[Diesel]

Originally Posted by Skuj

Thank fuck that SYG, warts and all, is the closest thing I get to "social media".

If this guy looked like Mark David Chapman...

People did not relate to Chapman though. Unless in some reality Lennon was a high rolling CEO of Beatles inc. and they tortured the American public with their song All you need is Life Insurance.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Diesel

People did not relate to Chapman though. Unless in some reality Lennon was a high rolling CEO of Beatles inc. and they tortured the American public with their song All you need is Life Insurance.

hahhaahahahaaaaa! yes

(they kind of did though lol)

Originally Posted by Toilet & Bowels

Whatever his back ground Luigi is an american hero and everyone on the internet wants to fuck him right now

everyone on the internet is a big talker with short memory

in the long run this just means more money spent on corporate security. and the customers will eat the costs

[Skuj]

I've never been on twitter/x, but once Musk took over I vowed to never go there.

I've done a lot of Amazon ordering in my life. But once Bezos stopped his paper from making an endorsement in the election (not that it would have mattered, but the principle etc) I stopped. And now with his Muskish support and reported $1mil going to Teflon Don's Big Day, I vow never to Amazon again. I can live without it.

I know that nobody actually gives a fuck - but I do!

[choc e-Claire]

Originally Posted by Skuj

I've never been on twitter/x, but once Musk took over I vowed to never go there.

I'm being petulant and taking the "I was there first" attitude (even though I wasn't - he started posting there in 2010). I know alternatives like Bluesky exist, but I refuse to leave until the plug is pulled; I am a Japanese soldier from World War II and the website formerly known as Twitter is my Indonesian island.

[!@#$%!]

ok this one is funny

there was a claim days ago that burger king had twatted a "we dont snitch" message (it was a fake)

but new mexican burger chain lottabgurger posted the same thing in their facebook for real. so, not original, but official


https://scontent-atl3-2.xx.fbcdn.net...&oe=67635DD E

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid...08133388016364

my fave comment:

"Mark White
All the fake religious people who never volunteer mad af in the comments ��"

...

anyway lol let's count the days and see how long this enthusiasm lasts

[!@#$%!]

retail sales month on month suprised this morning to the upside. the american consumer keeps consuming, and cybermonday wasn't even counted because it happened in december

meanwhile everywhere else economies wither, budgets fail, and governments falter: france, germany, canada...

[_tunic_]

 

scary monsters & super creeps !


And in the back is a painting of his holy highness in his younger days.
This picture was made at Mar-e-Lago, and features Musk, Farage and some real estate bloke on the left. Apparently Musk is going to spend millions in funding Farage's right-wing Reform Party


What's next? Sooner or later Musk will have his puppets in every European country !?!?!
and then what? It will turn out that he's a Russian spy after all .... who will be the next James Bond?

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by _tunic_

What's next? Sooner or later Musk will have his puppets in every European country !?!?!
and then what? It will turn out that he's a Russian spy after all .... who will be the next James Bond?

i know, right? who are the real "globalists"?

--


anyway, little king melon and his sith lord donald t, meddling with the funding bill congress had agreed upon-- total assclownery!


here comes the gubmint shutdown (for the weekend) but if it goes on how about we cancel the inauguration? hahhahahahahahaaaaaaaa!

i want to laugh at all this. i will laugh

...

oh never mind, they have an agreement again, now covfefe and melon just need to SHUT THE FUCK UP

[Genteel Death 2]

Originally Posted by _tunic_

 

What's next? Sooner or later Musk will have his puppets in every European country !?!?!

But most European countries already have governments leaning to the populist right.

[Genteel Death 2]

John Waters on Luigi Mangione: "I mean, he's not that cute. He's alright. I did say in one of my early books, 'Everybody looks better under arrest.' I think that has something to do with it. But yeah, it is a phenomenon.''

[Antagon]

Originally Posted by Genteel Death 2

John Waters on Luigi Mangione: "I mean, he's not that cute. He's alright. I did say in one of my early books, 'Everybody looks better under arrest.' I think that has something to do with it. But yeah, it is a phenomenon.''

He's got a point. Like, for instance: Trump would look way better ... behind bars.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Antagon

He's got a point. Like, for instance: Trump would look way better ... behind bars.

hahahahahaaaaaaaaa this was a great joke and still is. every time. thank you again

must spread mo' butter

[Bertrand]

Vance spits on Europe, praises a Rumanian politician on the far right whose campaign money's said to have been provided by Russia.
Next?
What will the US look like in 4 years (for the people living in every state, not for the bunch of future criminal assholes on top)?

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by Bertrand

Vance spits on Europe, praises a Rumanian politician on the far right whose campaign money's said to have been provided by Russia.
Next?
What will the US look like in 4 years (for the people living in every state, not for the bunch of future criminal assholes on top)?

dont worry about what the usa will look like in 4 years (no idea tbh)

worry about europe not being in the position to be spat on again

[!@#$%!]

last night's speech might have been narcissistic and spiteful and megalomaniac and peppered with lies, but it was also effective. it made some good points, not gonna lie. stylistically it made good use of humor and empathy and was cogent and energetic, in spite of the weird hairdo and lunatic claims. a strange tribal ritual, but it was successful

[Diesel]

JoyDivision Vance talking about sOmE rAnDoM eUrOpEaN cOuNtRy like the most ignorant, cliched American yuppie. Imagine having some of the best initials possible and still being a prick, I hate him even more.

[verme (prevaricator)]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

last night's speech might have been narcissistic and spiteful and megalomaniac and peppered with lies, but it was also effective. it made some good points, not gonna lie. stylistically it made good use of humor and empathy and was cogent and energetic, in spite of the weird hairdo and lunatic claims. a strange tribal ritual, but it was successful

The closing of the speech, yeah. Took him 9 years but he pulled it off.

[_tunic_]

just read an interesting article in the Dutch newspaper. It's auto-translated by Firefox, so it's a bit sketchy at times.

Band Putin and Trump won’t fall from the sky: ‘By common past they will never betray each other’

Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin a “murderous dictator and unadulterated villain.” But since his successor Donald Trump sits in the White House, there is no bad word from the US government about the Russian president. “Fascism reigns in Washington.”

Sanne Schelfaut 08-03-25, 03:00 The last update: 07:37:37

A remarkable letter submitted this week in the Volkskrant [which is another Dutch newspaper]. Author is former defense minister Joris Voorhoeve. He writes that it has surprised many how Donald Trump dealt with Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump called Zelensky “an unelected dictator,” rhetoric who might as well have come from the Kremlin.\

Voorhoeve (79) itself is anything but surprised. “Trump’s business empire is full of money from Russian financiers who have flowed to him through money laundering constructions by European banks. The network of Putin’s accomplices in the banking world and his investments in Trump may be believed to be known, right?” he wrote.

Asked about the content of his letter, the former minister says that the U.S. currently has a fascist government. ,, Fascism reigns in Washington. Trump wants to radiate the “strong man” in everything, his Maga movement is superior to everything and everyone. The independent judiciary and journalism are attacked, political opponents are ridiculed, he uses aggressive language. They are all characteristics of fascism.”

According to Voorhoeve, the only thing missing in this list is the application of violence. ,,But that cannot be ruled out either. He has expressed his wish to take possession of the Panama Canal and to add Canada and Greenland to the US. He wants to achieve this peacefully, but has not said he absolutely excludes violence in these cases.”

According to the former minister, you see in Trump’s behavior and policy that he is an admirer “of sole ruler Putin.” ,,for as far as I’m concerned, they are two criminals who speak the same language and will never betray each other through their common past.”

 

Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump during a 2017 meeting. • AP


Investing of Russian rubles

That shared past has to do with investing Russian rubles in businessman Trump’s real estate empire. ,,To understand that, we need to go back to the early 90s. The Soviet Union had just disintegrated, and agents of the KGB, the secret service, at the time stole many properties from the collapsing Soviet Union and sold for a lot of money. Think of soil, oil and other raw materials.”

That money had to be laundered abroad and then, according to multiple sources, Trump comes into the picture. ,,Through his real estate is almost certainly Russian money laundered. In return, these mafias rescue Trump from destruction after a series of bankruptcies of his casino empire, among others. No American bank wanted to invest in its business, but the Russians did not suffer from it. Without them, he would probably have been played long and wide. Also in political terms,” says Voorhoeve, who refers to books that investigative journalists Catherine Belton and Craig Unger wrote about the influence and power of Putin and his inner circle, which consists mainly of ex-KGB agents and other Russian oligarchs.

Money outside of Russia parking

Belton states in her book Putin’s men’s men and clear that there are close ties between some of these oligarchs and the Kremlin, and that investments in Trump’s real estate projects may have been part of a strategy to park money outside Russia and gain influence in the US.

 

Putin is from the KGB world, so it could certainly be that he has confronting information for Trump
Hubert Smeets, Russia expert

Russia expert Hubert Smeets (Fram on Russia) indicates that Voorhoeve is probably right, but that there has never been hard evidence that Putin had an influence on Russian money laundering in Trump’s real estate empire, but there are former KGBs who have been clapped from the school about the criminal tactics. And emphatically refer to the close connection between these figures and Trump. In any case, what we know for sure is that the current American president has been saved a few times by Russian capital-providing oligarchs. We must question the origin of their money. Those figures kept and holding a mafia power structure.”

 

During a carnival parade in Dusseldorf, Germany, earlier this week, the spotlight was winds with the negotiations between America and Russia on a peace agreement in Ukraine. Reuters Reuters


Whether Putin can put pressure on Trump, for example by demanding bad conditions for Ukraine and for Russia in the negotiations for a peace agreement, is therefore difficult to answer, according to Smeets. ,,There are going to be stories that Trump was recruited by the KGB more than thirty years ago for laundering those Russian rubles. Putin is from the KGB world, so it could certainly be that he has confronting information for Trump, which is therefore not attacking him. If so, we can safely say that the Russians have the White House in their power.”

Trump may be blackmailed

Trump may be blackmailing, but according to Smeets we should not forget that the American president thinks the same as Putin. ,,They divide the world into three blocs of power: America, Russia and China. Three bite-sized chunks, the rest doesn't matter. Trump thought so during his first term, but now he has put together one more loyal team for him to perform his power thinking. At home and abroad.”

According to Smeets, the Russian president has been surrounded by the international aisle with Trumpian types for years. Power-stuned alpha men with autocratic traits, a penchant for money and with little to no moral sense. ,,Men whom he easily binds to himself through the same traits.” Examples include the Syrian former dictator Assad, the Belarusian sole master of Lukashenko, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un and now Trump.

[verme (prevaricator)]

Sadly, Trump is right on Ukraine

by Alan J. Kuperman, opinion contributor - 03/18/25 4:00 PM ET

I rarely agree with President Trump, but his latest controversial statements about Ukraine are mostly true. They only seem preposterous because western audiences have been fed a steady diet of disinformation about Ukraine for more than a decade. It is time to set the record straight on three key points that illuminate why Ukrainians and former President Joe Biden — not merely Russian President Vladimir Putin — bear significant responsibility for the outbreak and perpetuation of war in Ukraine.
First, as recently documented by overwhelming forensic evidence, and affirmed even by a Kyiv court, it was Ukrainian right-wing militants who started the violence in 2014 that provoked Russia’s initial invasion of the country’s southeast including Crimea. Back then, Ukraine had a pro-Russia president, Viktor Yanukovych, who had won free and fair elections in 2010 with strong support from ethnic Russians in the country’s southeast.
In 2013, he decided to pursue economic cooperation with Russia rather than Europe as previously planned. Pro-western activists responded with mainly peaceful occupation of the capital’s Maidan square and government offices, until the president eventually offered substantial concessions in mid-February 2014, after which they mainly withdrew.
Just then, however, right-wing militants overlooking the square started shooting Ukrainian police and remaining protesters. Police returned fire at the militants, who then claimed bogusly that the police had killed the unarmed protesters. Outraged by this ostensible government massacre, Ukrainians descended on the capital and ousted the president, who fled to Russia for protection.
Putin responded by deploying troops to Crimea and weapons to the southeast Donbas region on behalf of ethnic Russians who felt their president had been undemocratically overthrown. While this backstory does not justify Russia’s invasion, it explains that it was hardly “unprovoked.”
Second, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky contributed to a wider war by violating peace deals with Russia and seeking NATO military aid and membership. The deals, known as Minsk 1 and 2, had been negotiated under his predecessor President Petro Poroshenko in 2014 and 2015 to end fighting in the southeast and protect endangered troops.

Ukraine was to guarantee Donbas limited political autonomy by the end of 2015, which Putin believed would be sufficient to prevent Ukraine from joining — or serving as a military base for — NATO. Regrettably, Ukraine refused for seven years to fulfill that commitment.
Zelensky even campaigned in 2019 on a promise to finally implement the accords to prevent further war. But after winning election, he reneged, apparently less concerned about risking war than looking weak on Russia.
Zelensky instead increased weapons imports from NATO countries, which was the last straw for Putin. So, on Feb. 21, 2022, Russia recognized the independence of Donbas, deployed troops there for “peacekeeping,” and demanded Zelensky renounce his quest for NATO military assistance and membership.
When Zelensky again refused, Putin massively expanded his military offensive on Feb. 24. Intentionally or not, Zelensky had provoked Russian aggression, although that obviously does not excuse Moscow’s subsequent war crimes.
Third, Joe Biden too contributed crucially to the escalation and perpetuation of fighting. In late 2021, when Putin mobilized forces on Ukraine’s border and demanded implementation of the Minsk deals, it seemed obvious that unless Zelensky relented, Russia would invade to at least form a land bridge between Donbas and Crimea.


Considering that Ukraine already was existentially dependent on U.S. military assistance, if President Biden had insisted that Zelensky comply with Putin’s request, it would have happened. Instead, Biden lamentably left the decision to Zelensky and pledged that if Russia invaded, the U.S. would respond “swiftly and decisively,” which Zelensky read as a green light to defy Putin.
Had Trump been president, he would not have provided such a blank check, so Zelensky would have had little choice but to implement the Minsk deals to avert war. Even if Zelensky had still refused and provoked Russia to invade, Trump would have denied him a veto over peace negotiations, which Biden recklessly gave by declaring, “There’s nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”
That pledge tragically emboldened Ukraine to prolong the war in expectation of eventually decisive U.S. military aid, which Biden then refused to supply due to fear of nuclear escalation. In that way, Biden raised false hopes in Ukraine, needlessly perpetuating a war that has killed or wounded hundreds of thousands in the last two years alone during which the frontlines have shifted by less than 1 percent of Ukraine’s territory.
The basic outlines of a deal to end the fighting are obvious even if details remain to be negotiated, as Trump and Putin started doing today in a phone call. Russia will continue to occupy Crimea and other portions of the southeast, while the rest of Ukraine will not join NATO but will get security guarantees from some western countries. The sad thing is that such a plan could have been achieved at least two years ago if only President Biden had made military aid conditional on Zelensky negotiating a ceasefire.
Even more tragic, whatever peace deal emerges after the war will be worse for Ukraine than the Minsk accords that Zelensky foolishly abandoned due to his political ambitions and naïve expectation of bottomless U.S. support.
Alan J. Kuperman is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin, where he teaches courses on military strategy and conflict management.

https://thehill.com/opinion/5198022-...isinformation/

[Genteel Death 2]

The IDF. The worst and most vicious army in the world. Actively and purposely targeting children and the vulnerable.