Thank you
My new conspiracy theory: Vance is a made man for the Technate, and the plan has always been to get him into the Presidency. Trump will be enabled to act as corruptly as he wants, until an impeachment succeeds. Vance will step in and fulfill Thiel’s program. Trump lands softly, and the Matrix is built.
Quids are the best Pro Quos
He did quid pro quo with Ukraine his first term and he got away with it so why not keep doing it.
Americans will just get mad post on Reddit and then go back to watching YouTube, Twitch in the hovel of their choice until ice comes for them and they will say no no not me you said it was the “others”. They are not watching the news. Bills to make furries the bad guys. Bills to make 2SLGBTQIA+ bad guys. Starting to grumble(by grumble I mean “we need to outlaw this stuff” talk) about what should and should not be on Twitch and other platforms. Grumbling about gamers and certain games. The list of buried stuff in the bills that are coming out is staggering.
They Came by Pastor Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for meWhat do you propose?
You’re not going to Luigi the guy, security is far tighter and he’s had a couple “attempts”. Protesting is happening and barely accomplishing anything. The judicial system is doing more than i expected but he’s ignoring it in many cases. Congress WILL NOT impeach him unless there’s a switch in party majorities but that’s a ways off.
I am not an american. All I know is if citizens just keep doing nothing the us will become just like the fascists in Germany did in WWII. It is up to them to do something or nothing. Time will tell.
I often ask this too non Americans foolishly assume we aren’t doing anything. the problem is that, or system is strategically designed to give us the illusion of a voice. same with the right to bear arms, if the state was ever worried about those arms being aimed at them we wouldn’t have a service amendment.
there’s nothing really left to do with corruption actually the upper echelon, besides fed posting teir stuff which is unrealistic for many people.
I mean, his enablers are just as guilty. The entire christofascist movement would have had a hard time getting anywhere if it weren’t for a few key corporations providing the services and technological development required to enforce or at least facilitate the enforcement of this ideology. I am being intentionally vague here.
All I know is that I go out of my way to discriminate against and fuck over people who support things that fuck me over.
First they came for the sanctions against a country on the opposite side of the world 😔
always has been.
the al-quaeda turned into what it was because of US money and support.
Don’s your uncle!
I find in endlessly funny that we’ve been screaming at the democrats to leverage Israel more to end hostilities in the ME without any real movement from them, but suddenly Trump is willing to say ‘fuck it’ just because the right people happen to be bribing him.
If the right people keep trump’s palms greased for long enough we might actually end up on the right side of history by accident, and if that’s not comedy I don’t know what is.
By siding with al qaeda?
Tell me you don’t know who Ahmed al-Sharaa is without telling me you don’t know who Ahmed al-Sharaa is.
Ahmed al-Sharaa is the guy whose dogs are massacring Alawites right now, mostly done with that.
Can I have my A for this answer?
You get partial credit for vocabulary but an F for misrepresentation
What he says is less important that what he does.
I agree, which is why I find it significant that he split ties from al-Qaeda despite the significant internal pressures not to.
I guess we’d have to wait longer than a month to see if he makes good on seeking justice for acts of brutality against Alawites, but I don’t think you can say al-Sharaa isn’t a massive step in the right direction and deserving of positive diplomatic response to his reforms.
Edit: as long as we’re condemning associations with al-Qeada, here’s an interesting related report
I am just going by the meme, you caught me.
Props for owning up to it.
literally it is what’s had been. we have no spine
The crowd that went on about a laptop for 5 years suddenly don’t care about The President getting a whole ass jet and tower as a gift. But they aren’t a cult. Only decorum and the law matters when Dems are in power.
Talleyrand, I think, took bribes for shapes of the borders in treaties he affected.
The really ugly thing here is, al-Sharaa is the best thing to happen to Syria in decades. Most people have been urging recognition of his government and the relaxation of sanctions because he’s about as good we can expect a leader of Syria to be.
And he is still bribing Trump.
This isn’t merely corruption. This is the *normalization * of corruption. Even countries that abide by democratic norms and international law are going to need to grease palms to conduct regular diplomatic relations. The EU and UK and Canada might be able to weather his bullshit until he folds like he always does, but developing nations will be stuck trying to bid for American favor.
Welcome to the Chinese century.
al-Sharaa is the best thing to happen to Syria in decades
Could we please stop? He’s a jihadist saying pleasant things to Europeans and Americans with nobody caring whether they are true.
He’s at least trying to put on a facade of meaning them, which is about as good as Syria has had it in my life time.
The louder the west screams about him being a Jihadist, the more I trust him to do the right thing in Syria
The west doesn’t scream. The west condemned Alawites for not liking to be massacred.
And this is stupid. Inverted signal is the same signal, just inverted. It’s not independence of thought.
The west condemned Alawites for not liking to be massacred
Hmmm, are you sure about that? I feel like there was a notable party using that event as justification for crossing over the Syrian boarder but maybe that was a fever dream
Everyone in Syria is facing their own personal jihad - best of luck to them.
Ok comment until the random sinophobic punchline. Imagine blaming this on chinese people. jfc.
I’m not. I’m saying this will lead to China becoming the premier world power instead of us.
Imagine having reading comprehension skills. jfc
I believe they meant that China will become the dominant power after the US finishes torpedoing itself.
It’s not sinophobic to recognize who will be filling the power vacuum
I don’t know if that’s blame, or just acknowledging that USA’s general direction leads to China becoming ‘the’ world power by USA forfeitting their soft power around the world.
I’m not sure if this is blaming it on China, but acknowledging that China might be picking up after the downfall of the USA.
God bless America.
I am not arguing with the obvious corruption, but to provide a counterpoint to the second part of the argument: if we aren’t allowed to make peace with former terrorists, then we can never stop fighting each other, and if we keep fighting each other, then we will keep creating the next generation of terrorists.
Yes but the deal almost certainly has nothing to do with peace.
Broken clocks…
Maybe they’re hoping for a yemen type deal, where syrians will only get murdered by zios and not by zios plus USA.
Is this maybe taken out of context. Normalising relations with the new Syrian government is happening and Sharaa could have floated as a sign of more open trade and capital flows.
I think it’s more likely to Sharaa trying to tell Trump what he wants to hear very successfully.
Trump is corrupt and a Trump tower is a very low price for normalising relations, Sharaa is playing to Trumps corrupt tendencies.
I would be surprised if some Trump minion with a backchannel didn’t make the initial ask.
My friend, even if this is the way to handle Trump, it’s not okay for anyone. Imagine other leaders could be as easily bought. There’s a reason we don’t want bribery in politics.
We already had bribery in politics, the media just doesn’t talk about it like they do with Trump and other particularly egregious ‘fall guys’ like Clarence Thomas.
I know that we have it, but I also know that I don’t want it. Besides that there’s a difference between 5,000 in an interest group cash bribe and a 400 million plane.
Edit: Sorry, I was referring to the wrong bribe. I meant the Trump Tower that will probably cost an awful lot as well.
Does the amount really matter if the effect is the same?
It’s clearly unethical and terrible, but I am now considering the possibilities.
For instance, Elon Musk funds his campaign. Next thing you know, Trump is hocking EVs at the White House and MAGA is out buying Tesla.
Want to support Ukraine? Tell Trump you’ll buy millions of his shitcoin in exchange for pressure on Russia.
If you want climate action, go bribe Trump. If you can beat the oil companies at it, congrats, we can start to actually battle AGW by taking advantage of one severely corrupt individual who wields more power than he should.
I fucking hate this state of things, but I see a silver lining.
I’d argue it’s savvy and not corrupt by Sharaa. Just as selling weapons for concessions only he sold land for sanctions lifted. It’s the US that has an incredibly self serving president and Syria with a leader that serves Syria.
I understand Syria. Trump is the one I have issues with. And I’m sorry if I sounded arrogant.
There’s a reason the Supreme Court “normalized relations” with SuperPACs