God dammit. This is pretty funny.

“I got a bone to pick with you, pal.”

🎶We’ve only just beguuuuuun🎶

“But do you want CHINA to be the worlds sole super power???”

I don’t care and there’s no indication that they even want that

The geopolitical circle jerk between the U.S., Russia, and Europe is tiresome. Everyone knows that the U.S. is a corporate financial conglomeracy, and barely a “nation” at all. We do next to nothing to bolster the health of our nation. So when the powers that be deem it advantageous, they jack Putin off under the table, allowing him to enact his own version of the “Ratchet Effect”. No matter what happens, sanctions, proxy war, he wins, because Russia is actually a real nation that has the capacity to withstand these effects. Devalue their currency, drive inflation, ban them from SWIFT banking, they have the resilience and the intelligence to subvert these tactics, and while many, perhaps most of the world has issues trusting Russia, they see the greater danger under U.S. global hegemony… And that really has always been the problem with the Western perspective on warring with Russia, Iran, and China. The U.S. racks up superficial tactical “wins”, while our “adversaries” that don’t change administrations and wildly change foreign policy every four years are able to achieve long term strategic victories.

*after typing this screed I realize I never even mentioned Europe…but…really…wtf is Europe going to do about any of this? Unfortunately they have accepted at the highest governmental levels to be bystanders to this drama.

I think there are a lot of Ukrainians that probably understand what I’m saying. It’s fucked. You guys were used and it’s fucking awful. Fuck them up if you can, I guess. But don’t forget the powerful people in Ukraine that sold you out either. Save some retribution for them.

I’m certain this photo was intended to convey back pain

The plot lot of the next “Knives Out” movie

I don’t know about that. I think nations allowing aristocracy to parasitically divert resources and set policy priorities go back to the beginning of history, as soon as we could start organizing labor and creating surpluses. Wasn’t Marx a historian?

“Political power comes from the barrel of a gun”

Aka the “Nuremberg Defense”

Democracy is usurped, policy projections are incomprehensible, volatile, everyone should take note.

I remember when I was a kid watching and Pecard was talking about humanity moving on to a moneyless society, the fact the Star Trek was space communism was the most obvious thing in the world. Love breaking that out on boomers.

If anyone thinks Epstein was the first or the only guy doing what he was doing they’re a nitwit

At this point we should call it embezzlement instead of investment

That is effectively the case in history, and I don’t think OP is denying that, but the philosophical basis is more about individual human rights. I think OP is asking how Americans feel about how far from those ideals we have strayed, which is completely off the fucking map. For my part, I question the cost to society that prioritizing individual liberties like property rights has had, but I don’t think that capitalism itself is inextricably linked to “classical liberalism”, and Americans tend to insist that it is. It’s a confusion born out of ignorance and propaganda.

The “Founding Fathers” were shit people, but the constitution as an evolution of enlightenment ideals is a pretty sound document, we just haven’t lived up to the doctrine. The same could be said about communism as practiced by authoritarian regimes.