they should come out admit hes only doing this to distract from epstein files, but they wont, because they have people in thier own countries being named epstein files.
Rumour is he’s in hospital. Wonder if we’ll get the news by morning
I lost patience 8 years ago when it was obvious he was a disaster for the commoner, and that the elites saw that disaster as a ladder. It’s all been very clear for a while now.
As usual, people are only upset with him because he’s now costing them money.
The world is run by shitbags.
Well democratic (Western ones) countries don’t often show how upset they are with other western countries unless it impacts them. They may not condone actions but I’m pretty sure none of them ever liked dealing with Trump.
There’s that one picture of Trump in his first term sitting down while (I think) Merkle(sp?) was trying to explain something, there were other people in the shot and all (or mostly standing facing Trump) while he looked like a kid getting a lesson. They were okay for internal issues, well maybe not fine but mostly they wouldn’t say anything, but this round he’s fucked the world economy so yeah make sense. So I think they voiced their opinions previously as well just not in headlines as much.
Also the US has taken the lead so often, and (used to have) soft power that they managed properly.
Basically Trump (well his handlers) have effed up the social order so much it’s time to set the line. Sucks it took this long, cause all should have been done first term when the US elected a petulant child as leader.
Though I imagine it comes down to money as usual as you said, cause heaven forbid we figure out a way to run a country without billionaires making their voice known.
It’d be great if the people’s voices were heard for sure. Fortunately when time comes there are more of the regular folk than them. While I don’t condone violence it sucks that they can use violence and legal issues to make their goals happen without pushback.
one of the most annoying things is even if we get a “blue wave” and get maga out of the presidency and congress you know that two years in they will be loudly blaming whoever is president and the democrats as we are not doing great with all the infaltion and being an isolated country whos currency is becoming regional.
Does a strict two party system even constitute a democracy? There’s so little incentive to do what the people want when the worst punishment is that you only have to wait until the other party fucks up worse than you did and then you’re back in the game. In the meantime, just sit tight and snipe from the sidelines.
The Republican Party needs to cease to exist for what it’s done. I don’t know how that could happen but I don’t see a bright future for the world if they’re still around when the next Dem President starts to become unpopular.
I have said they need to cease to exist and only the voters can do that. Them not winning even 25% of the legislature should do it. Many folk want to bring something forward over the democrats and I often say we pretty much have to eliminate the republicans first. dems would easily split in that scendario along with likely the greens taking office. actually that would be a good metric. If the republicans were down to just the nuttiest areas then if the greens could hold as much or more than them it would effectively eliminate them as their nuts would vote democrat over republican if the greens were a real threat which would drive the republican party even further down.
If the democrats win as well as we’re expecting they COULD take down billionaires and mass media propaganda machines that’s behind all these right-wing movements…but I’m betting they won’t. They probably won’t abolish ICE, they won’t stuff the supreme court, they won’t cut off Israel, they won’t roll back the insane power of the POTUS and executive branch, etc, etc.
This country is fucked for a generation at least, or as long as this two party government remains intact.
Y’all keep saying democrats as if democrats are one unified party.
its not.
Its 37 parties in a trench coat.
Thats the problem with the democrats. Its basically a Chimera built out of everything thats not-republican, and thats down largely to our two party system of bullshit.
they COULD take down billionaires and mass media propaganda machines that’s behind all these right-wing movements…but I’m betting they won’t.
Yeah controlled opposition tends not to bite the hand that feeds.
You dont understand how the American two party system works. Let me explain it in simple terms.
You have one party that is corporate light; that’s the democrats. And you have another party that’s corporate get fucked in the arse; that’s the Republicans.
Both parties serve their corporate masters first and foremost before any consideration of the common man. Neither party will challenge this status quo in any meaningful way. The difference is that one is willing to be a little more giving than the other fiscally.
But the reality is that the entire political process is captured by vested financial interests that own politicians and work together so that over the long term it all gets shitter and shitter for the common people and they get richer and richer.
The only way out of this is to primary every politician in the democratic party that have any financial ties to the elites. To money.
That’s most of them.
stuffing the supreme court is a pretty controversial thing although now more popular given republicans messed with court picks to get us were we are. Many democrats are not fine using trumps “methods” in a good way and want to still abide by the constitution and law. I know foks completely against trump but are not sure about actually abolishing ice. I point out they had not even existed before but they point out border control is kinda worse and that would result in border patrol fulfilling their role. keeping in mind their role was not so controversial before trump.
They have their own funders, and you’ll be upset when you find out who they are. (Hint: it’s the same people, give or take a few)
Yeah, when the Dems take back the power, and have to clean up the unholy mess that MAGA will leave, there will be very loud opposition, and the Dems are going to have to get over their obsession for politeness to traitors, and learn to employ the phrase “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
It never was, its about the epstein files
It’s about a confluence of things, none of them good. I wasn’t going to comment, but then I saw this post:
https://mander.xyz/post/49900218
This is basically “what it’s all about”. Western neoliberal and overt colonial capitalism. Its extraction. All these rich elites are betting on the U.S. military maintaining “full spectrum dominance”, and if Iran fends us off, that’s the end of our projection of power, globally at least.
When you see Bezos and Musk and Altman and all these other parasitic freaks retreating to New Zealand, those are the biggest, fattest rats fleeing a sinking ship.
Ty ,for link
Glazing Netanyahu was also a not insignificant part.
That’s where it was about Iran, Benjy’s decades-long lust for war and territorial expansion
No longer? It never was
We must send the turd, his cabinet, and pentagon leadership to the Hague.
It’s a nice thought, but there’s no way. We here in the US didn’t even kill the leaders of the Confederacy after the civil war, and those fuckers got hundreds of thousands of Americans killed in their treason.
The reason why cancel culture is so big here is that, often, getting someone canceled is the only meaningful recourse for being a piece of shit.
Lmao who has ever actually been hurt by being cancelled? Kevin Spacey is still doing much better than the rest of us
You’re not wrong.
But it’s all we ever get, so some find it satisfying.
Have you considered doing the right thing for once? Then as the real alpha move, stick with doing the right thing.
No one who would do the right thing is allowed within sniffing distance of the presidency.
The two ruling parties think it’s bad enough that a Democratic Socialist is running the world’s fifth-largest economy in New York, and are no doubt scheming up administrative hurdles to ensure it never happens again once Zohran’s out of power, same as they did after Ross Perot got so close to the presidency in the 90’s.
That would just open the door for the treasonous twat to invade the Netherlands. Its even been codified. Yes really.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Service-Members_Protection_ActThe USA is already threatening to invade Greenland even without anyone being sent to the Hague. Best to call their bluff.
They don’t really care for “rules” or “laws” unless they can use them to oppress people anyway
Zelenskyy clearly hopes to tap into the riches of the Gulf states as investors in Ukraine’s burgeoning military weapons industry, and potentially as aid donors, or even allies.
For the headline about Trump the article talks mostly about Zelenskyy.
Finally at the end it talks about Trump’s speech.
The week ended with a feeling of foreboding around the globe that things were going to get a lot worse, and not just because of Trump’s language about bombing Iran “back to the Stone Ages”.
And throws in Israel and Russia to conclude:
The Caspian Sea. The Baltic. The Red Sea. This war is no longer just about the Strait of Hormuz. Or Iran.
The headline isn’t about Trump, it’s about the war not being about Iran…
The only reason the alliances aren’t formally broken is because moving investments and reorganizing supplies takes time. At least from the European perspective, it’s only a matter of time; the moves to abandon Visa and Mastercard can only be interpreted that way.
BRICS is also making strides towards dedollarization and alternative payment systems (bypassing SWIFT) based on blockchain technology.
blockchain
Oh is it 2018 again
Sorry I should elaborate:
SWIFT operates as a centralized hub-and-spoke model. For a bank in Brazil to send money to a bank in India, the message must pass through SWIFT’s secure servers in Belgium, and the actual money often passes through “correspondent” banks in the U.S. or Europe.
BRICS Pay uses a Decentralized Cross-border Messaging System (DCMS). There is no central owner or hub. Instead, it uses a “fractal topology” where each participating bank manages its own node. This makes the system resistant to external interference or being “shut off” by a central authority.
SWIFT is not a payment system; it is a messaging system. It sends the “instruction” to move money, but the actual settlement can take 1–5 business days as it hops between multiple intermediary banks.
BRICS Pay is designed to be an end-to-end settlement system. By using blockchain and distributed ledgers, it can settle transactions in real-time (seconds to minutes) because it records the value transfer directly on a shared ledger rather than waiting for bank-to-bank reconciliations.
SWIFT is heavily reliant on the U.S. Dollar as the primary reserve currency. Most international SWIFT transfers require a conversion into USD at some point in the chain, adding exchange fees and making the system sensitive to U.S. sanctions.
BRICS Pay is built specifically for Local Currency Settlement (LCS). The blockchain tech acts as a “bridge” that allows direct conversion between, for example, the Brazilian Real and the Indian Rupee without needing the U.S. Dollar as an intermediary.
Key here is decentralization and freedom from US hegemony.
I just assume when someone uses the word “blockchain” unironically they have no idea how things work
This exactly. I find it completely baffling that people are talking about this stuff like its as simple as changing your mobile internet provider or cancelling your Amazon account.
moving investments and reorganizing supplies takes time.
This is a salient point. Back in February 2025 when Donald decided to start imposing unilateral tariffs, other countries started crafting new trade agreements. Those take 1.5 to 2 years to take effect, so everything Donald is doing is, essentially, a time bomb that’s going to go off after 2026 whether it’s the BBB or our former allies rerouting trade around the US and through China. The vast majority of Americans don’t have any real knowledge of what these things mean or Donald would be even more unpopular than he is now.
In 2028 the new order in the world will probably unrecognizable compared to 2024, and it could be a very bad thing. We Americans have been lucky in that most of us have never experienced real war and can’t contextualize it, and that could change in the very near future.
Took me just a couple of hours to move all my investments out of the USA and to Europe/Rest of World. Sell all funds that had any investment in USA and move them into ex-USA funds/shares.
You’re not a country
If you’re a US citizen…hoo boy, I don’t envy your tax guy’s bp.
They talk like he didn’t threaten to declare war on Europe just a few months ago to invade Greenland. The world has been fed up with his shit for a long time now.
The big question is what, if anything, can or will they do about it.
Long past time to say it openly, but now is second best.
Well, most European leaders were pretty happy to support the Palestinian genocide (under Biden), the illegal kidnapping of a countries leader in Venezuela, and even were on board with Iran in the stages of the initial invasion. I know narratives change quickly but have we forgotten about all the “they killed 40k protesters” bull shit already? I swear people have the memory of a goldfish.
European (and most of the world’s) leaders and media were justifying the invasion not long ago. They just did the “well, this should have been approved…” hand waving to give them a chance to fall back later if it went badly.
Well, it went badly. They aren’t tired of his shit. They just pivot when his shit hits the fan. I don’t see any of them calling for a release of the president of Venezuela or a coalition of the willing to put an end to the genocide and ethnic cleansing Israel/America continues to enact.
If the price of oil wasn’t going through the roof no one would care. It’s why no one even mentions what America/Israel are doing to Lebanon right now.
Fuck America and its war. But if you truly believe the iranian regime didn’t mass murder a lot of its citizens during the protests, you are either naive or blindly loyal towards anyone that is against the US.
If you believe it was 40k people and that it’s at all relevant to the US invading than you’re the one that’s naive. If the US cared about people dying unjustifiably in other countries it would invade Israel and defund its own military afterwards.
We know that it was a lot. Might be 20k, might be 40k might be 60k. Either way, calling it “bullshit” is just fucked up.
Where did I say it justifies the war?
In essence, the world (and the media as well) should treat the U.S. exactly as it behaves: as a failed state that, like Russia, is ruled by organized crime, tramples on international law, and blackmails its former allies. One should not do business with such a country, especially since it is committing the most egregious war crimes alongside its genocidal allies in Israel.
It is a reflection of the lack of integrity in the political systems of other countries that no sanctions have been imposed on the US in response to its brutal actions in Iran - this war is just as much a war of aggression in violation of international law as the one Russia is waging against Ukraine.
Sanctions against the U.S. will, of course, not happen. But the barbaric behavior of the U.S. should at least ensure that Western countries turn away from the U.S. in the future, so that it cannot continue to exploit its power to blackmail the world.
Sanctions against the U.S. will, of course, not happen.
It would be more productive for the rest of the world to reduce its dependence on the US. This dependence takes a variety of forms and degrees but it’s this very dependence which makes sanctions impractical. It’s this very dependence which emboldens jackasses like Trump.
So just divest. Disentangle. If we could get there then there might actually be something we could do about a problem like Trump.
As things stand, it takes forever and a day to gather the will to merely speak out.
I think this is probably exactly what Trump’s cronies want.
The news is splattered with pics of Trump and Hegseth and the war room. But those aren’t the masterminds. Trump did not get his position twice by doing it all himself.
He’s a figurehead. In his shadow are billionaire donors, some of whom travel to Russia on a regular basis. So, what happens when NATO turns against the US? Why, just like 1984 - a new alliance with an old enemy. Our NATO allies are now the bad guys. The US keeps oil dominance with the Saudis, sells weapons to Russia and continues trading with China. Trump’s cronies money. Everybody is happy, except the puny citizens.
It doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t happen without rigging midterm elections. But it’s the direction the US is pointed in right now.
The direction in which the U.S. is heading is toward a true autocracy, like in Russia, with all the coercive mechanisms that go along with it.
This is the logical consequence of the American people allowing the most serious crimes to go unpunished.
It is quite obvious that the oligarchs who have ruled the country for decades have now decided that the illusion of democracy - which they had maintained until now with this absurd two-party system - is no longer necessary, since they will never be held accountable for their crimes anyway.
Even in their last, rather pathetic coup attempt, everyone involved got off scot-free, even the foot soldiers. This time, however, the regime has established ICE, a secret police force with a budget equivalent to the military spending of a medium-sized country - by U.S. standards: ICE’s budget exceeds that of all U.S. federal agencies, including the CIA and FBI, etc. combined. Isn’t it quite obvious why an “agency” like this would ever need such an astronomical budget?
First everybody needs to get their gold out of the USA, switch over all critical infrastructure and payment to home brew solutions and sell USA treasuries. Then the sanctions can start. But switching away from USA infrastructure in already a form of sanction.
Stuff like Wero matters and is making actual progress. Once they open up to merchants I hope to see it being a realistic homebrew payment network.
Same applies to Israel. BDS should be taken seriously.
It is a reflection of the lack of integrity in the political systems of other countries that no sanctions have been imposed on the US in response to its brutal actions in Iran - this war is just as much a war of aggression in violation of international law as the one Russia is waging against Ukraine.
I don’t think that it’s a lack of integrity that’s resulted in sanctions not being applied against the US. We just wouldn’t be able to weather the financial consequences of sanctioning them.
Integrity is lacking but I don’t think that a government with 100% integrity would be able to afford to sanction the US.
Personally I’d love to see sanctions applied to USA for what they’ve done in Iran - though don’t get me wrong, I don’t support the Iranian regime either - BUT you really cannot compare Iran to Ukraine.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but Ukraine hasn’t spent the last two decades funding terrorism and proxies to destabilise the European area? Let’s not pretend like Iranian gov is some helpless, innocent angel here. Many were clapping for regime change when it was being earned by the blood of innocent students. Perhaps many of our countries would’ve been involved in this conflict, if it was planned and executed sensibly (though I’d argue the conflict straight up wouldn’t have exploded to actual conflict if anyone but the stupid orange turd was at the helm)
+1
While instant sanctions haven’t been put in place there is a lot of ‘decoupling’ going on.
While this doesn’t have the same shock value, the long term effects are there.Yes, that’s true, which is why, as I said, I consider sanctions unrealistic. The big problem is that after World War II, the U.S. rose to become the sole power controlling the financial market.
Now that the US is on the verge of losing its status as a superpower to China, however, the situation is slowly changing.
I very much hope that countries will learn that the same principle applies at the state level as it does in the economy: monopolies harm everyone except the monopolists. Perhaps politicians will see reason, allow themselves not to be “influenced” shamelessly by lobbyists in the future, and stop putting all their eggs in one basket.
As for Germany, I can say that we are unfortunately still very far from that. Our chancellor is, unfortunately, more of a U.S. lobbyist than a politician who would act in the interests of the people.
So I don’t have much hope, but still, one almost has to be grateful to that orange pedo for being such a brain-dead moron. His arrogant warmongering and his constant, brazen threats make it abundantly clear that the US is anything but a peace-loving, reliable partner.
I hope this will lead other countries to organize themselves to at least begin to break free from this miserable relationship of dependency.
valid point as well
Ironically, the way America is acting, it makes Russias invasion of Ukraine look reasonable from the perspective of another Oligarchy (notice I didn’t say justified). But with Nato expansion and US aggression the other oligarch controlled country saw the future and took its expansion step first.
The world was shocked by the invasion of Ukraine but not really of Iran. This has been in the works since before the invasion of Iraq. But all America has been telling the world with this war is (1) Yes, all those Nato and US bases will be used to launch our invasions (2) yes, you are not safe from invasion unless you have a nuke (3) if you’re our ally and have US bases in your country we will literally abandon them and your country will not be protected unless it’s Israel. You will be punching bags because you thought our presence meant “security”. It’s not. It’s a liability.
First of all, it is not justified at all. The Ukraine was literally like a brother to Russia and invading it was no different than killing your own family.
Using Putin’s propaganda garbage logic kind of exposes your cards to everyone.
Second, the world was shocked by the illegal bombing of Iran. No one expected the US to go through with it just like no one expected Russia to start invading Ukraine. Both of these countries already had a lot of control of the countries they attacked and the invasion/attack was pretty pointless.
The US is no friends to its allies just like Russia. They are both fascist garbage countries working together behind the scenes with China. They all three can get fucking bent. The world would be better off without them.
How can you mis-read a comment this much? Read the first paragraph of their comment and then your response. It’s like you are willfully blind or something.
The guy is a Russian apologist, duh.
I didn’t misread shit
So weird how I literally said “notice how I didn’t say justified” and I still got an idiot reply purposely misunderstanding my comment.
That was FOR YOU dude. That little part in ellipsis was literally written for you and you’re little brain and you skipped it!
My comment was talking about the REASONING of two rogue states. Talking about the reasons rogue states take the actions they do is not justifying the actions they take as moral or correct.
For example, I can understand the reasoning for the 9/11 attacks. I can understand how US intervention in the middle east and its own terrorism at the hands of its military resulted in that blowback and it’s violence coming back home. That doesn’t mean I’m justifying.
You get it?
Also, if you were shocked by the invasion of Iran. You were not paying attention for the last 47 years. Iran wasn’t shocked. Iran has literally been preparing for this since their revolution. The only shocking thing was how incredibly unprepared the US was when it finally did invade.
I am glad you can use propaganda to justify in your head garbage policies that get people killed. Good for you I guess.
Back in the real world if I spot pro Maga/Nazi/Fascist rhetoric I would expect someone to call me out on it. That is for you dude
I was shocked that the US would bomb Iran a second time without provocation, without a resolution, a coalition, or even congressional approval. This bombastic policy is the very definition of a war crime.
I am sorry but this is not normal even for the imperialistic war criminal cabal that is the US. It is yet anothrr war crime, every move is so shockingly worse than the last. Every norm, every protocol ignored. A disgusting display of naked power and greed.
The parallels between existing superpowers and the worldwide rise of fascism has not eluded me.
It’s so weird how someone like yourself is confused by someone analyzing state powers and the material incentives for why they do things. Do you also scream at detectives for establishing the motive for a murder investigation? I guess the detectives are in favor of the murder /s
Maybe reread my comments with that in mind? Or do you enjoy purposely misunderstanding what someone is talking about? Because that’s all you’re doing at this point.
Listen you are a Russian apologist, I think it is bullshit. It is okay.
Sure, in the same way a detective is an apologist for criminals.
I think they also need to come up with a better term than ‘western countries’, to something that does not include the US but is open to include others. ‘Countries that try to not be complete asshats’? Idk, the bar is in hell. But there are quite a few non-western countries that could fit the bill if it weren’t for US fuckery.
Yes, we really need an alternative to the UN, because unfortunately it cannot be reformed due to the veto system and the fact that the most powerful countries have permanent seats on the Security Council.
So what is needed is a new international organization that addresses the fact that the UN has, in fact, long been under the unilateral influence of the US in particular - the fact that Israel, for example, gets away with outright genocide with complete impunity, unfortunately makes all too clear how absurd it is that a single, admittedly very powerful country can prevent any efforts to enforce what is, in fact, the central task of the international community.
So yes, I agree: We need a second, better UN.
Maybe we could call it something like League of Nations?
Joke aside, any nation considering itself a world power would insist of veto power (or similar power tool). I think a way forward is alliances such as eu or even smaller such as the Nordic Council to safe guard against international strong man bullying. Personally I dont think the world can cooperate with rule of law rather than might makes right, but I would love to be proven wrong
Definitely. The world was so quick to sanction Russia for its invasion, but the US faces no consequences for its actions…
Yeah, where’s that ‘30 days before congressional review’ thing? The us is full of shit. And not only in the white house.
60 days, and it’s not a review.
What do you mean it’s not a review?
If a congressional comitee and a few invitees (such as POTUS) reviewing golf clubs together in a courtroom isn’t a judicial review, I don’t know what is.
I think I missed this going by:
But the byzantine web of knock-on effects from Trump’s pronouncements — let’s not call them policies — in the past five weeks means that Russia is facing a huge boom in its finances thanks to the US decision to lift sanctions on Russian oil in a bid to ease the global market which, of course, is in chaos because of the Iranian response to US and Israeli attacks.
Trump is a Russian asset.
tramp is an idiot narcissist criminal (etc.). That makes him an easy target of manipulation for russia (an asset, so to say)
In NO way defending that orange shitstain, but people keep reporting he lifted oil sanctions on Russia (and Iran).
This is not true: he only said it was ok to buy the dark fleet’s barrels that are at sea now. Fun fact, no one is actually doing this that wasn’t already buying from the dark fleet (well, technically from the people who hire the dark feet).
I hate to be the “sauce pls” guy, but do you have a source for this that could clarify the matter?
