Norman Alexander
Penultimate Amazing
They don't exist...unless it is useful if they do.
Trump's Second Term
- Thread starter Orphia Nay
- Start date
arthwollipot
Observer of Phenomena, Pronouns: he/him
I'd rather not. What was his response?
Wasn't there some kind of scuffle about that a while back?
Norman Alexander
Penultimate Amazing
Yeah, and the SCROTUS was all for states rights. "The Constitution!!1!" or something...
Wudang
BOFH
Checked in on my ex-friend on FB who's lost the plot but posts publicly. He posted a picture asking why the left didn't complain when .... Note the uniforms worn. My Spanish is weak but I suspect "Policia Nacional de Honduras" are not a branch of the US army.
acbytesla
Penultimate Amazing
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- 39,361
Yep, he was arrested by Honduran authorities and extradited to the US to face drug charges. He was convicted of drug trafficking and Trump pardoned him. And the US didn't suggest that the US was going to run the Honduras. No sign they were going to take over their oil exports. Maybe because the Honduras doesn't export any oil?
stanfr
Illuminator
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- Dec 10, 2008
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I'm surprised she hasn't caught up yet. Trumps regime has been very open about the fact that they did it for oil. And the cult is lapping it up. My Magga 'friends' on social media are wholeheartedly endorsing it, cause "the US built/supplied/trained Venezuela" to be an oil powerhouse, and since Russia and China want their oil too, it is totally fine for us to break International law to get control of it before they do. That's their reasoning...
Safe-Keeper
My avatar is not a Drumpf hat
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"Butbutbutwhat about--"
acbytesla
Penultimate Amazing
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Oh, I think Maddow very well knows it's about oil. But she is pointing out that any other reason doesn't have any ring of truth to it. This is resource theft. And the idea that Trump is doing it for any other reason than oil barons want it is patently absurd.
Reformed Offlian
Master Poster
He also wasn't in office as head of state when the US authorities acted. At least Biden waited a couple days after he left office before swooping in.
Tero
Philosopher
Greenland Monday?
www.threads.com
The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler) on Threads
TRUMP: “We need Greenland” The guardrails are gone
www.threads.com
arthwollipot
Observer of Phenomena, Pronouns: he/him
America doesn't give a rat's ◊◊◊◊ about international law. Never have. Just look at the disdain some Americans on this forum have for the UN and the ICC.
Tero
Philosopher
We are going to make Venezuela great again.
www.threads.com
Shep Fargotstein (@smfargo1) on Threads
Just for those of you who take everything literally - this is NOT real, but it is funny.
www.threads.com
Nihilianth
Illuminator
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2011
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- 3,805
Just as a general comment on this, which applies to ANY federal spending for ANYTHING at all:A better way of looking at fairness of aid given to Ukraine rather than in absolute terms is by proportion of GDP. Denmark on this basis is the top donor (1.83% GDP)and the US (0.35%) is way down the list (16th). UK gave 0.45%, Germany 0.37%, Canada 0.39%,
Bilateral aid to Ukraine by country GDP 2025| Statista
Denmark and Estonia had the highest ratio of bilateral support to Ukraine to donor GDP as of February 2025. Poland ranked eighth by GDP share of aid to Ukraine.www.statista.com
Ukraine Support Tracker - A Database of Military, Financial and Humanitarian Aid to Ukraine
The Ukraine Support Tracker lists and quantifies military, financial and humanitarian aid promised by governments to Ukraine.www.ifw-kiel.de
Also, remember that its the blue states (and only 2 red states: Texas and Florida - barely) that contributes positively to the US treasury. Every single blue liberal states pay more in taxes than we receive back from the federal government. And every single red state receives more from the federal government than they pay in. And yet, it's the RED STATES the ones that whine the most about federal spending!
And even then, most of the wealth that the red states do generate, are generated in their big blue southern and midwestern red state cities: Dallas, Houston, Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, Nashville, New Orleans, Oklahoma City, Louisville, St. Louis, Indianapolis, etc, etc, etc, etc.
More than 70% of Americans reside in those small little blue dots, generating 95% of the nation's wealth. With 30% of the nation only generating 5% of the wealth.
Meanwhile, those 30% of Americans, are WAAAAYYY over-represented in the federal government. In the Senate in particular, of course, but also in the House due to small states being guaranteed a minimum of 3 representatives, and the total number of representatives being artificially capped at 435. Which means the House is NOT balanced based on state population the way it is meant to be. The district with the largest population it represents, is from Delaware at nearly 990,000 people. The average is 761,000. And the smallest is a district in Montana with just 542,000. The blue Delaware district has nearly 65% MORE people it represents than the small Montana district.
And yet, red staters STILL think that they should have MORE representation, as well as complete and constant control over all of that blue state wealth that WE create!
Blue states are the ones that see the importance of keeping Russia in check; to keep them from being tempted to expand this war by making it as prohibitively as expensive for Russia as we possibly can. In a recent essay of mine in this thread, I talked a lot about how this is financially killing Russia far more than it is Europe and especially the United States. Add in the fact that Russia is losing lots of manpower, not only for their armed forces, but also for their factories on top of what the government is spending, and all of the lost revenue and profits for their private industries with all of the sanctions. The loss of manpower to the front, and to death and dismemberment of individual soldiers to the tune of millions now, is lost productivity back home. Also, will put a big strain on their health care system, not just now, but in the future for at least an entire generation. They will be having a lot of disabled veterans, and a lot of physically healthy ones with major mental damage to deal with: extreme depression, PTSD, alcoholism, domestic abuse, homelessness, unable to work, etc, etc, etc.
Red states think they are entitled to tell their financial benefactors (all of the blue states) that we can't spend federal dollars on national infrastructure, education, healthcare, food stamps, social security, and that we cannot tax the billionaires like we used to in the 20th century that kept the government solvent and the entire economy prosperous for literal decades at a time.
How the ◊◊◊◊ did we, the more powerful, populous, and wealthy states, give up all of our power to the small poo-dunky ◊◊◊◊◊◊ little states that can't even run their own economies, never mind the national economy?
W.D.Clinger
Philosopher
The highlighted is not true. The least populous states have only 1 representative in the House of representatives. At this time, the states with only 1 US representative are Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming.
All states have at least three electoral votes, because the number of electoral votes is equal to the number of representatives plus the two senators. And the District of Columbia, a non-state, also gets three votes in the electoral college, bringing the total number of electoral votes to 538.
It's not totally nuts. States with smaller populations wanted to make sure that they would not be drowned out by larger states and built that into the deal for joining the USA. Without that, there would not be the USA with residents wondering why we give extra representation tot eh states with smaller populations, so it's kind of a self-fulfilling question.
The whole money thing is largely the result of money based capitalism, with rural resource extration (mining, farming, etc.) areas having less money than urbal production areas (factories, offices etc.) as the cost of a toaster will always be greater than the cost of the materials that go into the toaster.
I'm actually perfectly happy with wealthier blue areas subsidizing poorer red areas. I am well aware that the food I get at the store comes to the store from someone working somewhere else.
Little less happy about those people calling me a lazy parasite as they take my money though. Even less happy when they think they should tell me how to live my life, and start asking for far more than their share of the power.
