The 13th Amendment to the US constitution makes slavery illegal except for prisoners.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penal_labor_in_the_United_States

Which is why Trump will also be working hard to undermine NATO in any way he can.

He has rallied the Christofascists around him with four years to reorganize, has escaped all punishment for his first insurrection, has the support of Putin once again, has the world’s richest Nazi on side and funding him, and is emboldened.

Is this the whole “Nazis were socialists because it’s in the name” thing again? The far right love to pull this point out, ignoring the fact that as soon as he had power, Hitler had anyone remotely socialist in the Nazi party murdered so he could get on with the fascism. The name “National Socialist” was a trick to get people on board. Anyway, it figures that Musk thinks Hitler was too left wing, since Musk thinks the whole universe is too left wing. And it’s characteristic of Musk that being to the right of Hitler doesn’t even give him pause.

They’re quite good at hoodwinking and swindling gullible and ignorant people.

Yes, there’s no way I would want to work for the unprofessional and petty Dr. Alok Kashyap of Yatiken Software if I happened to search his name and find this post of his all over the internet.

Well, my boss pays us very badly but regularly reminds us that we are all just one big happy family. These people seem to be everywhere and they have no self-awareness and no imagination about how to live life. And their entire ego is invested in their work, so they’re very touchy.

All while criticizing others for being so venal they want to be able to buy food.

Charlie Kirk, a key Trump ally who joined Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., on a trip to Greenland this week, argued on his podcast Wednesday that it was imperative for the U.S. to control Greenland … “It is the resurrection of masculine American energy. It is the return of Manifest Destiny,” said Kirk (Source)

These fucking people. It’s really men like this, with their idiotic ideas of masculinity, who make the world as miserable as it is.

Apart from the whole being part of the USA thing. That’s insane. I just hope Canada’s right wing are not so craven as to want to sell out their country, but I don’t trust them.

“I’ve talked to so many governors and congresspeople and senators and never once did they say Canada is the problem,” Ford told CNN. He emphasized that a bilateral deal between Canada and the U.S. would be a better solution than imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.

I’m no fan of Doug Ford, but he’s right here. I guess Trump’s plan is to drive Canada into the ground economically through tariffs then invade or otherwise annex Canada when it’s too poor and desperate to resist. But why? It would be more profitable to both the USA and Canada simply not to do any of this. There are only two explanations I can think of:

1. Belligerence is the only thing Trump understands, even when it works to his own disadvantage, because actual diplomacy is too complicated for him and soft power contains the word “soft”, and/or
2. Trump isn’t working for the interests of the USA, but rather for those who want to see NATO and other Western alliances destroyed.

I don’t think Canadians would have a problem with taking on Minnesota.

They just keep voting for him, or not voting against him. Get it together Ontario!

Republicans have only threatened to invade Mexico, Canada and the UK so far, with a few days to go yet until they take power. They’re basically pacifists.

Edit: Oh, and Panama.

Is Fetterman still left-leaning? I heard he had gone Trumpy.

Maybe what I’m doing right now? I mean, it could be.

Up you go, and soon it will.

The difference between taxes and fees is really just that the first is cheaper and goes to people who aren’t incentivized to pocket the money while providing the worst service they can get away with. If you push a libertarian to explain their story in detail, there always comes a point where they introduce government and taxes but try to call it something else.

They don’t have any idea how cost-effective taxes are, compared to paying private companies individually for every single shared resource. It’s the same for healthcare, education, etc.: to pay the government for a decent nonprofit service is always better value.