[continued from previous message]   
      
   >>>>>> Covid epidemic wasn't so bad and that testing wasn't needed, and at   
   >>>>>> the same time he was sending covid equipment to his friend Putin.   
   >>>>>> Trump is even said to be working up a military plan for Panama.  What   
   >>>>>> will that do to the US status among the free world?  Trump has even   
   >>>>>> claimed that he admires Putin.  Would dictator worship have been   
   >>>>>> tolerated by the Republican party 20 years ago?  It would certainly   
   >>>>>> not have been tolerated in the Reagan era.  This is just my political   
   >>>>>> observation, but something stinks.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> 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.   
   >>    
   >>    
   >> The GOP has a history of radical policy shifts.  Nixon took advantage   
   >> of that in 1968.  Hayes took advantage of that in 1876.  Teddy   
   >> Roosevelt almost succeeded in 1912.   
   >>    
   >>    
   >>>> 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.   
   >>>>   
   >>>   
   >>> Peter did claim to be a never-Trumper, and repeated that claim long   
   >>> after Trump's first inauguration, even after Trump's installation of a   
   >>> unelected black-robed Integralist dictatorship.   
   >>    
   >>    
   >> IIRC Nyikos claimed to have roots in Eastern Europe.  I suspect anyone   
   >> like that in the U.S. would have trouble with Trump sucking up to   
   >> Putin.   
   >>    
   >   
   >My understanding is that he was of Hungarian extraction.   
      
      
   My understanding is "Hungarian" qualifies as Eastern Europe.   
      
      
   >According to Wikipedia Trump won 58% of the Polish-American vote (I    
   >assume that this is the largest Eastern European bloc, and also the most    
   >anti-Russian) in 2016, and even in 2020, after 4 years of sucking up to    
   >Putin, he won 42.4%. (Wikipedia doesn't have numbers for 2024.) East    
   >European ancestry is not sufficient to cause opposition to Trump.   
      
      
   I accept their 2016 vote due to Trump's artful dodges.  As for their   
   2020 vote, if the rest of the country had voted that way, Trump would   
   not have won the election.   
      
   Nevertheless, I don't suggest they are single-issue voters, merely   
   that His Suckiness would give them pause.  Perhaps it did.   
      
   --    
   To know less than we don't know is the nature of most knowledge   
      
   --- SoupGate-DOS v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)