America Is Now an Ally of Russia

22 pointsposted 3 hours ago
by robtherobber
(theatlantic.com)

16 Comments

pluc

3 hours ago

Given how the USA treats its allies this might be a good thing for Ukraine.

palata

3 hours ago

What a time to be alive.

rbanffy

3 hours ago

Who'd imagine Russia would win the Cold War in the end...

saidnooneever

2 hours ago

well i mean they are kinda used to the cold arent they.

palata

43 minutes ago

Then maybe Trump should start doing something against global warming...

euroderf

3 hours ago

That's gotta be some videotape.

derbOac

3 hours ago

I think it's more accurate to say the US has a rogue but unchecked criminal president. Even the article starts with the bill sanctioning Russia passed by Congress, which was subverted by the president. So why is America equated with Trump and not Congress?

A more useful article would have discussed the gap between the two branches and why there are no consequences for the president.

biglyburrito

2 hours ago

Because the president isn't rogue. He was duly elected and aided/abetted by the GOP. It indicates a systemic failure, not an anomaly.

derbOac

2 hours ago

I agree there's a systemic failure, but think the article mischaracterizes the situation. Congress didn't pass the "aid to Russia" bill, for example. The article distracts from the real problems, at least in my opinion, for the sake of attention.

consumer451

30 minutes ago

It wasn't subverted. The bill was written in a way that gave POTUS complete control of it. That's the only reason the law was proposed to begin with.

> The bill was approved with bipartisan support, but some Republicans and most House Democrats voted against the law, arguing that it contained a trap door, a provision that would allow Trump to suspend the prescribed sanctions at will.

derbOac

21 minutes ago

I'm aware of the provision in the bill. The argument that there was a trapdoor implies that the intent of the bill — to sanction Russia — might have been subverted. You can argue that Trump's behavior is consistent with the intent of Congress, but I think it's a stretch from a trapdoor provision in a bill that literally sanctions Russia to saying that "America is an ally of Russia".

I think the title of the article is clickbait and even if you take it seriously, frames the situation in a way that I think shifts attention from the real problems.

consumer451

13 minutes ago

If Congress, specifically the sponsors of the bill, wanted the sanctions to be enforced then there would have been no such trap door offered to a man who proudly hangs a photo of Putin in the White House. A man who since returning from Moscow in the 1980s, suddenly began talking about how pointless NATO was, via full page NYT ads.