proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

Why can't we be friends with Russia???....We have a lot in common....We can help each other with China,ISIS.....And please dont tell US that Russia meddled in our e******ns...We do the same to other countries...Im not saying to be buddies,buddies,however we should not consider Russia Arch Enemies...Just consider this...Russia have as much Nukes as we do!!!...Should we really be enemies with country that could destroy us just as fast as we could destroy them???....What say you???

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

For what it is worth. I believe we should cultivate a better relationship and test that relationship before we consider the next step in cooperation. I see no harm in extending an olive branch. As for Russia hacking any of our systems, I know a few that they could have easily gotten into.... but, the DNC system, I doubt it. There are bigger and much more rewarding systems to poke around in.... electric grids, the Pentagon, or the email accounts of US "assets" living in Russia.

Kevyn

We owe it to the Russian people, not to mention all Ukrainians and freedom loving people around the world not to. Our nation has a long and proud history of opposing despots so that oppressed people around the world have a shot at living in freedom. Make no mistake, Putin is a murderous thug who has had people k**led in Briton, invaded a sovereign nation, propped up a fellow despot in Syria. The e******n meddling alone is an attack on our most cherished institutions and should be considered and act of war and responded to with a cyber counterattack of similar magnitude. Our response should be to destroy the wealth of Putin’s enablers and collapse the Russians puny economy so that Putin’s own people turn on him like they did the Tsar. We should not be cutting oil and real estate deals with this scum nor should our i***t child of a president be groveling and kissing Putin’s ass at every meeting. Despots and dictators should never never be our “friends.”

proud republican Loc: RED CALIFORNIA

Maybe we should have..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KcRl1p2waM

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

Beautiful, and thank you.... man, we were SO close to peace!!!

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

I agree with everything you have said..

Kevyn

We could have had peace with N**i Germany if FDR turned his back on Briton and coddled Hitler, Putin’s collapse should be our goal.

Canuckus Deploracus Loc: North of the wall

This statement is moronic (sorry)...

The US and other western nations have a long history of propping up whoever will work with them... And invading when that doesn't work...
And I'm sure that the US has never assassinated anyone...

Love how we are bringing Peace and Freedom yo the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, while selling weapons to the Saudis...

And of course the US would never interfere in the e******ns of another nation

How exactly did Russia interfere?
Made the e******ns a little more t***sparent did they? Wouldn't want people to know what their politicians are up to...

But by all means... If you don't like someone the correct path is to devastate them financially and militarily... I'm sure the people will blame Putin and beg America to save them.... (heavy sarcasm)...


Note: I am fine with the majority of actions taken by Western nations... I simply find Kevyn's hypocrisy and delusional view of the way the rest of the world views the US ridiculous...

Boo_Boo Loc: Jellystone

I guess no discussion would be complete without a Liberal bring up N**i Germany.

ACP45 Loc: Rhode Island

I could not have said this better!

Kevyn

Parts of our forign policy history are indeed shameful, from installing Pinochet in Chilie to backing the Saudis and their horrid human rights abuses. That aside our forign policy goals as a nation are to encourage freedom and discourage totalitarianism. The Putin reign is antithetical to our nations values and he has routinely attacked both the US and our allies. Our goal should be his collapse and removal and freedom for the Russian people.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Putin is the leader in a cont t***sition from c*******m to freedom. It is very complicated and most don't seem to realize how it truly has gone. Start with researching the "invasions" of sovereign countries.

nwtk2007 Loc: Texas

Indeed! Comparing Russia and Putin to N**i Germany is stupid and, I'm sure, repulsive to the Russian people.

Common_Sense_Matters

Interesting, take the Christ like approach, he meddles with our e******ns, we invite him to dinner and perhaps let him inspect our v****g machines during coffee after dinner, he annexes a territory belonging to another country, perhaps we should hug it out.

Putin is NOT a good man, Russian people, I am sure they are fine people but Putin is NOT. Of course that said, what can we really do about it? If he is willing and capable of swaying our e******ns, just imagine the impact he has over e******ns in his own country. We can't possibly expect that even if the Russian people want him out, that they can do anything about it, short of rising up and revolting. Perhaps that would happen if we placed heavy sanctions on them.

Of course there will be those of you that will claim he did not meddle. Many will ignore all the social media accounts created by Russia disseminating disinformation. Many others will disregard the hacking and leaking of DNC E-mails by Russia and who knows what all other means they may have utilized, how can we know unless it were caught. With friends like him, who needs enemies? Do we really want "friends" that will stoop to such levels against our people? It is speculated that the actions taken during the 2016 e******ns was specifically targeted to sow the seeds of chaos in the U.S., to weaken us and divide us. That does seem to be what the result was. If that was the intention, well done Putin, you succeeded. One can only wonder, did we elect Obama legitimately or did we have help from outside influences? We were quite divided over Obama as well.

Now for the counter-argument, the 2016 e******n did show that our e******ns ARE vulnerable. Now we can work to shore up those vulnerabilities. It does appear to seem we should perhaps consider scrapping electronic v****g for now, at least until we can ensure that we can do it in a safe and secure way, to avoid potential hacks. The internet with all the joys and conveniences it offers, it also offers many dangers as well. without the internet, any hacking would need to be done with direct access to a connected terminal, with it, it can be done from anywhere, including half way around the world.

For those that don't consider Putin a threat, there is much evidence to the contrary, even in Putin's own eyes if one were to look there. I have noticed over time that Putin ALWAYS seems to have the cold, calculating stare of someone trying to size up an opponent. then there's the various links below that all lead to articles telling how Putin wants to destroy the U.S. and how he wants to destroy NATO, which the U.S. is currently the strongest member of.



https://www.newsweek.com/2017/05/26/inside-putin-campaign-destroy-us-democracy-610401.html

https://www.businessinsider.com/putin-said-he-could-destroy-the-us (x2, I chose the more recent rendition)

https://danielmiessler.com/blog/russia-is-trying-to-destroy-america-and-heres-how-to-do-it/

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/vladimir-putin/11448971/Vladimir-Putin-wants-to-destroy-Nato-says-US-commander-in-Europe-Ben-Hodges.html (Article is about Putin wanting to destroy NATO, U.S. is strongest NATO alliance member...)

https://wearechange.org/how-putin-is-trying-to-destroy-the-u-s-dollar/ (a video and a list of links to articles, no article on the page itself)

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/inside-russias-attempt-to-hack-2018-and-2020



The Putin threat may be benign, it may be dark and dangerous, only time will tell for certain but considering recent events, I think I might lean a bit further towards dark and dangerous.

Rose42

Well...Putin just signed this -

Vladimir Putin signs sweeping Internet-censorship bills
Publishing "unreliable socially significant information" can lead to big fines.

President Vladimir Putin has tightened his grip on the Russian Internet Monday, signing two censorship bills into law. One bans "f**e news" while the other makes it illegal to insult public officials.

Russia has never really been a liberal democracy. It lacks an independent judiciary, and the government has found a variety of techniques to harass and intimidate independent media in the country.

But the new legislation gives the Russian government more direct tools to censor online speech. Analyst Maria Snegovaya told The Washington Post that the legislation "significantly expands the repressive power of Russia’s repressive apparatus."

Under one bill, individuals can face fines and jail time if they publish material online that shows a "clear disrespect for society, the state, the official state symbols of the Russian Federation, the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and bodies exercising state power."

Insults against Putin himself can be punished under the law, The Moscow Times reports. Punishments can be as high as 300,000 rubles ($4,700) and 15 days in jail.

A second bill subjects sites publishing "unreliable socially significant information" to fines as high as 1.5 million rubles ($23,000).

"Russia has not historically had major constraints on Internet freedom," analyst Matthew Rojansky told the Post. "The Internet has thus been one realm in which full diversity of opinion and free expression, even on the most sensitive political topics, were generally permitted."

Now, however, the Russian government has "essentially unconstrained authority to determine that any speech is unacceptable. One consequence may be to make it nearly impossible for individuals or groups to call for public protest activity against any action taken by the state."

The Russian government has steadily tightened its grip over the Russian Internet, The Moscow Times notes. "Tougher Internet laws introduced over the past five years require search engines to delete some search results, messaging services to share encryption keys with security services, and social networks to store users' personal data on servers within the country."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/03/russia-makes-it-illegal-to-insult-officials-or-publish-f**e-news/