The Reign of Trump

[Raw Shark]

This shitshow isn't good for anybody's nerves. Even the brighter and more perceptive fash must be getting a bit concerned about Musk's antics by now.

As to the question of the United States versus Canada, Mexico or any other country whose head of state didn't stroke Trump's ego to his personal satisfaction this week, the question is not really whether the United States could conquer the place but whether it could hold it. And I very much doubt it could, not unless the entire US armed forces suddenly start subscribing to the Tom Kratman school of counterinsurgency tactics.

We're not conquering a goddamned thing, it's tough talk from a couple of small guys trying to out-do each other.

[Grand Moff Yenchin]

Framework agreement of US, Ukraine on developing critical minerals
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/f ... 025-02-26/

1. US/Ukrainian Governmental Joint fund
2. Fund income from monetization of mineral assets
3. 50% mineral revenue goes to fund, 50% goes to Ukrainian government

and this

The Government of the United States of America supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace. Participants will seek to identify any necessary steps to protect mutual investments, as defined in the Fund Agreement.

It's dated 2/25 so not sure how it looked like before that date, but nonetheless, get ready for a new wank from the fanboys.

(Some wankers are getting high over here in Taiwan because this deal is a bit similar to the post WW2 US support where it came in the form of assisting companies such as JG White Engineering to prevent funds getting embezzled by corrupt officials.)

Edit: Added an article.

[bilateralrope]

RFK Jr says US measles outbreak is 'not unusual' after first death in a decade

By Hanan Dervisevic

Topic:Measles

Thu 27 Feb

A measles outbreak in West Texas has exceeded 120 cases and resulted in the first US death from the illness in a decade.

The Texas Department of State Health Services reported the death of a "school-aged child" who was hospitalised in Lubbock, Texas.

Officials said the child was not vaccinated.

The last time a person died of measles in the US was in 2015, according to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

At least 124 people are known to be infected in West Texas since early February, across nine counties.

Almost all cases — 101 — were in patients aged 17 or younger and all but five of them were unvaccinated.

The outbreak has mostly been concentrated in a religious community in Gaines County, where almost 14 per cent of schoolchildren have an exemption from the vaccine.

Texas laws allow vaccine exemptions for reasons of conscience, including religious beliefs.

Children in the "close-knit, under-vaccinated" rural Mennonite community are also largely home-schooled.

Peter Hotez, director of the Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor University, in Waco, Texas said the outbreak would accelerate for a while.

"It's a bad illness," Dr Hotez said.

"Unfortunately, Texas is the epicentre of it because of our very aggressive anti-vaccine movement."

An additional nine cases were announced on Tuesday, in eastern New Mexico, which is along Texas' north-west border.

New Mexico's health department warned that "because measles is so contagious, additional cases are likely to occur".

According to the CDC, measles cases have also been found in Alaska, California, Georgia, New Jersey, New York City and Rhode Island.

What has health secretary RFK Jr said?

During a meeting with President Donald Trump's cabinet at the White House, Robert F Kennedy Jr appeared to downplay the seriousness of the measles outbreak.

"We are following the measles epidemic every day," he said.

"Incidentally, there have been four measles outbreaks this year.

"In this country last year there were 16. So, it's not unusual. We have measles outbreaks every year."

Kennedy also said that two people had died in the Texas outbreak.

However, Katherine Wells, director of public health at the health department in Lubbock, said that there had been just one measles death in Texas so far.

If a second death did exist, Lubbock's city spokesperson said, "we'd know about it".

RFK Jr has a long record of anti-vaccine advocacy, which he was repeatedly grilled over during his Senate confirmation hearing last month.

In 2023, he falsely said "there's no vaccine that is safe and effective".

He's also falsely linked the MMR (measles- mumps-rubella) vaccine to autism, a claim debunked by scientific research.

But during the hearing, he told lawmakers that he was not anti-vaccine and believes vaccines "play a critical role in healthcare".

Vaccination rates decline

Measles was considered eliminated in the US in 2000, because of the widespread use of the MMR vaccine.

But as vaccine hesitancy increased over time, fewer children received their shots.

In 2023, the share of children exempted from vaccine requirements in the US rose to 3.3 per cent, up from 3 per cent the year before. Overall 92.7 per cent of kindergarteners got their required shots.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the vaccination rate was 95 per cent, a coverage level that makes it unlikely that a single infection will spark a disease cluster or outbreak.

Health officials say that although the changes seem slight, it translates to about 80,000 kids not getting vaccinated.

In 2024, there were 285 cases of the disease in the US from 16 outbreaks, up from 59 cases from four outbreaks in 2023.

In Australia this year, 18 cases of measles have been reported through the Australian Government's National Communicable Disease Surveillance Dashboard.

According to the Department of Health, 92.21 per cent of two-year-olds received the MMR vaccine in the 2024 September quarter.

To achieve herd immunity for infectious diseases, such as measles, the Department of Health says a coverage rate of 92-94 per cent is required.

Hey Elon: You Don’t Just ‘Ooopsie’ The Destruction Of Ebola Prevention

from the global-health-isn't-a-botched-twitter-feature-launch-you-can-roll-back dept
Thu, Feb 27th 2025 12:05pm - Mike Masnick

Look, sometimes you make mistakes. Maybe you send an email to the wrong person. Maybe you accidentally buy the wrong kind of pasta sauce at the grocery store. Maybe you accidentally dismantle critical global health infrastructure. These things happen! At least, that’s what Elon Musk wants us to believe.

At yesterday’s first official Musk/Trump administration cabinet meeting, Elon decided to share a cute little anecdote about his DOGE team’s approach to governing. Just a fun little story about how they “accidentally canceled” Ebola prevention efforts. What a knee slapper!

Here’s Musk’s exact quote, which deserves to be read in full because, well, you’ll see:

We will make mistakes. We won’t be perfect. But when we make mistakes, we’ll fix it very quickly. So, for example, with USAID, one of the things we accidentally canceled very briefly was Ebola prevention. [nervous chuckle] I think we all want Ebola prevention. So we restored Ebola prevention immediately and there was no interruption.

The only problem is that almost everything here is nonsense… well, except for the part about canceling the program on Ebola prevention. Musk absolutely did that. And some other terrible stuff as well. But the fixing the mistake part? That doesn’t appear to have actually happened. Oopsie!

[Nervous chuckle intensifies]

The Real Impact of “Accidental” Cuts

To be clear, this one scenario actually offers a really good case study in how dangerously short-sighted the Musk/DOGE efforts are, in which they have no clue what they’re doing, are slashing and burning, and figuring they can just “fix it very quickly after” when things go wrong.

Except, that’s often not how this works, and the things they’re doing are creating not just lasting damage, but real-time harms that can never be fixed.

So, first of all, they absolutely cut off Ebola prevention and it had real world consequences the day they did, because there was an Ebola outbreak reported in Uganda that very day. As Ebola expert (and survivor!) Dr. Craig Spencer explained, normally the US would send an Ebola expert to Uganda to help with the prevention, which they were unable to do, because Musk and DOGE basically made that impossible. Spencer’s explanation of what happened is maddening (this is just a snippet):

On January 29, Uganda reported an Ebola outbreak. Normally the U.S. would’ve very quickly sent one of our Ebola experts to help the response. But this time, we didn’t. Because we couldn’t. Because this administration wouldn’t let them go right when this outbreak was declared.

And normally the U.S. would’ve helped set up border screening and other measures on the ground.

But this time, we didn’t.

Normally, we would’ve spoke with the WHO about helping end the outbreak.

But this time, we didn’t.

Because CDC staff weren’t even allowed to talk to them.

I’ve been told by a colleague that Uganda tried calling the White House to notify them of the outbreak for 2 days…but no one answered the phone. Two months ago we had amazing experts working on global health security there. Now there appears to be no one to pick up a phone.

Lies About ‘Fixing’ Those Mistakes

It turns out that Elon and DOGE actually fired 90% of the team working on it. Which raises an interesting question: How exactly do you “turn on” Ebola prevention when you’ve fired all the people who… you know… prevent Ebola?

“There have been no efforts to ‘turn on’ anything in prevention” of Ebola and other diseases, said Nidhi Bouri, who served as a senior USAID official during the Biden administration and oversaw the agency’s response to health-care outbreaks.

[….]

Bouri said her former USAID team of 60 people working on disease-response had been cut to about six staffers as of earlier this week. She called the recent USAID response to Uganda’s Ebola outbreak a “one-off,” far diminished from “the full suite” of activities that the agency historically would mount, such as ramping up efforts to monitor whether the disease had spread to neighboring countries.

“The full spectrum — the investments in disease surveillance, the investments in what we mobilize … moving commodities, supporting lab workers — that capacity is now a tenth of what it was,” Bouri said.

Furthermore, contrary to Elon’s claim, it appears that the funds for Ebola prevention have not resumed at all:

Other current and former USAID officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal operations, agreed with Bouri’s assessment.

“There was a waiver for Ebola, but USAID funds have never been back online,” said a current official. “USAID has been frozen: staff and money.”

“If there was a need to respond to Ebola, it would be a disaster assistance response team, or DART,” said one former official. “There is no longer a capability to send a DART or support one from Washington. Many of those people are contractors who were let go at the very beginning.”

This should be terrifying. Even if you’re so myopic that you think “America First” means not doing any foreign aid work (and boy, is that a discussion for another day), surely you can recognize that preventing foreign outbreaks of deadly diseases helps protect Americans at home as well. Right? Right???

A Pattern of Destruction

And the Ebola example is just one example.

There have been multiple reports of how the DOGE team halted funding for PEPFAR, which is the “President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief,” started by George W. Bush that has been credited with saving over 26 million lives and limiting the spread of AIDS globally. But DOGE stopped the program.

In Africa, thousands of U.S.-funded health workers have been laid off and clinics have closed, restricting access to HIV testing and treatment. African health officials and experts have pleaded for PEPFAR to resume, fearing services that have become a key part of the health care system will be stripped in a way that sets countries back decades.

And even though Marco Rubio has promoted PEPFAR and claimed that he signed a limited waiver to keep some (not all) of it funded… reports are that the DOGE team has still blocked any PEPFAR funding from going through. As the AP reports:

“…aid groups say they know of no payments getting through for that or any program.”

And even though a court ordered USAID to continue its congressionally mandated funding efforts two weeks ago, the Musk/Trump administration has refused to do so. Yesterday, after the judge made it clear that they were walking into a contempt of court situation, the DOJ ran to the Supreme Court, which put a temporary pause on the order, giving the Court a couple more days to evaluate.

Meanwhile, people are dying. Right now. Today. While Elon and his DOGE crew chuckle about their “accidental” mistakes (all easily preventable if they hadn’t fired actual experts or just… asked people to explain what was happening), and then claimed they “immediately” fixed things they didn’t actually fix.

And we could easily go on. I mean, last week they “accidentally” fired all the experts working to prevent avian flu and then were scrambling to try to find them to rehire them. Because nothing says “competent governance” and “efficiency” quite like firing your bird flu experts in the middle of a bird flu outbreak, and then struggling to find the fired experts in order to beg them to come back.

It seems like everywhere you look, these kinds of “accidental” mistakes are being made, and they’re not being rectified.

But Elon and the DOGE crew think it’s all just a laugh.

It’s Not Just The Incompetence, It’s The Indifference

Here’s the thing about all of this: None of it had to happen. None of these “accidents” were inevitable. Even if you wanted to cut actual waste, fraud, and abuse (and who doesn’t?), there are ways to do that without, you know, accidentally dismantling global disease prevention infrastructure.

But there’s no interest from Musk or DOGE in figuring any of that out. Zero. Zilch. Nada. There’s not even a pretense of concern about the irreversible damage being done.

Not only do they have a total lack of intellectual curiosity to learn about the institutions and systems they’re destroying, there’s not even one bit of concern about the very real damage that has been done and can’t be fixed, even if they actually were turning back on the funding (which, again, it appears they’re not).

There are a million stories to be covering these days about all this, but this is a tragedy of epic proportions. And the only acknowledgment of it is a little giggle from Elon, in which he admits to just one part of the error, but falsely states they corrected it. Because apparently that’s where we are now: treating global health infrastructure like it’s a Twitter feature that can be rolled back with a quick deployment.

The real tragedy isn’t just the destruction of vital programs — it’s that lives are being treated as acceptable collateral damage in an ideological experiment, based off of a myth. Musk, DOGE, and the Project 2025 crew are completely bought into the false belief that federal government employees do nothing useful, that they don’t work, and almost all foreign aid is wasted.

When global health infrastructure built over decades is dismantled overnight, it can’t simply be restored with a presidential waiver or a tweet. What’s being lost here isn’t just money or bureaucracy, but institutional knowledge, relationships, and capacity that took years to build. And Musk shows no signs of learning this lesson at all. To him, it remains a joke and a meme to tweet. As people die.

Nurgle loves you.

[vakundok]

Framework agreement of US, Ukraine on developing critical minerals
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/f ... 025-02-26/

1. US/Ukrainian Governmental Joint fund
2. Fund income from monetization of mineral assets
3. 50% mineral revenue goes to fund, 50% goes to Ukrainian government

and this

The Government of the United States of America supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace. Participants will seek to identify any necessary steps to protect mutual investments, as defined in the Fund Agreement.

It's dated 2/25 so not sure how it looked like before that date, but nonetheless, get ready for a new wank from the fanboys.

(Some wankers are getting high over here in Taiwan because this deal is a bit similar to the post WW2 US support where it came in the form of assisting companies such as JG White Engineering to prevent funds getting embezzled by corrupt officials.)

Edit: Added an article.

Thank you for sharing. It would have been funny if Ukraine had sold a few hours before that all their resources to a private company.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Well the orange man-baby was being the orange man-baby in front of the entire world.

[Grand Moff Yenchin]

Full Video: Trump-Zelenskyy Oval Office meeting explodes into shouting match

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/28/trump-v ... eting.html

That went well.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

Zelenskyy was at a clear disadvantage, English not being his first language. But that was a clusterfuck that nobody outside of the Kremlin saw coming.

[Crazedwraith]

Wow, forcing them in a disadvantageous deal and then expecting Zelenksyy/the ukrainians to be more grateful about it.

I'm reminded of the end of Django unchained and Calvin Candie being an Abysmal Winner.

[Ralin]

Seems to me that Trump trying to coerce 'access to mineral resources' or whatever is a diplomatic card for Zelensky. Safe to say exploiting those resources can't be done while a war is being fought on Ukranian territory. So for the greedy Americans to start looting the country the war has to end and the Russian military has to leave. And then when the US tries to follow up on it the enforcement mechanism is...what, exactly? Not like the US can send troops in or threaten to withdraw aid Trump will probably already have stopped sending. Sanctions, but not a lot of countries are going to be eager to cooperate with them under the circumstances. And Trump is going to be gone in four years and it's very likely that any future administration will toss out whatever he did on the subject.

Am I missing anything?

[J]

This has Vance and Gabbard's fingerprints all over it. They're setting up Zelensky for a coup. I think this is one of the things they were talking about when Sergei Lavrov met with the senior US diplomatic team. Both the US and Russia want an end to the war, Zelensky has to go for that to happen since both him and Putin have stated that negotiation between the two are out of the question, thus no ceasefire or other agreement can be reached as long as Zelensky is in power.

So how does the US coup Zelensky? First, make nice with Russia and threaten to cut Ukraine's supply of money & arms, then coerce him into selling out his country with exploitive resource deals. Make the offers worse each time until he agrees to sign, then find a way to publicly humiliate him in front of the world. This was a clear signal that the US sees no further use for Zelensky and he no longer enjoys the protection of the US. Zelensky is not exactly well loved back home, I think the countdown just started on the end of his reign.

How does the US sell this? Probably something like this - Well we tried to make him a deal (yeah, right) but he kept saying no, the guy's just not reasonable, there's no way he's gonna get the Crimea back and all the other stuff he wants. And then he has the nerve to come in here and call me a fucking bitch (yes, this actually happened, Zelensky said "blyat suka") can you believe that? So I told him to like, get out and come back to me when he's reasonable.

Yes it's total BS, but the MAGA crowd will lap it up and give Trump his off-ramp to end the war. Ukraine is totally screwed, it always was, their best option now will be to coup Zelensky and sue for peace, otherwise, their nation will be assimilated.



* J may have visited one too many conspiracy sites and/or puffed when she should've passed

[vakundok]

I hope at least they have an actual purpose, beyond getting the largest possible parting gift (or best possible weapon sale, if you wish). We are talking about the last US supply in the war (unless the agricultural land has significant value), and likely the next "offer" will be lower.

Zelensky asked how they plan to do diplomacy with someone, who has a track record of neglecting diplomatic agreements at will.
Then he claimed that the impact of setting Putin free will reach the US. This is clearly not what Trump wanted to hear. No politician is planning beyond his term and likely Putin himself will be busy annexing the neighboring states, while undermining Europe.

[bilateralrope]

Trump says Mexico, Canada tariffs to come into effect next week

Fri, Feb 28

President Donald Trump says he plans to impose tariffs on Canada and Mexico starting Wednesday, in addition to doubling the 10% universal tariff charged on imports from China.

Posting on Truth Social on Thursday, Trump said that illicit drugs such as fentanyl are being smuggled into the United States at "unacceptable levels" and that import taxes would force other countries to crack down on the trafficking.

"We cannot allow this scourge to continue to harm the USA, and therefore, until it stops, or is seriously limited, the proposed TARIFFS scheduled to go into effect on MARCH FOURTH will, indeed, go into effect, as scheduled," the Republican president wrote. "China will likewise be charged an additional 10% Tariff on that date."

The prospect of escalating tariffs has already thrown the global economy into turmoil — with consumers expressing fears about inflation worsening and the auto sector possibly suffering if America's two largest trading partners in Canada and Mexico are slapped with taxes. But Trump has also at times engaged in aggressive posturing only to give last-minute reprieves, previously agreeing to a 30-day suspension of the Canada and Mexico tariffs that were initially supposed to start in February.

Trump intends to put 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, with a lower 10% tax on Canadian energy products such as oil and electricity. The move ostensibly about drug trafficking and immigration led both countries to respond by emphasising their existing efforts to address these issues, in addition to Canada creating a fentanyl czar and Mexico deploying 10,000 members of its National Guard to its border with the United States.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Thursday that she hoped to speak with Trump after the Cabinet-level meetings occurring in Washington this week. Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Juan Ramón de la Fuente was scheduled to meet with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday.

Sheinbaum said Trump, "as you know, has his way of communicating". But she said that her government would stay "cool-headed" and optimistic about an agreement coming together to avoid the tariffs.

"I hope we are able to reach an agreement and on March 4 we can announce something else," she said.

She said Mexico’s security chiefs were discussing intelligence sharing with their American counterparts that would allow for important arrests in the US. On the economic front, she said, Mexico’s goal is to protect the free trade pact that was negotiated during the first Trump administration between Mexico and the United States. That 2020 deal, which included Canada, was an update of 1994's North American Free Trade Agreement.

The US president did impose a 10% tariff on China for its role in the manufacturing of chemicals used to make fentanyl, and that tax would now be doubled, according to his social media post.

The potential for higher prices and slower growth could create political blowback for Trump, who promised voters in last year's presidential election that he could quickly lower the inflation rate, which jumped during President Joe Biden's term. But Trump also campaigned on imposing broad tariffs and sweeping tariffs, which he plans to launch on April 2 by resetting tariffs to match the taxes that he determines are charged by other countries on American goods.

"The April Second Reciprocal Tariff date will remain in full force and effect," Trump said as part of his Thursday social media post.

Trump indicated Wednesday that European countries would also face a 25% tariff as part of his reciprocal tariffs. He also wants separate tariffs on autos, computer chips and pharmaceutical drugs that would be levied in addition to the reciprocal tariffs.

The president already announced that he's removing the exemptions on his 2018 steel and aluminum tariffs, in addition to planning taxes on copper imports.

The prospect of a broader trade conflict should other nations follow through with their own retaliatory tariffs is already spooking US consumers, potentially undermining Trump's promise to unleash stronger economic growth.

The Conference Board reported on Wednesday that its consumer confidence index had dropped 7 points to a reading of 98.3. It was the largest monthly decline since August 2021, when inflationary pressures began to reverberate across the United States as the economy recovered from the coronavirus pandemic. Average 12-month inflation expectations jumped from 5.2% to 6% in February, the Conference Board noted.

"There was a sharp increase in the mentions of trade and tariffs, back to a level unseen since 2019," said Stephanie Guichard, a senior economist at the Conference Board. "Most notably, comments on the current administration and its policies dominated the responses."

The S&P 500 stock index has also fallen over the past month, reversing some of the gains that followed Trump's November presidential victory, which prompted investors to assume income tax cuts and less regulation would help increase growth.

I wonder if he's going to blink this time. Probably not.

Then come the retaliatory tariffs. It's going to get messy.

[Solauren]

At this point, I'm pretty sure the United States elected someone suffering from early stage dementia to their highest office.

Really, he reminds me of a few people I knew that were at that point.

I'm wondering if Vance knows this, and is just waiting for the right moment for Trump to screw things up bad enough, that Vance can remove him without alot of problems, and look like the hero for fixing them.

Vance finishes Trumps term in office, and then Vance gets to run for Vance's first ELECTED term.
Would that allow Vance to run for a second elected term, thereby becoming a 3 term president? No idea.

[bilateralrope]

I think I predicted something like that before the election.

When it comes to if Vance could get more than 2 terms, I've got some memory of someone saying that it depends on when Vance replaces Trump. If he waits long enough, then serving the remainder of Trump's term doesn't count towards the term limit.

The catch is that removing Trump via the 25th amendment requires two-thirds of Congress and the Senate to vote for it if Trump doesn't want to leave. If that fails, Trump will want revenge.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

By the same token, Trump will be going after repealing the 22nd amendment, if he doesn't target the midterms first.

[Zaune]

The good news is, he has definitely burned his bridges with the Army if they're sneaking songs from Les Mis into choir performances at state functions. I don't think he's in any danger of getting couped yet but they sure as hell aren't going to obey any unlawful orders, let alone side with him come the inevitable election shenanigans.

[Elfdart]

This has Vance and Gabbard's fingerprints all over it. They're setting up Zelensky for a coup. I think this is one of the things they were talking about when Sergei Lavrov met with the senior US diplomatic team. Both the US and Russia want an end to the war, Zelensky has to go for that to happen since both him and Putin have stated that negotiation between the two are out of the question, thus no ceasefire or other agreement can be reached as long as Zelensky is in power.

So how does the US coup Zelensky? First, make nice with Russia and threaten to cut Ukraine's supply of money & arms, then coerce him into selling out his country with exploitive resource deals. Make the offers worse each time until he agrees to sign, then find a way to publicly humiliate him in front of the world. This was a clear signal that the US sees no further use for Zelensky and he no longer enjoys the protection of the US. Zelensky is not exactly well loved back home, I think the countdown just started on the end of his reign.

How does the US sell this? Probably something like this - Well we tried to make him a deal (yeah, right) but he kept saying no, the guy's just not reasonable, there's no way he's gonna get the Crimea back and all the other stuff he wants. And then he has the nerve to come in here and call me a fucking bitch (yes, this actually happened, Zelensky said "blyat suka") can you believe that? So I told him to like, get out and come back to me when he's reasonable.

Yes it's total BS, but the MAGA crowd will lap it up and give Trump his off-ramp to end the war. Ukraine is totally screwed, it always was, their best option now will be to coup Zelensky and sue for peace, otherwise, their nation will be assimilated.



* J may have visited one too many conspiracy sites and/or puffed when she should've passed

Zelensky was doomed the minute he took office. The Empire was hell bent on having another client state on Russia's border, a proxy war or both. That's why the Azov Einsatzgruppen in that infamous video treated him the way juvenile delinquents do a substitute teacher. If he waved the white flag, they would've killed him and now that he did their bidding, he's being kicked to the curb like one of Hugh Hefner's girlfriends on her 25th birthday -only Hefner didn't mug them as they were removed from the premises.

Anyone who thinks Trump's plan to extort minerals from Ukraine is outlandish should keep in mind that the US forced Britain into a liquidation sale during WW2, which included handing over the British Empire's gold reserves for "safe keeping" in Fort Knox, where they are to this day. Churchill likened it to the sheriff confiscating a bankrupt family's goods.

But Trump the gaping asshole and his couch-humping sidekick went so overboard in rubbing their henchman's nose in it that I felt bad for the little stooge. Zelensky can't make a run for it after sending heaven knows how many men to their deaths and neither Russia nor the Empire wants him around, so he's not long for this world. Maybe he can get his family out before he meets with his inevitable accident. Let this be a lesson for any imperial flunkies in the future.

[Ralin]

The good news is, he has definitely burned his bridges with the Army if they're sneaking songs from Les Mis into choir performances at state functions. I don't think he's in any danger of getting couped yet but they sure as hell aren't going to obey any unlawful orders, let alone side with him come the inevitable election shenanigans.

Nah. Turns out Trump actually really likes that song and probably requested it himself.

[AniThyng]

The good news is, he has definitely burned his bridges with the Army if they're sneaking songs from Les Mis into choir performances at state functions. I don't think he's in any danger of getting couped yet but they sure as hell aren't going to obey any unlawful orders, let alone side with him come the inevitable election shenanigans.

Nah. Turns out Trump actually really likes that song and probably requested it himself.

Pretty sure they (maga) see themselves as the people here so yeah.

[bilateralrope]

Vance fleets to undisclosed location after protesters disrupt Vermont ski trip

By Lee Roper | Media | March 1, 2025

Vice-President JD Vance was forced to flee to an undisclosed location after he was greeted by hundreds of protesters in Vermont on Saturday, according to a Fox News report.

Video shows protesters lining the street with anti-Vance and pro-Ukrainian signs as the vice president makes his way to the Sugarbush Resort in Vermont for a weekend family ski trip.

A crowd of protesters was also gathered outside the resort causing Vance and his family to “move to an undisclosed location,” according to Fox.

The protests come one day after Vance and President Donald Trump teamed up to bully Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during an Oval Office meeting.

The meeting got heated at the end, when Vance intervened to claim that Ukraine is at this point because of the Biden administration’s actions. He also accused Zelensky of being “disrespectful” and demanded that he show more gratitude toward Trump.

Protesters told Vermont Public Radio that the ambush of Zelensky in the Oval Office led to them turning out to protest the VP.

“After what he did yesterday, he crossed the line,” Cori Giroux said. “After the meeting yesterday with Zelensky, there, I mean, I feel like all of America should be out here protesting.”

“This is a group of people who have always been supportive of standing with Ukraine,” another protester Judy Daly said. “ However, I think yesterday’s performance at the White House has probably galvanized even more people to come out today.”

Other’s cited the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) firing thousands of federal workers.

“He [Vance] is recreating while thousands of people are losing their jobs, losing their health care, losing their funding,” Tisa Rennau said.

A bit over a month in office and protesters are already disrupting the VPs vacation.

I fear that Trump's response is going to escalate things very quickly.

[bilateralrope]

Norwegian fuel supplier refuses U.S. warships over Ukraine

[quoite]By George Allison - March 1, 2025

Norwegian fuel company Haltbakk Bunkers has announced it will cease supplying fuel to U.S. military forces in Norway and American ships docking in Norwegian ports, citing dissatisfaction with recent U.S. policy towards Ukraine.

In a strongly worded statement, the company criticised a televised event involving U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President J.D. Vance, referring to it as the “biggest shitshow ever presented live on TV.”

Haltbakk Bunkers praised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for his restraint, accusing the U.S. of “putting on a backstabbing TV show” and declaring that the spectacle “made us sick.”

As a result, the company stated: “We have decided to immediately STOP as fuel provider to American forces in Norway and their ships calling Norwegian ports. No Fuel to Americans!” Haltbakk Bunkers also urged Norwegians and Europeans to follow their lead, concluding their statement with the slogan “Slava Ukraina” in support of Ukraine.

Who is Haltbakk Bunkers?

Haltbakk Bunkers is a Norwegian fuel supplier that provides marine fuel for shipping and military operations. Based in Kristiansund, Norway, the company specialises in bunkering services for vessels operating in Norwegian waters, offering fuel logistics and distribution for both civilian and military customers.

Haltbakk Bunkers plays a significant role in Norway’s maritime industry, supplying fuel to vessels calling at Norwegian ports, including NATO and allied forces.

The decision to cut off the U.S. military could have logistical implications for American naval operations in the region. Norway is a key NATO member and frequently hosts U.S. and allied forces for joint exercises and Arctic defence operations.

This announcement raises questions about the broader European stance on U.S. policy towards Ukraine and whether other businesses or governments might take similar actions. It also highlights how private companies in Europe are responding independently to geopolitical developments.

The U.S. has not yet responded to the decision, and it remains to be seen whether this will affect fuel supply chains for American forces operating in Norway and the North Atlantic region.[/quote]

Looks like Trump shouting at Zelensky has managed to hurt the US military. Though I can't say the extent of the damage, because I don't know how much fuel Haltbakk Bunkers supplied them.

[bilateralrope]

Do you like accurate weather forecasts ?

Or do you prefer Trump using a sharpie to alter the predicted path of a hurricane ?

The US faces ‘devastating’ losses for weather forecasts, federal workers say

Federal employees are speaking out after the Trump administration slashed staff and office space for the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration.

by Justine Calma

Mar 4, 2025, 6:25 AM GMT+13

The federal agency that produces weather forecasts and leads research on climate and the oceans has canceled leases for research centers and slashed its staff to “devastating” effect, current and former employees tell The Verge.

Last week, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) laid off hundreds of probationary employees, who make up roughly 10 percent of its workforce. The agency has plans to lay off around 50 percent of its staff in total, according to Andrew Rosenberg, a former deputy director at NOAA and co-editor of the SciLight newsletter.

The agency has also canceled a lease for a building housing the National Centers for Environmental Prediction in Maryland, which produces information for the National Weather Service, Air Force, Navy, and Federal Aviation Administration, Rosenberg tells The Verge. He also says NOAA has canceled a lease for a radar development lab in Oklahoma. NOAA and the universities housing those facilities did not immediately confirm those cancellations with The Verge. Axios reported separately last Friday that NOAA had canceled leases for office space, without mentioning the locations specifically.

NOAA staffers are demonstrating today outside of the agency’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, calling attention to risks they see ahead as President Donald Trump and the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) upend an agency that Americans rely on to stay safe from extreme weather events and flooding.

“I can tell you the losses will be and already are devastating,” a NOAA employee, who was granted anonymity because of the risk of retaliation, tells The Verge. “Believe me when I say, you may not know all the work that goes on behind the scenes, but if these cuts continue, you will feel them personally at some point when that work is gone.”

The employee says that with the types of cuts they’ve heard proposed, some National Weather Service offices won’t be able to staff their operations desks full time. “I’d challenge anyone to work seven to 10 8-hour shifts in a row, with the stress of knowing your job could be cut arbitrarily at any time, and not make any mistakes through all of that,” they say. “Cutting NOAA staff will invariably cost not only lives, but millions — if not billions — of dollars.”

Weather balloon launches, which are needed to collect data for forecasts, were already suspended in western Alaska last week because of a lack of staffing after layoffs. People who lost their jobs at NOAA were given very little time to exit their offices, let alone prepare for a transition in workloads. They were notified by email last Thursday and given around an hour and half to leave the office, according to Rosenberg and a NOAA employee who lost their job last week and who was also granted anonymity.

Both Rosenberg and the other employees are anticipating further risks to NOAA’s work. After storming NOAA headquarters in February, DOGE reportedly intends to cut NOAA’s budget by 30 percent.

Project 2025, the right-wing manifesto for the second Trump administration, said NOAA “should be dismantled and many of its functions eliminated, sent to other agencies, privatized, or placed under the control of states and territories.” It also proposed leasing out more government allocated radio frequency spectrum for private use, which could lead to more interference with frequencies used for weather forecasting.

Privatizing weather forecasts — essentially turning a free service into something people have to pay for — could put more Americans at risk during extreme weather events, sources tell The Verge. So, too, does auctioning off too much radio frequency spectrum if that interferes with the collection of data needed to make forecasts.

“Gutting NOAA puts Americans in danger,” says the former employee. “Trump and DOGE aren’t ‘trimming the fat,’ they are hobbling the services that all of us rely on every day to stay safe, to do business, and to live our lives peacefully.”

[EnterpriseSovereign]

'A very dumb thing to do': Trudeau slams Trump's tariffs on Canada

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has confirmed Canadian tariffs on the US, following Donald Trump's decision to reimpose 25% tariffs on Canadian goods.

Speaking at a press conference and directly addressing "Donald," Trudeau said: "Even though you're a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do."

Trudeau also said Canada plans to file a legal challenge with the World Trade Organisation, saying the US tariffs violate a free trade agreement between the countries.

"Canadians are reasonable, and we are polite, but we will not back down from a fight," added Trudeau.

Trudeau announced 25% tariffs on $30 billion (£23.6 billion) of US goods, adding that a further $125 billion (£98.4 billion) in tariffs would be imposed by March 25.

In response to Trudeau's retaliatory tariffs, Trump said suggested the tariffs imposed by the US could increase further.

In a post on Truth Social, he said: "Please explain to Governor Trudeau, of Canada, that when he puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the US, our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!"

Trump's tariffs on Mexico, Canada, and China came into effect on Tuesday.

The US president imposed 25% tariffs on Mexico and Canada and doubled tariffs on Chinese imports from 10% to 20%.

“While President Trump gave both Canada and Mexico ample opportunity to curb the dangerous cartel activity and influx of lethal drugs flowing into our country, they have failed to adequately address the situation,” a White House statement read shortly before the tariffs took effect.

Fresh produce, cars and car parts and electronics, including phones and computers, are among the top goods the US imports from Mexico, Canada and China that will now face tariffs between 20% and 25%.

Crude oil from Canada - one of its top exports to the US - will have a 10% tariff rate instead of 25%.

China hit back on Tuesday, announcing extra tariffs on US farm products.

A 15% tariff will apply to chicken, wheat, corn, and cotton, while a 10% tariff will cover sorghum, soybeans, pork, beef, seafood, fruit, vegetables, and dairy.

The Chinese Commerce Ministry said the tariffs would take effect on 10 March.

Beijing also added 10 more US firms to its "unreliable entity" list on Tuesday, blocking them from engaging in China-related import or export activities and from making new investments in the country.

The list includes defence companies such as Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, and Lockheed Martin Missile System Integration Lab.

The tariffs come at a time of persistent inflation and economic uncertainty in the US.

They risk driving up prices on a wide range of goods imported from Mexico, Canada, and China, which together sent $1.4 trillion (£1.1 trillion) worth of products to the US last year, according to Commerce Department data.

That represents more than 40% of all US imports.

More to come?

Trump and his administration have suggested that these tariffs are just the start.

Steel and aluminium tariffs are set to take effect on March 12, while dollar-for-dollar reciprocal tariffs - matching those imposed on US goods - are expected on March 2.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order to investigate lumber tariffs, despite claiming for ages that the US doesn’t need Canadian lumber.

The move could push up new home prices, a major inflation driver.

On Monday, he also suggested tariffs on agricultural imports could follow, in an attempt to boost domestic sales. These would take effect on April 2, he said on Truth Social.

[Solauren]

Whomever is telling Trump that Canada is a major problem for drugs going into the United States is probably trying to cover up their own involvement with the local drug trade in the US.

[Zaune]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton ... -1.7473477

Fight between bald eagle and Canada goose in Burlington bay 'very symbolic,' says photographer

Eagle gave up and spared the goose after 20-minute faceoff, says Mervyn Sequeira

Quoth the person who shared this on Tumblr, "An ancient Roman soothsayer would be frothing at the mouth at this."