The House passed a bill today that allows the US to go after the ICC for any judgements 'targeting' the US or its allies. The ICC, you might remember, found Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant guilty of war crimes last November. We don't recognize them or their authority and I sure as hell don't think that our country should be defending the actions of Israel.
After donating a million dollars to tRUMP's inauguration, Mark Zuckerburg has decided to stop fact checking on Meta. That will certainly be a bit help to the misinformation brokers. At this point, I'm seriously considering giving up social media all together. I think I'll stay in blog land.
tRUMP had a meeting today with GOP lawmakers on his plans to make Canada the 51st state. He is not planning to use military force, but he plans to use economic force to compel them to agree to the plan.
However, he's not ruling out military force to take Greenland.
The fact that these plans even have an audience and support is mind boggling to me. It's not like we don't have enough enemies in the world. We sure don't need to be making more.
And yet, here we are...
He's not even president yet and the chaos has begun. At what point do people begin to shuffle their feet and say, 'Wait a minute...this has gone far enough...' Is it even possible at this point?
Honestly, I don't know that it's possible for them to admit that he's gone too far, looking at his outrageous and disgusting history and how everyone is now bending to his will. (or is it whims?) It's embarrassing but also terrifying.
ReplyDeleteIt is certainly further destabilizing an already frighteningly unstable world.
DeleteThe friend I'm staying with, her partner has Fox news on all the time...and he believes what they say.....you can't give him any facts...
ReplyDeleteYou can't. There is not one bit of sense in discussion. They want to convince you that they're right. They aren't listening to one word you say.
DeleteExactly so. And so biased about what is going on in NZ as well
DeleteI can't bear to ask questions about NZ.
DeleteI can't. I just can't.
ReplyDeleteYeah. I know. I get it. It is just insanity.
DeleteA massive distraction for some reason?
ReplyDeleteThat is one heck of a distraction he's putting on.
DeleteFingers in ears and la-la-la time again. Crazy world.
ReplyDeleteGood idea. La-la-la-la....
DeleteIt's frightening. My sister, an otherwise perfectly sane person, is a Trumper because he "is good for the economy". Words fail me.
ReplyDeleteWell, one thing is that once this term is done, they won't be able to say that any more.
DeleteHe is quite, quite MAD.
ReplyDeleteBut the amount of insanity that it takes to even think these are good plans, convince people to endorse these plans...are they all nucking futs?
DeleteOur world is scary enough, and it's about to get worse, I think he is mad, and for Elon Musk working with him, sadly shaking my head, everything crossed for the next four years to fly by.
ReplyDeleteNot just Elon Musk. I mean there is a whole raft of people waiting to make this happen. That is what I don't understand.
DeleteFar too many ego's
DeleteI don't agree with so much he says and wants to do Debby. But he's acting like Putin showing he will not back down. People want strong leadership.
ReplyDeleteI would argue that this is not 'leadership'. It is irrational. I would think Putin is doing a bit of a happy dance right now. He's not the most reviled man in the world any more.
DeleteWhat is he thinking? That should be, is he thinking? US tried to conquer Canada 5 times and the Brits defeated them every time! Canada will not bend, I'm quite sure. As for Meta - words fail me!
ReplyDeleteFor him to get authorization to use military force, he would need to have an authorization from Congress, unless we (meaning land, military, or possessions) are being attacked. He is already floating the idea of calling an 'economic emergency' which allows him to institute his tariffs immediately. I suppose, at a stretch, he could try to use that as a basis for ordering the troops to Greenland, but I don't see that flying.
DeleteI worry mostly about Canada. Their country faces his immediate 'attention'. They will surely suffer.
I don't know where the line is, honestly. The line where even his supporters stand up and say, "Enough." I'm afraid things will have to get really, really bad and crazy for that to happen. If that's the case, I'd sooner he go buck wild insane from the get-go so we can go ahead and get it over with.
ReplyDeleteYou know that old say, "Give a monkey enough rope and he'll hang himself?" well, we just gave King Kong the world's biggest rope. Let's hope he wraps it good and tight around his neck right away.
We just turned loose the elephant in the china shop. I read that his plans had divided support. WT actual F do they have any support?
DeleteMaga is Maga. He can do anything, for he is the anointed.
ReplyDeleteIt's like a mass hysteria.
DeleteMy only comments to the dumpers when they gasp and wail at something he does that negatively affects them: you asked for this, and we tried to warn you. History is repeating itself, and if any of you had opened a history book, you might have voted differently. As my mom always said, "Don't come cryin' to me."
ReplyDeleteYou know, Tim and I were talking last night. Our big concern was that he'd tank our economy. Now that seems like the best case scenario. Our economy tanks badly, so badly that he will need to shift his focus to our country, instead of burning down the world. Economically, I know that will affect most of the world as well, but it seems quite preferrable to the saber rattling.
DeleteCanada will never bend to him. We also have plans that will hurt the ordinary citizens and then maybe they will see that he could care less about them. He needs our minerals, fertilizer, water and oil, and they might just get shut off. Gigi
ReplyDeleteI hope that they do. Immediately. I hope that Denmark and Panama simply stop answering the phone when he calls. MAGA wanted isolationism. There are foolish people who avert their eyes and claim that we need to ignore the crazy stuff and focus on his good ideas. So...let us be roundly and soundly ignored. The world needs to move on without us for a while. It will serve us right.
DeleteI've been trying my best to avoid the news after the election and this is exactly why. I don't know if his dropping over from a fatal Bic Mac attack would even help at this point, but I'd still like to see it.
ReplyDeleteI know that I've got people who will sincerely believe we are both headed straight for hell, but yeah. I totally get that, Doug. Move over and quit hogging the handbasket, will ya?
DeleteI think you missed the mark on Facebook "stopping" fact checking. They aren't. They are moving over to the very successful community notes version of fact checking that increased false post deletion by 80% and decreased false information post sharing by 50%. What Facebook was doing up until now obviously wasn't working. By the time a post was flagged, got to the appropriate review and then tagged, they had been shared tens of thousands of times already. To put in current context, it is like trying to stop a wildfire blowing through L.A. with a syringe full of water. With the new method, posts can potentially be flagged within seconds of being posted. It also removed inherit biasness out of the equation as well.
ReplyDeleteSaying all that though, I don't disagree that Zuckerberg probably went this way for political reasons.
And there are economic benefits for Meta, too. Why pay fact-checkers when the community can do it for free? I'm not sure I agree with the approach but I get Zuckerberg's thinking.
DeleteMost definitely! I guess for me, I think back to the years I played recreational sports post college. Most of those sports were self umpired and we called things pretty fairly. But as soon as you hire a referee or umpire, it becomes "how much can I get away with" fairly quickly because it wasn't spotted. I think we as readers of any Facebook post would be a lot more efficient at spotting falsehoods than a handful of people locked up in a room at Facebook headquarters with TB's worth of reported posts. And like I mentioned in my comment, that method has proven to be very successful on the X platform according to their statistics.
Deletehttps://x.com/CommunityNotes/status/1788617818784792880
All I know is that we've got a population that has been mindlessly regurgitating bullshit for several years now. Those people are going to insist that the truth is a lie. Special interest groups intent on getting their point to straight to the people with the least critical thinking skills will use this to their advantage to create confusion and sow doubt.
DeleteHe is now, and has been, absolutely insane. Also, generally incoherent in his rants. And his followers just get on their knees and plead for more of it. We are doomed. I'm sorry but that's just the way I see it.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are wrong, but at this point I am not putting my money on it.
DeleteAnd what's funny is, all Trump's minions were screaming "no more foreign wars" while backing him. Now he's going to drag us into NEW foreign conflicts. I never thought I'd see the day when we'd wage war (even verbally/diplomatically) on Denmark. It's like a Saturday Night Live skit.
ReplyDeleteIronic, isn't it. His faithful will turn themselves inside out to rationalize this, though.
DeleteYou raise some good questions. Unfortunately Trump is too irrational to get answers from. Canada has always had a good relationship with the US. There's still a good relationship except for one person.
ReplyDeleteI am really ashamed ofmy country's disregard for anyone but ourselves.
DeleteApparently potash, used in fertilizer, comes almost exclusively from Canada. Who knew? I'm guessing there will be a hefty price increase for the potash exported to the US if trump's tariffs go ahead.
ReplyDeleteThe man has a teeny tiny brain.
As for Canada joining the US, over my dead body.
Also crude oil and wood products, which might become the tiniestbit more important in the rebuilding of LA. To be considered as well, if they quit buying our stuff, that will negatively impact our economy in a very big way.
ReplyDeleteI know that Canada sells electricity to the US, and that we ship petroleum products north for refining. I guess Canada should threaten the US with turning off the lights. His dementia is showing, a lot.
ReplyDeleteWe cannot "punish" Canada without being bitten in the ass ourselves.
DeleteI honestly thing Trump is using these sorts of things as a bargaining tool. If he spouts out something completely insane about the Panama canal, Greenland, Canada to whip up the hysteria that fills social media and many newscasts, he can then somehow use that as a bargaining chip at a later time by promising to denounce what he previously said for a consideration. He might be a lot more shrewd than we give him credit for.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that, myself.
DeleteI believe there is a real danger in trying to make this into rational behavior. It isn't.
DeleteI agree on both points.
DeleteDropping fact checking for community notes is a guaranteed way to spread misinformation. Mushrat stopped fact checking on Twitter and the result was predictable, the spread of lies grew by leaps & bounds. Same will happen on FB. Anyone that believes statistics put out by Musk is fooling themselves. As far as tRump goes, it's only gonna get worse as he sinks further into dementia. I think I'll go get a maple leaf tattoo.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. It will become a tool to draw in the fools...people with strong opinions who cannot think critically.
DeleteI agree 100% with everything you've said, Debby. Everything! It's so darn aggravating!
ReplyDelete