Russian Invasion of Ukraine

[Moksha]

If things go badly for Russia, Putin could always seek sanctuary at Mar-a-Lago providing the Secret Service would foot the bill.

[canpakes]

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Nice try, Russians.
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[K Graham]

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Nice try, Russians.
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FOX News Execs would be proud of their tactics.

Claim everyone else is lying but you, never back up your claims, and expect your audience to be as stupid as necessary to believe their nonsense.

Seriously though, it is hard to imagine this kind of propaganda having much of an effect. I mean who is really dumb enough to turn off their eyes and ears when watching the actual assaults take place on the internet?

Oh, never mind.

[Gadianton]

I mean who is really dumb enough to turn off their eyes and ears when watching the actual assaults take place on the internet?

binger?

Well, that kind of misinformation has a couple of motives. To me, Trump-style lying comes from legal culture, something he has a whole lot of experience with. In church, you're taught to be radically honest (while the leaders maintain the expertise on lying). Babies are blessed with a "guilty conscience" to make sure they grow up paying a full tithe and submitting to the Brethren. No matter how guilty or innocent you are, the absolute worst thing you can ever do in a courtroom is admit guilt to anything, ever. A common belief by people who are generally good and get into trouble is that by being honest and looking for forgiveness, that the legal system will be happy to work with them for telling the truth and admitting guilt. No, that not-so-bad thing you did probably has a penalty of 10 years in prison and if you say you did it, then you've got to pay the price. Always deny everything. And that tilts the floor of our culture, gravity pulling society in a direction of pragmatic dishonesty.

And so, Russia doesn't really have to get their lies to go viral like a Trump campaign, that would be a hell of a bonus, but they do need to double-down and deny everything so that when Putin goes to court for war crimes, he has access to as many excuses as possible and can get the best plea bargain. The tactics for starting an illegal war or possessing an ounce of cocaine are about the same. I suppose framing it in Trump-style language is the best way to communicate to the West.

But yeah, that document makes for an excellent reductio ad absurdum of a Trump campaign. However, it's getting more difficult to do reductio ad absurdums in the era of Putin and Trump, because all the extreme examples are getting taken up by real events. Getting hard to imagine anything more extreme than what's really happening.

[Moksha]

... and expect your audience to be as stupid as necessary to believe their nonsense.

That has worked well for Fox.

[K Graham]

... and expect your audience to be as stupid as necessary to believe their nonsense.

That has worked well for Fox.

Seriously if it weren't for FOX News I doubt Republicans would ever win elections at all.

[Chap]

Not a clever man!

Sometimes some politicians give the impression of not knowing that there is a real world out there ...

Outcry after US senator Lindsey Graham suggests Putin’s assassination
The Republican senator doubled down on his Thursday comments as lawmakers on the right and left react with dismay and outrage

Now this damn fool has put Putin on his guard, I have had to put my whole operation on hold ...

Lindsey Graham has attracted widespread condemnation after the South Carolina senator suggested Vladimir Putin should be assassinated in order to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Graham first made the suggestion in an appearance on Fox News host Sean Hannity’s show on Thursday evening, and he then repeated the idea in a tweet that quickly went viral.

“Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military? The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out,” Graham said on Twitter. “You would be doing your country – and the world – a great service.”

Brutus refers to one of the assassins of the Roman emperor Julius Caesar, and Stauffenberg was a German army officer who was executed for attempting to kill Adolf Hitler in 1944.

Graham added in a separate tweet: “The only people who can fix this are the Russian people. Easy to say, hard to do. Unless you want to live in darkness for the rest of your life, be isolated from the rest of the world in abject poverty, and live in darkness you need to step up to the plate.”

Despite immediate criticism of Graham’s comments from left and right in the US, he doubled down on the idea in a Friday morning interview with Fox & Friends. “I’m hoping somebody in Russia will understand that he is destroying Russia, and you need to take this guy out by any means possible,” Graham said.


Russian officials also attacked Graham’s comments as “criminal” and demanded that the US government provide an explanation for his rhetoric.

“The degree of Russophobia and hatred in the United States towards Russia is off the scale,” the Russian ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said in a Facebook post. “It is impossible to believe that a senator of a country that promotes its moral values as a ‘guiding star’ for all mankind could afford to call for terrorism as a way to achieve Washington’s goals in the international arena.”

American lawmakers of both parties responded to Graham’s comments with shock, dismay and outrage, pointing out the danger in demanding the assassination of a leader whose troops are currently engaged in shelling nuclear plants.

“I really wish our members of Congress would cool it and regulate their remarks as the administration works to avoid [a third world war],” the progressive congresswoman Ilhan Omar said in a tweet. “As the world pays attention to how the US and [its] leaders are responding, Lindsey’s remarks and remarks made by some House members aren’t helpful.”

The Democratic senator Brian Schatz added, “I have seen at least a half a dozen insane tweets tonight. Please everyone keep your wits about you.”

Republican members of Congress were no less critical, as Senator Ted Cruz derided Graham’s suggestion as “an exceptionally bad idea”. “Use massive economic sanctions; BOYCOTT Russian oil [and] gas; and provide military aid so the Ukrainians can defend themselves,” Cruz said. “But we should not be calling for the assassination of heads of state.”

Even Marjorie Taylor Greene – the extremist congresswoman who has sparked outrage for, among other things, comparing coronavirus-related restrictions to the treatment of Jewish people during the Holocaust – chimed in from the right with criticism of Graham.

“While we are all praying for peace [and] for the people of Ukraine, this is irresponsible, dangerous [and] unhinged. We need leaders with calm minds [and] steady wisdom,” Greene said on Twitter. “Not blood thirsty warmongering politicians trying to tweet tough by demanding assassinations. Americans don’t want war.”

Experts in Russian politics argued that Graham’s suggestion was not only irresponsible but also unrealistic. Bill Browder, the financier whose work against Russian corruption led to the Magnitsky Act of 2012, described Putin as “probably the most paranoid man in the world”.

“He’s a very little man. He’s very scared of everybody, and he’s very vindictive. And so he’s constantly looking around for betrayal,” Browder told CNN on Friday. “I don’t think that there’s going to be a palace coup because he’s looking to try to stop it.”

At the daily White House media briefing, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said: “We are not advocating for killing the leader of a foreign country or regime change. That is not the policy of the United States.”

[Jersey Girl]

Not a clever man!

Sometimes some politicians give the impression of not knowing that there is a real world out there ...

Outcry after US senator Lindsey Graham suggests Putin’s assassination
The Republican senator doubled down on his Thursday comments as lawmakers on the right and left react with dismay and outrage

Oh yeah. Let's just send over a hit man from Newark why don't we. Nothing personal. It's business.

[Jersey Girl]

I don't know why this gave me dystopian 1984 kind of vibes, but it's impressive and should spark a sense of hope. Less than half a minute long. LOOK.

Cheers erupt as Ukraine president addresses huge protest in Prague via video link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNrBgcXagQE

[Jersey Girl]

I'm going to assume this is accurate because I haven't had time to poke around.

Putin Addressed the World! "Stop Sanctions"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0wYtLkx-H4

Putin: Stop sanctions.

Jersey Girl: F you buddy. F you right back into the hell that spawned you.