I love Pop OS because it got me back into Linux after ditching it for windows for the last 10 years, partly to do .net development and partly because I hated the state of Ubuntu/Unity.

As soon as cosmic is stable and easy to install on Nix I’ll switch to it.

Let’s trace a line from Jimmy Carter’s presidency through to Trump and the broader neoliberal catastrophe we inhabit today… Connect the dots with me…

1. Carter deregulated key industries (airlines, trucking, finance), under the logic that competition would lower prices. This deregulation began dismantling worker protections and union power.

He appointed Paul Volcker, whose interest rate hikes (to “fight inflation”) tanked employment, crushed organized labor, and shifted power toward capital. This “Volcker Shock” initiated decades of wage stagnation and debt reliance for working people.

And he began rolling back the welfare state while not building meaningful alternatives, opening space for Reagan to fully gut it.

The economic consensus began tilting toward free-market absolutism: austerity, privatization, and attacks on labor.

2. Oh boy!

Afghanistan: Carter (through Brzezinski) greenlit support to Mujahideen warlords before the Soviet invasion. This led to a brutal proxy war that helped incubate violent jihadist networks, including the early precursors to al-Qaeda.

Iran: Carter supported the Shah until the regime collapsed. The hostage crisis and U.S. blowback paved the way for U.S. militarization of the Middle East.

Israel/Egypt Accord (Camp David): Removed Egypt as a counterweight to Israel, entrenching U.S.-Israel hegemony in the region, with Palestine marginalized entirely.

The U.S. became further entangled in Middle Eastern conflicts and oil politics, setting the stage for endless wars, 9/11, and Islamophobia.

3. Reagan didn’t invent neoliberalism, he codified what Carter started:

He Used Carter’s deregulation as precedent to further destroy labor, defund public goods, and privatize government. He pushed tax cuts for the rich, shifting wealth upward. And he expanded the security state and laid ideological groundwork for the racist turn in U.S. policy.

4. Clinton continued deregulation (Glass-Steagall repeal). He was responsible for mass incarceration (“tough on crime” laws), and he signed NAFTA, decimating domestic manufacturing and labor organizing, and he “reformed” welfare which deepened poverty.

5. Obama bailed out Wall Street, not homeowners. He expanded drone warfare and surveillance, and he sold a technocratic sheen over systemic rot, giving way to disillusionment.

6. Neoliberalism’s mask fell off, the culmination of 40 years of rot, Trump used populist rhetoric and fascist tactics to deepen wealth inequality, gutted regulations, and emboldened white nationalism.

I’ll skip Biden and his genocide and go back to Trump, since Trump is continuing it, and we’re back at the end of the line, what shape did it make? A pile of shit on fire.

Climate catastrophe unaddressed, mass surveillance and militarization is well entrenched, working-class despair fuels far-right movements, and Palestine remains occupied and brutalized with U.S. complicity.

All this starts not with Trump, but with liberal acquiescence to capital: Carter’s pivot away from postwar social democracy toward corporate and military alignment.

If you’d like to do some reading, and if you’re willing to hate everyone you ever respected. First learn about neo-liberalism and why it’s really bad, then review Carter’s presidency.

Jimmy Carter started the fire everyone blames Trump for. He kicked off deregulation, empowered Wall Street, and backed brutal regimes abroad, all while smiling about “human rights.” That shift gutted unions, killed good jobs, and fueled endless wars. Reagan doubled down, Clinton made it bipartisan, Obama gave it a pretty face, and Trump lit the wreckage on fire. It’s not about party, it’s about 40+ years of selling out working people to corporations and empire. Carter didn’t end the New Deal. He started the funeral.

Because Democrats are not your friends, and this is just another attempt to keep up the illusion that they fight on our behalf.

Domains need to be registered annually and DNS servers are needed to route traffic to them. But using an IP directly, you don’t need to worry about domain registration issues that can brick your systems, and you don’t have to worry about DNS providers knowing about your traffic (or maintaining your own private dns).

If it’s not a user trying in a memorable domain, an IP serves much better.

You continue to ignore that what I’m saying is right: you only care because you can blame the USA.

That’s a baseless assertion, why would I entertain it.

You are choosing to be here.

Right. See, if you’re actually curious to talk to Palestinians, we can clear up these idiotic talking points you keep repeating brainlessly. Let’s try. This story is very familiar with many Palestinian Americans, but this is mine.

No, I didn’t choose to come here. My parents did. You’re right, they could have chosen to stay in a refugee camp and became mujahedeen, but they were born right around the Nakba and they only know Palestine under occupation. They were not very well educated, they learned their trades through apprenticeship and UNRWA schools.

They left Palestine for Jordan because of economic chokehold Israel has on Palestinian, they had no choice. They them immigrated to the US again for economic reasons. They were not very political, they looked at Arafat the same way you seem to look at Democrats: genuine fighters for the cause and just waiting to bounce back. They didn’t know what we know now, that he sold Palestine for personal comfort.

I was an older teenager when I immigrated with my family, again not by choice. As a Palestinian/Jordanian I knew of the struggle, but I knew the Jordanian propaganda version: (then) king Hussein is the protector of the holy sites, he saved the West Bank by annexing it, and was working hard for a two state solution. We (most Palestinian expats) accepted the two state solution.

We lacked the class consciousness and historical readings to understand that the two-state solution was always a distraction while Israel conspires with Jordan and Egypt to slowly eliminate all of Palestine. Look at the map of Palestinian territories today.

So in short, we didn’t know. We didn’t know that the biggest misstep Arafat made was to recognize Israel, we didn’t know that America’s interests are entirely aligned with erasing Palestine, we didn’t know the Democrats position of support for a two state solution was fake.

We bought everything the Democrats said about human rights and morals, we celebrated Obama, we voted for Biden and the first time and worked SO FUCKING HARD to convince everyone we know to vote for Biden because democracy depends on it… We elected our Hitler.

We’re awake now. We’ve seen enough shredded babies, enough IOF soldiers publishing their own gleeful war crimes, and we watched the Democrats blame the babies for being human shields while our tax dollars funded Biden’s unwavering support for the genocide. The illusion was destroyed, the propaganda became obvious, they’ll use Palestinians or African Americans or LGBTQ Americans and they’ll give those communities small advantages while preserving a system that’s designed to exploit all of us for the benefit of the ruling class.

The issue is not America, the issue is capitalism. Capitalism is the root cause of all of the above. Hard to communicate that to an audience that lacks class consciousness in a thread specifically about US domestic politics, so I’m attempting to just put questions in peoples’ heads so maybe they’ll start asking more questions that should lead to the same conclusion: the Democrats are not your friends.

If you came to learn the party you supported would take an exception for ALL of the positions you supported them for when it comes to Palestine, why wouldn’t you ask questions?

People genuinely argue that Trump is worse for Palestine, but so far he’s been mostly talk. We’ve seen the worst of the failing genocide under Biden and he showed no signs of remorse. Trump is worse for the US.

Both parties want to take us right and turn us into wage slaves though.

For the record, I see futility in arguing with a (possibly a bot) disingenuous asshole. I’m responding for posterity so maybe others passing by can see this conversation and judge for themselves.

I am Palestinian, and I’m living in America speaking not my native tongue and arguing with an asshole who in response to me saying “Democrats backed a genocide” wrote all the awful shit you did. You’re a bad person.

Both parties suck and are ruining the country. Here’s an idea, let’s take the jackass that jumped around with a chainsaw and sawed away people’s benefits before giving two Seig Heils at the worse of the two horrible parties, let’s go with his new party.

What a joke.

So I made an argument about US domestic policy and somehow I need to prove to you that I have another account where I criticize other countries for the genocide of my people before you’ll accept that you’re being a super weird ZioNazi right now?

This account is 3 days old, I barely have any comments. This is so stupid I’m not sure how to respond.

In a thread about domestic politics in the US, I made the claim that Democrats fully backed a genocide, and you’re still going on about me not talking about other countries. Are you dense, or a Zionist pos trying to detail the conversation?

It’s just weird. You’re just weird.

The comparison was to cash, not credit cards. The government doesn’t know who I hand cash to.

They’ll never come back because studios will never release new movies on them.

Piracy is coming back strong, but I don’t personally see myself going back to burning DVDs instead of buying HDD/SSDs.

Why do you want me to complain about other countries in a thread specifically about US domestic politics?

That’s so weird.

All of the countries are guilty, especially the Arab puppet rulers, starting with the tomato king Abdullah of Jordan and khara Sisi of Egypt who allow the transport of commercial goods to Israel while blocking aid to Gaza and intercepting Iranian rockets on the heads of Jordanians. None of that is relevant when discussing American politics.

I invite you to reflect on the words I’m saying instead of just focusing on the high you’re getting from what you perceive as owning me or whatever.

Your responses and this baseless rejection of my identity is so aggressive and weird that it’s not triggering any emotional response in me, I’m just confused.

I don’t think I said anything to justify your hostility, I even agreed with your irrelevant point.

Wtf? We’re discussing US politics. Of course genocide loving Germany is guilty as well, how the fuck did I give them a free pass?

As we say in palestinian, شو خص طز بمرحبا؟

You should have revolted as a society when you started committing a live steamed genocide. If no one cares about children being literally shredded to pieces with their taxes, why would they care that someone 20 minutes away is “getting deported”.

They’re not scared, they’re amoral. People voted for this, you forget.

It’s rich people. The reason is rich people.

A few of us will protest, a few more will lose citizenship, and the collapse of the US empire will continue. People don’t give a shit.