I know that Trump has said these things in the past, but it seems different now that some progress is being made in normalizing relations with Russia as a basis for establishing a new and peaceful relationship.
During the Cuban missile crisis, the Soviets agreed to remove their nuclear armed missiles from Cuba in exchange for the US removing its nuclear armed Jericho missiles from Turkey. The latter was never disclosed to the American people until many years later. Similarly, Trump has agreed to remove US/NATO missile bases in Eastern Europe (which is Russia's main priority), but doesn't want to disclose that retreat to the American public at this time. His bellicose rhetoric is intended to create a hard ass reputation before this part of the negotiation is revealed. Russia is OK with pandering to Trump's ego if that is necessary to eliminate the 5 minute missile strike capability.
I can see that if it's a done deal. Nowadays, a missile withdrawal from Poland would be impossible to keep out of the news. I've stated in either a comment or maybe a post that I could see the Russians cutting Trump some slack in exchange for some real on the ground changes.
BTW, those were Jupiter missiles in Turkey, not Jerichos. You're confusing the US with Israel--which others have also done.
I sometimes wish Trump would be a 'perfect statesman' -- but evidently he's not gonna be. However, I spent foGur years watching him do his best (whatever you may think of that) be embroiled, attacked, and backstabbed through his first administration. Cheated, oh, my goodness, how he was cheated out of a second, and then on to impeachments, lawfare, and, all the time, me praying, praying, praying that somehow -- no matter how impossible -- that he would win a second term, all the time being again stabbed with lawfare after lawfare, real attempts on his life, the most cold, deadly, corruption turned against him, little cockroaches of judges ruling against him, and then our own and present president biden opening our borders to millions upon millions of illegals, and even more lawfare and cheating, and my goodness, that Trump made it through and saved us -- he saved us from what we were all so scared of -- being arrested for wrong think, our phones tapped, our facebook comments attracting the actual FBI and being actually liable for being charged with slander if we dared make comments biden's administration didn't approve of -- yes, President Donald J. Trump might have a big mouth, and bigger ego, but may God continue to bless that man, protect him from assassin's bullets, and the criticism that is now being turned against him from people who can sit back and inspect every darn thing he happens to do wrong. If it were a lesser man, I'd, for sure, think he had been driven crazy, but maybe, just maybe he hasn't been. Maybe, hopefully, Dearest God in Heaven, continue to protect President Trump and lead him through the foul pitfalls arrayed against him in this world.
Macgregor: General Caine [new Chief of Staff] has in his retired capacity been on the board of an organization chaired and run by Jared Kushner's brother.
Macgregor again very eloquent. This is the point I keep repeating. This is a global war, and Ukraine cannot be treated as if there is no relationship to the Middle East. It's all part of the Anglo-Zionist war on Russia.
Macgregor: Do we understand the relationship between Iran and Russia and what Russia is likely to do [if Iran is attacked]? The answer is: No. I think that we tend to compartmentalize. We view what happens in Ukraine as separate and distinct from what happens in the Middle East. I don't think the Russians see it that way. For them an attack on Iran is going to be treated as an attack on their strategic interests, their national security concerns, just as our intervention in Ukraine to push the war against Russia was viewed as an attack on Russian national security interests. So I think initially the Russians will assist in any way they can to support and defend Iran. Then as it becomes clear that we are involved with the assaults on the country, I think we will see their intervention to help protect Iran, and that would include potentially attacks on us in the region.
Doug Macgregor puts it very succinctly. I am particularly put off by Trump's chatter about "beautiful" or "handsome" soldiers being killed--as if the blame for that has nothing to do with his own awful policies that he brags about:
Judge: We both respect [Trump] and we both applaud his willingness to communicate with the Russians meaningfully, but statements like that [about "peacekeepers"] betray either gross ignorance or very very bad Intel. Your thoughts, Colonel?
Macgregor: I think that's a polite way to put it. To be frank, president Trump needs to get out of this notion of putting anybody in Ukraine who's not Ukrainian and stay away from it. I heard this and I was genuinely disappointed because I think there's been a gross misinterpretation. We've had somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 million Ukrainian dead in this war, along with 100,000 dead Russian troops. ...This is a catastrophe and president Trump should recognize that.
**Talking about deals regarding rare earth minerals to somehow or other pay us back for a war that we did everything in our power to cultivate and launch, for a war that we subsidized, for a war that persisted far longer than it ever should have because of our influence is a disaster. I think he should be much more mindful of the human losses, recognize this country is now wrecked, recognize that Russia has also paid a price for its victory, and back away from this. Stop talking about deals that are going to compensate us for something good we didn't do. We didn't do any good. We did the opposite.**
OMG........I don't usually use this social media short form, but it works especially when it comes to Trump. WTF, is another one that works equally well. It expresses my feelings succinctly. I think Trump's mouth has trapped him and exposed his contradictions and not only owns both wars, he is likely to own the chaos that ensues letting Zhou Baidan off the hook for his administration's witless stupidity and likely takes the heat off Zhou's corruption since it's all Trump, all the time, and nobody knows where he stands on anything except pro-Israel. Another expression, go big or don't go at all appears to be his gambit. Now what are the back up players telling the Russians? Is it something different? How does this work with serious people like the Russians? Hollywood is not real and sometimes Trump seems to be unreal[istic] as he plays the Star of his own world..
Fully agree! It has been disconcerting, to say the least, to see Trump playing to the Euroweenie (to use Steghorn’s term!) peanut gallery, as well as ginning up this mineral deal with crackpot dictator Zelensky…is he playing, as Mark suggests, to the tuned-out electorate, saving the hard diplomacy for later? The phone call was such a harbinger for further serious discussions! Oh well, the Cheshire cat in the Kremlin has time on his side, and an inordinate amount of patience.
He can’t help himself. That’s the flip side of Trump. No matter how much self control he exhibits in certain aspects of his life, there is always this uncontrollable need to self aggrandize. Any sense of humility at times is lacking. Even the ability to fake it, or know when to is lacking. We get stuck with both the good and the bad. Can be aggravating though.
It seems he can't. Is it the flip side or just "The Real Donald." You captured it well and yeah aggravating as hell. I'm not here to be entertained, I'm here hoping our country gets headed the right direction before it all implodes.
The EU/UK/NATO willingly committed resources beyond the event horizon of the black hole that is Ukraine. The outcome is known. Narrative control is ongoing until it isn't.
Recall also that Acosta--in DoJ at the time, I think in the Miami USAO--was told by DoJ to be careful with Epstein, because "he's intel." So, yeah, they know LOTS more.
He fumbles a bit at the beginning by referring to "law enforcement agencies". This is all about the Deep State. Nit picking, but important. For example, it's really only the FBI's involvement in NatSec that gives it a seat at the big table in the Deep State. If the FBI were only LE, they'd be a nothing agency.
Oversight perhaps. I think Bluto has gone into seclusion so lack of presence on the stage may be a case of out of sight, out of mind, but yeah, he's complicit in much of the DOJ/CIA/FBI cover ups.
I can agree with that. My concern is that the other constituency--the Russians--is *also* listening to Trump's public conversations with neocons. They may take those conversations at face value or, alternatively, may take umbrage at how Trump is treating and portraying Russia and Russians. If, for example, they see Trump as portraying himself as the guy in charge who is coercing Russia into a deal, the Russians could decide that they won't accept that role that Trump is presenting to the world.
The Russians have been very clear that they require respect from their interlocutors. They demand to be treated as a great nation deserving of respect. Trump's claims to be doing Russia a favor, misrepresentations of Russian positions, etc., run counter to that basic and non-negotiable Russian position.
Putin may be able to “rise above” Trump’s crude rhetoric, but, as Mark makes clear, Trump’s Russian “audience” consists of more than just Putin. The Russian public will not take kindly to Trumpian boasts about sending Ukraine weapons that “took out a lot of [Russian] tanks.” And this matters because, American caricatures notwithstanding, Putin is not a dictator and will need Russian public support for any “deal” to end the war.
It won't go down well with the US public either who are heartedly sick of the whole Ukrainian fiasco. Trump is needlessly complicating an already dicey situation. He needs to heed the words of Steve Bannon and "just walk the _____ away!" Otherwise, he will indeed end up taking ownership in the public mind of this debacle, just like he has for the vaccine. He really is his worst enemy!
Trump operates by constructing narratives, stories, scripts. He always figures as the hero/protagonist. He assigns all the other roles, and everyone else is part of the supporting cast. When you're not getting paid to play that role opposite Trump and think you deserve more respect, that can get old fast. Especially when it begins to look like Trump may be setting you up to take the blame if he doesn't get the deal he wants. He doesn't have to be telling outright lies to make things sour.
Yes, Trump likes to say that, but it's not the whole story--like so many of Trump's stories. It's possible--but not provable--that if Trump had remained president he would have thwarted the Deep State and avoided war. Just like he might not have assassinated Soleimani, and might have prevented the Gaza genocide.
The rest of the story is this.
It's also possible that if Trump had not been president Ukraine would not have been flooded with major weapons systems. And so it remains that, just as Trump bragged, he was the one who made a long war possible.
Trump operates by constructing narratives, stories, scripts. He always figures as the hero/protagonist. He assigns all the other roles, and everyone else is part of the supporting cast. When you're not getting paid to play that role opposite Trump and think you deserve more respect, that can get old fast. Especially when it begins to look like Trump may be setting you up to take the blame if he doesn't get the deal he wants. He doesn't have to be telling outright lies to make things sour.
During the Cuban missile crisis, the Soviets agreed to remove their nuclear armed missiles from Cuba in exchange for the US removing its nuclear armed Jericho missiles from Turkey. The latter was never disclosed to the American people until many years later. Similarly, Trump has agreed to remove US/NATO missile bases in Eastern Europe (which is Russia's main priority), but doesn't want to disclose that retreat to the American public at this time. His bellicose rhetoric is intended to create a hard ass reputation before this part of the negotiation is revealed. Russia is OK with pandering to Trump's ego if that is necessary to eliminate the 5 minute missile strike capability.
I can see that if it's a done deal. Nowadays, a missile withdrawal from Poland would be impossible to keep out of the news. I've stated in either a comment or maybe a post that I could see the Russians cutting Trump some slack in exchange for some real on the ground changes.
BTW, those were Jupiter missiles in Turkey, not Jerichos. You're confusing the US with Israel--which others have also done.
I sometimes wish Trump would be a 'perfect statesman' -- but evidently he's not gonna be. However, I spent foGur years watching him do his best (whatever you may think of that) be embroiled, attacked, and backstabbed through his first administration. Cheated, oh, my goodness, how he was cheated out of a second, and then on to impeachments, lawfare, and, all the time, me praying, praying, praying that somehow -- no matter how impossible -- that he would win a second term, all the time being again stabbed with lawfare after lawfare, real attempts on his life, the most cold, deadly, corruption turned against him, little cockroaches of judges ruling against him, and then our own and present president biden opening our borders to millions upon millions of illegals, and even more lawfare and cheating, and my goodness, that Trump made it through and saved us -- he saved us from what we were all so scared of -- being arrested for wrong think, our phones tapped, our facebook comments attracting the actual FBI and being actually liable for being charged with slander if we dared make comments biden's administration didn't approve of -- yes, President Donald J. Trump might have a big mouth, and bigger ego, but may God continue to bless that man, protect him from assassin's bullets, and the criticism that is now being turned against him from people who can sit back and inspect every darn thing he happens to do wrong. If it were a lesser man, I'd, for sure, think he had been driven crazy, but maybe, just maybe he hasn't been. Maybe, hopefully, Dearest God in Heaven, continue to protect President Trump and lead him through the foul pitfalls arrayed against him in this world.
https://www.rt.com/news/613409-trump-prolongs-russia-sanctions/
I doubt this will provide an incentive for Russia to come to a deal.
What I’m seeing isn’t a gaff but a not so subtle threat he’ll continue the conflict if he has to.
Seems like he is in a rush to leave Ukraine and square off with Iran.
Given Putin’s previous appeasements Trump is pushing Russian ‘red lines’.
For all of the talk of Russian victory, they still haven’t even taken Chasiv Yar or cleared Kursk.
Very interesting:
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-22625-putin-plays-peacemaker
Macgregor: General Caine [new Chief of Staff] has in his retired capacity been on the board of an organization chaired and run by Jared Kushner's brother.
Oy vey.
At a tangent & from the way-back machine: this essay by (the late) Pat Lang, commenting on the meaning of Trump 45's sword-dance with Saudis
Is President Trump now Mukhtar of America?
https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2017/05/httpwwwfoxnewscompolitics20170522israeli-minister-expresses-concerns-over-us-saudi-arabia-deal-ahead-trump-visitht.html
Macgregor again very eloquent. This is the point I keep repeating. This is a global war, and Ukraine cannot be treated as if there is no relationship to the Middle East. It's all part of the Anglo-Zionist war on Russia.
Macgregor: Do we understand the relationship between Iran and Russia and what Russia is likely to do [if Iran is attacked]? The answer is: No. I think that we tend to compartmentalize. We view what happens in Ukraine as separate and distinct from what happens in the Middle East. I don't think the Russians see it that way. For them an attack on Iran is going to be treated as an attack on their strategic interests, their national security concerns, just as our intervention in Ukraine to push the war against Russia was viewed as an attack on Russian national security interests. So I think initially the Russians will assist in any way they can to support and defend Iran. Then as it becomes clear that we are involved with the assaults on the country, I think we will see their intervention to help protect Iran, and that would include potentially attacks on us in the region.
Maybe we've found the only good deed the Left performed in recent years: trying to put a gagging order on DJT. He just needs to shut up.
Doug Macgregor puts it very succinctly. I am particularly put off by Trump's chatter about "beautiful" or "handsome" soldiers being killed--as if the blame for that has nothing to do with his own awful policies that he brags about:
Judge: We both respect [Trump] and we both applaud his willingness to communicate with the Russians meaningfully, but statements like that [about "peacekeepers"] betray either gross ignorance or very very bad Intel. Your thoughts, Colonel?
Macgregor: I think that's a polite way to put it. To be frank, president Trump needs to get out of this notion of putting anybody in Ukraine who's not Ukrainian and stay away from it. I heard this and I was genuinely disappointed because I think there's been a gross misinterpretation. We've had somewhere between 1.2 and 1.5 million Ukrainian dead in this war, along with 100,000 dead Russian troops. ...This is a catastrophe and president Trump should recognize that.
**Talking about deals regarding rare earth minerals to somehow or other pay us back for a war that we did everything in our power to cultivate and launch, for a war that we subsidized, for a war that persisted far longer than it ever should have because of our influence is a disaster. I think he should be much more mindful of the human losses, recognize this country is now wrecked, recognize that Russia has also paid a price for its victory, and back away from this. Stop talking about deals that are going to compensate us for something good we didn't do. We didn't do any good. We did the opposite.**
I see Judge Nap has a show with Mearsheimer later today titled: Does Trump Understand Russia?
OMG........I don't usually use this social media short form, but it works especially when it comes to Trump. WTF, is another one that works equally well. It expresses my feelings succinctly. I think Trump's mouth has trapped him and exposed his contradictions and not only owns both wars, he is likely to own the chaos that ensues letting Zhou Baidan off the hook for his administration's witless stupidity and likely takes the heat off Zhou's corruption since it's all Trump, all the time, and nobody knows where he stands on anything except pro-Israel. Another expression, go big or don't go at all appears to be his gambit. Now what are the back up players telling the Russians? Is it something different? How does this work with serious people like the Russians? Hollywood is not real and sometimes Trump seems to be unreal[istic] as he plays the Star of his own world..
Fully agree! It has been disconcerting, to say the least, to see Trump playing to the Euroweenie (to use Steghorn’s term!) peanut gallery, as well as ginning up this mineral deal with crackpot dictator Zelensky…is he playing, as Mark suggests, to the tuned-out electorate, saving the hard diplomacy for later? The phone call was such a harbinger for further serious discussions! Oh well, the Cheshire cat in the Kremlin has time on his side, and an inordinate amount of patience.
He can’t help himself. That’s the flip side of Trump. No matter how much self control he exhibits in certain aspects of his life, there is always this uncontrollable need to self aggrandize. Any sense of humility at times is lacking. Even the ability to fake it, or know when to is lacking. We get stuck with both the good and the bad. Can be aggravating though.
It seems he can't. Is it the flip side or just "The Real Donald." You captured it well and yeah aggravating as hell. I'm not here to be entertained, I'm here hoping our country gets headed the right direction before it all implodes.
The EU/UK/NATO willingly committed resources beyond the event horizon of the black hole that is Ukraine. The outcome is known. Narrative control is ongoing until it isn't.
Recall also that Acosta--in DoJ at the time, I think in the Miami USAO--was told by DoJ to be careful with Epstein, because "he's intel." So, yeah, they know LOTS more.
He fumbles a bit at the beginning by referring to "law enforcement agencies". This is all about the Deep State. Nit picking, but important. For example, it's really only the FBI's involvement in NatSec that gives it a seat at the big table in the Deep State. If the FBI were only LE, they'd be a nothing agency.
Brilliantly written. But another nit pick. How can he manage to write this true statement
"Nobody credible believes Steele is out of MI6, for the same reason that ex-CIA employees who remain in good graces never really leave the CIA."
but never once mention two timing AG Bluto Barr?
Oversight perhaps. I think Bluto has gone into seclusion so lack of presence on the stage may be a case of out of sight, out of mind, but yeah, he's complicit in much of the DOJ/CIA/FBI cover ups.
I can agree with that. My concern is that the other constituency--the Russians--is *also* listening to Trump's public conversations with neocons. They may take those conversations at face value or, alternatively, may take umbrage at how Trump is treating and portraying Russia and Russians. If, for example, they see Trump as portraying himself as the guy in charge who is coercing Russia into a deal, the Russians could decide that they won't accept that role that Trump is presenting to the world.
The Russians have been very clear that they require respect from their interlocutors. They demand to be treated as a great nation deserving of respect. Trump's claims to be doing Russia a favor, misrepresentations of Russian positions, etc., run counter to that basic and non-negotiable Russian position.
Putin may be able to “rise above” Trump’s crude rhetoric, but, as Mark makes clear, Trump’s Russian “audience” consists of more than just Putin. The Russian public will not take kindly to Trumpian boasts about sending Ukraine weapons that “took out a lot of [Russian] tanks.” And this matters because, American caricatures notwithstanding, Putin is not a dictator and will need Russian public support for any “deal” to end the war.
It won't go down well with the US public either who are heartedly sick of the whole Ukrainian fiasco. Trump is needlessly complicating an already dicey situation. He needs to heed the words of Steve Bannon and "just walk the _____ away!" Otherwise, he will indeed end up taking ownership in the public mind of this debacle, just like he has for the vaccine. He really is his worst enemy!
As I comment below:
Trump operates by constructing narratives, stories, scripts. He always figures as the hero/protagonist. He assigns all the other roles, and everyone else is part of the supporting cast. When you're not getting paid to play that role opposite Trump and think you deserve more respect, that can get old fast. Especially when it begins to look like Trump may be setting you up to take the blame if he doesn't get the deal he wants. He doesn't have to be telling outright lies to make things sour.
That was years ago, before three years of industrial scale slaughter.
Yes, Trump likes to say that, but it's not the whole story--like so many of Trump's stories. It's possible--but not provable--that if Trump had remained president he would have thwarted the Deep State and avoided war. Just like he might not have assassinated Soleimani, and might have prevented the Gaza genocide.
The rest of the story is this.
It's also possible that if Trump had not been president Ukraine would not have been flooded with major weapons systems. And so it remains that, just as Trump bragged, he was the one who made a long war possible.
Trump operates by constructing narratives, stories, scripts. He always figures as the hero/protagonist. He assigns all the other roles, and everyone else is part of the supporting cast. When you're not getting paid to play that role opposite Trump and think you deserve more respect, that can get old fast. Especially when it begins to look like Trump may be setting you up to take the blame if he doesn't get the deal he wants. He doesn't have to be telling outright lies to make things sour.