I sincerely hope that the dems are willing to play "dirty" at this point and out all of the files that implicate Trump the second they are sworn in. And if Trump can somehow block it, let him dig his own grave. Leak the files. Do what you have to do to sink him even more.

They have a rare opportunity to basically get a free win in the 2028 election after all that Trump's done. Please let them take it and not fart around like old man Schumer always does.

They could make it happen if they use the Epstein files as a wedge. There was lots of republican support for that, why not leverage that to get him kicked out?

you can never confidently predict they won't do something stupid

I'd argue you can predict they will do something stupid because that's basically all they've done ever since they took office

Well you see, history always repeats itself if you wait long enough. I can almost guarantee that there will eventually be another Trump and that people will once again vote for him.

They won't though, they're mega cucked to the US (unless that suddenly changed under the new guy but I'd imagine not).

I've heard the argument that people were bored with US politics and wanted to shake things up. Well, they sure managed to do that...

Yeah Biden is definitely more of a moderate right wing liberal according to most European countries standards.

I can somewhat imagine that people wanted change and decided to vote for Trump once, just to see what would happen. However, what I do not understand is the people who voted for him 2! times after that. How can you look at the endless list of shit he did in his first term and think "yeah I'll have more of that please".

I was visiting my American in-laws a few weeks ago and this type of thing infuriated me. They are basically hardcore Republicans who voted for Trump 3 times but don't want to openly say it or, in the case of my mother and father in law, they keep acting like they don't vote because "it doesn't matter anyway".

They then proceed to keep complaining about gas prices, grocery prices and general cost of living. My mother in law looked at the gas price and said "jeez, I wonder why gas is so expensive". They are straight up the most ignorant people I've ever seen and they fit every single stereotype I have in my mind about rural voters.

And whenever I try to explain to them what the cause of all this is they just tell me that it has always been bad and that they won't vote.

It's one thing if you fuck yourself and your own country over (we have those voters here too in the Netherlands) but when you choose to elect someone (either by voting for them or not voting for the alternative) who has proven to be a disaster for both your country and the world as a whole it's honestly on you and you deserve everything that comes your way, including the hate you get from people in other countries.

Edit: I forgot to add that they live in Michigan so they are even part of a crucial swing state, to make things more annoying. I tried talking to them about Abdul Al-Sayed and they didn't even know who I was talking about.

I live in a bigger (left-leaning) city with good connections elsewhere through our train station. Our local public transport isn't great, we just have buses. I wish our municipality would explore other transport options as well but they don't seem eager to do so. I live fairly close to the train station but that doesn't change the fact that the different in travel time is so significant.

I'm not going to move for this job, I've never moved for my job since jobs come and go. I search for them in a specific radius from my house and my current job was definitely on the edge of what I feel comfortable with. That all aside though, moving there (Utrecht area) is basically impossible with how expensive housing is nowadays.

I fully agree there should be less subsidies for driving and more for public transport. I understand being able to drive is a privilege and if public transport felt like a solid alternative I would use it more often. I like being in the train, it's quite relaxing. I was just trying to highlight that the Netherlands isn't perfect either and that people sometimes idealize our public transport and infrastructure.

As a Dutchie, I can attest to this. Most people I know are VERY much reliant on their cars and would rather die than give them up. Our non-car transportation is okay outside of the the big cities (where trams pick up a lot of the slack), as long as you go to another bigger city / town. Once you want to go somewhere outside of that, the cost and travel-time racks up quickly. Also, companies and governments are very much supporting car ownership.

A personal example: I travel to work by car (it's around 80 km door to door). I know, wrong community to admit something like this but I have a very simple reason for it: I get paid more to do so and it's faster. Going by car means I get to work in just under an hour. If I try to do the same thing using public transport, it will take me an hour and 45 minutes.

I get compensated €0,25 per km of driving. My car is quite fuel efficient (a Toyota corolla hybrid which uses around 4 l of fuel per 100 km) which means this easily covers my fuel (and most other expenses that come with driving my car). So when I take the car, I end up getting paid more salary each month.

If I take public transport, my work covers this for me. A one-way trip door to door would cost around €22,00 so that's €44,00 round-trip. It's great that they do this but it doesn't benefit me to do so. I don't get extra salary and spend more time traveling, for which I am not reimbursed. Therefore, I end up driving instead.

And like I said, the "amazing public transport" you see represented online is usually only the big cities. Outside of those we heavily rely on our trains and buses, which aren't anything to boast about. I've taken the train in other European countries and had very similar experiences for a much lower price. On top of that, if you live in a town that doesn't have a train station, you're dependent on taking a bus from that town to a bigger town with a train station in order to get anywhere. And once you need to start doing that you're going to have a really rough time getting anywhere without a car.

And especially the foreign cyclists

I see you've dealt with democrats before.