I’m a UK based professional and I come to the US for a conference each year. I won’t be coming again.

I dont want to have my phone searched at the border, I dont want to risk arbitrary arrest and detention without legal representation, and frankly I dont want to spend my money in the US anymore (its a week long conference and costs a couple of thousand pounds including conference fees, flights, hotel and expenses). I’m already trying to buy European because of trumps other behaviour, so not spending mony in going to theUS is an easy win too.

Now multiply that out - even if its a small percentage overall there are lots of people who are no longer going to want to visit the US in the current climate. Expect a downturn in US tourism guvent the horror stories that are coming our of US ICE detention centres.

Yes and no. The US chose to project its power around the world after WW2. It used that military power and umbrella protection to shape free trade deals, and preferential deals for US interests.

From a US perspective whats happening is the destruction of something extremely powerful to the US interests. US power and influence will be massively diminished in an era when China is on the rise.

Europe will be able to afford to go to 3% of GDP on military spending. It’ll be painful in the short term but worth it for Europe as it will give them independence. Its not a threat to European tax and spending - that remains its aging population. Increased military spending will be a marginal problem.

Trumps destruction of US dominion is going to reduce their influence and power on the global stage. Even if the Americans elect an outward looking president next, Europe and other NATO allies can no longer rely on American promises as Trump has shown how quickly american orthodoxy can be undone.

The US spends 3.4% of its GDP on its military and for that it got an extraordinary amount of influence and power. The US will continue spending that much but will now be getting much less value for its money.

No, as a lack of empathy isn’t the only defining characteristic of psychopathy. There is also a lack of remorse, disinhibition, and egocentrism amongst other traits.

A lack of empathy alone doesn’t make someone a psychopath. For example some people on the autistic spectrum can exhibit a lack of empathy but are not psychopaths. (Should be noted a lack of empathy is not a defining feature of autism - its variable and a lot of people on the autistic spectrum do have empathy).

So its true to say a lack of empathy is a feature of psychopathy but not true to say that psychopathy is the inability to be empathetic.

The circumstances for a bird flu pandemic are already shockingly perfect in the US and they get worse every day.

Bird flu is running free in US farms, with limited attempts to stop it. The chances of it moving in to humans is already very high in fhe US. And the CDC is barely monitoring this anymore, the US has left WHO and now the US is abandoning flu vaccines.

The US is a perfect incubator for a major flu pandemic. It will be random luck as to how deadly a coming flu pandemic will be, but its been given the best chance to develop and spread. This is increasingly scary.

Conservative commentators criticized the portrayal as outdated and offensive, calling it an unfair caricature of Trump voters.

Who cares? Time to stop giving a crap about racists and biggots feelings. What a bunch of snowflakes.

So Bird Flu is coming for humans. The conditions for it moving into humans are perfect in the US: it’s spreading rapidly through commerical herds and flocks, with minimal attempts to restrict it due to prioritising public health over money. The more animals it is incubated in and the more contact they have with humans the higher the chances a mutation will successfully jump species.

We have a US President who has already presided over a chaotic and poor pandemic response. Now he is back, and he’s withdrawn the US from the World Health Organization, is letting a moronic billionaire disrupt the CDC, and has now appointed a conspiracy theory loving anti-vaxxer.

The conditions are already perfect for a flu pandemic, and now the conditions in the US are rapidly heading towards perfect conditions for a devastating pandemic. And it will affect the whole world as a poorly controlled initial out break will lead to rapid global spread. The only hope left is that a mild version of the Bird Flu mutates into humans, rather than the deadly version we’ve seen devastating birds and that has caused high mortality in previous small human outbreaks.

Bird Flu is coming - Trump is the president of pandemics, and whose betting he will handle this one any better than covid?

I wouldn’t worry, with Trump we’ll all soon be infected with bird flu instead. Trump Flu, alongside Trump Inflation and a Trump Drought in California.

The drought in summer 2025 will be Trumps Drought.

Alongside Trumps Inflation.

At this stage it will be challenged in the US courts as it is apparently unconstitutional and also illegal.

Supporting non-profits that use the legal system to hold the government to account is the way to go for now.

Also the scope of this remains unclear - it’s possible that it will blow up in Trump’s face when all the schemes that directly benefit voters disappear, including potentially medicaid. So everyone just needs to keep reminding people that “Trump did this” - make him own the shit that is coming.

It says a great deal about the us political system that this was an executive order and not an actual law.

Unfortunately this is just a sign of how bad the US has gotten.

There have been impeachment attempts on Clinton, W Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden. Impeachment was supposed to be used to stop a president acting illegally but its just become another political weapon in the US capitol.

The US system is so unbelievably broken. It entirely depends on bipartisan support to get things done but things are now too polarised to function and the electoral system prevents 3rd parties access at any level.

The two parties have destroyed democracy. It could be fixed but it would need to start at the state levels with 3rd parties coming in and rebuilding the electoral system. But the 2 parties have even gerrymandered the constituencies so only the two parties can win.

Even other countries with first past the post systems have other viable political parties - look at the UK, Australia and Canada. Fptp is flawed and breed an replacing but the US version is next level for locking in the status quo.

DRM-free doesn’t mean piracy. GOGs whole business model is built around selling games DRM free. I don’t pirate but I do use GOG where possible as I hate DRM - it punishes and inconveniences legitimate users for piracy and doesn’t even solve the problem. DRM is just an expensive waste of money for everyone involved.