Russia and Ukraine

[arewethereyet]

Are the magas whining because of someone's garb? That's all they got out of that?

Someone mentioned it to me yesterday saying it was disrespectful to which I told them to f*ck off and look at a picture of Musk and how he dressed while his spawn wiped boogers on the president's desk.

Didja notice Trump didn't have the desk cleaned, he swapped it out for a different one.  

[zebo-the-fat]

I don't even own a suit!

[Ravenshire]

I think the shambling corpse of our remaining democracy is about to stumble into the wood chipper. What comes out the other end in four (or more) years won't be pretty. The remains will not be something on which to rebuild, but should be buried and something new, and hopefully better, erected in it's place. Something with more, perhaps even mandatory, involvement of it's citizens. Not just hiring (electing) people to represent us, but the ability to fire (recall) them as well. The entrenchment of power has been the downfall of our democracy. It will not be a time to reverse course, back to what we once knew, but to forge onward from the ashes to build something else, something better...

Something where the types of naked power grabs we're watching now are much, much, much more difficult to attain than in our current system.

I think that's awfully optimistic. After all, this government is one voted in by the citizens.

I don't know where the optimism comes from, since I was in a rather dark, pessimistic head space at the time.

[arewethereyet]

I think that's awfully optimistic. After all, this government is one voted in by the citizens.

I don't know where the optimism comes from, since I was in a rather dark, pessimistic head space at the time.

If we are able to rebuild out the ashes, the first thing that needs to happen is term limits on ALL elected officials.  All of them.  From dog catcher to SCOTUS and everything in between.  The professional politician has been a disaster in the making for a long, long time.  Too many forget that they are supposed to represent the people who pay their fat salaries and benefits.

[Jackalope]

I don't know where the optimism comes from, since I was in a rather dark, pessimistic head space at the time.

If we are able to rebuild out the ashes, the first thing that needs to happen is term limits on ALL elected officials.  All of them.  From dog catcher to SCOTUS and everything in between.  The professional politician has been a disaster in the making for a long, long time.  Too many forget that they are supposed to represent the people who pay their fat salaries and benefits.

We need to reform two concepts: money as speech and corporate personhood. Term limits would be a step but a strong constitutional code of ethics is sorely needed. The two party dominance has to die.

I don't expect any of that will happen.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I think that's awfully optimistic. After all, this government is one voted in by the citizens.

I don't know where the optimism comes from, since I was in a rather dark, pessimistic head space at the time.

When you throw crappy wood into a wood-chipper, it's optimistic to hope for good, solid hickory to come out the other end. GIGO.

[Deesse23]

I don't know where the optimism comes from, since I was in a rather dark, pessimistic head space at the time.

If we are able to rebuild out the ashes, the first thing that needs to happen is term limits on ALL elected officials.  All of them.  From dog catcher to SCOTUS and everything in between.  The professional politician has been a disaster in the making for a long, long time.  Too many forget that they are supposed to represent the people who pay their fat salaries and benefits.

You can't, by law, force people to be democratic and followers of law and order.

The problem in the USA goes way deeper. Much like Germany in the late 20s, you have a democracy without (enough) democrats.

[The Grand Nudger]

Sure you can, and that's what we should have done. Oh well. We had sleepy joe and milqetoast merrick at the wheel.

[Belacqua]

Here's a bit of history.

Probably Henry Kissinger and John Pilger were about as far apart as two people can be, on the subject of US foreign policy. But both of them warned, over ten years ago, what would happen if the US tried to bring Ukraine into NATO.

People really should have listened to these two.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/...story.html

https://archive.is/2024.11.07-234539/htt...ohn-pilger

[The Grand Nudger]

Ah yes, we should all have listened to henry kissinger. For peace.

Meanwhile...