matlag

The sad truth is we said exactly the same thing during Trump’s first mandate. Granted it was not as bad as this time, but on a general principle: “we know someone like Trump can happen once, so we need to assume it will happen again!”. And… as soon as Biden started talking, the EU went back under a cozy mama-wing, easy solution.

This time might be different… or not. Far right parties are getting stronger in France, Germany, already in power in Italy. They all somewhat allied with Trump and his goons. All the effort made to render the EU sovereign could be discarded just as quickly as they were put in place. Imagine Trump’s successort is someone smart enough to understand (or rather not too stupid to not understand…) the benefit of US military supremacy and protection, and you may see some EU govs happily reduce their military spending again: the US promised to have their back!

At this stage, I am less pessimistic than I am careful: the direction is somewhat correct. We (the people) need to make sure it stays that way.

But for Snowden’s case: I wouldn’t come back either. The minute he sets land in Europe, he becomes a bargaining chip in sode negotiations with the US! He could try his chances in Spain, until the next election, then it’s uncertainty all over again.

Well guess what, Russia, there might be very predictable consequences to bombing a single location in the EU, like a total war against all of its military forces combined…

Are you asking why the US democracy is flawed? -elected representative only care about what their donors want, not their voters -corporate owned medias decide what’s the “big” questions will be during a campaign and just forget about this until after the election

Et voilà: “this was not one of the major concern for this election!”

Penicillin was invented in a public university lab. We used to have a strong public research in the health sector worldwide.
Then neo-liberalism managed to convince politic leaders to progressively shut down public research and subsidize more and more the private sector.

https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/us-tax-dollars-funded-every-new-pharmaceutical-in-the-last-decade

This is not unique to the US. Your taxes pay for R&D, then your insurance (or your wallet…) pays to get the drugs you subsidized. And the private sector does not need ginormous margins to stimulate private R&D spendings.

No, he won’t try to “cancel” the elections. First he’s trying to rig them through gerrymandering and voters suppression.
If that’s not enough, he’ll make crazy claims of frauds at different places, and will try to reverse some results.

But I can guarantee you that if none of that work, you’ll have a showdown. He knows well what awaits him would the GOP lose and he’s getting impeached. He won’t accept the results.

Just note that he’s currently using the war to kick out generals he deems not loyal enough.

To win elections, you need a candidate who brings voters from their side. Trump brought the MAGA, an inconsistent alliance of all kind of deplorables. But they were all enthusiastic about him. Neither Clinton nor Harris had that, neither did Biden by the way. Their main platform was to be not Trump, and the rest was the status quo.

At some point, the Dems need a candidate that voters actually support rather than pick as the least bad choice. So what will it be this time? Yet another meh-candidate backed by the “good” oligarchs or a candidate people actually want in power?

Maybe less traffic so with comparable reserves, you last longer?

In one word: neoliberalism. It inevitably and inexorably leads to this.

Decades of defunding education, maximizing corporate profit at the expense of the workers at the bottom, making life worse and worse for commoners.

You end up with a large group of poorly educated, humiliated angry voters. And they’ll get fooled easy by the most populist guy who “say it like it is” and offe simplistic solutions and scapegoats.

That’s why it’s happening. And US is not a single case. They just have a much higher power of nuisance.

The core will praise him for being tough and say it like what it is!

And if a few on his side hesitate, he’ll just let them in on the next insider’s move and they’ll fall back in line.

You better yield! I’m counting to 3!! One! Two! … Two and half! Two and three quarters…

In US universities, a lot of the student protesters against the genocide in Gaza were jews, they were called anti-semitic terrorists anyway. We’ve seen the same thing in France, where jews students protested but were still called anti-semitic, pro-Hamas, etc.

Going with the confusion is very exactly what Netanyahu and his accomplices want: people mad about what Israel is doing taking on jews, so that Israel supporters can label them all anti-semitic and immediately discard whatever they will say.

Look, how many young attractive women would agree to follow and prop Trump everywhere without feeling (legitimately) in danger?

Only an AI would!

Anyone claiming atheists have no moral value because they have no God should be kept under close monitoring. They’re saying out loud they have urges to kill, rape and rampage and only God prevents them from doing those!

I am not so sure about this. At the top, fundamentalist have convinced themselves that God can choose champions who are above all of his rules. They are chosen, they can do whatever the fuck they want. Rest of the people, of course, needs to abide to “God’s rules”.
At the bottom, it’s kept simple: anything and anyone they dislike is anti-christian (that can be stretched to no end).

Yeah but you also assume reason on the other side. That’s not granted. The joke now would be for the US to just walk away and Iran to re-open the strait EXCEPT for ships with a US interest (and probably Israel’s). “Retribution for the damages.”

So wait, now Israel leaders are saying that bombing children is bad when it’s to “defend yourself”?

This is so well played!

Now Iran can attempt an attack almost openly on the US soil and many will believe it was an inside job. Well, that’s what happens when you have 0 credibility at home due to your compulsive need to say BS all the time.

Why would Powell do that since the war is very close to the end?

I’m saying they could, and could have had these for a while, they may have a few ones that they were sending just to check if the US would detect them, they may have some on the go as a permanent operation, just like a patrol. I would say that’s unlikely, because the risk of getting caught was probably perceived as bigger than the benefit of having a strike opportunity. But as several others said before: sea traffic is barely checked.

And another option is they already have some drones hidden on US soils and dormant agents ready to launch them.

When you say it can’t happen, you understand that Russia does it in Europe regularly, right? Once in a while, they will even send drones flying above cities, airports, military bases, etc. just to see if they trigger any kind of response.