I never thought I'd see the US aligning with Russia

[VolcanoJapan]

The US appear under Trump to be aligning with Putin and Russia more and more.

What was until recently referred to as our greatest allie is moving close to Russia in many ways, carving up Ukraine for Russia, trade deals with Russia.

It's bizarre.

Aibu to think it's bizarre or was this always coming when trump was elected?

No but the voting data shows which groups majority went for him and which did not….

He did not “smash the polls”.

He won. But it was as close as ever and he did not get over 50%.

I remember the first time that Trump first got in, I was laughing at the people with Trump Derangement Syndrome.

Not sure what to think now. Things that seemed ridiculous are coming true.

They weren't so deranged after all? Trump is now even more deranged than they were?

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-popularity-polls-changes-favorability-2032684

Falling approval ratings.

Tbf nobody gave a crap about his various land grabs over the decades while the western financial markets were profiting from vigorous Russian laundering.

Brexit was part of the same end game so no I am not surprised. Just saddened and worried.

It's important to understand what the people behind Trump are up to. They'll use him while he's useful to them, but they don't have a high opinion of him.

This stuff's coming from the tech oligarchy, who've been dreaming of this for a while. Their idealogue is Curtis Yarvin, funded by Peter Thiel (who founded Palantir, the big-data company).

Silicon Valley Whistleblowers Warn Elon Musk ‘Hijacking’ Republicans to Control Entire US Government
Former followers of the ‘Dark Enlightenment’ say a planned ‘neo-reactionary’ hollowing out of government is happening in real time
https://bylinetimes.com/2025/02/07/silicon-valley-whistleblowers-warn-elon-musk-hijacking-republicans-to-control-entire-us-government/

and

The Billionaires’ Plot for Ending Democracy Is Already in Motion
The Butterfly Revolution: A Roadmap to Corporate Authoritarianism
https://thelostnerve.tumblr.com/post/775295725065125888/the-billionaires-plot-for-ending-democracy-is

I've edited out the name of a famous online payment system, as it seems to cause MN to automatically hide the post pending inspection, but from the second link:

[The memo says:] “Elon Musk’s unchecked consolidation of power over government infrastructure, financial systems, AI governance, and digital media does not serve the interests of the Trump administration or the broader conservative movement”, warns the memorandum. “While some may view Musk as a useful instrument in dismantling the bureaucratic state, in reality, his actions demonstrate that he is not working for Trump or the Republican Party, but rather for his own power and the broader neo-reactionary agenda.”
[...]
Musk, the memo warns, is moving rapidly to take control of the apparatus of US Government power on behalf of a core network of interests who subscribe to Yarvin’s ‘ Dark Enlightenment’ ideology. Other leaders in the US technology oligarchy aligned with Musk who subscribe to Yarvin’s ideas include Marc Andreessen (partner at venture-capital firm A16Z and author of the Techo-Optimist Manifesto), Balaji Srinivasan (former chief technology officer of Coinbase and author of the Network State), David Sacks (who co-founded [online payment system PP] with Peter Thiel), and of course Thiel himself.
[...]
The [whistleblowers'] memo points out that Curtis Yarvin has a vision for an “American Caesar”—a strong leader who would dismantle existing democratic institutions and centralize power, but argues that “Trump is no Caesar.”
Although Yarvin has recently, in light of the rapid dismantlement of key US Government agencies, endorsed Trump’s second term, his pro-Trump position still sees Trump as little more than a vessel and tool for the neo-reactionary movement. “Caesar was an Olympian. Trump should be on Ozempic”, Yarvin wrote.
[...]
The memo reveals that Musk’s actions fit alarmingly well with Yarvin’s prescriptions for how a Trump administration can be exploited by the neo-reactionary movement to install a new faction of elitist Silicon Valley technocrats at the helm of a hollowed-out US Government.
[...]
The whistleblowers conclude: “The hollowing out of government, the privatization of state functions, and the centralization of decision-making in unelected corporate-backed figures—once abstract concepts in Yarvin’s writings—who make a spectacle of the Presidency are now being tested at the highest levels of government.”

It's because he's becoming more dangerous and brazen. However, we recently supported a genocide and ethnic cleansing and our PM advocated for war crimes - so it's not black and white.

Ah, bollocks, it obviously triggered the temporary "hide till MN inspect" even though I thought I'd removed the triggering term.

<sigh>

Sorry, you may have to wait a few minutes to read that.

Oh, that was quick! Thanks MNHQ!

I despise both of them (and a few more as well) but do not suggest that they are mad. That excuses them for what they do. It's the old Hitler "mad" or "evil" line. It's a way of distancing ourselves from their actions - they must be "mad" or "evil" to do what they do because "us normal people wouldn't". We all, every single human being, have the capacity to do or think like they do - it is a conscious choice that makes them who they are, and us who we are. Recognising how easily we might slip down that slope is one of the things that stops us being one of the three "wise" monkeys. They are there, in power, because people are either too scared to stop them or believe that they represent their best interests. And mostly, unfortunately, the latter.

Try reading How to Lose a Country: The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship by Ece Temelkuran. She saw all this coming, and we are dangerously near to a precipice where the whole world can fall. It's too late to recognise what they really stand for after they have been elected.

He was always dangerous and brazen. That's how come he managed to get a grip on Russia after drunk Yeltsin left it in chaos.

And he was useful to us for that reason, because once Russia was turning a profit, everyone benefited. During that time his administration was responsible for many atrocities but no one batted an eyelid, really. What turned the tables for him was squaring up to NATO via Ukraine as proxy. This showed him to be getting too big for his boots as far as USA was concerned and where USA went other NATO followed.

Support for Ukraine may have been couched in ideological terms - all modern wars are spoken about in ideological terms because they all involve huge amounts of civilian losses and they would otherwise be unpalatable - but war and alliances are always about money and power.

From US news.

His cuts to USAID have fucked over American farmers.
His mass firings in the Nuclear Security and Air Safety sector has meant they are now scrabbling around trying to rehire the workers fired.
His actions are being challenged in 100s(?) of expensive court cases.
There were protests all over America on Presidents Day.
Even elected Republican officials are horrified at his actions wrt Ukraine.

These are not all bellyaching Democrats. They are Republicans and Trump voters and he's only been in a few weeks.

I think that Trump and Putin had a secret agreement, which is why Trump is looking pathetic giving Putin everything he wants without asking for anything in return.

I hate Trump but I saw him as a strong and dominant leader, now he's just under Putin's thumb as his puppet and lost all credibility as well as his reputation as a supposed master dealer. It's just sad really.

is it though? my impression is that he's doing exactly what he said he would.I think the MAGA crowd is delighted.

He's on our doorstep and stepping up his aggression. We all know he's a brutal dictator and Russia is devoid of human rights. His opponents are clumsy around windows.

However, invading Ukraine is a major escalation which is why we were meant to be on Ukraine's side. Ukraine was completely screwed over by everyone.

Trump loves power, and not neutered power through winning elections and following laws and conventions, true power where you just do what you want because you're the best - dog eat dog - so of course putin, kim jong un etc are his more natural bedfellows than starmer etc

@Clearinguptheclutter
"is it though? my impression is that he's doing exactly what he said he would.I think the MAGA crowd is delighted."

That's MAGA propaganda.

He said he knew nothing about Project 2025. It's clear from the first few weeks of his presidency that he's closely aligned with the 2025 agenda.
He said he'd bring prices down - he can't.
He's said he would 'make America healthy again' and is now trashing the institutions responsible for monitoring and regulating industry, while also destroying the wellbeing of hundreds of thousands of federal employees - those who've been sacked as well as those who now live in fear of it.

I agree that Ukraine was screwed over but not just by Putin - it's been used by both sides. NATO had personnel in Ukraine at the border and were hinting at moves to install missiles capable of reaching Russia.

That's Russia a country which remember has for over seventy years had nuclear weapons pointed at it by the only country in human history that has used atomic bombs - twice - on civilian populations, which is also a founding member of the same NATO making inroads in Ukraine.

There is no way that any Russian leader worth his salt would let that go. Ukraine administration must have known this - NATO certainly did, and was just waiting for Putin to escalate even slightly - if you remember it was NATO and EU that stated all out war had started after eight years of fighting.

This poster is spot on.
Even friends of Trump say there is no way he will just step down in 4 years time. He will just change the constitution to suit himself and the rest of the world will bend to his will terrified of the economic consequences.
I am truly scared. Every day it gets worse.

Ukraine obviously didn't think so because they gave up their weapons and didn't join NATO.

Anyway we've been commanded by our orange overlord to lift all sanctions on Russia.

I'd add Nick Land's writing on the Dark Enlightenment:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment

This stuff was fringe only a few years ago but seems to have gone mainstream very quickly.

Ukraine couldn't outright join NATO because they were severely compromised by both internal and international corruption and by the type of fighters they were using on the border.

They've got a lot in common - they're both narcissistic megalomaniacs.

My understand is that to change the actual constitution including the 4 year rule you need two thirds of both houses to agree. It doesn’t look likely that the republicans can get two thirds of the seats in both houses. At least not anytime soon.