Folks from rural areas prioritize cultural signaling for conservativism over economic growth. I’d hazard that Mr. Zink would probably vote Trump again, given the opportunity, if the opposite candidate publicly supported trans rights or was just a Democratic black woman.

Edit:

Goosechase.jpg “You won’t meet anyone more conservative than me, and I didn’t vote for this”

“WHAT DID YOU VOTE FOR THEN”

Terrible headline, it’s honestly kind of impressive that the chronological order of just two events could be screwed up in a single sentence fragment meant to convey information in an entertaining way.

Yeah but France is my favorite South American country

Now there’s a guy who missed his nominative determinism calling, he would have been much better at that job too.

I see through this charade! He just wants to have closer relations with the French!

Doubly crazy when you consider that (1) none of the other mainstream AI services make it so easy to create and distribute CSAM content - all it takes on X is an @ symbol while every other ai service requires an actual prompt injection attack, and (2) a ton of well-meaning people still use X, despite the simultaneous Nazi (and apparently Pedophile) bar problem.

Calling it an “immigration operation” is a fascinating example of doublespeak? DHS wants deportations not immigrations.

Although, the world would be a lot happier and sillier place if the DHS underlings took that language at face value and brought in an extra 2000 immigrants.

It can make sense in other ways too imo.

If you told me ten days ago the US would capture Maduro, bomb the shit out of a variety of military sites, and kill a bunch of civilians in the process, I would ask which American navy vessel was attacked to start the war.

But, uh.

Venezuelan oil MUST remain off of the world markets by and large in order for the current glut of oil production not to be an economic dead end for oil production companies in the US and elsewhere who overcommitted in a world where EV vehicles are proliferating at a rapid pace.

Iirc Venezuelas production is down because it’s facilities can’t process as much oil as at peak without multi-billion dollar updates and repairs.

I think it’s more likely the Trump admin gives US oil companies subsidies to take the oil out despite it being anti-capital and anti-competitive; those two things are his whole MO whenever he thinks capitalism isn’t beneficial for him personally.

But this whole incident strikes me more as a case of projecting US power than seeking petrol dollars specifically. Like, that’s part of it, and not all of it.