I don’t understand why gun control people want taxes on gun-related stuff. If someone’s going to go do a mass shooting, you really think another $200 on an attachment is gonna stop them. It’s mainly going to penalize collectors like this guy, and there’s zero difference in public safety between someone owning 26 vs 27 suppressors.

You don’t want people to have suppressors, ban them. If you’re not banning them, leave them be. Taxes and fees are just the worst of both worlds.

How and when did Tennessee become worse than Texas and Florida?

When Haslam retired. Which he did because he saw the writing on the wall that there was no longer a place for him.

Haslam wasn’t good, but as a corporate lackey, he just wanted to keep the machine running, he wasn’t ideologically committed to all the christofascist culture war bullshit, and would push back on it when it would rock the boat too much. For a few years, he held back the rising tide of fascism and the state was less bad than most of its neighbors. But as soon as he left, there was a massive wave of legislation making up for lost time. The people running things now are fascist idiots, whether ideologues or opportunists, unrestrained by conscience or reason. If Fox News runs a story about something, there will be legislation about it within a week.

How did things get this bad? Because the corporate lackies created the material conditions for it. They were happy to work with and spur on the christofascists because it gets them voting Republican. And now they’ve created a beast they can no longer control or restrain.

When you put it that way, it is pretty unbelievable that a US politician would follow through on a promise 🤔

You mentioned that I may want to deflect the responsibility from Biden. -> I don’t have such interests.

Again, why did you feel the need to say that you don’t care about internal US politics when I didn’t say shit about internal US politics?

Whoever did it

Yeah, could be Russia’s biggest geopolitical rival that directly benefited both politically and economically by forcing Europe to buy their gas instead and which said that it would do that exact thing under those exact conditions and easily have the means to do it, or it could’ve been anyone, really.

No, I’m not. I just said that this post was likely Russian propaganda. That’s it.

Because the post criticized the fact that American citizens get zero say over foreign policy, you assumed it was “likely Russian propaganda.”

Maybe you should engage in some critical reflection instead of repeating whatever imperialist genocidal powers tell you to think.

I do, you should try it yourself sometime, bootlicker.

Yes, because you’re claiming that anyone who doesn’t fall in line with your Orwellian “five minutes hate” is a traitor. That’s the definition of bootlicking.

I never denied that Russia has propaganda. I do deny your assumption that anyone who isn’t slobbering over US boots must automatically be licking Russian boots, that anyone who doesn’t do like you do and fall in lockstep behind hating whoever the people in power tell us to hate must be a traitor or spy.

Keep denouncing anyone who’s antiwar for their lack of patriotism, you’re making Goering proud.

Why would I want to deflect blame from Biden? I’m telling you that I’m a European and I don’t care who’s in charge in the US or which president did what.

Why did you feel the need to say that you don’t care about internal US politics when I didn’t say shit about internal US politics?

All I did was post a clip of the US president promising that he’ll stop NordStream if Russia invaded Ukraine, despite not having the legal authority to do so. Then, of course, Russia invaded Ukraine, and the NordStream pipeline mysteriously got stopped (could be anyone, really!)

because that sabotage was very convenient for every party

It certainly wasn’t convenient for Russia or Germany.

Ok? The significance of the clip I posted was not that it was Biden saying it but what he said he would do (and very likely did). Why did that prompt you say, “FYI: in the EU we don’t play the “it was Biden vs it was Trump” game. We stop at “it was the US?””

The reason I posted that clip was to establish the reason why I believe the US blew up the pipeline. Yes, it happens to be Biden in that clip, but you’re the one who started talking about distinguishing between Trump and Biden and then about not distinguishing between Trump and Biden. I’m just talking about the US.

The only thing I can think of is that you’re trying to preemptively shift the NordStream thing away from Biden and onto the US in general as a way of deflecting blame from Biden. But again, I just brought it up to establish US policy on NordStream, not specifically to bash Biden. If it’s not that, then I just straight up don’t understand you at all.

You literally just said that it was because of Republicans that the EU soured on the US and now you’re telling me that in the EU you don’t look at which party is in charge but at the US as a whole. Do you not see how these statements are contradictory?

Republicans just convinced Europe that the USA cannot be trusted anymore

FYI: in the EU we don’t play the “it was Biden vs it was Trump” game. We stop at “it was the US”.

What?

Naturally, the common people don’t want war. . . but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.

Fucking bootlicker.

https://youtube.com/shorts/FVbEoZXhCrM

More or less agree with your take, but:

I am reasonably confident this would not have happened in a Dem regime.

I’m fairly confident in my memory that Israel attacked Syria under Biden, taking advantage of the instability to expand it’s illegal settlements in the Golan Heights. Am I wrong?

As opposed to Biden merely calling their decisions “outrageous” and strongly condemning them while supporting Netanyahu after they issued a warrant for his arrest.

I’m not sure how that’s connected to Syria, tbh.

How so?

Pretty much every country was a member.

“Every country was responsible for the invasion of Korea because everyone was in the UN.”

“Finland has no influence over the UN because we’re not on the security council.”

Choose one.

“Don’t start wars” is a lesson we’ll hardly need opportunities to learn about, no matter how many there are people are still going to start them again and again.

“Don’t start wars” is not the only lesson to learn, also, “Avoid getting involved in wars unless you have a very good reason, even if you didn’t start it.”

Not members of the Securit Council though who made the decision or the United Nations Command

Which returns to my previous point that “the UN” at the time was essentially just the US, the UK (whose support was bought with the coup in Iran), and France (who got US support in Vietnam in exchange).

But it also happened before I was born, so my possibilities on affecting the outcome are pretty limited.

Then why are we even talking about it? Because it provides an opportunity to learn from mistakes and avoid repeating them.

Well, your country is part of the UN and as you’ve emphasized it was a UN intervention so I’d say it’s pretty clear which side of the war you have a greater ability to influence and therefore a greater responsibility to critique.

In that case I return to my original statement. “Damn, maybe we should stop doing them then.” I don’t have any control over what North Korea does or did, but I do, at least theoretically, have influence as a voter and a citizen over what the US does, so I’m going to focus on the things within my ability to influence. And your response that “North Korea started the war” seems largely irrelevant.