old salt wrote: ↑Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:19 pm
Listen to the whole thing. They said Putin's playing a weak hand brilliantly.
I did! These are the same geniuses who thought we "had" to invade Iraq. Twice. They're the media. They think that because Putin is in the news, that MUST mean he's successful. By this measure, Kaitlyn Jenner is doing a better job than Putin is.
By 'brilliant', what they ACTUALLY mean, is that Putin has managed to make a bunch of noise in America. So what? What does that get him? You think that that gets him more power? Murdering your political opponents and lining the pockets of the right backers is what gets you fascist power.
Is Putin ahead or behind, financially speaking, after all this meddling with America and the Ukraine? Behind. By any measure, he's way behind. And money=power. These talking heads are fools, and don't understand that. And you can spin all you like, but it all comes down to money.
Obama gets it. Make fun all you like, but Obama has it pegged. BTW, how did the whole Soviet empire fall apart, again? That's right: money. It's how all empires fall, if they aren't conquered.
old salt wrote: ↑Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:19 pmHe has a strategy -- it's to hold onto power. It's a Putin strategy, to ensure his personal survival & enrichment : not a Russian national strategy.
He uses it just to capitalize on nostalgia for Russia's past greatness. [url=
https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/rus ... dina-18341]It's his version of MAGA.
Even better! If you think that Putin is well served by messing with America (again, I don't) then look at how much better Trump is than Putin is at getting his base behind him. Does Trump actually do anything? Hell no! He just has to talk the talk, and his supporters are more than happy to blame anything wrong in America on "someone else".
Putin should take notes. Putin doesn't have to ACTUALLY hack our elections. He just has to SAY that he did. Much cheaper, and his end goal is met.
old salt wrote: ↑Thu Jan 31, 2019 5:19 pmThat's the danger I've been talking about, with our sore loser Russophobia.
We need to be able to deal with Putin (& the Russian people), but the TDS partisans won't even let Trump meet with him.
Anything accomplished will be contorted into collusion.
Meh. We have, what, 24 months to go? We can hold sanctions just fine, and let the next POTUS decide when it's ok to let Putin eat at the big boy table again.