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It doesn't. It would sure shift the newspapers' headlines from Boris' lockdown Christmas party.
This is a very long and very interesting article. I've never read this author before, but a friend recommended it. I did a sloppy cut-and-paste job - better to read it fully on the link
Quote:
HANANIA NEWSLETTER
Russia as the "Great Satan" in the Liberal Imagination
Why the culture war is global and there will be no insurgency in Ukraine
Russian opposition to LGBT triggers American elites more than anti-gay laws and practices elsewhere because Russia is a white nation that justifies its policies based on an appeal to Christian values. Unlike a country like Hungary, it actually matters for international politics. Remember, we’re talking about the same elite that can only get excited about random attacks on Asians if they can pretend it’s white people who are doing it, and can’t be bothered to care about black people shooting each other every day but will make excuses for those who burn cities down in response to a police officer shooting a criminal in the course of an arrest. Homophobic Muslims or Africans will never inspire all that much righteous fury in these people. The template of “white conservative Christians bad” is fundamental to their worldview, and this leads to not only hostility towards Putin, but also nations like Hungary and Poland, even if the latter are uneasily accepted as friends because they were grandfathered into NATO, the alliance that is of course aimed at Russia.
While populists like Tucker Carlson and Sohrab Ahmari are uninterested in antagonizing Russia, most Republicans in Congress and in the most influential think tanks are still stuck in the 1980s. Democrats will sometimes advocate for a less aggressive stance towards Iran and China, but it has become impossible for Democrats to do so towards Russia, the homophobic white nation that gave us Trump and destroyed our democracy.
Once you understand that American politics is motivated by some combination of interest group lobbying and culture war resentments, the hostility towards Russia begins to make more sense. It really is about the “rules based international order,” but that doesn’t actually mean following the fundamentals of international law like "don’t invade other countries or interfere in their domestic politics.”
If that’s what it was about, one might effectively respond that the US has in recent decades tried to overthrow more countries than everyone else in the world put together. Foreign policy elites ignore anti-interventionists who point out this fact, just as how members of their class ignore those who point out that Hungary arrests fewer people for speech than France does, or that if you really care about “black lives” you should be more concerned about the recent historically unprecedented increase in murder than police shootings, which are statistically rare.
Once we step aside from culture war resentments and focus on the hard realities of geopolitics, it is clear that Russia will eventually get its way because it cares more about Ukraine than the US does, and has the ability to threaten or use military force to get what it wants. When resolve and capabilities line up on the same side, that side is going to win. And the reason that Americans don’t care about Ukraine is that Ukraine objectively does not matter to the US. All the sophistry in the world coming from MSNBC hosts, ex-generals on the payrolls of defense contractors, and think tank analysts can’t change people’s perceptions here.
A weakness of the American empire is that it promotes ideals few are willing to fight and die for.
In Ukraine, the American establishment has been embarrassed by the reality that neo-Nazis and nationalist organizations were instrumental in overthrowing Yanukovych and have helped form the new regime. It likewise wasn’t an accident that the US had to rely on religious fundamentalists to fight the Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Even within the United States, liberal elites argue that they’re bringing women’s rights to backwards cultures while wringing their hands about the fact that Americans who actually fight our wars tend to be sympathetic towards “right-wing extremism.” This is the most overlooked contradiction of the American empire; you can bomb and drone those who resist, but Washington finds itself less effective the more it needs to rely on ground forces that are willing to make sacrifices for its ideals.
It doesn't. It would sure shift the newspapers' headlines from Boris' lockdown Christmas party.
This is a very long and very interesting article. I've never read this author before, but a friend recommended it. I did a sloppy cut-and-paste job - better to read it fully on the link
Well Poland and Hungary have anti gay laws too. With Poland they are more happy to be with NATO and with the EU too and not part of Russian sphere of influence. With Poland anti gay laws and anti abortion laws (which Russia does not have anti abortion laws) NATO and Western Europe feel its very important now to defend Poland against their eastern Neighbours and it is more of an important issue now than anti LGBT laws and anti abortion laws.
With Russia there is an anti missionary and evanglism law been existent since 2016. It is illegal to preach or share your religious beliefs outside a religious building. This will not likely happen in the USA for anytime soon, even in the most secular states of the USA. Besides the most secular states in USA like New York and Washington State has a higher percent of practising Christians than most European countries, and I believe a higher percentage of practising Christians in California than Russia. Also Americans are not ready for an atheist president, yet in Europe there has been atheist presidents and Prime Ministers. Plus most American conservatives want to outlaw abortion, and they would not tolerate Russia's anti abortion laws.
Anyway the US and West has had a long alliance with countries that have worst anti LGBT laws than Poland and Russia, such as Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The first country ever to recognize the US independence from the UK in the 18th century was Morroco and they also became allies. They have been so since yet the anti gay laws that existed then are the same as today. But despite the anti gay laws there, the US sees those countries very important with good relations with the USA.
"(CNN)A call between US President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday "did not go well," a senior Ukrainian official told CNN, amid disagreements over the "risk levels" of a Russian attack.
The White House, however, disputed the official's account, warning that anonymous sources were "leaking falsehoods." They did state that Biden warned Zelensky an imminent invasion is a "distinct possibility."
On the call, which the Ukrainian official described as "long and frank," Biden warned his Ukrainian counterpart that a Russian attack may be imminent, saying that an invasion was now virtually certain, once the ground had frozen later in February, according to the official.
Zelensky, however, restated his position that the threat from Russia remains "dangerous but ambiguous," and it is not certain that an attack will take place, the official said."
"We paid a lot -- including 15,000 lives of our citizens -- to secure the right to decide our own future, our own destiny," he insisted.
I thought they were terrorists? The Ukrainian governments actions are what caused those people to die.
Russias needs to use the roach spray in the worst way.
Oh, those 15,000 people that "we lost" ( according to these morons.)
It's true - about 3,000 military and the rest - the civilians in South-Eastern Ukraine ( mostly Donbass) that these morons murdered.
By now I think that Ukrainian language should be outlawed, because it only breeds more and more idiotism.
Ukrainian Army casualties were horrendous in 2014 2015. There were a lot of conscripts forced into the service back then. Little or no training and just thrown to the wolves.
THis junta is filled with lowlifes, none of this had to happen.
The winter in Europe has been mild so far. Even with Russia pumping gas normally the levels of stored gas in Europe are at record lows. This is abnormal.
One thing needs to be said. Ukraine ran out of gas in November supposedly.
Are the Europeans letting the Ukrainians siphon off gas?
Now this is interesting.
This is humorous dispatch of course, but from what this guy is saying...
Well, why would Biden threaten Zelensky like that, during the last phone conversation, as in "Russians are going to attack and Kiev will be sacked?"
According to what this guy is saying, B. is pushing Zelensky to fulfill Minsk agreement.
("That's why the call came soon after the meeting between Yermak ( representing Kiev) and Kozak ( representing Moscow) in an attempt to bring resolution to the LDNR situation.
And, according to this guy from Klimenko time, "Biden is mentioning the Minsk agreement not for the first time, and he actually backs it up, as a way out of the current crisis."
But THIS would mean an ultimate betrayal in the eyes of Zelensky, along with refusal to send NATO troops to fight Russia.
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It would sure shift the newspapers' headlines from Boris' lockdown Christmas party. 
