Any “protection” the current regime is liable to offer the protesters is going to be more akin to mafia “protection” than the traditional definition of the term.

I’m not pre-accepting. If anything, I’m absolutely irate that fucking nobody with any semblance of official power has done anything seriously meaningful to stymie the regime’s abject idiocy - and I include the jaw-dropping myopic political shitshow that the DNC ran in the 2024 election, as well as Biden’s outright refusal to hold anyone from orangeboi’s first stint accountable in any serious or meaningful way.

Incompetence is the rule of the day, on both sides of our established political spectrum. The only serious difference is that the right wing is gleefully malicious and overtly prejudiced, while the left wing plaintively complains and capitulates while still lining their pockets from largely the same donors that the right wing gets paid by.

That’s… not a great development. Physical intimacy is generally an important part of most relationships.

Don’t condescend to me. It’s not “oh well”. It’s pragmatism and acknowledgement of facts that are actually happening and occurring.

I wish that this wasn’t happening the way it is; nonetheless, it is happening. Denying reality is counterproductive. I’m not saying laws are unimportant. I’m saying that laws are being ignored, and to expect the regime to suddenly start abiding by laws is incredibly naive, to the point that it could be described as idiocy.

Insisting that the norms and laws protect us, in the context of a regime that pointedly does not give a single fuck about norms and laws, is deeply naive to the point that it borders on willful ignorance.

Don’t get me wrong - I wish it wasn’t the case. But that’s what’s happening nowadays, and to pretend otherwise is nonsensical at this point.

It’s kinda crazy that all the young people in Korea and Japan are like “work conditions are so fucking brutal I don’t have the energy to do anything else”, and then their governments go “hey, I know, the solution is work longer and harder”. Like… what the fuck are they expecting to happen here? They’ve demographically aimed the boat at a waterfall and are pinning the throttle open.

He’s openly talking about just suspending the midterms. So if he does that, I expect he’d suspend 2028 too. At this point, I don’t think they’re expecting to let go of power at all, ever.

So uh… I think that exiled prince maybe got a call from orangeboi and struck a deal. I understand the repressive and theocratic nature of the current regime… but I can’t help also being deeply concerned for what that might imply for normal Iranians in the coming years, if that’s what is happening here, and our military and/or the CIA orchestrates (yet another) coup in Iran to put the guy in power.

I’m tired, boss

It doesn’t.

But it’s still extremely concerning and deeply depressing that the PM of one of the most powerful countries in the EU was too much of a neoliberal capitalist fuckstick to even consider making common cause with the left wing of his country’s political spectrum in the interest of shutting out the fascistic RN (rebranded FN) party.

It is good that Macron is condemning orangeboi’s hostility towards our (former?) allies.

It is not good that Macron is being so guarded about it, or that he (and anyone else in European leadership for that matter) seem to have not bothered to put any thought or real effort into a contingency plan for this sort of eventuality. It reminds me very depressingly of the ineffectuality of our own “left” wing, the DNC.

It’s simultaneous inexcusable that Macron cut a deal with the far right in France after literally everyone else pulled out the stops to block them getting a majority, which they did at Macron’s behest, after which he politically backstabbed them.

The point being made is that Macron has some very… uncomfortably flexible political sensibilities that he’s already put on full display to the world, and there’s a definite sense of wariness and mistrust of him as a result. And I can’t say that I blame the French people for feeling that way.

Aside from the usual gripes about NYT, this level of laughably poor background research is both obnoxious and true to form.

Russia has been using 9K720 Iskander SRBMs and Kh-47M2 Kinzhal ALBMs since shortly after they began the active/overt phase of their invasion in February 2022. Both are nuclear capable.

Histrionic implies a level of overdramatization. So, no, I don’t think the situation is being overdramatized.

On the contrary, I do think that European leaders are being (and have been, for a very long time now, and definitely since orangeboi’s first time around) unbelievably naive and myopic when it comes to the likely behavior of the fascists that now run shit over here.

Seriously, stop pussy-footing around. Make some fucking contingency plans, for christ’s sake. The EU is effectively the last major bastion of democracy and humanistic governmental policy, and they are largely proving that they are categorically unprepared for this very plausible eventuality, that they completely ignored pretty much all the indicators leading up to this, and that there are no good plays to make now as a direct result of that lack of preparation. And it breaks my fucking heart.

Saying this is “a bit concerning” is akin to saying “it’s a bit challenging to breathe in a vacuum”

The Department of Children Who Can’t Read Good and Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too

This is darkly hilarious - we didn’t even really do an actual regime change. It was literally just getting an adversarial despot out of the picture so the regime can grift the whole fucking country. They do not care, and they’re not even trying to hide it.

That’s… not at all what’s happening here, nor is it what I’m saying, nor am I making excuse for the DNC’s idiocy.

You had me until the last sentence. Do you even hear yourself?

I’m absolutely not a fan of American Imperialism - either the historical softer kind, or the new bullheaded “fuck you I do what I want” kind - but being so comically dogmatic makes you sound just as bad as the die-hard MAGA crowd.

Indeed, I think they would at this point.

But they’re sure as shit not keeping the pound sterling if they try to rejoin. That was a one-time deal.

wtf are you even talking about?

Payment of the bond does not guarantee a visa will be granted, but the amount will be refunded if the visa is denied or when a visa holder demonstrates they have complied with the terms of visa.

I would bet money that they’re gonna “find ways” to not give a lot of those bonds back