Posted on 06/30/2020 4:10:15 PM PDT by rintintin
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell flatly rejected on Tuesday the idea of Russia rejoining the Group of Seven (G7). President Donald Trump has suggested allowing Russia to be readmitted to the group of world leaders after it was ousted in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
Why don’t we start by just leaving people alone.
There was a massive peace dividend. We dropped military spending from an 80's peak of 7% of national output, to about 3%. Even in the current 4% range, we are now near post-WWII lows, re defense as a % of national output, and well below the Eisenhower era's low teens number. Not that the media will ever mention this fact:
From my profile page ...
The United States should be isolationist by nature and interventionist in rare, exceptional cases. That’s the only legitimate political stature for a country that is supposed to be built on the idea of limited government. A government that pisses away thousands of lives and trillions of dollars on military campaigns in Islamic sh!t-holes halfway around the world while facilitating an invasion of Third World peasants here at home has no moral claim on any loyalty from its citizens anymore.
There is a lot of defying the President from Republican lawmakers lately. That is one side effect of the fake polls from the fake news media which have Biden winning in a landslide . The GOPe has never been known for having an backbone. They usually fold at the slightest hint of trouble.
I trust Putin and Russia more than McConnell and this Chinese held, Republican senate.
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Amen!
So that’s why we arm the Kurds?
... the average independent voter who doesn’t follow the news much...
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Aren’t those the voters who want ‘more civility’ from POTUS?
A ‘more presidential demeanor’?
Progs never trash their own unless it’s personal, as in one wants the position the other has. We, on the other hand, shoot ourselves in the foot all the time.
You and some of the others have a better grasp of the macro politics than I do and certainly more than the average independent or reflexive R voter. But those voters just want to feel they can ignore politics because everyone is ‘really friends’ behind the scenes.
OTOH, POTUS can overdo the ‘we’re really great friends’ schtick.
The point being that we are supposed to have moved into an era in which countries don’t acquire land by force
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I suppose we should be leaving one of the multitude of contries that we’ve conveniently dropped troops into over the last 50-70 years.
McConnell doesn’t have a say in it. For that matter Trump is only one voice out of seven so he doesn’t decide Russia’s admission either.
I don't see him being reined in as it is. Biden would just be more of the same so far as Putin is concerned.
We need to restart the Tea Party to force the GOP to grow a pair and stand up for America. We need to run real conservatives not the weak livered Vichy Republicans who will weep and fall to their knees if called racist. We need to run more people like Sarah Palin and Donald Trump. We need real power brokers! Tucker Carlson is right. We need a revived GOP—BUT it must come from below. All I get from the GOP now is requests for money, money, money. We need BOLD leadership NOW in the face ofthe cabal of Leftist Media, Hollywwod and Democratic-Socialists. People who love Capitalism as much as Sanders Loves Communism.
[We need to restart the Tea Party to force the GOP to grow a pair and stand up for America. We need to run real conservatives not the weak livered Vichy Republicans who will weep and fall to their knees if called racist. We need to run more people like Sarah Palin and Donald Trump. We need real power brokers! Tucker Carlson is right. We need a revived GOP—BUT it must come from below. All I get from the GOP now is requests for money, money, money. We need BOLD leadership NOW in the face ofthe cabal of Leftist Media, Hollywwod and Democratic-Socialists. People who love Capitalism as much as Sanders Loves Communism.]
Russia will pull out of Crimea when the US pulls out of Texas.
If sorted by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), the top 7 are China, U.S., India, Japan, Russia, Germany and Indonesia.
By "nominal" GDP it's U.S., China, Japan, Germany, India, UK and France; with Italy and Brazil #8 and #9.
Canada is not in either list, and their inclusion in the G7 is absurd.
Just as it was better that Russia finally joined the Allied forces to defeat the Axis forces, then to allow the opposite to occur. The same is still true to this day.
McConnell is the idiot.
Serbia may take issue with that claim. Remember what atrocities we committed against Serbia?
We stole Kosovo, which is historical Serbian land, and promptly built Camp Bondsteel. That action was damnable and unforgivable.
I have wondered if our current “balkanization” is our punishment for our crimes against Serbs.
Your attack against Russia and your dismissal of China’s crimes is troublesome. China is our most dangerous enemy.
The best rule to being successful is not to announce doing impossible things only to predictably fail at it.
Nothing would make Kim to disarm and nothing would bring Crimea back.
I have had my say on this issue for over 21 years here on FreeRepublic. I have added I think a lot to the discussion. Not as comprehensive perhaps as “TigerLikesRooster” , (another former FReeper), but I have had my say, more or less—with hard evidence and facts. There is no more arguing with people who either a) cannot see the realities of North Korea; b) follow a cult leader over a cliff, and hang their every position (shifting even) based on the position he adopts at the moment. There is no pursued and adhered to grand strategy here. No moral vision or guiding principles. Only reelection and looking good for the cameras (and the dictator knows this and skillfully milks it to the max). It can be proven seven ways to Sunday. But it will get you suspended or even banned on this forum, so that’s just the way things are.
[There is no pursued and adhered to grand strategy here. No moral vision or guiding principles. Only reelection and looking good for the cameras (and the dictator knows this and skillfully milks it to the max). It can be proven seven ways to Sunday. But it will get you suspended or even banned on this forum, so that’s just the way things are.]
My impression is that the glad-handing is who Trump is - his conceit is that he can win anyone over. And this conceit isn’t affected by actual results. However, he doesn’t let policy be set by atmospherics. Note that sanctions on Korea are probably the tightest they’ve ever been.
Bottom line - there’s a lot of stuff the media is slinging at Trump that just isn’t true. He’s yielding on a lot of stuff that gives America’s adversaries face, but not the substance of the sanctions against them. The G-8 meeting is just crap - his policies have got Russia’s economy in a vise that is getting tighter and tighter. He’s trying to play the Russia card vis-a-vis China, just as in previous decades, Nixon played the China card vis-a-vis Russia.
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