• @Mawks
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    3401 year ago

    When asked in an interview how drone operators would know if the people being blown to smithereens were actually carrying drugs, he replied: “Same way a police officer would know … Same way somebody operating in Iraq would know. You know, these people in Iraq at the time, they all looked the same. You didn’t know who had a bomb strapped to them. So those guys have to make judgments.”

    Holy F, as a mexican that crosses the border often for vacations… this is extreme and scary

    • lettruthout
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      871 year ago

      Yeah, that sounds like the old “Kill them all and let God sort them out” approach.

      • @alnilam
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        381 year ago

        Funnily enough, if you suggest to do the same to people who advocate this approach to let God decide if the approach is good, they’re a lot less enthusiastic

        • Bizarroland
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          11 year ago

          It doesn’t make any sense. In heaven, all the good people will have everything they’ve ever wanted forever.

          But when I offer to send everyone to heaven all at the same time, they treat me like I’m a bad guy.

          It just doesn’t make any sense

      • Silverseren
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        41 year ago

        At the very least, that is certainly the case right now. All the polls of conservatives consistently show Trump smoking Desantis.

        • NaN
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          111 year ago

          Unfortunately he’s only 44 years old. Hoping he slides into oblivion but I worry he’s going to be flirting around for decades.

          • Silverseren
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            21 year ago

            I do wonder if Desantis’ insanity will ever meaningfully affect his electoral chances in Florida or if the boomers there are too far gone to care about the state around them (and their ongoing dwindling Social Security and Medicare thanks to Republicans).

            • @[email protected]
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              51 year ago

              He’s using a pretty standard tactic for a right wing politician down in the polls: throw increasing amounts of crazy against the wall until something sticks and the polls improve.

              His consultants will call this “calibrating”, to find the right level of insane to match voter expectations and grab media attention for a few cycles along the way.

      • @[email protected]
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        71 year ago

        As a Canadian who’s an entire country away… this is extreme and scary.

        Are drones strikes on our maple syrup cartels next?

    • @atticus88th
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      91 year ago

      Next time you cross just carry an ir strobe and IFF NATO friendly panel on your hood. Should be good to go.

  • @flossdaily
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    2091 year ago

    How about a new rule that if you vote for a war, you are automatically enlisted. And if you’re ineligible to enlist you must either abstain or vote no.

    • admiralteal
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      1 year ago

      Congress members get as many votes for war as they have draft-age family members. For each vote they cast, they must enlist 1 family member. Starting with their own children.

        • @[email protected]
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          381 year ago

          Some of em don’t care about their kids.

          As evidenced by their complete lack of concern regarding climate change.

      • @[email protected]
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        361 year ago

        Nah just ship the congressmen/women off with the infantry. Then they can see exactly what they’re voting for.

      • @[email protected]
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        181 year ago

        Given the low regard for their children and grandchildren they show when it comes to climate change, I doubt that would be an adequate deterrent.

        • @flossdaily
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          71 year ago

          Senators are (with few exceptions) extraordinarily wealthy. When climate change is destroying crops and making some areas uninhabitable, these senators’ families will still be living very comfortably.

      • JJROKCZ
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        131 year ago

        Most of their kids are 55+, they can’t enlist lol

        • admiralteal
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          51 year ago

          No different than having no kids.

          No kids we can send to war? No right to vote for war.

      • @flossdaily
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        101 year ago

        As if someone like Trump would even give a second thought to sending his kids off to war?

      • Jim
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        81 year ago

        I see an obvious exploit with this: congress members enlisting family members who would rather vote ‘No’ just so they can get more votes for their own choice.

        You might think “nobody would enlist their child to fight a war that they’re against” but I promise you, there are people like that.

      • @[email protected]
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        1 year ago

        many have already gladly voted yes for both many times. I don’t think that will stop enough of them.

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        We basically had that a century ago, before the nobility moved behind the scenes and became the 1%

        Unqualified scions were sent to the battlefield to gain military merits, which was generally bad for everyone. I’m pretty sure it only really stopped after WWI, when the death toll from combat started getting ridiculous

    • R0cket_M00se
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      381 year ago

      Smedley Butler solved this issue back in the 1920’s, change the vote from Congress to eligible draftees to solve us going to war for stupid reasons.

      Then during times of war, lock down every individual’s income and ability to earn money to that of the soldier. Keeping war profiteering from stretching wars on indefinitely.

      It’s radical, but would probably keep us from just “being at war” eternally. A reality we have had to live in since at least 9/11.

      • @[email protected]
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        151 year ago

        The problem these “add a meta policy” proposals all have in common is that they assume we have any control over the legislature… which we don’t have; they don’t work for us at all. At this point only organizing and other direct action will have any significant impact on actual policy.

        In this particular case, legislators would continue to receive bribe income that they refuse to acknowledge as bribery.

      • @TheDubh
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        81 year ago

        The problem is the us hasn’t had a formal declaration of war since WW2. Basically we’ve just had military engagements. Some haven’t even been authorized by congress.

        Basically we’d need to fix that issue before worrying about the other suggestions. Else it’d just be military engagement not a war so don’t need to fallow them.

      • AlexisFR
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        21 year ago

        Is the US even still involved in a war since 2021? At least through direct action.

        • R0cket_M00se
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          31 year ago

          The Global War on Terror is what it’s called, it’s just a neverending operation of military sorties across the world to support whatever and wherever.

      • Omega
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        51 year ago

        You can be against war without thinking you’ll end war.

    • NaN
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      11 year ago

      Unfortunately he was a Lieutenant commander in the Navy. Going back probably doesn’t concern him.

  • @[email protected]
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    1091 year ago

    Slightly misleading, he says that they should shoot at mexican cartels (which are now federally recognised as terrorist organisations) who are using planes and boats to smuggle drugs.

    He’s still a price of shit who wants to eliminate rights though, but it’s always important to get the facts right.

    • @[email protected]
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      351 year ago

      He is saying that he would use American military equipment and possibly send troops to kill people who look like drug smugglers on Mexican soil, which is an act of war.

    • @[email protected]
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      131 year ago

      C’mon, let these people just read the headline and dont ruin everything with little bit of facts!

      • @[email protected]
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        161 year ago

        Huge budget surplus

        That’s an indication of mismanagement because it just means they’re refusing to fund all the stuff they’re supposed to be doing.

        • @[email protected]
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          -81 year ago

          Wrong - it means too much tax has been collected and it should be returned to the people that earned it. I wish my state would have a surplus instead of massive deficits all the time but thats whet democrats do.

        • @[email protected]
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          -301 year ago

          Not at all. The state has a budget surplus and has a very friendly business environment. Those are facts. Also, shooting drug smugglers is the right call. What part of this is the problem?

          • @[email protected]
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            1 year ago

            You wrote “Good”…about killing with drones Mexican “criminals” in Mexico without a trial and without Mexico’s permission…you see nothing wrong with that? I don’t give a shit about his business friendliness if he’s going to start a hybrid war special military operation with Mexico.

  • @DTFpanda
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    951 year ago

    It continues to amaze me how dumb half of America is.

    • ConditionOverload
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      481 year ago

      Truly don’t think it’s half. It’s just the way our elections and voting works. Every the stupid minority has a loud voice when we weigh votes instead of simply going for popular votes overall.

      • @acosmichippo
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        1 year ago

        you can count all the people who don’t vote in the stupid category, so actually more than half.

        • @some_designer_dude
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          91 year ago

          You need to factor effects from gerrymandering and other forms of vote suppression. I think there’s a lot of wealth trapped in the hands of a few very shitty people, which has allowed them to shape / distort perceptions of just how “popular” their values really are.

        • AlexisFR
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          31 year ago

          With the way American elections are setup, I’m expecting a lot of non voters didn’t have had a choice…

        • ConditionOverload
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          21 year ago

          Well there’s also a lot of people that can’t vote because they can’t afford to take time off work, especially if they can’t mail in their votes.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          Remember that a lot of people couldn’t vote. Either because of voter registration rolls getting purged or disenfranchisement from a criminal charge.

      • jorge
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        21 year ago

        The second best result ever in terms of popular vote was Trump 2020, only behind Biden 2020. So it is close enough to half of America.

  • @[email protected]
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    861 year ago

    This is literal insanity.

    Are they going to put Mexican Americans in internment camps next?

  • edric
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    621 year ago

    Dude is trying so hard to appeal to Trump’s base, but it isn’t working.

    • fear
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      431 year ago

      Trump is a full blown cult of personality at this point, no one else will do. Maybe that’s a good thing since he doesn’t seem to have much time left.

      • krolden
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        101 year ago

        Was really hoping that link was to the living color video

    • @Gregorech
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      -11 year ago

      Should have changed his name like Pfrumps Grandpappy.

  • @[email protected]
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    491 year ago

    The two biggest things we could do to curb the cartels in Mexico there is absolutely no political appetite for.

    First we need a real federal gun registry database to start drying up the influx of weapons. Almost every gun in Mexico came from the US, almost half of the trace requests come up blank because these forms are all filed on paper in a warehouse that they aren’t even allowed to index properly. The most nauseating thing is the gun Industry is in on it… don’t believe me? Look up (38 Super El Presidente model).

    Second we need to legalize drugs. You can make it so it needs to be bought through a doctor and or psychiatrist, but make all that shit pennies on the dollar. Weed revenue might have dried up, but a significant portion of the rest of their revenue comes from harder drugs.

    • Buelldozer
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      1 year ago

      Almost every gun in Mexico came from the US

      Absolutely untrue, at least in the way that you most likely mean it. The cartels aren’t getting things like M16s and 50 Caliber Automatics by purchasing them in the US because those things aren’t for sale in the US. They do get a shit ton of Pistols and Semi-Automatic rifles by smuggling them in from the US though.

      …almost half of the trace requests come up blank because these forms are all filed on paper in a warehouse that they aren’t even allowed to index properly.

      Partially. According to BATFE trace data there are several things that will cause a trace request to come back “blank”.

      Unable to Determine a Purchaser" refers to those firearms that were manufactured in/imported into the U.S. but ATF was unable to determine the first retail purchaser through the trace process. Common reasons ATF is unable to identify a purchaser:

      Incomplete firearms identifying data on the trace request form
      Incomplete or never received out‐of‐business federal firearms licensee records (upon discontinuance of business by a federal firearms licensee, the records shall be delivered within 30 days to ATF or other Attorney General stipulated location (Title 18 U.S.C. 923(g)(4))
      Altered or obliterated firearm serial numbers
      The firearm is considered to be too old to trace
      Current federal firearms licensee records are incomplete or missing, or the federal firearms licensee was unresponsive to ATF’s request for trace information.
      

      Which intersects with my first point in a non-obvious way. If a member of the Mexican Army leaves, especially if they desert, they often take their issued weapons with them and those weapons are often provided to the MM by the USM. Those weapons don’t have a “Retail Entry Point” to trace since they basically go from the US Manufacturer directly to the US Military and from there to the Mexican Military. They also sometimes flat out sell them.

      To be clear, there is a problem with North - South firearms smuggling but its not quite how you stated it.

      Second we need to legalize drugs.

      God Yes. The failed “War on Drugs” by the United States has been an incredible source of misery all across the world. It needs to end NOW.

      • @[email protected]
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        81 year ago

        You have a lot of good information that I am not going to debate about, but I wouldn’t say “Absolutely untrue” as I used the modifier “almost”. The majority of guns that are used in these killings do come across the border and are pistols and smaller caliber guns.

        Do cartels have .50 caliber rifles and fully automatic, yes of course. But cartels aren’t arming their enforcers and hit man with those type of weapons. They are hard to conceal and expensive if you lose them, and at this point most teenagers would rather be a Zeta than a cop, so they have an infinite labor pool. The M16 is often worth more than the person holding it to them. They save those for their big intra-cartel war plays and to scare the government back into submission.

        If all the Mexican government had to worry about were diverted military weapons there job would be significantly easier.

        That’s not even getting to the discussion of how easy it is to drop an auto sear onto the back of a glock in minutes or pay someone in Mexico with a machine shop to do something similar with a lot of rifles.

      • @[email protected]
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        181 year ago

        Yeah THANK GOD that it’ll be someone who thinks the best way to increase stability is to go to war.

  • style99
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    481 year ago

    Before anyone calls this hyperbole:

    Ron DeSantis recently suggested that he would be open to ordering drone strikes on Mexican drug cartels and migrants, whom he accused of carrying drugs over the border. “We’re authorizing deadly force. They try to break into our country? They will end up stone-cold dead,” he said, and he’s not alone. Trump, Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) and Mike Walsh (R-FL), Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), and Trump’s former deputy secretary of homeland security Ken Cuccinelli have all proposed various military actions in Mexico, up to and including sending in ground troops.

    • @[email protected]
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      261 year ago

      He gets off on cruelty. I guess his time inflicting suffering at Guantanamo wasn’t enough, though.

      • BOMBS
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        191 year ago

        Why would anyone ever want the commanding officer of a torture prison to run their country?! What do they think he’s going to do?? It drives me crazy that anyone would want this, let alone even be okay with it.

        • @[email protected]
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          41 year ago

          One of the biggest states in the country has already elected him right up to his term limits too… We’re absolutely fucked as a country

    • @macarthur_park
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      61 year ago

      Yikes.

      DeSantis is trying to run to the right of trump. Recall that trump began his 2016 campaign by saying

      ”When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. […] They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people”

      I suppose advocating for war crimes is one way to campaign to the right of trump on border security.

      Granted trump also campaigned by calling for war crimes back in 2016, so this isn’t entirely novel for a GOP presidential candidate:

      The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families.”

      But on the other hand, DeSantis was a navy lawyer at Guantanamo tasked with making sure the soldiers followed the law. And we know how well that went.

      As a young navy lawyer, the Republican was posted to the notorious prison camp. What he did there – and his role in the investigation of three deaths – remains controversial

      In summary, when it comes to their policy on war crimes among the top republican candidates for president, Trump talks a big game but DeSantis has the actual experience to back up his “promises”.

      The fact that I could quickly write up this analysis with sources is a damning indictment of these candidates, their supporters, and their enabling political party. What a fuckin’ shitshow.

    • JJROKCZ
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      21 year ago

      And they think Mexico will just be ok with us drone striking homes that these idiots think are cartel hideouts? These racists fucks would glass all of Mexico claiming anyone brown is cartel

      • NaN
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        31 year ago

        They would relish Mexico trying to defend its sovereignty as a chance to destroy another country and show the world how big their ego is.

    • @[email protected]
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      And to think somebody can be such a fucking idiot that they make Trump look almost normal. Is this some sort of trick like in France, where Zemmour’s antics were used to make LePen more palatable? Looks like it.

    • @SkyezOpen
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      -391 year ago

      The libs are pro war for aiding Ukraine, but in the same breath…?

      • @BassTurd
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        241 year ago

        Russia and their ilk are the only ones that are pro war in Ukraine. Libs are pro Ukraine, which involves defending them from the Russian invasion. If at anytime, Russia agreed to (and actually did it) pull all troops including the land they stole, almost all libs would be happy.

        On the flip side, DeSantis wants to start a war and be the aggressor. Support of that is fucked up and deranged, which is why a large number of conservatives support it.

        • @SkyezOpen
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          21 year ago

          I’m pointing out republican hypocrisy in calling the left pro war and also wanting to invade Mexico, which was the implication with “in the same breath.”

          • @[email protected]
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            21 year ago

            Pretty sad that there are so many Pro-Russia shills on this site that this seemed like the least likely interpretation of your comment…

      • fear
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        171 year ago

        Are you really pretending there’s no difference between assisting a country in defending itself from an aggressor, and starting your own war as the aggressor?

        • @SkyezOpen
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          61 year ago

          My comment is calling out republican hypocrisy in calling the left pro war, not literally making that point.

          • @[email protected]
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            Sound comment, but unfortunate ambiguous meaning got punished by people who gave you no leeway. In reddit I got a 3-day ban for something like this. Lemmy for the win.

      • @[email protected]
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        101 year ago

        Are you honestly that confused? Do you really think this is some kind of gotcha?

        Russia invaded their smaller neighbor for a made up reason.

        DeSantis is suggesting invading our smaller neighbor for an equally made up reason.

        We don’t like either scenario. I would be just as supportive of Mexico getting military aide from other nations as I am about Ukraine getting military aide from other nations.

        • NaN
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          21 year ago

          They are using republican talking points to criticize DeSantis.

  • appel
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    471 year ago

    Psychopathic, how can a politician like this have any popular support

    • pingveno
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      211 year ago

      Same as any strongman leader. Talking tough reliably gets votes from a certain type of voter, even if what is proposed is utterly insane.

    • @[email protected]
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      -11 year ago

      The people who support him don’t know he said this… They literally don’t know shit about these people and only watch Fox news which wont air this

      • @new_acct_who_dis
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        11 year ago

        Dunno why you’re getting downvoted, you’re 100% correct.

        Most people aren’t on social media talking politics or thinking about any of this outside what they might overhear at church, from family/friends, on TV, shared on Facebook.

        • @[email protected]
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          -21 year ago

          Yah the people I know haven’t even read a single thing about the “don’t say gay” bill nor have they even read 1 thing about the Trump documents. They call it a political hit job and I ask them about the specifics of the documents that were IN HIS BATHROOM and they legit hadn’t heard any of it lol. It’s because the media they consume actively avoid its.

          I’d argue that MOST of these whackos are so disconnected from reality because all they listen to is pod casts and watch fox news. They don’t read articles written by actual journalists with sources.

  • @[email protected]
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    391 year ago

    The US has been waging unprovoked war on Latin America since before WW1.

    The only thing new about this is that this irredeemable piece of garbage is stating the quiet part out loud.

  • MushuChupacabra
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    Is this guy the best that the Republican party has to offer?

    • BOMBS
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      141 year ago

      Trump is actually destroying DeSantis in the polls at 54.5% (Trump) to 14.8% (DeSantis). I have no idea how any Republican can lose to Trump. They don’t even need a platform. All they have to do is go out there and call Trump out on all his bs. Point out he’s failed businessman, make fun of his corny superhero NFTs, show how he sucks up to Putin, emasculate him conservative-style for wearing make-up, say that he will probably die of old age within the next 5 years…call him a rapist! That’s it. Just do it.

      • @[email protected]
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        91 year ago

        Most of Trump’s bullshit is why they like him. You can’t attack someone for things his supporters approve of.

      • @[email protected]
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        41 year ago

        Have you ever heard translations of Russian, especially Soviet, propaganda? The lies are absurd. They conflict with reality to the point many viewers have firsthand experiences that conflict with them. But they work, because people are trained to believe them - the unbelievable aspect of them makes them far more effective in a weird quirk of psychology

        That’s the real reason why you can’t attack Trump from the right - he’ll lie to your face and call you a hater, and his base will believe him. Doesn’t matter if you have facts, doesn’t matter if you’re just repeating his words from last week - if you support Trump at this point, either it’s convenient for you to support him or you believe him in a faith sort of way. Either way, nothing said on that stage is going to change their minds

        The other aspect is that Trump is insanely charismatic. He’s great at debate - without an impartial judge that can shut him down, he gets to play by different rules than everyone else on the stage

        The best example of this is to read one of his speeches. You might listen to him and go “wtf is he talking about”, but reading his speeches is viscerally shocking. He rambles like my grandpa did when he was having a bad day with dementia - he drifts topic to topic, rarely goes back to finish a point, and like 90% of it is just filler words.

        But despite all that, people absolutely love to hear him speak. There’s plenty to say about the man, but his charisma is off the charts.

        Engaging him in debate is a fools errand. He will win, because he can sit up there, not make a single coherent point, come up with gradeschool nicknames, and half the country will walk away with the impression that he won the argument

      • @[email protected]
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        21 year ago

        Honestly yeah - I feel like to many of his competitors (especially DeSantis) are trying to emulate Trump, when really they should be going directly against him. They’re scared shitless of pissing off his voters, but clearly trying to appeal to them by being Trump v2 isn’t working either, so I don’t see what they have to lose

  • ColorcodedResistor
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    241 year ago

    As an NPA living in floriduh, ill tell you what moment in this timeline meatball ron lost the race. He went after disney…dumb rednecks hate blacks but, fucking with disney?! hell nah…if Ron goes after Chick Fil A? they’ll likely mob lynch him on the spot.

  • @[email protected]
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    Haven’t we learned our lesson about unprovoked wars after watching East Europe for the past year and a half??

    @emizeko - not sure if you’re a Russian troll or a poor American doing the real fascists’ work for them–but I’m sorry for you my friend and hope the best for you. If you missed it in my other comments, I’m currently serving in the US military and am very confident that Western media at large is on the money, and that a novice OSINTer could refute the fanfic you posted. Best wishes.

    • @[email protected]
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      21 year ago

      There is fairly public pro-Russian sentiment among Republicans and their supporters. Anything to be contrarian to what the libs are talking about, even if it’s non-partisan.

      • @[email protected]
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        41 year ago

        Oh I’m familiar with it. My entire family operates this way. It would be funny if it wasn’t so sad. I joined the military due to my parents fears about Russia and China invading or some shit. Now I’m the liberal because I’ve actually educated myself, and here they are defending the very things they were terrified of 25 years ago just to own the libs.

        • @[email protected]
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          31 year ago

          Yeah, they were the types that sided with the McCarthyism as part of the Red Scare, who publicly accused political figures that they’d “rather go to Moscow” or outright saying they are un-American.

          Ironic that they’d now rather be Russian than Democrat, considering that the Russian Federation government is openly hostile to the freedom they take for granted.

          (Not harping on Russian culture, just the political and geopolitical stance of the Russian Federation. I actually like Slavic culture.)

          • @[email protected]
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            21 year ago

            My mother was all into the satanic panic BS and Linin’s words about winning the next war via education and indoctrination of youth in our schools. Dad turned out, interestingly enough, to be closeted gay when they divorced because he was also an abusive sack of shit father.

            The ironic part is that he is so indoctrinated from his small hometown upbringing that he still votes Republican-only and hides the fact his business partner and co-owner of his father’s ranch he inherited is also his boyfriend, or at this point, common law husband. He still hides it because the small community he lives in would probably not be very welcoming. The funny thing is that, at least before it was revealed he was hiding a boyfriend, he was hugely homophobic.

            It took me literal years to deprogram, in no small part from reddit, traveling through the military, and seeing the hypocrisy of modern Christianity. It’s sad that so many will never question the values they grew up with and will turn into the next generation ignoramus.