Quite. And Canada's plans for the border are the one they announced in December. Basically, everyone's doing what they were already doing it planning to do, and Trump's claiming it as a brilliant deal - and backing down.
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In the real world we have a criminal fascist bully sowing seeds of discontent, not only inside the US but across the world, encouraging racial hatred, abolishing hard fought for equal rights for minorities, cuddling up to other fascist dictators, releasing en mass supporters that attempted to overthrow a democratically elected government on his request, has surrounded himself with fascist megalomaniacs and is threatening to invade sovereign countries. I could go on but what's the point, none of it would convince you that sucking up to a fascist isn't a good idea or even simply utterly spineless.
Apologies for the length of this or if it’s repitiition. Saw it on FB. I have never read such an accurate description of the monster.
Someone asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?"
Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response:
"A few things spring to mind.
Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump's limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever.
I don't say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it's a fact. He doesn't even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn't just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It's all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don't. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.
And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath.
All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He's not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.
He's more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman should, would, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority - perhaps a third - of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think 'Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy' is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
You don't need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it's impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of ****. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws - he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:
'My God... what... have.. I... created?
If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set."
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Shame. It will get worse for the swasticar.
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Trump says " I hope Gazans won't want to return". What a horrible excuse for a human being he is, but let's suck up to him because there might be something in it for us. Anyone who wants to pacify this monster has zero integrity.
Allowing the Israelis to take Gaza is a huge win for his right-wing, medieval Christian supporters. Who see an all Jewish "Holy Land" as another step towards JC's second coming. Foreign policy run along the lines of nonsense superstition. (Not to mention all that beach front real estate.)
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So... Trump is in a press conference with Netanyahu and has announced that the population of the Gaza Strip is going to be evacuated, the US will take ownership of the land, level it and build. Asked if this is a permanent ownership, he says he sees it being a long-term situation.
Jesus.
Edit: he says he wants to see a middle-eastern riviera, and that's the land they need to do it.
Las Gaza, the place we we all need to put on our bucket list for a holiday destination.
With everything with Trump hopefully his insane comments are just rhetoric and there is some negotiation to be had.
No way Jordon and Egypt are going to take the Palestinians and no way the Palestinian people are going to just leave.
I think the whole world is reeling from it apart from Netanyahu
This was the kind of thing I was referring to, rather than simply saying GTF Donald Trump.
"The first minister has vowed to use Donald Trump's affinity for Scotland in a bid to avoid the prospect of tariffs being applied on imports to the US.
John Swinney said he had expressed the importance of trade between the countries, especially Scotch whisky, during a call he held with the US president-elect last month"
"John Swinney said he had expressed the importance of trade between the countries, especially Scotch whisky, during a call he held with the US president-elect last month."
"I will use that as a basis of proceeding with negotiations in discussions with President Trump.
"What he also said in the call was if I ever needed a further conversation with him, he'd be very welcome to taking that forward."
Well done John Swinney for engaging with Trump and protecting the needs of businesses and jobs in Scotland even although he may have had to do it biting his tongue. It seems if some had their way this conversation would never have taken place and the desire would be for Swinney to basically tell Trump to GTF and if tariffs then followed impacting thousands of jobs in Scotland then so be it.
Some US Palestinian supporters that were saying don't vote for Biden due to him being complicit, really played the wrong hand now Trump is letting Israel take Gaza. Genocide of millions of people. As said Egypt and Jordan won't accept Palestinians I don't see where they go, why doesn't Trump welcome them
Truly hideous time in world history, the Jewish nation complicit in ethnic cleansing on this scale was just inconceivable until the felon in the White House got together with the internationally indicted Netanyahu, who will always do whatever is required for his personal survival.
Reading about the Holocaust has always meant I've had sympathy with the Jewish people's cause but it's at a crossroads now.
American's might be about to become embroiled in a real mess where it's unlikely their leader will get whatever he wants out of it. And at a time where many were under the impression they'd be less involved in conflicts abroad.
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I think it's interesting that the Saudis have come out quickly and said there will be no normalisation of their relationship with Israel without a Palestinian state. Saudi support had for Palestine had been reported as waning somewhat in recent times and there had been talk a deal with Israel was close not least because of their mutual distrust and proxy conflicts with Iran and their membership of the Arab-Israeli Alliance.
The Saudi reaction to Trump seems to slam the door on that in the short to medium term and that is an ally Trump can't **** off without strategic and economic consequences. The US needs Saudi Arabia onside whether they like to admit it or not.
Swinney was right to stand up for Scottish business and he’s also right to call out ethnic cleansing.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/czj3wvyn0pno
Doubt we’ll hear same from Starmer.
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Netanyahu and Trump really make for a ghastly combo, possibly even worse than Trump and Musk.
I hate people who see simple solutions to incredibly complex, multifaceted problems and there will be enormous consequences if and when they blunder further into this.
As Swinney has rather finely demonstrated you can do both, call out his actions but at the same time engage and if required enter discussions that protect the businesses and jobs in Scotland. Tens of thousands of jobs in Scotland will depend on trade with the US, as FM of Scotland he has to acknowledge and understand that and he is doing a fine job of that at the moment.
I saw an interesting thing the other day where someone was saying that all you really need to do with Trump is to allow him to declare a victory of sorts on TV. The reality of the situation doesn't matter so much. The Canadian and Mexican situations (where Trump paused the tariffs in response to measures the Canadians and Mexicans were bringing in anyway) were an example of this.
So it might be possible for Swinney to do both here, potentially.
I'm one of those who is very uncomfortable with appeasement when a line has clearly been crossed though.