Biden and Putin had their meeting last week and the contrasts between how it turned out and the meetings between Trump and Putin are startling. This American President did not denigrate his own intelligence service, nor did he grovel or attempt to kiss Putin’s ass. It was truly refreshing.
The meeting did generate a very strange reaction in those on the Right. They all seem very worried about Biden giving Putin relevance with such a meeting. Where have these people been for the last twenty years? Putin is relevant. Russia is relevant. No, it’s not the old Soviet Union and yes it is no longer an economic force. But it is certainly a nuclear power and yes, it is still big enough and strong enough to cause trouble on the international scene. It’s not going to win a world war but there are a lot of stops on the line between that and world peace.
Chris Christie was his normal blustering self when he declared last Sunday that Biden had given Putin stature, just as Trump did when he had his meeting. I find it fascinating that Christie’s only point of comparison between last weeks meet and Helsinki was that they both elevated Putin’s stature. Did he really not notice Trump’s groveling and ass kissing as compared to Biden giving Putin nothing?
We don’t know what was actually said at the meeting but from the attitudes at the subsequent press conferences we can extrapolate a good deal of what went down.
It appears that Biden did just what we needed him to do. He laid down a set of rules that would not humiliate Putin and his country but would hold him to an established criteria of civilized behavior.
Potin is a leader trapped in history. His worldview has been twisted by the collapse of the Soviet Union, which he has described numerous times as the greatest catastrophe of modern political experience. It has left him an emotional cripple who up to now has followed a warped strategy that has led him into one confrontation after another. This was exacerbated in the last few years by an American President who had neither the intelligence to understand the situation nor the courage to confront it.
The resultant press conferences by both leaders have led some observers to consider that certain things were said and certain points made.
Biden is a smart and experienced international politician. He knows the strong and weak points of both sides. He understands that Putin was emotionally crippled by the fall of the Soviet Union and that he will react like a crippled rat if forced into a corner.
He knows that he must lay down certain ground rules and explain that we will stand behind them without threatening Putin and causing him to react heedlessly out of a fear of being reduced in the worldview.
So Biden had to start by explaining diplomatically to Putin that we all know he is leading a nation with only one current asset, nuclear weapons. But we also know that there is no realistic way for him to exploit that asset without destroying the civilized world and that certainly wouldn’t result in the achievement of any of his goals.
Next Biden had to offer a series of goals that would benefit both nations and a path to the achievement of those goals. Last he would have to have hedged his bets by assuring Putin of our determination to achieve our goals with or without Russia, while giving Putin the breathing space to maneuver a little without being humiliated on the international scene.
It’s a tough line to tiptoe along but there are many who feel that this is just what Biden accomplished in that meeting and with the cooperation of NATO and the Big 7 he will be able to pull it off.
Will Putin buy this approach? Does he have any choice? He has been doing a brilliant job of manipulating the world and doing it with no real resources, for a number of years. It’s time his bluff was called and I really believe that Biden did just that. Now it’s time to see how Putin will react.
We aren’t going to get everything we want from him but it’s incredibly important we get the right things. This is especially true when it comes to cyber and to Russia’s incursions into neighboring countries.
Biden knows that Russia isn’t the big problem he has to deal with. China is. But he doesn’t want to have to deal with China when there are a lot of other secondary annoyances cluttering up the table. That’s why he wants to get Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and Israel off the table before he gets into the deep shit with the Chinese.
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Moscow Mitch McConnell has long been one of the most obstructive elements on the Capitol scene. His basic position on all matters is very clear and diabolically simple. All voters, especially those of the GOP are stupid and greedy. If I give them a taste of success they will expect more and I already know I can’t deliver more so I will give them nothing and blame that on the Democrats. At least half of my base understands nothing or they would never have voted for me. The other half has some brain dead ax to grind that has nothing to do with the legislation I am constantly killing so they don’t care that nothing is getting done as long as they get to keep their guns and aim them at civil rights marchers.
Of course the problem is, he’s right.
This week Mitch announced that he would keep Joe Biden from ever appointing any Supreme Court Justices during his term. What the hell is that? Is that what this degenerate asshole thinks is his job? Does he think that this is what he was elected to achieve? People elected him to move the country ahead, the country, not his personal 401K.
I understand a man who wants to keep his job. Those paychecks every week are really nice, but he got this job from voters who had the expectation that he would accomplish something that would help them. His determination to achieve nothing, to pass no legislation, to hold the nation at a standstill makes him one of the most destructive men in the world. His continued occupation of space on this planet is an insult to everything that’s holy. Where the hell is God when you need him?