She defected and her mom killed herself. IIRC he had no qualms about sentencing extended family members to collective punishments, either.
Not really a very strong case…
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Speaking of Georgia going to be a tight one. That was my dark horse going blue.
Recount no doubt but should be there in play for both.
She didn’t defect, they allowed her to emigrate after daddy died. But Svetlana and Vassiliy were pampered like spoiled brats, especially after the Germans killed Yakov.
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Well, at least now some of the more confused people might hopefully get why politicians hug children. It’s not a fancy that could in ten years be replaced by striking a double biceps pose. It’s really something that has instant mass appeal. Because it’s essential.
Wether people believed it or not is irrelevant. In some way it’s even a more powerful statement that a psychopath tried to look normal than simply appeal to competence and whatnot.
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Pampering a child in the way that only an authoritarian head of state can is not, generally speaking, being a loving father.
Neither here nor there, but you’re the first person I’ve come across making the case for Joseph Stalin’s virtuous parenting.
Isn’t the “so you’re saying” framing the tool of the dreaded left?
Okay, ya got me.
It was just a picture you posted. Dictators hug children too, for whatever points that is worth.
I think he’ll probably just step down or be pressured to by his own people to do so before that happens when it becomes obvious he can’t really function in his role anymore. Kamala definitely won’t hesitate to capitalize on the chance to be the first woman President.
I don’t know about the bookies. Some of them have weird sense of humors lol.
Good leaders, as in able to be the head of MNCs or the most powerful country in the world, are not normal people. You simply cannot try to equate them to the average human being or even the average CEO of an SME. Look at what kind of goofy mystical shit Steve Jobs believed in as an example.
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That’s absolutely correct. I worked briefly for a company of an ex-Soviet billionaire and even regularly spoke to the guy on meetings, so I can confirm even the batshit crazy stuff part.
The guy was really smart - you can’t be a millionaire if you aren’t - but two decades of being surrounded only by people on your payroll messes up your head and you start believing in your infallability and that you’re smarter than everyone else and what’s more important, more competent at them at literally everything.
Oh the stories I could write…
It’s always hard to tell with dry humor and plain text
I don’t mind Trump pushing for recounts before conceding. That’s perfectly within his right, and I think it needs to happen.
Unfortunately you’re almost certainly right about this getting ugly(er).
Right now I don’t think they have a lot of parallels, but give it time… we’ve only seen the beginning of the lawsuits lol.
However, 2000 did give us one of my all time favorite SNL skits with GW and Gore sharing the White House as roommates.
I havent seen this (but then I’ve been actively avoiding social media). That’s absurd. There is absolutely no way an 82 year old guy should run again assuming he wins this time.
Yeah, this I agree with entirely. They’re in self preservation mode, and possibly hoping privately that they don’t have to deal with Trump’s behavior for 4 more years.
This is what I think is going on, along with punnyguy. Smart calculus. Only problem for me is that most of those guys cowered in fear from the DT tweet machine for 4 years. So I do t think they have balls anyway.
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Same here. Imagine farmers in China without even secondary education building large multi-million USD companies. These are/were some of my clients and their behavior in informal settings would be nothing like the image the average person’s perception of self-made millionaires.
One simple story, funny story that I can tell without revealing too much. Had 3 of the type of guys mentioned above take a holiday in my country. They decided to all bunk together at one of their properties. I went over and there was around 1 million USD worth of cash in local currency on the table in the living room and 3 shirttless dudes sitting around sitting around playing cards and smoking cigarettes’ like bums.
They were telling me to make sure they spend all this money while they were here for entertainment because they didn’t want to pay entry duties on whatever was left when they left lol. At that time(late 2000s), they didn’t have a bank branch here so they brought the fucking cash with them.
Then they put it in a bag and told me to keep hold on to it and do all the payments for them.
I took them shopping and to all the most expensive nightclubs in town with a bagful of cash slung on my shoulder lol. Fucking paranoid that I’d lose it.
Crazy shit.
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Do you have a family?
Yeah well no matter what. One half the country is going to be furious.
Personally I think property damage will be less if its the GOP that loses. So perhaps in the short/medium term that would be best.
Although, maybe they will move the goalpost and their thresholds will shift. They have not done well in Congress and that will set them off. Who knows.
Yeah you are right.
I don’t think a Biden/Harris administration is preferable to Trump. That is just me. But I am hoping once they are done we can return to some semblance of normalcy regardless of which party gets elected in 2024.
I will have to check those out.
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That is possibly the best story I have ever heard on here 
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Yeah it’s a bit too late now to stand up to him. They all hitched the wagon to him long ago and are just riding until he is gone. Most are going to breathe a sigh of relief though.
I mean it’s political calculus I get it. But it’s been incredibly sad to see. Will be interesting if they go back to what they were before him.
That’s the only one I can tell and I’ve omitted the details of what went down in the nightclubs lol. Let’s just say the night ended with a pair of panties and underwear on the karaoke system and the top of the door respectively. I have seen even weirder shit with richer clients from other countries lol.
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Probably correct about that, although I think there were a lot of people pulling the lever for Trump that did so while also not able to stand him. So they probably won’t be too butthurt.
The small, vocal minority on either side will go crazy regardless when their candidate loses.
That’s fair. Policy wise I actually agree with you on this, while behavior wise I absolutely cannot wait to have them in the White House. Just looking at the kinds of messages Biden has been trying to send (“I’m going to be president for everyone, and work hard even for people who didn’t vote for me”, “have patience, have faith in the country”) makes me less angry and cynical. I don’t even care if it’s all bullshit…well, ok I do actually…but dammit it is nice to hear something positive and unifying.
For me personally, I think that Biden is exactly who he’s been for 50 years and that in significant part Harris and some of the campaign planks were his plays to pick up progressive voters that wouldn’t normally go for a moderate Dem. Pretty much the standard “shift towards the fringe for primary, shift towards center for the general, and try to put enough red meat that the fringe still votes for you” play.
So, as long as he is president and not Harris I don’t really worry. I’m not really happy with some of his policies (after all there is a reason I lean conservative) but I can handle it. Harris bothers me, but less so than the crazy Warren or Sanders and I see why he made the pick.
My main worry is how long he stays functional, which is without doubt a real concern and I respect people for voting differently based on that.
Amen and hallelujah lol. Hopefully even while they’re in office if they do win. I miss normalcy.
Yes and yes.
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