#russia is a dictatorship

[galerymod]

I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation. War is hell.

William Tecumseh Sherman

War is the complete failure of human society and the negation of higher civilisation. It is always about land claims, power expansion, control, whether for religious or political reasons, and in the end it benefits no one but sets civilisation back decades!

In the end, we are just technologically advanced, aggressive apes with outdated territorial behaviour.

mod

[odinsblog]

RUSSIA’S SHAM ELECTIONS, where people are “helped” by armed soldiers who check to ensure they vote correctly—or else.

Does this look like they are helping to conduct a fair, peaceful and democratic election process? Or does it look like repressed voters under duress, who are being forced to vote for Putin under threat of armed Russian soldiers? (source) (source) (source)

[davidaugust]

“Ukrainians are also fighting for our safety and for everyone’s freedom. By resisting Russian dictatorship, they show that democracy can defend itself. By defending their borders, they are protecting the international order and holding off chaos. By fighting Russia alone, they protect Europe. By showing how hard offensive operations are, Ukrainians make a Chinese war in the Pacific less likely. By fighting a conventional war against a nuclear power, they are making nuclear proliferation and nuclear war less likely.���

Tell Speaker Johnson to support Ukraine now:

+1-202-225-4000

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/10/opinions/sean-penn-barbra-streisand-imgaine-dragons-congress-ukraine-snyder/index.html

[originalleftist]

A reminder now that Trump is officially the nominee again:

Stop Trump.

Literally nothing matters more.

Trump has promised to be "dictator on day one"- and thanks to SCOTUS's presidential immunity ruling, he legally would be.

He has promised a "unified reich".

He has retweeted "the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat".

He has given Putin a green light to invade Europe.

He has pledged to accelerate the climate crisis.

It won't be like last time, as horrible as that was. They're more prepared now. Trump will have legal immunity from a loyal Supreme Court. If Trump wins, the world burns. Millions will die. Maybe billions. Do you understand? There will not BE an America. Or a Ukraine. Or a Europe. Or a Palestine, either.

There is LITERALLY NOTHING more important than preventing this.

It's easy to give up, and say it's hopeless. It's easy to say both sides are bad, or my vote doesn't matter. But all that only helps the fascists. The future is not written in stone. Everyone thought the fascists would win in France too. They didn't. Everyone thought that they'd win in Ukraine. They haven't.

Its only over if we, the people, decide it's over. And I am not ready to lie down and die.

Vote Blue. Give it your all. Campaign. Volunteer. Donate. Even if you hate the candidate. Even if you think it's not fair. Every ballot, every race.

And get ready to strike when they try to overturn our votes.

And the Convicted Felon will NEVER be President again.

[haxyr3]

I know many of my followers enjoy Russian rock music. When Russia attacked Ukraine, it left many fans of Russian rock—especially those who learned the language through its songs—confused and disheartened. How could so many rock musicians align themselves with Putin's regime?

Misha Kozyrev's latest documentary sheds light on this troubling phenomenon. It explores the role of Vladislav Surkov, the Kremlin’s chief ideologist, in orchestrating this shift. Surkov, a master manipulator, was instrumental in steering rock icons away from freedom and truth and into the service of an emerging dictatorship.

If you’re passionate about music, politics, or Russian culture, this film is a must-watch. It’s a sobering but essential look at how art and power can intertwine—and not always for the better.

[blueiscoool]

2024 Russia Presidential Election

An elderly Russian voter being 'encouraged' to vote for Vladimir Putin.

This sums up Russian democracy perfectly.

[ohyeslawd]

Google Project 25

What is Project 2025?

The Project 2025 Presidential Transition Project is a well-funded (eight-figure) effort of the Heritage Foundation and more than 100 organizations to enable a future anti-democratic presidential administration to take swift, far-right action that would cut wages for working people, dismantle social safety net programs, reverse decades of progress for civil rights, redefine the way our society operates, and undermine our economy.

A central pillar of Project 2025 is the “Mandate for Leadership,” a 900+ page policy playbook authored by former Trump administration officials and other extremists that provides a radical vision for our nation and a roadmap to implement it.

Project 2025 Snapshot

Proposals from Project 2025, discussed in detail throughout this guide, that they claim could be implemented through executive branch action alone — so without new legislation — include:

Cut overtime protections for 4.3 million workers

Stop efforts to lower prescription drug prices

Limit access to food assistance, which an average of more than 40 million people in 21.6 million households rely on monthly

Eliminate the Head Start early education program, which serves over 1 million children annually

Cut American Rescue Plan (ARP) programs that have created or saved 220,000 jobs

Restrict access to medication abortion

Push more of the 33 million people enrolled in Medicare towards Medicare Advantage and other worse, private options

Expose the 368,000 children in foster care to risk of increased discrimination

Deny students in 25 states and Washington, D.C. access to student loans because their state provides in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants

Roll back civil rights protections across multiple fronts, including cutting diversity, equity, and inclusion-related (DEI) programs and LGBTQ+ rights in health care, education, and workplaces

[shamanicnoise]

[lil-tumbles]

I need to say some stuff about the election. Voting is a choice. But it's not only a choice - it's a privilege. A privilege that may be taken from us if trump wins. Everyone should be free to vote for who they want to vote for, but this election isn't like other elections - more is at stake now than has ever been during my lifetime, and probably during yours, too. Millions of people across the world are depending on you to make the right decision, not just for yourself, but for them. I'm sorry if what I'm about to say would mean sacrificing your morals, I'm sorry that everything is so broken that this is the position we're in, but: it doesn't matter what you think. I don't care if you don't like Kamala. I don't care if you hate her pro-Israel nonsense. Vote anyway. Vote for her anyway. If you are a one-issue voter and this makes you not want to vote? You may never get the chance again. Kamala wants a ceasefire; trump wants to wipe every Palestinian from the face of the earth. Kamala won't strip away your rights; trump has done nothing but take things away from us. If you are gay and you want to keep the right to adopt, to marry, to work with protection from discrimination in the workplace, to get somewhere to live without being turned away because you're gay? Vote Kamala. If you wan tot get married to someone who's a different race than you? Vote Kamala. Because Trump is trying to take all of this away from us.

A vote for third party is a vote for trump. I know we all want to be able to vote for who we actually agree with, actually want running the country, and in a perfect world you'd be able to without risking so much, but this is not a perfect world. This is not an ordinary election. If Harris loses by one vote and I didn't vote, I would spend the next four years blaming myself for every loss, every death, every new genocide. And it might not only be four years - not if trump gets his way. He wants to rule forever. Don't let him. Vote Harris.

[deaddee-anime-brownfanlady]

[tomorrowusa]

Russia and Iran are both terrorist states whose economies are propped up by fossil fuels.

If you'd like to see dictatorships and theocracies collapse, use less fossil fuel. Of course doing so is also helpful to the planet. 🌍

If I were an entrepreneur, I'd print up and sell stickers featuring pictures of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Iranian theocrat Ali Khamenei which people could place next to their thermostats and on their vehicle dashboards to remind them who is being empowered by oil and gas usage.

There is no downside to using less fossil fuel. Sustainable energy has a pro-democracy valence.

[elbiotipo]

When you really know about South America

(source is GURPS: Cyberworld RPG manual, written in 1994)

[odinsblog]

“And so a lot of what we're doing now is sort of making up for a lot of lost time when a record number of Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces increasingly. So while we need more Ukraine coverage, because Ukraine has been made increasingly vulnerable deliberately by MAGA, by what Mike Johnson deliberately did in blocking aid for six critical months in the House, Palestinians need our support as well. And the Israelis on the ground who want a two-state solution, who stand for peace, need to be amplified as well.

So we can't pit these genocides against each other. We can't pit these conflicts against each other. There needs to be room for all of our shared liberation to have to basically carry all of these issues in top of mind, because what happens over there impacts us here at home.

As we know, we're all connected. We know that we've been living that for a long time now. We've been confronted with that truth.

For instance, like Donald Trump did not come to power in 2016 overnight. There was a whole vacuum of Western power that allowed a resurgence of Kremlin aggression to basically bring Trump to power right in front of our faces. Many of us who are longtime Ukraine watchers saw this happening and what a horror we were living screaming at the top of our lungs.

The fact that was allowed to happen, there's no excuse.

So everybody, what happens over in Ukraine matters to us here at home.

What happens in Georgia matters to us here at home.

What happens to Palestinians and democracy in Israel matters to us here at home.

We are up against a coalition of strong men who want to live above the law, who want to dodge accountability and enrich themselves and spread their corruption as a weapon in order to stay in power and die in power. That's what they all want.

Trump, Putin, Netanyahu, the corrupt leadership of Hamas, Sinwar, they all want that same thing. That's why we have to stay vigilant on all these conflicts and we can do it. We're strong enough and brave enough to do it.

It is a moral obligation not to look away.”

—Why the Georgia Protests Matter to U.S. Voters

[davidaugust]

russia thinks trump is compromised.

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

Assad fled: PUTIN surrendered Damascus in THREE DAYS

The regime of Bashar al-Assad is history. Rebel forces have completely captured Damascus and it seems that this happened much faster than in Homs, Hama and Aleppo. We have already formalized rhetorical questions, for example: “Lapti, where is your help in 72 hours?”, or “Where is the tough and loud answer to Erdogan?” After all, Moscow propaganda hyped up all these things, just as Khrushchev did, talking about “Kuzka’s mother.”

Асад бежал: ПУТИН сдал Дамаск за ТРИ ДНЯ

Режим Башара Асада ушел в историю. Силы повстанцев полностью захватили Дамаск и кажется, что произошло это намного быстрее, чем в Хомсе, Хаме и Алеппо. Риторические вопросы мы уже формализовали, например: ��Лапти, где ваша помощь за 72 часа?», или «Где жесткий и громкий ответ Эрдогану?» Ведь все эти вещи московская пропаганда накручивала как это делал Хрущев, рассказывая про «Кузькину мать».

[bijoumikhawal]

*sees a long post from an American comparing Cardassia to the USSR/China* *rolls eyes and keeps scrolling*