Why do Republicans have to be secretly in the thrall of the Russians to be evil? Can’t the Republicans just be scum based on their own will?
Sometimes they do things that serve themselves, sometimes the American Oligarchy. Sometimes they do things that serve the Russian one. I think its important to be clear which.
They are, but they also serve foreign interests.
It is both
They’re easily manipulated, the Republican party has made sure of that by keeping schools shit there for decades. You have entire generations of people that will do whatever they’re told
Can you really fault Putin for using such an easy target?
They don’t have to be, but they are.
They’re literally turning America into Russia and the bootlicks are cheering it on calling it “manly” when cucking for a makeup wearing pedofile is the least “manly” thing one can do….pathetic
Nationalities are just a convenient scape goat for everyone to point fingers at.
The real problems stem from a billionaire and multi millionaire class that absolutely does not want any kind of democratic government system to develop and to destroy any signs of it everywhere else.
All those billionaire and multi millionaire class have absolutely no care if their passports say America, UK, Russia or China … they couldn’t give a shit which nation they align with as long as their wealth is always protected.
Just look at all the wars that being fought right now … governments are more willing to sacrifice people and soldiers rather than in affecting the wealth of anyone on any side of the conflict.
If they wanted to stop wars, they shut down financial systems completely and starve one side of the conflict or the other until someone submitted. But they’d rather throw human bodies into the fray than in even considering touching the bottom line of a billionaire, regardless of which side of the war they are on.
Everybody Sucks Here.
Stop trying to blame Russia, blame capitalism. I hate putin as much as you (probably more because I can’t visit my parents because of him), but it is your ruling class at fault and not some russian influence. Whatever putin could do is inconsequential compared to the wealth and influence the 20 richest people of your empire.
Your billionaires have decided that trump and fascism is the most beneficial choice for them at present, it is truly that simple. What you are witnessing right now is a natural outcome of a capitalist system, as intended by your racist proto-nazi founding fathers.
You are describing an oligarchy, or maybe plutocracy.
Yes, that is correct. And it is also an accurate description of that shithole between Canada and Mexico.
Sorry to say, but the whole world is pretty much fascist. Even the most progressive countries have ever widening income inequality along with the majority of their policies written by corporations.
Both can be true?
I can agree to that.
Capitalism is a form of authoritarianism. Its anti free market and anti personal freedoms. It uses power to gain more power and control.
Whatever putin could do is inconsequential compared to the wealth and influence the 20 richest people of your empire.
Are you suggesting that $20k in Facebook ads didn’t decide the result of a $4B election season?
Sounds like Russian propaganda to me
It can be two things. Read this or anything else about Cambridge Analytica to get a sense of the difference between what they were doing and the same hack political radio ad hour after hour.
Trump’s ties to russia are many and varied, going back forty-plus years. It’s all been documented in Proof of Conspiracy, Mueller found collusion; these are not hypotheticals. It’s a known part of the current befuckdedness.
Is it the ONLY part? No. But it starts there and it stays there.
Trump’s ties to russia are many and varied
Trump’s ties to the Italian Mafia are stronger. He’s a second generation fence and money launderer who made a fortune helping to move money out of Eastern Europe back in the 90s.
But he’s an American creation who worked on behalf of American institutions. That’s why he’s tied up with Guliani, Bloomberg, Clinton, and Epstein.
The tunnel vision liberals have with Russia ignores a rich vein of corruption for one of its more salacious and partisan tributaries.
Trump’s ties to the Italian Mafia are stronger.
We’re probably splitting hairs, but - what? I haven’t heard that before but I’ve heard a LOT about the russian angle. (we seem to converge on Eastern Europe though)
what? I haven’t heard that before
It was bigger news back in 2016
The picture shows that Trump’s career has benefited from a decades-long and largely successful effort to limit and deflect law enforcement investigations into his dealings with top mobsters, organized crime associates, labor fixers, corrupt union leaders, con artists and even a one-time drug trafficker whom Trump retained as the head of his personal helicopter service.
The Russia connection was minor by comparison, and largely a result of Trump’s status as a lynchpin in NY crime.
I think that DCJ piece is good, and clearly ‘mob’ connections are rife, but outside of that early-80’s wash of Roy Cohn and the ready-mix concrete guys, there’s not a lot more specific to Italian mafia.
I read that Giuliani’s ‘cleanup’ of Italian mobsters allowed in the russians which was duly appreciated. Early 80s is the same time the Kremlin started to keep tabs on Trump, giving him a tour and business opportunities then.
Felix Sater, Michael Cohen, Rybolovlev and others who consistently and repeatedly appear in any honest accounting of his blatantly illegal dealings.
Unger’s account of infiltration also exposes how Trump’s financial entanglements laid the groundwork for this betrayal. In the 1980s, as Trump struggled with debt from failing casinos and overextended real estate ventures, Soviet-linked financiers appeared, flush with cash.
Deals involving Trump Tower properties drew in shadowy buyers connected to Russian organized crime and intelligence fronts. Even when Western banks deemed him too risky, new Russian-linked money never seemed to dry up. Each transaction pulled him closer into Moscow’s orbit.
By the time the Soviet Union collapsed, Russian oligarchs kept the pipeline open, ensuring that Trump’s business empire would survive—and remain beholden to foreign backers whose first loyalty was to the Kremlin. (via)
So while there certainly were ties to Italian mafia, his later business and almost all of his political life is awash in russian mob ties. Given that russia is run by mafias-within-mafias that’s not so surprising, is it.
outside of that early-80’s wash of Roy Cohn and the ready-mix concrete guys
The article goes significantly farther than ready-mix concrete. Trump was in tight with the Gambino family, among other mob affiliates and organizations.
I read that Giuliani’s ‘cleanup’ of Italian mobsters allowed in the russians which was duly appreciated. Early 80s is the same time the Kremlin started to keep tabs on Trump, giving him a tour and business opportunities then.
It ties out with a shift in policy from Cold Era Italy being a major bridge between NATO agencies in the West and their informants/operators in the East. Post-collapse, Sicily was old news since you could march your goons directly into St. Petersburg and Moscow to commence the looting.
But Trump’s roll as a money launderer and fixer remains consistent during the transition.
So while there certainly were ties to Italian mafia, his later business and almost all of his political life is awash in russian mob ties.
His primary ties were to US and German lenders, with black market business interests using his properties to clean their ill-gotten gains. The flood of money and refugees coming out of Eastern Europe following the post-Soviet crash changed the composition of his criminal clients. His roll in legitimizing the looting through financialization did not.
It could be two things! But it isn’t lol
Cambridge Analytica is a good place to start. Previously:
- IT Pro: Cambridge Analytica models were exaggerated and ineffective, [UK Information Commissioner’s Office] claims
- Wall Street Journal: Mueller Doesn’t Find Trump Campaign Conspired With Russia
- Jacobin: Democrats and Mainstream Media Were the Real Kremlin Assets
- Washington Post: FEC fines DNC, Clinton for violating rules in funding Steele dossier
- Washington Post: Russian trolls on Twitter had little influence on 2016 voters
- Jacobin: It Turns Out Hillary Clinton, Not Russian Bots, Lost the 2016 Election
- Matt Taibbi: Move Over, Jayson Blair: Meet Hamilton 68, the New King of Media Fraud The Twitter Files reveal that one of the most common news sources of the Trump era was a scam, making ordinary American political conversations look like Russian spywork
- Jacobin: Why the Twitter Files Are in Fact a Big Deal On the Left, there’s been a temptation to dismiss the revelations about Twitter’s internal censorship system that have emerged from the so-called Twitter Files project. But that would be a mistake: the news is important and the details are alarming.
- MSNBC Repeats Hamilton 68 Lies 279 Times in 11 Minutes
- Matt Taibbi: CIA “Cooked The Intelligence” To Hide That Russia Favored Clinton, Not Trump In 2016
- Aaron Maté: Under Trump, the CIA is still covering up its Russiagate fraud
- Matt Taibbi: Note on New Trump-Russia Disclosures Thanks to explosive new document releases, the Russiagate hoax is now exposed, commencing a new era that will be about accountability for the guilty
- Matt Taibbi: No Doubt Left: Russiagate Was a Cover-Up
- Chris Hedges: Why Russiagate Won’t Go Away The cynical con the Democratic Party and the F.B.I. carried out to falsely portray Donald Trump as a puppet of the Kremlin worked, and continues to work, because it is what those who detest Trump want to believe.
Those archive.today links didn’t work for me, but that could just be me. The “studies” are opinions otherwise and if you want to pick one, I’ll kick it apart but I’m not going to go through all of them.
Cambridge Analytica
UK group and Facebook profit maximization is not Russia. Blaming the pure establishment corruption of democracy on Russia is just partisan whining for more establishment warmongering.
I was with you until last half of the last sentence.
Racist, sure. “proto-nazi”? Who and why? One example would be great, I don’t understand the connection.
Without having to click links it’s basically this; Hitler had a Hardon for American Exceptionalism and shit, Nazis are based on American ideas just taken to the extreme.
So hence proto as in precursor to the Nazis.
Thanks for the description! When I think ‘founding fathers’ I’m thinking of the literal dudes who wrote and signed the US constitution and the Bill of Rights.
I didn’t see any connections for the term to that time period in American history.
You mean the guys that literally genocided native peoples? That wrote into the constitution that black people were worth less? That only rich land-owning people should be allowed representation?..
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_and_slavery
Do you even care to do a bit of research?
Stop trying to blame Russia
No.
blame capitalism.
We can do both, but one of them has a more defined paper trail.
The notion that your “Trump and the GOP are Russian assets” conspiracy theory has a “more defined paper trail” than the countless volumes of work done by thousands of historians, philosophers, economists, and scientists, going back hundreds of years is just downright laughable.
What are you even trying to say here? Are you seriously saying the Russia/Trump connection is more well understood than the pitfalls of American Capitalism?
If Trump is a Russian asset, why didnt the US pull out of NATO months ago? Why was Trump shipping Jevlins by the truckload to Ukraine at the beginning of the war? Why is Trump’s entire schtick that NATO (Russia’s primary adversary) needs to increase spending (which it has, in record amounts)?
If Russia is blamed for Trump’s election, we avoid the unpleasant reality of our failed democratic institutions and decaying empire. We avoid facing the inevitable rise of a Christianised fascism borne out of widespread impoverishment, rage, despair and abandonment. We avoid acknowledging the complicity of the Democratic Party in the orchestration of the largest social inequality in our nation’s history, the evisceration of our basic civil liberties, endless wars and an electoral system bankrolled by the billionaire class, which is legalised bribery. The myth allows us to believe that Democratic politicians, like the establishment Republicans who have joined them, are the guarantors of a democracy they destroyed.
All the investigations into Trump’s ties with Russia are unequivocal. There was no collusion. The Steele dossier, financed at first by Republican opponents of Trump and later by Hillary Clinton’s campaign, and compiled by former MI6 British intelligence officer, Christopher Steele, was a fake. The charges in the dossier — which included reports of Trump receiving a ‘golden shower’ from prostituted women in a Moscow hotel room and claims that Trump and the Kremlin had ties going back five years — were discredited by the FBI. Sources, including the one that claimed Trump had long-held ties to the Kremlin, turned out to be fabricated. Special Counsel Robert S Mueller concluded that his investigation ‘did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.’ Mueller did not indict or accuse anyone of criminally conspiring with Russia.
- Chris Hedges
We can do both, but one of them has a more defined paper trail.
Capitalism’s trail of blood in your country goes back to its founding. It is incredibly well-defined and has been studied a lot (except they won’t tell you about it in school or many universities).
And if you want a more concrete trail between capitalism and trump, look at inauguration footage again, or look at campaign contributions.
Russia’s entire state budget was less than revenue of just Apple in 2024. If your ruling class didn’t want trump, he wouldn’t be a president right now.
If your ruling class didn’t want trump, he wouldn’t be a president right now.
You’re projecting. Maybe YOU can’t be nudged towards an ideology by propaganda, but millions of people can. They can be tricked.
Until you realize that, it’s not going to get any better.
The propaganda is coming from inside the imperialist house. Fox isn’t owned by some Russian billionaire.
Uh yeah, okay
Log off and go read a book kiddo
Exhibit A: USian prompted to interrogate their internalized racism
So, y’all just say whatever comes to mind and pretend it’s a real thing, huh? Cool.
At this point, I can’t see any other reason you’d stick to blaming “the russians” for the state of your country. Even if putin has kompromat on trump, putin is not the reason republicans hold all three branches of your government.
Again, it’s not just “the russians” but so many of you are jumping out of your seats about it.
So many of you from .ml that is.
Curious.
It’s because you called out russia. Now the tankies are here to defend them and blame capitalism for everything.
Delusional
The NYT found no clear evidence of that though.
😆
It’s a class stuggle.
It’s that simple.I thought it was a political struggle.
All political struggle is either bourgeois infighting (flip on the telly to see it), or class war (the ruling class doesn’t want you to think about it). The former can be fun to watch at times, the latter is the one which has any chance of improving your material conditions.
The struggle of class against class is a what struggle?
A what struggle?
Log off and read a book
Not sure what the gotcha is. Class struggle is a subset of political struggle, and it is the subset most relevant to you the worker, as outlined by my comment.
Marx said that every class struggle is a political struggle. This means that, if the proletarians and capitalists are waging an economic struggle against each other today, they will be compelled to wage a political struggle tomorrow and thus protect their respective class interests in a struggle that bears two forms. The capitalists have their particular business interests. And it is to protect these interests that their economic organisations exist. But in addition to their particular business interests, they also have common class interests, namely, to strengthen capitalism. And it is to protect these common interests that they must wage a political struggle and need a political party.
It’s also a bit.
The closest libs come to ever reading theory is asking a chatbot about a Monty Python sketch.
If you disagree, guess what: you’re a fascist.
Caveat: not all conservatives are Russians, some are Russian shills.
What are you rebellious colonies up to now
When You call the other side crazy so you don’t n have to debate them…and just keep loosing elections and supporters 🥱
Have you seen anyone “debate” them?
They don’t “debate”. And since you don’t know that I assume you’re from one of the old countries where that’s still a thing?
Yeah, we have loose elections based off of the insane corporate $$ influence.
Quit blaming Russia for the US doing the same shit it’s always been doing, the only difference is who we’re doing it to, the people saying this sort of inane shit only care because it’s affecting them
I’m an ally for Russia in the US
What?
Stop calling them Conservatives. They’re Russians
Just absolutely peak liberal. You cannot accept that American conservatives are bad. You need them to be Evil Foreigners.
This is how you end up side by side with Liz Cheney, pockets stuffed full of O&G money, telling your base voters to stfu about climate change if they want to win the next election.
Just absolutely peak liberal.
What if there’s more liberal than that? Ha! Hoisted by your own petard!
You cannot accept that American conservatives are bad. You need them to be Evil Foreigners.
I don’t know why you’re interpreting this so literally, but obviously US conservatives are not all russian citizens. And they are doing bad things.
This is how you end up side by side with Liz Cheney, pockets stuffed full of O&G money, telling your base voters to stfu about climate change if they want to win the next election.
Oh right, Democrats bad again. Hey, why the fuss? You won, didn’t ya? Not enough corpo-libtards voted just like you wanted and here we are waist-deep in insanity shit. Mission Accomplished!
Oh wait you wanted the magical unicorn election where we all hold hands and chant instead of voting so that the outcome of the vote is guaranteed to be pure. Well since that’s literally never, ever going to happen I hope you can take some comfort in pretending it might if you just shit on the Democrats enough.
Hey, why the fuss? You won, didn’t ya?
Is Zombie Mao doing a Red Terror against the US ruling class? No? You got the wrong team buddy
You should have to pass an iq test before being allowed to post.
How’d you get in? Know somebody?
Make your own lemmy instance and show us how its done! The beauty of the fediverse…
Red Scare 22.0
you mean like how NSPM-7 does it to suit the needs of the Russian christofascists or like how your persecution fetish makes your pp hard when you feel personally attacked?
Hmm, I wonder where russian oligarchs imported christofascism from back in the 90s. Could it be the same country that nazis used as inspiration back in the late 30s?
Face it, you have plenty of billionaires spouting propaganda and buying elections at home, no need for any foreign influence.
it’s always a tankie making excuses.
Delusional
Despite the fact that Russia has been 0% red for the past 35 years or so.
When libs keep using “Ruzzia” the same way Nazis were using “Judeo-Bolshevism” 90 years ago, it’s useful to refer to historical episodes even if they don’t perfectly parallel
Yep.
But the Russians aren’t commies anymore, and the right wing aren’t the ones telling us to be afraid of them this time.
Which makes it all the more ridiculous.
This is pure treasonous disinformation meant to subjugate Americans to false fears, and steal their prosperity.
Zionist supremacism not Russia is responsible for our political corruption. That one or 2 Russian click farms in 2016 amplified GOP message, did not change election outcome, and pales in comparison to propaganda and corruption CIA runs in foreign countries to create anti-Russia puppets.
Anyone pathethic, stupid, and demonically hateful to think future prosperity requires perpetuating and intensifying war on Russia is being gaslight and bodysnatched to support the most Zionist, Neocon, Warmonger the DNC will oppress you with.
Or alternatively you can just call them reactionaries, as bad as Russia is they’re a drop in the bucket compared to the American capitalist class
Wait are you suggesting that russia isn’t anywhere near as bad as Americans? Cause we’re all part of the capitalist class. Every Western nation is…hell pretty much every economy on the planet is capitalist.
I read in the previous comment “american capitalists”. Which is a step up from elsewhere. But yes, also, Russia isn’t anywhere near as bad as the formerly united states. Not when averaged over the past decades since WW2. However, at this very moment, Russia is worse - because for once, that other shithole regime has no hot war ongoing. Unless you count their assistance towards the genocide and otjer war crimes committed against the palestinian people. At which point it becomes a tie again in terms of evilness :(
The former United States? In the same time line that russia has been around, they’ve done way more than the USA has done. You can’t even begin to compare the two. One literally sided with Nazis and has killed millions via famine. The USA has some atrocious imperialism but we’re not russia level of murdering.
Lol anything’s possible when you make shit up kiddo
Rich coming from someone who’s got the mind of a child to think communism is the best thing ever, and it’ll work this time. Lol
“It’ll work this time” lol if people like you made the decisions we would have given up on inventing planes, you’re a coward and a fool
Go tankie somewhere else. You’re just maga wearing a hammer and sickle. You types think communism will work this time cause you’ll be in charge. Bad news champ, you’ll be digging ditches.
Do you think there’s anything “united” left about that clusterfuck between Canada and Mexico?
Yea, I do. We’re not at a civil war yet and people are waking up to the fascist lies and trying to turn the ship around. Can’t exactly say that for russia, which the majority of support the war in Ukraine still.
Well - from the outside it certainly doesn’t look united anymore. And your comparison does not make sense. Russia neither has a civil war ongoing for now, nor are the average citizens discernibly any less or any more brainwashed than in the divided states.
And from a European perspective, both are threatening our continent & freedoms.
We’re still able to call out our politicians and protest without falling out of a window or being meat fodder for an invasion.
One literally sided with Nazis and has killed millions via famine
The other is USSR
The USA has some atrocious imperialism but we’re not russia level of murdering.
How delusional do you have to be to believe that is beyond my comprehension. I guess this is the end result of the american education system.
The US is directly responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths from famine, horrendous working conditions, or just outright war, all around the global south. Heck, it was founded upon genocide of immense proportions (96% of native population eradicated), which was so bad that nazis used it as a blueprint for the holocaust.
Russian war crimes in Ukraine are horrible but are nothing compared to the hell on earth created by your fascist country in just the last two years. Compare the civilian death tool in Gaza vs Ukraine to see for yourself. In absolute terms, your country is the single most evil entity on this planet.
This does not excuse putin and his cronies, I hope to see them all do hard labor in prison for the rest of their miserable existence, together with all american presidents and their accomplices.
The other is USSR
Yea I forgot how the USSR going away meant that russia which ran the USSR didn’t side with the Nazis.
How delusional do you have to be to believe that is beyond my comprehension. I guess this is the end result of the american education system.
Considering your idea of “it wasn’t russia” is to ignore everything russia has done in the past. To you, russia has only existed since 1991 apparently.
The US is directly responsible for hundreds of millions of deaths from famine, horrendous working conditions, or just outright war, all around the global south. Heck, it was founded upon genocide of immense proportions (96% of native population eradicated), which was so bad that nazis used it as a blueprint for the holocaust.
The fuck are you on about, the US hasn’t been around long enough to pull hundreds of millions of deaths. On top of that you’re suggesting that it’s murdered over half the population of the global South…
The native Americans bit was %100 fucked up, but let’s not forget Russia doing the same/worse…Circassian genocide go read up on it.
Russian war crimes in Ukraine are horrible but are nothing compared to the hell on earth created by your fascist country in just the last two years. Compare the civilian death tool in Gaza vs Ukraine to see for yourself. In absolute terms, your country is the single most evil entity on this planet.
Wait gaza is on us now? If that’s the case then…
All of these dictators are on russia…assad is in the list
This does not excuse putin and his cronies, I hope to see them all do hard labor in prison for the rest of their miserable existence, together with all american presidents and their accomplices.
Sounds kinda like you are excusing them…this entire thread has been you excusing them with whataboutism of the USA…and getting your facts all kinds of messed up.
Tankies gonna tank.
Yea I forgot how the USSR going away meant that russia which ran the USSR didn’t side with the Nazis.
Both the west and USSR made deals with the nazis all the way until the war. Many US capitalists invested or outright donated to the reich.
Once the war began, USSR was the principal country which defeated nazis, look at the numbers of nazi soldiers who fought and died on western vs. eastern front. The US meanwhile sheltered nazi war criminals after the war.
The fuck are you on about, the US hasn’t been around long enough to pull hundreds of millions of deaths
US has been around for almost 250 years, and involved in a genocidal imperialist war (or at least a fascist coup) of some kind for almost that entire time. The hundreds of millions of excess deaths figure is a lower bound.
On top of that you’re suggesting that it’s murdered over half the population of the global South…
Currently, Global South is ~6 billion people (depending on which countries you count in), what are you on about…
Wait gaza is on us now?
Yes, guess who’s providing all the cash, weapons, intelligence, diplomatic and military support to the genociders? US is directly responsible for the ongoing genocide, stop sending money&weapons and it ends in a week.
To be honest, Ukraine war is like 30% on US too, they supported outright nazis during Maidan which led to some real discontent in the east, which was abused by Russia to start the war.
All of these dictators are on russia…assad is in the list
Still magnitudes less bad than US shit. Look at the list of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change, except for like 5 countries during WW2 it’s mostly fascist dictators being installed.
Sounds kinda like you are excusing them
Re-read all my messages. I am not excusing russia. I am just clarifying that the issues with the US are not due to Russia, they are due to the system of surplus value extraction and imperialism which has been around for its entire existence. Focusing on russia and russian influence will not help you at all, in much the same way as deporting immigrants won’t help the MAGAts.
Current russian dictatorship is the shittiest since late-stage stalinism, but its evils are nothing compared to the evil of the US dicatorship of capital.
this entire thread has been you excusing them with whataboutism of the USA
This thread is about a meme blaming neocon fascism, the most american thing in existence, on russia.
Your culture is so obsessed with the red scare bullshit that a twisted version of it now percolated into liberal or even progressive circles, which is really convenient for the ruling class. Open your eyes, know your main enemy.
Don’t forget the 16 million ppl dying from USAID being cut
Yes because pulling aid is the same as a forced famine.
I mean… people are dead and we could have done something about it. It’s the same picture to me bc the result is the same: “We’re not taking care of each other well.”
One is literally killing people because you hate them. The other is pulling aid you were providing out of caring. Not even the same thing.
Removing the aid is bullshit and needs to be put back in place.
But let’s not compare it to a forced famine.
“Forced famine” lol
Holodomor
Go back to reading RT articles like they’re facts lol
