America & World IV: Trump's Taxing Day

[Dogg Thang]

Having money overcomes many weaknesses.

[wakka]

Just read this article on the subject of Musk today which does a pretty good job chronicling many of the ways you could take issue with him.

That is a great article, thanks.

[MartyG]

Couldn't they just invest their cajillion dollars into improving crop growth without the flashy Mars travel?

https://www.angelinvestmentnetwork.co.uk/business-proposal/industry-agriculture-5/

There's no mutual exclusivity stopping both being invested in - there is merit in investing in both things.

[Neon Ignition]

I might be wrong but, financially successful though he is, isn't Musk just effectively standing on the shoulders of smarter people. As in, there's nothing remotely smart or useful about him himself and therefore he's mostly not worth the attention he's given. He's just been fortunate to make money sinking cash into one or two ventures faster than competitors.

It'd explain why so much of what he says is so stupid and why his business 'empire' feels Trumpian and prone to collapse one day

[briareos_kerensky]

Biden wants to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan no later than September 11 current year

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/40164/biden-throws-down-the-gauntlet-on-pulling-troops-out-of-afghanistan-ahead-of-9-11-anniversary

[Cassius_Smoke]

Biden wants to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan no later than September 11 current year

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zon...11-anniversary

20 years seems like a good time to pull out but it's going to leave a vacuum.

[Asura]

20 years seems like a good time to pull out but it's going to leave a vacuum.

Maybe, but they can't stay there forever. If it's going to fall into civil war when they pull out, it wouldn't matter if they did it now, next year, or in 2030.

[Dogg Thang]

It wasn’t their vacuum to create and it’s not their vacuum to fill. So yeah, it will but it has to happen sometimes, as Asura says.

[Cassius_Smoke]

Seems like a long time ago when 'Dubya' stood in front of the Mission Accomplished banner.

[fishbowlhead]

Seems like a long time ago when 'Dubya' stood in front of the Mission Accomplished banner.

When he said that, he actually meant “me and all my pals have made as much as possible from war crimes so were done and out”

So year, mission accomplished.

[Dogg Thang]

Yep. That exactly.

[Neon Ignition]

https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/apr/14/us-supreme-court-expand-democrats-congress

Biden was keen on Democrats and Republicans working together more often on issues but the Republicans have been sticking hard to their Trump era playbook and so the shadow of action looks to finally be coming their way. Democrats look set to introduce a bill to add four new seats to the US Supreme Court, a move that will certainly fail but shows how quickly things are shifting due to frustrations

[QualityChimp]

8 people have been shot dead at a FedEx facility in Indianapolis.

There have been at least 45 mass shootings* this month alone.
*4 or more people shot (wounded or killed) excluding the gunman.

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Post-Sandy Hook, I've lost any compassion.
If the shooting of kids isn't enough to make a change, then nothing will.

Dipping into Twitter, it's the usual comments.
"It's sick people killing, not the guns!"

‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens
The Onion - 2014

https://www.theonion.com/no-way-to-prevent-this-says-only-nation-where-this-r-1819576527

[Cassius_Smoke]

Bowling for Columbine when he crosses from Detroit into Canada and asks how many shootings they had... Zero. Literally across the road from a place were hundreds happen. Canada has similar gun laws and gun ownership to America.

[monel]

'insert disease name' doesn't kill people, death does.