In terms of escalation with Europe: next would be any European territory in the Caribbean / Gulf of Mexico (e.g. BVI’s; side note: no fucking way will I ever use the regime’s idiotic rename of that body of water), then any European holdings in South America (e.g. French Guiana), then straight up annexation of countries in central/South America. Then probably an attempt to sweep up any other extraterritorial European enclaves in other areas (Canary Islands? The Azores? Who knows?).

This is what “sphere of influence” politics means. This is the new reality.

Computer, end program.

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Computer, door.

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Fuck.

I submit that you have no fucking clue what America is supposed to be, and that you’re just getting your jollies off of parroting jingoistic conservative dogma.

+1 buy more wagons, SUVs are fucking stupid

Yes the fuck you did, dipshit

Any “protection” the current regime is liable to offer the protesters is going to be more akin to mafia “protection” than the traditional definition of the term.

I’m not pre-accepting. If anything, I’m absolutely irate that fucking nobody with any semblance of official power has done anything seriously meaningful to stymie the regime’s abject idiocy - and I include the jaw-dropping myopic political shitshow that the DNC ran in the 2024 election, as well as Biden’s outright refusal to hold anyone from orangeboi’s first stint accountable in any serious or meaningful way.

Incompetence is the rule of the day, on both sides of our established political spectrum. The only serious difference is that the right wing is gleefully malicious and overtly prejudiced, while the left wing plaintively complains and capitulates while still lining their pockets from largely the same donors that the right wing gets paid by.

Unfortunately, the US military remains extremely competent - for now, at least. There are already beginnings of ironically Stalin-esque ideological purges in the military leadership, and the procurement choices this regime has made have been… impressively idiotic, in pretty much all domains.

Don’t condescend to me. It’s not “oh well”. It’s pragmatism and acknowledgement of facts that are actually happening and occurring.

I wish that this wasn’t happening the way it is; nonetheless, it is happening. Denying reality is counterproductive. I’m not saying laws are unimportant. I’m saying that laws are being ignored, and to expect the regime to suddenly start abiding by laws is incredibly naive, to the point that it could be described as idiocy.

Insisting that the norms and laws protect us, in the context of a regime that pointedly does not give a single fuck about norms and laws, is deeply naive to the point that it borders on willful ignorance.

Don’t get me wrong - I wish it wasn’t the case. But that’s what’s happening nowadays, and to pretend otherwise is nonsensical at this point.

Oh yep, that too. Boycott investing in US stuff, if you weren’t already. And then tell your MPs or legislators or whatever term is relevant in your country that you want them to push for divesting from US sovereign debt as a national policy.

It’s kinda crazy that all the young people in Korea and Japan are like “work conditions are so fucking brutal I don’t have the energy to do anything else”, and then their governments go “hey, I know, the solution is work longer and harder”. Like… what the fuck are they expecting to happen here? They’ve demographically aimed the boat at a waterfall and are pinning the throttle open.

Unitedstatesian here: boycott us. Seriously, do it. I’m not kidding. This isn’t a joke, or sarcastic. From where I’m standing, it looks like a popular grassroots response could be the strongest response the EU is going to be giving in the near to mid term future.

Also, I hope your leaders are preparing contingency plans, but the time to do that was honestly way back in 2016-17 when it became apparent what his intentions and predilections were. I am concerned that it could be too little, too late, with regards to establishing independent European security that cannot be fundamentally undermined by our now-fascist government.

He’s openly talking about just suspending the midterms. So if he does that, I expect he’d suspend 2028 too. At this point, I don’t think they’re expecting to let go of power at all, ever.

So uh… I think that exiled prince maybe got a call from orangeboi and struck a deal. I understand the repressive and theocratic nature of the current regime… but I can’t help also being deeply concerned for what that might imply for normal Iranians in the coming years, if that’s what is happening here, and our military and/or the CIA orchestrates (yet another) coup in Iran to put the guy in power.

I’m tired, boss

It doesn’t.

But it’s still extremely concerning and deeply depressing that the PM of one of the most powerful countries in the EU was too much of a neoliberal capitalist fuckstick to even consider making common cause with the left wing of his country’s political spectrum in the interest of shutting out the fascistic RN (rebranded FN) party.

It is good that Macron is condemning orangeboi’s hostility towards our (former?) allies.

It is not good that Macron is being so guarded about it, or that he (and anyone else in European leadership for that matter) seem to have not bothered to put any thought or real effort into a contingency plan for this sort of eventuality. It reminds me very depressingly of the ineffectuality of our own “left” wing, the DNC.

It’s simultaneous inexcusable that Macron cut a deal with the far right in France after literally everyone else pulled out the stops to block them getting a majority, which they did at Macron’s behest, after which he politically backstabbed them.

The point being made is that Macron has some very… uncomfortably flexible political sensibilities that he’s already put on full display to the world, and there’s a definite sense of wariness and mistrust of him as a result. And I can’t say that I blame the French people for feeling that way.

Aside from the usual gripes about NYT, this level of laughably poor background research is both obnoxious and true to form.

Russia has been using 9K720 Iskander SRBMs and Kh-47M2 Kinzhal ALBMs since shortly after they began the active/overt phase of their invasion in February 2022. Both are nuclear capable.

Histrionic implies a level of overdramatization. So, no, I don’t think the situation is being overdramatized.

On the contrary, I do think that European leaders are being (and have been, for a very long time now, and definitely since orangeboi’s first time around) unbelievably naive and myopic when it comes to the likely behavior of the fascists that now run shit over here.

Seriously, stop pussy-footing around. Make some fucking contingency plans, for christ’s sake. The EU is effectively the last major bastion of democracy and humanistic governmental policy, and they are largely proving that they are categorically unprepared for this very plausible eventuality, that they completely ignored pretty much all the indicators leading up to this, and that there are no good plays to make now as a direct result of that lack of preparation. And it breaks my fucking heart.

Saying this is “a bit concerning” is akin to saying “it’s a bit challenging to breathe in a vacuum”

This is darkly hilarious - we didn’t even really do an actual regime change. It was literally just getting an adversarial despot out of the picture so the regime can grift the whole fucking country. They do not care, and they’re not even trying to hide it.