We’ve been here before. — Punshhh

So have you done any research into that shining US track record since the last time 'we were here'? Pol Pot, East-Timor, Vietnam, endless wars in the Middle-East, etc. and of course Uncle Sam's retarded pet monkey Israel? Do these ring any bells?

Now imagine a world dominated by China and Putin, or more realistically BRICS. You think there will be less genocide? — Punshhh

Probably so. Obviously I don't expect either of them to usher in the new utopia, but continental powers work fundamentally different from peripheral powers like the US.

The US functions on a basis of destroying what it cannot control - it has to, because of its inherently weak position - and evidently that frequently involves laying waste to unruly regions, and their populations if need be, in every far-flung corner of the world.

Continental powers have no such inherent incentives to go scorched earth on their neighborhood.

His installing as prime minister is the swan song of globalism — NOS4A2

Why are some people afraid of globalization? Can you explain the basis of this paranoia?

ssu can you please stop discussing with an idiot? I've counted 15 performative contradictions in his last two posts. There isn't even an argument there and you're engaging him substantively as if there is. — Benkei

Very well, if you insist. Even if it's April fools day.

However this goes far deeper and shows the times we are living. First of all, this is a Philosophy forum. People here are more aware of issues than people who just focus on their work, spare time and friends. Hence the debates here are some sort of Canary in the coal mine.

Yet the fact is that with Trump supporters there usually isn't a valid argument. There's just catchy sounding ideas that have no touch to reality. Starting from the trade war we are going to see starting in earnest tomorrow. Or that your or my European country is going towards totalitarianism and the freedom of speech is threatened by liberals and wokeism. And people believe it. It think the interview that gave us between Fareed Zakaria and Aleksandr Dugin is very telling, even if Zakaria was trying to push Dugin to say something he didn't. Yet when you also listen to the Witkoff interview with Tucker Carlson, the real threat to Europe should be evident.

Exactly. The point is, most his posts can be dismissed as contradictory nonsense. "He likes the shock" until people complain about it. That's like complaining there's a fire when you throw a Molotov cocktail. It happens all the time but it's a waste of time to keep pointing it out.

And I don't insist on anything, it's not and shouldn't be seen as a moderator comment. Just an observation that your time could be better spent.

Manufacturing has stagnated too, due to lack of skilled workers and the inability for manufacturers to truly operate from home in an interconnected world with just in time supply lines etc. — Punshhh

Doesn't the UK do automated manufacturing? Wouldn't that help the situation?

Trump is entertaining the idea of seriously sitting a third term. While unrealistic to happen, if no one opposes his abuse of power, it could. If he takes action during these four years that erodes the fundamentals that prevent him from doing so, it could.

It's remarkable how closely all of this resembles the vague foundation for the movie Civil War. The only thing missing is a dismantling of the FBI and then an attack on US citizens and it will be pinpoint accurate to that premise for a president.

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And what wanton destruction? — tim wood

It's always the Americans that have no clue about what their own country gets up to.

In terms of mass murder, Stalin and Mao each make Hitler look like a small-timer. — tim wood

Pol Pot was possibly even worse, and guess who he was funded by?

And that's just one example.

(And btw, a pet peeve is a small but particularly annoying annoyance.) — tim wood

Thanks for the correction, though.

Doesn't the UK do automated manufacturing? Wouldn't that help the situation?

Yes, but the problem is an economic cliff edge, or an overnight change of circumstances. For industry to adapt to the new circumstances takes years, with a lot of investment etc.
Covid lockdowns were a cliff edge too. The economic repercussions of which are still going on, or are yet to be realised. Add to that the cliff edge of the financial crisis (2008) and the U.K. is reeling from 3 major economic shocks in the last 17yrs.

Note that he won’t address what I said, won’t make an argument, or explain what I said was wrong.

Your point is well taken that it's precarious for any country to try to go it alone. The world we live in is a result of integration and we take that for granted until it's gone. The only extra point I would make is that NAFTA and other efforts to transfer the locus of economic activity to Wall St. was also a cliff edge. It was just a generation ago, so people don't remember the pain of mass lay offs and whole industries just disappearing. Americans sat helplessly watching their jobs going overseas. We were independent. That's the problem with the argument that the status quo grew naturally. It didn't. It was contrived, and for a very specific reason.

and shouldn't be seen as a moderator comment. — Benkei

That's good to hear.

It's always the Americans that have no clue about what their own country gets up to. — Tzeentch

Especially when it's something that they actually did do well, which helped the World. Because they do hear about the things they did do wrong.

Funny that those good actions are usually attacked and absolutely hated especially by the MAGA-people:








But that all might be a distant memory in the future. Some Americans see all the above as failures. Actually the repulsive cartoons of Ben Garrison depict extremely well the how the MAGA-cult and the alt-right sees the World around them and their President. Notice the Vladimir Putin as the dove of peace.

I can only speak for myself, but my own paranoia is the compression of space, that distant events and people can influence local and regional affairs. Covid is one of the more recent examples, but also war and economy. If the men of Davos had it in them to implement an agenda, like Agenda 2030, it means that a few hundred men could decide the future of the entire global population.

Ah, I see.

The US is exceptional. So exceptional in fact, that they get to commit a little genocide every now and then. Just a little. Or a lot.

But hey, those are just details. No use in getting hung up on a little genocide.

Between BLM, harassing Jewish students on campus, campus riots, and this wave of Tesla vandalism, it couldn't be more apparent to me that Democrats are the party of violence. America is taking notice, and Democrat approval ratings are at historic lows.

Anyway, on with the deportations of foreign agitators :ok:

Both Bitconnect and Tzeentch are having a permanently bad day.

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I'm having an alright day. Whenever @ssu posts colorful pictures and comics, my day is never really bad.

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We aren't deporting Americans; we are deporting guests in this country who are invited in and proceed to spit in the face of their hosts. I mean deporting the ones on visas. The ones who were graciously allowed into this country to study at top universities and utilize the resources of this country, and then end up destroying those very institutions through riots and crimes. The ones who protest in support of designated terrorist organizations that capture, torture, and kill Americans.

This alone demonstrates your ignorance disqualifies your "opinions" from consideration as anything worthy. — tim wood

Many agree with that view, considering the number murdered at the hands of the Khmer Rouge must be seen against a backdrop of a population of only 7 million people, making it one of the worst genocides in human history.

Of course, being the well-informed and non-ignorant American that you are, I'm sure you already knew that.

But don't let me keep you from your 'worthy' opinions. :vomit:

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This user has been deleted and all their posts removed.

The US is exceptional. So exceptional in fact, that they get to commit a little genocide every now and then. Just a little. Or a lot. — Tzeentch

Well, there is the policies the US has done in the Middle East, in Central America and so on. Indeed much criticism there, which I've said myself. US Middle Eastern policy has been a giant horrible train wreck. In Latin America, the history is quite ugly also.

As I've said, Russia can have cordial relations for example with other BRICS countries and has had close ties since the time of the Soviet Union with India. I'm sure Putin hasn't been overtly hostile against India. Why would he be?



Yet it seems so utterly difficult to find and accept both positive and negative aspects from the policies of one country by some commentators here. Some can criticize one country (like US), but never say anything bad against another (like Russia), which simply shows that one isn't objective at all.

:smile:

Pol Pot was possibly even worse, and guess who he was funded by? — Tzeentch

Mao.

Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge were supported for many years by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its chairman, Mao Zedong; it is estimated that at least 90% of the foreign aid which the Khmer Rouge received came from China, including at least US$1 billion in interest-free economic and military aid in 1975 alone.

So... what is your point to @tim wood?

Name one what? American or visaed deportee?

These people are given documents, but their rights are not equivalent to those of citizens. You seem hazy about what those rights exactly are as well. Trump is doing what is legal.

They are guests in this country. If you allowed me to sleep in your living space, would you be intolerant if you kicked me out if I tore up the furniture? Or if I openly supported those who kidnapped and killed citizens of your community? Whenever the example is personal, these things become more apparent. I'm an American. America is my home. I don't like inviting guests into my home who proceed to destroy it or advocate its destruction.

And yes, they've destroyed universities across the country. They've caused millions in property damage to buildings, screamed down speakers, and disrupted learning environments by barging into active classrooms and screaming their heads off about Palestine.

It is American to have tolerance and to be nice to guests, but it is also American to stand up for oneself when our hospitality is being taken advantage of.

*How do you know that no Americans have been deported? Did Trump tell you? — tim wood

How do we know there's no innocent men in prison right now? Guess we should abolish prisons.

So again, you just have no idea?

You've got the gal to criticize my opinions, and you need citations to know what the fuck even happened?


How convenient that Yale university has a webpage dedicated specifically to sources on this topic...

U.S. Involvement in the Cambodian War and Genocide


Several books by Michael Haas - nominee for a Nobel Peace Prize by the way...

Cambodia, Pol Pot, and the United States: The Faustian Pact

Genocide by Proxy: Cambodian Pawn on a Superpower Chessboard


And of course what was confirmed by WikiLeaks documents...

Wikileaks: US supported Khmer Rouge to weaken Soviet-allied Vietnamese communists


Oh, why not throw in something recent as well while we're at it...

Delayed Justice: How US Actions Paved the Way for the Khmer Rouge and Prevented Justice in Cambodia


Tip of the iceberg.


Ah, I see. So Uncle Sam is just about as bad as Mao. Got it. I sort of agree, actually.

Every nation has got its black pages, but there isn't a single one that seems so eager to repeat them as the United States.

Now imagine a world dominated by China and Putin, or more realistically BRICS. You think there will be less genocide?

— Punshhh

Probably so. Obviously I don't expect either of them to usher in the new utopia, but continental powers work fundamentally different from peripheral powers like the US.

I think you are somewhat lacking in powers of imagination. Such states tend to use mass starvation rather than active genocide, it’s less obvious. Also genocide is not a good marker for the difference we would find. All global treaties would be abandoned, the world would become a competing world of warlords. Populations not offered protection(for a price), by a warlord would be left to the dogs. Again mass starvation, war, failed states across wide regions. And if a population is lucky enough to have protection, they will be exploited little better than slaves with few rights. While their land will be laid waste by unregulated exploitation of resources. And when climate change kicks in, welcome to Mad Max.

I'm having an alright day. — BitconnectCarlos

Good. Me too.

This is a lengthy and revealing article about the Biden administrations efforts in Ukraine during the war, but notably during the last days they were in power after Trump had won. Biden’s final “fuck you” to the world was the crossing of “red-lines” and the possibility (50% possibility, according to US intelligence) of all out nuclear war.

GENERAL BALDWIN, who early on had crucially helped connect the partners’ commanders, had visited Kyiv in September 2023. The counteroffensive was stalling, the U.S. elections were on the horizon and the Ukrainians kept asking about Afghanistan.

The Ukrainians, he recalled, were terrified that they, too, would be abandoned. They kept calling, wanting to know if America would stay the course, asking: “What will happen if the Republicans win the Congress? What is going to happen if President Trump wins?’”

He always told them to remain encouraged, he said. Still, he added, “I had my fingers crossed behind my back, because I really didn’t know anymore.”

Mr. Trump won, and the fear came rushing in.

In his last, lame-duck weeks, Mr. Biden made a flurry of moves to stay the course, at least for the moment, and shore up his Ukraine project.

He crossed his final red line — expanding the ops box to allow ATACMS and British Storm Shadow strikes into Russia — after North Korea sent thousands of troops to help the Russians dislodge the Ukrainians from Kursk. One of the first U.S.-supported strikes targeted and wounded the North Korean commander, Col. Gen. Kim Yong Bok, as he met with his Russian counterparts in a command bunker.

The administration also authorized Wiesbaden and the C.I.A. to support long-range missile and drone strikes into a section of southern Russia used as a staging area for the assault on Pokrovsk, and allowed the military advisers to leave Kyiv for command posts closer to the fighting.

The Partnership: The Secret History of the War in Ukraine

Original:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/29/world/europe/us-ukraine-military-war-wiesbaden.html