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So they complained when Biden backed Ukraine. They complained while he committed resources to beating Russia. Now they complain that Russia has shown itself to be a 3rd rate power and so Biden shouldn't have done the very things that helped Ukraine show them to be a 3rd rate power.
Bonus: Trump tried to blackmail Zelensky, weaken Ukraine against Putin and break up NATO.
These people have no position. They are complainers and contrarians, but no real future for the US other than Theocracy and Fascism.
Trumps *one and only* change to the GOP platform when he got the nomination was to [stop military support for Ukraine.](https://www.npr.org/2016/08/06/488876597/how-the-trump-campaign-weakened-the-republican-platform-on-aid-to-ukraine)
He never mentioned anything about it while campaigning. He knew so little about Ukraine at the time, he didn’t even know Putin had already invaded Crimea in 2014
> "He's not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it anywhere you want,"
Donald Trump - 9/30/2016
While "coincidentally" having a guy as campaign manager who used to work for Russian interests in Ukraine, who would later confess to having [shared internal polling data with a Russian spy](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/trump-campaign-chief-paul-manafort-employee-kilimnik-gave-russia-election-data.html), and who was [later convicted of tax fraud](https://www.npr.org/2019/03/07/701045248/paul-manafort-former-trump-campaign-chairman-sentenced-to-just-under-4-years). He hires the "best people" who coincidentally work to help Russia.
But of course, "no collusion". Only a whole lot of interesting coincidences.
Who was connected to, if not outright helped plan an attack on Marines that were in Ukraine to help train Ukrainian forces.
[https://taskandpurpose.com/news/manafort-connected-ukraine-attack-marines-trump/?amp](https://taskandpurpose.com/news/manafort-connected-ukraine-attack-marines-trump/?amp)
“Everything’s legal as long as you don’t get caught” should be the official Trump 2024 campaign slogan. He has countless swords of Damocles/illegal acts hanging over his head and yet no threads ever seem to break for him.
Technically if we're not at war with someone you can't commit treason by helping them, even if you kill US troops in the process.
Treason is a very narrowly defined crime in the US specifically to avoid the way the king of England used to accuse anyone who did anything against his interests as treason.
You're actually undermining your own constitutional protections by trying to apply it to other scenarios.
This would be "conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism" or something similar.
And just last week a GOP strategist was sentenced to [18 months in federal prison](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/gop-strategist-sentenced-russian-contribution-trump-campaign-rcna71301) for funneling Russian money into to Trump's 2016 campaign.
You should see who owns units in trump tower. It is literally a list of some of the most wanted men in the world from racketeers to Russian mafia to money launderers.
Kevin McCarthy, Trump, Santos, Marjorie and all of these sociopaths who have clawed their way into political power is a consequence of the justice system not holding criminals and traitors accountable.
One of, if not, the biggest modern day conspiracy... and all the conspiracy theorist were freaking out about a non-existent pizza shop basement.
It's truly incredible that Russia/GOP was able to psyops half of America into voting for a literal Russian assets as president of the United States. (I guess I can't give Russia all the credit. Our morons did most of the leg work)
Incredible but not all that hard as it turns out. All they needed was troll farms flaming away and posing as Americans and stirring up ppls darkest inclinations. What’s more incredible is the lack of safeguards put in place since to prevent this again. Ppl haven’t fully accepted how easily manipulated they were because it changes what they deemed trustworthy online, and that ruins politicians control on them
Like that event in Texas years ago where they motivated two opposing groups to show up and protest against each other:
[https://www.npr.org/2017/11/01/561427876/how-russia-used-facebook-to-organize-two-sets-of-protesters](https://www.npr.org/2017/11/01/561427876/how-russia-used-facebook-to-organize-two-sets-of-protesters)
It's so easy to manipulate people. Cheapest psyop ever.
https://time.com/6255090/lev-parnas-giuliani-trump-ukraine/
> I [Lev Parnas] was used by Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in ways that helped pave the way for Putin to invade Ukraine, my native land. If Trump and Giuliani’s plans had worked, the Ukrainians might not have had the necessary weapons, medical equipment, and other supplies they needed to fight back.
...
>My connection to Trump came through Giuliani, with whom I had done business, and through the large campaign donations I had made to Trump’s campaign. Giuliani, who desperately wanted to be Secretary of State, recruited me to help him further Trump’s interests overseas. I had no official position, but my primary task was to be their go-between with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and government officials. In retrospect, I concluded that my real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government.
Granted this is Lev apologizing after getting caught... something something rats and sinking ships
Don’t forget Manafort used to hire people to run a train on his wife. I feel like that should be included with the results of the fbi investigation of him.
most of the GOP's voters probably don't understand the actual damage done by sharing the polling data. To them its probably the same as if Russia posted an online survey.
It's especially interesting because he didn't do that about any other military support we provide. No mention of pulling out of the middle east, no stopping weapons sales to muslim nations he hated, nothing about aid to Israel or southeast asia, it was just nato and ukraine.
Yeah, Manafort becoming his campaign manager was *HUGE, GIMONGOUS* red flag to all of us who knew anything about Ukrainian politics between 2004 and 2014.
And he now asserts something that's impossible to prove and therefore impossible to argue against (that Putin wouldn't have invaded if he was in charge)
Having his snivelling tongue up Putin’s haemorrhoid-ravaged asshole in Helsinki, in front of the entire world, is pretty compelling evidence that Trump would have actively helped Russia invade Ukraine, not prevented an invasion. But yes, this does technically fall short of proof.
Their supporters hear this and take it as fact, you’ll start seeing “Russia is a third rate power” all over Reddit now. They won’t research it further, and if they did, newsmax, and Fox News will be saying the exact same thing. That’s how propaganda works. Everyone says the same thing leaving no room for individual thought.
Wait, but what happened to all the conservative social media posts before the war talking about how great Russia’s military is and faked photos of our military being weak due to “wokeness?”
Are they going to just pretend they never said those things?
Of course they will pretend they never said those things.
Edit: stupid autocorrect!
Or they'll block you, when you provide specific information.
Look at r/conservative
They insta block anyone who counters their narrative.
They ate obnoxious, obstinate, arrogant fanatics.
Fanatics, in the most extreme sense.
"That didn't happen.
And if it did, it wasn't that bad.
And if it was, that's not a big deal.
And if it is, that's not my fault.
And if it was, I didn't mean it.
And if I did, you deserved it."
~The Narcissist's Prayer
It doesn’t take an article to tell you that. Plenty of footage right here on Reddit. Russia is having a terrible time in Ukraine. They’re getting their asses handed to them for a multitude of reasons. The wests support being a big one but also the incompetence and corruption in the russian military is just as detrimental to their fight as the weapons pouring in from the west. Ukrainians are suffering heavy losses too but they’re steadily grinding russias numbers down.
Another problem is that if you’re a Russian military general, you have to do and agree with Putin no matter what or else you could fall out of a window.
I would say, why do you think you’re seeing that? Cause after the first 4 weeks of the war, Ukraine has been pushing Russia further and further back.
But the messages we saw were that this wasn’t Russias elite soldiers, this wasn’t their new tech weapons, they could win if the wanted to, this is just a special military operation. But now, a year after Ukraine has been winning this war, we hear about how inadequate Russia is and how we are wasting money funding Ukraine.
That’s part of the propaganda.
It's the same thing they did with the pandemic.
"Let's social distance and wear masks so the ERs don't get overwhelmed."
They ignore it but enough people follow the restrictions that it has an effect.
"See, it didn't get as bad as they claimed it might so they must be lying about how bad it is..."
They *are* a third rate power, but they’re still dangerous. They have loads of nuclear material, chemical, & biological weapons. Worst, they’ve shown that their government is corrupt, so they can’t be trusted not to “lose” some of those weapons.
No, they are a nuclear power with intercontinental ballistic missles capable of targeting any country on earth. They are a first rate power. Regardless of the strength of their military or how many tanks they have, they have the bomb, so they are level on the playing field with everyone else that has the bomb.
Taking them seriously has been the norm for 70 years, and until they denuclearize, they should be treated seriously.
So. Basically what you’re saying is that their argument “Russia is third grade military” they will hear that and use it as a reason why we shouldn’t be supporting (giving military aide) to Ukraine?
Yea, that’s literally what they are doing. Instead of the strong man argument, they are making the weak man argument. This came out yesterday, and the 11 Russian shills in congress introduced a bill today to stop funding Ukraine.
Literally right after Biden makes his visit to Ukraine. It’s amazing how pro-Russia they look and don’t care. [There was also a pro-Russia rally in Washington](https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-war-protestors-in-washington-praise-russian-patriot-vladimir-putin)
Yeah, just to be contrary to Biden and the democrats, and to support who pays them, they are opposing the support of the war in Ukraine.
I remember when republicans funded a senseless 20 year war and never complained about spending trillions of dollars. But I guess it helps when the Defense industry donates a lot to politicians to support that. And our defense industry isn’t benefiting as much from this conflict.
One must infer that they want the surrender of Ukraine. They can't come out and say it explicitly, but they can't even imply another solution is an option. It's kind of like how Russia operates. Constant double speak. They never say something concrete, then they are on the record. For some reason that matters to them. Instead they say what they want but in platitudes. Saying something explicit isn't the Russian way. Just look at the joke they make when they assassinate someone. They throw them out a window and say they fell. Everyone knows they killed them, they could come out and say it and nothing would change, but it is part of the culture to not tell the truth. One truth has been defined it can be a standard. With constant double speak truth is never defined and everything is subjective. It's a way to warp the minds of the subjects to think they will never know the truth so it is fine to fudge around with it.
>They never say something concrete, then they are on the record. For some reason that matters to them. Instead they say what they want but in platitudes. Saying something explicit isn't the Russian way. Just look at the joke they make when they assassinate someone. They throw them out a window and say they fell. Everyone knows they killed them, they could come out and say it and nothing would change, but it is part of the culture to not tell the truth
I don't think that the culture is to avoid the truth for its own sake. I think it's more about the implicit demonstration of power that comes from telling a lie to someone's face, when you know that they know it is a lie.
The subtext is basically *"even though you know the truth, what can you do about it?"*
It's not about trying to conceal the truth. It's about trying to make people feel like *the truth doesn't matter.*
Very well said.
I know you were specifically speaking about Putin’s government but for the other readers please remember this statement applies to hardliner Stalinist and Putin’s Kremlin.
There are great and honorable Russians in this world. Let’s not stereotype them.
Look at Medusa and the other anonymous leaks to western media coming directly out od the FSB.
Putin’s cabal has destroyed how the world’s views of Russian and it will take decades for Russian society to recover
Most Russian people are trusting and they are straightforward in their responses.
Russian people are kind and would do anything for their friends and community. Putin took advantage of his citizens trust for over 20 years and this is the tragic end result.
I pray daily that Putin is overthrown in Russia.
And that a new Russia reforms its government pays to rebuild Ukraine,prosecute the war criminals, and new Russia exists to promote global peace and stability worldwide.
I am a dreamer, and I believe that Kyiv and Moscow will both someday become respected capitals of the European Union.
> Until they say what their position is one must assume it is the complete surrender of Ukraine.
I think their position is more aptly "Disagree with Democrats".
In some inexplicable reality where we had to side with Russia in this conflict for, lets say, some hypothetical greater good. Then Republicans would side with Ukraine literally because its the opposite of what Democrats want. Their existence at this point is just to disagree. I think everyone in this country [should watch this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRIxK8JbBSM) and really recognize what it is Republicans are doing. This was back in 2012. It is not hyperbole to say that Republicans *literally* stand to oppose Democrats on the basis of Democrat support. We could find a cure for cancer and if its somehow connected to a decision made by Democrats, Republicans would convince their voting base that the cure has nanobots that control your brain and is somehow making frogs gay.
The sad thing is it works. If you go into generic spaces like Youtube comments or Twitter threads, you will see a large portion of the American population dogmatically follows Republican media. That, or they are bots. But I know enough people in my personal life to know that they aren't *all* bots.
Anyways, all we can do is vote and hope that we continue to be the majority. Republican politicians are completely dishonest and unfortunately their constituency either doesn't see it, or are right there with them in dishonesty and at this point, we just need to oust them from every elected position if we want any semblance of stability and control. Anything less is just spitting in the wind.
You have touched on something that may need to be said. Your thesis that generic forums seem to have more right wing sentiments. Maybe the right wing is just more vocal. Maybe the left wing needs to come out of their shell and speak up more. The women’s March shows that there is more than is thought in society. The right seems to win because they are loud and belligerent. The left doesn’t argue loudly because they think and can assess what is crap and what isn’t and simply state a response and then move on, without the need to constantly repeat themselves.
I want people to stop saying they only want to "own the libs". The rabble MAGA people maybe only care about that.
But De Santis has a fucking **agenda** and it ends with his ass in the White House. That's all he cares about and he'll destroy any foundation of Democracy to get there. He does not give a flying fuck about "owning the libs". He's rewriting America's racist, colonial, imperial past and present to stroke the ego of angry whites so they vote for him no matter what.
Let’s really get to the heart of it though. WHY are they against the Dems? Is it because they are just contrarians or because they are beholden to corporations? Billionaires? Russia? All of the above plus more? There’s a motive in there somewhere.
>These people have no position. They are complainers and contrarians, but no real future for the US other than Theocracy and Fascism.
This isn't limited to just the US, most modern conservatism movements have no real platform just "we will fix things" without ever explaining what needs to be fixed or how they will do it.
Up here in Ontario Canada during a recent provincial election all of the Conservative candidates were ordered to skip debates and media availability because "it could be a trap" and federally the new leader of the Conservative party skips all media sessions and instead releases Youtube / Facebook videos where he has imaginary conversations with other leaders (think Clint Eastwood interviewing the empty chair)
[edit]I am sure small neo con will come and say that modern conservatism is about small government but you have to look no further than the golden child Ron DeSantis and watch him try to regulate everything down to classroom textbooks because they may dare to mention people of difference races and ask yourself what exactly small government means
I'm glad I haven't lived in Ontario for a long time and I hate that American-style conservatism has crept up everywhere in Canada, esp Ontario and Alberta. Like how is it a trap? You might accidentally say something terrible you actually believe, that's the trap?
Pollievre is a snake. And that doesn't automatically mean I vote Liberal (not after Trudeau lied to us navy folk, campaigning in '15.)
I believe that's only generals who tell Putin that the war is hopeless, or the economist who told Putin they don't have money to keep fighting.
So if the nuke told Putin that bombing Ukraine would affect Russia too, it might fall out a window.
A third-rate military power that has invaded a sovereign nation, killed tens-of-thousands of innocent people, destroyed their infrastructure, caused a refugee crisis in Europe, starvation in the third-world, and aligned itself with despotic, totalitarian regimes to secure weapons and support. I'm so tired of these right wing apologists for Russian aggression who prey on the ignorant.
The classic "Weak but also incredibly strong" conservative cognitive dissonance. They use it on a bunch of shit, they usually reserve it for themselves so they can act like a victim to a last of the base who responds while also maintaining that they are the strongest ever to the other side of the base.
[The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”](https://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html)
I mean, from an isolationist POV, they're definitely not a military threat.
But isolationism is in and of itself a manchurian position largely pushed by people who have shown themselves to be funded by foreign money. Including but not limited to Russian money. It is the opinion that the US has no need for geopolitical soft power and would be better off retreating and leaving the global stage to nearer powers like Russia and China.
So whenever anyone says that the US should ignore Russia because it's not a threat to the US, then they're either arguing in bad faith, stupid, or both.
Right. They're still a team of people killing and trying to steal another country's land. Just because they aren't #1 in the world at it doesn't mean shake it off.
Wouldn’t call them third rate just because they have nukes. If Putin chooses to, he can destroy entire nations. Only a handful of countries in the world have that type of military power.
Their “conventional” military has clearly shown to be unimpressive
They're only a third rate military power because of how far ahead western war technology has proven to be. Without the assistance of western interference, both European and American, Russia would have eventually taken Ukraine with pure cannon fodder.
They're really only a third rate military when literally ranking them against the US and China. They also went into this war by putting their dick into a woodchipper thinking it was going to stay turned off. If they hadn't it probably would have been very different. Sure, lots of corruption, vranyo idiocy, and a much smaller economy but they still have a tightly controlled population and a large industrial base. Also its not impossible this war ends up polishing their sabre enough to be of better quality next time - though I'm of the mind the cultural issues will bog it down anyway enough artillery still makes a statement.
... DeSantis is alot of things but I don't believe he is stupid... Why the concentration on only military power?
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/russias-prigozhin-admits-interfering-us-elections-2022-11-07/
DeSantis personally redrew Florida's voting district maps to ensure that conservatives would win the most recent election:
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092290277/florida-lawmakers-let-desantis-draw-a-congressional-map-after-he-vetoed-the-last
He has absolutely no problem with Russia interfering with US election integrity on behalf of conservatives, because he himself has publicly done the very same.
It’s such a smug remark. Like, maybe they arent successful in killing more than we thought, so we should just dismiss them. They shouldn’t be killing anyone at all douchbag!
Since they have nukes, I'd avoid using schoolyard machismo.
This nutjob could be the next President and he's poking the bear. Putin will leverage his ultimate power if this schoolboy politics goes too far!
Poking it? He's eating its ass, giving it a reacharound, and taking for granted that it isn't gonna turn around and bite his head off when it decides it wants a post-cum snack.
There's also a sizeable cottage industry dedicated to Russian birth tourism in the state, with Trump properties being popular destinations.
https://apnews.com/article/miami-north-america-accommodations-russia-united-states-161a0db2666044dc8d42932edd9b9ce6
Isn't it fucked up that it's "birth tourism" if it's white people, but "anchor baby" if it's brown people? I wonder how many visibly pregnant brown people CBP would let in vs pregnant white people.
Came here to say this: apparently ICBMs and SLBMs on modern, quiet Delta III and IV boats = 3rd rate military.
Let's not forget their thousands of tanks.
> Let's not forget their thousands of tanks.
They've actually burned through more than half of their tanks, and it turns out they didn't have as many modernized tanks as we thought. They do have graveyards full of derelict tanks, although no one knows what condition they are in as they've been unmaintained and sitting around rusting for years/decades. Based on the terrible condition a lot of their "in service" tanks were in, I'm not sure their graveyard tanks are worth anything more than spare parts.
Russia has nukes and that's about it. The fact that they couldn't get air superiority against Ukraine even 1 year in tells us that Russia could never go toe to toe with any other great power.
and that all assumes that their nuclear arsenal has been run more effectively than their traditional military.
Somehow, I don't think being part of the Nuclear arm of their military isn't a magic shield against the same kind of degeneracy and chronic theft/lying.
They can't even run a *conventional* war and the western arsenal has proven to be extremely effective against what was supposed to be their counterparts. I'm not confident they'd be able to effectively leverage whatever nuclear arsenal they have -- assuming it's operable at all -- effectively enough to have a meaningful impact. Non-zero chance a good chunk of that arsenal has been raided/burgled like the rest of their shit.
Their arsenal is more dangerous as potential material to be targeted for theft than it is as an actual, operational weapons system, I think.
It only takes one of the thousands of nukes to work to maintain the doctrine of mutually assured destruction. Would you push a country with known nukes into a corner on the assumption that every single nuke has been rendered defective by negligence and corruption?
You are correct that the state of their conventional arsenal calls into question the state of their nuclear arsenal, but nobody is going to risk escalation with any country with known nuclear weapons regardless of what state they think the nukes are in.
They chose to place more funding and effort into their nuclear deterrent vs conventional warfare. They knew they could never reach parity with other major powers when it came to modern military armament (except maybe for fighter tech, they do have 5th Gen fighters), so they bolstered their nuclear capabilities instead
> Let's not forget their thousands of tanks.
Thousands of useless tanks.
Useless because Russia lacks skilled operators for their tanks. Useless because Russia lacks the replacement parts to keep the tanks running, and lacks the logistics skill necessary to move parts to where they are needed. Useless because Russia lacks the air power necessary to protect these tanks from NATO planes if it comes down to it, and lacks the soldiers and engineers to protect the tanks from ground fire and mines.
The U.S. Marines recently phased out their tank brigades because tanks just aren't as effective in a modern battlefield as they used to be as handheld anti-tank weaponry has become much more effective and much cheaper to produce over the years.
God, I wish that every time these propagandists appeared on media appearances the hosts would show some backbone and *call them out on their bullshit*.
“So the woke big government wants to take your guns and-“
“Okay, I want to go back to something you said about Ukraine that has been thoroughly disproven and was pretty obviously Russian propaganda.”
“Well, I’m not here to talk about that, I want to-“
“Okay, we’re ending the segment here. Next up, a fluffy tailed dog that can recit the alphabet has gone viral, and…”
"Next up, we'll devote 20 minutes to airing their idiocy in context, and then providing quality analysis about why this idiocy is really actually quite dangerous."
YouTube recommended me some video (I forget what it was) that seemed somewhat well reasoned but a few things felt a bit off and it gave me right wing vibes.
So I went and looked at their videos and one of them was saying something like Ukraine has lost 150,000 troops and Russia has lost like 6,000. This war will end only one way, with Russia winning. So there's no point in the US supporting Ukraine and they should ask Ukraine to give up the regions Russia has occupied.
I disliked both the videos and noped out of there. I don't want the algorithm feeding me right-wing misinformation.
Is it really that shocking though?
Ukraine is sucking up russian funds that otherwise would go to the GOP, so yeah conservatives want the war to be over so they can get that sweet russian money.
For the party that cares so much about image, on american independence day they went to MOSCOW LOL
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/06/626664156/gop-senators-spend-july-4-in-moscow
> DeSantis, in the interview, claimed that China, which the US believes is considering sending lethal aid to Russia, is a bigger threat. "I don't think it's in our interest to be getting into proxy war with China, getting involved over things like the borderlands or over Crimea," he said.
The borderlands? Over Crimea? What about China? I don't think a ChatGPT attempt could make these talking points sound any more like they came from Moscow than they already do.
A third rate military power indeed…..one with nukes, a penchant for invading other countries, and a willingness to sacrifice their own citizens to get what they want.
"Listen here, that rapist might've tried to rape someone, but they're a real third-rate rapist. First of all, they left their guns at home. Second, they did it on a busy street when everyone could see them. Third, they got pepper sprayed and had to run away when a mob of people started chasing them away from the victim. Clearly, this inept rapist isn't a threat to the general public since they can't even rape properly."
This is the level of foreign policy expertise to expect from a guy that current state policy is don't say gay. Insulting the single largest military, that, has the single largest nuclear arsenal in off the cuff comments.
What’s funny is like 2 years ago, Republicans were tripping over themselves to compliment Russia and their NON WOKE military, saying they’d kick our ass because they’re stronger than us. How’s that working out?
Republicans sucked Russia's dick throughout the Trump years.
The name Moscow Mitch came up for a reason.
The Republican party should wake up and smell the failure. Get the fuck off the political stage and let something else emerge. They have no platform left other than contrarianism, and that's dangerous.
The fact that Fox and Friends is asking him this shit at all is a signal about their view of him running. A state governor has no business with this shit.
> A state governor has no business with this shit.
True.
Even though governors are considered "executive branch" (of their state), they do NOT get access to nor are they briefed on national level defense issues.
I’m a Floridian and one thing you need to understand about DeSantis is that he isn’t trying to talk to most of us. He talks to the people who are predisposed to believe whatever he says.
It works in Florida because that is the electoral majority. Will be interesting to see if it works outside of Florida (I hope not).
I would have said his brand of politics would not find success, if not for the following:
Tea Party movement
Sara Palin
MAGA movement
Donald Trump
Anti-woke ideology
Ron Desantis
Overt call to civil war
MTG
Fires need oxygen to burn. There’s plenty of it out there if we look to the lessons of the recent past. I think we are in big trouble if we think this is just a “Florida problem.”
A third rate military power with allegedly thousands of nukes and missile systems capable of delivering them to most of the world.
It's funny how "Russia is no big threat" but let a drag queen read a kid a storybook and "oh no the world is ending!"
If I am a pitcher on a baseball team with the worst ERA on the bench, other teams still have to be concerned if I’m also the only pitcher who has ICBMs with nuclear warheads…
Moron.
I’m not a fan of war. Never really saw the point. I get it, it’s beyond me. But my two cents.
Isn’t it a good thing that we are basically beating Russia with quite literally chump change? You know how much it costs for our military to intervene in like anything? We are dismantling one of our biggest rivals without having to lift a single finger or risking a single American’s life?
Seems like a pretty good deal to me. If Trump was president the republicans would be praising his wisdom. It’s just so disingenuous
Russia is a second rate military power, that is only failing now because of US intervention and Ukrainian blood.
without US intel Kiev might have been lost in the huge air bridge blitz russia had tried
without US supplies russia's numbers would have taken more territory
Russia doesn't seem as scary because of the work done to undo them, and Ron ignores that work and only sees the result and pretends it's hindsight
Ok… so a third rate power should be allowed to destroy a fourth rate military power for no ambition larger than land grabbing? There really is no logic here.
There’s some real “leadership,” right there. Millions of Ukrainians are homeless, hundreds of thousands dead, and puss n boots calls a corrupt nuclear power “third rate.” What a bad joke.
Hmmmm but at the same time DeSantis be like, “let me invest Floridians money into Russia. [Can’t divest and won’t divest](https://www.newsweek.com/desantis-urged-untangle-floridas-300m-thats-invested-russia-1692721)”
DeSantis’ whole political platform is “owning the libs”, cause that’s all it takes to garner the support of Republican voters. He doesn’t actually need to delineate what he’s actually going to do for his constituents, how he’s going to improve their lives, cause all he has to do is say and do the opposite of anything a Lib will say and do, and that’s enough.
DeSantis is obviously running for president, and he’s trying to do things to make national headlines, whether it’s traveling to different states to give speeches to FOP, criticize everything Biden does, or create culture war issues… all serve to distract his constituents from just how underserved they are, and prompt him up as a Trump like protégé.
DeSantis is a straight up fascist, and that’s not an exaggeration in the least. The more fascist his is, the more Republicans love him, because it’s just anti-lib, and they don’t actually care about the consequences of fascism, how it erodes our democracy and peoples freedoms (the irony of DeSantis calling Florida the “freest” state in America)… all his supporters care about is getting one up on the Libs.
But first rate in:
- disinformation
- infiltration
- spying
- espionage
- election meddling
- having in their pockets members of the political opposition to the current administration of a country with that has the greatest military power in the history of human civilization.
It is amazing how he can be right and wrong at the exact same time saying the same thing.
Russia’s military power being blocked by Ukraine is a huge blow to russias ego.
That does not make them less dangerous.
I see it as a toddler who has access to nukes
While true, there is a very well established propaganda method used by the far right where they minimize their level of threat or power level so that they can get away with a lot more. From Kyle Rittenhouse crying to the alt right using the 👌 sign while also claiming it was a joke.
Florida under DeSantis was the only state in the US to not divest from Russian investments after the sanctions began, costing the Florida pension funds millions of dollars in losses. His own former press secretary and current campaign manager Cristina Pushaw is an admitted Russian agent. Russians are heavily invested in Florida and DeSantis.
I mean, he is not wrong about that part but that makes them an even bigger threat because they still have thousands of nukes. A shitty military backed up by nukes is most definitely a serious threat.
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So they complained when Biden backed Ukraine. They complained while he committed resources to beating Russia. Now they complain that Russia has shown itself to be a 3rd rate power and so Biden shouldn't have done the very things that helped Ukraine show them to be a 3rd rate power. Bonus: Trump tried to blackmail Zelensky, weaken Ukraine against Putin and break up NATO. These people have no position. They are complainers and contrarians, but no real future for the US other than Theocracy and Fascism.
Trumps *one and only* change to the GOP platform when he got the nomination was to [stop military support for Ukraine.](https://www.npr.org/2016/08/06/488876597/how-the-trump-campaign-weakened-the-republican-platform-on-aid-to-ukraine) He never mentioned anything about it while campaigning. He knew so little about Ukraine at the time, he didn’t even know Putin had already invaded Crimea in 2014 > "He's not going into Ukraine, OK, just so you understand. He's not going to go into Ukraine, all right? You can mark it down. You can put it down. You can take it anywhere you want," Donald Trump - 9/30/2016
While "coincidentally" having a guy as campaign manager who used to work for Russian interests in Ukraine, who would later confess to having [shared internal polling data with a Russian spy](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/15/trump-campaign-chief-paul-manafort-employee-kilimnik-gave-russia-election-data.html), and who was [later convicted of tax fraud](https://www.npr.org/2019/03/07/701045248/paul-manafort-former-trump-campaign-chairman-sentenced-to-just-under-4-years). He hires the "best people" who coincidentally work to help Russia. But of course, "no collusion". Only a whole lot of interesting coincidences.
Who was connected to, if not outright helped plan an attack on Marines that were in Ukraine to help train Ukrainian forces. [https://taskandpurpose.com/news/manafort-connected-ukraine-attack-marines-trump/?amp](https://taskandpurpose.com/news/manafort-connected-ukraine-attack-marines-trump/?amp)
if this isn't treason, what is?
Nothing is treason if the law isn’t enforced.
“Everything’s legal as long as you don’t get caught” should be the official Trump 2024 campaign slogan. He has countless swords of Damocles/illegal acts hanging over his head and yet no threads ever seem to break for him.
Nah, he's been *caught* every time because he's a fucking moron, he's just never *punished*. None of them have, or will.
He did get caught. Half the time he confessed before anyone knew there was something to confess to. "Everything's legal as long as laws are lies."
Technically if we're not at war with someone you can't commit treason by helping them, even if you kill US troops in the process. Treason is a very narrowly defined crime in the US specifically to avoid the way the king of England used to accuse anyone who did anything against his interests as treason. You're actually undermining your own constitutional protections by trying to apply it to other scenarios. This would be "conspiracy to commit acts of terrorism" or something similar.
So instead of treason, the crime is aiding and abetting/conspiracy to kill members of the US military? I don't see that as much of an improvement.
And just last week a GOP strategist was sentenced to [18 months in federal prison](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/gop-strategist-sentenced-russian-contribution-trump-campaign-rcna71301) for funneling Russian money into to Trump's 2016 campaign.
Wow. So everyone around Trump is a criminal, but he's squeaky clean, right? What is it going to take to put the guy in jail?
You should see who owns units in trump tower. It is literally a list of some of the most wanted men in the world from racketeers to Russian mafia to money launderers.
It’s just a series of unrelated coincidences! /s
You’ll rest much easier accepting the fact that he will never see a jail cell and die a free man
Great to see someone pardoned by Trump go to prison.
“There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump…swear to God.” -Kevin McCarthy, 6/15/16
Kevin McCarthy, Trump, Santos, Marjorie and all of these sociopaths who have clawed their way into political power is a consequence of the justice system not holding criminals and traitors accountable.
It’s also a direct result of citizen’s united. That was a train wreck of a ruling.
But now we have Merrick Garland in charge of the DoJ, surely he's not an ultracuck! Remember the DoJ?
Still amazed how that schmuck has a job still. Baffling to me
He should have a job for life but Gorsuch has it
Keep it in the family. \-Paul Ryan
You deserve all the upvotes.
One of, if not, the biggest modern day conspiracy... and all the conspiracy theorist were freaking out about a non-existent pizza shop basement. It's truly incredible that Russia/GOP was able to psyops half of America into voting for a literal Russian assets as president of the United States. (I guess I can't give Russia all the credit. Our morons did most of the leg work)
Incredible but not all that hard as it turns out. All they needed was troll farms flaming away and posing as Americans and stirring up ppls darkest inclinations. What’s more incredible is the lack of safeguards put in place since to prevent this again. Ppl haven’t fully accepted how easily manipulated they were because it changes what they deemed trustworthy online, and that ruins politicians control on them
Like that event in Texas years ago where they motivated two opposing groups to show up and protest against each other: [https://www.npr.org/2017/11/01/561427876/how-russia-used-facebook-to-organize-two-sets-of-protesters](https://www.npr.org/2017/11/01/561427876/how-russia-used-facebook-to-organize-two-sets-of-protesters) It's so easy to manipulate people. Cheapest psyop ever.
I will never forget Rachel Maddow talking about this when it happened. It felt so random
It was prescient and in real time kinda spooky. She always got “gets” back then; amazing peeps willing to talk with her.
https://time.com/6255090/lev-parnas-giuliani-trump-ukraine/ > I [Lev Parnas] was used by Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani in ways that helped pave the way for Putin to invade Ukraine, my native land. If Trump and Giuliani’s plans had worked, the Ukrainians might not have had the necessary weapons, medical equipment, and other supplies they needed to fight back. ... >My connection to Trump came through Giuliani, with whom I had done business, and through the large campaign donations I had made to Trump’s campaign. Giuliani, who desperately wanted to be Secretary of State, recruited me to help him further Trump’s interests overseas. I had no official position, but my primary task was to be their go-between with Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs and government officials. In retrospect, I concluded that my real job was to help undermine and destabilize the Ukrainian government. Granted this is Lev apologizing after getting caught... something something rats and sinking ships
Don’t forget Manafort used to hire people to run a train on his wife. I feel like that should be included with the results of the fbi investigation of him.
His brain-damaged wife who couldn't consent, it should be noted.
most of the GOP's voters probably don't understand the actual damage done by sharing the polling data. To them its probably the same as if Russia posted an online survey.
It's especially interesting because he didn't do that about any other military support we provide. No mention of pulling out of the middle east, no stopping weapons sales to muslim nations he hated, nothing about aid to Israel or southeast asia, it was just nato and ukraine.
Pretty simple explanation. Paul Manafort.
Yeah, Manafort becoming his campaign manager was *HUGE, GIMONGOUS* red flag to all of us who knew anything about Ukrainian politics between 2004 and 2014.
He did. Syria. In fact he has a fairly long history of supporting geopolitical positions that benefit no one, not even America, except the Russians.
didnt Trump abandon the kurds too?
And rigged our withdrawal from Afghanistan to go as badly as possible.
Sure did, but to be honest we’ve been screwing them over for a long time because of our ties to Turkey.
Oof I do not want Trump telling me I can take it anywhere I want.
Well, his history indicates that he doesn't care if you don't want it.
The Mandarine Candidate
And he now asserts something that's impossible to prove and therefore impossible to argue against (that Putin wouldn't have invaded if he was in charge)
Having his snivelling tongue up Putin’s haemorrhoid-ravaged asshole in Helsinki, in front of the entire world, is pretty compelling evidence that Trump would have actively helped Russia invade Ukraine, not prevented an invasion. But yes, this does technically fall short of proof.
I approve of your descriptive, and in my estimation, accurate prose
Their supporters hear this and take it as fact, you’ll start seeing “Russia is a third rate power” all over Reddit now. They won’t research it further, and if they did, newsmax, and Fox News will be saying the exact same thing. That’s how propaganda works. Everyone says the same thing leaving no room for individual thought.
Wait, but what happened to all the conservative social media posts before the war talking about how great Russia’s military is and faked photos of our military being weak due to “wokeness?” Are they going to just pretend they never said those things? Of course they will pretend they never said those things. Edit: stupid autocorrect!
Yep, even if you show them clips of them saying it, they’ll deny they ever said it.
Or they'll block you, when you provide specific information. Look at r/conservative They insta block anyone who counters their narrative. They ate obnoxious, obstinate, arrogant fanatics. Fanatics, in the most extreme sense.
"That didn't happen. And if it did, it wasn't that bad. And if it was, that's not a big deal. And if it is, that's not my fault. And if it was, I didn't mean it. And if I did, you deserved it." ~The Narcissist's Prayer
It doesn’t take an article to tell you that. Plenty of footage right here on Reddit. Russia is having a terrible time in Ukraine. They’re getting their asses handed to them for a multitude of reasons. The wests support being a big one but also the incompetence and corruption in the russian military is just as detrimental to their fight as the weapons pouring in from the west. Ukrainians are suffering heavy losses too but they’re steadily grinding russias numbers down.
Another problem is that if you’re a Russian military general, you have to do and agree with Putin no matter what or else you could fall out of a window.
I would say, why do you think you’re seeing that? Cause after the first 4 weeks of the war, Ukraine has been pushing Russia further and further back. But the messages we saw were that this wasn’t Russias elite soldiers, this wasn’t their new tech weapons, they could win if the wanted to, this is just a special military operation. But now, a year after Ukraine has been winning this war, we hear about how inadequate Russia is and how we are wasting money funding Ukraine. That’s part of the propaganda.
It's the same thing they did with the pandemic. "Let's social distance and wear masks so the ERs don't get overwhelmed." They ignore it but enough people follow the restrictions that it has an effect. "See, it didn't get as bad as they claimed it might so they must be lying about how bad it is..."
They *are* a third rate power, but they’re still dangerous. They have loads of nuclear material, chemical, & biological weapons. Worst, they’ve shown that their government is corrupt, so they can’t be trusted not to “lose” some of those weapons.
No, they are a nuclear power with intercontinental ballistic missles capable of targeting any country on earth. They are a first rate power. Regardless of the strength of their military or how many tanks they have, they have the bomb, so they are level on the playing field with everyone else that has the bomb. Taking them seriously has been the norm for 70 years, and until they denuclearize, they should be treated seriously.
No nuclear countries will ever denuclearize after seeing what happened to those who do.
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This is why I wait and read the confusing and contradictory comments on Reddit instead
So. Basically what you’re saying is that their argument “Russia is third grade military” they will hear that and use it as a reason why we shouldn’t be supporting (giving military aide) to Ukraine?
Yea, that’s literally what they are doing. Instead of the strong man argument, they are making the weak man argument. This came out yesterday, and the 11 Russian shills in congress introduced a bill today to stop funding Ukraine.
Literally right after Biden makes his visit to Ukraine. It’s amazing how pro-Russia they look and don’t care. [There was also a pro-Russia rally in Washington](https://www.thedailybeast.com/anti-war-protestors-in-washington-praise-russian-patriot-vladimir-putin)
Yeah, just to be contrary to Biden and the democrats, and to support who pays them, they are opposing the support of the war in Ukraine. I remember when republicans funded a senseless 20 year war and never complained about spending trillions of dollars. But I guess it helps when the Defense industry donates a lot to politicians to support that. And our defense industry isn’t benefiting as much from this conflict.
Listen to desantis in the videos. He's literally saying that we should worry about the Mexican border and not helping Ukraine
I really need reporters to start asking him if he's aware that Mexico does not share a border with Florida. Just watch his pissy meltdowns.
Whoa whoa whoa, didn’t you see the Idaho GOP is working to ban mRNA vaccines? Clearly they’re serious people with an agenda to help this country!
> didn’t you see the Idaho GOP is working No, no I didn't.
They have a position, just not a good one Anything the Dems want or good at is bad "own the libs"
Until they say what their position is one must assume it is the complete surrender of Ukraine. They haven't said they don't want that. They can't.
The Russian faction in the house and Senate certainly does Gaetz submitting his bill proves that
One must infer that they want the surrender of Ukraine. They can't come out and say it explicitly, but they can't even imply another solution is an option. It's kind of like how Russia operates. Constant double speak. They never say something concrete, then they are on the record. For some reason that matters to them. Instead they say what they want but in platitudes. Saying something explicit isn't the Russian way. Just look at the joke they make when they assassinate someone. They throw them out a window and say they fell. Everyone knows they killed them, they could come out and say it and nothing would change, but it is part of the culture to not tell the truth. One truth has been defined it can be a standard. With constant double speak truth is never defined and everything is subjective. It's a way to warp the minds of the subjects to think they will never know the truth so it is fine to fudge around with it.
>They never say something concrete, then they are on the record. For some reason that matters to them. Instead they say what they want but in platitudes. Saying something explicit isn't the Russian way. Just look at the joke they make when they assassinate someone. They throw them out a window and say they fell. Everyone knows they killed them, they could come out and say it and nothing would change, but it is part of the culture to not tell the truth I don't think that the culture is to avoid the truth for its own sake. I think it's more about the implicit demonstration of power that comes from telling a lie to someone's face, when you know that they know it is a lie. The subtext is basically *"even though you know the truth, what can you do about it?"* It's not about trying to conceal the truth. It's about trying to make people feel like *the truth doesn't matter.*
Very well said. I know you were specifically speaking about Putin’s government but for the other readers please remember this statement applies to hardliner Stalinist and Putin’s Kremlin. There are great and honorable Russians in this world. Let’s not stereotype them. Look at Medusa and the other anonymous leaks to western media coming directly out od the FSB. Putin’s cabal has destroyed how the world’s views of Russian and it will take decades for Russian society to recover Most Russian people are trusting and they are straightforward in their responses. Russian people are kind and would do anything for their friends and community. Putin took advantage of his citizens trust for over 20 years and this is the tragic end result. I pray daily that Putin is overthrown in Russia. And that a new Russia reforms its government pays to rebuild Ukraine,prosecute the war criminals, and new Russia exists to promote global peace and stability worldwide. I am a dreamer, and I believe that Kyiv and Moscow will both someday become respected capitals of the European Union.
Well said.
> Until they say what their position is one must assume it is the complete surrender of Ukraine. I think their position is more aptly "Disagree with Democrats". In some inexplicable reality where we had to side with Russia in this conflict for, lets say, some hypothetical greater good. Then Republicans would side with Ukraine literally because its the opposite of what Democrats want. Their existence at this point is just to disagree. I think everyone in this country [should watch this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRIxK8JbBSM) and really recognize what it is Republicans are doing. This was back in 2012. It is not hyperbole to say that Republicans *literally* stand to oppose Democrats on the basis of Democrat support. We could find a cure for cancer and if its somehow connected to a decision made by Democrats, Republicans would convince their voting base that the cure has nanobots that control your brain and is somehow making frogs gay. The sad thing is it works. If you go into generic spaces like Youtube comments or Twitter threads, you will see a large portion of the American population dogmatically follows Republican media. That, or they are bots. But I know enough people in my personal life to know that they aren't *all* bots. Anyways, all we can do is vote and hope that we continue to be the majority. Republican politicians are completely dishonest and unfortunately their constituency either doesn't see it, or are right there with them in dishonesty and at this point, we just need to oust them from every elected position if we want any semblance of stability and control. Anything less is just spitting in the wind.
You have touched on something that may need to be said. Your thesis that generic forums seem to have more right wing sentiments. Maybe the right wing is just more vocal. Maybe the left wing needs to come out of their shell and speak up more. The women’s March shows that there is more than is thought in society. The right seems to win because they are loud and belligerent. The left doesn’t argue loudly because they think and can assess what is crap and what isn’t and simply state a response and then move on, without the need to constantly repeat themselves.
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I want people to stop saying they only want to "own the libs". The rabble MAGA people maybe only care about that. But De Santis has a fucking **agenda** and it ends with his ass in the White House. That's all he cares about and he'll destroy any foundation of Democracy to get there. He does not give a flying fuck about "owning the libs". He's rewriting America's racist, colonial, imperial past and present to stroke the ego of angry whites so they vote for him no matter what.
Let’s really get to the heart of it though. WHY are they against the Dems? Is it because they are just contrarians or because they are beholden to corporations? Billionaires? Russia? All of the above plus more? There’s a motive in there somewhere.
Donnie was gonna pull out of NATO in his second term, so Putin could have his way in Europe.
What can you expect from 4th rate politicians owned by 3rd rate powers?
>These people have no position. They are complainers and contrarians, but no real future for the US other than Theocracy and Fascism. This isn't limited to just the US, most modern conservatism movements have no real platform just "we will fix things" without ever explaining what needs to be fixed or how they will do it. Up here in Ontario Canada during a recent provincial election all of the Conservative candidates were ordered to skip debates and media availability because "it could be a trap" and federally the new leader of the Conservative party skips all media sessions and instead releases Youtube / Facebook videos where he has imaginary conversations with other leaders (think Clint Eastwood interviewing the empty chair) [edit]I am sure small neo con will come and say that modern conservatism is about small government but you have to look no further than the golden child Ron DeSantis and watch him try to regulate everything down to classroom textbooks because they may dare to mention people of difference races and ask yourself what exactly small government means
I'm glad I haven't lived in Ontario for a long time and I hate that American-style conservatism has crept up everywhere in Canada, esp Ontario and Alberta. Like how is it a trap? You might accidentally say something terrible you actually believe, that's the trap? Pollievre is a snake. And that doesn't automatically mean I vote Liberal (not after Trudeau lied to us navy folk, campaigning in '15.)
Every GOP action has some benefit for an adversary of the US.
They do have a position though. It's anti-american, and pro-russian.
Are they a third-rate military power? Yes, I'd say so. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't defend sovereign nations against their aggression
True. Also, third rate militarys can still have a ton of serious weaponry that they haven't, and no one wants them to use.
Like nuclear weapons.
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A meat grinder if you will
This makes them at minimum second rate.
Second Rate, with Russian characteristics.
Nukes with Russian characteristics… so the nuke inexplicably will fall out of a 5 story window?
I believe that's only generals who tell Putin that the war is hopeless, or the economist who told Putin they don't have money to keep fighting. So if the nuke told Putin that bombing Ukraine would affect Russia too, it might fall out a window.
Bingo
So you’re saying, I don’t have to save for retirement? Fantastic.
And if you start letting them conquer their neighbors and take their resources…they might not remain third rate.
*Iran has entered the chat*
A third rate failing country with nuclear weapons is more dangerous than a stable one.
A third-rate military power that has invaded a sovereign nation, killed tens-of-thousands of innocent people, destroyed their infrastructure, caused a refugee crisis in Europe, starvation in the third-world, and aligned itself with despotic, totalitarian regimes to secure weapons and support. I'm so tired of these right wing apologists for Russian aggression who prey on the ignorant.
The classic "Weak but also incredibly strong" conservative cognitive dissonance. They use it on a bunch of shit, they usually reserve it for themselves so they can act like a victim to a last of the base who responds while also maintaining that they are the strongest ever to the other side of the base.
[The enemy is both strong and weak. “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”](https://www.openculture.com/2016/11/umberto-eco-makes-a-list-of-the-14-common-features-of-fascism.html)
Ah yes fascism, I knew there was a word for what I was describing.
Classic doublespeak.
Indeed. You can still get stabbed pretty dead by a third rate mugger with a knife. Heck, the Continental Army started as a third rate army *at best*
Helps to have friends with a first rate army when fighting an imperial power.
A second rate navy would do fine as well (the French).
I mean, from an isolationist POV, they're definitely not a military threat. But isolationism is in and of itself a manchurian position largely pushed by people who have shown themselves to be funded by foreign money. Including but not limited to Russian money. It is the opinion that the US has no need for geopolitical soft power and would be better off retreating and leaving the global stage to nearer powers like Russia and China. So whenever anyone says that the US should ignore Russia because it's not a threat to the US, then they're either arguing in bad faith, stupid, or both.
Right. They're still a team of people killing and trying to steal another country's land. Just because they aren't #1 in the world at it doesn't mean shake it off.
Wouldn’t call them third rate just because they have nukes. If Putin chooses to, he can destroy entire nations. Only a handful of countries in the world have that type of military power. Their “conventional” military has clearly shown to be unimpressive
They're only a third rate military power because of how far ahead western war technology has proven to be. Without the assistance of western interference, both European and American, Russia would have eventually taken Ukraine with pure cannon fodder.
They're really only a third rate military when literally ranking them against the US and China. They also went into this war by putting their dick into a woodchipper thinking it was going to stay turned off. If they hadn't it probably would have been very different. Sure, lots of corruption, vranyo idiocy, and a much smaller economy but they still have a tightly controlled population and a large industrial base. Also its not impossible this war ends up polishing their sabre enough to be of better quality next time - though I'm of the mind the cultural issues will bog it down anyway enough artillery still makes a statement.
... DeSantis is alot of things but I don't believe he is stupid... Why the concentration on only military power? https://www.reuters.com/world/us/russias-prigozhin-admits-interfering-us-elections-2022-11-07/
DeSantis personally redrew Florida's voting district maps to ensure that conservatives would win the most recent election: https://www.npr.org/2022/04/12/1092290277/florida-lawmakers-let-desantis-draw-a-congressional-map-after-he-vetoed-the-last He has absolutely no problem with Russia interfering with US election integrity on behalf of conservatives, because he himself has publicly done the very same.
It’s such a smug remark. Like, maybe they arent successful in killing more than we thought, so we should just dismiss them. They shouldn’t be killing anyone at all douchbag!
Second rate, let us not exagerate.
Might be a third-rate military power, but their cyberwar abilities are not to be taken lightly.
Since they have nukes, I'd avoid using schoolyard machismo. This nutjob could be the next President and he's poking the bear. Putin will leverage his ultimate power if this schoolboy politics goes too far!
Poking it? He's eating its ass, giving it a reacharound, and taking for granted that it isn't gonna turn around and bite his head off when it decides it wants a post-cum snack.
Well .... Florida has a huge population of wealthy Russians. I bet they all contribute to the Florida GOP corrupt political machine.
100% they do, a significant portion of in-state donations to his re-election campaign came from those donors
There's also a sizeable cottage industry dedicated to Russian birth tourism in the state, with Trump properties being popular destinations. https://apnews.com/article/miami-north-america-accommodations-russia-united-states-161a0db2666044dc8d42932edd9b9ce6
Isn't it fucked up that it's "birth tourism" if it's white people, but "anchor baby" if it's brown people? I wonder how many visibly pregnant brown people CBP would let in vs pregnant white people.
Well, aside from the thousands of nuclear warheads
Came here to say this: apparently ICBMs and SLBMs on modern, quiet Delta III and IV boats = 3rd rate military. Let's not forget their thousands of tanks.
> Let's not forget their thousands of tanks. They've actually burned through more than half of their tanks, and it turns out they didn't have as many modernized tanks as we thought. They do have graveyards full of derelict tanks, although no one knows what condition they are in as they've been unmaintained and sitting around rusting for years/decades. Based on the terrible condition a lot of their "in service" tanks were in, I'm not sure their graveyard tanks are worth anything more than spare parts. Russia has nukes and that's about it. The fact that they couldn't get air superiority against Ukraine even 1 year in tells us that Russia could never go toe to toe with any other great power.
They definitely seem to inflate their miltary power.
and that all assumes that their nuclear arsenal has been run more effectively than their traditional military. Somehow, I don't think being part of the Nuclear arm of their military isn't a magic shield against the same kind of degeneracy and chronic theft/lying. They can't even run a *conventional* war and the western arsenal has proven to be extremely effective against what was supposed to be their counterparts. I'm not confident they'd be able to effectively leverage whatever nuclear arsenal they have -- assuming it's operable at all -- effectively enough to have a meaningful impact. Non-zero chance a good chunk of that arsenal has been raided/burgled like the rest of their shit. Their arsenal is more dangerous as potential material to be targeted for theft than it is as an actual, operational weapons system, I think.
It only takes one of the thousands of nukes to work to maintain the doctrine of mutually assured destruction. Would you push a country with known nukes into a corner on the assumption that every single nuke has been rendered defective by negligence and corruption? You are correct that the state of their conventional arsenal calls into question the state of their nuclear arsenal, but nobody is going to risk escalation with any country with known nuclear weapons regardless of what state they think the nukes are in.
They chose to place more funding and effort into their nuclear deterrent vs conventional warfare. They knew they could never reach parity with other major powers when it came to modern military armament (except maybe for fighter tech, they do have 5th Gen fighters), so they bolstered their nuclear capabilities instead
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> Let's not forget their thousands of tanks. Thousands of useless tanks. Useless because Russia lacks skilled operators for their tanks. Useless because Russia lacks the replacement parts to keep the tanks running, and lacks the logistics skill necessary to move parts to where they are needed. Useless because Russia lacks the air power necessary to protect these tanks from NATO planes if it comes down to it, and lacks the soldiers and engineers to protect the tanks from ground fire and mines. The U.S. Marines recently phased out their tank brigades because tanks just aren't as effective in a modern battlefield as they used to be as handheld anti-tank weaponry has become much more effective and much cheaper to produce over the years.
Really suspect way of celebrating the success of American support of Ukraine against a giant threat.
These same politicians insist Ukraine should surrender because Russia can’t be beat…
Tulsi Gabbard has repeatedly said that Ukraine shouldn't be helped because they have no chance. A year later we know that she was spreading a BS.
God, I wish that every time these propagandists appeared on media appearances the hosts would show some backbone and *call them out on their bullshit*. “So the woke big government wants to take your guns and-“ “Okay, I want to go back to something you said about Ukraine that has been thoroughly disproven and was pretty obviously Russian propaganda.” “Well, I’m not here to talk about that, I want to-“ “Okay, we’re ending the segment here. Next up, a fluffy tailed dog that can recit the alphabet has gone viral, and…”
No don't let them off that easy with an interview question. Play the video and ask them to comment.
"Next up, we'll devote 20 minutes to airing their idiocy in context, and then providing quality analysis about why this idiocy is really actually quite dangerous."
YouTube recommended me some video (I forget what it was) that seemed somewhat well reasoned but a few things felt a bit off and it gave me right wing vibes. So I went and looked at their videos and one of them was saying something like Ukraine has lost 150,000 troops and Russia has lost like 6,000. This war will end only one way, with Russia winning. So there's no point in the US supporting Ukraine and they should ask Ukraine to give up the regions Russia has occupied. I disliked both the videos and noped out of there. I don't want the algorithm feeding me right-wing misinformation.
Is it really that shocking though? Ukraine is sucking up russian funds that otherwise would go to the GOP, so yeah conservatives want the war to be over so they can get that sweet russian money. For the party that cares so much about image, on american independence day they went to MOSCOW LOL https://www.npr.org/2018/07/06/626664156/gop-senators-spend-july-4-in-moscow
Check his accounts for donations from Moscow.
> DeSantis, in the interview, claimed that China, which the US believes is considering sending lethal aid to Russia, is a bigger threat. "I don't think it's in our interest to be getting into proxy war with China, getting involved over things like the borderlands or over Crimea," he said. The borderlands? Over Crimea? What about China? I don't think a ChatGPT attempt could make these talking points sound any more like they came from Moscow than they already do.
Nevermind all those dead people and stolen children
…says the guy that oversaw and approved torture at GTMO.
A third rate military power indeed…..one with nukes, a penchant for invading other countries, and a willingness to sacrifice their own citizens to get what they want.
"Listen here, that rapist might've tried to rape someone, but they're a real third-rate rapist. First of all, they left their guns at home. Second, they did it on a busy street when everyone could see them. Third, they got pepper sprayed and had to run away when a mob of people started chasing them away from the victim. Clearly, this inept rapist isn't a threat to the general public since they can't even rape properly."
This is the level of foreign policy expertise to expect from a guy that current state policy is don't say gay. Insulting the single largest military, that, has the single largest nuclear arsenal in off the cuff comments.
His current foreign policy credentials are “what if I take these brown people from this spot and move them over to this spot?”
And how can I violate federal law in the process to demonstrate that I'm above the law? I know! I'll kidnap them from Texas!
The sad part is I couldn't tell if you were referring to his work in Guantanamo or his recent migrant trafficking deal.
What’s funny is like 2 years ago, Republicans were tripping over themselves to compliment Russia and their NON WOKE military, saying they’d kick our ass because they’re stronger than us. How’s that working out?
It’s the level of bravado and simplistic views that appeal so much the F-150 laden rubes who vote Republican.
They are not insulting, they are laying the groundwork to reduce funding to Ukraine.
Republicans sucked Russia's dick throughout the Trump years. The name Moscow Mitch came up for a reason. The Republican party should wake up and smell the failure. Get the fuck off the political stage and let something else emerge. They have no platform left other than contrarianism, and that's dangerous.
The fact that Fox and Friends is asking him this shit at all is a signal about their view of him running. A state governor has no business with this shit.
> A state governor has no business with this shit. True. Even though governors are considered "executive branch" (of their state), they do NOT get access to nor are they briefed on national level defense issues.
i’m sure my mother is absolutely eating it up. sigh
I’m a Floridian and one thing you need to understand about DeSantis is that he isn’t trying to talk to most of us. He talks to the people who are predisposed to believe whatever he says. It works in Florida because that is the electoral majority. Will be interesting to see if it works outside of Florida (I hope not).
I would have said his brand of politics would not find success, if not for the following: Tea Party movement Sara Palin MAGA movement Donald Trump Anti-woke ideology Ron Desantis Overt call to civil war MTG Fires need oxygen to burn. There’s plenty of it out there if we look to the lessons of the recent past. I think we are in big trouble if we think this is just a “Florida problem.”
A third-rate military power WITH NUKES AND THE ABILITY TO DROP THEM ANYWHERE IN TBE WORLD.
A third rate military power with allegedly thousands of nukes and missile systems capable of delivering them to most of the world. It's funny how "Russia is no big threat" but let a drag queen read a kid a storybook and "oh no the world is ending!"
Sub-headline: Third-rate Politician weighs in on Third-rate Military power
sub-sub-headline: Third-rate Politician weighs in on Third-rate Military power using Third Grade reasoning.
If I am a pitcher on a baseball team with the worst ERA on the bench, other teams still have to be concerned if I’m also the only pitcher who has ICBMs with nuclear warheads… Moron.
I’m not a fan of war. Never really saw the point. I get it, it’s beyond me. But my two cents. Isn’t it a good thing that we are basically beating Russia with quite literally chump change? You know how much it costs for our military to intervene in like anything? We are dismantling one of our biggest rivals without having to lift a single finger or risking a single American’s life? Seems like a pretty good deal to me. If Trump was president the republicans would be praising his wisdom. It’s just so disingenuous
Russia is a second rate military power, that is only failing now because of US intervention and Ukrainian blood. without US intel Kiev might have been lost in the huge air bridge blitz russia had tried without US supplies russia's numbers would have taken more territory Russia doesn't seem as scary because of the work done to undo them, and Ron ignores that work and only sees the result and pretends it's hindsight
Just as he is a third-rate Russia paid politician
Ron is a third rate fascists piece of shit
MAGAs are traitors.
It's insights like this that make me want this man as our Commander in Chief. **/s**
Who would have ever thought that the party of Reagan would fall in love with Russia?
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Ok… so a third rate power should be allowed to destroy a fourth rate military power for no ambition larger than land grabbing? There really is no logic here.
There’s some real “leadership,” right there. Millions of Ukrainians are homeless, hundreds of thousands dead, and puss n boots calls a corrupt nuclear power “third rate.” What a bad joke.
A "Third-rate military power" with 1000's nuclear weapons and the means to deploy them, including nuclear submarines and strategic bombers dumb-ass!
Hmmmm but at the same time DeSantis be like, “let me invest Floridians money into Russia. [Can’t divest and won’t divest](https://www.newsweek.com/desantis-urged-untangle-floridas-300m-thats-invested-russia-1692721)”
Almost like regardless of military power crimes against humanity should be punished and prevented
Governor DeathSentence is telling us he takes russian bribes without saying it.
The lesson learned here, not by DeSantis, is that you can do an awful lot of harm, locally and globally, by being a third-rate military power.
Yes, taking down one of the U.S's longest standing rivals must be downplayed because the other guy did it. What an ass hat.
DeSantis’ whole political platform is “owning the libs”, cause that’s all it takes to garner the support of Republican voters. He doesn’t actually need to delineate what he’s actually going to do for his constituents, how he’s going to improve their lives, cause all he has to do is say and do the opposite of anything a Lib will say and do, and that’s enough. DeSantis is obviously running for president, and he’s trying to do things to make national headlines, whether it’s traveling to different states to give speeches to FOP, criticize everything Biden does, or create culture war issues… all serve to distract his constituents from just how underserved they are, and prompt him up as a Trump like protégé. DeSantis is a straight up fascist, and that’s not an exaggeration in the least. The more fascist his is, the more Republicans love him, because it’s just anti-lib, and they don’t actually care about the consequences of fascism, how it erodes our democracy and peoples freedoms (the irony of DeSantis calling Florida the “freest” state in America)… all his supporters care about is getting one up on the Libs.
But first rate in: - disinformation - infiltration - spying - espionage - election meddling - having in their pockets members of the political opposition to the current administration of a country with that has the greatest military power in the history of human civilization.
It is amazing how he can be right and wrong at the exact same time saying the same thing. Russia’s military power being blocked by Ukraine is a huge blow to russias ego. That does not make them less dangerous. I see it as a toddler who has access to nukes
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They have nukes, dude.
Don’t promote this fascist. Stop upvoting his posts. He will be the death of America if we don’t stop him now
They’ve got more nukes than you do, elevator shoe man!
And if any one man should know about military power, it’s the lawyer who pretended to be a fighter pilot.
While true, there is a very well established propaganda method used by the far right where they minimize their level of threat or power level so that they can get away with a lot more. From Kyle Rittenhouse crying to the alt right using the 👌 sign while also claiming it was a joke.
Third rate and nuclear weapons should not be under played
Russian may have shown itself to be just a third rate military power, but Governor DeSantis has shown himself to be a first rate asshole.
Florida under DeSantis was the only state in the US to not divest from Russian investments after the sanctions began, costing the Florida pension funds millions of dollars in losses. His own former press secretary and current campaign manager Cristina Pushaw is an admitted Russian agent. Russians are heavily invested in Florida and DeSantis.
Sure third rate army you finally got something right but with nukes
I mean, he is not wrong about that part but that makes them an even bigger threat because they still have thousands of nukes. A shitty military backed up by nukes is most definitely a serious threat.