21 posts shown.
Jason Anderson4 said:So, our latest leader is basically handing out get-out-of-jail-free cards to all the big-shot looters, including one of her own major campaign donors, which means we can probably expect that old tycoon to be back in power before we know it, maybe even stronger than before? I mean, think about it—700,000 people voted for the Republican party, but what was it, like 1.5 million for her? So, honestly, I’m not going to complain too much because we actually got exactly what we asked for, right? Nobody forced this on us.
It's just that blonde lady seems way more cutthroat than she lets on at first glance; it reminds me of that old saying my brother used to use: when you see a guy like Mitch McConnell, you know exactly who you're dealing with, but when you look at her, you have no idea what's actually lurking underneath.
As if, she's just your typical girl next door, making homemade sausages and sausage gravy, milking cows and all that...
And she's from a coastal city too, which is why I love her so much.
Once I buy my own cow, she'll definitely be the first person I call for the first milking.☕
He’s definitely messing with us. Total troll, guaranteed.🤣
There, just like I said.
Larry Fox5 said:Just look at this guy from Washington... 🤦
that's exactly what happens when they cut off your meds 😁
Keith Miller30 said:Larry Fox5 Asks:
Of course, it’s nothing more than an illusion. Perhaps fifty years ago, people held onto rigid ideologies and lived within clearly defined ideological trenches, but those deep divides have largely evaporated, leaving behind little more than a sense of cultural folklore. Isn't it true that individuals themselves have become far too complex and layered to be easily shoved into a single, convenient box? At the same time, political parties are constantly evolving to suit the era they inhabit—an era where most significant questions and answers no longer fall into simple black-and-white categories.
Here is just a small glimpse into how much things have changed. Consider the Mayor of Hamburg, who served three separate terms representing the Republican Party despite being gay. It is almost impossible to imagine such a thing happening fifty years ago, yet today, it is simply our reality.
Politics should adapt to the era and the world we actually inhabit, rather than clinging desperately to the ghosts of the past. At the end of the day, what truly matters to people are their existential concerns, their general quality of life, and the vision they hope to leave behind for their children—isn't that where the real political battles are fought?
I can't really offer much of a rebuttal here because what you're describing is purely your own subjective experience. I have no idea how much time you actually spend living here in the States, nor am I certain if you truly grasp the underlying social dynamics of how people function within this culture. Take that marriage referendum we had, for instance; the fallout from that played out in a very specific way for many people—even if they won't admit it openly today. It essentially boiled down to a binary divide where those who voted "yes" were branded as mindless zealots, while anyone who voted "no" was dismissed as some sort of weak-willed, easily manipulated fool who simply let others dictate their views. You see these kinds of polarizing, black-and-white divisions whenever any controversial issue arises in this society, don't you?
Larry Fox5 Asks:
It honestly strikes me as quite peculiar that you find yourself falling for such shallow, populist rhetoric, especially since everything you’ve written on this forum thus far suggests you actually possess the rare gift of thinking for yourself.
No, nobody is actually falling for those populist gimmicks. People tend to form their own opinions based on their own principles and values. There are certain issues where I find myself agreeing with Zoran Milanović, while on others, I lean toward Tomislav Karamarko; there are moments when I align with the views expressed by Keith Miller30, and other times when I simply don't. You’re essentially doing the same thing as @ZZ—suggesting that if someone happens to agree with Karamarko on, say, two out of ten points, they must be peddling populist rhetoric, which is just fundamentally incorrect, isn't it?
I suspect you might not spend enough time here in the States to realize just how deeply divided this country is ideologically. There isn't necessarily anything wrong with someone holding a firm ideology; in fact, one could argue it’s a positive thing in the end. Of course, we have to draw the line at the extremes—like the kind of rhetoric mellowscout24 uses when suggesting we should essentially wipe out entire groups of people. That kind of talk borders on pure hatred and extremism, which is obviously unacceptable. However, if you view an ideology simply as a collection of philosophical, moral, religious, or economic ideas, why should that be viewed through a negative lens?
🤣
against extremism, just go extreme
you see how you people operate, twisting everything and leaning on lies. when you read something written like this, it feels like 😁 you guys are acting like we're bleeding from our eyes, but whether it's us or them, you twist the words into something else entirely even though I think everyone knows damn well what the point actually was.
we need to uproot the seed, and the sooner the better, because crime has no place in a functioning democratic society.
now try understanding what I'm actually saying.😁
Raymond Harris4 said:Why even bring this up when I didn't mention him at all?
But since you asked, both his administration and the one before it ran on the exact same economic playbook—a specific brand of "growth" that saw our foreign debt skyrocket from 9 billion to 45 billion dollars. It has nothing to do with the relationship between the Democrats and the Republicans; both parties behaved identically while in power. Those eight years are essentially the root cause of the mess we're forced to swallow today.
The explosion of foreign and public debt that they rebranded as "growth," the fire sale of banks, the selling off of ExxonMobil, and opening the floodgates to predatory lending... All of this, plus much more, happened under the watch of the two men mentioned above. Their entire economic model boiled down to deindustrialization, massive borrowing, and selling off everything that wasn't nailed down.
Being realistic, I’d argue the best government this decade was Kosorić's. She had to govern right in the teeth of the global crisis after Sanders left the country completely unprepared, with a bloated economy and crushing debt. Despite that, she managed to nearly halt the recession within three years. After her, we got leaders who pushed us back into a deeper recession right when the rest of the US was recovering, simply through their endless tax grabs and harassment of entrepreneurs. Let’s be clear: in 2009, the US and the world were in a recession. By 2013 and 2014, the world was recovering. Yet, the US stayed stuck in a recession!
Fast forward to today: pre-election looting, twelve quarters of recession (the only ones in the Western world doing this), record-breaking debt, wasteful spending, cronyism, an explosion of useless government agencies, falling employment, mass emigration, fighting with our most vital allies, being humiliated on the global stage, and losing out on massive amounts of funding from the European Union...
Brkić is both the cause and the consequence.
After all, who was the one shouting "us versus them" on election night?
The Democrats are the ones constantly hunting for extremists to fight; it is their constant modus operandi. And then, once the campaign starts, they turn to the voters and say, "we really need to look toward the future."
The foreign debt is irrelevant if you're actually paying it off. One of the big Republican spins is blaming the Democrats for the spike in foreign debt, all while they were hiding the domestic debt like a snake in the grass—and it's that domestic debt that’s completely strangling the economy. Back in the nineties, you’d be waiting like 250 days just to get paid by ExxonMobil for work you already did. What little Ivica managed to do was actually fix that; in his first year, they paid down nearly 50% of the domestic debt that Harmon's Republicans had racked up. Taking on foreign loans jumpstarted an economy that was in a total freefall. But with the later measures taken by the Democratic government, Sanders's Republicans just got rich by destroying everything all over again.
Keith Miller30 said:To put it simply—a Prime Minister shouldn't be fostering these kinds of divisions within society; his stance ought to be one of unity rather than creating an "us versus them" mentality. He really should have accepted Karamarko's invitation to sit down together instead of trying to dodge the conversation. I can't help but wonder if he actually cares deeply about this country, though that is just my personal impression.
hehe, keep dreaming, considering they might be back in power in just a few months. ☕ Perhaps I'm being a little bit cynical now. ☕
I wouldn't bet on the Democrats that easily☕
But even if those criminals win, it wouldn't be the worst thing ever; it might actually be the last nail in the coffin for this country, and maybe things could finally start looking up after that. 😁 Though hopefully, once that villain finishes his final term, Rijeka can finally become an independent state with Italian as its official language. ☕
brightpilot6 said:I can certainly see the logic there, but it feels a bit too much like armchair philosophy to me. The moment I decide there’s actually a third option worth considering—one that genuinely stands a fighting chance at winning—that’s when I’ll throw my support behind them.
Until then, however, I have no intention of throwing my vote into the void just to satisfy some idealistic urge. I refuse to simply sit back and let the highly disciplined Republican Party voter base march straight to the polls and get exactly what they want.
That’s just how life works; that’s reality.
Pretty much, yeah. People are always waiting on some third party, like the Labor Party, which usually just vanishes as a serious contender anyway. That's why I'm saying, once the Republican Party disappears, 😁 there won't be any reason for the Democratic Party to stick around either.
Patrick Martin said:Look, I’ll give you this much: the Republican Party’s rhetoric is a total mess, and honestly, they need to dial it back and play it way more moderate. But don't think for a second that you guys are any better,
you're basically riding the coattails of the Democratic Party while your leaders run things like a bunch of cutthroat, neoliberal capitalist managers.
So, what exactly are you people even supposed to be?
Leftists, help us out here, please. 😁
Just touching on your post for a second. I'll give you this: Zoran Milanović definitely went overboard with those accusations and probably should have swallowed a bit of his pride. But look at it from his perspective—if someone spent six months relentlessly screwing you over (calling you unpatriotic, a communist sympathizer, or an agent of some old regime), and then once they finally hit their goal, they suddenly want to sit down at a table and "collaborate" with you... what are you going to do? Just sit there and let them keep violating you without putting up a fight? That's what you're suggesting.
@lojzek, I'm with you, someone needs to step up. 🙂
Keith Miller30 said:Yes, I am quite certain that is exactly what the President had in mind. 👍
Well, it seems we have discovered today that this administration isn't just decent, but actually quite exceptional. If that's the case, then I suppose we should simply sit back and offer our thanks to Zoran for his guidance, shouldn't we?
Nah, my good man, it's not "great" because they're actually performing well.
It's "great" only because the situation was such a disaster that not a single independent economist or anyone else could have even come close to predicting how bad it would get. It's only great in that specific context. For God's sake, 😁 with all that highway debt coming due in the billions, there were extra billions just falling out of people's pockets. All those massive millions don't even count, and the hundreds of millions being covered up will just be swallowed up by some delayed Department of Justice indictment. 🤦
You know what, I'm not doing this anymore, my blood pressure is starting to... ugh 😁 plus I'm stuck using a tablet without that stupid autocorrect
The Republicans 🤦 aren't even politicians or cronies, they’re just straight-up criminals who need to be hauled off to jail. Even if some new faces pop up under the same banner tomorrow, nothing changes because the mindset stays exactly the same. The GOP can only function this way, which is why you basically need to wipe the party from existence and erase every trace of them. I know exactly what I'm talking about 😁 because I was actually a member back in '93, and I was among the first 150 members down in San Diego. ☕ We were being watched and monitored just so those same spies could end up working for the GOP later on 🤣
This current administration isn't just "not bad"—it’s actually doing a solid job when you consider the absolute mess they inherited. How were they supposed to know about a five billion dollar deficit in the healthcare system that some local regional provider tried to hide? Or the massive debt at the Port of Los Angeles that was also being covered up? It goes on and on
What the GOP has been pulling for three years now is just the waterfront redevelopment scandal in a different outfit. You have these political hypocrites everywhere; one guy writes about how a certain executive gifted a 25% stake plus one share to an associate, then turns around the next day on another thread defending the sale of a major telecom company by claiming it’s not really a "sale" since it's just a wholesale package deal 🤣 One day someone tells me we shouldn't judge a politician until there's a final verdict, but of course, that rule doesn't apply to someone like that local fraudster.
Who do you think replaced the old boss 😁? It wasn't some shady mobster, obviously; he was replaced by university professors making $15k a month or more 😁 without set hours, without anyone asking them questions, and barely showing up to work three days a week. Those professors are just leftovers from the old guard's politics, just like the judges. I even know a case where a municipal court judge is only 29 years old, but his entire family has official party cards.
The whole system is contaminated by these fake patriots who will use any means necessary to claw their way back into power. That’s why this government isn't bad, no matter how hard people try to spin it otherwise.
Honestly, I don't even know who I'd vote for at this point. I've never voted Democrat in my life, but all signs point to this being the first time 😁:
I can understand voting for the old guard if you're a complete sellout, but otherwise, you'd have to be seriously incompetent to do it ☕
Keith Miller30 said:I’m not trying to argue with you; I’m simply offering some perspective on how the Democratic Party is perceived from the other side. 🤷
We all tend to gravitate toward our own version of the truth, don't we? It really just comes down to who we choose to root for and which figures we simply cannot stand.
Look, you already know I'm crazy about you, babe.
Hold on a second, how exactly do you think you know how the other side views the Democrats when you’re clearly just playing the part of a devoted little supporter?
Keith Miller30 said:You see, regarding Boldan—I feel the exact same way about anyone who fails to recognize what the Democrats are actually about, though I simply chose not to be quite so blunt. ☕
Well then, I suppose you all should enjoy these remaining moments while they last. We try, we attempt, and sometimes things just don't pan out... that is simply the nature of life.
No need to reply to me like some offended little princess, you're basically riding coattails for the kid anyway.😁
Unless you actually recognized yourself in those damn words and realize I'm telling the truth, and now you're just hiding behind a brick wall.😁
Keith Miller30 said:I think you and I both see exactly which players are about to fade into irrelevance. They were handed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity on a silver platter, yet they couldn't even manage to make the most of that. Honestly, I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see some last-minute legal maneuvering involving indictments right before the elections; I'm not entirely sure if they’ll aim directly at the leadership, but coming from an organization like the Democratic Party, it wouldn't surprise me one bit. 👍
Is it possible that casting a vote for the Republican Party is actually an act of resistance against pure obsession? ☕ Is it just me, or has the Democratic Party become quite possibly the most ineffective and incompetent organization we have ever seen in our political history? ☕ It’s truly unfortunate when people allow themselves to be swayed by such displays, isn't it? One can only watch as they drift away, ultimately forfeiting both their votes and the support they once held so dearly. ☕
Voting for Miller is quite simply the only logical choice, isn't it? ☕
What conservative challenger? Who are you even talking about... 🤣
Anyone who can't see what the GOP actually is isn't worth wasting a single damn letter on.
We might partially agree on one thing: the Democrats at the local level are pretty much just like the Republicans, but that's still miles away from being a criminal, underworld mafia organization.
Since we’re already talking about the Democrats and Republicans... honestly, the GOP needs to just vanish from the political landscape entirely. If they actually did, Democratic support would probably tank to like ten percent anyway. Just sitting here waiting for that scenario to play out, hoping the feds finally come after Karman 😁
At the end of the day, voting Democrat is basically just a vote against a total plague 😁
🤣
just another little sweetheart
It’s pretty pathetic, seeing twins tear each other apart like that 😢
We’re all sitting here laughing, but honestly, who knows what they're actually going through right now
Keith Miller30 said:Exactly—when we step away from politics, anything seems possible. ☕
I honestly struggle to understand people who are capable of abandoning those poor little souls on the street. What kind of person could possibly do something like that? I recently came across a situation in an animal welfare thread where I was helping another member sort out some issues regarding a dog she wanted to keep. The owner used to beat the dog daily, starving it and denying it even basic water... The dog eventually escaped, and she found it at a Greyhound station, brought it home, and gave it everything it needed. When the owner found out, he started causing trouble and demanding the dog back (the woman clearly didn't have anyone else to vent her frustrations on), but he has since calmed down and dropped his claims. ☕As it stands, she has kept the little guy. ☕
I've seen it all myself; I spent years doing professional dog training, so you see every type of person out there. All you can really do is step up and handle what you can, because you shouldn't expect much from anyone else. When I find a stray that looks like it's had a rough time, I'll just take them in 😁 bring them to the vet, pay for the flea treatments and all that nonsense, and then try my best to find them a home, though that's always an uphill battle.
Until people's mindsets actually change, it’s going to stay this way; I've been out in rural areas and small towns across the Midwest and I've been shocked more than a few times seeing dogs that have literally never been off a chain, just covered in ticks and fleas... and to those people, it's just business as usual.
Keith Miller30 said:That sounds like something someone could only say if they’ve never actually lived with a cat. 🙄 I have two absolute gems of cats that I rescued from the streets, and believe me, they are perfectly capable of forming emotional connections. In fact, they’re so reliable you could practically set your watch by them—meowing at the door at 6 AM, 3 PM, and 8 PM sharp.
Facts. (See, we can actually agree on something 😁), I also picked up two strays when they were barely two months old, and I've raised plenty of cats and dogs before. There's zero difference in intelligence 😁 if you actually bother to train them. It all comes down to how you raise them, whether you're dealing with dogs, cats, or even a hamster.