This crass stupidity for a nation once committed to freedom of expression and democracy. Not least its commitment to defending Europe! I honestly find it hard to believe!!
Its only hard to believe if you ignore the last 70 years - of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya and all the places they've destroyed or the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons they've used in the process - but then those attacks weren't on white people I suppose Timothy, so you might not count them.
It’s strange you would mention Korea. After all, the US and UN members defended South Korea and it is a democracy with freedom of expression. And North Korea very much has neither democracy nor freedom of expression.
And they did that with the first mass use of biological weapons and whilst at home Senator McCarthy was punishing their citizens with wrong-think. The South during that time was not a democracy, the US had aided forces conducting massacres from the late 40s onwards and what democracy there is now is there despite the US, not because of it. Get Bruce Cumings's 2 volumes on the war and educate yourself. Your Neocon framing is BS, but just what I'd expect around here.
I've read Cumings, and I also know that the US govt (in the transition between Carter and Reagan) and Japan put extreme pressure on the South Korean government to not execute Kim Dae-jung and supported him in exile in the US, and he subsequently was instrumental in the flowering of democracy.
It's the Confederacy. From the US Civil War. Trump represents the Confederacy (he's been pretty blunt about it, praising Robert E Lee). The Confederacy was always committed to slavery and oppression and hated democracy and hated free speech. We have never fully stamped out the Confederate traitors. They keep coming back, and currently they call themselves "Republicans".
If you understand that, most of US politics makes a lot of sense.
There is a gap between saying that the Trump administration has adopted Putin’s narrative and that Putin has won. He hasn’t, at least not yet and Ukraine still has plenty of fight in it. Witness the extraordinary impact of “Spiderweb” and other “surprises” that the Ukrainian secret services say they have in store for the enemy.
Will other Western leaders, in Canada, Australia, Japan and Europe now formally break, at long last, with the Trump administration and go their own way ? It’s the most important issue to look out for in the forthcoming G7, NATO and EU summit meetings. Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief has already gone on record as saying that Europe does not need the agreement of the US to impose a price cap of $45 on Russian oil exports. A timid start perhaps but at least a start in changing the narrative as a prelude to changing policy. The liberal democracies of the world must now go further.
I wonder if there is a tipping point? That is Europe/Canada/Australia tend to follow the US lead, but once that threshold is crossed by one and breaks with the US, all will follow and the US becomes irrelevant. I can see that this could be one of those "gradually, then suddenly" type of events but I think is still some way off.
Yes. There's always a tipping point. ("There is a tide in the affairs of men...") Where is it and how to get closer to it are crucial questions Zelenskyy and Ukraine are trying to answer. There are reasons for optimism. How can we lean into those and "Accentuate the positive" as the WWII song says should be our study. Sorry, Professor O'Brien, but bald (and inaccurate) declarations like "Putin Has Won", are unlikely to help.
>Sorry, Professor O'Brien, but bald (and inaccurate) declarations like "Putin Has Won", are unlikely to help.
I'm not so sure about that.
1) I agree there still may be a fight and if there is a fight we don't yet know who will win and as such it may be a bald declaration.
2) But we can clearly say Putin owns the white house. As such Putin owns the most powerful institute in the USA. Next to that it is clear Putin has power in other governmental institutions and the GOP and weakened them.
3) someone needs to shake the tree to wake up some people.
4) And on top of that: it is very likely Professor O'Brien knows more about the current Putin power in the USA than we do.
Europe, Canada and Australia have all been profoundly destabilised (and insulted) by the economic and security policies of the Trump administration so far. Canada and the European frontline states have pushed back the most,
but all must have fundamental questions about the future reliability of the US as an ally. Canada, the large European states and Japan are members of the G7, Canada and practically all European states are members of NATO and there are 28 European states in the EU. Which is why these forthcoming summits, all before the end of this month, need to be watched carefully.
Marco Rubio is a weak, insecure little man (meet him and it oozes out of his being without even speaking). Hegseth is a Fox/Russian toady. How bad it must be to make Mitch McConnell sound reasonable and become an almost tragic character in his exchange with Hegseth.
The US is facilitating the killing of Ukrainians and the re-emergence of the Russian empire. US allies have to move on their own now.
Trump may as well be a Russian. His goal of turning America into an authoritarian country, which is well underway, clearly demonstrate his adherence to Putin's playbook. Democracy is in a death spiral under the current Republican regime. Anyone who thinks there will be fair elections in 2026 if Trump is allowed to continue on the present path to tyranny, is sorely mistaken.
No. Trump's TRYING, but he's incompetent. Orban knew what he was doing.
There are 50 states and they have more power than the federal government. California alone has more power than the federal government. Hungary doesn't have states.
Trump is extremely unpopular. Orban was popular. Trump can and will lose.
"U.S. President Donald Trump on June 12 praised Russia's role in World War II, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin is "confused" why everyone "hates" Moscow."
Phillips, I urge you to publish your observations on tRUMP as an "agent of influence" in the New York Times, Washington Post, Detroit Free Press, The Atlantic, WSJ or other major news media.
Trump seems to have forgotten that Russia started WWII with Germany and only converted to the allies after Germany had invaded Russia for quite some time.
After winning the war against Germany Russia build a wall in Berlin and shot people who tried to cross it and had a decades long "cold war" with their former WWII allies that wasn't fun (to say it in Trumps idiocracy).
Russia has a tradition of killing people who don't like their current believe (be it Autocracy; communism or Putin's fake democracy) regardless if they are Russian or not.
While Russia was promoting "peace" by invading plenty of countries with military force, spies or compromat; European countries succeeded in solving their differences without war and work together in organizations like EU and NATO.
Russia is/was a commercial partner of the EU and has been offered membership with the NATO.
Och and I don't hate Moscow; I really want to visit it one day, like the grand canyon in the USA. Won't happen with Putin and Trump in power.
tRUMP's knowledge of history is limited to whatever his friend putin tells him. And tRUMP has never read Joe's Stalin statement that without the help from the U.S., russia would have lost to the Nazis: "I want to tell you what, from the Russian point of view, the president and the United States have done for victory in this war. The most important things in this war are the machines.... The United States is a country of machines. Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war."https://www.rferl.org/a/did-us-lend-lease-aid-tip-the-balance-in-soviet-fight-against-nazi-germany/30599486.html
Not offered as in: "Here is your golden membership card on a golden plate, Russia." (never gonna happen)
With offered I mean that there have been serious discussions for entry though there were plenty of reasons to doubt the seriousness and the intentions of Russia.
My 2 cent:
Yeltsin requested membership in 1991 "as a long-term political goal".
In 1994 Russia joined the partnership for peace program of NATO.
FYI: that is 3 years after communism fell in Russia. Russia is in transition and unstable.
As NATO's existence is "fighting communism"; I think this is Quick and shows quite a bit of willingness on the side of NATO; (if NATO had shown as much willingness to Ukraine; Ukraine would have been a NATO member by now=>as such again "offered")
In 1998 relations between NATO and Russia started to cool down already due to Russia's involvements in conflicts.
In 2000 Putin became the power in Russia (and we now know what type of guy he is)
And still, Europe will continue as it has done, sanewashing Trump and hoping the US will revert to previous form some time in the future and everything will be grand.
Putin has won his "war" with the US by co-opting its government and turning it into a Russian propaganda "parrot". In doing so he has scared the "bejeesus" out of the rest of the free world and caused them to wake up to the reality that they must prepare to oppose Putin without US backing...which they can and will do. Ukraine, without the "ball and chain" that Trump's impotent meddling caused, can now (and is) find itself free to pursue the conflict in whatever manner is advantageous to them.
On top of this the world is undergoing momentous changes just now: Xi Jinping is out as China's leader (I can't believe that the MSM has not covered this yet), Putin is hanging on by a thread, Trump is pushing the US into a situation that could result in civil war and Israel has castrated the Iranian nuclear program and leadership.
>On top of this the world is undergoing momentous changes just now: Xi Jinping is out as China's leader (I can't believe that the MSM has not covered this yet),
I was remiss in not sourcing this important story. Mea Culpa!
Now, why should we believe this?
First of all, she is a longtime China analyst, having lived in China with seemingly deep sources into the CCCP and with expertise in finance and censorship. (see her bio on her YouTube website). Her analysis is pedantically detailed with names and backstory.
Additionally, I have seen several other sites in the last couple of weeks alluding to Xi's replacement but none as detailed as hers.
I have also seen several reports that allude to his possible health issue, ie. a stroke. This, coupled with the absence of Xi from public events lately indicates some "distubance" in the Chinese hierarchy.
Is this a coup? Her reporting seems to indicate this is, in fact, what happened.
The Chinese value stabilty over everything. Xi's attempt to become "dictator for life" upset many elements in the Poliburo leadership who did appreciate being sidelined. This was especially true of Hu Chunwa who was publicly humiliated by Xi when he was escorted out of a Politburo plenary session, resulting in a huge "loss of face". I believe this was the last straw for those politburo members who saw themselves in that position in the future. So, a coup of the "Old Guard" was certainly a possibility. Because they value stabilty and Xi still had/has loyal supporters it is important to "paint" a change of regime as a "voluntary retirement" by Xi in order to accomplish a transition that is as non-violent as possible.
Now, that still begs the question of "did this really happen"? I am fairly convinced that it did but, as Lei points out, we will have to wait several weeks for an official announcement.
Oh, that's actually super good news for China if it's true. Xi was an idiot (a "bear of very little brain") who was trying to make himself dictator, and destabilizing the country as a result. The committee government which existed after Deng and before Xi was *extremely competent* and getting back to that would benefit China *massively*
Nothing unusual. Just the typical: If in any organisation, the head honcho / boss acts (1) without really thinking about whether what he’s about to do is morally appropriate and aligned with the organisation’s goals and strategy, and (2) with unreasonable deference to a specific party, then the acolytes and other careerists will copy him in regard to (1) and (2).
I've been listening to the Sky News Wargame podcast, and it's great to hear you as the US representative - I say great... It's terrifying actually, as what you say sounds so fxcking plausible.
I’ve read that thump thinks all smaller countries need to be swallowed up by their larger neighbors to have only several large countries (all with dictators) around the world. He’s helping Israel gobble up the Middle East.
Hillary told us. Kamala told us. The only question is how many Americans understand or care that Trump is a Putin Puppet. No surprise that Republicans are trying to destroy our public schools. They’ll wipe Ukraine out. Too bad the Swedes don’t want to claim it.
Somewhat off-topic question: Can someone shed light on why the US think tank “Center for Strategic and International Studies” (CSIS) would publish a very seriously flawed report on the situation of the Russian national economy? (The report is at https://www.csis.org/analysis/russian-wartime-economy-sugar-high-hangover but I’m explicitly not recommending it, as it is IMO very seriously flawed, in the sense of looking to me to be much more aligned with how Russian propaganda would have us think about how things are, than with actual reality.)
I read it, and mostly they just screwed up their inflation analysis -- they're just wrong about the inflation situation. Russia's going to slam into hyperinflation much sooner than they think, and the exchange rate crisis will happen simultaneously.
Also they pretended that there would be problems with the continued taking liquid assets out of the "National Wealth Fund" only if the oil price were to drop further relative to its end-May/early-June level, which is IMO such obvious nonsense (cf. how much it was drained in May: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Russias-Wealth-Fund-Shrinks-by-58-Billion-Amid-Oil-Price-Slump.html ) that I don't see how that error can be explained other than as either misleading intentionally or else as extreme incompetence.
That statement by Rubio is disgusting, though failing to cover it seems to be because an actual domestic power grab is happening.
All the media sanewashing - of him as a 'moderate' in Trump's cabinet, whatever that means - is a complete failure.
This crass stupidity for a nation once committed to freedom of expression and democracy. Not least its commitment to defending Europe! I honestly find it hard to believe!!
Its only hard to believe if you ignore the last 70 years - of Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya and all the places they've destroyed or the nuclear, chemical and biological weapons they've used in the process - but then those attacks weren't on white people I suppose Timothy, so you might not count them.
It’s strange you would mention Korea. After all, the US and UN members defended South Korea and it is a democracy with freedom of expression. And North Korea very much has neither democracy nor freedom of expression.
And they did that with the first mass use of biological weapons and whilst at home Senator McCarthy was punishing their citizens with wrong-think. The South during that time was not a democracy, the US had aided forces conducting massacres from the late 40s onwards and what democracy there is now is there despite the US, not because of it. Get Bruce Cumings's 2 volumes on the war and educate yourself. Your Neocon framing is BS, but just what I'd expect around here.
See here, for some more on this:
https://original.antiwar.com/justin/2013/07/28/who-really-started-the-korean-war/
I've read Cumings, and I also know that the US govt (in the transition between Carter and Reagan) and Japan put extreme pressure on the South Korean government to not execute Kim Dae-jung and supported him in exile in the US, and he subsequently was instrumental in the flowering of democracy.
Also strange to include Syria and Libya. Should we also add Iraq 1 to the mix?
It's the Confederacy. From the US Civil War. Trump represents the Confederacy (he's been pretty blunt about it, praising Robert E Lee). The Confederacy was always committed to slavery and oppression and hated democracy and hated free speech. We have never fully stamped out the Confederate traitors. They keep coming back, and currently they call themselves "Republicans".
If you understand that, most of US politics makes a lot of sense.
Us too Timothy, we also find it hard to believe :/
There is a gap between saying that the Trump administration has adopted Putin’s narrative and that Putin has won. He hasn’t, at least not yet and Ukraine still has plenty of fight in it. Witness the extraordinary impact of “Spiderweb” and other “surprises” that the Ukrainian secret services say they have in store for the enemy.
Will other Western leaders, in Canada, Australia, Japan and Europe now formally break, at long last, with the Trump administration and go their own way ? It’s the most important issue to look out for in the forthcoming G7, NATO and EU summit meetings. Kaja Kallas, the EU foreign policy chief has already gone on record as saying that Europe does not need the agreement of the US to impose a price cap of $45 on Russian oil exports. A timid start perhaps but at least a start in changing the narrative as a prelude to changing policy. The liberal democracies of the world must now go further.
I wonder if there is a tipping point? That is Europe/Canada/Australia tend to follow the US lead, but once that threshold is crossed by one and breaks with the US, all will follow and the US becomes irrelevant. I can see that this could be one of those "gradually, then suddenly" type of events but I think is still some way off.
Yes. There's always a tipping point. ("There is a tide in the affairs of men...") Where is it and how to get closer to it are crucial questions Zelenskyy and Ukraine are trying to answer. There are reasons for optimism. How can we lean into those and "Accentuate the positive" as the WWII song says should be our study. Sorry, Professor O'Brien, but bald (and inaccurate) declarations like "Putin Has Won", are unlikely to help.
>Sorry, Professor O'Brien, but bald (and inaccurate) declarations like "Putin Has Won", are unlikely to help.
I'm not so sure about that.
1) I agree there still may be a fight and if there is a fight we don't yet know who will win and as such it may be a bald declaration.
2) But we can clearly say Putin owns the white house. As such Putin owns the most powerful institute in the USA. Next to that it is clear Putin has power in other governmental institutions and the GOP and weakened them.
3) someone needs to shake the tree to wake up some people.
4) And on top of that: it is very likely Professor O'Brien knows more about the current Putin power in the USA than we do.
The White House is very, very weak. It is very, very far from the most powerful institution in the US. I know the US governmental systems very well.
Trump got under 9000 people for his stupid military parade. Over 11 Million turned out for "No Kings" protests the same day.
Trump does not control the US and neither does Putin as a result.
Europe, Canada and Australia have all been profoundly destabilised (and insulted) by the economic and security policies of the Trump administration so far. Canada and the European frontline states have pushed back the most,
but all must have fundamental questions about the future reliability of the US as an ally. Canada, the large European states and Japan are members of the G7, Canada and practically all European states are members of NATO and there are 28 European states in the EU. Which is why these forthcoming summits, all before the end of this month, need to be watched carefully.
That’s right. He’s upping the political game, because he’s losing on the field and it’s all he has left.
Marco Rubio is a weak, insecure little man (meet him and it oozes out of his being without even speaking). Hegseth is a Fox/Russian toady. How bad it must be to make Mitch McConnell sound reasonable and become an almost tragic character in his exchange with Hegseth.
The US is facilitating the killing of Ukrainians and the re-emergence of the Russian empire. US allies have to move on their own now.
Trump may as well be a Russian. His goal of turning America into an authoritarian country, which is well underway, clearly demonstrate his adherence to Putin's playbook. Democracy is in a death spiral under the current Republican regime. Anyone who thinks there will be fair elections in 2026 if Trump is allowed to continue on the present path to tyranny, is sorely mistaken.
Are we witnessing the Orban-isation of the US?
Yes. At breakneck speed.
No. Trump's TRYING, but he's incompetent. Orban knew what he was doing.
There are 50 states and they have more power than the federal government. California alone has more power than the federal government. Hungary doesn't have states.
Trump is extremely unpopular. Orban was popular. Trump can and will lose.
"U.S. President Donald Trump on June 12 praised Russia's role in World War II, saying Russian President Vladimir Putin is "confused" why everyone "hates" Moscow."
https://kyivindependent.com/trump-praises-russian-wwii-role/
Phillips, I urge you to publish your observations on tRUMP as an "agent of influence" in the New York Times, Washington Post, Detroit Free Press, The Atlantic, WSJ or other major news media.
Trump seems to have forgotten that Russia started WWII with Germany and only converted to the allies after Germany had invaded Russia for quite some time.
After winning the war against Germany Russia build a wall in Berlin and shot people who tried to cross it and had a decades long "cold war" with their former WWII allies that wasn't fun (to say it in Trumps idiocracy).
Russia has a tradition of killing people who don't like their current believe (be it Autocracy; communism or Putin's fake democracy) regardless if they are Russian or not.
While Russia was promoting "peace" by invading plenty of countries with military force, spies or compromat; European countries succeeded in solving their differences without war and work together in organizations like EU and NATO.
Russia is/was a commercial partner of the EU and has been offered membership with the NATO.
Och and I don't hate Moscow; I really want to visit it one day, like the grand canyon in the USA. Won't happen with Putin and Trump in power.
tRUMP's knowledge of history is limited to whatever his friend putin tells him. And tRUMP has never read Joe's Stalin statement that without the help from the U.S., russia would have lost to the Nazis: "I want to tell you what, from the Russian point of view, the president and the United States have done for victory in this war. The most important things in this war are the machines.... The United States is a country of machines. Without the machines we received through Lend-Lease, we would have lost the war."https://www.rferl.org/a/did-us-lend-lease-aid-tip-the-balance-in-soviet-fight-against-nazi-germany/30599486.html
Jantje. Russia was never offered membership in NATO. Yeltsin wrote a letter. asking to join and so did Putin, but they never formally applied
Depends on how you read "offered".
Not offered as in: "Here is your golden membership card on a golden plate, Russia." (never gonna happen)
With offered I mean that there have been serious discussions for entry though there were plenty of reasons to doubt the seriousness and the intentions of Russia.
My 2 cent:
Yeltsin requested membership in 1991 "as a long-term political goal".
In 1994 Russia joined the partnership for peace program of NATO.
FYI: that is 3 years after communism fell in Russia. Russia is in transition and unstable.
As NATO's existence is "fighting communism"; I think this is Quick and shows quite a bit of willingness on the side of NATO; (if NATO had shown as much willingness to Ukraine; Ukraine would have been a NATO member by now=>as such again "offered")
In 1998 relations between NATO and Russia started to cool down already due to Russia's involvements in conflicts.
In 2000 Putin became the power in Russia (and we now know what type of guy he is)
And still, Europe will continue as it has done, sanewashing Trump and hoping the US will revert to previous form some time in the future and everything will be grand.
Yes, European leaders just don't (want to) take the hint.
One thing to take it, another is to speak it out..
Putin has won his "war" with the US by co-opting its government and turning it into a Russian propaganda "parrot". In doing so he has scared the "bejeesus" out of the rest of the free world and caused them to wake up to the reality that they must prepare to oppose Putin without US backing...which they can and will do. Ukraine, without the "ball and chain" that Trump's impotent meddling caused, can now (and is) find itself free to pursue the conflict in whatever manner is advantageous to them.
On top of this the world is undergoing momentous changes just now: Xi Jinping is out as China's leader (I can't believe that the MSM has not covered this yet), Putin is hanging on by a thread, Trump is pushing the US into a situation that could result in civil war and Israel has castrated the Iranian nuclear program and leadership.
"Interesting times", indeed.
>On top of this the world is undergoing momentous changes just now: Xi Jinping is out as China's leader (I can't believe that the MSM has not covered this yet),
I only found one source who talk about this.
Do you have links to "thrust worthy" pages?
Yes, I believe so:
What Happens After Xi Jinping Phases Out?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am6ZYYSmevM&t=808s
I was remiss in not sourcing this important story. Mea Culpa!
Now, why should we believe this?
First of all, she is a longtime China analyst, having lived in China with seemingly deep sources into the CCCP and with expertise in finance and censorship. (see her bio on her YouTube website). Her analysis is pedantically detailed with names and backstory.
Additionally, I have seen several other sites in the last couple of weeks alluding to Xi's replacement but none as detailed as hers.
I have also seen several reports that allude to his possible health issue, ie. a stroke. This, coupled with the absence of Xi from public events lately indicates some "distubance" in the Chinese hierarchy.
Is this a coup? Her reporting seems to indicate this is, in fact, what happened.
The Chinese value stabilty over everything. Xi's attempt to become "dictator for life" upset many elements in the Poliburo leadership who did appreciate being sidelined. This was especially true of Hu Chunwa who was publicly humiliated by Xi when he was escorted out of a Politburo plenary session, resulting in a huge "loss of face". I believe this was the last straw for those politburo members who saw themselves in that position in the future. So, a coup of the "Old Guard" was certainly a possibility. Because they value stabilty and Xi still had/has loyal supporters it is important to "paint" a change of regime as a "voluntary retirement" by Xi in order to accomplish a transition that is as non-violent as possible.
Now, that still begs the question of "did this really happen"? I am fairly convinced that it did but, as Lei points out, we will have to wait several weeks for an official announcement.
Oh, that's actually super good news for China if it's true. Xi was an idiot (a "bear of very little brain") who was trying to make himself dictator, and destabilizing the country as a result. The committee government which existed after Deng and before Xi was *extremely competent* and getting back to that would benefit China *massively*
Putin has won, but Ukraine has not lost yet.
“The Trump regime” speaks with Putin’s language.
I can’t believe they congratulated Russia on Russia day. What the hell is happening?
“What the hell is happening?”
Nothing unusual. Just the typical: If in any organisation, the head honcho / boss acts (1) without really thinking about whether what he’s about to do is morally appropriate and aligned with the organisation’s goals and strategy, and (2) with unreasonable deference to a specific party, then the acolytes and other careerists will copy him in regard to (1) and (2).
I've been listening to the Sky News Wargame podcast, and it's great to hear you as the US representative - I say great... It's terrifying actually, as what you say sounds so fxcking plausible.
I’ve read that thump thinks all smaller countries need to be swallowed up by their larger neighbors to have only several large countries (all with dictators) around the world. He’s helping Israel gobble up the Middle East.
Hillary told us. Kamala told us. The only question is how many Americans understand or care that Trump is a Putin Puppet. No surprise that Republicans are trying to destroy our public schools. They’ll wipe Ukraine out. Too bad the Swedes don’t want to claim it.
Somehow not surprising, but sooo depressing. Let’s see if this is sane washed by the US media.
Somewhat off-topic question: Can someone shed light on why the US think tank “Center for Strategic and International Studies” (CSIS) would publish a very seriously flawed report on the situation of the Russian national economy? (The report is at https://www.csis.org/analysis/russian-wartime-economy-sugar-high-hangover but I’m explicitly not recommending it, as it is IMO very seriously flawed, in the sense of looking to me to be much more aligned with how Russian propaganda would have us think about how things are, than with actual reality.)
I read it, and mostly they just screwed up their inflation analysis -- they're just wrong about the inflation situation. Russia's going to slam into hyperinflation much sooner than they think, and the exchange rate crisis will happen simultaneously.
Also they pretended that there would be problems with the continued taking liquid assets out of the "National Wealth Fund" only if the oil price were to drop further relative to its end-May/early-June level, which is IMO such obvious nonsense (cf. how much it was drained in May: https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Russias-Wealth-Fund-Shrinks-by-58-Billion-Amid-Oil-Price-Slump.html ) that I don't see how that error can be explained other than as either misleading intentionally or else as extreme incompetence.