Pulled the price out of his backside, presumably!

Yeah, because Ukrainie doesn't already have a government. What a jerk!

I read Lviv when browsing this! Wondered when you'd been there. Shows the weighting of my feed.

He'd know I guess, being a well practised blackmailer himself.

Basically, take the reverse of everything he says to get the truth, so yes!

Trump's approval may be toxic. He's certainly hurting the right wing in Canada and Australia.

Why don't they tell that to Musk!

New Zealand almost split by islands.

Maybe we should ask Tulsi Gabbard.

I'm no expert on US politics or history, but something like this isn't totally new. The power of the robber barons in the late 19th century was faced down and democracy was revitalised. It could happen again, but I'm looking in from the outside. I don't envy you.

The criminality of Assad and his Russian and Iranian backers is all the fault of the US!

I'm not sure there's anything better. Reaganite reforms (Rogernomics in NZ) weakened democratic oversight of the economy, particularly of the banking sector. Not sure there's any easy answer, but currently we seem to be encouraged to think democracy doesn't work. I'd say it's our best hope.

I think unfettered capitalism is different from what has existed at times.

But in liberal democracies it was regulated and taxation saw some wealth redistribution. State financed health and education, state housing made a huge difference. Here in New Zealand we had relatively devolved wealth until Reaganite reforms started in the 80s.

That didn't work in the Soviet bloc. Regulated capitalism has produced results, but the ideology of letting wealth be vacuumed to the top (starting with Reagan) has led to this.

True, they've festered for years. And look to be set to get much worse now. Maybe a bit of Teddy Roosevelt would help.

Well, it might not sort European underspending on defence, but the raping of healthcare by insurance companies is pretty peculiar to the US. And tax cuts for the wealthy doesn't help any.

Get your billionaires to pay their taxes, and get a proper healthcare system, and problem sorted!