rjshae

That has more to do with right-wing political alignment than with European cohesion. Redacted has been fairly consistent in that regard. I'm not sure that most Americans even know or care.

Frankly, the dude has greater ambitions than just being the worst President in U.S. history. He wants to make sure that future generations remember how colossally bad he was. His place on Mount Rutmore will be assured.

I have this hunch that AI (with human guidance *COUGH*slop cleanup*COUGH*) is not far from being able to convert animated video into live action, so maybe it'll happen anyway.

A song for our times

I need this framed.

Testing suggests Google’s AI Overviews tell millions of lies per hour It took billions of dollars in investments and the latest chip set, but they finally built a machine that can tell more lies than Trump.

Does Trump Suffer from Narcissistic Personality Disorder? "According to DSM criteria, Donald Trump suffers from narcissistic personality disorder." NPD has high co-morbidity with other mental disorders, so he may well have other issues. At any rate, his lack of empathy (or some other condition) may explain his willingness to threaten and commit war crimes. The question is, what can be done about it? Slobodan Milošević was tried by the International Criminal Court, but I doubt they would be able to bring Redacted to trial while in office. I don't think they can try him in absentia, since he's not hiding. They would need to indict him and issue an arrest warrant, then nab him while out of the country, once he leads office. I guess then he won't be playing golf at St. Andrews.

No they aren't identical, but the same can be said of any two wars. Iran has a larger population, more territory, a (veteran) standing national army with trained officers, and it is likely to receive aid from Russia and China. Long term, US casualties are likely to be higher in an invasion and partial occupation of Iran. It will also have more pronounced economic impacts. Finally, the Afghan War had the support of the US population; this one does not. The big question is how long would an invasion force have to remain?

The invasion of Afghanistan went well at first.

It's been a roller coaster economy; this followed a dismal February. Most of the jobs gains were in health care and social assistance, while construction was aided by good weather. Also, we haven't seen the impact of the Gulf war yet, which may be a long term drag on the economy. The continually rising prices will likely strengthen unions and lead to more strikes over wage increases.

Well that explains it. Apparently Hegseth pushed out Gen. Randy George because the latter refused to remove two black and two female officers from the list of candidate one-star generals. The remaining officers are all white males. Yes, we still live in the 18th century.

I've been half expecting that Redacted's flailing decision making would hasten America's decline, and it's starting to look like that is happening. The US-Israel war on Iran is accelerating de-dollarization and America’s decline It's the ultimate irony as MAGA gradually sinks the nation. Is the USA becoming the Greece to China's burgeoning (Roman) empire?

They just fired the Chief of Staff, presumably for not waving the right magic wand. Bondi seemed pretty loyalist in her behavior, so once again Redacted expects loyalty but doesn't give it.

Reportedly, tickets for the final are now going for 11,000 USD each. Yeesh. Glad it'll all be televised.

It occurred to me that maybe it's an April Fool's joke? But then every day is April 1st under Redacted, so how can you tell? 🥳

Trump says U.S. strongly considering NATO exit, Telegraph newspaper says Putin must be immensely pleased; the President he helped get elected is destroying the greatest potential threat to Russia.

Yep. That should have been apparent long ago. But I think the technology is only just reaching the point where it is economically valid to implement renewable energy use on a widespread basis. Redacted's attempt to hold the US back on this is foolish. The energy transformation is going to happen, and the US risks falling behind badly.

Scientists shocked to find lab gloves may be skewing microplastics data Face-palm emoji. 🤦‍♂️ This will not look good on your annual performance review...

Kharg Island was put out of commission during the Iraq-Iran war, so Iran has been through this type of oil shipment denial before. I'm skeptical they will bow to threats to occupy the island or blow it up, when they can effectively keep the Straits of Hormuz closed to oil traffic, then charge a high toll fee. Redacted's other threats to Iran would deal a hardship to the Iranian people, but I doubt it would remove the current government. The longer this war goes on, the greater the time and repairs necessary to get the goods flowing again. It's looking like a pyrrhic victory for the US.

Must be a scarce species these days. Yeaess... Based on a Sting song.

Do you really still expect redacted to apply reason or logic to problems at this point? He has an undisciplined mind and can't even properly communicate his reasons for going to war. We know he has immense difficulty accepting a loss, and nuclear weapons are the ultimate trump card for when events go badly wrong. "But he is not insane" Are you sure about that? He satisfies all criteria for "narcissistic personality disorder" in the DSM-5. There may be other co-morbibity conditions present, but narcissism explains most of his behavior.

During the first term, the redacted cabinet was not quite as fawning, so it seemed like they were able to provide a filter on some of his more extreme decision making. This term his cabinet is mostly bobbleheads, agreeing with wherever his meandering ping pong of thought takes him. That's why we're seeing more bat-sh*t crazy decision making based on his irrational beliefs. I can only hope that doesn't lead to a decision to use nukes. The more frustrated he gets with his inept direction of the war, the greater the urge will be to nuke. Once that happens, all bets are off.

A war of regression: how Trump bombed the US into a worse position with Iran The Guardian has a pretty cynical view of the current conflict, but it's hard to say they're wrong. What a cluster.

I think they still could, just to deny the US access to the Kharg Island oil resources. Or at least threaten to attack any docked tankers.