Guest Post by Scott Adams
Everyone is saying the relationship between the United States and Russia is really, really bad right now. President Trump says it is bad. Russia agrees. All the pundits agree too.
So it must be true, right?
In the 2nd dimension – where things are just the way they look – it does seem that the U.S. and Russia are in a bad place with each other. The United States attacked Russia’s little buddy, Assad, for allegedly using chemical weapons. But Russia says Assad didn’t use chemical weapons. Now Russia is mad at the United States.
Maybe the situation is exactly what I just described.
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But just for fun, let’s hop up to the 3rd dimension (of persuasion) and see what the view looks like.
Hopping up now. Looking around…
Okay, it looks different from here. In the 3rd dimension, the smartest thing for both Trump and Putin to say right now is that relations between Russia and the U.S. are terrible… while not thinking it is true in any practical sense.
For Trump, pretending to have bad relations with Russia solves for his “Puppet of Putin” problem while giving him room to improve. He’s setting the bar as low as the bar will go. And he gets a free pass on Russian relations right now because public opinion in the United States is supportive of the Syrian strike. Later, when relations with Russia improve, it will look like progress. Trump wins now, and he wins later too.
Luckily for President Trump, Putin also has an incentive to pretend that relations with the United States are strained. He needs to put up a strong front because of all the usual reasons countries act tough. Given the circumstances, I’d say Russia is acting restrained.
The United States and Russia are what I call “natural allies.” We have some common problems to solve (notably ISIS), and no natural problems with each other, such as claims to the same territory, or a long history of shooting wars against each other. And both countries are super-pragmatic.
The smartest play right now for both Trump and Putin (two Master Persuaders) is to claim relations between their countries are in the basement and can’t get much worse. That quiets the haters without creating any real risk of a trade war or a shooting war. Everyone gets what they need in this situation. And when relations improve – which they will – everyone gets to take credit for it.
I wish all of our national problems were as harmless as this one.
Update: At about the same time I posted this blog, the President tweeted:
Things will work out fine between the U.S.A. and Russia. At the right time everyone will come to their senses & there will be lasting peace!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 13, 2017
Boy, he did a great job answering yesterday’s QOTD.
“The United States and Russia are what I call “natural allies.” We have some common problems to solve (notably ISIS), ” Yes. Lots more in common than one may imagine. Both have large christian populations that have been under assault and are targeted for elimination .. By the same group in different ways . One has a leader that puts his country first, one has a leader that screws his people first .. The HUGE difference is one recognized the serial parasitic cancer that was ripping his country apart, launched it out on its ass like it should have been done, and the arrow has pointed up ever since. The other aids and abets the same group in its ultimate inevitable destruction . Pretty simply Russia is what we always claimed we were and we are what and we are what we claimed Russia to be (old soviet union) . As Abbey Martin recently tweeted, “Exceptionalism is a dangerous drug” Americans better detox from that really quick, put the phones down and grow a pair cause if they dont , you might as well hoist that powder blue and white at your front door . Read the Protocols tonight folks and get very scared
Russia is an increasingly Christian and anti Muslim nation, the United States is an increasingly anti Christian and pro Muslim one.
That doesn’t make us natural allies.
Maybe we were several decades ago, but that time has passed.
America’s faux-leadership (NYT, LAT, WaPo, Google, etc.) are pro-muslim. I would say that the average American is somewhere between neutral (never met one) to mildly hostile (met several, what’s WRONG with those people?).
Find me an “average American” to start with; then let’s ask him / her:
(1) Are you in favor of Sharia law, with a woman’s testimony in court worth half that of any man?
(2) Are you in favor of quaint Islamic customs like FGM, throwing gay people off high buildings, bestiality, homosexuality with young (bacha bazi) boys, and sex slavery using captured Kurdish women?
(3) Are you in favor of giving a theocracy control of your court system, with the death penalty for blasphemy (as determined by the most rabid of your society)?
I think you would be hard-pressed to find approval of Islam among any INFORMED Americans, average or not. Judge also by how many are traveling abroad to become PART of an Islamic society.
But, here is the problem that Putin did NOT have when he routed out the problems in his country – Congress and the Judicial branch. This is actually a good thing, as it keeps tyrants from getting control and radically changing the system into North Korea overnight.
Trump can’t just route out the problems, because the problems are being paid to continue being problems, by the people who want the problems. Also, the government “dark state”, really just government goons that want continued job security at any means, are not going to go quietly, and need to be pulled out like parasites out in to the sun. In this situation, Trump has to be his own adviser, as that is one of the few places that the NSA, CIA, FBI and other agencies can’t spy. He has to lay the groundwork slowly for the “check mate” without cluing the above, as well as foreign leaders in to what he is doing.
I am giving Trump time. Either he IS playing 3D chess, and using the 2D optics for greater purpose (we do have short attention span) or he really has gone full retard. I would say, in either case, we are along for the ride…whether we like it or not.
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Yeah, Russia and the US are natural allies…if either respects the interests of the other which in a natural sense are specific to their geographic location. The problem is when one side, in the pursuit of global hegemony, in one sense or another, starts fucking around with the natural interests of the other. Guess which one this applies to?
Scott Adams is really starting to annoy me. He’s becoming a mind-fucking apologist for all things Trump.
The above was me. I am sure you could tell by the erudition and polite language.
Either Scott Adams enjoys being a contrarian or he’s trying to set a record for ass-kissing the new president. But in either case his premise is insulting: Our leaders are much smarter than we are, and we road-licking bumpkins had better just sit back and let the grownups at the table do their thing. They’re working in our best interest, of course, and it’s a little insulting for dumbasses like us to question their motives.
I think Scott Adams is channeling Kent Brockman:
Trump could strangle a puppy on live TV and Adams would expound about what a brilliant long-term 55th dimension move it was.
Wink, wink, nod, nod, Bobs your uncle. Two old dogs playing high stakes poker for the optical benefit of their citizens.
Good job Scott.
As for the most of you jaded nattering naboobs of negativism, you couldn’t and wouldn’t recognize a slick move by Trump if it bit you on the ass.
Sychophant ass kisser.
Good Grief! (Wait a minute, that’s another stupid comic strip).
I agree with Admin, the stupid, it burns.
Hmmmm … ‘natural allies’. What is the corollary? Unnatural allies? Neither of these terms make sense. If so, then Adams’ entire thesis is pure conjecture and is not founded on sound logic.
Wishful thinking, but not very convincing.