Knowing the “muh meritocracy” type of people:
They see white skin color as a sign of competency, they see being male as a sign of competency, they see constant smiling as a sign of competency, they see wearing suits as a sign of competency, they see confidence as a sign of competency.
For all these dumbshits talk about military readiness and effectiveness being butchered under Democrats.
Well they need to prepare the military for domestic use.
Many of them are the same people who think a podcast made by the former host of Fear Factor is informed and intellectual.
“But he’ll interview anyone!”
-Those idiots
Man, it is hard to find a positive outlook headline lately. I wish it was half as depressing as it is.
Why do you expect to be served that when you aren’t stopping the rise of fascism
Better get a handle on those Sweden Democrats if you don’t want to head the same way the US is.
They are scum but have the decency to pretend not to be nazi
Yes, so did the Republicans for many years.
Yes, but that’s the difference
Asking my Trump-voting Navy dad about this, wish me luck fam
Well what did he say
Nothing of value =/
What I’ve found works in exposing their bias and letting you know you’ll never get an honest opinion is reversing the positions.
When news came out in his first term that Trump was having Lou Dobbs on conference call during important meetings I asked my dad “did you hear that Obama used to have Anderson Cooper on conference calls during important meetings?” and naturally he says “of course he would, that’s pretty messed up they shouldn’t allow that kind of stuff.” then I apologized for lying and said “it was actually Lou Dobbs and Trump.” again naturally he then changes his tune “oh, well Lou Dobbs is a respectable journalist, that’s different…”
Ok thanks dad, I now know I can never trust your opinion. It changes based on whether it’s your team or not.
“Did you hear biden’s son in law was the ambassador to Ukraine? And right after he stepped down from his position, Ukraine invested 2 BILLION dollars with his company? Yeah that’s messed up. Oh whoops, it was Jared kushner and Saudi Arabia, my bad.”
I hit a guy with that one. I actually got him to say yeah they should investigate that.
inb4 “she must have been up to something, they wouldn’t just fire her for no reason”
Clearly an unqualified DEI hire, luckily she’ll be replaced by a ‘qualified white male’
/s cause that made me vomit.
To be fair, we have a former actor and comedian as the president. The difference is he isn’t a fascist piece of human garbage, not so much in the career paths.
There’s a timeline where Jon Stewart is POTUS and he and Zelensky have already put Putin where he belongs in the Hague.
John Oliver is the ambassador from the UK and between Jon and John every 9/11 responder gets lifetime care and UA gets every bit of Soviet killing machinery we have lying around Europe along with a carrier full of 35s for them to train on, training paid for by cutting off aid to Israel and sending it to Kyiv instead.
The last supposedly Ukrainian person I talked to here was very anti Zelenskyy and wanted him to just lay down arms. What’s your opinion on the matter? Do you want your country to keep fighting? Do you qualify for the draft yourself?
Those seem to be quite loaded questions.
I myself would be neither for nor against Zelenskyy, if it was peace time. Normally, there would have been elections last year, so there would be a non zero chance we would have had a different president already, if not for the war. But, since that’s legally not possible right now, here we are, and I’m not about to go protest in the streets demanding to have elections as soon as possible.
That said, I am very much against being occupied and invaded. While also not willing to be drafted myself, since I know I would be quite useless on the battlefield. So the best I can do right now (to help in the war, that is) is to keep donating money for the equipment for our army.
I recognize I’m being hypocritical, since I wish to be protected without having the resolve to enlist myself. But I also recognize that, were I to enlist, my value in actually protecting Ukrainian lives would be very low.
Given the current state of Ukraine as a going concern, I can’t imagine anyone seriously bragging about their vote for Zelenskyy.
Gave us a good hard look at what the Jon Stewart Presidency would have looked like.
Ah yes, because clearly Zelenskyy is solely to blame for the current state of Ukraine. I guess he’s mind controlling half of the world leaders simultaneously and playing 5D chess with everyone.
One would think you’re his biggest fan the way you’re giving him credit for everything that’s happening in the world.
Ah yes, because clearly Zelenskyy is solely to blame for the current state of Ukraine.
Success has a thousand fathers. Failure is an orphan. Obviously, nobody is responsible for Ukraine except the villainous ork monster Vladimir Putin and his tribe of savages.
Zelenskyy certainly didn’t commit to an escalation in the conflict that his country couldn’t handle or trust a bunch of NATO state department officials who were more interested in using Ukraine for weapons testing than inclusion in a European commons. And how could any conscript forced up to the front lines because he couldn’t bribe his commanding officer have anything to complain about in how Zelenskyy’s military leadership has run the war.
One would think you’re his biggest fan
Is there any tyrant I haven’t loved? Muammar Gaddafi? Saddam Hussein? Ruhollah Khomeini? Daniel Ortega? Jacobo Árbenz?
You’d almost think I’m against these horrifying pointless military conflicts on principle.
Seeing as you’re against military conflicts (all of which are pointless and horrifying, on that I agree), maybe that anger should be directed against the person who actually started the full scale invasion. Unless you’re implying that Zelenskyy “escalated” the war by not immediately surrendering to Putin.
maybe that anger should be directed against the person who actually started the full scale invasion
To what end? To further justify another three years of slaughter?
Zelenskyy fucked up by escalating the border conflict with Russia. Putin fucked up by charging into a quagmire. Western Europe piled in to squander billions on slaughter. Ukraine took its pound of flesh through 2022 and had an opportunity to sue for peace, end the conflict, and secure its sovereignty, but backed down when Blinken scuttled the deal. And then we spent the next two years accomplishing nothing but nightmare after nightmare.
At every point, every state actor involved decided the best response to the situation was to double-down. And what did it win them? Americans lost their civil government. Ukraine lost the Donbas and its soveriengty. Russia lost hundreds of thousands of its young people. Germany lost its cheap energy and may lose its liberal governance.
“Maybe blame the guy who started it!” gets you nothing. Its just another excuse to extend the conflict. To double down. To insist we need another year of butchery in Eastern Europe.
End the fucking war. You don’t have to like the guy on the other side of the table to do the right thing.
So… let’s appease the aggressor, yeah? By that logic, every war ever should have ended instantly by the defending side surrendering.
Yes, I’m “blaming the guy who started it” because he’s also the guy who can end it. Putin can literally end the war with one order. But he will not, because he’s not looking for a peace deal. He’s looking for annihilation, and that has been the case since before 2022.
Your victim blaming logic must have required some astonishing mental gymnastics to pull through. It must be quite comforting to live in the world where you can stop wars by just asking the people who are launching missiles at your cities to pretty please stop.
By that logic, every war ever should have ended instantly by the defending side surrendering.
Where would we be if the Germans, the Brits, and the Russians hadn’t stood their ground in 1914? I’m so glad nobody surrendered until 17 million people had been slaughtered. And without that glorious cacophony of violence, who would have so resented their defeat as to kick off WW2 two decades later?
Christ, can you even imagine what kind of hellscape we’d be living in if the 30 Years War had only lasted two weeks? Or the Seven Years War hadn’t burned down half of French Canada? Or the French had bowed out of Vietnam gracefully rather than handing the baton to the Japanese and then the Americans over the next fifty years? What kind of nightmare would we live in if the KMT and the Imperial Japanese hadn’t torn Korea to shreds?
You’re so fucking right. What we need is more wars! Qatar and Saudi Arabia should start bombing each other. Iran and Israel need to open fire. How long can the good people along the US/Mexico border endure this agonizing peace?
Your victim blaming logic must have required some astonishing mental gymnastics
Its so incredibly simple to say “Stop killing people”. Sue for peace at the first opportunity. End the violence as soon as possible. Quit building all these fucking war machines to begin with, while you’re at it. The logic is so straightforward and crystal clear. Go back to 2021 and negotiate a ceasefire on day one. The peace dividends alone will pay for whatever wrongs you feel one side or the other have inflicted.
Idk about blame, he does seem to do the best job I have ever seen though, and also he seems to have morals and empathy, something I have never seen in any politician in a long time
Given the current state of Ukraine as a going concern
Three successful years of holding their own against everything Russia can throw at them? I’d say that’s freakin’ amazing and a ringing endorsement of Zelenskyy’s leadership!
Three successful years of holding their own
Is that what the Russian/Ukraine front looks like to you? Seems like they’ve been feeding their young men into a meat grinder so they can lose hundreds of miles of territory on a basket of false promises from DC. They aren’t holding their own, they’re being slaughtered at the speed of Russian artillery.
Tom Massie: Washington purposely blacking out Ukraine casualty data
REP. THOMAS MASSIE: Well, in a classified briefing, I stood up and asked what the casualties were on the Ukrainian side, and in that meeting I believe, you had representatives from the intelligence community, and they were briefing us, and they went out of their way to tell us how many Russian casualties there were, and they would not answer my question of how many Ukrainian casualties there were.
And this was a briefing to Congress in a classified setting. They really didn’t have an excuse, other than they weren’t really sure, which seems like an incredible lie. So then a few months later, I’m in the Speaker’s office, and I asked the Speaker if he knew the number of casualties in Ukraine? He began telling me how many Russian casualties there were. I said, Do you know how many Ukrainian casualties there are? And he said, No. I said, Have they ever told you? And he said, No. I said, Have you ever asked? He said, I should ask. So the Speaker of the House doesn’t even know. Didn’t even know at the time how many casualties there were. And if you ask, for instance, an AI assistant, how many Ukrainian casualties there are, even the AI assistants here in our country can’t tell you how many. At the time when I drafted this, AIs came up with wildly different numbers because they’re relying on everything that’s been published. And there’s virtually nothing reliable that’s been published.
…
MASSIE: We’re just being fed propaganda in these classified briefings. And if other members of Congress couldn’t see that when I asked the question, then shame on them. Part of the reason I asked that question in that setting, was to show the other members of Congress that they’re just giving us one side to try and motivate us to keep sending the money and weapons. I think it’s obvious that they’re just feeding us propaganda in classified settings, and then I think it’s also true that the Speaker himself has been a subject of propaganda and lacks the curiosity to even question the narrative that we’re being fed.
They still have national sovereignty, a society, a culture, and representation in government. Damn right they are succeeding!
They don’t. They’re overdue for elections. Their borders are blown. Their population is a diaspora when it isn’t being press ganged onto the front lines. Their territory is being auctioned off to the lowest bidder.
Zelenskyy’s refused to stand for reelection in no small part because he knows how wildly unpopular he has become.
You’re picking out negative things (and frankly making up others) but overlooking the most obvious and important positive. There’s no russian lapdog running the government of Ukraine and the people are still Ukrainian. The people of Ukraine kicked out the last Putin lap dog and they have no desire for another and their actions to-date are still in effect. If the people of Ukraine wanted to be russian, they could be in a a fraction of a second.
They continue to choose NOT to be and have done so for more than 3 years now. That is proof positive of continued success.
I ponder that sometimes. I wonder if a comedian has made such a solid leader because a comedian’s role to society is to speak truths that go unheard, and to make unbearable times bearable. I find myself questioning if every leader shouldn’t be a comedian
Reminds me of this character in Watchmen. Calls himself the Comedian, but never makes “jokes” in a classical sense. He is cruel, overly patriotic, violent against protesters, seems to enjoy massacres in Vietnam. Only one other person understands that he is actually against these things and tries to show them this hyperbolic mirror of their own totalitarian views. But everybody else doesn’t understand it, they take it face value and admire his “patriotism”. He never breaks role until the last moment (or even then just in the movie?).
so the punisher, but IRL.
Entirely Unironically:
AOC for Pres, Jon Stewart for Vice Pres, 2028.
This campaign would stand a chance at actually winning.
AOC and Stewart are both well known, basically celebrities.
AOC is actually capable of recreating the mix of genuine charisma combined with well articulated, meaningful actual policy points that Obama did in 07.
Jon Stewart is obviously no stranger to politics, and is possibly the literally ideal ‘attack dog’ that the VP usually plays in a campaign, for an anti corporate / billionaire campaign.
Let AOC be as principled and erudite as JFK and Stewart be as cutting and ‘no bullshit’ as Lyndon Jonhson.
…
Are either of them perfect?
No.
Are they basically the best possible options?
Well, Bernie is awesome, but he’s too old.
Absolutely utilize him as much as possible during the campaign, be at every rally, fucking have him be the head of a leftist version of what Elon is, god knows by the time 2028 rolls around, the executive will have formally and informally assumed way too much power.
Put Bernie in charge of purging the Trump/Elon pukes, directing the revokation or countermanding of everyone of Trump’s executive orders, undoing Citizens United, and reassembling the checks and balances.
…
Other than that… are any other democrats or leftists anywhere near as well known and widely, generally liked by non fascists? Who aren’t bought and paid for by corpos?
Some surveys seem to support that this direction could have worked. As a German, I supported the course of the Democrats to go with a presidential candidate and policies that democratic conservatives could get behind. About half of the voters in the US want less democracy, more totalitarianism. For a chance to stop Trump, it seemed reasonable just get all supporters of freedom and democracy behind a single candidate. But maybe I was wrong.
I have my doubts that there will be an election in 2028.
About half of the voters in the US want less democracy, more totalitarianism.
Apparently a recent poll said 71% of Trump voters are against cuts to Medicaid and SNAP (food benefits for very poor Americans).
So… that would mean more than 2/3 of Trump voters are astonishingly stupid, ignorant, easily swayed into a cult, as these cuts were very obviously the intent of Trump, and outright stated goals of Project 2025, which was created almost entirely by former Trump administration staff.
… But, that makes sense, as the average adult American literacy level is that of a 5th grader (10yo to 11yo), and 21% of adult Americans are functionally illiterate, with literacy skills at or below a 2nd grade level (7yo to 8yo).
I have my doubts that there will be an election in 2028.
As do I.
no tears for warcriminals
What warcrimes has she committed?
She has joined the US military, no matter what function or personal actions she is part of a terrorist organisation that has murdered millions of innocent civilians.
death to Amerikkka!!!
Meh, she was a willing member of a brutal organisation that terrorized multiple countries in wars of aggression. If you have more reverence for her then for, say, a Russian naval officer, then you don’t have principles, you just have rump nationalism.
edit: damn, didn’t realize there were so many fans of the Russian navy here.
This is about competance and leadership decisions, not moral equivalence fallacies.
Imagine putting a fucking bird on your chest for forty years, saluting a piece of fabric, sacrificing your family and shit.
40 years of putting on that clown makeup and they just stick the nose on someone else.
I don’t personally believe in what she believes in, but it’s perfectly reasonable for someone who grew up during this country’s Reagan era to truly and genuinely believe that serving in the military is a valuable and fulfilling purpose that’s greater and more important than the needs of a single family.
Maybe it’s clown makeup, but wouldn’t it be nice to feel some sense of purpose in your life rather than spending it shit talking people on the internet?
some sense of purpose in your life
I like to live my life and find purpose in it without shooting brown kids for oil.
Bruh, if they keep doing this, Olympus Has Fallen’s plot is gonna seem realistic
(Can we just get Morgan Freeman instead of whatever this dumpsterfire we got?)
I think you mean Civil War (2024).
You’re going to have the war last year? That’s certainly ambitious.
And You know what’s even worse? They did it a second time. After he fucked them over the first time.
This is what’s really amazing to me, his whole 1st term, which culminated in a year so bad it was a running joke and then a coup, was completely forgotten about by so many, and practically never brought up by the (D) side. I live in a swing state too, and while I don’t watch many ads, I certainly saw a bunch the last 6 months, and don’t remember one that even brought up his first term at all. Some had some footage of J6 with no context/explanation of what it was (I know, most know/should know, but still), but then it was all pretty generic crap. Political malpractice, once again, have to wonder if the good cop/bad cop conspiracy is true and they don’t really want to win.
Democrats should be free to run whoever they wish. Just as 3rd parties deserve to run who they wish on a even playing field.
I personally don’t see either legacy poltical party surviving true electoral competition being opened up to 3rd parties. They’ve used First-past-the-post voting as a crutch for so long their muscles have atrophy and they cannot walk unsupported. Much less sprint in a race to the finish line.
Fortunately for the two mainstream parties, the public at large are heavily influenced by Stockholm syndrome and a giga sunk cost fallacy.
Nothing lasts forever…