Naw. That’s just what they’re saying to appease the slavering, gnashing teeth of American conservatives. Virtually all of that money is just going into a black hole, and right into the offshore bank accounts of Trump’s cronies.
It’s what Russia did — why would Trump run the playbook any differently?
Dear God, please let this happen because it would be so fucking funny, amen
That aughta do it! pats dust off hands
It certainly does feel like a worldwide phenomenon, doesn’t it? Hopefully that means there is a worldwide ‘awakening from a bad dream’, too.
You are glossing over how many casualties that the US endured compared to Iraqis or Afghans. Sure, the Taliban still exists nominally, but Afghanistan endured at least 46,000 civilian deaths, with Iraq enduring at least 100,000 — the US tallied less than 8,000 deaths total.
What happened is that we basically used their countries as a sandbox to maintain our war readiness and funnel money into the pockets of the personal friends of Dick Cheney and his various warhawk confidantes. It was, at its most generous, a massacre, which is what civilian resistance will be, too.
All of this mental Rambo work is paralyzing people from taking any action at all as they retreat inwards and wait for doomsday. It is making us give up on diplomacy sooner.
One thing I have observed about my fellow Usonians is that we all seem to have this strange, misplaced trust that eventually, ONE of our previous institutions will save us.
People crow about how the 2nd amendment will be what helps us prevent tyranny, but also seem to completely gloss over the fact that our police and military operate on an entirely different power level than citizens do. I have watched the US military terrorize people in Afghanistan and Pakistan for 20 years. Why do we think we would do any better against it?
I genuinely feel bad for Justice Jackson. She is competent and thoughtful, and appears to appreciate how consequential the Supreme Court can be. She was an actual successful lawyer. I think she went into this expecting to make a difference, and, instead, we have the Roberts Court.
Feels a lot like being assigned to your bully for a class project. They’re not only gonna make you do all the work, they’re gonna make you feel like shit while doing it.
He is a man who would happily employ violence on anyone without a second thought, but homie wouldn’t bust a grape in a fruit fight. Remember, this is the man who went into his nuclear fallout shelter because Black people were demonstrating in the streets.
I just know it in my soul that right before Roberts dies, he will publish an Op-Ed in the New York Times saying, “I regret enabling fascism :( I had no way to know, I’m just a widdle guy 🥹”
What gets my goat is that it’s plain to everyone on the Supreme Court what they are doing and why. All you have to do is read any of Thomas’s dissents in the past 10 years to understand that this man is either a complete amateur, has entirely checked out, or understands that he doesn’t actually need to do work anymore to destroy the system that attempted to reject him from the post on account of being, y’know, an amateur who could be bought for the price of a fucking motor home.
I don’t even understand why the boomers want this shit gone — so many of them rely on Medicare and SSI entirely. They all claim that because they ‘paid into it their whole lives’ that they are due a disbursement. But like usual, boomers are concerned about theirs; none of us who have been working for almost 20 years at this point will receive the same benefit.
Yeah, well, Obama ran on compromise and good faith resets, and it really just got taken advantage of. It was the naivete of a young electorate who didn’t yet understand the sheer depths of cynicism to which conservatives and neoliberals had already sunk.
It’s clear to me that bicameral governance breaks down quickly when they stop actually employing the system as written. Like, I can say for certain that we would probably have a viable third party option if we had actually properly expanded the house, Congress, and the courts.
It also really breaks down when empty land has more voting rights than millions of people living in a city. Humans tend to cluster together because it makes logistics easier and quality of life better
Well, if Trump’s last go-around is any indication, when Republicans control every level of government, they get virtually nothing done as they spend all their time infighting amongst the various groups that make up the Unholy Coalition.
You’re wrong, but, keep cooking fam. COVID is only “very low” in the US because we have pulled all funding for PCR testing, contact tracing, and wastewater level analysis. COVID didn’t go away; we just stopped caring once it got a little more tolerable, symptoms-wise.
I wear masks still because they are PPE — PERSONAL protective equipment. I can’t trust anyone to consider me and my immunocompromised state, so, I wear a mask to try and at least protect myself. I’m not making a ‘statement’, and your notion that I am can eat my entire asshole.
Stick to speaking about your home country. You clearly don’t understand the situation on the ground here.
I know. But they are making COVID masks illegal to wear at protests because they are claiming that we are anarchists trying to to hide our identities. Meanwhile, these same cowards covering their face to protect themselves were the same cowards screaming bloody murder at the beginning of COVID that they can’t wear a mask because of 'health issues.
Can’t we just combine Austria and Hungary again? Everybody loved that.
Well, except Bosnian Serbs I guess.
Homie looks like the heel of a foot. Putin sure knows how to pick the pretty ones.
You know, it pisses me off a special kind of way to know that there is currently functionally no difference between a 15 year old stoner using ChatGPT to generate a paper and the people operating at the highest levels of global policy creating sweeping policy changes.
‘Rule by Collective Unconscious’ certainly feels like a new idea. If anyone is looking for a good scifi short story prompt, have at it! My only request is that you name the inevitably evil AI “Thoreaux”, please. TIA
What fucking sucks is that they are criminalizing wearing KN-95s to protests in state laws because apparently they’re so dangerous while simultaneously saying that these guys need masks to protect themselves.
Why the fuck do the cromagnons in office think I’m still wearing a KN-95? So I can cosplay Blade Runner at work? Because I am a duck furry and this is a subtle way of fursuiting? For the high fashion? Because I am taunting non-mask-wearers? NO, IT IS TO PROTECT MYSELF.
aaaaaaAAAAAAA
I think that’s a fair point. But I still don’t think that King Grifter is going to do anything other than grift — the precarious position of his regime really would only seek to encourage graft, as he knows he won’t be punished for it and he knows it can’t last forever.