US Politics Mega-thread - Page 5635

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Gorsameth

Netherlands22630 Posts

April 06 2026 18:34 GMT

#112681

Jimmy is jimmy so... yeah.
But I will say I went a little Oo when I checked what a c130 was and why 2 of them would be used to rescue 1 person from the wilderness.

oBlade

United States6540 Posts

April 06 2026 18:41 GMT

#112682

On April 07 2026 03:10 JimmyJRaynor wrote:
So 1980 Desert Claw was 250 troops to get 52 hostages rescued from locked up and armed guard. This alleged 2026 "rescue mission" for ONE HIDDEN GUY requires 200 troops.
Things that make you hmmmmm....

Fortunately, Trump and his regime has an extensive track record of 100% total honesty. So if they say it was a rescue mission for 1 guy and nothing else ... I guess the official story is 100% true.

Tellin' ya, where is Ken Taylor when you need him?

Desert [sic] Claw didn't work.

KwarK

United States44353 Posts

April 06 2026 18:52 GMT

#112683

I see where you're going here. The real mission was a Zionist plot to get Charlie Kirk.

Acrofales

Spain18450 Posts

April 06 2026 19:23 GMT

#112684

On April 07 2026 03:52 KwarK wrote:

Show nested quote +

I see where you're going here. The real mission was a Zionist plot to get Charlie Kirk.

Actually they were filming the new moonlanding there, because they got confused and thought Artemis II was (supposedly) landing already. Anyway, the footage will be useful for Artemis IV.

CuddlyCuteKitten

Sweden2892 Posts

April 06 2026 19:29 GMT

#112685

So what do we think happens tomorrow?

Poll: What happens after tuesday deadline?

It's TACO tuesday (20)

77%

Warcrimes ahoy! (6)

23%

Iran surrenders (0)

0%

26 total votes

Your vote: What happens after tuesday deadline?

(Vote): It's TACO tuesday
(Vote): Warcrimes ahoy!
(Vote): Iran surrenders

Gorsameth

Netherlands22630 Posts

April 06 2026 19:31 GMT

#112686

I hope its another taco tuesday, but there is a small chance its warcrimes, and the entire middle east going up in flames as iran responds by hitting their neighbours.

Liquid`Drone

Norway28901 Posts

April 06 2026 19:43 GMT

#112687

Some warcrimes to give the impression that at least he did something but it'll fizzle out.

LightSpectra

United States3271 Posts

April 06 2026 19:47 GMT

#112688

I expect war crimes. "The biggest humanitarian disaster since WWII" vs. "Don't cause that but Iran will call you a pussy," do we really have to guess which one the octogenarian child molester is going to pick?

I hope I'm wrong and sanity wins the day.

KwarK

United States44353 Posts

April 06 2026 20:15 GMT

#112689

On April 07 2026 04:43 Liquid`Drone wrote:
Some warcrimes to give the impression that at least he did something but it'll fizzle out.

I agree. Iran has room to escalate in the Red Sea and vs Gulf state infrastructure and the threat is credible. The US can’t get go all in on war crimes but Hesgeth will lose his erection if they don’t do any.

Billyboy

2463 Posts

April 06 2026 20:18 GMT

#112690

Markets seem to think it’s going to be a nothing burger. If I had real time info on their personal portfolios I could know with certainty, but im going to go with him chickening out.

Considering he said he could take out all of Iran in one day, he’s doing this, totally not a war, very slowly.

Biff The Understudy

France8195 Posts

April 06 2026 20:45 GMT

#112691

On April 07 2026 05:15 KwarK wrote:

Show nested quote +

Spat off my drink. Thanks for making my day.

KT_Elwood

Germany1200 Posts

April 06 2026 20:57 GMT

#112692

I think nukes.

But in his current state, Trump might order to nuke Tel Aviv, the capital of the Straight. Praised to be Allah.

WombaT

Northern Ireland27458 Posts

April 06 2026 22:00 GMT

#112693

Dear lord this is all rather embarrassing. I can recall being angry about foreign policy many a time but consistent cringe is a pretty novel experience

KwarK

United States44353 Posts

April 07 2026 01:10 GMT

#112694

On the guns for Kurds program it isn’t clear where the guns are. The Trump admin believes that they gave a shitload of weapons to Kurds only for them to keep them for themselves. The Kurds insist that they have no idea what he’s talking about but they never got any weapons. It’s entirely possible at this point that a random guy in a van was in the area when a heavily armed CIA team went “you with the Kurds?” and panicked and said “yes” only to have his van loaded with guns. As likely as anything else at least.

Anyway Trump is mad at Kurds for being bad allies and the Kurds swear they don’t know what he’s talking about.

WombaT

Northern Ireland27458 Posts

April 07 2026 01:26 GMT

#112695

On April 07 2026 10:10 KwarK wrote:
On the guns for Kurds program it isn’t clear where the guns are. The Trump admin believes that they gave a shitload of weapons to Kurds only for them to keep them for themselves. The Kurds insist that they have no idea what he’s talking about but they never got any weapons. It’s entirely possible at this point that a random guy in a van was in the area when a heavily armed CIA team went “you with the Kurds?” and panicked and said “yes” only to have his van loaded with guns. As likely as anything else at least.

Anyway Trump is mad at Kurds for being bad allies and the Kurds swear they don’t know what he’s talking about.

Didn’t they also say they don’t want the Kurds to get involved?

I’m genuinely losing track at this point.

At least Trump’s contempt for the UK is pretty consistent so I can parse that and hold it in my brain. I mean it’s still fucking stupid but it’s consistent

In my time on this Earth, or at least my time being suitably cognisant of such things I can’t recall such consistent idiocy from a supposedly great power. Nice job America!

It’s just embarrassing shit. Trump is simultaneously bitching that the UK isn’t getting more involved, but also saying the UK is shit and doesn’t have the assets to be useful anyway.

Pick a lane.

How is this lot holding the reins of power in one of the world’s superpowers? Good fucking god

JimmyJRaynor

Canada17895 Posts

April 07 2026 02:39 GMT

#112696

unemployment is down to 4.3%.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04/03/business/jobs-report-economy

so the people claiming the USA economy is in a disastrous state continue to be wrong.

Trump claiming the economy is super-amazing & great just alienates everyone.. because that is BS as well.

On April 07 2026 03:52 KwarK wrote:

Show nested quote +

I see where you're going here. The real mission was a Zionist plot to get Charlie Kirk.

they spent too much time explaining the whole elaborate operation. 7 planes over here... then we did this ... blah blah blah.

When i ask you what colour the sky is and your reply is longer than Plato's Republic... you're lying. So I'm not buying that all that was to rescue 1 guy. They had the whole gang yapping about it.

155 aircraft for 1 guy? ya ok. they were up to something else.
https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-war-latest-news-updates-2026/card/second-mission-to-rescue-u-s-airman-took-155-aircraft-fAUuZAYswIDtWyz1E0hJ

Ken Taylor rescued 6 American hostages in Iran all by himself. 155 aircraft? LOL I'll be going to a Blue Jays game next week just for the Moose Beer.

oBlade

United States6540 Posts

April 07 2026 03:55 GMT

#112697

There's an outside chance they might have secretly gone to war with Iran and used the downed pilot rescue as a cover-up.

baal

10708 Posts

April 07 2026 06:17 GMT

#112698

On April 05 2026 22:51 KwarK wrote:
I think the key difference is that Donald Trump is a child molester and Biden being one is pure projection generated by propagandists trying to muddy the waters.

Ashley's Biden's diary is far more solid evidence to me than accusations about Trump after he was a candidate for presidency.

FYI I'ts not like I'm going to defend's Trumps character, he is a serial philanderer, friend of Epstein and he might have been with underage girls, but when it comes to proof there is even less than there is of Biden.

Not like I expect an once of objectivity from you though.

baal

10708 Posts

April 07 2026 06:20 GMT

#112699

On April 07 2026 04:43 Liquid`Drone wrote:
Some warcrimes to give the impression that at least he did something but it'll fizzle out.

Agreed, but I've lost money more than once in polymarket betting on his inaction, fucking stochastic president lol.

baal

10708 Posts

April 07 2026 06:23 GMT

#112700

On April 05 2026 21:38 EnDeR_ wrote:

Show nested quote +

On April 05 2026 20:16 baal wrote:

On April 02 2026 21:42 EnDeR_ wrote:

On April 02 2026 18:24 baal wrote:

On April 02 2026 16:33 EnDeR_ wrote:

On April 02 2026 11:50 baal wrote:

On April 01 2026 20:55 EnDeR_ wrote:
I don't really want to relitigate the COVID response by different governments, we've already had that one.

The rollout was unprecedented, we have never had any medicine (as far as I know, I could be wrong) rolled out quite that quickly from proof of concept to millions of doses prepared. Like, what would constitute a win for you?

The only reason the US gov did not capitalise on operation warp speed being the absolute win that it was is because Trump is a moron and he picked up antivaxx rethoric instead.

I don't think COVID was a particularly good example of good governance. I think it was a huge far reaching crisis that had extremely complex inter-related parts. It was so complicated that you won't get two people to agree of what would have been the optimum approach even in retrospect.

The vaccine development was pretty good and it was a big win but not for the government, they didn't develop it.

The production was lackluster, it was pretty good for private company standard, but for it to be a government win, they had years to build mega factories "China-style"ready to produce at many multiples the rate of production they had.

But my complains aren't regarding the vaccine it was about response to the pandemic.

Almost every single expert in twitter agreed on the strategy, staticists like Nassim Taleb, viologists were at unison talking about dramatic quick response, and president have access to experts at the highest level, it wasn't ignorance why they under reacted, it was incentives:

If they overreact and the virus turns out to be a dud (like others were) people obv get upset and it hurts the in elections, but overreaction is the correct respose to geometric threats, thats why virtually every government (outside of east asia) under reacted, politics are popularity contests and that is a terrible incentive when the things that must be done are unpopular.

Oh, but that's a very narrow definition of what success looks like. Arguably, if the government had set up production in such a way, there would be an absolute shit storm from a certain political collective about the waste and how their tax dollars shouldn't be used to subsidise vaccines in shit hole countries.

To your second point, I hadn't realised that you were referring only to the start of the pandemic. In this case I agree with you, we knew what was going on in China, western countries should have acted sooner, and that first lockdown was delayed for no reason. The UK was a particularly bad offender, business had already locked down before the official guidance arrived, which is kind of nuts. This one was a no-brainer, agree 100%.

lol then we've been agreeing all along.

Why would the construction of a mega-factory be tied with subsidizing vaccines to foreign countries?

It's not a narrow definition or a difficult ask, the mega-factory is not a complex thing to do, if Xi Jinping wants a mega-factory it gets constructed immediately, but western bureaucracies are 99% friction and can't get anything done, not even in emergencies.

My point is that as things shook out, there were enough doses for everyone (in the US, not worldwide). In fact, the US had a huge surplus because the problem wasn't production; it was that people were not taking them and ended up with millions in surplus. Therefore, if there had been a bigger production capacity, you'd just be subsidising other countries who didn't manage to get enough vaccines. Considering all Western democracies managed to get enough doses for everyone living there, you'd be subsidising vaccines for poorer nations, the infamous "shit hole" countries.

I still don't understand why you think it wasn't a huge success considering they produced enough doses for everyone (again, in the US, not worldwide) in a record time.

I took several months, production could have been much faster which means less deaths and reopening the economy, most of the time there is a tradeoff between money and lives saved but on this time they both aligned, it was a win-win and they dropped the ball.

I don't understand why are you insisting on subsidizing as if something you must do if you make a megafactory in time, you can choose to, or not, you can sell them or do whatever the hell you want you are not forced to give them away.

In "record time" compared to what? there is no comparison since there hasn't been a pandemic in modern times, so there is no comparable effort, what you can judge is what the state did, and they did nothing, private companies made a few upgrades to their facilities and that's pretty much it.

Baal, if you are genuinely interested in this topic, I would recommend you read this article:

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

It wasn't clear which technology was going to be the most successful, but in all honesty it's kind of mind-blowing that within 3 months of approval we were producing millions of vaccines per week. There were all sorts of challenges, from supply chain to skilled workforces that a gov mega factory wouldn't have been able to sidestep easily.

I summarized it and again we are in agreement, I think the overall vaccine effort was very good but from the private sector, I think there isn't anything particularly commendable on the government side, it was acceptable but nothing that leaves me with a taste of competency, like when you see an emergency hospital built in China in like 2 weeks.

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