All too typical: slave labor! Not much has really changed in the land of the free (white men).

Edit: It seems that many US citizens are unaware of this, but this is nothing new in the States: the majority of prisons in the US are run as private enterprises (and yes, they do put people to work for almost nothing and not just since Trump), which for obvious reasons is not the case in any other democratic country - at least not to this extent and with this level of absurdity. It goes without saying that the insanely inflated ICE budget, which under Trump exceeds that of all other agencies, such as the FBI and CIA, many times over, essentially benefits MAGA collaborators such as the Geo Group, one of the largest private prison corporations. But hey, that’s just an added bonus that the orange pedo is giving his co-conspirators at the expense of US citizens, because the real goal is obviously to build a secret police force that is loyal only to him - and, as I said, it has a budget that dwarfs all other agencies, even combined.

Denke, die sind hier gelandet:

Well, that should finally make it clear that the US is a failed state where organized crime reigns instead of law and order. This has been more than obvious for a long time, but perhaps now even those who still refused to believe it will finally realize that they are ruled by a king-like mob boss whose depravity can hardly be surpassed by any other monstrous tyrant of this world.

It’s definitely not humans who decide that - it’s monsters!

Yup, there is even video evidence that the German chancellor at the time explained to him in detail ages ago how things work, but he clearly still hasn’t understood: Merkel Had To Explain EU Trade To Trump ELEVEN TIMES

The situation will not change on its own, not unless the US population rises up. The US president may change, if there are still free elections at all, which I think is highly doubtful given the establishment of an obvious secret police force in the form of ICE (the budget of this “agency” is equivalent to the military spending of a medium-sized country).

Even under a new, less aggressive administration, however, the fundamental problem will not change: The US is exclusively concerned with itself and does not shy away from using its power to its advantage – this was already the case under Obama, for example, who was eloquent and likeable, but also pursued the usual neo-capitalist policy of exploitation; even under him, it was difficult to say that the US was an ally of Europe. The US may be entitled to this as the most powerful nation in the world. However, it is a dying world power and will soon be overtaken by China. This is entirely foreseeable, and as Europeans we should almost be grateful to Trump, because his insane policies make it obvious how the US feels about its “partners.” - I think he accelerated the decline of the US by at least 10 years as it stands.

But please don’t misunderstand: based on my socialization alone, I would prefer the US to China, but I am not naive. When it comes to autocracy, the difference between the US, Russia, and China is becoming increasingly small. So it seems to me that Europe needs to sell itself as expensively as possible in order to save democracy here - and I think China would be willing to accept the continued existence of democracy in Europe in return for Europe turning away from the US.

The US, on the other hand, can only be expected to follow its own line and continue to undermine democracy, which is what billionaires are already doing in the EU as well, by the way: In Europe, the same social media giants that are enabling right-wing extremist parties to win elections in the US are also highly relevant. They are quite successful in doing so here as well: one example is the neo-Nazi AfD party in Germany, which is the equivalent of MAGA and is hugely popular because it is massively supported by the same billionaires who made Trump big in the US.

Yes, it is unfortunately becoming increasingly clear that even in the EU, billionaires and their companies are above the law. The legal situation should be clear here and there should be consequences - but there apparently aren’t any.

Unfortunately, this applies not only to Twitter, but to most US tech giants in particular, to meta, for example. I have already stopped counting the massive violations of the GDPR that meta and others are constantly committing, because nothing happens anyway. If anything, the fines are so low that violating the law brings these companies far more revenue than it costs them.

So unfortunately, the same major issue that brought the US to the brink of a straight up dictatorship also applies in Europe: even the most blatant violations of the law have no serious consequences for the richest of the rich – and that is why billionaires are becoming more and more powerful.

The situation may be better in the EU for now than in the US, whose legal system obviously no longer even maintains the appearance of fairness, but even in the EU, the enforcement of the law is miles away from anything that could even remotely be called justice.

The reason seems to me to be the same as in the US: concentration of power in a tiny billionaire class that asserts its influence through corruption.

I think that if things continue like this, and I see no indicators that they will not, it will not be long before even the appearance of justice is abandoned in the EU as well.

Edit: Here is an example of how this is possible - it’s just plain old corruption, but in the highest ranks of our institutions: From Meta to the EU Parliament: Former chief lobbyist negotiates data protection (German article)

Aura Salla was Meta’s chief lobbyist in Brussels for many years. Her task: to convince politicians to weaken EU digital rules such as data protection in order to generate even higher profits with Facebook, WhatsApp, and other platforms.

Don’t hold me responsible for this, hold Trump responsible.

It’s in my comment above, but I’m happy to repeat it for you: By threatening to invade Greenland, the US has threatened a founding member of NATO with a war of aggression.

NATO isn’t pissing itself off, just one of its member countries is pissing off all the others: the US.

Yes, absolutely. And that is precisely why we should see to it that all politicians who have benefited from this system are eliminated in democratic countries. For western democracies, this is basically synonymous with eliminating US lobbying and therefore includes most established politicians.

However, the democratic process for doing so is significantly hampered by the fact that social media in particular, but also legacy media is owned by billionaires. This ensures that only a minority in a given country is informed about the fact that only of a tiny fraction of the population, the richest 1%, in all Western democracies has benefited from this system while the population got exploited.

For Germany, for example, this means that under no circumstances one should vote for the AfD, because it is MAGA with the same goals and the same influential financiers - just a different brand.

I understand your point, but I disagree. I think NATO effectively no longer exists anyway - better to get rid of it sooner rather than later. The US recently threatened a war of aggression against one of its founding members. Now would be the right time to punish the geopolitical excesses of the criminal US-regime by creating a new alliance. The US is only a world power because of its military apparatus, which is financed on credit.

I see no reason not to let the existing world order collapse, because it has brought nothing but misery since the end of World War II.

Edit: There can no longer be any talk of a community of values with the US, as the regime there proves on a daily basis. It is more than unlikely that this will change, as the US population remains passive and will therefore soon be living in a dictatorship that will no longer pretend to be any different from oligarchies such as Russia. Therefore, I think, it makes little difference to orient oneself towards China instead.

That goes without saying, given that this is a completely illegal war of aggression. It is inconceivable that the EU is nevertheless acting as if these were allies. This war is a crime and serves to distract from further crimes: in the US, from the fact that the country is run by a fascist pedophile ring, and in Israel, from genocidal fascists whose agent, Epstein, made all this possible in the first place.

It is outrageous that the EU has not withdrawn from NATO and continues to supply weapons to the monsters in Israel.

I vote and regularly attend protests, but lately I’ve also been pointing out to people on social media that whataboutism is not very effective.

Please explain it to me. And by that I don’t mean a general explanation of how journalism works, because I probably know a whole lot more about that than you do, but an explanation of why you believe that the US, together with Israel, should not be held responsible for the murder of innocent children. And then I would also like to know what your motivation is for defending the current US regime, because I don’t understand it.

This is likely a physical defense reaction against the prosecution of serious criminals who are waging a war to cover up their own misdeeds. Perhaps he should seek advice from Bibi.

Yes, I’m simplistic when it comes to this: I wouldn’t accept being ruled by organized crime that covers up its heinous crimes by starting a war. But hey, it’s nice that you know the names of two renowned psychologists.

I have given up hope that the US population can be counted on. They have allowed too many atrocities to happen, and it is equally obvious that they will not even act for their own sake.

I simply do not accept arguments such as “there is no evidence,” because only the worst can be expected from the US - the evidence is the president who leads the US.

Looking at the comments here, even here in the Fediverse, it’s quite easy to understand how the US regime is possible despite its completely obvious depravity.

Of course it is tragic, heartbreaking even. But what bothers me about the term tragic in this context is that it makes it sound as if the deaths of these innocent girls were inevitable, as if they had been killed in a natural disaster for which no one is responsible.

However, that is not the case here at all: these girls were murdered by ruthless criminals.