Damn, that's high praise, thank you! It makes me feel better because I woke up fighting myself on "Oh man I wrote way too long a rant" and "DAMMIT! I didn't even mention the Evangelicals worming their way into politics!"

To everyone else, reading this... read about history folks! I, like everyone else, thought history was boring in school. If I were to put on my tin foil hat, I worry it's done on purpose as it helps realize nothing happening is actually all that new. And it's rather easy to do, put a coach as the history teacher who just hands you a textbook and makes you regurgitate names and numbers that don't mean anything but meets criteria (No Child Left Behind, Bush Era for me) just makes everyone hate history.

Yes, I did drop names, policies, and a few dates, but those are examples to point to and you better believe I don't remember a single one of those by heart, I have to look them up when I reference them. The theory is there, and once you get into devouring the actual meat of history it is absolutely bloody fascinating.

This... is difficult.

See, the oligarchs love Putin because he keeps them wealthy and comfortable at the cost of his people. If I come in and start helping my people, it'll come from the oligarchs, then they'll turn on me. Which comes to the other Putin thing, he's absolutely feared in Russia. Someone annoys him, polonium tea. To those that are absolutely loyal to him, he has an iron fist with a velvet glove. To those not in positions of power, the glove isn't there. That's what his power is.

I'd like to think I'm cutthroat if it were in the name of good... but we're talking Ex-KGB with top tier paranoia, deservedly earned. I'm pretty sure Putin-Me would have a "self inflicted gunshot" to the back of the head within hours.

And while the Navy is brought up, lets not forget the Coast Guard.

While the Coast Guard is joked about as dollar store Navy, it's a legit military service that has been actively at war against drug smugglers past few years, but gets sent over in previous wars to fight in riverways. This gives the US navy the entire pacific to fight against Russia, and when they do get to the US, there's a second home based one under a completely different administration to fight at the shores.

Hillary in her campaign was focused on removing Citizens United.

After she lost, hasn't been brought back up again.

US here... it has less to do with the 1% being fucking morons and more to do with the only infrastructure we actually pay any attention to is cars. Sure we're having a bit of a bicycle revolution but at least in my area the bikes aren't being used for transport but for fun, but then that's with a metro that's sprawling with a city that's only 100 sq miles smaller than NYC, with 8,000,000 less people in it. Add that the auto companies were allowed to buy out things like the streetcar that was local and able to tear up the tracks to get rid of competition, it really isn't a shocker.

But we're now stuck in a cyclical spiral, of no investment for things like this are happening because it's not seen as profitable enough. Which means a constant problem of using something like a bike for commuting is "But then I have nowhere I can put my bike where it won't get fucked with." so people don't commute with it, which leads to no investment to the infrastructure.

Dunno how to fix it. It just sucks.

Panama Papers 2 Electric Boogaloo

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaaaaaa....

Holy shit yes, this whole thing right here.

The trade fields are absolutely insanely full of men telling each other how manly they are and how not gay they are with the "notice me" mode that it's kinda 'dude... if you want guys to hit on you... you're going about it all wrong.'

and because it keeps bugs and birds from hitting the aforementioned rugged bearded handsomeness at high speeds

I wear a full face helmet because holy shit I know one saved my face. But even if the helmet wasn't a separator from potential meat crayon situation, I'd still wear it for this reason right here. Seriously, I've had some beetles hit my helmet so hard it made me recoil, I can't imagine taking one straight to face like that.

When Hamas attacked I commented Israel would lash out with it's usual fervor, making sure that any Palestinians that didn't support Hamas wouldn't have a choice. And that the US world would back Israel, providing more ammunition to the Muslim extremists in the middle east to want to continue to fight the US. And Israel working at that time to a potential deal actually worked out with Saudi Arabia would get smashed. Hamas played the world like a fucking fiddle and literally everyone danced along with the tune.

I miss seeing large amounts of fireflies.

Why are they chasing pennies? Because they can. It's really simple as that nowadays.