GrundlButter
You're not wrong, but having a specific score of upvoting problematic content feels like a new low.
This isn't great advice. The cat wants a treat always, you will overdose on whatever medication it is before the cat is sated.
A social credit score, if you will. Government is gonna love purchasing this on the cheap. Hell, maybe they already have.
This should make tax season pressure free for new families, given the sudden uptick in octuplets birthed in the previous tax year. It's nice not to have to worry about getting audited.
Besides, the IRS is definitely going to get turned into a political weapon, given that they've already accused Democrats of that, this is one of their next projections.
I didn't think you did. I was more continuing the conversation to point out that there is no alternative. Someone else replied to me with a great point about Churchill being in a similar situation as Zelenskyy during WW2.
It's clear this go around, America is going to join the wrong side of history. That's not a new thing, but it will be the first world war specifically where we are clearly are on the bad side. Typically America commits it's atrocities in smaller skirmishes, and by destabilizing and taking advantage less developed nations for profit. That slavery habit does hard.
The world is fucked, and America is deciding whether to go through a civil war, or to let it be a "bloodless revolution" to quote the heritage foundation president. Europe is going to have to figure out how to defend in a post American world at best, or it's going to have to figure out how to defend against America at worst.
Also,, to your edit... Not just the end of Russian sanctions, but the full official cut of military aid to Ukraine. We're witnessing the beginning of WW3. Hope we both make it through or that tensions die down.
I mean, whats the alternative? Unconditional surrender?
As I see it, here's the 3 options:
Bend the knee to trump, give up your resources, and keep your country with no security guarantee worth a damn, just to lose your country later. And not just the lack of credible security guarantees, but specifically agreeing to never join the one alliance that would give such a guarantee.
Bend the knee to Putin, and just let Russia annex Ukraine fully, therefore avoiding a war in the unspecified future.
Go at it with or without US support.
If you were the leader of your country, how much of your land and resources would you give away in the pursuit of temporary peace, knowing that it is only temporary?
Exactly. How much of your country and resources will you be willing to give up when Russia and their useful idiot comes knocking? If the answer isn't everything, you should probably help Ukraine make a stand now before the "peace deal" results in loosened sanctions and before Russia starts to re-arm.
In this thread I've had two separate people mention the major problem with campaign finance or money in politics. And I think I have to agree, part of the reason that the Democrats are so disappointing because they serve the same masters.
Maybe that could be a concentrated goal and and the rallying cry for the Democrats approaching the midterms, that you shouldn't even try to run on the Democratic ticket unless you're going to push for campaign finance reform that ends citizens united. That might be a big enough change to start improving our democratic system.
I can certainly agree with the money in politics being an openly corrupt system. Maybe that's the rallying cry for the midterms? The neo liberal status quo is indeed bullshit, and you're right that they just toss us breadcrumbs. This is a big enough breadcrumb to make a difference though.
Unfortunately, not much given that this is the framework of the American democratic process. But, I think talking about it, openly and inviting new ideas to the mix, and encouraging people to vote in every election is a needed part of the process, while pessimism without solutions serves nobody and hinders progress.
It's appropriate to be frustrated, but eventually we have to channel that frustration into action or it will disincentive everyone else from even trying.
Personally, I wish we had the economic freedom and class consciousness necessary to effectively protest. Eventually our economic troubles might be bad enough to completely override our "gotta make ends meet" inertia, but I hope we can improve things before that happens.
Do you have any ideas as to what we could do differently or more efficiently? We joke about it, but even revolution isnt out of the question if you can get enough support, the problem as always is that broad support.
I would say it shares a key similarity to a ponzi scheme, but has entirely different goals, methods, and results.
Both of them pay initial "investors" with later investors funds. In a ponzi scheme, this is unknown to the later investors so that they can eventually be left holding the bag. But in social security, this is a known commodity, and the thought is that there will always be more people.
Unfortunately, that last part gets a bit nuanced with population decline and growing needs of the elderly. Either way, it's a good system or a good scheme, but it's definitely not a ponzi scheme. Because just like healthcare, even if we don't fund social security, elderly and disabled people are still going to need care and skip out on their bills when they die. So in the end, we're still paying for it but with extra steps and lawsuits.