The only winners would be the populist parties of the right and left, and the nationalist fringe.

That’s what the author said, what you were quoting was something which a subeditor has distilled from the text. You may still disagree but it’s a lot more specific about who would benefit.

It’s his 80th birthday soon, and a country is the very best birthday present you can get. That’s why Trump wants it.

The minerals thing is why Trump’s handlers want it.

I am glad she is showing people, at least in Europe, that not all of our policymakers are working with this administration and do not wish for the Auth. American future we are sprinting towards.

That’s lovely and all, but the horse has bolted. The only sensible approach is to sever as many ties as possible with the USA. It would be madness to trust a country which has demonstrated it can flip this quickly into fascism.

Trump is just going to fund ICE through other piles of money that he got in the BBB and that he’ll just start cutting other more critical services

Worse - ICE are already fully funded until 2029. As in, they have already been given $75b to spend over the next 3 years. Cut their funding to zero tomorrow and it has zero effect on them until after the next election.

“British English” are the ones you’re looking for. Them or “patronising”.

Thing is, South Sudan would have been mid-table, but they misunderstood and bribed their way to the bottom of the index.

Did you not even read the article you shared?

I’m not opposed to that, but I don’t see any reason to bring the word “church” into it. I think they should be treated like any other club of people, and that may well include tax exemptions for community work.

Honestly, churches should have always stayed the fuck out of politics or lose their tax exempt status.

Churches should never have had tax exempt status.

one of the fuck-dumbest things to occur in the modern history of this planet

Pre-modern history of this planet says “piss off, we didn’t do anything this fucking stupid”

They don’t need to take the elections away, they can just post ICE agents nearby “to stop illegals from fraudulently voting”. It will put off many, and they can also wrongly arrest a bunch until the polls close then let them go again.

Isn’t that what you said after you invoked Article 5 of NATO that one time? I’m pretty sure we came and shot a bunch of Arabs for you guys…

The new Canadian Riviera!

I mean, if you have an armed force, loyal to you, who have already been given their funding up front until after the next election, it wouldn’t really be magic.

Oh no, how terrible, I expect that will make all the difference.

The full complaint is here, and anyone can read it.

It’s worth noting that this allegation also says that Elon Musk and Trump’s children were there at the time, and that the complaint was made anonymously 4 months before the 2020 election.

The man is a monster, but have an ounce of fucking sense, please.

Fair enough. It took a day or two before I heard anything much more about her than that she was someone that the US government had just executed in the street.

Also, no media made a big deal of the fact she was gay, because we don’t care about anything like that in the UK, unless of course she’d been trans in which case she’d have been hung out to dry.

Right, so the way these jokes works is this:

An article headline makes a claim about someone, but specifically doesn’t mention who they are, because the context makes it obvious.

You respond with a “so (deliberate misinterpretation which also fits the description given)”.

For example:

Headline: Movie about First Lady is as vacuous as its subject

Comment: So the Michelle Obama documentary is still on Netflix.

Pwnd libs: “…”

Zing! Eat that libs. Takedown complete.

Now, what you’ve failed to understand here is that the headline quite specifically mentions the name of the movie, “Melania”, so it doesn’t work as a flow. Because no-one in their right mind would think the Michelle Obama documentary is called “Melania”. Imagine overhearing this conversation on the bus:

Person 1: I saw that “Melania” movie recently. It is as vacuous as its subject matter!

Person 2: So the Michelle Obama documentary is still on Netflix?

At best we’re assuming that person 2 has misheard, and probably “has dementia” is higher up the list than “has just made a cutting remark”.

Anyway, better luck next time.

Fair enough. I guess I mostly saw breaking reports which were fairly scant on personal details followed by opinion pieces which focused more on the “usa slides further into fascism” angle.

I guess it depends where you are and how you read the news. From outside the USA I saw a lot of details about the murder, and the backlash, before reading that her wife was in the car at the time. It probably took a couple of days?