Joe

“Hold my unlocked phone while I chug this beer!”

《criminal mastermind journalist adds himself to confidential chat group》

Lock 'em up! Lock 'em up!

Meanwhile, the flu knocked everyone I know off their feet this year. Our last two covid bouts were mild knocks on wood.

Caesar only got popularised as a tyrant after his death. Trumpy-boy is getting ahead of himself.

I’m as chipper as I’ve ever been! :-)

That’s a minority. From what I’ve seen, the vast majority of Aussies are sheep, happy to be abused by their government and manipulated by corporations and propaganda (take your pick which). It’s just another fractured society, with apathetic masses turning away from the real world and living in their own bubbles of discontent.

Because that is ever going to happen in Australia?

Oh, I agree. I’m just paraphrasing JD Vance.

The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis the USA it’s not russia, it’s not china, it’s not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat of the USA from some of its most fundamental values. Values shared with Europe. In washington, and across the USA, free speech, I fear, is in retreat.

Slightly less of a Tosser with a Toyesla.

But, but… Arbeit macht gesund! Pretty sure I read that somewhere.

If it happens and Ukraine and its true allies use the time wisely to prepare for the worst case, then the worst case might not be so bad.

Ukraine isn’t recovering much territory militarily anytime soon, short of a black swan event. So diplomacy and putin’s “retirement” will be the way.

trump will screw it up with premature sanctions relief though.

Domestically, mostly, but this is a huge acceleration - end game style.

One of the great (and frustrating) features of functioning/stable democracies is that the ruling party typically can’t change too much too fast. So there are minor changes, pulling the country a little here, and a little there. It’s hard to royally fuck up a country in these stable democracies… but the US is no longer a stable democracy.

The USA’s international policy has been pretty consistent for a LONG time, no matter the ruling party. Spreading democracy (sometimes far better than at home), fighting terrorism/drugs/axis of evil, etc. through a mix of soft power, military power, and international institutes (more soft power). The aim was always to make/keep America (and in particular the 1%) rich and powerful.

What we are seeing now is the destruction of US influence and power abroad. It’s a successful (almost certainly) russian operation, now led by team trump.

Domestically, it should result in an uproar… class and civil warfare, destroying the final illusions of American Values. But a strong minority (100 protestors is enough with a little camera work) will scream and shout for more face eating, and the troops will intervene on their behalf, ensuring that the majority line up peacefully to watch the leopards. Even the best case scenarios are pretty grim. The trajectory has been set (many years ago now) and the ball is rolling faster than ever.

What the article didn’t say: The budget will increase the deficit and national debt. IKR?!

Are you suggesting that the proud boys’ circle jerking is just an inadvertent perk of an otherwise sinister masterplan?! How dastardly!

Every time I hear the name “proud boys”, I expect them to arrive on a giant penis float as part of a parade. I bet the name was suggested to them as a joke that they failed to get.

lol… cleans house, only to shit in the pool. Classic trump.

struts in his fancy pants

Be careful of dualstack and IPv4-only VPNs. The client can discover and advertise the real IPv6 address, even if adequately firewalled. I’m not sure if gluetun addresses this risk.

edit: this should be considered a risk even if you don’t have IPv6 support today, as this could be enabled by your ISP in the future, then automatically enabled on your network by your router.

Don’t worry. We still have RT and Al Jazeera.