1w ago

What's up with Trump's posturing in countries/territories that the US doesn't control?

I've seen this rather odd trend with trump (and the media) where they are talking about plans for ethnic cleansing in gaza and taking mineral resources from east Ukraine.

But the US or its proxies don't physically control Gaza or the Donbass, and nobody in the media seems to be talking about this rather important complication. Russia and the palestian resistance, for all intents and purposes, have won their respective wars (for now).

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Dems say in closed meetings what trump says out loud. All this fake anger liberal media is trying to express wouldn't be an issue if biden or kamala were president.
America deserves trump. He won the majority vote, he has over 50% approval (for now), and he's harming exactly who he said he was going to harm.
This is the start of the end of the empire. It sucks to be caught in the crossfire, but many americans, like israelis, are irredeemable and deserve to reap what they sow.
- America deserves trump.
  The colonial entity that has terrorized the world for decades and prior to that did genocide to create itself, used slavery, etc., deserves Trump making a mockery of their propaganda? Yes.
  Some random people in appalachia dealing with hurricane fallout or in california dealing with wildfires "deserve Trump"? No. Don't play into the democrats' "blame the voters" narrative. The US does have a not-insignificant number of people with reactionary, shitty views and behavior, but the amount of power regular people have over any of the broader decisions is wildly exaggerated by those in power, in order to redirect blame from themselves. The most recent election, for example, was effectively between two candidates and no one else presented as viable, both of whom supported/support genocide. There was no outcome there through voting that was going to be fundamentally better, short of pulling off a third party upset like PSL and they were struggling just to get on the ballot in some states. Hell, as far as I can tell about the US, a lot of people are less bloodthirsty and are more just "don't even know what the hell is going on" because of how effective the propaganda has been. Sometimes I'll hear from someone I know who is more of a liberal on an issue that has been ongoing, but they're acting like it's suddenly new because they're now hearing about it under Trump. I'm pretty sure there's even stuff on occasion that I missed because it was obfuscated under a democrat president and I'd like to think I pay attention pretty well, overall.
  There are components of US society that need to be confronted beyond just class, that is 100% for sure. But it's also more complicated than just "the US is bloodthirsty white settlers", especially with all the intermixing of various ethnic groups that are considered non-white, including the partial (I say partial cause of still existing systemic racism) integration of black people into "regular" US life. And including the indigenous nations who still exist and are going to be affected by what happens in the region because of how all-encompassing the US state's presence is in the region it covers.
  If you don't live in the US, this may not matter as much as a distinction. But for those of us who are here, it's important that we're not prematurely throwing under the bus anyone and everyone we could organize with, because of some narratives that people basically suck and don't want to do good things.
  Edit: Also, I will remind people, if you're trying to be communist, your priorities are allegedly supposed to be about caring what happens to other people. We all have moments we want to let off steam and of course you don't need to try to organize with nazis or the like, but if you're more interested in watching the world burn than helping people who are in need, then you are just continuing the mindset of the colonizer, not dismantling it. Liberals don't get flack for being compassionate, that's not the problem with the ones who sincerely are. They get flack for false compassion and feckless pacifism in the face of systemic exploitation. Compassion is the thing that some of them actually get right, they just often aren't applying it politically in a way that does much of anything.
  
  Also, these are the kind of people who suffer most at the hands of the empire, both at its height and in its decline, not the ones the most petty feelings would wish will suffer most: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/7011701
  Once again, it is the most marginalized who bear the brunt of the suffering. You have to create consequences for the colonizers, not sit around and hope some votes that are part of their own machine will boomerang consequences back on them.
  
  I think folks can lose sight of this. The US is not and has never been a democracy. And even insofar as the sham elections go, as the AP byline shows again, both relevant parties have essentially identical foreign policy. Even now, Trump and co just appear incapable of getting the job done—it’s not as though they want America’s imperial grasp to weaken.

He just says loudly what all previous administrations wrote in secret memos

That's the old-style colonialist/imperialist way of conceptualising the world. It's just manifest destiny.
- It just seems bizarrely delusional when viewed in first person. Even more so when the media, which is nominally anti-trump, just seems to go along with it.
  
  the media is stoking the culture war fires to keep americans fighting as red and blue teams to distract from the top vs bottom class struggle; and it's EXTREMELY effective.

i think he's just saying stuff his billionaire donors want to hear without regards to reality
For example Miriam Adelson and telling Palestinians they need to leave (ethnic cleansing) so Israel can have an ethnostate and big finance owning stuff they "bought" from Ukraine but it's under control of Russia now
- I'm just wondering how long until technocrats decide he's served their purpose and no longer is an asset.

To add to what was said: Trump has a negotiation style of coming on with absurd demands then "settling" for less that is actually what he wanted all along.

Trump just needs/wants to look strong, manly, in control. It excites his base and he thrives on whatever attention he gets, good or bad. It has nothing to do with getting what he wants from the target of these demands. It's also the foot-in-the-door technique scaled way up, with the added bonus that by the time he's "settled" for less than what he asked for, the news cycle will have fixated on the next absurd thing he said or did.

America has nukes. This is America's world and everyone just lives in it.
(Deeper context, America's nuclear doctrine is madman theory where we will absolutely use nuclear weapons if pushed, to get our way, so the rest of the world is our hostage)

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