Random Politics Thread

[Virtual ghost]

Trump kept Germany’s Scholz in the dark about his Ukraine peace plan

So the plan is basically "I will freeze the conflict and Europe should be the caretaker of peace".
To be fully honest it could be way worse than this. This is kinda ok-ish if that is how it will be (all things considered).

On the other hand maybe it wouldn't be ok.


Fear and loathing in Kyiv as Trump and Putin shut Ukraine out of peace talks

JD Vance snubs Germany’s Scholz at Munich Security Conference

 

[The Cat]

 

[Totenkindly]

Pretty sure most of them are collaborators at this point.

Yeah, mostly expected and I think the only one eating at me a bit was Fetterman.

McConnell's a riot, trying to salvage his bad guy image by taking the freedom to vote against the noms when possible without it really affecting the outcome.

 

[The Cat]

Yeah, mostly expected and I think the only one eating at me a bit was Fetterman.

When I was a kid I watched Garfield and Friends(American Acres)

((This one))​

and one thing that used to make me uneasy was that all the people in the garfield cartoons looked creepy with that weird half lidded smirk. Hakeem Jeffries looks like he was drawn by Jim Davis. Seeing him actual scold democratic voters who want them to actually fight the robber barrons stealing our country instead of offering mouth service and hand jobs or whatever the fuck they're doing instead of being the god damned opposition party. They spent all of 2024 begging for money to fight the looming threat the current administration and project 2025 posed... and yet when its time for the rubber to meet the road, turns out there's no gas or spark plugs or wheels on the damn bus, and if that aint sabotage I don't know what is. We got sold out. I really fucking understand Malcolm Reynolds in the Firefly pilot in a way I only thought I did in the military. We stand on the brink of losing everything, everything, so a bunch of robber barrons can try to turn back the clock on feudalism, wring the last red cent from dirty energy for as long as possible and the rest of us will be too busy dealing with the "apocalypse"(War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death) while they live it up in their little climate bunkers guarded by robots and a fanatical warrior caste. These tech bro fascists learned all the wrong lessons from the science fiction and comics books over the years, so now the rest of us get to live in comic book hell UNLESS dems get off their asses and start using EVERY FUCKING TRICK IN THE REPUBLICAN BOOK TO KEEP THEM FROM WIPING THEIR ASSES WITH THE CONSTITUTION THAT THESE FUCKING ASS HATS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SO WET FOR!!!

Where the fuck is the moral outrage from the establishment?? The Chagrin at the flouting of protocol? Where is the fury of the CEO death? Why isnt the msm reporting on the protests happening accross the nation? Hakeem is more afraid of looking like a democratic Mike Lindell than doing his damned job. Pride really does go before the fall...but god damn I wish they would at least bother to act like they're not just openly collaborating.

 

[The Cat]

 

[Totenkindly]

Well, this just happened...

...since trans people were the ringleaders of that incident.

 

[The Cat]

 

[Virtual ghost]

Musk will face consequences for interfering in German election, says front-runner Merz

 

[The Cat]

It'll be nice to see him get consequences for meddling in someone's elections at least.

 

[Virtual ghost]

It'll be nice to see him get consequences for meddling in someone's elections at least.

That threat may or may not happen.
However in the big picture things are breaking down, the world as we know it is even formally ending at this point (but I am not sure how much of that is getting to the US public).



JD Vance attacks Europe over migration, free speech

MSC 2025: Germany's Pistorius derides Vance's remarks

Zelenskyy: Trump told me Putin wants to end the war. I told him Putin is a liar.

At NATO meeting, Europe demands part in Ukraine peace talks

American troops in Europe are not ‘forever,’ US defense chief Hegseth warns

Von der Leyen demands trigger of emergency clause to massively boost defense spending


The foundations are seriously shaking and it is unclear what will come out of this. However more serious decoupling of US and Europe is evidently in the cards. At best this will be historically frosty relations over the next couple of years.

 

[The Cat]

That threat may or may not happen.
However in the big picture things are breaking down, the world as we know it is even formally ending at this point (but I am not sure how much of that is getting to the US public).



JD Vance attacks Europe over migration, free speech

MSC 2025: Germany's Pistorius derides Vance's remarks

Zelenskyy: Trump told me Putin wants to end the war. I told him Putin is a liar.

At NATO meeting, Europe demands part in Ukraine peace talks

American troops in Europe are not ‘forever,’ US defense chief Hegseth warns

Von der Leyen demands trigger of emergency clause to massively boost defense spending


The foundations are seriously shaking and it is unclear what will come out of this. However more serious decoupling of US and Europe is evidently in the cards. At best this will be historically frosty relations over the next couple of years.

Disturbingly little. I'm getting treated like a voice crying in the wilderness. I found the ministry of truth propaganda news channel popping up in my feed today, its like a nightmare, its like people are living in two different worlds here depending on how much they pay attention. The MSM isnt covering the protests, and the dems are acting like everything is business as usual so people think everything is fine I got told by two different loved ones in the last two weeks that they didnt want this to be who I am for the next four years. They act like Im just being a sore loser and any sources I send them get either dismissed as well of course the losing side would lose sorely, or well I agree with some of the points but not all of them so the whole thing gets dismissed as alarmist. So Not a fucking lot is actually getting through here, it's been disturbing how little. Its like everyone got amnesia of the last 8 years and all of WWII The Great Depression, the Gilded Age and American Revolution combined.

And the Constitution is sacred crowd, now apparently have never met the document in question.

 

[The Cat]

My bet is they're gonna try to get us isolated so the people feel like they have nowhere to run to, no allies in the world, no hope, they're gonna rob the treasury, use the depression to break the will of the people and when people have had enough and start to buck they'll use it as an excuse to declare martial law and people are gonna realize all at once that the wall works on both sides and the trap is a lot harder to open once it closes around you. Presuming they're not stopped before they utterly destroy the administrative infrastructure.

 

[Virtual ghost]

Disturbingly little. I'm getting treated like a voice crying in the wilderness. I found the ministry of truth propaganda news channel popping up in my feed today, its like a nightmare, its like people are living in two different worlds here depending on how much they pay attention. The MSM isnt covering the protests, and the dems are acting like everything is business as usual so people think everything is fine I got told by two different loved ones in the last two weeks that they didnt want this to be who I am for the next four years. They act like Im just being a sore loser and any sources I send them get either dismissed as well of course the losing side would lose sorely, or well I agree with some of the points but not all of them so the whole thing gets dismissed as alarmist. So Not a fucking lot is actually getting through here, it's been disturbing how little. Its like everyone got amnesia of the last 8 years and all of WWII The Great Depression, the Gilded Age and American Revolution combined.

And the Constitution is sacred crowd, now apparently have never met the document in question.

It is not pretty thing to say but some people just have to learn the hard way. Since with current decisions US positions are shaking seriously and that probably wouldn't be good for the actual physical economy (which is already a mess as it is).

Trump’s ‘reciprocal’ tariffs could target EU’s value-added taxes

I mean this evidently has the potential to disrupt transatlantic relationship completely. Treating Europe's internal taxes on all goods as tariffs you have to counter. In other words those taxes are feeding socialized medicine, infrastructure, green policies, education ... etc. Therefore there is no way Europe can play along nicely here. Since that would mean giving up on it's own culture.

 

[The Cat]

It is not pretty thing to say but some people just have to learn the hard way. Since with current decisions US positions are shaking seriously and that probably wouldn't be good for the actual physical economy (which is already a mess as it is).

Trump’s ‘reciprocal’ tariffs could target EU’s value-added taxes

I mean this evidently has the potential to disrupt transatlantic relationship completely. Treating Europe's internal taxes on all goods as tariffs you have to counter. In other words those taxes are feeding socialized medicine, infrastructure, green policies, education ... etc. Therefore there is no way Europe can play along nicely here. Since that would mean giving up on it's own culture.

I get it but I'm not really a FAFO kinda guy, because I have a better idea than some what kinda stuff is lurking beyond the threshold. You do too having lived through civil war in a more modern time. Most people here still think of these sorts of things in the "romantic" aspects of the 19th and 20th centuries. They think there will be places they can hide, run to or they picture fights with more equal footing. They're not taking air power or space power into account let alone the actual spooky shit.

That being said. The avalanche has already started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote.

We are fucking on the train and its running full steam ahead. All of this has happened before and here we are again. Nothing else to do but stay groovy and dont panic. But We're definitely in a BOHICA/ FUBAR adjacent territory.

 

[Totenkindly]

That threat may or may not happen.
However in the big picture things are breaking down, the world as we know it is even formally ending at this point (but I am not sure how much of that is getting to the US public).

To answer that question, I read in regular news today the following:

JD Vance attacks Europe over migration, free speech

Yup. I heard there was laughter and even some outbursts during his speech.

MSC 2025: Germany's Pistorius derides Vance's remarks

I didn't see this yet but I wasn't in particular looking.

Zelenskyy: Trump told me Putin wants to end the war. I told him Putin is a liar.

I think I saw this.

At NATO meeting, Europe demands part in Ukraine peace talks

And this.

American troops in Europe are not ‘forever,’ US defense chief Hegseth warns

I missed that particular tidbit but I heard his speech was shit and made the US look ridiculous -- and it's clear Europe cannot depend on the US.

Von der Leyen demands trigger of emergency clause to massively boost defense spending

missed that.

But anyway, yeah, it IS still coming through in the USA. I was just skimming headlines on a regular feed and picked up much of this today.

The foundations are seriously shaking and it is unclear what will come out of this. However more serious decoupling of US and Europe is evidently in the cards. At best this will be historically frosty relations over the next couple of years.

Yeah. Along with Trump tariffing the shit out of all of his allies just because he feels like it. It's all part of it.
You wonder what goes through his brain.

 

[The Cat]

You wonder what goes through his brain.

When you clean it up it's not really a sentence.

 

[Red Herring]

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...se-further-food-price-volatility-analysts-say

Guess what, if you want affordable food you should join the treehuggers (a.k.a. the Chinese hoax)

 

[Totenkindly]

I did see this today. News is still getting through. Not sure how long that will last.

Other big news here is that they fired hundreds of gov workers overseeing our nuclear stockpiles, realized their mistake, then "quietly" hired some back.

they clearly don't have plans and are just doing shit hoping nothing they screw up is too bad to fix.

Are we tired of winning yet? Woo hoo

 

[Totenkindly]

Trump offered them a buyout. Here's why they took it

Some of the 75,000 U.S. federal workers who the Office of Personnel Management says accepted a resignation buyout offer were ready to retire anyway. Many bristled at Donald Trump's description of the civil service as bloated and ineffective, saying in interviews with Reuters over recent days...

www.yahoo.com

One of them never got to take the buyout (regardless of whether it's on the level). People were hesitant to resign before hearing the court case outcome, since if the plan had been squelched, there could have been reprisal if you had volunteered to be cut (regardless). But there was no time after the temp ban was lifted, they purposefully closed it that evening before they even sent the e-mail to tell people it had been closed.

It looks like they are firing thousands of probationary workers now -- which just essentially means they have not been in their positions more than a year. Note that in some cases this is catching people with many years of government service but simply switched positions recently or were promoted to a new position. Not new to government at all. And also, sometimes new performers have more modernized skills and mindsets and are performing more highly than those with more years in. This obviously has nothing to do with knowledge, experience, performance, or merit -- they are simply mass-cutting the positions with less legal protections on them so that the cuts are not challenged.

The form letters have sometimes been pretty obnoxious as well, insinuating there are performance issues for high-performing employees.

 

[Totenkindly]

Lawsuit from USAID folks who were overseas, whose sudden firing/shutdown left them destitute and their families in real danger:

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.576293/gov.uscourts.mdd.576293.1.0.pdf

... As chaos reigned at USAID’s headquarters, with senior leadership removed and funding frozen, USAID workers and their families abroad had no agency help in fleeing after looters overran their homes in Kinshasa, several of the staffers said in sworn accounts to a federal court. Congo-based USAID staffers who described getting out with nothing but their backpacks wrote of now being stranded in Washington, without a home or agency payments, and facing joblessness...

One foreign service officer, identified in the lawsuit as Marcus Doe, said he feared for his and his family’s safety amid widespread protests in Kinshasa, including at the US embassy and outside his home on January 28.

He detailed challenges he and other staff faced – including one colleague whose house was set on fire and “lost all their belongings to looting” – and recounted being told that “any spending not directly approved” by the agency’s acting administrator could be considered defying the administration’s orders.

“I began to feel an intense sense of panic that my government might fully abandon Americans working for USAID in Kinshasa,” Marcus Doe said.

Marcus Doe said he and his colleagues were evacuated in small boats to Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of Congo, without an approved waiver, which they eventually received. From there, they boarded a flight to Washington, where they were “allowed two nights in the airport hotel in which to figure out what we would do next,” according to the filing.

The employees, the lawsuit argued, were left to sort their housing, schooling plans for their children and “other support payments that would normally be owed to evacuated families.”

“To date we have still not received any of these payments,” Marcus Doe said in the filing, later adding: “The chaos of the Trump administration’s haphazard and extraconstitutional shutdown of USAID has caused my family and me immense emotional distress by contributing to the already intense sense of panic and uncertainty of the riots in Kinshasa.”

Here is the full deposition, which is pretty harrowing and at best is criminal negligence IMO. They did not think through or care about the results of their impulsive decisions ahead of time, or show any regard for the well-being of American citizens abroad, in fact continuing to publicly malign them to sour public support:

https://www.courthousenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/marcus-doe-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-declaration-usaid-evacs.pdf

More public interest stories about specific impact of this past week's abrupt layoffs:

‘Took away my hope.’ Federal workers say Trump mass firings upended their lives

Fired workers worried about making rent and paying student loans. Many talked about going into government work because they value public service.

www.yahoo.com