2024 US Election

  On 2/7/2025 at 5:18 AM, auxien said:

lol if only. i'm sure not in dire enough straits to be considered a refugee, & believe me, i've looked into emigrating to Canada. i believe the only valid method i could take up would be buying my way in. i believe it was something like $60k and they'lll just sorta say 'yeah sure, you're Canadian now, welcome, sorry about the wait.'

Have you considered a fake gay marriage? lol

  On 2/7/2025 at 5:23 AM, chenGOD said:

Have you considered a fake gay marriage? lol

no but i've got I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry on my weekend watchlist as 'research'

https://open.substack.com/pub/paulkrugman/p/autogolpe

  Quote

My very first post after I left the Times and brought this newsletter out of dormancy was about DOGE, the not-a-government-agency created by Donald Trump and run by Elon Musk (Vivek Ramaswamy has been run out of DOGE.) The supposed goal of DOGE was to save taxpayers huge sums by going after “waste, fraud and abuse.” I argued that this effort was doomed to failure as Musk and his cronies appeared completely ignorant about how and why the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.
While everything I said was true, I would like to offer a mea culpa. What should have been clear to me even then, and is unmistakable now, is that everything Musk and Trump say about what they’re doing is false, including what they say about their motivations. The ignorance and chaos are real, but you should never lose sight of the underlying thrust of their actions.
For what’s happening in America right now is an attempted autogolpe.
Latin American readers are surely familiar with the term. An autogolpe is literally a “self-coup” — when a legitimately elected leader uses his position to seize total control, eliminating legal and constitutional restraints on his power. Are Musk and Trump trying to pull off an autogolpe here? Of course they are. And they are doing so with, as far as I can tell, the full support of every Republican in the House and the Senate.

Expand  

A good explainer of some of the craziness. 

 I wonder if i am ever going to win a nobel prize.

This is pretty crazy to hear. 

I used to laugh at this stuff. would sometimes post the ha ha crazy trump news items on here just to have a mutual laugh at it. but now it's just not as fun anymore to make fun of this shit. it's like it's beyond the point of stale satire. it's just so fucking lame and ignorant and I don't know what the fuck else to call it. the trump R people are under some sort of mass hypnosis spell or fox news inducing brain rot or something 

https://www.newsweek.com/republican-proposes-buying-renaming-greenland-buddy-carter-2029668

  Quote

ARepublican congressman has introduced a bill that would authorize President Donald Trump to negotiate the acquisition of Greenland and rename it "Red, White, and Blueland."

Representative Buddy Carter, who represents Georgia's 1st Congressional District, has introduced the "Red, White, and Blueland Act of 2025," which seeks to grant the president congressional approval to initiate negotiations for acquiring the territory, currently under Danish sovereignty.

Expand  

This whole thread

  On 2/12/2025 at 12:06 AM, zero said:

I used to laugh at this stuff. would sometimes post the ha ha crazy trump news items on here just to have a mutual laugh at it. but now it's just not as fun anymore to make fun of this shit. it's like it's beyond the point of stale satire. it's just so fucking lame and ignorant and I don't know what the fuck else to call it. the trump R people are under some sort of mass hypnosis spell or fox news inducing brain rot or something 

https://www.newsweek.com/republican-proposes-buying-renaming-greenland-buddy-carter-2029668

 

Expand  

I had the same opinion but I am sorry currently I am just thinking: 

They voted this guy in. they want exactly this to happen. the dems fucked it up with sticking to Biden for so long and then rushing a weak candidate in while so much was at stake so now deal with the consequences

  On 2/12/2025 at 12:36 AM, o00o said:

They voted this guy in. they want exactly this to happen. the dems fucked it up with sticking to Biden for so long and then rushing a weak candidate in while so much was at stake so now deal with the consequences

also important is how unprepared dems are for new admin taking power, they have no meaningful tactics or values that they can put into action in order to resist

  On 2/12/2025 at 12:41 AM, decibal cooper said:

also important is how unprepared dems are for new admin taking power, they have no meaningful tactics or values that they can put into action in order to resist

also they didn't try to strip the president of all the overreachig power. the ability to just give pardons to hundreds of people. who in their right mind thinks anybody should be allowed to do this . 

  Quote

More than 200,000 Danes have signed a satirical petition to buy Californiafrom the US.

“Have you ever looked at a map and thought, ‘You know what Denmark needs? More sunshine, palm trees, and roller skates.’ Well, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make that dream a reality,” the petitionreads. “Let’s buy California from Donald Trump!”

Across the top of the petition’s website, a slogan calls to “Måke Califørnia Great Ægain” and supposed supporters like Lars Ulrich of Metallica and Viggo Mortensen of Lord of the Rings fame offer their reasons for making California “New Denmark”.

“We’ll bring hygge to Hollywood, bike lanes to Beverly Hills and organic smørrebrød to every street corner. Rule of law, universal healthcare and fact-based politics might apply,” the petition continues.

“Let’s be honest – Trump isn’t exactly California’s biggest fan. He’s called it ‘the most ruined state in the union’ and has feuded with its leaders for years. We’re pretty sure he’d be willing to part with it for the right price.”

Expand  

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/11/denmark-california-greenland-california

^gotta be some more AI bullshit video eh?

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/13/defense-stocks-drop-after-trump-says-defense-spending-could-be-halved.html

  Quote

Defense stocks dropped sharply Thursday afternoon after President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. could massively cut defense spending.

Trump said Thursday at the White House the U.S. could cut defense spending in half at some point in the future. The comments came in the context of Trump discussing a potential conference on defense spending with China and Russia.

“At some point, when things settle down, I’m going to meet with China and I’m going to meet with Russia, in particular those two, and I’m going to say there’s no reason for us to be spending almost $1 trillion on the military ... and I’m going to say we can spend this on other things,” Trump said.

“When we straighten it all out, then one of the first meetings I want to have is with President Xi of China and President Putin of Russia, and I want to say let’s cut our military budget in half. And we can do that, and I think we’ll be able to do that,” he added.

Expand  

  On 2/14/2025 at 12:40 AM, decibal cooper said:

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/02/13/defense-stocks-drop-after-trump-says-defense-spending-could-be-halved.html

 

Jesus christ. Yeah, I'm sure Russia and China will just absolutely cut their military in half. (Well Russia's is getting cut in half anyways).

He also wants to invite Russia back to the G7, and he's cut aid to South Africa (I'm sure part of that is in response to their lawsuit against Israel, but mostly because he's racist, especially against black people). And now, the boy genius Marco "I don't know how to drink water but I can rim Trump" Rubio, is not going to a G20 ministerial because republicans are a bunch of children in the second grade apparently:

  Quote

But in a snub to South Africa, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced that he will not attend a G20 meeting of foreign ministers taking place next week in Johannesburg.

"My job is to advance America's national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism," he said.

Christ even the Afrikaners are like "sorry old boy, but we're really not that oppressed".

  On 2/14/2025 at 3:30 AM, chenGOD said:

Jesus christ. Yeah, I'm sure Russia and China will just absolutely cut their military in half. (Well Russia's is getting cut in half anyways).

He also wants to invite Russia back to the G7, and he's cut aid to South Africa (I'm sure part of that is in response to their lawsuit against Israel, but mostly because he's racist, especially against black people). And now, the boy genius Marco "I don't know how to drink water but I can rim Trump" Rubio, is not going to a G20 ministerial because republicans are a bunch of children in the second grade apparently:

Christ even the Afrikaners are like "sorry old boy, but we're really not that oppressed".

Expand  

Yes I agree that the South Africa thing is because of ICJ case Israel collective punishment

but at the same time don’t be a lil Nancy boy chengod - cutting military spending would be a very good thing for America - congress and others would be dead set against it, but anything in the direction of cuts to the military is a good thing - wait let me guess you want more military spending? 

  On 2/14/2025 at 3:54 AM, decibal cooper said:

Yes I agree that the South Africa thing is because of ICJ case Israel collective punishment

but at the same time don’t be a lil Nancy boy chengod - cutting military spending would be a very good thing for America - congress and others would be dead set against it, but anything in the direction of cuts to the military is a good thing - wait let me guess you want more military spending? 

I'd be ok with less military spending if I actually believed that Russia and China would lessen theirs.

Also, please don't use derogotary terms. Not cool.

  On 2/14/2025 at 3:54 AM, decibal cooper said:

Yes I agree that the South Africa thing is because of ICJ case Israel collective punishment

but at the same time don’t be a lil Nancy boy chengod - cutting military spending would be a very good thing for America - congress and others would be dead set against it, but anything in the direction of cuts to the military is a good thing - wait let me guess you want more military spending? 

i would expect any cut in military spending to be offset by tax breaks to billionaires and shit like that. the trump's tax plan adds $4 trillion to the deficit... that we know of. 

also, just announced that the state dept is buying $400 million worth of armored teslas. just so blatant. 

it's not like they're out there cutting expenses to save americans money or something. they're.. well musk and doge are doing it to get things the way they want.. the X payment app, the investigations into starlink's Ukraine contracts by USAID.. this is all targeted to benefit musk and his end goals.. .not to mention the banks and other tech platforms. 

the CFPB is the only thing standing between consumers and getting absolutely hosed without recourse by corporations and banks. CFPB put billions back in consumer pockets by going after these shitty tactics by wells fargo for example.. 

so, while, sure.. cutting military spending so we can have healthcare or fix the infrastructure or whatever positive thing.. isn't going to happen. they do not think that way. i suspect they'd cut the pentagon budget then farm out to private companies for different security adventures or whatever. 

they ultimately want to funnel the money to private companies and themselves... 

  On 1/30/2025 at 2:27 AM, Nebraska said:

also he signed another one of those "executive orders" today for a new iron dome. cost? about $2 trillion

https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/01/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-directs-the-building-of-the-iron-dome-missile-defense-shield-for-america/

two weeks later: we'll cut military spending in half

  On 2/14/2025 at 3:59 AM, chenGOD said:

I'd be ok with less military spending if I actually believed that Russia and China would lessen theirs.

Also, please don't use derogotary terms. Not cool.

my apologies for offending your delicate sensibilities chengod: when I called you a lil nancy boy I was indicating that your opinions were similar to Ronald Reagan, who famously expanded the military budget of America, and his wife's name was Nancy

  On 2/14/2025 at 4:01 AM, ignatius said:

i would expect any cut in military spending to be offset by tax breaks to billionaires and shit like that. the trump's tax plan adds $4 trillion to the deficit... that we know of. 

also, just announced that the state dept is buying $400 million worth of armored teslas. just so blatant. 

it's not like they're out there cutting expenses to save americans money or something. they're.. well musk and doge are doing it to get things the way they want.. the X payment app, the investigations into starlink's Ukraine contracts by USAID.. this is all targeted to benefit musk and his end goals.. .not to mention the banks and other tech platforms. 

the CFPB is the only thing standing between consumers and getting absolutely hosed without recourse by corporations and banks. CFPB put billions back in consumer pockets by going after these shitty tactics by wells fargo for example.. 

so, while, sure.. cutting military spending so we can have healthcare or fix the infrastructure or whatever positive thing.. isn't going to happen. they do not think that way. i suspect they'd cut the pentagon budget then farm out to private companies for different security adventures or whatever. 

they ultimately want to funnel the money to private companies and themselves...

Expand  

I definitely agree with you, especially your second paragraph: the tech companies. It is not just the fact of giving them money; it is also giving them power, access, and control over various things and I would imagine this means automating a lot of things that humans usually do in the bureaucracy, which maybe has cost saving measures but I think that it has great potential to go awry and also to give government an even tighter grip on the populace in terms surveillance, although granted this might be somewhat paranoid on my part. I do disagree with you about USAID, though, and how you think the ukraine starlink thing is so important. I have not looked into or read about that so I do not know the detail, but what is it, why is it so appalling? Was he trying to provide internet to Ukraine via starlink and it was fraudulent or something or he did not provide the routers or something?

For the record I find Musk untrustworthy, but he is asking questions about why politicians like Pelosi and Schumer and Mitch McConnell have huge net worths in spite of having salaries in the lower $100,000s. He is doing this in a partisan manner and focusing mostly on democrats, which is wrong imo as both parties do this fuckery, but you complain about musk wanting to funnel money into private companies and so on, but our politicians on both sides have been doing this for decades now without any accountability.

  On 2/14/2025 at 5:15 AM, luke viia said:

two weeks later: we'll cut military spending in half

Yes I agree, we have every reason to be skeptical, and I think America having an iron dome is silly and should not be a priority. I also am strongly suspicious of the sec of defense hegseth for same reasons as musk, but hegseth did a presser basically saying that America cannot continue bearing the brunt of Europe's defense budget and policy and mentioned the realities of the Ukraine war's trajectory. Basically what I am saying is that the executive orders and all of the ridiculous and offensive and plain stupid shit that Trump says every day, all this stuff is important to call out, but what ultimately matters is what their policy ends up being, action over words. Yes a lot of it if not most might turn out to be horrible, and he obviously is a famous liar, but honestly when since Eisenhower have you ever heard an American president talk openly about cutting military spending? Maybe Jimmy Carter idk? Even if it is a blatant lie there is significance not only that he is saying this out loud but that he is inviting Russia and China in a diplomatic manner to at least set up the early stages of arms control talks. If, for instance, this leads in the next four years into any kind of nuclear disarmament or treaties related to this, then that would absolutely be a good thing not only for America but for the world. Yes we should be skeptical but at the same time you have to give credit where it due if any of this good stuff pans out in a positive way.

  On 2/14/2025 at 12:55 PM, decibal cooper said:

my apologies for offending your delicate sensibilities chengod: when I called you a lil nancy boy I was indicating that your opinions were similar to Ronald Reagan, who famously expanded the military budget of America, and his wife's name was Nancy

Yeah nice try. I’m sure you know exactly what it means and what you were doing. 

  On 2/14/2025 at 12:55 PM, decibal cooper said:

but honestly when since Eisenhower have you ever heard an American president talk openly about cutting military spending?

Obama had three years in a row where he cut defense spending. Then his last year in office the defense budget was also smaller than the previous year. 
Biden cut defense spending his first year in office. 
In Trump’s first term he expanded the defense budget every year. 

  On 2/14/2025 at 12:55 PM, decibal cooper said:

my apologies for offending your delicate sensibilities chengod: when I called you a lil nancy boy I was indicating that your opinions were similar to Ronald Reagan, who famously expanded the military budget of America, and his wife's name was Nancy

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I definitely agree with you, especially your second paragraph: the tech companies. It is not just the fact of giving them money; it is also giving them power, access, and control over various things and I would imagine this means automating a lot of things that humans usually do in the bureaucracy, which maybe has cost saving measures but I think that it has great potential to go awry and also to give government an even tighter grip on the populace in terms surveillance, although granted this might be somewhat paranoid on my part. I do disagree with you about USAID, though, and how you think the ukraine starlink thing is so important. I have not looked into or read about that so I do not know the detail, but what is it, why is it so appalling? Was he trying to provide internet to Ukraine via starlink and it was fraudulent or something or he did not provide the routers or something?

For the record I find Musk untrustworthy, but he is asking questions about why politicians like Pelosi and Schumer and Mitch McConnell have huge net worths in spite of having salaries in the lower $100,000s. He is doing this in a partisan manner and focusing mostly on democrats, which is wrong imo as both parties do this fuckery, but you complain about musk wanting to funnel money into private companies and so on, but our politicians on both sides have been doing this for decades now without any accountability.

Yes I agree, we have every reason to be skeptical, and I think America having an iron dome is silly and should not be a priority. I also am strongly suspicious of the sec of defense hegseth for same reasons as musk, but hegseth did a presser basically saying that America cannot continue bearing the brunt of Europe's defense budget and policy and mentioned the realities of the Ukraine war's trajectory. Basically what I am saying is that the executive orders and all of the ridiculous and offensive and plain stupid shit that Trump says every day, all this stuff is important to call out, but what ultimately matters is what their policy ends up being, action over words. Yes a lot of it if not most might turn out to be horrible, and he obviously is a famous liar, but honestly when since Eisenhower have you ever heard an American president talk openly about cutting military spending? Maybe Jimmy Carter idk? Even if it is a blatant lie there is significance not only that he is saying this out loud but that he is inviting Russia and China in a diplomatic manner to at least set up the early stages of arms control talks. If, for instance, this leads in the next four years into any kind of nuclear disarmament or treaties related to this, then that would absolutely be a good thing not only for America but for the world. Yes we should be skeptical but at the same time you have to give credit where it due if any of this good stuff pans out in a positive way.

Expand  

Is this... Stockholm syndrome?

  On 2/14/2025 at 2:13 PM, perunamuusi said:

Is this... Stockholm syndrome?

Yeah for sure - the only Trump adjacent person that has advocated for cutting defense in last few weeks was Steve Bannon, and he advocated for cutting the budget in half. I’m all for it if it’s real. 
 

  On 2/14/2025 at 2:05 PM, chenGOD said:

Yeah nice try. I’m sure you know exactly what it means and what you were doing. 

 

Obama had three years in a row where he cut defense spending. Then his last year in office the defense budget was also smaller than the previous year. 
Biden cut defense spending his first year in office. 
In Trump’s first term he expanded the defense budget every year. 

Expand  

Biden gave Israel 8 billion in his last week in office, not to mention a lot of other billions during his last 15 month collective punishment extravaganza. Why not mention that chengod? It is illegal what he did as Israel was murdering civilians openly and denying food and medicine. That money is basically US taxpayer donations to Israel for them to invest in America’s defense manufacturers for the weapons of war. Not saying that trump is gonna be any different here but I am saying that your political posts have a penchant in my opinion for hypocrisy

trump has his mugshot framed in the oval office.