Donald Trump the Megathread part II - mod warnings in OP, Updated 18/03/25

Horrific story from the US yesterday. A 6th grader in Texas took her own life because her classmates kept bullying her telling her that her parents would be deported and that she would end up alone. She was 11 years old.

People were deported before Trump came along. Who knows what her parents situation was or whether that would have ever happened. But this is probably a scenario that is more likely to be happening in every state across the country as Trump and his administration has dramatically increased the likelihood for harmful rhetoric to be used as an abusive weapon.

I hope the parents of the kids who were doing the bullying feel guilt at having created an environment where their children felt that this was acceptable behaviour.

I blame the invention of the Apple iPhone.

Really - before that thing came out, people had to know how to work a desktop or laptop in order to get on the Internet in any serious way. The iPhone just made things too easy. Every c/t under 60 was on it after that, tweeting and facebooking. It was the second Eternal September.

It wasn't long after that when pub chat went from talking about football, spouses and work to, "Heeur - didje ever hear of de Illooominati??".

As for the corporate media, there is now a completely separate media environment populated by self-sustaining thought bubbles. Corporate media can hold power as accountable as it wants, but the impact won't be remotely as severe as decades past. Besides, corporate media needs ratings to survive, and it's been a constant battle to maintain relevance since the emergence of so-called 'new media'. That has meant copying the new media playbook in many ways, such as promoting more extreme points of view, such as with Fox News in the US, or BBC's more nicey-nice approach of giving 'all voices a chance to be heard'.

Estonia is a NATO country, even if the USA leave NATO (a distinct possibility) there isn't a hope the Russians will risk it. Georgia might be a different story, they already occupy about 20% of Georgia so it would be easy pickings. Georgia's potential EU membership might come into play as well

The US isn't the only nuclear armed nation in NATO though. I think their loss to the organisation is vasly overstated and NATO would be quite a strong force without them

Also China has shown in the past that the use of nuclear weapons makes them very nervous. Some say China are largely holding Russia back from using them in Ukraine

No, the USA is not the only nuclear power, but Russia has way more warheads than the rest of the NATO countries combined - approx 600 vs approx 6000.

This is only one aspect. We have to also remember that Europe is only three bad election results away from a fundamentally changed situation. If Germany, France and UK were to flip to more pro-Russian governments in the form of AfD, National Rally and Reform, respectively, Putin would be very happy. There is more than one way to wage war upon Europe, and some of them don't even involve the firing of a gun. Just armies of trolls pumping out disinformation.

Peace talks are to be encouraged, but what’s happening between the US and Russia right now is purely performative. He is saying what Putin wants him to say, will claim that he has negotiated a great deal(that gives Russia everything they want) and will claim they’re belligerent war mongers when it’s inevitably turned down. Any perceived hard-man mask has slipped and he’s clearly a Putin stooge. And even some MAGA types seem to be concerned about it - the conservative subreddit has plenty of people questioning his statements this week where previously they would have all staunchly supported him.

The centrist parties in Europe therefore then need to look at what is making the right so appealing and look to emulate at least some of their policies.

What is making right-wing parties in Europe so appealing is, mostly, Russian disinformation.

Do you beat them by staying exactly as you are? Like it or not, a substantial portion of the population have shifted right which has created a bloc that's now hard to ignore. They see issues as a result of migration for example that are being ignored.

The choice is to create some mild right policies to pick off voters at the centre right edge or leave them alone for the hard right to capture.

This is your problem, according to you everyone and everything to the right is an extremist, a nazi. No wonder people are being lost to the populists.

The housing crisis has been caused by 40 years of right wing neo liberal laissez-faire policies across Western Europe. In UK there are millions of less social housing units than in 1980 despite big rise in population.

I do find it funny that in order to "fix" the right wing policies of last 45 years implemented in US, Australia and Western Europe by Reagan, Thatcher and Liberal Party and built on by every following government, the answer is to vote in a much more extreme right wing populist fascistic agenda..that will surely work lol

Its down to framing in the media, and the framing in the media is done to cover up the fact that there are tens of thousands of empty buildings all around Ireland right now that are being left empty because its in the owners interest that property and rental prices are high.

The state actually needs more migration to fill the jobs in the construction sector do that we can actually build the houses we need. And the government should directly invest in state owned social housing instead of distorting the private rental market and out bidding private renters.

The rise of the alt right is directly related to the changes in media consumption and them blaming migrants as a distraction for the corporate buyout of irish properties