Brazil Divorcing the American Controlled Internet

[Valmy]

Ah Minsky I remember back when GWB was President and you were on my side.  At least something good will come from a Republican victory in 2016.

[The Minsky Moment]

Ah Minsky I remember back when GWB was President and you were on my side.  At least something good will come from a Republican victory in 2016.

The spy stuff didn't bother me so much.  It was typical GWB admin stuff of cutting corners on the rules, but there were worse abuses.  Like torture.

I do think the FISA process is broken and should be reformed, and yet it seems the Snowden affair, while shining light on the NSA as an agency, has not generated much momentum.

[Ed Anger]

I wish Snowden's toothpaste would explode.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I wish Snowden's toothpaste would explode.

they've got toothpaste in Russia now?

[frunk]

I think the connection between Snowden and the Ukraine aggression is strectching it, but otherwise agree.

It's pure speculation on my part, there's no definitive evidence on something like this (not that there would be), but it seems like Putin's pushing much harder politically and militarily than it would be prudent to do.  NATO was doing a nice job of gradually becoming irrelevant, the US was focusing on other areas.  Why call attention now instead of waiting a few years when you've fully snuffed out free speech and everybody is that much more distracted?  Something as time sensitive as a major intelligence leak like this could be a factor (even if it isn't the only reason).

[celedhring]

Russia reacted to events in Ukraine when the country threatened to spun off their sphere of influence; linking Snowden's leak to it seems a bit paranoid imho. It wasn't a scenario of their choosing.

[frunk]

Russia reacted to events in Ukraine when the country threatened to spun off their sphere of influence; linking Snowden's leak to it seems a bit paranoid imho. It wasn't a scenario of their choosing.

It's not so much that they reacted, it's how they've reacted.  At several points they could have deescalated, but chose to keep on pushing it.  After grabbing Crimea (which certainly proved that they were willing to push their sphere of influence) the aggression in eastern Ukraine wasn't really "reacting to events".  They cultivated a conflict with Ukraine even after they took a chunk (probably the most important chunk from the Russian perspective) out of it, in the process antagonizing every neighbor with a Russian minority.  That's well beyond a conservative reaction, and was definitely the scenario they chose.

[celedhring]

All of this it's perfectly explainable from a domestic front perspective without needing some secret intel. They were never going to deescalate over Ukraine. And they are still worse off than if their original plan (integrating Ukraine into their economic union on a path of turning it into another Belarus) had worked out.

[frunk]

I didn't say that it needed it, just that it would be another reason why Putin is being more aggressive than he might otherwise be.