President Trump strongly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after a tense argument in the Oval Office on Friday. Trump accused Zelensky of showing disrespect toward the United States…
I’ll be honest with you guys… my wife and I (Australian) had a three-week holiday to America planned for June which I just cancelled last week because I don’t want to give you a single fucking dollar.
I don’t blame you, I just hope you all remember that this is being done to us by state actors, chiefly the Russians. We’ve given them the tools to do it with - our freedom of speech and the Internet, but I just hope you understand they are leveraging the stupidest among us to do all of this.
Russians are gonna Russian, but this was done to you by 77 million of your own citizens that voted for the known criminal and traitor, and the millions who didn’t bother to vote at all. And many of them are cheering even today.
Russians have been trying this all over Europe and they can’t get past 30% in France or 20% in Germany.
The tools are the Republicans slashing education for decades so people stay dumb. Mission accomplished, apparently.
I mean, if the position of the country can change to such an insane degree by the results of a single election cycle then a lot of that goodwill that was given prior, should be examined.
That’s the sad fact of the matter. Trump and Vance and Elon and the rest of the administration are a fucking catastrophe, yes. But what is even worse than that, what is even more damaging for the long term viability of diplomacy, of international relations and governance, is that even when these clowns are gone, it can happen again.
Every time another country signs a trade deal, an alliance, a pact, an agreement of any sort with the US, even if the current leadership is absolutely incredible, that can change dramatically on a dime within 4 years. That has always been true, of course, but historically the precedent has been that new administrations are largely consistent in upholding international agreements. But a new precedent has been set, that agreements (aka “sheets” as the dumbass calls them) are worthless, that they can be torn up on a whim, that peace may require you to fluff the ego of a megalomaniac and kiss his feet, that you might have to placate idiocy and bravado and STILL have your economy rocked by asinine trade policies, that the threat of invasion and war could be a negotiation tactic for trade deals…
Countries are going to completely detach themselves from the US in all matters, and they absolutely should. We are going be turned into a North Korea-like state. Cut off from world trade and information, no diplomacy, just a looming threat to the whole world. Fuck me, this shit is bleak.
this is what putin wanted all along, isolate the us, so they dont intefere with RUSSIAS internal matters, such as with crimea, ukraine, russian satellite states.
It can happen again? This is “it” happening again. We suffered you guys having a first trump administration, we thought you learned, but you elected him even harder the second time.
It won’t go so far as being like North Korea. But there are countries out there that don’t get good trade deals because of this exact problem. We will have to pay more for every trade deal we make for the next 30 years because other countries can’t be sure we’ll keep our end of it. It’s just like getting a loan with a bad credit rating. You can still get the loan but the bank is going to demand more compensation because of the risk.
I think that so many things are going to get fucked up between now and then that we would need a constitutional convention just reweave the threads of our society.
Congress can’t legislate its way out of this mess anymore.
They could. They absolutely could. They could pass laws regulating the Supreme Court and pass laws specifically reserving powers to itself, including more congressional agencies. Like a congressional department of justice, a congressional law enforcement arm, and a law removing the president from control of military appointments and nominations. (Effectively giving him a force made by Congress, that he can command but cannot easily subvert)
But isn’t part of why we are here is because our Constitution is vague to some people, it’s clauses without claws… What happens when the supreme court interprets the laws to be unconstitutional, whats to stop us from just doing this all again… People are not properly represented the electoral college, among many other things need to be fixed.
If SCOTUS goes completely rogue and just declares Congress to be unconstitutional then all bets are off. And yeah that’s scary. But within the rules there are still things that could be done.
Every time another country signs a trade deal, an alliance, a pact, an agreement of any sort with the US, even if the current leadership is absolutely incredible, that can change dramatically on a dime within 4 years.
You’re being too pessimistic. Alliances have always been about being strange bedfellows that’ll stab each other in the back should the proper conditions ever be met.
No matter how kissy-kissy politicians may be in front of a camera, backroom dealing is still the norm. Only the orange guy mistook the backroom with a toilet and so it stinks of shit for everyone to see.
Whatever the end result of this, whoever’s left afterwards will get back to tender intimacies without a hitch.
Yup. Politics are ugly. Always have been, hopefully won’t always be as well.
We generally don’t see the ugliness, but right now it’s fully exposed.
The recoil from seeing it happen might be hard to swallow, but that doesn’t make it any worse than it usually is when hidden.
But we can also see the strength of having to go through that and still walk away.
Now I’m hoping the next period of time won’t prove me wrong and this moment will be an important impetus for change towards the better.
If I am proven wrong though, I’ll join your pessimism.
This isn’t just bad politics. We’ve publicly threatened invasion and annexation of our closest allies.
Trump irreparably compromised our national security by doing this. We rely heavily on our alliances and soft power for counterterrorism, military and counterintelligence operations. Before Trump, we were leading the most powerful network of defense alliances in the world. In one month Trump pissed that away, and made us a much weaker country.
You’re seeing the US through a colored lens. It started losing its stride a couple of presidencies before Trump. Had the opportunity to make a comeback in several ways, yet shat on each and every one.
Trump’s just the biggest visible zit on the US. Every other zit pushing him into prominence were something no one tried to clean before they got infected with pus.
It’s all ugly and something that’s been brewing for a long time.
This ain’t no one man show. The “treason” is just an inner conflict that was left untreated for a long, long time. The US needs to start healing itself, pronto.
If that’s your take on it, that’s fine. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but it sorta is.
When two parties meet at the table, it’s about protecting their interests. This is how much "both sides are the saaame”.
In this particular case, Zelensky acts in the interest of his country and Trump acts in the interest of his personal fiefdom. But such cases happen all the time, for example EU and Orban or EU and Lukashenko. Two fiefdom barons leveraging the safety of countries for their own personal gains.
It ain’t special. It’s annoying, but these types of “leaders” have always existed. So get a grip and quit with the doomer shit.
As an American, my hopes and prayers are that the World will remember that approximately half of us are being held hostage inside of the clown car, and are being forced to go along for the ride.
Which makes me wonder, what is the breaking point for 78% of Americans, before they start burning it down, and building guillotines in front of ever federal building?
Which makes me wonder, what is the breaking point for 78% of Americans, before they start burning it down, and building guillotines in front of ever federal building?
Let’s get them all off the couch and to the voting booth first, and then we’ll worry about Revolution later after that.
It makes me laugh when people say 70% of people didn’t vote for him, what if they all marched into Washington… Like we can’t even get a lot of them to march into a voting booth
This is dispicable American apologetics. All those that didn’t vote are equally as guilty. America spoke and it said we are a hateful bigoted and foolish nation. Don’t forget that.
Not voting for one person, doesn’t mean that people didn’t vote for another person.
That being said, the entire US population also contains non-voters because children can’t vote. (Although the Fascists seem to be trying to get rid of kids too.)
What the U.S. Federal Government is doing right now is not representative of the majority of its People.
Most Americans are good people and will stand up to keep our country, and the rest of the world, free from Tyranny.
It has been one month. Real life isn’t an App Store update, although right now, I really wish it was.
There are processes that have been created over two centuries being destroyed, and the ripple effect is only beginning.
Yeah, but I was quoting that “approximately half of us” number based on multiple polls, over time, and not just voting.
The nation is approximately 45% / 45% / 10%, in their belief systems.
In a very real sense we really are two nations occupying the same landmass.
I don’t know if anyone will remember this, but way back in the ?late 80s?, back before the Internet, there was a TV mini series on ABC, where the Soviet Union invaded America, and won.
And there’s a scene in that movie, at the end, where there’s a couple of Soviet top military persons, and they’re in front of a map of the US, and the US is split into multiple zones, with names like “Homeland”, etc.
Then the one Soviet person askes the other Soviet person about how they will maintain control of the country.
The other Soviet person talks about how the US it’s not just one people, but is just really groups of people, split in different area, divided, so they’ll be easy to control and suppress.
I keep thinking back to that movie, and specifically to that scene, when I see what’s going on today in the world.
About how we’re divided, with everyone just looking out for themselves.
Edit: Here we go. What I described is discussed in the “Climax and resolution” and “The Divided States of America” sections of that article/page.
I have zero faith that Trump and Vance will do anything that favors ongoing world peace and/or limiting Russian Aggression, instead I believe Trump and Vance will serve their own interest by selling out Ukraine and baking up a scheme that will gain favor of their Russian buddies, who control an amazing amount of wealth for a country with such a high poverty rate.
How long till we send troops into Ukraine? I don’t mean as allies.
Reagan is spinning in his grave. (Don’t get me wrong, a grave is where he belongs, but he’d be pretty burned about this)
Trump said one thing thats true, “You’re in a bad position right now, and you don’t have the cards…”, Ukraine doesn’t have the economy to put up a lasting ongoing fight with Russia, especially if they’re getting troop support from North Korea
 I think we should pour every surplus American weapon we have and donated to Ukraine immediately and then we need the pressure people who purchase oil and natural gas for my ran and Russia and forced them into some sort of economic sanction

Then we need to take all the F 35s that we paid billions and billion dollars and development money for and deploy them to the eastern European sector and put up a no fly zone
But, I am just an internet shit poster who got banned from Reddit.
Isn’t this totally ignoring the geopolitical position of Ukraine though? They’re a bulwark against (physical) Russian aggression toward the EU. Abandoning that puts a strain on US relations with the rest of the world, by design. What happens after this? Russia isn’t going to suddenly stop trying to colonize areas next to them.
Instead of being a great “business deal” for the US, it’s pushing the rest of the world away, forcing the US to use bully tactics and physical threats rather than actual diplomacy because Trump can only see it as zero-sum, or more likely is intentionally sabotaging our relationships.
I suppose actually understanding nuance and the consequences of your actions are not something he is capable of, though.
You’re not looking at the bigger picture here. Trump might have an opportunity to have a hotel in Moscow license his name and put it on the side of the building.
Looking from a country bordering russia, the amount of goodwill towards the US has little weight. We have to carefully consider how and what we can trust. Short term business should be fine, strategic partnerships are more suspect. We need to also play the long game and try to be friends with the people, even if have a fake grin when talking with the government.
As an American, frankly, there shouldn’t have been much goodwill to begin with. But yeah, it feels pretty bad watching these vermin stab Ukraine in the back. And let’s be honest, these people and the ones that voted for them, my loved ones included, are fucking vermin.
Trump and Vance are bullies. The kind of damage this will do to the PR of the USA is incalculable.
Will there be anymore goodwill for the USA?
Not unless we change some shit REAL QUICK.
I’ll be honest with you guys… my wife and I (Australian) had a three-week holiday to America planned for June which I just cancelled last week because I don’t want to give you a single fucking dollar.
We’re going to Japan now instead.
I’m American - you don’t want to be here right now. Nobody sane wants to be here right now.
Can’t say I blame you.
I don’t blame you, I just hope you all remember that this is being done to us by state actors, chiefly the Russians. We’ve given them the tools to do it with - our freedom of speech and the Internet, but I just hope you understand they are leveraging the stupidest among us to do all of this.
Russians are gonna Russian, but this was done to you by 77 million of your own citizens that voted for the known criminal and traitor, and the millions who didn’t bother to vote at all. And many of them are cheering even today.
Russians have been trying this all over Europe and they can’t get past 30% in France or 20% in Germany.
The tools are the Republicans slashing education for decades so people stay dumb. Mission accomplished, apparently.
same here
I mean, if the position of the country can change to such an insane degree by the results of a single election cycle then a lot of that goodwill that was given prior, should be examined.
That’s the sad fact of the matter. Trump and Vance and Elon and the rest of the administration are a fucking catastrophe, yes. But what is even worse than that, what is even more damaging for the long term viability of diplomacy, of international relations and governance, is that even when these clowns are gone, it can happen again.
Every time another country signs a trade deal, an alliance, a pact, an agreement of any sort with the US, even if the current leadership is absolutely incredible, that can change dramatically on a dime within 4 years. That has always been true, of course, but historically the precedent has been that new administrations are largely consistent in upholding international agreements. But a new precedent has been set, that agreements (aka “sheets” as the dumbass calls them) are worthless, that they can be torn up on a whim, that peace may require you to fluff the ego of a megalomaniac and kiss his feet, that you might have to placate idiocy and bravado and STILL have your economy rocked by asinine trade policies, that the threat of invasion and war could be a negotiation tactic for trade deals…
Countries are going to completely detach themselves from the US in all matters, and they absolutely should. We are going be turned into a North Korea-like state. Cut off from world trade and information, no diplomacy, just a looming threat to the whole world. Fuck me, this shit is bleak.
this is what putin wanted all along, isolate the us, so they dont intefere with RUSSIAS internal matters, such as with crimea, ukraine, russian satellite states.
It can happen again? This is “it” happening again. We suffered you guys having a first trump administration, we thought you learned, but you elected him even harder the second time.
A very fair point.
It won’t go so far as being like North Korea. But there are countries out there that don’t get good trade deals because of this exact problem. We will have to pay more for every trade deal we make for the next 30 years because other countries can’t be sure we’ll keep our end of it. It’s just like getting a loan with a bad credit rating. You can still get the loan but the bank is going to demand more compensation because of the risk.
I think that so many things are going to get fucked up between now and then that we would need a constitutional convention just reweave the threads of our society.
Congress can’t legislate its way out of this mess anymore.
They could. They absolutely could. They could pass laws regulating the Supreme Court and pass laws specifically reserving powers to itself, including more congressional agencies. Like a congressional department of justice, a congressional law enforcement arm, and a law removing the president from control of military appointments and nominations. (Effectively giving him a force made by Congress, that he can command but cannot easily subvert)
But isn’t part of why we are here is because our Constitution is vague to some people, it’s clauses without claws… What happens when the supreme court interprets the laws to be unconstitutional, whats to stop us from just doing this all again… People are not properly represented the electoral college, among many other things need to be fixed.
If SCOTUS goes completely rogue and just declares Congress to be unconstitutional then all bets are off. And yeah that’s scary. But within the rules there are still things that could be done.
The “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” effect.
You’re being too pessimistic. Alliances have always been about being strange bedfellows that’ll stab each other in the back should the proper conditions ever be met.
No matter how kissy-kissy politicians may be in front of a camera, backroom dealing is still the norm. Only the orange guy mistook the backroom with a toilet and so it stinks of shit for everyone to see.
Whatever the end result of this, whoever’s left afterwards will get back to tender intimacies without a hitch.
Is this take supposed to be less pessimistic?
Yup. Politics are ugly. Always have been, hopefully won’t always be as well. We generally don’t see the ugliness, but right now it’s fully exposed. The recoil from seeing it happen might be hard to swallow, but that doesn’t make it any worse than it usually is when hidden. But we can also see the strength of having to go through that and still walk away.
Now I’m hoping the next period of time won’t prove me wrong and this moment will be an important impetus for change towards the better.
If I am proven wrong though, I’ll join your pessimism.
This isn’t just bad politics. We’ve publicly threatened invasion and annexation of our closest allies.
Trump irreparably compromised our national security by doing this. We rely heavily on our alliances and soft power for counterterrorism, military and counterintelligence operations. Before Trump, we were leading the most powerful network of defense alliances in the world. In one month Trump pissed that away, and made us a much weaker country.
What we’re seeing here is full on treason.
You’re seeing the US through a colored lens. It started losing its stride a couple of presidencies before Trump. Had the opportunity to make a comeback in several ways, yet shat on each and every one.
Trump’s just the biggest visible zit on the US. Every other zit pushing him into prominence were something no one tried to clean before they got infected with pus. It’s all ugly and something that’s been brewing for a long time.
This ain’t no one man show. The “treason” is just an inner conflict that was left untreated for a long, long time. The US needs to start healing itself, pronto.
What an absurd viewpoint
this is a longer more boring way of saying “both sides are the saaame”
If that’s your take on it, that’s fine. I’m not saying it’s wrong, but it sorta is.
When two parties meet at the table, it’s about protecting their interests. This is how much "both sides are the saaame”.
In this particular case, Zelensky acts in the interest of his country and Trump acts in the interest of his personal fiefdom. But such cases happen all the time, for example EU and Orban or EU and Lukashenko. Two fiefdom barons leveraging the safety of countries for their own personal gains.
It ain’t special. It’s annoying, but these types of “leaders” have always existed. So get a grip and quit with the doomer shit.
How much longer before the US loses the hegemony of the dollar as a reserve currency do you think?
Would be a good thing
Trump is definitely accelerating the process.
I estimate around 2029-2030 we’ll be using Rinminbi as the global reserve currency.
One can only hope sooner, rather than later.
Turns out who we pick to lead the country matters a lot
As an American, my hopes and prayers are that the World will remember that approximately half of us are being held hostage inside of the clown car, and are being forced to go along for the ride.
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Only 22% of the total US population voted for Orange McBurger. Don’t forget that.
Which makes me wonder, what is the breaking point for 78% of Americans, before they start burning it down, and building guillotines in front of ever federal building?
Let’s get them all off the couch and to the voting booth first, and then we’ll worry about Revolution later after that.
This comment is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
It makes me laugh when people say 70% of people didn’t vote for him, what if they all marched into Washington… Like we can’t even get a lot of them to march into a voting booth
It would help if they were given a decent reason to go vote, yes?
Attemptimg to avoid fascism was enough of a reason for me to vote.
Was avoiding it ever really an option?
The rights were being rolled back while Biden sat and watched…
Do you think Cheney, a known fascist was voting against fascism?
Cool. In 23 months we can aim for that.
In the meantime, are we going to work to get anyone worth voting for?
And, in the meantime… what are we going to do about today’s situation, not the voting one in over a year and a half away?
Speak out, push back, network, protest, hold them accountable. Democracy.
You don’t go full-Luigi until you’ve tried everything else.
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This is dispicable American apologetics. All those that didn’t vote are equally as guilty. America spoke and it said we are a hateful bigoted and foolish nation. Don’t forget that.
English may not be your first language.
Not voting for one person, doesn’t mean that people didn’t vote for another person.
That being said, the entire US population also contains non-voters because children can’t vote. (Although the Fascists seem to be trying to get rid of kids too.)
What the U.S. Federal Government is doing right now is not representative of the majority of its People.
Most Americans are good people and will stand up to keep our country, and the rest of the world, free from Tyranny.
It has been one month. Real life isn’t an App Store update, although right now, I really wish it was.
There are processes that have been created over two centuries being destroyed, and the ripple effect is only beginning.
Yeah, but I was quoting that “approximately half of us” number based on multiple polls, over time, and not just voting.
The nation is approximately 45% / 45% / 10%, in their belief systems.
In a very real sense we really are two nations occupying the same landmass.
I don’t know if anyone will remember this, but way back in the ?late 80s?, back before the Internet, there was a TV mini series on ABC, where the Soviet Union invaded America, and won.
And there’s a scene in that movie, at the end, where there’s a couple of Soviet top military persons, and they’re in front of a map of the US, and the US is split into multiple zones, with names like “Homeland”, etc.
Then the one Soviet person askes the other Soviet person about how they will maintain control of the country.
The other Soviet person talks about how the US it’s not just one people, but is just really groups of people, split in different area, divided, so they’ll be easy to control and suppress.
I keep thinking back to that movie, and specifically to that scene, when I see what’s going on today in the world.
About how we’re divided, with everyone just looking out for themselves.
Edit: Here we go. What I described is discussed in the “Climax and resolution” and “The Divided States of America” sections of that article/page.
This comment is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
I have zero faith that Trump and Vance will do anything that favors ongoing world peace and/or limiting Russian Aggression, instead I believe Trump and Vance will serve their own interest by selling out Ukraine and baking up a scheme that will gain favor of their Russian buddies, who control an amazing amount of wealth for a country with such a high poverty rate.
How long till we send troops into Ukraine? I don’t mean as allies. Reagan is spinning in his grave. (Don’t get me wrong, a grave is where he belongs, but he’d be pretty burned about this)
Trump said one thing thats true, “You’re in a bad position right now, and you don’t have the cards…”, Ukraine doesn’t have the economy to put up a lasting ongoing fight with Russia, especially if they’re getting troop support from North Korea
 I think we should pour every surplus American weapon we have and donated to Ukraine immediately and then we need the pressure people who purchase oil and natural gas for my ran and Russia and forced them into some sort of economic sanction  Then we need to take all the F 35s that we paid billions and billion dollars and development money for and deploy them to the eastern European sector and put up a no fly zone
But, I am just an internet shit poster who got banned from Reddit.
Welcome to Lemmy. There’s dozens of us!
Isn’t this totally ignoring the geopolitical position of Ukraine though? They’re a bulwark against (physical) Russian aggression toward the EU. Abandoning that puts a strain on US relations with the rest of the world, by design. What happens after this? Russia isn’t going to suddenly stop trying to colonize areas next to them.
Instead of being a great “business deal” for the US, it’s pushing the rest of the world away, forcing the US to use bully tactics and physical threats rather than actual diplomacy because Trump can only see it as zero-sum, or more likely is intentionally sabotaging our relationships.
I suppose actually understanding nuance and the consequences of your actions are not something he is capable of, though.
You’re not looking at the bigger picture here. Trump might have an opportunity to have a hotel in Moscow license his name and put it on the side of the building.
You’re 100% correct. This is the appropriate action we should take.
Looking from a country bordering russia, the amount of goodwill towards the US has little weight. We have to carefully consider how and what we can trust. Short term business should be fine, strategic partnerships are more suspect. We need to also play the long game and try to be friends with the people, even if have a fake grin when talking with the government.
As an American, frankly, there shouldn’t have been much goodwill to begin with. But yeah, it feels pretty bad watching these vermin stab Ukraine in the back. And let’s be honest, these people and the ones that voted for them, my loved ones included, are fucking vermin.
It’s been gone since we invaded Iraq
I’m embarrassed to be an American.
All rulers are bullies not just these two