Trump not being in the White House doesn’t solve the issue of the billionaires who put him there (who also just happen to be linked to Putin). Vance is next in line to replace Trump if something happens before the next election (if we even have one), and in a lot of ways, he’s actually more terrifying than Trump.

I don’t know that Trump (or Vance) actually wants the war to end.

I think he’d be more than happy to just abandon Ukraine and tell the E.U. to just figure it out. I think it were as easy as he had hoped it would be, he would have already pulled the U.S. out of Ukraine and left NATO because he’s either dumb enough to believe that if Putin invaded and succeeded in taking over Europe, he would then just leave the U.S. alone. Or, Trump doesn’t really care about what Putin (not to mention China and Iran) could potentially team up to do to the U.S. once we’ve lost all of our Western allies.

He loves to play the part of an anti-war isolationist when it comes to NATO, but will make the lamest arguments to explain why invading Venezuela was so necessary. Now he’s going to passive aggressively explain why it’s so necessary to invade Greenland for America’s security, so he can then hand it over to Vladdy daddy, and give him the upper hand against Europe.

I don’t disagree with you about Putin living up to this, but it all seems more than reasonable.

It all seems easily attainable, but there’s only one person keeping all of this from happening by refusing to sign it, and one president and his vice president who seem to be ok with continuing to give that person the cover he needs to keep dicking around while pretending to actually want peace.

Every day I see a new headline and think, it’s almost like this guy is trying to instigate WWIII by any means necessary because he wants to kill us all.

You know how these fascists are obsessed with patriarchy and authoritarianism? Sometimes narcissists commit familicide before they off themselves.

Yardley, Wilson, and Lynes divide familicides into four groups: anomic, disappointed, self-righteous, and paranoid.

In this typology, the “anomic” killer sees his family purely as a status symbol; when his economic status collapses, he sees them as surplus to requirements. The “disappointed” killer seeks to punish the family for not living up to his ideals of family life. The “self-righteous” killer destroys the family to exact revenge upon the mother, in an act that he blames on her. Finally, the “paranoid” killer kills their family in what they imagine to be an attempt to protect them from something even worse.

I have Trump pegged as the anomic type. Possibly disappointed.

I mean I get that’s bad, and it’s definitely a sign of civilization regressing, and with each step backwards, we continue to inch towards the day where we finally topple any evidence of progress that has been built, and we’re lucky if we can even hold it together enough to emerge from the ashes of modern society as feral bands of mud people with some chance of perhaps one day making it back to this same point in another 2000 years or so.

But, is the “loss of women’s rights” perhaps offset by the privilege of knowing that even if you lose your rights, you can still be shitty to people of a different ethnicity without concern of public judgment or accountability for your shitty behavior? And if so, isn’t that what freedom is all about?

Yuriev, a businessman and former deputy speaker of the state Duma who died in 2019, was a member of the political council of the Eurasia Party, which envisions an essentially feudal social order overseen by a political class that rules through fear.

As Khapaeva points out, Yuriev died in 2019 and was relatively unknown outside of Russia.

However, he did pop up in an odd place in the U.S. shortly before his death:

Who Is Konstantin Nikolaev? Putin Ally Behind Mike Johnson Campaign Donation

News of money previously given to House Speaker Mike Johnson’s congressional campaign by Russian nationals has re-emerged after the Republican rejected a $95 billion foreign aid bill passed in the Senate.

In 2018, a group of Russians were able to donate to Johnson’s bid for the Louisiana seat he eventually won as the money was funneled through the Texas-based American Ethane company.

While American Ethane was co-founded by American John Houghtaling, at the time it was 88 percent owned by three Russian nationals—Konstantin Nikolaev, Mikhail Yuriev, and Andrey Kunatbaev. Nikolaev is known to be a top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A spokesperson for Johnson previously assured in 2018 that the campaign returned the money that was given to them by American Ethane once it was “made aware of the situation.” There was no indication that Johnson’s campaign team willfully broke federal law, which makes it illegal for a campaign to knowingly accept donations from a foreign-owned corporation, a foreign national, or any company owned or controlled by foreign nationals.

In a bid to diversify its economy away from oil, he has opened Saudi Arabia…

Yesterday: Saudi Arabia Moves to Take Control of LUKOIL’s $22 Billion Global Assets

I honestly don’t know what the fuck is really going on right now re:WWIII, but I know enough about U.S. wars over oil to recognize it’s no coincidence that Saudi Arabia and the Trump administration are now the best of friends. Or that Saudi Arabia is taking control of Lukoil assets, while the U.S. (Chevron) is in Venezuela “seizing” Russian (LukOil) shadow oil tankers. And last week Chevron’s own plans to purchase LukOil assets supposedly fell through?

Lukoil’s Suitor List Expands to Exxon, Chevron, Abu Dhabi (1 month ago)

U.S. Treasury Blocks Bid for Lukoil’s Foreign Assets(6 days ago)

2 days ago: Ukraine says it hit Russian oil rig, patrol ship in Caspian Sea

Are we supposed to pretend that it doesn’t seem very likely Russia and the U.S. are having Saudi Arabia hold Lukoil assets because the U.S. (Chevron) can’t publicly claim them at the moment, even as they continue to intercept and collect Russia (LukOil) shadow oil tankers in Venezuela?

Idk I think the day somebody tries to kill it with nuclear fire will just mean judgment day for all of us anyway, but maybe you can’t really fight the future.

I’m pretty sure they just targeted this guy (who was most likely bringing in research material, given he is a research scientist) as an easy way to make headline news and prove they’re “busy keeping America safe,” while actual threats slip through unnoticed.

Kinda like the person busted by ice earlier this year for slipping in research materials.

Gil said the work of the new offices will be “complementary” to the basic research in the Office of Science. “Sometimes people say, ‘Well, are you doing it in tension with the support of the basic science?’ We’re not. We’re saying, because we’ve succeeded in investing in that, we have the opportunity now to create an industry,” he said.

Exactly, not to mention the entire idea of a “tech” bro violated societies norms (it didn’t really they just wore hoodies). But the fact that you had “nerds” succeeding and winning at life seemed to contradict the Don Draper/Frat Bro prototype of success

The cognitive traits that make the neurodivergent different are precisely what make them exceptional in an AI-driven world.” Palantir, a data and analytics company co-founded by conservative “kingmaker” Peter Thiel, was quick to argue that the fellowship is not a DEI initiative. “This is not a diversity initiative. We believe neurodivergent individuals will have a competitive advantage as elite builders of the next technological era, and we’re hiring accordingly for all roles.”

Wow, that’s super deep and profound. Maybe I had these people all wrong.

So, essentially, you believe there are likely very talented people who don’t fit within the neat little box of what success is “supposed to typically look like.” They might even be looked over or excluded simply because they don’t fit into that box, but you are wise enough to see past that. You understand that the very traits that lead to their exclusion, may also provide them with a unique perspective that is often lacking in everyone who does fit neatly into that homogeneous box. And that carving out a place on the team that allows for the unique perspective of those divergent people, can actually be an advantage to everyone…

Probably because they seem to be globally thumbing the scales, and it’s not the first time wealthy conservatives conspired to do so. Not even the first time in Chile

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/intelligence/2025-12-04/covert-action-chile-significance-church-committee-report-50

https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=https%3A%2F%2Fig.ft.com%2Fus-ice-surveillance

It’s gone from can’t everyone just pay your fair share of taxes?

To can’t we at least tax the rich?

How about just the 1%?

Ok…, how about just the 0.001%?

And then somehow conservatives leaders will convince a voter base to take to the streets with pitchforks and torches, claiming it’s tyranny, then once they’re elected, the leaders will still tax the fucking voter base.

These people are mentally ill

Yes and I don’t say this as a knock on mental illness. I say it because many conservatives are raised to believe that mental illness is either a supernatural force of the devil or a moral failing. I sincerely believe that if many conservatives would just give therapy a trial run, and try to unpack half the shit that they instead insist on holding on to then unleashing upon society, the world would be a much more pleasant and peaceful place.

However, most will never do that because not going to therapy A. proves they’re totally not crazy otherwise they’d be in therapy, right? and B. Trying to control everyone else, provides them with their own sense of control.

I mean there are legit companies doing good work that get passed over all the time.

How did these 3 guys get hundreds of millions in government contracts for a product that didn’t even exist.

And not only did it not exist, they were demanding everybody let them violate their privacy so that their non-existent product could “end crime.”

I’ll just come out and say it, the “scandal” imo isn’t the company was a fraud part. The scandal is that people within the government wanted so badly to amp up surveillance and the police state within the U.S. they just went ahead and dumped all this money into A.I. that didn’t actually exist because “A.I. is already here and it will fix everything, and even if you don’t want it, too fucking bad.”

Like it was never that the government thought A.I. tech was that important, or the future, or whatever bullshit. They’ve just realized the tech industry allows them the ability to spy on people, control information, and make a shit ton of money doing it.

The history of the organization seems very odd

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flock_Safety

It began as a side project in which the three co-founders built their first video surveillance cameras by hand around Langley’s dining room table. When a DeKalb County detective told Langley that his camera product had helped with solving a home break-in, Langley called the two other co-founders and told them to quit their jobs.

What?? How did a detective use it to solve a crime? Who was he? And based off of this one dude you all 3 just quit your jobs??? What??

Then we just jump ahead to 2022 and these cameras that didn’t even work had raised over $380 million in venture funding?

Then by the next year they were being used to sub for actual police due to a shortage of police officers?

So they just go from the Hardy Boys help solve a mystery in Georgia in 2017 and then suddenly by 2023 Marc Andreesen (big surprise) is suddenly funnelling millions into their business.

Oh, good, this citation will probably help make clear what the fuck actually happened between 2017 and 2023: Flock Safety. “Media Kit: Our Founding Story”. Flock Safety. Retrieved April 8, 2022.

The main thing flock is really supposed to do is capture and match pictures of license plates at different locations. It’s not even complex.

So how tf did they get the green light for the first government contract if they never even had that capability?

I have to give the broligarchs credit for always somehow managing to leave me stunned. Every time I learn some unbelievable bullshit like this, it’s like falling in hate all over again.

As we leave the stagnation of society behind in the ruins of regulations and democracy that only held us back, and the technocratic elite steer us full speed ahead through this “Renaissance” we are truly blessed to be forced to live through, the line between technology and magic continues to blur…

Or maybe it’s just 700 sweatshop workers in a trenchcoat. Who’s to say?