Tag: Summit

RUSSIA! RUSSIA! RUSSIA!

What did we learn from the Summit?

Both Russia and the US have said that the relationship between the two major countries is at an all-time low. Most Democrats would agree with Putin’s comment that Biden is a “very balanced person,” which implies Putin believes that last guy was not mentally predictable. But after hearing the President of Russia say that its relations with the US are so bad, I have to ask why.

Despite all the glowing things our former president said about getting along with Russia and Putin, and all the actions he took despite advice from experts in the State Department, somehow the result was zero good will between the two powers. What did our last president do that caused Putin to be unhappy with us?

Remember that Donald Trump and Putin talked behind closed doors. No one knows what was said, but relations between the two countries didn’t change one bit. Trump’s verbal gymnastics in Helsinki only made things worse. It remains unclear if he didn’t see any reason why Russia WOULD or WOULDN’T have interfered with our elections? We have proof of what Russia did, but Putin continues to deny, deny, deny — as any mobster worth his salt should do.

Okay, big newsflash here. Vladimir Putin doesn’t give a shit about the United States of America, and he could not care less about our president. His focus is staying in power. He has already changed the laws of his land to do so for the rest of his life, and he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way. Short of an aggressive form of prostate cancer, he will continue tormenting the world for quite some time.

Let me offer this perspective, the economies of Russia and Texas are roughly the same size, but our comrades overseas don’t have the frills and fabulous lives we have here in the good old USA. Amazon isn’t making multiple deliveries to Russian homes. The principal driver of the Russian economy is the energy they sell to the rest of the world. It’s fortunate that we buy more vodka and caviar from them than energy. Now, consider this. When was the last time you picked up a product at Walmart and saw a stamp saying “Made in Russia?” Economically speaking, we can only hurt them. Putin understands this and that’s why he often talks about sanctions.

Russia has always been the underdog and they carry an inferiority complex into every meeting with the outside world. Yes, they helped us beat the Nazis but, as Joe Biden pointed out, that was self-interest and not an altruistic response to a madman. The Soviet Union lost about 27 million civilian and military lives in World War II, but the Russians want us to believe it was 20 million. Had Hitler been successful in the east, there would be no Russia today.

Joseph Stalin was no angel. Some people believe that the 1930-1933 Russian famine, in which 7.5 million people starved to death, was a plot concocted by that “man of steel” Stalin to “liquidate” prosperous peasants (“kulaks”). By getting rid of those who controlled agriculture, their lands would transfer to Moscow and the capital extracted from the countryside could build Soviet industry, fill government coffers and line the pockets of the country’s so-called leaders. That’s terrible, if true, but truth in Russia is a rare commodity.

Yesterday, Vladimir Putin stood in front of the world press in Geneva and said that it wasn’t his people who hacked the US; it was the US itself. When asked why Russian opposition leaders have been poisoned, imprisoned and murdered, Putin claimed he had nothing to do with any of that. When asked about peaceful Russian protesters being arrested, Vlad cited the US January 6th Insurrection in a feeble attempt to create a false equivalency. Putin said he wants to avoid the same thing happening in his country, clearly disagreeing with the Republicans in Congress who claim January 6th was just another day of leisurely tourism on Capitol Hill. While our Republican sycophants stomp their feet and claim Biden is negotiating from a position of weakness, Putin is saying that all those anti-democracy Proud Boys who attacked Congress on January 6th should either be put in prison or poisoned.

Alexei Navalny

Vladimir Putin doesn’t care if Alexei Navalny dies in prison. Should the dissident die in prison, Putin will go on TV to say it was an unfortunate outcome and “that guy” should never have protested. The little dictator will continue going after anyone who disagrees with him with a deathly vengeance. Nice guy, eh?

There is no “all time low” in our relationship with Russia. It’s just the way it is and always will be. Yes, Reagan was able to get the then-Soviets, to tear down the Berlin Wall, but the fundamental reason they got out of Germany was the prohibitive cost of maintaining a presence there. A young KGB agent stationed in Berlin oversaw the burning of secret documents. His name was Vladimir Putin. He wasn’t happy about his country giving up power then and that continues to be his main driver now. He learned German in high school and speaks it fluently. One could surmise he has a Napoleon syndrome because of his stature, but he probably leans more toward Hitler as an influence.

I don’t want to come off as an asshole, but we don’t need the US media swarm of junior TV reporters pontificating and spouting their theories about the meaning of the summit. The only person who made any sense to me was Fiona Hill. She was a key figure in Donald Trump’s Ukraine quid pro quo controversy and, as Senior Director for Europe and Russia of the National Security Council, she understands Putin and Russia better than anyone at the State Department. Hill’s commentary that Putin will continue to spread disinformation to shape the opinions, policies and actions of other nations is spot on. He’s just a spy who figured out a way to grift billions of dollars from Russia’s energy industry. He’s not a president. He’s an oligarch standing in front of an atomic arsenal.

It’s sad that the day after the summit the American press is more interested in a confrontation between Biden and a CNN reporter rather than the substance of what happened there. What did we learn? I saw a US president being presidential, having a meeting with the ruthless Putin, then coming out to plainly talk about the substance of their discussion. Man, that’s refreshing. We actually learned what happened, while remaining clueless about what Trump and Putin talked about in Helsinki. Trump fears truth while Biden fights for his truth. At least that’s something.

BRAND NEW BOOK

We knew that the great divide in America would have a major effect on the presidential election in the year 2020, but something else was lurking that we didn’t anticipate. The world suffered a global pandemic of Covid-19, and everything changed. The lockdown motivated one author to write MASHED POTATOES: Covid, Cancer & Comfort Food. The cover ironically claims the book is a “humorous” recollection of 2020, but one might ask, “Where was the humor?” This is a work of survival to motivate those who desire to get beyond Covid-19, beat cancer and defend our precious Democracy.  The world got Covid, the writer got cancer and we all ate copious amounts of comfort food. It’s time to swallow the truth, survive the madness, take a large spoon and savor some delicious MASHED POTATOES. Get some here. 

 

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THE WALLS ARE CRUMPLING

The Trump Train in Peril

Donald Trump, the titular head of the Republican party, was not able to maintain the majority in the House after the midterm elections, and now he is feeling the pain of investigations coming out of various committees of the House of Representatives. He may be able to veto laws, but he cannot stop the inquiries into his campaign, his inauguration, his presidency and his personal and business lives.

One could feel sorry for the novice politician, but with daily revelations about who he really is, one can see the puzzle pieces of a man who has far fewer morals than those evangelicals who genuflect at his feet. He has displayed demigod-like attitudes and actions toward the institutions of government as well as law and order. It has been reported that he commanded his underlings to ignore security problems with his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and demanded that the Justice Department sue to block the Time-Warner – AT&T merger. Why would he do these things? Well, we have a gangster in the White House who thinks he is above the law and it’s time that Congress does something about it.

Making up emergencies so that he can manipulate the Federal budget should be against the law. Threatening federal witnesses while offering pardons to people to falsify their testimony before Congress and courts is against the law. Where are the keepers of our democracy? Who will step forward to condemn these activities and block the power grab taking place before our very eyes?

On Monday (3-4-2019), House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler announced a sweeping investigation into President Donald Trump’s campaign, businesses, transition and administration. This probe would lay the groundwork for Democrats if they choose to pursue impeachment proceedings against the President. And Trump could have avoided this whole mess by disclosing his income tax returns. They might help us understand why he pals with dictators and to whom he owes favors and money.

Many Americans are getting tired of Trump catering to his base in language, thoughts and deeds. Many people living here truly want a president who can lead us and do great things for America. Trump is not that guy. By dividing the country from the start, he has only emboldened both sides. The far left is more left and the far right has become so extreme that it seems murder is now permitted without rebuke from this president.

The charade we are witnessing is downgrading America in the eyes of other world democracies, while global dictators borrow Trump’s language for their speeches. Antagonizing the free press, spreading conspiracy theories and denigrating law enforcement may be an attempt to distract our attention from Trump’s dirty deeds.

Putin killed people he didn’t like. Trump looked away. The Saudi Crown Prince killed a reporter. Trump seemed confused about who did it. Kim Jong-Un imprisoned an American college student who died shortly after being returned to his parents. Trump claimed Kim didn’t know anything. Who is this person? A respectable country would have landed sanctions on the countries involved and marched their leaders into the world court.

Trump sees things through the distorted lens of always being rich and always being right. No one challenges him, but things are changing, and Donald J. Trump doesn’t have Fred and Mary Anne to tell him he’s a good boy. They raised a liar, cheat, racist and xenophobe.

Trump is simply a paper Mache president who will be brought down by the flames of the Senate, the House and his own justice department investigations. The ash that remains won’t be worth the pardon that the next fake president will give him. Pence is doomed to nothing, because his only power in Washington is kowtowing to Trump. Those Republicans who are now standing blindly with Trump will slowly be weeded out, and their futures back home will find them looking in from the outside. Trump needs a wall, but not on the southern border. He needs a wall built around himself and his family because the law is coming to get him. And in the end, AMERICA WILL WIN!

BRAND NEW BOOK ON AMERICA

Gold, God, Guns & Goofballs shows how we’ve wasted our GOLD on bad wars and corruption. While GOD is there for many people as a spiritual enrichment and the provider of glowing feelings, the truth is just praying and believing will not change our major arc. We don’t determine who gets a GUN. We aren’t sure if we have paramilitary groups ready to storm the White House or a White Castle. There is no control of weapons. The GOOFBALLS with the power constantly try to manipulate us into spending more money on bombs and tanks and wars. When all of our institutions are infected with neglect and fall in disrepair, we will only have ourselves to blame. This book is not an antidote for the left or right, it’s an accelerant to move the middle off their collective asses to go do something positive for America.

 

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