Advice to European nations from an American:

@noodlemaz No one's entirely sure what happens when he dies. MAGA is a cult of personality, and without him it might well fall apart. But much depends on HOW and WHEN he dies. If he's killed, he might become a martyr. If he shits his pants and keels over into a puddle of his own piss, the spell might break.

@wesdym @noodlemaz Yes. He's a puppet but they need their puppet to do what they're doing.

Advice to European nations from an American:

Put troops in Greenland now. He will try to seize it if you don't send military assets to protect that territory. And you need to do it now. Shoot American troops if necessary.

He's an idiot and he's evil. But he's also a coward. He will back down immediately if faced with aggressive, coordinated, international opposition. It's simple. We are your enemy. Treat us as such.

Advice to European nations from an American:

Put troops in Greenland now. He will try to seize it if you don't send military assets to protect that territory. And you need to do it now. Shoot American troops if necessary.

He's an idiot and he's evil. But he's also a coward. He will back down immediately if faced with aggressive, coordinated, international opposition. It's simple. We are your enemy. Treat us as such.

@dalias @wesdym disagree. They used him to get this far but they have a lot of power now. I'm sure they have plans for when he kicks it

@noodlemaz The problem is, this is still a democracy, or at least relies on the operations of a democracy. Legitimacy comes from the People, and if that's absent, you will lose a great deal of support. That means that they need to get that same horde of drooling morons to vote for.. who? The whole thing is a cult of personality. No personality, no cult. And then it all falls apart. You'll instead have open revolt, and non-stop guerilla violence from tens of millons of assholes with guns.

@wesdym I mean it's known that Republican accusations of electoral fraud were confessions. He didn't have majority support in the last election but the 'democracy' led to him and his mates (and puppets) gaining all the power anyway. Or much of it.
If you honestly think the US is a functioning democracy right now, well, you have a rosier view of the world than I

It's been corrupted by bribery for years anyway.

@noodlemaz A peculiarity of the US system is that a candidate for president CAN win, even if their opponent gets more votes. It's perverse, I agree, but it's legal. You win by majority of Electoral Votes, not individual votes by voters.

@wesdym indeed, and more politically educated people than me quesiton whether that is indeed a democratic system (soem say no) - together wihh gerrymandering and the money-driven system, it's very questionable. At best.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/electoral-college-trump-biden-2024-b2475958.html

@noodlemaz It is and it isn't, depending how you look it it. It's important to remember that the original 13 states, from 1776 to 1789, regarded themselves and each other as COUNTRIES. It's why we use the term 'state', which means 'sovereign polity'. The EC is meant to preserve that, balancing popularity (straight vote) with equal sovereignty of states. It's a compromise, though not an ideal one.

How to fix is it a serious question.

/cont-2

@noodlemaz 2/ We could abolish it in favour of a straight vote, but too many states benefit from the current system more than they would without it, so you won't get that ratified.

Another option would be to greatly expand the House, thus smoothing out some current representative disparities to some extent, but again, you're going to run into resistance for the same reasons. Also, how big does the House get before it can't function well anymore?

There's no simple answer.