Coffeesforclosers

If we took nuclear power seriously, we wouldn't be in this mess, but thats just me bitching. I cant speak for other people. But so far we've spent $7.3 billion to help Ukraine. That cash, which is about 1/2 of the sticker price of the USS Gerald R. Ford, has helped kill 30,000 Russian soldiers, destroy or capture 1300 tanks and APCs, sink a guided missile cruiser, and shoot down hundreds of jets and helicopters. Its the best RoI on defense spending we've had in decades. And all to help beat up a country that said two days ago they want to invade Alaska. Aka somebody who's got it coming. Without the loss of 1 single American soldier, ship, tank or plane. If Joe Biden can't sell that, he deserves to be tossed out.

Russia's economy is a split picture. On the one hand, theyre a huge raw material exporter, and we're in the middle of a huge commodity/energy boom. On the other hand, their manufacturing sector, specifically for motor vehicles, appliances and infrastructure is collapsing. While the Duma is passing laws forcing companies to service military vehicles for free, and forcing workers to work extra hours with no pay. Plus inflation. Plus the dramatic decrease in electronics, namely chips and processors they have access to. You'd rather not be Russia right now, all things considered. Its not like we need anything they provide either.

They are smart, though. They aren't trying to create a pragmatic solution to a complex national issue. They're trying to give their primary voters what they want, so they don't get primaried. Giving the voters what they want and solving problems aren't the same thing. Give *your* voters what they want though, and you only have to win one election to stay in power, not two.

I'm gonna bet that 99% of this board are Americans that graduated High School. So we've all taken a basic government class...but here we are.

Yeah. I'd have more faith in the legislative branch, if it wasn't utterly dysfunctional. Or if the GOP hadn't immediately followed the Roe ruling with calls for a blanket national ban. We need three working branches of government. They'll write common sense laws. Its just that their standard for common sense is determined by who votes in their primary. Not who votes in the election. Like I said, there are two ways the GOP can ***** up the roll their on. First is a civil war between Trump and DeSantis (and now maybe Liz Cheney?). The other is overreaching on their Roe win to unify and mobilize democrats.

If money is all I have to pay to not have Trump in office, I'm ok with it. Until quite recently, China provided its people with an economy that was humming along with low inflation, low prices and a million chances to get rich. You dont need a Bill of Rights to get a 13% return on your 401k. Besides, boom & bust cycles are the nature of capitalism since forever. Making Trump president for life wouldn't stop them. If a booming economy and growing wealth are the only thing thats really important to a society, you don't want liberty, you want a fair master.

Honestly, is there anybody posting in this thread that thinks Russia deserves to win? And if there isn't, what the ***** are we arguing about? Hell, "What the ***** are we arguing about?" might be the single most important question in modern America. Right after "Why the ***** are we even arguing?"

You don't send Peacekeepers to deter aggression. The Screaming Eagles though, they tend to get their point across. The point of NATO is to deter Russian aggression against NATO members. Poland asked for and is getting a permanent US base. Which makes sense because Poland is a NATO member, Russia invades its neighbors for no reason, and because Eastern Europe has a long, long history of being sold down the river by Western Europe whenever the words "War" and "Russia" pop up. People forget that 1/3 of Poland's population died or was murdered in World War II. Poland is afraid Russia will attack, because Russia has said over, and over, and over again that they want to rebuild the USSR/Russian Empire, whether their old territories want to come back into the fold or not. They've also said over, and over, and over again the reason they want their Empire back is to break up the global order we created after WWII. I like it when my country has more power and influence, rather than less, so I think Russian success is a bad thing. I don't put it past Russia to pick a fight with NATO, because Russia has been saying so repeatedly for months. Since Russia only respects power, we've got to meet threat of force with threat of force. Biden's been really good about actually standing up to Putin and making him put his cards on the table. He's still a one-term president. Your last point though...I couldn't agree more. Any real statesman would have seen through Russia's BS and called their bluff years ago. Instead we had three administrations get their lunch money taken by Putin's bluffing because...well who the ***** knows.

Hey, his statement makes perfect sense...if you ignore everything Russia said when they thought they would win in four days.

No its not in a strictly legal sense. But since abortion is now murder in a lot of states, and men don't get pregnant, how do you enforce the law?

They should go back to cat fishing horny Russian soldiers, then geo-locating their tinder profiles for artillery strikes.

Rod Dreher! I dont know what "grooming children for genderqueerness" means, but I guess its supposed to frighten me? He can save his screeds for the social media addicted, instant gratification junkies.

There are two ways the GOP can potentially ***** up thier prospects. Unifying and motivating democratic voters through Roe. And a Trump vs. DeSantis fight to the finish that demoralizes and splits the GOP base.

So in the states that just banned abortion. Does this mean women will have to register their pregnancies with the government? How are we supposed to make sure all these pregnancies are being carried to term? Has anybody thought about enforcement, what it looks like, and the implications?

Lawrence Welk? Holy ***** man, that's a pull.

The easiest way to tell trumpists from conservatives or republicans is the whataboutism.

Sounds like a good time to sit on your cash, build up a strong down payment, and wait for the "pop" sound.

Who is Matthew H, and why should anybody care what he says?

Yeah, I remember when the Crusader was designed, basically our version of this. Rumsfeld canceled it because we were never going to fight conventional wars again. Also so he could funnel more billions into Future Combat Systems, which produced... basically none of the revolutionary weapons systems it was supposed to. It sure would be nice to have a couple thousand Crusaders sitting around right now. So here we are, 20 years in the future, needing the ***** we said 20 years ago we'd never need.

Trolls trolling is how PPP works though. Any substantive posting has to be interpreted through the "Libs vs MAGA" lens. It's how they shape all narratives and dominate all dialogue.

Its a great chance to virtue signal though.

I don't think anybody's getting railroaded, and I don't give a ***** if a "Dem" or a "Rep" (or whatever the cool kid words for our political parties are) scores the points. Somebody has to stand up in Congress and stand up for Congress as an institution. Otherwise we're down to 2 branches of government, each of them thinking they can basically rule by decree.

If Congress isn't providing checks and balances to the other branches, then it's not doing its job under the constitution. The executive and judicial have WAAAAAYYYY too much power because congress can't solve problems or get ***** done. So I'm ok with Congress flexing a bit.

The evidence is piling up for a whole lot of criminal activity. I dont know if they'll be able to prove things like seditious conspiracy, but if Trump is barred from office and doing 8-15 for wire fraud...Well Ron DeSantis will thank congressional democrats for the nomination.

Right? Well this should be interesting. ...But the ***** infuriating thing is that if all the stolen election stuff was false, then January 6th should never have happened. If it was all false, the January 6th was about sour grapes and sore losers AT BEST. ***** grown ass men and women should have learned to handle in elementary school.