Iirc I read a book on euro history a long time ago called “the rape of Europa” which looked at the Nazis more as looting opportunists and followed some of the stolen objects of art and their histories.
It seems like many people think they are too civilized to be governed by low functioning sociopaths then and now.
100%
Create chaos for everyone else, make it hard to determine the correct way for the receiving end to control for it. The victims of the chaos will settle for a “better” deal.
Look for bonus behind the scenes looting by insiders trading futures in advance of the chaos. That is almost always available to them, since the futures markets are open 23h/5 days a week and trading futures is rarely subject to compliance controls.
The cruelty is a side show to these people. It only affects the powerless and distracts attention from the main game.
What women veterans think of Pete Hegseth’s views about combat roles
Let us turn for a moment to the fairly direct words of the current head of 
's military, Chief of Defence Staff General Jennie Carignan.
Are they mad about this, though? Are they? Cause it doesn’t seem like they give a single shit about the sycophants and grifters he’s tapping for his administration… and I don’t think a few people whinging on social media = MAGA cult members being “pissed”…
Right? I think that most who voted for him stopped paying attention to details as soon as he won. Hell, they weren’t paying attention to detalis and facts before then, only to the “good” vibes they got from him.
And then, when their lives start getting worse instead of the better they’re counting on, I think they’ll just believe him again when he says it’s the fault of Democrats, immigrants, the Derp State or whatever.
yeah, I unfortunately, think that’s true. It’s frustrating at the least, given the stakes. It’s becoming increasingly clear that he’s going for a much more traditional (if very right wing conservative, shock-doctrine leaning) picks for things like the economy and foreign policy, while picking bomb throwers for departments that can be used against his “internal enemies”… I’d be very surprised if his hard-core supporters understand that at all… If we believe that they voted for him because they believed he’d be pro-peace and populist in his economic policies, they are not getting that at all…
The one thing I sometimes think they are getting is a wrecking ball, shaking up the establishment and so on. Even if Tromp isn’t making such bonkers picks for that reason (I think the picks are mostly about perceived loyalty, and sometimes money).
It’s probably the appearance of a wrecking ball (which I think lots of people actively wanted), but only in certain things (DoD, FBI, intelligence, education, etc). The ones he’s put in who are “wrecking ball” picks, I think are telling.
But certainly his picks are also about rewarding loyalists and backers and stacking the whole place with as many billionaires (or near billionaires) as he can fit in… Class solidarity is strong among the elite classes, after all… They might not agree on everything, but they are solidly behind the idea of ensuring that they are not impeded in anyway by the rest of us proles.
Four years is a very short time to create a viable international trade currency. So, after his second term ends, Mr. Trump will be able to claim victory for how his manly measures saved the Dollar.
And it’s not like he’s doing anything different than what he did before. Yeah, many of his picks are worse but even before his cabinet picks were largely comprised of donors and/or sycophants with actual qualifications being more coincidental than intentional. Nothing he’s doing should be a surprise to these people. It’s the same damn playbook.
Oh yeah, totally true… But they are blinded by their adherence to the cult, that they can’t see or won’t see… Or they think it’s how the world should work, that the rich and powerful should do whatever they want, and the rest of us get fucking crumbs.
A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events. The detailed seven-page report—which was compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees and sent to the organization’s senior management in February, 2015—states that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, whom they divided into two groups—the “party girls” and the “not party girls.” In addition, the report asserts that, under Hegseth’s leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety, including an allegation made by a female employee that another employee on Hegseth’s staff had attempted to sexually assault her at the Louisiana strip club. In a separate letter of complaint, which was sent to the organization in late 2015, a different former employee described Hegseth being at a bar in the early-morning hours of May 29, 2015, while on an official tour through Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, drunkenly chanting “Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!”
Sounds perfect for this administration.
I know this thread isn’t big on laughs but, shit, I spat me biscuit.
Last time we tried to incorporate Canada, it didn’t work out all that well for us.
