| ▲ | delecti 19 hours ago |
| I think the main reason is that they were all too incompetent to realize what the effects of the war would be on the global financial system. The bets were probably just a happy opportunity for corruption. > The whole thing is so stupid it makes my head hurt Look on the bright side, at least the malicious actors aren't able to competently implement their goals. |
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| ▲ | colechristensen 18 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| The economic effects impact the rest of the world much more than the US, which may have been somebody's planning point, although on the surface they seem to be too stupid to come up with this idea. The US/North America is petroleum-product-independent-ish. We produce approximately as much hydrocarbons as we use. We also could produce a lot more but tar sands, shale oil, etc. are more expensive to produce and not very profitable at $60/bbl but it's there ready for the taking. When you're talking about how we aren't it's about how certain refineries are tuned for which type of oil and how we import unrefined and export the refined products, etc... but we're not RUNNING OUT of oil or energy. Many places in the rest of the world aren't like that and will suffer much greater losses while the US is relatively strong. Of course we're all linked, but a power hungry dictator might only really care who's on top in a relative sense even if everybody is dragged down. |
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| ▲ | huijzer 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| When do we cross the barrier from incompetent to nefarious? |
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| ▲ | delecti 18 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | They're orthogonal, so there's no barrier. They're all nefarious, and most are also incompetent. | | |
| ▲ | ragebol 18 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Getting yourself installed as president while knowing you are incompetent (I mean, look at all those bankrupt businesses, he should know) is nefarious in itself. His entourage is nefarious for supporting the incompetency for their own gain. | | |
| ▲ | 17 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | [deleted] | |
| ▲ | jerlam 17 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | If people are giving you money, are you truly incompetent? I think we're using different scales to measure competency. | | |
| ▲ | ragebol an hour ago | parent [-] | | Competent enough to receive money, not competent enough to run a country well. But now we're getting into very subjective stuff, I'm sure his handlers are quite OK with what he's doing. It doesn't matter it all looks super suspicious, they are confident they won't face any consequences. |
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| ▲ | delecti 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | One of the few conspiracy theories I kinda believe is that Trump's 2016 presidential run was a grift and he expected to lose. Everything since has just been an inability to admit he was in over his head, plus trying to get out of trouble for all the crimes he did. He (and Clinton) just underestimated how susceptible the US was to a demagogue. If you look at his face after the win was announced on election night, and after the first meeting with Obama for the transition, I think it shows plainly on his face. | |
| ▲ | array_key_first 15 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | If you're incompetent maybe you don't know you're incompetent? I think probably a lot of people told him, but he's also very stubborn, so. He's been rocking that god fucking awful spray tan for decades now. I mean, Christ, we have good spray tans, I know we do. | | |
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| ▲ | huijzer 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | And they are not nefarious and competent while pretending to be incompetent? | | |
| ▲ | XorNot 18 hours ago | parent [-] | | The Nazis were hilariously incompetent, but it didn't make them any less dangerous. | | |
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| ▲ | idle_zealot 18 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | It's not an either-or question; they're very transparently both nefarious and incompetent. | | |
| ▲ | edgyquant 16 hours ago | parent [-] | | So what does that say about their opposition who lost all three branches of government to them? | | |
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| ▲ | munk-a 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Probably January 6th 2021 |
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