/c/showerthoughts also has a “no politics” rule, which means that many topics are off-limits - and since this rule is worded very vaguely, the admins decide at their own discretion which topics are allowed.

I couldn’t agree more, especially since, for anyone not from the US, even the most moderate White House posts are so utterly absurd that these days it’s really hard to tell the difference between satire and real-life clown show.

I can assure you that everyone is trying their best to adjust somehow, but it’s really hard given this level of absurdity.

Noice!

Because they are all the same kind of people, and age doesn’t really matter in itself - most of the people at the top are just white and old men because the system was set up by those very people.

And that is precisely the problem: this system of endless greed propels ruthless psychopaths to the top. It is sold as a performance-based society, even though performance has absolutely nothing to do with it - if that were the case, the problem wouldn’t exist in the first place.

What is this supposed to mean? The brain drain has been underway ever since the fascists took the helm - take the medical field, for example: The CDC used to be an organization of enormous global importance. After this absurd conspiracy-theorist clown took office, the majority of the capable staff were fired because they refused to go along with his anti-science bullshit. Now the CDC is barely a shadow of its former self and has consequently lost both its credibility and its purpose on the international stage. This has cost many lives and done enormous damage to the US as a center of scientific excellence.

This is the case in many areas, which is hardly surprising under a Nazi regime that portrays science as the enemy.

Agreed. Agent Orange, lackey to the billionaires, or just plain pedo would probably be much more fitting - but “President” seems completely inappropriate, because even in a pseudo-democratic country, that would imply he acts in the people’s interest, which is definitely not the case.

Yes, it would have been much more credible if the White House had announced that the president was on vacation on a tropical island. Anyone would believe that right away…

Yes, that’s true, but I’m sure the method would work just as well if you asked the orange guy where the best location for a wind farm is.

It’s all just a joke, of course: No one should pay even the slightest bit of attention to what this criminal has to say.

That’s actually a solid rule of thumb when you’re not sure: if the plan aims to do the exact opposite of what the orange mob boss says, it can’t be anything but a good plan.

It’s kind of interesting that most people here seem to assume that attending college is synonymous with education or knowledge. It would be nice if that were the case.

However, there are also quite a few people who went to college but didn’t learn a thing there - especially in countries like the U.S. or England, where a college degree costs an absurd amount of money, this happens all the time. It’s especially common there to find children of wealthy people who are as dumb as a box of rocks, yet still manage to buy their way into high society with a college degree - they’re guaranteed to get it, regardless of whether they learn even the slightest thing at university.

The current U.S. president is a good example…

I recently attended the wedding of a friend who married into nobility. Most of the bride’s friends, who had all attended Eton or Cheltenham, worked in some capacity as estate or property managers.

Edit: The whole event had a pretty satirical feel to it - there was even the mentally unstable, rich daughter who, later in the evening, threw herself at you while drunk and went on and on about how awful her mother was, how boring her friends were, and all that. Oh, and there were quite a few rich old perverts as well who were constantly making lewd advances toward the much younger women in attendance. All in all, it was quite a strange wedding.

Shuts down speculation? That just fuels the speculations.

They must know that everyone can see it’s a lie when they say he never stops working - not even MAGA morons can possibly believe that.

The direction in which the U.S. is heading is toward a true autocracy, like in Russia, with all the coercive mechanisms that go along with it.

This is the logical consequence of the American people allowing the most serious crimes to go unpunished.

It is quite obvious that the oligarchs who have ruled the country for decades have now decided that the illusion of democracy - which they had maintained until now with this absurd two-party system - is no longer necessary, since they will never be held accountable for their crimes anyway.

Even in their last, rather pathetic coup attempt, everyone involved got off scot-free, even the foot soldiers. This time, however, the regime has established ICE, a secret police force with a budget equivalent to the military spending of a medium-sized country - by U.S. standards: ICE’s budget exceeds that of all U.S. federal agencies, including the CIA and FBI, etc. combined. Isn’t it quite obvious why an “agency” like this would ever need such an astronomical budget?

Yes, that’s true, which is why, as I said, I consider sanctions unrealistic. The big problem is that after World War II, the U.S. rose to become the sole power controlling the financial market.

Now that the US is on the verge of losing its status as a superpower to China, however, the situation is slowly changing.

I very much hope that countries will learn that the same principle applies at the state level as it does in the economy: monopolies harm everyone except the monopolists. Perhaps politicians will see reason, allow themselves not to be “influenced” shamelessly by lobbyists in the future, and stop putting all their eggs in one basket.

As for Germany, I can say that we are unfortunately still very far from that. Our chancellor is, unfortunately, more of a U.S. lobbyist than a politician who would act in the interests of the people.

So I don’t have much hope, but still, one almost has to be grateful to that orange pedo for being such a brain-dead moron. His arrogant warmongering and his constant, brazen threats make it abundantly clear that the US is anything but a peace-loving, reliable partner.

I hope this will lead other countries to organize themselves to at least begin to break free from this miserable relationship of dependency.

Yes, we really need an alternative to the UN, because unfortunately it cannot be reformed due to the veto system and the fact that the most powerful countries have permanent seats on the Security Council.

So what is needed is a new international organization that addresses the fact that the UN has, in fact, long been under the unilateral influence of the US in particular - the fact that Israel, for example, gets away with outright genocide with complete impunity, unfortunately makes all too clear how absurd it is that a single, admittedly very powerful country can prevent any efforts to enforce what is, in fact, the central task of the international community.

So yes, I agree: We need a second, better UN.

It is high time that a European, cross-border payment service was established. This should have happened decades ago.

To me, a regulated payment standard like UPI in India seems to make the most sense. But I also find decentralized approaches, such as the GNU Taler, interesting.

Two thing are important, though: This can’t happen fast enough, and under no circumstances should we rely on private companies again.

Not without reason: he does it to enrich himself and his cronies.

It’s organized crime, like the Mafia, but on a much larger scale.

Why does he do it? Well, because no one is stopping him and because he gets away with everything without facing any consequences. So why wouldn’t he do it?

In essence, the world (and the media as well) should treat the U.S. exactly as it behaves: as a failed state that, like Russia, is ruled by organized crime, tramples on international law, and blackmails its former allies. One should not do business with such a country, especially since it is committing the most egregious war crimes alongside its genocidal allies in Israel.

It is a reflection of the lack of integrity in the political systems of other countries that no sanctions have been imposed on the US in response to its brutal actions in Iran - this war is just as much a war of aggression in violation of international law as the one Russia is waging against Ukraine.

Sanctions against the U.S. will, of course, not happen. But the barbaric behavior of the U.S. should at least ensure that Western countries turn away from the U.S. in the future, so that it cannot continue to exploit its power to blackmail the world.

Yes, exactly. Unfortunately, I think it’s highly unlikely that the same corrupt legal system - which this woman has quite clearly demonstrated protects the most serious criminals instead of prosecuting them - will suddenly start delivering justice. I don’t think anything will change unless the citizens themselves force through the massive reforms that are necessary.

At present, it is almost a mockery to call the US a constitutional state, because the legal system is so obviously corrupt that it simply no longer fulfills its purpose, as the regime illustrates very impressively on a daily basis.

I’m sure they can read. The store is in Germany and the text is in English, but I’m sure they realized that this is complete nonsense. I think they just ordered some cheap wrap material from somewhere and didn’t pay much attention to what was written on it.

They probably just don’t want to throw it away - which is fine. I just found it somewhat amusing and maybe a little infuriating, which is why I posted it here.