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Title: U.S. - Russia Relations Post by: the captain on December 11, 2016, 11:16:52 AM I'm curious as to everyone's--whether American, Russian, or anyone else's--thoughts about the U.S. - Russia relationship. Things are getting ugly and the past decade-plus has seemed to me really strange. We went from having almost entirely forgotten Cold War tensions up to Bush's famous looking into Putin's eyes and seeing his soul (and liking it), to substantial tensions by the end of Bush's second term, to the first Obama administration thinking they could shore up that relationship (assuming Bush's issues were Cold War hangover? Push reset!), to the worst relations as we've had in decades.
On the American side, it seems questionable whether our legislature is interested in any sort of alliance: ties to Russia tend to be disparaged as "coziness" and are net negative. Apparent Russian hacking into corporate and governmental systems certainly doesn't help, nor does Russia's recent series of land-grabs in Ukraine and Crimea. The Republican party has flip-flopped repeatedly between what seems like a man-crush with The Shirtless One and aligning with Romney's 2012 statement. (They loved Russian action in Syria for a while. Oh, shirtless men of action, they are what we need over crossed red lines! We do so wish we had that fella on our team, they swooned.) The Democratic party has been equally confused, if less engorged. Anybody give a f***? Is Russia a threat to the US, or vice versa? Is Russia declining or rising? Is the US declining or rising? Do Russians have a valid gripe about NATO expansion? Does the US have a valid gripe about Russian aggression or anti-democratic actions internally? Isn't p*ssy Riot awful music? Whose Syrian approach is likely to be more useful? (It's obvious whose approach got more results, if not necessarily better ones.) Is all of it just the natural result of governments' pathetic-but-useful need for good guys and bad guys?* *Sorry, Beach Boys forum or not, I'm not going to sink to the lameness of saying heroes and villains. Except I just did. Damnit. Title: Re: U.S. - Russia Relations Post by: Emily on December 12, 2016, 05:27:01 AM If it weren't rude, I would put this in the campaign thread, the transition thread, and here. As it is, I'll just do the one:
https://mobile.twitter.com/ericgarland/status/808045818024497157 He goes off the rails with his pep talk for the last 20 or so tweets. I have more thoughts for this thread, but not the time just now. Start with - Russia has never not been an expansionist authoritarian oligarchy. The forms of government don't change this. |