- Joined
- Apr 29, 2012
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- On an island. Not that one!
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- Socialist
Trump Is Fulfilling Russia’s Dream of Splitting the Western Alliance
One of Russia’s principal foreign-policy goals for decades has been to split the United States from its allies. Whether by accident or by design, President Trump appears intent on bringing that dream to fruition.
The most immediate theater of Western disarray is today’s G7 meeting in Canada. Trump has been fomenting a trade war, hurling wild and largely groundless accusations at America’s allies. “Why isn’t the European Union and Canada informing the public that for years they have used massive Trade Tariffs and non-monetary Trade Barriers against the U.S. Totally unfair to our farmers, workers & companies,” he demands. “Take down your tariffs & barriers or we will more than match you!”
Western trade partners have attempted to reason with Trump’s demands, but the problem is that the basis for his beliefs and actions is entirely fantastical. If your neighbor is irate that you let your dog run loose in his yard, you can pacify him. If he’s irate that you are reading his thoughts through his tinfoil hat, there’s nothing you can do except disengage. And that is what they are doing.
It’s not as if Trump is unable to get along with anybody. He has drawn our country closer to a variety of despots: in the Gulf states, North Korea, China, and of course Russia. There is an element of personality involved here. Trump admires strongmen. “Who are the three guys in the world he most admires?” a Trump adviser told the Post last year. “President Xi [Jinping] of China, [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan and Putin. They’re all the same guy.”
At least once a week, the president says something which causes some people to ask WHY? Why does he seem to be so interested in supporting Putin's actions around the world but especially so in Europe? Today, at the G7 meeting, half of which he plans to miss, he brought up the idea of Russia being brought back into the group, despite Putin's ongoing actions in Ukraine and Crimea. Actions which had caused the break up originally.
This next paragraph seems to exemplify Trump's belief that national leaders need to be "strong men". We all know women can't be strong enough to lead a big nation - right? And those liberal, socialist types are just too weak to do the job that real men can do. :roll:
Vladimir is getting his monies worth.
BRUSSELS — President Donald Trump arrived Tuesday at the home of NATO headquarters with a seemingly singular preoccupation: allies who aren't sharing in the burden of providing for the collective defense.
As we have written before, Trump is conflating NATO’s direct and indirect spending to claim that the U.S. “is paying for 90% of NATO.”
In direct costs, the U.S. currently pays about 22 percent of NATO’s “principal budgets” that are funded by all alliance members based on a cost-sharing formula that factors in the gross national income of each country. The principal budget categories include the civil budget, the military budget and the NATO Security Investment Programme (NSIP).
Trump has long been critical of what he views as the U.S. taking on a disproportionate burden in funding NATO, but he has ratcheted up those complaints in the days leading up to the summit.
NATO members agreed in 2014 to move toward spending at least 2 percent of their respective gross domestic product on defense by 2024.
Trump reportedly wrote to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other NATO allies last month to chastise them for failing to live up to their spending obligations. He further warned that the U.S. could alter its military deployments if nothing changes.
Stoltenberg’s strategy of lavishing praise on Trump is one that many in Europe believe has the greatest chance of averting a diplomatic disaster. Some leaders from NATO member nations fear another public reprimand by Trump over defense spending would embolden Russia.
And such a scenario appears likely, as Trump railed against the defense-spending mismatch between the United States and the rest of the alliance Tuesday morning. “NATO countries must pay MORE, the United States must pay LESS,” he tweeted. “Very Unfair!”
Napoleon was a brutal warlord, but also a great reformer, a hero and a villain. Fascinating to read about a historical figure that cries, is happy, longing, is in love. Every day during the campaign in Italy he wrote letters to Josephine. He had a lot of contradictions, he. But let me emphasize: Napoleon is not a political ideal, but a wonderfully exciting person!
At least once a week, the president says something which causes some people to ask WHY? Why does he seem to be so interested in supporting Putin's actions around the world but especially so in Europe? Today, at the G7 meeting, half of which he plans to miss, he brought up the idea of Russia being brought back into the group, despite Putin's ongoing actions in Ukraine and Crimea. Actions which had caused the break up originally.
This next paragraph seems to exemplify Trump's belief that national leaders need to be "strong men". We all know women can't be strong enough to lead a big nation - right? And those liberal, socialist types are just too weak to do the job that real men can do. :roll:
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