2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhy is Trump suddenly talking about World War III?
Back in March 2014, just after the Russian invasion of Crimea, Russias most famous state television broadcaster presented the international situation in stark terms. Russia, Dimitry Kiselyov told his millions of viewers, is the only country in the world that really can turn [the] USA into radioactive ash. Against a backdrop of mushroom clouds and throbbing nuclear targets, he spoke ominously of how President Obamas hair was turning gray I admit this can be a coincidence and the increasing desperation of a White House that truly feared that nuclear war might break out at any moment.
Now its October 2016, and Kiselyov, who also heads Russias state-owned news agency, is at it again. Impudent behavior toward Russia has a nuclear dimension, he warned ominously on Oct. 9. In the same program, he again featured photographs of Obama. Kiselyov said that there had been a radical change in the U.S.-Russian relationship, and he added a threat: Moscow would react with nerves of steel to any U.S. intervention in Syria up to and including a nuclear response. If it should one day happen, every one of you should know where the nearest bomb shelter is. Its best to find out now, another television channel has advised.
What a difference two years makes: The U.S. government, and the U.S. public, brushed off Russias nuclear narrative the first time it was presented. But this time around, the language sounds different. We are in the middle of an ugly presidential election. More important, we have a Republican presidential nominee who regularly repeats propaganda lines lifted directly from Russian state media. Donald Trump has declared that Hillary Clinton and Obama founded ISIS, a statement that comes directly from Russias Sputnik news agency. He spouted another debunked conspiracy theory the Google search engine is suppressing the bad news about Hillary Clinton soon after Sputnik resurrected it.
Now Trump is repeating Kiselyovs threat, too. Youre going to end up in World War III over Syria if we listen to Hillary Clinton, he said this week. Just like Kiselyov, he has also noted that Russia has nukes and perhaps if Clinton is elected will use them: Russia is a nuclear country, but a country where the nukes work as opposed to other countries that talk.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/why-is-trump-suddenly-talking-about-world-war-iii/2016/10/28/be44cc0e-9d24-11e6-a0ed-ab0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.43d7e5f9bde2&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)They are convinced that Clinton will start WWIII, and Puting will try to stop it. To them, Trump will embrace Putin and avert the end of the world.
Ardoewaan
(144 posts)It's like a Borg drone colony with Trump as the hive queen.
Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)They began embracing Putin sometime back, and it has gone downhill from there.
TrekLuver
(2,573 posts)It's also wonderful that they can just peer into the future like this with certainty.
TBA
(825 posts)That Russa will go to war with us if she is elected. I told him it sounded like blackmail to me.
Journeyman
(15,040 posts)Terror is an art form, not a science, and its usefulness diminishes when the adversary's values or emotional state (their mind) is keyed to instability.
4 more years
(100 posts)This is a must see movie. It makes it very clear you need a steady hand in control of our weapons. Trump would listen to the wrong people and escalate a conflict out of a hot head attitude. " I'll show them not to mess with me".
It almost sounds childish, but that's what is crazy about this person.
Madam45for2923
(7,178 posts)Madam45for2923
(7,178 posts)Stupid Horrible Persona that he is!
Rocknrule
(5,697 posts)Madam45for2923
(7,178 posts)Herman Webster Mudgett, better known under the name of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or more commonly just H. H. Holmes, was one of the first documented serial killers in the modern sense of the term. Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._H._Holmes
Herman Webster Mudgett (May 16, 1861 May 7, 1896), better known under the name of Dr. Henry Howard Holmes or more commonly just H. H. Holmes, was one of the first documented serial killers in the modern sense of the term.[3][4] In Chicago, at the time of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, Holmes opened a hotel which he had designed and built for himself specifically with murder in mind, and which was the location of many of his murders. While he confessed to 27 murders, of which nine were confirmed, his actual body count could be up to 200. He brought an unknown number of his victims to his World's Fair Hotel, located about 3 miles (4.8 km) west of the fair, which was held in Jackson Park. Besides being a serial killer, H. H. Holmes was also a successful con artist and a bigamist.