The Trump-Epstein Files™

[–] polariscap@lemmy.cafe 2 points 5 months ago

😵

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[+] FinjaminPoach@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago* (2 children)

[deleted]

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[–] lurch@sh.itjust.works 3 points 5 months ago

me too, bro. even took an uber the other day (first time; lots of luggage) and it was electric.

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[–] polariscap@lemmy.cafe 2 points 5 months ago

https://gasprices.aaa.com/ ⬆️ Compares current prices (per gallon) to a year ago, and shows how it can vary a lot by state. Some states tax it more, some states love their oil so it’s cheaper.

For example I am in a US city with good public transit but have an inherited 14yo beater car that still runs fine, so we keep it for occasional small city drives 1x/week. It takes regular grade fuel (not diesel etc) so it’s least expensive. The tank can hold ~18.5 gallons of gas (mpg rating is ~24 miles/gallon). I might fill up at a gas station 1x/month.

in May 2003 when I was 18, my gas was ~$1.50/gal ; I only remember this bc I would be shocked visiting somewhere seeing $2.00+ rates. 1 fillup would’ve been $27.75
in May 2025 apparently my gas was $3.005/gal ; 1 fillup was $55.59
now (May 2026 this week) apparently my gas is $4.494/gal ; 1 fillup is $83.14
now, if I moved to somewhere with gas price $6/gal, 1 fillup is $111

But I can ride the subway to work every day. For the majority of Americans using cars they might fill up on gas 1, 2, 3x a week depending on if they have to drive to work, how far, etc. so that’s more like:

May 2003: fillup 1x/wk = $111.00/mo
May 2025: fillup 1x/wk = $227.34/mo (1 year ago)
May 2026: fillup 1x/wk = $332.66/mo
May 2026 @ $6/gal, fillup 1x/wk = $444/mo

So it’d be ~$1270/year ($106/mo) more expensive overall for me than last year if I needed my car every day to drive. And that is just the same gas and car I was using before. If I moved to expensive place, I could be paying ~$2600/year ($217/mo) more. Just so car go.

By and large people aren’t getting paid more than a year ago, and it’s worse because inflation is still outpacing everything. food costs are zooming up insanely too (many reasons, but even just thinking of cross country delivery trucks), so it’s all insanely unsustainable.

When you have to drive every day to survive pretty much nothing feels sensible I imagine. If I hadn’t inherited the car from dead relative I would not have one. Perhaps sell it and squirrel it away for an EV (if only).

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[–] noxypaws@pawb.social 1 point 5 months ago

"Eh, whaddya gonna do?"

32 comments in c/politicalmemes@lemmy.world view that post

[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social 9 points 5 months ago

Hey, way to go USA! You're ALMOST there! A bit more and you'll be slightly European! You'll have our gas prices! It's not much but you have to start small, right?

[–] elbiter@lemmy.world 7 points 5 months ago

Seven, by the time you finished reading the sentence... Wait... eight!!

[–] calmblue75@lemmy.ml 38 points 5 months ago (7 children)

At some point, I expected people to realize that this was because of the USA's foreign policy and immense thirst of oil, but no, Trump is the root of all evil. If we just got rid of him, America would be utopia once again.

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[–] programmer_belch@lemmy.dbzer0.com 30 points 5 months ago

Trump is more like the culmination of all evil, a person who doesn't need to take accountability for any action whose base will follow no matter the cost

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[–] AzuranAurora@piefed.ca 19 points 5 months ago* (3 children)

Faaar too late by now. Even if Trump and all of his sycophants were arrested or killed today, the damage has been done. America has lost all of its soft power, its reputation, and its influence on the world stage. Its government has been gutted and compromised thoroughly, and has proven that it is always going to be just 1 election away from chaos. Why would other countries want to make deals with one that can do against them on a whim because they elected another nutjob? Why would other countries militarily rely on a country that can pull its troops and support suddenly because its president is compromised by the enemy?

As a Canadian, who once had respect for America and no longer does and likely won't for a very long time, I don't see America recovering without some significant structural changes to prevent this from happening again. And considering America was dumb enough to vote Trump in not once, but twice? I'm not holding my breath.

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[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 13 points 5 months ago (2 children)

Well as an American I find it odd that you once had respect for America. But I agree otherwise.

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[–] AzuranAurora@piefed.ca 9 points 5 months ago (1 child)

That was back before I really understood anything regarding politics and how damaging America has been to the world at large. Unfortunately, a lot of that "RAA RAA MURICA BEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD FREEDOM" bullshit gets spread around here thanks to our proximity and consumption of American media.

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[–] architect@thelemmy.club 9 points 5 months ago

They use Trump to distract Americans from the whole problem, they use Americans to distract the rest of the west of the whole problem.

Billionaires do not have a country. They are stateless and they are coming for you.

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[–] marcos@lemmy.world 6 points 5 months ago

Apparently, the Epstein group has actually been the root of all evil for some decades.

It has been for less time than the USA has been destroying the lives of innocent people world-wide, but the entire current culture about it comes from the pedofiles.

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[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world -2 points 5 months ago

A utopia like the Biden years

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 5 months ago* (14 children)

... Who is 'they'?

Did you expect the pedophiles and their underlings to ... arrest themselves?

Is it really this hard for people to process that the government is now totally illegitimate, captured by a literal cabal of corrupt child raping terrorists?

Are we still working through that American Exceptionalism, that 'it can't happen here'?

It did happen.

Like a year and half ago now.

It will only continue to get worse, much worse; no one is coming to save you.

Other than perhaps yourself, and anyone else who refuses to just follow orders, go along with the plan.

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[–] BlindPenguin@lemmy.world 10 points 5 months ago

The second amendment boys seem weirdly quiet lately. They used to boast to us Europeans about their heroic fantasy how they'll single-handedly topple a tyrannical government with their funny little Yanklashnikov. And now... nothing...

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[–] bedwyr@piefed.ca 9 points 5 months ago (1 child)

This did not happen in the past year and a half, it just became blatantly obvious at that point, to even those that do not read between the lines. This is been over a half century in the making. This President just seized control of the machine the oligarchs made to further their business and warped political interests.

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 5 months ago

You are corrrect, I'm just trying to spoon feed this to liberals who cannot concieve of a world without a widely recognized authority that is a 'good guy'.

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 4 points 5 months ago

… Who is ‘they’?

The two ruling parties in the US.

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[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago* (1 child)

"Who is they"

The people ICE gets protested for killing. US would ignore and even celebrate later your death if you are any of poor, lgbtq, or non white-american.

Alternatively dems while they had the power and everyone already knew what he did and he didn't have entire US military protecting him.

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 5 months ago

No, the 'they' in that sentence is the people who would be arresting people in the Epstein files.

People with the legal ability to arrest people, to order they be arrested.

You seem to be saying that... the ICE resistance in Minneapolis... was who you expected to arrest Trump and half his advisors.

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[–] architect@thelemmy.club 2 points 5 months ago

Ten years… at least.

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[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago (3 children)

Republican voters. Full stop.

There was a recent partisan election in Kentucky between a total Trump loyalist - just CTRL-C+CTRL-V of the shitlord/AIPAC’s latest tweet - against a general conservative Republican that was criticizing Israel, Trump, and the Democrats, and wanted the best for his party and state. He also wanted to release the Epstein files.

The first guy won.

THAT electorate - those real, physical human beings with salient, reachable decisions, is “they”.

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 point 5 months ago (2 children)

So you're telling me you expected Republican Massie voters, ... to... arrest wealthy and powerful child rapists?

The 'they' in the image is ... the people who would be arresting wealthy and power child rapists.

I mean, I guess probably some Massie Republicans are cops?

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[–] Katana314@lemmy.world 1 point 5 months ago (1 child)

I'll assume you're not just being pedantic. Had Massie won, arresting pedophiles would get a lot easier. This doesn't demand a large posse to organize, fight against police, and tie up a man in a mansion. It requires them to go to a nearby fire station or school, and mark a not-paedophile with a pen. That's it. And it's telling that that was too much for them.

If we get to a point where 80% of Americans are voting against the madness, and the government simply refuses to acknowledge votes or disarm, we can wrap back to the "Who is they?" comments. But right now, this is happening by choice, not lack of effort.

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[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 point 5 months ago*

Not being pedantic beyond trying to determine who, precisely, are the people, who would have been arresting the billionaire pedos.

As we've seen, even before Trump won, and won again, LE had to come under an enormous amount of outside pressure to take at least half of these witnesses seriously.

Shits being going on my entire life, the oldest of the Epstein files are as old, sometimes even older than I am.

The 'law' exists primarily to service property owners. Everything about it is setup such that if you have a lot of money, you're probably gonna win, and be able to drive those without a lot of money into financial ruin.

Unless you want to completely reorient the entire legal system, this will always be the case, and has always been the case, likely for both of our lifetimes.

We're already at the point where democracy is completely dead, the gerrymandering wars are now in full swing, alongside the oligarchy being so obvious now... but even that was obvious over a decade ago to people that actually followed the data on how effective what kinds of money in politics are at actually getting policy results.

The entire system is a completely rotten corrupt joke... it is beyond foolish to expect any part of it to truly work in the favor of the average person.

As an example: If you have a 401k, in about a month or two, you're gonna a proud owner of some SpaceX stock. Just how the system works!