he loves his bribes : microblogmemes

[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 minutes ago (1 children)

The sanctions on Syria should be lifted, but WTF. I mean honestly. It will be interesting to see what Israel does from that as they generally want Syria destabilised. Could further add to the rift between Netanyahu and Trump.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 minutes ago

Yeah, this, the Saudis getting closer to him and the Quatari plane gift sounds like he's slowly realising the Arabs in general have more money while he's perhaps the one politician in the US who is immune to the AIPAC trying to primary him. And I would guess Israel hasn't even said thank you.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 minutes ago

Here's my most optimistic take for Americans. This guy is not as bad as Hitler. He's out to scam the world, not conquer it militarily. So that's a plus, for now. If his successor is Vance then the invasion of Canada and Mexico might actually happen.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 18 minutes ago

Imagine Obama or Biden, or Harris, doing this!

Everything about this is like we have all been force-fed industrial strength hallucinogens. That YMCA played by the murderous Saudi prince after that fawning display... WTAF world are we living in any more?

If this was the Matrix I'd be demanding to be unplugged right now, and promptly throw up on the floor

[–] [email protected] -5 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

The former dictator was closely aligned with Russia\Putin so now that he has been dethroned and fled to Russia the USA is trying to get a foothold in the country. Everything else is just noise and BS.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 hour ago

Gaining a foothold by building a trump tower over there? Yeah, that makes sense

[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 hours ago (1 children)

MAGA is unjust and stupid.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 hour ago

That's just the Trump brand.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 7 hours ago

This needs to be posted in every single LOOK WHAT HE DID NOW thread

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

I really hope for once Congress does its job and MAGA actually fights him on this, since some have already been saying this is too much even for them, starting with the plane.

Let it be on the record yet again that Trump does not have a luxury plane retrofitted with millions in taxpayer money - not because he refused the bribe, but because he was barred from accepting it. Refusing a bribe =/= Having a bribe forcibly taken from your hands.

Let him not gain anything from it or this, but still have that ethic shitstain smeared all across his face as he tries to gaslight the world with his lies. Not that he wouldn't try to claim that since he doesn't have the plane, it means he "refused" it, or "it was a joke all along".

[–] [email protected] -3 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Qatar offered him a plane. This post is about Syria.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 hours ago

What are you on about? Are you just reading a word or two in these comments and arguing with the first thing you come up with? Because I don't see how else you could miss their intended point so hard.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

Ok? What does it have to do with the fact that "Trump has opened the Presidency up for business/loves his bribes"? Feel free to narrow context outside of the point of my statement, as if either bribe is completely disconnected from the other, but the plane is still a really important catalyst for the rest - it's what signals "Qatar quid pro quo, then Syria quid pro quo, then somewhere else quid pro quo". I won't even say "quid pro quo with anyone", because that line is already being crossed right here with a terrorist, so that would be moot.

Way more effective to cut the whole evil right at its root, where its most blatant, in order to stop the rest from spreading.

[+] [email protected] -11 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (3 children)

Because it demonstrates that you're not qualified to speak about foreign policy issues if you can't even keep two very different countries straight. Much moreso when you don't apologize and own up to it when it's pointed out, but instead double down and say, "So what?" because anyone can make an error, but it only becomes a mistake when you refuse to correct it.

This whole thread is full of people who were fully on board with funding Julani to fight Assad because the news told them Assad needed to go, only, they forgot they support him and saw a random tweet calling him a terrorist and only a handful of people were actually aware enough to remember who they support and push back on it. But you really took the cake, you really went above and beyond, by not even getting the country right.

If this is the state of the American public's awareness of countries like Syria (and it is), then pro-US leaders like Jolani obviously can't rely on them, who will turn on them at the drop of a hat because they saw a random tweet calling them a terrorist. But I guess they're in luck since the public has so little influence over policy. So naturally what they do is appease the ruling class, through lucrative deals and bribes.

But who cares? So what if the post calls the US friendly leader of a precarious country a terrorist? So what if you mix up Qatar and Syria? So what if you talk nonsense grounded in willful ignorance because you can't be assed to learn basic facts about countries the US has been fucking with, yet still expect people to listen to you? The important thing is, for a wonderful moment, you got to make fun of Trump.

Liberals are approximately 10% less anti-intellectual than conservatives, which means they're still extremely anti-intellectual, but don't realize it because of how low the bar is.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

But they did keep them straight, you're just misunderstanding their comment. It's a little complex but it's not unintelligible.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

First of all, not american, and me "mixing" them up is entirely another assumption of yours - which you are free to make, as I can't control what you decide to think or how you interpret things, and that's a-ok with me. I'm in fact considerably closer to Syria and Qatar.

Secondly, this rather seems a personal and touchy subject to you, as your willingness to insult, dismiss and assume (ironically) indicates. This is further reinforced by your posting history, which clearly tells me you're a very combative person who loves to disagree for the pleasure of it, and doesn't mind spending a lot of time trying to one-up others disagreeing with you in any way, I assume with ego as a driving force. So with that in mind, no real point in arguing with you, right? Even though it would seem we're mostly aligned when it comes to the bigger picture.

So I hope whatever is going on gets better, but this is where I stop engaging in toxic rants, regardless of what you may think of me.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

What nationality are you? Will you deny that: Qatar human rights are a significant concern, particularly regarding the treatment of migrant workers, who face exploitation, wage theft, and unsafe working conditions. Additionally, there are restrictions on freedom of expression, discrimination against women, and laws that criminalize homosexuality, which contribute to a challenging human rights environment. Is it any wonder Trump is accepting a gift from Qatar?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

What? Where do I even hint that I would deny "Qatar's human rights are of significant concern"? Or that I am surprised that Trump is accepting bribes?

My statements on this matter have pretty much been: Trump openly takes bribes -> Trump should be held accountable -> Regardless of where the bribe takes place or from who it comes. And one commenter starts derailing it because "Hurr durr Qatar and Syria are not the same place", while another goes "why are you denying Qatar has a human rights problem", both of which don't even come near the point I was making. Can't we just agree what Trump is doing is wrong and not look elsewhere for excuses to nitpick and create chaos? Are the internet points for having "good obvious opinions" really that important?

Literally nothing to do with defending wrongdoing from anywhere or trying to justify it- which is just twisting words to make them seem like something else and go from there to create needless drama - which in turn is why I ignored the other commenter in the first place.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 hours ago (2 children)

It's insane the amount of comments about him accepting and making these bribes while the entire government for the last 50 years has been bought and sold with lobbyists and business owners. It is like he is the only one and not the entire Congress is behind this behaviour..

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago) (1 children)

You are right. But here's the key difference:

while the entire government for the last 50 years has been bought and sold with lobbyists and business owners

A President enriching others who support him (as opposed to "doing what's best for the nation" generally speaking), while still wrong, is not the same as personally enriching himself and this blatantly. The US has always been like this and many would have loved to do what Trump is doing, but didn't dare go this far and so recklessly. Trump is merely a product of his country, and it kind of surprises me it took this long for someone like him to get his paws directly on this kind of power.

Instead of being a businessman currying favor with the President, he skips the middle man entirely and becomes President himself, to his own personal benefit.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 20 minutes ago* (last edited 19 minutes ago)

But hasn't it been the case in many things that Trump just does more and more boastfully what others were doing before more quietly and slickly?

I mean, look at the Israeli Genocide, were Biden was actively supporting Israel with guns and ammo (including sending 2000lb bombs which even the US Military won't use "because they have a too large collateral") but decorating it all with a bit of Theatre ("we're talking to Israel about a cease fire"), or how students were already being violently suppressed by the police under Biden when they demonstrated against the Genocide, or the immigrant thing were Biden was already imprisoning and deporting the most immigrants ever (even than Trump's first term) including separating children from their parents but it was all done much more quietly, or, as others pointed out, the Democrats having been on the take as much as the Republicans (who can forget Hilary Clinton getting paid half a million dollars for a couple of hours work to go give a speech to some Goldman Sachs' traders just before the election, something which probably contributed to her loss), or the giant civil society surveillance apparatus as revealed by Snowden built-up and supported by both Republican and Democrat presidents.

In these kinds of things Trump pumped up the volume and tore down the curtains hiding what's going on in the backstage, whilst not really changing the nature of what is being done significantly, just doing more of it and being loudly about it rather than using some florid language to claim to be doing the opposite as the previous ones did.

America had already been moving towards full-blown Fascism before Trump (personally I saw the giant civil society surveillance apparatus as a massive red flag, as that's the kind of thing that Authoritarian regimes have, not Democracies),

[–] [email protected] -3 points 6 hours ago

For real.

[–] [email protected] 69 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

..... and no one should put all the blame on one man ... he isn't that powerful or persuasive

It's a complicit government that had decided to allow this orange menace to do as he pleases because it benefits some wealthy owners.

It's a lot easier to blame one man because it would remove the complicity of a large organization of people that are driving all this.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

So they just SAY they will build this tower, not they are building it. What's the chances they aren't building shit but told our dumb fuck president this to get this done? I think pretty high. They can strimg him along, because they know he will be gone in four years either by end of presidency or death.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

And that is what I don't get. He is so easily wooed by stuff. The UK trade agreement is not great, but he flounts the high tariffs that the importers will have to pay. Someone dangles a picture of something shiny and he jumps. This is so weird

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 hour ago

The UK trade deal is great because over here it was basically just reported as "the status quo has been maintained", and then they just moved on to other news items. No one really cares about it.

Trump was going on and on about how America "has the best beef", and how it's unfair that we won't take it, and this trade deal essentially means that farms will have to follow UK food standards in order to send beef (or whatever) to the UK. Since none of them will, essentially nothing has changed.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

It's easy to just blame the government. When the reality is there is an entire complicit class of voters voting them in

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 hours ago

Agreed. But when critical thinking is systematically being removed from the education system, well, you see what happens.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 7 hours ago

Yes, and?! What will americans do about it?!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

If this isn't enough to flex your second amendment rights, kiss your fucking country good bye. We'll be building a wall on the 49th

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

Seriously? You want us to engage in political violence because the administration dropped sanctions on a country whose violent, repressive dictator was just overthrown? Of all the things to go 2A over, you pick this?

[–] [email protected] 24 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 8 hours ago) (1 children)

Lifting sanctions on Syria is not wrong just because Trump does it. Biden/Harris would probably have done it too, and rightly so because this guy as the ruler of Syria is the best the US can get.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 hours ago

Yeah, to add a different perspective, but largely agreeing.

The Americans have unnecessarily squeezed this new regime in Syria for months more than they needed to, international aid agencies that could provide some stability in the country haven't been able to enter due to these sanctions, Rest is Politics UK spoke in better detail about this a few months back.

Biden had a smallish wondow of a chance to give this regime a go, Trump has had ample time. In this case, it seems America's corruption may have circumvented their stubborn prejudice and evangelism.

Bad action; good result? On balance at least?

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