Russia says it will react “very negatively” if Ali Khamenei is killed

I'm just saying that it's amusing the only anti-war Republicans in the administration and Congress are ones who've long looked, acted, and quacked like Kremlin assets:

• You've got Tulsi Gabbard literally echoing Kremlin propaganda verbatim on Western imperialism (yet not making a peep about Russia's invasion of Ukraine)
• You've got Tucker Carlson flying to Moscow, simping for Putin, trying to show how great Russia is in contrast to the USA.
• You've got Rand Paul flying to Moscow hand-delivering letters on behalf of Trump.

There may be an intersection of my desire to not want to escalate for completely different reasons, and Kremlin operatives not wanting their ally and arms supplier to be crippled, but that is all.

Real Americans yell TACO at trump until he bombs Iran.

Oh, so Tulsi Gabbard definitely 100% publicly denounced Russia's unprecedented act of aggression and imperial invasion of Ukraine, right...?

... Right... ?

Sounds like something one of Putin's puppets would say.

Some right wing influencers have already been shown to take Kremlin money

I’m going to respond to a later comment of yours here for the sake of visibility.

Tucker Carlson flew to Russia to interview Vladimir Putin last year. That trip was financed by Tenant Media - the same group that was revealed to have been financed by Russia for the sake of spreading Russian talking points. Justin Trudeau gave testimony under oath that Tucker was shilling for Russia.

• How Russian operatives covertly hired U.S. influencers to create viral videos
• Right-wing US influencers say they were victims of alleged Russian plot
• Tucker Carlson Funded by Russian Propaganda Machine, Justin Trudeau Testifies Under Oath

It is more challenging, generally, to show that politicians are illegally taking money from foreign interests because the pathways by which money is publicly disclosed are more well-known. So the pathways through which money may be hidden can also be followed to disguise the source of income. Unless one gets caught.

As did an aid of Rand Paul’s, who helped funnel Russian money into the RNC during the 2016 election, and whom was later pardoned by Trump, at Rand Paul’s urging.

• Former Rand Paul aide, pardoned by Trump, charged with funneling Russian money into 2016 election
• Ex-Rand Paul aide pardoned by Trump convicted of illegally funneling Russian cash to Trump campaign

As far as Gabbard is concerned - no money trails, but even her own staff think she’s compromised.

• Tulsi Gabbard’s Own Ex-Staffers Expose Her as a Russian Stooge

That's Russia and China in a nutshell. Trump does it too, but that's just because he's mimicking daddy Putin.

Pretty sure that's the Netanyahu camp.

Eh, they're still doing the announced tit for tat. Like after soleimani got schwacked, they lobbed missiles at a US airbase and that was the end of it. It's saving face by doing something in response, but also not actually escalating by not inflicting any significant damages.

So, despite how ridiculous it looks calling for peace after an exchange of missiles, that's probably what will happen. The only confounding factor is Israel and that may be the catalyst to sparking more conflict.

The fact that Trump is under the thumb of Israel, who want to obliterate Iran, and putin, who doesn't, is entertaining to say the least. It's a complete crap shoot how this ends up overall.

That abstraction layer is correct, I think.

The thing with abstraction layers is: they are made to simplify a context. This makes it easier to understand and to see correlations and processes. It also hides details of the picture.

As far as I know there are people in Russia who work for their own goals. Those bridges don't collapse themselves and it takes someone to derail a train or sabotage a helicopter or provide intelligence about movements.

Yes. Most people just eat the propaganda or at least don't act up to evade repression (if they would care enough to do so otherwise). That's normal human behavior, it's no Russian specialty. Can you think of a current critical situation which would need immediate wide-spread attention, but people tend to ignore it?