People can find ways of convincing themselves of anything. It’s partly how casinos work. Wishful thinking. And of course there’s usually a modicum of truth — like the fact that someone usually wins the lottery, etc.

But this war is over. Not technically, since they’re still fighting— but for all intents and purposes, it’s over. Barring some miracle, Ukraine will come out with a crappy deal. No one said life is fair.

No. — Linkey

Cool. So now I know to ignore you in the future. :up:

This is a joke, right?

Great new strategy: when something is presented that you don’t like, don’t simply dismiss it or call it “rigged” or a “hoax” (as has been done by Trump for years with polling, coronavirus figures, approval ratings, climate change evidence, etc). Instead, fire the person saying it.

Example: If it’s too hot outside for your liking, fire the guy who read the thermometer. Then launch an investigation about thermometers’ liberal bias. Problem solved.

No one wants cancer. That doctor who noticed a tumor? Fired. Situation resolved. Etc.

This war is over. Ukraine can fight on and lose more lives, and Trump can blow smoke about it all, but Russia will keep the territory it stole. Sanctions and threats will do nothing. As we see with India, who will continue to buy Russian oil.

The American people were getting Biden 2.0 either way, and the only thing they could choose from is in which packaging it came. — Tzeentch

I think we’ve been down this road before. I don’t agree with it. It’s true that Trump has been Biden 2.0 in regards to Gaza and Ukraine. But on other consequential matters— especially climate change and nuclear proliferation — Trump is not the same. And those differences matter.

A minority of Americans voted this buffoon into office. At this point, we deserve whatever he does. He feels emboldened this time around, and he should. We actually voted this stupid, incompetent, ignorant, anti-American degenerate into office — again. There’s little else to say.

Imagine actually believing Trump is anything other than a vacuous, degenerate con man. And being an adult.

Anyway, Trump’s EPA is now pretending greenhouse gases don’t harm people. Another nail in humanity’s coffin courtesy of the racist rapist in the White House. What winning.

So those who favor gun control favor tyranny. — Leontiskos

:lol:

Fake news. — BitconnectCarlos

:rofl:

Truly the Donald Trump of this thread. Without the popularity.

At least 36 killed by Israeli fire while seeking aid in Gaza, hospital says

https://apple.news/Aq2J_HexKSYmIGc01vrSaKQ

Nothing to see here. Just a continued genocide.

Will antifa be demonstrating for the Druze anytime soon? — BitconnectCarlos

Ask Antifa.

:lol:

Nazi sympathizers can be so cute.

No, that’s ethnic cleansing but turning Gaza into rubble and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians— not ethnic cleansing. Got it. Exactly what the state conducting genocide wants you to say. A long tradition that includes the Nazis. How brave.

Um, yeah, Jewish emigration was pretty large scale since 1948. Must be ethnic cleansing. Nothing significant happened for Jews in 1948.

Jewish population in Germany—
1948: 15,000
2023: 125,000

Guess this proves something.

OMG a Jew said that! Unbelievable! Stunning and brave. — BitconnectCarlos

Actually it is pretty brave, yes. We all know you’re too stupid to understand why, but please go on with your Nazi sympathizing.

My inescapable conclusion has become that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinian people. Having grown up in a Zionist home, lived the first half of my life in Israel, served in the I.D.F. as a soldier and officer and spent most of my career researching and writing on war crimes and the Holocaust, this was a painful conclusion to reach, and one that I resisted as long as I could. But I have been teaching classes on genocide for a quarter of a century. I can recognize one when I see one.

Surprised the times published this.

The Kremlin has been exemplary in giving Ukraine incentive to keep seeking NATO membership, however unlikely in the foreseeable future. — jorndoe

Sure— they invaded their country. That’s pretty good incentive.

:lol: Case in point.

That sums it up.

NATO has dug a nice hole for Ukraine. — Tzeentch

Yes indeed. What’s funny is that those in the US have been fed a line of bullshit for 3 years with claims that Ukraine was holding Russia back or even “winning.”

I’ll comment just this snippet. — neomac

Your long, tedious posts are an automatic “ignore” for me. You’re just way too stupid. But thanks anyway.

Trump is now basically Biden 2.0. Doesn’t want a Ukraine loss on his watch, so after the complete failure to bring peace (which he promised “on day one”), this will end in a protracted freeze, with the US supplying weapons for years to come.

Russia has no interest in conquering Ukraine, and never did— despite the assurances of our media and their parrots online — so whatever territory has been taken (illegally) they will keep and defend for years to come.

That’s the current state of things.

Raffi.

Never knew who he was until now. My wife plays these tunes for my 8 month old, who seems to really like them — and I find them stuck in my head. Wouldn’t recommend. :sweat:

Conservatives: Trump won our megabill votes by promising crackdown on renewable energy credits

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/07/03/congress/conservatives-trump-megabill-energy-credits-crackdown-00438357

Like I said: a death cult.

“Destroying the little hope we have left for a less nightmarish future isn’t good enough! We want more assurances that we’ll go RIGHT off the cliff!”

But it will also ignite violence from those who feel like victims of these politics. We will probably see rebel groups starting to kill oil industry figures and politicians who keep perpetuate anti-climate politics. — Christoffer

At this point, what else is left to do? I think Malm was right — although he doesn’t advocate killing anyone, he does suggest destroying property and fossil fuel infrastructure in his book “How to Blow Up a Pipeline.” I think this approach was catching on in 2021, but then at least the IRA passed. Now there’s nothing. Perhaps it’s time.

Senate Republicans just voted to dismantle America’s only climate plan

Should be front page headlines for the next 20 years.

Nothing has shown me how stupid people truly are until I get their views on an overwhelmingly supported aspect of science that conflicts with their identifies (whether religious or political). When I was younger, it was the denial of evolution by many Christians. Today it’s the denial of a rapidly warming planet.

The latter denial is far deadlier.

Now that the Christian right has merged with the MAGA cult, an area of agreement has been the burning of fossil fuels. It intersects with hypermasculinity and savage capitalism. (Really it’s just the donors are largely fossil fuel companies, who happen to own the media as well. The Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch can be thanked for a lot of this.)

For some reason, once Trump picked up on the climate denial piece, he ran with it. In the same way he did with tax cuts. Contrary to any evidence whatsoever, they’ll now go on believing that man did not evolve, tax cuts jump start the economy, and climate change is a hoax. It’s now locked in — dyed in the wool.

The bad guys have won. And unlike the movies, no matter if there’s a comeback or a swing in power, it’s already too late. The time to act was decades ago, and the time to mitigate the absolute worst effects were these last 10 years. And the one and only piece of legislation that addressed the issue is now dead.

This is not a political party— it’s a death cult. Literally.

So the consequences of climate change will now be exacerbated. The largest (and only) climate legislation in US history, the Inflation Reduction Act (2022), will now be gutted— almost completely rescinded by the backwards, spineless Republicans in congress. Mark the day.

I was more hopeful this time around when Trump was elected, because I thought with such a slim majority that most Republicans wouldn’t repeal it— since most of the money was aimed at red states. And that they’d be too busy transferring more money from the poor and middle classes to the richest to really care. So it looked like it was safe, and although it wasn’t enough to begin with it got us closer to our goals and was a signal to the rest of the world that the US wasn’t only a bunch of idiotic climate deniers.

But, turns out that nothing can get in the way of them doing the wrong thing. Through hell or high water, they’ll be sure to slug it out until the future is good and fucked.

At this point, adaptation really should be the focus. It’s already over, and today marks when the final nail was put in the coffin. Forget China or market forces.

Neither of two possible goals (regime change and destruction of Iran's nuclear program) were achieved. In fact the war has made it more likely that in the long-term Iran's regime will survive and that it will get its hands on nuclear weapons. — Tzeentch

:100:

And yet, it still should be said here that this is a strange vehicle for the conservative majority to tackle the question of nationwide injunctions. There were ample opportunities under President Biden to do so, and the Biden White House even asked the court to consider the issue. It said no.
As far as I can tell from the outside, none of the nationwide injunctions issued under Biden seemed to test the court’s patience. The conservative majority seemed content to allow district courts to operate as normal. It is only now, under President Trump, that the conservatives have had a change of mind. And they’ve done so in the context of an executive order that exemplifies this president’s lawlessness and open contempt for the Constitution.

It is generally not polite, in writing about the court, to note thepartisan affiliations of the justices. But here I think it’s appropriate, since for as much as there are real merits to ending nationwide injunctions, it is also difficult to escape the conclusion that a Republican-appointed majority with an expansive view of executive power is working, again, to give as much freedom of action to a Republican president, in this case, the Republican president who secured their supermajority.

Ny Times

So, just to recap and interject some reality:

Trump’s idiotic, useless Iran bombing at Israel’s command, like a good little lapdog, has accomplished nothing— beyond (being generous) slightly delaying the enrichment of uranium. Now of course he has to pretend he got rid of the “threat.” Obviously more bullshit from the moron in office.

But what’s interesting is this: Trump has to pretend that this was a success, because everything he does is a success (in his dream world— which a third of the country and the Republican Party and media go along with). So in this world, he “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear threat. Okay.

But Israel needs that threat as a cover to attack Iran further. They were saying Iran was two weeks away from the bomb 13 years ago. Now what? Now they have to go along with pretending the strikes solved the issue — because they need their lapdog. Guess they’ll need another excuse soon. Or perhaps just upset the pile of shit in office, since he’s ultimately irrelevant anyway. Who knows?

Will be fun to watch. And hilarious to hear the cult representatives on the philosophy forum regurgitate the official opinions the algorithm on Twitter has fed them.

Trump play in Iran was nothing short of brilliant. Everyone is saying it. — NOS4A2

:rofl:

Now he even starts talking like Trump. Hilarious.

He must have told Netanyahu in no uncertain terms to call those planes back. — Punshhh

So you have no idea what happened. Got it.

Trump has kicked Netanyahu’s ass. — Punshhh

:lol:

Good lord. How exactly did he do that? Before or after Netanyahu got everything he wanted?

:lol:

I questioned your imbecile comment with pertinent arguments. — neomac

:lol:

Anyone else? Preferably someone who knows something about this issue?

So despite the stupid predictions of countless imbeciles parroting the lies of the media, it turns out — after 3 years — that Russia has succeeded in its goals (which was never to conquer all of Ukraine), and will come out of this with a much better deal than Ukraine will get.

Now it’s just a matter of how many more Ukrainians have to die for a hopeless cause. I’m hoping not many more…

Ah, but when the Jews do it...well, we can't have that. — RogueAI

Who’s “we”?

Actually, “we” are indeed allowing it— and not only allowing it, but supporting it. If by we you mean the US.

There’s violence and territorial disputes all over. Look at Sudan. Look at India and Pakistan. Look at China and Taiwan. Look at history. Look at the Roman Empire. Yes — true. Yet we find it odd that some American citizens have particular gripes about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Vietnam, Korea, Ukraine, and Gaza? Any idea why that might be? Any idea why there were widespread Vietnam protests in the US, but little protesting about the rule of Kim Il Sung?

If this is still hard for you to understand, after literal years of explanation, that’s really a matter of psychological blockage. A kind of denial, I would say. Maybe willfully, maybe subconscious.

To protest the crimes of one’s state, one will naturally be called anti-whatever. In this case, anti-American, or antisemitic. The first line of pathetic counterargument from defenders of state war crimes (provided its their own state). :yawn:

Many of you here are having a very hard time putting yourselves in Israel's shoes and seeing the culpability of Iran here. If you constantly threaten the annihilation of the strongest kid on the block, and fund terrorist proxies to go after him, and you're now scheming to get your hands on a new big weapon...might the problem be you? — RogueAI

Ironic that you say it’s other people having a “hard time” seeing things from another’s shoes,

Israel has nuclear weapons, and has been genocidal and psychopathic. Might the problem be them?

There's a case to be made that a nuclear Iran really could end Israel's existence. — RogueAI

There’s an argument that Israel’s nuclear weapons (which they actually HAVE) could end Iran’s existence. A much better argument, in fact.