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Luigisan98 A wandering user from Venezuelan Muscat Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: I <3 love!
A wandering user
#181576: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:07:41 PM

Is Trump playing everybody like a damn fiddle at the moment, guys? I need to know...

The only good fanboy, is a redeemed fanboy.
Bat178 Since: May, 2011
#181577: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:07:55 PM

[up][up][up] Considering his followers were just freaking out about the attack, I don't think so.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:08:08 PM by Bat178

TheWanderer Student of Story from Somewhere in New England (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: Wishfully thinking
Student of Story
#181578: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:08:08 PM

He would at least have to respond in that case. Even if he personally doesn't give a crap, he has to show his people that he's not going to let Americans kill their soldiers without a rebuke.

Putin's response to the scores, or even hundreds of Russian soldiers coming back from Ukraine in bodybags or with lifelong injuries was to say "There are no Russian troops in Ukraine." Later he may have amended that to "If there were any there, they went of their own volition, and we had nothing to do with it."

Unless you personally were involved or are part of the family of someone involved, why would you believe otherwise? Putin is incredibly popular, and because no one believes that anyone else can do his job, people who don't believe him won't say or act on it because without Putin the overwhelming majority of Russia believes they will return to the absolute bugfuck chaos that was the 90s.

Meanwhile, all the major news outlets are mouthpieces for the government, and those that try to be independent have had a history of the state forcefully taking over the company and kicking out the original owners, their employees being harassed or killed, etc.

In Moscow there's some (mostly powerless) resistance to Putin, but most of the rest of Russia looks at Moscow the way a resentful backwoods red stater looks at a combination of New York, Hollywood, and the most snobby rich people's vacation/retreat spot combined.

Putin doesn't have to do a goddamn thing, or worry about much in the way of opposition or backlash. If those things ever truly welled up across Russia, things will have gone so badly either for the country or the entire world (think 3 way war between US, China and Russia) that it'll be academic anyway.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:13:44 PM by TheWanderer

| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
Luigisan98 A wandering user from Venezuelan Muscat Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: I <3 love!
A wandering user
#181579: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:08:17 PM

[up][up][up][up][up] *Facepalm*

edited 6th Apr '17 8:08:35 PM by Luigisan98

The only good fanboy, is a redeemed fanboy.
MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#181580: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:08:18 PM

CNN says Russia was not informed

Pentagon says Russia was informed

Uuuuh

@Captain I'm going to get on that Chomsky idea that they're trying to confuse people. I'm hearing contradicting things from two semi-reliable sources

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#181581: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:08:20 PM

@Wildcard: It rather depends on how Assad reacts. If he comes forwards and kisses the ring (to extent Chomsky's mafia don analogy), then Trump has the foreign policy victory he needs to prop up his weak legitimacy.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:09:30 PM by CaptainCapsase

AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#181582: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:10:20 PM

It's going to be a rough time in Russia when Putin finally dies. Presumably in his sleep, for the same reason as Teddy Roosevelt.

Anyway, Tillerson's contradictory statements can be accounted for with the fact that he doesn't actually know what he's doing, or what the US stance towards Syria actually was before he took the position. Remember, the state department has been gutted since the Trump administration started.

MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#181583: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:10:27 PM

I think that is actually part of why the question was ask. "Everyone" likely includes his most ardent supporters after all

Nvm, [nja]s seems to caused us some confusions.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:11:21 PM by MorningStar1337

Bat178 Since: May, 2011
#181584: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:10:55 PM

[up][up][up][up][up][up] Asian Russia tends to have problems with Moscow/European Russia, due to Moscow not maintaining them very well.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:11:15 PM by Bat178

DingoWalley1 Asgore Adopts Noelle Since: Feb, 2014 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
Asgore Adopts Noelle
#181585: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:12:46 PM

Wildcard:I think Trump just won the 2020 election. His strike proves he is a "strong man who fights back" to his followers. Whatever you think of feel we hear of an attack and Trump publicly fights back and it is reported on quick means he gets the credit and all the bad stuff can be pushed into his cronies lap.

That'd work if this was 2004; we are now in 2017, when the Public is not only sick of War, but are vehemently against going into new ones. Trump also promised to not do things like this, and apparently, R/The_Donald is freaking out over it.

Plus, this sounds like a one time thing; for someone who's supposed to be a Strongman, it's incredibly weak to only attack a nation once. I thought Trump was trying to get the Neocons to love him; turns out this was a spur of the moment thing that only will piss off everyone and make no one happy. If anything, this stunt will over all make Trump more hated, and less likely to make him win 2020.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:14:32 PM by DingoWalley1

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#181586: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:14:27 PM

I wonder if this is going to wind up being Trump's Bay of Pigs. He doesn't strike me as competent enough to pull this off.

iflewaway someone from somewhere Since: Dec, 2016
someone
#181587: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:14:39 PM

It's supposedly a one-time thing, but nobody seems to have any idea what's going on.

something
Luigisan98 A wandering user from Venezuelan Muscat Since: Oct, 2013 Relationship Status: I <3 love!
A wandering user
#181588: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:15:24 PM

[up][up] Or, a mini-Vietnam war.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:15:33 PM by Luigisan98

The only good fanboy, is a redeemed fanboy.
MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#181589: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:15:45 PM

I think Trump just won the 2020 election. His strike proves he is a "strong man who fights back" to his followers. Whatever you think of feel we hear of an attack and Trump publicly fights back and it is reported on quick means he gets the credit and all the bad stuff can be pushed into his cronies lap.

Nah. The hardcore Trump-supporters are starting to froth at the mouth about this.

The leader of the alt-right( Richard Spencer), one of the leaders of the Freedom Caucus( Rand Paul), Ann Coulter , /pol and The_Donald are starting to froth at the mouth and screaming at him for this.

Hell, Stormfronters are starting to call him Trump the traitor and talking about burning their Trump shirts.

This is his base.

The only people that attacking Assad scores points with are the people that already despise him.

MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#181590: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:15:55 PM

So we established that reddit's alt-right faction is freaking out over this, what about 4chan and 8chan. Is it possible to check how they (or more specifically /pol/) are reacting?

[nja]"frothing at the mouth" apparently.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:17:48 PM by MorningStar1337

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#181591: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:17:56 PM

Assad's not going to change his stripes as long as he thinks Russia still has his back. And they won't ditch him over this since he's pretty much their only ally in the region. He needs them and they need him even if they're sick of his shit. It's a toxic codependent relationship not unlike the one between China and North Korea.

This strike isn't going to accomplish a damn thing other than making Syria even less stable.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:19:04 PM by M84

Disgusted, but not surprised
Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#181592: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:18:23 PM

Why do the alt-right hate this so much? They didn't seriously think Trump wouldn't attack anyone did they?

Eschaton Since: Jul, 2010
#181593: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:18:57 PM

I firmly believe that they're just making it up as they go along.

I wouldn't surprised if tomorrow we see motions to remove Assad from power, or if we see attempts to smooth over relations like this was a hit-and-run.

[up]They were in the "Hillary will go to war with Syria and Russia and start World War 3!" camp (along with left-leaning friends of mine, which frustrated me significantly).

edited 6th Apr '17 8:20:18 PM by Eschaton

M84 Oh, bother. from Our little blue planet Since: Jun, 2010 Relationship Status: Chocolate!
Oh, bother.
#181594: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:19:45 PM

[up][up] In a lot of ways, the alt-right are pathetically naive.

Disgusted, but not surprised
CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#181595: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:20:09 PM

[up][up][up][up] It's not entirely clear to me that Russia still has Assad's back 100%; they aren't happy about him using the chemical weapons they were responsible for making sure he didn't have, which is a major loss of face for the Kremlin, and Russia threw a major diplomatic bone to Israel right before this took place, so it might very well be that they're prepared to let Assad get burnt for sticking his hand into the fire.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:22:23 PM by CaptainCapsase

kkhohoho (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#181596: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:20:32 PM

[up][up][up]Or both.tongue

edited 6th Apr '17 8:20:50 PM by kkhohoho

MadSkillz Destroyer of Worlds Since: Mar, 2013 Relationship Status: I only want you gone
Destroyer of Worlds
#181597: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:21:31 PM

I've checked. /pol is overreacting and talking about WWIII and the Jews tricking Trump.

The_Donald which is filled with self-denying sexists/racists/homophobes are trying to take more of a wait and see approach but they're very displeased. Hardly anyone is defending it though. They're more surprised than hating on Trump atm.

Stormfront which is filled with hard-core racists and is more David Duke's baby has basically written Trump off as a Zionist puppet for the Jews and are blaming Kushner and his influence. They see Bannon's demotion as a pivot to sell out.

Kostya (Unlucky Thirteen)
#181598: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:21:41 PM

[up][up][up][up],5x[up]I always thought that was just a convenient smear to rile up left-wing people. I didn't think they actually believed it.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:23:04 PM by Kostya

MorningStar1337 The Encounter that ended the Dogma from 🤔 Since: Nov, 2012
The Encounter that ended the Dogma
#181599: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:22:03 PM

I have a different question. Has Trump expressed any precedent of warhawking before the elections?

@M84 considering their origins, I'm inclined to agree.

CaptainCapsase from Orbiting Sagittarius A* Since: Jan, 2015
#181600: Apr 6th 2017 at 8:22:52 PM

[up] Yes. He took basically every stance on every issue, including war and peace.

edited 6th Apr '17 8:23:00 PM by CaptainCapsase


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