I went in yesterday and there was a television screen, and I said, “This is genius.” Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So, Putin is now saying, “It’s independent,” a large section of Ukraine. I said, “How smart is that?” And he’s gonna go in and be a peacekeeper. That’s strongest peace force… They’re gonna keep peace all right.
That's criticizing Putin, but you've got to understand that it's sarcasm when he says, "They’re gonna keep peace all right."
It's not siding with the enemy to say the enemy is very smart. And it's so obvious that Trump's enemies would fault him for recognizing Putin's brilliance that I'm tempted to credit Trump with intending to trigger that faultfinding.
I can already hear Trump in my head taking advantage of their criticism of him: Biden's people don't want to say Putin is a genius because Biden is no genius. Everybody knows that. Biden against Putin. Well, fortunately for us, Putin is an idiot, so Putin against Biden, no problem. That'll work. Brilliant.
But Trump is also a genius — that's his idea — so he's the one who ought to take on the genius. You can see that's his idea by looking at what he says next:
No, but think of it. Here’s a guy [Putin] who’s very savvy… I know him very well. Very, very well. By the way, this never would have happened with us. Had I been in office, not even thinkable. This would never have happened.
But here’s a guy that says, you know, “I’m gonna declare a big portion of Ukraine independent,” he used the word “independent,” “and we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna go in and we’re gonna help keep peace.” You gotta say that’s pretty savvy. And you know what the response was from Biden?
Biden, whose supporters think it's wrong to consider Putin a genius....
There was no response. They didn’t have one for that. No, it’s very sad. Very sad....
Trump's point isn't that he likes Putin, but that Biden cannot handle the job, and that's sad.
Clay Travis observes that Putin invaded Ukraine when Obama was President, and now he's doing it again with Biden, but he did not invade when Trump was President. How does that square with Trump's antagonists' idea that Trump sides with Putin? Trump notes that Chuck Todd asked the same question on "Meet the Press" this week:
Chuck Todd asked that question. How come there was none of this happening during the Trump administration? I knew Putin very well. I got along with him great. He liked me. I liked him. I mean, you know, he’s a tough cookie, got a lot of the great charm and a lot of pride. But the way he — and he loves his country, you know? He loves his country. He’s acting a little differently I think now.
I think he sees this opportunity. I knew that he always wanted Ukraine. I used to talk to him about it. I said, “You can’t do it. You’re not gonna do it.” But I could see that he wanted it. I used to ask him. We used to talk about it at length. I think nobody probably knows him better in terms of the discussions that we have or that we’re having this morning. So, I knew him very well. I got to know him.
The conversation turns to China, how Trump knows Xi very well too, and Trump predicts that China will take Taiwan. They were only waiting for the Olympics to end, so "look at your stopwatch." Trump sums up with the assertion that if he were still President "Putin would have never
done it" and — speaking of taking over Taiwan in the past tense — "Xi would have never done it."
You know, people don’t realize that I stopped the Russian pipeline. It was dead. [Biden] came in and he immediately let it proceed, and it’s one of the reasons — the money is so enormous!...
Putin even said, “You’re killing me on the pipeline.” I said, “Sorry, I have no choice. It’s wrong.” Okay. [Biden] approves it. But then they say, “Oh, Trump was nice to Russia!” I wasn’t nice to Russia. And, by the way, I do to want get along. I think getting along with Russia is a great thing. We could have done tremendous…
He catches himself on that "we" and restarts with "they":
They have tremendous land, they have tremendous resources, and they need our help too.
So: is "getting along with Russia... a great thing"? That is, at least, the ideal, but wanting to get along can lead you into getting tricked by the genius player on the other side. And yet, perhaps Trump is/was/could be the genius player on our side, and then who knows what he means by "We could have done tremendous..." — tremendous what?
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100 comments:
Isn't the critical question whether it serves US interests for Trump to say those things about Putin at this time? If it is inconsistent with those interests, shouldn't Trump be shutting up?
It's interesting. There were all these very specific predictions last week about Putin's invasion - the day, who he's going to round up and shoot...
Now they are claiming vindication because he did something invasion-y, even though it looks totally different in every way.
Did they just make all that garbage up? Was this a genius plan on his part? Leak stupid plans that got the media and the US ready to deal with something crazy, and then do something that is much harder to dispute: Donbas declaring independence, Russia "helping them out"...
Trump was a real estate developer and financier in NYC - he's used to dealing with thugs. He knows that their chief concern is "respect" and that if you flatter them you can do business with them, even to their detriment. If you bad-mouth them, they have to "win" to retain the respect of their supporters.
Well Biden said in 2020 that he was the only guy who had "gone toe to toe" with Putin.
And now Putin is beating Biden like Biden "beat Cornpop".
"that it's sarcasm"
Yeah...that's why they act like they don't get it.
Trump is a genius and one of our smartest Presidents ever.
Hitler was smart at the beginning.
I don't think Japan was smart in attacking Pearl Harbor. FDR would have stayed out of both Asia and Europe for some time but Japan forced his hand.
Knowing that your adversary or enemy is smart is just sophisticated thinking.
Trump is just pointing out the obvious.
But China isn't going to take Taiwan over Biden's objections. China has already bought Taiwan. Biden already made a deal to give Taiwan to China just like he made a deal to sell Ukraine.
Biden will "fight" the takeover by embarrassing the United States and losing on purpose.
That is what Biden has done all his life.
He embarrasses the United States and loses wars he starts.
It's all confirmation bias, plus the absolute inability to admit they were wrong.
If you're convinced Putin loves him some Trump, and that Trump was a handpicked puppet of Putin's, then this sounds like sweet, sweet vindication. It's a small step from there to an exchange like this:
- So if Trump was such a Putin lackey, why did Putin move into Crimea in 2014 and the Donbas only this year?
- Because he didn't want to complicate his handpicked puppet's life!
I've been saying right along, the evidence for Trump being pro-Putin was always that he...wait for it...said nice things about him! I wished he wouldn't. But there never has been much policy substance behind the charge.
It's the same deal with North Korea. You could have a rich nation and we want to help.
Failed because dictatorships are actually structured a little differently from what's commonly thought. The dictators have to pay off rivals with fiefdoms and monopolies and cash in proportion to how much trouble the rivals could cause. If you want the dictator to do something, you have to arrange to pay off those rivals as well or it won't happen. They'll make the trouble they could always cause.
Probably some idealized grand anti-China alliance where Trump gets Putin to realize China considers Russia a very junior partner and also has its eye on eastern Siberia.
The reason Putin didn't do it when Trump was president is obvious, and it isn't Trump's alleged unpredictability. He's very predictable. He would have taken it is a challenge to his manhood and the figurative manhood of the US, and he would have found a way to strike back hard at zrussia to soothe his pique. Everybody knew when Trump was president that if you upset the United States, it was going to upset you. Everybody knows that with Biden and the Obama team running the US government, you'll get a weak, incoherent, press conference response from the US.
Russia and the US are natural allies as to culture, except the US culture has gone down the toilet with woke now and Russia is a crime syndicate.
It's not siding with the enemy to say the enemy is very smart.
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you are correct Madame Professora.
But D have had very few occasions - practically not one - to regard any actions from R as smart : even then they only know how to mock
It's not siding with the enemy to say the enemy is very smart.
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you are correct Madame Professora.
But D have had very few occasions - practically not one - to regard any actions from R as smart : even then they only know how to mock
Yeah I am rallying around the Bidenites who call me deplorable...
We understand Trump.
the hack press will use his strange way of communicating against him.
Nothing new.
Trump is not saying is Putin a genius or savvy in order to praise him, he’s pointing out that Putin is very calculating and knows exactly what he’s doing, and that Biden doesn’t have a clue, that he’s out of his league.
He’s not wrong. Biden Bunch are not even close to being up to the task at hand. That poor schlep Blinken looks like he’s aged 10 years in the last 3 weeks.
"That's criticizing Putin, but you've got to understand that it's sarcasm..."
There are stupid people who don't understand that, and smart people who pretend they don't.
Russian character is usually described as : Russian Ivan wants Russian Vlad's barn to burn down or Russian Vlad wants Russian Ivan's cow to die.
Commnunists tried to put them in the same farm with one barn and one cow - but only when they each have their cow and barn could there be improvement >>>> which is the American way but not US political DC grifter way
so the push to keep Russians poor -
The Biden regime and its insane Russiagate lies is pushing Putin and Xi together. Now, they are blaming Ukraine for the inflation that began the day after Biden took office and signed all those Executive Orders they put in front of him.
They don't want to understand Trump. "Come back Emanuel Goldstein, all is forgiven, we need you!"
This is why talking politics is a chump's game. You have to admit, it was a pretty good. maneuver on Putin's part. I remember once I was at an NHL game and our boys were playing Pittsburg and Mario Lemieux made this sweet move that faked our defenseman out of his shorts, and even though we were rooting for our boys, everybody just kind of quietly clapped at the genius of it.
When Congress declares war, I will stop criticizing the brazenly corrupt and blazingly inept Joe Biden's handing of his personal Teapot Dome, that is Ukraine. Until then, this is a free county, and it's pretty rich listening to the same people who undermined Trump at every step when we were faced with a pandemic that has killed something on the order of a million Americans get upset that we aren't screaming to send out boys do die defending that Perkins-Coie satrapy. Especially after he pulled the rug out from under those same kids in Afghanistan.
Trump respects Putin. That's not a bad thing, because it means that he treats him as an adversary worthy of caution. In contrast, the political class treat Putin as a joke, a minor obstacle in their quest to bleed Eastern Europe and Russia of every valuable and absorb their societies and culture into the grey mass that is post-modern globalism.
No honey, that dress doesn't make you look fat. No, not at all. It's like Marilyn Monroe came back to life.
Sure, that's it. That's the ticket...
Trump and Putin have a common enemy: the other US Government. The one that Trump challenged for selling out the American middle class. It goes by the name CIA run propaganda State. That government wants a sock puppet as US President who lets them rule. Trump courageously ignored their “ we will get you 6 ways from Sunday” rules and beat them for us. He needed a little help from Admiral Rogers, but he beat their ass. And the next 4 years was a get Trump tour de force. The JFK assassination move was the only tool not used against DJT. Instead the next election was rigged by an all hands on deck and a bio weapon, which was the other government showing off.
Oh fer fuck’s sake. When I call the September 11, 2001 attacks elegant because they brought down the Twin Towers using boxcutters purchased at a hardware store, it doesn’t mean I side with the terrorists.
If you believe Trump is siding with Putin, then you will believe Churchill was siding with the Nazis when he said "Across the havoc of war, a great general” of Erwin Rommel.
What the hell is he talking about when he says he killed the pipeline? How did he kill it? The most he could have done was pressure Germany, and he was pretty crappy at that.
The Lamestream Media© is going to have to work overtime to carry enough water for the Biden Administration to keep their fecklessness out of sight.
Clearly, from Obama thru Biden, they have gotten virtually everything regarding foreign policy wrong. It would be impressive if it weren't so damaging to America.
Putin rose from work-a-day KGB agent to virtual dictator of on e of the biggest and strongest countries on earth. What kind of insecure mental incompetent would have a problem with calling him a genius?
Dems can't resist calling people who aren't useful to them stupid. That's what this is about--we like smart people, we don't like dumb people. Trump thinks Putin's smart, therefore Trump likes Putin.
Can we identify the Number 1 reason why the Woke and the Swamp hated Trump so much? Despite a strong economy, lower unemployment, progress in restricting border crossings, no new wars, progress in balancing trade with China? I keep coming back to Open Borders, which God knows is the one thing Biden or the Mechanical Turk was determined to do from day one, and has stuck with. We have no idea what to do about poverty and crime, but we'll ensure a lot of poor people show up, in a nice non-racist way contributing to both poverty and crime. This will prove our humanity, and give the big corporations what they want, namely cheap labor. In some way it justifies endless wars: people will come here as long as there are shithole countries; only the Pentagon can fix that problem.
But maybe Russia/Ukraine was always up there, Number 2 if not Number 1. So crazy I find it difficult to believe, but then the attempt was made to turn Alexander Vindman into some kind of folk hero. "But Vindman, why should any President be impeached because he disagrees with you? Even your closest friends would be unable to find your cube in the cube farm." Vindman: "It isn't just me; it's the inter-agency consensus. We must wuv Ukraine and hate Putin. We must I tell you. That's what all the sophisticated people say." As Kaus says, this would persuade many rational people to say: fuck the inter-agency consensus.
This is all so insane and the most insane part of it is waiting for our media, and through them our population, to understand what has happened in just the last 18-24 months.
Just 18 months ago we were energy independent. We were exporting. Price of oil was $30/barrel. Trump denied Russia the Nordstream 2 pipeline, while opening up the Keystone pipeline to proceed development from Canada. We were also opening up the buying of sand oils from Canada. With the price of oil dropping, and the Nordstream on hold, Putin and Russia had no cash flow. Aside from sending guns, bombs, and vodka around the world, they have nothing to sell.
Now, we're buying oil at inflated prices from Russia. Biden immediately shut down all drilling that he could, ceased development of Keystone, opened up Nordstream for Russia (until yesterday), and applauded as we went from energy independent to paying our enemies inflated prices for what we could produce ourselves. Today Biden's team is negotiating with Iran to buy oil from them as well. Oil today is going over $100/barrel. Russia is flowing in money. Iran will be flowing in money. And we're sitting on our thumbs feeling better about saving the planet while our country crumbles.
Biden and Democrats are a disaster- not only for our country, but for the world.
Trump in response to should be send American soldiers to the Ukrainian border:
Well, I’d rather see them send soldiers to our southern border. I’d rather see them… In three weeks, you could finish it. They won’t even let Texas use our military, which is all bought, sitting there waiting to be put up. It could have been erected in less than three weeks. It could have been two and a half years to get started ’cause we had to win 11 lawsuits. I’d rather see our southern border protected. But I don’t like the idea he’s sending a small number of troops.
Our elites and the media, through sheer repetition, have convinced large numbers of Americans that somehow Putin is an evil dicatator and some great enemy of the USA when he's neither. Trump in the interview constantly tries to swing the conversation back to what's happening in the USA. Inflation, uncontrolled border, crime rising, etc. and its the Fox News guy who keeps asking about the Ukraine.
Prof. Althouse, you're trying to find a reasonable basis among Chuck Todd et al. to assert that Trump sided with or sides with Putin and/or Russia. After years of beyond-dishonesty by the media about that subject, including on Todd's TV program, isn't it clear at this point that there is no reasonable basis to be found for such assertion; making such assertions is just more slandering or libeling the former president.
Putin was smart to declare his troops "Peacekeepers". Anyway, what Trump wanted to do with Putin is negotiate a deal. Unlike our other warmongering Presidents, Trump is Businessman. He doesn't want to fight if he doesn't have to. He wants to cut a deal and do business. More Money for everyone.
I'm positive that if Trump had been President, he would've met personally with Putin and the Ukrainians and hashed out a deal. Why Biden didn't do that, I don't know. We should be an honest broker when it comes to ukraine v. Russia, not anti-Russian
Putin is very savvy. Evil, but savvy. And the Democrats think Biden was the best choice for President. That says it all.
“Biden isn’t Trump” has gone from a positive to a negative in just 12 months.
All the NY District Attorneys in the world aren’t going to change that.
The party line seems to be that the Hive wants war ("the health of the State," as Randolph Bourne out it around the time of the War to End All Wars), and will now go Full Wilson depicting anyone who'd rather the US stay out of this one as some sort of Putin Sympathizer ("Put-Symp"?).
"We could have done tremendous..." — deals.
It is a simple truth Trump told, but that I guess telling the truth is a treasonous act in these awful days.
The Biden Administration was planning on declaring a great victory, but Putin went and did the "small incursion" thing that Biden himself declared would be no big deal just a few weeks back. That small incursion changed nothing on the ground- those portions of Ukraine have been under Russian control since 2014, but Putin did what he did to mock Biden. Big blow-hard Biden now has to somehow "go toe to toe" with Putin over this.
I would be laughing my ass off at Biden, but here is the thing- that man and his team are so fucking stupid they might well blunder us into an armed conflict over this. Biden needs to resign or be removed. As unprepared for the office as Harris is, she is infinitely better than Joe "Shit for Brains" Biden.
Yup. "Black Lives Matter" is also smart.
"Grifters 'r' us" would not have been smart.
Hmmmm... whose side am I on?
>and then who knows what he means by "We could have done tremendous..." — tremendous what?<
Peaceful, non-threatening coexistence. Reagan/Gorbachev kind of thing.
And he's right.
""We could have done tremendous..." — tremendous what?"
Opposed the real enemy of the United States, the one killing tens of thousands per year sending fentanyl over our unprotected southern border. The one that took a bat virus and spliced proteins into it to make it uniquely infectious to humans and killed millions of people. The one that has ravaged our industrial base. The one that pays off our 'elites' with piles of cash to sell out our working class, which is getting a little tired of it. That one.
Trump said he sent a white flag to former Chancellor Angela Merkel after she failed to live up to her defense obligations under the NATO treaty.
He said, "She said, ‘What is this?’ I said, ‘It’s a flag of surrender so you don’t have to go out and buy a new one.’"
He is such a generous man
Days later, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his government would recognize two separatist regions of Ukraine held by rebels who have been supported by Moscow since 2014.
Isn't this what Biden himself invited with his "minor incursion" comment?
"which his antagonists predictably take to mean that he's siding with Putin!"
As Howard proved in a prior post.
Trump said in essence Putin is smart and evil and Biden is stupid and evil. The Democrats besides being 100% corrupt and incompetent don't even have the basic intelligence to realize Putin is a very smart adversary and has played both Obama and Biden for the fools they are.
Your analysis and insights are why I enjoy reading your blog, Ann. It is so utterly disheartening to see the predictable reactions in the mainstream press and among the twitterati. Trump has been playing this kind of rhetorical game so long, you would think that some people would have caught on. But nope. They are either being manipulative, or being moronic. I heard Trump's comments and thought exactly the way you did. He isn't praising Putin, or standing with him. He's coming at it from an entirely different angle. And he is indeed doing it in such a way as to drive his enemies insane, while provoking the realization that Biden is completely out of his league.
And a little off the subject, but as someone who grew up in the 1980s, where the hell was this contempt for Russian (Soviet) leaders back then, among the Democrats and media? Reagan was virtually the AntiChrist for standing up to Soviet expansionism across the globe.
Ironically, we may look back on the Trump presidency as a Pax Trumpana. After Trump, the deluge.
Trump has outstanding analytical skills and not much respect for conventional “wisdom.” Is that genius? It made him a tough adversary for the Taliban, for Putin, for Xi, for the Iranian mullahs, for Kim Jong-un, and others. Probably that’s close enough.
You would have to be pretty stupid not to acknowledge the strengths of an adversary.
Trump also has been credited with suggesting we drink bleach, by people who either are utterly mendacious, or who have the comprehension of a banana slug.
To make it easy for you, if the headline is asking a question, the answer is almost always, "No."
Like it's hard to look like a genius next to the senile dope in the White House. . . .
I think Scott Adams has discussed that the US and Russia should be allies against China. But obviously Trump can’t say anything like that now. And Trump makes it clear that he was firm in opposing Putin’s desire to absorb parts of Ukraine. And Trump opposed the pipeline which of course Biden immediately approved, and now Germany is rejecting. And yet Dem rats don’t see any of this. It’s amazing.
I would like to take this moment, where we focus on Trump and his words... to pivet and marvel and the genius poetic words that fall out of dear Kamala's mouth:
"It is time for us to do what we have been doing. And that time is every day."
Not unlike Trump "colluding" with Russia when he joked...
"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."
The intentional misinterpretation is risible, except that too many people bought into it.
The Ukraine has huge [makes bigtitty motions] . . . tracts of land.
Churchill had to praise Rommel in public as a great commander, rather than reveal that the Allies knew that the Germans had been cracking British and American codes to the Desert Fox's benefit, and also that the situation had now reversed.
Trump is no Churchill, of course, but then Putin is no Rommel either.
That's criticizing Putin, but you've got to understand that it's sarcasm when he says, "They’re gonna keep peace all right."
So, IOW you have to be neither humor-impaired, nor a moron
In short, Trump was smart enough to set a trap for his enemies, and they were stupid enough to go walking in to it.
But Trump's enemies are the "experts", the "elite", the "intellectuals"!
I remember when it was brilliant American global strategy to vdivide Russia and China to keep them from uniting against America. Biden is bumbling his way toward pushing Russia and China together. In fact, you could add Iran to the axis of evil.
This is also high praise for Biden by the same thinking:
Biden is a strategic genius. There's no way Putin can know what Biden is up to when Biden doesn't himself. Brilliant. - Jack Posobiec
Trump has outstanding analytical skills and not much respect for conventional “wisdom.” Is that genius? It made him a tough adversary for the Taliban, for Putin, for Xi, for the Iranian mullahs, for Kim Jong-un, and others. Probably that’s close enough.
Challenging conventional wisdom . . . . Don't forget about the Abraham Accords and moving the US Embassy in Israel.
Trump is almost literally a different species than his elite adversaries. During the 2016 election I was on a mid-sized cultural board. I was the only business owner on a board of lawyers, academics and 2nd and 3rd generation money. I was stunned at the vitriol I would hear from the other board members against Trump. It would dominate the board meetings at times. The assumption was that everyone was anti-Trump. I called the ex-Chair, who was also a small business owner, and asked if he could explain it. He said it was simple- "you see him approaching these problems as a business person would do. It makes sense to you. The others don't see that- it's a foreign world to them. To them, problems are to be talked about and solving them is not a goal. They have no context for his actions." Of course that is true but the really scary thing is that it's not just Trump they hate- it is literally every person who gets anything done in the country. They don't just misunderstand anyone outside their circle- they actively detest anyone outside of their circle. How can they govern what they don't understand and actually hate?????
Why Biden didn't do [a meeting with Putin over Ukraine], I don't know
One answer is that Biden isn't in charge.
Trump is Businessman. He doesn't want to fight if he doesn't have to
Yes and as a businessman he understands the issue with "wishful thinking". That will kill your company in a business context. You might want for there to be no headaches with a given project, but you plan around that and have backup plans and backups to backups.
The Biden administration seems to be a bunch of people who think the Sorkin television show "The West Wing" is reality. That some mythical writer is going to make them all heroes by the end.
The enemy gets a vote. The map is not the terrain. Just because you want something doesn't mean you can get it.
Taiwan is toast. And unfortunately, I think that drives the world into a depression. Or at least the US. But hey, no mean tweets.
In the Art of War Sun Tzu says you should know your enemy. Recognizing you enemy's strengths is necessary and doesn't mean you side with them. To think that your enemy has no strengths is foolish.
Furthermore, diplomacy often requires a certain amount of flattery and/or BS. The Dems probably could have gotten many things they wanted if they flattered Trump rather than going hysterical.
One Eye said...
Yup. "Black Lives Matter" is also smart.
"Grifters 'r' us" would not have been smart.
To be accurate that's "We Be Grifters"
now suppose there had been some breakaway provinces declaring independence from Kabul? Trump would have peace-keeping forces ? in place
could be reason he admires Putin
Trump knows that Putin has played Biden and his regime like a violin. And he said so. That is why so many like and trust him.
Sydney said...
You would have to be pretty stupid not to acknowledge the strengths of an adversary.
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and touchy-ly self-aware about own stupidity [not ignorance]
Bilwick said...
The party line seems to be that the Hive wants war ("the health of the State," as Randolph Bourne out it around the time of the War to End All Wars), and will now go Full Wilson depicting anyone who'd rather the US stay out of this one as some sort of Putin Sympathizer ("Put-Symp"?).
The problem is that so many of the people arguing against fighting about this spend a good deal of time ACTING like Putin Sympathizers
Do you say it's wrong of NATO to let countries near Russia join? then you're a Putin sympathizer, feeling bad for the poor old dictator that those mean westerners aren't letting him enslave everyone with the misfortune to live near Russia.
Do you say it was wrong to try to get rid of a corrupt pro-Putin Ukraine gov't, and replace it with a corrupt anti-Russian Ukraine gov't?
Then you're a Putin sympathizer.
Putin has no legitimate interests. Russia has no legitimate interests. They're not a normal or legitimate country, they're a fucked up Third World dictatorship that aspires to be nothing more than a bigger dictatorship.
Every single Country to the west of Russia has an absolutely legitimate interest: not to be under the sway of Russia.
You want to say "I don't give a shit about those people, let Putin screw them over"? Fine, that doesn't make you a Putin sympathizer
You want to talk about Putin's legitimate concerns? You're a Putin sympathizer, and a bad human being
I'm positive that if Trump had been President, he would've met personally with Putin and the Ukrainians and hashed out a deal. Why Biden didn't do that, I don't know. We should be an honest broker when it comes to ukraine v. Russia, not anti-Russian
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there is no future for Russia and Ukraine without developing their natural resources.
there is no future for D party if they can be developed
Rosalyn C. said...
I think Scott Adams has discussed that the US and Russia should be allies against China.
That's a nice thought. But Putin wasn't willing to ally with the US against Islamic terrorists at the same time he was fighting them in Chechnya
Putin wants to bring back the USSR
Putin wants to be a geopolitical enemy and threat to the US
Nothing in the world is going to change that
Short of China literally nuking Moscow when Putin happens to not be there, Putin's not ever going to ally with the US
Yes, viewers have a much better understanding of the Ukraine situation after hearing from Anerica's stable genius.
I guess he's improved his commentary skills from the day he reacted to the fall of the twin towers by claiming he now had the tallest building in downtown.
rcocean said...I'm positive that if Trump had been President, he would've met personally with Putin and the Ukrainians and hashed out a deal. Why Biden didn't do that, I don't know. We should be an honest broker when it comes to ukraine v. Russia, not anti-Russian
2/23/22, 9:25 AM
Do you really have to ask yourself WHY Biden didn't meet with Putin?? Seriously??
He didn't side with Putin, but he did stumble. I'd like to think he set a trap for his attackers, but I think he just fell into one himself, and unnecessarily.
“Trunalimunumaprzure”, Readering.
I guess he's improved his commentary skills from the day he reacted to the fall of the twin towers by claiming he now had the tallest building in downtown.
Yeah, that was his first reaction...
It's kind of funny, because this video from 9-13 of an interview with Trump at Ground Zero comes from a 'Fact check' that claims that there is no evidence that Trump was there in the "weeks following 9-11"
Do you ever get tired of being lied to readering?
Judging by the results (at this moment) it would be hard to say Putin hasn't made the smart move. He gets enough of what he wants (for now) to make it worth the risk, without triggering an automatic military response from the West. The way he did it means any military attempt to reverse the situation can be spun as aggression. He's forcing the West to make a calculation about just how important Ukrainian sovereignty is.
The problem is, governments can sometimes talk themselves into highly irrational acts when pride is on the line. As this goes on, and the emptiness of their threats becomes obvious, there is a tendency of governments to trade lives for credibility. So Putin has won for now, but if he makes the West look too ridiculous, he may end up with a shooting war.
Readering should use Hamilton Burger as his avatar.
What's really funny about that interview of Trump at Ground Zero two days after the attacks is that if you search on "Trump Ground Zero" you get page after page of "fact checks" calling Trump a liar for claiming he was there.
Of course, like any good Althouse reader, my antennae went up when I read that there was "little evidence." Well, that's not the same as "no evidence" is it? And sure enough, I found the interview with German TV of Trump.
Why do we distrust the media? You tell me.
He's definitely preaching to the converted.
Trump's unpredictability would have made this move too dangerous for Putin.
Pride and prejudice before the fall. That said,
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you
will also suffer a defeat.
- Sun Tzu
the northern alliance redux held off against the Taliban for a while, I think they still have a staging area out of Uzbekistan
putin's move, was strategic, donetsk and luhansks are in the mineral rich region, the sanctions were scattershot against elements of the Russian government,
Tiv linked to
this video from 9-13 of an interview with Trump at Ground Zero
That Video shows Trump as the businessman that gets things done..
They ask him questions like, How expensive will it be to rebuild;
and you can See his wheels turning around, and him answering what HE'D pay (or get paid)
Nothing sentimental, just sq ft and going rates
I want that man running our country
“Always abandon your most strategic airbase right before an evacuation. Leave your weapons and means of transport behind."
- Sun Tzu
Sounds like Nixon's secret plan to end the war in Vietnam.
Blogger tim in vermont said...
Trump's unpredictability would have made this move too dangerous for Putin.
“Russia and the US are natural allies as to culture, except the US culture has gone down the toilet with woke now and Russia is a crime syndicate”
But, interestingly to me, Putin is fighting woke culture, and the like, like we probably should. Soy boys and the Demi gendered are not manly men, and he ridicules them, when not arresting them. The Russiansvare strong, while the West are all weak for catering to all this woke nonsense.
“Always abandon your most strategic airbase right before an evacuation. Leave your weapons and means of transport behind."
- Sun Tzu
Addendum: And your people and allies exposed to reprisals and attacks on a forward-looking basis.
Second only to Obama's catastrophic withdrawal from Iraq and progression to a world war across three continents from Tripoli to Kiev, and a legacy of catastrophic anthropogenic immigration reform with democratic gerrymandering and redistributive change "benefits".
Why do we distrust the media? You tell me.
So-called "fact checks" by social media, handmade tailors... publishers, and search... steering engines have been effectively established as opinion. Caveat emptor.
"Sounds like Nixon's secret plan to end the war in Vietnam."
The Biden administration's plan was so secret, not even they knew what it was.
>>I'm positive that if Trump had been President, he would've met personally with Putin and the Ukrainians and hashed out a deal. Why Biden didn't do that, I don't know.
You don't know why? Where have you been for the last two years?
Biden is in hiding, as usual, as the more people see of him, the more obvious his failing mental capacity becomes.
Zelenskyy is probably very grateful that Biden didn't meet with Putin.
You left out the part where he said:
"This is wonderful."
Dance all around it, but there is zero criticism of Putin in Trump's response. Only admiration.
Anybody who supported the administration who gave Russia a nice, shiny reset button needs to STFU about who's on whose side.
You already revealed it.
the-real-reason-putin-played-a-pussycat-during-the-trump-presidency
did Trump suppressed NATO irritant
I'm a bad human being!
Readering said...
I guess he's improved his commentary skills from the day he reacted to the fall of the twin towers by claiming he now had the tallest building in downtown.
==========
could be he worried as next target?
All you say may be true, Greg (emphasis on "may"), but so far no one has explained to me why the US needs to go to war on behalf of the Ukraine. All I see is Joey Plugs and his gang needing a dog to wag to distract the voters from what a lousy job he is doing as president, and shore up his self-image as tough guy, with Putin standing in for Corn Pop.
"Trump is a genius and one of our smartest Presidents ever."
Destined to be immortalized in the GUINNESS BOOK OF HISTORY'S MOST FOOLISH QUOTATIONS.
Bilwick said...
All you say may be true, Greg (emphasis on "may"), but so far no one has explained to me why the US needs to go to war on behalf of the Ukraine.
Putin is a Communist re-tread who wants to restore the USSR to its former glory of being the US's #1 international enemy.
We watched this story in the 1930s. Obama let Putin "remilitarize the Rhine" in 2014, because he had "more flexibility now that he faced no more elections".
Right now we're watching Putin swallow the Sudetenland. Right after a Peace Conference in Munich.
Which part of this is not ringing any bells with you?
All the Eastern European countries watching this are aware that it's only happening because Ukraine gave up its nukes in exchange for worthless promises of protection.
Were I in the government of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, or any of the former parts of Czechoslovakia, I'd be looking to pool resources to hire one of Israel, India, Pakistan, or North Korea to sell us enough nukes that we could feel safe from Russian aggression.
Of course, none of those nukes could ever get stolen and sold to terrorists to use against the US.
I'm sure they'd feel broken hearted if the country that left them hanging for Putin to collect, got harmed when they were forced to protect themselves.
Letting Putin build his power makes the world a less safe place for the US.
Will the current fuckups in the White House and Congress accomplish anything good? Of course not.
Is Putin successfully invading Ukraine bad for US?
Yes, it is
Trump lost the election - LOSER
Trump lost to Covid - LOSER
Trump lost the Senate in Georgia - LOSER
Trump lost Congress in 2018 - LOSER
Trump pulled troops out of Syria - LOSER
Trump did not get North Korea to give up nukes - LOSER
Trump did not force Iran to give up building nukes - LOSER
Trump did not build up Ukraines defenses - LOSER
Trump did not protect the Capitol from attack - LOSER
Trump did not stop BLM protests - LOSER
Trump did not cancel Obama Care - LOSER
Trump did not build his wall - LOSER
Trump did not stop illegals from South America - LOSER
Trump did not pardon those who were arrested at Capitol - LOSE
Trump only pardoned his friends who paid him - LOSER
GO AHEAD SUPPORT A LOSER
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