The only country in NATO to invoke the defence retaliation clause in 60 years is the US, following SEP 11.

I set my VPN to Albania. Ads on YouTube are banned in Albania.

On the web, I be Albanian.

So is there a plan to preselect a normal person next time?

Even if he were to be drafted do you think that he’d see an hour on the front line?

Meet Captain Bone Spurs, officer in charge of NFT development in New York. He knows how to computer.

So glad that I’m not a US citizen.

That is corporate speak for Microsoft is going to spend millions on a PR campaign.

Or leaving it up.

But appointments can work if the system is respected by all. Elections just mean pure unadulterated politics.

My country (Australia) our Supreme Court is called the High Court. The national judicial body shortlists a selection of suitably qualified and respected candidates when there is a vacancy. The candidates owe no political affiliation to any party. The government selects a candidate, usually the recommended judge. There is rarely any controversy in the selection as the politicians, the judges, and the people respect the system.

Australia sometimes gets an upset challenge to a government decision, but everyone tends to blame a government for overreach rather than corruption on the part of the High Court.

This is all appointment with no elections involved. In the US you have elections for positions that we never have, and you introduce politics and dirty money where it’s not needed. If the system is fucked no amount of empty democracy is going to save it. We even have a appointed commission to draw independent electoral boundaries in this country. Gerrymandering isn’t a thing anymore, anywhere in the country. Politicians and parties get to make a submission on what the boundaries might look like, but anything dodgy gets thrown out. The people have confidence in the commission and no controversy.

I think that the recent case put to them that Trump has the power to sack formally independent institutional heads may be an answer. It certainly put Federal judges on notice. Not addressed directly, but once Trump sacks a Federal judge under that rulling the legal consequences for SCOTUS may be startling. He, or the next president may dump any or all of the Supremes that they don’t like?

Caveat: not a lawyer, or even close to being one. Just a long-time interested observer.

Difficult to argue against but impossible to actually change.

It’s like getting banned from smacking my own balls with a hammer.

Oh noes!

They’re French, they’re making a soufflé

True, but that is like saying you like typhoid a little more than cholera.

That bastard sez a lot of things. That’s all he does.

Yeah, such a great plan. Hope that works out for ya next time round.

Of course it is. CP is a mandatory line item for a typical MAGA resume.

Sorry, responded to the wrong post.

Good!

Only if you buy one.

There are more registered Democrats than there are Republicans in Texas, but somehow the votes don’t reflect the fact.