5 ms·
> that's why you don't elect senile old guys to positions of power. Anyone of principle would have been saying this before 2025, and far louder.
by philipallstar 8mo ago
> that's why you don't elect senile old guys to positions of power.
Anyone of principle would have been saying this before 2025, and far louder.
- jacquesm 8mo agoNote that this is from a country that wouldn't exist if not for the allied countries and that the US has somehow managed to all but erase that reputation. We recognize our debt, we also recognize that this is to a country that no longer exists in a meaningful way. All we have now is multiple variations of the mob.
- jjtwixman 8mo agoYeah the US we knew is gone. I think about this sometimes when I am listening to American music from the 20th century, how much soft power they had, how great they made America sound either directly or indirectly. That America that we all looked up to and admired is gone. Pity.
- butILoveLife 8mo ago[flagged]
- jacquesm 8mo ago[flagged]
- jagged-chisel 8mo ago> ... but seeing how quick Europe and Canada turned on the US ... I think they rightfully turned defensive in light of the current administration. Remains to be seen how/if they change when the administration changes.
- StefanBatory 8mo agoUS turned on the Europe and Canada*
- jjtwixman 8mo agoOK but this is just an argument in favour of forever wars lol. That's realism I guess in the way that Nazi Lebensraum was also realism. > how quick Europe and Canada turned on the US It's YOU that turned on YOUR allies. YOU threatened to invade YOUR allies. Jesus fucking Christ. You are living in a different universe entirely. I agree that countries apparently can "turn on a dime" as you say, but it's not us that's "turned on a dime" it's YOU. America is lost.
- mcv 8mo agoExactly. It's the US that turned against its allies. Those allies are still loyal to each other; they didn't turn on anyone. Look at how many countries immediately sent troops to Greenland. There's no doubt who is the traitor and who is loyal here. If you want to rule purely through hard power, you become Russia.
- 3form 8mo agoWhich actually shows that trying to exercise that hard power made everything worse instead of better.
- terminalshort 8mo agoThat is the state of nature. It's not an argument. I don't argue in favor of "forever wars" for the same reason I don't argue in favor of gravity.
- the_af 8mo agoForever wars are a law of nature now? Such a cynical view of life. With this mindset, we can never change. We're stuck in the cycle of violence. I believe it can change. We need to get out of the "oh well, this is life" mindset and stop giving the hawks and warmongers a free pass.
- terminalshort 8mo agoThe laws of human behavior are certainly less fundamental to the iniverse than the laws of physics, but, since we are humans, they are equally as binding on us.
- bitmasher9 8mo agoI’d rather give up the empire, then be the type of empire that’s “full focus on hard power.”
- moogly 8mo agoWho turned on whom again?
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- lnsru 8mo agoI am the guy who participated in Green Card lottery for few years willing to work in most advanced planet‘s semiconductor companies. I changed my mind recently. Speedboat ambushes, Greenland, public executions by ICE „officers“ and now Iran war. US I knew is definitely gone. That’s not the country sharing culture and values peacefully anymore: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika-Haus_(M%C3%BCnchen) https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika-Haus_(M%C3%BCnchen)
- lores 8mo agoTo be fair, the US has never been peaceful, and it's the country that started the most wars since WW2. It's just that it used to be in our team, and human nature makes the aggressiveness of our team justified, or at least understandable, or at least ignorable, or at least not quite changing our deep feelings.
- benterix 8mo agoAnd, at least regarding the more recent ones in Iraq and Afghanistan, Europe witnessed the largest anti-war protests in history. From that perspective, the current "emperor is naked" development might be positive in the sense that Europe can relatively soon have enough military power to be taken seriously, and at the same time become impossible to drag into an offensive war because none of its countries wants any war and we only went there because US pressured us into - but now that the USA has became unreliable, there's no reason to sacrifice oneself.
- srean 8mo agoI really wish hard that Europe gets it shit together. They are adults now (rare commodity), but can still be pushed around, have their leash yanked. They have to come to terms with their islands of racist tendencies. My hope hasn't died yet
- AlexandrB 8mo ago[flagged]
- 8mo ago
- srean 8mo agoDid that US really exist without a self imposed convenience of blindness ? The brutality of the School of Americas might indicate otherwise. Now rebranded as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_for_Security_Cooperation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Hemisphere_Institute_f...
- jacquesm 8mo agoThat's a tough question. There has always been a meddlesome quality to the USA that the rest of the so called developed world turned a blind eye to. Along the lines of 'their bastards, but at least they're our bastards'. Of course that does not make it good, but the balance calculation worked out in favor of toeing the line and being careful not to get pulled out of joint too much. 9/11 changed all that and effectively Bin Laden forced the USA to lower its mask for long enough that the world could no longer ignore the bad sides of Uncle Sam. Even that would have not been enough to seal it, but Trump has managed to accomplish this in record time.
- srean 8mo ago"Meddlesome" is certainly a light way of labeling torture training. What I find more troubling is that Trump has popular support. It's just not Trump. The rot goes far deeper.
- jacquesm 8mo agoFair enough.
- TheOtherHobbes 8mo agoTrump doesn't have popular support. Many of his 2024 voters are furious with him. What Trump has is oligarch support - an unholy alliance of weird and cranky tech billionaires, old(ish) money, foreign money, media owners, and insane white supremacist patriarch-wannabes, some of whom operate through think tanks, some through megachurches. The media are doing an excellent job of normalising this, not least - but not only - sanewashing Trump's obvious mental and physical decay.
- keybored 8mo agoReminder that “Born in the USA” was not a “patriotic” song.
- srean 8mo agoNeither was "This land is your land" Where is Guthrie's guitar ?
- imjonse 8mo agoAs a european I see what you mean, but that 'we all' in your sentence probably hasn't included those from Latin America, and large parts of Africa or Asia since long before Trump. The US pulled quite a few less than admirable tricks (to use an euphemism) on non-europeans during the 20th century.
- srean 8mo agoExactly.
- nxor2 8mo agoYou are seeing a side that always existed. Arguably in the past it was worse.
- ekianjo 8mo ago> how much soft power they had, Soft power? Have you been sleeping during the 20th century? The formidable military power of the US comes from a constant state of war.
- lambdasquirrel 8mo agoI wouldn't be that cynical. From the interactions I've had with people from mainland China, particularly those in the educated classes, I can say for certain that it was soft power that drew them towards the West and the US in particular. China already beat back the West in the Korean War.
- jjtwixman 8mo agoYes and they had a lot of soft power too.
- collingreen 8mo agoAs an American I feel this way too - there is a nostalgia and disappointed yearning for what was probably a propaganda pipe dream. I find myself disappointed and indignant at the long list of bullshit we are doing right now but I'm surprised by my own extreme sense of betrayal over how we don't even -want- to be "the good guys" anymore. I know the US has a long history of evil, dont get me wrong, but until recently (~covid) I thought most of us at least wanted to be a positive force in the world. For me, Dan Carlin said it perfectly - I want the America from the promotional material.
- jacquesm 8mo agoI think a lot of us do. But right now that promotional material looks more like a rigged Microsoft demo than the real thing.
- zabzonk 8mo ago> Note that this is from a country that wouldn't exist if not for the allied countries Which allied countries? And (I assume we are talking about the USA) why would it not exist?
- jacquesm 8mo agoNL (where I live), BE, FR, ES, IT, a good chunk of Germany, Austria, possibly the UK. We'd have been part of the German Reich or the USSR for sure. I make a point of visiting the war graves every year, just to remind me not to take anything for granted.
- disiplus 8mo agoThe post mentions, france, germany and nordic nations. France, Holand and nordic nations helped in the early stages of US.
- fodmap 8mo ago'Until early in 1778, the American Revolution was a civil war within the British Empire, but it became an international war as France (in 1778) and Spain (in 1779) joined the colonies against Britain. The Netherlands, which was engaged in its own war with Britain, provided financial support for the Americans as well as official recognition of their independence. The French navy in particular played a key role in bringing about the British surrender at Yorktown, which effectively ended the war.' https://www.britannica.com/question/Which-countries-fought-on-the-side-of-the-colonies-during-the-American-Revolution https://www.britannica.com/question/Which-countries-fought-o...
- mcv 8mo agoThe way you pay off that debt is not to the original liberator now turned oppressor, but by extending similar help to countries that are now in a similar bind as we were then. Like Ukraine. I really think we are morally obligated to liberate and help Ukraine. Our debt to the US has long been paid off. It was paid off when we submitted to their economic world order, when we bought their goods and their entertainment, when we bought their software and let our own software industry dwindle, and finally when we went to war on their side on their questionable military adventures. We owe the US nothing. I will still help them when they actually want it, but not like this.
- jacquesm 8mo ago> I really think we are morally obligated to liberate and help Ukraine. I am doing what I can and then some, and to be complete I should mention I am aware of multiple other HN'ers doing their bit too.
- gib444 8mo ago> Our debt to the US has long been paid off. It was paid off when we submitted to their economic world order, when we bought their goods and their entertainment, when we bought their software and let our own software industry dwindle, and finally when we went to war on their side on their questionable military adventures. > We owe the US nothing. Hear hear. Well said
- benterix 8mo ago> when we went to war on their side on their questionable military adventures. And then they ridiculed us for that. And then asked for help in another war they just started.
- ALLTaken 8mo ago> How about Venezuela, Cuba, Greenland, Canada, Iran and other countries the USA seized / controls or plans to? Do Americans support this violent annexation and expansion? As a European I'm feeling threatened. Very few countries have Atom Bombs and can say NO to the USA.
- jacquesm 8mo agoCheck this thread. Examples aplenty. Fortunately not even close to a majority, but yes, Americans like that exist. Europeans too by the way, but at least we have managed to mostly keep them out of power.
- chewbacha 8mo agoJake Tapper was on the case… against Biden.
- dspillett 8mo agoAye. Though those making a big noise about “Sleepy Joe” didn't seem to have a problem electing Drooling Dementia Drone Don.
- bregma 8mo agoThere is no evidence that dozy Donny the paedo president has dementia. It's just that one of his personality traits is "Arbitrary". I can just imagine him saying, as he walks into the TV room in the Whitehouse, "I went to Glitterhoof's chamber and gave him a good tumble! It is good to be the king!"
- jacquesm 8mo agoYou can bet that it is exactly what his defense will be if he's ever in court for all of his crimes. I can dream, no?
- dspillett 8mo ago> There is no evidence […] Donny […] has dementia. Oh, there is plenty of circumstantial evidence, but nothing that would constitute proof without access to the results of a detailed medical examination. Source: watching the decline of family members, and others in the care home my mother is currently in. The increasing randomness and apparent lack of concentration, the “resting his eyes” in some meetings, the leaning, etc. A lot of the signs could be other things of course, like just plain ol' age related decline. But if the people close to him don't at least have concerns, would he have been subject to the cognitive tests he is so proud of “winning”?
- chewbacha 8mo agoTotally! I intended to imply that hypocrisy :)
- zeroCalories 8mo agoAnd partisan hacks will say that a stubbed toe and terminal cancer are both bad.
- philipallstar 8mo ago[flagged]
- gpderetta 8mo agoTrue. Yet he still managed to do less damage.
- input_sh 8mo ago...because he had competent people around him that he trusted enough to make decisions, and not former TV hosts. This isn't to say "oh he was just a puppet" nor "all US presidents are puppets", but to say that the decision of who they choose to fill important positions is in and of itself the most important decision in every presidential term. They only really need to be not senile for the first month or so, for the rest of the term it's just a PR problem.
- jacquesm 8mo agoBiden is looking pretty good right now.
- iugtmkbdfil834 8mo agoI know it kinda goes against the tribal nature of political conversations, but, hear me out here, they both suck in their own unique ways and, more importantly, they both may be a little too old to manage this country ( though, to be fair, for different reasons ). We really need to start enforcing principles over tribe. It has gone a little too far.
- jacquesm 8mo agoAgreed, but if you have that choice Biden and/or Kamala over Trump shouldn't be a 'too close to call'. You might as well put Al Capone on the ballot (and I'm fairly sure he would have won).
- drcongo 8mo agoLots of us were, but we were mostly shouted down as being hysterical for warning that fascism was coming.
- jfengel 8mo agoThe people who said that are still saying it. Few minds appear to have really changed. Everyone just believes the same positions, harder.
- drcongo 8mo agoBut the people who were saying that have been proved right, and those who shouted them down are now just putting their fingers in their ears.
- genthree 8mo agoI've seen actual people (mostly this year) who write stuff like, "sure, I can't deny that this is fascism now, but you've been calling lawlessness for the rich, concentration of power in the public and private sectors both, militarization of the police, the war on drugs, free speech zones, surveillance capitalism, voter suppression, pushes to roll back civil rights, and many of our wars, fascist, for decades! It's not my fault I didn't realize it was for-real this time." They're so close to getting it. So very, frustratingly close. At least one of them got published somewhere recently, might have been The Atlantic. You just wish you could smack them with a clue-stick.
- outside1234 8mo agoC'mon, everyone was saying this in 2024. It is just that people hate women and people of color more.
- lo_zamoyski 8mo agoMen of old age are indeed generally ill-suited for the presidency (as are the young; middle age best balances vigor with prudence and wisdom). The elderly function better as advisors where they may be consulted for their experience, or as amici curiae. That being said, I don't think we can pin this particular expression of derangement on age, or at least not age alone. Trump has nothing to lose. He cannot run again. He doesn't care one whit about the common good or even tawdry partisan interests. This is his unhinged narcissism at work, abetted by a cultish, smarmy, obsequious coterie of yes-men that surrounds him.