7 hours ago, Gromnir said:

invocation of, it's just a meme is not as reassuring when applied to trump. more than a few US policy changes were birthed via trump disgorging the illegal or insane via social media. 

unrelated:

and yes, the federal officer's behavior is illegal... which is not the same as prosecutable. am wondering if the extra from fargo in bdu is gonna be fired or even disciplined.

and HA! Good Fun! 

 

usa are what it always are

but instead of occupy native land or iraq

it occupy usa this time

Edited January 13Jan 13 by uuuhhii

@Bartimaeus

reflecting on the motivation to get out a narrative asap (you can tell much about an individual's intellectual dishonesty by observing how they pick and choose which issues need immediate judgement sans reflection,) so that facts won't lead to provable defamation, it occurred to us that something more terrifying could happen post the recent tragedy in minneapolis.

the officer who somehow managed to hold onto his cellphone and simultaneous shoot a woman in minneapolis in spite o' being struck (or almost struck... narrative keeps changing,) is gonna have a more difficult time explaining his actions precise 'cause he were the only law enforcement present who fired his weapon.

rule: is legit to use deadly force in self defense, and defense of others, if there is a reasonable fear o' imminent bodily harm or death. 

there were multiple law enforcement present, and nobody else fired their weapon in defense o' the guy who were s'posed almost run down? is a reasonable person standard and there is other cops present who didn't feel compelled to shoot? 

what if border patrol and ice training changes to address this potential problem? in the past, an investigation would take place after a tragedy such as the one which occurred in minneapolis and then the relevant law enforcement agency would decide whether to sacrifice the officer as a bad apple, or to defend at all costs. the President, vp and secretary o' dhs all came out and defended the cop's actions within a couple hours o' the shooting, so am not expecting any kinda meaningful reflection. furthermore, given how this administration is attempting to avoid any accountability, there is the possibility that a reasonable and logical approach post shooting of ms. good is to train officers to be less reserved about shooting... seeing as there is no political cost being exacted by the republican base thus far, the lesson learned from this incident could very well be similar to the defamation conundrum. as ludicrous as it sounds, the chances o' suffering legal repercussions could be decreased by an intentional effort to behave less responsibly. 

am not saying ice and border patrol pedagogy will be altered to ensure agents shoot more reliably, 'cause that would be insane, right? 

...

 

On 1/11/2026 at 8:32 AM, BruceVC said:

https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/dispatches/eu-and-mercosur-are-creating-one-of-the-worlds-largest-free-trade-areas/#:~:text=The agreement removes most Mercosur,percent) will also be removed.

I see the Mercosur\EU  trade deal has finally been implemented 

It has enormous trade potential for both the EU and  the South American countries involved

I understand the concerns  about cheap goods  but reduced tariffs can help both sides

@Lexx @Elerond @majestic @Gorgon @Gorgon  and other EU members

Any opinion, do you support it?

 

 

Why not, it's time to create new markets given how difficult China and the US have become. 

17 minutes ago, Gorgon said:

Why not, it's time to create new markets given how difficult China and the US have become. 

 

given how many year this trade agreement was cooking

maybe this is the most difficult part of the market

hope this agreement are written to be able to expanded with eu and mercosur

otherwise new member would have some nightmare

Edited January 13Jan 13 by uuuhhii

3 Prosecutors Quit After Push to Investigate ICE Shooting Victim’s Widow

Mr. Thompson’s resignation came after senior Justice Department officials pressed for a criminal investigation into the actions of the widow of Renee Nicole Good, the Minneapolis woman killed by an ICE agent last Wednesday.

Mr. Thompson, 47, a career prosecutor, objected to that approach as well as to the Justice Department’s refusal to include state officials in investigating whether the shooting itself was lawful, the people familiar with his decision said.

^^ Maga being classy as always. 

4 hours ago, Gorgon said:

Why not, it's time to create new markets given how difficult China and the US have become. 

Yes, its good that the EU doesnt rely on the US or China too much and these trade deals are a good step in that direction

And if you read the link there is protection around safeguards for EU farmers if cheap imported goods start hurting the domestic EU market 

 

3 minutes ago, BruceVC said:

Yes, its good that the EU doesnt rely on the US or China too much and these trade deals are a good step in that direction

And if you read the link there is protection around safeguards for EU farmers if cheap imported goods start hurting the domestic EU market 

 

Most important thing in the trade deal is that coffee price should drop. I am am willing to let farmers to lose their livelihood for cheaper coffee 😉

Well ##### certainly achieved his goal of taking J. Epstein out of the headlines this weekend, although B. Clinton may bring it back.

8 hours ago, Gorgon said:

^^ Maga being classy as always. 

update: 

at least ten doj attorneys has resigned over the handling o' the renee good shooting. 

the number "ten" is based on reporting from sources such as the washington post. however, am being told that ten is underreporting, but am not sure how much larger is the actual number o' resignations at doj. 

...

if a "mass walk-out" (am genuine not certain what a mass walk-out entails,) o' the washington civil rights division happened later this week, we would only be mild surprised. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

13 minutes ago, Gromnir said:

update: 

at least ten doj attorneys has resigned over the handling o' the renee good shooting. 

the number "ten" is based on reporting from sources such as the washington post. however, am being told that ten is underreporting, but am not sure how much larger is the actual number o' resignations at doj. 

...

if a "mass walk-out" (am genuine not certain what a mass walk-out entails,) o' the washington civil rights division happened later this week, we would only be mild surprised. 

HA! Good Fun!

 

 

 

last heard that number was 3

usa are nation of lawyer pretty sure they can find another 10 willing to collaborate with the current regime

no promise it would 10 good lawyer

10 hours ago, Elerond said:

Most important thing in the trade deal is that coffee price should drop. I am am willing to let farmers to lose their livelihood for cheaper coffee 😉

You definitely should see cheaper coffee 

These types of trade deals have a bad reputation because they sometimes  dont include protectionism for local industries. For example when South Africa joined BRICS we were told it was going to create this " massive " benefit for our economy but because there have never been any clauses or ideas around how to protect our local industries its ended up with a  R253 billion trade deficit with BRICS that is only increasing

https://dailyinvestor.com/south-africa/93948/sa-has-a-trade-surplus-of-r37-billion-with-the-us-and-a-trade-deficit-of-r253-billion-with-brics/

But you can see how this Mercosur\EU deal has some clever safeguards built into the agreement and this is how these types of trade deals need to be created 

" Europe worked hard to reach consensus on how to assuage doubts from European farmers about any negative impacts on their livelihoods. The additional measures added to the deal include “safeguards” for sensitive agricultural sectors, such as poultry, beef, eggs, citrus, and sugar, which would “suspend tariff preferences” in the case of “serious injury” to EU farmers. Serious injury is defined as an increase in import volume or a decrease in prices by more than 8 percent compared to the three-year average. The European Commission also introduced a slew of regular monitoring instruments, which will have to report to the European Council and European Parliament for increased accountability on enforcement. The Commission will be able to suspend imports from Mercosur in sensitive sectors if it deems this to be necessary. The final concessions agreed this week to bring Italy on board also include a revision to the 2028-2034 EU budget to allow farmers early access to roughly €45 billion in subsidies, as well as lowering import duties on fertilizers, the unaffordability of which was a major sticking point for protesters."

 

 

 

Damn the USA sucks and anyone who downplayed the dangers of Trump sure does look like a moron now, well toodles.

16 minutes ago, Chairchucker said:

Damn the USA sucks and anyone who downplayed the dangers of Trump sure does look like a moron now, well toodles.

 

while people see the danger also made the mistake of expecting a more openly fascist usa would be more competent and efficient

but instead see herd of rambling moron hurt people at random in their confusion are just as harmful

12 minutes ago, Chairchucker said:

Damn the USA sucks and anyone who downplayed the dangers of Trump sure does look like a moron now, well toodles.

It depends on what you mean by "dangers" and how it impacts you on the geopolitical level and also what specific dangers you concerned about that Trump has created 

We were living in a world already where countries like Russia can illegally  annex parts of other countries and invade countries and yet the world still continues 

If you just very disappointed with the US under Trump thats understandable and especially if you a supporter  of the US and what defines Democracy 

But if you can be more specific that would be helpful?

 

8 hours ago, rjshae said:

Well ##### certainly achieved his goal of taking J. Epstein out of the headlines this weekend, although B. Clinton may bring it back.

I see the Clintons have refused to testify, I wonder why?

I have read all there legal reasons but its not very convincing considering all the attention on Epstein 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/13/bill-hillary-clinton-epstein-investigation

 

 

4 hours ago, BruceVC said:

I see the Clintons have refused to testify, I wonder why?

Because this is a farce. Right now the GOP is trying everything they can to push all blame on Clinton, while Trump stays out of this. I believe they said the same, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now. And they are not wrong. The current approach to this thing is ridiculous and insulting. They release whatever suits their narrative while scrubbing Trumps name out of everything. They are very clearly biased. 

5 hours ago, uuuhhii said:

 

while people see the danger also made the mistake of expecting a more openly fascist usa would be more competent and efficient

but instead see herd of rambling moron hurt people at random in their confusion are just as harmful

Generally, I suppose no one should have expected the Trump administration powered by vibes and incessant insecure masculinity to be competent or efficient.

14 minutes ago, Lexx said:

Because this is a farce. Right now the GOP is trying everything they can to push all blame on Clinton, while Trump stays out of this. I believe they said the same, but I'm too lazy to look it up right now. And they are not wrong. The current approach to this thing is ridiculous and insulting. They release whatever suits their narrative while scrubbing Trumps name out of everything. They are very clearly biased. 

Maybe but end of the day isnt it better for Bill Clinton to clarify why Epstein visited him in the WH 17 times and why he  flew on Epstein's  private plane 27 times?

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/bill-hillary-clinton-refuse-testify-house-epstein-probe-2026-01-13/

I dont think Clinton is guilty of anything but is it really unreasonable to expect him to answer questions? Even if it is a witch-hunt they cant charge him with  something he didnt do 

And these same questions should be asked to everyone, including Trump 

Thats what this whole thing is suppose to be about, getting clarity on what people did or didnt know 

 

1 hour ago, BruceVC said:

Maybe but end of the day isnt it better for Bill Clinton to clarify why Epstein visited him in the WH 17 times and why he  flew on Epstein's  private plane 27 times?

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/bill-hillary-clinton-refuse-testify-house-epstein-probe-2026-01-13/

I dont think Clinton is guilty of anything but is it really unreasonable to expect him to answer questions? Even if it is a witch-hunt they cant charge him with  something he didnt do 

And these same questions should be asked to everyone, including Trump 

Thats what this whole thing is suppose to be about, getting clarity on what people did or didnt know 

The current President is the person in power, so politically he is the subject that matters (to Congress). Choosing to go after Clinton like they are is just a distraction tactic. Unless Clinton has something pertinent to add about the current President, it's more the business of the judicial system.

3 hours ago, Malcador said:

Generally, I suppose no one should have expected the Trump administration powered by vibes and incessant insecure masculinity to be competent or efficient.

our prejudice against stoopid and incompetence made us dubious about the effectiveness o' a hegsteh department of war and a jeanine pirro US attorney for dc. doge were charlie fox before it even started as the potential fraud and waste literal could not amount to the trillions o' dollars claimed and the notion that "big balls," would be able to fix US spending problems had us rolling our eyes.

usaid is gone and hundreds of thousands o' people is dead 'cause o' the end o' such funding with projections o' fourteen million dead by 2030 if nothing changes.

the civil rights division o' doj had ~400 lawyers in various offices working in december 2024. less than half those folks remain after mass resignations.

trump's sh!t coin scam has generated billions in wealth for his family-- now try tell us that were donald's idea. 

the republican party is open welcoming overt antisemites such as nick fuentes and candice owens into the fold, while simultaneous the trump administration used claims the major universities failed to protect jewish students during the recent israel-gaza protests to cut funding to those schools. the overall effort o' trump 2.0 to kneecap law firms, universities and media groups has been far more effective than we thought possible given how empty the administration's legal threats were/are. 

cecot

etc.

we keep underestimating the administration. keep in mind, is Gromnir who since 2017 has been warning that the traditional legal and institutional guardrails don't apply to trump. joe rogan's 2025 and 2026 epiphanies regarding the trump administration's authoritarian efforts would be amusing if joe's willful ignorance for years weren't part o' the reason we are needing suffer each new trump administration effort to outdo their previous high watermark for cruelty. unlike rogan, we saw this coming and predicted it, but am nevertheless surprised by the amount o' pain trump has been able to cause given the reality o' the people running the sh!t show. 

paul ingrassia is the kinda guy trump has brought in to implement project 2025.

these people are clowns who is living and breathing expressions grievance who somehow manage to be utter incompetent in spite o' the fact project 2025 spent four years looking for the ideal people to implement the regime change? 

jeanine box-of-wine pirro and her efforts to prosecute sandwich guy and investigate jerome powell, has been entertaining 'cause she is so inept, but don't forget that she is quietly preventing any number of investigations and is otherwise effective destroying one o' the most important prosecutor offices in the country. 

trump 2.0 is incompetent and inefficient to a degree previously unimagined for a Presidential administration.

and?

HA! Good Fun!

 

Edited January 14Jan 14 by Gromnir

Looks like we are sending soldiers to Greenland tomorrow. Apparently other EU countries will do the same, but it's independent of NATO, since NATO is commanded from Norfolk in the USA.

2 hours ago, Gromnir said:

our prejudice against stoopid and incompetence made us dubious about the effectiveness o' a hegsteh department of war and a jeanine pirro US attorney for dc. doge were charlie fox before it even started as the potential fraud and waste literal could not amount to the trillions o' dollars claimed and the notion that "big balls," would be able to fix US spending problems had us rolling our eyes.

usaid is gone and hundreds of thousands o' people is dead 'cause o' the end o' such funding with projections o' fourteen million dead by 2030 if nothing changes.

the civil rights division o' doj had ~400 lawyers in various offices working in december 2024. less than half those folks remain after mass resignations.

trump's sh!t coin scam has generated billions in wealth for his family-- now try tell us that were donald's idea. 

the republican party is open welcoming overt antisemites such as nick fuentes and candice owens into the fold, while simultaneous the trump administration used claims the major universities failed to protect jewish students during the recent israel-gaza protests to cut funding to those schools. the overall effort o' trump 2.0 to kneecap law firms, universities and media groups has been far more effective than we thought possible given how empty the administration's legal threats were/are. 

cecot

etc.

we keep underestimating the administration. keep in mind, is Gromnir who since 2017 has been warning that the traditional legal and institutional guardrails don't apply to trump. joe rogan's 2025 and 2026 epiphanies regarding the trump administration's authoritarian efforts would be amusing if joe's willful ignorance for years weren't part o' the reason we are needing suffer each new trump administration effort to outdo their previous high watermark for cruelty. unlike rogan, we saw this coming and predicted it, but am nevertheless surprised by the amount o' pain trump has been able to cause given the reality o' the people running the sh!t show. 

paul ingrassia is the kinda guy trump has brought in to implement project 2025.

these people are clowns who is living and breathing expressions grievance who somehow manage to be utter incompetent in spite o' the fact project 2025 spent four years looking for the ideal people to implement the regime change? 

jeanine box-of-wine pirro and her efforts to prosecute sandwich guy and investigate jerome powell, has been entertaining 'cause she is so inept, but don't forget that she is quietly preventing any number of investigations and is otherwise effective destroying one o' the most important prosecutor offices in the country. 

trump 2.0 is incompetent and inefficient to a degree previously unimagined for a Presidential administration.

and?

HA! Good Fun!

 

Fun fact for those perhaps not caught up on all of their history: Adolf Hitler became the leader of his party (German Workers' Party, later renamed National Socialist German Workers' Party) in 1921, he was arrested and imprisoned for an attempted coup in 1923, he ran for president and came second to Hindenburg in 1932, he was appointed chancellor by that same Hindenberg in 1933, and he became dictator later in the same year with the Enabling Act of 1933 that effectively suspended all civil rights in favor of supreme government authority and discretion.

It took 12 years from the time Adolf Hitler became the leader of his - at the time - little podunk party until he became chancellor and then dictator. None of us lived through those times, but 12 years can be a very long time in politics, especially in that particular era, and it doesn't take a lot of googling to determine that the Nazi party was incompetent, corrupt, ineffective, drunk, drug-using, chaotic, and very backstabby during pretty much its entire existence. They had fancy and well-organized ceremonies to be certain, but they were power-mad maniacs who didn't really know what they were doing, and none of that really mattered or prevented the totality of their evil once they controlled all the levers of power.

48 minutes ago, Bartimaeus said:

Fun fact for those perhaps not caught up on all of their history: Adolf Hitler became the leader of his party (German Workers' Party, later renamed National Socialist German Workers' Party) in 1921, he was arrested and imprisoned for an attempted coup in 1923, he ran for president and came second to Hindenburg in 1932, he was appointed chancellor by that same Hindenberg in 1933, and he became dictator later in the same year with the Enabling Act of 1933 that effectively suspended all civil rights in favor of supreme government authority and discretion.

It took 12 years from the time Adolf Hitler became the leader of his - at the time - little podunk party until he became chancellor and then dictator. None of us lived through those times, but 12 years can be a very long time in politics, especially in that particular era, and it doesn't take a lot of googling to determine that the Nazi party was incompetent, corrupt, ineffective, drunk, drug-using, chaotic, and very backstabby during pretty much its entire existence. They had fancy and well-organized ceremonies to be certain, but they were power-mad maniacs who didn't really know what they were doing, and none of that really mattered or prevented the totality of their evil once they controlled all the levers of power.

 

really impressive how much fascist can do with the collaboration of conservative

at this point one have very little expectation for usa

other than that crumpled orange doesn't push the big red button

8 hours ago, Lexx said:

Right now the GOP is trying everything they can to push all blame on Clinton, while Trump stays out of this. 

Yes, but there are definitely legitimate questions for Bill, especially. Much like Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, Peter Mandelson and others Bill seems to have kept contact up after Epstein had his legal troubles whereas Trump cut him off years beforehand. Not for morality concerns, one very much suspects, but still.

Obviously a non partisan approach would have Trump answering questions too, but neither side really wants a non partisan approach. It's rather like Jimmy Saville in the UK; nobody in power really wants a proper investigation because a lot of influential people stand to get caught out and they aren't limited to one political slant. 

2 hours ago, Bartimaeus said:

..it doesn't take a lot of googling to determine that the Nazi party was incompetent, corrupt, ineffective, drunk, drug-using, chaotic, and very backstabby during pretty much its entire existence. 

They were all of those at times and most of them very frequently, unfortunately they all too often weren't incompetent/ ineffective. Most of the 2nd tier of leadership was very good; for a certain definition of good of course. Even some of the top tier were effective. Himmler was a terrible guy to say the least but his secret police was very competent, and Speer was perhaps the best administrator of the 20th century. Donetz ran the navy well and Jodl/ Keitel implemented a lot of stupid orders as well as they could.

There's also been a certain amount of effort put in to frame the competent Nazis as not really being ideological Nazis, but convenience ones. 

And, if you describe Nazi Germany that way then you don't leave any room for describing the almost complete talent free zone which was Fascist Italy.