[continued from previous message]   
      
   > Why Russia would interfere with the elections is obvious: They figured   
   > out how to wage war in the social media battlespace earlier and better   
   > than the US did. The Russian Federation aims to be an empire again, and   
   > bring all of its former territories back under its wise and benevolent   
   > tank-treads. It's hard to do that if the United States has a robust   
   > economy, has enormous soft power on the world stage, and leads a strong   
   > and coherent NATO. So they get a biddable fool into office to turn   
   > Americans against each other, demonstrate to our allies that we're no   
   > longer reliable, sabotage our economy, withdraw us from NATO, and   
   > generally act like a prancing dipshit.   
   >   
   > Note that the election-meddling is effective even when it doesn't   
   > install Moscow's guy in office: If nothing else, it still saps political   
   > capital and de-legitimizes the victor. And as long as the United States   
   > becomes more fractious and impotent, the Russian Federation's goals are   
   > advanced.   
   >   
   > Why does Trump go along with it? I don't know. It's possible Putin has   
   > some good old-fashioned kompromat on him — although it's hard to imagine   
   > what secret could possibly be vile enough to turn the chuds on Dear   
   > Leader at this point. [...]   
      
   I suspect simple flattery. It's easy to con a conman.   
      
   [snip more stuff I agree with.   
      
   >   
   > And yeah, racism this open wouldn't have been tolerated in the Reagan   
   > era (though the queerphobia sure was!) but this is the direction the GOP   
   > has been moving for decades. [...]   
      
   One small correction: The GOP no longer exists.  The Republican Party   
   still exists in name, but it bears almost no resemblance to what the GOP   
   was.  It would be better labels the American Fascist Party.   
      
   I wish Nyikos were still alive so I could ask him how Trump is   
   substantially different from Hitler, now that Trump has said he wants to   
   kill hundreds of thousands of people by cutting USAID.   
      
   --   
   Mark Isaak   
   "Wisdom begins when you discover the difference between 'That   
   doesn't make sense' and 'I don't understand.'" - Mary Doria Russell   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)