Putin: Obama who?
This from Putin, in response to Obama’s sanctions on Russia, has got to hurt:
We regard the recent unfriendly steps taken by the outgoing US administration as provocative and aimed at further weakening the Russia-US relationship. …
Although we have the right to retaliate, we will not resort to irresponsible ”˜kitchen’ diplomacy but will plan our further steps to restore Russian-US relations based on the policies of the Trump Administration…
It is regrettable that the Obama Administration is ending its term in this manner. Nevertheless, I offer my New Year greetings to President Obama and his family.
My season’s greetings also to President-elect Trump and the American people.
Run along, Obama, says Putin. You’re no longer relevant.
And the Russian embassy in the UK tweets, “President Obama expels 35 🇷🇺 diplomats in Cold War deja vu. As everybody, incl 🇺🇸 people, will be glad to see the last of this hapless Adm.”
Double ouch.
Of course, this really isn’t funny. Russia is—as Mitt Romney famously said in the third 2012 debate, a statement that Obama ridiculed—well, that’s just watch it again:
Good grief. That is called debating? Hectoring is closer to the point.
As a patriotic, America-loving, conservative, card-carrying Republican, who grew up under the Cold War-era cloud that one mistake and it’s The End Of The World As We Know It, I get that Russia is not our best friend.
On the other hand, I also have come to believe that modern Russia is not inherently or necessarily our enemy either. At this point, that makes them more my friend than the outgoing POTUS, who made it extremely clear that as a conservative in flyover country, I’m not a part of the United States that he deigns to represent. That doesn’t even begin to address how Obama’s chosen successor viewed me – down her nose at the little lump that is me in her big basket of deplorables.
I believe that we can count on Putin’s Russia to be on Russia’s side, which is why, after eight years of Obama, some of us that are right of center regard Putin more positively than Obama. Putin may be all that we know he is and worse, but at least at some point he operates in the best interests of the nation he represents, unlike the pontificating scumbug that we all hope leaves the White House in three weeks without further incident.
My take? The whole “Russians did it!” idiocy from the left is just more fantasy from infants that cannot lose an election with maturity and grace. Technically, one cannot “hack” the election results, as the states operate separately and many are not on the Internet. If the evil Russkies really did hack into the DNC and release actual undoctored emails highlighting the chicanery that goes on over there, they did us a favor. But I don’t believe they did that, for the simple reason that unless one believes that Hillary really did want to gratuitously start WWIII, Russia’s best interests would have been served by another term of hapless buffoons in the White House. And Russia acts in Russia’s best interests.
I believe in the simpler answer: that Russians had nothing to do with the material events of the 2016 US Presidential election, but for the Democrat Party, catering to an electorate made up of toddlers and simpletons who are still wailing and gnashing teeth (and breaking things) almost two months later, they cannot deal with the idea that by the posted rules of how American presidential elections work, they lost, so they have invented this “big bad russkies” meme for the thumbsuckers. They can all crawl around and feel like victims for the next four years (“we wuz robbed!”), and that will make them happier than having to accept that outside of LA, San Francisco and NYC, American voters stood up and said “No” to them.
There is nothing more comically contemptible, nothing at all, than a flag waving modern Democrat; who finding his ox gored, who scheming ends up hoisted on his own petard, possibly by a foreign power, then starts with the “we” (are all in this together) shit.
That string ran out 20 years ago, Demos. No forgiving. No forgetting. You won’t be taken back. Ever. You might win ultimately. You might not. But it will never be the same as before conservatives woke up, and there is no going back.
These Democrats, un-closeted totalitarians, unapologetic enemies of American traditions and liberties, open subversives at gleefully war with the rule of law that they are, are the enemy too; and perhaps even more so than an expansionist Russia.
Alger Hiss, Ted Kennedy and Andropov, David Bonior, Jimmy Carter … That the present day brethren of these clowns could even imagine that their patriotism ploys could gain any traction whatsoever, just shows how morally insane they actually are.
It’s all about invalidating Trump, nothing more, nothing less. Ignore their pitiful bleating and Drain the Swamp.
“The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.” [advancing the narrative] … David Horowitz; A Modern Machiavelli 2
The dnc and hrc were hacked because they are amateurs when it comes to cyber security. It matters not if it was Moscow, Warsaw, Bucharest, or a15 year old in Minsk living in his parents basement. They were hacked. Cry me a river when your dirty laundry is hung out for all to see.
WaPo just sent a news alert that Russia hacked into a Vermont electric grid. Apparently, nothing was done to damage it. My question is why was this released by Obama now. We know they have been hacking us for years and the intelligence agencies ave been working on the problem. Obama said he didn’t want to release the info before the election. I don’t buy it. I think Obama has picked this instance to distract us from the incompetence shown by Dems from Hillary to Podesta to the DNC and from his own crappy legacy.
If the Russians did this, the Chinese and others probably have too in many cases. Dems have simply demonstrated that tey aren’t able to handle cyber crime.
I should also mention that Obama is ignoring the Turkish Russian alliance with Iran in Syria, which of course involves his buddy Erdogan. Nor has e talked about Russia excluded us from there plans wit Afganistan’s neighbors.
“kitchen diplomacy”?
Perhaps someone who speaks Russian and understands the culture can explain . . .
But – and this is pure speculation on my part – I do have to wonder if by “kitchen” Putin meant the type of bickering that bored housewives engage in. Thereby, calling Obama a “woman”?
This would, of course, be very sexist; however, I could see Putin doing that to Obama, not just to get at Obama, but, also, as a way to prepare Trump for who he will have to be dealing with.
charles:
I assumed that “kitchen diplomacy” was a historical reference. Being of a certain age, I remember the original meaning, which is explained here.
It’s a little archaic, I guess. But that’s what immediately came to mind for me when I read it.
I think the Russian intelligence agencies hack any system they think they can glean useful information from, and the US does the exact same thing. However, the odds that they are the source of the Wikileaks is vanishingly small.
Obama shat on himself this week, and Putin rubbed his nose in it but good. As an American, that embarrasses me.
charles Says:
December 30th, 2016 at 10:36 pm
“kitchen diplomacy”?
In vulgar Russian terms — WOMEN argue in the kitchen.
THAT’S the implication.
The Nixonian angle — is not intended.
It’s the former that had Nixon’s ‘debate’ so curious to Russians.
Arguing ‘in the kitchen’ is hyper-feminine in Russian culture.
Ironic it’s ending on this note regarding Russia. I have to laugh but I also have to hope that the incoming Trump administration will be able to do better all around coming in. I have been feeling confident they will, but time will tell! (but anything looks better than Obama)
When I saw the news about Obama expelling 35! Russians I thought ‘Putin should just ignore him, but he never will.’ I was wrong and glad of it. It has been obvious for some time that the Vlad had the Oman completely worked out. To ignore him this way is to out him for the petulant idealistic fool he is underneath. This is the ‘punish your enemies’ side of his character coming out in the open. The O’ Bushtons go out, not with a bang, but an impotent hissy fit.
Edward Epstein as an article on Snowden at WSJ today. He has a book coming out on the topic in January. Apparently Snowden gave Russia much more than we were told. Obama must have known all this years before the election. Only when his legacy at stake does he open his mouth, which he probably should have kept closed so the intelligence folks could have kept on with their work.
DNW:
Amen. Could not have said it better or more emphatically. Thank God that more of us are recognizing the obvious, although far more slowly than we wish.
I don’t suppose Russia has permanent friends or enemies. Just permanent interests. And after being more flexible after the election stopped being useful….
So somebody takes his best shot, punching you in the million-sit-up belly and you act like you didn’t notice (metaphor alert). He’s a nobody with no punch. “Huh? Oh, excuse me, I wasn’t looking, didn’t see you. I was looking at the important person over there.”
Wish I could credit whoever said it, the Russians made the dems’ dearest wish come true; total transparency.