Scroll down that tweet thread a ways, and there’s a new gem of a video that Lincoln Project recently put out. Parody of a Russian propaganda video exclaiming how grand and wise Comrade Putin is to be Trump’s greatest endorser! All in Russian with English sub-titles. Here it is on YouTube: Fellow Traveler.
Senegoid sez Check It Out!
Reminds me of a cartoon I recall from the 80s. Showed a young Reagan gleefully riding a bike w/ his hands off the handlebars, captioned something like “A young Reagan practicing his hands-off approach.” 
The questions we should be asking about the Russian bounties on US troops
It no longer matters when Trump was told about this. Now that he knows, he must make clear that this behavior will not stand. America, and the world, is watching to see whether he will.
Odds?
Zero. Despite what appears to be mounting evidence that this really did occur, he’s going to keep going with “it’s a hoax, Russia says it didn’t happen.”
Funny, that’s exactly what I would have guessed.
:church lady voice:
Putin?
The Republicans had set up a system to steal the election for somebody like Jeb Bush and Donald Trump hijacked it for himself.
It’s a common blindspot for crooked types. They always think about who they’re conning and they never think about the possibility that they will be the victim of a con.
That works too perfectly well. Eeeuuggghhh.
Yes, the Republicans and voter suppression is a thing, but let’s not ignore that a lot of people in our democracy are dangerously uninformed and that there are consequences for that, which are evident beyond democratic participation. Our collective response to COVID, for instance - not just the leadership’s but that of the citizenry - has been a disaster. We’re a society that thinks in terms of rights but, on a wider scale, we do not seem to understand basic civic responsibilities, and this is evident by both our democratic participation and response to pandemics. Electing Biden probably won’t change that either. There are deep systemic problems that are exerting intense pressures on our identity as a democratic republic.
Zero.
Trump is focused on starting a race war, and showing support for statues of dead traitors.
Dead traitor statues are more important to him than live Americans.
I’m surprised he doesn’t prefer traitors who don’t die.
He’s probably not aware they are dead.
“Not many people know that Robert Lee is actually dead. Nobody knew that!”
I think Biden will help because maybe maybe we start to acknowledge these problems. The GOP and especially Trump operate a gaslighting playbook that these things are not even problems. Which makes it easy: If the pandemic is a hoax, why address it? If climate change is a conspiracy, why address it? If racism was cured because we had a black president, it must be over!
He may not come up with the most robust solutions and maybe won’t do enough. But he’ll get the ball rolling which is considerably better than the ball rolling in the wrong direction entirely.
He will absolutely help - no doubt about that, and sorry if I wasn’t clear. No, Biden is a necessary first step, absolutely.
I’m just reminded of how in 2008, when we were dealing with the financial crisis, the failures of Hurricane Katrina and the two foreign wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Obama presidency represented an opportunity to be a turning point, and yet at the end of that 8-year period, we ended up with not much to show for it other than gridlock and increasing polarization and distrust of institutions and each other. I blame Americans collectively, not so much Obama.
We’re here again at an even more important turning point, in a situation that’s even more dire than in 2008 and the stakes going to be even higher. It’ll be important to understand that if Biden wins, it’ll be only the start of a long process of rebuilding.
I think you’re selling Obama’s accomplishments short: He did enough for “our side” that the other side went full racist and brought in Trump who has spent all his time trying to erase everything he did. Obviously they feel he did some things that they feel are worth erasing.
But that’s another thread.
Oh, I absolutely agree: Obama did what he could. I think he’s unfortunately underrated and under-appreciated. Some people on the left and in the center grew frustrated with him, feeling that the economy didn’t grow fast enough during his term. The reality is that he was blocked at every turn after 2010, and even before then when blue dog Dems voted to undercut the public option in the ACA.
But yes, another thread - back to Trump and Russia. God, if this were any other president in most any other era, he’d be looking at calls for resignation.