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honestly I think they might do the opposite actually, cause they say "if you dont like America, then leave!" but then they are like "you dare leave the USA cause you dont like it!? HOW DARE YOU!!!"

wait a second, did I forget "every accusation is a confession" applies to EVERYTHING again?
Like, it's just not how normal people operate. I can't get my mind around that this kind of compulsive lying is so omnipresent

Its a bit more complicated than that cause they dont THINK they are lying and dont see their own contradictions….I mean it doesnt make it better but its weird

Some levity for this times of despair

Please, we know forced feminization is a right wing kink.

So…. how exactly are the republicans in power gonna fix the economy and reversed inflation now that they won?

They have 4 years if they cant do it they are in TROUBLE (I mean Trump could try preventing elections but I am starting to doubt he is competent enough to do that)

Like A LOT of moderates voted for Trump cause he was gonna "fix the economy" well….lol good luck with that Trump. People are gonna be REALLY dissapointed with the Republican party if inflation and shrinkflation continues like nothing happened.

"Where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people too".

I quoted that when the American Right started up their book banning spree (and there was one church which did engage in a bonfire of books), and one could see in real-time how the attack on libraries, teachers and the separation of church and state has progressed. The slippery slope continues to go down.

Look at the self-pitying rhetoric, it's actually one reason why I refuse to humour a lot of the damned victim mentality of the American Right has, because like with the Russians they use it and any validation of it as fuel to attack others. Only people I pity are the children, what kind of quality of life are the Christian Nationalists planning with that? It's going to go through the same degradation that Turkey and Iran went through.

Since the prior issues with the Christian Nationalists has sadly proven true, I'll like to point out that there's a worrying amount of groundwork being laid by the American Right on Mexico & Greenland. It's not just random people, politicians including the new nominees, particularly the new American Defense Secretary Hegseth has said something about it.

Now talks of "buying" and "taking" Greenland probably won't bear fruit in a long-time, especially since there was so much noise about "the economy" and the consequences it will have between Europe and the US (i.e: possibly war) may still be too much, but rhetoric about the Mexicans is worrying. American Right rhetoric has been unironically about "peace through strength", and since it's highly likely at this point that they'll disengage from a lot of other theaters, there's a question on where they'll use their military?

It's possibly far-fetched, but consider how the "trade war" and actual wars went from something that will never happen to something that did. I'll never really forget how complimentary Trump was of Putin's "genius move", or the complete and utter lack of any concern of many about territorial aggression, sometimes one has to judge people by what they say and do,

I think I have some takers for me to continue this line of thought. See, the reason why we don't seriously think "Country X is going to do Y" is because there's a variety of different arguments.

So, why wouldn't the US do that, or what excuses is there, or what are the different ways to frame that? I've liked to see the various defenses that came up, although it's some version of "stop thinking about it", than don't bother.

After the Christian Nationalist stuff, I have no patience anymore for constant denials and than shocking actions to cultivate apathy or despair; that's a tactic I already have enough of with the Russians.

I see what you are saying but I would rather not get so pessimistic and alarmistic just yet, it aint good for one's mental health and Trump hasnt even started his presidency

Ha, maybe you're right. Although, I wouldn't say I'm pessimistic , more … defiant? It's an opportunity.
I remember how in 2016 the argument was "give Trump a chance", and he did get it. I don't want to repeat all the same argument beats as last time, because indecision is a strategy.

To explain, when dealing with someone who lies or changes their story often and deliberately tries to cultivate indecision on whether they're going to be hostile or not, one has to stop wondering what they'll do and start predicting and planning against them. Prepare for the worst case scenario, cutoff possible avenues of action so to speak, be proactive.

Building on that, I want to know as many people's opinion on this as possible, before it gets to be influenced by media. So far this is a non-story, but if there's ever talks of an "intervention" in Mexico, it won't be a surprise.

Thats fair but just know when to quit for a while and take breaks though as its often not a matter of "if" constant politics will drive you a bit insane but often more a matter of "when" constant politics will drive you a bit insane.

This current political climate is NOT good for ones sanity so its important to take breaks….trust me….I would know….

And I aint the only one in a leftwing-ish discord community I am in who fucking lost it over the years cause of politics…… hell greyblades for example used to be normal-ish at first…. gotta be careful about over stressing yourself

There's something to be said about Mexico's utter failure to handle the cartels; the PRI, who ran the country uninterrupted until 2000, had explicit ties to them, and MORENA seems uninterested in actually doing anything about it either.

The US has a pretty poor track record when it comes to interventions past, like… the early 50s, but unlike in Iraq or Afghanistan, the cartels really are our problem, making the situation much less simple. Not only is Mexico directly on our border, rather than being on the other side of the world, but the cartels are in our cities, too. The ideal situation would be for Mexico to get another president like Calderón, who wants to root out the cartels and is willing to accept American cooperation; given the popularity of El Salvador's Bukele and his platform across Latin America, it may happen in the next few elections.

Mexico is doing the best they can take in cknsideration how insanely powerful and ruthless the cartels are

There exists the political will to do something with Mexico on both parties. A Department of State offcial was anonymously quoted in Mexican media before the election saying "Let me put it simply, the Democrats want to fuck (chingar) Mexico and the Republicans want to invade it." But what people don't seem to realize is that a potential invasion is doomed to be a failed enterprise, as the cartels do have the hability to significantly retailate against American troops. This will in turn escalate violence levels harming the american economy, and that would be Trump's strongest detterent to actually plan an invasion. However, the stars seems to be aligning with all this recent talk of excluding mexico from USMCA treaty. Hopefully doesn't, but it seems to be how Mexico's new female president and trump get along. Perhaps will explain later a short crash course of Mexico's social history and how we got to this point and what lies next.

In the end I believe that US has just too much to lose even if Trump minimizes all the negative outcomes of a invasion to the fullest extent.

That was an interesting read, I'll save it for commenting later

Nah, compared to El Salvador, Mexico is too big, too close to the US and the situation is now just too complex for trying trying that strategy again.

PS: As much as I like to expand on my previous comments, including other topics commented on the main page (specially the US 2024 results), I'm afraid it will have to wait until December to elaborate. I'm too busy with finals and I have already lost too much time on this website

Some advice for my American friends, do not ever preemptively comply to totalitarians

First of all, thank you for those who have responded. It's good and appreciated, especially since we'll likely disagree. It's complicated.

@No!!

Thank you for your advice. For me, it would probably have been worse by the time of the Bush Era, which is more than 20 years ago. Since then, even if I get angry by something I've never gotten to that same level.

To use the current topic as an example; Trump would have to bungle diplomacy with Mexico so badly that it went from fighting the cartels to fighting Mexico itself, eventually lose that war and leave, then let the cartels take-over to come close to Bush's negative effects on the world (sabotaging international diplomacy, institutions and efforts for climate and that's not counting his domestic policy disasters on natural disasters and education). I still think Bush is the start of the rot of many things, it's an irony that the "Project for a New American Century" is what has likely led to the quickened downfall of America's power. A little lesson to avoid arrogant slogans like that, and avoid putting clowns in power, because it turns out it's not harmless.

The US's war against terror helped create ISIS and just gave the Taliban some shiny new toys & caused enough chaos to give Iran more proxies. The worst of all this? It was predictable, but the Americans (and it's both, don't let either the Right or Left over there lie to you, they were both in on it) would lie to you and quite aggressively too. They would deny, or justify everything up to torture, until suddenly one day they pretended they always thought it was a mistake, and did everything to forget and now deny any links to it.

Attempting to deny or playing down the severity of anything (even outside of politics) is still a good way to confirm guilt in my eyes, while explaining, even with 'evil' reasons is better than nothing.

I still think that part of the cultural malaise of the US is that they're still trying to grapple with that, or it's after-effects even if they're ignorant of the root cause. To understand what went wrong and try to change or re-create something that was lost (same with the World Wars with a lot of Europe, even if the devastation is not comparable at all, they got other people killed instead).

It's funny, ranting about Bush is actually therapeutic for me. Who knows, if the current political climate is too much, there could be a switch to past political scandals that got swept up.

I've always wanted to argue who was right in medieval politics.

On the subject of Mexico? It's something which requires someone competent who can work with the Mexican government so it doesn't turn into an disaster. Separating from the issue of the cartels is the problem of how the American Right are planning to do it, because this isn't a situation where might makes right like their rhetoric says. It's going to be another counter-insurgency situation.

Good to know at least that the groundwork being laid is being acknowledged and not denied.

A good look at what the future of the US holds is what happened to Türkiye under erdogan

you absolutely are not wrong but try to not to panic too much yet..panic a little but try to stay calm….as that is what they want us to do….they want us to panic and lose our shit, its clearly their plan

Trump has chosen Dr. Oz to be part of his government apparatus.

Poor Trump tbh…

I consider Tom Homan as Border Czar as his best choice so far.

I aint sure the democrats are inherently winning the 2028 election tbh even if its a fully honest elections I have my doubts….

Really is a fight over who makes themselves look worse and more deranged the democrats or the republicans for the next 4 years until its finally over.

Though counting how much Trump will probably fuck over the economy with his tarrifs and the whole Project 2025 shit I think the republicans will be the ones to make themselves look worse but who knows how the democrats fuck up this time… not replacing Biden till the last second was fucking stupid…

Which says a lot about how bad his other choices are if Tom fucking Homan is considered his 'best.'

Obama-era deportation king who explicitly advocates for separating children from their families as a fear tactic and who goes beyond being 'Tough on illegal immigration' to treating them as barely human.

Still, he's not a racist, doesn't have brain worms in his head, and doesn't advocate for bombing the middle east, so you're right, he's probably Trump's best pick.

better than an anti-vaxxer I guess….

Make from these what you will (But watch them completely)

Communists have been extra obnoxious lately

I cant think of one group right now communists arent going out of their way to insult and be assholes towards….kind of a bad strategy tbh. It has gotten WAY worse as of late.

"As a communist I fucking hate liberals" ok….fair enough..I mean dont get me wrong I DO get it..BUT: BUUUUT how the fuck, in the living hell, are you gonna get anyone on your side? Like what the fuck is your angle here when the USSR is considered by most as bad as nazi germany?

I mean I get right now we live in "everyone is for themselves" type of times but they could TRY to be less obnoxious

edit: like if you are gonna be this much of an extremist jerk then I aint sure you are all that much better than the far right……

Yeah yeah I get I am being hipocritical cause I was super obnoxious…..but I mostly shut up eventually so they probably should follow my lead and tone it the fuck down too…..

Some advice for my American friends, do not ever preemptively comply to totalitarians

You're right, just not for the reasons you think. Never agree to be disarmed – whether gun ownership is heavily restricted (Australia, the United Kingdom), banned selectively for enemies of the current order (Germany) or banned entirely (China), it's an open door to worse and worse oppression.

A good look at what the future of the US holds is what happened to Türkiye under erdogan

It's really not. An actual good look would be to see what Trump's first term was like.

So the UK government is now going after the farmers straight out of a communist playbook, this has been going on all throughout Europe in the last few years. What do you think they want to achieve with this? Is this just modern Lysenkoism?
How many of you had Jeremy Clarkson leading a farmer's resistance on their bingo card?

I cant believe I am saying this but i think slowly in 2024 we are seeing the rise of unironic National Bolshevism

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

the memes….the memes are real!!

We must sieze the means of production…for white people!!

At best it will be like his first term, most likely we will end up like turkey, at worst, well we saw what happened in 1933

Moe: "Kulaks! I knew it was them! Even when it was Polish day laborers I knew it was them!"

tbh this thread, the forum in general really and the trending images are mostly the reason I come to this cursed website, the rest of the website is extremely toxic

We got a real good look at what it was like on January 6.

The man is a dictator wannabe, and the Erdogan comparison is extremely apt. It's a bitter pill to swallow that his actions after losing validated everyone calling him a fascist swimmingly.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/20/us/politics/mike-johnson-transgender-women-ban-capitol-bathrooms.html

This is incredibly stupid

When you make a minority the boogeyman you can shift blame off the real culprits, (the 1%) they've done this forever

also house resolution 9495 is prepared to give the executive the power to censor non profits

I'm sympathetic to small farmers coming from an agricultural background. I've seen first-hand fields turned to low density gated communities, and a subsequent rise in taxes neighboring landowners face after this.

However, I feel it noteworthy to Link the article in question as the headline doesn't really give a good sense of things.

From the Guardian article:
"Under the reforms to inheritance tax relief on agricultural land proposed in the budget, about 500 individuals who inherit land worth more than £2m [~$2.5m] (£3m[~$3.7m] if they were married to the deceased) will join the rest of society and have inheritance tax levied on their bequest – albeit at half the rate, with an enlarged exemption and 10 years to pay it,"

To note: A BBC article seems to agree on the number of roughly 500, but states "combined business and agricultural assets worth more than £1m" as opposed to £2m in land value.

Farmers did have to pay an inheritance tax until Thatcher’s 1984 Inheritance Tax Act. This current proposed change would be a tax inheritance tax increase of none, to a sizable amount. One that can be mitigated using different legal methods as many inheritances can be as long as the person bequeathing the inheritance can work things out before dying. This isn’t to say that this is the “right thing to do” but a lot of the stories are acting like this is a takeover of agriculture with the potential to make any farming in the UK impossible.

With all that said, a lot of the first results of articles somewhat in favor of this are… disgustingly dismissive and openly contemptuous of concerns people have, to the point that listening to the ‘pro’ ones make my gut reaction side more with those against than anything they could write.
I do agree with the top Reddit post and it's response on this. Land value tax that would receive massive subsidy as long as you are actually using it for farming (or some form of fallow to restore nutrients to later resume farming) which would incentivize the land to be used and not purchased for what many perceive as rich people buying property with the primary intent to pass wealth to heirs without paying taxes on it like other forms of inheritance.

@GeneHunt

So the UK government is now going after the farmers straight out of a communist playbook, this has been going on all throughout Europe in the last few years.

Inheritance Taxes. Inheritance Taxes which were present even during monarchies where a nobility was mostly affected. Inheritance taxes are communist now? Well, with the cabinet of billionaires and TV has-been's that the US is going to get, even some neo-liberals would seem like communists in comparison to that.

Are we already at this part of a Trump presidency? To give some perspective since your account has been here for a year, during the Trump presidency there were a lot of accusations of communism that would fly around (which is why I think it's hypocritical when some of the Right here complain of fascism accusations, I'm not sure who started it around here, but there wasn't much propriety over that when I joined in).

Well, I guess one can look forward to the inevitable fireworks between the Labour in UK and the Republicans in the US. Funny thing is, the British Farmers were also worried about being ruined by American "trade deals" (both the 'good' and 'bad' ones that the Americans are going to try to be insistent about again).

Lysenkoism

Lysenkoism was about the Soviet going against genetics and science-based agriculture for pseudo-science. Your comparison might be more about collectivization, or to use the comparison of Pinkie, 'dekulalization'.

@Jill

It's good that you posted the article itself. I have mixed feelings on the subject itself, since it's well-known that it's used as a tax avoidance loophole where people buy out farming properties to rent out to farmers, and what was supposed to be a measure to help farmers has ended up just being a way for the creation of new manor lords. A lot of Thatcher's policies ended up doing something that, even Jeremy Clarkson has admitted it was a way for him to avoid taxes.

On the other hand, this may still affect farmer's and Labour has a reputation for completely bungling their policies (particularly the Blairites), so taking in some demands of the protests so they're not heavy-handed about this is necessary. I've been reading some of the "pro" side and it astounds me how bad some can be at communicating, but policies are not the communication surrounding it.

In other news, 6 EU satellites and underwater cables connecting Sweden, Finland and Germany has been sabotaged. The Danish Navy has apparently apprehended a Chinese vessel (crewed by Russians) so an investigation is pending.

It's nothing new with cyber attacks, sabotage, threats, election interference and assassinations occurring every so often due to the Russians, and this was even during the "good relations" period before the Ukraine war. It's constant and tiresome as even peace with Putin's Russia is a constant hybrid war (it's why I don't believe in anyone who engages in the fawning reasonable dictator shtick with Putin).

Now Finland is talking about activating Article 5 since they're finally in NATO (and I guess they have less patience/are less passive about this than Western Europe), but it might just only be an attempt to copy Putin's Russia's tough guy rhetoric.