Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[froot loops]

I kind of get the feeling that Trump doesn't think strategically about the long term. I'm sure this will play well with his coal miner base and the various Washington lacking but part of leadership is persuading. Persuading public opinion, persuading other world leaders, he's not persuading anyone. When you have people writing articles that Macron's handshake showdown pushed Trump towards pulling out and it seems credible, WTF kind of situation do we find ourselves in?

Put it another way, what is the play for this? Where is the long term jobs strategy of pulling out?

[Wild Hoss]

Agree here...Trump doesn’t have the intellect or internal philosophical compass to create and push this worldview. He is just the vessel.

So then we have to ask...whom does such an belief benefit? Perhaps there is an actor out there for whom the current system isn’t working very well, and might have access to the current US leadership as to encourage this path?

[Jeff Buchanan]

Here's the opinion piece that prompted my post above this morning. Good read:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-could-spur-the-rise-of-a-new-not-so-liberal-world-order/2017/06/01/1e9aeff2-4707-11e7-98cd-af64b4fe2dfc_story.html?utm_term=.2f1f2d9cefa0

[Wild Hoss]

Somebody didn't click on entropy's link....

[Wild Hoss]

In totally unrelated news, Russian President Vladimir Putin seemed to suggest Thursday that "patriotic hackers" may have meddled in the US election:


http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/01/politi...ion/index.html

...but without any direction or assistance from the government of course. They are just, like, making art. Which all kinda sounds like he's laying the groundwork for a defense of investigative findings which are going to drop the election interference at his feet.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Agree here...Trump doesn?t have the intellect or internal philosophical compass to create and push this worldview. He is just the vessel.

So then we have to ask...whom does such an belief benefit? Perhaps there is an actor out there for whom the current system isn?t working very well, and might have access to the current US leadership as to encourage this path?

Yeah, sort of what's in my mind as well.

Not sure I see the immediate short or long term benefit for Putin. Is it to advance Russian interest in the ME vis-a-vis Iran, Syria, Saudi nexus? This is hugely complex with the Obama administration standing on the sidelines in the recent past.

I do think that Putin and Trump share a world view that is similar to that expressed in Fareed's WaPo piece.

In trying to understand the relationship between the Saudis and Russia, I found this:

https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2015/08/31/russia-saudi-arabia-gulf/

[Jeff Buchanan]

Somebody didn't click on entropy's link....

I never click on his links :p

[Da Geezer]

Good article. Its concerning when a silver-spoon scion, and accomplished anti-intellectual, lectures the rest of us on the need for competition in international relations and makes fundamental position deviations from the course set by people far more intelligent, experienced and learned than himself...oh, and has been wildly successful.

Yup. What this world needs is for the US to send money to India and China until 2030 when they are obligated to think about cutting emissions. And all 194 signatories get trophies, too! At least there is that.

All the Paris Accord did set up a "global system" dedicated to the development of green energy and against any disruptive technology like fracking. European electric rates are three times those in the US, and the spread is widening. Despite that, the US is the leading nation in reducing carbon emissions. But we are doing it by substituting cheap natural gas for coal and oil.

Of course, the globalist goal here has never been limiting carbon emissions. The goal is a massive transfer of wealth from developed countries to non-developed countries (probably due to some sort of European guilt for colonialism). Paris is/was driven by the same mindset that motivated Europe to take in millions of "refugees". The US should avoid that kind of thinking, and, yes, the US should compete with China and India in the economic sphere.

[Da Geezer]

Agree here...Trump doesn’t have the intellect or internal philosophical compass to create and push this worldview.

Oh, Trump has a world view. It just doesn't include countries other than the US.

[froot loops]

Trump's worldview most definitely includes Mother Russia and maybe Turkey as special Counsel Mueller has expanded the probe to include Moscow Mike's actions with Turkey.

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN18T276

[Wild Hoss]

I never click on his links :p

It wasn't a criticism. LOL

[Wild Hoss]

Yeah, sort of what's in my mind as well.

Not sure I see the immediate short or long term benefit for Putin. Is it to advance Russian interest in the ME vis-a-vis Iran, Syria, Saudi nexus? This is hugely complex with the Obama administration standing on the sidelines in the recent past.

I do think that Putin and Trump share a world view that is similar to that expressed in Fareed's WaPo piece.

In trying to understand the relationship between the Saudis and Russia, I found this:

https://www.jewishpolicycenter.org/2...i-arabia-gulf/

Its difficult for any normal person to replicate the mindset of such a man. That said, we can tell that Putin's Russia is, to borrow a phrase, failing as a competitor in the liberal economic structure Fareed describes. A polluted, ice-encrusted petrostate with little export capability besides whatever resources geology happened to deposit inside its borders, and thus existing at the whims of commodities prices set in the “liberal” states like the US, Britain and Japan.

My suspicion is that Putin, like Donald Trump, imagines himself as some type of business Alpha male, hemmed in by rules, law, agreements and other such mechanisms of the Betas, intended to hold Great Men like himself down. He’d like to tear down that structure as so he could do whatever he deems fit (and can get away with) to intimidate and manipulate trade to his best advantage.

The difference is that Putin is smart, and Russia (Through him of course) might well be successful in such a scenario, whereas Trump is a dumbass and risks an already wildly successful economy in such pursuits.

[entropy]

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/06/01/trumps-paris-agreement-withdrawal-is-wrong-move.html

Fuckers.....[emoji3]

Foxnews on the Paris withdraw.


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[froot loops]

Its difficult for any normal person to replicate the mindset of such a man. That said, we can tell that Putin's Russia is, to borrow a phrase, failing as a competitor in the liberal economic structure Fareed describes. A polluted, ice-encrusted petrostate with little export capability besides whatever resources geology happened to deposit inside its borders, and thus existing at the whims of commodities prices set in the ?liberal? states like the US, Britain and Japan.

My suspicion is that Putin, like Donald Trump, imagines himself as some type of business super-warrior-Alpha male, hemmed in by rules, law, agreements and other such mechanisms of the Betas, intended to hold Great men like himself down. He?d like to tear down that structure as so he could do whatever he deems fit to intimidate and manipulate trade to his best advantage. The difference is that Putin is smart, and Russia (Through him of course) might well be successful in such a scenario, whereas Trump is a dumbass and risks an already wildly successful economy in such pursuits.

I think you are on to something, but you did forget one thing, the pee tape.

[Wild Hoss]

I think that at this point, if a person still supports Trump, no tape of urine-related sexual escapades is going to change their mind. And he knows it.