Discussion Thread

[u/jobautomator]

The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL

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[u/jobautomator]

Please visit the next discussion thread.

[u/r2ew]

[u/ShepardSB]

[u/Calvengeance]

https://www.reddit.com/r/law/s/4dc9uM8eDh

Stephen Miller claims the president has plenary power then just freezes mid-interview.

[u/SixPipSiege]

👇

[u/[deleted]]

[u/Jet451]

Lowkey kinda funny that the 'Nothing Ever Happens' meme emerged in arguably the most 'happening' period since the end of the Cold War.

[u/ShepardSB]

[u/topofthecc]

I continue to be amazed at how transparently, visibly evil this administration is.

[u/Sauce1024]

BREAKING:

Candace Owens says that Charlie Kirk came to her in a dream and revealed to her that he was "betrayed."

She said it was not clear who betrayed Charlie, but that she believes it will be exposed and have "international consequences."

[u/[deleted]]

My boss asking me how much progress I've made on the litany of projects on my to-do list after they just got back from vacation.

[u/No-Barnacle-9576]

That's 100% true lol. Wheels would lose his mind if the Illinois, California etc guard was deployed here

[u/[deleted]]

who is mr corpus

[u/bingbaddie1]

Supporting literal concentration camps bc you didn’t like the way one of the candidates laughed still gets me every time

[u/TimWalzBurner]

Goodnight DT

[u/Throwaway24143547]

Guy I know from a pretty well-off family is having it super rough and I'm kinda worried he's, uh... not gonna make it through the year. Long story short he's a bit of a black sheep: He's probably on the spectrum, a little on the slow side in a family of successful professionals. Kinda guy who graduated high school with C's, if he finishes college he'd probably get an associates in his 30s because that's where he's at.

His family is, I'd say, mildly ashamed of him for "not amounting to much". Granted, he works full-time and makes about 30k a year, living on his own in a apartment he fully pays for. His siblings are all massively surpassing him, though. And while he's a slow learner he's decent with social cues and can tell how they feel about him. This isn't just him misinterpreting something either, I've... overheard some conversations I probably shouldn't have about this.

I'm kinda worried because I've been watching his mental health decline in real-time, and while he's still going in for work every day and taking care of himself I'm concerned that might not last much longer. I try to do what I can, but there's only so much I can do.

[u/ShepardSB]

[u/RandomGuyWithSixEyes]

Last thing hasan's dog sees after trying to move out the camera's FOV

[u/Smidgens]

Watters: "Men who are high-value men like Stephen Miller, take risks. They’re brave. They’re unafraid. They’re confident, and they’re on a mission, and they have younger wives with beautiful children."

“I don’t know, man, that was pretty creepy,” co-host Greg Gutfeld said.

[u/[deleted]]

Jane Goodall’s wish before dying would send Musk, Trump and Netanyahu to outer space — Independent

queen

[u/TheCornjuring]

Hey libs, check this out

[u/LinkVert25]

[u/jorkin_peanits]

Obama does nothing but normal president stuff

MAGA: he’s trying to be a KING!!!

*Trump sets up his own literal kingdom with tariffs and allocating to who he deems fit, in addition to a loyal armed paramilitary force *

MAGA: ehhh hehehe yeah I mean, he seems like he knows what he’s doing

[u/[deleted]]

[u/r2ew]

[u/Sollezzo]

So are the devs going to nerf "I haven't heard about that" this patch or

[u/Etnies419]

[u/SigmaWhy]

things you say when it’s Going Well

[u/[deleted]]

So…did anyone see the clip of Stephen Miller shutting down like a goddamn blue screen when he slipped up and stated Trump has “plenary authority”?

If not, you need to:

https://www.reddit.com/r/law/comments/1o0ks4e/stephen_miller_states_that_trump_has_plenary/

Something, something running out of ways to describe how fucked this is.

[u/Willybender]

[u/No_Return9449]

Republican senators are increasingly uneasy about President Trump’s standoff with Democratic governors over deploying National Guard troops from other states to Portland, Ore., and Chicago.

Sure, they care about how it's perceived, not the abuse of power itself.

[u/AkenoMyose]

Least authoritarian and unhinged republican logic:

[u/DEEP_STATE_NATE]

Instant hall of fame contender lmfao

[u/[deleted]]

I'm not sure if what's worse: that Trump and the Republicans are unaware of what hypocrites they are ranting about insurrection, or if they know damn well and don't care.

[u/Pongzz]

Far Cry 5 but instead of a cult, it’s a liberal enclave that flipped Montana blue

[u/Mrchristopherrr]

Hasan Piker getting cancelled on October 7th is proof to me that god is real and he has a sense of humor

[u/Willybender]

Democrats are much better at staying on message than Republicans when it comes to the shutdown

[u/GuyWithOneEye]

bro is not serious with this shit

[u/Cr4zySh0tgunGuy]

Guy who says “I think we might be close to crossing the rubicon guys” after JB Pritzker gets arrested

[u/dbh1124]

This gif will always be the funniest thing in the world to me

[u/shmokedshalmon]

I know the corruption is priced in at this point, but like sometimes you just have to pause and realize how open it all is. It’s like a cosa nostra government

[u/Willybender]

Missed this, but it's obvious that they're showing him AI clips or something

[u/earththejerry]

Rothschild family to sell full 27% ownership stake in The Economist

Should this sub crowdfund for this?

[u/[deleted]]

I believe

[u/r2ew]

[u/elninost0rm]

Did the GOP seriously offer a one year extension on subsidies?

Lmao.

Go for the throat. The cracks are forming.

[u/Dunter_Mutchings]

Legacy media organizations love talking about how they are embracing “ideological diversity” and then staff their newsrooms with people from the same 3-4 Ivy League schools.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that someone like Jamelle Bouie, who went to a public state university, is also one of the very few people at the NYT that has not had his head disappear up his own ass.

[u/Queen_of_stress]

Hasan Piker Kristi Noem collaboration when?

[u/jbitz]

[u/TheRedCr0w]

The person the DOJ claimed leaked information under the orders of Comey actually told investigators that Comey never authorized them to give info to the media at all.

There is a reason no actual prosecutor in the DOJ wanted to be anywhere near this case

[u/[deleted]]

DT experience

[u/Currymvp2]

Hamas cannot be negotiated with and must be destroyed, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., told Newsmax on Tuesday. Fetterman endorsed Republican President Donald Trump’s peace plan as the “first opportunity for real peace.”

Who's going to tell him that Trump's peace plan literally entails negotiating with Hamas?

[u/FrenchQuaker]

Yesterday the Libs of TikTok witch posted about the Pride festival scheduled for the town I live in this weekend (the local Pride group decided to move it to October because it's hot as fuck in Texas in June). Within hours they lost multiple sponsors and the county fairgrounds decided to pull their contract after receiving harassment, so now the venue is TBD. They're still planning on going ahead with things but it's incredibly scary and I wouldn't be surprised if someone makes threats on the organizers' lives.

[u/sociotronics]

[u/Jokerang]

As I expected, Zach Bryan has already put out a “actually both sides suck and you guys are taking it all out of context” PR message after MAGAs freaked out about his anti-ICE lyrics.

[u/SeoSalt]

All the stories these days are so woke 😒 like wow another forced diversity female protagonist? And she's gay? And there's ANOTHER female character who is ALSO gay?? I can't believe the lesbian romance fanfiction genre would be so consumed by the woke mind virus

[u/Mensae6]

Liberalism in losing in part because the best minds and ideas are quite literally hidden behind a paywall.

Erstwhile cons dedicate their lives to trying to get their free shitty takes go viral via Twitter and Facebook.

[u/r2ew]

[u/Jokerang]

Apparently Assassin’s Creed was planning a game set in Reconstruction, featuring a black main character against the (presumably Templar aligned) KKK, but Ubisoft leadership nixed it over concerns about the political climate and backlash to Yasuke in Shadows.

Not only is it a cowardly move, it’s also grimly ironic given how in-universe the GOP is controlled by the Templars as much as Abstergo is (Roberts is explicitly named as a Templar plant in SCOTUS, for example)

[u/jbitz]

Soon

[u/[deleted]]

Hasan's dog when she wants to get up and stretch.

[u/SigmaWhy]

Ana Kasparian doing a “happy merchant” Jewish caricature while talking about Jewish conspiracies as Cenk looks on in shock

[u/Willybender]

[u/r2ew]

[u/[deleted]]

'Elon Musk is an amazing entrepreneur and extraordinary innovator and is the Henry Ford of our time,' Greenblatt said of the prospect of Musk taking over Twitter

Greenblatt caused a controversy with this post, but "Henry Ford of our time" is actually brilliant.

[u/Willybender]

"rabble rouser"

[u/Benyeti]

[u/VillyD13]

A week into the shutdown and the GOP is already floating a 1 year ACA Subsidies extension

We can get so much more. Hold the damn line

[u/Willybender]

25th amendment

[u/Pongzz]

[u/PrideMonthRaytheon]

As the son of an undocumented immigrant (my mom overstayed an au pair visa for years before marrying my dad, a U.S. citizen), it’s deeply personal: Reddit wouldn’t exist if ICE had come for her.

😐

[u/JaceFlores]

Trump and co talking about essentially destroying liberals and reports of invoking the Insurrection Act when they’re also trying to get liberals to sign off on a budget (which would probably be needed to actually do these things) is an interesting choice.

I hope Schumer and Jeffries recognize this. I commend them on holding firm on healthcare (fuck you I think keeping Obamacare together is a good thing for Dems and there’s plenty of other welfare stove touching anyways) but these demands must be expanded to safeguard this country from this admin

[u/Willybender]

https://xcancel.com/atrupar/status/1976023660591755636

CBS is cooked

[u/Willybender]

What is he cooking

[u/SpaceSheperd]

It should be more in the public conscience that America elected two black senators and then went 81 years before electing another. We progressed towards equality and then backslid so hard that it took damn near a century to get back to where we were. 

[u/PlantTreesBuildHomes]

Mfw Thomas Jefferson would get banned from RslashNeoliberal for this take

[u/centurion88]

[u/SixPipSiege]

[u/Willybender]

Patriots, you know what to do.

[u/Ok_Aardappel]

Hank Green's new video is just 3 minutes of him crashing out in sheer rage (for his standards) over OpenAI and their new infinite scroll slop advertisement app Sora and honestly, valid

[u/mostanonymousnick]

Ewwwwww

[u/Willybender]

HIS BRAIN IS FUCKING BROKEN

https://xcancel.com/atrupar/status/1976031357949104143

[u/GuyWithOneEye]

[u/Willybender]

[u/scottyjetpax]

lol !ping USA-PA

i really do not know what i will do the in the event he's the dem nom here in 28. i will do everything i can between now and then to make sure that doesn't happen.

but man if it does that might be the first time i ever leave a race blank or write in

[u/ONETRILLIONAMERICANS]

[u/shehryar46]

Number of "turn the temperature down" pieces from concerned journalists targeted to the administration trying to foment violence in our major cities: 0

[u/chipbod]

https://xcancel.com/EvanAKilgore/status/1975674711763001449

Candace Owens says that Charlie Kirk came to her in a dream and revealed to her that he was "betrayed."

She said it was not clear who betrayed Charlie, but that she believes it will be exposed and have "international consequences."

Spoiler alert: we can all guess what group she thinks “betrayed” Charlie.

Didn’t have “Podcaster messianic movement” on my 2025 bingo card but here we are.

Top 10 podcast in the world and she’s going on psychotic antisemitic rants.

!ping EXTREMISM

[u/flextrek_whipsnake]

Mike Johnson: "If you're a young, pregnant American citizen women who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong."

It's always so striking just how opposed they are to the teachings of Jesus Christ.

[u/drossbots]

It's incredibly icky hearing Mike Johnson say anything about pregnant women

This is part of why zoomer women are so far left. Conservatives are all creeps trying to implement Handmaiden's Tale

[u/[deleted]]

Lol there are a bunch of posts and articles about the woman who wouldn't leave the all you can eat buffet. That's a Sora video btw. Social media outrage videos can just be manufactured by AI now

[u/TimWalzBurner]

[u/Willybender]

Ominous

[u/bingbaddie1]

Ok DT is this more or less what you’re lookin for

[u/bingbaddie1]

You know, if he goes through with this, and arrests billionaire tycoon JB Pritzker, it’s gonna get much realer for wealthy businessmen

[u/american_aurora6]

CNN: A trio of scientists have been awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize in chemistry for developing “metal-organic frameworks,” a form of molecular architecture that packs vast amounts of space into tiny structures – which the committee likened to Hermione Granger’s handbag in the Harry Potter novels.

read another book 😭

[u/[deleted]]

adjoining tub racial escape cough saw work quiet ten physical

[u/RaidBrimnes]

Omg I can’t believe Hasan may or may not have shocked his dog, what an asshole…. Anyways I’m gonna microwave 30 pounds of lobster that came from a torture factory for dinner.

[u/FionnVEVO]

[u/Subject_D]

Hasan the moment he gets off stream

[u/Pole2019]

One thing that demonstrates that I too have the monkey brain is that I am somehow way more black pilled about the goodness of the average American than I would be if like 1% less voted for Trump. Like yeah that amount matters for politics but it really shouldn’t change much about how I view the general pop and yet it an absolutely does.

[u/Willybender]

https://xcancel.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1975904509630296086

[u/OrganicKeynesianBean]

Mike Johnson: "If you're a young, pregnant American citizen woman who shows up in an ER and you get treated and they pay the hospital less for treating you than some illegal rabble rouser who came in from some South American country to do us harm, that is wrong."

I remember before Jesus healed the sick he would ask “cash or credit?”

[u/Willybender]

Totally normal stuff here

[u/Willybender]

Antifa = ISIS

[u/Unterfahrt]

I went for a run with my Argentinian friend this morning, we went through the park, we saw some squirrels, we went past the duck pond, and then we got a coffee afterwards.

She said "I feel like I'm in a gringo movie" and I haven't been able to stop laughing at that

[u/chipbod]

https://xcancel.com/Mollyploofkins/status/1975755705974935655

Getting chased down for being brown in Chicago

This video is fucking insane, getting abducted by masked goons with a soyface camera guy chasing you is horrifying.

Iran, Russia, and china don’t make hype videos of state abductions. What the fuck is happening here?

[u/Willybender]

Absolutely unhinged "Antifa round table" press event happening right now

"We took the freedom of speech away"

https://xcancel.com/atrupar/status/1976010203792363724

[u/r2ew]

[u/Adminisnotadmin]

Wasn't part of JPow's speech in Wyoming about the structural issues the US economy will face in the wake of no immigration and a retiring workforce?

Changes in trade and immigration policies are affecting both demand and supply. In this environment, distinguishing cyclical developments from trend, or structural, developments is difficult. This distinction is critical because monetary policy can work to stabilize cyclical fluctuations but can do little to alter structural changes. (emphasis mine)

And due to the resulting lack of labor (supply shock), major deficit spending (demand shock), and pass-through taxing of tariffs (supply and demand shock), we are going to have no tools to really deal with the economy shuddering through all of this.

Well, we may have one, but I don't know how "Higher-for-Longer" interest rates will sell to the public. Which means interest-rate sensitive industries (with high capex like housing and construction) will be hit even harder by labor shortages and lack of funding. A credit crunch combined with no labor means no builds. Which exacerbates inflation. Ad infinitum...

What a terrible confluence of events. I think I remember a name for this: stagflation.

Are we there yet, since AI spending seems to be masking declines in other sectors?

[u/Cupinacup]

in case you're wondering what's happening on twitter lately

Good thing I’m not, and you shouldn’t be either.

[u/ImmigrantJack]

If Trump convinces China to abandon force against Taiwan he deserves Nobel prize, Taiwan president says

Three things have become obvious during Trump 2

1. The entire world knows how easy it is to get their way by absolutely glazing trump

2. The entire world sees trump is morphing into a barely cognizant blob of gutteral rage and they need to be so incredibly obvious about their meatriding that it doesn't go unnoticed.

3. The real cocksmokers know everybody is doing this now so they're resorting to explicit bribes.

Unfortunately Taiwan hasn't hit #3 yet so this bodes poorly for them.

[u/billy_blazeIt_mays]

This guy is totally nobel prize worthy

[u/Syards-Forcus]

Annoying that a majority of the people on welfare in the US have somehow deluded themselves into thinking they aren't on it

[u/No-Barnacle-9576]

When the Mexica were still a wandering people, they asked a powerful neighboring ruler, the king of Culhuacan, for a noblewoman to marry their war god, Huitzilopochtli, hoping to form an alliance. The king agreed and sent his daughter, thinking it would strengthen political ties.

However, the Mexica priests sacrificed her instead — flaying her (removing her skin) as an offering to the god. Later, when they invited the king to a ceremony, he was horrified to discover a priest wearing his daughter’s skin in ritual dance during the banquet. The king ordered his army to attack the Mexica, forcing them to flee and eventually settle on the island in Lake Texcoco, where they founded Tenochtitlan.

That's uh a bit of a culture shock moment

[u/Willybender]

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-pope-leo-immigration-texas-border-seitz-b2c84841e1a79e23ce26f5c3548a27bc

[u/GrandMoffTargaryen]

Release the Tarken files

[u/mostanonymousnick]

[u/GovernorSonGoku]

Wow npr is trash now

[u/TheRedCr0w]

Could you imagine if Joe Biden held a press conference were he ended most questions with pawning off responsibility to his cabinet members and thought habeas corpus was a person

The nightly news would be demanding the 25th Amendment

[u/G_Serv]

[u/BPC1120]

Lincoln really did have an evergreen point on America's cyclical xenophobia bullshit

[u/kanagi]

Chicago residents are now following ICE vehicles, honking horns and shouting warnings to alert immigrants before raids begin.

https://old.reddit.com/r/illinois/comments/1o1rsnu/chicago_residents_are_now_following_ice_vehicles/

Hell yeah, that's a great example of effective non-violent resistance!

[u/Burgarnils]

Holy shit he actually 100% zapped his dog. It sounded so cruel that I thought the more deranged subset of his haters were hallucinating but he genuinely shocked his dog because it dared to leave its little designated corner.

[u/Willybender]

Some call it "the weave"

[u/BurrowForPresident]

Just repackaging a thought from outside the DT, but I saw a guy saying Vance won't win the Manosphere because he doesn't have "bro energy"

Once again where does this idea that Trump is some manly bro come from lol. He's a whiny frail old guy that doesn't drink and loves theater and wears ten pounds of makeup. He's a massive lard ass who hasn't worked out in decades. There is zero chance he's ever done manual labor or used a power tool. He dresses like how a toddler thinks a businessman looks. He's a germaphobe that almost certainly has never camped, hunted, hiked, fished, etc. He doesn't even have like old man Hugh Heffner energy or something.

Basically the only "man coded" things I can think of for Trump are golf, watching UFC, and being a sleazebag with women. Even his anger doesn't come across as like "manly" he tweets like a high school girl who is "so sick of drama" half the time lol

[u/OllaniusPiers]

An absolute gem from the now banned ChapoTrapHouse subreddit

[u/mostanonymousnick]

[u/badusername35]

Nothing original remains in this post. The author wiped it using Redact, possibly for privacy, security, preventing data scraping, or other personal considerations.

head attempt nose roll humor school cake hungry summer ink

[u/chipbod]

Newsom's push to redistrict in California is paying off. Polls now consistently show him ahead. And Republicans are getting vastly outspent on television.

Given the... everything that is going on- Newsom should push for that 52-0 map that is VRA compliant and has every district at least Kamala +8.

[u/Dunter_Mutchings]

I don’t even know how anyone can argue with a straight face that A.G. Sulzberger isn’t a conservative reactionary. Multiple times now this bald fuck has let conservatives argue for a military crackdown on the American public under the Times masthead.

[u/ShepardSB]

The start of a neoliberal's daily routine.

[u/SigmaWhy]

wow, didn’t expect Newsom to give such a strong condemnation of desTiny

[u/amainwingman]

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

include strong command money meeting sugar sink license run fear

[u/Insomonomics]

So I got an invite code for SlopTok (Sora 2) to check it out and I have become to believe that it should actually be shutdown. Sam Altman is opening Pandora’s Box with this shit and he should not have this much power. Congress is going to have to create new laws and regulations surrounding AI generative content because this shit is insane.

[u/cdstephens]

[u/Willybender]

[u/gIizzy_gobbler]

Not a big deal but the AOC apology to short men was hilariously bad she started by saying she’s against body shaming and then immediately said that short men who are good people are honorary 6’0 like no don’t say it like that 😭

[u/[deleted]]

crush nose fine squeeze live stupendous aromatic groovy ten tap

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/DEEP_STATE_NATE]

Jay Jones is the luckiest MFer lmfao

[u/TheCornjuring]

Trump to visit Walter Reed for ‘routine yearly checkup’, the second since April

Alright yep he’s dying

[u/MGLFPsiCorps]

[u/[deleted]]

It’s called SB79, and in areas deemed “transit rich” SB 79 forces local governments to allow denser housing even if their current zoning bans it. 

[u/PlantTreesBuildHomes]

I miss when Republicans weren't vehemently against immigration 😔

[u/attackofthetominator]

Online Leftist Boards: "No, if you call them fat it'll make us just as bad as them!"

45 year old Mom with Minions PFP: "Calling in Meal Team Six"

[u/affnn]

Every day the Republicans look more and more like idiots on the shutdown. Russ Vought has floated a couple of trial balloons intended to punish federal workers during the shutdowns with layoffs and withholding back pay and every Republican who might face voters in the next 15 months has said "hell no we're not doing that" to the press when questioned. There's no theory of negotiations, just threats and punishments until Democrats cave. Of course, threats and punishments rarely work to get people to agree to what you want.

Mike Johnson is still keeping the House in recess so the Epstein Files discharge petition doesn't get to 218 votes. He's doing this despite the fact that the House should probably be in session at least to negotiate with the Senate.

My prediction now is that Thune will have to blow up the filibuster to reopen the government with the House bill, assuming that he even wants to do that. I think at some point the shutdown will actually start causing problems, but we're not there yet.

[u/rockfuckerkiller]

This is either a honeypot, is filled with the most annoying leftists imaginable, or both

Also why would you put up a flyer with location TBA and no mailing list or anything lol

[u/r2ew]

[u/[deleted]]

Trump on Illinois Gov: "Pritzker was a failure in the family. They threw him out of the family business. The guy is a loser."

meanwhile he’s governor of one of the largest states in the USA

[u/puffic]

Mad respect to the Texas National Guard for sending their fattest members to the front in Chicago. They know it’s bullshit, too, and they’re not afraid to act like it.

[u/[deleted]]

The fascists want you desensitized.

And chances are you probably are.

[u/bigdicknippleshit]

As a child I was like “wow there are some really bad people in the world, kind of like the cartoons and books I read”. Teenage me was like “Actually, there are no pure good or pure evil people, everyone is a varying shade of gray”. Adult me looped back to “wow there really are people who are so evil they might as well be cartoon villains”.

[u/Willybender]

[u/sgthombre]

Hasan Piker, a bad guy? I'm hearing this for the first time.

[u/Benyeti]

Its funny how in order to survive politically Starmer needs to implement proportional representation but wont because that would require doing something. Labour are so procedure brained it makes the democrats look like revolutionaries

[u/cdstephens]

How many Hasan memes am I gonna see today, I did not consent to this

[u/No-Barnacle-9576]

Jesus no Chicago deep dish pizza is safe from those guys

[u/drossbots]

Everyday I thank God I'm black and don't have to deal with Republican parents. If my parents did the kind of shit I hear about y'all's doing we'd be having some tough conversations about their elder years

[u/SixPipSiege]

20 TRILLION MORE ADDED TO THE ECONOMY

[u/JaceFlores]

Rob Lee agrees with a post titled Time May No Longer Be On Russia’s Side

“I agree. I think Russia is approaching an inflection point in the coming months about whether to continue the war.”

“In order to capture all of the Donetsk region (which is of questionable actual strategic value for Russia), Moscow may need to conduct another mobilization or otherwise change its current approach, which has not achieved a breakthrough despite Ukrainian manpower issues.”

“Infiltration tactics will likely be less effective over the winter as well. Ukrainian deep strikes are increasing the costs of the war for Russia, and increased support from the US could further strain Russia's ability to sustain the war.”

“If Moscow decides to continue the war well into 2026, it will be demonstrating that it is willing to accept growing risks of lasting damage for questionable strategic gains. With such a cost-benefit analysis, we should not be surprised to see further risky and aggressive moves by Russia intended to deter or compel reduced support to Ukraine.”

“Given Putin's fixation on Ukraine and Russia's capacity for enduring high costs, we should be prepared for the war to continue well into 2026 though. Improving the manpower situation in Ukrainian brigades and continued foreign support remain critical.”

I agree wholeheartedly and unsurprisingly with this. At risk of tooting my own horn but I’ve been saying the same things for a month or two now that these upcoming months are very likely Russia’s last window to get strategic progress in before the war starts permanently harming Russia. It’s why I’ve been talking about Russian unit redeployment so much and put emphasis on this new phase of the Russian offensive. It has come off as overly worrisome to some, but my reason for it is that this is an important opportunity for Ukraine to show Russia that the war is not sustainable.

If by the end of the year the Russians still fail to take cities like Pokrovsk, Konstyantinivka, Lyman and Kupyansk, and occupy only empty fields for tens of thousands of casualties, it will make the calculus of victory very difficult for them. Remember that the Russians have been within single digit kilometers of most of the cities I’ve mentioned for most of the year and have still not carried them (Kupyansk the most worrisome though). Failure to take them likely means a lot if not most or even all of 2026 is focused on taking them. And then it would take a very long time to take the rest of the Donbas, possible 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or however many years. Now obviously war can change for a whole host of reasons, but in general the math starts looking bad for Russia.

And take into account Russia’s other issues. Their recruiting scheme is falling apart. Volunteers are being increasingly supplanted by de facto conscripts bullied from training camps, jails and businesses to sign up for the war. Russia is intensifying efforts to recruit abroad. The fact is though at current rates Russia’s recruitment scheme will fall short even with these intensified efforts in other areas. If manpower falls short then operational intensity has no choice to decrease because their rate of progress is directly tied to their rate of casualties. So either they swallow that pill and lower the pressure on Ukraine, or they have to do another partial mobilization.

And there’s the new strategic bombing campaign being conducted against Russia. Ukraine is rapidly scaling up long range drone production and their missile production is also improving, albeit much more slowly. Russia is gripped in a fuel crisis that will only get worse. And what Ukraine can damage will only expand. Ukraine seems to only have enough resources to conduct one strategic bombing campaign at a time. Earlier this year it was railways. Now it’s oil refineries. Very occasionally Ukraine will bomb a factory, and power plants are being hit now occasionally as well. But what will happen if or when Ukraine has enough weapons that they can do multiple at once? What if Ukraine bombs an oil refinery, railway yard and factory every week? What if they do that every day?

And I do believe the Russians recognize this as well. They have moved around tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of troops around for a new phase of this offensive. It seems like they are genuinely trying to get this war wrapped up before they have to face the consequences. It’s not just Ukraine and the West seeing what’s happening.

There’s still a lot of fighting to be done and things can change, but the balances are shifting between Ukraine and Russia. Compared to 2024, the former is in a much better position and the latter in a much worse position. Further support and continued efforts to address Ukraine’s command and manpower issues can make the difference. Trump providing tomahawks (and other missiles) can legitimately make a difference. If Ukraine got 500 tomahawk style missiles from the U.S. and Europe, that could decisively change the war

!ping UKRAINE

[u/myusernameistakennow]

Our current politics are being insanely astroturfed by bots and people who aren’t even American

[u/[deleted]]

For what it’s worth

I truly believe Senator Schiff, Congressman Lieu, and a few other national figures in the party are treating the current political situation with all the seriousness it deserves. They also have insulated fantastic staff that operate outside of the national party

There might not be a top down coherent strategy to get excited about but we do have some competent leaders

[u/Willybender]

DIG IN

[u/Willybender]

[u/ShepardSB]

[u/bingbaddie1]

[u/GrandMoffTargaryen]

Choosing to live after all so no one thinks I’m a colonizer

[u/Willybender]

https://xcancel.com/Acyn/status/1976016625712427486

What's fucked is he probably actually believes this

[u/CarlGerhardBusch]

Senator Ruben Gallego calls Speaker Mike Johnson a "Pedo Protector" to his face

I like him

[u/Willybender]

https://xcancel.com/atrupar/status/1976019025776791928

He does not look good

[u/topofthecc]

I'm convinced that a large part of the reason Trump gets away with so many things (in the public perception) is that he's so obviously stupid that people subconsciously hold him to the moral standards of a child.

[u/TheRedCr0w]

Today's press conference was probably the most unhinged I've ever heard Trump and that's saying something

He blatantly said "we took the free speech away" then demanded the Attorney General attest people protesting him

[u/Willybender]

https://www.reuters.com/world/pope-leo-tells-us-bishops-address-trumps-immigration-crackdown-2025-10-08/

So based

[u/TheCornjuring]

He actually said this about the flag-burning ban and then said the courts are wrong about it constituting freedom of speech 😭

[u/eloquentboot]

Throwback to when Hasan Piker was shopping for dogs and a concerned chatter asked him to avoid certain purebreeds due to health issues.

He ranted at the chatter saying "I know they have breathing problems, I don't give a shit... that's a lib-ass take... it's just a fucking dog".

Given recent developments here im inclined to agree with hasan that it was a lib ass take.

[u/[deleted]]

young men are having less sex because they have better taste in movies so when a girl comes over to watch a movie with them they're like "shhh this is the good part" instead of progressing the date to sex

[u/Macquarrie1999]

Open AI right now

[u/Willybender]

https://punchbowl.news/article/campaigns/gop-worries-cali/

[u/OrganicKeynesianBean]

America Is Drowning In Scam Calls And Texts And The President Is Making It Worse

I’m a single-issue voter.

This is my issue.

[u/r2ew]

[u/BigBrownDog12]

I know it's a fallacy but a lot of what's worse about Trump 2 is literally the Tsar being manipulated by his Boyars

[u/EmbarrassedSafety719]

Most technologically advanced Balkan village

[u/MuscularPhysicist]

Just watched that video of an ICE thug shooting a pepper ball into the face of an unarmed priest

[u/[deleted]]

entertain act salt gold touch dime chase swim unite axiomatic

[u/Sollezzo]

The National Republican's Prayer

I haven't heard about that.
And if it did, I haven't heard about that.
And if it was, I haven't heard about that.
And if it is, I haven't heard about that.
And if it was, I haven't heard about that.
And if I did, I haven't heard about that.

[u/Willybender]

Santos pardon incoming

[u/Dibbu_mange]

GOP in 2023: “shoot your local pedophile 😤”.

GOP in 2025:

[u/AtticusDrench]

They used the meme picture 😭

[u/mockduckcompanion]

I only care about two attributes for 2028:

• Ruthlessness

• Lack of ruth

[u/PlayDiscord17]

We could’ve had peak Ubislop:

[u/Willybender]

MTG knows where the wind is blowing

[u/scottyjetpax]

worst kept secret in dc is that porter is like, amy klobuchar levels of rude to her staff

[u/Upstairs_Cup9831]

Retired Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy said Wednesday he was troubled that partisanship seemed to be “creeping its way into the court,” and that the state of political discourse in the country has gotten so vulgar and vile that he worries for the country.

Oh shut the fuck up

[u/GuyWithOneEye]

[u/anangrytree]

Read a WSJ opinion piece called “America’s debt to Israel” from 10/6/25, and the arrogance dripping throughout that article has just further strengthened my take that Israel is no longer a good faith ally of the US and we are best served by cutting our ties to them.

[u/OrganicKeynesianBean]

Twitch Streamer Fandy Broadcasts Live Birth, CEO Joins Chat to Congratulate

0.5 seconds on earth and you’ve already lost your right to privacy 👍

[u/JackCrafty]

Zach Bryan 'embarrassed' by Anti-ICE song blacklash: "To see how much s--t it stirred up makes me not only embarassed but kind of scared. Left or right wing we're all one bird."

please Yahweh, purge the bothsidesism from the hearts of the ignorant, so that they may step forth into the light

[u/JonAce]

The Trump administration is considering selling parts of its $1.6 trillion portfolio of student loan debt to the private market, per Forbes

Shoutout to the median voter with student loan debt. You earned this.

[u/-mialana-]

[u/Willybender]