No, you are, by believing this nonsense.
They could have easily have had a nuke, if they had wanted to.
They stopped the development for years.

I don't really thinks so, but it's a popular conspiracy theory. It looks like there are more
ex-Trumpers than liberals and lefties who believe that there is something ongoing other than what is the official story. A full hoax is far-fetched to me, but Trump is sure acting unlike himself. He loves to praise himself in a nauseating way, taking credit for things
that are not true, but he has abandoned the only occurrence in which he looked brave
to everyone. He is incapable of that kind of humility, so I think he has something to hide.

Your political side has turned its followers into conspiracy thinkers.
This can turn against them when they are in power.
Also, there is lot of shit going on in this regime that cannot bear the light of day.

- At least half of the Epstein files being buried.
- Facts around Epstein's death not aligning with suicide.
- Trump's Indictments getting or attempted to be buried (why? there was no case, right?)
- Trump pardoning lots of white collar criminals who donate to him.
- Trump and his family getting fully into crypto scam companies.
- Very obvious insider trading going on, every time just before Trump announces something like tariffs or international aggression.
- Trump doing everything that Putin wants, like Putin owns him.
- Details around Charlie Kirk's assassination getting even more suspicious.

At some point even some of his most loyal followers cannot suppress this anymore.

My employer is training us regularly on phishing attempts.
They occasionally send simulations of phishing emails to everyone. If you then click on the "phishing alert" button, you get a message "Thanks for being vigilant and not being tricked by our phishing simulation.".

I agree that it would be safer, but it would be damn annoying if you had to use Authenticator every time you wanted to check WhatsApp.

Still, it should support a blocking and recovery option in case of a scam or hack.
We sent 2 emails to support@whatsapp.com 2 days ago, and they have not reacted yet.

Ex-Donald Trump backer clarifies Butler assassination hoax stance: ‘A lot questions’
only registered users can see external links

Indeed a lot doesn't make sense. I would not say that this ex-trumper is much useful to question this event, but with the help of ChatGPT, I came up with a list that it accumulated from reputable investigative journalism sources, and is verifiably based on Official / primary law enforcement sources.


🧾 Legitimate confirmed issues (Butler incident)

* Shooter gained access to a rooftop within effective firing range of the rally
* Perimeter security did not fully prevent high-elevation vantage point access
* Threat was not identified and neutralized before the first shot was fired
* Delays occurred in detection, escalation, and response to the shooter
* Coordination issues existed between Secret Service and local law enforcement elements
* Breakdown in real-time communication and situational awareness across security teams
* Post-incident reviews identified a cascade of preventable security failures
* Accountability actions were limited and became a subject of official and congressional criticism


If we compare the aftermath of the assassination attempt on Trump with the 1981 Reagan assassination attempt, there are very significant differences:

* Immediate response: Shooter was caught on the spot; no ambiguity about what happened
* Unified investigation: FBI + Secret Service acted immediately with a clear suspect and clear facts
* Clear accountability: Led to formal internal review and major long-term security reforms
* No competing narratives: Public understanding of the event stabilized quickly


Even among Trump’s own supporters, there has been visible skepticism and calls for further investigation into the Butler assassination attempt, while Trump himself has not kept it as a sustained political focus and has at times signaled that the issue should not be dwelled on.

This stands out because Trump’s political communication style has typically emphasized:
* repeatedly amplifying events that reinforce his political narrative
* keeping high-salience incidents in the public conversation for extended periods
* using major events as long-term rhetorical leverage

In that context, the relatively limited ongoing emphasis on this incident is not typical of his usual communication pattern, where major events involving him tend to be politically extended rather than deprioritized.

Please stop with that nonsense; no regime ever wanted to commit suicide.
Powerful people send gullible people to die for them, even the most extreme Islamists. That's what religion is intended for. It's time you learn that.

Religious leaders use religion to STAY IN POWER.
Being vaporized doesn't help them do that.
Even if they hide in a bunker, there is nothing left after to stay in power over.

Look at the amount of lies that you gaslight yourself into believing
to keep supporting a conman who is going against everything he promised.

Funny, but the US has been dropped bombs costing ~$50 billion so far
and they're not back in the stone age yet.

~$50 Billion is 2.5 years of Universal Childcare (Build Back Better).
But bombing people in other countries is more 'America first', right?

True, all those applications are a major security and privacy risk.

However, WhatsApp has turned into a vital communication tool for many people.
Personally, I use my phone as a phone at maximum once per month, and the rest
of the time it's a WhatsApp, email, banking and trading and navigation device.

WhatsApp is just too damn vulnerable to these simple scams, they offer no secure procedure to restore an account on another device when it has been scammed,
and their 'service' is very slow to respond.

Why are we trusting these big companies, who only think about their bottom line,
to handle vital communication tools? They should at least be controlled more.
Regulation is important. If they won't make it secure, they should lose it.
(I'm not saying directly controlled by the government, but handled like most vital utilities are handled, in the common sense part of the modern world.)

Sure, if Trump can get rid of that horrible regime, I'll applaud it.

It was Bush who attacked Iraq over lies, not Obama and Hillary.
It was also Obama who finally found and killed Bin Laden.
If you don't know that you're lying, your completely messed up.

Why do you want Iran to have a constitutional democracy, while Trump is destroying yours?

I see Trump threatening to bomb bridges and power-plants. Not only is that a war crime, because that's attacking CITIZENS, it will NOT stabilize Iran for it's citizens,
it will return their country to the stone age. How do you expect a stone age country
to create a constitutional democracy?

It's all nonsense, because this war is NOT about freeing the people of Iran,
this is ONLY intended to rid Israel of their enemy, so they can conquer all the land that they think of as the promised land.

It's definitely not COMMON sense, because most people in the world hate him
and in your country his ratings are historically weak for a modern president at this stage.

It's a cult. Your love for the man is unconditional, and that's STUPID.
That's you not understanding democracy. You're supposed to be critical
of all your elected representatives.

If the 'one's with common sense love him', why didn't he get them then?
I'll answer it; because he likes people who don't have any principles.

They're very consistent in having no principles, besides their own money and power.

Taking a oath doesn't guarantee that he does it. Trump has disrespected his oath in many ways. His administration is checking off all amendments to violate one by one or all at the same time.

Interesting story: During his second oath on January 20, 2025, he did not place his hand on the Bible. Personally, I don't care, because Christians are lying their pants off just as easily, but it seems like there is some part of Trump who believes in some form of god. If he didn't care, he wouldn't talk about probably not getting into heaven. That makes it a red flag to me, when a person like that doesn't swear ON the bible. He might be thinking that breaking that oath would send him to hell for sure. He's very much aware that he is breaking his oath.

I'm guessing you are referring to Clinton not asking approval from Congress. True, he didn't, but the scale of Kosovo (1999) was far less than Iran now. He was not attacking a country and the operation was decided collectively by NATO members.
Haiti cannot be called a 'war' by any stretch of the imagination.
And the UN Security Council authorized the intervention.
Iraq was just a continuation of what Bush before him started.
At least Bush had Formal congressional authorization. Clinton relied on earlier Gulf War authorization + UN resolutions. It was also just limited air/missile strikes, not a new war.
Nothing that Clinton did was anything close to what Trump started.
And he didn't run on NOT DOING EXACTLY THAT.

Russia has been an actual nuclear threat for decades. It never resulted in nuclear war, because that would be suicide. Every action of Iran in the past decades shows that they prioritize self preservation in the exact same way.

Trump is NOT doing his job. He is going against everything he promised. Even on 'the illegals' he is failing. The people he is deporting are mostly not the illegals that he was talking about. Where are those 20 million criminals and rapists? At best he deported ~700,000 immigrants and most of them were never arrested for any violent offense. Most of them were in the immigration process and most of them were working and paying taxes and getting nothing back. You might think that's a succes, but he has passed NO IMMIGRATION REFORM LAWS. When he was running for president, he had his cronies block the BIPARTISAN immigration bill, and since then he has done NOTHING to come up with something better. Doing his job also means making sure Congress is doing their job, but under Trump they have been pretty damn useless. Both Obama and Biden had a higher success-rate, while having much more resistance in Congress.
Understand that all Trump's executive orders can be eliminated with a stoke of the pen, by the next president. That means that Trump is NOT doing what you elected him for. It makes me happy that he and his regime are so damn incompetent, but it should annoy you.

No country in Europe is still interested to listen to Israel, because
we all see who the worst aggressor in the region is; they are.
They are just in it to take more land.

He is ACTING like a king. He had the Supreme Court make him immune, and he is doing everything he wants with Executive powers, while a spineless minute majority in Congress is letting him do it.

It's the job of Congress to legislate, and it's the job of Congress
to declare war, because Congress should represent the people,
not the president. At least not in your Constitutional democracy.

When you are saying:
"Are the "people" really smart enough to know what is best for them?",
that's you supporting a dictatorship, over democracy.

Here is an important tip to avoid falling for a common scam.
(One of our friends just got scammed, and I'm trying to help)

Someone will call you on your mobile phone, to invite you to a Zoom call.
If they already have information from you, it could sound believable.
Then they say: "I have just sent you a code for the Zoom call, can you repeat it?"
Than they can get into your WhatsApp, because it is the verification SMS-code
for WhatsApp.

Then they will send everyone you know scam calls asking for money, or something.
And they have all the phone numbers of your contacts, to try the scam on them too.

It took me an hour of 'interrogation', to figure out that she gave that SMS-code
to the scammer. With the help of ChatGPT, I figured out the rest.
The only thing I could do is email WhatsApp support to block the account.
The scammers will block the SMS-verification, by trying it over and over.
Maybe she gets one chance to get it back, 12 hours from last tried.
She is now calling everyone she knows to warn them, to not trust her messages.
It's hours of your life that you can't get back.

Poor little Pluto. I admit, this hurt me too.

In 2006, the International Astronomical Union (IAU) created a formal definition.
A planet must:
1) Orbit the Sun
2) Be spherical due to its own gravity
3) Have “cleared its orbital neighborhood” (meaning it dominates its orbit gravitationally)

Pluto meets the first two criteria, but not the third. It shares its orbital region with many other Kuiper Belt objects and doesn’t gravitationally dominate its neighborhood.

So Pluto was reclassified as a 'dwarf planet', along with objects like Eris.
I would say that this only strengthens it's 'Disney status'.

That was Henry VIII, but he was actually King of England, not France.
Please do, because ignorance about the past results in people who make history repeat itself.

"Are the "people" really smart enough to know what is best for them?"
You're arguing against the foundational statement of American ideals.
Remember when Republican wrapped themselves in the United States Declaration of Independence and The United States Constitution?
You are now using it as toilet paper.

And then you are aggrieved when millions of TRUE AMERICANS
have NO KINGS protests.

Obviously not, because you are still supporting King Louis XVI.

Now who does story about the golden eggs remind me of?
People who enjoyed liberal democracy, with a sprinkle of socialism,
but then let Republicans replace it with plutocracy?

In a democracy, the people decide who benefits from robot technology.

They will either starve, or they will learn that billionaires were not elected
to rule the people.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed… with certain unalienable Rights…
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men,
deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Look at history of the type of 'reset' that resulted from that.
I suggest you look at France, around 1794.
Do you pick the side of King Louis XVI or of the people?

“That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it…”

No dumb-ass, people are NOT too lazy to work, they just want to be DECENTLY PAID for their work, so they can LIVE on their income.

How will the world be saved from robots putting people out of work?
Where will people get the money to LIVE?

In your bottom paragraph you exactly showed the problem; double profits for companies, nothing for workers. Don't you understand why that is a problem? Maybe you understand it this way: who is going to buy the products of those companies, if PEOPLE are replaced by robots?

Iran had a GDP of about $430 billion and a debt of about 30–40% of GDP.
They don't need investors to get oil out of the ground.

Here is another story about what Trump's admin is doing when you're distracted
with all the horrible shit they are doing and causing:
only registered users can see external links

Not only is Trump using the DOJ as his personal guard dog and and attack dog,
his administration is destroying it's actual purpose; defending the public interest by:
- Enforcing laws
- Protecting civil rights
- Prosecuting crimes

only registered users can see external links

only registered users can see external links

only registered users can see external links

It's just one of the many things to consider when you VOTE.
If you want peace and stability in the world, you vote for
representatives who care about how corporations treat people.

An oil field shouldn't just giving some money to their employees.
It's the natural resource of that country, and therefore it should greatly benefit
the people of that country, instead of the billionaires of some foreign country.

Why do you care that American farms are owned by Americans, and not China?
Same thing! One difference; the US used force to try to fully exploit Iran,
while China is just buying up what your own system sells them.
That's your own ideology turning against you.

Either you support greedy capitalism, which means that you shouldn't care when China buys your farms. And why China? They own only 1% of that foreign owned land. Canada owns 33% of it. Here is the list:
Canada – by far the largest (~33% of all foreign-held land)
Netherlands – second largest (~10–12%)
Italy – around 6–7%
United Kingdom – about 5–6%
Germany – about 5–6%
So why are you only worried when it's China?

When American farms go bankrupt, someone buys up the property.
Buyers can include several groups:
- Nearby farmers
- Individual investors (like Bill Gates)
- Institutional investors (Private Equity, multiple Bill Gates)
- Agricultural companies
- Foreign investors
If you only want family farmers to own farmland, you are NOT a 'capitalist'.

If you do think that capitalism hurts people you care about, why don't you extend that insight to the rest of the world? People getting hurt in other countries will always have an effect that comes back to hurt you. Iran is just one of the many examples. Another is immigrants; when capitalism hurts whole groups of people, they are not going to passively suffer their exploitation. Many of them will find a better place to live. I would say that they are justified to go to the place where the benefits of their former exploitation ends up.
The exploitation doesn't end up with YOU, because you are just Working Class who is exploited too, but that's the result of your Owner Class. You care about illegals, but the Owner Class don't. For them they are cheap labor. When they prop up Trump, they know he's not going to take their cheap labor away, because IF it's not illegals, they will just make the American people as cheap as they want. Haven't you noticed?

Apparently, American people are NOT cheap enough, so they make robots.
The American people will need to become very cheap to compete with robots.

This is how capitalism works; it definitely creates prosperity, but it always does it at the cost of others, because it's exploitative by design. The benefits always mostly flow to the top, and it always leave the rest with losses and damage.
It is a scourge on humanity and nature. Humanity either choses to improve on capitalism, or it WILL destroy humanity.

I meant you are OK with exploitation, not slavery.
However, there is something very similar to slavery nowadays,
like the children working in cobalt mines. You were OK with that.
You whitewashed that as them having a job, which is better than starving.
The same can be said about slaves, because everything is better than starving. That's how you sugar-coat slavery and horrible exploitation.

Your feelings about the matter isn't representative.
When a corporation is making billions of dollars in profit, while all their employees are struggling to survive, that's exploitation.

I would know better, if you had ever supported people having rights.
If you think that there is no such thing, than all exploitation, including slavery, is OK.

If you understand their thought process, which you said now twice, please describe their thought process.

I don't feel exploited on my job. That's mostly because I have a good education and I live in The Netherlands. People with poor educations
are exploited in my country too. I do feel my employer exploits people, but that's mostly related to pharmaceutical companies making too much profit on healthcare.

Sugar-coating is exactly what you are doing.
"the thought process's of the time slavery was in place" was simple:
"We can exploit people for our own profit, so let's do that!".
You are OK with it from that period, because you are OK with it now.

You are very consistent in the opinion that people have no rights and their value is only in how much they serve the powerful and wealthy elites.
I will never understand WHY you have this opinion, other than you were born into it and you have listened to people who tell you this all your life.

Have you seen JD Vance lately? This is what he was doing in the shadows;

Pushing a case called "National Republican Senatorial Committee v. FEC." towards
the U.S. Supreme Court.

It is designed to eliminate the last Federal limits on “coordinated spending” between political parties and candidates.

Why these limits exist: To stop donors from bypassing individual donation caps by routing money through political parties.

It would basically make RANK CORRUPTION EVEN EASIER!

Even mainstream outlets like Reuters say this case would weaken campaign finance limits, and legal arguments warn it lets wealthy donors route money through parties to get around caps, making dark money influence even harder to control.
only registered users can see external links

Answer me this: If Republicans think corruption is a problem, why is JD Vance pushing
to remove one of the LAST LIMITS on coordinated political money?

Why isn't Fox'News' shouting: "Why is JD Vance helping George Soros ?!?"

Trump's admin HATED HIM before they were chosen
only registered users can see external links

A bunch of spineless cowards choosing money over principles.

'Them' have not all committed terrorism against you.
I keep trying to make you understand how YOUR OWN ACTIONS
have resulted in so much hate that people commit suicide to kill you.
Mostly, so you stop supporting those same mistakes again and again.

OMG! THE US IS STEALING THEIR OIL!!! Are you gaslighting or actually this ignorant?
The only people who are paid handsomely are the dictator friends of the US.
The people of those countries are living in horrible poverty.
The US has toppled leaders who shared some of the oil profit,
and propped up dictators who control their people with violence and religion.
Behind your back, those dictators are BLAMING YOU for their poverty.
Everything happening in that regions WAS CAUSED BY THE US (and Israel).

The US would have the right to fix your own problem, but you don't; everything you have been doing is making the hate breeding ground even more fertile. The people of Iran asked you to topple their government, because it is legitimately evil.
Have you done that? NO!!! The same evil regime is still in power. You have killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and left it in the hands of son Mojtaba Khamenei,
WHO IS WORSE!!

Meanwhile, you have killed a school full of children and bombed large parts of Tehran. What do the Iranian people think of your president, when he has threatened to blow up all the bridges and says: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”?
Do you think they trust the US more now?

You have left them with a worse dictator, who will probably have to defend
his power from adversaries with lots of violence, lots of dead loved ones,
and a country in economic stress. They will only be worse off, AND THEY WILL OBVIOUSLY BLAME THE US FOR ALL OF THAT.

Russia already tried that. Didn't you know?
Their actions, combined with the actions of the US, resulted in that Islamist terrorism. Before that, it was just civil war, religious wars, political conflicts and conflicts over territory, just like everywhere else in the world.

Besides the nonsense idea that Islam will result in terrorism by necessity,
the complete lack of morality of you suggesting to subjugate the whole of the
Middle East, is stunning. What makes you think you have the right?

Then there is the complete lack of practical thinking. If you add up the land area of countries where Islam is the dominant religion (North Africa, the Middle East, parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, and much of Central & Southeast Asia), you get roughly 30–35 million kmІ. That's about 3 to 3.5 times the land area of the U.S (~9.8 million kmІ).
Globally, there are about 1.9 to 2.0 billion Muslims today. How do you suggest the US keeps them all under control? They outnumber you 6 to 1.

You have a real strange idea about liberals? No one thinks what you are saying. It just takes a right-wing brain to think that you can improve how they feel about you, by bombing their families to death and putting their countries in utter chaos. Living under tyranny isn't fun (although some of you seem to think it's great), but it's better than chaos. Every time your country tries to wage war on terror, you are creating the exact breeding ground for it. You eliminate the little stability they have, and make the people who lost their loved ones hate you.
You ridicule the lack of solutions from liberals, but at least liberals and lefties don't make the problems so much bigger, like your side does.

It also costs a fuck ton of money; Trump has recently proposed a U.S. defense budget of about $1.5 trillion per year, which is roughly a 40–50% increase over the current budget. When is someone asking: "How are you going to pay for that?"?

ChatGPT:

Good instinct to check the source—because that page is a clear example of a fringe or revisionist interpretation, not mainstream history.

What that website actually claims

The page you linked explicitly argues:

“The tariff…was the sole cause of the war”
Slavery was basically a political trick or distraction

So yes—your friend is repeating that site pretty directly.

Why historians reject that explanation

The problem isn’t that tariffs never mattered—they did at times. The problem is that the site’s core claim contradicts primary evidence from the 1860s.

1. It ignores what the seceding states themselves said

The most important sources are the official declarations of secession. These are not later interpretations—they’re statements written by the people who started the war.

They overwhelmingly point to slavery, not tariffs.

Example (short quote):

Mississippi: “identified with the institution of slavery”

That’s about as explicit as it gets.

2. It conflicts with the actual political conflicts of the time

The biggest national crises leading up to the American Civil War were about slavery:

Expansion into new territories (e.g. Kansas–Nebraska Act)
Violent संघर्ष like “Bleeding Kansas”
Court rulings like Dred Scott
The election of Abraham Lincoln

All of these revolved around slavery—not export taxes on cotton.

Mainstream summaries consistently describe slavery as central to the conflict and political tension .

3. The tariff argument doesn’t match the timeline
The biggest tariff crisis (the Nullification Crisis) happened 30 years before the war
By 1860, tariffs were not the dominant national issue
There’s no strong evidence that taxing cotton exports to Europe triggered secession

4. The site itself shows red flags

Even without outside knowledge, the page has warning signs:

It claims all historians are wrong (huge red flag)
It offers a single-cause explanation for a complex event
It suggests a kind of conspiracy among historians
It provides little engagement with mainstream scholarship

That doesn’t automatically make something false—but in history, that pattern is typical of non-credible or ideologically driven sources.

Bottom line

The website is promoting a minority, non-accepted theory that:

contradicts primary sources
contradicts decades of historical research
and oversimplifies the causes of the war

The strongest evidence we have—what people at the time actually wrote and argued—shows that slavery was central from the beginning, not something “added later.”

Just on your last paragraph; there were indeed slaves in the North as well.
The difference is that they respected the new laws and the South didn't.

"why would the north oppose that when they were getting even richer from them??" Any evidence for that claim?

Here’s what the historical record shows:

1. Southern states said explicitly why they seceded
When states like South Carolina, Mississippi, and Texas left the Union, they published declarations explaining their reasons. These documents repeatedly and clearly identify the preservation of slavery as the main cause.

Mississippi’s declaration: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery…”

2. The political conflict was about slavery’s expansion
The major national disputes leading up to the war—like the Missouri Compromise and the Kansas–Nebraska Act—were about whether slavery would expand into new territories.

3. The election of Abraham Lincoln triggered secession
Lincoln opposed the expansion of slavery. His election in 1860 led Southern states to secede before he even took office, fearing slavery would be restricted.

4. Economic issues existed—but were secondary
There were longstanding disputes over tariffs (taxes on imports), especially earlier in the 1800s during events like the Nullification Crisis. But by 1860, tariffs were not the main driver of secession, and there’s no solid evidence that taxing cotton exports to Europe sparked the war.

5. Slavery was not “added later”
Slavery was already deeply embedded in Southern society and economy. It was the foundation of the plantation system, especially for cotton production, and the core issue dividing North and South for decades.

Bottom line:
The idea that the Civil War started over cotton taxes and only later involved slavery is a misconception. The strongest primary sources—from the seceding states themselves—show that protecting slavery was the central cause from the beginning.

Slaves don't run on oil, slaves run on horrible punishment if they don't.
They were fed enough to stay alive, which was similar to pig feed.

Slaves were indeed expensive, so that was an incentive to get the maximum value out of them. That means working them as hard as they could survive, while spending as little as possible to keep them alive. Their wellbeing did not add any value, while whipping them into submission was free.

The working class was indeed exploited too. There are some differences;
they were allowed to go and the employer is not allowed to torture them,
when they didn't want to work anymore.

There are piles of evidence refuting everything you say.
Do some actual historical research, instead of parroting lies.
You are clearly showing that you are just choosing to believe what you
find comfortable to believe, instead of being interested in the truth.

These websites provide actual historical evidence, for horrible abuse.

Library of Congress – “Born in Slavery”
only registered users can see external links

Project Gutenberg – Slave Narratives (free books)
only registered users can see external links

Gilder Lehrman Institute (primary documents)
only registered users can see external links

No one is denying that there were Africans complicit.
When there is a demand, there are always suppliers.

Overall reality:
Slavery in the U.S. was a system of forced labor backed by violence. Enslaved people were legally treated as property, not citizens, which meant owners had broad control over their lives.

Work conditions:
Worked from sunrise to sunset, often 12–16 hours a day
Very little rest; work continued even during illness or pregnancy
Children were often put to work as young as 5–7

Living conditions:
Small, crude cabins with dirt floors
Overcrowded; multiple people sharing one room
Limited clothing, often one or two outfits per year
Food was minimal (cornmeal, pork scraps, whatever they could grow)

Violence and control:
Violence wasn’t occasional, it was built into the system.

Common punishments included:
Whipping (often severe and repeated)
Beatings with tools or sticks
Branding or mutilation in extreme cases
Shackling or confinement

Enslavers used violence to:
Enforce productivity
Punish attempts to escape
Instill fear in others

Sexual violence, especially against enslaved women, was also widespread and largely unpunished.

Family separation:
One of the most devastating parts:
Families could be sold apart at any time
Children were frequently separated from parents
Marriages were not legally recognized
Many formerly enslaved people described this as one of the most traumatic aspects of slavery.

Health and mortality:
Conditions led to serious health consequences.

Common issues:
Malnutrition
Disease (cholera, dysentery, tuberculosis)
Injuries from overwork or punishment
Medical care was minimal and often experimental or neglectful.

Life expectancy:
Life expectancy varied, but overall it was much lower than for white Americans.

In the early 1800s, average life expectancy at birth for enslaved people is often estimated around 20–30 years (heavily affected by infant mortality)
Those who survived childhood could live longer, sometimes into their 40s or beyond
Infant mortality rates were extremely high
On particularly brutal plantations (like rice or sugar), death rates were even worse due to harsh environments.

How people died:
Common causes of death included:
Disease and infection
Exhaustion from overwork
Malnutrition
Violence or punishment
Poor living conditions
In some regions (especially Caribbean sugar plantations), death rates were so high that populations had to be constantly replenished through the slave trade. In the U.S., the population grew more through birth, but conditions were still severe.

Important nuance:
Not every enslaved person had the exact same experience. Conditions varied depending on:
Location (Deep South vs. Upper South)
Type of labor
Individual enslaver
But across these variations, coercion, lack of freedom, and violence were consistent features of the system.

You are describing exceptions. The general situation was BRUTAL.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Where the slaves came from:
Most enslaved people were taken from West and Central African societies like those in present-day Nigeria, Ghana, and Angola.

Life there (before enslavement):
Lived in organized communities and kingdoms such as the Oyo Empire or Kingdom of Kongo
Mostly farmers, traders, craftsmen
Had families, land, culture, religion, and personal freedom
Some regions had cities and long-distance trade networks

They were not living in chaos or constant misery, they had structured societies and normal human lives.

What changed in America:
Lost freedom completely (treated as property)
Forced into hard labor under threat of violence
Families could be separated at any time
No legal rights, autonomy, or control over their lives

Bottom line:
Even if living standards varied, being enslaved in the U.S. meant losing your freedom, safety, and family by force. That’s not “better off” by any meaningful historical or human standard.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How people were captured:

Most enslaved people were taken through:
1. Warfare and raids
Armies or raiders attacked villages and took captives
This was common in regions around states like the Oyo Empire and Kingdom of Kongo

2. Kidnapping
Smaller-scale abductions by raiders or traders
People could be seized while traveling or working

3. Punishment or debt (less common for Atlantic slavery)
Some were enslaved for crimes or debt, then sold onward
“Sold by their own people?” — what that really means. This phrase is partly true but misleading.

Africa was (and is) made up of many different ethnic groups, languages, and political states.
Captives were usually taken from rival groups, not their own community.
So it wasn’t like neighbors casually selling neighbors—it was often conflict between different societies

Also important:
Some African rulers and traders did participate in selling captives.
But this system expanded massively because of European demand and weapons trade.

The bigger picture:
The transatlantic slave trade worked as a system:
Europeans (from countries like Portugal and United Kingdom) created huge demand for labor in the Americas
They generally did not capture people inland themselves
Instead, they bought captives on the coast from intermediaries

This demand:
Encouraged more warfare and raiding
Destabilized regions
Turned people into commodities on a large scale

Bottom line:
Many enslaved people were indeed captured by other Africans, often in war or raids
But they were usually outsiders or enemies, not “their own people” in a close sense
And the entire system was driven and massively expanded by European demand for enslaved labor

This is the kind of completely corrupt judges that Republicans are pushing
only registered users can see external links

Fully on the payroll of the billionaires.

"deal with the middle east"?
What exactly are you imagining?

They are NOT not considered irrelevant, they are considered humiliating
by your side of politics. It's when America fought for freedom and independence from British rule, by a KING and when that new independent country fought for FREEDOM FOR ALL PEOPLE, while the South wanted to maintain slavery.

Your side calls that "Critical Race Theory", but it's just HISTORY.

only registered users can see external links

Laws banning these topics exist in more than a quarter of U.S. states.
"Teachers don't know how to interpret them, affecting day-to-day history lessons."
Actually, it means that they cannot tell the TRUTH, if they follow those laws.
So rather than being forced to LIE, they just stop teaching about the topics.

And that's exactly how it was intended; right-wing teacher teach lies to their kids and liberal teachers just avoid the topic, to not get into trouble.
It's the authoritarian playbook.

Dennis Prager getting set straight on the Church in WWII
only registered users can see external links

Sorry bud, he's only going to do a lot more damage to the US
probably kill more Muslims, and then kick the bucket. He's on borrowed time.

He likes the Netherlands, because we have Rutte, and our King and Queen
sucking up to him. We are cheap-asses, we don't want to give him a plane.
Our gay PM is coming with them as the 'bad cop'. He suckered the most votes out of the people, promising he was any different than the right-wing corporate party, so he will get something from Trump.
only registered users can see external links

We play Trump. Nothing he does helps you, he only cares about his ego.

Thank you Donald Trump! Say it back now.
only registered users can see external links

Wrong, the American people agree on a lot of things, by a large majority.
You just don't have it, because people like Trump don't want you to have it.
That's because your government has been serving the American people less
and serving wealthy assholes more and more, because of corruption.
Picking the exact type of person who has caused that problem, is not the answer.

Putting the fox in charge of the hen house is indeed getting things done,
he will eat them all in no time. The problem is; you're the hen.

I know you would like to live under a dictator. I just don't understand why.
Have you ever seen a dictatorship where it is nice to live for the citizens?

Spoken like a true dictatorship supporter.

Remember how you guys defended Alex Jones?
Who's right now, you or Trump?

"What JAPAN Did for Ukraine Is INSANE… Putin Just Became POWERLESS"
only registered users can see external links

By the way, in 2026 so far, Ukrainian troops killed about 2.5 times more Russian soldiers than the other way around.
only registered users can see external links

Sure there were, but not a lot, because most here are MAGA.
Your side is in the majority, and they don't engage with you.

I can justify ANYTHING I'm saying with facts and logic.
You can't. The best you can do is pseudo-religious bullshit.
Exactly like the homeless mentally ill character on the street corner in movies.

Don't you see how the guys on your political side are avoiding you?
They think your crazy as fuck too. They might like some of the things
you are saying, but they are not supporting you in any way, because
they know it would destroy the little credibility that they do have.

Is this your idea of arguments?

Iran didn't make any move towards me. They are a dictatorship, but there was no sign
that they were still planning to make nukes, when Obama made that deal with them.
Obama made me safer. Trump canceled it and is now the agressor. He is making the whole world less safe. He didn't achieve ANYTHING, besides killing lots of people.
Today, we don't even know who to speak with, as leaders of Iran.
It can be any random Islamic lunatic, who is in charge of the nuclear program now.

How he loves to talk dirty to women and how racist he is is just a sign of his character.
I have not talked about his awful character in a long while, because I care about his ACTIONS, which are in line with his awful character, but also with his incredible stupidity and ignorance. I prefer decent people, with knowledge and wisdom, who represent their voters in a framework of democracy and legality.
You're promoting an evil stupid asshole, who is doing the opposite of what he promised, while destroying your democracy and committing (war)crimes.

Trump created the opposite of a meritocracy in his administration; a Kakistocracy;
rule by the least qualified and/or worst people, like your Secretary of War-crimes
Pete Kegsbreath. No one but Trump would pick the dumbest drunk loser from your propaganda outlet to lead your military. He alone could be the reason for why the generals would turn on your president. Could Trump not find ONE respected and decorated general who he deemed loyal? Every single person in Trump administration
is a stupid grifting ass-kisser. Behind his back, they are all calling him an idiot.
Why do you think that there are a RECORD number of Republicans leaving Congress,
by resigning or not putting themselves up for election again? They are all tired of the stupidity and being completely ignored.

I have not seen an hour of CNN in two months combined.
I have seen more Fox'News' in the same time.
Both are crap, but Fox'News' is clearly propaganda.
You can tell easy, because they NEVER JUSTIFY ANYTHING.
They do that on purpose, because that makes lying easier for them.
If you even noticed just that, you would be on the way to recovery.

You say "IF", because you don't believe it yourself.
Trump claimed the same thing only 8 months ago.

The only hostile way to achieve it, is full occupation for the rest of ... ever.
They will always be able to do this deep inside an underground base in the mountains. There are limits to what the US can do. Permanent occupation of Iran is not feasible. The only way to assure this, is through peace and agreements. Now, why would they ever sign another agreement with Trump? He has shown his whole life that his signature is just as worthless as his words.

Obama made a great deal, and the whole world was involved to enforce it.
Anything that Trump did since, only made things worse.

Trump is threatening to destroy their country for ever.
How is that helping those Iranian people?
It's just another stupid fucking lie.

I knew before Afghanistan and Iraq that your president was lying.
You have seen the results for decades, but YOU STILL DON'T LEARN.
You keep believing the same obvious lies, over and over.

You don't KNOW that she did that on purpose.
And if she did, how will you make sure that no one can do that again?

I found reports that she didn't broke the crossing arms off with the bus.
How then can the bus be clipped by the train?
How much time is there between the crossing arms closing and the train passing?
How about having crossing arms that actually do the job.

We have regulation that is aiming to prevent situations like this, and railroad crossings
need to be made safe, even for lunatics like this:


What I'm trying to teach you, is that every time something like this happens
in your country, you just look for a perpetrator or a scapegoat,
so you don't have to actually change anything. Then nothing will improve.

When something stupid happens in the company I work for, the last thing that I'm allowed to do, is to blame the person who did the stupid thing. That's because then we won't prevent anyone else doing that stupid thing too. In aviation, they studied accidents that were blamed on human error. In 90% of those cases, there is some other cause that takes the blame away from the employees; it's system causes disguised as human error. In about 5% of the cases, it's genuine individual error (non-systemic), and only in ~1% there is intentional violation or sabotage. I can almost guarantee you that in this case there was something systemic going on, because she had a clean record.
My colleagues and I have to actually IMPROVE something, to prevent anything like it happening or being done again. That's difficult, but it's the only way that actually works.

If SHE was the CAUSE, then what is the SOLUTION?
Are old white woman now not allowed to drive buses anymore?
Do you think it's an old white woman driving the car in the picture?

You just told me how many old people are driving vehicles,
because 'young people don't want to do it anymore'.
So? What jobs can old people still do, that are safe?
You need to let them have some jobs, if you end retirement.

There were 209 school-age children killed in school-bus-related traffic incidents
over 2014–2023:
79 were pedestrians
83 were occupants of other vehicles
38 were school bus occupants

Why are they adding that the bus driver KNOWINGLY drove the bus into danger. I see kids shouting afterwards; no evidence that she intentionally ignored the crossing arms coming down.

There is always a danger in traffic situations.
If they are brought to school by car, by sleepy or stressed parents,
they're probably in more danger of not getting to school alive.

In my country, on September 20th 2018, 4 kids died, 1 kid and the driver were badly injured, after an electrically powered cargo bike-like vehicle, a Stint, ended up under the closed level crossing barriers and was subsequently hit by a train. Our media didn't immediately accuse the driver, they called for a big investigation. This was thoroughly investigated, but it provided no conclusive evidence of a defect or human error that directly explains the crash. However, the Dutch authorities, including the Human Environment and Transport Inspectorate (ILT) and TNO, still concluded that the vehicle was not sufficiently safe for transporting passengers, with possible issues related to braking and controls. The Dutch government suspended the approval of the Stint for public road use, and it was later permanently withdrawn from approval. This means that Stints are no longer allowed on public roads in the Netherlands.
In the years following, the Public Prosecution Service (Openbaar Ministerie, OM) initiated criminal proceedings against the manufacturers and responsible parties. In late 2025, prosecutors reportedly demanded prison sentences and fines for two company directors, alleging they provided misleading safety information.
The driver of the Stint was not prosecuted, as investigations concluded she bore no blame.
In the US, you just scapegoat the driver and their supervisor, on just the opinion of a sheriff. The local bus route of that school district is changed, and nothing else happens. Does that make school buses any safer?

However, children are supposed be safe, once they're IN school.
In the same period, ~507 people were killed in school shootings.
That doesn’t happen anywhere 'civilized' other than in the US.

If you could, you would. There is just not anything sensible coming out of his mouth.

"Iran who have said they have nuclear weapons and intend on using them."
Did they? But, they were so kind to NOT use them, when they are attacked?
HOW STUPID ARE YOU?

The US wanted NATO, because you wanted Europe to pick your side.
You didn't spend that money on defense, but on offense, to control everyone.
The only time NATO was used was by the US, after 9/11, and Europe helped.

NATO is limited to the US and Europe. That's Article 6. READ IT!
Since Trump would never honor Article 5, if Russia attacks Europe,
I WANT YOU THE FUCK OUT. The US is now a worse threat to peace than Russia.

The US illegally attacked Iran. If the US doesn't even discuss it in the UN, no one will come to back your stupid useless plans. Iran is in no way a worse threat than Russia. Russia has many nukes, did threaten to use them and is still attacking Ukraine as we speak. No one is letting Trump distract Europe from that, so his friend Putin can attack us, while we help Trump destroy a country that has not shown any intent of actually attacking anyone. The only reason why Israel wants Iran destroyed, is so they can attack their neighboring countries and steal their land, without fear of retaliation from Iran. We are not aiding and abetting that.

Europe didn't have any tariffs against the US, dumbass.
Trump is an idiot and a liar. YOU are the ones paying his tariffs.
He cut taxes for the wealthy and put tariffs ON YOUR DUMB ASS.

Trump doesn't HAVE any 'policies', he only has dementia ridden brain farts.

Why should I even care?

How is the situation in any way better than it was?
Don't you understand how DUMB I think you look now?

You have just slashed all the tires on your neighbors car, and broke all the windows
of his house, and then you shout: "TRUCE!!!", while pointing your gun in his face.
Is that neighbor now less of a threat of burning your house down, while you sleep?

Are we in a position now that makes Iran less of a nuclear weapons threat?
Are the Iranian citizens now relieved of their theocratic dictatorship?

Or will the US just bomb Iran every 8 months, for ever?
Are you able of conceiving actual solutions? Forget I asked; NO, you can't.
Personally, I don't see anything that was worth THIS.

We are NOT talking about a few people, it's 11–21 million citizens of voting age.

"IF your drivers license gets took away for dui or something"
That IS an incredibly low number of people.

There is no law for you to have the right to buy a 2 dollar cigar.
There ARE laws that say that everyone has the right to vote and therefore it's illegal to to put voting behind a pay-wall and a process of frustrating bureaucracy.

Did you even read what I said?
I DO support the requirement of identification for voting. I have it myself.

Congress could have fixed this decades ago. If they had (mostly) taken away
the financial and bureaucracy infringement of acquiring identification for voting, there would be no legal reason against introducing proof of citizenship for voting.

Up to 2000, it was actually the Republicans who didn't like 'voter ID', because they feared 'government overreach'. It's only since they started using the 'election fraud' narrative that this changed. You know they are not serious, when you look at the bills they introduce that contain 'voter ID'; it's full of infringements on people's right
to vote, that no Democrat in his right mind will ever support. These bills are not intended to introduce 'voter ID', they are only intended to accuse Democrats of obstructing it. It's just a dirty trick.

The only reason for why Republicans want to do this NOW, is because they want to deny more people the right to vote. It's not about election security, because they have voted down these bills, intended to improve election security and integrity, in the last 15 years alone:
- For the People Act (H.R.1 / S.1) — 2019 & 2021
- John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act — 2021–2022
- Freedom to Vote Act — 2021
- DISCLOSE Act (multiple attempts, 2010–2022)
- Election security funding & standards bills (post-2016)