Leo Gura

Yes, of course. An oligrach does not want true democracy because it would take away his power. When oligarchs act like they are pro-democracy, as Musk does, they are deluding themselves. Musk is anti democracy in his actions because what he really cares about is power, not equality or fairness. To actually be pro-democracy requires that you surrender your drive for endless power and wealth, so that you have no more vote than anyone else. But all these oligarchs manipulate to give themselves more votes.

Of course! Because the one thing all these people have in common is that they are power-hungry egomanacs who want to impose their will and agenda on everyone else. They are fundamentally anti-democractic oligarchs, despite all their bullshit talk of helping mankind. Their notion of helping mankind is forcing everyone to follow their agenda while they rake in billions. They are capitalist wolves who think they are angels saving the world. When really the world needs saving from them. That is peak Stage Orange. None of these oligarchs is above that. All the biggest political problems in America are directly tied to these oligarchs and capitalist wolves who are fundamentally corrupting democracy with their lust for endless money and power. American democracy has been slowly hollowed out by these people over the last 60 years. That's the real issue no one is talking about admist all the culture war noise. Amd Trump is just more of that on steroids.

Exactly why managment hates unions with a passion.

You guys are obessed with Destiny. I don't care about him at all. I don't care what he says. You are acting like Destiny is my teammate or something. Destiny is an internet blowhard. I don't need to answer for his immaturity. No one is on my side. My side is deep intelligence and understanding of reality. Nobody in the online influencer or political space is doing that.

As a lord, I disagree with my peasants organizing against my dictates. The reason Biden didn't invite Musk but invited all the other auto makers is because Tesla is anti-union and the others are unioned companies.

The real reason Musk hates Biden is because Biden is pro union and Musk is so power-hungry that he doesn't want to share any power with his own employees.

No. Most people have weak will to power, which is why they are nobodies.

Take a trip to Russia or China and find out for yourself.

There is no real war with Iran. I mean a serious direct war. You underestimate how bad things can get in the hands of a corrupt, ignorant, asshole. If nukes start flying under Biden I would certainly attribute that to Biden. I just don't see that happening. That is true. Trump is the weak one in this case. Backing off with NATO is the "weak" position. It's much more complicated than that, but I agree NATO has gone too far. I agree that the US deep state has some bad ideas that need to be reversed, but I will not vote for a corrupt devil to do that job.

There is truth and wisdom in a policy of reigning in NATO. I just don't entrust Trump with such a sensitive and nuanced matter. He will find some way to clown it up. I also doubt to what extent Trump could actually alter or undo NATO expansion. But even if he could do all that it is not worth the cost of losing our democracy at home. I'm not going to support a corrupt authoritarian just because he might have a few good "anti-war" policies. Because authoritarians are not known to be peaceful people. Maybe Trump starts a war with Iran. You don't know. He's an agent of chaos.

Hermitage is an escape valve from human madness.

That's how its been for 10,000 years.

It's not that Trump does not have any positive qualities, it's that they are not relevant to his suitability for public office. I am biased against devilry, yes.

Liberals often register as Republicans in order to vote against them in their primaries, especially in red states where Dem votes are meaningless. So this registration doesn't tell us much.

@Karmadhi The situations in Ukraine and Gaza were and are too serious for Trump to make any positive solution to them. All he can do is blow hot air and spin bullshit, not solve intractable problems. Trump is too intellectually lazy to even read a book about Ukraine or Gaza. This tells you everything.

That is problematic too. But Iran did not invade anyone. And giving its own money back to Iran was part of a larger attempt to make a deal with them. Trump broke the Iran peace deal. So by your loigc Trump is responsible for the Gaza war. And Trump is responsible for the Ukraine war by being soft on Putin. Two can play such blame games.

That money belonged to Iran. I guess if you want the US to steal money then Trump is your man.

This makes no sense. The notion that world leaders are afraid of Trump is ridiculous. They view Trump as a useful idiot clown. Only a self-absorbed American could believe that Trump intimidates world leaders into inaction. As if Putin or some Hamas terrorist gives a damn that Trump exists. All they see is Americans acting like clowns.

Well, part of being intelligent is being able to see things from multiple perspectives and an appreciation for moral relativity. But he could also just be playing self-deception games. Probably both.

Woot! AOC needs more security around her. The MAGA lunatics are circling.

I think Destiny's rationalizations of Israeli domination of Palestinians is one of his weakest positions that I have heard. Destiny may be right on some technical points there but he is wrong in the big picture of what Israel is doing. Israel is engaged in domination and exploitation of a weak minority group through underhanded Machinavellian machinations and lies.

Blender is free so go with that. Or you can buy a cheap used copy of old versions of 3damax on DVD on Ebay. Even a 10 year old verison of 3dmax is good enough for modeling. 3dsmax hasn't changed much in 10 years. All the core poly modeling features are the same. There is little sense in paying for an expensive subscription. Here: https://www.ebay.com/p/16062143934?iid=126545360649

That's why, on the whole, I have no problem with Distiny. He has better core takes than many Progressives who just parrot Marxist dogma. Destiny actually thinks about nuanced factors on both sides. He's not just shilling for one side. So huge points to him for achieving that much epistemic intelligence as a gamer. Destiny's problems are more in style than substance. He has an immature style.

Coming from that gamer culture background Destiny is just immature. Destiny can make a lot of sense at times, and he is skilled at debate, but at the core of his psyche is still that gamer boy who yells racist slurs while playing multiplayer Halo. That limits Destiny's development. He's kinda stuck in that role. This shows you the problemic influence of toxic gamer culture on young men in general.

They were radicalized with culture war issues. Of course the electorate is large so some people are voting for economic or policy reasons. I was speaking more generally. He's a cynical con-artist so he knows he's running a con on his followers. He thinks of his own followers as suckers who will buy anything. But also he's an egomaniac so he will believe whatever juices up his ego. I'm sure his ego gets juiced up from thinking of himself as savior of America from woke Communists or some such fantasy. So it's a combination of pure cynical Machiavellianism plus the delusions of grandiose narcissism.