Here in the library world, there is a distinct slant to the left among staff and supporters, and the Donald Trump election victory has resulted in some paranoia. Some concerns are valid, but most are based on a caricature rather than reality. Project 2025 is not his own idea, and he hasn't embraced it. We aren't looking at a theocratic dictatorship or literal fascism. He is far from above criticism, but keep criticism in the realm of reality and what Trump actually does this time around, please.
Trump has been divorced many times, and is known for associating with prostitutes and porn stars. He isn't about to impose a puritanical regime of monogamy or abstinence-only education. A lot of folks don't like the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, but based on the nature of the US Constitution, their ruling sending the matter back to the states made more sense than maintaining the status quo or establishing a nationwide ban.
Trump's daughter Ivanka converted to Orthodox Judaism some years back, and is married to Jared Kushner. Kushner and Trump's support for the Israeli government has been consistent to the point of distrust from the Palestinians for fairness. Trump is not a neo-Nazi anti-Semitic racist. Comparisons along those lines have zero basis in reality. I doubt he will even promote reverting to pre-'67 borders for Israel and recognizing an independent Palestine outside the green line, but if he did, we might actually have progress.
"Trump wants to cozy up to dictators," people say, because he wants to actually talk to Putin and bring an end to the death and destruction in Ukraine instead of funneling arms and money into sustaining the bloodbath at taxpayer expense. How is this bad? Please, explain it to me like I'm 5, because the war hawks have led us down a dark road for the last several years.
Good ideas from the recent campaign include finally pardoning Ross Ulbricht, Julian Assange, and Edward Snowden. He also floated eliminating income taxes on tips or even basic wages, which would be a long-overdue reduction in political invasion into our everyday lives.
I'm not arguing Trump is good overall. His economic nationalism and border wall proposals are problematic. He's an economic ignoramus. His habit of following the lead of bad advisors is somewhat mitigated by a slightly better set of advisors now, but there is no guarantee he won't change his mind and tell the better ones, "you're fired!" But that said, the worst fears being promulgated on social media and in various opposition echo chambers have little foundation. Keep criticism in the realm of what we can actually see.
There's jubilation and desolation among the ranks of the right and left respectively here in Ireland. We have our own general election in a few weeks time and Trump's success is expected to boost the nationalist, antiauthoritarian vote. Vance apparently sent a strongly worded letter to the Ireland's US ambassador regarding our proposed draconian Hate Speech Laws. All hail Trump! A-ah!
Saviour of the Universe, Trump A-ah!, He'll save every one of us 🙃
I know next to nothing about current Irish politics. I honestly hope the most antiauthoritarians win everywhere, because the nanny state growth needs to end and Karen's need to be removed from power. Unfortunately, while I think there is a chance Trump will make some antiauthoritarians moves here, I am unde rno illusions he has any fundamental principles on that topic. I expect more border authoritarianism, tariffs as a punitive tool of foreign affairs, and possibly a nationwide citizenship purge, although the last is less likely.
The problem with any dealings with Putin is that negotiating will only ever end in Ukrainian territory being lost, and more land for Russia. Putin won't leave without his pound o' flesh, and Zelenski will never agree to further forced annexation of Ukraine's territory. That'd be like Canada telling the US we own Alaska again. Y'all would go absolutely fucking apeshit, and rightly so.
Secondly, Trump doesn't give a single fuck about peace, at all. He's always been friendly to Russia, well well before he ever thought of the Presidency. He's a businessman and has been seeking inroads to Russia since at least the mid-80s (none of which he pulled off). Russian Oligarchs largely bailed him out of his bankruptcy in the 90s, and Russian money has basically made the Trump family profitable for decades. All of this isn't to say he's some kind of Russian plant, but Trump is problematically influenced by two things: folks who've done him solids in the past, and whoever he last spoke to on a topic. He's unable to separate his personal feelings about Russia and Russian Business from his Political feelings about them... and like it or not, Russia right now at least is a destabilizing force.
Short-term, peace by any means necessary sounds like a good thing, but I worry that without a strong show of force the long-term ramifications of letting Russia carve off more of Ukraine will be a signal to other folks looking to take a little extra land that they'll likely manage it with a bit of sacrifice. Isreal right now, as an example, picked a hell of a time to attempt to snap up the rest of Palestine.
ALL OF THAT SAID, this is just my musings on the whole thing, and I'm just some random Canadian programmer, what the hell do I know about the delicate push and pull of international politics and conflict? Peace by any means necessary might be just what we need and I might be biased against Trump because he's a despicable moron and I can't see past that despite even a stopped clock being right twice a day.
Canada never claimed Alaska, but Russia did, and there were rumblings a while back that Putin might want it back.
I remember Clinton's interventions in Kosovo, another bloody war fought in the aftermath of a Soviet satellite state where ethnic conflicts blew up. There is nothing inherently sacred about Ukrainian borders when ethnic Russians wanted to secede peacefully. The history of this conflict stated a lot more than 2 years ago, and while Russian aggression was inexcusable, it was not quite the black-and-white tale we were told. Further, the Biden family involvement in Ukraine is absolutely scandalous, and the corruption of their government and the US cannot be overlooked.
Trump has a lot of blister and belligerence, and I haven't forgotten or forgiven his missteps last time, but he was the only major candidate talking about ending the bloodshed. Campaign rhetoric and promises are usually worthless, but he has surrounded himself with several prominent peace advocates, so I have some hope he's serious.
I will say, for all his many faults... the one thing I can say about Trump is that unlike most politicians... that man does things. Not always good or smart things, but when he says he's going to do something he's a lot less empty talk than the vast majority of career politicians who constantly make promises they don't even attempt to follow through on.
I hope you are right about it for America's sake and the world's. As someone living on the border of Russia and talk about USA pulling out of NATO under Trump, I have a difficulty to see the life here in an optimistic light. In fact, yesterday I began making a list for supplies I will need to stay alive in case of war. I believe you guys in America will be fine one way or another. I am not so sure the rest of us have that in the cards as we are nowhere near ready for shit hitting the fan. Our own fault of course, as I feel a lot of people in the world would say today, but fuck it feels like absolute shit when you simply want to live your life in peace on your land and realize that there are some truly shitty people are making calls for us. For days now I have gone through all the emotions and still can't really cope fully. Not to mention that there is no escape for me to not feel like this since everyone I meet or see talk about it and they are all depressed and see no light. To be fair, I am devastated. So yea, hope you are right that Trump is not that bad and that people whose big ideas were plastered all over media will not actually be realized though something tells me some actually want them to be realized.
The US should leave NATO. The conflict with Ukraine and Russia was sparked in part by NATO expansion eastward over the last couple decades and US intervention in Ukrainian politics. There are persistent rumors of CIA involvement in the 2014 revolution and Ukraine/Russia war then. This doesn't excuse Putin's invasion, but it does help explain it. The Hunter Biden laptop story still demonstrates Biden family involvement in Ukrainian corporate and government interests in a downright corrupt relationship.
It should offer some hope that Russia is bogged down so severely in Ukraine as it stands, and if they overextend into other former Soviet satellites, it will spark open conflict with Poland, Germany, and other EU nations whether the US is still involved or not. With more US participation, nuclear war is on the table, and that is not acceptable. If the US arsenal is out of the picture, Russia still faces European nuclear power, but less incentive for ICBM mutually-assired destruction.
On a simple practicality basis, the US cannot afford to be taxed and indebted further by foreign wars. I still think Harris would have been more likely to lead from the current simmering unrest to open war across eastern Europe based on her association with the Cheneys, but only time will tell what Trump will do, and the counterfactuals are impossible to guess.
The conflict with Ukraine and Russia began when Ukraine rejected the leaders Russia and Putin wanted to be in power there. By wanting to be free and making their own decisions about what happens in their own country is the true reason why things went the way they did. It is the oldest trick in the book of Russia. They have done so many times through the history. Placing favorable inserts in power to then pluck all the benefits under different flag. Great example for it is Belarus today.
If Baltics weren't in NATO, they would have tried this here as well. I live in Latvia and we are one of those former Soviet Union satellites. Time and time again we are being threatened by Russia how we are next after the Ukraine.
Who else would stand up for these much smaller countries? Or the idea is that it is okay to just squash the little guys? It is okay to just squash everyone who want to have their freedom in their own land? I guess, maybe so. Maybe we should just let them. But then you will not have Europe to visit some day. It will all just be Russia here. It will be Soviet Union 2.0. I thought we all were over that shit.
True, but yet somehow through the history US has found itself on every continent wherever there is something to gain anyway.
There's an old song by Tom Lehrer from the 1960s poking fun at US international relations.
The whole "make sure foreign governments elect someone friendly to us or else" isn't just a Russian habit. Ukraine is still caught in cold war power plays from both ways.
There's also a disconnect in how people perceive US intervention and imperialistic overreach as destructive until they want aid or military support in turn. Is US influence a deterrent, or cause of more escalation? Hard to say. Without the US, you would still have all the EU nations and their militaries as potential allies.
Ukraine could have allowed secession. The Soviet Union disintegrated only a short while ago on the historic timetable, and regional autonomy has apparently been asserted since. Before the 1917 revolution. Borders should be allowed to shift peacefully.
None of this justifies Russian aggression, obviously, and I hardly think Putin is a benevolent statesman. Nonetheless, I doubt some of the fearmongering. But I also don't even live on the same continent, which is also why I think the US should bow out of the conflict.
People are losing their minds all over their place. Even here.
Some are paranoid and others assume that he will fix problems they have thought about in their own heads.
A president, even an American one, can only do so much in a 4 year term. The wheels of progress, change and improvement is something that must be worked on by all in a multi-generational span. People need to stop being so short-sighted.