Baffled European

Blog

  • Antipope

    Pope Leo XIV is the first pope born in the US. His views and actions seem to reflect a solid Catholic. You wouldn’t expect anything otherwise, him being pope, but there are general expectations. He meets them more or less.

    How did maga take the news? Initial excitement, as they fabulated he was a registered Republican, until a spoilsport showed he had no party allegiance. Then the bomb dropped. He had criticised JD Vance in a tweet. “Extremely concerning,” noted interplanetary space-hopper Elon Musk.

    This was only the first of many shocking revelations. He had retweeted a criticism of the president himself! Worse yet, he had repeatedly honoured George Floyd. “WOKE MARXIST POPE” screamed Laura Loomer.

    Maga are aghast. How could the Catholic Church possibly elect a pope who has publicly criticised their president? The answer was quick to come: there is a deep state within the Church which globalists are using to promote the woke agenda.

    These people hate everybody. Everything politicised over a few trigger issues. Utterly intolerant of anybody who thinks differently to them, to the extent they generate conspiracy theories to explain away opposing ideas rather than address them. This extends to the leader of the largest Christian church in the world – supposedly Christians themselves, they reject his message without listening.

    There’s no way to deprogram this level of fanaticism. I don’t know how anybody can deal with delusion like this. Removing them from power would be a good start.

  • Management

    When it was introduced, Tesla claimed a ten year waiting list for the Cybertruck. This was based on preorders, which disappeared rapidly as the problems with the vehicle became clear. Tesla is now stockpiling Cybertrucks, with an estimated six months inventory parked in fields, unsold. Heavy discounting, attractive specifications, nothing works – nobody wants to buy them. It’s too expensive to close the factory, so they continue to produce them. The stockpile grows.

    Intergalactic superbrain and 4D chess grandmaster Elon Musk is the man responsible for this situation. Of course, he is also the man charged with raising the efficiency of the US government. Let’s take a quick look at how that’s been progressing.

    The head of FEMA was sacked yesterday and has been replaced by another lackey. He should have a good four or five weeks to get his feet under the desk before the first hurricane.

    All 37 divisions of the National Science Foundation are being abolished. The aim is to give more political control over the remains of what science is being conducted.

    The head librarian has been fired. She was also responsible for the Copyright Office and so stood in the way of the various AI machines trying to steal other people’s work.

    National parks are being hit with another round of layoffs, the science directorates being disproportionately hit. The remainder is subject to crippling bureaucracy and micromanagement.

    There’s more. Thank goodness they have such a gifted manager.

  • Fallen star

    Energy Star was set up in 1992 to reduce the energy requirements of computers. Its success led to similar standards for lighting, heating and other appliances. Loads of numbers are thrown around to show its effectiveness: TLDR; it costs little and saves a lot.

    Obviously, maga denies climate change as part of their general rejection of reality. However ignorant and irrational, it is at least predictable. For some reason, they are also rejecting energy efficiency measures as well. Presumably the two issues are so tightly linked in their brains, they are unable to see any difference.

    They are cancelling Energy Star in the name of government efficiency. There will be no further drive to reduce energy consumption of equipment, nor will there be any further ratings of new products. This will hit all consumers, business as well as private.

    What is striking about this is the extravagent, willful waste of it all. It’s not enough for them to convince themselves that reality is a left wing conspiracy, they have to behave in the most inefficient way possible.

    Surely even those who hate environmental politics must recognise the value of lowering your outgoings? Is it about owning the libs? Or is it because the country is being run by oligarchs who don’t care about the cost?

    Whatever, they think they can outperform the rest of the world by being less efficient and having higher costs. It’s an interesting idea. See how it works.

  • Shameful

    The trans military ban is back. This was one of the first actions of Pete Hegseth. He wanted to sack all trans soldiers – over ten thousand of them – because trans people are incapable of “an honorable, truthful, and disciplined lifestyle, even in one’s personal life”.

    That this is obvious nonsense was pointed out by two judges when they overturned the order. You can’t punish a group of people just because of political or ideological reasons.

    Obviously, the administration escalated this to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has suspended the injunction against the ban. They did not offer any explanation for their decision. Nor are there any names attached to the ruling, but the 6–3 division leaves no doubt that it is on entirely doctrinal lines.

    The ruling allows two things. First, the government can do as it pleases. Second, litigation can continue in parallel. This can take years and will not prevent thousands of people from having their lives ruined by this capricious government.

    The Supreme Court did exceptionally give a strong ruling about returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia, which the administration is obstructing. However, this case looks to be a more typical example of their approach. They will allow the government to do anything it wants on fine procedural grounds, ignoring the real issue. The administration can salami-slice the constitution with the full blessing of the Supreme Court, regardless of what lower courts say.

    The protections offered by the constitution are effectively gone.

  • Streamline, modernise, innovate

    Pete Hegseth appears to be bulletproof. For weeks now, people have been briefing newspapers about his vanity, incompetence and arrogance. Lots of people, even his own, at every possible level. He seems to be hated by everybody who comes into contact with him. And yet he remains in his job.

    This television presenter turned military genius has now revealed his plans for the future of the US armed forces. He wants bulletproof soldiers. Specifically bulletproof straight white cis male soldiers.

    One of the main reforms is to move away from heavy armour to light, mobile units that are nimble and quick to react in a modern warfare situation. Sadly for everybody, this has already been tried. A scourge of Gulf War II was the IEDs which would explode at the roadside, turning the vehicle going past into a motorised coffin.

    Still, that was a long time ago and humans have probably evolved since then. In any case, Pete is doubtless looking at the success of the Russians when they adopt such tactics. This is fine unless you also consider the Russians do this because they can’t afford anything better, and that their soldiers get blown to smithereens by anything resembling a well-equipped opponent.

    So these new units will be useless for any sort of war. Maybe controlling civilian areas? Not in the USA, surely? The population is too heavily armed. Mexico? Greenland? 51st state? All this policy will do is reaffirm the effectiveness of the Molotov Cocktail.

  • Gone with the Revenge from Alcatraz

    Star Wars day yesterday, and the White House was on the ball. They are on a run at the moment, what with the Pope picture and that. Anyway, they wound up their AI generator and let it produce a suitable picture for the occasion. The result was a president with the physique of Conan the Barbarian, holding a light sabre. A red light sabre at that: the computer is intelligent enough to give him the weapon of one of the space nazis.

    Maybe it was this that prompted the next semi-coherent orange order. He has now added a 100% tariff, his favourite word, to all movies produced outside the USA. He doesn’t trust foreign movies because they are “messaging and propaganda” and therefore a “National Security threat”.

    This is part of a broader complaint. Parasite, a South Korean film, won an Oscar for best picture a few years ago, “what the hell was that all about? Can we get Gone With The Wind back, please?”

    Is this the impulse behind his plans to reopen Alcatraz? It’s been closed for over 60 years and is now a tourist attraction. Doesn’t matter, there won’t be any tourists anymore. Is it because he saw Clint Eastwood there in a film once? Good film that. Fine actor. Morgan Freeman as well, he’s black you know. Or was that the Shawshank Redemption?

    People voted for this. I hope they are all satisfied with what they’ve got.

  • Pope Innocent XLVII

    JD Vance was the last visitor that Pope Francis received, so he should really be prime suspect for the latter’s death shortly afterwards. There’s no evidence for any wrongdoing, of course, but a one-way trip to El Salvador seems appropriate for a crime like this.

    Now there is the idea that the president should be the next pope. Some bootlickers, Lindsay Graham prominent among them, suggested that it would be ideal to combine the Papacy with President of the United States. When asked, the president himself said “I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice”.

    All very silly and you could pass it off as a joke of some sort, albeit a joke with no obvious setup or punchline. But now he posts an AI picture of himself dressed as Pontifex Maximus. If this genuinely is a joke, I’ve really lost the thread by now.

    Catholic bishops don’t find it funny anyway: “There is nothing clever or funny about this image, Mr. President. We just buried our beloved Pope Francis and the cardinals are about to enter a solemn conclave to elect a new successor of St. Peter. Do not mock us.”

    It’s so annoying that the administration consists entirely of trolls and edgelords. They throw out random insults, lolcats and memes, then move on. Don’t care. In the past they would have been banned for this nonsense, but it’s too late for that.

  • Destruction, piece by piece

    Reagan is ultimately to blame. In 1986 he gave this famous quote: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language: I’m from the government and I’m here to help.”

    It gets your attention, pithy and direct. If you put it in the context of the time, it also sort of makes sense. Unfortunately an entire right-wing religion has sprung up around these words. The modern idea seems to be that government is evil, extraneous and needs to be destroyed entirely. At the very least, that’s what they are trying to do.

    The latest efficiency drive against government waste is the National Weather Service. Over 1000 meteorologists have been cleared out, with 30 offices no longer having any senior officer. The person who liaises with media and local emergency services when there’s a problem. Such as a hurricane in Florida, one of the closed offices.

    I mean, why is the government involved in this at all? If you want to know the weather, you just go to an app and it will tell you everything you need to know. All that weather data, it’s just simply there! An unalterable fact of nature.

    The trouble is that all this reorganisation is being performed by people who have no idea what they are doing. They take the world as it is for granted and do not understand the processes and systems in operation. Literally nothing at all will work after they have finished.

  • Looming disaster

    Mike Waltz has left the group chat. He lasted the 100 days as National Security Advisor, but is now being pushed over to UN Ambassador, a job that his master is not interested in. His card has been marked since he invited a journalist to a supposedly top secret discussion, proving himself to be a major security risk to the administration.

    Or was that the reason? Is this another intervention by Laura Loomer? She is claiming credit for his sacking, as well as his deputy. There was already a clearout in the National Security Council a month ago after she cast doubt on the loyalty of its members.

    Nothing to do with her officially, but she has a hold over the president. She’s the one who invented the nonsense about immigrants eating dogs. An interesting point, since she filmed herself on Youtube actually eating dog food, in order to show the quality of what her sponsor is selling.

    Her direct activism led her to handcuffing herself to Twitter headquarters in some tiresome “freedom of speech” stunt, only to be forced to beg police to cut her free a couple of hours later when nobody took any notice.

    Basically she’s an attention-seeker. Continually ramping up the outrage quota to get more clicks and donations.

    Is it a good idea to have your security officials appointed by somebody who thinks 9/11 was an inside job? Give it a go, why not.

  • Rubber stamp

    Congress doesn’t have much to do these days. Mainly it is a forum for Republicans to coo over their dictator, while Democrats cluck disapprovingly, writing their strongly worded letters.

    It has only passed six laws in the first hundred days. The mob isn’t particularly interested in new laws. There are plenty on the books that they can ignore or abuse. One of these six laws is the Take It Down act. Melania herself wanted this, who could refuse?

    In any normal world, this new law would be a good idea. Designed to take down “deepfake” and revenge porn, it is intended to protect people from onling bullying and persecution. To a tyrant, the law is an effective method of government censorship, a way to clamp down on the free speech of his opponents.

    The key to it all is in the enforcement. Take Twitter, for example, which is owned by Elon Musk. Any violation of the new law will be policed by the FTC, which is currently controlled by Elon Musk.

    Much of the traffic on Facebook nowadays is bots sharing AI pictures with each other. Since Zuck has sworn fealty to the emperor, he has nothing to fear from the law.

    Smaller companies however will be hammered, or merely comply without question. Wikipedia will probably be the prize target.

    Many writers yesterday were complacently assuming the regime is burning out, that it is running into implacable opposition. It’s only just started.