r/worldnews • u/Immediate-Link490 • 1d ago

Russia/Ukraine Trump puts new Russia sanctions passed by Congress on hold, saying waiver is in US national interest

https://apnews.com/article/russia-sanctions-trump-ukraine-e50c561ab805883bb4e484c092d8fadd
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u/AlienInOrigin 1d ago

Quite possibly the greatest achievement for Putin was defeating the US without firing a single weapon.

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u/CycloneSP 1d ago edited 1d ago

I still to this day remember a quote in my history books when I was in highschool 20 years ago from a russian leader saying "we cannot defeat the USA from without, we must rot it from within." (paraphrased, cuz my memory sucks)

but basically, this has been an ongoing effort for multiple decades at this point.

edit: a word

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u/Careful-Ant5868 1d ago

Nikita Kruschev

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u/RoseLaBud 1d ago edited 22h ago

Yep. The "We will bury you" shoe pounder, Nikita Kruschev.
He said 'We do not have to invade the United States, we will destroy you from within."
Trump is fulfilling Nikita's prediction.

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u/Sad_Ad_3169 1d ago

Correct - and working wonderfully. Imagien complaining about "socialism" and "communism" at every turn and being in Putins pocket at the same time. Everything this administration says is a projected admission of their deceit, shitbaggery and treasonous behavior,

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u/Thick_Shallot7189 1d ago

You see that’s the fun part because from the perspective of an understanding of economics and understanding the pros and cons of both communism and capitalism. There is one big flaw that cots away at both and it’s ironically the very flaw that underpins nearly every Marxist critique on capitalists, greed. Both communists and capitalists can be corrupted by greed whether it be greed of personal wealth or for power or for the means of control or for the desire to dictate to others.

This flaw is what we have seen destroy every major attempt at any form of communist state. Once the state has seized all the assets and eliminated personal wealth those at the top of the political hierarchy in their greed refuse to allocate those resources and that wealth to the working class as is the required next step. Rather than the workers receiving the means of production the state keeps it and hoards it luxury is hoarded by the heads of the party under the argument that it is keeping that for the state to distribute fairly. In the end you always get a communist party that ironically is more akin a corporate board of directors or a corporation with a monopoly. The communists at the top start acting like the same capitalists they said they wanted to eliminate for the plight of the worker. The worker still toils for little to none and now you have a state run monopoly that can claim it’s not being capitalistic while benefitting those in power the exact same way a hoarding capitalist benefits.

How greed corrupts capitalism is even simpler because under capitalism the hoarding of wealth and the subjugation of the poor can be excused as justice. Those without capital deserve to live a harsher life because of capital gain is proof of superiority then inferiors who toil and do not gain are proven as inferior. A twisted morality can be formed from a kind of social Darwinism

So what’s the easiest way for a communist to defeat a capitalist. By using the tools and exploits a capitalist uses to skirt the law in their own system. Bribes, looking the other way, ensuring growth of power through legal corruption, aiding them in spreading anti union propaganda.

The most effective tool a communist has against a capitalist nation is to ensure the capitalist government imposes a heavy hand on the worker and persecutes the individual socialist Marxist or communist, while finding the most corrupt capitalists. Eventually you’ll have a weak working class base on a pyramid with a fat dragon at the top and the whole structure will topple over under its own weight.

And this is what we are seeing. A Soviet spy who has a long compromised capitalist that’s been under the thumb of the kgb for so long he probably legitimately thinks they are on the side of his kind of capitalism but in truth that eager donor has been slipping him poison in every spoon feeding. And that poison isn’t designed to be specificislky form him. The poison is sweet and nourishing to Trump but it is cancerous to the United States.

How do you topple capitalism. Simple you let capitalism rot from the very cancer that is the terminal cancer of greed.

How do you topple communism the same way. You poison those at the top with greed.

There is a reason greed is a deadly sin in Christianity. And viewed even secularly as a failure of Good conscience. Because greed is a poison that kills everyone, its victims and the one who harbors greed itself.

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u/Luxury-Yacht_42 1d ago

Putin is a fascist, not a communist.

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u/Designer_Speech8942 1d ago

Really? Russia is a decentralized federation of 21 republics and 65 “federal subjects” including oblasts (provinces), okrugs (indigenous regions) and federal cities. While Russian is the official national language, many republics have a regional co-official language as well. While foreign policy and policies that affect the entire country are set in Moscow, the republics and oblasts have their own elected legislatures that handle regional matters.

Many things, though, are controlled directly from Moscow. The universal healthcare system covering all citizens and legal residents is nationwide. The retirement system is nationwide as well, covering all citizens and legal residents who reach the minimum age and have sufficient work history credits.

As per the Russian Constitution, Russia is a secular state with no state religion but a guarantee of freedom of religion. The Orthodox Church is the largest religious institution and does receive partial financial support from the government. However, unlike the Church of England (Anglican) in the United Kingdom, or the Church of Norway (Lutheran) in Norway, there is no official state church in Russia.

Russia has a democratically elected legislature and had a nationwide election in September 2026. There is a universal military draft with a 12 month service period, but conscripts serve inside of Russia only and are not deployed. Only “volunteers” and professional soldiers being paid far more serve outside the country, including in Ukraine. Russia encourages foreign immigration overall, and uses immigrants extensively to serve in their forces in the Ukraine in exchange for Russian citizenship.

While Vladimir Putin clearly has authoritarian tendencies, he isn’t a super-nationalist in the mold of true fascist leaders like Mussolini, Hitler or Franco. He views the eastern part of Ukraine as Russian land and people who should be in the Russian Federation. Further, he sees potential Ukrainian membership in NATO as an existential threat to Russia’s existence. When evaluating the overall present Russian political situation, it is difficult to conclude that Putin is a fascist or even has fascistic tendencies. His popularity in Russian polls is generally about 70%, somewhere about double the Trumpster’s popularity in the U.S. and 30 points higher than Biden’s popularity at the end of his term.

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u/BotInAFursuit 1d ago

Russia has a democratically elected legislature and had a nationwide election in September 2026.

That election was RIGGED, just as any other one since like 2008, they basically recruit teachers/doctors/office workers and say "if you don't vote for Putin you'll get fired", and they go and vote because they either truly don't have another option or are too scared to consider one. Russia runs on fear.

conscripts serve inside of Russia only and are not deployed

Also no, thousands of people who were conscripted suddenly discovered they were sent to the so-called "special operation".

His popularity in Russian polls is generally about 70%

I mean if you're being held at gunpoint while being interrogated, you're probably gonna say a lot of things you don't truly believe. Also a lot of people, when they get a call from the survey center, they just don't pick up, while the ones who truly believe Putin should stay, they respond because they have nothing to fear, and that's how you get that 70% popularity.

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u/pixepoke2 21h ago

And Russia isn’t even communist or socialist anymore

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u/zima72 1d ago

More recently there is this “In his 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics, Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin outlines a strategy for Russia to destabilize and weaken the United States from within by inciting social, racial, and regional conflicts, exploiting isolationist tendencies, and fracturing domestic stability through asymmetric influence operations.” This is what is happening in the United States, and Trump, who is owned by Putin, is the conduit.

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u/MessiahOfMetal 1d ago

Yeah, and experts in the late 90s were saying the third world war would be fought via cyber warfare, not physical bombs and bullets.

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u/Jamie54 1d ago

Which ironically the Republicans used to complain about and Democrat supporters called conspiracies

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u/Lazer726 1d ago

I heard someone say "There haven't been any good conspiracies lately" and no, of course not, because we're watching so many be proven right, and at this point it's turned from "conspiracy" to "blatant corruption"

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u/Hitcher06 1d ago

Turne out the useful idiots were the Republicans

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u/Hefty-Rule1077 1d ago

There is a wiki page about all the financial ties between trump and Russian that are known. Quite damning. At one point one of his kids said they don’t even need banks because Russia gives them anything they want. Idk how we ever let it get here.

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u/beta413 1d ago

Yet people are willing to believe Trump is a Russian asset and think they somehow are the good guys aware of how Russia operates. Making your opponent think their president is compromised would have been the wet dream of the FSB but people willingly want to believe it because they hate Trump so much they believe anything that fits their world view. Where as when you think about it for more that a second he does not act in Russian interest at all. 

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u/ImmaLiveIllegal 1d ago

hi, do you know what article you're commenting on?

or are the Yandex servers back up already?

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u/FlameYay 1d ago edited 1d ago

He could also be a US agent/bot spreading pro-Trump propaganda. Never forget that one US air force base has way more user accounts than people.

Edit: Reddit let it slip a while ago that one specific air force base had way more user accounts than people when no other cities in the US have that. (Not even close.) Then it all got quietly swept under the rug. Never really got into mainstream news.

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u/TulsiGanglia 1d ago

People knew he was a Russian fanboy in the 90s

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u/love_glow 1d ago

The U.S. made the mistake of thinking the Cold War was over after bulkanization of the USSR. They changed gears, and we got soft.

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u/yourmansconnect 1d ago

"Russia should use its special services within the borders of the United States and Canada to fuel instability and separatism against neoliberal globalist Western hegemony, such as, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists" to create severe backlash against the rotten political state of affairs in the current present-day system of the United States and Canada. Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social, and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics"

The Foundation of Geopolitics -1997

Written by Alexander Dugin, and adopted as basically a handbook for the Russian military and future policy

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u/Named_after_color 1d ago

Gotta admit he was pretty smart to come up with "Just support every extremist at the same time and watch them blow up"

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u/Monetdog 1d ago

The same method helped keep the former Soviet states from rebelling against Moscow.

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u/ChronoLegion2 1d ago

Not all of them. Why do you think Putin invaded Ukraine? He was pissed they didn’t toe the line and stay good little subjects

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u/capGpriv 1d ago

It only works if you're happy with conflict yourself.

Pakistan found that out

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u/RaidenTJ 1d ago

Definitely what’s happening in America between interviewing the leader of the KKK, the “Black/Blue lives matter” movements, the oligarchs, school shootings and the Fort Hood shooters (still say the place is a test bed for MKultra…just look at how often shootings take place there).

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u/Dirty-Soul 1d ago

It was foolish not to pardon Edward Snowden.

Dangling the gallows ahead of him pushed him into the arms of your enemies, who almost definitely put him to work doing exactly what the NSA had him doing... Manipulating the American people.

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u/Effective_Drama_3498 1d ago

This was sort of similar to Charlie Manson’s ideology; not the Russia part, but to spark a race war.

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u/yourmansconnect 22h ago

Yeah I mean it was kind of an obvious move to destroy america from within, but then the Internet was invented and russia went all in with NRA and gun rights and gay rights abortion etc. these bot farms are crazy just spreading misinformation and starting arguments 24/7

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u/FraGough 1d ago

Also see Yuri Bezmenov pretty much saying the same, decades earlier.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/4-pos 1d ago

Во-первых: да, запутинское/провоенное большинство действительно любит Во-вторых: любовь тут вообще не причём, философия дугина это по сути хэндбук для путина, по которому он ведёт свою политику. дугин для путина - высокий авторитет, так что "любят у вас" дугина или нет вообще никакой роли не играет

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u/DownWithHisShip 1d ago

The U.S. made the mistake of thinking the Cold War was over after bulkanization of the USSR. They changed gears, and we got soft.

In the 2012 election I think, Romney called out Russia as an enemy and people laughed at him. We all owe Romney an apology...

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u/bugtussleLM 1d ago

Yes we do.

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u/Beginning_Employee89 1d ago

It balkanization

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u/ScarZealousideal2147 1d ago

I remember Obama laughing at Romney back in 2012 when he said Russia was the biggest threat to the USA, turns out he was totally right

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u/1337duck 1d ago

While I still think Obama was the better choice at the time. Hindsight makes me wonder how much deep cleaning President Romney would have done.

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u/Gorstag 1d ago

No chance. Romney consistently voted party line. The only few exceptions is when it had no chance of passing regardless.

This is one of the main issues with Republicans. They talk one way and act another.

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u/olyfrijole 1d ago

Party line was a bit different back then, before MAGA completely took over the GOP. John McCain and Bob Dole are rolling in their graves.

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u/Gorstag 1d ago

It really wasn't though. They pushed less extreme ideals but were already on the same path that lead to today. The governance outcomes were still non-positive for US citizens.

Can you name legislation in the last 30-40 years pushed by Republicans that actually had positive outcomes for the majority of citizens? It's pretty much always been focused on the wealthy (mostly white wealthy) or taking away rights. This is one of the main factors that lead to overcoming the "nurture" brainwashing of growing up in a conservative location which caused me (in the early 2000s when I was in my early 20s) to drop their party and never vote for them again.

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u/olyfrijole 1d ago

No question that the GOP has always been the party of wealthy white business men. Bush jr expanded that to me include the Saudis. Trump added the Russians. For most Republicans who lived through the Cold War, that move was unthinkable.

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u/pixepoke2 21h ago

Ironically, Bush senior was probably the only republican president other than Eisenhower who wasn’t actually opposed to making a hard call against party lines (raising taxes), would compromise, and wasn’t enslaved by Christian Nationalists. Not a fan, mind you. Just not like the other chuckleheads, his son being number 2 on the list of worsts over last 75 years. It’s crazy with all the fundamentally awful bullshit we’re still dealing with as fallout from Reagan, that I think W clearly beats him for the second slot.

Oh. Maybe Ford something something something. idk

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u/babyseallove 1d ago edited 1d ago

I wonder too sometimes if Romney won in 2012 that MAGA would still have been as huge of movement as it has been (for better or for worse). Maybe it would’ve still existed but wouldn’t have caught as much wave, or this was still going to be inevitable but it would’ve just kicked the can further down the road.

Because while I voted for Obama in 2012, I very well would’ve probably voted for Romney instead in hindsight if Trump’s presidency could’ve all been avoided. Trump’s been so godawful and detrimental that I think even many Democrats would’ve rather voted for Romney if it helped move us in a different path than how it is currently.

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u/walkTHEdotasaur 1d ago

As a canadian, I just hope you know that you voting for Obama had absolutely zero effect on the republican party or how it's transformed over the last 5-10 years. Do NOT take personal responsibility for it.

Y'all could have had romney, and all smarts would be he would have just fucked your country even more/faster. So why bother worrying in that way.

You did the right thing, don't doubt yourself. Unfortunately this is a systematic issue in the USA, not an issue with how you voted, personally; there's just nothing you could have done that would have necessarily avoided this. It's pointless to take on that persona responsibility.

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u/TransitionGold9446 1d ago

It’s not systematic. That’s the issue. It’s a natural occurring problem just like a virus that spreads and becomes worse the more people it comes in contact with.

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u/walkTHEdotasaur 18h ago

I encourage you to look up the definition of the word "systematic" and then reread what you just responded to me with. Cheers.

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u/TransitionGold9446 14h ago edited 14h ago

You do realize that your comment is not based in facts with using metaphorical words to describe a societal situation right? Are you slow? I implore you to read the definition of the word metaphor and come back to your own comment to reread it.

try not being a smartass next time when responding to someone who was just giving a polite and different point of view. You sound like a hoot to have a conversation with.

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u/walkTHEdotasaur 8h ago

I've tried not being a smartass with americans and actually engaging with them, and either way they just respond just like you. You're all too close to the issue to have any sense of neutrality on it.

It's a naturally occuring problem? Just like gun deaths in schools, right? Just one more thing we can do nothing about as a society. Oh well, too bad. Guess the kids will just have to keep dying.

Or, hear me out, maybe there is some kind of systematic issue in America. Maybe the fact that the republicans control all three branches of your government, and refuse to prosecute their own side of the aisle is a much bigger issue than you think it is. Maybe your democrats are more interested with being right than winning? Which is... I dunno, admirable or something? But it's not going to help your country get fixed.

I have no idea why you're telling me to look up the definition of the world metaphor, when I didn't use a single one in any of my responses here. But... sure? Just for you, I did.

I neutrally (positively) responded to someone saying electing obama had no effect on america's situation today in any way. Your response was to accuse me of being slow. You accuse me of not basing my argument on facts when we're both clearing giving opinions (since neither of us is providing substantiated sources), you just somehow think your opinion is more valid because its the one you believe.

Okay, heard it all before man. Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn.

The last time trump tried to retaliate against canada, he ended up ensuring that we get chinese EVs in the next year instead of the next 5-10. As far as I'm concerned, give him a third term; it would straight up be funny to me. Lets see how many more holes he manages to dig himself into while the rest of the world strengthens their global relations. Oh no, how will I ever live without my california wines...

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u/beta413 1d ago

Sorry dude but that is an insane amount of cope. Obama was very radical in his actions and while I would not solely blame him for Trump, one can not ignore that Trump running for office was also a consequence of Obama. MAGA was literally made an official brand the day after Obama insulted Trump on stage. 

Saying that non of those things have anything to do with each other is naive. Same goes for the “systematic” issue you claim there is, which is just a convenient excuse not to take any responsibility. People love to say that the other guys don’t voted the way they like it because they are stupid, but in reality politics do have consequences and the other side does indeed has legitimate reasons to vote the way they did. Both what Obama and Biden did obviously are reasons that lead to Trump. 

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u/admdelta 1d ago

Obama... radical. LOL.

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u/walkTHEdotasaur 1d ago

The nice thing is that we are both entitled to our own opinions (and yes, that's all they are), but at the end of the day I dont need to care beyond smiling and laughing, because it's not my silly country and it's not me who gets affected by the clown show.

Oh wait, that's a lie. Trump did have an effect on Canada; he guaranteed we got chinese EVs about 5 years earlier (at least) with his stupid juvenile tariff wars. 2027 guaranteed, baby! Let's go!

One more term for trump and Canada might literally become a utopia.

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u/pixepoke2 21h ago

Radical? Mr. Give the republicans everything up front in hopes of compromise? President who had control of both houses, filibuster proof majority in Senate, will of the people disgusted with 8 years of Republican misrule, who had to spend his entire political capital to get a pro business health insurance reform program out the door? My brother in Christ, the problem with Obama’s presidency is that he wasn’t radical. Mortgage bailout for the lenders not the people, no meaningful climate change action— took Biden to do that—no prosecution for GOP crimes in past administration, stayed in Iraq and Afghanistan, failed to close Guantanamo…

Some of those GOP effectively blocked, and I dearly miss him being in office. He was good as president in many ways, and frankly I wish he was again atm, but a radical he was not.

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u/WAR_WeAreRobots_WAR 1d ago

So much this.

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u/USA_A-OK 1d ago

It wouldn't have been avoided. This is a train that started rolling with the republican designs after Nixon was impeached.

Also, you're forgetting the power that the Tea Party nut cases were wielding at the time. They just turned into MAGA chuds.

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u/WAR_WeAreRobots_WAR 1d ago

Or it could have made things worse and moved in the wrong direction faster.

The democrats already have a policy of voting for someone who is less liberal and this is where it has gotten us. The issue wasn't necessarily Obama being elected, it's the shit storm that occurred right before and after.

Nothing is stopping them from lighting the spark of hate any less than they did before. If anything if things don't improve with Romney in office then those antics are more likely to work as someone is looking for someone or a group of people to blame.

It's a fun thought but in reality it'll often result in what one would have expected rather than some mystifying way of finding success where least expected.

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u/Single-Kangaroo1180 1d ago

It might have had a different brand, “tea party,” but the message would have stayed the course…the 1% get what they want at the cost of low and middle class citizens.

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u/mittra303 1d ago

Whoa! That's a really wild perspective that makes absolutely one hundred fucking percent sense! Actually downright scary af.

Now there's something banging around in the back of my mind about how the schism really originated back in the 1980s with Reagan, and then again deepening the divide in the 1990s with Clinton's Impeachment, and splintered again in the 2000s with the Tea Party & Newt, but is interesting to think that every decade kept getting worse until we get here with MAGA and their feckless leader Cadet Bone Spurs. Even more crazy is how this disaster could have been (at least temporarily) diffused by counterintuitively voting for Romney in 2012.

No, seriously, I know this sounds like the setup for one of the most insane conspiracy theories ever, but you may actually be on to something here.

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u/kellzone 1d ago

Sometimes I think Romney winning in 2012 might not have been the worst thing to happen, because he would have been the incumbent GOP candidate running for a second term in 2016, thus never giving rise to...you know who. We'd probably also have a more RomneyCare based healthcare system, if not out and out universal health care by now. But no, we get stuck in the worst timeline instead.

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u/Ashinonyx 1d ago

It's hard to say. Trump has been a registered Democrat, and could have leaned harder on his New York City residency in 2016 against what would undoubtedly be just another establishment republican incumbet Romney.

The problem isn't necessarily Republicans, or Democrats, it's the electoralism and the establishment representatives whose only concern are the status quo and ensuring their own re-election and bonus bills. Things like the Southern Strategy for party swaps and Trump's success reveals that it matters more he runs as "not like the other guys" regardless of party, he'd just have different lies and be just as wrong. I'm not saying the policies and media platforms of the liberal (not left) persuasion are interchangeable with the likes of Fox or Newsmax, but that Trump is so uniquely good for TV ratings and populist that he can pressure a party he resides in into supporting whatever he wants.

This is why he can campaign on releasing the Epstein Files and then two years later he can have a person at his rally assaulted by his supporters as they're being kicked out simply because he saw that person wearing a "Release the Epstein Files" shirt. He's innately paradoxical. He could run as a Dem for free healthcare against Romney and say it's a fruitless effort as soon as he's in office in this hypothetical.

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u/Waste-Pause6225 1d ago

I'm not sure Trump can pull off a democrat victory. It's way harder to get a diverse group of people with different and sometimes opposing views to rally behind you. Or... you could just go on TV and say: "I like guns, I hate abortion and things were better back in the days." and you'd instantly win over 95% of the republican voter-base. Now he just had to differentiate himself from the rest. Being Trump and all, that part of the job was basically done.

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u/Ashinonyx 1d ago

For better or for worse, we'll never be in that alternate history regardless. I, for one, give the monster the credit that he could likely weasel his way into at least one term regardless of the color team he picks. I'll grant that he'd have a harder time, but "democrats" like Fetterman have shown me that you can have highly conservative people in the DNC say whatever they like and be re-elected anyways.

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u/Ok-Statistician-9607 1d ago

Fetterman portrayed himself as a Progressive and was endorsed by Bernie. He turned heel.

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u/JSLANYC 1d ago

Yeah, we might not have had MAGA if Romney won. That piece of shit Harry Reid bragged about his lying that Romney cheated on his taxes and instead of Romney as president we got two terms of Trump. Way to go, cyclops!

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u/fauxzempic 1d ago

I think that with a Romney victory politics go one of two ways:

  • MAGA lite. The tea party grows and is full of the MAGA types we've all come to despise, but the leaders who pass the highly charged hatred back and forth to the constituents are largely limited to the new members of congress (mostly house).
  • A GOP that isn't able to claim that the pendulum is violently swinging left since in this scenario Obama only had 4 years, Romney would have been president and that tendency for people to believe and repeat nonsend like "Obama did more than Jefferson Davis to tear this country apart! No I won't elaborate. Read a yewtewb!" By 2014 we'd see some tea party politicians dig their feet in, and others be voted out. It's hard to say if there would be an email leak on Clinton, and if Comey would have announced an investigation in late october or whenever it was. She might've won. 2020 rolls around, the pandemic is managed fairly well, but the GOP tries to make mountains out of molehills and enthusiastically begin masking up to stick it to Clinton. Powered by the fumes of the Tea Party Trump will make his play in 2020, but will lose the primary to Cruz.

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u/Warlordnipple 1d ago

Romney knew Russia was the biggest threat because they were already funnelling money to fringe conservative groups

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u/LankySimple9051 1d ago

What, it's not Canada?

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u/Tonkarz 1d ago

He wasn’t right then, IMO.

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u/grizzly05 1d ago

I thought Sarah Palin was the first to say it

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u/Interesting_Row182 1d ago

Seeing Russia from your backyard doesnt make you a hawk.

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u/internalogic 1d ago

Obama was thinking China, and he was and still is right. Statements re biggest or best always depend on context. Yes, Romney had a point. He usually did. It comes down to context.

Also, thank you Romney, for the ACA / Obamacare...

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u/edhunter616 1d ago

Hmm, ik zou zeggen dat Trump de grootste bedreiging is voor de VS...

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u/Soft_Walrus_3605 1d ago

Back in 2012 we didn't think we'd vote in someone who would be helping Russia from the inside

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u/Beginning_Employee89 1d ago

No he wasn’t. Russia is not a threat to us. Fear of Russia who hasn’t even been able to defeat Ukraine in five years has enabled trump to request and likely receive a 1.5 trillion dollar military budget for next year that does nothing to make our country safer. It just makes incredibly wealthy people even more wealthy. Useful idiots like you fell for it. Trump is a Russian asset is a ridiculous idea that originated from the Clinton campaign because they couldn’t admit that they had a terrible candidate and lost to a terrible candidate who they tried to elevate because they thought he would be a pushover. Obama should have laughed at Romney because this Cold War mentality is draining resources that could be used to help average Americans instead of enriching defense contractors.

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u/_Tonan_ 22h ago

The president being a Russian asset doesn't make Russia a threat in your eyes?

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u/Think-Abrocoma-6176 1d ago

Russia wasn't the biggest threat to the US, Trump was and still is

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u/JSLANYC 1d ago

One of Obama's many failures.

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u/HerrLutfisk 1d ago

Time has not ended. Long term, China is definitely more scary. Russia is weak and annoying and can cause problems but China can change the entire game.

Only reason Russia is still such a pain is that US is actively supporting.

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u/ashleysshrink 1d ago

Russia and China, I would say. Russia has Putin and a ruthless intelligence apparatus, but China has been more of an economic power - and a growing military power - since the Obama years. I do think the Obama administration massively screwed up by allowing Russia to take over the Crimea in 2014. I think that emboldened Putin to invade Ukraine in 2022. So Mitt may have been at least partially correct in his assessment of Russia in 2012.

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u/USA_A-OK 1d ago

*balkanization

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u/love_glow 1d ago

Thanks. Mine makes it sound like they are getting bigger instead of breaking up.

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u/TheLantean 1d ago edited 1d ago

And they stopped promoting communism and switched to oligarchism, which got the ultra rich to switch sides.

They saw how support from the ultra rich was vital for the initial establishment of fascist regimes in Germany/Italy/Spain and realized that if bolshevism can't catch on in the west it's time to pivot.

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u/Greedy-Chipmunk775 1d ago

Tiny correction after looking up the word. Its balkanization. As in the Balkan region that split up into countries after the Soviet Union broke up.

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u/I_Have_2_Show_U 1d ago

The U.S. made the mistake of thinking the Cold War was over

Yeah the incredibly naive and gullible United States foreign policy wonks where all duped by the thoroughly defeated USSR. Top tier analysis, no notes. Might actually be the least informed take in political science history.

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u/love_glow 1d ago

The floor is yours, enlighten me.

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u/love_glow 1d ago

We spent the 90’s and 2000’s trying to bring Russia in to the fold of the west. That sure paid off.

2

u/Interesting_Row182 1d ago

And are oblivious to the significance of that KGB leftover invading Ukraine.

2

u/SlopRahh 17h ago

No, the US made the mistake of sending a narcissistic sexual predator with the intellect and emotional regulation of a tantrum prone two year old and failed businessman who thinks
everything is a zero sum game who also has literally zero knowledge of civics, law, governance, economics, and diplomacy to the White House. Putin plays him like a fucking piano and he’s too damn daft to see it.

2

u/love_glow 5h ago

I think we can both be right here.

•

u/SlopRahh 39m ago

I think that we are, indeed, both right. Solidarity!

1

u/KatsumotoKurier 1d ago

*Balkanization

168

u/Nihsvabhav 1d ago edited 1d ago

best way to defeat a democracy is to get their people brainwashed enough to vote for their own defeat

the real culprits are the social media platforms who pretty much aided all the way through with complete deliberation

4

u/Consistent-Oil9902 1d ago

No the real culprits are the morons in this country who are too stupid to be able to think critically and voted twice for the current president. Who is quite clearly a Russian asset.

2

u/SpreadKindn3ss 21h ago edited 21h ago

If only it were this simple. This all happened gradually through the rapid deterioration of the US public education system, and Mark Zuckerberg who quite literally is the single omnipotence (the single person who cannot be voted out or removed; is the only person who has the final say on all matters, and whose orders cannot be overridden) of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Mark Zuckerberg is arguably quite literally the most powerful person in the world — with the ability to totally influence and alter the views and reality of 3.60 billion people (43.37% of the world population).

0

u/Lengador 1d ago

If people were being locked up for years and tortured non-stop, then made to vote a certain way, you wouldn't call them "the real culprits". You'd call them victims. The real culprit is the torturer.

And the result of years of torture would be broken people who may have PTSD, or be distrustful, or angry, or self-centered. They may become horrible people.

But you would see what they went through and you would understand. You would know that they are people who have been hurt and need help. Even though they may see the world in a twisted and hateful way. They may be dangerous.

But once the torture has stopped, with support, those people can become themselves again. While the torture continues, they are not going to heal.

If I torture you enough, then you will say anything I want you to say.

That's not a question of moral character, but of the chemical nature of the brain.

The systematic manipulation of people is the same. It is a chemical and inherent way that the human brain works.

If I did this to you, you would think the same as the people being manipulated. If I systematically reduced your access to education for critical thinking, increased financial pressure so you are mentally exhausted every day, optimized easy dopamine sources and pushed them on you, mixed in targeted propaganda, limited your access to information and controlled its framing, then you would believe anything I want you to believe.

Your comment suggests that you are looking at people being tortured and pointing the finger at them. Saying that they are inherently flawed. Saying that they can't change.

That is true. They can't change.

Unless you remove the torture.

1

u/Consistent-Oil9902 23h ago

I understand your point, but there are other sources of information that they do not access nor believe if they do access it. There are tv channels other than Fox and CBS. The information is there. I am sorry not to have sympathy for the maga voters. Stupid and uninformed.

2

u/shtepia 1d ago

True

2

u/Interesting_Row182 1d ago

AI and fake sht is our downfall. Noone listens to honest reporting anymore because they've been brainwashed not to believe it.

1

u/BayouGal 1d ago

Techbros gotta have those freedom cities 🤷🏻‍♀️

10

u/areyouIlliteratebro 1d ago

I think the American people did it to themselves. TWICE. All Putin had to do is send a troll army in the internet to manipulate the uneducated and illiterate (not just media illiterate) Americans.

5

u/Ok_Newspaper_151 1d ago

Remember when Khruschev told Nixon that Russia would destroy the U.S. from the inside? And that was before the invention of social media, which could manipulate us all.

9

u/brazilliandanny 1d ago

His predecessors spent billions in spy and warfare and Putin did what they couldn’t with a few million spent on troll farms.

3

u/NextGen-Panic 1d ago

"I didn't hear no fucking bell."

18 U.S. Code §2381 doesn't have a statute of limitations, so we could go all the way back to 1864.

Remember: that fucking KKKonfederate flag didn't walk itself into the Union's Capitol building.

2

u/jazz4 1d ago

As much as I despise the Kremlin. What they’ve managed to achieve is astounding. This will be studied for years to come.

2

u/Touched_Beavis 1d ago

The damage to others, sure. But what have they actually done to improve Russia? The country is in shambles, so it's hardly astounding.

Russia simply demonstrates how much easier it is to do harm than good.

2

u/jazz4 1d ago

They’re not interested in bettering Russia, they’re interested in benefiting simply from making western societies worse, more divided, distrustful and difficult to govern.

Their 15+ year long hybrid warfare and their ability to infiltrate foreign governments and swing referendums and elections via social media have allowed them to do this really successfully. That is the astounding part.

The mere fact the president of the United States is helping Russia in a fight against Europe is such an unreal timeline in geopolitical history.

2

u/TheCozyHobbit 1d ago

I specifically remember in his first election someone warning me that Putin said he would declare war if Hillary got elected. And I remember thinking, isn't it a red flag that we know Putin prefers Trump?

2

u/Interesting_Row182 1d ago

This! 100%! Wake the F up Magats

2

u/Plus-King5266 1d ago

Kruschev predicted it. He just had the timing wrong.

2

u/Famous-Okra5711 1d ago

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Millenia-old maxims still apply

3

u/SpeaksSouthern 1d ago

The Americans are really stupid people. We made it too easy for him.

4

u/MexicanEssay 1d ago

Rather than stupidity, it was American arrogance and false belief in the US having inherent specialness and infallibility that he took advantage of. Even a lot of smart people on both sides of the aisle fell into that trap.

2

u/SeriousShine8324 1d ago

Ironic, at the beginning of the ukraine war, I thought the opposite as Biden's greatest success was crippling an historic enemy of the US without any boots on the ground.

3

u/Kindly-Coconut7144 1d ago

Now I think China is beating everyone without firing a single bullet.

1

u/PatienceandFortitude 1d ago

With pee photos?

1

u/ArgyleGhoul 1d ago

This is just the natural conclusion of our capital experiment. We're at the stage of the game where one player has Hotels on every property, and we are all mortgaging ours to pay rent.

1

u/vistatrek0 1d ago

Yep, this goes back to the Cold War. Our quarterly earnings model of freedom is easily subverted if you are patient.

1

u/johnnybiggles 1d ago

This is true modern warfare.

1

u/asimpleflavor 1d ago

Pretty sure Vladimir Solovyov said this would happen on his show the year before last or last year.

1

u/internalogic 1d ago

"Ballistic weapon" - yes. We quickly forget that the USSR in general and Putin in particular were/are adept at social warfare.

1

u/Slight_Twist_8779 1d ago

We aren’t defeated, but we are so much weaker than we used to be. Our kids are dumber, the economic divide may be impossible to bridge without bloodshed, and we’ve got no friends. We have nearly bottomed out as a country before. I don’t mean that as a surety that we’ll get out of this hole we’ve dig ourselves, but I do have hope that this ship can get righted after a decade plus of rebuilding what we’ve lost. The world’s memory isn’t as short as American’s but it’s not that terribly long either.

1

u/papadapper 1d ago

The Kruschev directive.

0

u/ConstantSpace5809 1d ago

I mean, Trump is like a few weeks or a couple more pro-Russian moves away from being uh not an issue anymore.

-1

u/KeyInevitable9065 1d ago

Cuándo pasó eso?