Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 07/10/2026This is the most uncertain economically I’ve felt since Covid. It feels like the wheels could come up and gas could double in price and the S&P could tank 20% at any moment. 010
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 06/10/2026Colorado would still be a swing state if Trump didn't transform the GOP in ways that sometimes seem designed to be repellent to the average conservative Coloradan. bsky.app/profile/pjlm... 010
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 05/10/2026Our saving grace is that the Texas GOP fucking hates Ken Paxton and the urge to say "holy shit that guy I hate just lost us the state I hate him so much I hate him I hate him I hate him" will be very strong. 090
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 04/10/2026Do you disagree that they held back vital technologies that would have made the operations of ports cheaper, saving all Americans money? Their jobs came directly from extorting the rest of the country. It's evil. 220
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 04/10/2026The Longshoremen union is basically keeping all of America artificially poorer for no reason. 130
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 02/10/2026It's the only possible explanation for him not having used a nuke yet. He specifically dropped a MOAB just because it was a big scary bomb. If he wasn't afraid of nukes he would have used one. bsky.app/profile/rimi... 010
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Gonna disagree with you on this. Trump is deathly afraid of nukes. His brain is permanently stuck in the 1980s and all the nuclear fear that entails. He'll never use them. 311
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Politicians might eventually start responding to stuff like this and if that happens it’s going to be catastrophic. bsky.app/profile/vitu... 000
Reposted by Vick RussoCentrist Madness Election Center @centristmadness.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The Biden dementia theory has been conclusively disproven, as has the theory that he didn’t use leverage to force Israel to accept a ceasefire (which they did multiple times). No one will ever admit they got these things wrong. 1631677
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Israel makes a lot of their own bombs! They only need us for guided ones and you don’t need guided bombs if you’re trying to blow up everything! 001
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026So frankly I think if I were born in Israel or Palestine I would unquestionably be a very, very bad person. And I think that makes me really hopeless about the entire thing. I guess I just gotta hope that the people living there are better than me. 000
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026To get a bit more personal I know how I react to violence against me or my friends & family, and my tendency is to be a crazed reactionary. It's like a really difficult impulse for me to swallow, and I think I'm only able to do it because I live in a very stable and safe country. 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I mean, I guess? Like to be clear the situation seems basically completely hopeless to me. It's one of the most depressing things in geopolitics. 130
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The best idea would be to reverse-bibi Israel, throw the full weight of the US government behind liberal parties (like how Bibi did with the GOP), and give both a carrot and a stick. Be really blatant and obvious about this. But honestly I think even that has an extremely low chance of success. 110
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Nobody in the Middle East actually gives a fuck about Palestinians. Some of them have even committed their own ethnic cleansing campaigns against them. They won't even accept them as refugees during a fucking genocide. I don't think the US leaving the region would change this! 000
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Israel wouldn't be able to mess with Iran without US help. Israel would have difficulty asserting its hegemony over the rest of the Middle East without US help. But Israel will continue to impose its will on the Palestinians without US help, and will likely do so in much more extreme ways. 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026If you want to argue that the US should pull out of Israel because they're doing many bad things, I agree with you. But if you think the end result of the US pulling out is "and then Israel will stop being so bad," I think you're kidding yourself. 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The over-arching point is that many people live in a fantasy land where Israel is this house of cards that is going to tip over the second the US pulls out. In actuality Israel is a militarily and economically powerful country with meaningful capability to achieve its goals by itself. 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026I would also choose the latter. I am just under no illusions that this choice will help Palestinians at all. It will almost certainly do the opposite. 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026You are very confident we'd be able to apply sufficient consequences and pressure. I do not think this confidence is at all well-founded. 110
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026(To be clear I think it might make sense to bail out anyway but I really, really think the outcomes of that decision would extract an extremely heavy toll) 020
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Do you guys think I'm arguing that Israel is a wholesome moral actor? They're obviously not, that's the entire problem. You guys think that if the US leaves everything will be fine and cool when the more likely reaction is severe backlash and a successful genocide. 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026A crime against humanity? I wouldn't call it "full control" though. It's very clearly not. It could very clearly get worse! 300
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Did I ever say what Israel is doing is legal? Ever? Because like if I did please let me know so I can go see a brain doctor, I clearly have a fucking tumor. I'm just saying there are meaningful steps along the ladder of control that Israel could take. 000
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Okay, so what happens when you have a bunch of cowardly collaborators as the last line of defense against a nuclear-armed, economically and militarily powerful nation that wants to genocide a bunch of people those states actively fucking hate? I think the outcome here would be really really bad! 010
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026There are meaningful steps of escalation of control that Israel could take in Gaza and the West Bank. It might not actually have the military power to do them but there are certainly ways it could take "more control." That is literally all I am arguing. 000
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026It would mean that an "occupied territory" is a separate category of a "fully integrated territory" which is... exactly what I am arguing? 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Did we have "full control" of Japan in 1949? Like if you want to use that definition, fine, but then we'll need another term for the kind of control that is totally "full control" but still involves having a separate body administer essential government services. 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026So many people talk about the entire IP situation as if things can't possibly get worse but they very obviously can! It would be horrible but it's very possible and at this point extremely likely! 010
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Like the official position of the Egyptian government right now is that Israel is genociding the Palestinians, and also that they will do absolutely nothing to help, not even letting in refugees. They would rather they suffer genocide than help them out. What if that just continues? 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Or the US pulls out, President Gvir gives a speech about how the Jews are more vulnerable than ever and extreme measures must be taken, Palestinians start dying at much more extreme rates, and all of the Arab states are too afraid of nukes to actually do anything? 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Not in the regions Russia actually occupies, right? Am I missing something here? I mean, if the answer is "yes," then okay, Russia doesn't control the Donbas, fine? 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Yes, an occupied territory is not fully annexed into a country. Israel obviously is conducing a military occupation, that's the entire problem! But anybody who claimed that Japan was *part of the US state* in 1949 would be wrong. A military occupation is a different thing! 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Does the Donbas have its own organized government with an army that conducts military operations against Russia? 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The other option is "successfully ethnically cleanse or fully genocide the Palestinians" and ngl that looks like the most likely option and it's just getting more likely as time goes on. 070
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Israel is militarily occupying Palestine. If it had genuine full control over it you would see way, way worse oppression. 200
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Much better than a one-state solution does! I mean you are right, the most popular position on both sides is "we get to control the whole territory and permanently oppress the other side," but like. IDK I'd rather that not happen. It's already basically happening now and it's terrible! 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026Okay, let's say we did that to Texas. If Texas launched a raid into Oklahoma that killed 41K people (which is roughly proportional population-wise) I'd say we lost control of Texas! If we had control of them they wouldn't have been able to perform a military operation like that! 100
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026A one-state solution has terrible polling from all parties involved. Until that changes the chances of this happening are nil, and "you guys can be in a peaceful state with the people who blew up half of your friends and family and you'll all get along and be equal friends" is a ridiculous ask. 210
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026If a bunch of Proud Boys took over Texas, ran the water system and healthcare system, started stockpiling weapons, regularly sent rocket and shell attacks into the territories of other states, and sent a raid into Oklahoma that killed thousands, I'd say we lost control of Texas? Obviously? 000
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026If a country is facing insurgency from a region, which also has their own elected government which runs most essential government services while vowing to eliminate the government of that state? Yeah, I'd say that country has lost control of that piece of territory? 200
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The official position of the Egypt is that Gazans are undergoing a systematic genocide, and also that helping refugees to escape that genocide would be totally unacceptable because that would mean there's less Arabs in Gaza. They would literally rather them die than leave. It's horrific. 010
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The problem with the Israel/Palestine conflict is that Israel is economically and militarily powerful and every other country in the region who says they like the Palestinians and want to help them is lying and actually hates them and would be fine with them all dying. 110
Vick Russo @vickrusso.bsky.social · 29/09/2026This is one of the few societal problems you can fix entirely by removing laws. You don't have to write anything, you can just take a bottle of white-out to the zoning code. Gotta vote for that first, though! bsky.app/profile/mtsw... 010
