a quick poll about Russia and Donald Trump

xp

hillary let herself become a foil to trump. biden didn't, it just didn't work.

the way the guardian piece drops in the italicized scary russian words is extremely funny imo

what's the russian word for signature reduction?

kamala doesn't need to be divisive. there is a lot that the biden administration is doing that has mass appeal, including this new infrastructure bill. she needs to run on that and on the fact that they helped pull the country out of the covid catastrophe.

I feel like I shouldn't have to point this out, but in modern America a woman of color running for president is going to be extremely divisive.

сокращение подписи

Aka 'sokrashcheniye podpisi'.

You're welcome. xp

people who are so racist that they wouldn't vote for a black person, or so sexist that they wouldn't vote for a woman, are voting for the republican candidate anyway. you don't need to worry about those voters. the important thing is driving turnout with a message that has broad appeal. i personally think that the key part here is not getting drawn into trump's distractions (if in fact trump is the candidate in 2024).

it's not kamala vs. trump, it's sane government that is responsive to the needs of the public vs. a lunatic authoritarian who, last time he was in charge, drove the nation into chaos.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/putin-russia-kremlin-vladislav-surkov-grey-cardinal-moscow-a8773661.html

sorry thought this was the other thread. anyway, that link is about the propaganda strategy of the kremlin under putin, which is based in maximizing incoherence and confusion. i think it's possible this is a fake leak designed to get "russiagate" back in the news and sow more chaos in america.

especially the fact that the "kompromat" thing is coming up again. like, enough is enough. five years of this.

Harris isn’t going to be President this decade unless Biden dies. The track record for VPs immediately becoming President in modern history is… HW Bush.

i was just naming anyone, and she's next in line and will probably try for it at some point. i'm just saying, whoever it is will be satan to 40% of the country, divisiveness is baked into our country now

treeship, I'm not talking about winning the votes. my point was that Russia wants to sow as much division and discontent in the US as possible, given our inherently racist society I'm guessing they want Kamala to run so they can use that to continue pushing that division with the tools they've honed over the last two elections. it wasn't intended as a referendum on who will vote for whom.

maybe russia wants to do that. i think we let russia live in our heads too much, rent-free. like, by their own admission, there isn't much rhyme or reason to their strategy beyond "sowing division" and "chaos."

meanwhile, the republican candidate will be an impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex. but when balanced against the tool of satan, what can you do? america divided

jesus. i was just responding to KM's question about wondering who russia would like to see run, but go off and lecture me some more treeship.

maybe russia wants to do that. i think we let russia live in our heads too much, rent-free. like, by their own admission, there isn't much rhyme or reason to their strategy beyond "sowing division" and "chaos."

Treeship - I see and second your suspicion about this leak; however, this is interesting.. from two days ago: The REvil Ransomware Hackers Have Gone Offline

If it was Russia that forced them offline for whatever reason, maybe they already had these docs and were just waiting for the moment to drop them?

xp boring, MD

trump. i guess i'm making the assumption the republican candidate will be trump. if not him, i guess it would tucker carlson. white america loves a motherfucker

I don't think Pence has a chance

xp i was confused about what you were talking about jon, apologies. i didn't know the conversation started with speculation about the kremlin.

the kremlin re. 2024

people who are so racist that they wouldn't vote for a black person, or so sexist that they wouldn't vote for a woman, are voting for the republican candidate anyway.

I don't believe this for a minute. There are more than enough 2020 Biden voters who are plenty racist or sexist enough to sit out voting for Harris in 2024 and swing the results - and as he likes to point out, Trump got more votes in 2020 than any Republican in history.

i don't know. that could be offset by people who are inspired to vote for a woman, though -- she could get more women turnout. it's really hard to say how it will shake out.

i just think she doesn't need to become a lightning rod. no more than obama was anyway. he was a target of the right but still built a strong coalition of liberals and moderates.

if I were in charge of fucking up US electoral politics I would do everything I could to back Harris for sure, for a lot of reasons

re the guardian piece, something to keep in mind if you're unfamiliar the (very different) norms of UK journalism to keep in mind: when the article doesn't hedge, it might be wrong. when the article hedges, it's probably wrong.

This piece uses a version of the word “appear” seven times, “suggest” five times, and has one big “assessed to be.” pic.twitter.com/b7Su4NeYvK

— Isaac Chotiner (@IChotiner) July 15, 2021

that could be offset by people who are inspired to vote for a woman, though -- she could get more women turnout

I believe this, or rather want to believe this, while also hearing a voice on my other shoulder saying "yeah right, let's ask President Hillary Clinton about that."

different situations with different baggage of course

yeah, i mean, these questions are hard to answer. but i will say that i remember 2008 and the fact that obama was a black man didn't seem to hurt him. in fact, it helped make him a transformative and inspiring figure for many voters, including me.

so, yeah, women candidates face unique challenges and in 2016 misogyny played a big role in the animus we saw toward hillary. but this same dynamic might not manifest itself in the same way again. new election, new situation, new opportunity.

For many reasons “first Black” President or Governor or X does not seem to map onto other demographics or identities.

i don't know. first woman president seems inspiring to me.

Yeah, excitement over the first woman President is probably better predicted by whether or not you have a college degree than whether you’re a man or woman or any other information about you.

that might be true. either way, it is hard to say how strong of a candidate harris will be if she runs in 2024. it depends on what the biden administration accomplishes.

i know i'll be inspired when nikki haley becomes president

Boebert/Greene ftw

obviously it's no one's top criteria. i supported sanders in the primaries. i just think it's too simple to say she will be a lightning rod like hillary just because she is a woman and a POC.

xp boring, MD

trump. i guess i'm making the assumption the republican candidate will be trump. if not him, i guess it would tucker carlson. white america loves a motherfucker

They may even run an actual banana.

The only thing that would actually surprise me is if they nominated a competent and relatively sane human being. Anyone/thing outside of that is definitely on the table.

my feeling about Harris is that, as someone who pays more attention to politics than is healthy, I have no sense of what her priorities are and what, if anything, she genuinely believes in. She also doesn't have an immediately recognizable persona in the way that Biden does. Makes me think Republicans would have a very easy time defining her on their terms and villainizing her.

the Russia thing feels a little too good to be true - my guess would be that Russia's involvement in the election is a bunch of scattered directives to underlings, a few minutes in meetings here and there as the primaries progress, etc, rather than some novelistic meeting in which the fiendish plan is devised.