is that it now game over no chance of POTUS

 

Rayguns out

1 hour ago, Cheese said:

Iran denies any such talks have taken place. What a surprise.

He’ll have been talking to himself again and simply making sh1t up.

He’ll also have been tipping his billionaire mates off with insider knowledge to buy/sell stock just before he posted this as well of course (stock markets jumped 2%). The art of the conman.

16 minutes ago, Bertie said:

He’ll have been talking to himself again and simply making sh1t up.

He’ll also have been tipping his billionaire mates off with insider knowledge to buy/sell stock just before he posted this as well of course (stock markets jumped 2%). The art of the conman.

Just watching Starmer in front of a select committee and he does seem to be saying that some sort of talks are taking place. 

“THEY ARE MY BEST FWENDS”

29 minutes ago, kent_white said:

Just watching Starmer in front of a select committee and he does seem to be saying that some sort of talks are taking place. 

Tbf that’s what Taco’s team is telling him

He’s well out his depth with this conflict isn’t he.

All good news for getting the Dems back in 

9 minutes ago, London Wanderer said:

He’s well out his depth with this conflict isn’t he.

All good news for getting the Dems back in 

I listened to his interview on the tarmac today. 

He's still blaming them for everything! 🤣

On 23/03/2026 at 14:52, Bertie said:

He’ll have been talking to himself again and simply making sh1t up.

He’ll also have been tipping his billionaire mates off with insider knowledge to buy/sell stock just before he posted this as well of course (stock markets jumped 2%). The art of the conman.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg547ljepvzo
 

Remember when people got annoyed that Starmer declared someone had paid for his glasses ? 

2 minutes ago, Ani said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cg547ljepvzo
 

Remember when people got annoyed that Starmer declared someone had paid for his glasses ? 

🤣🤣

And the Arsenal tickets don't forget!

And we all know who THEIR arch rivals are. Bloody anti-semite! 

He’s clearly senile as fuck. He’s just shouting nonsense every five minutes

19 minutes ago, mickbrown said:

He’s clearly senile as fuck. He’s just shouting nonsense every five minutes

See I don't see him as any more or less senile than his first time in office. He was telling people to drink bleach at the time of you remember 😁 it's not like the warning signs weren't there. 

In some ways he was lucky that COVID meant he couldn't make as much of a fool of himself on the international stage as he is now. 

Plus in his first time he had some people around him who would put the brakes on many of his wackiest and maniacal ideas. Unfortunately this time around he has surrounded himself with spineless incompetent sycophants 

Was reading an article about Trump and his philosophy and behaviours, and how these were influenced by a mentor he had - Roy Cohn. Sheds light on how he behaves in his personal, business and political lives. Some may admire him, some may hate him, but explains the methods in his madness, no better example than Iran atm. It’s a long cut/paste but the 6 “rules” in bold say it all. Apologies if posted before.

 

1. Never apologize or admit wrongdoing, ever. Cohn viewed contrition as weakness and would rather die (literally, as it turned out) than acknowledge error or fault. As journalist Ken Auletta, who covered Cohn extensively, noted, “The idea that you can admit a mistake is not part of Roy’s genetic code.” This principle would become so fundamental to Trump’s approach that even faced with irrefutable evidence—a recorded confession of sexual assault on the Access Hollywood tape, for instance—he would deny, deflect, and attack rather than offer the slightest acknowledgment of impropriety.

2. Always counter-attack, and always with greater force than you received. When criticized or accused, Cohn’s response was invariably to hit back harder, to escalate, to make the accuser regret ever mentioning his name. As Cohn himself explained to a reporter: "I bring out the worst in my enemies, and that’s how I get them to defeat themselves.” This tactic became Trump’s signature move, whether attacking Gold Star parents who criticized him, mocking a disabled reporter who questioned his claims, or threatening critics with lawsuits and retribution.

3. Use the legal system as a weapon, not a recourse for justice. Cohn taught Trump that lawsuits were instruments of intimidation, not vehicles for dispute resolution. He filed cases not to win—though winning was nice—but to punish, to harass, and to silence. The expense and stress of litigation was the point, not the legal outcome. Trump would eventually be involved in over 3,500 lawsuits—an unprecedented number for any American businessperson or politician—using the courts not to seek justice but to exhaust opponents with fewer resources.

4. Manipulate the media ruthlessly. Cohn was a master at planting stories, cultivating journalists, and creating controversy to serve his ends. He understood that perception trumped reality, that bold claims often went unchallenged, and that most people would remember the accusation but not the retraction. Trump elevated this approach to an art form, calling reporters using pseudonyms like “John Barron” to plant favorable stories about himself, staging pseudo-events to attract coverage, and later, using Twitter to bypass media filters entirely and inject his unfiltered messages directly into the public consciousness.

5. Use fear as both shield and sword. Cohn understood that people who are afraid—of communists, of crime, of social change, of the “other”—are easier to manipulate and more willing to accept authoritarian solutions. He helped McCarthy weaponize the Red Scare, stoking paranoia about secret communists undermining America from within. Trump would adapt this tactic to the 21st century, stoking fears about immigrants, Muslims, “inner city” crime, and later, a “deep state” conspiracy, always positioning himself as the only solution to these terrifying threats.

6. Build a fortress of loyalty around yourself. Cohn demanded absolute devotion from his clients and associates, and he repaid it in kind, at least until they were no longer useful. He created a network of mutual obligation and fear that served as both sword and shield in his battles. Trump’s infamous demand for loyalty—from James Comey, from his cabinet members, from Republican legislators—and his swift punishment of perceived disloyalty, all echo Cohn’s approach to power.

Edited March 25Mar 25 by Bertie

Looks very similar to Umberto Eco how to spot a fascist. 

Edited March 25Mar 25 by Nowack
Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt

A Democrat has won the Florida Special Election.... one of her constituents is a certain Donald Trump 😆

Read this in a long article about US (lack of) strategy and that Iran won't negotiate for now.  Donald won't want to send ground troops in, but may be forced to in an attempt to bring Iran to the table.

The result is a fairly classic escalation trap: once the conflict starts, it is extremely costly for either side to ever back down, which ensures that the conflict continues long past it being in the interests of either party.  Every day this war goes on make both the United States and Iran weaker, poorer and less secure but it is very hard for either side to back down because there are huge costs connected to being the party that backs down. So both sides ‘escalate to de-escalate’ (this phrase is generally as foolish as it sounds), intensifying the conflict in an effort to hit hard enough to force the other guy to blink first.  But since neither party can back down unilaterally and survive politically, there’s practically no amount of pain that can force them to do so.

1 hour ago, Dimron said:

A Democrat has won the Florida Special Election.... one of her constituents is a certain Donald Trump 😆

Trump voted by postal ballot apparently. 

14 hours ago, Nowack said:

Looks very similar to Umberto Eco how to spot a fascist. 

He's alot of bad things but he's not a fascist

1 hour ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

He's alot of bad things but he's not a fascist

Aye.

One or two disturbing trends, but a far cry from fascism. 

11 hours ago, Ani said:

Trump voted by postal ballot apparently. 

He'll be complaining about pregnant chads next 😃

12 hours ago, TrickyTrotter said:

Read this in a long article about US (lack of) strategy and that Iran won't negotiate for now.  Donald won't want to send ground troops in, but may be forced to in an attempt to bring Iran to the table.

The result is a fairly classic escalation trap: once the conflict starts, it is extremely costly for either side to ever back down, which ensures that the conflict continues long past it being in the interests of either party.  Every day this war goes on make both the United States and Iran weaker, poorer and less secure but it is very hard for either side to back down because there are huge costs connected to being the party that backs down. So both sides ‘escalate to de-escalate’ (this phrase is generally as foolish as it sounds), intensifying the conflict in an effort to hit hard enough to force the other guy to blink first.  But since neither party can back down unilaterally and survive politically, there’s practically no amount of pain that can force them to do so.

Trump's already started to finger Pete Hesgeth (who should have gone after the what's app nonsense), fall guy in waiting.

Harold Wilson's greatest achievement was to keep us out of Vietnam despite similar pressures from the US... quote "if the Russians land in Sussex don't expect help from us"

6 minutes ago, Dimron said:

Trump's already started to finger Pete Hesgeth (who should have gone after the what's app nonsense), fall guy in waiting.

 

At least he's moved on from kids

51 minutes ago, Tonge moor green jacket said:

Aye.

One or two disturbing trends, but a far cry from fascism. 

I think it's a little more than one or two 😁 but I agree he's not a fascist. I don't really think he's got much more of a personal ideology other than what he thinks makes him look good. 

Fascist? Probably not, think that needs some sort of warped sense of loyalty to others   

Narcissistic senile cunt? Oh aye

7 hours ago, Lt. Aldo Raine said:

He's alot of bad things but he's not a fascist

I didn’t say he was a fascist. What I was pointing out is that Umberto Eco wrote an essay in the mid‑1990s called “Eternal Fascism: Fourteen Ways of Looking at a Blackshirt”. resembling the article in the post above. In it, he outlined fourteen traits that can appear in different forms of what he called “Ur‑Fascism” — recurring patterns of thought or behaviour that historically show up in fascistic ideologies.

It isn’t about labelling specific individuals as fascists. It’s about identifying certain characteristics or tendencies that might echo aspects of earlier fascist movements, even if they don’t add up to full‑blown fascism. He also makes it clear that these traits aren’t a checklist, and that not all need to be present for the comparison to be relevant. 

The reason I mentioned it is because some of the traits Eco described reminded me of what was quoted in the post above. That’s all. The essay was written long before Trump was a political figure, so it obviously wasn’t aimed at him or anyone contemporary.

These are the fourteen traits lifted straight out of Wikipedia, and it has to be said some of them could certainly be ascribed to the MAGA movement.

1. "The cult of tradition," characterized by cultural syncretism, even at the risk of internal contradiction. When all truth has already been revealed by tradition, no new learning can occur, only further interpretation and refinement.
2. "The rejection of modernism," which views the rationalistic development of Western culture since the Enlightenment as a descent into depravity. Eco distinguishes this from a rejection of superficial technological advancement, as many fascist regimes cite their industrial potency as proof of the vitality of their system.
3. "The cult of action for action's sake," which dictates that action is of value in itself and should be taken without intellectual reflection. This, says Eco, is connected with anti-intellectualism and irrationalism, and often manifests in attacks on modern culture and science.
4. "Disagreement is treason" – fascism devalues intellectual discourse and critical reasoning as barriers to action, as well as out of fear that such analysis will expose the contradictions embodied in a syncretistic faith.
5. "Fear of difference," which fascism seeks to exploit and exacerbate, often in the form of racism or an appeal against foreigners and immigrants.
6. "Appeal to a frustrated middle class," fearing economic pressure from the demands and aspirations of lower social groups.
7. "Obsession with a plot" and the inflation of and focus on an enemy threat. This often combines an appeal to xenophobia with a fear of disloyalty and sabotage from marginalized groups living within the society. Eco also cites Pat Robertson's book The New World Order as a prominent example of a plot obsession.
8. Fascist societies rhetorically cast their enemies as "at the same time too strong and too weak." On the one hand, fascists play up the power of certain disfavored elites to encourage in their followers a sense of grievance and humiliation. On the other hand, fascist leaders point to the decadence of those elites as proof of their ultimate feebleness in the face of an overwhelming popular will.
9. "Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy" because "life is permanent warfare" – there must always be an enemy to fight. Both fascist Germany under Hitler and Italy under Mussolini worked first to organize and clean up their respective countries and then build the war machines that they later intended to and did use, despite Germany being under restrictions of the Versailles treaty to not build a military force. This principle leads to a fundamental contradiction within fascism: the incompatibility of ultimate triumph with perpetual war.
10. "Contempt for the weak," which is uncomfortably married to a chauvinistic popular elitism, in which every member of society is superior to outsiders by virtue of belonging to the in-group. Eco sees in these attitudes the root of a deep tension in the fundamentally hierarchical structure of fascist polities, as they encourage leaders to despise their underlings, up to the ultimate leader, who holds the whole country in contempt for having allowed him to overtake it by force.
11. "Everybody is educated to become a hero," which leads to the embrace of a cult of death. As Eco observes, "[t]he Ur-Fascist hero is impatient to die. In his impatience, he more frequently sends other people to death."
12. "Machismo," which sublimates the difficult work of permanent war and heroism into the sexual sphere. Fascists thus hold "both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality."
13. "Selective populism" – the people, conceived monolithically, have a common will, distinct from and superior to the viewpoint of any individual. As no mass of people can ever be truly unanimous, the leader holds himself out as the interpreter of the popular will (though truly he alone dictates it). Fascists use this concept to delegitimize democratic institutions they accuse of "no longer represent[ing] the voice of the people".
14. "Newspeak" – fascism employs and promotes an impoverished vocabulary in order to limit critical reasoning.