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> it's not "the West" who wants to cut Russia out, it's only the US The US is really overplaying its hand under Biden, it's quite sad to watch such a complete
by tenpies 5y ago
> it's not "the West" who wants to cut Russia out, it's only the US
The US is really overplaying its hand under Biden, it's quite sad to watch such a complete mishandling of foreign policy and energy policy. This is almost certainly the US presidency that markets the tangible decline of US global order.
I'm not sure if Trump understood this explicitly, but he did implicitly: the correct way to "defend" from Russia and China is not to try to freeze them out, but to make them active participants. If the loss of SWIFT hurts Russia, Russia would have a vested interested in its protection. Instead Biden is desperately trying to force Russia to accelerate SPFS, and in these circumstances they're going to send all of Europe along with Russia.
The self-caused European Energy crisis means that the EU has to play with Russia at this stage in the game. If Biden pushes the removal of Russia from SWIFT, Russia just has to tell the EU "we only accept payment for LNG via SPFS, in Rubles, Euros, or physical delivery of gold". And that's it, Europe immediately is adopting SPFS because the alternative is freezing to death.
The US is not going to ship enough LNG to the EU to keep it going - it's not even going to be able to keep Nord 2 offline. It's such an absolute negligence of foreign policy that I'd almost think the US is intentionally playing into Putin's hand.
- nebula8804 5y agoThey were so desperate to stop Bernie and to prevent Trump again that they have backed themselves into a terrible corner with Biden because all their other plans were foiled by Bernie/Tulsi/Yang/etc. In the next cycle they will likely push Harris which is an utter disaster. Some crazy rumors point to Hillary trying yet again although I don't believe they could be that stupid. Either way if they put up anyone other than an amazing charismatic Obama like character then Trump will win. While you think Trump was better, he really botched the Huawei debacle and honestly there is nobody at the wheel because he cannot make concrete decisions. The lack of leadership at all levels in the US is embarrassing and just a massive national shame. Our only hope is that someone amazing comes out of shadows like Obama did so we get some semblance of leadership(even though Obama wasn't really progressive). Its gonna have to be a national celebrity who can sort of bring enough of the both sides together. Jocko Wilink, The Rock, some other celebrities that are charismatic maybe that wrestler from Minnesota(they won't allow him to be the nominee but one can dream). Maybe Michelle...She has all the checkmarks and can probably beat Trump but has indicated she does not want to go down that route.
- reducesuffering 5y agoPete Buttigieg. Prediction markets have him at 15% right now, 3rd behind Biden and Harris. America is screwed if the only reason we can't have sane leadership is because a significant portion of the country has a problem with him being gay. (he lost the 2020 nomination to Biden because of the South's apprehension)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- nebula8804 5y agoI honestly don't get why the technologist crowd seem to have some affection for this guy. He is Obama 2.0 but nowhere near as legendary. He is terrible in his speeches, he does not get people inspired about anything, and to top it off he plays ball with the DNC so there will be infighting within the party when he runs again. He is a trash candidate that couldn't really get that far ahead in Iowa without sketchy behavior and completely collapsed afterwards. He lost the 2020 nomination because he was absolutely terrible. You are ignoring the abysmal results before the first southern state even voted (south carolina). Him being gay didn't even register given how badly he killed his chances of him just being himself.