Moiraine Posted January 14, 2017 Share Posted January 14, 2017 Coining this before someone else beats me. Washington-Moscow Axis Link to comment
Danny Bateman Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Not the Onion... Link to comment
BIGREDIOWAN Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 Not the Onion... http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-aide-denies-trump-meeting-putin-in-first-foreign-trip-as-president/ar-AAlSjvx?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=ACERDHP15 Incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer on Saturday evening denied a report that President-elect Donald Trump would be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in his first foreign trip as president. Link to comment
Danny Bateman Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 If only I could trust Spicer. Or Trump. I've seen both lie to people's faces repeatedly. I'd put money down this meeting happens and they're just trying to conceal it now that it's in the press. Link to comment
funhusker Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 "If" Trump's first visit is to Russia, I really, really, really, want to see Trump supporters defend an obvious "apology tour". 3 Link to comment
BIGREDIOWAN Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 If only I could trust Spicer. Or Trump. I've seen both lie to people's faces repeatedly. I'd put money down this meeting happens and they're just trying to conceal it now that it's in the press. I understand, I was just posting it since I just seen the article right before I read your post. You hear one thing and then you hear another. We'll find out soon enough I guess on whether this happens or not. Link to comment
TGHusker Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 it is very very very concerning to me that we have a president elect who refuses to take briefings and publicly ridicules our intelligence community. The only guy with intelligence experience has left his team. Clinton neutered much of the Intel community and that played a part in 9/11 and then the bad Intel going into Iraq. I fear something similar can easily happen in the future. Poor intelligence now may lead to Russian aggression later. Link to comment
TGHusker Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Unfortunately, this seems to be one of the key tenets of the MO of the current GOP. They're going to try to overload us so we don't have time to react to everything they're doing. The less you know the better. With our first move, we'll try to destroy a non-partisan ethics office. His cabinet picks aren't completing their ethics requirements for that very same office and good old turtle McConnell is poised to let it slide instead of the requesting rigorous requirements he himself asked for in 2009. They're trying to cram six cabinet hearings (w/o ethics work finished), Trump's first press conference since the summer, and a bunch of ACA repeal legislation all into one day. It's so transparently intentional anyone could see it. I will say this for them -- the GOP operates with frightening clockwork precision on planning things and carrying out their plans. I just wish I agreed with what they fought for. For guys with a "mandate", they sure are trying to bury a lot of their actions in news cycles. It's almost like they KNOW they have unpopular, crappy plans and they want to implement them anyway. On tax returns, we'll never, ever see them... from him. He's invoked every single deflection in the book to avoid it: I'm under audit -- I'll release them when it's done You don't learn anything from them anyway I released a financial disclosure form instead Not paying my taxes makes me smart It's not my fault, why didn't politicians close the loopholes Владимир не позволит мне. I'd wager he'll never release them. He doesn't want us seeing his net worth, and he doesn't want us seeing his seedy entanglements. But who knows. Maybe we'll see them yet ala that one someone sent to the NYTimes. Maybe the Russians have hacked into Trump's taxes and are holding that over his head?? Link to comment
zoogs Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Владимир не позволит мне. "Vladimir will not let me." Nice. 1 Link to comment
Danny Bateman Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Владимир не позволит мне. "Vladimir will not let me." Nice. Well played, Zoogs. I was wondering who would find that. Link to comment
knapplc Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 The only thing I can call this is "odd." Why in the world would Vladimir Putin say this? If he is trying to wheedle his way into the White House, this is overplaying his hand. Link to comment
NM11046 Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 I feel like this is nasty, bitter version of "Candid Camera". Link to comment
zoogs Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Because he's betting -- correctly, I suspect -- that a significant portion of the U.S. will support and agree with him. A significant portion will be opposed to this, too; such turmoil is also useful. Link to comment
Danny Bateman Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 I will share something useful I've come across with all of you that helps shed some light on Putin's overall strategy with all of this. A book called Foundations of Geopolitics was a book published by fascist Alexander Dugin in 1997 that became fundamental in shaping the minds of Russian police, military, and foreign policy circles. It's allegedly used in their military academy as a textbook. This is central to their foreign policy views. Given that Putin came up in the KGB during that time period, it probably largely shaped the way he views the world, and his strategy for furthering Russian interests. An excerpt of the book's tenets from Wikipedia: The book declares that "the battle for the world rule of [ethnic] Russians" has not ended and Russia remains "the staging area of a new anti-bourgeois, anti-American revolution." The Eurasian Empire will be constructed "on the fundamental principle of the common enemy: the rejection of Atlanticism, strategic control of the USA, and the refusal to allow liberal values to dominate us."[1] Military operations play relatively little role. The textbook believes in a sophisticated program of subversion, destabilization, and disinformation spearheaded by the Russian special services. The operations should be assisted by a tough, hard-headed utilization of Russia's gas, oil, and natural resources to bully and pressure other countries.[1] The book states that "the maximum task [of the future] is the 'Finlandization' of all of Europe".[1] In Europe: Germany should be offered the de facto political dominance over most Protestant and Catholic states located within Central and Eastern Europe. Kaliningrad oblast could be given back to Germany. The book uses the term "Moscow-Berlin axis".[1] France should be encouraged to form a "Franco-German bloc" with Germany. Both countries have a "firm anti-Atlanticist tradition".[1] The United Kingdom should be cut off from Europe.[1] Finland should be absorbed into Russia. Southern Finland will be combined with the Republic of Karelia and northern Finland will be "donated to Murmansk Oblast".[1] Estonia should be given to Germany's sphere of influence.[1] Latvia and Lithuania should be given a "special status" in the Eurasian-Russian sphere.[1] Poland should be granted a "special status" in the Eurasian sphere.[1] Romania, Macedonia, "Serbian Bosnia" and Greece – "orthodox collectivist East" – will unite with "Moscow the Third Rome" and reject the "rational-individualistic West".[1] Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because "“Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible.[1] In the Middle East and Central Asia: The book stresses the "continental Russian-Islamic alliance" which lies "at the foundation of anti-Atlanticist strategy". The alliance is based on the "traditional character of Russian and Islamic civilization". Iran is a key ally. The book uses the term "Moscow-Tehran axis".[1] Armenia has a special role: It will serve as a "strategic base," and it is necessary to create "the [subsidiary] axis Moscow-Erevan-Teheran". Armenians "are an Aryan people … [like] the Iranians and the Kurds".[1] Azerbaijan could be "split up" or given to Iran.[1] Georgia should be dismembered. Abkhazia and "United Ossetia" (which includes Georgia's South Ossetia) will be incorporated into Russia. Georgia's independent policies are unacceptable.[1] Russia needs to create "geopolitical shocks" within Turkey. These can be achieved by employing Kurds, Armenians and other minorities.[1] The book regards the Caucasus as a Russian territory, including "the eastern and northern shores of the Caspian (the territories of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan)" and Central Asia (mentioning Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kirghistan and Tajikistan).[1] In Asia: China, which represents a danger to Russia, "must, to the maximum degree possible, be dismantled". Dugin suggests that Russia start by taking Tibet-Xinjiang-Mongolia-Manchuria as a security belt.[2] Russia should offer China help "in a southern direction – Indochina (except Vietnam), the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia" as geopolitical compensation.[1] Russia should manipulate Japanese politics by offering the Kuril Islands to Japan and provoking anti-Americanism.[1] Mongolia should be absorbed into Eurasia-Russia.[1] The book emphasizes that Russia must spread Anti-Americanism everywhere: "the main 'scapegoat' will be precisely the U.S." In the United States: Russia should use its special forces within the borders of the United States to fuel instability and separatism, for instance, provoke "Afro-American racists". Russia should "introduce geopolitical disorder into internal American activity, encouraging all kinds of separatism and ethnic, social and racial conflicts, actively supporting all dissident movements – extremist, racist, and sectarian groups, thus destabilizing internal political processes in the U.S. It would also make sense simultaneously to support isolationist tendencies in American politics."[1]The Eurasian Project could be expanded to South and Central America.[1] I've bolded the things we have already seen happen. This is clearly the playbook that Russia is operating from. Finlandization in this context refers to allowing a smaller, less powerful country to keep its independence and its own political system in exchange for a strong amount of influence over their policies. Thus, Russia's end goal is to largely control how Europe operates even if it provides them the illusion of independence. Seeing the overall gameplan is useful to providing context to Russia's geopolitics and how they may be using Trump to accomplish those ends. 2 Link to comment
TAKODA Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 This is not an endorsement or condemnation of Trumps actions, comments or ability to lead our Country, but let me simply ask this to piggy back on what JJ was saying above. I do not know if Trump requested in earnest, that Russia aid him in the election process. However, setting that aside for the moment, if there were improprieties found to exist in the information provided by any source, isn't this being lost somewhow and shouldn't it matter in some measurable way? Link to comment
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