Much like the US, they can simultaneously have an economy that SHOULD collapse, but also be so ingrained in global trade that nobody is actually willing to call them to the carpet.

If China were Greece, they’d probably have gone bankrupt multiple times already.

I know it’ll come across as an unpopular opinion, but some of them just need their ass kicked. Literally went to high school with a kid who was insufferable, a prick to everyone. One day he started bullying one of my buddies who proceeded to beat the shit out of him. He told his football coach he ran into a mailbox on his bike when he had to explain his face looking like it did. After that he was the nicest kid ever - he realized “being tough” wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I guarantee a few of these kids just need to get punched in the face one time and they’ll start rethinking the “alpha male” ideology.

And the propaganda you’re trying to feed is straight from Russia with love through a “Russian filter”.

Ignoring the fact you’re a troll: one of these countries was invaded, and is taking every measure possible to secure their continued existence. One of these countries invaded a sovereign nation, and is wasting citizen lives for no reason beyond an insane, expansionist dictator’s whims.

These are not the same, no matter how many times you try to spew the false equivalency.

Can we not pretend to be as dumb as the flat-earth tumpers?

Her family came out and stated she suffered from epileptic seizures, and believed that was cause of death. There’s literally nothing worse than the family having closure, and being continually harassed about the death of a loved one because of psychotic internet conspiracy theorists. There is no basement in this pizza parlor.

If you just took a shower and your balls are still “dirty” your problem isn’t the order in which you dry yourself.

If you can take a shower like a functional adult, it turns out skin is skin and wiping water off your ballsack is fundamentally identical to wiping water off the back of your hand.

Executive orders can’t direclty contradict existing laws. They are utilized in “legal gray areas”. If it were that simple, Trump would simply pass an executive order that it’s legal for him to assassinate all members of any opposing political party and wipe every non-republican off the face of the earth, literally.

I guess it’s a good thing the question wasn’t: what was the first thing Trump went after.

The question was: why aren’t corporations pushing back. If you read what I said, instead of apparently assuming I don’t understand the order of events of Trumps idiocy, you’d see that I’m telling you that SPORTS has driven folks who would normally be neutral or supporting of transgender rights in the opposite direction. You can say that’s stupid, you can say you don’t like it, but that’s reality. And the INSISTENCE on the trans community of pushing the sports thing gave Trump and company an in to make it the central focus of the discussion.

Why on earth would ANY business get in the middle of that when, again, the majority of Americans do not support it? A topic like this leaves no room for nuance, either a company supports transgender rights and everything that goes with it (like the hotbutton sports topic) or they don’t. It is safer for their sales to not.

If you want an actual answer: the answer is because it’s still a pretty controversial topic in the US. If you leave the echo chamber here, you’ll find the vast majority of people, even those who support the trans movement, are pretty universally against trans women competing in sports. The fact the movemen tried to force it down everyone’s throat and shame anyone who disagreed moved a lot of people from neutral to negative.

When I was growing up, there was no girls wrestling, but “boys” sports in high school aren’t “boys” they’re “open”. We had girls on the wrestling team, girls on the football team. Now as they got older and the boys got bigger and stronger, something like football is a generally a non-starter.

All of that is to say: corporations aren’t going to die on this hill when there isn’t a clear majority of Americans supporting it.

It’s not insane at all. It sucks but it’s completely logical. Musk is just protecting his capital as best he can within a global capitalist system.

No, it’s absolutely insane, and short sighted. You know how much his capital will be in the event of WWIII? We won’t be spending money on overpriced EVs or sending rockets to outer space on scientific missions to study the universe. Assuming he doesn’t get himself assassinated first by people that actually care about democracy. The absolute BEST thing to protect his capital is a strong spending class in the US, which would require the economy to not collapse. You gut social services, there is exactly one logical outcome and it is social unrest followed by either class war or civil war.

He actually does seem to care, a lot. It’s why he always says fake news, if he didn’t care about being called a liar, he’d ignroe it entirely. Losing control of the narrative drives him absolutely insane, it’s why the whole “weird” thing got him so unhinged.

At the end of the day you are either with russia or with usa. Politicians job is to lie to people and get votes but their actions once they are elected are always clear. You are either with usa or against it.

At this point I would say you’re either for democracy or against it. The USA has little to do with it, especially with Cheeto Benito currently in charge and doing his best to build his own little fascist kingdom. If you’re pro-democracy in Germany, you don’t have to like or support the US one bit, but you do need to be against AfD.

The reality is his personal mental acumen is very, very irrelevant if he’s surrounded himself with trusted advisors who are competent. That being said, you can’t show up to a debate and look like you’re 200 years old and have no idea what planet you’re on.

So hold them accountable for literally any other office besides president when the opponent is a literal fascist?

Yes, “held accountable” because you can’t imagine a world in which geopolitics means you can’t just cut off all support to an ally with an “or else”.

The only thing worse than the morons too stupid to see that Trump is going to do what he says, are the morons who think that you can just drop all aid to Israel overnight and nothing will happen. Do any of you have ANY idea how intertwined both our military and tech sectors are?

“Why is the packaging the exact same”

It isn’t? Yes, the graphics are identical, because why would Kroger bother spending money on a graphics artist to make two different packages? They don’t care.

The ingredient list on the front is very clearly not the same and tells you exactly what’s in it.

We’ve known about Gaetz’ child sex trafficking ring for about 18 months now.

Initial reports, and rock-solid evidence to bring to court to try an elected sitting congressman are two VERY different things. 18 months is rarely enough time to do discovery and complete a trial for a murder with multiple eye-witnesses.

Hell, the Parkland Shooting, where he admitted to doing it and pleaded guilty took over 3 YEARS to come to conclusion. Gaetz would have been fighting tooth and nail to ride it out to the next administration who would promptly try to drop the case.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkland_high_school_shooting

The Parkland high school shooting was a mass shooting that occurred on February 14, 2018 On October 20, 2021, Cruz pleaded guilty to all charges and apologized for his crimes. The prosecution sought the death penalty, and a four-month death penalty trial was expected to commence in January 2022.

“bitch, change this dumbass law or I pull the plug on your media and financing” and then w/e president he just called does the thing.

So he calls Putin and says his PAC needs another round of funding?

Actual programmers wondering why this joke doesn’t mention 65535…

Members of the military have an obligation to refuse illegal orders. I am neither in the military nor a lawyer, so I can’t go too deep on that.

I have no doubt this is his first step in ferreting out any military leadership who holds loyalty to the constitution over him personally. Whether this particular plan is blocked or not, it lets him clear out anyone who won’t follow his orders without question going forward.

because in the long term the right will bail after Trump and leave a party so weak that it probably won’t be able to fight off the memory of Trump

Look at this optimist still assuming there’s going to be another election and that a republican party actually matters. The supreme court has already ruled he can’t be held liable for anything he does while president if it’s an “official act” - if you think he won’t try “officially” ending the public choosing the next president, you might be in for a rude awakening.