Nicker on 12/1/2025 at 17:49
Try reading what is written, kiddo. Sell us out to Trump, who is also the enemy of the USA.
Starker on 12/1/2025 at 18:28
Quote Posted by RippedPhreak
Arbitrary nonsense about lies as an attempt to poison the well.
If you want to hinder Ukraine from defending itself and pressure them into surrendering to Russia's demands, then yes, you do want Russia to win. For example, setting limits to how far Ukraine can target Russia's ammunition depots will only help Russians, as they can move their supplies closer to the front line and thereby improve their logistics. Also, not aiding Ukraine is a choice that explicitly helps Russia, especially if the aid is basically a rounding error compared to the whole US military budget.
The aid sent to Ukraine is not in form of money, but largely in weapons and equipment. These are, for the most part, things the US currently no longer needs and would need to eventually replace anyway, because by now there's vastly better equipment available. Sending these things to Ukraine can in fact be cheaper than destroying them, so Ukraine is actually saving US tax payer money. The billions assigned on paper mean nothing -- it's simply the vastly overpriced value of the equipment. But the equipment is worthless if the only thing it does is sit in a warehouse until it's destroyed. And the irony is that the equipment is largely meant to fight Russia in the first place. Which now Ukrainians are offering to do with their own hands and no US blood lost.
You might not care about Russia expanding the conflict in Europe, but that's one of the most probable ways for the US to get into a war with Russia. The US depends on Europe and has obligations there. If Russia expands the conflict to the Baltics, Moldova, etc, the US has no choice but to get into a hot war. And then US lives would be lost.
I'm sure you would gladly have let Hitler just do its thing, but eventually the war would have reached the US even if the Japanese empire hadn't attacked the US. That's the thing with empires -- they have a drive to expand, hence they inevitably end up in conflicts with other empires and their neighbours as they are competing for resources and territory.
Nicker on 12/1/2025 at 20:10
One lesson the USA learned from WW2 is that war is profitable if it is fought with your equipment on someone else's territory.
lowenz on 12/1/2025 at 21:43
Quote Posted by Starker
That's the thing with empires -- they have a drive to expand, hence they inevitably end up in conflicts with other empires and their neighbours as they are competing for resources and territory.
And they attack the "nihilism" of a "decadent world" because in that kind of reality they can't sell you their fairytales (like the ruski mir or MAGA), not because they want help nor protect you. They structurally can't care about individuals, they just see you as a cell of a gigantic organism, an expendable one.
demagogue on 12/1/2025 at 21:45
What the USA really learned from the wake of WW2 that Trump & company apparently can't comprehend is that if the US takes a disadvantageous position in trade and economic relations with its trade partners to give their economies an artificial boost, not to mention paying directly into rebuilding them a la the Marshall Plan, the US will end up being much, much better off in terms of expanded markets to sell to and everybody having more dollars to buy more from the US than otherwise, versus beggaring its neighbors like the allies did to Germany after WW1 to keep it perpetually weak, only boosting resentment and aggression that exploded into WW2 in the first place. Empowering your neighbors pays back big time. That's the first thing that makes Trump's policy of screw Canada, Mexico, the UK, Western Europe, China, Taiwan, Japan, etc., etc. so self-destructive to the US.
Nicker on 13/1/2025 at 03:22
Well yes, dema, there is that too but I think that what I said is even beyond MAGA so no hope of them getting an even bigger picture.
On expanding empires, they are addicted to expansion. They are incapable of stability without growth, as much as they claim stability to be a key purpose. Expansion is not ideological, it's almost biological. Empire is like a Ponzi scheme. Always needing new blood.
Unfortunately our industrial business models are structured similarly. More production, new markets, greater market share, more profits, more resource extraction. Steady expansion. Stagnation (stability) means death. That was fine a century or two ago, when there was still a largely un-plundered globe to exploit, but we are approaching peak-stuff and have run out of room to put the garbage.
The military industrial still thrives because it creates it's own critical demand for new and better. Plus there's always some tin-pot dictator willing to take your hand-me-downs at fire sale prices.
Starker on 13/1/2025 at 06:23
Quote Posted by RippedPhreak
Trump wants favorable shipping terms in Panama, that is all. The Greenlanders are already signaling that they are open to negotiation to becoming a US territory. The Mexican government should be happy that someone wants to help them deal with the cartels, which is all Trump has threatened to do. Some of the hostages held by Hamas apparently have American citizenship, so taking some action to get them released seems proper, unless you just think we should uh...APPEASE Hamas instead?
If someone wants favourable and preferential treatment that's one thing, but threatening war is about the shittiest way to go about it. That's literally what bullies do: "Give us your pocket money or we'll beat you up!" Are you proud of such behaviour? Is this what you would want US to become? A bully who needs to threaten other countries with force? And what if they call your bluff? Doesn't that just make the US look weak and pathetic?
Lord Dampnut literally wanted to bomb Mexico in secret, saying they wouldn't know the US was behind it. Whether it's to deal with the cartels or not is irrelevant -- if you bomb urban areas, it's still the ordinary citizens who will suffer from the collateral damage.
As we have seen, one way to not get hostages back is to bomb them and shoot them. Not to mention the cruelty unleashed on the already starving Gazans who have nothing to do with this.
And lastly, where the hell do you get the idea that Greenland is signaling wanting to be under the control of the US. Everything I've read from its political leaders has been the complete opposite -- they want independence, not a change of rulers. And no, Lord Dampnut's failson traipsing around a diner and handing out red caps to homeless people doesn't count as what you would call popular support: (
https://newrepublic.com/post/190070/donald-trump-jr-greenland-staged-homeless)
Nicker on 18/1/2025 at 07:13
Think, a baby and some jingly keys.
Starker on 18/1/2025 at 10:12
I mean, I'm just here for the entertainment. I'm here for the jingly keys.
As I've said before, I think that Lord Dampnut is just a symptom of the wider problem and the US people electing an oligarchy to rule them is just a part of the path down.
