Andy J Truman

Thomas Jefferson's number 1 guy. An antifederalist in the 1790s sense.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

Somewhere out there, Joe Biden is driving down a coastal summer highway, wind in his hair, sun on his face, shades on and the top down, laughing all the way.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@BrewersSwallows Its alr buddy we winnin this one

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@AdamMcCalvy Dad

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@GripenNews US produces most of those as multiroles for delivering munitions or next-gen stealth fighters. Meanwhile Gripens are going to be about as effective as flankers in Ukraine.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@NotWoofers Witkoff is such a traitor man I cant stand it

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@_ellestar Milwaukee Brewers sweeping LA in the 2026 NLCS

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor or perhaps a better term would be it *survived* by that fear. It certainly was grounded in malicious reasons.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor - were genuinely built on the fear that the US (which was far more aggressive then) would preemptively attack the USSR. Stalin worried about this to varying degrees, and Brezhnev and Andropov were all but convinced it was real. Soviet imperialism emerged from that fear.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@ashtarismus @TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor worth noting that Romania was pretty much acting independently of the USSR already, and had been for years by that point.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor - most Russians will romanticize the USSR and its predecessors for their imperial ambitions and increased global relevance. We have the modern Russian ambitions mostly because Russians blame their stagnancy and poverty on the fall of the Soviet regime and empire.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor I agree that modern Russia is morally bankrupt and probably beyond salvation. But my disagreement is that I think there was a time in the 1980s where this wasn't the case. I think the yoke of communism made Russians open to a new path, but because Yeltsin botched it so badly, -

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor I think the value of Gorbachev is that he was a humanist who ended the Eastern Bloc, the arms race, and was genuinely willing to work with the West.

But because he was marginalized by the coup, we were given Yeltsin, which led directly to Putin.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor - mind you Ukraine probably would not have stuck with the New Union permanently, but the 92% figure reflects the situation AFTER the August Coup fueled the fire of independence movements by diminishing Gorbachev's influence.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor That was after the August Coup. An earlier referendum showed Ukrainians in favor of union, and Ukrainian leaders were negotiating a preferential spot in the New Union until the coup.

The hardliners trying to undo Gorbachev's reforms is what made Ukrainians change their minds -

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@MattBrookes3 @shmaleb588 @skibidiblazor I think it depends on which republics you're talking about. In the Baltics, definitely, and in Ukraine, a bit less, but in most republics, the populace still supported reform over dissolution.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor I can't judge a reformer by everything they did wrong. Otherwise I'd be condemning de Klerk, Deng, Zhiyang, etc. Gorbachev was wrong to try and prevent Baltic independence, but I think he was willing to accept it as 1991 progressed (and eventually, he literally did).

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@shmaleb588 @skibidiblazor I think the New Union Treaty was a serious attempt to rectify your problem with it: An attempt to legitimize the confederation on the basis of popular sovereignty.

But the August Coup destabilized everything first, and many countries moved for independence because of it.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor Gorbachev already did a lot to liberalize the USSR in his 6 years. He ended censorship, introduced free elections, released political prisoners, downsized the army, started deescalation with the US, and began privatization efforts. You aren't giving him much credit.

[Andy J Truman @dabaconbossbro]

@TamerlaneD22553 @skibidiblazor I agree that Russia is bad but most* of the Soviet republics wanted to maintain their federation. I think Baltic independence was inevitable by 1989 and the USSR probably would have accepted the same result from Georgia. But we'll never know because the August Coup preempted it.