I hear you, but I really feel America has soft power on its side now. Republicans struggle with that because everybody fucking hates them, but Biden won’t. He knows everyone is happy to do what they are told to be treated like friends again.
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Patriarchy, misogyny, etc.
I think she’s well past the practice stage.
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China’s behaviour in Austrailia is pretty concerning (if you’re not aware they are directly involved with attempting to influence or intimidate Aus politicians). …And the cyber warfare they and Russia, and to a lesser extent others, engage in, all pretty much without pushback from the last admin . They probably won’t unilaterally decide to reform their behaviour. China wants us to know they have us by the short hairs, but it’s all business that most of their influence derives from. So that’s what we have to retaliate with. the USA (and Canada) has a large trade deficit with China, there’s room there. Many western business may be disrupted but the last year has shown us that we are more resilient than we thought we were 
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Yeah. To be clear, I’m not in any way advocating rolling over for these thugs or making excuses for them. I’ll leave that to the employees of the tr0ll farms and our resident Useful Idiots.
Even though I know they see Putin as The Great White (Supremacist) Hope and probably admire his kleptocratic leadership style (so much like their orange idol’s aspirations), it’s still weird for me to see American conservatives cheering on what they used to call “the Rooskies” and a former KGB agent.
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Oh, of course… I understand the desire for a solid diplomatic relationship.
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Some Russians I know say “If they fear you, they respect you.”
I guess context is important here, I just asked a Russian who said: possibly if the mob said it, but not a threat if from an average Russian.
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Yeah that line definitely felt more like a thinly veiled threat than genuine well-wishing. Like when a mobster you just pissed off says “that’s a beautiful family you’ve got there” you’re not actually supposed to think “Aw shucks, thank you! I think so too!”
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Well, Putin’s not an average Russian 
He’s kind of loosing his grip at home, is he not? Time to find a soft spot to enjoy his 200 billion.
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Pissing off Putin could have serious ramifications. Pseudo-billionaires might not get to build towers in Moscow, or Putin might release koprimat video of golden shower parties in Moscow hotels.
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I didn’t hang with the “polite” crowd, they were all x-military types and that sort don’t screw around.
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Is it supposed to be better for the relationship to butter up Putin and praise him as a great man when we all know he’s not? How would that work if at the same time as praising him we are hitting Russia with more sanctions?
I suppose what the reporter was really driving at was “Biden should use more diplomatic language”, but I don’t see what difference it makes, Putin knows what Biden thinks of him no matter what gets said out loud.
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No love lost between the two, I’m sure. Going forward the American public should keep in mind this asshole put bounties on American soldiers, in the mob world it’s called a “hit”, I think…
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Doocey hats.
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The idiots on Fox News are saying: A) How dare Biden insult a respected world leader! AND B) It’s just lip service; he’s not really tough on Putin like Trump was.
They are saying both of these things. Simultaneously. Often in the same sentence.
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I guess you could ask the question “what value is there in diplomacy”?
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Given Russia’s actions over the last ten years,* I would say, “Not much.”
(*) Let’s see here, we’ve got several assassinations of journalists, including those taking place in other countries and using dangerous chemical and radiological weapons. We’ve got the annexation of Crimea. We’ve got a proxy war in Eastern Ukraine. There was the shooting down of a Malaysian airliner. And, oh yeah, interfering in all sorts of elections with the aim of destroying western democracy.
Kind of like how diplomacy doesn’t work with North Korea, except nobody gets all excited when somebody says shit about Kim Jong Un.
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being “diplomatic” with Putin goes in his win column, I think.
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So does openly antagonizing him.
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Can’t speak nice, can’t speak mean, what do you want? Ignore him?
To be fair he’s only an insect bite to the US so he isn’t worth the column inches
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