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Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 30th 2023 at 11:03:59 AM
Not me, although every time this is brought up I feel the need that part of why Romney was laughed at is because he and his foreign policy team kept calling Russia the Soviet Union and making references to other countries that hadn’t existed for almost 20 years, like Czechoslovakia.
That said, both how Russia got out of the box Obama had put them in and how the American Right started fellating Russia are major cases of Did Not See That Coming.
| Wandering, but not lost. | If people bring so much courage to this world...◊ |
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
Might be because Putin seemingly dreams of a communist Russia that stretches from Siberia all the way to the United States, just throwing it out there.
Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than Yours![]()
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At this point they're well past the stage when you start seeing diminishing returns on the stimulus effects, the first one did next to nothing given that cap on State + Local. Corporations and the 1% were already piling up Scrooge-style hoards and received no new incentive to invest or spend, if it was any more regressive I suspect it would have somehow been a contractionary massive deficit increase.
Whether he's a communist is debatable, but he certainly has neo-Soviet aspirations. He's said plainly in the past that the fall of the Soviet Union was the worst thing ever to happen to Russia, he was a high-ranking KGB agent, and he has revanchist political positions on former Soviet states.
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
Not a communist you don't think? Certainly based on the invasion of the Ukraine and admission of helping Trump win he has the same vision as Lenin, Malenkov, Khrushchev and the like of a Russia that stretches all over Europe and beyond. It may be as simple as wanting the world to go to their local St. Petersburger and enjoy Smirknoff vodka the way the world has become Americanized but I do think Putin and Trump, and I would say the same of any two, amounts to treason: Putin is a Russian agent of influence; former intelligence, and Trump is a Americam source the Kremlin would love to have under it's thumb.
Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than YoursYeah, but socialism, Marxism-Leninism and central economic planning as the ideology of the Union are dead, even in theory. A reunited Union will still be a right-wing authoritarian-capitalist oligarchy, and will not necessarily have any particular ties to North Korea, Cuba or Venezuela except inasmuch as they piss the US off.
On the subject of Russia, the whiplash of Trump's backtrack was so heavy it could break your neck. Further to the anaology, you may have just narrowly avoided killing yourself but you've still screwed yourself over because YOU BROKE YOUR FUCKING NECK!
We can choose to be better.
Reading tropes such as You Know What You Did
Maybe that's the end game. Trump is the Troll King, maybe allying with Russia and North Korea and making enemies of Europe and Canada is all so he can shake his wee wee about and get people to give him attention.
Currently reading up My Rule Fu Is Stronger than YoursYes that word is called imperialism, none of this is especially connected to Communism.
Edited by Fourthspartan56 on Jul 17th 2018 at 6:23:36 AM
"Einstein would turn over in his grave. Not only does God play dice, the dice are loaded." -Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang"Exclusive: Trump's defense chief open to first talks with Russian counterpart - sources" - http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-russia-mattis-exclusive/exclusive-trumps-defense-chief-open-to-first-talks-with-russian-counterpart-sources-idUSKBN1K72O7
Well I'm just saying that while he's an ex-KGB officer, Putin is also The Fundamentalist and a oligarch capitalist. He's certainly using intelligence services and KGB (FSB) activities to suppress his political enemies, kill his foes, blackmail others, and worse but it's a different sort of beast.
Even more so than Modern China.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 17th 2018 at 4:55:59 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.
I read an article
once that said something to that effect.
Edited by megaeliz on Jul 17th 2018 at 8:33:33 AM
Trump sucking up to his boyfriend.
The meeting between President Putin and myself was a great success, except in the Fake News Media!

GERMANY!
Listen, we can't trust that Merkel woman.
She's a competent, intelligent, older blonde woman in politics.
There's something about her which Trump doesn't like.
Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 17th 2018 at 1:31:47 AM
Author of The Rules of Supervillainy, Cthulhu Armageddon, and United States of Monsters.