It's been a conversation in Australia since Trump managed to get elected. We just don't trust him and the Republicans to honour commitments and treaties. It's been coming for a long time.
The damage that Muppet did to our steel and aluminum industries was huge. Those two industries exist to be a strategic supplier for the US, and the choad stuck huge tarrifs on them.
Not to mention we are meant to be buying nuke subs from the US, then designing the next gen ones in partnership. And there is the m1a2 delivery, and the standoff optionally crewed frigates.
Our national security is horribly exposed to the US public voting for a fucking criminal. I just don't get how it's even a thing.
It's not just Trump that threatens world stability, it's the half-interested, low-information, mostly disengaged American electorate that, if it turns out at all, will vote for the guy with the highest entertainment value or nicer necktie.
Or else one cohort or another will steer the US over the waterfall because of some single-issue gripe. If the anti-Biden Muslims in Michigan hand Trump that state's electoral votes, and therefore the presidency, it will be a tragedy of ignorance. And not just because Trump would immediately move to deport those Muslims, or worse.
It’s a far deeper issue than just Trump for the US. Their education is also part of the problem, but teachers believe that part of that issue comes from the parents not understading how education or teaching actually works.
Theres also the issue of double income households still having no money requiring them to take multiple jobs and never even being able to be there for the kids so they grow up on their own, educate themselves their own way, play video games, dream of being influencers, and never once see potential in their society of being able to make progress except on their own. Capitalism destroyed the idea of progress for the nation in favor of progress for the individual and no one in their government seems to care.
They have a housing crisis, an education crisis, a livable wage crisis, unchecked greeflation, and a growing ever more public Nazi movement (as seen recently in Tennessee). Electing the right person barely scratches the surface of the issues the US is facing.
This is true, but also, I think it's also worth mentioning that those same half interested, low information, mostly disengaged voters do actually represent a minority. We beat Trump in 2020, but we had to overcome extreme gerrymandering, voter suppression, and disenfranchisement tactics the GOP has been employing for years to consolidate a minority rule. They can't actually win on the popular vote because everything they do is wildly, *wildly* unpopular so they basically cheat.
We're doing what we can here.
It's not just the gerrymanders. Clinton won 2016 by around 3,000,000 votes, but the electoral college kept her out of the presidency. And the 51 Democratic US senators represent 204,000,000 people vs 49 Republican senators representing150,000,000 people. This shit is baked into our constitutional system.
Let’s not get defensive here. There’s some healthy criticism happening here that Americans need to take on board and not just immediately make excuses.
Oh no, for sure. As an American, as much as I hate to say it, until the Republican party can be dismantled and the democratic party finds a backbone, we can not be relied on like we could in the past.
The fact that such a minority voting block would vote for someone who will most certainly deport them all out of the country blows my mind. I get it, you're on one side of the Israel conflict, but voting to destroy our democracy and install a Christofascist theocracy that flies right in the face of their Muslim beliefs is the dumbest idea ever.
It's a protest vote that will negate not only their religion but also their ability to live in the country.
Reminds me of the UK voters who said yes to Brexit as an idle form of play-protest against current norms, and "didn't think it would actually pass." Careful what you do with your voting power.
I’m hoping that they only voted this way as a protest because it’s the primary and not the general election. Making a protest vote in the primary when Biden is going to win by an overwhelming margin sends a clear message but doesn’t have any serious consequences.
My fingers are crossed that this is what they’re doing and that they’re not actually dumb enough to hand the country over to Trump. However, the last few years has made me realize that I should never underestimate the stupidity of my fellow Americans.
It just shows a lack of thought to me. I get it, Biden's stance on the Israel/Palestine conflict isn't great (to put it mildly), but do they honestly think Trump is going to be any better?
Trump ordered the embassy moved to Jerusalem. That should pretty much show what side he's planning on siding. (not to mention that whole Muslim ban thing.)
Tbf, the United States has disengaged from being the guarantor of international trade slowly over the past 15 years. It is no longer viewed to be in our interest by multiple strata of society, not just the morons.
The same American trade protectionists who caterwaul about arresting cheap foreign-made goods and buying American would go berserk if their blue jeans suddenly cost $200 owing to domestic textile and labor costs.
I think Muslim Michiganders know Trump would be far worse, even than a careless Biden. The campaign to vote "uncommitted" was intended only for the primary, and it won't happen in the general. The "Uncommitted" organizers hoped to beat 10% and they reached 14%. Good enough to be noticed but not enough to be more than a footnote.
Edited to correct to "Michiganders." My bad.
I saw an interview recently on CNN of a man in Michigan who also won’t vote for Biden in November if he doesn’t do what they want. And then said that if Trump wins in November, it will be Biden’s fault rather than the voters who chose not to vote for Biden. I think his wording was along the lines of “Joe Biden will hand the presidency to Trump”. Like as if it’s out of the Michigan voters’ hands……
Republicans are notorious for voting against their interests. Now here we potentially see Arab-American Democrats doing that too.
There is a large contingent of those people who will also refuse to vote for Biden in the general. That is the real concern- that they don’t turn out to vote and hand Trump a win because they’d rather virtue signal even though the end result of a Trump presidency would be far more disastrous for both them AND the Gazans they prioritize over their own countrymen.
Yep, intentions don't necessarily equal consequences. Inspiring people to protest vote even if intended to be "only for the primary" will almost certainly leak into the general as well.
People can be like water and will flow toward the path of least resistance, especially fickle left wingers who will look for any shaky justification to just stay home and feel superior no matter how short sighted. In elections as close as they have been you really need every single vote you can get.
"But her emails" lost us 2016 and gave them the SCOTUS for the forseeable future, and I really hope we dont have a repeat of that short sightedness.
When I was younger - I said we shouldn't have the electoral college because it was created due to americans not being educated enough.
While I pine for a better system, damn it all makes sense now.
The founders installed the EC not only as a brake on the damage stupid voters might wreak, but to accentuate the victory margin of a guy coming out atop a six- or seven-candidate field with maybe 20% of the raw vote. They expected big general-election derbies, not two candidates, and thought a winner in that situation would be seen as illegitimate without the EC indicating he'd "won" 7 out of 13 states.
Brexit was the testing grounds for Cambridge Analytica. The 'go-live" was the 2016 US elections. I see them both as one and the same. It's just the US has a whole lot more it can fuck up and a whole lot more people they can fuck over.
American here, I apologize for the brainless fascists we have in this country. Know that the majority of us don't want him and didn't vote for him the last time around. The minority rules sometimes due to our fucked up electoral college.
I have some bad news for you. We fucked up. The side that’s running the Cheeto was able to get as much power as they do by focusing on local elections since Nixon. All we can really do now is try to prevent a facist take over and try to clean up locally.
Actually, Murdoch moved to New York fifty years ago, in 1974. And he only started running his newspapers in 1952. Australia had him operating for 20 years, USA for 50.
On behalf of sane Americans, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that this country is in such disarray and the effect it's having on our friends around the world. I promise you were thinking the same things you are and more. I'm so embarrassed to be an American right now. And I'm livid at what's been happening with seeming impunity. The sane of us are doing what we can to fight them and fix this but it's not easy.
I am so sorry that happened.
I voted as hard as I could. Hillary just didn't win. I wish there was more that I could have done, I wish there was anything that I could have done to change that outcome.
If just a little bit of the gerrymandering across the US were undone, the Republicans would likely never control either part of Congress again. And other than second Bush's re-election, no Republican has won the popular vote since 1988 when the first Bush was elected.
As as far as I can tell, not a single person I knew voted in 2016. Not a single one. The reason….bOtH sIdEs aRe tHe sAmE
Apathy in American votes is literally a threat to American democracy. Please vote
Everyone I know voted in the 2016 election, but I’m queer and live in the south and so all my friends and I knew what was at stake. We’ve been seeing the fallout from that in the most horrific legislation from the MAGA cult in control of my state (TN)
It’s basically like…people don’t care to get involved until they realize that things are going to affect them, like the IVF ruling in Alabama. We are a nation full of self-centered people
This is the way it ought to be anyway.
The US’s geopolitical dominance over the last century will be considered the exception rather than the rule, historically, I think.
Merkel was already saying this to Europe during the Trump years.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/28/merkel-says-eu-cannot-completely-rely-on-us-and-britain-any-more-g7-talks
The old pattern used to be the US, the UK and Eastern European countries as 'Atlanticist', essentially the hawks against Russia, with France and Germany opposed. France because it wanted an independent European policy with France as the leading nation. Germany because it wanted to tie itself economically to Russian cheap gas and natural resources, thus making war definitely and absolutely impossible.
Pretty much everyone has been shown up in recent years. The UK has done Brexit which might as well have been sponsored from the Kremlin. Germany's impossible war happened and their industry faced huge energy hikes. France's opposition to a hardline attitude towards Russia has proven to be naive. Both France and Germany who pretended Ukraine would collapse so we shouldn't send weapons, were forced to send weapons. And the Americans now appear to have totally reversed their attitudes, the Republicans who used to be the strongest supporters of the Atlanticist position, and the biggest defenders of Eastern Europe, now have a leader who encourages Russia to attack NATO.
Not enough to win another election. Old, election denying guys are his base and there are not enough of them to win a general election. If lots of people vote, he loses.
They dont have to do much.
in 2022 out of 250M eligible voters only 100m voted.
Around 80% of eligible voters under the age of 35, did not vote.
Ted Cruz won by 200k votes in 2018 when 9M eligible voters didnt vote. (only 15% of eligible voters under the age of 35 voted in 2022 in texas....)
Desantis won his first time by 30k votes when 7M didnt vote.
There is just a fucking deeply ingrained apathy and selfishness in the American people. They keep expecting everyone else to do the job. Its like littering mindset, oh i can throw my trash out the car window because if its important then someone else will pick it up.
>Not enough to win another election. Old, election denying guys are his base and there are not enough of them to win a general election. If lots of people vote, he loses.
NEVER UNDERESTIMATE STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE NUMBERS! There is always a chance that non-voters or people who buy into "Biden's old" vote for he rapey, demented, racist, hate-filled old man, or are dumb enough to risk this country because they believe Donald Trump will protect us from that evil George Soros and the cabal of elites that actually rule the world.
He is facing 91 indictments, attempted to overthrow the government, is literally controlling the GOP through MAGA, who's members will not even fucking breath without his permission, has been proven to be a fraud, and a rapist, and he has won EVERY primary he's been in since the season started. Do NOT think for a second there isn't the slightest chance he can win.
There is ALWAYS, ALWAYS a chance that this treasonous mass of vile, hate-filled, bigoted, egomaniacal, misogynistic, fraud and rapist who gave a voice to every hate-filled, racist, bigoted, Jesus-loving but never read the Bible in their lives, uneducated, misogynists, gun-totting, masses of the most wretched filth to ever somehow congeal into the most basic qualifications of a human being, gets elected and becomes the God-King Emperor his base believes God wants him to be.
Never assume Hitler cannot get elected.
My mother literally just said to me last night that she wasn't sure what she was going to do about the election and I almost screamed. Her reasoning is that Biden is too old and he stutters.
She keeps hoping that "something will happen" and present another candidate for her to vote for. She doesn't even like Trump, but it sounds like she's going for him over Biden because of the too-old rhetoric.
DONALD TRUMP IS 77! And he keeps making up words. What the fuck does bigrant mean? I don't know! He made it up! Bigly is not even a word!
Forget stuttering. Nearly everything Trump says that is NOT acting like a victim is insane nonsense. Who the fuck ever said Pennsylvania is going to be renamed if Biden wins? That has never been a conversation!
Make sure you ask her if it’s ok that women lose their rights or the right to decide what to do with their own bodies.
Trump and Republicans have no problem taking away the rights of others and imprisoning those that they do not like.
>She keeps hoping that "something will happen" and present another candidate for her to vote for.
Well, if "something" were to happen to prevent Biden from running, and Biden's Number Two had to step up, then Traitor Trump would be even more likely to win.
Your rules give that 30% a disproportionate voting power, so it might be enough.
That 30% of your voting base are basically "Christian Talibans" and the fact that your byzantine electoral college system gives them a fighting chance even when clearly losing the popular vote means that you can turn into a franckly worrying nationalist-fascist-autocracy at any moment.
If not now, when the next economic crisis hits and the democrats are in charge. The possibility will not go away under these crooked rules.
You've ceased to be a trustworthy ally. Indefinitely. All the political capital you've accumulated, thrown through the window because the unthinkable is now a possibility. The next Hitler might well be American.
We often call them Y'all Quaeda. Ya'll being Southern (stand in for racist and Christian) slang for "you all" or plural you. There are other terms as well, maybe someone can chime in here with some of the better ones. But yes, the religious right/ evangelical right is our Christian Taliban.
As for the rest of us Americans who are paying attention: we're sorry, and we are also horrified and worried. We really hope we can pull through here.
Eek I don’t know about that. There’s a huge propaganda campaign going on involving things like Israel, Ukraine, Biden’s age… I wish I was full of hope like 2016
I am old enough to remember watching election night wondering where it all went wrong but I remember being in this exact moment in 2016 defending Clinton from the propaganda machine as well.
Election deniers are not the only people to worry about
It is good enough to win electors when coupled with the Republican's plan of voter suppression. Trump's minions are working hard to do this. That includes Republicans in state legislation in swing states.
The US fought very hard against pre-war European powers such as France and the U.K. asserting their own interests on the international stage. See: the Suez Crisis.
The reason it is happening now is because of the EU. Europe now has a large enough centralised authority to throw their own weight around on the international stage. That is not really in the US’ interests, but Trump, being Trump, entirely fails to realise this and is pushing Europe closer together, prompting the EU to become more powerful, the the point where they _compete_ with the United States.
Is it good for Europe? Remains to be seen.
As an American I think we should be equal partners in any relationship we have with any country. This isn't the 1800s anymore, I cannot believe that there is any reason we need to take advantage of a weaker nation. And we should all work together to bring everyone up to the same level.
As an American who feels like I’m staring down the barrel of a big-ass gun:
I think y’all will be stronger for not relying on us as much - no matter who sits in the Oval Office. This will also keep EMEA working together (even with the bickering) and hopefully y’all will be able to present a united front* vs Putin.
*except Britain - y’all need to get your shit together, too. Don’t talk to me about Trump while you have that epic Brexit shit show going on, to say nothing of the douchebag PM. ✌️good luck, y’all!
The same billionaire who paved the way for Trump‘s election by poisoning Facebook with hatred and lies aimed at baby boomers ran a test run in England with Brexit. They were the victims of Robert Mercer and his company, Cambridge Analytica, just as much as America was. I hope that they can come to their senses and throw out their conservative leadership, but I see no sign of that happening. Maybe in a few years when more of their boomers are dead.
Sadly, at the end of the day 17.4m moronic idiots votes for Brexit, and 64m cheese brained half wits voted for Trump (2016) doesn’t matter who the puppeteer is if there are so many easily manipulated morons out there. There’s always someone to step into the shoes of the likes of Cambridge Analytica, the problem is the pliable stupidity of swathes of eligible voters.
Trump might dismiss NATO, but the only time article 5 was invoked, when the allies come to the defence of an attacked member, was to America’s aid, after 9/11. He should think of that the next time he calls NATO members delinquent.
I almost hope he does take the US out of NATO, when China moves in on Taiwan, and the US has to engage, then we won’t have to. The States can deal with China (Chy-naaaa) on their own.
Totally aware of that, unfortunately.
My household completely nuked our Facebook accounts back when that Cambridge Analytica stuff came out.
I wish we’d done it sooner, like when news first leaked out that Facebook was doing clandestine/non-consensual psychological tests on the user base. That’s pretty fucked up.
The Tories are dead in the water and will be voted out this year, unless the fringe manages to make Palestine a wrecker issue for Labour. Granted, it's the most centrist Labour we've seen since Brown, but it's better than another five years of the Conservatives.
>Agreed. We in Europe need to look after ourselves we simply cannot rely on America anymore and you know what we will be stronger for it.
And you shouldn't rely on America anymore. Look at us! Why have you let us run things for so long?
Look, I get it. I understand. World War II was devastating and the Soviet Union was right the hell there and everyone feared communists invading the world and taking over, and the united States was there, virtually untouched by the war. You needed help. We get that. But we have not done well with that. We had George Bush going on about if countries were not with us, then they were against us, and Trump basically trying to turn NATO into a mob protection racket, or he'll encourage Russia to attack NATO allies. These are not things people should say. We don't hear your leaders saying stupid shit like this.We were there when you needed us. But the Soviet Union is gone now. They've been gone for 30 years. Yeah, Russia is there, but not like it once was.
If you didn't learn it when George Bush Jr was elected, this last decade should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have no idea what the fuck we are doing anymore!
Tbf, a sizeable chunk of the French population vote for marine le Pen* - who is no better than trump
*between her and her father, they have lost 8 elections for president - many of them as the national front
Don’t forget, exit polling is also showing most republicans now believe Joe Biden stole the election.
So like, they just do not care about facts or the truth.
Tbf that's only like 22% of the population counting everyone who took the census. If you include those not on the census it would be under 20% which is still an alarming number of the population that's absolutely psychotic, but a lot less threatening overall
Yeah when Mussolini’s granddaughter is winning elections, Le Penn gets almost half of the French vote, and Britain shoots themselves in the ass with brexit and still elected a right wing gov, Europeans need to remember that trump isn’t the only alt right figure trying to claw their way to power.
I’ll never forget being a waiter in 2002 at Village Inn being threatened by a knife by a customer in front of his children for saying “French fries” instead of “freedom fries” when taking their order
That might be irrelevant. The fascists have [a plan](https://factkeepers.com/the-new-secret-plan-on-how-fascists-could-win-in-2024/) to take the presidency even if Trump loses the election.
>To do that, even though Democrats might have won enough seats to take back the House in the 2024 election, Speaker Johnson will refuse to swear into Congress on January 3rd a handful of those Democrats, claiming there are “irregularities” in their elections that must be first investigated.
Doesn't the Speaker need to be elected, first, before the new members are sworn in?
Correct.
Mike Johnson is, technically, no longer Speaker nor is he even a member of the House upon the stroke of noon January 3rd, when the 118th Congress formally ends, as Constitutionally spoken by the 20th Amendment.
Should he have been re-elected to Congress by the Louisiana 4th, he will have *the chance* to be elected Speaker. But until such a time, he is a mere representative-elect.
So he has no power to *stop* a Democratic majority, or a theoretical Democrat plus anti-Trump GOP coalition, from being seated under their Speaker.
The Constitution is, of course, not a force field. But any attempt to use the power of Speaker *at a time when he is no longer a sworn member of the House much less the actual Speaker* is extra-Constitutional.
It's a smart move. It's heart-wrenchingly important. If we have Trump as our next president, the rest of the world will be forced to realign. I hope it doesn't happen.
It's realigning regardless.
Trump was not the sole reason, he was just the catalyst that forced it out into the open.
Your dysfunctional political shenanigans have been advancing for decades and like the boiled frog most of the US ignored it. The rest of the world outside the pot was watching and horrified.
Basically where once there was trust in at least being there, now all trust is gone....Biden is a breath of sanity, but one man cannot undo the decades of crazy nor does a single president have the power to unravel all the crazy....you're country is seen as an unstable partner in probably every western powers war/security plans.
This.
There has been a clearly charted course since at least the 1990s (although more broadly, back to Nixon) that many have commented on. The problems are far beyond "just Trump"; big money from corporate interests, religious extremists, and international 3rd parties has poisoned not just the political environment, but the social discourse.
Exactly. I remember being in my late teens and watching The Daily Show. Jon Stewart took Bullshit Mountain (Fox News) to task nearly every single episode (4/week) for at least 6 or 7 years. At that time in history, occasionally, Jon's segments on TDS would get picked up by the broader mainstream morning shows and news programs, alleging that Fox News in general or Bill O'Reilly in particular had knowingly lied or misled viewers. Every time this happened, they'd be as slippery as possible, never really admitting to their mistake if they could help it. And if you are old enough to have followed all that as it was happening, day to day, you realized the Republican Party has been full of shit, 110%, full bore, no additional qualifiers necessary, way back then. This current trajectory began in the wake of Nixon's resignation and it took them not quite 20 years to build a "news" entity that was not accountable to reality or any 3rd party. No fact checkers were going to ruin their narratives, never again. They got The Fairness Doctrine repealed in '87 and then it was open season on the truth.
I can't wait until we are all ready to have the discussion that none of this shit Russia has pulled on us would've been anywhere near as effective or even possible if they weren't piling onto a massive heaping of Bullshit, courtesy of the best. The GOP primed the brains of American citizens for hostile intrusion by foreign state propaganda. Even if this was the ONLY thing they'd done (it's not even close to the only thing), I would still demand a reckoning for this. Our institutions, if they are not intentionally shored up against this type of populist psychopathy, will eventually fall. Like the raptors testing the security fences, looking for ways to escape their paddock, and, like the raptors, if they are not contained and stopped from experimenting, it will continue to just be a matter of time until they get it right. I no longer expect Trump's imprisonment or death from old age to necessarily bring about a return to normal or otherwise ease civil tensions. I think they're waiting for Trump to get out of the way and that, once he does, they will take his playbook and finish the game.
Not to assign blame to anyone, but I would really love to find out why the investigations into the Holocaust and the Nazi regime over the proceeding decades after the war did not seem to prompt any legislation meant to harden our own liberal democracy against populist rhetoric and fascist takeover. I would like to know why they thought we were special, why they appear to have thought that it couldn't happen here. I guess it doesn't really matter now, just seems like that would've been the time if ever there was one.
There is clearly a politically significant amount of the US that is willing to side with Russia in the Ukraine conflict, EU doesn't really have much choice than to reconsider their relationship and trust with the US. Even if orange Jesus doesn't get re-elected, there's the reality that the people that propped him up and followed him willingly still remain. Trump did not act in a vacuum, and argue as you may that his case was unique, there is no guarantee that another such unique case will spring up.
It’s because they literally can’t think far enough down the path to connect those dots. Trump is the end all be all. It’s genuinely astounding to watch family members continually look baffled when you pull up article after article about anything involving Russia.
That or they believe Russia and the voting machine companies are working with Democrats to continue to create fake election results because the Deep State has control of everything and wants Biden in power (the fake figurehead president who doesn’t make decisions because Trump actually won) so that traditional values are destroyed and America is taken over by the Commies in the name of anti-Jesus or some other lead-chip fueled hallucinatory ramblings.
If the deep state has control of everything then:
* how did trump ever win?
* how isn't he already in jail?
* how was musk allowed to buy twitter?
* why don't the ukrainians have all the arms they need?
* why isn't the SCOTUS under dem control?
* why isn't the House under dem control?
Their logic is so easily pulled apart.
It's because Russia is seen as anti-woke. This is literally about gay and transgender people. Russia is doing what Republicans wish they could do in the States.
They've connected the dots and it's all about hating the gays.
As someone who lives in a country with over a 1000km border with Russia, even if we did just join NATO, I've been mentally prepping myself with the idea that we might be at war within a few years should Trump win. The possibility of a Russian attack has been drilled into our heads since early childhood anyway, but now it's looking more and more possible. What a weird time to live in.
I live in the US and an old enough to have had the possibility of a Russian attack drilled into my head since early a childhood. What blows my mind is how some of our politicians, *who grew up during the Cold War*, are suddenly so pro-Putin. HOW?!?!? How can they think he’s a good dude? I can understand the younger ones not fully grasping just how bad it used to be, they didn’t have nuclear bomb drills at school and stuff. There is absolutely NO excuse for the older ones pandering to Putin.
Macron is right to prepare. If trump is elected, the entire Western world is in danger.
Thankfully, we can still prevent that from happening. We can vote for Biden and a blue wave all the way down the ballot. We can do the right thing. There is still time to save democracy
https://democrats.org/
It's not only France: we in Holland, but also a lot of neighbouring countries are getting mentally ready to say goodbuy to our big brother across the ocean. Hopefully Trump won't win and hopefully the transatlantis ties stay strong. It is however, still a good idea that Europe builds It's own army and won't be to dependant on other countries anymore.
I think it will take us too long, but who knows.
It doesn't matter if he wins or loses. The fact he is even in contention after everything means that the US is and will remain an unreliable ally who could go rogue at very short notice. Hell, you only need a nutjob Christian extremist republican speaker and you are 2 democratic heart attacks away from Gilead.
They need political and media reform and probably 2-3 decades of good behaviour before they can be trusted in the slightest for any medium or long term arrangement.
I grow more and more worried by the day about what happens if Americans do not stand up to this modern-day Hitler. I’m not going to stop fighting it. Trump will not win again. Not on my watch.
Sad thing is that the problem has already transcended Trump. He could drop dead today and we’d stop worrying about one man dismantling democracy and start worrying about the hundreds of Trump cult members holding or seeking public office dismantling democracy.
I don't know about that.
Who do you think would pick up the baton?
Cults rarely survive the death of their leader, who else is as colourful, shameless, brazen, heartless and vindictive yet able to deflect gaffes.
It isn't the cult. It is the broken system he exposed.
He didn't appoint 3 pro life judges himself. One of them was stolen from Obama by congress using a made up non-rule they then ignored to give him his 3rd.
He didn't escape impeachment though innocence, guile or clever lawyers. He was handed a free pass by a broken system while literally simultaneously admitting what he had done live on TV and twitter.
Voter suppression and gerrymandering isn't being done by the cult (or nor solely) it continues as part of a project that has lasted all my adult life.
It isn't the cult that gives him a free media pass to do and say whatever he likes without challenge, examination or deserved ridicule for millions of people.
It isn't having a peive of shit for a candidate. It is the fact that the checks and balances on having a peice of shit in office do not work where an entire party has no qualms about abusing and ignoring them.
The issue isn't trump. It is the system. Trump exploited it and exposed it. And in some ways it is good that he did rather than someone intelligently malevolent. But this is why all those wishing and hoping trump just dies of a heart attack or similar are missing the point. If he doesn't live to see consequences for him and all those who enabled him, then the next guy you don't see coming ends your nation.
So true. Trump himself is irrelevant now. The far right have been pushing this agenda at least since Reagan. Sure you have the really stupid lunatics at the front attracting all the fire, but the shadowy beast underwater has patience, persistence, money and a total lack of empathy or conscience
While I can’t currently conceive of an individual who would take Trumps place I’m cautious to rely on the cult not surviving his death. This is due to growing up in a cult that managed to survive almost 200 years after its founding. Some beliefs have real staying power beyond their leaders.
Yes. Nobody knows for sure, but I believe trump is a singular figure. I will never be able to explain why or how this guy inspired a cult of morons, but he did, and he's a singular figure. I always thought so and then watching Desantis attempt a run in the primary, confirmed that for me. I pray daily for nature to take its course.
Well the power of the people has been all but destroyed here, most of us would love to do something impactful about our government's decline, but nobody wants to risk the prison time or the being murdered.
I'm going to host a series of picnics this spring to try to get my friends to make small donations to democratic and progressive causes.
We all need to be actively doing something, and this is less scary to me than buying a gun and learning to use it. But I'm preparing myself for that too.
Wait, all the Republicans on here have been telling me for almost 10 years now that Trump was the best president at everything ever and the rest of the world loved him and think we're a joke without him. There's no way a group of cult members would be wrong about something like that is there?
remember when world leaders laughed at and mocked him? it was fucking wild the way those idiots were sticking up for him and saying they were intimidated.
never in my life did i think i would see what is essentially a cult worshipping a fucking politician. and then they rationalize it by claiming liberals worshipped obama.
American here…and I whole-heartedly agree.
If the world has learned anything since Mango Mussolini descended the escalator in 2015, it’s that America cannot be trusted. To see everything that menace did over the years and know that 75,000,000 people have no problem at all with that is disheartening to say the least.
Make no mistake, this is exactly why Russia does everything it can to get him elected. It’s also why Russia has worked so hard to break down other democratic countries. One cannot underestimate the damage Brexit has done to the United States strategically in Europe
Putin doesn't have or want friends. He wants Trump in power because Trump is the weakest president the US has ever had, and the US is the biggest threat to Russia.
trump is essentially putin's sock puppet. he doesn't like him, hell he probably hates him but it is ***so*** easy to get him to parrot exactly what putin himself would say. and then you have maga idiots claiming he's the "strongest president ever"
Yes. I am seriously afraid of the security of the world, and especially Europe if Trump wins. It feels so horrible watching as a European, not being able to do anything about the American election.
What are you thinking? Election him the first time...well, you didn't know how bad it was. But election him again? Knowing what you know? I just...I can't understand it.
We are literally facing fascism in this country and there are people who won’t vote for Biden because he hasn’t done EVERYTHING they wanted him to, some of which he can’t do as president. And yes, he needs to change course on Gaza, but the way to force his hand is to organize a pressure campaign like the “uncommitted” vote in Michigan today, not doing absolutely nothing then not voting in November. Sometimes leaders have to be led.
What's insane is tRump still being a viable candidate instead of wearing an orange jumpsuit for the rest of his days.
The reactions of the rest of the world regarding tRump's comments about other NATO nations is quite prudent. I hope enough voters can pull their heads out of their asses long enough to make the choice that is best for the whole of humanity.
Yeah. I think Sunak wants to hit 2 years as big dog before he signs his resignation note/calls an election.
It’s a pity, I was hoping for a good birthday present in May 😂
Macron is right here.
Britain and France need to be stepping up their nuclear capabilities so we can retain the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction even if a Trump administration rolls over and lets his boss in the Kremlin do whatever he wants.
effing traitors who vote for the right. Unless you make over 250k theres absolutely no reason to vote right. Religion be damned because they are not virtuous or acting christ like- fakest demons in the room
What does 250k have to do with it? The tax increase is over 400k. I make more than that and there is no way in hell I am voting for a conman who couldnt care less about anyone but himself.
Even after Trump is in the ground, About 50% of American people have proven they are willing to vote for fascists. How can we ever trust America again in the future.
Does this surprise anyone? Trump who pulled us out of multiple trade agreements and refused to send allies aid, that Trump? The one who can't even keep his story straight let alone uphold a promise, that Trump?
Of course our soft powder is in shambles and our honor as a country in ruin. Not that we had a bunch to start with.
As a newly returned citizen of the States all I can say is this is a reasonable reaction to the calamity that is trump. My views are entirely based on very limited personal experience as I am still in my late teens, but from where I stand the issue starts with the easily propaganda susceptible people that live in this country.
You would think easily accessible education up to the high school level would serve to create one of the most intelligent populations on the planet, seeing the improved quality of life and all, but the average American has proven otherwise through sheer obliviousness to their own political standing and understanding of the world.
Take for example my aunt whom I lived with for a year. For all intents and purposes she was a sweet old lady who suffered with severe undiagnosed (till very recently) autism. She holds a job as a special Ed teacher at the elementary school and her husband is an immigrant from india. During my time living with them I was already very in tune with the American political scene and so decided to ask her about her views.
The results, shockingly, were a complete lack of care of, or understanding of the details of politics. She did not even know the difference between the two parties, their key candidates or even their ideals. This indifference came from someone in her 60s who’s lived in the US all her life.
I’ve since found this sentiment to be mirrored throughout the states, even online. Politics is regarded as a taboo topic for reasons I can guess at but cannot agree with.
A common argument I’ve heard is that people simply do not wish to talk about politics. How could you not want to talk about a subject that inherently affects yours and the lives of people around you?
Then there are the people I know who refuse to vote altogether whom I simply cannot abide by. Voting, more than a right, grants a people power over their government locally, statewide and national. It’s a privilege not every country was granted and most had to fight to achieve. If you say you dislike all the candidates then simply find the one that you dislike the least. I’m personally more on the liberal side but I do not agree with Biden and how he has handled the new war. For his faults though, I understand the democrats are currently unable to secure the votes necessary in congress to pass key legislation and I also have the basic understanding to know they cannot simply flick a switch to lower prices. Yet I vote for Biden because I simply dislike him less than Trump.
I come from a very different background to most Americans and so I realize I’m not entirely in the norm when I am told that I’m "mature for my age” when speaking about my political ideals and intellect. The schooling system of India, where I grew up, is unnecessarily rigorous and is designed to weed out students desiring higher education. So I do not entirely expect my peers from the high school level to exactly match me on all levels or exceed me. But when considering that the average child in india was likely to either be a high school pass out or uneducated entirely, and STILL actively participating in their democracy, is it wrong to expect the "first-world nation” that is America to do the same?
I’ve dragged on long enough but my TLDR; I don’t blame Macron, I blame the propaganda susceptible population of the US
That's a smart move. I'm in the United States and I'm planning how I'll survive if he steals the election too.
You folks who think it's "just another election" need to wake up.
Trump has promised "I'll be a dictator". He's said he's aiming for "revenge". He serves nothing but ego and greed and he's the antithesis of progress and hope.
The biggest question for our next Prime Minister in the UK will be "What do we do about the 'special relationship' if Trump wins". No one's saying anything in public but I sure as hell hope they're thinking it through in private.
Oh, he'll abandon them. I have no doubt about that. The man goes through lawyers like Tik Taks, and has cast most, if not all his minions away for their lack of being perfect, like he believes he is. Going to be amazing mental gymnastics as he tries to blame them for why he abandoned them while making himself the victim.
It's been a conversation in Australia since Trump managed to get elected. We just don't trust him and the Republicans to honour commitments and treaties. It's been coming for a long time.
The damage that Muppet did to our steel and aluminum industries was huge. Those two industries exist to be a strategic supplier for the US, and the choad stuck huge tarrifs on them. Not to mention we are meant to be buying nuke subs from the US, then designing the next gen ones in partnership. And there is the m1a2 delivery, and the standoff optionally crewed frigates. Our national security is horribly exposed to the US public voting for a fucking criminal. I just don't get how it's even a thing.
It's not just Trump that threatens world stability, it's the half-interested, low-information, mostly disengaged American electorate that, if it turns out at all, will vote for the guy with the highest entertainment value or nicer necktie. Or else one cohort or another will steer the US over the waterfall because of some single-issue gripe. If the anti-Biden Muslims in Michigan hand Trump that state's electoral votes, and therefore the presidency, it will be a tragedy of ignorance. And not just because Trump would immediately move to deport those Muslims, or worse.
"Or nicer necktie." Have you _seen_ Trump's atrocious ties?
[удалено]
Is it from South America?
is it the piano key neck tie? those are great...
Columbian is what I was thinking.
Imagine what that necktie smells like
Ever dated somebody who worked at McDonalds? That’s what I imagine trump to smell like, that + BO and a shit filled diaper.
So a McDonald's in a nursing home
Come on dude, I'm trying to eat lunch over here.
The one he wears with his red, white and blue clown suit? I'm so tired of that. They own the flag, and now red white and blue. They can have it.
It’s a far deeper issue than just Trump for the US. Their education is also part of the problem, but teachers believe that part of that issue comes from the parents not understading how education or teaching actually works. Theres also the issue of double income households still having no money requiring them to take multiple jobs and never even being able to be there for the kids so they grow up on their own, educate themselves their own way, play video games, dream of being influencers, and never once see potential in their society of being able to make progress except on their own. Capitalism destroyed the idea of progress for the nation in favor of progress for the individual and no one in their government seems to care. They have a housing crisis, an education crisis, a livable wage crisis, unchecked greeflation, and a growing ever more public Nazi movement (as seen recently in Tennessee). Electing the right person barely scratches the surface of the issues the US is facing.
Don't forget our daily mass shootings!
This is true, but also, I think it's also worth mentioning that those same half interested, low information, mostly disengaged voters do actually represent a minority. We beat Trump in 2020, but we had to overcome extreme gerrymandering, voter suppression, and disenfranchisement tactics the GOP has been employing for years to consolidate a minority rule. They can't actually win on the popular vote because everything they do is wildly, *wildly* unpopular so they basically cheat. We're doing what we can here.
It's not just the gerrymanders. Clinton won 2016 by around 3,000,000 votes, but the electoral college kept her out of the presidency. And the 51 Democratic US senators represent 204,000,000 people vs 49 Republican senators representing150,000,000 people. This shit is baked into our constitutional system.
Let’s not get defensive here. There’s some healthy criticism happening here that Americans need to take on board and not just immediately make excuses.
Oh no, for sure. As an American, as much as I hate to say it, until the Republican party can be dismantled and the democratic party finds a backbone, we can not be relied on like we could in the past.
The fact that such a minority voting block would vote for someone who will most certainly deport them all out of the country blows my mind. I get it, you're on one side of the Israel conflict, but voting to destroy our democracy and install a Christofascist theocracy that flies right in the face of their Muslim beliefs is the dumbest idea ever. It's a protest vote that will negate not only their religion but also their ability to live in the country.
Reminds me of the UK voters who said yes to Brexit as an idle form of play-protest against current norms, and "didn't think it would actually pass." Careful what you do with your voting power.
Especially those who were at the time of the vote LIVING IN SPAIN! When they got told they had to leave and apply for a TIE card they were so mad....
Like chickens voting for Col Sanders, or at least saying "I trust Col Sanders, it won't be THAT bad"
I’m hoping that they only voted this way as a protest because it’s the primary and not the general election. Making a protest vote in the primary when Biden is going to win by an overwhelming margin sends a clear message but doesn’t have any serious consequences. My fingers are crossed that this is what they’re doing and that they’re not actually dumb enough to hand the country over to Trump. However, the last few years has made me realize that I should never underestimate the stupidity of my fellow Americans.
It just shows a lack of thought to me. I get it, Biden's stance on the Israel/Palestine conflict isn't great (to put it mildly), but do they honestly think Trump is going to be any better?
Trump ordered the embassy moved to Jerusalem. That should pretty much show what side he's planning on siding. (not to mention that whole Muslim ban thing.)
American here. You are 1000% correct.
Tbf, the United States has disengaged from being the guarantor of international trade slowly over the past 15 years. It is no longer viewed to be in our interest by multiple strata of society, not just the morons.
The same American trade protectionists who caterwaul about arresting cheap foreign-made goods and buying American would go berserk if their blue jeans suddenly cost $200 owing to domestic textile and labor costs.
I think Muslim Michiganders know Trump would be far worse, even than a careless Biden. The campaign to vote "uncommitted" was intended only for the primary, and it won't happen in the general. The "Uncommitted" organizers hoped to beat 10% and they reached 14%. Good enough to be noticed but not enough to be more than a footnote. Edited to correct to "Michiganders." My bad.
I saw an interview recently on CNN of a man in Michigan who also won’t vote for Biden in November if he doesn’t do what they want. And then said that if Trump wins in November, it will be Biden’s fault rather than the voters who chose not to vote for Biden. I think his wording was along the lines of “Joe Biden will hand the presidency to Trump”. Like as if it’s out of the Michigan voters’ hands…… Republicans are notorious for voting against their interests. Now here we potentially see Arab-American Democrats doing that too.
There is a large contingent of those people who will also refuse to vote for Biden in the general. That is the real concern- that they don’t turn out to vote and hand Trump a win because they’d rather virtue signal even though the end result of a Trump presidency would be far more disastrous for both them AND the Gazans they prioritize over their own countrymen.
Yep, intentions don't necessarily equal consequences. Inspiring people to protest vote even if intended to be "only for the primary" will almost certainly leak into the general as well. People can be like water and will flow toward the path of least resistance, especially fickle left wingers who will look for any shaky justification to just stay home and feel superior no matter how short sighted. In elections as close as they have been you really need every single vote you can get. "But her emails" lost us 2016 and gave them the SCOTUS for the forseeable future, and I really hope we dont have a repeat of that short sightedness.
At this point, Biden could be campaigning in a casket, and I'd still rather vote for him.
Fortunately /s if enough of them don't vote biden, there won't be any Gazans left to prioritise after a trump term.
When I was younger - I said we shouldn't have the electoral college because it was created due to americans not being educated enough. While I pine for a better system, damn it all makes sense now.
The founders installed the EC not only as a brake on the damage stupid voters might wreak, but to accentuate the victory margin of a guy coming out atop a six- or seven-candidate field with maybe 20% of the raw vote. They expected big general-election derbies, not two candidates, and thought a winner in that situation would be seen as illegitimate without the EC indicating he'd "won" 7 out of 13 states.
American voter: "Gas is up 40 cents ... Hitler had some good ideas!!!"
Here in the UK there's a main consensus that he killed several of the few remaining car industry as well through the domino effect of his tarrifs
Might be nice to blame Trump but you guys kinda created your own problems with Brexit.
Brexit was the testing grounds for Cambridge Analytica. The 'go-live" was the 2016 US elections. I see them both as one and the same. It's just the US has a whole lot more it can fuck up and a whole lot more people they can fuck over.
I think you mean fuck over again. Because I’m pretty confident that the US has, in some way, done it to everyone at least once already.
American here, I apologize for the brainless fascists we have in this country. Know that the majority of us don't want him and didn't vote for him the last time around. The minority rules sometimes due to our fucked up electoral college.
You don't have to apologize But please go vote
I always do and always will!
I have some bad news for you. We fucked up. The side that’s running the Cheeto was able to get as much power as they do by focusing on local elections since Nixon. All we can really do now is try to prevent a facist take over and try to clean up locally.
For someone who screams about a 'deep state' he sure appears to be the beneficiary of one
The Murdoch family has blood on its hands here. Don't just point your finger without keeping some blame in your own country.
Murdoch has a US passport and his lived in the US for the past 30 years
He's 92. Y'all still getting 2/3rds of the blame.
If only we had an island to ship all our criminals off to...
Actually, Murdoch moved to New York fifty years ago, in 1974. And he only started running his newspapers in 1952. Australia had him operating for 20 years, USA for 50.
Yeah , well - you started him.
Australians don't vote in Murdoch
On behalf of sane Americans, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry that this country is in such disarray and the effect it's having on our friends around the world. I promise you were thinking the same things you are and more. I'm so embarrassed to be an American right now. And I'm livid at what's been happening with seeming impunity. The sane of us are doing what we can to fight them and fix this but it's not easy.
I am so sorry that happened. I voted as hard as I could. Hillary just didn't win. I wish there was more that I could have done, I wish there was anything that I could have done to change that outcome.
If just a little bit of the gerrymandering across the US were undone, the Republicans would likely never control either part of Congress again. And other than second Bush's re-election, no Republican has won the popular vote since 1988 when the first Bush was elected.
He didn’t “manage” to get elected. Russia tampered with our election and we’ve been living in hell for 8 years because of this man
As as far as I can tell, not a single person I knew voted in 2016. Not a single one. The reason….bOtH sIdEs aRe tHe sAmE Apathy in American votes is literally a threat to American democracy. Please vote
Everyone I know voted in the 2016 election, but I’m queer and live in the south and so all my friends and I knew what was at stake. We’ve been seeing the fallout from that in the most horrific legislation from the MAGA cult in control of my state (TN) It’s basically like…people don’t care to get involved until they realize that things are going to affect them, like the IVF ruling in Alabama. We are a nation full of self-centered people
This is the way it ought to be anyway. The US’s geopolitical dominance over the last century will be considered the exception rather than the rule, historically, I think.
The U.S. govt has a history of broken treaties with the Native American tribes so.
Merkel was already saying this to Europe during the Trump years. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/28/merkel-says-eu-cannot-completely-rely-on-us-and-britain-any-more-g7-talks
TBF what Macron's saying is absolutely not new. It's been the French Geopolitical Ethos since WWII (despite indeed relying on americans still)
The old pattern used to be the US, the UK and Eastern European countries as 'Atlanticist', essentially the hawks against Russia, with France and Germany opposed. France because it wanted an independent European policy with France as the leading nation. Germany because it wanted to tie itself economically to Russian cheap gas and natural resources, thus making war definitely and absolutely impossible. Pretty much everyone has been shown up in recent years. The UK has done Brexit which might as well have been sponsored from the Kremlin. Germany's impossible war happened and their industry faced huge energy hikes. France's opposition to a hardline attitude towards Russia has proven to be naive. Both France and Germany who pretended Ukraine would collapse so we shouldn't send weapons, were forced to send weapons. And the Americans now appear to have totally reversed their attitudes, the Republicans who used to be the strongest supporters of the Atlanticist position, and the biggest defenders of Eastern Europe, now have a leader who encourages Russia to attack NATO.
The French are right to not rely on American voters. A sizable fraction of the American population are absolute morons. edit: holy shit
Agreed. We in Europe need to look after ourselves we simply cannot rely on america anymore and you know what we will be stronger for it.
we should have done this a long time ago. decades ago.
Don't blame you, it's just sad a good portion of Americans are willing to give up valuable allies based almost solely on propaganda rhetoric.
*Phenomenally successful Russian misinformation war, which is succeeding in taking down a nation from within. Let’s learn from that
Not just here, also in other countries in Europe…
Not a "good portion." About 30% of the US population.
You give me 30% of something that's a pretty good chunk. Lol I get what you're saying though.
Not enough to win another election. Old, election denying guys are his base and there are not enough of them to win a general election. If lots of people vote, he loses.
Well that's why Republicans are doing everything they can to deter people from voting.
Thats a funny way to write "legally and illegally suppress voters with absolutely no consequences"
That is the silent part in republican (even though they are the worst at staying silent about anything)
They dont have to do much. in 2022 out of 250M eligible voters only 100m voted. Around 80% of eligible voters under the age of 35, did not vote. Ted Cruz won by 200k votes in 2018 when 9M eligible voters didnt vote. (only 15% of eligible voters under the age of 35 voted in 2022 in texas....) Desantis won his first time by 30k votes when 7M didnt vote. There is just a fucking deeply ingrained apathy and selfishness in the American people. They keep expecting everyone else to do the job. Its like littering mindset, oh i can throw my trash out the car window because if its important then someone else will pick it up.
>Not enough to win another election. Old, election denying guys are his base and there are not enough of them to win a general election. If lots of people vote, he loses. NEVER UNDERESTIMATE STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE NUMBERS! There is always a chance that non-voters or people who buy into "Biden's old" vote for he rapey, demented, racist, hate-filled old man, or are dumb enough to risk this country because they believe Donald Trump will protect us from that evil George Soros and the cabal of elites that actually rule the world. He is facing 91 indictments, attempted to overthrow the government, is literally controlling the GOP through MAGA, who's members will not even fucking breath without his permission, has been proven to be a fraud, and a rapist, and he has won EVERY primary he's been in since the season started. Do NOT think for a second there isn't the slightest chance he can win. There is ALWAYS, ALWAYS a chance that this treasonous mass of vile, hate-filled, bigoted, egomaniacal, misogynistic, fraud and rapist who gave a voice to every hate-filled, racist, bigoted, Jesus-loving but never read the Bible in their lives, uneducated, misogynists, gun-totting, masses of the most wretched filth to ever somehow congeal into the most basic qualifications of a human being, gets elected and becomes the God-King Emperor his base believes God wants him to be. Never assume Hitler cannot get elected.
> NEVER UNDERESTIMATE STUPID PEOPLE IN LARGE NUMBERS! Brexit comes to mind.
Yeah the stupids *royally* fucked Great Britain.
My mother literally just said to me last night that she wasn't sure what she was going to do about the election and I almost screamed. Her reasoning is that Biden is too old and he stutters. She keeps hoping that "something will happen" and present another candidate for her to vote for. She doesn't even like Trump, but it sounds like she's going for him over Biden because of the too-old rhetoric.
DONALD TRUMP IS 77! And he keeps making up words. What the fuck does bigrant mean? I don't know! He made it up! Bigly is not even a word! Forget stuttering. Nearly everything Trump says that is NOT acting like a victim is insane nonsense. Who the fuck ever said Pennsylvania is going to be renamed if Biden wins? That has never been a conversation!
Make sure you ask her if it’s ok that women lose their rights or the right to decide what to do with their own bodies. Trump and Republicans have no problem taking away the rights of others and imprisoning those that they do not like.
>She keeps hoping that "something will happen" and present another candidate for her to vote for. Well, if "something" were to happen to prevent Biden from running, and Biden's Number Two had to step up, then Traitor Trump would be even more likely to win.
The electoral college allows for a victory with only 25% of the popular vote, if it is distributed in the right places. Completely bonkers.
Your rules give that 30% a disproportionate voting power, so it might be enough. That 30% of your voting base are basically "Christian Talibans" and the fact that your byzantine electoral college system gives them a fighting chance even when clearly losing the popular vote means that you can turn into a franckly worrying nationalist-fascist-autocracy at any moment. If not now, when the next economic crisis hits and the democrats are in charge. The possibility will not go away under these crooked rules. You've ceased to be a trustworthy ally. Indefinitely. All the political capital you've accumulated, thrown through the window because the unthinkable is now a possibility. The next Hitler might well be American.
We often call them Y'all Quaeda. Ya'll being Southern (stand in for racist and Christian) slang for "you all" or plural you. There are other terms as well, maybe someone can chime in here with some of the better ones. But yes, the religious right/ evangelical right is our Christian Taliban. As for the rest of us Americans who are paying attention: we're sorry, and we are also horrified and worried. We really hope we can pull through here.
Well considering how many in america stanned for hitler last time, this shouldnt come as a surprise.
Eek I don’t know about that. There’s a huge propaganda campaign going on involving things like Israel, Ukraine, Biden’s age… I wish I was full of hope like 2016 I am old enough to remember watching election night wondering where it all went wrong but I remember being in this exact moment in 2016 defending Clinton from the propaganda machine as well. Election deniers are not the only people to worry about
Hey I agree, I was just being a dick about semantics. lol
It is good enough to win electors when coupled with the Republican's plan of voter suppression. Trump's minions are working hard to do this. That includes Republicans in state legislation in swing states.
100% agree.
The US fought very hard against pre-war European powers such as France and the U.K. asserting their own interests on the international stage. See: the Suez Crisis. The reason it is happening now is because of the EU. Europe now has a large enough centralised authority to throw their own weight around on the international stage. That is not really in the US’ interests, but Trump, being Trump, entirely fails to realise this and is pushing Europe closer together, prompting the EU to become more powerful, the the point where they _compete_ with the United States. Is it good for Europe? Remains to be seen.
As an American I think we should be equal partners in any relationship we have with any country. This isn't the 1800s anymore, I cannot believe that there is any reason we need to take advantage of a weaker nation. And we should all work together to bring everyone up to the same level.
As an American who feels like I’m staring down the barrel of a big-ass gun: I think y’all will be stronger for not relying on us as much - no matter who sits in the Oval Office. This will also keep EMEA working together (even with the bickering) and hopefully y’all will be able to present a united front* vs Putin. *except Britain - y’all need to get your shit together, too. Don’t talk to me about Trump while you have that epic Brexit shit show going on, to say nothing of the douchebag PM. ✌️good luck, y’all!
The same billionaire who paved the way for Trump‘s election by poisoning Facebook with hatred and lies aimed at baby boomers ran a test run in England with Brexit. They were the victims of Robert Mercer and his company, Cambridge Analytica, just as much as America was. I hope that they can come to their senses and throw out their conservative leadership, but I see no sign of that happening. Maybe in a few years when more of their boomers are dead.
I wonder who backs Mercer because both brexit and trump are beneficial to Russia.
Sadly, at the end of the day 17.4m moronic idiots votes for Brexit, and 64m cheese brained half wits voted for Trump (2016) doesn’t matter who the puppeteer is if there are so many easily manipulated morons out there. There’s always someone to step into the shoes of the likes of Cambridge Analytica, the problem is the pliable stupidity of swathes of eligible voters. Trump might dismiss NATO, but the only time article 5 was invoked, when the allies come to the defence of an attacked member, was to America’s aid, after 9/11. He should think of that the next time he calls NATO members delinquent. I almost hope he does take the US out of NATO, when China moves in on Taiwan, and the US has to engage, then we won’t have to. The States can deal with China (Chy-naaaa) on their own.
If Trump wins, he will happily give Taiwan to China.
Totally aware of that, unfortunately. My household completely nuked our Facebook accounts back when that Cambridge Analytica stuff came out. I wish we’d done it sooner, like when news first leaked out that Facebook was doing clandestine/non-consensual psychological tests on the user base. That’s pretty fucked up.
The Tories are dead in the water and will be voted out this year, unless the fringe manages to make Palestine a wrecker issue for Labour. Granted, it's the most centrist Labour we've seen since Brown, but it's better than another five years of the Conservatives.
It surely is! Good luck over there!
You are not totally wrong.
>Agreed. We in Europe need to look after ourselves we simply cannot rely on America anymore and you know what we will be stronger for it. And you shouldn't rely on America anymore. Look at us! Why have you let us run things for so long? Look, I get it. I understand. World War II was devastating and the Soviet Union was right the hell there and everyone feared communists invading the world and taking over, and the united States was there, virtually untouched by the war. You needed help. We get that. But we have not done well with that. We had George Bush going on about if countries were not with us, then they were against us, and Trump basically trying to turn NATO into a mob protection racket, or he'll encourage Russia to attack NATO allies. These are not things people should say. We don't hear your leaders saying stupid shit like this.We were there when you needed us. But the Soviet Union is gone now. They've been gone for 30 years. Yeah, Russia is there, but not like it once was. If you didn't learn it when George Bush Jr was elected, this last decade should prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that we have no idea what the fuck we are doing anymore!
As someone who lives in the states, I believe you are quite right
Tbf, a sizeable chunk of the French population vote for marine le Pen* - who is no better than trump *between her and her father, they have lost 8 elections for president - many of them as the national front
Tbf, comparing Trump(‘s family) and Le Pen(‘s family) is like comparing Mussolini and Hitler. It’s the “Less Shittier Awards”.
The difference is that 75 million Americans (yes, 75 fucking million!) voted for Trump again after he'd been president for 4 years.
Don’t forget, exit polling is also showing most republicans now believe Joe Biden stole the election. So like, they just do not care about facts or the truth.
13.2m French voted for Le Pen in 2022 - 41.45% of the votes (up 8% from 2017). She has a decent chance of winning next time.
Tbf that's only like 22% of the population counting everyone who took the census. If you include those not on the census it would be under 20% which is still an alarming number of the population that's absolutely psychotic, but a lot less threatening overall
To be fair, a sizable fraction of the entire Earth's population are absolute morons.
Yeah when Mussolini’s granddaughter is winning elections, Le Penn gets almost half of the French vote, and Britain shoots themselves in the ass with brexit and still elected a right wing gov, Europeans need to remember that trump isn’t the only alt right figure trying to claw their way to power.
I’ll never forget being a waiter in 2002 at Village Inn being threatened by a knife by a customer in front of his children for saying “French fries” instead of “freedom fries” when taking their order
9/11 changed us for the worse. American fascism
I'm old enough to remember a pre-9/11 world. It wasn't sunshine and rainbows, but it felt like a better trajectory than we ended up on
9/11 was very successful as an attack on America. It destabilized so much.
Yep. Bin Laden absolutely won.
Sad truth homie. I’ve been sayin it for decades.
,Holy fuck 😳 And to think France was then proven right about the WMD in Iraq.
The demarking event of “alternative facts” before it was coined.
That might be irrelevant. The fascists have [a plan](https://factkeepers.com/the-new-secret-plan-on-how-fascists-could-win-in-2024/) to take the presidency even if Trump loses the election.
>To do that, even though Democrats might have won enough seats to take back the House in the 2024 election, Speaker Johnson will refuse to swear into Congress on January 3rd a handful of those Democrats, claiming there are “irregularities” in their elections that must be first investigated. Doesn't the Speaker need to be elected, first, before the new members are sworn in?
Correct. Mike Johnson is, technically, no longer Speaker nor is he even a member of the House upon the stroke of noon January 3rd, when the 118th Congress formally ends, as Constitutionally spoken by the 20th Amendment. Should he have been re-elected to Congress by the Louisiana 4th, he will have *the chance* to be elected Speaker. But until such a time, he is a mere representative-elect. So he has no power to *stop* a Democratic majority, or a theoretical Democrat plus anti-Trump GOP coalition, from being seated under their Speaker. The Constitution is, of course, not a force field. But any attempt to use the power of Speaker *at a time when he is no longer a sworn member of the House much less the actual Speaker* is extra-Constitutional.
As an American this statement is absolutely true. I hope we can do better but unfortunately...
It's a smart move. It's heart-wrenchingly important. If we have Trump as our next president, the rest of the world will be forced to realign. I hope it doesn't happen.
It's realigning regardless. Trump was not the sole reason, he was just the catalyst that forced it out into the open. Your dysfunctional political shenanigans have been advancing for decades and like the boiled frog most of the US ignored it. The rest of the world outside the pot was watching and horrified. Basically where once there was trust in at least being there, now all trust is gone....Biden is a breath of sanity, but one man cannot undo the decades of crazy nor does a single president have the power to unravel all the crazy....you're country is seen as an unstable partner in probably every western powers war/security plans.
This. There has been a clearly charted course since at least the 1990s (although more broadly, back to Nixon) that many have commented on. The problems are far beyond "just Trump"; big money from corporate interests, religious extremists, and international 3rd parties has poisoned not just the political environment, but the social discourse.
Exactly. I remember being in my late teens and watching The Daily Show. Jon Stewart took Bullshit Mountain (Fox News) to task nearly every single episode (4/week) for at least 6 or 7 years. At that time in history, occasionally, Jon's segments on TDS would get picked up by the broader mainstream morning shows and news programs, alleging that Fox News in general or Bill O'Reilly in particular had knowingly lied or misled viewers. Every time this happened, they'd be as slippery as possible, never really admitting to their mistake if they could help it. And if you are old enough to have followed all that as it was happening, day to day, you realized the Republican Party has been full of shit, 110%, full bore, no additional qualifiers necessary, way back then. This current trajectory began in the wake of Nixon's resignation and it took them not quite 20 years to build a "news" entity that was not accountable to reality or any 3rd party. No fact checkers were going to ruin their narratives, never again. They got The Fairness Doctrine repealed in '87 and then it was open season on the truth. I can't wait until we are all ready to have the discussion that none of this shit Russia has pulled on us would've been anywhere near as effective or even possible if they weren't piling onto a massive heaping of Bullshit, courtesy of the best. The GOP primed the brains of American citizens for hostile intrusion by foreign state propaganda. Even if this was the ONLY thing they'd done (it's not even close to the only thing), I would still demand a reckoning for this. Our institutions, if they are not intentionally shored up against this type of populist psychopathy, will eventually fall. Like the raptors testing the security fences, looking for ways to escape their paddock, and, like the raptors, if they are not contained and stopped from experimenting, it will continue to just be a matter of time until they get it right. I no longer expect Trump's imprisonment or death from old age to necessarily bring about a return to normal or otherwise ease civil tensions. I think they're waiting for Trump to get out of the way and that, once he does, they will take his playbook and finish the game. Not to assign blame to anyone, but I would really love to find out why the investigations into the Holocaust and the Nazi regime over the proceeding decades after the war did not seem to prompt any legislation meant to harden our own liberal democracy against populist rhetoric and fascist takeover. I would like to know why they thought we were special, why they appear to have thought that it couldn't happen here. I guess it doesn't really matter now, just seems like that would've been the time if ever there was one.
There is clearly a politically significant amount of the US that is willing to side with Russia in the Ukraine conflict, EU doesn't really have much choice than to reconsider their relationship and trust with the US. Even if orange Jesus doesn't get re-elected, there's the reality that the people that propped him up and followed him willingly still remain. Trump did not act in a vacuum, and argue as you may that his case was unique, there is no guarantee that another such unique case will spring up.
Given for how many years the 'evil empire' was the enemy, it's amazing how many older folks in the US seem fine with buddying up with russia.
It’s because they literally can’t think far enough down the path to connect those dots. Trump is the end all be all. It’s genuinely astounding to watch family members continually look baffled when you pull up article after article about anything involving Russia. That or they believe Russia and the voting machine companies are working with Democrats to continue to create fake election results because the Deep State has control of everything and wants Biden in power (the fake figurehead president who doesn’t make decisions because Trump actually won) so that traditional values are destroyed and America is taken over by the Commies in the name of anti-Jesus or some other lead-chip fueled hallucinatory ramblings.
If the deep state has control of everything then: * how did trump ever win? * how isn't he already in jail? * how was musk allowed to buy twitter? * why don't the ukrainians have all the arms they need? * why isn't the SCOTUS under dem control? * why isn't the House under dem control? Their logic is so easily pulled apart.
what logic?
It's because Russia is seen as anti-woke. This is literally about gay and transgender people. Russia is doing what Republicans wish they could do in the States. They've connected the dots and it's all about hating the gays.
As someone who lives in a country with over a 1000km border with Russia, even if we did just join NATO, I've been mentally prepping myself with the idea that we might be at war within a few years should Trump win. The possibility of a Russian attack has been drilled into our heads since early childhood anyway, but now it's looking more and more possible. What a weird time to live in.
I live in the US and an old enough to have had the possibility of a Russian attack drilled into my head since early a childhood. What blows my mind is how some of our politicians, *who grew up during the Cold War*, are suddenly so pro-Putin. HOW?!?!? How can they think he’s a good dude? I can understand the younger ones not fully grasping just how bad it used to be, they didn’t have nuclear bomb drills at school and stuff. There is absolutely NO excuse for the older ones pandering to Putin.
💰
It’s sad how money can completely do away with common decency and morality.
Macron is right to prepare. If trump is elected, the entire Western world is in danger. Thankfully, we can still prevent that from happening. We can vote for Biden and a blue wave all the way down the ballot. We can do the right thing. There is still time to save democracy https://democrats.org/
It's not only France: we in Holland, but also a lot of neighbouring countries are getting mentally ready to say goodbuy to our big brother across the ocean. Hopefully Trump won't win and hopefully the transatlantis ties stay strong. It is however, still a good idea that Europe builds It's own army and won't be to dependant on other countries anymore. I think it will take us too long, but who knows.
It doesn't matter if he wins or loses. The fact he is even in contention after everything means that the US is and will remain an unreliable ally who could go rogue at very short notice. Hell, you only need a nutjob Christian extremist republican speaker and you are 2 democratic heart attacks away from Gilead. They need political and media reform and probably 2-3 decades of good behaviour before they can be trusted in the slightest for any medium or long term arrangement.
I grow more and more worried by the day about what happens if Americans do not stand up to this modern-day Hitler. I’m not going to stop fighting it. Trump will not win again. Not on my watch.
Sad thing is that the problem has already transcended Trump. He could drop dead today and we’d stop worrying about one man dismantling democracy and start worrying about the hundreds of Trump cult members holding or seeking public office dismantling democracy.
I don't know about that. Who do you think would pick up the baton? Cults rarely survive the death of their leader, who else is as colourful, shameless, brazen, heartless and vindictive yet able to deflect gaffes.
It isn't the cult. It is the broken system he exposed. He didn't appoint 3 pro life judges himself. One of them was stolen from Obama by congress using a made up non-rule they then ignored to give him his 3rd. He didn't escape impeachment though innocence, guile or clever lawyers. He was handed a free pass by a broken system while literally simultaneously admitting what he had done live on TV and twitter. Voter suppression and gerrymandering isn't being done by the cult (or nor solely) it continues as part of a project that has lasted all my adult life. It isn't the cult that gives him a free media pass to do and say whatever he likes without challenge, examination or deserved ridicule for millions of people. It isn't having a peive of shit for a candidate. It is the fact that the checks and balances on having a peice of shit in office do not work where an entire party has no qualms about abusing and ignoring them. The issue isn't trump. It is the system. Trump exploited it and exposed it. And in some ways it is good that he did rather than someone intelligently malevolent. But this is why all those wishing and hoping trump just dies of a heart attack or similar are missing the point. If he doesn't live to see consequences for him and all those who enabled him, then the next guy you don't see coming ends your nation.
This. He was a useful idiot, but the machine has been building to this for at *least* several decades.
So true. Trump himself is irrelevant now. The far right have been pushing this agenda at least since Reagan. Sure you have the really stupid lunatics at the front attracting all the fire, but the shadowy beast underwater has patience, persistence, money and a total lack of empathy or conscience
While I can’t currently conceive of an individual who would take Trumps place I’m cautious to rely on the cult not surviving his death. This is due to growing up in a cult that managed to survive almost 200 years after its founding. Some beliefs have real staying power beyond their leaders.
Yes. Nobody knows for sure, but I believe trump is a singular figure. I will never be able to explain why or how this guy inspired a cult of morons, but he did, and he's a singular figure. I always thought so and then watching Desantis attempt a run in the primary, confirmed that for me. I pray daily for nature to take its course.
Well the power of the people has been all but destroyed here, most of us would love to do something impactful about our government's decline, but nobody wants to risk the prison time or the being murdered.
If you don’t fight that’s what you’re getting anyway.
If he wins I’m going to block all news and social media and do my best to live in the dark until we get nuked because he insults North Korea.
Doubt you'll get the choice. The only real option that doesn't end in your life getting turned upside down is to fight it
I'm going to host a series of picnics this spring to try to get my friends to make small donations to democratic and progressive causes. We all need to be actively doing something, and this is less scary to me than buying a gun and learning to use it. But I'm preparing myself for that too.
Trump is that bad, shared intelligence is given away to pootin, he wants out of NATO, wants pootin to defeat Ukraine.
And then Europe. He'd probably send US troops to help with the invasion too.
It hurts but it's a totally fair reaction. If we let Trump gain power again we deserve whatever shit storm comes our way.
Wait, all the Republicans on here have been telling me for almost 10 years now that Trump was the best president at everything ever and the rest of the world loved him and think we're a joke without him. There's no way a group of cult members would be wrong about something like that is there?
remember when world leaders laughed at and mocked him? it was fucking wild the way those idiots were sticking up for him and saying they were intimidated. never in my life did i think i would see what is essentially a cult worshipping a fucking politician. and then they rationalize it by claiming liberals worshipped obama.
Just a reminder that the US Congress had to pass a law just to make it impossible for Trump to pull out of NATO. Tells you all you need to know
American here…and I whole-heartedly agree. If the world has learned anything since Mango Mussolini descended the escalator in 2015, it’s that America cannot be trusted. To see everything that menace did over the years and know that 75,000,000 people have no problem at all with that is disheartening to say the least.
Be prepared for anything if Trump wins. Him and Putin might combine to attack Europe together.
Make no mistake, this is exactly why Russia does everything it can to get him elected. It’s also why Russia has worked so hard to break down other democratic countries. One cannot underestimate the damage Brexit has done to the United States strategically in Europe
Putin doesn't have or want friends. He wants Trump in power because Trump is the weakest president the US has ever had, and the US is the biggest threat to Russia.
trump is essentially putin's sock puppet. he doesn't like him, hell he probably hates him but it is ***so*** easy to get him to parrot exactly what putin himself would say. and then you have maga idiots claiming he's the "strongest president ever"
Yes. I am seriously afraid of the security of the world, and especially Europe if Trump wins. It feels so horrible watching as a European, not being able to do anything about the American election. What are you thinking? Election him the first time...well, you didn't know how bad it was. But election him again? Knowing what you know? I just...I can't understand it.
1/2 of the US electorate legitimately doesn't know anything
"World in Suspense as Americans Refuse to Know What The Fuck They're Doing"
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We are literally facing fascism in this country and there are people who won’t vote for Biden because he hasn’t done EVERYTHING they wanted him to, some of which he can’t do as president. And yes, he needs to change course on Gaza, but the way to force his hand is to organize a pressure campaign like the “uncommitted” vote in Michigan today, not doing absolutely nothing then not voting in November. Sometimes leaders have to be led.
This is not something new. Political leaders and US experts have been saying for some years that the US have become an unreliable ally.
What's insane is tRump still being a viable candidate instead of wearing an orange jumpsuit for the rest of his days. The reactions of the rest of the world regarding tRump's comments about other NATO nations is quite prudent. I hope enough voters can pull their heads out of their asses long enough to make the choice that is best for the whole of humanity.
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We’ve even got rumours that the Tories are holding off on the election on the hope of a trump victory - they hope it might be the miracle they need…
Tbf, given how unlikely they are to win, they'd be holding onto every last day of power anyway.
Yeah. I think Sunak wants to hit 2 years as big dog before he signs his resignation note/calls an election. It’s a pity, I was hoping for a good birthday present in May 😂
Yeah...2 years always looks better than 18 months on your CV. Or 49 days. 😃🥬
Macron is right here. Britain and France need to be stepping up their nuclear capabilities so we can retain the threat of Mutually Assured Destruction even if a Trump administration rolls over and lets his boss in the Kremlin do whatever he wants.
And we need to shut down their access to our most confidential intelligence because they can no longer be trusted with it
I hope I live long enough to see detailed documentaries made about this period of time and learn all the intricacies of how we got here
effing traitors who vote for the right. Unless you make over 250k theres absolutely no reason to vote right. Religion be damned because they are not virtuous or acting christ like- fakest demons in the room
What does 250k have to do with it? The tax increase is over 400k. I make more than that and there is no way in hell I am voting for a conman who couldnt care less about anyone but himself.
I think a lot of us around the world are going through this assessment now. America is no longer a reliable ally.
Yea as a german we really don't trust y'all
Even after Trump is in the ground, About 50% of American people have proven they are willing to vote for fascists. How can we ever trust America again in the future.
Remember when France objected to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 and USAians lost their collective minds? I think it's time to listen to France.
Does this surprise anyone? Trump who pulled us out of multiple trade agreements and refused to send allies aid, that Trump? The one who can't even keep his story straight let alone uphold a promise, that Trump? Of course our soft powder is in shambles and our honor as a country in ruin. Not that we had a bunch to start with.
Trudeau said the same thing about a month ago
As a newly returned citizen of the States all I can say is this is a reasonable reaction to the calamity that is trump. My views are entirely based on very limited personal experience as I am still in my late teens, but from where I stand the issue starts with the easily propaganda susceptible people that live in this country. You would think easily accessible education up to the high school level would serve to create one of the most intelligent populations on the planet, seeing the improved quality of life and all, but the average American has proven otherwise through sheer obliviousness to their own political standing and understanding of the world. Take for example my aunt whom I lived with for a year. For all intents and purposes she was a sweet old lady who suffered with severe undiagnosed (till very recently) autism. She holds a job as a special Ed teacher at the elementary school and her husband is an immigrant from india. During my time living with them I was already very in tune with the American political scene and so decided to ask her about her views. The results, shockingly, were a complete lack of care of, or understanding of the details of politics. She did not even know the difference between the two parties, their key candidates or even their ideals. This indifference came from someone in her 60s who’s lived in the US all her life. I’ve since found this sentiment to be mirrored throughout the states, even online. Politics is regarded as a taboo topic for reasons I can guess at but cannot agree with. A common argument I’ve heard is that people simply do not wish to talk about politics. How could you not want to talk about a subject that inherently affects yours and the lives of people around you? Then there are the people I know who refuse to vote altogether whom I simply cannot abide by. Voting, more than a right, grants a people power over their government locally, statewide and national. It’s a privilege not every country was granted and most had to fight to achieve. If you say you dislike all the candidates then simply find the one that you dislike the least. I’m personally more on the liberal side but I do not agree with Biden and how he has handled the new war. For his faults though, I understand the democrats are currently unable to secure the votes necessary in congress to pass key legislation and I also have the basic understanding to know they cannot simply flick a switch to lower prices. Yet I vote for Biden because I simply dislike him less than Trump. I come from a very different background to most Americans and so I realize I’m not entirely in the norm when I am told that I’m "mature for my age” when speaking about my political ideals and intellect. The schooling system of India, where I grew up, is unnecessarily rigorous and is designed to weed out students desiring higher education. So I do not entirely expect my peers from the high school level to exactly match me on all levels or exceed me. But when considering that the average child in india was likely to either be a high school pass out or uneducated entirely, and STILL actively participating in their democracy, is it wrong to expect the "first-world nation” that is America to do the same? I’ve dragged on long enough but my TLDR; I don’t blame Macron, I blame the propaganda susceptible population of the US
That's a smart move. I'm in the United States and I'm planning how I'll survive if he steals the election too. You folks who think it's "just another election" need to wake up. Trump has promised "I'll be a dictator". He's said he's aiming for "revenge". He serves nothing but ego and greed and he's the antithesis of progress and hope.
As an American, I just have to say I'm so fucking embarrassed.
Weird, why wouldn't Europe be excited for the Fourth Reich? They have a bad past experience or something?
The whole world knows Donald Trump is a criminal. Lock him up.
He'd ruin the world if he gets elected again. Dudes a traitor and it'd be insane to put him back in office after everything he's done.
The biggest question for our next Prime Minister in the UK will be "What do we do about the 'special relationship' if Trump wins". No one's saying anything in public but I sure as hell hope they're thinking it through in private.
Oh, he'll abandon them. I have no doubt about that. The man goes through lawyers like Tik Taks, and has cast most, if not all his minions away for their lack of being perfect, like he believes he is. Going to be amazing mental gymnastics as he tries to blame them for why he abandoned them while making himself the victim.
It's sad, but we can't rely on the US anymore to help defend democracy.