✮✮✮ !Trump Dump! ✮✮✮

[lowenz]

If Soleimani was involved in orchestrating the big attack on the US embassy in Baghdad

No proofs about this ever emerged.
It was killed because someone asked Trump the favour, after luring him in Iraq.

[Nicker]

Trump wants favorable shipping terms in Panama, that is all. The Greenlanders are already signaling that they are open to negotiation to becoming a US territory. The Mexican government should be happy that someone wants to help them deal with the cartels, which is all Trump has threatened to do.

Let's see... one lie, two lies, three lies. Well done. There's a place in Trump's Cabinet of Minions waiting for you.

BTW, Poilievre is poised to sell Canada out to Trump. As awful as Trudeau is, PeePee is far worse.

[RippedPhreak]

Oh but I thought you said Canada was our good friend? How can Poilievre "sell you out" to the US then?

[Nicker]

Try reading what is written, kiddo. Sell us out to Trump, who is also the enemy of the USA.

[Starker]

Arbitrary nonsense about lies as an attempt to poison the well.

If you want to hinder Ukraine from defending itself and pressure them into surrendering to Russia's demands, then yes, you do want Russia to win. For example, setting limits to how far Ukraine can target Russia's ammunition depots will only help Russians, as they can move their supplies closer to the front line and thereby improve their logistics. Also, not aiding Ukraine is a choice that explicitly helps Russia, especially if the aid is basically a rounding error compared to the whole US military budget.

The aid sent to Ukraine is not in form of money, but largely in weapons and equipment. These are, for the most part, things the US currently no longer needs and would need to eventually replace anyway, because by now there's vastly better equipment available. Sending these things to Ukraine can in fact be cheaper than destroying them, so Ukraine is actually saving US tax payer money. The billions assigned on paper mean nothing -- it's simply the vastly overpriced value of the equipment. But the equipment is worthless if the only thing it does is sit in a warehouse until it's destroyed. And the irony is that the equipment is largely meant to fight Russia in the first place. Which now Ukrainians are offering to do with their own hands and no US blood lost.

You might not care about Russia expanding the conflict in Europe, but that's one of the most probable ways for the US to get into a war with Russia. The US depends on Europe and has obligations there. If Russia expands the conflict to the Baltics, Moldova, etc, the US has no choice but to get into a hot war. And then US lives would be lost.

I'm sure you would gladly have let Hitler just do its thing, but eventually the war would have reached the US even if the Japanese empire hadn't attacked the US. That's the thing with empires -- they have a drive to expand, hence they inevitably end up in conflicts with other empires and their neighbours as they are competing for resources and territory.

[Nicker]

One lesson the USA learned from WW2 is that war is profitable if it is fought with your equipment on someone else's territory.

[lowenz]

That's the thing with empires -- they have a drive to expand, hence they inevitably end up in conflicts with other empires and their neighbours as they are competing for resources and territory.

And they attack the "nihilism" of a "decadent world" because in that kind of reality they can't sell you their fairytales (like the ruski mir or MAGA), not because they want help nor protect you. They structurally can't care about individuals, they just see you as a cell of a gigantic organism, an expendable one.

[demagogue]

What the USA really learned from the wake of WW2 that Trump & company apparently can't comprehend is that if the US takes a disadvantageous position in trade and economic relations with its trade partners to give their economies an artificial boost, not to mention paying directly into rebuilding them a la the Marshall Plan, the US will end up being much, much better off in terms of expanded markets to sell to and everybody having more dollars to buy more from the US than otherwise, versus beggaring its neighbors like the allies did to Germany after WW1 to keep it perpetually weak, only boosting resentment and aggression that exploded into WW2 in the first place. Empowering your neighbors pays back big time. That's the first thing that makes Trump's policy of screw Canada, Mexico, the UK, Western Europe, China, Taiwan, Japan, etc., etc. so self-destructive to the US.

[Nicker]

Well yes, dema, there is that too but I think that what I said is even beyond MAGA so no hope of them getting an even bigger picture.

On expanding empires, they are addicted to expansion. They are incapable of stability without growth, as much as they claim stability to be a key purpose. Expansion is not ideological, it's almost biological. Empire is like a Ponzi scheme. Always needing new blood.

Unfortunately our industrial business models are structured similarly. More production, new markets, greater market share, more profits, more resource extraction. Steady expansion. Stagnation (stability) means death. That was fine a century or two ago, when there was still a largely un-plundered globe to exploit, but we are approaching peak-stuff and have run out of room to put the garbage.

The military industrial still thrives because it creates it's own critical demand for new and better. Plus there's always some tin-pot dictator willing to take your hand-me-downs at fire sale prices.

[Starker]

Trump wants favorable shipping terms in Panama, that is all. The Greenlanders are already signaling that they are open to negotiation to becoming a US territory. The Mexican government should be happy that someone wants to help them deal with the cartels, which is all Trump has threatened to do. Some of the hostages held by Hamas apparently have American citizenship, so taking some action to get them released seems proper, unless you just think we should uh...APPEASE Hamas instead?

If someone wants favourable and preferential treatment that's one thing, but threatening war is about the shittiest way to go about it. That's literally what bullies do: "Give us your pocket money or we'll beat you up!" Are you proud of such behaviour? Is this what you would want US to become? A bully who needs to threaten other countries with force? And what if they call your bluff? Doesn't that just make the US look weak and pathetic?

Lord Dampnut literally wanted to bomb Mexico in secret, saying they wouldn't know the US was behind it. Whether it's to deal with the cartels or not is irrelevant -- if you bomb urban areas, it's still the ordinary citizens who will suffer from the collateral damage.

As we have seen, one way to not get hostages back is to bomb them and shoot them. Not to mention the cruelty unleashed on the already starving Gazans who have nothing to do with this.

And lastly, where the hell do you get the idea that Greenland is signaling wanting to be under the control of the US. Everything I've read from its political leaders has been the complete opposite -- they want independence, not a change of rulers. And no, Lord Dampnut's failson traipsing around a diner and handing out red caps to homeless people doesn't count as what you would call popular support: https://newrepublic.com/post/190070/...taged-homeless

[Starker]

Lord Dampnut wants to once again name US bases after traitors and losers:
https://www.stripes.com/theaters/us/...-16501423.html

I don't really get the obsession with trying to honour people who attacked the US. What's next, a statue to Bin Laden? Name some of the installations after Japanese pilots at Pearl Harbor?

[Nicker]

Think, a baby and some jingly keys.

[Starker]

I mean, I'm just here for the entertainment. I'm here for the jingly keys.

As I've said before, I think that Lord Dampnut is just a symptom of the wider problem and the US people electing an oligarchy to rule them is just a part of the path down.

[Starker]

Anyway, since all other US politics threads have been closed, I'll just post this here -- the last interview with Brandon as president (taking into account his age):



I have to say, something about him always rubbed me the wrong way. He always seemed a bit too arrogant to me (in the stereotypical "we are the best cause we are Muricans" kind of way), his policies over the decades have been a mixed bag, to put it charitably, and he was incredibly boring as a president. But he's also one of the few presidents who actually got things done and actually tried to govern, which is why he's probably going to be considered as one of the best modern presidents US has had. Which is not a praise to the US, but only highlights its political dysfunction and structural roadblocks to any meaningful change.

[Nicker]

“Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”

If the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, expecting that effort from people raised sucking the teat of freedom which their grandparents bled for, is where the cycle falters. Whether American Democracy survives these hard times and these weak men, remains to be seen. The world (most of it) hopes that the USA rises from the ashes of its self immolation, stronger than ever.

[Tocky]

I don't know. I don't think we come back from this one. I've argued for the US many times. You all know I have. I've wanted to believe. But electing a man of such low moral character after he has shown in every word and deed what an absolute scumbag cretin he is? The man tried to get governors to lie for him when he lost and riled rednecks into wanting to hang his own vice president for godsake! After all that we elected him again. No. We jumped the shark. We are full on idiocracy this time.

[lowenz]

What if Trump really incarnates the "unscrupulousness" the majority wants? Because "the american dream" is not a "moral" one: you must succeed or be eliminated - no matter being honest, well, to be honest is a totally optional bonus - and Trump really channels that.
I really can't stop thinking that the "american dream" paradigma is the root of the problem.

[Vae]

The American Dream is bad!...

[Starker]

Meanwhile, the owners of the country celebrate the crowning of the clown:

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...p-inauguration

President-elect would cut taxes for richest 5% of Americans and increase them for everyone else, according to thinktank

Donald Trump’s inauguration ceremony in Washington DC on Monday will have giants from across the business and tech worlds in attendance, perhaps personified most dramatically if Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg sit together at the US Capitol.

Musk, the world’s richest person and a top adviser to Trump; Amazon’s Bezos; and Mark Zuckerberg of Meta will be prominently placed together near members of Trump’s cabinet, according to an NBC News report on Wednesday, continuing their rapid public swing to the right as they cozy up to Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) power base.

Musk became the biggest donor of the 2024 election, with the electric-vehicles and space entrepreneur contributing more than a quarter of a billion dollars to Trump’s campaign.

It was announced in November that the Tesla CEO would co-head a newly created but ill-defined entity, called the department of government efficiency, tasked with reforming the vast apparatus of federal government employees.

Musk has been accused of using the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, which he owns, to spread misinformation and propaganda to help the Trump campaign.

Bezos, the owner of online e-commerce giant Amazon and the Washington Post newspaper, broke from a long tradition and his largely hands-off attitude toward the Post’s editorial operations when he suddenly blocked his journalists from endorsing a presidential candidate, shortly before the paper was set to announce it was backing Kamala Harris for the White House – a race she lost decisively to Trump on 5 November.

The move sparked outrage, leading to resignations and a dramatic loss in subscriptions, while Bezos defended his decision. Amazon later donated $1m to the Trump’s inauguration fund, as did Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.

Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, announced last week that he would be getting rid of his company’s factchecking program and boosting more political content, in a move widely seen as facilitating more conservative commentary and bending to the newly empowered Trump’s arguments that the right is censored on social media.

Zuckerberg last week also scrapped DEI policies at Meta and relaxed restrictions on speech seen as protecting groups including LGBTQ+ people.

Zuckerberg will also co-host a lavish black-tie reception on Monday alongside the Republican mega-donor Miriam Adelson to celebrate before the three inaugural balls. The event was first reported by Puck News.

Meanwhile, the OpenAI CEO, Sam Altman, announced last month that he would make a personal donation of $1m to the Trump inaugural fund.
[...]

[lowenz]

The American Dream is bad!...

The american dream creates performance/success craving and the ones who can't achieve it are the perfect target for hate-based populist propaganda, in a perfect loop.

[Starker]

Apparently, people in the US are just too lazy to burn the 3 AM oil, according to co-president Musk:

https://www.businessinsider.com/elon...workers-2022-5

Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, said he expects China to produce "some very strong companies" because of the country's workforce.

"There's just a lot of super-talented, hardworking people in China who strongly believe in manufacturing," Musk said in an interview with the Financial Times on Tuesday.

"They won't just be burning the midnight oil. They will be burning the 3 a.m. oil," he continued. "They won't even leave the factory type of thing, whereas in America people are trying to avoid going to work at all."
[...]

[Vae]

[Starker]

When a clown gets put in charge of a palace, he doesn't become king -- the palace becomes a circus.

[Nicker]

Not sure what's going to be worse, four years of Trump laying waste to civilization or four years of Vae, Phreak and Co. crowing about what a great thing that is.

Idiocracy.

[Sulphur]

You can ignore Vae easily enough. Trump's not gonna be so easy to do that with though.