Depends how lucky you are. There is a guy who works in upper management and he has the privilege to order new equipment for his office, which is all expenses paid by the company. He built a gaming computer complete with neon lights and four monitors right in his office.

“Honey, I will be late from work! I will be back at 3am!”

teabags scrumballs69 in Call of Duty

Europe could defend itself, sure, but it wouldn’t qualify as superpower in the military area. It doesn’t have the same power projection as it used to have and what the US has now. Europe’s military state has been abandoned since the end of cold war and production fell. That is why Europe is struggling to produce equipment for Ukraine. The continent has been reliant of US for much of its military munitions, vehicles and equipment.

I don’t see flat, I see full of rivers and bogs.

Maybe moving there for more affordable housing? People are unironically told to stop complaining about unaffordable housing and move to the Midwest.

Assuming this is a jab on “empires only last 250 years”, I would like to point out that the number usually refers to the estimate on how long, on average, is the golden age/peace period of a nation last after becoming the hegemon.

Don’t worry, the US will survive long, but not as the superpower anymore. See Europe for example after their empires crumbled.

Add the “vote blue, no matter who” as thought terminating cliche. The Democrats are enabling the Republicans anyway!

When Left posts, they get flack from ALL right AND MOST of the left as well

Yeah, remember when the right was raging when Soros was funding left leaning causes, but they are mum when climate-change denying, racist, LGBT-phobe, rich oligarchs are funding anyone on the right?

They get funding, that much is obvious. It was the same story with the Nazis who got massive support from obvious sources.

And the Bolsheviks are authoritarians and still considered left. North Korea call themselves Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and considered left as well despite being ruled by a dynasty. What’s your point? Do you even know what democratic socialism means? Lemmy, of all people should know, what that means. Sorry but your personal bias is clouding your judgement and reading comprehension.

Meanwhile, Trump and co. offered asylum to white Afrikaners who aren’t even asking for one, while brown Palestinians who are being massacred are refused.

The mask is off.

Because billionaires fleeing or stop investing after taxing them is mostly a myth. Warren Buffet even argued this. And even if they are serious about fleeing, impose a capital flight tax like Norway did to deter the rich from fleeing with their wealth.

spreadsheet

Ah yes, listed in the most secure mode of data collection.

NIMBYs and corporations are results of both problem, excessive individualism.

We think changes happen overnight but rise and fall of a power is typically a slowburn.

The party that ruled in Israel was democratic socialist.

I don’t know what is with downvotes for stating facts. Either people don’t know what democratic socialism is, or socialists probably want to forget that bit of history that Israel used to be left and don’t want to be associated with it.

Not sure what you mean.

The repeated sneak invasions by Arab countries, the last being the Yom Kippur War, made the left, in the eyes of voters, is insufficient in protecting Israel. It helped paved way for the Israeli right to come to power. After all, Bibi’s administration is all about occupying the frontiers “to protect” Israel; same excuse really that any settler societies have provided to commit atrocities.

Did Obama actually said that? I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard that Obama told Bernie that he can’t be the good guy and be president.

Corruption aside, once getting into position of political power, it is actually harder to maintain it because of different stakeholders involved. Take the military industrial complex, for example. We rightly chastise its profit taking motive by artificially inducing wars. But the sad truth is that they are jobs providers to peripheral places where there are little to no opportunities for many, especially in the desert states in the American Southwest and in isolated regions of Scotland and Northern England in the case of UK. No politicians want to be branded as jobs destroyer.

Even without the opportunity for personal corruption, balancing genuine concerns and interests is a hard juggling act for any politicians. And that’s not even including campaign financing and its trap of being beholden to the donor. Unfortunately, there is strong correlation between electoral success and how much money is thrown into the campaigning. It is one factor as to why the Citizens United was allowed by the US Supreme Court.

I feel Mamdani might be different since he openly and unflinchingly said he doesn’t like capitalism, something that many politicians are afraid to do. And he is a member of DSA which Obama isn’t a member of so that is something of a solid credential for Mamdani. But only time will tell if he sticks to his promises and conviction.

There are people who grew up with game but are well rounded and sociable. It depends entirely on the person and the type of environment they grew up in.

Good point.