What scares me most isn't knowing what Trump and his cronies are capable of, it's that we cannot imagine what such people might do. My thanks to @JoeNBC for having me on today to talk about @Renew_Democracy.
Autocrats don't care how bad it looks, or if it's legal. They believe they can get away with anything as long as they hold on to power. That they'll cover their tracks, pardon their allies, and not fear the law because they are the law.
But American votes still matter, and the more votes there are, the less impact all the interference has. Tell your reps to demand what's needed to guarantee a fair election and also make sure you register and vote. vote.org
Lawmakers must make it clear that they are watching and that there will be consequences for all accomplices of Trump's assault on American democracy, foreign and domestic. No "we didn't know" or "we were just following orders." They know.
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Providing a platform for authoritarian regimes to have equal status with democratic nations has turned the UN into a cesspool. It was designed to freeze the Cold War between nuclear superpowers, and it mostly worked. The model became obsolete & toxic when the Cold War ended.
It may not be worth the effort of disintegrating the UN, as corrupt and worthless as it is becoming. But there must at least be an alternative organization where dictatorships aren't running human rights committees & authoritarian regimes can't gang up to condemn democracies.
There may be a place for an organization where every nation & regime is treated equally, but such an institution can never be a force for good. Dictatorships are illegitimate by definition. Platforming & empowering them increases all forms of human suffering.
I treasure my own Chess Olympiad memories & would love to just enjoy this Olympiad in Budapest. But politics and the value of human life come first. The Russian Federation is banned, as from most international events, due to Russia's genocidal war in Ukraine. It must be upheld.
As I know from long experience in the USSR and Russia, there is no "just chess," or "just sports" when it comes to propaganda. It means allowing Russia to promote its image on the global stage while murdering Ukrainians in an unprovoked war of conquest.
I was proud to play under the new Russian flag, and I was perhaps the first to insist that I did not represent the Soviet Union. My mother even made me a flag from ribbons for the 1990 world championship. But now that flag represents tyranny & murder. nytimes.com/1990/10/01/wor…
I can’t vote in the US but I am honored to live here and have always admired it. I don’t much care for Harris or many of her policy positions. But even more after seeing Trump tonight, I look forward to vehemently disagreeing with her for four years as US president.
Trump is unfit and always has been. He proved it in office and is only worse now. I’m pretty conservative, but he’s not. He’s the clearer and greater threat to America and American values than the progressive mush that Harris has in her baggage.
As for "Comrade Kamala," allow me a Lloyd Benson moment. MAGA, I know Communism. I grew up under Communism and fought against it and despise it in all its vile, soul-crushing forms. And MAGA, Kamala Harris is no Communist.
Emphasizing that part of this WH fallacy is the idea there is a "Russia" at all on a strategic decision-making level. It’s a one-man dictatorship. There are no core interests except for Putin's. Only when he sees leaving Ukraine as better for his survival than war will he stop.
You cannot negotiate out of a crisis with someone whose survival depends on the crisis continuing. Either Russia destroys Ukraine with massive material and strategic gains, with NATO next, or continuing becomes a threat to Putin’s grip on power so he declares victory & leaves.
This piecemeal support from the West drags it out. Putin is happy to continue the war at this level and escalate opportunistically. He couldn’t care less about Russian lives or the Russian economy or anything else "Russia". Only the threat of an undeniable defeat will stop him.
Ukraine is again proving they know how to fight a dictatorship—with surprise & aggression that creates doubt and fear in the dictator. Meanwhile, its allies continue the failed model of appeasement and diplomacy, which only emboldens the dictator. Read:
Novelty & attack are key. They force decisions all the way up to the dictator & paralyze the power vertical. In a dictatorship, everyone from conscript to general is terrified of making a decision. If it’s business as usual, the behemoth can function. Anything novel is crippling.
Decisions going to Putin is slow & produces cautious reactions. Dictators are fearful; it’s how they survive. Loss of control means death, so they only act aggressively when they are sure of a positive result. They can be wrong, of course, with disaster. So deterrence is vital.
Societal apathy and corruption are useful for sustaining a dictatorship. Civil society is erased and the people collectively have no power, no stake, no interests beyond survival. But that lack of resistance applies to everything, including foreign invasion.
Ukrainians would be justified in seeking out every form of revenge on Russian soil after what Russia has done to them for 10 years. Torture, rape, murder of friends and family, entire cities destroyed. But their entire value system is different. Democratic, Western.