Will anyone stand up to Russia?

[Eric]

Trump was Putin's pal, Democrats are afraid to rock the boat and meanwhile Russians are hacking the shit out of our infrastructure and costing us hundreds of millions of dollars while wreaking havoc with our economy. Biden's a nice guy but that won't get us anywhere, we need to start acting against them or we'll continue to get steamrolled.

 

[User.191]

Trump was Putin's pal, Democrats are afraid to rock the boat and meanwhile Russians are hacking the shit out of our infrastructure and costing us hundreds of millions of dollars while wreaking havoc with our economy. Biden's a nice guy but that won't get us anywhere, we need to start acting against them or we'll continue to get steamrolled.

Well, GOP darling, “tough as nails” ‘actor’ Steven Segal, a Russian citizen for 5 years, has now joined a pro-Kremlin, pro-Putin political party in Russia.

But it’s the Democrats who are apparently “communists”…

 

[Eric]

Well, GOP darling, “tough as nails” ‘actor’ Steven Segal, a Russian citizen for 5 years, has now joined a pro-Kremlin, pro-Putin political party in Russia.

But it’s the Democrats who are apparently “communists”…

Not just him, Republicans love Russia now it's all just so too bizarre. I may not have always agreed with them but at least they believed in a firm stance against them but now they're worshiping them. Unless Dems grow a pair we're just going to continue to get owned by these guys.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Given the recent ransomware attacks and Belarusian mischief, I'd love to be a fly on the wall when Biden has his little sit-down chat with Putin. Biden's a nice guy but i don't think he'll any problem giving Vlad a very strongly worded piece of his mind. What that translates into in terms of action, I don't know.

 

[JayMysteri0]

https://www.Twitter or X not allowed/i/web/status/1403540102983286787/

 

[Thomas Veil]

While Biden is talking to Putin, former National Security Advisor said that when Trump did the same thing, the post-meeting press conference went so off the rails that she was thinking of desperate schemes to end it.

She had told the BBC in February: "My initial thought was just 'How can I end this?' I literally did have in my mind the idea of faking some kind of medical emergency and throwing myself backwards with a loud blood-curdling scream into the media."

…"I did seriously think about it. I first of all looked around to see if there was a fire alarm, but we were in a rather grand building attached to the presidential palace of the Finnish president, who had lent it to us for the occasion. And I couldn't see anything that resembled a fire alarm.

A part of me would actually like to have seen that. But Jesus, what an embarrassment that man is.

Fiona Hill recalled trying to cause a fire alarm at Trump's 'mortifying' joint press conference with Putin in Helsinki, and said it was a 'great idea' Biden isn't doing one

Fiona Hill, top Russia expert at the Trump White Houes, said she wanted to fake an emergency at the 2018 conference because it was going so badly.

www.businessinsider.com

 

[lizkat]

https://www.Twitter or X not allowed/i/web/status/1403540102983286787/

Yeah, and the fact it's a meme already should tell Vladimir something. People falling out of windows and dropping dead after contact with their own doorknobs or a cuppa tea, that stuff is getting old. Likewise arresting political opponents, snatching them out of the sky and ramming around trying to revive controls over the outer edges of the former USSR. And cybertheft will not actually serve as a long term solution to Russia's visible lack of other forms of economic innovation.

Putin should focus on ramping up his economy in legitimate ways --stopping threats of violence is always a good start to reviving foreign investments-- so to enhance his political standing while there's still time. He may have about run out his string of trying to impress voters by means of the perennial scoundrel's focus on "external enemies" to remain in power, when it's the local economy that keeps coming home to roost at dinner tables every night.

As for assorted Republican pols of the USA kissing up to Russia, that's a fool's errand based in the social "conservatism" of some ultra-orthodox Christians in both countries. It's not going to serve anyone well in the long run, although Putin has probably been assisted by such sentiment in the short term. The perceivable levels of hypocrisy are too great to withstand media scrutiny... I mean it wasn't that long ago that Republicans were screaming about commies under American beds.

Admittedly Putin runs a government that kowtows far more to capitalism than it ever managed to do for various flavors of Marxism, but the Rs should realize that while not exactly a communist, Mr. Putin is also not exactly on the side of Jesus Christ, which finally begs the question as to what are the real motives of the Republicans? Putin is about personal power, the same as was Trump, only the Russian has been way better at the game for much longer, which is another problem with the Rs' recent adulation of Russian religious orthodoxy. The relationship of Putin to the Russian Orthodox church is a symbiotic one. Republican Americans are at best a tawdry accessory and at worst giving aid to a hostile power in that setup.

 

[Thomas Veil]

Kudos to this ABC reporter for challenging Rootin'-Tootin' Putin during his press conference.

"The list of your political opponents who are dead, imprisoned, or jailed is long ... and you have now prevented anyone who supports [Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny] to run for office," Scott said. "So my question is, Mr. President, what are you so afraid of?"
Putin responded by describing the organization founded by Navalny, whom he did not name, as "extremist" in nature and said it had called for "mass disorder" and breaking laws.

Putin then referenced Black Lives Matter protests and said there was "disorder" and "destruction" in the US after the death of George Floyd, whom he also did not name. Putin said that Russia felt "sympathy" for the US and doesn't want such demonstrations to happen within its borders.

Scott rejected Putin's dodge, bluntly telling the Russian leader, "You didn't answer my question, sir."
"If all your political opponents are dead, in prison, poisoned — doesn't that send a message that you don't want a fair political fight?" Scott pressed.

Putin then invoked the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, suggesting a false equivalence between the insurrectionists arrested for rioting and the political opponents of Putin imprisoned in Russia.
"As for who is killing whom and throwing whom in jail, people came to the US Congress with political demands," Putin said. "They face prison sentences of up to 20, maybe even 25 years."

I didn't even have to bring up the idea of false equivalence; ABC did. For someone with KGB training, Putin doesn't stand up to questioning very well.

He'd probably do great at MacRumors, though.

Reporter confronts Putin: 'What are you so afraid of?'

ABC News reporter Rachel Scott on Wednesday confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin about his crackdown on political opponents.

www.cnn.com

(Edited to correct the network the reporter works for. )