#also Ukraine not being able to have elections because martial law

[the-jam-to-the-unicorn]

Not really surprised at that point. Tucker is just making it official that he's a Russian propagandist. 🤷‍♀️

I mean, I literally can already say what the interview will be about and what Putin will say. And how much the Vatniks and their useful idiots will milk this thing, talking about it forever and anywhere. 🙄

[incarnateirony]

I think the biggest lie about the united states that we’re told since birth as citizens is that... america is a country.

Okay, hear me out, two parts to this.

There’s the very obvious part of “The United States is a Country, America isn’t, it’s a continent.” EG North/South America. The United States of America.

But really in actual execution there’s another point -- to which the above shorthand even panders. Our states.

Our states are supposedly largely able to self-govern and set a bunch of laws free of actual national oversight. In fact, Republicans gong on about this and throw supposed fits while ironically pushing for bigger and bigger police state involvement America, but regardless of the actual effective application of it, that’s the idea.

Most states are huge. If you compared US States to countries in Europe in terms of size and diversity of geography and culture, you’d see next to no difference. 

“United States.” That’s just it though, that’s the key word. What’s in a state, really. Because by definition, the word “country” can be applied variably to states, sovereign states, nations and nation-states. That’s right, some countries are states. Which seems like a really basic thing but again, hear me out.

The very idea of 50 united states, all small countries unto themselves, united together is pretty much just... I dunno, a UNION. Like the European Union. But the countries, that could even be called states, within the European Union don’t just pretend they’re all one big country. 

So my weird point in all of this is that the nationalism of the united states is such a huge, falsely constructed phenomenon at our current junction. It’d be like europeans screaming back and forth at each other over the need to absolutely support any and all decisions by the biggest head in the EU or you’re Not Patriotic And A Sinner Or Whatever. Only in America’s case, that individual is making more and more martial decisions that are becoming outright catastrophic to surrounding nations.  

EU countries do things like give their citizens EU health insurance cards. Which would be like, rather than (State) medicaid, it’s also (Federal) medicaid, as long as there’s some reciprocation involved and basic communication. The European Union is the ultimate foreign policy maker. And so on. Sound familiar? Most of the EU is now border free without border checks or hassles. Also sound familiar to over here?

“The United States of America”‘s nationalism to force adherence to absolute bullshit is ridiculous. It’s more like The Smiles For The Christmas Card Countries of America, above which the slightly more organized but never invited to christmas canada hat sits hoping we don’t go nuclear. Just like countries have their own parliaments/parallel, we have state senates and whatever else. America isn’t just one country, it’s 50 very crudely strapped together countries that DESPERATELY need to at least break into like 5 territories for general management before we all just die in a civil war that isn’t even really a civil war just a continental one.

If it ever feels like Alabama and Oregon are completely different countries, that’s because essentially, they are. They just happen to be in the same union. It’s like pretending Sweden and Latvia have related political issues and needs and that people in one should get to make very loud decisions that heavily impact people in the other. Shockingly, the EU has mostly worked out war policy and health care. Maybe not perfectly. But better than our discombobulated asses out here.

I’m sure someone’s going to come and try to hyperanalyze pinpoint-pick-apart something on completely unnecessary semantics but the general point is here -- we’re now at a point where we’re... IDK. The EU has a few kinds of presidents, right? The council, Commission, and president of Parliament but that’s kinda like the three branches of government. I guess it’d be like a large batch of Europeans like worshipping Donald Tusk’s decisions even if he started rolling tanks through town For Reasons. Given I’m approaching this part from an academic level of more reading about than living the EU experience so there may be a better parallel. 

And no, Tusk is no Trump. AFAIK he’s been working against Russia meddling in Ukraine? And outright mailed that Trump is a huge threat to the EU? But like. Put Trump in Tusk’s position. Tusk in Trump. That’s it, that’s the difference, Europeans just aren’t brought to praise the ground the EU leader(s) walk(s) on.

Just random thoughts for people indoctrinated about US BS from the inside and people outside that are still sort of looking at the US and going WTF. There’s essentially 50 countries over here with different needs, and a large batch of them living in very, very old and dated times with heavy religious influence, but have used the union overhead to get themselves disproportionately represented among the union at large, in a way that’s dictating the entire union in favor of these smaller countries and barring this union from making basic fucking decisions that the better part of Europe is decades ahead of us on, even if struggling in some areas.

In fact, the better part of the states and areas that pull disproportionate advantage and representation just so happen to be the same areas that tried to leave the union during the civil war. And lost. Devastatingly. And have been trying to bend things to their old favor ever since. For all their "she lost, get over it" memes these same states sure haven't gotten over losing the civil war. Seriously. Cut slave states out of the union, run an election, see if a republican ever gets elected ever again. You know, to be the head of the American Union. Because that’s all it fucking is. 

The Confederacy was Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia  No, really. Please. Break away and do your own thing again, be a different country. California alone would outweigh about the sum of remaining red states, much less... literally everything else. 

You wanna know why Texas threatens to leave the union constantly but never fucking DOES? Because republicans would never win again and it takes down most of the rest of the mason-dixon front with it. That’s it, that’s the only reason. PLEASE secede from the union and take the others with you. BUT THE USA HAS A FLAG

so does the EU

BUT MY STATE HAS A FLAG

so do countries in the EU.

fuck this false nationalism bullshit in general. White nationalism is of course a huge part of it but seriously fuck general american nationalism it’s one giant fucking lie. The entire union is fucking corrupted in the upper levels, as we all know and rant about but in such a rancorous way that even pulling out for the Right Reasons would end up being disasterous, it’s like a hostage situation of 50 basically-countries all slapping at each other with a megaphone given to the people who LOST the war of how to run the union to begin with.

Europeans should probably start asking Americans what state they’re from and hold that in the same way they hold discourse about countries of the EU. And Americans should probably identify by state to the outside world. “I’m from Europe” gives nowhere near the idea as “I’m from Spain.” Same goes for America. In example, I’m traveled! I was born in California! Raised at the border of Illinois and Wisconsin! Spent a huge chunk of life in Texas! Had my best success in Oregon! Am currently spinning my wheels trying to get out of Alabama! And you know what? Literally ALL of them had completely different culture. But seriously fuck anything in the mason-dixon line.

[myukrainianopinion]

The situation with COVID in Ukraine can be used in the struggle for power

Any election in its essence is a practical definition of the quantitatively prevailing demand of society. But this is the ideal. In practice, additional factors are included: from administrative resources to the specifics of electoral legislation. As, for example, in the USA. In 2016, Trump lost to Hillary Clinton in terms of the number of voters who voted for him (62,985,134 versus 65,853,652 for Clinton), but won in terms of the number of electors. In Ukraine (as in the vast majority of countries) they did not bother with such difficulties, and here everything is simple: whoever has more is on the mountain. But this is the simplicity that is "worse than theft", especially when those in power doomedly watch the fall of their popularity, authority, electoral sympathies, in short, "ratings." This is exactly what is happening in Ukraine, where local elections are scheduled for October 25. It seems that everything is not so important: where is Kiev, and where are some Horish Plavni. But the balance between central and local authorities is a delicate matter. Power is the territory of its implementation. In the parliamentary elections last year, Servants of the People won all of Ukraine without any problems, with the exception of three electoral scraps in Donbass, Galicia and the extreme south-west of the country. Forty days before the local elections, one gets the impression that even according to official opinion polls, "Servants" are turning into political outsiders. Mayors of cities and their political teams become the leading local force. Let's take candidates in key cities: Kiev: Mayor Vitali Klitschko (Strike) - 23.6%; Irina Vereshchuk (Servant of the People, 6th place) - 4.8%. Kharkiv: Mayor Gennady Kernes (Successful Kharkiv) - 41.9%; Alexey Kucher (Servant of the people, 6%, 4th place). Lviv: Mayor Andriy Sadovoy (Samopomich) - 41%; there is NO candidate who would be associated with "Servant of the people" in the polls. Odessa: Mayor Gennady Trukhanov (Trust the deeds) - 46.6%; Oleg Filimonov (Servant of the People, 4.2%, 3rd place). And it should be taken into account - these are public polls for throwing into the media space. But in the dark world of political technologies, there is also a "sociology for domestic consumption." Which reflects the real state of affairs, without the factor of publicity. Apparently, this sociology shows that the "Servants of the People" in the regional centers of Ukraine "take" only the mayor's chair in Uzhgorod. Of course, the central government can "bend" any mayor individually. Moreover, in the same Lviv, many local analysts regard Andrey Sadovy as a "secret candidate" from the ruling party. Although not only him. It is possible that all the leaders of mayoral races in large cities have agreements with the "Servants". In such a situation of "electoral peak" the natural desire of the authorities will be the desire to maintain power and avoid "shameful defeat at the elections." By any means. Such a means as the "terrorist threat" allowed the "Servants" to push through the decision of the Central Election Commission of Ukraine to deny the right to vote to voters of 18 united territorial communities in the east of the country, in the controlled territories of Luhansk and Donetsk regions. In the future, this feint may hurt "Servants", but at the moment they were able to cut off half a million of their "unreliable masters" from the ballot boxes.

But what about the rest of the nearly thirty million? The best option is to cancel the elections. But according to the law, elections can be canceled only in two cases: the introduction of martial law or a state of emergency. This is where COVID comes to the rescue. In this case, it doesn't matter if it is a pandemic or a planetary political scam. Another thing is important: epidemiological data are manipulated at the highest level. On September 12, CNN reported that "Trump-appointed public relations officials at the US Department of Health and Human Services insisted on changing the language of the weekly scientific reports published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention so as not to undermine the political messages of President Donald Trump." That is, regardless of the game CNN is playing against Trump, the leading American agency has admitted that medical data is being corrected, that is, manipulated. Highly Likely (quite likely) is the main evidence of any liberal suspicion. And if the "center of the world" allows itself, then on its far periphery God himself commanded. Because by correlating the data on the sick, one can easily lead the public opinion of the country and the world to the need to cancel the elections, if only for the sake of "maintaining the social distance" between potential victims of the virus. Hayley likely, from here comes the data on an almost exponential increase in the number of cases and panic assessments of the prospects for medical care. "Red" zones of quarantine, where all social life is prohibited, are growing before our eyes, and warning "orange and yellow zones" have already occupied almost half of the country - as of September 14, 2020 (http://focus.ua/ukraine/463029-krasnaia_zona_vyrosla_v_ukraine_vstupilo_v_silu _novoe_karantinnoe_zonirovanie # & gid = 463029−2 & pid = 1). For comparison: on July 31 (http://www.unn.com.ua/ru/news/1883657-ukrayinu-podilili-na-zoni-karantinu-karta). And what can happen with further "red growth"? Only the introduction of an "epidemiological emergency" with a completely constitutional cancellation of elections. After all, a pandemic was not provided for by the Ukrainian constitution, in the absence of it. So far, Ukrainian VIPs publicly guarantee the holding of elections. “The elections will not be hypothetical, they will be held one hundred percent, because this is in line with the constitution” (Dmitry Razumkov, Speaker of Parliament, August 23). The speaker is echoed by the member of the Central Election Commission Sergei Postiviy, convincing that the inclusion of a region in the "red" quarantine zone is not a reason for canceling the elections. "As of today, we have no reason to say that there will be any cancellations." Pay attention to the word "bye" ... But on August 30, the chief sanitary doctor of Ukraine Viktor Lyashko announced that "if a state of emergency is not introduced, the elections will be held, including in the" red "zone." And here, pay attention to the word "if". But even in the event of an election, COVID can provide a number of opportunities for the GREEN government. For example, take advantage of the thesis, which has long been questioned, that the coronavirus "suffices" primarily for the elderly. There are already rumors that the authorities want to ban elderly people from voting in elections due to the unsatisfactory epidemic situation: “There are talks about the possibility of elderly citizens getting sick. That is, they want to exclude [from the electoral process] citizens of mature age who are sympathizers of the OLE, the party of the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, and all other parties ... Unlike the ruling party, which, as you saw, had a large number of young people. " Summing up, you can afford a forecast: over the next month, the number of COVIDs in Ukraine will increase significantly, which will allow the central government to raise the issue of either canceling / postponing local elections, or changing the conditions for their holding. And many of the current political elite will be able to mutter with relief: "There was no happiness, so misfortune helped."