Obama cancels visit with Putin
theguardian.com
theguardian.com
Russia gave Snowden asylum so we hate them now. Obama will still come to the party but he's not going to talk to the birthday boy. You suck Russia! Nerrr!
We're best friends with Sweden now! They raided the pirate bay and ginned up some charges against Assange that almost worked! Sweden's our friend! We're going to Sweden's house!
It's just incredible to me that with all their trillions of dollars, awesome militaries, mighty departments of state and the best advisors money can buy - the actions of these superpowers are basically indistinguishable from the machinations of a high school "popular kids" group.
And I wonder what countries like Sweden actually get, or don't get, from bending over for the USA like this. There has to be something. What's the carrot and/or the stick?
Putin is by all accounts an awful man, a cynical, manipulative politician, a misogynistic, bullying, egotistical prat, but geeze, it's good to see someone, just one head of state, tell the USA where to go. Masterfully played, too, politically. Just when Russia should by all rights be an absolute pariah with its disgusting attacks on homosexuals - they've finessed themselves into the role of protectors of free speech and whistleblowers, darlings of the techno-elite set everywhere. Masterful.
Maybe in the next few decades we'll learn that meddling in everyone else's business, committing crimes against our own citizens, and blanket bombing other countries doesn't pay off in the end.
Or maybe the US government will become the totalitarian regime it's shaping up to be and keep us under military rule whilst somehow twisting our view with propaganda to make us think it's all for the greater glory (and still constitutional, of course). We do, after all, have to stop terrorism. Surely the best way to do this is to kill/torture people until everyone likes us. You can't do this with a bunch of whiny citizens blubbering about their rights.
My country is really pissing me off right now.
/rant
Only Americans ever thought this. The rest was propaganda.
To be fair, though, I reckon that there was a period in time in which the USA did seem to be holding the generally accepted global flag for "the country that's doing things right". Not perfect, but the USA had a much better reputation than it does now for generally having its shit together and moving in the right direction.
Cracks started to appear in the 1970s, I'd say, and the edifice had completely crumbled by the mid 90s.
Also, relevant username ;).
And: People are repeating "Never forget." - and at the same time, people seem to have forgotten that there was a time when we had no terrorism (true story!).
The question nobody's asking anymore: What is the reason for terrorism? How did we get there?
Nowadays, fighting some symptons seems to be all we can come up with. (The only reason I can see for this is: Because it's big business.)
But any intelligent person would see that our reaction to terrorism (bombing countries in the Middle East) is only going to create more terrorists. For every terrorist we kill, there are others we kill who are not...what if we kill someone's child? Or even if we kill a child's dog? This is the kind of ill-will that harbors "terrorism" and makes people our supposed enemies.
Of course people are going to hate us if we're bombing them all the time.
So on one end we're trying to stop terrorism by killing every last one of them (heh, good luck) and in reality are trying to provoke more attacks so our government can gain more power in the hopes of "stopping" terrorism. The cycle continues, the contractors win, the government wins, the citizens lose, the terrorists keep fighting.
I remember that. I think it may have been a Tuesday.
Don't you think he's getting some "interesting" visits and talking about "curious" topics?
What else does Edward knows about?
Also, if the US hadn't waved around words like "treason" maybe he'd be a bit keener on coming back of his own accord.
I think we've screwed up multiple times here on an issue that, in the grand scheme of things, is fairly petty. Now we're digging ourselves deeper.
They're all playing the same game.
I have lived a short life compared to some, but I've never seen anything that equates to what is happening now.
It's not a rant sir, it's rather a serious thought. Calling it a rant unnecessarily trivializes the problem at hand.
And Russia could not extradite him, because when Russia invited (more than once) US to make a extradition pact, US refused.
So, US strand their citizen somewhere else, in a somewhere where they ensured themselves this stranded citizen could not be extradited, and then throw a tantrum.
This kind of posturing is such a clear sign of weakness... It's embarrassing to me as a US citizen.
I'm beginning to wonder whether the US even cares anymore about maintaining the illusion of its moral superiority.
Obama, what a disappointment you turned out to be.
UPDATE: That'll teach me for not fully reading TFA. He does mention the homophobia but seemingly in passing. The Snowden issue takes priority, apparently. My points stand.
/politics
Unfortunately people are too distracted working or playing farmville to care about what's happening in our country. What's more is our media completely distracts us with things like abortion and gay rights (they are important, mind you, but not as important as constitutional issues that affect basic rights IMO) so that there's no chance of standing next to someone from the other political party. As the citizens become more divided, the government grows stronger. We've seen what it does with this power.