Thoughts on the Trump presidency

[najaB]

And what possible use could trump have for Ai, ? rigging elections to ensure only he remains on the voting list

Another entry in "malevolence meets incompetence", DJT has been pushing for all-paper elections which actually makes electronic interference more difficult, rather than easier.

 

[Gloster]

I saw a video of an Israeli politician (I forget his name, but it was in recent days) saying that AI will be important to ensure certain narratives are presented to people doing searches. Given the capabilities of generative AI to create images and video, and people using AI searches over traditional website searches, it's perfect for propaganda purposes.

I am sure Trump, and let's be honest most politicians, will be fully supportive of AI if they can rewrite history and also get people riled up about things that may or may not be true.

It's little wonder they'll be investing in AI even if the average person on the street has probably begun to see it as nothing but a negative.. but what do the people know?

‘Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.’

George Orwell, 1984.

 

[nw1]

Turns out the US now embraces communism:

https://www.ft.com/content/b1ab6106-77e6-4218-9eb4-e44bd56ca400

​

In which case, the rest of the world needs to consider whether they wish to use any generative AI which is part-owned by the current US Government.

Seems that in Trump's US, Government control-freakery trumps (pun not intended) the free-market philosophy that the US is supposedly the world leader in.

 

[jon0844]

In which case, the rest of the world needs to consider whether they wish to use any generative AI which is part-owned by the current US Government.

Seems that in Trump's US, Government control-freakery trumps (pun not intended) the free-market philosophy that the US is supposedly the world leader in.

Same goes for using social media services for anything like X, Facebook, Threads and TikTok etc.

Look at who owns all of those and other US based services. All are well known to be used to push narratives, as I'm sure we're all seeing right now with the constant attacks from the USA on the UK, our PM and of course our London Mayor.

The problem is there aren't really any viable alternatives for a lot of people and if there were, they'd likely end up bought out at some point in the future by a larger organisation with links to the right given that's where a lot of the funding is.

 

[martin butler]

I found it rather amusing to see Trump throw his toys out of the pram, when a reporter had the audacity to ask him for evidence about his claims that the election he lost, was rigged, he reply was even better, You're all horrible to me waaahh, , and he took off his microphone and stormed off,

I bet ICE will now have her mug shot with instructions to pick her up and kick her out,

 

[najaB]

Remember when DJT said that Joe Biden was too old to be Commander in Chief because he wouldn't be able to stay awake and make the decisions that needed to be made?

An Apache helicopter was shot down over the Strait of Hormuz:

Two crew members of a US army helicopter that crashed near the Strait of Hormuz on Monday were rescued by an American sea drone, US officials have told CBS News, the BBC's media partner.
It was the first such operation carried out by US forces, the officials added.
US Central Command (Centcom) earlier said the two "soldiers were safely rescued within approximately two hours and are in stable condition" after their AH-64 Apache helicopter went down "near the coast of Oman while patrolling regional waters".
It was not immediately clear whether the aircraft had developed a mechanical or any other technical problem, or had been downed by Iranian fire. The incident is being investigated.
In its statement on Tuesday, Centcom said the two crew members had been rescued at 19:33 EDT (23:33 GMT) on Monday.
"Rescue efforts were led by US Naval Forces Central Command and the 82nd Airborne Division, with support from US Air Force and Navy units including US 5th Fleet's Task Force 59," the statement added.

Source: BBC News

Note the bolded text - the helicopter was shot down somewhere around 17:30EDT on Monday.

DJT posted today to Truth Social at 12:38 PM ET:

I have just been informed by our Great Military that last night the Iranians shot down one of our highly sophisticated Apache Helicopters while patrolling over the Strait of Hormuz. There were two pilots involved, both are safe and uninjured. Nevertheless, the United States must, of necessity, respond to this attack. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP

Source (since I have to): Truth Social

Again, note the bolded text.

So some 17 hours after it happened he had "Just been informed". Want to bet that he was too busy sulking over the fact that he got booed at the basketball game to do any boring "president stuff"?

 

[DelW]

So some 17 hours after it happened he had "Just been informed". Want to bet that he was too busy sulking over the fact that he got booed at the basketball game to do any boring "president stuff"?

Another possibility is that the military didn't tell him, maybe wanting time to decide and implement a sensible response first, rather than asking the orange toddler whether he wanted to throw his toys out of the pram yet again.

 

[martin butler]

Another possibility is that the military didn't tell him, maybe wanting time to decide and implement a sensible response first, rather than asking the orange toddler whether he wanted to throw his toys out of the pram yet again.

I suspect he is now sidelined and, on a need, to know basis, only told once the pilot and gunner were safely back on friendly soil, that decisions were made keeping it only to those who needed to know, i.e., the military who were involved in the planning and execution of the rescue, The politicians such as defence chief and president were only told after the event.

 

[najaB]

Returning to the Trump T1 phone, NBC obtained a T1 phone and took it to a service company who examined the internals and found that it is... err... very similar to an HTC phone:

A scanner, microscope and an old-fashioned teardown of Trump Mobile’s T1 phone showed that it was almost identical to the HTC U24 Pro. NBC News' Brian Cheung explains.

 

[martin butler]

Returning to the Trump T1 phone, NBC obtained a T1 phone and took it to a service company who examined the internals and found that it is... err... very similar to an HTC phone:

Who's really surprised? Anything with the trump name is bound to be a scam

 

[The Ham]

Who's really surprised? Anything with the trump name is bound to be a scam

What did you mean? That's cutting edge technology, far beyond what could be expected in the era in which America was great.

(Please ignore the fact that this "America was great era" could be at any time that the hearer may believe this could be; although most likely when they were a teenager, which could be almost any time from around 1960 until around the early 2000's).

 

[Annetts key]

What did you mean? That's cutting edge technology, far beyond what could be expected in the era in which America was great.

(Please ignore the fact that this "America was great era" could be at any time that the hearer may believe this could be; although most likely when they were a teenager, which could be almost any time from around 1960 until around the early 2000's).

Please provide proof that the U.S.A. was ever "great"...

Me thinks that "America was great" is what many would either call "rose tinted glasses" or just pure fantasy, as I don't think that there was ever a time when it was great to be any American citizen of the U.S.A.

There were no doubt times when a certain demographic of "white" citizens thought it great, but that would not have applied to everyone...

 

[ainsworth74]

Me thinks that "America was great" is what many would either call "rose tinted glasses" or just pure fantasy, as I don't think that there was ever a time when it was great to be any American citizen of the U.S.A.

There were no doubt times when a certain demographic of "white" citizens thought it great, but that would not have applied to everyone...

Yes that's the rub isn't it? I reckon the post war period from around the mid-1940s through to the late-60s could probably be seen as period in which the United States was "great". But that has to be massively caveated by pointing out that that only applied really to white Americans as this of course was the era of Jim Crow laws and it wasn't until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (recently gutted of course) and the wider Civil Rights movement that that began to ease. Being a black American in the 1950s was probably better than being a black American in the 1850s but it was by no means a "great" period to live in. Plus that ignores the Korean War and Vietnam War!

But if you had to choose a period in which many people saw their incomes rise, their living standards improve (and those of their children) it would probably have to be that era. From the 1970s you have the Oil Price Shock, then Stagflation, and then the beginnings of deindustrialisation which accelerated in the 1980s. Perhaps an argument could be made for the 1990s as well to be fair. The US stood triumphant in the Cold War and was an unchallenged hegemon militarily, economically and politically and after the recession of the early 1990s the economy was fairly solid.

But it is certainly tricky to define a period in which the United States was, unquestionably, "great". There's always negatives and downsides to any period you choose.

 

[Killingworth]

Yes that's the rub isn't it? I reckon the post war period from around the mid-1940s through to the late-60s could probably be seen as period in which the United States was "great". But that has to be massively caveated by pointing out that that only applied really to white Americans as this of course was the era of Jim Crow laws and it wasn't until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (recently gutted of course) and the wider Civil Rights movement that that began to ease. Being a black American in the 1950s was probably better than being a black American in the 1850s but it was by no means a "great" period to live in. Plus that ignores the Korean War and Vietnam War!

But if you had to choose a period in which many people saw their incomes rise, their living standards improve (and those of their children) it would probably have to be that era. From the 1970s you have the Oil Price Shock, then Stagflation, and then the beginnings of deindustrialisation which accelerated in the 1980s. Perhaps an argument could be made for the 1990s as well to be fair. The US stood triumphant in the Cold War and was an unchallenged hegemon militarily, economically and politically and after the recession of the early 1990s the economy was fairly solid.

But it is certainly tricky to define a period in which the United States was, unquestionably, "great". There's always negatives and downsides to any period you choose.

The USA was great around the time Trump was growing up - in the period when the US had won the war and the impact of Vietnam had yet to sink in. Everything was getting better for most people but particularly for white males. That was the late 1940s and 1950s to the early 1960s.

Of course many would say the US has been relatively great since the 1960s but talking his nation down is a trait Trump shares with persons we know on this side of the pond. Such belittling tends to damage national self esteem and creates division which leads to muscle flexing internally and externally to restore the lost greatness.

 

[dgl]

A live stream of a certain person's name being removed from the Kennedy Centre

LIVE: See Donald Trump's name come off the Kennedy Center as it happens

President Donald Trump's name must be removed from the Kennedy Center by midnight after a court order. Trump's handpicked Kennedy Center board appeal was den...

www.youtube.com

Today is the court-ordered deadline to remove President Donald Trump's name from the Kennedy Center. Trump's handpicked Kennedy Center board filed a last-minute appeal to keep Trump's name up. But the clock is ticking.

 

[81A]

In which case, the rest of the world needs to consider whether they wish to use any generative AI which is part-owned by the current US Government.

Seems that in Trump's US, Government control-freakery trumps (pun not intended) the free-market philosophy that the US is supposedly the world leader in.

To be fair to Trump I don't have much hope his replacement (left or right) will be significantly (or any) better. After all, the "swing" voters only voted for him because the alternative was rubbish. I think US politics generally is in a pretty poor state at the moment. All the more reason to get off US tech if we can though.

 

[najaB]

After all, the "swing" voters only voted for him because the alternative was rubbish.

Uninspiring, maybe, but rubbish? Nope. If anything she was way too sensible with costed plans to grow the economy and make inroads on the national debt.

 

[The Ham]

Please provide proof that the U.S.A. was ever "great"...

Me thinks that "America was great" is what many would either call "rose tinted glasses" or just pure fantasy, as I don't think that there was ever a time when it was great to be any American citizen of the U.S.A.

There were no doubt times when a certain demographic of "white" citizens thought it great, but that would not have applied to everyone...

That's the point of my note about "please ignore..."

I wasn't saying that it was necessarily great, rather that a lot of people's idea of when they think it was great isn't necessarily a measurable thing and is quite likely to align to when they were a teenager (although not always).

You only need to listen to a BBC "Sounds of the (60, 70, 80, 90)'s" show to discover that a lot of the people who engage with the show were teenagers in whichever decade it's covering and they all think that's when the best music was and wasn't life great.

It's that nostalgia that Trump is using but being careful not to detail when and leave it to his supporters as to when that is.

 

[MP33]

There is a programme called snap, which many Americans claim from. This is food stamps and has changed from the time, when the claimants were only those really on their uppers.

 

[edwin_m]

That's the point of my note about "please ignore..."

I wasn't saying that it was necessarily great, rather that a lot of people's idea of when they think it was great isn't necessarily a measurable thing and is quite likely to align to when they were a teenager (although not always).

You only need to listen to a BBC "Sounds of the (60, 70, 80, 90)'s" show to discover that a lot of the people who engage with the show were teenagers in whichever decade it's covering and they all think that's when the best music was and wasn't life great.

It's that nostalgia that Trump is using but being careful not to detail when and leave it to his supporters as to when that is.

Most children and teenagers don't have to worry about the things an adult does, so there is a tendency for people to remember the years when they were that age as "greater" than what they see now.

 

[najaB]

There is a programme called snap, which many Americans claim from. This is food stamps and has changed from the time, when the claimants were only those really on their uppers.

I'm not sure I understand your post...?

 

[AlterEgo]

A live stream of a certain person's name being removed from the Kennedy Centre

LIVE: See Donald Trump's name come off the Kennedy Center as it happens

President Donald Trump's name must be removed from the Kennedy Center by midnight after a court order. Trump's handpicked Kennedy Center board appeal was den...

www.youtube.com

Youtube really is brilliant.

 

[81A]

Uninspiring, maybe, but rubbish? Nope. If anything she was way too sensible with costed plans to grow the economy and make inroads on the national debt.

Okay, opinions will differ but Trump was viewed as better than the alternative by enough “swing” voters to get in (better by varying degrees, of course). Of course, his presidency has been a bit of a disaster in multiple fronts so far, but that doesn’t encourage any more faith in what will come next (at least in my opinion-obviously everyone is entitled to their own).

 

[brad465]

Yeah, "everything is fine" is clearly not the case when your latest health check-up involves a whopping 22 medical specialists:

Trump saw 22 specialists in latest medical exam — nearly double his previous checkup

The president insists he is in perfect health, despite concerns among voters about his age and mental fitness

www.independent.co.uk

President Donald Trump saw 22 medical specialists as part of his annual medical exam last month, nearly doubling the number from his past check-ups and setting an apparent presidential record, according to a new analysis.

Medical experts told The Washington Post, which scrutinized the president’s exam results, that the number was unusual, the latest factor that could provoke health concerns around the 79-year-old commander in chief, the oldest person to ever assume the U.S. presidency.

“It is an extraordinary number,” Jonathan Reiner, a longtime cardiologist for former vice president Dick Cheney, told the paper.

The White House told the Post that some generalist doctors were part of the 22-person specialist count.

The president’s physician, Dr. Sean Barbabella, wrote after the May health exam that Trump “remains in excellent health, demonstrating strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological and overall physical function.”

 

[martin butler]

Yeah, "everything is fine" is clearly not the case when your latest health check-up involves a whopping 22 medical specialists:

Trump saw 22 specialists in latest medical exam — nearly double his previous checkup

The president insists he is in perfect health, despite concerns among voters about his age and mental fitness

www.independent.co.uk

Given the regularity of trips to Walter Reid, and the clear physical signs of his worsening health as well as mental capacity, I would agree that he is most likely on several medications, to try to keep him at least functioning,

It's not working though, Raging, posts stuff online, when most people should be sleeping, then falling asleep during televised meetings, is not the action of someone in good health,

 

[MP33]

I was referring to the American economy being in such a state. That a social security programme, intended only the really desperate. Has become a mass programme.

 

[nw1]

Most children and teenagers don't have to worry about the things an adult does, so there is a tendency for people to remember the years when they were that age as "greater" than what they see now.

Regular "Sounds of the 80s" listener here, and teenager of the 80s and early 90s.

For music I'd say the 80s were best, but for society in general, I'd say the 90s and 00s. So these are the decades I'm most nostalgic about, but in different ways as they span childhood to 30-something.

 

[Mr. SW]

My music "period" was the early 80s. What I remember of it was episodes of supreme brilliance scattered with what I can only describe as utter cack.

Back on topic: I'll be surprised if Turnip makes it to November in any capacity.

 

[brad465]

Back on topic: I'll be surprised if Turnip makes it to November in any capacity.

He must be at the point where if it were any one of our relatives, they'd be in a care home by now. Needing 22 medical specialists to do your latest health check-up is not a sign of good health or that you're getting better.

 

[dosxuk]

It might not have taken 22 people to check him out, but I can see it taking 22 people to check him out before you can find the one who'll agree to say he's in the best health ever.