While it would be nice if a significant portion of Republicans could open their fucking eyes and acquaint themselves with reality, the article is focusing on the independents who are far more likely to switch sides. One of the key factors in the last election was the large number of low information voters who voted for Trump because they wanted a change, driven almost entirely by being upset about the economy and inflation. Their economic illiteracy and confident ignorance was and is infuriating, but that feelings and vibes approach to voting is also double edged sword. The more harm Trump inflicts on people through his idiotic trade wars and cuts to programs people need, the more they will blame him. That they will be right to blame him is just a happy coincidence.

Also, we are just two months in. We still have long road ahead of us, and things are almost certainly going to get a lot worse.

The MAGA platform is inherently hateful, bigoted, selfish and shortsighted. It is lead by greedy amoral narcissists and sociopaths and preaches contempt for law, ethics and personal integrity. All issues are a matter of us vs them, so when one of us does something that gets called out by them, the problem is with them calling one of us out.

Anyone who is still a MAGA supporter has already excused the inexcusable more times than they can count. Those with a moral compass left a long time ago. Sure, there will be people who barely pay attention and who are genuinely ignorant of what the party they support is actually doing. But those people aren’t the ones running for office or actively participating in political organizations.

I probably would have gone with a navy seal copypasta.

Sure, rural areas with fewer employers and less diverse economies will have trouble adapting, but at least all the programs that help people through hard times are getting defunded and shut down.

32% say it’s sometimes acceptable to play music out loud

I can’t say I’m surprised by the revelation that 32% of people need to fuck off and die, I just didn’t think that it would br for this.

I would assume they’re getting the Intel already. The entire administration is comprised of Russian assets and useful idiots. Even if the info isn’t being handed to them directly, all the existing security is being ripped to shreds and the teams that would counter any threats have officially been told to ignore Russia completely.

That said, I wouldn’t put it past Trump to publicly give Intel to Russia, but only because he’s an idiot and assuming there is a low he won’t sink to his always a losing bet.

We were so close a few years ago when the senate passed a bill with unanimous consent, only for the house to say fuck you and refuse to even consider it (can’t have anything useful getting done).

Dwayne Johnson needs one of these.

Florida gets destroyed, and within a few years the Federation is founded and humanity enters a utopian era. Sounds about right.

A work requirement would be particularly perverse. It just further normalizes employers paying shit wages and providing little or no benefits, with programs like medicaid and snap making up the difference. It’s an indirect subsidy that only makes it easier to keep wages low.

Maybe we should do the opposite and tax businesses that pay low enough wages for their employees to qualify for assistance. Although, we’d probably get more results by instituting an income inequality tax that increases based on the difference in total compensation between the highest and lowest paid employees. Make it so that the only way executives can increase their own pay is by paying their employees well too.

In response, Trump rattled off a list of everything that “would have never happened” if he’d won the presidential election four years ago.

Trump’s nonanswer, which veered further and further off-topic, included the October 7 massacre, “Israel,” inflation, the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, and China possessing the Bagram Air Base (the Taliban has denied that China controls the former U.S. base). Finally, he circled back to Ukraine—but only to complain, not to actually answer the question.

Obviously he was never going to withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Why would he? He’s only the one who negotiated the withdrawal.

“To the Great Farmers of the United States: Get ready to start making a lot of agricultural product to be sold INSIDE of the United States. Tariffs will go on external product on April 2nd,” Trump wrote.

“Have fun!” he added.

Doesn’t sound like an admission to me. Sounds like he’s just shifting the burden of responsibility to farmers and acted like this was doing them a favor.

Push polling works. That separate poll asked leading questions and misrepresent both sides. The survey question says Zelenskyy’s position is that there can be no compromise, negotiation or diplomacy. They make no mention of security guarantees, or of Russia’s past history of violating agreements. Trump and Vance want peace, and apparently Zelenskyy just wants the war to go on until he’s conquered his way to the pacific.

They also give false dichotomies between negotiating for an immediate ceasefire and fighting until victory. And another question asked if Ukraine should refuse to compromise or if both sides would need to make concessions, and they presented the both sides making concessions result as proof that Americans though Ukraine should give up territory.

It’s all bullshit. I’m sure the portion of the population that bought Trump and Vance’s feigned outrage is disturbingly high, but these assclowns are trying very hard to inflate those numbers.

That’s right Donny, everyone who makes you mad is weak. Everyone who provokes you into screaming ranting like a maniac on social media is a loser. They’re all pathetic and your compulsive need to lash out at critics is proof that you are tough and smart and better than all of them.

You’re right, the Ukrainians should just give up on all these uppity notions of national sovereignty and self determination. They are in Russia’s sphere of influence, their place is to do what Russia says. It’s their fault if they don’t listen and Putin has to give them a black eye, that’s just him correcting them and showing he cares.

They should welcome their Russian liberators, so they can finally see how wonderful life under Russian rule is. Just ask the people of Bucha and Mariupol, they’ll be happy to tell you (if you can find a Ouija board in Cyrillic).

Do you think they know that you need two line breaks to make a paragraph? Or is it just hard to find the enter key on a Cyrillic keyboard?

Can someone explain how you are supposed to get Russia to leave? Sanctions didn’t work, lethal aid didn’t work, F-16s didn’t work, and striking Russia itself isn’t either.

These things haven’t won the war, but they most definitely are working. Russia’s economy is crippled, their military is running out of old equipment to cannibalize, and they lack the capability to produce the kinds of advanced military equipment they need. They’ve been throwing bodies into the meat grinder trying to overwhelm Ukraine, but despite the high cost they are making very little progress. This is not a great long term strategy, but it’s the one Russia has been stuck with.

You can argue for the war to continue I suppose, but Ukraine isn’t winning and I’m not seeing anything here that would change that fact.

But what’s the alternative? Right now Ukraine can only fight or surrender. While they fight, they can try to negotiate a peace deal, but so far the only deals Putin and Trump seem willing to consider are nearly indistinguishable from surrender. Give Russia everything they want, give up on everything you want, stop the fighting for now but put nothing in place to ensure that Russia won’t just rearm and invade again later.

Trump supports Putin and sees him as something resembling an equal. He doesn’t have that same respect for Zelenskyy. He sees Ukraine as the little guy, and being a bully, he tries to push them around to get what he wants from them. And anything Zelenskyy does to resist that bullying becomes an attack on Trump’s ego, which is a bigger deal to him than any war or geopolitical issue.

I mean, for fuck sake, Trump was yelling at Zelenskyy for supposedly risking millions of lives and world war 3 by not shutting up about security guarantees and just taking whatever deal they give him. But even with those stakes, he’s ready to end the entire process and cancel the deal over being “disrespected” and not getting thanked enough. Even if we take Trump’s statements at face value and assume he is being honest and operating in good faith, he’s still giant piece of shit that cares less about the lives of millions and the fate of the world than his own ego.

There may be a way to steer Trump into pushing back against Putin and supporting Ukraine a little bit. Maybe if someone could get actually get through to him and make him understand how everyone is laughing at him for being Putin’s bitch. Unfortunately, that would have to get past a nearly impenetrable wall of idiocy and self-delusion that keeps him safe from reality.

Exactly, TNG made them one dimensional and unintentionally laughable. DS9 took that foundation and let their civilization be a joke, while still allowing characters to be properly fleshed out.

I would have personally preferred a more grounded and nuanced society for them, but that’s true of a lot of Star Trek’s world building. They’ve always had a preference for making everything a planet of hats.

Also funny how they (politicians) don’t consider holding political office to be honest work.