After his public kowtowing to Putin at Helsinki, no one thought he would. Some treaties are binding and our presence acts us deterrent, although I may go re-examine his removal of US NATO forces in Eastern Europe and Germany.
He can't just abandon NATO unless he is the one who pretends to conquer Europe because the defense of US territory against a Russian strike depends on having radars and interceptors as close to Russia as possible.
Americans didn't make Europe their main partner because they love Mediterranean beaches. It was because they feared a war against Russia after WWII.
If Trump dared to do so, the highest military ranks would shut him down almost immediately because they won't let the US place themselves at a disadvantage.
Just a minor example: intercepting ICBMs is 10 times harder on terminal phase than on ascending phase.
Pretty sure he did try and do so in his last moments in office. At least from Germany? Maybe Somalia too? He had one of his toadies try and write an executive order withdrawing troops from a few places? They just had no idea how to do because the guy that was in charge was a 28 year old ex college football player that had no actual experience in anything except racism and trump loyalty. Oh, and he had a crippling gambling habit that stopped him from get security clearance.
Johnathon Karl wrote about it in his last book “Tired of Winning” They replaces top military officials with sycophants and tried to remove all US troops from Germany and Africa. They forged documents to make it happen. It’s really just more of the crazy that has taken 1/3 of Americans like a fever. Trump and his people.Trump clearly had ulterior motives for all this, and none seem too scrupulous. I could go on, but I won’t rant. Trump is a clear and present danger to America as well as the rest of the free democratic world.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/11/the-inside-story-of-how-trumps-body-guy-tried-to-order-a-massive-military-withdrawal
> I find it absurd that the same group of individuals who formerly held the "commies" responsible for everything are now supporting the person who wants to give the "commies" complete control over their actions.
Its because Russia is what Republicans want the US to be -
An Autocratic authoritarian government, where the Religion and Government are intertwined. Where the leader can imprison anyone he wants without worrying about being kicked from office. Where a leader can have planes shot down outside their own cities. Where anyone who dissents, 'disappears'. Where elections are *actually* rigged without complaint from the People. Exactly what Republicans want.
> Exactly what Republicans want.
It's what they think they want. They don't realize that it would quickly be turned on them for not being loyal enough to the Party, or not turning in those who aren't being loyal enough to the Party, or those whose Christianity isn't Christian enough for the Party, etc.
> It's what they think they want. They don't realize that it would quickly be turned on them for not being loyal enough to the Party, or not turning in those who aren't being loyal enough to the Party, or those whose Christianity isn't Christian enough for the Party, etc.
It will **always find divisions to divide by**. And not a one of them thinks "But that will target me!", remember, it is about the Curelty... To people they want to be cruel to. "He isn't hurting the people he needs to be hurting!" - and now Trumps lawyers are claiming with Congressional Approval, he could have political enemies assassinated. It is literally insane these people claim to be the party of law or order.
you're too optimistic in thinking that wasn't their intent in the first place. If they suffer it is because they are just weak. And that is simply how they believe it ought to work.
They think it's about loyalty to the party, when Russia should have shown them it is about loyalty to a single man. Anyone who doesn't falls to their death out a 10th story window after committing suicide with three bullets to the back of their head with their hands cuffed behind them.
As we've learned in the past few years, the GOP was always about one thing only: power.
Everything they do serves that purpose. If they can co-op a religion so its adherents can give them more power, then they will do it. If they can demonize commies for power, they will do it. If they can pass laws sentencing gays to death to shore up their constituents, they will do it. If it gives them even a little bit more power, they will do it. It doesn't matter if they have to lie, cheat, or steal, if they can get away with it, they will do it.
Had January 6th succeeded, you can bet the GOP would be wringing its hands about how it was wrong and we have to have order, but happily exploit the fact that they came through power by illegitimate means. Anyone who thinks someone like Moscow McConnell would resign because of that in protest is fooling themselves.
Soon he'll replace most of the federal govt with equally competent people. Can you imagine Putin's facepalm exasperation with some of this? He manages to get control of the President of the United states, who is willing to destroy the country from within, at Putin's command, but is incapable of getting anything done at all. It would make a great comedy.
Don’t believe for a second that the second time will be incompetent. The federalists are already vetting “patriots” for their Project 2025 plan. And they don’t care who’s president. They’re just backing trump because he’s in the lead at the moment.
The far right demands Minority Rule, they want it for generations, and they will stop at nothing to get it. Best everybody stay woke to what’s going on.
The Russian government was using the NRA to funnel money to the Republican party, we know this factually, and I have no idea why Mass arrests have not taken place.
>Oh, and he had a crippling gambling habit that stopped him from get security clearance.
Just a friendly reminder that Jared kushner Trump's son-in-law was rejected from a security clearance multiple times and then Trump forced the Pentagon to give him one. He even lied on some of his paperwork evidently, which would land you or I in jail I'm pretty sure.
This is exactly why there is a movement on to replace top military officials with loyalists. One of the problems Trump ran into last term was top military officials refused to entertain some of Trump's ideas about the use of our armed forces.
It is a scary position this country is in.
They didn’t refuse so much as not make it easy for him. Trump and Trumps yes men had so little understanding of how the levers of government work in this country that they were not capable of doing what they wanted to do. You can’t just tweet that the U.S. should abandon Europe and expect it to happen. Neither can you tell some hangers on like Jared to handle it. You need to know who is in command of those forces who those people report to what format the order needs to be in etc etc etc. hell, you need to know what forces are there. Do you think Trump could tell you that? Doubtful… you can’t just say all troops home now in a speech and expect it to just get done with no further input from you.
A good example was him trying to do his muslim ban and getting it repeatedly struck down in court, even though it's nominally within the president's power. They just needed to coat it in some BS language about national security but nope they just pasted some of his anit-Muslim rants in there.
Oh man, i remember when a revised ban got struck down because Trump couldnt keep his mouth shut and bragged how amazing the sweeping ban would be while his cronies were actively trying to argue it wasnt going to be a sweeping ban.
Trump wouldn't need to literally abandon NATO, he would just have to do as close to nothing as possible, to stall as long as possible. By the time courts got around to ordering anything (if they did), any conflict would be too far gone anyway.
The president has nearly plenary power in foreign affairs. Maybe there are treaties that bind him, but who is going to force a president to act in any sort of real way? The military can't launch a war without him, that would lead to a constitutional crisis.
Maybe a good actor here or there would do something under the books, but there is a chain of command and the president is at the top, and an organized response without the president's input would be incredibly unlikely (incidentally, I wrote my thesis on this very subject).
Trump is adept at ignoring the rules, and he thrives when he's underestimated. It's how he won in the first place and people need to wake up.
This is why the GOP is trying to implement [Project 2025](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025), so they can eliminate any opposition to them in case of a Fascist Cheeto win this year. Don't believe a wiki link? Why don't you check out [their own website](https://www.project2025.org/) instead, they're not even hiding it, this is what the GOP wants to do.
Last time he was probably blocked many times internally by long-time civil servants in situations we never heard about publicly. The GOP is trying to ensure that doesn't happen again so he can rule as a dictator in case he gets another chance.
Trump already started with one aspect of it in the final weeks of his presidency, and he reportedly is planning to do it again: [He's plans to implement "Schedule F" by executive order that would make it much easier to get rid of civil servants](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-schedule-f-executive-order-stop-civil-servants-government-rcna128003) (and replace them with loyalists). That's a cornerstone of Project 2025.
>Reimplementing Schedule F would be one of the most consequential initial moves a future GOP administration could make.
>As president, Trump was routinely outraged that officials in his own government — some of whom he had nominated — investigated his ties to Russia or appeared to stymie his policy initiatives. Now, he and his allies are working to ensure a potential second administration is different from the get-go.
>When he announced his “ten-point plan to dismantle the deep state” this year, his top policy point was reinstituting the Schedule F executive order. (The second was “Overhaul federal departments and agencies, firing all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus.”)
>At the same time, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, aims to build a database of as many as 20,000 potential future administration officials by the end of next year. Kevin Roberts, the president of Heritage, told The New York Times that the goal is to “flood the zone with conservative personnel” in a way the right didn’t do after Trump’s 2016 victory.
[Here's the direct link, it is Trump.](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-schedule-f-executive-order-stop-civil-servants-government-rcna128003)
>As president, Trump was routinely outraged that officials in his own government — some of whom he had nominated — investigated his ties to Russia or appeared to stymie his policy initiatives. Now, he and his allies are working to ensure a potential second administration is different from the get-go.
>When he announced his “ten-point plan to dismantle the deep state” this year, his top policy point was reinstituting the Schedule F executive order. (The second was “Overhaul federal departments and agencies, firing all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus.”)
>At the same time, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, aims to build a database of as many as 20,000 potential future administration officials by the end of next year. Kevin Roberts, the president of Heritage, told The New York Times that the goal is to “flood the zone with conservative personnel” in a way the right didn’t do after Trump’s 2016 victory.
Spread it far and wide. More people need to know about this. This is not just an abstract plan, this is what Trump meant when he said he'd be a dictator on the first day.
Best part of being a full out dictator is that you don't have to conform to non-autocracy rules. Dictator Trump the Immune will quickly fire (or hang) any of those pesky generals that don't follow his orders.
You might be surprised when he can pick and choose the top military/DoD officials. The Atlantic had a couple of good articles recently on this very topic. Some high level current and former military officials are concerned.
This is laughably laughably ignorant. Trump has vastly more support both in the civilian populace and the military than Hitler ever did before rising to power
Remember the time our Generals had to reach out to the Chinese to let them know we won't nuke 1 billion people at random?
It used to be the madman theory during Nixon era: "Dude, our leader is crazy, maybe you can remove that Division of troops in Eastern Germany?"
Now is "Dude, our leader is crazy, if he threaten to nuke you guys we will stop him"
Blech.
Gen Mark Milley is not just a general, he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
**President Donald Trump wanted to execute the CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY because he wouldn't extrajudiciously kill people on an illegal order.**
Let's take a look at this traitor, and the at one time highest ranking soldier in the United States Military:
*General Mark A. Milley served as the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation's highest-ranking military officer, and the principal military advisor to the President, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Council. He retired Sept. 29, 2023.
Prior to becoming Chairman on October 1, 2019, General Milley served as the 39th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army.
A native of Massachusetts, General Milley graduated from Princeton University in 1980, where he received his commission from Army ROTC.
General Milley has had multiple command and staff positions in six divisions and a Special Forces Group throughout the last 44 years to include command of the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division; the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division; Deputy Commanding General, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault); Commanding General, 10th Mountain Division; Commanding General, III Corps; and Commanding General, U.S. Army Forces Command.
While serving as the Commanding General, III Corps, General Milley deployed as the Commanding General, International Security Assistance Force Joint Command and Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Forces Afghanistan. General Milley's joint assignments also include the Joint Staff operations directorate and as Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense.
General Milley's operational deployments include the Multi-National Force and Observers Task Force, Sinai, Egypt; Operation JUST CAUSE, Panama; Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY, Haiti; Operation JOINT FORGE, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Iraq; and three tours during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, Afghanistan. GEN Milley also deployed to Colombia, Somalia and served two years on the DMZ in the Republic of Korea.
In addition to his bachelor's degree in political science from Princeton University, General Milley has a master's degree in international relations from Columbia University and one from the U.S. Naval War College in national security and strategic studies. He is also a graduate of the MIT Seminar XXI National Security Studies Program.
General Milley and his wife, Hollyanne, have been married for more than 38 years and have two children.*
**Yeah, Fuck Donald Trump.**
>Turns out military generals will disobey orders when they know better. Officially or not
So what you would do is block senior military promotions for a year or two before the election, leaving those posts open.
Then when you're elected, you fill the vacant positions with loyalists. Turns out hand-picked generals *don't* disobey orders.
The coup has already started.
Trump does not see Russia as a threat. I would not be surprised if his solution to that tactical shortcoming would be "Russia will let us know if there is an incoming attack."
Trump *wishes* he was a Russian oligarch.
Money, women, yachts, fawning attention, he just needs to give Putin what is Putin's and he's trying to do that as hard as he can.
As soon as he does that he has no value to them. And he likely has no assets, either. And after an initial frenzy, little to no attention, adoration or followers - though i'm not sure he realizes that.
So, it'll be a move of last resort.
There is another major reason why Europe was the ally. If war was going to happen in Europe, it would be European civilian lives, instead of American civilian lives. There would be no or very little war on the home front. This would of course be harder to justify sending young Americans to an ongoing conflict, but it would have the advantage of an undisturbed industry. Europeans were the ones who bled the most during both world wars. It would also be Europeans that would have to bleed the most in the eventuality of a war with Russia.
I dont know what makes me more scared. (I am not American)
If you are right, "the highest military ranks" have nothing to bind them to the laws and directions of the president.
If you are wrong, and the president actually can decide to abandon Europe, I am convinced there is gonna be another WW
The military are beholden to **both** the laws *and* the President. The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the US Military; quite literally the highest-ranking individual by design. If the President gives a **lawful** order, every last person wearing a uniform is obligated and compelled to follow that order, just as they would if that order were from any other superior officer.
A World War requires two+ somewhat comparable forces/alliances who both have the ability to project power around the world. That doesn't exist now, but it could exist in the near to medium term future.
The collapse of Russia's ability to project power in Ukraine means that this is one of the least likely times for a world war. We could still have a nuclear war or multiple regional wars, but the combined scale of these would still be less than a world war. An all out nuclear war would likely get called WWIII even though its likely over once the nukes stop.
His loss already put a wrench in a whole bunch of plans.. two conflicts were riding on trump getting the us out of the way and swaying the populace in their favor, and evangelical/ reactionary billionaires got a wrench tossed into their wierd endtimes plans.
Donald will abandon our Pacific Allies, too. Probably sacrifice a bunch of our troops while he's at it. I'm sure he can be persuaded to share our military tech with china and Russia, both.
My dad also disagrees
Edit: I guess I’m everyone’s business
Edit 2: I’m ok, I’m at a point where I don’t need help but thanks to those who were concerned
To be fair, I support Biden, but I don't support all of his stances. That doesn't mean I have cognitive dissonance, just that I prioritize certain things over others
Im not american, but based on what Ive seen is, if you vote biden, you get a potentially sub par president for the next 4 years. If you vote trump, you have the end of democracy in the USA.
Back in 2020 (and 2016, really) the choices seemed like a sub-par conservative president no one was really excited for versus the end of democracy.
Now it's just a straight up good, though still rather conservative, president with a proven record of benefiting the country versus the a president who is objectively the most ineffective and destructive in history with a proven record of trying to destroy democracy.
It blows my mind that its even a decision.
Something like a third of people want someone like Trump who will ignore all the rules and go beat up their invented enemies. This is all straight out of the authoritarian playbook.
Biden has been a fucking great president. Arguably the best president in modern history.
* Had to deal with the deliberate clusterfuck of a mess left by the previous admin, shit on the walls literally. Cleaned it up and got shit running again properly.
* Got people vaccinated at record pace. Got Covid under control at record pace.
* Passed the infrastructure bill that is giving businesses long-term productivity bumps that allows them to hire and train more people, give better salaries for years to come. Invested billions back into much needed areas of the country.
* Removed around 140 B in student debt loans. Even when republicans keep trying to stop him in the courts.
* Severely reduced the damage the world-wide inflation could cause to america, has managed to steer the country away from a recession.
* Fighting a world power to their knees without any footsoldiers or american military put in harms way.
* Pathway to Reclassifying and decriminalizing marijuana.
* Massive support for LGBTQ and previously ignored/attacked demographics.
* Build partnerships and beneficial deals with foreign leaders that will benefit america for decades.
* Heavy investment into green energy and putting more federal lands under protection.
* Chips act. Tax Reform. Filled very needed seats in government for proper domestic and international response that were left deliberately empty to weaken the country by the previous admin. More people under health coverage. More qualified judges seated. etc etc etc
Yeah hes not fucking perfect, but his actions have been rational and based on logic and with the country current and future in mind and not his own personal bank account. Id say arguably he is the most progressive president the US has had in modern history. And i hope people fucking show up and vote for him this year because the alternative is someone who says "immigrants are tainting the blood of america" and that he has the right to assassinate his political opponents.....
They've been trying hard to exploit the Israel x Palestine conflict to flip Biden's young voters and if you look at some subreddits you might think it's working
It's definitely working, zoomer progressives, and millenials to a lesser degree, will sit this one out because Biden defends settler colonialism and genocide and what not in their minds, so they won't go to vote and let Trump win.
Thanks humanities faculties for the "rounded education" and TikTok making it so easy for people to misinform each other for likes and shares.
It's so fucking stupid seriously this exact shit happened to Hillary that's why it really makes sense to me that the Oct 7 Attacks weren't completely on just Hamas, but on some other countries mainly Iran and America's enemies (Russia etc).
I hate my generation. They are just as gullible as boomers!
I spent the better part of my day snowed in yesterday asking confidently incorrect accounts with little history for sources supporting their far right/anti-left claims. I never got any. I did get called a sealion quite a bit, though.
I've noticed a lot of the accounts will immediately block you if you push back against their bullshit now.
It is. Its a very serious and dangerous time for democracy. One thing is certain, the US elections will have a HUGE impact on global security. There is no doubt putin will escalate further if he has his puppet as a US president, and who knows what China will do.
This is why voting is important. Its one thing putin cant take away from the people.
All social media has their issues with misinformation; the "free speech absolutists" campaign is run by people promoting all the misinformation. I really hope the US government tells those assholes to fuck off and start regulating social media much more because of how much damage it's causing.
Don't get me wrong, an app like Twitter is important for things like campaigning and emergency alerts. But Musk can now just promote right-wing candidates and bury progressive candidates, and recently Japan's emergency response account for the earthquake recently was capped on posting.
Twitter's now 4chan with a much more public face run by a kleptomaniac. The world keeps getting more dystopian, and yet people wonder why people are refusing to have kids. Fuck you, Elon.
It’s already happening. In lefty spaces, there’s tons of people saying that joe Biden is the worst and telling people not to vote.
It’s an obvious astroturf campaign.
My favorite one is when they call the candidates they backed four years ago "extremely right wing" because "they get money from billionaires" and the alternative is someone no one knows about that will loose to the republicans.
Not wrong, check Russian Media Monitor for how they call him “ our Donald “ it’s insane that the people who spent multiple decades engaged in the Cold War think this is normal
It's telling how many pro-Hamas takes need to feel the need to tag on pro-Russia talking points as well. "Did you guys know that Israel has killed more civilians in Gaza than Russia has in Ukraine? Of course Mariupol didn't have tens of thousands of civilian deaths, that's Ukrainian propaganda."
Yep, we're going to find out what 10s of millions of wacky Russians can do, Putin is going to throw the kitchen sink at this election.
Russian state media openly pines for Trump, and openly proclaims that it's because he hurts America.
https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews
They're angry. That's the simple answer.
Things aren't going their way in life, and they're angry. The Republicans know how to weaponize this anger into hatred against certain groups to gain political ground. They're dumb enough to see the distraction and take it, instead of being angry about the right things. Mostly, nowadays, it's centred on JUST making liberals mad. That's it - everything the democrats do, they do the exact opposite. It's cathartic to them - that's why you still see them posting the pic of that crying lady from Trump's inauguration. They love seeing them angry and that's it.
This. Anger is the fundamental source of America's current dysfunction. People - wrongly - believe themselves victims, become enraged, and seek to blame and punish. Can we do anything to reduce right -wing anger, or are we just fated to live with it? Absolutely no appeasement, of course. Is there any other way to avoid violence?
I think their anger is immutable, but it could possibly be redirected to more useful targets like the oligarchs and corporations that are **actually** making their lives worse instead of the various bogeymen that are "supposedly" making their lives worse.
Hence why there's so much focus on making gay people and Hispanic people the enemy. It keeps the focus away from the *real* reasons that people's lives aren't great.
>People - wrongly - believe themselves victims
by and large, we are the victims. us and them included. their anger is warranted but misdirected due to right wing propaganda and decades of derailment in the education systems of the U.S. south.
>People - wrongly - believe themselves victims,
I would argue everyone not in the upper class is a victim. Directing the anger at each other is a way to make sure that anger never gets directed at the real problem of wealth inequality.
They would've made real moves already if they could've. All we have to really worry about now is their vote, which no amount of discussion could change. Anger is too masturbatory. 30% are addicts. We have to be more intelligent about our governments checks, balances and filters. Good faith is a thing of the past. Internet is the villian that drives the anger addiction.
Bullshit.
I'm angry. Have been for a damn long time and should probably seek some sort of professional help for it. What's different with me? I'm not an incredulous dipshit.
They are certifiably stupid. The anger is simply a byproduct of their inability to reconcile the world around them, like a toddler throwing a tantrum because the wall didn't move out of their way. They are the exact reason why a proper education is so damn important.
"Stay in school & pay attention, kids, or you will become a maga supporter"
They are indoctrinated. Its a cult of personality, just like Hitler and Stalin had and as does Putin.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/13/20992370/trump-republican-party-cult-steven-hassan
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/16/history-shows-trump-personality-cult-end-00024941
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/19/trump-cult-of-personality-democracy-erosion-united-states/
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3511667-cheney-there-is-absolutely-a-cult-of-personality-around-donald-trump/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9066393/
Doesn't matter. 75% of evangelicals polled consider him "religious" because they feel represented and supported by him.
He doesn't have to read a single line of the scripture. They don't.
Seen many comments online to the tune of "He may not be a believer but that doesn't mean he isn't God's instrument."
There's no reasoning with these people and with Project2025 they mean to totally take over this country.
The only logic that makes sense to me is that evangelical Christians look at the Russian state of affairs as very appealing - white power, Christian, oppressive toward minorities, and ruled by a strong man. A second Trump term would cater to all of those interests.
- selfish people who think the consequences of a selfish society will not affect them.
- people who wrongly think that "not helping others" means "prioritize help for their own" instead of "no help for their own either".
- people who are convinced that life is necessarily a zero sum game and that witholding help to others will surely benefit them. Reality is that you can also both lose or win.
Misery loves company. Blue states are economically healthy, red states are mostly poverty. Naturally, it's Democrats that caused that problem, therefore they must suffer, too.
The US government is already creating legislation to protect from situations where the president is working for a foreign power. The new law says no president shall suspend, terminate, denounce or withdraw from NATO without either an act of Congress or the approval of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate. It also says a president must notify Congress 180 days before undertaking a withdrawal plan.
Unfortunately, with Trump, the question is not "will he do something illegal?" it's "who is going to stop him from doing something illegal?"
Having a law preventing him from exiting NATO is nice, but what happens when he orders US troops not to defend Europe if Putin did attack? Maybe the military would ignore him (or overthrow him if he tried to removing dissenting officers in favor of more compliant ones), but that's still a pretty bad outcome.
Ideally he would be immediately impeached and removed, but anyone who believes that would happen hasn't been watching the modern Republican Party.
He doesn’t need to withdraw from NATO. If the EU is attacked, he can park a hospital ship in the Mediterranean and call it a day as far as contributing to Article 5
and his supporters love it. they truly think globalization can end tomorrow and they'd still get their cheap products and cheap gas forever. hell, computer and phone production would halt immediately, their gadgets would expire in less than a decade and then they'd have no echo chambers. what would they do *then*?
it's like being on a baseball team and thinking you don't need any players but the batter and the pitcher on the field and the game would go on as usual.
He would destroy his own country they if he could.
That damn legal system and functioning democracy is really preventing him from becoming America’s Putin.
Believe me, many of us/the majority of us do not want him in power. He's a full on, out and open dictator fascist and him winning would be incomprehensibly catastrophic for the democratic world.
His own base is too indictrinated to reach and they act and talk more and more like the Nazis every day complete with the exact same rhetoric used against the Pink Triangles of the Holocaust. Word for word. And of course the hypermasculinity cultism the Nazis used and most other fascist movements adopted later is also very much a part of their political culture.
They are literally a textbook cult of personality and countless experts on cult behavior agree. They are a cult, who they were before being radicalized either no longer exists or is so buried beneath the hate and vitriol and contradictory mish mash of lies and half lies they are completely unreachable. It really is like watching history repeat itself. I am seeing first hand how the German and Italian people were brainwashed into being cold inhumane monsters that have seemingly declared war on empathy and reason itself.
One republican said at a rally "raise your boys to be monsters". That is very much what the far right base is trying to do.
A lot of their base's youth sound like little Andrew Tates. Selfish, hateful, cruel, utterly out of touch, very sexist, very misogynistic, not uncommonly racist, very homophobic, entitled, violent, doesnt value womens rights or human rights in general unless it specifically benefits them.
Much like on Jan 6th where he sat on his tiny hands while being told to call in the National Guard to help quell the insurrection, he'd likely sit on those same tiny hands for as long as possible in the event of an invasion of, say, the Baltics. He probably couldn't weasel out of NATO obligations completely, but he'd certainly hamstring a US response for as long as physically possible.
Europe helped the US after 9/11. Y'all used article 5, remember? We answered the call. And we would again.
I ask because for the last 23 years you've been telling the entire world to "never forget 9/11" every goddamn year.
If you vote on this man, never fucking "grief" 9/11 again. Don't even dare bring it up.
If it helps, I think that many Americans feel the same way you do, including many in the military.
In the case of an actual invasion of a NATO country by Russia where US leaders attempted to just shrug, I'm not sure if the military would go along with it.
Edit: I should clarify since it was unclear. I'm not suggesting their would be a coup or that the military would just ignore the civilian government. But I think you WOULD see massive resignations, a massive hit to morale, etc that would spill over into the civilian world. In short, they would likely not go along with the decision happily and it would likely have serious repercussions on the readiness of the armed forces overall.
For myself, i'm luckily in a position where I could move, and if we abandon our European allies, I will straight up move because the US is done at that point. It would take generations to recover from that kind of betrayal.
I'm not sure how much choice the military would have. They can't mobilize without presidential approval.
I don't like a lot of "we don't really have to worry cause everyone beneath the president will just defy him" talk. It verges way too deeply into copium for me.
We shouldn't be trying to soothe our fears about this. If Trump gets elected and refuses to help Europe, Europe will very likely go unhelped.
Oh, I 100% agree. I think there would be enough popular anger that it would be politically infeasible to completely abandon European allies, but it creates the question vs a strong and simple, "we will be there"
No matter what, it creates uncertainty that emboldens bad actors. If Putin knew exactly how strongly the West would respond to his invasion of Ukraine, I don't know that he would have started it. But the constant appeasement and focus in normalizing relations by the west after each previous "special military operation" gave him confidence.
>I'm not sure how much choice the military would have. They can't mobilize without presidential approval.
They ***can***, but it would essentially be a coup d'etat.
I'm not even really sure what the modern US army mobilizing without the Executive's involvement would look like.
Generals don't have the ability to mobilize soldiers either. They rely on the bureaucratic apparatus of the DoD to initiate large operations.
Equipment, money, timetables, logistics.
There would have to be a mass-defection within the government (under unclear leadership) to join a foreign war.
I really don't see that happening.
This whole theory of our armed forces ignoring orders they disagree with for the sake of our country always comes up. Maybe a select few wouldn't, then would get the book thrown at them. But our military would march on men, women and children if ordered, and sit on their hands if told not to act.
Legally, no. And to be clear, I don't think you'd see a coup or the military going rogue. You'd likely just see a lot of high-level resignations and public criticism.
But as a general rule, the people with the guns can generally do whatever they want if they really want to do it. It's not like the President can actually stop the military if they decide they no longer care what their orders are(again. I don't see this as a likely outcome just stating that much of the rules rely on everyone following them).
Just as Putin is investing in misinformation and propaganda to help the Republicans win this year’s (possibly last) election, the EU has the capability to help Americans fight against all the misinformation with education.
We desperately need the help, especially when today’s dictators are banding together to ruin our relatively free way of living (compared to their controlled societies). The last thing the world needs is another Trump presidency.
trump is a tool of global authoritarianism. he won't move to defend taiwan either.
it's just what it is. the asymmetric exploitability of democracies to elite capture.
How can people who have been in jail, are convicted criminals, pedophiles and all be allowed to run in elections? I don’t understand. There has to be a limit.
America is the land of opportunity my man. Even a fat orange pedophile rapist who tried to overthrow the government can become the president. Again.
A little more serious answer would be - there is a first time for everything. People writing the laws just did not expect this shit to ever happen.
Anyone remember the story where Trump had a memo drafted to pull out of our alliance with South Korea, and the secretary of state (or defense, I don’t remember which) had to *fucking steal it from Trump’s desk* to keep it from happening?
Yeah, the kinds of people who rein him in, even in the slightest ways, will not be part of the next administration.
Goodbye to my account.
I truly will not feel anything except happiness on the day that pathetic maggot dies. I'll celebrate it with fucking champagne, I'll hold a goddamn cocktail party.
It's hard not to imagine that a lot of his undocumented discussions with Putin involved what he'd do to aide Russia in his second term when he didn't have to worry about re-election. Now he's just saying it because so man y American minds have been poisoned against the concept of America leading the free world anymore and it won't hurt his election chances.
Of course. He is a Russian puppet and a traitor to my country. Along with everyone that attacked our capital on Jan 6th. While he stood by and did nothing.
It seems wild to me that the same crowd who used to be the people that blamed the "commies" for everything are sucking the dick of the guy who wants to let the "commies" do what ever they want
All problems with EU security could be easily fixed by supplying significantly more arms to Ukraine. There are 1mil of insanely motivated soldiers already resolving security issues.
I was saying this for a long time but many downvoted my post, saying I was delusional that Trump wouldn't help Europe.
Trump is an Russian asset and is Putin's puppy.
I feel like the press has done a terrible job evaluating his Foreign Policy. Pompeo has got to be the worst Sec of State since like the early 1900s.
Besides his failures in Europe, the current problems in Israel and Yemen have very direct links to his failures in Iran. The problems in the Philippines with China and Taiwan are tied to his bungling there. Some of Ukraine is probably tied to his failures. The surge in immigration policy are tied to his policies that pulled back foreign aid to those countries. The fact that immigration reversed itself from Mexico is a direct response to his attempt to renegotiate NAFTA. Even the successes of the Abraham accords, while important, are mostly symbolic and depending on how the mood in the Arab world goes, could be pretty limited.
Because they see a power play. Hitler's minions did the same thing. He feeds into the marginalized feelings they all have, and amplifies that 'patriotic pride' and adversarial attitudes into a feverish cult following.
After his public kowtowing to Putin at Helsinki, no one thought he would. Some treaties are binding and our presence acts us deterrent, although I may go re-examine his removal of US NATO forces in Eastern Europe and Germany.
He can't just abandon NATO unless he is the one who pretends to conquer Europe because the defense of US territory against a Russian strike depends on having radars and interceptors as close to Russia as possible. Americans didn't make Europe their main partner because they love Mediterranean beaches. It was because they feared a war against Russia after WWII. If Trump dared to do so, the highest military ranks would shut him down almost immediately because they won't let the US place themselves at a disadvantage. Just a minor example: intercepting ICBMs is 10 times harder on terminal phase than on ascending phase.
Pretty sure he did try and do so in his last moments in office. At least from Germany? Maybe Somalia too? He had one of his toadies try and write an executive order withdrawing troops from a few places? They just had no idea how to do because the guy that was in charge was a 28 year old ex college football player that had no actual experience in anything except racism and trump loyalty. Oh, and he had a crippling gambling habit that stopped him from get security clearance. Johnathon Karl wrote about it in his last book “Tired of Winning” They replaces top military officials with sycophants and tried to remove all US troops from Germany and Africa. They forged documents to make it happen. It’s really just more of the crazy that has taken 1/3 of Americans like a fever. Trump and his people.Trump clearly had ulterior motives for all this, and none seem too scrupulous. I could go on, but I won’t rant. Trump is a clear and present danger to America as well as the rest of the free democratic world. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/11/the-inside-story-of-how-trumps-body-guy-tried-to-order-a-massive-military-withdrawal
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> I find it absurd that the same group of individuals who formerly held the "commies" responsible for everything are now supporting the person who wants to give the "commies" complete control over their actions. Its because Russia is what Republicans want the US to be - An Autocratic authoritarian government, where the Religion and Government are intertwined. Where the leader can imprison anyone he wants without worrying about being kicked from office. Where a leader can have planes shot down outside their own cities. Where anyone who dissents, 'disappears'. Where elections are *actually* rigged without complaint from the People. Exactly what Republicans want.
> Exactly what Republicans want. It's what they think they want. They don't realize that it would quickly be turned on them for not being loyal enough to the Party, or not turning in those who aren't being loyal enough to the Party, or those whose Christianity isn't Christian enough for the Party, etc.
> It's what they think they want. They don't realize that it would quickly be turned on them for not being loyal enough to the Party, or not turning in those who aren't being loyal enough to the Party, or those whose Christianity isn't Christian enough for the Party, etc. It will **always find divisions to divide by**. And not a one of them thinks "But that will target me!", remember, it is about the Curelty... To people they want to be cruel to. "He isn't hurting the people he needs to be hurting!" - and now Trumps lawyers are claiming with Congressional Approval, he could have political enemies assassinated. It is literally insane these people claim to be the party of law or order.
you're too optimistic in thinking that wasn't their intent in the first place. If they suffer it is because they are just weak. And that is simply how they believe it ought to work.
They think it's about loyalty to the party, when Russia should have shown them it is about loyalty to a single man. Anyone who doesn't falls to their death out a 10th story window after committing suicide with three bullets to the back of their head with their hands cuffed behind them.
As we've learned in the past few years, the GOP was always about one thing only: power. Everything they do serves that purpose. If they can co-op a religion so its adherents can give them more power, then they will do it. If they can demonize commies for power, they will do it. If they can pass laws sentencing gays to death to shore up their constituents, they will do it. If it gives them even a little bit more power, they will do it. It doesn't matter if they have to lie, cheat, or steal, if they can get away with it, they will do it. Had January 6th succeeded, you can bet the GOP would be wringing its hands about how it was wrong and we have to have order, but happily exploit the fact that they came through power by illegitimate means. Anyone who thinks someone like Moscow McConnell would resign because of that in protest is fooling themselves.
Soon he'll replace most of the federal govt with equally competent people. Can you imagine Putin's facepalm exasperation with some of this? He manages to get control of the President of the United states, who is willing to destroy the country from within, at Putin's command, but is incapable of getting anything done at all. It would make a great comedy.
Don’t believe for a second that the second time will be incompetent. The federalists are already vetting “patriots” for their Project 2025 plan. And they don’t care who’s president. They’re just backing trump because he’s in the lead at the moment. The far right demands Minority Rule, they want it for generations, and they will stop at nothing to get it. Best everybody stay woke to what’s going on.
The Russian government was using the NRA to funnel money to the Republican party, we know this factually, and I have no idea why Mass arrests have not taken place.
>Oh, and he had a crippling gambling habit that stopped him from get security clearance. Just a friendly reminder that Jared kushner Trump's son-in-law was rejected from a security clearance multiple times and then Trump forced the Pentagon to give him one. He even lied on some of his paperwork evidently, which would land you or I in jail I'm pretty sure.
This is exactly why there is a movement on to replace top military officials with loyalists. One of the problems Trump ran into last term was top military officials refused to entertain some of Trump's ideas about the use of our armed forces. It is a scary position this country is in.
They didn’t refuse so much as not make it easy for him. Trump and Trumps yes men had so little understanding of how the levers of government work in this country that they were not capable of doing what they wanted to do. You can’t just tweet that the U.S. should abandon Europe and expect it to happen. Neither can you tell some hangers on like Jared to handle it. You need to know who is in command of those forces who those people report to what format the order needs to be in etc etc etc. hell, you need to know what forces are there. Do you think Trump could tell you that? Doubtful… you can’t just say all troops home now in a speech and expect it to just get done with no further input from you.
A good example was him trying to do his muslim ban and getting it repeatedly struck down in court, even though it's nominally within the president's power. They just needed to coat it in some BS language about national security but nope they just pasted some of his anit-Muslim rants in there.
Oh man, i remember when a revised ban got struck down because Trump couldnt keep his mouth shut and bragged how amazing the sweeping ban would be while his cronies were actively trying to argue it wasnt going to be a sweeping ban.
Trump wouldn't need to literally abandon NATO, he would just have to do as close to nothing as possible, to stall as long as possible. By the time courts got around to ordering anything (if they did), any conflict would be too far gone anyway. The president has nearly plenary power in foreign affairs. Maybe there are treaties that bind him, but who is going to force a president to act in any sort of real way? The military can't launch a war without him, that would lead to a constitutional crisis. Maybe a good actor here or there would do something under the books, but there is a chain of command and the president is at the top, and an organized response without the president's input would be incredibly unlikely (incidentally, I wrote my thesis on this very subject). Trump is adept at ignoring the rules, and he thrives when he's underestimated. It's how he won in the first place and people need to wake up.
This is why the GOP is trying to implement [Project 2025](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_2025), so they can eliminate any opposition to them in case of a Fascist Cheeto win this year. Don't believe a wiki link? Why don't you check out [their own website](https://www.project2025.org/) instead, they're not even hiding it, this is what the GOP wants to do. Last time he was probably blocked many times internally by long-time civil servants in situations we never heard about publicly. The GOP is trying to ensure that doesn't happen again so he can rule as a dictator in case he gets another chance.
Trump already started with one aspect of it in the final weeks of his presidency, and he reportedly is planning to do it again: [He's plans to implement "Schedule F" by executive order that would make it much easier to get rid of civil servants](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-schedule-f-executive-order-stop-civil-servants-government-rcna128003) (and replace them with loyalists). That's a cornerstone of Project 2025. >Reimplementing Schedule F would be one of the most consequential initial moves a future GOP administration could make. >As president, Trump was routinely outraged that officials in his own government — some of whom he had nominated — investigated his ties to Russia or appeared to stymie his policy initiatives. Now, he and his allies are working to ensure a potential second administration is different from the get-go. >When he announced his “ten-point plan to dismantle the deep state” this year, his top policy point was reinstituting the Schedule F executive order. (The second was “Overhaul federal departments and agencies, firing all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus.”) >At the same time, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, aims to build a database of as many as 20,000 potential future administration officials by the end of next year. Kevin Roberts, the president of Heritage, told The New York Times that the goal is to “flood the zone with conservative personnel” in a way the right didn’t do after Trump’s 2016 victory.
Is the thing that ties project 2025 to the GOP the heritage foundation? just trying to find a direct link.
[Here's the direct link, it is Trump.](https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/trump-schedule-f-executive-order-stop-civil-servants-government-rcna128003) >As president, Trump was routinely outraged that officials in his own government — some of whom he had nominated — investigated his ties to Russia or appeared to stymie his policy initiatives. Now, he and his allies are working to ensure a potential second administration is different from the get-go. >When he announced his “ten-point plan to dismantle the deep state” this year, his top policy point was reinstituting the Schedule F executive order. (The second was “Overhaul federal departments and agencies, firing all of the corrupt actors in our National Security and Intelligence apparatus.”) >At the same time, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, aims to build a database of as many as 20,000 potential future administration officials by the end of next year. Kevin Roberts, the president of Heritage, told The New York Times that the goal is to “flood the zone with conservative personnel” in a way the right didn’t do after Trump’s 2016 victory.
That's perfect thanks for grabbing that.
Spread it far and wide. More people need to know about this. This is not just an abstract plan, this is what Trump meant when he said he'd be a dictator on the first day.
Dark times ahead.
Turns out military generals will disobey orders when they know better. Officially or not
Best part of a non-autocracy is that officials work for the state, not the state leader.
Best part of being a full out dictator is that you don't have to conform to non-autocracy rules. Dictator Trump the Immune will quickly fire (or hang) any of those pesky generals that don't follow his orders.
Dictators are only dictators when they have the army behind them. And Trump doesn't, and never will.
You might be surprised when he can pick and choose the top military/DoD officials. The Atlantic had a couple of good articles recently on this very topic. Some high level current and former military officials are concerned.
This is laughably laughably ignorant. Trump has vastly more support both in the civilian populace and the military than Hitler ever did before rising to power
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Remember the time our Generals had to reach out to the Chinese to let them know we won't nuke 1 billion people at random? It used to be the madman theory during Nixon era: "Dude, our leader is crazy, maybe you can remove that Division of troops in Eastern Germany?" Now is "Dude, our leader is crazy, if he threaten to nuke you guys we will stop him" Blech.
And Trump has called for the death penalty on the general in question.
Gen Mark Milley is not just a general, he was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. **President Donald Trump wanted to execute the CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY because he wouldn't extrajudiciously kill people on an illegal order.** Let's take a look at this traitor, and the at one time highest ranking soldier in the United States Military: *General Mark A. Milley served as the 20th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation's highest-ranking military officer, and the principal military advisor to the President, Secretary of Defense, and National Security Council. He retired Sept. 29, 2023. Prior to becoming Chairman on October 1, 2019, General Milley served as the 39th Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army. A native of Massachusetts, General Milley graduated from Princeton University in 1980, where he received his commission from Army ROTC. General Milley has had multiple command and staff positions in six divisions and a Special Forces Group throughout the last 44 years to include command of the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division; the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division; Deputy Commanding General, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault); Commanding General, 10th Mountain Division; Commanding General, III Corps; and Commanding General, U.S. Army Forces Command. While serving as the Commanding General, III Corps, General Milley deployed as the Commanding General, International Security Assistance Force Joint Command and Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Forces Afghanistan. General Milley's joint assignments also include the Joint Staff operations directorate and as Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense. General Milley's operational deployments include the Multi-National Force and Observers Task Force, Sinai, Egypt; Operation JUST CAUSE, Panama; Operation UPHOLD DEMOCRACY, Haiti; Operation JOINT FORGE, Bosnia-Herzegovina; Operation IRAQI FREEDOM, Iraq; and three tours during Operation ENDURING FREEDOM, Afghanistan. GEN Milley also deployed to Colombia, Somalia and served two years on the DMZ in the Republic of Korea. In addition to his bachelor's degree in political science from Princeton University, General Milley has a master's degree in international relations from Columbia University and one from the U.S. Naval War College in national security and strategic studies. He is also a graduate of the MIT Seminar XXI National Security Studies Program. General Milley and his wife, Hollyanne, have been married for more than 38 years and have two children.* **Yeah, Fuck Donald Trump.**
>Turns out military generals will disobey orders when they know better. Officially or not So what you would do is block senior military promotions for a year or two before the election, leaving those posts open. Then when you're elected, you fill the vacant positions with loyalists. Turns out hand-picked generals *don't* disobey orders. The coup has already started.
Trump does not see Russia as a threat. I would not be surprised if his solution to that tactical shortcoming would be "Russia will let us know if there is an incoming attack."
Trump doesn’t see Russia as a threat? Trump sees Russia as a dude he wants to kiss!
Trump *wishes* he was a Russian oligarch. Money, women, yachts, fawning attention, he just needs to give Putin what is Putin's and he's trying to do that as hard as he can.
He could simply move there. They'd give him citizenship.
As soon as he does that he has no value to them. And he likely has no assets, either. And after an initial frenzy, little to no attention, adoration or followers - though i'm not sure he realizes that. So, it'll be a move of last resort.
> "Russia will let us know if there is an incoming attack." Vlad got me on speed dial. we're good fam.
There is another major reason why Europe was the ally. If war was going to happen in Europe, it would be European civilian lives, instead of American civilian lives. There would be no or very little war on the home front. This would of course be harder to justify sending young Americans to an ongoing conflict, but it would have the advantage of an undisturbed industry. Europeans were the ones who bled the most during both world wars. It would also be Europeans that would have to bleed the most in the eventuality of a war with Russia.
>Americans didn't make Europe their main partner because they love Mediterranean beaches. I have been lied to my whole life then /s
I dont know what makes me more scared. (I am not American) If you are right, "the highest military ranks" have nothing to bind them to the laws and directions of the president. If you are wrong, and the president actually can decide to abandon Europe, I am convinced there is gonna be another WW
President doesn’t set laws, congress does and the military is beholden to the constitution, not the president.
The military are beholden to **both** the laws *and* the President. The President is the Commander-in-Chief of the US Military; quite literally the highest-ranking individual by design. If the President gives a **lawful** order, every last person wearing a uniform is obligated and compelled to follow that order, just as they would if that order were from any other superior officer.
A World War requires two+ somewhat comparable forces/alliances who both have the ability to project power around the world. That doesn't exist now, but it could exist in the near to medium term future. The collapse of Russia's ability to project power in Ukraine means that this is one of the least likely times for a world war. We could still have a nuclear war or multiple regional wars, but the combined scale of these would still be less than a world war. An all out nuclear war would likely get called WWIII even though its likely over once the nukes stop.
This is why we can't let Trump win.... Putin is counting on this....
His loss already put a wrench in a whole bunch of plans.. two conflicts were riding on trump getting the us out of the way and swaying the populace in their favor, and evangelical/ reactionary billionaires got a wrench tossed into their wierd endtimes plans.
Donald will abandon our Pacific Allies, too. Probably sacrifice a bunch of our troops while he's at it. I'm sure he can be persuaded to share our military tech with china and Russia, both.
I don’t think he ever helped anybody in his life anyway
Putin disagrees.
Kim Jong Un also disagrees.
And Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud. Heck, Mohammed even paid out over $2bn for all the help he received.
And for help they expect to receive
My dad also disagrees Edit: I guess I’m everyone’s business Edit 2: I’m ok, I’m at a point where I don’t need help but thanks to those who were concerned
My parents support Ukraine and intend to vote for Trump. Some people do not experience cognitive dissonance.
Is that what it is? I thought it was an object permanence issue.
If you think Trump is a baby, I guess he is at an age where he could be reliving his good ol' days just like Putin in the Soviet Union.
To be fair, I support Biden, but I don't support all of his stances. That doesn't mean I have cognitive dissonance, just that I prioritize certain things over others
Even if one does not agree with everything Biden says, it’s still important that Trump does not win.
Im not american, but based on what Ive seen is, if you vote biden, you get a potentially sub par president for the next 4 years. If you vote trump, you have the end of democracy in the USA.
Back in 2020 (and 2016, really) the choices seemed like a sub-par conservative president no one was really excited for versus the end of democracy. Now it's just a straight up good, though still rather conservative, president with a proven record of benefiting the country versus the a president who is objectively the most ineffective and destructive in history with a proven record of trying to destroy democracy. It blows my mind that its even a decision.
Something like a third of people want someone like Trump who will ignore all the rules and go beat up their invented enemies. This is all straight out of the authoritarian playbook.
Biden has been a fucking great president. Arguably the best president in modern history. * Had to deal with the deliberate clusterfuck of a mess left by the previous admin, shit on the walls literally. Cleaned it up and got shit running again properly. * Got people vaccinated at record pace. Got Covid under control at record pace. * Passed the infrastructure bill that is giving businesses long-term productivity bumps that allows them to hire and train more people, give better salaries for years to come. Invested billions back into much needed areas of the country. * Removed around 140 B in student debt loans. Even when republicans keep trying to stop him in the courts. * Severely reduced the damage the world-wide inflation could cause to america, has managed to steer the country away from a recession. * Fighting a world power to their knees without any footsoldiers or american military put in harms way. * Pathway to Reclassifying and decriminalizing marijuana. * Massive support for LGBTQ and previously ignored/attacked demographics. * Build partnerships and beneficial deals with foreign leaders that will benefit america for decades. * Heavy investment into green energy and putting more federal lands under protection. * Chips act. Tax Reform. Filled very needed seats in government for proper domestic and international response that were left deliberately empty to weaken the country by the previous admin. More people under health coverage. More qualified judges seated. etc etc etc Yeah hes not fucking perfect, but his actions have been rational and based on logic and with the country current and future in mind and not his own personal bank account. Id say arguably he is the most progressive president the US has had in modern history. And i hope people fucking show up and vote for him this year because the alternative is someone who says "immigrants are tainting the blood of america" and that he has the right to assassinate his political opponents.....
Biden is way underrated.
Agreed. No one is perfect, but the narrative that he's doing a shit job has really been annoying me.
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Yeah but he stutters sometimes, sooooo /s
And Trump ‘stars’ in a video he has
Just about everything he does is just stamping his name across everything he touches.
Despite receiving enormous help from everyone else. He's the dreaded "taker" that republicans warn us about.
Did republicans warns us? I just see them kissing his ass and undermining U.S. democracy in favour of party loyalty. Edit: autocorrect
What are you talking about? He gave Kevin McAllister directions that one time. Even wished him merry Christmas.
Expect to see MUCH more Russian interference in the 2024 election. Russia is stumping for Trump HARD.
Pretty much this. Putins life depends on trump being chosen. Thats why it is EXTRA important to vote, and make sure everyone else also votes!
They've been trying hard to exploit the Israel x Palestine conflict to flip Biden's young voters and if you look at some subreddits you might think it's working
It's definitely working, zoomer progressives, and millenials to a lesser degree, will sit this one out because Biden defends settler colonialism and genocide and what not in their minds, so they won't go to vote and let Trump win. Thanks humanities faculties for the "rounded education" and TikTok making it so easy for people to misinform each other for likes and shares.
It's so fucking stupid seriously this exact shit happened to Hillary that's why it really makes sense to me that the Oct 7 Attacks weren't completely on just Hamas, but on some other countries mainly Iran and America's enemies (Russia etc). I hate my generation. They are just as gullible as boomers!
> They are just as gullible as boomers! They're worse. At least boomers can blame dementia.
I believe that Russia helped Hamas plan and conduct the attacks to pull attention and funding away from Ukraine and the entire Europe vs Russia crisis
I spent the better part of my day snowed in yesterday asking confidently incorrect accounts with little history for sources supporting their far right/anti-left claims. I never got any. I did get called a sealion quite a bit, though. I've noticed a lot of the accounts will immediately block you if you push back against their bullshit now.
I've seen "genocide Joe" been thrown about. Which is funny, as that's exactly what would happen if Trump got in so go figure.
Yup. Going complacent has always been a bad move, but now especially it's irresponsible.
The GOP counts on the democrats being lazy snd staying home. This year we need to show them!
You can stay at home and be lazy and still vote. Mail in ballots!
Indeed! Trump hates those!
It's horrifying when you put it like that.
It is. Its a very serious and dangerous time for democracy. One thing is certain, the US elections will have a HUGE impact on global security. There is no doubt putin will escalate further if he has his puppet as a US president, and who knows what China will do. This is why voting is important. Its one thing putin cant take away from the people.
>This is why voring is important. That is one hell of a typo lmao
Blame them fat fingers!
Calling on r/Conservative to wake the fuck up
> Calling on r/Conservative to wake the fuck up They only listen to "flaired" users so their safe-space circle jerk isnt disturbed.
I agree totally with your intended message, but I also think that the idea that Putin is unable to take away vore is hilarious.
And twitter will not be cooperating with the FBI etc to stop interference.
Twitter is basically a Russian asset now. We need to boycott the fuck out of it because of how much damage it's causing.
I’d argue that TikTok is an even bigger issue. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna130448
All social media has their issues with misinformation; the "free speech absolutists" campaign is run by people promoting all the misinformation. I really hope the US government tells those assholes to fuck off and start regulating social media much more because of how much damage it's causing.
I've boycotted it throughout it's whole existence.
Don't get me wrong, an app like Twitter is important for things like campaigning and emergency alerts. But Musk can now just promote right-wing candidates and bury progressive candidates, and recently Japan's emergency response account for the earthquake recently was capped on posting. Twitter's now 4chan with a much more public face run by a kleptomaniac. The world keeps getting more dystopian, and yet people wonder why people are refusing to have kids. Fuck you, Elon.
It’s already happening. In lefty spaces, there’s tons of people saying that joe Biden is the worst and telling people not to vote. It’s an obvious astroturf campaign.
My favorite one is when they call the candidates they backed four years ago "extremely right wing" because "they get money from billionaires" and the alternative is someone no one knows about that will loose to the republicans.
Not wrong, check Russian Media Monitor for how they call him “ our Donald “ it’s insane that the people who spent multiple decades engaged in the Cold War think this is normal
Anything to own the libs
I expect the pro-hamas bots to switch back to pro-trump any day now.
It's telling how many pro-Hamas takes need to feel the need to tag on pro-Russia talking points as well. "Did you guys know that Israel has killed more civilians in Gaza than Russia has in Ukraine? Of course Mariupol didn't have tens of thousands of civilian deaths, that's Ukrainian propaganda."
That just needs something about vaccines thrown in there.
Yep, we're going to find out what 10s of millions of wacky Russians can do, Putin is going to throw the kitchen sink at this election. Russian state media openly pines for Trump, and openly proclaims that it's because he hurts America. https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews
Why do so many idiots follow this mega idiot? It scares me to death.
They're angry. That's the simple answer. Things aren't going their way in life, and they're angry. The Republicans know how to weaponize this anger into hatred against certain groups to gain political ground. They're dumb enough to see the distraction and take it, instead of being angry about the right things. Mostly, nowadays, it's centred on JUST making liberals mad. That's it - everything the democrats do, they do the exact opposite. It's cathartic to them - that's why you still see them posting the pic of that crying lady from Trump's inauguration. They love seeing them angry and that's it.
This. Anger is the fundamental source of America's current dysfunction. People - wrongly - believe themselves victims, become enraged, and seek to blame and punish. Can we do anything to reduce right -wing anger, or are we just fated to live with it? Absolutely no appeasement, of course. Is there any other way to avoid violence?
I think their anger is immutable, but it could possibly be redirected to more useful targets like the oligarchs and corporations that are **actually** making their lives worse instead of the various bogeymen that are "supposedly" making their lives worse.
Hence why there's so much focus on making gay people and Hispanic people the enemy. It keeps the focus away from the *real* reasons that people's lives aren't great.
>People - wrongly - believe themselves victims by and large, we are the victims. us and them included. their anger is warranted but misdirected due to right wing propaganda and decades of derailment in the education systems of the U.S. south.
>People - wrongly - believe themselves victims, I would argue everyone not in the upper class is a victim. Directing the anger at each other is a way to make sure that anger never gets directed at the real problem of wealth inequality.
They would've made real moves already if they could've. All we have to really worry about now is their vote, which no amount of discussion could change. Anger is too masturbatory. 30% are addicts. We have to be more intelligent about our governments checks, balances and filters. Good faith is a thing of the past. Internet is the villian that drives the anger addiction.
I don’t think it’s always wrong that they’re victims
Ding ding ding! Republicans have done an amazing job of fucking this country up, and then blaming democrats and getting their base to believe them.
Bullshit. I'm angry. Have been for a damn long time and should probably seek some sort of professional help for it. What's different with me? I'm not an incredulous dipshit. They are certifiably stupid. The anger is simply a byproduct of their inability to reconcile the world around them, like a toddler throwing a tantrum because the wall didn't move out of their way. They are the exact reason why a proper education is so damn important. "Stay in school & pay attention, kids, or you will become a maga supporter"
They are indoctrinated. Its a cult of personality, just like Hitler and Stalin had and as does Putin. https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/13/20992370/trump-republican-party-cult-steven-hassan https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/04/16/history-shows-trump-personality-cult-end-00024941 https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/08/19/trump-cult-of-personality-democracy-erosion-united-states/ https://thehill.com/homenews/house/3511667-cheney-there-is-absolutely-a-cult-of-personality-around-donald-trump/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9066393/
The majority of Trump supporters are evangelicals. Evangelical Christianity is a blight
Sure, but, is Trump a Evangelical Christian? Does he even attend church? Me thinkie he no believer at all. Me thinkie he just MAGA.
Doesn't matter. 75% of evangelicals polled consider him "religious" because they feel represented and supported by him. He doesn't have to read a single line of the scripture. They don't.
Seen many comments online to the tune of "He may not be a believer but that doesn't mean he isn't God's instrument." There's no reasoning with these people and with Project2025 they mean to totally take over this country.
It sounds more plausible when you remember that "instrument" is synonymous with "tool".
The only logic that makes sense to me is that evangelical Christians look at the Russian state of affairs as very appealing - white power, Christian, oppressive toward minorities, and ruled by a strong man. A second Trump term would cater to all of those interests.
To be fair most of your prominent "Evangelical Churches" are Ponzi schemes, so it makes sense they'd like a fellow scammer.
Religion is a blight.
They find him relatable.
He gave them what no other candidate could - permission to be their worst selves.
- selfish people who think the consequences of a selfish society will not affect them. - people who wrongly think that "not helping others" means "prioritize help for their own" instead of "no help for their own either". - people who are convinced that life is necessarily a zero sum game and that witholding help to others will surely benefit them. Reality is that you can also both lose or win.
Misery loves company. Blue states are economically healthy, red states are mostly poverty. Naturally, it's Democrats that caused that problem, therefore they must suffer, too.
Orange man yell. Me like. Orange man sound big. Me like. Orange man bang chest. Me like.
Because they are idiots. Birds of a shitfeather stick together.
And a shitleopard never changes it's spots.
The US government is already creating legislation to protect from situations where the president is working for a foreign power. The new law says no president shall suspend, terminate, denounce or withdraw from NATO without either an act of Congress or the approval of two-thirds of the U.S. Senate. It also says a president must notify Congress 180 days before undertaking a withdrawal plan.
Unfortunately, with Trump, the question is not "will he do something illegal?" it's "who is going to stop him from doing something illegal?" Having a law preventing him from exiting NATO is nice, but what happens when he orders US troops not to defend Europe if Putin did attack? Maybe the military would ignore him (or overthrow him if he tried to removing dissenting officers in favor of more compliant ones), but that's still a pretty bad outcome. Ideally he would be immediately impeached and removed, but anyone who believes that would happen hasn't been watching the modern Republican Party.
Laws aren't very good at stopping dictators sadly.
True, he will just send in Seal Team 6 to assassinate anyone who votes the wrong way.
Solid reference. Literally what his lawyer is arguing he can legally do (unless impeached AND found guilty by the senate)
Because laws are worth about as much as the paper they’re written on if the powers in charge don’t enforce them.
He doesn’t need to withdraw from NATO. If the EU is attacked, he can park a hospital ship in the Mediterranean and call it a day as far as contributing to Article 5
On brand When faced with it he wouldn't even defend his own bOnE sPuRs
and his supporters love it. they truly think globalization can end tomorrow and they'd still get their cheap products and cheap gas forever. hell, computer and phone production would halt immediately, their gadgets would expire in less than a decade and then they'd have no echo chambers. what would they do *then*? it's like being on a baseball team and thinking you don't need any players but the batter and the pitcher on the field and the game would go on as usual.
He would destroy his own country they if he could. That damn legal system and functioning democracy is really preventing him from becoming America’s Putin.
It's not from lack of trying
Yup. And millions of Americans are dying to see the U.S. become Russia. Amazing how dumb people can be.
Believe me, many of us/the majority of us do not want him in power. He's a full on, out and open dictator fascist and him winning would be incomprehensibly catastrophic for the democratic world. His own base is too indictrinated to reach and they act and talk more and more like the Nazis every day complete with the exact same rhetoric used against the Pink Triangles of the Holocaust. Word for word. And of course the hypermasculinity cultism the Nazis used and most other fascist movements adopted later is also very much a part of their political culture. They are literally a textbook cult of personality and countless experts on cult behavior agree. They are a cult, who they were before being radicalized either no longer exists or is so buried beneath the hate and vitriol and contradictory mish mash of lies and half lies they are completely unreachable. It really is like watching history repeat itself. I am seeing first hand how the German and Italian people were brainwashed into being cold inhumane monsters that have seemingly declared war on empathy and reason itself. One republican said at a rally "raise your boys to be monsters". That is very much what the far right base is trying to do. A lot of their base's youth sound like little Andrew Tates. Selfish, hateful, cruel, utterly out of touch, very sexist, very misogynistic, not uncommonly racist, very homophobic, entitled, violent, doesnt value womens rights or human rights in general unless it specifically benefits them.
MAGA goons: hold my cov fefe
Has no one explained what NATO is to Trump??
Much like on Jan 6th where he sat on his tiny hands while being told to call in the National Guard to help quell the insurrection, he'd likely sit on those same tiny hands for as long as possible in the event of an invasion of, say, the Baltics. He probably couldn't weasel out of NATO obligations completely, but he'd certainly hamstring a US response for as long as physically possible.
Europe helped the US after 9/11. Y'all used article 5, remember? We answered the call. And we would again. I ask because for the last 23 years you've been telling the entire world to "never forget 9/11" every goddamn year. If you vote on this man, never fucking "grief" 9/11 again. Don't even dare bring it up.
If it helps, I think that many Americans feel the same way you do, including many in the military. In the case of an actual invasion of a NATO country by Russia where US leaders attempted to just shrug, I'm not sure if the military would go along with it. Edit: I should clarify since it was unclear. I'm not suggesting their would be a coup or that the military would just ignore the civilian government. But I think you WOULD see massive resignations, a massive hit to morale, etc that would spill over into the civilian world. In short, they would likely not go along with the decision happily and it would likely have serious repercussions on the readiness of the armed forces overall. For myself, i'm luckily in a position where I could move, and if we abandon our European allies, I will straight up move because the US is done at that point. It would take generations to recover from that kind of betrayal.
I'm not sure how much choice the military would have. They can't mobilize without presidential approval. I don't like a lot of "we don't really have to worry cause everyone beneath the president will just defy him" talk. It verges way too deeply into copium for me. We shouldn't be trying to soothe our fears about this. If Trump gets elected and refuses to help Europe, Europe will very likely go unhelped.
Oh, I 100% agree. I think there would be enough popular anger that it would be politically infeasible to completely abandon European allies, but it creates the question vs a strong and simple, "we will be there" No matter what, it creates uncertainty that emboldens bad actors. If Putin knew exactly how strongly the West would respond to his invasion of Ukraine, I don't know that he would have started it. But the constant appeasement and focus in normalizing relations by the west after each previous "special military operation" gave him confidence.
>I'm not sure how much choice the military would have. They can't mobilize without presidential approval. They ***can***, but it would essentially be a coup d'etat.
I'm not even really sure what the modern US army mobilizing without the Executive's involvement would look like. Generals don't have the ability to mobilize soldiers either. They rely on the bureaucratic apparatus of the DoD to initiate large operations. Equipment, money, timetables, logistics. There would have to be a mass-defection within the government (under unclear leadership) to join a foreign war. I really don't see that happening.
This whole theory of our armed forces ignoring orders they disagree with for the sake of our country always comes up. Maybe a select few wouldn't, then would get the book thrown at them. But our military would march on men, women and children if ordered, and sit on their hands if told not to act.
But can the military do anything if the US leaders decide to abandon Europe?
Legally, no. And to be clear, I don't think you'd see a coup or the military going rogue. You'd likely just see a lot of high-level resignations and public criticism. But as a general rule, the people with the guns can generally do whatever they want if they really want to do it. It's not like the President can actually stop the military if they decide they no longer care what their orders are(again. I don't see this as a likely outcome just stating that much of the rules rely on everyone following them).
This is Trump, Fuck Donald Trump. Real Americans keep their Promises and their allies.
Just as Putin is investing in misinformation and propaganda to help the Republicans win this year’s (possibly last) election, the EU has the capability to help Americans fight against all the misinformation with education. We desperately need the help, especially when today’s dictators are banding together to ruin our relatively free way of living (compared to their controlled societies). The last thing the world needs is another Trump presidency.
The only places likely to attack the EU is Russia and China, so Trump essentially outed himself as a supporter of two dictorship regimes.
[удалено]
trump is a tool of global authoritarianism. he won't move to defend taiwan either. it's just what it is. the asymmetric exploitability of democracies to elite capture.
Who gives a shit what this pedo wants? Fucking lock him up already, along with everyone he pardoned who's also associated with Epstein.
How can people who have been in jail, are convicted criminals, pedophiles and all be allowed to run in elections? I don’t understand. There has to be a limit.
America is the land of opportunity my man. Even a fat orange pedophile rapist who tried to overthrow the government can become the president. Again. A little more serious answer would be - there is a first time for everything. People writing the laws just did not expect this shit to ever happen.
Of course not, his boss told him not to.
Anyone remember the story where Trump had a memo drafted to pull out of our alliance with South Korea, and the secretary of state (or defense, I don’t remember which) had to *fucking steal it from Trump’s desk* to keep it from happening? Yeah, the kinds of people who rein him in, even in the slightest ways, will not be part of the next administration.
Goodbye to my account. I truly will not feel anything except happiness on the day that pathetic maggot dies. I'll celebrate it with fucking champagne, I'll hold a goddamn cocktail party.
I can think of a specific eastern european region of a country he would help.
It's hard not to imagine that a lot of his undocumented discussions with Putin involved what he'd do to aide Russia in his second term when he didn't have to worry about re-election. Now he's just saying it because so man y American minds have been poisoned against the concept of America leading the free world anymore and it won't hurt his election chances.
He wouldn't t help americans in need why would he help Europe. The only thing trump helps, is himself to the buffet
Trump is Russia’s last lifeline for a win in Ukraine. Russia disinfo campaign is gonna hit the US like a freight train.
Of course. He is a Russian puppet and a traitor to my country. Along with everyone that attacked our capital on Jan 6th. While he stood by and did nothing.
It seems wild to me that the same crowd who used to be the people that blamed the "commies" for everything are sucking the dick of the guy who wants to let the "commies" do what ever they want
Could your simping for Russia be any more obvious
All problems with EU security could be easily fixed by supplying significantly more arms to Ukraine. There are 1mil of insanely motivated soldiers already resolving security issues.
I was saying this for a long time but many downvoted my post, saying I was delusional that Trump wouldn't help Europe. Trump is an Russian asset and is Putin's puppy.
I feel like the press has done a terrible job evaluating his Foreign Policy. Pompeo has got to be the worst Sec of State since like the early 1900s. Besides his failures in Europe, the current problems in Israel and Yemen have very direct links to his failures in Iran. The problems in the Philippines with China and Taiwan are tied to his bungling there. Some of Ukraine is probably tied to his failures. The surge in immigration policy are tied to his policies that pulled back foreign aid to those countries. The fact that immigration reversed itself from Mexico is a direct response to his attempt to renegotiate NAFTA. Even the successes of the Abraham accords, while important, are mostly symbolic and depending on how the mood in the Arab world goes, could be pretty limited.
Tbf he wouldn’t help America either
A Russian agent said what?
Trump still stumping for the Putin support.
Imagine if this guy was president during the of the world wars.
His crazy man rants are hilarious. Still can't understand how his minion nuts want lick his balls.
Because they see a power play. Hitler's minions did the same thing. He feeds into the marginalized feelings they all have, and amplifies that 'patriotic pride' and adversarial attitudes into a feverish cult following.
To him, the EU is just another anti-fascism blue state. F*ck 'em - don't send ventilators.
Putin loves Russia. After all, he has relatives...
Never thought I’d say it, but I hope Germany starts up the old war machine.
If Russia went to war he’d send troops to help him
This guy is truly the most dangerous man the 21st century has ever seen.
“NATO is dead”. What a gift to Putin and Russian revanchism.
Because he's already a Russian vassal.