rather spoils the fun.
“Pakistani sources cited by Haaretz suggest a widening gap in endgame expectations: - Iran shows no willingness to accept US terms to end the war - Pakistani diplomats reportedly conveyed to regional actors (Saudi, Egypt, Turkey) that Tehran believes it has already prevailed -Crucially, Islamabad assesses that Washington is now more eager for a deal than Tehran Despite this, the Trump administration is still insisting on its core demands (zero enrichment, missile limits)-conditions Iran continues to reject outright. - If accurate, this points to a classic mismatch: one side negotiating from perceived strength, the other from urgency.”
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
No matter how hard you try, you can't get away from the fact that your political instincts are utterly crap.
Putin, Truss, Trump... all promoted by you, all mad and/or bad.
Who is your next hot tip? So that we know who to be worried about.
I marvel at my own power! I’m like the Elders of Zion, secretly ordering the world
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
No matter how hard you try, you can't get away from the fact that your political instincts are utterly crap.
Putin, Truss, Trump... all promoted by you, all mad and/or bad.
Who is your next hot tip? So that we know who to be worried about.
Liz Truss is becoming quite a decent interviewer.
It's obviously very soft ball in the following example but it's a proper interview nonetheless - which is no small compliment.
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
Oddly enough, the PBer the "mad and sinister" Hunter Biden most resembles, with his former drug addiction and obsession with sex, is your own good self.
He also seems to have turned his life around, so, good for the both of you.
"You know who else didn't help us? South Korea didn't help us. We've got 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect them from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well. He said very nice things about me. He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person."
South Koreans are just about the most America-loving people on earth. He is deliberately destroying all the USA's most valuable alliances. And he's doing this because he likes the leader of North Korea???
Taking him at face value he genuinely gets swayed by people saying nice things to him, and that is worth more than decades of alliances. It's an odd, odd approach even for a narcissist, if it is true.
In that one 60 seconds of speech he manages to grievously insult South Korea, Japan and Australia, who are his three most important non-NATO allies in the world (with the questionable exception of Israel). Hilariously, if you like dark comedy, they are the countries MAGA Republicans have loudly been proclaiming as America's best new friends, now that the Europeans and Canada have been exposed as cowards and chancers
Only Trump has just binned them off, too. Where next, America?
If anything like normality survives until more normal times return, the readjustment between the USA and other nations is going to be an interesting period to witness.
Is it Vance who will have to call the men in white coats?
It should be. Vance's whole shtick is - or was - "we will never again wage pointless Middle Eastern wars"
Trump is humiliating him, with every ludicrous gaffe and fumble, and Vance is smart. And the Veep
Rubio's odds of getting the nomination rising?
Each of Trump's kids are going to be able to bankroll a Presidential run, with the billions in grift they are acquiring.
Time was being President might interfere with making money - certainly not now though. Trump was a billionaire, albeit with messy finances, but crypto and other interests have been very kind to him thanks to to holding office.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
People in decline can have good periods as well as bad.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
People in decline can have good periods as well as bad.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
You have lucid periods ... when you're not talking about the Democrats.
"You know who else didn't help us? South Korea didn't help us. We've got 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect them from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well. He said very nice things about me. He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person."
South Koreans are just about the most America-loving people on earth. He is deliberately destroying all the USA's most valuable alliances. And he's doing this because he likes the leader of North Korea???
Taking him at face value he genuinely gets swayed by people saying nice things to him, and that is worth more than decades of alliances. It's an odd, odd approach even for a narcissist, if it is true.
In that one 60 seconds of speech he manages to grievously insult South Korea, Japan and Australia, who are his three most important non-NATO allies in the world (with the questionable exception of Israel). Hilariously, if you like dark comedy, they are the countries MAGA Republicans have loudly been proclaiming as America's best new friends, now that the Europeans and Canada have been exposed as cowards and chancers
Only Trump has just binned them off, too. Where next, America?
If anything like normality survives until more normal times return, the readjustment between the USA and other nations is going to be an interesting period to witness.
Man, they are going to have to fucking grovel...
Fundamentally, the US has taught the 'free' world/West/Allies/fellow democracies a ice-breaking and heart rendering key lesson which will now echo through the rest of our lives:
a few hundred thousand votes in a few dozen USA counties you have literally never heard of can deliver someone who will turn the US completely against you and tear up every agreement, military alliance and treaty you have.
And, more pertinently, the US system despite what is written on the tin will fucking do nothing about it. The fabled free press. Nah. The hallowed halls of Congress, shining light of democracy down the ages. Nope. The US state department, bastions of radio free europe and purveyors of democracy and free thinking around the world. Not available this week.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
People in decline can have good periods as well as bad.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
When did Trump last have a good period? His dangerous mental state seems to be getting worse each and every day in plain sight.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
This is why the whole argument about Prime Ministers having a mandate is so wrong-headed. Trump has a mandate, because he was directly-elected and that makes it harder to remove him from office. Prime Ministers only have an indirect mandate, and so it's easier for MPs, who have a direct mandate, to remove them from office when required.
Trump could remain in office if the rest of the Government did what they were supposed to do. They could stop the war. They could stop all his crazy shit.
THEY DON'T WANT TO
To give them the benefit of the doubt, the people who should be stopping this are in a weak position to do so.
Trump's Cabinet are there purely because Trump wants them to be there. So the 25th only works as a mechanism once Trump is in a coma. Otherwise, they have to agree that he is gaga without Donald the Dyed Dictator finding out. Because if he does find out, he will sack them for disloyalty. (Think what Boris did to Gove as his Premiership collapsed, only on whatever drugs Trump is on right now).
That leaves impeachment. That only works if a bunch of Republicans in both houses find sufficient spine to impeach a President from their party. That might have worked a few decades ago; had push come to shove, it presumably would have worked for Nixon. But it wouldn't work now, because any Republican politican who goes against Trump will be primaried out by their party. And they all know that.
Back when I was Stuartingosport, yet another brightish young thing living in nowhere and looking for something to be bright about, I bingeread the essays of Clive James. He wrote a lot about Watergate, and how the writers of the Constitution really didn't want a Presidential Party. I was never quite sure what he meant, but I guess Nixon was a hairsbreadth escape and Trump (especially Trump 47) is what they were worried about.
Yep, the 25th is deeply flawed as it relies on the cabinet who are appointed by the president.
And in this case none of them would be anywhere near government under a normal administration as they are either batshit crazy or incapable of governing or both.
The 25th does allow Congress to institute some other body than the Cabinet for declaring the President bonkers. Also needs two thirds majorities in both houses to overcome the President's inevitable veto though.
And if he could incite an insurrection against an election he'd clearly lost, I dread to think what would happen if he was 25ed (or if impeachment looked like succeeding).
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
People in decline can have good periods as well as bad.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
This is nearly two years after we were told he was so far gone he couldn't even sign his own name.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
People in decline can have good periods as well as bad.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
This is nearly two years after we were told he was so far gone he couldn't even sign his own name.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
This is why the whole argument about Prime Ministers having a mandate is so wrong-headed. Trump has a mandate, because he was directly-elected and that makes it harder to remove him from office. Prime Ministers only have an indirect mandate, and so it's easier for MPs, who have a direct mandate, to remove them from office when required.
Trump could remain in office if the rest of the Government did what they were supposed to do. They could stop the war. They could stop all his crazy shit.
THEY DON'T WANT TO
To give them the benefit of the doubt, the people who should be stopping this are in a weak position to do so.
Trump's Cabinet are there purely because Trump wants them to be there. So the 25th only works as a mechanism once Trump is in a coma. Otherwise, they have to agree that he is gaga without Donald the Dyed Dictator finding out. Because if he does find out, he will sack them for disloyalty. (Think what Boris did to Gove as his Premiership collapsed, only on whatever drugs Trump is on right now).
That leaves impeachment. That only works if a bunch of Republicans in both houses find sufficient spine to impeach a President from their party. That might have worked a few decades ago; had push come to shove, it presumably would have worked for Nixon. But it wouldn't work now, because any Republican politican who goes against Trump will be primaried out by their party. And they all know that.
Back when I was Stuartingosport, yet another brightish young thing living in nowhere and looking for something to be bright about, I bingeread the essays of Clive James. He wrote a lot about Watergate, and how the writers of the Constitution really didn't want a Presidential Party. I was never quite sure what he meant, but I guess Nixon was a hairsbreadth escape and Trump (especially Trump 47) is what they were worried about.
Yep, the 25th is deeply flawed as it relies on the cabinet who are appointed by the president.
And in this case none of them would be anywhere near government under a normal administration as they are either batshit crazy or incapable of governing or both.
The 25th does allow Congress to institute some other body than the Cabinet for declaring the President bonkers. Also needs two thirds majorities in both houses to overcome the President's inevitable veto though.
And if he could incite an insurrection against an election he'd clearly lost, I dread to think what would happen if he was 25ed (or if impeachment looked like succeeding).
I doubt the next insurrection will go without an equal and opposite response from the opposition.
I think one of the real legacies of the second Trump term will be more and more countries will get nuclear weapons as America is no longer seen as a reliable ally.
Trump: “We have 45,000 soldiers in South Korea to protect us from Kim Jong Un, who I get along with very well, as you know. Do you notice he said very nice things about me? He used to call Joe Biden a mentally retarded person... He was so nasty to Biden”
There is nothing to Trump outside of his narcissism. And his followers have swallowed the nonsense whole.
He said this just a few days ago.
They said, what do you mean you have regime change? My friend, great show. I love this guy. He's so nice to me every time I watch and I -- you know, we're not supposed to be seduced that way, right? But I am. When somebody is nice to me, I love that person. [Laughter] Even if they're bad people I couldn't care less.
If you listen to the clip, he's clearly not hallucinating but just trying to take the credit for pointing out that Osama Bin Laden was a threat after the first WTC bombing.
aww bless your cotton socks mr glenn, you're such a good suck up to orange
Does anyone on here think Kanye West ought to be allowed to perform in the UK?
I wouldn’t ban him from doing so. If individual promoters and venues don’t want him, that is understandable. But if he wants to set up in a park and busk, sure, go for it.
who is more at fault here? The Aberdeenshire hotel owner who is clearly now very ill or the entire US political system that can't cope with that and stop a madman?
Betting comment: Right now, I think the odds are at least even that the House of Representatives will impeach Trump for a third time, after the mid-term elections.
I expect the Democrats to win a narrow majority in those elections -- and that may be enough, since only a simple majority is required for impeachment. (However, as most of you know, a two-thirds majority is required for removal, after the Senate trial.)
(However, I am not ready to make an estimate on how intelligent the congressional Democrats will be in conducting their investigations to prepare for that trial. Or whether the Kushner crime family will decide it is time to cut their ties to the Trump crime family.)
I think the most important difference between Biden and Trump is the people around them, not the relative advancement of dementia/Parkinsons/syphilis. Compare and contrast their cabinets and west wings. Hegseth, ffs.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Spot on. Biden was, I think, functionally pretty useless, but was essentially a figurehead for largely sane people. Trump is a madman surrounded by madmen.
No, that's not true. Biden was surrounded by his mad and sinister family, especially his criminal son. They pushed away lots of senior Dems, who barely saw POTUS. It was disgraceful and that pack of ongoing lies and charades (hiding Biden's decline) has precisely paved the way for the clusterfuck of Trump 47
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
No matter how hard you try, you can't get away from the fact that your political instincts are utterly crap.
Putin, Truss, Trump... all promoted by you, all mad and/or bad.
Who is your next hot tip? So that we know who to be worried about.
Liz Truss is becoming quite a decent interviewer.
It's obviously very soft ball in the following example but it's a proper interview nonetheless - which is no small compliment.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
People in decline can have good periods as well as bad.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
This is nearly two years after we were told he was so far gone he couldn't even sign his own name.
That was evidently nonsense.
The hyperbole is unimportant.
Biden wasn't well enough to be President then and he's even less well enough to be President now.
He should have resigned early in 2023 or at the very least announced he would not stand for re-election.
who is more at fault here? The Aberdeenshire hotel owner who is clearly now very ill or the entire US political system that can't cope with that and stop a madman?
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
People in decline can have good periods as well as bad.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
This is nearly two years after we were told he was so far gone he couldn't even sign his own name.
That was evidently nonsense.
The hyperbole is unimportant.
Biden wasn't well enough to be President then and he's even less well enough to be President now.
He should have resigned early in 2023 or at the very least announced he would not stand for re-election.
I suggest Biden would be well enough not to have entered into the current craziness.
In that respect, he would have been a better President than Trump is.
who is more at fault here? The Aberdeenshire hotel owner who is clearly now very ill or the entire US political system that can't cope with that and stop a madman?
The system could. The people in it won't.
The small number of Republicans with the moral courage to do the right thing, such as Liz Cheney, show the rest to be cowardly hacks or gormless goons. Mitch McConnell is particularly culpable as he could have ensured Trump was convicted in the Senate after Jan 6th.
Betting comment: Right now, I think the odds are at least even that the House of Representatives will impeach Trump for a third time, after the mid-term elections.
I expect the Democrats to win a narrow majority in those elections -- and that may be enough, since only a simple majority is required for impeachment. (However, as most of you know, a two-thirds majority is required for removal, after the Senate trial.)
(However, I am not ready to make an estimate on how intelligent the congressional Democrats will be in conducting their investigations to prepare for that trial. Or whether the Kushner crime family will decide it is time to cut their ties to the Trump crime family.)
I pointed out an AI assessment earlier that predicted the Dems gaining 69 House seats in November. So, somewhere betwenn "narrow" and "blood-bath"...
Betting comment: Right now, I think the odds are at least even that the House of Representatives will impeach Trump for a third time, after the mid-term elections.
I expect the Democrats to win a narrow majority in those elections -- and that may be enough, since only a simple majority is required for impeachment. (However, as most of you know, a two-thirds majority is required for removal, after the Senate trial.)
(However, I am not ready to make an estimate on how intelligent the congressional Democrats will be in conducting their investigations to prepare for that trial. Or whether the Kushner crime family will decide it is time to cut their ties to the Trump crime family.)
Assuming they do win a majority (and that the administration cannot find a way to invalidate the outcome), what would be the best timing to launch impeachment? It's not as though Trump will be signing Democrat passed legislation, but presumably there's at least some things they will want or need to do which they will probably need some GOP Senators for.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
People in decline can have good periods as well as bad.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
This is nearly two years after we were told he was so far gone he couldn't even sign his own name.
That was evidently nonsense.
The hyperbole is unimportant.
Biden wasn't well enough to be President then and he's even less well enough to be President now.
He should have resigned early in 2023 or at the very least announced he would not stand for re-election.
Last bit 100%. If you'd stick to that (instead of overegging) you'd be slap bang in the truth zone.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
People in decline can have good periods as well as bad.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
This is nearly two years after we were told he was so far gone he couldn't even sign his own name.
That was evidently nonsense.
The hyperbole is unimportant.
Biden wasn't well enough to be President then and he's even less well enough to be President now.
He should have resigned early in 2023 or at the very least announced he would not stand for re-election.
I suggest Biden would be well enough not to have entered into the current craziness.
In that respect, he would have been a better President than Trump is.
No way would he have got into this mess. Where his judgment was impaired was about himself and his ability to run and win again and do a second term.
How can the UK be sure that US aircraft taking off from UK bases haven’t targeted Iranian infrastructure?
I ask this because of the I front page .
Which if true will likely lead to another anti UK tirade from Trump .
I think we can safely assume the B52's taking off from Fairford will bomb whatever the fuck they want to bomb.
The Trump administration won't trust us to pre-clear their intended targets, still less approve changed targets once airborne.
So the only proper way to stop this is to refuse any further US aircraft taking off from UK bases .
Or does Starmer think by making an official refusal and if the US planes still bomb Iranian infrastructure then he can avoid being complicit in war crimes ?
who is more at fault here? The Aberdeenshire hotel owner who is clearly now very ill or the entire US political system that can't cope with that and stop a madman?
The system could. The people in it won't.
The small number of Republicans with the moral courage to do the right thing, such as Liz Cheney, show the rest to be cowardly hacks or gormless goons. Mitch McConnell is particularly culpable as he could have ensured Trump was convicted in the Senate after Jan 6th.
What has changed? A generation ago I am pretty sure Liz Cheney would be leading a whole troop of similar minded politicians. People with honour and decency and a sense of something beyond their own personal enrichment.
When I first read this WaPo editorial, I thought it could be headlined: “Please don’t screw up our space program, Elon Musk!”
So I read it again, and then, just now, a third time.
And I still think that would be a good headline.
This mission is best understood not as a return to the moon, but as the stepping stone to landing humans on Mars. NASA’s robots have discovered tantalizing clues to potential ancient microbes on the Red Planet. The space agency is hoping to use Artemis II to help demonstrate life-support and communications systems for a Mars mission, which would take two to three years round trip. Perfecting that technology is the largest remaining technical hurdle to sending humans to Mars.
Which I previously only knew of as it was sampled by a late 80s dreadful track. At the time I thought it was cool as f**k. But on a re-listen... it really wasn't.
who is more at fault here? The Aberdeenshire hotel owner who is clearly now very ill or the entire US political system that can't cope with that and stop a madman?
The unwritten UK constitution comes out of it looking surprisingly healthy by contrast to all the ineffective supposed checks and balances built in to the written US constitution. That's not because of the constitution itself, but the way our parties operate, when combined with the surely unassailable convention that the governing party leader is also the PM.
Our main safeguard is that the established main parties have effective mechanisms for removing a party leader who is also the PM, and have exercised them in far less extreme circumstances than apply in the US currently, either directly or indirectly (i.e. Indirectly in the case of Blair who went before he was pushed.)
The exception is the case of Reform. Farage no longer owns his party as its sole shareholder, but the supposed mechanism for his removal appears to be a fig leaf covering a process still within his control. I don't think they could get rid of him against his will.
who is more at fault here? The Aberdeenshire hotel owner who is clearly now very ill or the entire US political system that can't cope with that and stop a madman?
The unwritten UK constitution comes out of it looking surprisingly healthy by contrast to all the ineffective supposed checks and balances built in to the written US constitution. That's not because of the constitution itself, but the way our parties operate, when combined with the surely unassailable convention that the governing party leader is also the PM.
Our main safeguard is that the established main parties have effective mechanisms for removing a party leader who is also the PM, and have exercised them in far less extreme circumstances than apply in the US currently, either directly or indirectly (i.e. Indirectly in the case of Blair who went before he was pushed.)
The exception is the case of Reform. Farage no longer owns his party as its sole shareholder, but the supposed mechanism for his removal appears to be a fig leaf covering a process still within his control. I don't think they could get rid of him against his will.
That's fine for now but doesn't seem sustainable long term - at some point MPs will want a genuine chance, even if it's hard, since a torturous process is clearly self serving.
Party members too - some Tories outright said no point to being a member if you can't vote for leader, despite it being a recent innovation. So members and mps expect some actual influence on things now.
Visited the atomic bomb museum in Hiroshima yesterday. A tough few hours. I don't think anyone who has been there could make glib comments about "nuking" things. These weapons unleash hell on Earth.
For social historians comparing scenes from NASA control HQ this evening and those from the late 60s and earlier 70s will be enlightening.
From row after row of men in crisp white shirts and buzz haircuts smoking their heads off to a control room that is at least 50% female and not a white shirt or fag in sight.
who is more at fault here? The Aberdeenshire hotel owner who is clearly now very ill or the entire US political system that can't cope with that and stop a madman?
The unwritten UK constitution comes out of it looking surprisingly healthy by contrast to all the ineffective supposed checks and balances built in to the written US constitution. That's not because of the constitution itself, but the way our parties operate, when combined with the surely unassailable convention that the governing party leader is also the PM.
Our main safeguard is that the established main parties have effective mechanisms for removing a party leader who is also the PM, and have exercised them in far less extreme circumstances than apply in the US currently, either directly or indirectly (i.e. Indirectly in the case of Blair who went before he was pushed.)
The exception is the case of Reform. Farage no longer owns his party as its sole shareholder, but the supposed mechanism for his removal appears to be a fig leaf covering a process still within his control. I don't think they could get rid of him against his will.
A Parliamentary system is more flexible than a Presidential system, but essentially that's the only advantage, and the UK system is as vulnerable to being captured by a charismatic individual having control of MP selection, so that MPs feel more beholden to that individual than to their constituents or principles.
You can see there were serious issues when Johnson was PM, and Starmer's discipline of his MPs had been quite extreme.
"NOW - Trump says that his frustrations with NATO "all began with, if you want to know the truth, Greenland. We want Greenland. They don't want to give it to us, and I said, 'bye bye!'""
OK I think he really does have this fronto-temporal dementia
I mean, he's clearly insane. I'm baffled that thry don't appear, institutionally, to have noticed this. We had Liz Truss and she was, by these standards, only mildly eccentric, and she was removed in about a month.
The Dems didn't exactly help America by conspiring to hide Biden's equally obvious dementia, for at least three years. Indeed they tried to get him re-elected while knowing he was gaga
And there were plenty of fools on here happy to defend Biden with "oh he's got a stutter", etc etc
Anyway Trump is now the clear and present danger. I believe my psychiatrist friend, now, about the frontotemporal dementia shit, Trump has declined a lot quite quickly. He has good and bad days but more bad than good, now
Eeesh., Just the man you want in charge of the American nuclear arsenal during a stupid war with insane mullahs
Can you explain how Biden has apparently recovered from this obvious dementia ?
Has he ?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
He's been seen in public a bit recently - most recently flying coach and chatting with passengers -presumably between bouts of cancer treatment. Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
People in decline can have good periods as well as bad.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
This is nearly two years after we were told he was so far gone he couldn't even sign his own name.
That was evidently nonsense.
The hyperbole is unimportant.
Biden wasn't well enough to be President then and he's even less well enough to be President now.
He should have resigned early in 2023 or at the very least announced he would not stand for re-election.
I suggest Biden would be well enough not to have entered into the current craziness.
In that respect, he would have been a better President than Trump is.
Being better than Trump isn't enough.
As a defence it reminds me of those who only want the NHS to be compared to the US health system.
who is more at fault here? The Aberdeenshire hotel owner who is clearly now very ill or the entire US political system that can't cope with that and stop a madman?
The unwritten UK constitution comes out of it looking surprisingly healthy by contrast to all the ineffective supposed checks and balances built in to the written US constitution. That's not because of the constitution itself, but the way our parties operate, when combined with the surely unassailable convention that the governing party leader is also the PM.
Our main safeguard is that the established main parties have effective mechanisms for removing a party leader who is also the PM, and have exercised them in far less extreme circumstances than apply in the US currently, either directly or indirectly (i.e. Indirectly in the case of Blair who went before he was pushed.)
The exception is the case of Reform. Farage no longer owns his party as its sole shareholder, but the supposed mechanism for his removal appears to be a fig leaf covering a process still within his control. I don't think they could get rid of him against his will.
A Parliamentary system is more flexible than a Presidential system, but essentially that's the only advantage, and the UK system is as vulnerable to being captured by a charismatic individual having control of MP selection, so that MPs feel more beholden to that individual than to their constituents or principles.
You can see there were serious issues when Johnson was PM, and Starmer's discipline of his MPs had been quite extreme.
But Johnson was evicted, and if Starmer goes insane in post he can be evicted too. In UK constitutional theory the PM cannot operate without a mandate from the HoC. In US constitutional theory if POTUS goes insane in post Fox News will look at the camera and say sanity is overrated. We have over a decade's worth of proof now that our system is massively better than the US one.
who is more at fault here? The Aberdeenshire hotel owner who is clearly now very ill or the entire US political system that can't cope with that and stop a madman?
The unwritten UK constitution comes out of it looking surprisingly healthy by contrast to all the ineffective supposed checks and balances built in to the written US constitution. That's not because of the constitution itself, but the way our parties operate, when combined with the surely unassailable convention that the governing party leader is also the PM.
Our main safeguard is that the established main parties have effective mechanisms for removing a party leader who is also the PM, and have exercised them in far less extreme circumstances than apply in the US currently, either directly or indirectly (i.e. Indirectly in the case of Blair who went before he was pushed.)
The exception is the case of Reform. Farage no longer owns his party as its sole shareholder, but the supposed mechanism for his removal appears to be a fig leaf covering a process still within his control. I don't think they could get rid of him against his will.
A Parliamentary system is more flexible than a Presidential system, but essentially that's the only advantage, and the UK system is as vulnerable to being captured by a charismatic individual having control of MP selection, so that MPs feel more beholden to that individual than to their constituents or principles.
You can see there were serious issues when Johnson was PM, and Starmer's discipline of his MPs had been quite extreme.
But Johnson was evicted, and if Starmer goes insane in post he can be evicted too. In UK constitutional theory the PM cannot operate without a mandate from the HoC. In US constitutional theory if POTUS goes insane in post Fox News will look at the camera and say sanity is overrated. We have over a decade's worth of proof now that our system is massively better than the US one.
Yes. A Parliamentary system is better than a Presidential one. I've argued that repeatedly.
But the system is still reliant on the people in it, and so still vulnerable to those people.
Comments
IIRC from the last impeachment the most loyal Trumpers were arguing that impeachment itself is fundamentally unfair because it is not a criminal level standard.
And of course they argue (and the SC agreed) you cannot criminally charge even an ex-President for most things, even non-presidential acts, which is convenient.
I don't think the 25th is happening though. Apart from anything else I think most of Trump's cabinet are happy with the way things are going. What would they want to do differently if they did get rid of him?
I've barely heard of him since he left office:
Biden, 83, has been writing a lucrative memoir, planning a presidential library and fighting prostate cancer. He was once the most powerful man on the planet, but now Biden’s public appearances have been scarce and his influence has palpably diminished.
Chris Whipple, an author of books including The Fight of His Life: Inside Joe Biden’s White House, said: “He’s been the invisible man. He’s been very smart to stay under the radar because the last thing the Democratic party needs is any reminders of his final year in office, his ill-starred 11th-hour abdication and the resulting defeat of Kamala Harris.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/24/joe-biden-legacy-donald-trump
Besides Biden's infirmities were of the quiet sort, Trump's anything but quite.
Tom Nichols
@RadioFreeTom
·
1h
And we just all pretend it's normal and this is not a sign of serious, alarming cognitive issues
Ron Filipkowski
@RonFilipkowski
Trump claims he was the one who took out Osama bin Laden.
https://x.com/RonFilipkowski/status/2041219277424824342
Loadsa real ales and very gothy.
Edit. I see it is now called Little Angel, rather than known as.
https://rollcall.com/factbase/trump/transcript/donald-trump-remarks-easter-lunch-white-house-april-1-2026/
They're not the ones at risk in any midterms.
I'm polling higher than anybody has ever polled in Venezuela.
Trump.
25th now.
Trump's Cabinet are there purely because Trump wants them to be there. So the 25th only works as a mechanism once Trump is in a coma. Otherwise, they have to agree that he is gaga without Donald the Dyed Dictator finding out. Because if he does find out, he will sack them for disloyalty. (Think what Boris did to Gove as his Premiership collapsed, only on whatever drugs Trump is on right now).
That leaves impeachment. That only works if a bunch of Republicans in both houses find sufficient spine to impeach a President from their party. That might have worked a few decades ago; had push come to shove, it presumably would have worked for Nixon. But it wouldn't work now, because any Republican politican who goes against Trump will be primaried out by their party. And they all know that.
Back when I was Stuartingosport, yet another brightish young thing living in nowhere and looking for something to be bright about, I bingeread the essays of Clive James. He wrote a lot about Watergate, and how the writers of the Constitution really didn't want a Presidential Party. I was never quite sure what he meant, but I guess Nixon was a hairsbreadth escape and Trump (especially Trump 47) is what they were worried about.
If they keep sacking generals too…
Somebody should him what year he thinks it is now...
Tom Nichols
@RadioFreeTom
·
3h
At least I have the consolation of having lived through the years when we were actually a serious country and a superpower
https://x.com/RadioFreeTom/status/2041203954319593937
Staring at the 'What's on in Whitby' board opposite me, I can see three Goth weekends, two steampunk weekends and a pirate featival here in the course of a year. In another life I can imagine myself taking root here.
Louis 14 was also into nouveau chav ostentation.
Haven't been for 10 years.
Last time I was there I ended up going home with a delightful goth lass to her place.
Went for a wee, fell down her stairs and broke both bones in my forearm, dislocated my elbow and tore my groin muscle so badly I couldn't walk for a month.
All that before any sex too.
So you can't have a worse night.
America is lucky it is immensely rich and big, and can afford to be so badly governed. Britain is equally badly governed, but we don't have the wealth to cope, any more
I have a soft spot for goth girls. Particularly if they're carrying a few pounds around the edges.
(It's a pecadillo I can't quite reconcile with my normal revulsion for cosmetics. The ideal would be a fat goth girl but with a clean face.)
https://x.com/Acyn/status/2041218155150971300
And in this case none of them would be anywhere near government under a normal administration as they are either batshit crazy or incapable of governing or both.
It will also need to have a reckoning that its precious constitution is functionally worthless.
And the current Labour cabinet are useless - I'd rate them as the worst government if my lifetime, if only because Liz Truss was over before she did as much damage - but again, I'd quibble with 'equally badly governed' as the Trump lot.
Putin, Truss, Trump... all promoted by you, all mad and/or bad.
Who is your next hot tip? So that we know who to be worried about.
Didn't appear demented at all, which is odd for someone with dementia.
As you say, an infirm old man, who shouldn't have considered running again. But that seems to be it.
It's obviously very soft ball in the following example but it's a proper interview nonetheless - which is no small compliment.
https://youtu.be/JbGEWPdDf7I?si=ufz69uET_xDHa_yb
But comparing against previous administrations Garland and Mayorkas were incompetents with few, if any, rivals.
If you like Goth things, you'll have to find some Whitby Jet, although usually the shore is scoured by the collectors after every storm. Runswick Bay is probably the best bet. There's loads of ammonites too although the same applies. Both can be bought, of course, but that rather spoils the fun.
“Pakistani sources cited by Haaretz suggest a widening gap in endgame expectations:
- Iran shows no willingness to accept US terms to end the war
- Pakistani diplomats reportedly conveyed to regional actors (Saudi, Egypt, Turkey) that Tehran believes it has already prevailed
-Crucially, Islamabad assesses that Washington is now more eager for a deal than Tehran
Despite this, the Trump administration is still insisting on its core demands (zero enrichment, missile limits)-conditions Iran continues to reject outright.
- If accurate, this points to a classic mismatch: one side negotiating from perceived strength, the other from urgency.”
https://x.com/babakvahdad/status/2041217935881142445?s=46
Beatings will continue until global morale has improved
He also seems to have turned his life around, so, good for the both of you.
With those good periods often when they're reliving happy memories
Get Biden talking about the Phillies 1964 season and he'll likely come across as perfectly lucid.
I mean when else am I am going to get an opportunity to lob a bottle of piss at him?
a few hundred thousand votes in a few dozen USA counties you have literally never heard of can deliver someone who will turn the US completely against you and tear up every agreement, military alliance and treaty you have.
And, more pertinently, the US system despite what is written on the tin will fucking do nothing about it. The fabled free press. Nah. The hallowed halls of Congress, shining light of democracy down the ages. Nope. The US state department, bastions of radio free europe and purveyors of democracy and free thinking around the world. Not available this week.
Tocqueville needs to write a third volume.
And if he could incite an insurrection against an election he'd clearly lost, I dread to think what would happen if he was 25ed (or if impeachment looked like succeeding).
That was evidently nonsense.
Mar 3: "We won the war”
Mar 7: "We defeated Iran”
Mar 9: "We must attack Iran”
Mar 10: "The war is ending almost completely, and very beautifully”
Mar 11: “You never like to say too early you won. We won. In the first hour it was over”
Mar 12: "We did win, but we haven't won completely yet”
@chadbourn.bsky.social
An Iranian drone strike on Ali Al Salem Air Base in Kuwait injured 15 Americans, CBS News reports.
who is more at fault here? The Aberdeenshire hotel owner who is clearly now very ill or the entire US political system that can't cope with that and stop a madman?
I expect the Democrats to win a narrow majority in those elections -- and that may be enough, since only a simple majority is required for impeachment. (However, as most of you know, a two-thirds majority is required for removal, after the Senate trial.)
(However, I am not ready to make an estimate on how intelligent the congressional Democrats will be in conducting their investigations to prepare for that trial. Or whether the Kushner crime family will decide it is time to cut their ties to the Trump crime family.)
Biden wasn't well enough to be President then and he's even less well enough to be President now.
He should have resigned early in 2023 or at the very least announced he would not stand for re-election.
The people in it won't.
I ask this because of the I front page .
Which if true will likely lead to another anti UK tirade from Trump .
https://x.com/UAEEmbassyUS/status/2041143012210696539
Dr. @AnwarGargash: “Our main security partner is the United States. We will double down on our relationship.”
“…We will join any American-led effort, international effort to secure navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. We are ready to play our part.”
He is no longer Kanye West, but simply Ye.
"Keir Starmer will refuse any request from Trump to use UK for infrastructure attacks"
Not enough of a stand, especially when all systems are go still for a state visit, but better than nothing.
https://news.sky.com/story/tuesdays-newspaper-front-pages-12427754
In that respect, he would have been a better President than Trump is.
That would be the less bad outcome now.
Soulin’ And Rollin’ by the Trensations
https://youtu.be/m7bA767kMwE?si=ZlOCa2vEstnyV-ws
The Trump administration won't trust us to pre-clear their intended targets, still less approve changed targets once airborne.
Or does Starmer think by making an official refusal and if the US planes still bomb Iranian infrastructure then he can avoid being complicit in war crimes ?
Now...tumbleweed city.
So I read it again, and then, just now, a third time.
And I still think that would be a good headline. source$: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/04/01/artemis-ii-moon-launch-mars-nasa/
And the editorial writers remind Musk that he is making money by supporting Artemis — and that he has a competitor, Jeff Bezos, in the program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztodSEn0E2E
Which I previously only knew of as it was sampled by a late 80s dreadful track. At the time I thought it was cool as f**k. But on a re-listen... it really wasn't.
Our main safeguard is that the established main parties have effective mechanisms for removing a party leader who is also the PM, and have exercised them in far less extreme circumstances than apply in the US currently, either directly or indirectly (i.e. Indirectly in the case of Blair who went before he was pushed.)
The exception is the case of Reform. Farage no longer owns his party as its sole shareholder, but the supposed mechanism for his removal appears to be a fig leaf covering a process still within his control. I don't think they could get rid of him against his will.
https://www.open-britain.co.uk/blog/reform-is-a-business-not-a-party
Earth now visible in their feed, about to set.
Quite a view...
Party members too - some Tories outright said no point to being a member if you can't vote for leader, despite it being a recent innovation. So members and mps expect some actual influence on things now.
From row after row of men in crisp white shirts and buzz haircuts smoking their heads off to a control room that is at least 50% female and not a white shirt or fag in sight.
You can see there were serious issues when Johnson was PM, and Starmer's discipline of his MPs had been quite extreme.
As a defence it reminds me of those who only want the NHS to be compared to the US health system.
https://x.com/repfine/status/2041266001199743276
Happy Power Plant and Bridge Eve!
But the system is still reliant on the people in it, and so still vulnerable to those people.