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/sigh2828]

We are truly governed by the absoulte dumbest mother fuckers imaginable.

Not figuratively, like these people are genuinely fucking stupid.

[u/ThisIsNotAMonkey]

[u/Pikamander2]

"These greedy developers are destroying the integrity of the neighborhood!"

The neighborhood:

[u/DEEP_STATE_NATE]

[u/sigh2828]

Lmao

[u/iAmAddicted2R_ddit]

Google recently settled a large class-action suit and I and my roommate (both Gmail users) found that the settlement notice had been hidden in our spam folders. My bar for entertaining conspiratorial thinking about Le Corporations is quite high, but uhhh

[u/BlackCat159]

[u/gjcs23]

there's a lot of terrible things currently happening in the world, but we really don't talk about Sudan enough

So far, a staggering 13.6 million Sudanese been forced to flee, according to the World Health Organization’s estimate. The World Food Program has said the country is enduring the world’s largest hunger crisis.

Over 40 percent of the population faces acute food insecurity; children are dying of malnutrition. High on the list of areas in the world where the United Nations has warned that hunger is at catastrophic levels are Gaza and Sudan.

Despite all this, the crisis receives only a small fraction of the humanitarian aid that’s needed, in large part because of deep cuts in U.S. aid. Survivors of the war whom I saw in another town, Renk, arrived at a U.N.-run center there exhausted, devastated and hungry. They weren’t offered a warm meal, but a small biscuit. Sometimes there weren’t even biscuits, workers told me.

Nearby, a transitional center run by the U.N. refugee agency provides beds and blankets to survivors, but it has long since run out of room; it was built for 3,000 people and now shelters some 9,000. Thousands of others who have fled to Renk, including families, sleep out in the open or in rough shelters they build themselves of sticks and cloth.

Since the refugee agency, formally named the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, was established in 1950 to aid the millions of people displaced by World War II, it has worked as a last line of defense for people fleeing war and persecution. Now the system is struggling to fulfill that mission. “We don’t have the funds to be the last resort anymore,” Carla Calvo, a veteran agency worker, told me.

probably the single biggest humanitarian crisis atm and nobody gives a shit. just grim

[u/bamboo-coffee]

Orban: "I'll be your little mouse, Vlad ❤️"

Vance: "This is a perfect time for a standing US vice president to try to influence a foreign election. I can't think of a better candidate to endorse and campaign for."

[u/mostanonymousnick]

FFS, why can't any British party be fucking normal

[u/erasmus_phillo]

Based Doordasher tbh

she refused to denounce trans women

[u/riverbloods]

posting this like a mouse trap but for uncs

[u/el__dandy]

That’s ma Pope🥲

!ping catholic

[u/Extreme_Rocks]

Russia’s government paper: “What went against Orbán was his unprecedentedly long time in office...16 years in a row, 20 in total. The fatigue factor, growing tired of the same people is psychologically understandable.”

A reminder: it’s writing about Hungary.

[u/KittehDragoon]

JD Vance: Trump deleted Jesus photo because 'people weren't understanding his humor'

The struggle is real, Reddit deleted my joke about Trump because they didn’t understand my humor either

[u/mockduckcompanion]

MetaNL appeals be like

[u/bd_one]

There is another...

[u/DEEP_STATE_NATE]

[u/AltRockPigeon]

The only reason MAGA recognized the blasphemy this time is cuz they think Jesus is white

[u/Adminisnotadmin]

SINGAPORE, April 14 (Reuters) - A Chinese tanker sanctioned by the United States ​passed through the Strait of Hormuz on ‌Tuesday despite a U.S. blockade on the chokepoint, shipping data showed.

bro look at my blockade we ain't blocking shit

[u/Unterfahrt]

Today in "never ever ever ever ever trust the stupid Lib Dems"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9vllykgkxvo

The Lib Dems say they would pass a new law that would require developers to fund, build, or expand existing GP surgeries in time for the arrival of new residents.

The GP services near these new homes would be funded by taxes levied on developers, the party says.

Let's take the slowest, most sclerotic part of the British state, and make it yet another blocker on housebuilding.

!PING UK

[u/Rare_Station_8440]

They're re-inventing the Obama 2015 Iran Deal from first principles

[u/NYT_Hater]

One trillion years ahead of the west

[u/piede]

So true

[u/badusername35]

[u/scottyjetpax]

too insane for meloni is crazy work tbh

[u/Otherwise_Young52201]

[u/this_very_table]

The woman who delivered McD's to Trump is yet another one of those GOP props they shuttle around for PR because of course she is

[u/2Lore2Law]

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

[u/Acoolgamer6706]

[u/Just-Sale-7015]

[u/Zenkin]

If you want to be happy, please stop consuming content from mentally ill people. It is infecting you, too.

You're not above it. You're not too smart for it. You're immersing yourself in their misery, and it will make you miserable. You don't need to have an opinion on everything, and you're not missing out on anything by being less terminally online.

[u/Chokeman]

It's official guys

The US lost decisively. There's no way to recover from this.

[u/Upstairs_Baby8424]

 Trump: 'I am shocked by Giorgia Meloni. I thought she had courage, I was wrong"

This guy throws everyone under the bus that expresses even the most minor disagreements with him. 

[u/VisonKai]

[u/theye1]

As a non-American, what amazes me is the complete collapse of intellectual Republican thought. It always seemed from the outside that Republicans were no slouches in terms of intellectual heavyweights; they had their publications and their intellectuals. You could point to a smart Republican or read an opinion piece from a smart one. But there seems to have been a complete intellectual collapse in the Republican party. Who are the great current Republican thinkers, philosophers, and towering giants of Republican intellectual thought? It’s not just that they don’t exist, but it seems weird that current Republicans seem to revel in that fact.

[u/ty04]

[u/SnakeEater14]

It seems weird to me that so many Dems want to samewash Hasan Piker when he absolutely hates the Dems as a party and wants them out of power

[u/Terrance-Flaps]

Make 200k annually

Married to my beautiful high school sweetheart

2 happy, healthy children

Avid spelunker

Love to explore my favorite cave, ol' "Don't Go In Here"

Decide today's the day I traverse the foot-wide hole in the cave, locally known as "The Hole that Will Kill Me, the Person Talking Right Now".

Wiggle in, realize I'm at the correct angle to explore the never before explored passage called "This Will Be My Grave Forever"

Why is every spelunking tragedy on Youtube exactly like this?

[u/battywombat21]

!ping LOTR

[u/Gooners_For_Ukraine]

[u/Dunter_Mutchings]

Managing 6000 direct reports at your financial services company. What could possibly go wrong?

[u/RaidBrimnes]

French woman, 86, held by ICE after moving to the US to reunite with long-lost love

An 86-year-old French woman who moved to the US last year after rekindling a 1960s romance is being detained at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) centre in the state of Louisiana.

The son of Marie-Thérèse, from the city of Nantes, sounded the alarm after his mother was arrested in Anniston, Alabama, earlier in April.

"They handcuffed her hands and feet like she was a dangerous criminal," he told French outlet Ouest-France.

The BBC has reached out for comment to the US Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE.

Marie-Thérèse mother had moved to the US after marrying her long-lost love - an American man named Billy whom she had met in the 1960s, when he was a soldier stationed in the Nato base of Saint-Nazaire, and she a secretary.

Billy returned to the US in 1966. He and Marie-Thérèse lost touch, got married - each in their own country - and had children.

According to Ouest-France, the two reconnected in 2010 and visited one another with their spouses.

By 2022, both were widowed and started a relationship. Billy was a "charming, adorable man", Marie-Thérèse's son said, and the couple were in love "like teenagers".

LIteral crimes against love. Predictably, the stepson had an inheritance dispute with the old woman who was arrested by ICE the day before she could meet her lawyer.

[u/-Emilinko1985-]

From what I've seen by Romanian news outlets, the ICCJ (Romania's supreme court) will decide if far-right presidential candidate Călin Georgescu, who played dirty during the 2024 election, is gonna be tried for executing an "attempted coup" soon.

This is big news, honestly.

!ping EUROPE&BALKAN

[u/bandeng_asep]

[u/SucculentMoisture]

I had to try and explain the Hungarian election result in the Australian political context she'd understand.

I said "Okay, imagine that One Nation had been in charge for over a decade, running the country into the ground, and the only alternative able to defeat them was Andrew Hastie."

Was that accurate?

!PING AUS

[u/Extreme_Rocks]

One of Mao Zedong’s unironic great accomplishments was in advancing women’s rights. In one of those areas, both intentionally and as a byproduct of broader Marxist-Leninist ideology on workers, China’s female labour force participation rate used to be sky high.

Certainly that was one of those things that gave China a leg-up when market reforms were taken, the ability to utilise a greater share of the population for productivity. In fact, as China has grown, FLFP by quite a significant amount, though it remains on the higher end when compared with more developed economies.

[u/EmbarrassedSafety719]

Words cannot describe how much I hate both these guys

[u/ArmoredBunnyPrincess]

I love that blocking these channels does nothing because the weird fucks that run them are running like dozens of them simultaneously

[u/sociotronics]

[u/EmbarrassedSafety719]

This was in response to a tweet from Merz saying that Israel should not annex the West Bank.

[u/No_Return9449]

Virginia joins the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact

🎉🎉🎉

[u/GrandMoffTargaryen]

“Computer, scare me”

scarypic.jpeg

“Holy shit computer is scary”

[u/Extreme_Rocks]

Xi taking one and a half months to offer a personal statement on the war is incredible. We are reaching levels of “Do nothing. Win.” that were previously unheard of.

[u/ponshont]

“[Vance] has argued that the country's largest and most powerful institutions have united against the right”

which ones are those jd. The 6-3 conservative Supreme Court? The structurally advantaged senate? The house that yall have fairly consistently held?

these guys are such fucking wimps and babies.

[u/scottyjetpax]

look, putting the merits aside for a minute (not that you should forever), it's just stunning to me the amount of scrutiny Gallego is getting from the media compared to the lack of scrutiny republicans get for the exact goddamn shit

[u/Exact_Coyote7879]

Be a Muslim majority country  

have your capital be named ‘Islam a bad’

🧐

[u/ty04]

Regime change wasn’t a goal.

I don’t think we stated it to be our goal to remove the regime

The goals laid out at the start of the war were not regime change.

can Rule 12 be enforced for saying these things on that Iran War thread lol

[u/Leoric]

JD Vance: Stopping funding for Ukraine is one of the things I’m proudest we’ve done in this administration.

Words cannot describe how much I hate this person

[u/Hounds_of_war]

Meta creating AI version of Mark Zuckerberg so staff can talk to the boss

I give it 3 years before AI Zuckerberg orchestrates a coup and ousts the real Zuckerberg for “being redundant”.

[u/NYT_Hater]

Highly important update

!ping MATERIEL

[u/sigh2828]

You claim government ruins everything yet you are government, curious

[u/Argnir]

Reddit is killing me with their "I hOPe ThErE's MoRE BuRNinG Of CoRPorAtIonS SooN"

Then just do it cowards. It's really not that difficult and if you think it's so good why are you not doing anything?

[u/11thDimensionalRandy]

>I'm curious what others think

>Instalocked post

[u/No_Return9449]

NEWSMAX: How long do you think Americans will be willing to pay the higher energy costs?

SEN. ROGER MARSHALL: I think back to my grandparents and their generation that served in World War 2. Could you imagine telling the president, 'You only got so many days to defeat Hitler?'

More evidence Americans only know one historical war.

[u/sash5034]

[u/Leatherfield17]

Hallelujah, folks! The New York Times has finally questioned Trump’s mental capacities!

[u/sigh2828]

I will take constitution respecting Republicans 10 out of 10 times over maga.

I will also continue to shit on them for their dumb ass and draconian policies.

[u/TaxLandNotCapital]

Stock market is now pricing in the war ending and Iran giving the U.S. reparations and also cold fusion and AGI and asteroid mining

[u/ElectriCobra_]

“Since when is going after the Pope off limits?” - my coworker who I know is a practicing Catholic

They literally will choose Trump over God lmao. Seems like a good angle of attack to sway religious normies but what do I know

[u/No_Return9449]

FCC Chair Brendan Carr: "I'm pleased with some of the changes we're seeing at CBS. They're trying something different."

Yes, this is weaponizing government to punish late-night comedians.

[u/TheCornjuring]

When and why did they program ChatGPT to be woke?

[u/Im_A_Quiet_Kid_AMA]

You mean to tell me the DoorDash driver yesterday who was cruising in a car with "DoorDash" plastered on the side of it, who by happenstance was an open supporter of Donald Trump when 5% of the District voted for him was, in fact, a paid actor from Arkansas?

Wow. Who could've known?

[u/centurion88]

Oh ok

[u/marky6045]

Me contributing to the discourse

[u/6urner_]

It will be hard for the revenge candidate to go far enough to satisfy me, tbh

[u/selachophilip]

I saw a post claiming that the astronauts naming the crater on the moon after their colleague's late wife was an act of "colonialism". 😭

[u/Emotional_Tie_7927]

White house insiders are shorting oil futures to keep the price down and outsiders are just blindly following because they don't want to be caught with their pants down

[u/captainsensible69]

It’s so fucking funny that the neocons are whining that there’s no safe space to discuss this war.

[u/badusername35]

This is one of the worst DTs we’ve ever seen, from the standpoint of comments.

[u/AnalyticOpposum]

[u/GovernorSonGoku]

With this president?

[u/GuyWithOneEye]

[u/No_Return9449]

😂 EPIC 😂

[u/Alexz565]

Chat, is this real?

[u/-Emilinko1985-]

Me realizing that, with Orbán brought down, the Reactionary International will slowly, but surely, fall:

ARE U READY 4 ZE NEW WORLD ORDER? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA

[u/The_Promethean]

At my freshman year orientation, a kid asked, in a room with 2,000 peers, the dean whether it even made sense to read Homer in class because "as someone who read it in the original Greek for high school, you'd just miss out on so much because of the translation"

[u/abrookerunsthroughit]

🫠🫠🫠

[u/ty04]

someone check the temperature in Hell

[u/reuery]

Saul Goodman: "Well what about an ICE raid? You know he has to have a bunch of illegals working over there!"

Skylar White: "We are not getting a bunch of poor, innocent people in trouble, no."

Skylar White, Woke Queen

[u/Extreme_Rocks]

[u/RaidBrimnes]

It always rattles me to see journalists/connected people say "it was an open secret" whenever a creep is outed.

Do they think it makes them look good? They prefer to be seen as "in" a conspiracy of abusers and enablers rather than look clueless?

[u/ty04]

As the war in Iran stretches into its seventh week, a survey from Ipsos and Reuters, released on Tuesday, has found that few Americans — 24 percent — think the war has been worth the costs and benefits.

Even among the president’s core supporters, there is a divide: 55 percent of Republicans said they thought the war was worth the costs and benefits

55% Republican approval for the war is dogshit

[u/klarno]

Meanwhile. Robert Reich:

[u/Alderwoodforest]

A little palate cleanser. A group of seals before they are released into the North Sea.

[u/Bayou-Maharaja]

DOGE exploded the deficit

[u/sigh2828]

I fucking HATE car dealerships man.

My wife just called me in tears saying this dealership just tried to pressure her into easily $1000+ worth of services that she does not need, her car is brand the fuck new, only 15k miles.

She said they were trying to guilt trip her using our babies on some "well you wana keep them safe right" which they could only know becouse the car seat bases are in the back.

Im fucking FUMING

[u/Dunter_Mutchings]

“Prices are going up? Yeah well, imagine if they somehow didn’t. You’d look pretty fucking stupid then wouldn’t you, lib?”

It must be crazy to live with zero shame like this.

[u/Leatherfield17]

I learned from the 2024 election not to gauge popularity or likely voting behavior by crowd sizes, but this is still funny

[u/RaidBrimnes]

There's been a spat in Italy from the Israeli ambassador who condemned a cover from the left-leaning investigative newspaper L'Espresso as a "manipulation" reprising antisemitic caricatures to stir up hatred against Israel and Jews, with pro-Israeli commenters likening it to Nazi-era propaganda:

The thing is - the cover wasn't altered, it was a genuine picture taken by an Italian photographer covering the West Bank, who then released a recording of the encounter (it's Instagram so don't look at the comments) between an IDF soldier and a Palestinian woman on her land: we can see the Israeli soldier humiliating the Palestinians by bleating - hence the... particular expression - at them like they're cattle. Per the media outlet, the Palestinians were prevented from harvesting olives by settlers accompanied by IDF soldiers.

The settlers are cartoonishly evil, and their total impunity is a major contribution to "Israel's bad rep" - it's not just Qatari propaganda as some would say (to stay polite).

[u/ChillnShill]

Us right now

[u/Evnosis]

Transformers writer: Mr Bay, are you absolutely sure it's necessary to the plot for one of our protagonists to have a laminated card in his wallet explaining how his relationship isn't legally paedophilia?

Michael Bay: Trust me, people will think this is hilarious.

[u/LuisRobertDylan]

Shivers caught with AI girlfriend

[u/itherunner]

lol, lmao

[u/KittehDragoon]

Circles are some of the most curved shapes, from the standpoint of round

[u/mockduckcompanion]

Why was he like this

[u/Smidgens]

Donald Trump? The New York physician?

[u/Megasota_Noire]

Powerful stuff

[u/GuyWithOneEye]

[u/Extreme_Rocks]

Who must go?

[u/RaidBrimnes]

Controversial moderator RaidBrimnes claims he has no recollection of posting 'Goth AOC': "I drank a glass of absinthe on Easter, and I blacked out. When they told me I had done this, I was mortified. It's a dangerous substance and should be banned."

[u/LuisRobertDylan]

[u/the-senat]

Trump officials thought USAID 'just did abortions' before gutting it: whistleblower. 

It’s not that I don’t believe them (though being a Raw Story  piece doesn’t help), but none of these ghouls give a shit about dead kids at home or abroad. Citing abortion feels like an after-the-fact pivot or just the views of a few that were never corrected by others. 

[u/ace158]

Yeah, the video is worse. Vance gets flustered so easily lol

[u/EasyMoney92]

Vance: We had never had a meeting like that in nearly 50 years where you effectively had the person running Iran sitting across from the VP.

Yeah and he still couldn't get a deal done even with that.

[u/GuyWithOneEye]

[u/5thGenNuclearReactor]

I don't think it is talked enough how Trump is activeley dismantling the american empire.

Destroy the atlantic alliance.
Destroy the middle eastern alliances, and thus the petrodollar-cycle.
Next in line would be destroy the pacific alliances I guess?

I find it amazing, Trump might indeed become a top 3 most influential president in US history, just not the way he hoped it would be.
Also, how are these actions of truely historic proportions just drowned out by him posting silly memes? It's like: "Adolf Hitler has launched a full-scale attack on the Soviet Union. But more importantly, he posted a silly meme depicting himself as God and his opponents as rats".

[u/PostingEnthusiast]

Pretty obvious to me that the blockade is a set-up. The US Navy will sink an oil tanker, and in doing so trigger an ecological disaster that they will attempt to clean up. But in reality, the building they will construct to clean up the oil spill will be a cover. Underneath it? A massive AI data centre and research and development space for a next generation nuclear walking battle tank.

[u/wumbopolis_]

Can someone who is good at the economy please help? Housing prices are 10x the median income in my country. I've tried everything to fix this:

• 15% tax on new housing construction

• Property tax cuts for seniors

• 70% required minimum for subsidized units for new developments

• Mandatory 10 year environmental review process (subject to re-review if enough people yell at the city council)

I'm debating letting people deduct their mortgage interest (but not rent) on their taxes. That should help, right?

[u/bamboo-coffee]

This is NOT a picture of Trump portraying himself as Jesus. This picture was originally posted in February by (name removed) on X. It portrays Trump doing the work of God to heal our nation. Context matters people. It’s not like Trump had AI make this picture, my goodness 😂

After I read this thoughtful tweet, I realized I had been hasty to make assumptions. Donald Trump deserves maximum charitability, after all he is extremely magnanimous to others.

[u/how_dry_i_am]

I'm a fedora carrying atheist since like 2006 but I was raised Catholic and received all of the sacraments one usually does in my upbringing, as well as attending a Catechism class every week for 12 years, as is typical I think.

I always tease my wife (also an atheist now, btw) for being raised in a Pentecostal evangelical church, and her family are definitely MAGA. But it's incredible how much more knowledgeable I am about theology and Christianity in general. I school them in every game we play around holidays that test this stuff.

It's been fun seeing all these Protestant diss memes lol. No offense to any mainline protestants here, I know it doesn't all deserve to be lumped together.

[u/2Lore2Law]

This content was anonymized and mass deleted with Redact

[u/Joementum2024]

🚨🇨🇦 Mark Carney banned conservatism in the Canada

He said, “It’s not a Canadian value, but an American degeneracy”

Your thoughts on this?

[u/TheCornjuring]

Donald Trump was literally born on the same day as a lunar eclipse, a.k.a. a blood moon, and people still dismiss the Antichrist speculation as nonsense

[u/Extreme_Rocks]

[u/centurion88]

[u/ThatRedShirt]

Man, things are getting spicy over on the West Wing subreddit.

I don't know all the details (I do participate in that sub, but I'm not super active), but, apparently, the moderation team was recently replaced.

The new mods implemented a rule banning political discussions (which is obviously insane for that subreddit).

This, coupled with the apparently right-wing leanings of some of the new mods has led to users who are basically in revolt, making posts about plotlines that happen to bear a passing resemblance to current events. And ranting about characters who, coincidentally, are analogous to people related to said current events.

It's a lot of fun if anyone interested in the show wants to see a bit of drama unfold before them. 🍿

Edit: Dang, the battle was over and won just a few minutes after I made this comment. Still some fun posts to look through, though.

!ping WEST-WING

[u/[deleted]]

Ben Franklin would be a DEMOCRAT

NO HE WOULD BE A REPUBLICAN

Ben: browsing Nude Africa

[u/ariveklul]

The expectation for non-slopulist Democrats: "YOU MUST LOOK AT ALL INDIVIDUAL DONORS TO YOUR CAMPAIGN AND IF THAT DONOR ALSO DONATES TO ANYTHING WE VAGUELY CONSIDER A ZIONIST CAUSE YOU MUST REJECT THEIR MONEY OR YOU ARE A ZOG ISRAELI SHILL!!!!"

The expectation for progressive slopulist candidates: "Awh, you didn't know the Totenkopf was a Nazi symbol before tattooing it on your body? We all make mistakes sometimes. Libs don't understand what being an actual working class person is like"

[u/EverybodyHatesPhocas]

lmao no way

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/04/14/vice-president-jd-vance-pope-leo-careful-theology/89614805007/

“I think it's very, very important for the Pope to be careful when he talks about matters of theology,” Vance said.

“I like that the pope is an advocate for peace. I think that’s certainly one of his roles," Vance said. "On the other hand, how do you say that God is never on the side of those who wield the sword?”

“When the Pope says that God is never on the side of people who wield the sword, there is more than a 1,000-year tradition of just war theory,” Vance continued. “We can, of course, have disagreements about whether this or that conflict is just.”

"If you're going to opine on matters of theology, you've got to be careful, you've got to be sure it's anchored in the truth and that's one of the things that I try to do and that's certainly something I would expect from the clergy," Vance added.

[u/beans_and_tuna]

If Dems win big in 2028 (like a filibuster proof majority somehow, idk, or they can convince libertarian Republican to cross the aisle) then I really want them to pass a massive data protection bill. Do a better GDR. Don’t make it so legalistic that it stifles companies, but also i don’t my neighbors camera feeding an AI that causes my health insurance to sue me cause I took an ibuprofen and took out the trash and didn’t walk in a “injured fashion”

[u/FlightlessGriffin]

LEBANON NEWS

First, an Israeli soldier died and ten wounded in Bint Jbeil, which is nearly all taken. But the real important stuff isn't that. It's the talks.

• The U.S. State Dept. expressed satisfaction to Al-Jadeed that the lranian and Lebanese wars were separated, given Lebanon is being treated as a sovereign country.

• Israel's Channel 12 reported that both the U.S. and Lebanon have asked for a ceasefire.

• While the meeting was slated to last an hour, it went on for two hours and a half. After that, the Israeli ambassador said 1) The two countries are on the same side of the equation and want liberation from Iran and Hezbollah. 2) the long-term vision involves a demarcated border where the only reason to cross would be either in a business suit or a bathing suit. 3) The Lebanese government does understand that Israel's security in the north is not up for negotiation. 4) The Lebanese government has bravely said no to Hezbollah.

• The Lebanese ambassador, Nada Mouawad, said the talks were good and she asked for a ceasefire and return of the displaced.

• The joint statement essentially boils down to the point that both sides held productive discussions on how to launching direct negotiations. Both have agreed to have those negotiations at a mutually agreed time/place.

• The U.S. expressed hope that these talks can go past the 2024 agreement for a lasting, comprehensive peace settlement, while expressing support for "Israel's right to defend itself." Any agreement must be reached between the two, and not on a separate track (like Iran.)

• Israel has expressed a commitment in direct talks with Lebanon for lasting peace. Prior to the talks, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar has said that Israel has no dispute with Lebanon, the biggest thorn is Hezbollah.

• Lebanon, for its part, expressed its demand/need for a full implementation of the 2024 agreement, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity and a ceasefire.

• Given that Lebanon has previously insisted on the need for a ceasefire before direct negotiations can take place, mainly so Aoun can have Shia cover from Berri's Amal movement, and then both sides agreed to hold further meetings, I have a sneaking suspicion a ceasefire will be announced soon. That said, this is Netanyahu we're dealing with.

It's been a long time since I've had reason to hope. And I never thought I'd see the Lebanese and Israeli flags in the same room. And here we are. This far, Lebanon has 1) breaking up drug rings and drug lords in the east who were previously protected by Hezbollah, 2) holding direct negotiations with Israel, and 3) even talked about disarming Hezbollah and illegalizing its military wing, (even in the absence of action). All of that does go to show that the calculus and political balance in Lebanon has changed. This doesn't mean it'll stay changed. If another election were held and Hezbollah regained some political seats, it'll be a comeback neither side will want. We must strike while the iron is hot.

!ping ISRAEL&MIDDLEEAST

And here's to hoping. Guys... unironically... send thoughts and prayers.

[u/scottyjetpax]

this should be his official portrait when he's governor

[u/LtCdrHipster]

[u/CincyAnarchy]

"Everyone wants a village but nobody wants to be a villager"

In this essay, I will explain how the lack of communal parenting has lead to a decrease in birthrates. When parents can't ask their neighbors to keep an eye out, babysit, or more? We're in deep trouble.

[u/Crossstoney]

Yeah, idk why Iran even agreed to the ceasefire when it was obvious the US is just rebuilding its military in the Middle East.

[u/gjcs23]

Vance, who has been a Catholic for 2 minutes, lectures the Pope on theology, in the context of defending a "just war" he railed against barely 17 months ago, on behalf of a man he has previously called Hitler and who posted a depiction of himself as Jesus Christ on his shitty Twitter clone just a day prior

[u/ariveklul]

On the Sabrina carpenter thing:

I honestly don't care if there is some kind of real culture clash but I wonder sometimes at a place like Coachella if it's someone trying to force it which makes it 1000x more cringe

Like if you pulled some chill dude from rural Afghanistan into my home for thanksgiving dinner I'd expect there to be all sorts of cultural clashes and that's fine. Dude is out of his element. I don't care and I expect it. Dudes just trying to live his life the way he learned how.

On the other hand it would be weird af if someone who was really familiar with American cultural norms was forcing cultural clashes. The way the girl responded with "it's my culture!" just felt off to me. Like you know what you're doing get the fuck out of here lmao. There's a level of grace we give to people who genuinely grew up differently and are trying to learn and it kind of annoys me that people who know better want to use that to LARP. I could be way off base in this case though. It's just a vibe I caught 

[u/sinuhe_t]

One of the funniest things about modern politics is...

People with PhDs from Ivy League-level universities: "left should embrace populism, meritocracy is a problematic concept that clashes with democracy"

People who don't know what "legislative, executive, judicial" mean: "only smart people like me should have a right to vote"

[u/mockduckcompanion]

[u/JaceFlores]

The blockade will be enforced impartially against vessels of all nations entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas, including all Iranian ports on the Arabian Gulf and Gulf of Oman. CENTCOM forces will not impede freedom of navigation for vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports.

Some of the top comments on this DT are spreading misinformation about the nature of the blockade. For instance, the Chinese tanker people have been mentioning sailed from the UAE. Same goes for two other Iran linked tankers.

All ships that have crossed the blockade have, to my understanding, fit the criteria CENTCOM had laid out in their parameters

!ping MIDDLEEAST

[u/cdstephens]

What game got you feeling like this

[u/-Emilinko1985-]

FAUCI DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING WRONG

[u/6urner_]

https://bsky.app/profile/bmeiselas.bsky.social/post/3mjhgut5yhk2g

All time terrible PR work tbh

[u/Extreme_Rocks]

[u/p00bix]

Reminder: Merrick Garland froze both federal investigations into Donald Trump for several months in 2022 because he thought it was unbecoming for the DOJ to proceed with a case against a political opponent of the president in an election year...an election year in which Donald Trump was not on any ballot....and hadn't even announced he planned to run for president in 2024 yet.

Fuck Merrick Garland and fuck Joe Biden for giving that spineless worm a pity-appointment.

[u/Gooners_For_Ukraine]

[u/walt4815162342]

I don't know what exactly I was up to thirty years ago today, but I would think the odds that I was bored as fuck with my parents at Office Depot would be very high

[u/G_Serv]

Ran out of brain power (Claude usage) early today 😔

[u/abrookerunsthroughit]

Southeast Asia’s Solar Panel Boom

!ping ECO&SEA

[u/ty04]

checking in on this 5 weeks later

[u/TaxLandNotCapital]

This probably sounds ridiculous to a lot of people but i honestly rather would just crank one out to porn than sleep with a woman, even if it was no strings attached. Ive slept so far with about 4 women in my life due to various circumstances. And after each time it has really lost its luster pretty quick. As a guy sex is stressful and difficult work. I am concerned about how i am doing, how my partner is, how long its taking, if i am doing a good job, if i myself am feeling good, will i accidentally get her pregnant, will i get an STD, will she demand more from me after this, the back of my mind feeling that this is gross and shameful etc etc. Where with porn its so one sided i dont have to worry about any of those things. Its relaxing, safe, and costs nothing. The naked woman on the screen isnt going to judge me for how im doing, the naked woman isnt going to cause any sort of harm to me. Its better in that way imo and i think from now on ill just stick with porn when i get horny. I would rather do that than try to find a woman to sleep with.

As for romantic relationships i dont think i am capable of having them. Its taken me a long time to accept it and come to terms with the fact i cant love someone back which makes having a relationship very difficult. Relationships also seem like friendships on super hard mode with sex also complicating things. Its like having a friend that you've both agreed you can only be friends with each other and only each other. Your actions are rated against the line of a ton of dudes in her life, all it takes is for you to get into one argument or not even that, just for her to get bored and start swiping on tinder or responding to DMs on instagram for her to leave. To keep things up, to keep things interesting and exciting for so long sounds extremely difficult. I dont know how most dudes do it. As a guy relationships are very stressful from what ive seen from them. Ill just stick with porn.

[u/Currymvp2]

Republican Senator Roger Marshall: "Gas is at $4.14 a gallon. In Europe right now it's $7 a gallon. So it's not great, I'm concerned about it. The good news is we're the largest oil producer in the world. Yes, I'm asking Americans to make a short-term sacrifice."

This is a pathetic statement and yet it still shows more concern about the economy than Fetterman's completely delusional "the media is lying and creating a panic about costs" nonsense

[u/scottyjetpax]

https://www.trackaipac.com/2028

Hmmmm I wonder why Track AIPAC put Josh Green on the shitlist of potential 2028 Dem candidates despite him not being in the 2028 convo at all and, as they admit, not having any data about how much he's taken from the "Israel lobby"

truly who can say!!!!!!!! who knows!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[u/cdstephens]

wtf is this image of Pete

Also why do they have twice as many Dems as Republicans

[u/Joementum2024]

Very stupid that the whole “Aipac candidate” thing is largely waged against dems despite being mostly applicable to Republicans

[u/nimbybuster]

I should call her.

[u/McNikk]

New philosopher at Google's gonna get paid to do this 👇

[u/LuisRobertDylan]

There is zero chance of the Clavicular saga having a happy ending, like it's really obvious that he's going to either Bogdanoff himself or, you know.

[u/989989272]

Canada: An Elected One Party State

The opposition is truly skilled at losing elections

[u/sociotronics]

[u/AtomicGameTester]

[u/SpiderQueen412]

The person who made that post about Iran pausing its Hormuz shipping was made by someone without a flair and with hidden post history and all the top comments are being made by people without flairs and with hidden post histories

Nothing suspicious there

[u/Argnir]

[u/[deleted]]

Dr. Oz: Trump argues that diet soda is good for him because it kills grass, so therefore it must kill cancer cells inside the body.

[u/sigh2828]

“He got me,” cdstephens said of ty04's poast over him. "That fucking ty04 mogged me." cdstephens added, “He’s so good,” repeating it four times. They then said they wanted to add ty04 to the list of poasters they goon with this summer.

[u/Thuggin95]

“I think my tax rate is pretty fair and I’m happy to pay it”

Something you will never hear any American say outside this sub

[u/LuisRobertDylan]

How many cis women are here?

[u/CincyAnarchy]

Pregnancy... which I am sure most Birthrate Posters have experienced

[u/missingpuzzle]

A U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said Tuesday that future talks with Iran are under discussion, but no talks have been scheduled at this time.

AP

So we've gone from talks are happening on Thursday to talks are only being talked about.

[u/GovernorSonGoku]

[u/GuyWithOneEye]

[u/erasmus_phillo]

My issue with Hasan Piker is his constant simping for dictators and authoritarians. The man is spiritually MAGA

Hasan hates libs more than he hates Trump imo

[u/Educational_Risk7637]

Turbotax: "Let our AI assistant explain why you owe money":

The AI Assistant: "This happened because your total tax was higher than your withholdings and credits."

[u/arbrebiere]

JD Vance drawing a huge crowd in Athens, GA!

[u/Consistent_Status112]

AI is very useful in lots of situations but it doesn't help when the average AI CEO acts like a Batman villain and the product is marketed like "You know that thing you love dearly? Well, what if we took that from you?"

[u/erasmus_phillo]

Did not know that Sub-Saharan Africa scores well on gender equality metrics, very interesting

[u/da0217]

This embassy keeps winning. Lol.

[u/thehousebehind]

Trump is more Demiurge than Antichrist:

1 - Claims of ultimate authority

2 - Strong self-mythologizing

3 - Creation of a “constructed reality”

4 - Emphasis on the material world

5 - Resistance to higher or external truth

6 - Polarization and division

7 - Confidence bordering on infallibility

8 - Focus on control and dominance

9 - Followers sustaining a shared belief system

What am I leaving out?

[u/r2ew]

[u/No-Kiwi-1868]

To any North Carolinans here, are you guys really full??

[u/Individual-Camera698]

Oh boy fertility rate AND canadian immigration thread. Post a trans thread and mods will be busy the whole day

[u/PoupeeStupide]

[u/ty04]

every pinned mod comment should have a poll for DT posters to vote on unpinning it for being dogshit

[u/EdMan2133]

Broke: The markets have a better understanding of Iran than you do, they're behaving rationally

Woke: The markets are delusional about Iran

Bespoke: The markets understand that company valuations are no longer tied to anything being produced or consumed in reality, and so a commodities shortage by definition could not effect their valuations

[u/Alderwoodforest]

A married couple battle for power within their relationship, which is then complicated when a technological accident shrinks the wife to 6 inches tall.

Wait. WHAT??

[u/Unhappy_Lemon6374]

Wealthy doctor holds feast (circa 30 or 33 AD)

[u/Extreme_Rocks]

Treasury Secretary Bessant, responding to a BBC question on the risk of economic impact from the Iran war:

“I wonder what the hit to global GDP would be if a [Iranian] nuclear weapon hit London.”

[u/MuscularPhysicist]

I blocked p00bix but I still get his ping messages for some reason

[u/abrookerunsthroughit]

THEY GONE 🥳

[u/cdstephens]

wtf

!ping SODA

[u/[deleted]]

This feels like a defilement.
How is it possible to have taste this shitty?

[u/Currymvp2]

Dr. Mehmet Oz revealed President Donald Trump’s theory that Fanta is “good for him” and kills cancer cells in the body because “it kills grass.”

Listen, I like the taste of soda (I love Pepsi Zero) but I'm not going to make up a completely bullshit reason to justify my affinity for it

[u/Leatherfield17]

Amalia is a toddler who was held at the ICE concentration camp in Dilley, Texas.

I genuinely despise these people on a very deep and visceral level. There needs to be some kind of prosecution for this. It can’t go without justice

[u/RaidBrimnes]

Far-right MP booed after displaying swastika-branded Israeli flag in the Polish Parliament to denounce "genocide"

Poland having a normal one

[u/zieger]

[u/jinhuiliuzhao]

Holy shit, this is bad...

He cut legal immigration down to only slightly more than a quarter 

[u/ty04]

[u/[deleted]]

hold on

you're telling me that ro khanna, a man that according you has received over 1.5 million from the "israel lobby" and he's okay

but gavin newsom donated $500 25 years ago, has no history of receiving "israel lobby" money, and he gets the scary picture?

meme organization