I support Platner like a rope supports a hanged man. I hope he wins, and you get to see him in action.

We cannot abandon our rich tradition of leaking military secrets on the Warthunder forums to win arguments.

blaming US and Nato for the russian invasion of ukraine.

So in your mind, there is no way that the actions of the US and NATO in the decades leading up to this conflict played any role in causing this outcome? That Russia’s red line, of no further NATO expansion, a historical red line that stretches all the way back to post-World War II, and talks of Ukraine becoming a NATO member, were in no way a factor in the emergence of this conflict?

Yes, the US is a imperialistic hegemon - but here the red line is from china

What is your understanding of imperialism based on exactly? Why would an imperialist respect another country’s red lines? Wouldn’t this be a great opportunity, one where you can exploit the people of Tiwan to draw them into conflict with China and use the vast network of money and weapons supply chains to extend the conflict? While reaping the profits off the sales and the debt you’ll collect?

Regardless, the people of Taiwan are interested in maintaining things as they are. Reunification would most likely lead to war; independence would absolutely lead to war, so they would rather things stay as they are. Why is Japan speaking for the Taiwanese people? What could Japan’s ulterior motive be?

World War II never ended. The Nazis just fled to the rest of Europe and America, taking their historical grudges with them.

When a country defies US policy, they are enemies of the US and its allies. When the US and its allies defy a country’s policies, that country is now the enemy of the US and its allies. It’s really strange how that seems to always happen.

“Don’t cross my red line!” says the US.

“And you won’t cross ours, right?” says the world, “…right??”

He did make attempts to run for office, maybe he’ll try again, since PSL is more and more getting into running candidates. They’re running a candidate for Senate in MA for example.

Lol incredible.

If we cannot draw the line at Nazis I’m not sure we’re worth saving. There is zero chance he wasn’t aware of the origins of that tattoo. He’s defended marines with SS tattoos in the past as simply the “culture”. Its not about if he is or isn’t a Nazi, its about the obvious indifference to Nazi’s and their symbols. His populist rhetoric is masking his ties to the military industrial complex and his history of American chauvinism.

You don’t have to look hard to find better working class veteran representatives, Michael Prysner is right here.

You know, one question I have is this: Let’s say they release all the Epstein Files tomorrow. What exactly would change? Is it some kind of switch that causes a group of armed men to drag Trump out of the White House into a paddy wagon? Do we really expect the Democrats to actually do anything with that information? From what I’ve seen, they have just as many darlings to protect as the Republicans do.

They’re not socialist constructs because we do not have a socialist government. They are capitalist instruments. Oil and farm subsidies, as well as all other forms of corporate subsidies, are used to enrich the businesses they are subsidizing, not the people who work for the businesses. Like when the chip firms got their kickbacks and used it for stock buybacks. Carbon credits are another example of a government subsidy that is used to prop up and enrich corporations while simultaneously not encouraging decarbonization efforts. The agriculture industry isn’t using those subsidies to pay workers a living wage. Most of those subsidies are in the form of crop insurance, and crop insurance isn’t even means tested. That’s how you end up with people like Bill Gates potentially getting crop insurance payouts from the government.

We live in a capitalist society; everything is for the capitalist; the government serves capital. That’s why these subsidies are not going away any time soon, and why it’s not “socialism”, It’s just capitalism.

Someone should tell ol’ Donny about the CIA’s side hustle.

Company housing? Sounds a lot more like capitalism to me. Something capitalism has historically done across all capitalist countries. Some real gilded-age 1880’s shit.

Even these dorks know that those subsidies do not constitute socialism. They know what bringing socialism to America would really mean; that’s why they fear it.

This implies that you are “capable of action”, is that true?

Bot Account?

I mean, the system, as I noted above, was qualitatively different than it was before the 1980s within the democratic party. It is not inaction or apathy that got us to where we are now, especially not for the voting population.

That’s, I think, not a very accurate assessment. The establishment sets the ballets; they choose who gets party support and who doesn’t. Challengers to encombents always fight an uphill battle and are never given the party resources they need to succeed. The Democratic Party is not a democratic institution; it does not operate at the behest of any kind of popular will. They use mechanisms like superdelegates and their complex formula for allocating delegates to ensure that the establishment is maintained.

Superdelegates explicitly increase the power of the institutional party members so they can combat rising “outsiders” in the party. Which is precisely how Sanders was snubbed in 2016. This started in the 1980s, roughly 40 years ago. Strange how this aligns with your perspective on when this started happening. This change in rules explicitly dampens the impact of grassroots movements inside the party. Which is precisely what I was trying to communicate. Since the 80s, the influence of superdelegates had grown, and only recently, as of 2018, had their influence been reduced (but not by much). The impact of this is that institutionalists in the party were able to shape the party around institutionalist ideas, meaning to isolate themselves against new or popular ideas.

It is incredibly rare to have anyone in the party that deviates from the consensus inside the party, because the way the party is structured reinforces its norms and beliefs. This is why people like David Hogg have been removed from positions of power in the party. Hogg explicitly stated he wants to oust ineffective party members, and the party recoiled in horror. So it is clearly not the fault of the voter base, but the fault of the Democratic Party not offering candidates worth voting for. They are not interested in effective leadership because they have insulated themselves from popular ideas and sentiments since the 1980s. If anything, that period in time laid the foundation for the Democrats reaching across the aisle to continue to dismantle FDR reforms throughout the 90s. This is what was called “Third Way” politics, which was just spit shine on top of Reagan and Thatcher Neo-liberalism. This entire idea of working from “the center” has lived on through the 90s into today, which has given us the likes of Obama, H. Clinton, Biden, and Harris. All of whom were ready to work from the center to “get things done”. The problem with that is that the center isn’t static. As the right moves more right, the center travels with it. Which is why we’ve seen the party turn its back on its previous views on the border and on immigration. Why it insists on adopting right-wing positions broadly. They see success on the right, and attribute it to their ideas, but the reality is, it’s the lack of real-world problem solving from the Democrats that led to their defeat. They can’t see these real-world solutions because they have isolated themselves from new ways of thinking.

No, you’re definitely not alone.

We’ve seen what happens when people decide. Those candidates are hounded, attacked and vilified. Look at 2016 with Sanders, and look at the way Democrat and Republican leaders attack Mamdani. When people participate broadly, their ideas never align with establishment ideas, and they are squashed and attacked. People wanted Sanders, they turned out for him, but system chose Hillary instead. That’s how the system works.

Sorry but you’re going to keep hearing about him because he represents a small fraction of the spector haunting America.