Vice President JD Vance recently traveled to Bay City, Michigan to speak at a manufacturing plant to tout President Donald Trump's economic agenda, and was welcomed by a crowd of protesters.But once he was inside the event at Vantage Plastics, Vance ridiculed the protesters — many of whom carried si...

Vice President JD Vance recently traveled to Bay City, Michigan to speak at a manufacturing plant to tout President Donald Trump’s economic agenda, and was welcomed by a crowd of protesters.

  • wwb4itcgas@lemm.eeEnglish
    9·
    11 hours ago

    While we’re on that subject, how are things going in Romania at the moment what with the election annulment and all?

    • balssh@lemm.eeEnglish
      27·
      7 hours ago

      I’m obviously biased but my observations are:

      • any remotely sane person know the election canceling and the further banning of the Russian asset (he was a former high echelon communist/member of the Securitate and there were rumors he was hijacked by the KGB in the 80s) was the right call. Would’ve been better had he been not let in the race in the first place, but our government/secret services were circle jerking each other.
      • for the next presidential election in May we have a better than ever (at least theoretically) choice, in the pro-european candidate Nicusor Dan, which on polymarket has the highest score right now.
      • there are a myriad of pro-russians candidates: Sosoaca (which just got banned again apparently), Simion, Gavrila, Pisarloglu, Ponta. From these Ponta and Simion are known figures and I doubt they can gain much more than the last time (Ponta didn’t participate, and Simion got 4th place). The joker seems to be Pisarloglu which already started a massive TT campaign of disinformation, fearmongering and other things Georgescu also did.
      • the people supporting Georgescu were pissed, but no massive protests took place

      Overall I am hopeful we can get over this bad dream, elect a pro-european, and get on the bandwagon of ReArm Europe and also to get rid of the leeches from PSD (the main party and the most corrupt one). Sad part is that society is more polarized than ever, and most of the Georgescu’s voters are like MAGA: braindead cultists that you can’t reason with.

      • wwb4itcgas@lemm.eeEnglish
        13·
        10 hours ago

        Thank you for taking the time to provide the rest of us with an insightful local perspective on things. I try to keep appraised, but I think you’ll agree that there’s a lot going on all over the place at the moment. That just makes this kind of summary by a local all the more valuable.

        Regardless, know that a lot of us hope that things turn out for the best for Romania. And by best, I naturally mean you guys being successful in resisting and rejecting the usual tiresomely predictable Russian manipulations. There’s no viable future to be found in that sphere of influence, such as it is.

        • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
          4·
          7 hours ago

          There’s no viable future to be found in that sphere of influence, such as it is.

          I think it speaks to how effective Russian propaganda and bribery is that some politicians still look eastward to Russia when all they have to do is look at what happened to Armenia and Baathist Syria. They won’t have your back when push comes to shove.

        • balssh@lemm.eeEnglish
          11·
          10 hours ago

          Yeah, I really hope EU steps up on fighting russian hybrid warfare, because at this point is more harmful than actual war: we let our countries be run over without a bullet flying.

          Hope americans also wake up and pushback agains the ongoing shitshow Trump, Musk, Vance and Thiel are running.

      • Barbarian@sh.itjust.works
        7·
        9 hours ago

        Hello there fellow Romanian!

        100% agree on all points, and would like to add for anyone else reading this that there’s another part to this which just isn’t covered in international news: Georgescu is a loud and proud member of the neo-Legionary movement (Romanian fascists). His friends run summer camps for kids where you can learn how to handle a rifle, Codreanu (basically Romania’s Hitler) was an amazing guy who fought for Romania, and Brussels is run by a shadowy cabal of Jews. Close allies of his (ex-mercenaries) were arrested for travelling with weapons with intent to intimidate journalists and politicians.

        International news has correctly pointed out that he’s a wacky conspiracy theorist, but not that for some reason.

        Also, I’m very happy Toni Grebla got fired. I’m mildly disappointed it wasn’t out of a cannon though. it’s his fault Georgescu was allowed to run in the first place.

        • balssh@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          7 hours ago

          Yup, Georgescu and supposedly some of the secret service/army were planning a violent coup d’etat. Looks like for now we avoided that.