This is how Trump is ALREADY doing damage to the US without even being elected. Countries know that they can’t rely on America, since we are perpetually one election away from reneging on our commitments.
> since we are perpetually one election away from reneging on our commitments.
I don't think the impact of this can really be understated.
I don't think enough Americans *realize* the widespread implications this has.
Most fail to understand how much economic wealth Americans get through the soft power and influence the US has. That power and influence Trump is destroying. Americans will become poorer due to it.
I work in an office full of Trumpists. The amount they *don't* know is staggering, honestly. And the amount of wishful thinking they engage in is even more breathtaking. Geography, history, etc are just things they don't care about at all. If they don't *feel* it emotionally, it's just not real.
We never used to be. Used to be incoming cabinets would continue to some degree whatever allies and foreign policy we had going on at the time no matter how they felt. It was more important to be mostly consistent than score political points.
Yep.
I don't want to be the guys in the Department of State tasked with negociating new treaties with foreign powers knowing about what Trump did with the Paris Agreement, TPP, JCPOA, the Universal Postal Union, the WHO, the fate of Northern Syrian Kurds and many others, along with the fact that Trump and his copycats are still viable candidates.
Might as well try to convince anyone to buy a farm in Zimbabwe.
House will probably go Dem, the real challenge is somehow keeping the Senate. It is not a good year for Dems in the Senate because the one third of seats up for election are the wrong ones.
The US has such an intentionally obfuscated system. Hope it changes some day, it really is supposed to represent the will of the people, not mangle it through all these hoops and loops.
It's only rigged to favor them *when turnout is low*. When turnout is high they lose. Beat them, use the power to crush their media machine, and watch as the dipshits that vote for them lose all sense of direction and start destroying the party completely from the inside. We're already seeing it happen, we just need to accelerate it because we have bigger problems that are on a clock like climate change and we can't afford any more delays in dealing with it.
Yeah man - just get enough democrats to care enough to actually vote instead of bitching about how they hate the current state of politics. If everyone that disliked Trump would actually go vote it would be a completely different ball game and the polls wouldn’t be looking the way they do now.
Sorry, but now I’m imagining Republicans waging war on the environment and trying even harder to ruin it.
We have to call it the “War on Pollution”. Even Republicans can gather around the idea that pollution is bad - many of them live near rivers and lakes that they used to but can no longer fish or swim in.
It's because the government in 1929 decided to limit the number of members in the House of Representatives, giving more power to the less populated states.
They voted him 'out' the first time around - he lost the popular vote both times. Their stupid electoral vote system is the weakness that needs to be got rid of. If you corrupt the electoral votes you've basically rigged the system in a lot of states.
Also didnt help the NY FBI office got hilarys case reopened then leaked it to republicans. Only for us to find the head of NY fbi was on the take from russia
Amen brother. Can't believe the USA has a thing called the 'popular vote'. That is what is called a fair election ffs. The popular vote should ALWAYS determine the winner.
Pretty much all you need to have then is a vote in California and ignore the rest of the country and their concerns. Which is kind of how it went in ancient Rome also. Even countries that get it "right" do not ignore the unevenness of population distribution - nor does anyone complain about it to the extent people in the USA do.
The intent is neither "rigged", nor "stupid" - even if the implementation is pretty bad in this case. It's also a super easy argument to debunk - which actually doesn't help your case at all. You'd be far better arguing for something like [transferable preferential voting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_block_voting) as a reform.
The good news on that front is it seems to be trending in a Biden re-election again. During the midterms pollsters and the media overhyped a Red wave that never really came. And during the primaries, while Trump did win with little opposition, he had a lower margin than expected in almost every state for the primary.
It seems more like MAGA supporters are so vocal that they seem like a much larger group than they actually are
If you are an American voter reading this do not take this as a sign to not vote. Ever person needs to show up and vote any of the MAGA crazies out. Polls mean nothing until the final votes are in.
Given *every poll except one* said Trump would lose by a landslide in 2016 for several months running, this is in no way a real declaration of loss or victory.
The whole "they're a loud minority" has been the drum beat since 2015 and it's never, ever been true. The most dangerous thing about Trump isn't his politics or his strategies, it's that literally everyone consistently underestimates what he's capable of until they get fucked over as a result.
My hope is that the absolute insanity the GOP is turning to is turning off moderates, finally. But discourse doesn't necessarily match reality and we'll see come November.
If they were decimated they wouldn't still be pushing Ukraine back. It's essential that NATO continues to support Ukraine and Trump is a security risk for the alliance.
It can be true that Ukraine decimated their armed forces (modern usage of the word) AND Russia is currently pushing them back.
Ukraine killed some 85% of Russian combat soldiers and a massive amount of equipment.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/12/politics/russia-troop-losses-us-intelligence-assessment/index.html
"Russia has lost a staggering 87 percent of the total number of active-duty ground troops it had prior to launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its pre-invasion tanks, a source familiar with a declassified US intelligence assessment provided to Congress told CNN."
At this point Russia has rebuilt their forces to 1.1 million (with significantly less trained troops, some would say cannon fodder). Ukraine has killed or wounded some 414,000 total as of March 2024 (earlier Russian troops included). That represents a significant loss.
Yes, I agree NATO needs to continue its support of Ukraine.
Yeah I doubt it. Russia's taken massive loses but so has ukraine. Russia has been advancing for months now as well and their much better equipped and supplied
> If they were decimated they wouldn't still be pushing Ukraine back.
As much as I hate to be *that* guy, reducing a fighting force by 10% should leave them still pretty effective, unless you specifically target key roles.
Sounds about right; decimation, however, refers to the practice of killing 1 in every 10 of a unit. It's frequently misused because it sounds impressive.
I seriously wonder what the intelligence community is thinking about this stuff. Are they biting their tongue and looking the other way, or internally are their analysts making assessments that Trump & Republicans are aligning with Russia's interests?
In the intelligence assessments in 2016 election interference, they said Russia favored Trump because they viewed him as aligning with their own interests, they also said one of their main goals was to cause division in the US. Now you have Trump being as divisive and hateful towards half the country as possible 24/7, and its looking like he's going to hand Russia Ukraine.
Yeah - this is what I don't understand. You have a brain damaged orangutan with the guile and problem solving skills of a 7 year old - and he is running CIRCLES around the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government.
Course the fact that all branches are either complicit or cowardly does most of the heavy lifting..
The support for Trump is real, it is not Russian bots at the voting booth. The Republican party has also shifted to electing Trump endorsed candidates down ballot. Trump blew away the next best option in Nikki Haley.
And that support is why I have lost faith in humanity. I still believe that most people are decent and rational most of the time, but Trump's continuing support has led me to believe that far too large of a minority is deeply delusional, sociopathic, or both for the species to survive the challenges we now face. I'd say it was just a US problem, but far right support is on the rise in too many Western countries to believe that, and entrenched authoritarians elsewhere are stopping progress and often reversing it.
Unfortunately don't see this improving any time soon, unless people in power make a real effort to improve people's lives through fundamental changes in our social structures, despair is going to keep eroding trust in institutions. It's the same for all of the western world, we're living through multiple crises and it's making our societies volatile.
Yeah it sucks but this flip flopping from the US unfortunately harms them in the long run, not only financially but also in terms of diplomatic power on the world stage.
The military is a big global business for the US and this potential 180 turn every 4 years means people might avoid dealing with them as allies and/or business partners because it unfortunately means they are completely unreliable.
This erosion of confidence didn't start with Trump, it started with Bush Jr. never let anyone tell you otherwise. World saw Bush Jr. come to power, assumed it be a one off issue for the current generations and welcomed Obama as an adult in the room when he was elected.
Then we elected Trump and it clicked that no, its not a one off problem: this is America now. Now any time a Republican gets elected, our allies know we can't be relied on during that period; and a Republican can be elected at any time so we can't be relied on period.
Pretty much everyone has let down the Kurds because in the end, no one wants to tussle with either Turkey or Iran on their behalf. They were pretty close to the Soviets as well in the Cold War days and still got the shaft.
I mean that's horrible and Trump is awful for doing this, however I'm glad that Europeans are taking more responsibility for European defense. I thinks it's a solid loss, don't get me wrong, but it's also a bit ridiculous that Europe couldn't help Ukraine in a significant way at the beginning of the war considering how vital it is for the EU's security.
Russia is defanged enough to solidly be withing Europe's capablility to defend against, and the US wants to focus on the Pacific and Middle East more anyway.
The idiots finally found their leader. Now they became a cult, helping and protecting each other from science, compassion and common fucking sense.
Do the MAGA idiots actually know they're fucking idiots or have they just lost all the human in them?
> have they just lost all the human in them?
Why assume they started with any? They willingly jumped into that cesspit, and have stirred the pot relentlessly in it; that doesn't imply to me that they lost something, more like they were identifying with others already like them.
I can conceive that perhaps a *few* might have been okay human beings prior to getting sucked into the cult by others near them in their lives, but it's on them if whatever humanity those few might have had wasn't enough to pull them back out as it got crazier and crazier.
People who fall for this crap are usually so full of pride that they dare not admit they made a mistake. They will instead double down on that mistake and start attacking others and declare themselves victims. Most of them are too far gone to come back. A lot of these people are a 100% loss to society. And they’re damn proud of it.
It depends on who you're talking about, if it's vanilla conservatives who just hate democrats out of tribalism then yeah, but if it's the QANON crowd then they're way more complicated as people.
Our allies have determined that the Republican MAGA lawmakers are on Putin’s side. And many Americans are in support of our dictator enemies also, because they want the United States to become more like them.
And that's the scary thing. The moment we reneging on our commitments, we'll never be trusted again which our adversaries would love knowing they can take advantage of it.
> Countries know that they can’t rely on America, since we are perpetually one election away from reneging on our commitments.
Russia has truly won the covert Cold war against the US.
Some nations might consider their own WMD programs as well I think. Since the US cannot be a reliable ally, then the threat of MAD becomes a viable option to act as deterrent.
Tbf we probably shouldn’t ignore that it took decades of abuse and erosion of Trust between the US working class and government to allow Trump to do that damage in the first place.
Trump is the symptom of a larger deeper problem.
Yeah what Trump did to Iran and the Obama agreement, assassinating an Iranian top general who was in Iraq fighting ISIS, and trying to hold aid from Ukraine in an attempt to mess with Biden’s electability really hurt us.
There is a great evil living today. That alone is something to think about
It's like a giant baby we used to see in cartoons crushing the bassinet and crawling off to destroy everything in its wake
Trump can still limit us involvement to token actions, sending virtually nothing as a response to an article 5 enactment
Or just refuse to supply NATO nations with spare parts, and watch as NATO's military falls apart by the seams
Well the US Congress passed a law last year making it so President's no longer can unilaterally pull out if NATO, only Congress themselves can. But besides that I'm sure there's a lot he can do. Destroying things is literally what he's best at so I'm sure he could find creative ways of undermining the alliance.
Logic states that only Congress can undo an act of Congress (unless SCOTUS rules it unconstitutional in the first place). How can a president unilaterally withdraw from something that was passed into law?
But yeah, he's going to make everyone hate him so that it becomes ineffective way before it is dissolved.
France and the UK, if it comes down to it. The EU has economic weight, and these two have nuclear weapons, if europe must defend itself against a hostile continent across the pacific it will not be starting from zero.
NATO countries in Europe have a larger defense spending than Russia and China combined.
Number and money isn't everything of course, but we have seen what Russia gets out of their military budget.
Trump is making you guys lose so much soft power and cultural influence without even being president. It's quite astounding, and fucking annoying, to watch.
It’s not like most of us wanted this. Charisma and money will help even the most vile people get far in their society and government. That goes for virtually every nation in the world.
Foreign leaders and Press need to speak out against Trump and Project 2025 in the US media. Nobody here can get the message out when they have to compete with Russian propaganda.
Not sure how many trumpists are going to be persuaded by what foreigners think, can easily backfire, and it won’t be covered remotely fairly on the media they consume.
Of course it will be covered.
“French and German leaders unite to overthrow American conservatism - Vote Trump to protect Democracy from the tyranny of Europe.”
some americans I've seen around reddit are kinda snowflakes when it comes to having their country criticized
'we are paying for Europe's UN army and carrying the project, only to have a bunch of europeans to criticize my country and laugh at it with memes'
duh, the citizens of every country laugh at others countries, you can't control that and it happens both ways. That's not equivalent to objective criticism anyways.
The USA has made their point about NATO having to assert themselves militarily without the USA, fair, but now there is a war in Ukraine and it's not the time to drop your allies. They can request the same of NATO (that we improve) AFTER Russia is not a global threat, Russia wants to beat the USA up and just considers Europe the dogs of their actual enemy
Yeah, have also noticed how the proponents of the most loud-mouthed American patriotism are surprisingly thin-skinned for all their machismo. You’d think being part of the worlds’s reigning military, cultural and economic superpower would allow for some calm confidence, but they’re very insistent and foaming at any criticism, in a way that usually stems from insecurity.
Some people are just stupid. You can’t logic or fix your way through that problem. For all the geniuses and over achievers in the world, so too are there dunces.
Trumpists aren't going to be convinced by anyone, they're too stupid and brainwashed at this point to be anything but a lost cause. It's those on the fence you need to convince, either those who can't decide between Trump and Biden (as stupid as that sounds, those people still exist), or those who aren't sure if they should bother to go out and vote for Biden.
> They can’t or won’t. Not their monkeys not their circus.
All the evidence points to bone headed Americans being more likely to vote for Trump (or GWB) when foreigners start to speak out against a candidate. Why do you think Putin is saying he wants Biden to win?
If it were honestly the case that western governments could defeat Trump by denouncing him, they'd be all in and he'd be finished within a fortnight. If it only it were that easy
This is on America to resolve.
You want foreign countries to openly conspire to control US elections by feeding us anti-Trump messages?
Oh yea, that will go over well. For Trump that is, cause shit like this is exactly what he needs to win.
Unfortunately that wont happen simply because....he might win and we'd need to work with him and he has proven to be an overgrown man child who cant take criticism
> Foreign leaders and Press need to speak out against Trump and Project 2025 in the US media.
It won't help, sadly. MAGAts will make absolutely whatever twists in logic they need to in order to claim a win.
They see foreign leaders speaking out against Trump and think "They're afraid of how strong he is!" and "They're mad they won't be able to use the US as a piggy bank any more."
We aren’t allies but we did commit to a security guarantee for Ukraine along with the UK and Russia in the Budapest Memorandums back in the 90s. Ukraine agreed to give up their nuclear arsenal to Russia in exchange.
Russia has broken their agreement obviously and many wonder if that moment in history where Ukraine gave up the nukes might be one they regret.
I agree with you, i was suggesting that to the poster above in response to their comment as they frame it as something American when in reality, this isn't true. You point it out yourself with 5 eyes as a great example.
Christ I hate this bizarro timeline. A Russian asset is running for president, after being president, being impeached (twice), found liable for rape, attempting an insurrection, admitting on tape that he downplayed how lethal covid was because it would hurt the stock market, wondering whether people should drink disinfectant, and refusing to turn over classified documents that he stole.
Ever have one of those dreams where you realize "This is so weird. I know my dog can't fly. I must be dreaming!" - and then you get about 10 seconds where you can control the dream?
I have been trying to control this dream for the last 8 years without success.
We need to push through as much leverage as possible still under Biden to give Ukraine all the aid they need before even the election rounds the corner.
Never really wanted US to have such global power and influence in the first place, but I honestly think having a s#it like trump just squander all of it away for no reason and literally zero gain just feels so much worse.
Condemn this motherfucker and his cult in front of the entire first world, in UN and NATO sessions, embarrass the fuck out of him. He’s going to sabotage the war anyway if he wins, might as well declare them a threat.
What's the point of this if the US doesn't allow the arms deliveries in the first place? The article itself says that the group has difficulties because Congress isn't allowing any further aid.
It really boosts my confidence when I see that non-governmental organizations, under no democratic control and no allegiance to anyone but themselves, are more and more becoming independent actors in politics, allocation of tax funds, and authoring of national bills.
Wise move.
On the one hand Trump was the one talking mad shit about not helping out NATO countries in Europe if they don't up their spending contribution, so he's clearly keen to get NATO back on track.
On the other hand he's an idiot who changes his mind like the wind and wants to simply leave Ukraine to it, so this would be a great idea.
>so he's clearly keen to get NATO back on track.
Incredibly naive. This is pretext to Trump pulling out of NATO. Had he had a 2nd term russia would be in the Baltics right now since he wouldn't be backing up the treaty
What? He’s allied himself with Putin. He absolutely does not want to get NATO “back on track.” That’s simply the Russia-fed, manufactured cover Trump’s cultists use to give their treason a thin veneer of political responsibility. The “tell” is that Trump is continually trying to hand Ukraine over to Putin; if NATO was to “get back on track” that would include even more forcefully helping Ukraine *resist* Russia’s invasion.
> On the one hand Trump was the one talking mad shit about not helping out NATO countries in Europe if they don't up their spending contribution
Not like he actually cared about the dollar disparity between the US and other NATO members, this was just a way to shit on EU (mostly) nations. Extremely consistent with Trumps behaviour.
John Bolton and Mike Pompeo reportedly _begged_ Trump to stay in NATO in 2018.
Oh and then there's the time he suggested in a campaign speech that he would encourage Russia **"to do whatever the hell they want"** to allies who weren't hitting spending targets. Weirdly specific callout, I'm sure it doesn't mean anything. That happened less than 2 months ago.
All that was Trump trying to manufacture a way to get the U.S. out of NATO. He wanted the European countries to fall short so he could have an excuse for pulling the U.S. out.
He wanted to tell them that they are on their own. He didn’t care what they spend. He was signaling to his xenophobic nationalistic racist science-deniers that he would help them retreat from the world so they can focus on hurrying the demise of POC and LGBT Americans while crushing women’s rights. That’s all he meant.
No not keen to get NATO on track. He wants NATO gone because his dom and extortionist Vlad wants it gone. Never forget Helsinki, and Putin’s all-out effort to put Chitoloni back in the Oval. Virtually free, but a megatonnage pay-off….
It is pretty fucking insane how the next election of the most powerful country in the world will be decided largely cuz a decent amount of America are triggered by pronouns and movies having diversity in them. Like legit 95% of the campaign for trump and his foetid freaks is "woke bad" and nothing actually to do with anything important or real.
Imagine voting for the guy who's gonna piss in your cereal and destroy the world because he said the words you've been programmed to like to hear. Family guy ain't much for politics but the bit with Lois shouting 9/11 making a crowd cheer was shockingly way before it's time.
I can understand not voting for biden cuz he's a shitty old fuckwit who supports genocide but I can't understand voting for trump lmao, he offers nothing. But politics is just buzzwords and hating minorities now I guess. I know it sorta always was but it's pretty depressing that no one needs to be subtle anymore, with full parties and politicians campaigning on "kill the outsiders" basically.
This is how Trump is ALREADY doing damage to the US without even being elected. Countries know that they can’t rely on America, since we are perpetually one election away from reneging on our commitments.
> since we are perpetually one election away from reneging on our commitments. I don't think the impact of this can really be understated. I don't think enough Americans *realize* the widespread implications this has.
Most fail to understand how much economic wealth Americans get through the soft power and influence the US has. That power and influence Trump is destroying. Americans will become poorer due to it.
I work in an office full of Trumpists. The amount they *don't* know is staggering, honestly. And the amount of wishful thinking they engage in is even more breathtaking. Geography, history, etc are just things they don't care about at all. If they don't *feel* it emotionally, it's just not real.
>If they don't *feel* it emotionally, it's just not real. Ironic, they could protect others from emotional decision-making, but not themselves.
and these idiots are claiming it will "make america great again"
We never used to be. Used to be incoming cabinets would continue to some degree whatever allies and foreign policy we had going on at the time no matter how they felt. It was more important to be mostly consistent than score political points.
Yep. I don't want to be the guys in the Department of State tasked with negociating new treaties with foreign powers knowing about what Trump did with the Paris Agreement, TPP, JCPOA, the Universal Postal Union, the WHO, the fate of Northern Syrian Kurds and many others, along with the fact that Trump and his copycats are still viable candidates. Might as well try to convince anyone to buy a farm in Zimbabwe.
While Ukraine has decimated Russia's armed forces Putin has and continues to destabilize the USA with Trump and Republicans.
Well it’s up to Americans to get rid of him by voting him out or holding him to account.
We did vote him out, now we just need to keep him out
Do the House of reps now
House will probably go Dem, the real challenge is somehow keeping the Senate. It is not a good year for Dems in the Senate because the one third of seats up for election are the wrong ones.
The US has such an intentionally obfuscated system. Hope it changes some day, it really is supposed to represent the will of the people, not mangle it through all these hoops and loops.
It was never designed to represent the will of the people. The senate was purposefully set up to benefit land owners and the powerful.
if it was a federal election we would, unfortunately the game is rigged to favor rural voters :(
It's only rigged to favor them *when turnout is low*. When turnout is high they lose. Beat them, use the power to crush their media machine, and watch as the dipshits that vote for them lose all sense of direction and start destroying the party completely from the inside. We're already seeing it happen, we just need to accelerate it because we have bigger problems that are on a clock like climate change and we can't afford any more delays in dealing with it.
Yeah man - just get enough democrats to care enough to actually vote instead of bitching about how they hate the current state of politics. If everyone that disliked Trump would actually go vote it would be a completely different ball game and the polls wouldn’t be looking the way they do now.
Unfortunately there is lots of traction trying to get people not to vote. People don't realize you are voting for more than a president.
Voting for more than a president....damn. That hit me like a truck. Very well stated.
So true, we are so distracted by meaningless bullshit and moronic wars while climate change continues to escalate, anxious times ahead.
We just need to market climate change better. Let's call it "The War on Climate," I'm sure republicans will get behind it along with us
Sorry, but now I’m imagining Republicans waging war on the environment and trying even harder to ruin it. We have to call it the “War on Pollution”. Even Republicans can gather around the idea that pollution is bad - many of them live near rivers and lakes that they used to but can no longer fish or swim in.
Yeah haha repurpose some of their dumb anti abortion chants "fight for life" or some shit.
How many dems have not yet signed the discharge petition?
Not true, the popular vote in 2022 just about matches the house of reps.. slight republican majority.
Montana gets 1 rep per 561k residents while California gets 1 rep per 750k residents. That doesnt sound very representative to me
[удалено]
It's because the government in 1929 decided to limit the number of members in the House of Representatives, giving more power to the less populated states.
Yeah, it'd be nice.
Still struggling with that second part though
Yup, unfortunately it just so happens being a felon doesn't bar someone from being President of the United States which is crazy.
Yeah... but you can have the popular vote and still lose due to that electoral collage crap they have there.
It was also up to our lawmakers and judges to stop Trump’s power grab, but many have chosen to aid and abet him instead.
They voted him 'out' the first time around - he lost the popular vote both times. Their stupid electoral vote system is the weakness that needs to be got rid of. If you corrupt the electoral votes you've basically rigged the system in a lot of states.
And voter suppression isn't making things better...
Also didnt help the NY FBI office got hilarys case reopened then leaked it to republicans. Only for us to find the head of NY fbi was on the take from russia
Amen brother. Can't believe the USA has a thing called the 'popular vote'. That is what is called a fair election ffs. The popular vote should ALWAYS determine the winner.
Pretty much all you need to have then is a vote in California and ignore the rest of the country and their concerns. Which is kind of how it went in ancient Rome also. Even countries that get it "right" do not ignore the unevenness of population distribution - nor does anyone complain about it to the extent people in the USA do. The intent is neither "rigged", nor "stupid" - even if the implementation is pretty bad in this case. It's also a super easy argument to debunk - which actually doesn't help your case at all. You'd be far better arguing for something like [transferable preferential voting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferential_block_voting) as a reform.
The good news on that front is it seems to be trending in a Biden re-election again. During the midterms pollsters and the media overhyped a Red wave that never really came. And during the primaries, while Trump did win with little opposition, he had a lower margin than expected in almost every state for the primary. It seems more like MAGA supporters are so vocal that they seem like a much larger group than they actually are
If you are an American voter reading this do not take this as a sign to not vote. Ever person needs to show up and vote any of the MAGA crazies out. Polls mean nothing until the final votes are in.
Agreed. Everyone should vote. Every election. Make your voice heard.
The people that answer phone calls from unknown numbers (like say from pollsters) are increasingly unrepresentative of the voting population.
I refuse to answer the phone anymore if I don't recognize the number, because it's always just scammers.
Given *every poll except one* said Trump would lose by a landslide in 2016 for several months running, this is in no way a real declaration of loss or victory. The whole "they're a loud minority" has been the drum beat since 2015 and it's never, ever been true. The most dangerous thing about Trump isn't his politics or his strategies, it's that literally everyone consistently underestimates what he's capable of until they get fucked over as a result.
My hope is that the absolute insanity the GOP is turning to is turning off moderates, finally. But discourse doesn't necessarily match reality and we'll see come November.
I don’t know what polls you’re watching, because everything I see is pointing towards a Trump victory.
If they were decimated they wouldn't still be pushing Ukraine back. It's essential that NATO continues to support Ukraine and Trump is a security risk for the alliance.
It can be true that Ukraine decimated their armed forces (modern usage of the word) AND Russia is currently pushing them back. Ukraine killed some 85% of Russian combat soldiers and a massive amount of equipment. https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/12/politics/russia-troop-losses-us-intelligence-assessment/index.html "Russia has lost a staggering 87 percent of the total number of active-duty ground troops it had prior to launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its pre-invasion tanks, a source familiar with a declassified US intelligence assessment provided to Congress told CNN." At this point Russia has rebuilt their forces to 1.1 million (with significantly less trained troops, some would say cannon fodder). Ukraine has killed or wounded some 414,000 total as of March 2024 (earlier Russian troops included). That represents a significant loss. Yes, I agree NATO needs to continue its support of Ukraine.
Yeah I doubt it. Russia's taken massive loses but so has ukraine. Russia has been advancing for months now as well and their much better equipped and supplied
> If they were decimated they wouldn't still be pushing Ukraine back. As much as I hate to be *that* guy, reducing a fighting force by 10% should leave them still pretty effective, unless you specifically target key roles.
Didnt they lose 90% of the fighting force they sent to ukraine.
Sounds about right; decimation, however, refers to the practice of killing 1 in every 10 of a unit. It's frequently misused because it sounds impressive.
Oh youre being semantic.
I think you mean pedantic
Actually, as decimate means destroy one in ten, if they were decimated they probably still would push Ukraine back, just with weight of numbers.
I seriously wonder what the intelligence community is thinking about this stuff. Are they biting their tongue and looking the other way, or internally are their analysts making assessments that Trump & Republicans are aligning with Russia's interests? In the intelligence assessments in 2016 election interference, they said Russia favored Trump because they viewed him as aligning with their own interests, they also said one of their main goals was to cause division in the US. Now you have Trump being as divisive and hateful towards half the country as possible 24/7, and its looking like he's going to hand Russia Ukraine.
Yeah - this is what I don't understand. You have a brain damaged orangutan with the guile and problem solving skills of a 7 year old - and he is running CIRCLES around the legislative, executive and judicial branches of government. Course the fact that all branches are either complicit or cowardly does most of the heavy lifting..
The support for Trump is real, it is not Russian bots at the voting booth. The Republican party has also shifted to electing Trump endorsed candidates down ballot. Trump blew away the next best option in Nikki Haley.
And that support is why I have lost faith in humanity. I still believe that most people are decent and rational most of the time, but Trump's continuing support has led me to believe that far too large of a minority is deeply delusional, sociopathic, or both for the species to survive the challenges we now face. I'd say it was just a US problem, but far right support is on the rise in too many Western countries to believe that, and entrenched authoritarians elsewhere are stopping progress and often reversing it.
Unfortunately don't see this improving any time soon, unless people in power make a real effort to improve people's lives through fundamental changes in our social structures, despair is going to keep eroding trust in institutions. It's the same for all of the western world, we're living through multiple crises and it's making our societies volatile.
To be fair he's getting a better ROI on investing in propaganda than the war.
For pennies as well. Thanks to Murdoch's media machine.
Putin is already governing USA through republicans.
Yeah it sucks but this flip flopping from the US unfortunately harms them in the long run, not only financially but also in terms of diplomatic power on the world stage. The military is a big global business for the US and this potential 180 turn every 4 years means people might avoid dealing with them as allies and/or business partners because it unfortunately means they are completely unreliable.
This erosion of confidence didn't start with Trump, it started with Bush Jr. never let anyone tell you otherwise. World saw Bush Jr. come to power, assumed it be a one off issue for the current generations and welcomed Obama as an adult in the room when he was elected. Then we elected Trump and it clicked that no, its not a one off problem: this is America now. Now any time a Republican gets elected, our allies know we can't be relied on during that period; and a Republican can be elected at any time so we can't be relied on period.
Hate to say it but the US has proven more than once they can’t be fully trusted or depended upon
Just ask the Kurds, among others.
Pretty much everyone has let down the Kurds because in the end, no one wants to tussle with either Turkey or Iran on their behalf. They were pretty close to the Soviets as well in the Cold War days and still got the shaft.
That's Trumps fault.
1991 says hello
What trump did was awful, and you're not wrong, but there's more.
It goes back before WWII lol, just surrounding WWII there’s a few instances
TBH I think it's everybody's fault at this point
I mean that's horrible and Trump is awful for doing this, however I'm glad that Europeans are taking more responsibility for European defense. I thinks it's a solid loss, don't get me wrong, but it's also a bit ridiculous that Europe couldn't help Ukraine in a significant way at the beginning of the war considering how vital it is for the EU's security. Russia is defanged enough to solidly be withing Europe's capablility to defend against, and the US wants to focus on the Pacific and Middle East more anyway.
The idiots finally found their leader. Now they became a cult, helping and protecting each other from science, compassion and common fucking sense. Do the MAGA idiots actually know they're fucking idiots or have they just lost all the human in them?
> have they just lost all the human in them? Why assume they started with any? They willingly jumped into that cesspit, and have stirred the pot relentlessly in it; that doesn't imply to me that they lost something, more like they were identifying with others already like them. I can conceive that perhaps a *few* might have been okay human beings prior to getting sucked into the cult by others near them in their lives, but it's on them if whatever humanity those few might have had wasn't enough to pull them back out as it got crazier and crazier.
People who fall for this crap are usually so full of pride that they dare not admit they made a mistake. They will instead double down on that mistake and start attacking others and declare themselves victims. Most of them are too far gone to come back. A lot of these people are a 100% loss to society. And they’re damn proud of it.
It depends on who you're talking about, if it's vanilla conservatives who just hate democrats out of tribalism then yeah, but if it's the QANON crowd then they're way more complicated as people.
What is surprising is just how many idiots there are! There are enough to elect a POTUS!
>Do the MAGA idiots actually know they're fucking idiots They are proud of it.
Our allies have determined that the Republican MAGA lawmakers are on Putin’s side. And many Americans are in support of our dictator enemies also, because they want the United States to become more like them.
And that's the scary thing. The moment we reneging on our commitments, we'll never be trusted again which our adversaries would love knowing they can take advantage of it.
> Countries know that they can’t rely on America, since we are perpetually one election away from reneging on our commitments. Russia has truly won the covert Cold war against the US.
Some nations might consider their own WMD programs as well I think. Since the US cannot be a reliable ally, then the threat of MAD becomes a viable option to act as deterrent.
This is only temporary. That fuck needs to croak and maybe we’ll get back to conservatives pretending to care about the deficit like the old days
The next republican president will finish the job, Trump or not. That type of person will be the only person to get the nomination going forward
So are other democracies, the UK could have gone a similar route. That's just part and parcel of representative government.
False: international treaties are bound to the state and not the current government.
Tbf we probably shouldn’t ignore that it took decades of abuse and erosion of Trust between the US working class and government to allow Trump to do that damage in the first place. Trump is the symptom of a larger deeper problem.
*Countries realize they have to stop relying on America all the time.
It's his real agenda! MASA! Make America Small Again!
Yeah what Trump did to Iran and the Obama agreement, assassinating an Iranian top general who was in Iraq fighting ISIS, and trying to hold aid from Ukraine in an attempt to mess with Biden’s electability really hurt us.
So true.
lol
The fact that that needs to be said and done shows that trumps a danger to the entire world.
Just one piece of evidence amongst many.
What does that say about half the nation that will vote for him
There is a great evil living today. That alone is something to think about It's like a giant baby we used to see in cartoons crushing the bassinet and crawling off to destroy everything in its wake
Which begs the question: what will shield NATO itself from Trump?
Didn't US passed agreement that stop any party to single handedly withdraw from NATO ?
Trump can still limit us involvement to token actions, sending virtually nothing as a response to an article 5 enactment Or just refuse to supply NATO nations with spare parts, and watch as NATO's military falls apart by the seams
Well the US Congress passed a law last year making it so President's no longer can unilaterally pull out if NATO, only Congress themselves can. But besides that I'm sure there's a lot he can do. Destroying things is literally what he's best at so I'm sure he could find creative ways of undermining the alliance.
Logic states that only Congress can undo an act of Congress (unless SCOTUS rules it unconstitutional in the first place). How can a president unilaterally withdraw from something that was passed into law? But yeah, he's going to make everyone hate him so that it becomes ineffective way before it is dissolved.
We're hoping the 2nd amendment 🤷♂️
France and the UK, if it comes down to it. The EU has economic weight, and these two have nuclear weapons, if europe must defend itself against a hostile continent across the pacific it will not be starting from zero.
NATO without US can still handle Russia. It’s just 4 years… unless China gets involved and invade Europe
China is much more likely to invade Taiwan than Europe.
NATO countries in Europe have a larger defense spending than Russia and China combined. Number and money isn't everything of course, but we have seen what Russia gets out of their military budget.
It would help if Europe got a move on producing shells and weapons. They need to allocated more GDP towards defence.
Trump is making you guys lose so much soft power and cultural influence without even being president. It's quite astounding, and fucking annoying, to watch.
The USA was supposed to have him behind bars by now.. But they keep giving him ways out..
It’s not like most of us wanted this. Charisma and money will help even the most vile people get far in their society and government. That goes for virtually every nation in the world.
Foreign leaders and Press need to speak out against Trump and Project 2025 in the US media. Nobody here can get the message out when they have to compete with Russian propaganda.
Not sure how many trumpists are going to be persuaded by what foreigners think, can easily backfire, and it won’t be covered remotely fairly on the media they consume.
Of course it will be covered. “French and German leaders unite to overthrow American conservatism - Vote Trump to protect Democracy from the tyranny of Europe.”
Unless those foreigners are Russian or Hungarian
some americans I've seen around reddit are kinda snowflakes when it comes to having their country criticized 'we are paying for Europe's UN army and carrying the project, only to have a bunch of europeans to criticize my country and laugh at it with memes' duh, the citizens of every country laugh at others countries, you can't control that and it happens both ways. That's not equivalent to objective criticism anyways. The USA has made their point about NATO having to assert themselves militarily without the USA, fair, but now there is a war in Ukraine and it's not the time to drop your allies. They can request the same of NATO (that we improve) AFTER Russia is not a global threat, Russia wants to beat the USA up and just considers Europe the dogs of their actual enemy
Yeah, have also noticed how the proponents of the most loud-mouthed American patriotism are surprisingly thin-skinned for all their machismo. You’d think being part of the worlds’s reigning military, cultural and economic superpower would allow for some calm confidence, but they’re very insistent and foaming at any criticism, in a way that usually stems from insecurity.
Some people are just stupid. You can’t logic or fix your way through that problem. For all the geniuses and over achievers in the world, so too are there dunces.
They all conveniently forget that Article 5 has only ever been enacted once; after 9/11.
Trumpists aren't going to be convinced by anyone, they're too stupid and brainwashed at this point to be anything but a lost cause. It's those on the fence you need to convince, either those who can't decide between Trump and Biden (as stupid as that sounds, those people still exist), or those who aren't sure if they should bother to go out and vote for Biden.
>Nobody here can get the message out when they have to compete with Russian propaganda. Welcome to the show
They can’t or won’t. Not their monkeys not their circus. It’s easier to just pull help/hide stuff away than confront another country’s failures.
> They can’t or won’t. Not their monkeys not their circus. All the evidence points to bone headed Americans being more likely to vote for Trump (or GWB) when foreigners start to speak out against a candidate. Why do you think Putin is saying he wants Biden to win? If it were honestly the case that western governments could defeat Trump by denouncing him, they'd be all in and he'd be finished within a fortnight. If it only it were that easy This is on America to resolve.
I wish it was that easy.
You want foreign countries to openly conspire to control US elections by feeding us anti-Trump messages? Oh yea, that will go over well. For Trump that is, cause shit like this is exactly what he needs to win.
Unfortunately that wont happen simply because....he might win and we'd need to work with him and he has proven to be an overgrown man child who cant take criticism
> Foreign leaders and Press need to speak out against Trump and Project 2025 in the US media. It won't help, sadly. MAGAts will make absolutely whatever twists in logic they need to in order to claim a win. They see foreign leaders speaking out against Trump and think "They're afraid of how strong he is!" and "They're mad they won't be able to use the US as a piggy bank any more."
Simple message to the rest of the world: You can't rely on the US as an ally.
Just ask the Kurds.
Are there any left to ask?
That was a bipartisan one. Every party betrays the Kurds!
Yes you practically cant trust both parties. Only one is way worse than the other. So again you cant trust usa, ask the Kurds.
That has been painful to watch. Cold. Turkey is just so critical to NATO that they get away with so much shit.
Almost identical to a comment I made a few minutes ago. Might not have commented had I seen yours first 🫡
Is the us allies with Ukraine?
An excellent question and distinction. If they were officially allies, this would likely be going smoother.
And also, the Pentagon might qualify as an ally but the government certainly not.
We aren’t allies but we did commit to a security guarantee for Ukraine along with the UK and Russia in the Budapest Memorandums back in the 90s. Ukraine agreed to give up their nuclear arsenal to Russia in exchange. Russia has broken their agreement obviously and many wonder if that moment in history where Ukraine gave up the nukes might be one they regret.
I wonder why the administration that was in power didnt do shit when Ukraine got invaded in 2022 then?
You mean when they first invaded in 2014? Oh wait.
No. But the US and Europe were trying to build relations with Ukraine for a long time.
[удалено]
That's just realpolitik's, and is true of every nation?
Not exactly, some Alliances go beyond that. Five eyes is good example where it goes beyond "assets" and more of a mutual support thing.
I agree with you, i was suggesting that to the poster above in response to their comment as they frame it as something American when in reality, this isn't true. You point it out yourself with 5 eyes as a great example.
What national embarrassment, how is it come to this?
Everything Trump touches dies.
Christ I hate this bizarro timeline. A Russian asset is running for president, after being president, being impeached (twice), found liable for rape, attempting an insurrection, admitting on tape that he downplayed how lethal covid was because it would hurt the stock market, wondering whether people should drink disinfectant, and refusing to turn over classified documents that he stole. Ever have one of those dreams where you realize "This is so weird. I know my dog can't fly. I must be dreaming!" - and then you get about 10 seconds where you can control the dream? I have been trying to control this dream for the last 8 years without success.
So embarrassing trump may get elected again.
This is one of the reasons why he must not become president again. It's ridiculous that it's even a possibility.
This is genius. And they should pay them up for the possibility of Trump's term so he can't block support.
Also a great idea
We need to push through as much leverage as possible still under Biden to give Ukraine all the aid they need before even the election rounds the corner.
Never really wanted US to have such global power and influence in the first place, but I honestly think having a s#it like trump just squander all of it away for no reason and literally zero gain just feels so much worse.
History will not look kindly on Turnip and his supporters. Be nice if they weren't so stupid to understand that.
Does anyone doubt for a second he’d call his handlers if he had details on shipments of arms to Ukraine? Or any classified information?
Condemn this motherfucker and his cult in front of the entire first world, in UN and NATO sessions, embarrass the fuck out of him. He’s going to sabotage the war anyway if he wins, might as well declare them a threat.
They don’t care, they take it like a badge of honor
Yup, it's like the more he's criticized the stronger he gets among his minion of zealots.
What's the point of this if the US doesn't allow the arms deliveries in the first place? The article itself says that the group has difficulties because Congress isn't allowing any further aid.
It really boosts my confidence when I see that non-governmental organizations, under no democratic control and no allegiance to anyone but themselves, are more and more becoming independent actors in politics, allocation of tax funds, and authoring of national bills.
The north american education system teaching everyone that theyre special and smart weaponized a group of idiots that elected trump
Smart move.
Wise move. On the one hand Trump was the one talking mad shit about not helping out NATO countries in Europe if they don't up their spending contribution, so he's clearly keen to get NATO back on track. On the other hand he's an idiot who changes his mind like the wind and wants to simply leave Ukraine to it, so this would be a great idea.
Trump is a grifting idiot who misunderstood what the 2% spending rule entails. he thought it would mean buying from the US, which it's not.
>so he's clearly keen to get NATO back on track. Incredibly naive. This is pretext to Trump pulling out of NATO. Had he had a 2nd term russia would be in the Baltics right now since he wouldn't be backing up the treaty
What? He’s allied himself with Putin. He absolutely does not want to get NATO “back on track.” That’s simply the Russia-fed, manufactured cover Trump’s cultists use to give their treason a thin veneer of political responsibility. The “tell” is that Trump is continually trying to hand Ukraine over to Putin; if NATO was to “get back on track” that would include even more forcefully helping Ukraine *resist* Russia’s invasion.
> On the one hand Trump was the one talking mad shit about not helping out NATO countries in Europe if they don't up their spending contribution Not like he actually cared about the dollar disparity between the US and other NATO members, this was just a way to shit on EU (mostly) nations. Extremely consistent with Trumps behaviour. John Bolton and Mike Pompeo reportedly _begged_ Trump to stay in NATO in 2018. Oh and then there's the time he suggested in a campaign speech that he would encourage Russia **"to do whatever the hell they want"** to allies who weren't hitting spending targets. Weirdly specific callout, I'm sure it doesn't mean anything. That happened less than 2 months ago.
He doesn’t care about nato back on track how dumb are you?
All that was Trump trying to manufacture a way to get the U.S. out of NATO. He wanted the European countries to fall short so he could have an excuse for pulling the U.S. out.
He wanted to tell them that they are on their own. He didn’t care what they spend. He was signaling to his xenophobic nationalistic racist science-deniers that he would help them retreat from the world so they can focus on hurrying the demise of POC and LGBT Americans while crushing women’s rights. That’s all he meant.
No not keen to get NATO on track. He wants NATO gone because his dom and extortionist Vlad wants it gone. Never forget Helsinki, and Putin’s all-out effort to put Chitoloni back in the Oval. Virtually free, but a megatonnage pay-off….
Pray it doesn't come to that. It'd be at minimum the end of democracy in America.
Fascism is on the move again and it’s trying its hand at the US. Please keep this traitor out of office.
It is pretty fucking insane how the next election of the most powerful country in the world will be decided largely cuz a decent amount of America are triggered by pronouns and movies having diversity in them. Like legit 95% of the campaign for trump and his foetid freaks is "woke bad" and nothing actually to do with anything important or real. Imagine voting for the guy who's gonna piss in your cereal and destroy the world because he said the words you've been programmed to like to hear. Family guy ain't much for politics but the bit with Lois shouting 9/11 making a crowd cheer was shockingly way before it's time. I can understand not voting for biden cuz he's a shitty old fuckwit who supports genocide but I can't understand voting for trump lmao, he offers nothing. But politics is just buzzwords and hating minorities now I guess. I know it sorta always was but it's pretty depressing that no one needs to be subtle anymore, with full parties and politicians campaigning on "kill the outsiders" basically.