JUNE 17, 2021 – On Tuesday, FoxNews “personalities” excoriated Biden for being “weak on Russia.” Huh? Rewind the tape and watch You-Know-Who reveal his weakness. If ever there was a time to cringe, all bells rang when the Dolt-in-Chief said (in so many words) in Helsinki, “My people tell me Russia did bad things, so I asked [Putin]—‘Did you do bad things?’ and he said, ‘No,’ so I’m going with that. Why shouldn’t I believe him?” So much for You-Know-Who knowing anything about the “art of the deal.”
On Wednesday, FoxNews reported, “NO KUMBAYA [between Trump and Putin].”
Whiplash!
In classic American #MeNow style, mainstream media were in mad competition to announce that the Biden-Putin summit was short on results. I’m shocked. Until Monday, I hadn’t even known a summit had been scheduled. Even if I’d had a month to ponder, I would’ve predicted that Putin and the American president would (a) shake hands; and (b) stand (or sit) for a photo op. (I nailed it! CNN, MSNBC—I’m available for hire . . . and cheap.)
In facing Putin, Biden faced an incongruity. Vlad isn’t a real statesman. He’s a glorified crime boss, the senior don among chieftans . . . er, oligarchs. (Russia is the only country where mobsters are called “oligarchs,” a euphemism for “big-time thieves with a friend in the Kremlin.” The friend’s price: “Don’t question my authority.”)
If Putin didn’t possess nuclear weapons, Biden could ignore him. Well, not quite. There’s the problem of cybercrime, a far more deployable weapon than nuclear missiles . . . but wait! Russian hackers don’t exist, if we endorse You-Know-Who’s embrace of his rogue financier.
I wonder if Putin has the slightest idea how much he sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard when he compared a pro-democracy Russian protester to the anti-democracy goons at the Capitol on January 6. Of course, if you’re a Sean Hannity fan, you might have a different take.
In population, Russia is less than 44% of the size of the U.S. and ranks 59th globally in per capita GDP. Natural resources account for 60% of Russia’s total GDP. Unless you live in a country that imports Russian gas/oil, when’s the last time you bought anything that came from Russia? Oil, nuclear weapons too powerful to use, and cybercrime are Putin’s only chips in his game of poker-faced power. Otherwise, Putin lords over a third-rate country.
Putin’s one-man rule is merely an extension of a one-party system that prevailed for most of the 20th century. By hyper-ventilating over the perceived threat of communism, America ensured that Lenin’s successors had a domestically convincing rationale for staying in power. Much of the adversarial relationship between Putin and the West can be traced to that American mindset—and the military built upon it. When communism collapsed, oligarchical greed and power rushed to fill the void.
Of all things to worry about, Russia (cybercrime excepted) isn’t one of them—nor is communism or its accursed cousin, socialism. We should worry far more about the damage wrought by Republicans—and FoxNews.
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
