"Vote for Trump or we'll nuke you."

[Cyborg Girl]

^^^ What a Russian far-right party leader is saying, basically. Only a lot more direct and threatening.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/put ... li=AAggv0m

Reading around, the LDPR is not exactly "mainstream" in Russia. However, this Zhirinovsky fellow is known to be a toady for the Kremlin. Like with the Republican party and wingnuts in the US, Putin seems to use him as a proxy to spout extremist garbage; thereby looking sane in comparison, and shifting the Overton window ever further towards autocracy.

So, it may not be Putin and United Russia saying this, but it still seems... very threatening.

Oh, BTW. To give you an idea of where Zhirinovsky stands on other issues:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_ ... troversies

He makes Rush Limbaugh look like a bleeding-heart liberal. This is apparently quite normal in Russian politics.

(Also: he hates women, Eastern Europeans, journalists, and Jews... even though his father was a Polish Jew named Eidelshtein. Fascist bingo!)

[Swift]

So, it may not be Putin and United Russia saying this, but it still seems... very threatening.

Putin likes threatening. The only question is how empty or not, the threat is.

[SciFi Chick]

It all sounds very threatening, but we still have the most nukes, and I'm pretty sure Putin isn't ready to have Russia and the world destroyed.

[SciFi Chick]

I don't mean to sound unconcerned, but I lived through the Cold War. I know how it works.

[Cyborg Girl]

@SFC

I'd assumed pretty much the same. Putin is evil, but he does not appear to be stupid... yet.

(Note: I actually started writing "Trump" instead of "Putin" there...)

[SciFi Chick]

@SFC

I'd assumed pretty much the same. Putin is evil, but he does not appear to be stupid... yet.

(Note: I actually started writing "Trump" instead of "Putin" there...)

Ah... well that would have been a mistake as Trump actually is stupid.

[SciFiFisher]

@SFC

I'd assumed pretty much the same. Putin is evil, but he does not appear to be stupid... yet.

(Note: I actually started writing "Trump" instead of "Putin" there...)

Ah... well that would have been a mistake as Trump actually is stupid.

You meant stupid and evil

[Rommie]

I just refuse to believe even for a second that if it was a real threat they wanted people to listen to they'd deliver it in this manner. Or do they really think random Americans care what this guy thinks?

Didn't live through the Cold War, but did study it in school.

[SciFi Chick]

I just refuse to believe even for a second that if it was a real threat they wanted people to listen to they'd deliver it in this manner. Or do they really think random Americans care what this guy thinks?

No idea, since it seems that social media has changed everything.

[SciFiFisher]

I just refuse to believe even for a second that if it was a real threat they wanted people to listen to they'd deliver it in this manner. Or do they really think random Americans care what this guy thinks?

No idea, since it seems that social media has changed everything.

And sadly, not necessarily for the better. I view most social media platforms as virtual lynch mobs just waiting to be pointed at their next victim.

[Cyborg Girl]

@Fisher: Ah, you've noticed. That stuff was a problem even among the anti-GamerGate crowd. I try to avoid thinking too much about what the alt-right is doing with it.

(Though sometimes I run headlong into it anyway. Take a look at liberal journalists' Twitter feeds - the ones with Jewish-sounding names get hate-mail and threats of violence as 9/10 of their comments.)

[Swift]

Didn't live through the Cold War, but did study it in school.

Oh, that's fine, kick an old man when he is duck-and-covering under his desk at school (yes, I actually did that).