[conspire] OT (geopolitics) So much winning

[Rick Moen]

----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2025 21:35:06 -0800
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: Ruben Safir <mrbrklyn at panix.com>
Subject: So much winning

So, Trump had a love-fest phone call to his buddy Vlad, and the next
things that happened were:


1.  Trump said he'd be settling the Ukraine War personally, by talking
to his buddy Vlad.  The Ukrainians and the Europeans are pointedly to
be totally excluded from this discussion.  (His campaign boast that he'd
have the war ended within 24 hrs. by the middle of Jan. 21 had been
dropped.)

The last time Trump had a private talk with his buddy Vlad in Helsinki,
he ordered his security team and his translation team, and his national
intelligence team out of the room, while Vlad kept his, and basically
Russian intelligence got to pump Trump for three hours, getting
priceless inside information they then used to plan their strategy for
the next several years, including the Ukraine War.


2.  Alleged Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blurted out, when he was in
Munich for the Munich Security Conference, that NATO will never admit 
Ukraine as a member, that US forces would never be committed to defend
Ukraine, that the whole problem was none of the United States's
business, and that Ukraine is not a NATO responsibility at all, and that
any help from the Europeans would need to occur outside of NATO.

He also volunteered that, if European forces did defend Ukraine, that
the United States would not get involved in any way to defend the
Europeans against Russia, either.  He basically said that the United
States, which created NATO to defend Europe against Russia under Article
5, would be henceforth breaking its commitment to Article 5 completely.

This, of course, was handing to Russia on a platter _all_ of the points
that it's wanted since the beginning of the war, in exchange for
nothing, _before_ negotiations start.  This is the worst negotiation
anyone has ever seen.


3. Trump was asked about Ukrainian objections to being shut out of the
initial talks to end the war. Trump responded by falsely blaming Ukraine
for starting the war with Russia. Trump said, quote, "you should have
never started it.  You could have made a deal."

This is, of course, straight-up repeating of Russian propaganda, casting
the victim as the attacker.

 
All of the above is a dramatic and treacherous sell-out by any measure.
Treasonous, basically.  We basically said that Russian troops could 
go straight across the plains of Europe, invading our allies, backed up
by North Koreans, no less, and we'd just say "Meh."


And the appearances of Hegseth and Vance in Munich is exactly where 
Neville Chamberlain sold out everyone in 1939 ("Peace in our time" with
Hitler).  Seriously.  We.  Did.  A.  Munich.  Betrayal.  In.  Munich.

Oh, Vance?  He stood there and told our allies, parliamentary
democracies, that they aren't democratic -- and then he went to give a
speech to AfD, Germany's neo-Nazi party.


What are the Europeans going to do?  The first and obvious thing will
be to go nuclear, exactly what we've spent 80 years trying to prevent:
Sweden, Finland, Poland, and Romania have the ability to make nuclear
bombs over a long weekend, and we just gave them a reason.  And also
Ukraine, by the way, which was a nuclear power before but gave up all
its nukes in exchange for Western security guarantees.  And then, get
this:  The Germans, too.

Swift move, Toddler-in-Chief, you corrupt, thieving, traitorous, criminal
moron.



4.  Trump sent co-President Musk's henchmen to fire pretty much all of
the CIA's senior staff, the people whose primary job is to keep us 
informed about what our main antagonists including Iran, China, and
Russia are up to.  The threat-detection, briefing, and
contingency-planning staff, the most important for that purpose, were
particularly targeted.  Basically the Toddler-in-Chief wants to make
sure, at the CIA as elsewhere, that nobody competent remains who's
willing and able to say to him anything he doesn't want to hear.


5.  Trump put Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence.  The 
problem with her is only partly that she has zero management experience
and zero intelligence experience.  The bigger problem is that she's for
the whole last decade been a Kremlin symp.  The DNI's job is to
synthesize all relevant information from all US intelligence agencies
and coherently brief the President.  The president basically sees what
the DNI presents.  Now, that person is Vlad's tool.



Oh, remember how Trump was going to deal harshly with China?  Notice
that hasn't happened beyond the 10% tariff he basically threatens in
all directions?  He went instead and threatened a 25% tariff against
our largest and most vital trade partners, Canada and Mexico.

Now, ask yourself what that's done, what the immediate effect is.  
Prior to Trump getting in, capital had been in rapid retreat from China
and vitally important re-industrialization had been going on, mostly in
the American Midwest and South, which was really timely and important
because China's economy is failing and won't be around much longer.  

But Trump turning around and punishing our allies rather than our
adversaries has now _halted_ that trend.  Capital has stopped moving out
of China, and no longer feeding re-industrialization of America.

Now, why would Trump have done that, so outrageously violating his
campaign promises?  Simple:  It's because co-President Musk has huge
investments in China and distorted the Toddler-in-Chief's moves to
protect them.


Are you tired of winning, yet?

----- End forwarded message -----