LiberalRetvrn
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User ID: 1892
LiberalRetvrn
1d ago
Our best hope is for congress to come together and pass a bill that takes the power to impose tariffs away from the president. This actually seems plausible now, since if the tariffs stay in place the democrats will obviously win landslide elections in 2026 and 2028. Republicans no longer have to worry about fitting into the Trump brand.
LiberalRetvrn
1d ago
Right, and if we wait for them to reach our doorstep, they will be much more powerful and our soldiers will have to do the fighting, rather than Ukrainians. All we have to do right now is spend a few tens of billions and let Ukrainian heroes on the other side of the world do the dirty work for us. It's a huge bargain.
LiberalRetvrn
1d ago
No diplomatic effort could have prevented a Russian invasion. Nobody is choosing to be in a proxy war with Russia, we are at war with them whether we like it or not. We can either put in the (extremely minimal) effort required to defeat them now, or fight them later after they've seized more territory.
Either way, it's laughable that we're talking about an issue that has literally zero effect on the average American in the same context as tariffs that will raise prices on everything by at least 30%.
LiberalRetvrn
3d ago
Was the price of goods not one of the most important issues in the 2024 election? Proles voted overwhelmingly in favor of lower prices.
But they're also not stupid, so using that fact to extort them into annihilation is not going to work.
They absolutely are stupid. Proles are the people who walk into Best Buy and drop $900 on a brand new laptop with a Celeron and 720p screen, split into 96 monthly payments with 10% interest from Affirm. Proles buy a $70,000 truck that gets 15 mpg and then complain about gas prices. Proles see lower prices as the solution to all their problems, because they can't imagine not consuming every dollar they earn on stupid crap. And the lower prices are, the more crap they can consume. They are attempting to vote in their own interests, they just don't understand what their interests are.
PMCs need to take a hard look at themselves and understand that it is they who want cheaper goods
No, we don't. I want to protect the environment, even if it raises prices. I want $10/gallon gas. As a PMC, I'm willing to pay more because the amount I consume now is already well within my budget.
LiberalRetvrn
3d ago
But all of this could be avoided by just ensuring due process before anyone is deported. Why would we intentionally give the federal government this kind of power that could easily be abused? It serves no purpose other than removing a miniscule number of illegal immigrants who have no real effect on anything.
LiberalRetvrn
11d ago
I don't see how that's hard to believe at all. I trust Biden with the nuclear football infinitely more than Hegseth, Trump, Vance, or any of the people in that group chat. Biden may have dementia, but at least he was competent at one point, and at least he's aware of his limitations and would surround himself with advisers who can help him make the right decisions. I am genuinely and deeply concerned that immediate national security issues are being discussed in a group chat where random people are invited.
LiberalRetvrn
29d ago
Maybe it's impossible, but I don't see the downside of trying. Even if Ukraine loses the war, funding them just means it will take longer and Russia's resources will be more depleted. If Russia is going to end up with more territory, at least we should make them suffer as much as possible for it.
LiberalRetvrn
29d ago
How much aid would you provide? Weapons? Money?
I would continue the amount we've been providing for the last few years, since that appears to be working fairly well. I think spending $50 billion per year to kick commie ass with no risk to our own troops, and the opportunity to test out new weapons and strategies in modern warfare is a great deal for us.
No-Fly Zone? Air support? Troops on the ground? Nuclear umbrella?
Of course not. Any risk to our troops would negate all the advantages of the current situation.
What is the end-state your policy is aiming for?
To punish Russia for this invasion, and deter future invasions by Russia and China. I think the bare minimum is to prevent Russia from being rewarded for their aggression. They should not receive any territory, and if possible they should lose territory. Ideally they should also be economically and militarily crippled, so we have one fewer adversary to deal with.
Putin deposed?
That would be great, but I don't think it's likely.
Another way of putting it is, do you think your views on the Ukraine war are falsifiable, and if so, what evidence would be sufficient for you to consider it falsified?
Well I guess if Putin suddenly came to his senses, apologized, gave back the territory he stole, and submitted himself to a warcrime tribunal, maybe I would support a ceasefire. Or if the Ukrainian people decided they no longer wanted to fight. Otherwise, I don't see why anything should suddenly change.
LiberalRetvrn
1mo ago
Except that nobody has suggested sending American soldiers to Ukraine. Trump is the one planning to send Americans to disarm every land mine in Gaza.
LiberalRetvrn
1mo ago
Well I didn't say you should care, just that I don't understand how Americans can care about Ukraine less than Israel or other countries that we spend billions defending. Obviously I don't expect religious red tribers to agree with my anti-religious views, but it seems like there should be some common ground in not wanting Europe to be overrun. As much as I'm frustrated by some of Europe's anti-free speech laws, it's still my ancestral homeland.
LiberalRetvrn
1mo ago
You hate people like me. You'll harm us if you can.
Not at all. I do believe in religious freedom. I just don't want to be governed by religious values, especially ones from outside my culture. I take issue with the way Christianity spread throughout the world, often by force, and displaced traditional European religions and atheism, but I don't blame individual christians for that.
LiberalRetvrn
1mo ago
Of course Europe is not a bastion against muslim extremism, but I think that's simply a failure of Europeans being too optimistic about letting in highly religious immigrants, hoping they would be converted to secular values. Russia, however, openly sides with dagestani warlords and invites them to rape and pillage Europe. If I had my way, Europe and the US would be completely rid of both christian and islamic oppression. That's not possible right now, but it could happen someday. Defeating Putin's barbarian orc army is a start.
LiberalRetvrn
1mo ago
Russia is an authoritarian regime that doesn't respect secular liberal values, allies with muslim terrorists, and oppresses its own people. Anyone fighting such a regime, and preventing its incursion into Europe, is defending Western civilization.
LiberalRetvrn
1mo ago
Well, as an American I care deeply about territorial concessions in Ukraine. I don't want russia getting one more inch of land. I want them to be taught a brutal lesson for their aggression. Ukrainian soldiers are fighting for my interests in a much more direct way than American soldiers have in any war since WW2. I don't understand how any American of European descent can care about Ukraine less than Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, or any of the other countries our tax dollars have been squandered on over the years.
LiberalRetvrn
1mo ago
I'm embarrassed and disgusted. We should be the ones thanking Ukraine for doing the dirty work of defending Western civilization for us. All we've had to contribute is $120 billion in weapons that probably would have been thrown away. What an absolute bargain. I'm glad that Zelenskyy held his ground and didn't cave into their petty guilt-tripping bitchfest.
LiberalRetvrn
1mo ago
The CDC says a quarter of high schoolers are LGBT
Except that the vast majority of those are "bisexual" or "pansexual", but are functionally straight in every way. Or nonbinary, but functionally not transgender in any way. It's probably a combination of kids wanting to feel special, and people who are 75% straight now choosing to acknowledge their 25% gayness because the option exists. Either way, it doesn't have any effect on society other than triggering christians.
LiberalRetvrn
2mo ago
No, the alternative is a representative constitutional republic with checks and balances, which has worked for the US and other advanced countries. Direct democracy means that 51% of the people have unlimited power, which invariably leads to disaster. The average person is not smart enough to be making these kinds of decisions.
LiberalRetvrn
2mo ago
Why should doge have access to any classified information? Does Musk have a security clearance? Did congress vote to create doge and decide what its powers will be?
LiberalRetvrn
2mo ago
People did vote for this, but they shouldn't have been allowed to. This is democracy out of control, something that the constitution was carefully crafted to prevent. Musk is running around shutting down agencies with no accountability to the bureaucracy or the courts. I don't know whether anyone except Trump can actually stop him.
LiberalRetvrn
2mo ago
I strongly prefer helping my own country, town, and family before helping foreigners. But I still support foreign aid to Africa because it's ridiculously effective at saving people. So even though I value the life of random strangers less, it's still a better use of money than letting the military blow it on F-35s or whatever.
LiberalRetvrn
2mo ago
Our best hope is that he's bluffing. I doubt that he really wants to risk being remembered as the guy who caused the great depression of 2025. Maybe within a few days he'll announce that Canada and Mexico made concessions, regardless of whether that's true, and lift the tariffs. And Canada and Mexico will be too scared to contradict him. That would explain him not making concrete demands, as he can now declare victory whenever he wants.
LiberalRetvrn
2mo ago
Hinduism holds it is offense against Dharma possibly requiring being cast out into a lower caste
Examples of barbaric cultures that I would never want to live in aren't really going to convince me. All countries that are remotely civilized protect LGBT rights.
I mean if you like buttsex a lot, thats your thing.
I certainly don't, but I'm not going to have christians and jews telling me what I can and can't do. Secularism is what made America great, and religion is what keeps the middle east a dump.
LiberalRetvrn
2mo ago
"Biology" doesn't care what we do, we all die of something in the end. Technology prevents the spread of STDs a lot more effectively than purity culture. I'm not going to spend my limited time living under christian slave morality.
LiberalRetvrn
2mo ago
His critiques about Afghanistan were pretty unsubstantive. Obviously the Afghanistan war was unwinnable, but he didn't acknowledge whose fault it was that we were there in the first place. He didn't acknowledge the fundamental problem with Bush era foreign policy that got us stuck in those wars. And going further back, why were we ever so involved in the middle east that Bin Laden wanted to attack us? All of this could have been avoided by simply leaving the middle east to sort out its own problems. But Hegseth has an emotional bias at play here - he views the middle east as his holy land. His loyalties are not to the American people, or western civilization, but to his god and Jesus. The title of the book is all you have to read to understand his philosophy, and why he's dangerous.
I admit, I put as little effort into coming up with that number as Trump did when deciding the tariff rates. I'm not sure anyone can predict all the feedback loops and unexpected incentives that will be created by such extreme meddling in the economy. Regardless of the exact numbers, we are doomed. It's over.
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