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It’s the
elephanthorse in the room, and it’s braying.
Offered him a tower and a plane. They’re trolling the US.
Next they’ll offer him another very similar tower, perhaps twin-like.
The UK is offering steel beams.
Well it was US who backed them in the first place.
I find in endlessly funny that we’ve been screaming at the democrats to leverage Israel more to end hostilities in the ME without any real movement from them, but suddenly Trump is willing to say ‘fuck it’ just because the right people happen to be bribing him.
If the right people keep trump’s palms greased for long enough we might actually end up on the right side of history by accident, and if that’s not comedy I don’t know what is.
Someone posted a good picture of the locking mechanism called the “ratchet effect” that democrats/neo-liberals provide for the ruling class.
Essentially, Republicans get to do whatever they want to enrich our rulers, and democrats are there to stop the workers from reversing any of the gains.
By siding with al qaeda?
Tell me you don’t know who Ahmed al-Sharaa is without telling me you don’t know who Ahmed al-Sharaa is.
Ahmed al-Sharaa is the guy whose dogs are massacring Alawites right now, mostly done with that.
Can I have my A for this answer?
You get partial credit for vocabulary but an F for misrepresentation
What he says is less important that what he does.
I agree, which is why I find it significant that he split ties from al-Qaeda despite the significant internal pressures not to.
I guess we’d have to wait longer than a month to see if he makes good on seeking justice for acts of brutality against Alawites, but I don’t think you can say al-Sharaa isn’t a massive step in the right direction and deserving of positive diplomatic response to his reforms.
Edit: as long as we’re condemning associations with al-Qeada, here’s an interesting related report
I am just going by the meme, you caught me.
Props for owning up to it.
The crowd that went on about a laptop for 5 years suddenly don’t care about The President getting a whole ass jet and tower as a gift. But they aren’t a cult. Only decorum and the law matters when Dems are in power.
I am not arguing with the obvious corruption, but to provide a counterpoint to the second part of the argument: if we aren’t allowed to make peace with former terrorists, then we can never stop fighting each other, and if we keep fighting each other, then we will keep creating the next generation of terrorists.
My first thoughts of Al-Sharaa was that he was serious about reform from the Assad regime. I realized I haven’t followed up much on how things are going though, so if y’all wanna correct me go for it.
Its the same neocons who wanted Biden to stay in Afghanistan. Anyone who thinks neocons have a popular base is a gigantic moron. The amount of neocon voters is roughly equivalent to Americans with a transatlantic accent.
Excuse you, Tom Lehrer is far from a neocon.
I may also be biased because I grew up in Seattle so I learned English by watching Frasier. I got bullied a lot.
Yes but the deal almost certainly has nothing to do with peace.
Maybe they’re hoping for a yemen type deal, where syrians will only get murdered by zios and not by zios plus USA.
Broken clocks…
Corruption is a hell of a drug!
All of those January 6th people who were freaking out about losing their country… where are they now? Hmmmm.
Fucking hypocrites.
Yes, I’m sure that the thing that will finally get Jan 6’ers to turn on Trump is checks notes lifting sanctions on Syria.
I ran out of outrage about two months ago.
That was likely the plan. Gl
It’s like running an engine at redline forever. It’s not sustainable. Something’s gotta give.
That’s his exact plan. At some point you have to tune out and focus on your own life, and he’ll still be there, just less visible and thus more dangerous.
As if there’s any way to escape his stupid ass. The least political things in the world are talking about him. He’s unavoidable and he likes it that way.
It’s more like the earpieces in Harrison Bergeron that keep you from having a complete thought.
Okay, now that you’re past the initial outrage stage and able to think with a clear, focused head about this emergency, what action are you going to take?
(Unless you’re not from the USA in which case my apologies)
This post reeks of Israeli propaganda. Ahmed al-Sharaa renounced al-Qaeda many years ago and has a lengthy, demonstrated record as a moderate, inclusive leader who fought both the Assad regime and ISIS at the same time. A moderate Arab leader who protects ethnic minorities is a threat to the Israeli narrative about their neighbors.
It’s still corruption tho. Whether or not they misrepresent that dude I know nothing about doesn’t take away from the fact that Trump is as easily bribed as a toddler.
No argument here about Trump, but I think the misrepresentation is problematic
Agreed, so far I prefer this guy over Bashar al-asshat.
If we are denouncing Guerilla/insurgent/rebel leaders offhand for basically fighting against imperialists and dictators, even if their methods aren’t bloodless or ethical, then we would also need to denounce José Mujica, former president of Uruguay who died today, one of the most progressive and honest leftist leaders the world has known.
Are you really going to compare the fight to restore democracy from a military coup as the same as trying to install a theocratic dictatorship
Congratulations! You have earned the “Fell for Israeli Propaganda Award!”
Or maybe saying Al Qaeda is bad shouldn’t be a hot take…
You totally read my mind. The campaigners against Trump for aligning a little bit with some Arab countries (through bribes of course) totally normalize the infiltration of the Israelis into the western governments. AIPAC literally bribes politicians and boasts about it continuously and of course the politicians return the favor by funneling more taxpayer money to Israel.
Also, remember how Israel rigged theatrical disputes with Biden administration, only for us to discover later there was zero pressure from the Biden administration on the Israelis whatsoever. The Biden administration literally was in on the genocide as much as the Israelis. The Israelis like to play along and pretend they lack enough support so they can suck even more western resources.
Also, remember how Israel rigged theatrical disputes with Biden administration, only for us to discover later there was zero pressure from the Biden administration on the Israelis whatsoever. The Biden administration literally was in on the genocide as much as the Israelis. The Israelis like to play along and pretend they lack enough support so they can suck even more western resources.
source please
So you see that big ole thing at the top that says “opinion”? That means you should be a little more wary of what you’re reading. Clicking through to the Twitter “source” it says Netanyahu tanked the negotiations, not that Biden wasn’t pressuring Israel.
Here is a source, stating the obvious, which everyone knew and saw.
Tbf the fact that the Israelis are putting out propaganda in this issue is, in my opinion, a tiny bit of a good thing. If a wedge is driven between Trump and Bibi over this it is a good thing.
It is terrible in every way, shape or form, but if this turns out to make Trump shift policy in the middle east, whatever the reason, might have a sliver of good in it.
Syrians deserve peace and stability, but that is not at all what is being offered here. Sanctions are cruel, and it’s worth celebrating that they’ve been lifted, but the cost looks like it’s going to be an international effort to pillage and exploit Syria.
These puppets did nothing while israel systematically bombed most of Assad’s leftover military infrastructure, stockpiles, and vehicles. Literally hundreds of airstrikes without any meaningful response. They’re barely disputing occupied territories, even as they expand. Instead they’ve gotten into border skirmishes with Lebanon, attacked the Syrian Druze, and killed thousands of Alawites.
The testimonies of coastal massacre escapees are harrowing. There are more widely publicized stories of door to door executions, but there’s another pattern I heard described several times by people that lived in smaller villages.
Security forces would show up in uniform during the day, ask around about locals and their backgrounds, and disarm the population while assuring them that they would be protected. Then at night, there would be a brutal attack, and what I heard again and again is that the groups doing this are one and the same.
CW: descriptions of horrific NSFL videos:
I’ve seen them laughing as they took turns beating an old man to death. I watched one execute a teenage boy mid-conversation. I’ve seen mass graves full of children, women, elders. I’ve seen dozens of civilians of all ages and identities in lines along roadsides, against walls, some with bound wrists, some clearly mutilated. I’ve seen military vehicles spray entire apartment buildings with machine gun fire.
It’s ludicrous to describe this demon as protecting ethnic minorities while his forces have systematically killed thousands in an ethnic cleansing campaign. There were a few scattered clashes with Assad loyalist forces, but Alawite civilians were then described as such in order to justify liquidating entire villages.
Just because this monster puts on a suit, gets some official uniforms for his dogs to wear for the public, it does not change who he is and what he does. Don’t be fooled by the hollow condemnation of what he dismisses as the actions of extremist elements. This entire regime change operation has been undertaken not by Syrians seeking liberation, but by foreign powers conspiring to strip the country and its people for parts.
Thousands of Syrians trusted this new regime, believed it could be a step in the right direction, and were instead brutalized and exterminated. al-Jolani is an implant and a foreign instrument, and he’s given himself 4-5 years in power. Syrians did not choose him, other states did.
Afaik there’s no evidence that al-Sharaa ordered those attacks on Alawites.
One thing to understand is that Syria is in an extremely unstable situation at the moment. Al-Sharaa is leader of an already fragile group of militants/terrorists that’s barely held together. He can’t afford war with Israel, because the resulting counter-attack might shatter his government. He’s not fully in control either, leading to these horrible attacks on minorities by certain wings of the armed forces. Militants he has less control over still seek revenge against the Alawites for their support of Assad.
He basically needs to stabilize the country, centralize control and demonstrate that Syria will rapidly improve under his rule. That is no easy task, and it’s imo not surprising that the civil war is not over yet in certain parts of the country.
IIRC the EU put as precondition of sanction relief that he gets the militants under control and stops the attacks on minorities. I don’t know for certain that he will or even wants to (he might be a moderate amongst militant Islamists but that’s still fairly extreme), but I also don’t have conclusive evidence that he won’t.
… and no one should put all the blame on one man … he isn’t that powerful or persuasive
It’s a complicit government that had decided to allow this orange menace to do as he pleases because it benefits some wealthy owners.
It’s a lot easier to blame one man because it would remove the complicity of a large organization of people that are driving all this.
So they just SAY they will build this tower, not they are building it. What’s the chances they aren’t building shit but told our dumb fuck president this to get this done? I think pretty high. They can strimg him along, because they know he will be gone in four years either by end of presidency or death.
And that is what I don’t get. He is so easily wooed by stuff. The UK trade agreement is not great, but he flounts the high tariffs that the importers will have to pay. Someone dangles a picture of something shiny and he jumps. This is so weird
The UK trade deal is great because over here it was basically just reported as “the status quo has been maintained”, and then they just moved on to other news items. No one really cares about it.
Trump was going on and on about how America “has the best beef”, and how it’s unfair that we won’t take it, and this trade deal essentially means that farms will have to follow UK food standards in order to send beef (or whatever) to the UK. Since none of them will, essentially nothing has changed.
Right? Nothing has changed except the tariffs that are still in place and will cost the americans money. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
I mean. Empty promises for things to be paid for by somebody else are kind of his Thing. Walls, Tariffs. It makes perfect sense.
It’s easy to just blame the government. When the reality is there is an entire complicit class of voters voting them in
Agreed. But when critical thinking is systematically being removed from the education system, well, you see what happens.
we do nothing to stop it. we are a cooperative society. if we allow this to happen, then the blame is on all of us.
What about those that have only recently learning about the anti-education trajectory from the Right? Or those that are oblivious but would oppose such trajectory if aware?
Am I complicit if I don’t know it’s happening?
if you don’t know it’s happening, you’ve had your head in the sand or spent too much time watching tik tok. there are no excuses.
there is also the rest of us who don’t do anything to stop him and his regime.
Blame lies on the judicial branch for not putting him on the chair for his coup attempt and instead telling before elections he can do whatever he wants, legally.
the blame lies on every one of us. we know exactly what is going on, that the government is broken, and yet we do nothing. we are the last guardrails of this democracy. if we don’t do something, this is the people’s fault.
The really ugly thing here is, al-Sharaa is the best thing to happen to Syria in decades. Most people have been urging recognition of his government and the relaxation of sanctions because he’s about as good we can expect a leader of Syria to be.
And he is still bribing Trump.
This isn’t merely corruption. This is the *normalization * of corruption. Even countries that abide by democratic norms and international law are going to need to grease palms to conduct regular diplomatic relations. The EU and UK and Canada might be able to weather his bullshit until he folds like he always does, but developing nations will be stuck trying to bid for American favor.
Welcome to the Chinese century.
al-Sharaa is the best thing to happen to Syria in decades
Could we please stop? He’s a jihadist saying pleasant things to Europeans and Americans with nobody caring whether they are true.
Everyone in Syria is facing their own personal jihad - best of luck to them.
The louder the west screams about him being a Jihadist, the more I trust him to do the right thing in Syria
Good instincts and all but he always been a hard core salafist. Leftists were calling him that all last year. Its just now that Trump’s in power liberals can pretend that they were always against him.
The west doesn’t scream. The west condemned Alawites for not liking to be massacred.
And this is stupid. Inverted signal is the same signal, just inverted. It’s not independence of thought.
The west condemned Alawites for not liking to be massacred
Hmmm, are you sure about that? I feel like there was a notable party using that event as justification for crossing over the Syrian boarder but maybe that was a fever dream
I feel like your last paragraph ignores my last paragraph.
One of the reasons Israel is so fucking hated by all ME smaller groups is because it casually pretends to maybe this time possibly protect them, and usually does nothing of the sort, causing more ruin.
I feel like your last paragraph ignores my last paragraph.
Your last paragraph was kind of meaningless
One of the reasons Israel is so fucking hated by all ME smaller groups is because it casually pretends to maybe this time possibly protect them, and usually does nothing of the sort, causing more ruin.
… I mean kinda? Israel has been a belligerent anti-arab neighbor since 1948 and has caused nothing but ruin. There’s a hell of a lot more reason for their distrust of Israel than their choices of proxy militant groups.
He’s at least trying to put on a facade of meaning them, which is about as good as Syria has had it in my life time.
No, he isn’t. He’s worse than Assad, the reason nobody says Assad was better is because Assad directly caused this by killing opponents, disarming strong parties (which could have resisted jihadists) and in general destroying the country. So he’s worse than Assad, but a direct consequence of Assad.
I’m certain he’s more consistent than Assad and eventually this leads to a more stable and economically viable Syria. Note how I’m not saying anything about human rights and civilization.
It’s pretty hard to be worse than the guy whose used nerve has on his own people and turned his country into a major producer for the international drug trade.
You just have to be the guy who turned a half-Sunni, half-Alawi city on the coast into half-Sunni, half-dead. Then after calls for stopping the murders and loads of videos with dead men, women and children he … forbid filming that.
Ok comment until the random sinophobic punchline. Imagine blaming this on chinese people. jfc.
I don’t know if that’s blame, or just acknowledging that USA’s general direction leads to China becoming ‘the’ world power by USA forfeitting their soft power around the world.
I’m not. I’m saying this will lead to China becoming the premier world power instead of us.
Imagine having reading comprehension skills. jfc
It’s not sinophobic to recognize who will be filling the power vacuum
I believe they meant that China will become the dominant power after the US finishes torpedoing itself.
My new conspiracy theory: Vance is a made man for the Technate, and the plan has always been to get him into the Presidency. Trump will be enabled to act as corruptly as he wants, until an impeachment succeeds. Vance will step in and fulfill Thiel’s program. Trump lands softly, and the Matrix is built.
until an impeachment succeeds
I found a flaw in your theory
dammit. I think you’re right.
This needs to be posted in every single LOOK WHAT HE DID NOW thread
we americans are pathetic. it seems like we fall into one of these categories:
- christo fascists who voted for him
- suburban sociopaths who voted for him
- clueless libertarians who either voted for him or absolve themselves of any responsibility
- NPR liberals who are basically useless pacifists
- millennial/gen Z cowards who can’t even drive a manual trans, much less start a revolution
it’s fucking hopeless and we deserve this. i’m building a bunker. fuck every one of you.-
If you had all the levers of wealth and power in the world, or if you as an individual had access to just one of them, wouldn’t you do your part to build this kind of passive society too? Otherwise you might have to worry about your access to these levers and therefore your power being usurped. There are many ways to manipulate a person to work against their own interests, which are almost entirely concentrated into the hands of the wealthy owning class.
This is a problem of class antagonism, not the complicity and/or ignorance of the individually powerless. As a class we have to rise beyond these antagonisms; their manipulation of us into a class that passively allows them to profit from our labor and pays no mind to their corruption; by teaching class consciousness to the other members of our class. That is just as much on you and I as it is on anyone else.
i’ve understood class consciousness since 2001.
cool. What are you doing to introduce it to others?
i put in my time
Sounds like you’re just as comfortable being a member of this passive society as anyone else you named, even if you took the long way around to the same conclusion.
Hey, I’m driving a manual trans don’t be putting that on my whole generation.
The problem is: nobody wants to die, we all are fed and fat, our education system has been being weakened for 40 years now, did I mention the whole not dying part?
I’m hopeful that our institutions are strong enough to hold until the midterm elections, Dems will take Congress with a strong majority and we can avoid mass bloodshed and actually impeach the guy and get him convicted. No doubt that may be a long shot and people will suffer but I’m not violent revolution is anywhere in the cards anytime soon.
Edit: just to be clear, I do wish we were and kind of could do more. This is just my realist take
I’m hopeful that our institutions are strong enough to hold until the midterm elections
lol. ok.
deleted by creator
Here’s my most optimistic take for Americans. This guy is not as bad as Hitler. He’s out to scam the world, not conquer it militarily. So that’s a plus, for now. If his successor is Vance then the invasion of Canada and Mexico might actually happen.
Yeah, at least he aint sending anyone he doesn’t like to labour and death camps, replacing everyone with loyalists and doesn’t talk of invading random neighbours
Yeah ok so he’s not as bad as late Hitler.
This guy is not as bad as Hitler.
The jury is still out on that, but it’s not looking good. Hitler took power in 1933, and didn’t start his first euthanasia program until 1936, and it didn’t really get going until after the establishment of the first death facility in Chelmno in 1941. Between those years, Hitler consolidated his power, reconfigured the government, and began rounding up his enemies.
HitlerPig took power in 2024, and is already making the exact same moves as Hitler. If he sticks with a similar timeline, he starts murdering his enemies in 2027.
Hitler’s first victims were the mentally and physically handicapped. HitlerPig’s henchman RFK, Jr., has already announced that they’re starting a database of Autistic people, which they want to pretend doesn’t really exist. We’ve already seen that these scientific Neanderthals think that the best way to improve concerning statistics is to get rid of the statistics (Remember how HitlerPig didn’t want a Covid testing program because that would increase the numbers?), and so the most efficient way to win the “war” on autism, is to get rid of all the aughties, and prohibit anyone else to be diagnosed with it. Hurray! MAGA cured autism!
Hitler ordered the construction of Dachau in his first year in power (1933). HitlerPig has already started building his first American concentration camp in Guantanamo Bay to hold 30,000 people. To provide context, the average maximum security prison in America hold 800-1200 prisoners, with the largest being the prison in Angola, LA, which holds 8300. That means the new concentration camp is almost 4x larger than our largest max security prison, which is already several times larger than the average. They are already sending people to El Salvador, and are negotiating a deal with Rwanda as well. Clearly, they intend to lock up a lot of people.
It needs to be stressed that HitlerPig’s closest advisor, Stephen “PeeWee Himmler” Miller, is an avowed Nazi. In his mind, the only thing the Nazis did wrong is that they weren’t decisively harsh enough. He has said that he wants to reduce the population of America from 335 million to 100 million white people. That’s 235 million people, about 70% of our current population, far more than the paltry 6 million deaths is assigned to Hitler.
I think your statement should be amended to read:
This guy is not as bad as Hitler…
…YET
if you’ve heard about Alfred Hugenberg you would know that this is currently going exactly the same as Nazi Germany, down the exactly how Musk is influencing the media. https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236323/episode/part-one-alfred-hugenberg-the-elon-271993970/
like it’s almost to the letter the nazi playbook. saying this isn’t as bad as Hitler is just ignoring history.
“One of the great ironies of how democracies die is that the very defense of democracy is often used as a pretext for its subversion. Would-be autocrats often use economic crises, natural disasters, and especially security threats—wars, armed insurgencies, or terrorist attacks—to justify antidemocratic measures.”
“Because there is no single moment—no coup, declaration of martial law, or suspension of the constitution—in which the regime obviously “crosses the line” into dictatorship, nothing may set off society’s alarm bells. Those who denounce government abuse may be dismissed as exaggerating or crying wolf. Democracy’s erosion is, for many, almost imperceptible.” ― Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future
So many people have scoffed at my comparisons to the Nazis, saying: “The Nazis killed 6 million people, [HitlerPig] hasn’t done that, you’re out of your mind.”
Well, 100+ days into Hitler’s administration, and he wasn’t killing either, YET.
What are we supposed to do? Wait until he has all the physical and political infrastructure in place, and is operating a wholesale killing machine bigger than Nazi Germany’s, and THEN start to make a plan to defeat it? Then we’ll be hearing whiners complaining that somebody should have done something about this BEFORE things got really bad.
We see what they are doing, and they are CLEARLY following the Nazi playbook. We KNOW where that leads. Americans don’t like to jump the gun and fight preemptively, they like to respond to concrete situations that justify retaliation. Generally, it’s a good policy, especially for the largest, most lethal nation the world has ever seen.
But in this case, we have literal traitors taking control of our nations wealth and firepower, just so they can leverage it for their own nefarious agenda. We don’t have to wait until the worst-case scenario unfolds, they have already committed crimes far beyond redemption, and we should already be responding with merciless, unforgiving resistance.
Fully agree there. This administration has to be removed from office. While there’s still a congress to do this. What I’m worried about now is a Reichstag fire event that will allow them to enact emergency legislation that will put the Patriot Act to shame. I watched the USA collectively lose its mind in 2001; it wouldn’t take much to do that again.
I only have one minor pushback. I read The Art of the Deal back in 2016. And having not read Mein Kampf, I can safely say it is no Mein Kampf. When it’s not totally incoherent it reads like a puff piece in a tabloid rag. So I guess I’m just less afraid of Trump than I am of a Hitler-class demagogue, but that says nothing about the MAGA movement as a whole. You don’t need intelligence to be a figurehead for a fascist coup.
I think it’s time for a general strike. There are rumblings of a reinvigorated labor movement, so for the first time since the 1970s I think it’s within the realm of possibility.
But the people manipulating him are as bad as Hitler.
Exactly.
I said it for many years. Trump only cares about Trump and no one and nothing else. He doesn’t believe in anything other than having his ego stoked and being enriched. The leaders of the world are absolutely laughing at him, but they also want him in power because he is so fucking easy to manipulate.
Don’t forget the heritage foundation wonks and oligarch-adjacent folks that debrief him and write all the orders for him to sign. I see the people directly in his administration having much more influential power than any foreign diplomat.
What’s nuts about the executive orders is that he also signed more of them in one month than he did in the whole of the first year of his first term. This is unprecedented.
What a world we live in, where calling someone not as bad as Hitler is an optimistic take
not as bad as Hitler
If his successor is Vance then the invasion of Canada and Mexico might actually happen.
Is Mexico a major furniture manufacturing country?
