YourNetworkIsHaunted @ YourNetworkIsHaunted @awful.systems

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1 yr. ago

Absolutely, and her record in those roles imo actually suggests at least some awareness of the kinds of problems that need to be solved there, though I'm sufficiently cynical about things that I would be surprised to see significant action on federal reforms. I'm cautiously optimistic about her, but my point is that even if you don't think she's any different from a rank-and-file Republican that would still make it irresponsible not to vote against Trump and the very specific plans he and the people around him have to make all of those problems even worse.

There is definitely room to push the Overton window farther left and (federal) electoral politics does not give an avenue to do that as long as the Republican party continues to drift further right. But the way to do that does not involve abandoning powerful federal offices like the goddamned presidency to right-wing loons.

What exactly do you think the alternative is here? Not voting just surrenders what little power the electoral process does give you. Even if electoral politics aren't a meaningful way to advance your vision of a better country, this is still an opportunity, however small, to reduce the harm that will be done under a Trump presidency. Like, even if you don't expect Harris to meaningfully improve things (and there are a lot of areas where a former cop probably shouldn't be expected to), the alternative is someone who continues to actively promise to make those same areas even worse.

Keeps me in a job, at least.

So first off, Ukraine couldn't have joined NATO because of the active territorial dispute re: Crimea, which had been ongoing since 2014. But more importantly, please for the love of God stop following the cold war colonial logic that only Great Powers have any agency in their own international affairs.

Poland, Lithuania, and all the rest of the countries that Putin wants out of NATO are in there because they wanted to be, mostly because they wanted security against Russian invasion. Like, Poland basically blackmailed President Clinton into expanding NATO by threatening to support the Republicans in the next election.

But why would anyone be worried about Russia invading them if they tried to exercise independent agency and leave Moscow 's sphere of influence? Oh wait, look at what's happening in Ukraine. Maybe those fears weren't so unfounded. Sweden and Finland certainly seem to think so, since the war led to the most significant expansion of NATO in decades and gave NATO a direct land border within spitting distance of Moscow.

Even Yanukovich had been trying to push for EU membership, AKA the guy who was the target of the so-called coup you're bitching about. He had to shift gears when Putin's attitude changed and he could no longer split the two, but the whole "euro" part of Euro Maidan was about the sudden shift away from the EU.

Gee, I wonder if there were any major shake-ups in the Ukrainian government circa 2014 that could have explained this change in tune.

Ukraine wasn't able to join NATO because of active territorial disputes regarding Russia's 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea. The 2022 invasion and intervening Russian-backed fighting in Donestk and Luhansk were naked imperial land grabs trying to force Ukraine back into the Russian sphere of influence despite their democratic processes repeatedly trying to move towards the EU.

Or in simpler terms, imperialism is actually still bad when Russia does it and it's weird that you don't seem to understand that.

I'm pretty sure US Army would designate it the M1.