Posted on 02/26/2025 2:40:54 PM PST by dennisw
In April 2023, Finland became the 31st member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization, aligning itself with the United States, ending generations of Finnish military neutrality between the West and Russia.
The Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 provoked the move. The Finnish capital of Helsinki is just 200 miles from St. Petersburg. With under six million people, Finland would have little chance of stopping Russian aggression alone.
The threat isn’t idle. Russia has invaded Finland before, in November 1939. That attack can’t be excused as part of Russia’s defense against Nazi Germany. At the time, the Nazis and Stalin were allies dividing Eastern Europe.
The Finns know the Russians. And whatever you think about Ukraine’s corruption and oligarchs, Finland is a modern, free democracy. It hopes to stay that way.
So when this email about Donald Trump’s embrace of Vladimir Putin arrived unsolicited from a Finnish reader1, I thought it was worth sharing, in full and unedited. A lot of good people are very worried. ............................................
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Hi Alex,
Domestically, President Trump may be doing exactly what he was voted to accomplish. I have no take on it, naturally, not being an American. But internationally, is he singlehandedly rewriting the US foreign policy?
I used to consider the US our (and Europe's, and NATO’s and Canada's) friend, and Russia our common foe. Now it seems both are our foes. The narrative seems to tell that Trump and Putin have already divided the world into spheres of interest, and well, Eastern if not all of Europe is soon under another Warsaw Pact...
Having enjoyed your writing and political backdrop views over many years, both inside book covers and in other media, what is your take on all this? And do you and the American people believe Russia is as of this month no longer your enemy?
Has Trump simply decided Putin will offer him a better deal than Ukraine and to hell with the rest? Or is he simply being deceived? Does he buy Putin's lines (read: lies) because he admires the man so much? Or does Putin have Trump so deeply in his pocket that he does whatever he is told to do?
Or is it the exact opposite, and Trump is double- and triple-crossing Putin to ultimately push the Russians to step over a line and then be put firmly back in their place? Or have the two simply come to align on an anti-China stand, for Trump to have an ace up his sleeve against Xi and Putin trying to crawl out from underling position vs Xi?
I am not trying to offend any fans of Trump's politics, I am simply trying to make sense of the tectonic shift in who is an ally to whom and who considers whom a threat?
BR
Heikki
PS. My view: never even think of trusting a Russian politician. Full stop.
And then, like a sniveling pussy of a Leftist, you paint it as "an opposing opinion". Typical "I was only being rhetorical" simpering characterization.
You ball-less piece of crap.
So—if Muslims sneak in from the eastern border it is bad but if they sneak in from anywhere else it is good?
Lol.
Don’t ever forget, you’re a guest here. Speak when spoken to.
“What are you afraid of, Denny? That peace might breakout and the defense industry might not need as much taxpayer money?”
Your Putin chose war and aggression. And war industries that gobble up 30-40% of Russian GDP. Vlad is the last man who wants a fair and equitable peace. He will only accept surrender from Ukraine.
The US Deep State is a trifle, compared to the Russian-Kremlin-FSB one. Russia is a nation ruled by the Moscow Mafia.
If you get to define “fair and equitable” then yeah Vlad will not agree with you.
Clever.
Huh. Full caps, so fast.
I provide some music to soothe the savage beast, and an insight into the history of music no less. The excellent Paola Hermosin is a guitar teacher and and arranger from Sevilla.
In (excellent) Spanish, but the subtitles are also excellent -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWRL29q_EKg
There were 3 distinct wars that the Finns fought in WW2. The first was Finland against Russia . They lost land but kind of won. The second was Finalnd against Russia as a German ally (continuation war) . They basically tried to get their land back but lost. The result was the third war which was Finland against Germany where they had to fight the Germans to get them out of Finland or Russia would march into Helsinki. IT Was a real war with deaths on both sides and much of Northern Finland burned down as the Germans retreated to exit through the north into Norway. So Finlands war history is complicated
Heh -
This is what I get everyday.
To: buwaya
Don’t ever forget, you’re a guest here. Speak when spoken to.
63 posted on 2/27/2025, 8:08:12 AM by JonPreston ( ✌ ☮️ )
This is proving to be an amusing thread. Your mentioning "this guy" is apt. One Finn's view is not a view of more than one.
Reading the very few comments on the Berenson thread, one finds the following:
Volman777It too is an apt comment. Consider "an American says" when that American is Joy Behar or Joy Reid. The comment also notes the Finn about whom Berenson reports has only a first name. No additional citation by which to validate Berenson's "So when this email about Donald Trump's embrace of Vladimir Putin arrived unsolicited from a Finnish reader..."
5hMy take reading this, this person has been listening to Rachel Maddow for the last 8 years.
When does what a supposed Finnish observe have a take on American politics that makes any more difference than my take on Finnish politics would have?
I know- "But Putin!!!"
"Alex Berenson is a former New York Times reporter and the author of 13 novels, three non-fiction books, and the Unreported Truths...."So does he say of himself. Additionally while supposedly saying he would vote for President Trump, he managed an interesting sleight. In Berenson's own words:
"Donald Trump's rhetoric is vicious. His unwillingness to promise to abide by the results of Tuesday's election is dangerous. His friendly attitude towards dictators like Vladimir Putin disheartens me. And though I hate abortion I do not support overturning Roe v Wade."I am having, therefore, a difficult time believing his words.
Poland and to a lesser degree Finland (and others) banned them from wherever. But only Russia went out of its way to force them in.
Lets say that wasn’t a friendly act. And that was going on long before the current Ukraine war.
Here's a start, in case your English skills as a foreigner (which you profess to be) aren't what they should be:
Implying that other people are inclined to murder people because they disagree with YOU is a ready case of WHY you should keep your filthy mouth shut, if that is what you are going to contribute to your version of a "discussion".
What you said wasn't witty. It wasn't cute. It wasn't intellectual. And it wasn't rhetorical.
It was vile, it was putrid, and you should be ashamed of yourself.
If your contribution is what I see here, keeping your stinking pie-hole shut is a good course of action.
I am not seeing a Finland ban on Muslim immigration.
It would be a great idea—but I do not think it is happening.
We had a Finnish national living in our house for a year, and she has come back to visit us several times with her husband and children, and my wife and mother went to Finland and spent several weeks with them.
I was not being rhetorical when I said that I like and admire the Finns.
Just because the anonymous Finn the author quotes sounds like some of the people on the Left here and throughout the world doesn’t mean I think all Finns subscribe to that mindset. It is a simplistic and offensive mindset which some people like to attribute to supposedly xenophobic conservatives which they infer that Free Republic is filled with.
It sounds like they're still complicated when it comes to their own defense, since they just joined NATO in 2023.
Now it is RED all-caps.
More music? A fine performance of one of Alfonso X’s Cantigas my the Cleveland (Ohio) Symphony. Not all Americans are dreadful nativists - YET. Thank God.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCGyDmclpS8
“xenophobic conservatives which they infer that Free Republic is filled with.”
Wall to wall. Some days, nothing but.
Pointing out that you guys have a serious problem.
The Finns opinions seem like SOP for Finland. They certainly are for Poland. And “leftist” is a serious stretch for those guys.
US politics doesn’t apply to foreigners, mostly. They are not mappable to US internecine conflicts.
My musical taste is more pedestrian
How bout some Jimmy Buffett
Fins up
As to Finns, we had some and many other nationalities among our circle when we lived in Germany. Know anything about the Finnish tango?
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