Political crackdown and protest in Georgia; Election annulled in Romanian election (all Russia related)

[superrific]

It’s mostly semantics I guess because the result is the same, but I have a feeling looking back, we’ll see that Dems in the US were about the only people in the world who thought the Dem candidate had a chance. I know I should have paid way more attention to the rightward shifts and anti-incumbency sentiment almost everywhere else in the world. It just makes sense to me that our European allies, Trudeau, etc. would be much more alert to that than I was.

I do agree with you about Bibi and Putin. I think they believed Trump would win. But even if he didn’t, they only have so much longer to empty their respective chambers. Might as well take their best shot now. Trump will just make it much easier for them to do it.

I don't think you are right in your first sentence. I see no reason to think that foreigners had a better idea of who was going to win the election than Americans did. That doesn't really make a lot of sense.

Allies are gaming out every scenario given that Trump poses such a huge risk to them.

 

[lawtig02]

I don't think you are right in your first sentence. I see no reason to think that foreigners had a better idea of who was going to win the election than Americans did. That doesn't really make a lot of sense.

Allies are gaming out every scenario given that Trump poses such a huge risk to them.

I’m not saying that about all Americans. I think Pubs actually had a pretty good sense of where Trump stood. I have a feeling Dem leadership, except Biden and his inner circle, probably did too. I just know I way underestimated the right wing tilt that has happened overseas and it’s predictive value for our election, and I think a lot of other Dems without access to private polling probably did too. Those trends have been front of mind for our Western allies, I assume.

 

[JCTarheel82]

One of the many painful lessons already learned from this election is that most people around the world, including both our allies and enemies, have known for a couple of years that Trump would likely win. Nothing happening anywhere right now, or for the last year plus for that matter, is Trump agnostic. Bibi has been planning for Trump. Xi and Kim have been planning for Trump. And Putin went all in on Trump’s return, and it’s going to pay off for him in a major way. From a foreign policy perspective, we now have far more in common with Russia, Iran and Hungary than we do with our western allies.

Putin et al. were clearly confident in their propaganda efforts as well as the impact of inflation on an ignorant American electorate. I'm sure they also calculated that creating international conflict and unrest would increase the likelihood of Trump returning to the White House so the decision to invade Ukraine served two purposes.

America is one of the bad guys now.

 

[Mulberry Heel]

Putin et al. were clearly confident in their propaganda efforts as well as the impact of inflation on an ignorant American electorate. I'm sure they also calculated that creating international conflict and unrest would increase the likelihood of Trump returning to the White House so the decision to invade Ukraine served two purposes.

America is one of the bad guys now.

Putin and his hackers and troll farms have done more to wreck American democracy and destabilize other Western democracies and their alliances than the old KGB or Soviet Union ever did. Once American conservatives were fiercely opposed to Soviet/Russian leaders and the "Evil Empire", now Putin has a virtual stooge and open admirer installed as POTUS for a second term. How times have changed.

 

[superrific]

I’m not saying that about all Americans. I think Pubs actually had a pretty good sense of where Trump stood. I have a feeling Dem leadership, except Biden and his inner circle, probably did too. I just know I way underestimated the right wing tilt that has happened overseas and it’s predictive value for our election, and I think a lot of other Dems without access to private polling probably did too. Those trends have been front of mind for our Western allies, I assume.

I see no reason to think that Pubs had any better knowledge than others. Nothing about their campaigning the last week of the campaign, nor their behavior up to and including Election Day, suggests that they were prescient about the outcome.

After all, Trump didn't really do particularly well. What happened was Kamala cratered. The Pubs didn't know that was going to happen, nor did our allies.

What we're seeing is just typical wargaming that countries always do in response to potential political changes elsewhere. It's just that we're not used to being the ones modeled. We're used to leading the games, not being the subject of them.

 

[lawtig02]

Putin and his hackers and troll farms have done more to wreck American democracy and destabilize other Western democracies and their alliances than the old KGB or Soviet Union ever did. Once American conservatives were fiercely opposed to Soviet/Russian leaders and the "Evil Empire", now Putin has a virtual stooge and open admirer installed as POTUS for a second term. How times have changed.

Putin’s brilliant gamble was recognizing it would be easier to manipulate the less informed, and thus easier to misinform, stooges in the Party of Reagan than it would be to play to potential sympathizers on the far left. I’m sure even he was surprised how easy it turned out to be, though.

 

[nycfan]

 

[Callatoroy]

Maybe all this russian aggression is because we are in a period of zero potus presence and have been for a while. Russia sees this


and this



and knows their time to act is now. And what is a fact is that russia invaded under obama and brandon. So all this finger pointing at trump is sour grapes and desperation at the laughing stock that the dems have become.

 

[superrific]

Maybe all this russian aggression is because we are in a period of zero potus presence and have been for a while. Russia sees this


and this



and knows their time to act is now. And what is a fact is that russia invaded under obama and brandon. So all this finger pointing at trump is sour grapes and desperation at the laughing stock that the dems have become.

Have you figured out how timeouts work? Maybe you shouldn't call other people "laughing stock" when your user name is literally named after demonstrable stupidity.

Actually, Russia's first incursion was under Bush, but don't let that stop your roll. Thinking that Trump would stand up to Putin in any meaningful way, thus deterring him from invading, should be grounds for a lobotomy. You might not understand this, but the planning for the Ukraine invasion did not begin a month before it happened. Russia was planning on invading in 2020, while Trump was president (and when it looked at least probable that he would win re-election). The pandemic made that impossible, and then Biden won.

The idea that America has become a laughing stock when it was America who actually stood up to Putin's invasion, and rallied the world to Ukraine's defense -- again, you are just living in a fantasy world. The reason that Russia fell on its face in Ukraine is Joe Biden and Macron and the governments of our allies, but primarily the Biden administration.

The reality is that Ukraine is struggling because YOUR party held up aid for months and months, and then only begrudgingly supported it. And that is laughingstock material. Our enemy invades our ally, and your party is just fine with that, and the reason is that Putin hates the same people you hate (i.e. gay people, trans people, etc), and you think Biden is the laughingstock?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but did Biden ever have any meetings one-on-one with any foreign power with nobody else from our side president? When Biden came into office, did any of our allies feel the need to re-evaluate their commitment to joint intelligence gathering because they couldn't trust him not to divulge secrets to our enemies? Putin treats Trump like a fucking lap dog, and you think he's tough.

And finally, for good measure, it's not just other countries who scoff at Trump. It's even the members of Mar-a-Lago. Remember the Aussie billionaire who was laughing to Aussie media because Trump was just spilling national security secrets in casual conversation in a crowded public place? And how exactly do you think the world reacted when they saw Top Secret information sitting in Trump's bathroom?

You, and the people who think like you, are among the biggest causes of massive human suffering around the globe. I'm so fucking tired of your never ending bullshit. Just have some self-respect and stop spouting idiocy.

 

[ChileG]

Maybe all this russian aggression is because we are in a period of zero potus presence and have been for a while. Russia sees this


and this



and knows their time to act is now. And what is a fact is that russia invaded under obama and brandon. So all this finger pointing at trump is sour grapes and desperation at the laughing stock that the dems have become.

No, sir.
Trump said he could make one phone call and the war would be over. He can make that phone call now. This is what he ran on.
Time to put up.

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]