American billionaire Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has called for the US-funded radio stations Radio Free Europe and Voice of America to be shut down. Source: Musk on X (Twitter) Yes, shut them down.
And I don’t trust Russia or Putin enough that I’m convinced they couldn’t be bribed with reintegration with Europe to look the other way and whistle while the US attacks the DPRK/China.
My question there would be, what would the US bribe them with? Temporarily not vilifying, dehumanizing, and trying to undermine them for decades? I don’t see what benefit “reintegration with Europe” would even be, especially that would be worth discarding China or trying to play some kind of Pontius Pilate thing. The US is becoming behind technologically with no prospects of improving on that front, it and its European “allies” are in a sad state of affairs in terms of producing their own goods, their internal contradictions keep getting worse, and their image on the world stage keeps taking hits. If I were trying to put myself in the head of a person thinking only in terms of cynical long-term benefit, China would make far more sense as the one to bet on. Russia throwing China under the bus in order to ally with the US after everything it has done to Russia not only doesn’t make much strategic sense, I would think it would be extremely humiliating for Russia to do, to being throwing away such a powerful ally just to please the chronically abusive and terrorizing US that has caused them so much grief. Russia, like China, would probably prefer that the warmongering ends, even if they are not quite the same political systems, which is where openness to talks comes in. Lest we forget that Russia didn’t want to war with Ukraine and western influences sabotaged at least one attempt at peace between Ukraine and Russia already.
Stranger things have happened, but the idea of it is odd to me. The empire has made a mockery of itself in Ukraine and I can’t see how it would be anything but immensely foolish for Russia to view talks as the US being in a position to set terms. They can demand all they want, but the situation on the ground is another thing.
My question there would be, what would the US bribe them with? Temporarily not vilifying, dehumanizing, and trying to undermine them for decades? I don’t see what benefit “reintegration with Europe” would even be, especially that would be worth discarding China or trying to play some kind of Pontius Pilate thing. The US is becoming behind technologically with no prospects of improving on that front, it and its European “allies” are in a sad state of affairs in terms of producing their own goods, their internal contradictions keep getting worse, and their image on the world stage keeps taking hits. If I were trying to put myself in the head of a person thinking only in terms of cynical long-term benefit, China would make far more sense as the one to bet on. Russia throwing China under the bus in order to ally with the US after everything it has done to Russia not only doesn’t make much strategic sense, I would think it would be extremely humiliating for Russia to do, to being throwing away such a powerful ally just to please the chronically abusive and terrorizing US that has caused them so much grief. Russia, like China, would probably prefer that the warmongering ends, even if they are not quite the same political systems, which is where openness to talks comes in. Lest we forget that Russia didn’t want to war with Ukraine and western influences sabotaged at least one attempt at peace between Ukraine and Russia already.
Stranger things have happened, but the idea of it is odd to me. The empire has made a mockery of itself in Ukraine and I can’t see how it would be anything but immensely foolish for Russia to view talks as the US being in a position to set terms. They can demand all they want, but the situation on the ground is another thing.