Right, and the puppet in charge will be rather obvious. The only other candidate that would win in a fair Ukrainian election is even more aggressive about opposing Russia than Zelenskyy, but since this is going to be rigged neither of those will win.

(for those curious: the Ukrainian constitution prohibits electing a president during war, it’s especially hard with 20% of the country under hostile control; and regarding Zelensky’s rating, it’s about 70% currently)

A lot of Ukrainians have also fled the country, it makes no sense to organize this before ending the war. Why do we have to have this discussion? They are at war, marshal law is common during times of war to keep your country unified during these periods. Not everyone is fortunate enough to have vast oceans between them and their adversaries to allow for elections of their highest office to continue uninterrupted.

Nah that wasn’t my intention. It’s true that they’re similar, but I’ve mostly been watching American politics.

I really hope Europe starts making some moves.

From the moment he won the election until now we’ve seen a lot of world leaders attempting to make nice with him and appease him. It should be clear now that he cannot be appeased nor will his ego ever be satisfied. He is going to take and take and take until other countries start telling him no and laying out boundaries that they’re willing to strictly enforce if need be.

It’ll take time before the damage starts to really, really be felt.

Federal judges across the country have issued injunctions on everything he’s been writing up at this point. We’re all just waiting for what is left of our legal process to finish, if it’s allowed to do so given the current state of things. These judges will hopefully drag their feet on any ruling. If the appeals court does the same then you’ve got a while before the scotus can do Trump’s bidding.

Inevitably when the process either finishes or Trump bullies these people out of their posts it’ll take about a month or two. When social services get cut so that people aren’t getting their social security, can’t access or afford medications and whatever else he’s cooked up they’ll cry. They probably won’t point the finger in the right place though.

They’re all currently in denial and even when prices increase further due to the tariffs they’ll just blame it on the previous administration.

Trust me, I’ve been trying to explain this to these people for a long time. Had a talk with one of them where I told them about this interview and their exact response was to blame Biden.

For the moment they might be right. People are cheering this guy on but I haven’t heard about any protests. People don’t seem to be angry enough right now.

I fear that instead of an era of reform, the response to this act of violence and to the widespread rage it has ushered into view will be limited to another round of retreat by the wealthiest. Corporate executives are already reportedly beefing up their security. I expect more of them to move to gated communities, entrenched beyond even higher walls, protected by people with even bigger guns.

Unfortunately the alarms are ringing for the wrong people. This is worrying as modern technology can allow these people to deal with mobs and riots a lot more effectively.

This is also why in certain grassroots communities people have been pressing for more radical, immediate action. If the big guys at the top start getting spooked then it could be too late for any efforts at dethroning them.

Didn’t go to any of mine outside of high school because I was a kid and my parents could force me on that one. By the time I finished grad school I really felt like I was just another person in an increasingly growing rat race. It’s not even that I haven’t accomplished anything so much as I haven’t accomplished anything particularly unique that sets me apart and grants me intellectual value.

I mean good but is no one worried about the kid not having any issues with taking someone’s life? Maybe I’m missing out on some extra pieces of info, but it is a bit concerning even if it is an intruder.

We tried. They ignore the vast majority of feedback given to them.

The Mastodon user experience really needed to be simplified greatly to attract Twitter users, because what’s a platform without other users on it to connect to? At this point I feel as if they may have blown their chance.

In how many universes has Lex been president? I remember as a kid there was one where he won the presidency and had the flash executed. Superman responds by going full authoritarian and executing him in return.

The more people you hire the more people have access to the votes for possible physical tampering.

At the end of the day there is no solution that will make all of our elections fraud-proof. Just audit every election from now on. Yes, it’s a bit embarrassing that it’s necessary, but sadly this is the world we live in now.

Essentially just be a renaissance man. It’s much easier to do when you’re younger. I could’ve ticked off over half the list 10 years ago, but now it’s just reading, cooking and writing. I don’t have the time or energy for much outside of work these days.

Remember if you’re going to any protests. Don’t bring your phone and wear a mask. Use a map if you’re not familiar with the area, write any important numbers you might need to call from a cell on your arm. Let friends know where you’re going and don’t go alone if you can.

One of my friends had some rough experiences in some communities after it. I’d have to dig up the screenshots but it was atrocious. She’s not even American but she flat out said it made her want to take a break from online for a while.

I’ve never seen anything like it considering the game we play together tends to have a more progressive and welcoming community that lashes out against open misconduct like that.

Seeing Walz as her VP pick was such a win and then everything started slipping away. If you listened to her speeches you’d start to notice she was slowly leaning more conservative, slowly backpedaling on a lot of Biden admin policies even. And for some reason she was absolutely obsessed with going on right wing media outlets.

I genuinely think she’s rather well spoken but what a waste of potential.

I’m sorry we failed you Bernie.

Oh yeah I don’t disagree about that. I’m the black sheep of my family in that regard. Even my Gen X siblings are Trumpers sadly.

I was just more so pointing out that I wasn’t entirely sure if the younger two generations were actually serious. I know how social media is. Someone posting about something is not the same as someone taking action so I get anxious about whether or not people will actually make good on their statements.

We’ll see how it goes.

One of my initial fears regarding the initial hype phase of Kamala taking the candidacy was that the media hype would wear off and that we’d have a lot of no shows at the polls who only posted about it on their socials because it was trending. I don’t really trust my generation or the zoomers to get out there and vote, but I hope I’m proven wrong.