Poll -- Who in your opinion is the current leader of the free world?

[Baht Simpson]

In my lifetime I cannot recall ever being so poorly served by our supposed leaders. It's just a litany of one bad politician after another, with even worse waiting  to grab power. Just a succession of populist, politically polarised, self-serving, clueless, uncaring oafs. 

 

It's so depressing. 

[John Drake]

On 2/17/2025 at 6:21 PM, steven100 said:

Khun Prayut Chan-O-Cha 

 

 

He was certainly better than many people gave him credit for. He walked the line between China and the US far better than his successors. He handled Covid well. He didn't impose a remittance tax on my money from abroad. He largely kept Immigration unchanged (very important to me). And if I had him among the choices for leaders on this list, he beats 80 percent of them.

[John Drake]

On 2/17/2025 at 6:35 PM, Jingthing said:

Well, he's definitely the smartest of the three. But nothing free about what he's leading. 

 

Xi isn't that smart. It's just that everyone else is that dumb.

[Jingthing]

The current leader of the free world is Volodymyr Zelensky.

 

 

[Yellowtail]

42 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

The current leader of the free world is Volodymyr Zelensky.

 

 

What a buffoon. 

 

Nothing Vance said was untrue. 

[MicroB]

On 2/17/2025 at 12:24 PM, Harrisfan said:

What does ww2 have to do with 2025?

 

Quite a lot. WW2 made Trumpf who he is (son of a builder who won War Department contracts). WW2 shaped Putler; while he was born after WW2, he lost a brother to starvation during the war, and his Grandfather and two uncles were both killed on the Eastern Front. His father served in an NKVD Destruction Battalion; basically a roving death squad carrying out summary executions, and his dad basically volunteered for that. He grew up in a poor family, ended up as a street thug, where he learned every thing was a zero sum game; only winners and losers, so some parallels to Trumpf.

 

So WW2 formed the personalities of the main protagonists who will decide whether we all live or die in an atomic fire.

 

Versailles we all know radicalised (to use modern parlance) a 29 year old jobless Austrian house painter. WW1 spelt end of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, and fatally wounded the British Empire. Preceding that was the collapse of the Russian Empire, briefly succeeded by a Russian Republic, before dissolving into dozens of new countries. In WW1, officers disportionally suffered the highest casualties, on account of them leading from the front. Thats highly significant as these same officers were the men who were supposed to be running these countries.

 

So there was massive social upheaval, good and bad, in the 1920s, and the drawing of settled borders, with the creation of new border conflicts. One new country from WW1, Yugoslavia, lasted until the 90s, ending in an orgy of bloody violence and settled scores, and a reminder of the incredible violence Europeans are capable of to one another in a way that shocks Americans, who were born geographically lucky. Western Europe assumed this "never again" attitude, enabling cooperation across the continent  not seen since Constantine (Coal Union, EEA, EEC, EC, EU).

 

I view the Russia-Ukraine war as the prelude to the last remaining act of WW1. All the other Empires have gone, and good riddance, except the Russian one, now called a Federation (the mobilisation patterns for the army tells you this is not a country of equal citizens, but it is road; that's not a sign of still serfs and masters, but now the masters are the Slavs).

 

The war is just another signal of the fracturing of Russia. Russia is fracturing because its an unwilling Republic, where the non-salvic Russians have been thoroughly robbed.  First Chechenya, with wars with Putin having to now pay the Russian version of Dane Geld to keep the Chechens quiet. He's had to murder political opponents at home and abroad. We all have seemingly forgotten his war against Georgia, home of his hero, Stalin (his mother was Stalin's cook). The Russian Federaton is ripe to fall. This war will hasten its demise, and like all Empires, good riddance.

 

I fear though we are now planting the seeds of a future discontent, or worse., driven by two small dicked men, like the small dicked, one ball Htler.

 

 

[cobra]

Elon is Trump’s Dick Cheney,  aka Darth Vader,  we could do worse 🙄

[Yellowtail]

2 hours ago, cobra said:

Elon is Trump’s Dick Cheney,  aka Darth Vader,  we could do worse 🙄

Yet the left embraced Dick Chaney and his feckless daughter for supporting the ridiculous Harris-Walz

 

 

[Yellowtail]

3 hours ago, MicroB said:

 

Quite a lot. WW2 made Trumpf who he is (son of a builder who won War Department contracts). WW2 shaped Putler; while he was born after WW2, he lost a brother to starvation during the war, and his Grandfather and two uncles were both killed on the Eastern Front. His father served in an NKVD Destruction Battalion; basically a roving death squad carrying out summary executions, and his dad basically volunteered for that. He grew up in a poor family, ended up as a street thug, where he learned every thing was a zero sum game; only winners and losers, so some parallels to Trumpf.

 

So WW2 formed the personalities of the main protagonists who will decide whether we all live or die in an atomic fire.

 

Versailles we all know radicalised (to use modern parlance) a 29 year old jobless Austrian house painter. WW1 spelt end of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires, and fatally wounded the British Empire. Preceding that was the collapse of the Russian Empire, briefly succeeded by a Russian Republic, before dissolving into dozens of new countries. In WW1, officers disportionally suffered the highest casualties, on account of them leading from the front. Thats highly significant as these same officers were the men who were supposed to be running these countries.

 

So there was massive social upheaval, good and bad, in the 1920s, and the drawing of settled borders, with the creation of new border conflicts. One new country from WW1, Yugoslavia, lasted until the 90s, ending in an orgy of bloody violence and settled scores, and a reminder of the incredible violence Europeans are capable of to one another in a way that shocks Americans, who were born geographically lucky. Western Europe assumed this "never again" attitude, enabling cooperation across the continent  not seen since Constantine (Coal Union, EEA, EEC, EC, EU).

 

I view the Russia-Ukraine war as the prelude to the last remaining act of WW1. All the other Empires have gone, and good riddance, except the Russian one, now called a Federation (the mobilisation patterns for the army tells you this is not a country of equal citizens, but it is road; that's not a sign of still serfs and masters, but now the masters are the Slavs).

 

The war is just another signal of the fracturing of Russia. Russia is fracturing because its an unwilling Republic, where the non-salvic Russians have been thoroughly robbed.  First Chechenya, with wars with Putin having to now pay the Russian version of Dane Geld to keep the Chechens quiet. He's had to murder political opponents at home and abroad. We all have seemingly forgotten his war against Georgia, home of his hero, Stalin (his mother was Stalin's cook). The Russian Federaton is ripe to fall. This war will hasten its demise, and like all Empires, good riddance.

 

I fear though we are now planting the seeds of a future discontent, or worse., driven by two small dicked men, like the small dicked, one ball Htler.

 

 

You are confused. Trumph is German manufacturer that supported the Nazis. 

[simple1]

For the moment, IMO, no one stands out