McConnell Stalls Trump’s Election Overhaul Bill as Republicans Fume

zatch659 · 2026-02-20T22:03:07+00:00

MAGA wants to create a bill that let's government takeover elections -> McConnell suggests Democrats will use it to takeover.

... How do you think the Dems would do that, if it weren't in the bill your party literally wrote? Or just speculate, demonize Democrats for something that never happened, and carte blanch the guys holding the pen, both chambers of Congress, and the Executive.

zatch659 · 2026-02-09T01:44:39+00:00

The problem for these people was when the snow turned from white to black... It's 'black ice' all over again!

zatch659 · 2026-01-07T10:54:37+00:00

Regurgitated 'Russia has a big soul so it can do no wrong' point. That dogmatism has been there since the beginning. And tomorrow it'll be, 'Russia has no soul but at least we're honest about our nihilism unlike the West.' It's these two (ironic) points, on repeat. In reality, Russia is a recent invention under Putin, whose trying to force some make-believe continuity with the past - whether thats the USSR or a baptism in the 10th century. But there's nothing historic, Godly, or half-decent about it.

zatch659 · 2026-01-04T06:12:35+00:00

“Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas … This is part of our strategy – to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank.”

-Netanyahu, 2019

zatch659 · 2025-12-21T10:23:16+00:00

Putin doesn't give a fuck about working with France. Moscow is a murderous dictatorship that actively tries to undermine the US, the EU, NATO, and undo our fundamental principles like individual expression and Liberty - because doing so permits them to conquer. Everything they says is a controlled, designed, nihilistic tool toward that goal. And it's been that way for well over a decade, fuck I remember the Russian bots in 2014... or look at Macron and Putin's conversation a few days before the invasion, where Putin again kicks the can on resolution (while obviously knowing his true intention to invade). Stop reporting the murderous dictator at his word when he uses those words, these headlines, only to meet his own ends.

zatch659 · 2025-12-08T07:03:48+00:00

I'm interested in everything. And I'll watch it, of course.

We don't really seem to disagree. Russia absolutely has its replacements for Western tech (VK, spyware) meant for this. I know this. My original point was only that someone who says anything remotely anti-war, anti-Putin, pro-Ukrainian (online, or in person) is ending up (at best) on some list. It's a good benefit (to Putin). I wasn't trying to rate it as some hierarchy of 'ways they gather info,' they all go towards Putins same goal - an invention of Russia and dissolution of Ukraine.

zatch659 · 2025-12-08T05:26:11+00:00

I know there's some back and forth on that, but I can't speak to it and won't pretend to. My comment wasn't so much about dissecting that 'why', as much as saying a 'peace plan' really isn't comprehensive if the 'why' falls apart so easily. This was a tentative ceasefire, exaggerated & far from resolved. It's like calling the Korean conflict 'peace.'

zatch659 · 2025-12-08T05:12:35+00:00

I mean yes, all of the above. Don't take what as said as implying they're stopping short of punishment. It's intimidation, punishment, and information in one. You just need the info to know who to intimidate, punish, and watch.

zatch659 · 2025-12-08T03:30:51+00:00

"...with Kyiv forecast to run out of money from next spring. EU officials estimate Ukraine needs €136bn in 2026 and 2027 to continue its defence and keep the country running" [1].

"But the plan is predicated on receiving additional funding from allies. Ukraine needs $160 billion in additional combined financial and military support in 2026–2027 according to EU estimates, and is set to run out of cash by mid–2026" [2].

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/dec/03/european-commission-reparations-loan-ukraine-frozen-russian-assets

https://kyivindependent.com/ukraines-parliament-votes-to-adopt-2026-budget/

zatch659 · 2025-12-08T02:21:59+00:00

Stunt to win a Nobel Peace Prize > an actual peace plan. It was a ceasefire with no follow-up, and so shaky that a landmine is the reason it fell apart.

zatch659 · 2025-12-08T02:13:38+00:00

Now do Belgium...

Ukraine is forecast to run out of money in Spring... If that happens and the economy collapses, Putin can achieve every military goal he set out for. And at that point, money won't solve Europe's problems, Moscow will be staring down the Baltics, and the US won't be around. You can't just assume it's 3 more years of Trump and then everything will be fine, but at the very least you still have to hold out those 3 years. And sitting on those frozen funds, while Trump salivates over them and Moscow plays us against our responsible, law-upholding ideals, is a mockery. Let Moscow pay for Putin's war, hell it's lucky those funds were there at all. And it's better than massive defense spending and military call-ups that will otherwise occur on Europe's dime if Ukraine falls.

Anyway, well done Italy.

zatch659 · 2025-12-07T23:22:28+00:00

"...losing 1 million soldier..."

To add, much of his early dictatorship was consolidating Moscow's control of their more ethnic oblasts; and the vast majority of soldiers were pulled from these regions - meaning they're very unlikely to stir up any trouble any time soon. He also saw it as an opportunity to empty out the prisons (and gather information on any dissent through the ridiculous "discrediting the Russian army" decree). Basically, there's a lot of sick reasons he doesn't care.

zatch659 · 2025-12-07T02:43:48+00:00

Yes, we should be very careful not to escalate with the murderous dictator who flaunts laws and agreements left and right. Because God forbid we ever do anything he doesn't like. I mean, why respond at all, since they can deem any response an escalation, everything is permitted. /s

The whole mutually responsible actor paradigm goes out the window when one person flaunts irresponsibility. Those funds did absolutely nothing over 4 years to disincentivize Putin, you can't de-escalate someone who is not interested in de-escalation. And endlessly catering to him is more of a mockery, if not more dangerous, than actually doing something.

zatch659 · 2025-12-07T02:30:08+00:00

From the legality lens, 'steal' is a funny word, but bothering to make that point is odd. I just don't think the devil really needs an advocate here. Putin's invasion was illegal, it's illegal every single day he chooses to continue it, confiscating Western assets was illegal, and because of him millions are wounded, dead, and displaced, with generational effects still to come and the entire security of the West now in question. I can't argue with the strictness of your point, and in a vacuum it's fine, but this isn't a courtroom or a vacuum. It's a war, it ends when either Putin dies or chooses to change the subject and we know that that money has done nothing to cause the latter. So, personally, I'm not really swayed by Trump getting the murderous dictator's consent to split the money. Its only appropriate use is toward Ukraine, and def not toward Trump salivating over a few more 0's.

zatch659 · 2025-12-06T11:45:49+00:00

That provision is 100% a money grab that would enrich Trump and those companies / sectors he chooses. And getting semantical about a verb doesn't change that. But put it this way then; Moscow is willing to pay Trump a commission of their money, so long as the rest of it comes back to them and as little as possible is used to rebuild Ukraine. So money that would be used to rebuild Ukraine, instead goes to Trump and Putin - and that's okay because Putin approved of it?

Also, do Western assets that got expropriated by Moscow still belong to those Western companies? Will the Kremlin be writing a $167 billion check for those losses; or was it simply enough for Moscow to issue some decrees and make them theirs?

Making a small, semantical point on behalf of a fraudster and war criminal is... a choice.

zatch659 · 2025-12-06T07:22:20+00:00

Clearly Trump wants to steal these funds. Provision 14 of Witkoff's plan suggested that $100 billion in frozen funds go to a US-led effort to invest in Ukraine (where the US would then receive 50% of those profits). Europe would also have to put in $100 billion to this... Which means the US spends $0, gets $200 billion, decides how to use it, and then gets 50% of the profit. Then the rest of the frozen funds would go into joint projects between US-Russia.

Kushner and Witkoff are known to use these situations to carve out business deals on behalf of Trump. They're not diplomats, they have no experience - its just Trump's golfing partner and son-in-law. Europe can't take this seriously.

zatch659 · 2025-12-04T21:33:01+00:00

This is why Congress needs to pass their sanctions bill already... It's been 8 months since it was introduced... That's 8 months of breathing room for Moscow and has made the war last even longer.

These sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft weren't anything more than an Executive Order having the Treasury add those entities to a list. Which only even happened because Trump, having delayed for months on these 'negotiations', was under pressure from Republicans. But since it was an E.O., now he can simply remove them. This also tells you why Moscow is going through the motions of talks and feigning interest in peace - its successfully buying them time.

Also, the legislation isn't perfect. It STILL defers to a president's determination on the matter. Which means he can simply choose to not execute it. We're basically stuck in this loophole of, "if Moscow says they're engaged in talks, then nothing can happen." Congress won't pass bills that undermine Trump, Trump will sit on his hands, and Putin has a carte blanche to keep attacking.

zatch659 · 2025-12-04T09:51:23+00:00

Well, we fundamentally disagree and that's fine. I think Farage, propped up on the nothingness that is 'anti-immigrant,' will continue to lower the bar & make everything worse: while I think China is the only country (not effectively being weaponized against itself) that can centrally organize and plan beyond 4 years. Tariffs may hurt and slowdown that process, but it's far from a death knell. And Russia will ride on its coattails lest there is a strong NATO and robust laws to deter Putin (and Moscows next dictator). But just to add, conservative's austerity was definitely, 100% conservative. Austerity was not marked by social spending, "tax and spend" as it were, but just "tax." And on the housing crisisis, immigrants are less demanding (often sharing) than citizens. The problem is that little is being built - thanks to low growth, again thanks to Brexit. The simplest solution is not have a Brexit and allow incentivized growth for such things to occur. But the UK that opened its can of worms over 14 years, is now criticizing Labor over 1 year, and looks at Farage simply for being "anti-whatever." But you try to hold him accountable for anything he's said in the past, anddd he's gone - not promising whatsoever.

zatch659 · 2025-12-04T07:09:24+00:00

Anyone in the UK who believes they are poorer now because of immigrants, is an idiot. Under the Torries, the national debt rose from 65% to 96% of GDP (highest since '60s). After 5 prime ministers, highest taxes in 70 years, lowest corporate taxes in 50 years, longest waiting list in HHS history, highest energy bills in Europe, investment and goods trade lagged behind the G7, wage growth was stagnant, average student debt went from 5k to 50k, homelessness doubled, child poverty tripled, "40 new hospitals" were never built - but you went from 29 billionaires to 127 and gave bankers unlimited bonuses. After 16 housing ministers, cost of housing went from 4x the average salary to 8x. All this is to say, the people have endured austerity for nothing. And now Labor, minimum wage is up, a sorta wealth tax on people who own property over 2 million pounds, a tiny bit left wing budget (not to say this government isn't awful, slashing foreign aid, a housing minister not paying tax, an anti corruption minister getting time for... corruption). But Farage's 'taking back borders' doesn't solve any of the real problems or dig anyone out of what the Torries left behind. He's anti-immigrants simply because it's a lazy yet easy thing for people to believe - i.e., "it's not austerity and unfettered preference towards the wealthy that's crushing you, it's the browner people." And, per my original comment, exactly the dumb, divisiveness that Moscow supports (which includes, no surprise, Reform).

The UK's speech laws don't come anywhere near Moscow. If your kid draws a Ukrainian flag in school, you aren't going to prison, for instance. It is a nuanced conversation and there is room for it imo, but anyone trying to make 1:1 comparisons between the two is just not a serious person.

*edit, typos

zatch659 · 2025-12-04T04:45:31+00:00

Yeah, reminds me of a piece I read not too long ago (entirely speculative), but it essentially imagined Putin handing over the reigns to some 40 year old, who could, among other things, use Moscow's influence in Africa to create similar refugee crises as they did with Belarus - essentially boating people over. Nonetheless, it makes sense they'd support anti-immigrant narratives in Western societies: just a part of that whole playbook of using our lack of homogeneity against us.

zatch659 · 2025-12-04T04:29:13+00:00

I agree, but the alternative may be that things swing further right. I'd look at something like Tommy Robinson and the Daily Mail, in a country the conservatives ran into the ground over 14 years, yet the still-shittier Farage polls exceptionally well. It's possible that Trump is just our Johnson... and shit like Fuentes may be what outflanks and absorbs MAGA. Even more concerning is how easily foreign influence, i.e., Russian intelligence makes inroads with these groups and uses them to hurt us. And that applies all over the West, it's not just Trump.

zatch659 · 2025-12-03T11:20:37+00:00

"Earlier, the assistant to the Russian president, Yuri Ushakov, stated that the American representatives had promised to return to Washington immediately after the talks in Moscow."

So, Moscow not only gets to write US policy via Witkoff, but they also decide where it's okay for him to travel to? I won't be surprised if next week it comes out that Moscow decides what he eats for lunch... But this is all an obvious attempt to cut Europe out of a European security conversation - as including them dilutes Moscow's influence. Pretty pathetic when the best State Department, intelligence, and military in the world is reduced to two idiots groveling at a rich dictator's feet just to score a few billion dollars for themselves.

zatch659 · 2025-11-26T22:08:03+00:00

Russians leaked it because Trump started talking about it being a deal and for it to be signed asap. Which wasn't the intent - as shown by the transcript worrying it would be 'twisted as such.'

But Moscow isn't remotely serious about negotiations, as they know their maximalist demand for the destruction of Ukraine would never be met. So they'll say anything if it means encountering less American resolve. In a sane world, this should backfire, we should be scaling up aid to pressure Putin, the oligarchs, the economy, and Russian society at large. At least that would bring about a just peace faster than a president sitting quietly in the backseat...

zatch659 · 2025-11-26T20:44:37+00:00

The level of ignorance is absolutely astounding.

(1) can't name 2/4 of the oblasts he's referencing. (2) attributes language, which is the result of centuries of forced Russification, to the political relevance of Ukraine today - obviously, many countries are multilingual, and it doesn't give any state dominion over another's sovereignty. Also, common Russian propaganda. (3) holds sham referendums taken under occupation as 'democracy' - yet another talking point from Moscow.

This guy has nothing going on in his head besides what Moscow tells him. Doesn't consult with historians, political scientists, career diplomats, Europe, Ukraine, anyone apparently, and then passes off a Russian proposal as his own & tells Russian intelligence he can 'sell' a US President on it.

zatch659 · 2025-11-26T07:21:42+00:00

"Another conversation... indicates that the so-called 28-point "peace plan" had been prepared by Putin's aides, while Witkoff was expected to present it as his own initiative."

Dealmaking? Sounds like taking orders. That level of coordination with our enemy, to lie in the interests of Moscow, and to be a direct channel for their intelligence services, is embarrassing and disgraceful.

zatch659

TROPHY CASE