#tools of putin

[tomorrowusa]

The murder of Alexei Navalny came during a peculiar week. Putin felt like he could get away with killing off his main opponent after getting winks and nods from his Republican sycophants in the US.

Some people regard Putin as a "savvy genius". But his catastrophic three-day "special operation" in Ukraine, now about to enter Year 3, has demonstrated what s fool he is. Over 400,000 Russians have died so far in his egotistical attempt to become the 21st century version of Peter the Great.

The ramifications of Putin killing off Navalny are only beginning to be felt. It may have speeded up Europe's efforts to further arm Ukraine. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of Denmark is donating her country's entire stock of artillery rounds to Ukraine.

Putin may have thought that he's showing the world how strong he is by murdering Navalny. Instead he's sparked another international backlash against his régime.

We need to hold Republicans responsible for their craven backing for Putin. They are holding up aid to Ukraine on the orders of their leader and wannabe dictator Donald Trump.

[porterdavis]

The short answer is yes. So is the long answer.

[vintageseawitch]

i see no lie here. at this point i have no faith in the Green Party. they're all vibes & no substance. they count on leftists & their need for "political purity" & their "principles" to divide them up.

the Green Party sounds great on paper... but they only ever appear like an election cicadas during the presidential election. they never run at local or state levels. they know they will never win. at this point since Republicans are more united than Democrats, it's quite clear that the Green Party isn't there to make sure Republicans lose... it's to make sure DEMOCRATS lose.

your "protest" vote isn't saving shit except maybe giving your ego a pat on the back. you could literally be helping the greater evil to win. do you think anyone will want to take you seriously should Project 2025 be implemented? oh, you sure showed those Democrats! please live in the real world & maybe do a little crash course on American civics to understand how our government works. y'all love theory. but I digress.

please don't stop talking about Project 2025 or Agenda 47. they're the same thing & the reason trump never talks policybis because Project 2025 IS his policy. check your registration status often & vote early if you can. Republicans & other non-Democrats who have decided to vote for Harris - welcome! we got this 💙

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Who could have seen that coming (Everyone. Literally everyone.)

[lenbryant]

Never heard of their platform, but kudos for doing the right thing.

Pucker is a Communist Spin Whore.

[amerasdreams]

-- from The Death of Democracy: Hitlers Rise to Power and the Downfall of the Weimar Republic by Benjamin Carter Hett

[dontforgetukraine]

Signs That You're Looking at Ukraine Through a Russian Prism

by Mariam Naiem

1. Perceiving Russian culture as apolitical Culture is political. Russia weaponizes its heritage, promoting a 'great Russia' myth to normalize the subjugation of other 'lesser' cultures. Literary classics become tools of cultural supremacy. 2. Perceiving this war as 'fraternal' Russian propaganda portrays Ukraine and Russia as inseparably linked peoples. This concept ignores Ukraine's aspirations for independence and self-determination and imposes the idea that, at the core, we are one and the same. 3. Pushing reconciliation with Russian opposition This narrative ignores the power imbalance. Any dialogue must be on Ukraine's terms, if and when Ukrainians choose. External pressure for reconciliation is unacceptable. Ukraine's agency is non-negotiable. 4. Explaining Ukraine to Ukrainians Explaining Putin's motives, Ukrainian history, Dostoevsky's relevance to Ukraine, and so on implies that you possess superior knowledge of the topic compared to Ukrainians, which is not true. Ukrainians have deep insights into Russia's actions based on historical experience and direct impact. Such explanations, even if well-intentioned, might come across as patronizing or dismissive of Ukrainian expertise. 5. Suggesting capitulation Urging Ukraine to yield? It won't end the war. Russia regroups, and casualties mount later. Ukraine's fight is for survival, severely limiting compromise options. Respect Ukrainians' difficult position and right to determine their future. 6. Whataboutism "Other conflicts exist" isn't a reason to help less – it's a call to help more. Each crisis deserves its own focus. Don't use comparisons to justify inaction on Ukraine. 7. Claiming Ukrainians don't deserve help Questioning a nation's worthiness of aid based on alleged issues can be seen as justifying inaction. It's more constructive to focus on the current situation and humanitarian needs. Consider the actions of the aggressor rather than criticizing those defending themselves. 8. Not my war A nuclear-armed autocracy attacking a democracy is everyone's problem. It's not about values – it's about time. This war isn't yours today, but ignore it, and it'll be at your doorstep tomorrow. Ukraine's front line is democracy's front line. P.S. Consider the Ukrainian perspective and try to imagine their experiences. It’s important to avoid assuming how one might act in their situation. What Ukrainians may need most is genuine understanding and support. The key is to listen and empathize.

[omgthatdress]

When you say you're not voting, you're announcing to the rest of us the you don't give a fuck about what will happen to us when Trump makes himself president for life, Palestine has been wiped off the face of the earth and Putin is invading the rest of Europe, mass deportations are going on in the US, and The Handmaid's Tale becomes real life, you just couldn't bring yourself to do something as sad and shameful as vote for someone who isn't 100% as perfect as you like.

Seriously grow the fuck up and do the right thing. If you aren't fighting fascism with every single tool you have, you aren't fighting it at all.

Seriously what the fuck do you expect to happen?

[saruvanthewhite]

And tools they are!

Putin has been receiving the same government briefing as Trump!

[qqueenofhades]

Having seen what's currently happening in Venezuela, I feel so terrible for everyone to tried to vote Maduro out, and I worry about the US election. Will Trump and the GOP be able to do the same thing??

I agree that what's happening in Venezuela is bad and scary, but it's also not unexpected (unfortunately), and it doesn't correlate to the US election. It is very much a cautionary tale for us, but in the case of what could happen, not what has happened yet (and which we could and MUST still avoid). Here's why I think that.

First, Maduro is the heir of 25+ years of dictatorship (first the Chavez regime and then his), and that political machine has had a full generation to fix/control everything in Venezuela just as they want it. They've collapsed the economy, driven mass emigration/purges/brain drains, installed corrupt systems and destroyed civil society, staffed the government with cronies who will only ever do what Maduro personally says -- etc. In other words, exactly what Trump and the Republicans aspire to do here in America, but with 25 years' head start, so all those fixes are well entrenched. Outside observers were also warning well ahead of the Venezuelan vote that even an overwhelming majority for the opposition candidate might not be enough, because Maduro and co. can just fix the result however they want with imaginary fantasy numbers. (See Putin's "win" in the Russian presidential "election.") Because dictators all draw from the same playbook regardless of their professed ideological temperament, they always use the same tools.

Next, voting in Venezuela is all-electronic, which is obviously the easiest kind of voting to jigger, and which means that whatever the people actually select has little to no relevance to what gets published, recorded, or proclaimed. Now, despite the Republicans' constant screaming about ELECTION FRAUD, the 2020 elections in America were widely hailed as the safest, most accurate, and fraud-free in the nation's history. (For that matter, multiple investigations afterward have re-confirmed this, and the tiny handful of cases of election fraud that were found were committed by, you guessed it, Republicans.) This did not happen because of the Orange Fuhrer and co., who were busy trying to commit election fraud on their own behalves, but because America, however flawed, is still a participatory liberal democracy and citizens have the right to engage and to do so in a meaningful fashion. We had the entire investigation about how Russia meddled with the election in 2016, and changes were made. Cybersecurity experts were brought in; redundancies and failsafes were introduced; etc., and even the Russian campaign focused on psychological influence rather than actually, physically changing already-cast votes, because that is very, very hard to do in America. We are not an all e-voting nation; there are paper trails, hard-copy ballots, hand recounts, poll observers, election lawyers, and multiple other safeguards that exist. The Republicans have been attacking them as hard as they can, but they're still there.

Thirdly, the Evil Orange tried to fix the elections when he was the sitting president (don't forget the infamous "find me 11,780 votes" phone call to the Georgia Secretary of State that got him slapped with felony charges), but he couldn't do it even then. He also tried a coup as the sitting president, with full discretion as to whether, for example, the National Guard should be deployed to the Capitol on January 6, and that didn't succeed. As such, when he's a disgraced jobless felon who is not the commander-in-chief of the American military and holds no official or political role, he's definitely not getting it done now. There were reforms made to the Electoral Count Act to prevent another January 6, Biden and not Trump would be the president at any other attempted attack on the counting of electoral votes, and I can guarantee Biden would not sit around for three hours watching Fox News and cheering the rioters on if such a thing happened again. Trump has been threatening violence again because that's the only move in his playbook, and he wants to intimidate people into voting for him out of fear that he'll attack them if they don't give him what he wants, like any other psychopathic bully. But that does not mean he actually has the tools to successfully carry it off, and honestly, motherfucker? Try it one more fucking time. I double fucking dog dare you. Biden has 6 months left in his term and total immunity, according to your own SCOTUS. So.

Basically, Venezuela has already been a banana republic for 20+ years, the dictator has had a full generation to destroy it/remake it/turn it into his personal fiefdom, he allows elections only because he already knows they won't change anything or actually remove him from power, and that is precisely what Trump wants to do in the US -- but, and this is crucial, has not done yet. Which is why it is so, so important to Orange-Proof America and get rid of him once and for fucking all on November 5th. We can do it. So yes.

[tomorrowusa]

A vote for Jill Stein is a vote for Donald Trump. Despite that, people will make idiotic excuses for voting for a guaranteed loser who would help end American democracy as we know it.

If the people who voted for Jill Stein in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania in 2016 had instead voted for Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump would never have been elected and his three fanatical anti-abortion appointees to the US Supreme Court would still be picking their noses as judges at some lower courts.

Seriously, even Jill Stein's adult children won't vote for her. She's a terrible egotistical person. No wonder Trump adores her.

At best she is what might be called a vanity candidate, at worst she's a willing dupe for Putin.

I previously wrote about Jill Stein and the hopelessly impotent US Green Party here and here. Between Jill Stein and Ralph Nader, the Green Party has done more than any other US grouping to harm the environment, human rights, and American democracy this century.

The best way to think of the Green Party...

Get Republicans Elected Every November

Don't let anybody spout support for Jill Stein without challenging them.

P.S. Just a reminder that the last year a non-Democrat or non-Republican was elected president was 1848. And that will not change in 2024.

[thelostdreamsthings]

"Putin is isolated."

BRICS, 50% of the World population is telling a big "fuck off" to the arrogant, declining and decadent G7 amounting to 10% of the World's population.

🇺🇳🇷🇺 UN Secretary General Guterres respectfully bows and shakes the hand of Putin in Russia’s Kazan at the BRICS summit.

A lot of people start crying and scream hysterically when they see this picture, for some reason.

[BRICS Currency Looms Large: Could This Be the Beginning of the End for U.S. Dollar Dominance?

For decades, the U.S. dollar has been weaponized as a tool of global dominance, wielded by the American empire to enforce its geopolitical will.

Through sanctions, coercive financial practices, and the threat of exclusion from the dollar-based system, the U.S. has effectively terrorized nations across the world.

The pretense of a “free market” economy has long been shattered by Washington's aggressive use of the dollar as a weapon to cripple economies, isolate adversaries, and exert control over global trade.

But the world is growing tired—sick and tired—of this financial tyranny. And now, with the rise of BRICS, we may be witnessing the beginning of the end for U.S. dollar supremacy.

BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—represent a bloc of nations that together account for nearly half of the global population and a significant chunk of the world’s GDP.

For years, these nations have been quietly collaborating to counterbalance the West's stranglehold over international finance, and now, they are inching closer to launching their own currency.

The creation of a BRICS currency signals an outright challenge to the dollar-dominated global economy, and it is nothing short of a revolt against American financial imperialism.

Why is this happening? The answer is simple: countries are fed up with being bullied. The U.S. has used its currency like a sledgehammer, smashing nations that dare to defy its hegemony.

Whether through sanctions on Iran, Venezuela, or Russia, or by financially suffocating smaller nations into submission, the dollar has become a tool of coercion rather than commerce.

Nations who once played by the rules of the so-called “global order” have found themselves punished, their economies crippled, and their people starved—merely for refusing to kowtow to Washington's dictates.

But BRICS is offering an alternative. The creation of a BRICS currency, backed by the economic strength of its member nations, offers the world a way out of the suffocating grip of the dollar.

This is not just about financial autonomy—it’s about reclaiming sovereignty, independence, and the right to conduct trade without the constant threat of U.S. interference.

Russia and China have been leading the charge in this effort, driven in part by the U.S. sanctions imposed on Moscow following the Ukraine conflict and the ongoing trade war with Beijing.

Both countries have moved aggressively to reduce their reliance on the U.S. dollar, increasing trade with each other and with other BRICS members in their local currencies.

They are laying the groundwork for a currency that could be based on a basket of commodities, potentially gold-backed, further weakening the grip of the U.S. dollar on the global market.

The U.S. has long prided itself on its role as the issuer of the world’s reserve currency, but this dominance was never guaranteed to last forever.

The BRICS currency threatens to dismantle the global financial architecture that has allowed the U.S. to live far beyond its means.

For decades, the U.S. has run massive deficits, printing money at will, secure in the knowledge that the world would continue to rely on the dollar.

But as BRICS nations move to establish their own currency, that privilege could evaporate overnight.

The implications for the U.S. are dire. If the dollar loses its status as the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. economy could face a severe reckoning.

The artificial demand for dollars that has kept interest rates low and allowed the U.S. to run massive debt could vanish, leading to inflation, higher borrowing costs, and potentially a fiscal crisis.

The American empire, propped up for so long by its control of global finance, could find itself in rapid decline.

For the rest of the world, however, the rise of a BRICS currency represents hope—a chance to escape the iron grip of U.S. financial imperialism. No longer will countries have to fear the punitive measures of the U.S. Treasury.

No longer will they have to worry about being cut off from the global financial system for standing up to American bullying.

The creation of a new currency could usher in a multipolar world, where nations are free to trade without being subject to the whims of a single superpower.

Of course, the U.S. will not go quietly. Washington will likely pull out all the stops to crush the BRICS currency before it can gain traction. The playbook will be the same: propaganda, financial sabotage, and even the threat of military intervention.

But this time, the world may not be so easily intimidated. The BRICS nations, backed by their vast resources and burgeoning economies, are prepared to stand their ground.

In the end, the creation of a BRICS currency is not just an economic development—it’s a revolutionary act. It’s a declaration that the age of American financial dominance is coming to an end, and that a new world is on the horizon.

The U.S. dollar, once seen as the bedrock of global stability, has become a symbol of oppression, and the world is ready to move on.

The question now is not whether the U.S. dollar will fall, but when. And as BRICS moves closer to launching its own currency, that day may be sooner than anyone expects.

The empire, long propped up by its financial manipulation, is facing a reckoning—one that could change the course of history.]

IMF Growth Forecast: 2024

🇮🇳India: 7.0% (BRICS)

🇨🇳China: 4.8% (BRICS)

🇷🇺Russia: 3.6% (BRICS)

🇧🇷Brazil: 3.0% (BRICS)

🇺🇸US: 2.8% (G7)

🇸🇦KSA: 1.5% (invited to BRICS)

🇨🇦Canada: 1.3% (G7)

🇿🇦RSA: 1.1% (BRICS)

🇬🇧UK: 1.1% (G7)

🇫🇷France: 1.1% (G7)

🇮🇹Italy: 0.7% (G7)

🇯🇵Japan: 0.3% (G7)

🇩🇪Germany: 0.0% (G7)

‼️ 159 out of 193 countries have signed up to use the new BRICS settlement system.

US and European Union will no longer be able to use economic sanctions as a weapon.

This system allows countries to settle trades and payments in their own currencies, reducing reliance on the U.S. dollar, which has long been the dominant global currency.

[mariacallous]

In March, a little-known volunteer organization dedicated to “reviving the religious and secular unity of the Russian people” escorted agents from the Internal Affairs Ministry and the Russian National Guard on a raid in the remote city of Orenburg, a city of 500,000 near the Kazakh border.

Their target was a bar called Pose, which was locally famous for its drag shows. The volunteer organization, called Russian Community Orenburg, posted videos of the raid online, highlighting people in skimpy outfits, asking attendees why they were in a “faggot bar,” and showing clubgoers cowering on the floor as agents conducted their search.

“This is not [a scene from] the decaying West, this is from within the ranks of a country that is at war for a third year,” the group lamented when it posted the video online.

Conservatives in Orenburg had been outraged about Pose since it opened in 2021, according to the Russian outlet Mediazona, and a local media outlet published a sensationalist article about the club, complaining that laws like Russia’s longstanding “gay propaganda ban” did not give local law enforcement the tools to shut it down. That law, enacted in 2013, only bans materials made available to minors and carries light penalties.

The agents in Pose that night were armed with a major new weapon in Russia’s long crusade against its queer citizens. Last November, in a secret proceeding sealed to observers, Russia’s Supreme Court decreed the “international LGBT movement” to be an “extremist” organization, adding it to a list of banned entities that includes terrorist groups and the political operation of the late opposition politician Alexei Navalny. The decision is so broad that it can potentially be used against anyone who has—or simply “promotes”—a “nontraditional sexual orientation,” including people who are not LGBTQ but support queer people’s rights. People convicted under the law face up to 10 years in some of Russia’s harshest prisons, where queer people fear sexual violence or worse.

“This is not a decision to punish you for a few years. This is the death penalty, and it’s clear for everybody,” one longtime activist said, referring to the harsh conditions in Russian prisons. (The activist asked not to be named due to security concerns.) “We will not have a chance to survive there.”

Pose’s owner and two of its employees are now awaiting trial. A court announcement on Telegram notes they are accused of “being persons with nontraditional sexual orientation … who also support the views and activities of the international public LGBT association banned in our country.”

Others close to the bar are now living in fear. Only one regular Pose patron would agree to speak with me, and he said his friends had mostly stopped communicating with one another, afraid they could be discovered. Several had left the city or the country. He thinks he should maybe leave the country, too, but doesn’t have a passport or the money to go into exile, nor a safe place to flee to.

Pose, the patron said, “was my whole life. It was the only place where they accepted me.”

Homophobia became a major part of President Vladimir Putin’s political strategy in 2013. That’s when the Duma passed a national version of the “gay propaganda law.” The legislation was domestically useful to Putin, who was seeking to reinforce his political support by cozying up to the Russian Orthodox Church.

The law, which went into effect just before Russia was due to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, provoked an international outcry, and Putin detected homophobia could also be a tool of foreign policy. His government leaned into the controversy, portraying Russia as a defender of traditional values against a degenerate West that had lost its way. Kremlin allies also began using it in a more targeted way in Ukraine, where an oligarch close to Putin ran an ad campaign warning closer ties to the European Union would force the recognition of same-sex marriages. His decade-long strategy has used homophobia to try to drive a wedge between Eastern Europeans and the West, as well as to delegitimize fundamental notions of human rights and democracy.

To some Russian LGBTQ activists, it was inevitable that the Russian government would double down on going after queer people following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Swiftly, the Russian government made a broad effort to dismantle the last spaces for opposition to his regime. Other steps have included shuttering Russia’s remaining independent media outlets and effectively banning any speech critical of the war or of Putin.

The organization Coming Out, which held an eight-day annual public event in St. Petersburg as recently as 2021, decided to move its whole team outside the country almost as soon as Russian tanks rolled across Ukraine’s borders.

“A few weeks after the war started, I understood that things were not going according to the plan,” said Aleksandr Voronov, Coming Out’s former director, who led its relocation to Lithuania. “I understood that they were going to start looking for new enemies.”

Putin also justified the war partly as a crusade against the LGBTQ movement, which he initially derided in a speech announcing the full-scale invasion as part of a Western plot to “destroy” Russia’s traditional values. Then, in September 2022, he referred to the movement as “satanic” in a speech illegally annexing four Ukrainian regions.

As the war continued, the regime’s propaganda machine pushed outlandish stories, rushing a state television crew to an LGBTQ center in decimated Mariupol that it claimed was “practically under the direct patronage” of U.S. President Joe Biden. Russian lawmakers also responded, expanding the gay propaganda ban in November 2022 and enacting a draconian anti-trans bill in 2023 that would outlaw gender confirming medical treatment, prohibit people from changing their gender on legal documents, and prohibit trans people from adopting children.

“A special military operation is taking place not only on the battlefields, but also in the consciousness, in the minds and souls of people,” said Aleksander Khinshtein, a member of the Russian parliament and an author of the updated gay propaganda law, in a speech to the Duma in October 2022. “LGBT today is a tool of hybrid warfare. And in this hybrid warfare, we must protect our values. We must protect our society and we must protect our children.”

Despite many threats to Russia’s queer movement—the original gay propaganda law, a state requirement that forced many LGBTQ organizations to register as “foreign agents,” growing vigilante violence—Russia’s queer movement had remained vital throughout most of Russia for most of the past decade. (A notable exception is Chechnya, where local officials have detained, tortured, or murdered dozens of queer people.) Queer organizations continued to work and even hold major public events like St. Petersburg’s long-running QueerFest, a multiday festival of LGBTQ-themed talks and exhibitions ending with a large public concert. But the extremism designation is far more dangerous than any previous threat.

Part of the danger comes from the court’s secrecy around the ruling. It not only closed the proceedings, but also barred LGBTQ organizations from participating when they tried to challenge the Ministry of Justice’s petition. Technically, any group the government seeks to declare extremist has a right to respond to the allegations against it, but the Ministry of Justice brought its petition against the “international LGBT movement,” which meant no specific organization would have standing to respond. And even when a group of LGBTQ activists formed an organization called the International LGBT Movement in an effort to intervene, the court refused to allow them to participate.

In fact, the Supreme Court never officially made the order public. It only reached LGBTQ activists in their lawyers when prosecutors in the city of Nizhny Novgorod attached it to their filings in a case against a woman who was arrested for wearing rainbow-colored earrings. (The six-color pride flag and other LGBTQ symbols were banned by the order, and the court sentenced the woman to administrative detention, despite the fact that the woman’s earrings were not discernible pride symbols—they had seven colors and were shaped like frogs.)

Olga Baranova, who has been executive director of an LGBTQ community center in Moscow since 2015, told me that the movement is now backpedaling after years of encouraging people to come out. They used to believe visibility would gradually make Russian society more supportive of LGBTQ people. Now it’s just dangerous.

“We’ve worked all these years just to be [out] and to be in the mainstream. And now we just say, ‘Okay, stop, stop, stop!’” Baranova said. Most people she knows who were visibly out have left the country, Baranova said—as has she—and she and other activists now advise people living in Russia to stay in the closet for their own safety.

Natalia Soloviova, chair of the Russian LGBT Network, a federation of more than 20 queer organizations from across the country, called the decision “absolutely horrifying,” but said that even despite it, the reality is that most queer people are not able or don’t want to flee Russia. The war has made it harder for LGBTQ people to reach countries that promise the most safety to LGBTQ refugees—like the United States or members of the European Union—because those countries have radically restricted visas for Russians. Georgia, which allows Russians to enter without visas, has become an important haven for Russian dissidents of many kinds in the past two years. But Georgia’s ruling party has advanced its own laws attacking LGBTQ people, one of many initiatives to bring the country closer to Moscow’s orbit.

Still, Soloviova estimates a significant exodus, with “hundreds” going abroad. Almost 40 percent of the Russian LGBT Network’s member organizations have relocated at least some members of their team abroad, generally visible activists or people in senior management. And many other queer people have been displaced internally, fleeing threats in their hometowns for larger cities where their pursuers are less likely to find them. Baranova acknowledged that if queer people all either leave the country or live in the closet, as she and others counsel them to do, “the movement will expire.”

Soloviova is one of those who’ve left the country. She first spoke to me in April from Georgia’s capital, Tbilisi, but has since left Georgia. (She feared that country’s new propaganda law and also knew of three queer Russians who were attacked on the street.) She is from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk—Russia’s third-largest city—and said she’d never thought she’d live outside Russia until the extremism designation.

Even today, key details about the Supreme Court order remain secret. For example, the order refers to a list of 281 individuals and 40 organizations considered part of the outlawed movement, but no one knows who is on those lists.

“The hardest thing here is that you have no opportunities to protect yourself,” Soloviova said. “You never know if you’re going to be prosecuted or not, and you will know only when the police come to your house directly and get you to prison directly.”

The charges in Orenburg are the first to reach court, but police appear to be flexing their new muscles across the country. In February alone, Mediazona reported several raids on “private parties” and a night club. LGBTQ activists told me they knew about several other similar incidents but didn’t want to share details, fearing publicity would put those involved in greater danger.

The arrests in Orenburg are just the beginning, worries Stanislav Seleznev, a lawyer with the Russian human rights organization Net Freedoms Project. Regional security officials generally have quotas for making significant arrests, and now LGBTQ people are an untapped pool of so-called “extremists” that can help them reach their goals.

“I’m compelled to assume that we are currently witnessing a model process that will be spread as much as possible all over the Russian regions,” Seleznev said. “Many more people are in a very dangerous situation now.”

Additional reporting contributed by a Russian reporter who asked not to be named, fearing that this article could lead to their arrest under the extremism law.

[songforeddiemunson]

The US election has ramifications on the global scale. A non-citizen is well within their rights to endorse a candidate, because it impacts all of us.

A Dump presidency would be disastrous for the world. I'm not going to go into more detail about this on this post, but it is a belief I hold passionately to.

Non-Americans have been speaking out against the orange ballsack all year, so I don't see how Joe making an endorsement on the eve of our election is strange or inappropriate.

Any reasonable human with a soul who has love for marginalized people; immigrants, members of the LGBTQAI+ community, women, people with disabilities, non-Christians, the list goes on; can not and should not sit idly by and let this go on without comment. Decent people everywhere have an obligation to speak out. Unless Joe becomes a citizen he can't vote here, but his endorsement is a tool; a way of protecting people he cares about.

How can people sit here and express their opinions on Putin or Netanyahu and condemn someone else for doing the same?

Let's leave the hypocrisy to the Republicans, shall we?

Vote blue. 💙 ✌🏼

PS: in case you haven't seen it, here's a link to a video of Joe chanting " fuck Tronald Dump" in 2020. If you think that this opinion is new or something. 🙄

[plida]

Words of encouragement for my US mutuals

Hid the text behind keep reading, just in case someone really doesn't want to interact with posts on election.

Hey guys. This march I went to my first ever election. Attending protests is too dangerous here, it's scary to speak out publicly against the government, so the election was the only tool I was brave enough to use.

Vladimir Putin won with 87%. The results might have been fabricated, might have been not, I'm claiming ignorance. No matter the case, in the end we're stuck with him for at least 6 more years.

It's scary. It sucks. You feel powerless.

But you learn to live with it. You have to focus on your studies, your work, your family, your friends. Call it defeatism, maybe, but if you do not have enough material and mental resources to deal with the dictatorship, you do not have to do it. And that's OK.

It doesn't mean you can't try. If they take all the tools away, like protesting, you can still talk to people you are close with, influence them and work on your social connections.

And if the opportunity presents itself, you then will be able to do something drastic, to change the system, hopefully. 50% of the country is on your side, and you are used to activism. You can still learn to live in a situation like mine - where there's 0 hope for doing anything proactive, as most of the country is against you and the government has guns. But you have more chances in US, please remember that.

I'm not sure what Trump administration is going to do to queer rights. In Russia LGBT is considered to be a terrorist organisation. As a queer person myself, it means I can't be loud about it, I can't wear pride flags, etc. But I can still talk about it. If you're scared they're going to get you for simply being queer, please don't be.

Even if they really want to get rid of queerness, they can't realistically achieve it by giving out punishments to everyone for simply being queer.

Again, comparing Russia to US, there are waay less open queer people here than in america. Do they still bother going after me for saying I'm bi in telegram dms or on tumblr? No! They shut down sites with LGBT content, they punish out-spoken popular figures, but they don't have enough resources to punish every queer citizen.

Just be on the look out for the news. If it goes in the bad direction - pay attention and be a bit quieter. But please don't scare yourself with the worst case scenarios. It's not going to be that, it's going to suck, but you can and will persevere.

Those are basically all of my thoughts atm. Don't lose yourself in the following 4 years. I won't lie and say it's going to be 100% OK, but you will adapt and thrive.

Hugging everyone tightly.

You got this!

[eugenedebs1920]

Pennsylvania Lt. Governor, Austin Adam’s, “The election was free and fair in 2016 when he (Trump) won, it was free and fair in 2020 when he lost, and it will be free and fair in 2024.”

As a previous sports player I can tell you. You can’t just love the game when you win. You are not going to always win. Losses are part of the experience. They’re part of life. Sportsmanship is a life lesson. You win some, you lose some. Either way, you’ll be out on the field ready to go next chance you get.

That is where Trump fails as an adult, as a role model, a politician and a leader. Being gracious in defeat. Defeat is inevitable, doesn’t mean it has to be often, but it is inevitable. To do that takes humility. A trait Trump lacks.

You can’t just love your country when you win. You can’t just be the president of the people who voted for you. You can’t say you’re American, then do all you can to tear down the core of our nation.

This is why anyone with moderate knowledge of history and/or political science would call Donald Trump a fascist. He claims every news organization is “fake news”, except which ones? OAN, NewsMax, and a branch of his campaign, Fox News. That gives away the game right there! So the press is fine as long as they aren’t critical of you? Your policies and actions are fine to be covered, as long as they’re not controversial. That’s part of a fascist political stance. Ask any of those reporters Putin had thrown out a window!

If you have any background studying nineteenth century through twentieth century Europe and Asia it’s clear to see the similarities in the rhetoric, the perceived problems, and the way to fix them. For too long, centuries, fear has been used as a tool to subdue the masses. Whether that’s fear of a military or police state, fear of invasion from a foreign enemy, fear of higher taxes, fear of immigrants. Fear is a powerful emotion. It grips your chest to where it’s hard to breathe but you could jump over a small building at the same time. It’s a natural instinct. All things feel fear at one point or another. It’s a survival tactic. Fascists, and many politicians, use fear as a tool to sway their population or voters towards them. Using such a raw and visceral human instinct.

That fear is often about a thing, a movement or a group. Far too often in modern society this fear, which transmutes into anger, is directed at those different than the majority of the population. Mostly directed at immigrants. From WWII to the genocides in Africa. An enemy is created for the people to extrapolate their anger upon. Donald Trump is a master at this. This is fascism

Before a single vote was cast in 2016, Trump was telling his supporters at rallies that, “The only way we’re going to lose, is if they cheat”. Coincidently he did win, and no fuss was made, no recounts ordered, no lawsuits filed. In 2020, when he botched the pandemic response, made an ass of himself, and us, on the  world stage, when he wouldn’t condemn racism or white supremacist groups and told them to “stand back and stand by”, when he had added nearly $8 trillion to the deficit, when he had broken every rule, every norm, all etiquette and ethics, there was no way he would “win in a landslide”, as it was said.

The American people were sick, broke, couldn’t work, dying by the thousands, stuck at home, frustrated. For him and his supporters to have the slightest doubt that he had the chance of losing is preposterous! Of course he had a chance! He dropped the damn ball numerous times!

His continued lies about the election system is the most damaging thing a “leader” has ever done to our democracy. He has sown seeds of doubt, that, just like weeds, will take a long time to eradicate. For over 200 years we have been the symbol for free and fair elections, the model for the peaceful transfer of power. Now, because Trump lost, we’re all the sudden not!? We’re a 3rd world country!? Or as Trump puts it, we’re the world’s garbage can!? That’s fascism too!

Na tho! It’s him that is garbage. It’s him who can’t be trusted. It’s him that is poisoning the blood of our nation. It’s him who is thin skinned, yet always putting others down. And it’s us.

It’s us who are going to show the world that we still are the America we portray ourselves to be. Leaders! Thinkers! Good, honest people! Kind! Compassionate! Empathetic! Strong.

Let’s show this wanna be dictator and the rest of the world who we are! Let’s show our dignity and self determination. Let’s vote Kamala Harris as the President of the United States of America!🇺🇸