Distressed Stoic (Fella) 🇫🇮🇪🇺

Maybe Trump feels that he might need an alternative military base in case he loses the support of US military?

Ah, so this was the thing Qatar bought by "gifting" a jumbojet to Trump. There is always quid pro quo and never free gifts with grifters.

Orban: Parasite Of Europe

Absolutely no one should be surprised. I have thought it a near certainty that whatever Hungary and Slovakia know about EU's and NATO's plans, so does Russia.

China is on top of the list, too: you need a lot of money or connections - ideally both - to have any chance for upward movement.

ICE is acting exactly like the SA-troops ("brownshirts") did in early years of Nazi regime in Germany: they went out to the streets explicitly to provoke fear, civil unrest and violence, which was then utilised for propaganda.

Stephen Miller is following the Göbbels' playbook.

Heartbreaking.

With the son, there is hope.

Oh bugger, I jinxed it! She doesn't care if we live or die, or if anyone believes her. She cares for political clout and approval of her Kremlin masters.

You may breath again.

Show us the receipts. Go on, we'll hold our collective breath...

Look at the man's eyes... you can't reason with a person who has that kind of look in their eyes.

I'd think it is a fair expectation that governments only arm people who can be reasoned with at all times.

Not to mention, we simply must not negotiate nor compromise with war criminals, otherwise we might signal tacit acceptance of war criminals as political leaders.

... of course this is easy to say from the security of our homes that are not being bombed by a war criminal named Putin.

I hated coding in Finnish, but even more I hated translating that crap to English: frameworks that were used back then had English keywords, so the code was "Finglish". So for example class "PalveluService" would translate to "ServiceService" 🤦‍♂️

We don't do that anymore for a good reason 😮‍💨

USA is not a member of ICC, I doubt the threat of the Hague bears any weight. At least it didn't when Trump placed sanctions against ICC.

Replace the Hague with the Gitmo, maybe that has some effect.

The pig: "I smell spam in a can! Let's take a look..."

I hope the people have the strength to go through this, and toremove the government officials and oligarchs that have been corrupted by Russia. A failed popular uprising can have harsh consequences.

I expect that to be true in many countries. In Europe Russia has funded both far-right and far-left actors and parties; not support ideology but to destabilise societies. But it's not just Russia doing this, but also China and Middle-East countries who have money and oppose the idea of democracy.

That has become an existential problem as it corrupts every political system where big (essentially unrestricted) money has been allowed; democracies are taken over by oligarchies, when political results can be influenced by money. For the USA, the Citizens United ruling might have been fatal.

People are essentially the same no matter where they are. The US Constition is by no means perfect, that is why it has so many amendments. I think it was supposed to be a living document that can be adapted with social changes, but power and will of Congress has been eroding for a long time.

But it did consider this! That's why their Constitution has separation of powers, and checks and balances. But it all relies on people willing to commit to the constitution and enforce it; if they don't, the constitution is meaningless. And the founders knew this.

4/4 And while this happening, the USA is slowly slipping from Rule of Law to Rule BY Law. When that has happened in history, it has usually required a revolution to get rid of the corrupt system of government.

I don't think there is any going back to the pre-Trump system. Social Contract is broken.

3/ The thing here is that when this was allowed to happen once,it can happen many times over even if Dems CHOOSE not to abuse power;when dems lose their power again, it is there to be freely abused,if the system itself does not drastically change. Everything that has been btoken needs to be rebuilt.

2/ Even the Congressional oversight has been abandoned and ruling power has been handed over to Trump, who uses executive orders to rule by degree, like a king, and there has been no consequences.

1/ The social contract, represented by the US Constitution, is broken. People believed that they would protected and governed by laws (Rule OF Law), but instead of laws they had customs and traditions that can be violated without consequences.

It is horrifying, but it could be so much worse. They have effectively ruined the US political system, and Dems would be fools to think they could just return to how things were before Trump. Fortunately, they are not very good at what they do, and this makes them ineffecient. It can get worse tho.

I think christian-nationalists and Republicans lost their collective minds, when Obama was elected president twice; probably in no small part due to systemic racism, which gave strength to other grievances. Trump's regime is logical continuation to all this, and more.

I think Hungary did as well, until it no longer did.

We should never underestimate the ability of democratic nations negating themselves through auto-coup (autogolpe). The question is, does a far-right party have large enough majority to rule without moderate parties?

They had four years to prepare, and the execution of the plan started 8 months ago. They also need to move fast in order to consolidate their power before 2026 elections; they might fail if Dems regain both houses, so they need to prevent either Dems winning or Dems regaining political power.

Keep an eye on Gini Coefficient (indicator for income inequality) for the USA, it will probably keep on growing in the coming years: as the masses become poorer, wealth concentrates on fewer making them richer. Case in point, huge tax cuts for the rich.

Let's see who gets to claim the grand price first, EU or USA.