Right here with them. It's kind of scary how close we had come before, but it's even scarier to think that there's a good portion of Americans who are like, "Yes, we've had first Trump term, what about infinite Trump terms?"
the problem with billionaires is that they benefit from chaos.. it's in their best interest to increase political and economic instability in the world.. they aren't true citizens of any nation..
Lipp says his return to Trump began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In March 2023, DeSantis downplayed the invasion, calling it a “ territorial dispute”.
“That really made me wonder about DeSantis’s knowledge of international politics and how it affects the United States. It really concerned me,” Lipp said.
So you go back to... Trump? Who has literally praised Putin for the invasion?
“Trump has a business background and he’s a great negotiator. He has a strong personality. These conflicts can be resolved through negotiation, and Trump is the right man at the right time.”
They still think of him as the character he played on The Apprentice.
The damage Mark Burnett did by refining the myth of Donald Trump’s business acumen for The Apprentice is incalculable. He single-handedly convinced the stupidest dregs of society that Donald Trump was a brilliant negotiator and successful businessman. When in reality The Apprentice itself was the only successful thing he had ever been involved with.
I couldn't stand to watch it. I hated donnie for a very long time, and watching that asshat play a Bigly Successful Bidness Man was too much. It was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes when the watercooler talk would start up about that show.
In the past and occasionally now I indulge in pro wrestling, I know it’s predetermined and ridiculous but it’s fun and makes me happy. I think everyone knows this about wrestling at this point.
What I’ve been realizing over the past few years in conversations with people who watch reality TV is that there is a non insignificant percentage of them who don’t see the kayfabe. It’s really distressing
From the article: "The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 and has long said it does not support a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan. It does, however, maintain unofficial relations with the self-governed island and remains its most important backer and arms supplier."
It is my understanding that Taiwan does not officially consider itself separate from China either. Rather, they hold themselves to be the true democratic government of the mainland.
Another interesting thing of note about Taiwan is that it claims the land of what is currently Mongolia iirc.
I've always found it interesting how intransigent some of the East Asian nations are. You have the Nk/Sk conflict that is only in an armistice, no official peace treaty, then you have PRC/Taiwan--also in armistice. Then, there are are hundreds of instances of inflexibility on China's part with internal minorities or border conflicts with India or Vietnam. Add to the the SCS and the Nine Dash Line. Japan also exhibits some of this inflexibility leading up to and after WW2, and the forced pacifism afterward, which has caused some self-inflicted problems with an armistice with Russia over the Kuril Islands.
I've always wondered if the tendency is cultural or something else that was learned over the millennia.
Probably because of the shit China would be forced to do in response.
Instead they just park a carrier group nearby as don't say they are there to observe. We all know what will actually happen, but its not been said so China can save face.
It's a bit more than that as Taiwan officially claims to be China. To claim Taiwan is independent is to sign Taiwan up for a lot of problems because they go from being the government the people's republic of china overthrew to insurrectionists.
If that was true, the rampant sinophobia coming out of Washington would've been curtailed a LONG time ago. This is just white American deception, same as it ever was. Words are air when yankees speak them-- they'll be right back to old tricks within 12 months.
Never trust words, only actions. Also USA already said they would bomb and destroy TSMC if Taiwan attempted to exercise sovereignty and reunify with China.
Oh you mean the tiny little island nation seated right next to their former occupyers are hesitant to call out their independence when the world at large doesn't recognise them, and said occupyer enjoys to show off their military force during various important political moments, like elections? Who would've thought it! https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/13c9a42c-6d8e-48c0-b4bf-c7d0302f29e6.png
Ah you're right, Taiwan wouldn't be independent, because in the case of a Chinese attempt at occupation, the U.S. would swoop in and occupy it themselves "liberate" them.
Doubt it, the companies would just blow the chip plants. There are already chip fabrication plants being built all around the world because of the situation, but there's basically no way TSMC is letting the CCP seize their fabs. They already have plans in place to destroy everything needed for fabrication, which is probably part of the reason China hasn't invaded.
It comes from the 1950's when a section of the 'left' who believed the Soviet Union was inherently good found themselves defending the Soviet invasion and forced annexation of Hungary. The soviets lead the invasion with Tanks, hence 'Tankie'.
This support happened due to the simplistic belief that communism was inherently good, capitalism was bad and so the actions of a Communist country (like the Soviet Union) could never be bad if taken against a capitalist country is inherently good.
With the effective collapse of communist countries 'tankies' has switched to the people on the left that view western society as evil and any country which attempts to destroy or subvert western countries.
This typically manifests in a 'tankie' defending any action/supporting any view taken by China, Iran, Russia or North Korea and typically and typically amplifying anti USA rhetoric.
For example a Tankie will argue the Russian invasion and attempted genocide of Ukraine is justified and the USA is 'evil' for helping Ukraine defend itself.
Trump just says the quiet part out loud here, if push comes to shove then US will absolutely hang Europe to dry. The fate of Ukraine is a preview of what the rest of Europe can expect.
That's a problem for the EU to figure out. Maybe antagonizing its biggest neighbour hoping that US will come charging in to save the EU wasn't the smartest idea in retrospect.
Fighting individual countries might favor Russia depending on the country, but I would love to see Putin get his ass handed to him if he dared attack the whole european bloc.
Given how badly Russia is performing in Ukraine, I'd love to see it fail at trying to project power in the EU.
Leaving aside the sheer absurdity of Russia attacking Europe, the fact that Russia has the biggest nuclear arsenal in the world appears to escape you. Of course, you also think that Russia is performing badly in Ukraine, so what else is there to say about you.
It did not escape me. Too bad they can't use it because using it means they're also "turned to glass", as the cool kids say, if they do. France and the UK do have a nuclear arsenal of their own, and the US might actually hold their promises and retaliate. Their arsenal may not be as big, but hey, it works at least, and it's enough to kill all the war criminals in Moscow (and, sadly, thousands and thousands of civilians, which would be an absolute tragedy).
Despite the narrative that you despicable Russian trolls are pushing, the war of aggression launched by Russia is a failure that is reminiscent of the failure that Afghanistan was. Russia failed to achieve the objectives it set out to accomplish in a reasonable time frame. It's a stalemate, at least for now. Which shows how pathetic the Russian war machine is, especially when you consider the numbers involved here. If it's struggling against Ukraine alone, just imagine how ridiculously it would fare against a bloc with multiple times the population, with a nuclear arsenal to boot.
I wouldn't dare say that Ukraine is winning the war, or that it will eventually, mind you. I never have. Only time will tell. All I was saying is that Russia has nothing to brag about. They achieved very little in the past two years relative to the effort they put in, and managed to reach new highs in cruelty and perfidy.
It's pretty clear that you genuinely believe everything you wrote here, which means that no constructive discussion is possible with you. Enjoy living in your fantasy world while you can, it's going to come crashing down soon enough. Best of luck to you.
Plenty of people have already explained what's happening in the war. Here are two excellent articles from people with a clue that you might want to read.
It's incredible that you think Russia is just fighting Ukraine here while ignoring all the resources the west has poured into this war. Not to mention the fact that NATO was training and arming Ukrainian army for close to a decade before the war even started.
Russia is fighting a war of attrition with a very limited force, and it's depleting entire NATO arsenals as western media openly admits now. If you think Russia is doing poorly here, then what can we say about the achievements of NATO in Afghanistan for two decades. NATO lost against the Taliban who didn't have any support from anybody, or any modern weapons.
Not only is Russia prevailing on the battlefield, but Russia is also winning the economic war with the west. Russian economy is now growing while the west is going into a recession. Russia has massively increased its influence with the Global South, while the west is becoming the pariah of the world.
The fact that westerners can't understand this is absolutely incredible.
Those links seem silly to me, but I evidently don’t have a clue. I think I’ll skip those articles, all the same - I prefer to avoid propaganda, be it western, Russian or otherwise.
You're seriously trying to suggest that U.S. Lt. Col. Alex Vershinin retired after 20 years of service, including eight years as an armor officer with four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan and 12 years working as a modeling and simulations officer in NATO and U.S. Army concept development and experimentation. This included a tour with the U.S. Army Sustainment Battle Lab, where he led the experimentation scenario team, is writing propaganda for Russia here?
You genuinely don't understand how absurd that claim is do you.
I didn’t mention the Afghanistan conflict. I wonder why you deflect and mention that. Whether it was a success or not isn’t what was being discussed here.
You said that Russia is performing poorly in Ukraine, so I'm comparing how NATO has performed in Afghanistan. It's weird that you're unable to acknowledge this and call it deflection. We're comparing the strength of Russian army to NATO here. So, if Russia is able to defeat a large modern army in Ukraine, and NATO can't defeat the Taliban I think it's pretty clear which army is stronger.
Russia is certainly trying to woo India and China and it may be working for now as their agendas align. Suggesting the West is becoming ‘the pariah of the world’ is ridiculous though and an individual of your obvious intelligence must realise that.
I agree with the other commenters that these individuals still think Trump is the character he played on The Apprentice.
Their age is a factor.
The world keeps speeding up, and these people can't handle.
Mean ol' Donnie dog whistling makes them feel safer (because the people they hate are the ones "responsible" for what's wrong), and ok to be bitter, and honest about who and why they hate.
It's "othered" brown (usually Muslim or Mexican) or LGBTQ people, a functional government, & paying for either.
Lead poisoning & a Fox News diet can really mess you up.
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