Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Sebby, I'm wondering if Russia's invasion of Ukraine has prompted you to re-evaluate your thinking on the nexus between Trump and Russia. IIRC, you were skeptical of a lot of the media's reporting -- more, as I understood it, out of a sort of contrarian streak inclined to debunk what most people were thinking. But Trump's posture towards Putin and Russian looks much worse now than it did a few weeks ago, which is saying something.
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No. Trump was a useful idiot for Putin. Still is. The Ukraine tragedy/criminal war is something different.
Think of it this way... Putin has certain chess moves he can make in his quest to expand or protect Russia's sphere of influence. While Trump was in office, he could blunt NATO, the biggest threat to that influence, through Trump's policies. With Trump out of office, he uses a different move - threat of war, and now war - to blunt NATO.
My criticism of the media was twofold: (1) Russia isn't an existential threat to us; (2) Trump was not in control of any of the alleged "collusion" (a very vague word, btw). I think this war validates (1) as we've seen Russia's ragtag army perform miserably so far, embarrassing Putin before the world. And I stand by (2) because the more information that comes out the more we see Trump was the textbook definition (Soviet-coined term, btw) of a useful idiot. The Russians fed him crumbs that helped him beat Hillary and they used the promise of more of them to maneuver him. To use a
Breaking Bad analogy, the media wanted to make Trump "the one who knocks." In reality, he was more Saul Goodman. Hustling for the next dollar, or to get past the next political obstacle (usually created by his own fuck-up).
I agree his posture toward Putin looks worse, particularly his recent lauding of Putin's "genius."
