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He had that meeting right after he won where he invited in all the people he wanted axed and their bosses.... looks like they might not have understood the offer....
Only against those who want to be target practice or can't defend themselves. Russia and China are not in that category. The EU is not in that category. Every developed country in the world is not in that category. That's why every sensible US statesman since the birth of the republic has used diplomacy and alliances, or what is now called in academia "soft power", to further the national interest and make it into the greatest power in world history. It's no-brainer 101 politics. Trump's behaviour is widely considered that of a lunatic, and not in Nixon's carefully crafted "madman strategy".
European politicians are debating in public that the man is unhinged, a menace and needs to be *confronted*. It's unprecedented to talk in those terms about the President of the United States. They never even said that about Dubya! The shit Trump's pulling may work when he's trying to stiff building contractors, but it doesn't work in international politics, especially with countries who can just say, thanks, but no thanks. I have friends who work in the UK Foreign Office, not anything particularly high up, and they're telling me that everybody in the UK government is concerned by Trump's behaviour, and again they don't think it's Nixon's madman theory. It's lunchtime gossip everywhere in Westminster. Everybody thinks the man is a thin-skinned hothead, which is a terrible mix, and the UK government is going to have to tell Trump very many things that he doesn't want to hear, because it is in the UK's government interest not to go along with this mad shit he's pulling. And it's not just because they're a bunch of liberal elitists. People can like it or hate it, but those are the facts.
The US military believes that it has overwhelming military superiority and pulverize both of Russia and China in a two front war with conventional weapons. Trump no doubt has been advised of that view. Their only real defense is MAD — mutually assured destruction through nuclear winter.
Tom: "The US military believes that it has overwhelming military superiority and pulverize both of Russia and China in a two front war with conventional weapons. Trump no doubt has been advised of that view."
Well, they may believe that, but they couldn't even beat the Taliban, armed as they were with AK-47s and pickup trucks, so the US military is living in a fantasy world of its own making. Belief and facts are two different things. If there was a near mutiny over attacking Iran, they'll shoot Trump in the face if given the order to attack Russia or China let alone both in a two front war.
And as you say, China and Russia are nuclear powers. Any war is not going to be conventional, and that'll be a US choice: Russian and Chinese naval ships are not sailing off the eastern and western seaboards, and Canada and Mexico are not host to gigantic Russian or Chinese military bases. If this is the advice Trump is getting, it means the end of the human race, and those offering this advice and those taking it are all literally "insane".
European politicians are debating in public that the man is unhinged, a menace and needs to be *confronted*. It's unprecedented to talk in those terms about the President of the United States. They never even said that about Dubya! The shit Trump's pulling may work when he's trying to stiff building contractors, but it doesn't work in international politics, especially with countries who can just say, thanks, but no thanks. I have friends who work in the UK Foreign Office, not anything particularly high up, and they're telling me that everybody in the UK government is concerned by Trump's behaviour, and again they don't think it's Nixon's madman theory.…
In my view all US president posed a greater threat to to US adversaries and "allies" than DJT. The US deep state is organized for global hegemony and everyone is on the target list, first politically, second economically, third covert ops, and finally militarily.
My take is that DJT is just a lot of noise and nowhere near as dangerous as other post WWII presidents.
The #1 adversary on Trump's list, after polishing off the Democrats, it the US deep state and the factions of US establishment that want him gone. This is where the battles are being waged now.
Chief strategic adviser Steve Bannon's favorite book is Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Look for the Trump team to create a lot of distractions while it prepares to fight on another flank entirely rather than engage the center head on.
Btw, Ike and JFK's Bannon was Allen Dulles (until JFK fired him). Dulles's brother, John Foster was also secretary of state under Ike. LBJ's was Robert McNamara. Nixon's was Kissinger, Carter's was Brzezinski, Bill Clinton's was Anthony Lake (Kissinger protégé), Dubya's was Cheney. (HRC's was John Podesta.) As former CIA director, Poppy Bush did not need one, and Poppy Bush was also Reagan's VP. In comparison, Steve Bannon is hardly the issue he is made out as — tame, actually.
Well, they may believe that, but they couldn't even beat the Taliban, armed as they were with AK-47s and pickup trucks, so the US military is living in a fantasy world of its own making. Belief and facts are two different things
That may be but a US admiral recently said that China had no way of taking out a carrier group, of which the US has a dozen. He said that the US Navy could just sit beyond range and reduce Chinese assets to rubble. The only way that the Chinese could take out a carrier group is with a tactical nuke and that would mean deciding to engage the US in a nuclear exchange, which he did not believe that the Chinese would choose to do, since it meant certain destruction.
Defeat China in a conventional war? Occupy a nation of over 1,000,000,000 people? Nonsense.
No. The US would just reduce their assets to rubble, essentially salting the earth as the Romans did to Carthage. The Chinese would be poking the ground with sticks to grow beans to feed themselves. It would take decades to recover.
The US also thought they could remake the Middle East into a neo liberal democratic paradise by invading Iraq. I am not sure where your confidence in Trump being all bluster comes from. He clearly will react poorly when confronted or embarrassed, and the recent op in Yemen is an example of this I believe.
The US also thought they could remake the Middle East into a neo liberal democratic paradise by invading Iraq
That was never the plan. This was about oil - Rumsfeld said the war would cost $50B but oil revenues would pay for it. Libya is a better model of success, where the state is at best a theoretical concept and corporations operate with impunity. That's the real goal.
The #1 adversary on Trump's list, after polishing off the Democrats, it the US deep state and the factions of US establishment that want him gone. This is where the battles are being waged now.
Exactly. This (aside from trade policy) was the only thing I liked about Trump. The Iran threats, saber-rattling with China and Russia hacking polls don't give me much hope. On the other hand Trump's WWIII McCain tweet was tasty. But I'm not sure you can beat the MIC with tweets ...
Agreed it was about oil, but I also think there was (is?) a deep belief that providence is giving the US the opportunity to remake the world in its image. This belief system runs through the current administration and its supporters as well, hence their overconfident belief that they can bully everyone into doing what they want.
'We' don't want the rest of the world to be like us, we want then to be subordinate to us. If you consider democracy as a code word for capitalism then spreading democracy makes perfect sense, especially in light of all the real democracies we've overthrown.
@Noah, yes agreed. I guess the limitations of the space keep me from really expanding on this. I am looking at this from the angle of the "lies we tell ourselves." And one of those lies, a big one I would argue, is that America was destined and called by God to lead the world into the light of freedom. So while this looks like what it is, a naked Imperial Power grab, its adherents believe a lie so deep it blinds them from the blowback that will inevitably come.
Agreed it was about oil, but I also think there was (is?) a deep belief that providence is giving the US the opportunity to remake the world in its image.
Cognitive dissonance.
This is the fundamental problem with US policy and thinking in general. Americans are acquisitors more than warriors so the economic component is uppermost, at least subliminally. Americans are also idealists, so they clock their acquisitiveness in ideals.
Because this is cognitive-affective bias, most don't notice it. But some do and certainly the rest of the world does and views the US as hypocritical.
I'm not a military man, but the Admiral who claimed that the US could reduce China to rubble without barely receiving a scratch in return should be demoted to Ensign or Seaman because the man is a goddamn idiot. China will not sit idly by and watch itself get destroyed for fear of nuclear exchange. Russia won't stand for it and would aid it in any way it could, knowing that they could be next. And if China's gonna be turned into a 21st century Carthage, it'll happily take South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States with it. US global hegemony would turn to dust. Another guarantee in life that can be added to death and taxes is an attack on China will not stay conventional, so everybody can put aside this loony thinking in the Pentagon that China will just be all very Confucius about their destruction. China would eventually launch every nuke it has and destroy the planet.
And one of those lies, a big one I would argue, is that America was destined and called by God to lead the world into the light of freedom
This is actually true in a non-literal sense of "God." Or, if you want a literal sense, it is found in 1 John 7, 16: "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them" (NRSV).
Freedom without love is just license, and it becomes destructive if pushed.
The problem is that Americans are kind of bungling it owing to their materiality.
This is owing to the low level of collective consciousness transmitted by the highly materialistic culture.
The dialectic underway at present in the integration of Western liberalism, which emphasizes personal freedom, with Eastern harmony, which emphasizes integration of life.
Integrating personal self and social harmony involves living a good life as an individual in a good society as a citizen. The link between self and society is effected through egality, which is different from numerical equality. One aspect of egality is distributive justice. Another is political self-determination through government of the people, for the people where privilege is absent. Another is the rule of law, where all are equal before the law.
Achieving this is only possible to the degree that universality supervenes over individuality. Love, which apprehends others in terms of the unity of being, is universal. Lust — for fame, fortune, power and pleasure — is ego-centric and selfish.
The idea that pursuit of individual benefit leads to natural spontaneous order it true but it is the law of the jungle. Humans are better than that because they are endowed with reasons and are able to love unconditionally.
"God" is conceived as the universal individual. Humans are called to "become God" by becoming increasingly God-like (universal) through universal conditional love and guided by reason.
According to perennial wisdom, the purpose of life is to come to know experientially what terms like "God" and "love" really signify, although those particular terms are not necessary. While religions contain this at their core, religion is not necessary either.
Becoming engrossed in materialism leads in the opposite direction, that, toward making own's own limited self one's idol, which necessarily has feet of clay.
I'm not a military man, but the Admiral who claimed that the US could reduce China to rubble without barely receiving a scratch in return should be demoted to Ensign or Seaman because the man is a goddamn idiot.
Jus' sayin' that how these people think.
Gen Breedlove is shooting off tank cannons from newly arrived US tanks in Poland that are aimed at Russia "to send a message." He stated that this was not just a training exercise.
Tom agree about cognitive dissonance. The danger is the build up of rage and resentment that it creates because of its self righteous hypocritical nature. This resentment is building both at home, and abroad. Was reading something today where Bannon is quoted as saying war with China is inevitable. I can't help but think Trumps role is to destroy America so the rest of humanity can begin to learn how to live in peace.
U.S. military probing more possible civilian deaths in Yemen raid
U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.
As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists.
25 comments:
They were given their opportunity to get rid of a bunch of people... I guess maybe they didn't understand the offer...
This could become the trend with all of the people he has dealings with...
Haha! CNN has about three viewers! Trump's gone bonkers. Week 1 was crazy week. Week 2 is special kind of crazy week. What does week 3 have to offer?
This could become the trend with all of the people he has dealings with...
Sending a warning.
DJT has always used intimidation as a tool. His preferred tactic was suing everyone it sight.
Now he has much bigger guns to fire.
No Tom I mean they don't understand the offer....
He had that meeting right after he won where he invited in all the people he wanted axed and their bosses.... looks like they might not have understood the offer....
Right.
Tom: "Now he has much bigger guns to fire."
Only against those who want to be target practice or can't defend themselves. Russia and China are not in that category. The EU is not in that category. Every developed country in the world is not in that category. That's why every sensible US statesman since the birth of the republic has used diplomacy and alliances, or what is now called in academia "soft power", to further the national interest and make it into the greatest power in world history. It's no-brainer 101 politics. Trump's behaviour is widely considered that of a lunatic, and not in Nixon's carefully crafted "madman strategy".
European politicians are debating in public that the man is unhinged, a menace and needs to be *confronted*. It's unprecedented to talk in those terms about the President of the United States. They never even said that about Dubya! The shit Trump's pulling may work when he's trying to stiff building contractors, but it doesn't work in international politics, especially with countries who can just say, thanks, but no thanks. I have friends who work in the UK Foreign Office, not anything particularly high up, and they're telling me that everybody in the UK government is concerned by Trump's behaviour, and again they don't think it's Nixon's madman theory. It's lunchtime gossip everywhere in Westminster. Everybody thinks the man is a thin-skinned hothead, which is a terrible mix, and the UK government is going to have to tell Trump very many things that he doesn't want to hear, because it is in the UK's government interest not to go along with this mad shit he's pulling. And it's not just because they're a bunch of liberal elitists. People can like it or hate it, but those are the facts.
Russia and China are not in that category.
The US military believes that it has overwhelming military superiority and pulverize both of Russia and China in a two front war with conventional weapons. Trump no doubt has been advised of that view. Their only real defense is MAD — mutually assured destruction through nuclear winter.
Tom: "The US military believes that it has overwhelming military superiority and pulverize both of Russia and China in a two front war with conventional weapons. Trump no doubt has been advised of that view."
Well, they may believe that, but they couldn't even beat the Taliban, armed as they were with AK-47s and pickup trucks, so the US military is living in a fantasy world of its own making. Belief and facts are two different things. If there was a near mutiny over attacking Iran, they'll shoot Trump in the face if given the order to attack Russia or China let alone both in a two front war.
And as you say, China and Russia are nuclear powers. Any war is not going to be conventional, and that'll be a US choice: Russian and Chinese naval ships are not sailing off the eastern and western seaboards, and Canada and Mexico are not host to gigantic Russian or Chinese military bases. If this is the advice Trump is getting, it means the end of the human race, and those offering this advice and those taking it are all literally "insane".
European politicians are debating in public that the man is unhinged, a menace and needs to be *confronted*. It's unprecedented to talk in those terms about the President of the United States. They never even said that about Dubya! The shit Trump's pulling may work when he's trying to stiff building contractors, but it doesn't work in international politics, especially with countries who can just say, thanks, but no thanks. I have friends who work in the UK Foreign Office, not anything particularly high up, and they're telling me that everybody in the UK government is concerned by Trump's behaviour, and again they don't think it's Nixon's madman theory.…
In my view all US president posed a greater threat to to US adversaries and "allies" than DJT. The US deep state is organized for global hegemony and everyone is on the target list, first politically, second economically, third covert ops, and finally militarily.
My take is that DJT is just a lot of noise and nowhere near as dangerous as other post WWII presidents.
The #1 adversary on Trump's list, after polishing off the Democrats, it the US deep state and the factions of US establishment that want him gone. This is where the battles are being waged now.
Chief strategic adviser Steve Bannon's favorite book is Sun Tzu's The Art of War. Look for the Trump team to create a lot of distractions while it prepares to fight on another flank entirely rather than engage the center head on.
Btw, Ike and JFK's Bannon was Allen Dulles (until JFK fired him). Dulles's brother, John Foster was also secretary of state under Ike. LBJ's was Robert McNamara. Nixon's was Kissinger, Carter's was Brzezinski, Bill Clinton's was Anthony Lake (Kissinger protégé), Dubya's was Cheney. (HRC's was John Podesta.) As former CIA director, Poppy Bush did not need one, and Poppy Bush was also Reagan's VP. In comparison, Steve Bannon is hardly the issue he is made out as — tame, actually.
Well, they may believe that, but they couldn't even beat the Taliban, armed as they were with AK-47s and pickup trucks, so the US military is living in a fantasy world of its own making. Belief and facts are two different things
That may be but a US admiral recently said that China had no way of taking out a carrier group, of which the US has a dozen. He said that the US Navy could just sit beyond range and reduce Chinese assets to rubble. The only way that the Chinese could take out a carrier group is with a tactical nuke and that would mean deciding to engage the US in a nuclear exchange, which he did not believe that the Chinese would choose to do, since it meant certain destruction.
This is how these people think.
Defeat China in a conventional war? Occupy a nation of over 1,000,000,000 people? Nonsense.
No. The US would just reduce their assets to rubble, essentially salting the earth as the Romans did to Carthage. The Chinese would be poking the ground with sticks to grow beans to feed themselves. It would take decades to recover.
The US also thought they could remake the Middle East into a neo liberal democratic paradise by invading Iraq. I am not sure where your confidence in Trump being all bluster comes from. He clearly will react poorly when confronted or embarrassed, and the recent op in Yemen is an example of this I believe.
"Romans to Carthage..."
Yes that is how I see Trump doing it... no "nation building".... its "just win baby!" on a national level..
so he would just knock Iran infrastructure down and let them try to dig out for a decade and then maybe go back an do it again, rinse repeat...
That assumes America won't descend into civil chaos by then. Rome fell from within long before the barbarians showed up.
The US also thought they could remake the Middle East into a neo liberal democratic paradise by invading Iraq
That was never the plan. This was about oil - Rumsfeld said the war would cost $50B but oil revenues would pay for it. Libya is a better model of success, where the state is at best a theoretical concept and corporations operate with impunity. That's the real goal.
The #1 adversary on Trump's list, after polishing off the Democrats, it the US deep state and the factions of US establishment that want him gone. This is where the battles are being waged now.
Exactly. This (aside from trade policy) was the only thing I liked about Trump. The Iran threats, saber-rattling with China and Russia hacking polls don't give me much hope. On the other hand Trump's WWIII McCain tweet was tasty. But I'm not sure you can beat the MIC with tweets ...
Agreed it was about oil, but I also think there was (is?) a deep belief that providence is giving the US the opportunity to remake the world in its image. This belief system runs through the current administration and its supporters as well, hence their overconfident belief that they can bully everyone into doing what they want.
'We' don't want the rest of the world to be like us, we want then to be subordinate to us. If you consider democracy as a code word for capitalism then spreading democracy makes perfect sense, especially in light of all the real democracies we've overthrown.
@Noah, yes agreed. I guess the limitations of the space keep me from really expanding on this. I am looking at this from the angle of the "lies we tell ourselves." And one of those lies, a big one I would argue, is that America was destined and called by God to lead the world into the light of freedom. So while this looks like what it is, a naked Imperial Power grab, its adherents believe a lie so deep it blinds them from the blowback that will inevitably come.
Agreed it was about oil, but I also think there was (is?) a deep belief that providence is giving the US the opportunity to remake the world in its image.
Cognitive dissonance.
This is the fundamental problem with US policy and thinking in general. Americans are acquisitors more than warriors so the economic component is uppermost, at least subliminally. Americans are also idealists, so they clock their acquisitiveness in ideals.
Because this is cognitive-affective bias, most don't notice it. But some do and certainly the rest of the world does and views the US as hypocritical.
I'm not a military man, but the Admiral who claimed that the US could reduce China to rubble without barely receiving a scratch in return should be demoted to Ensign or Seaman because the man is a goddamn idiot. China will not sit idly by and watch itself get destroyed for fear of nuclear exchange. Russia won't stand for it and would aid it in any way it could, knowing that they could be next. And if China's gonna be turned into a 21st century Carthage, it'll happily take South Korea, Japan and Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States with it. US global hegemony would turn to dust. Another guarantee in life that can be added to death and taxes is an attack on China will not stay conventional, so everybody can put aside this loony thinking in the Pentagon that China will just be all very Confucius about their destruction. China would eventually launch every nuke it has and destroy the planet.
And one of those lies, a big one I would argue, is that America was destined and called by God to lead the world into the light of freedom
This is actually true in a non-literal sense of "God." Or, if you want a literal sense, it is found in 1 John 7, 16: "Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love…. God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them" (NRSV).
Freedom without love is just license, and it becomes destructive if pushed.
The problem is that Americans are kind of bungling it owing to their materiality.
This is owing to the low level of collective consciousness transmitted by the highly materialistic culture.
The dialectic underway at present in the integration of Western liberalism, which emphasizes personal freedom, with Eastern harmony, which emphasizes integration of life.
Integrating personal self and social harmony involves living a good life as an individual in a good society as a citizen. The link between self and society is effected through egality, which is different from numerical equality. One aspect of egality is distributive justice. Another is political self-determination through government of the people, for the people where privilege is absent. Another is the rule of law, where all are equal before the law.
Achieving this is only possible to the degree that universality supervenes over individuality. Love, which apprehends others in terms of the unity of being, is universal. Lust — for fame, fortune, power and pleasure — is ego-centric and selfish.
The idea that pursuit of individual benefit leads to natural spontaneous order it true but it is the law of the jungle. Humans are better than that because they are endowed with reasons and are able to love unconditionally.
"God" is conceived as the universal individual. Humans are called to "become God" by becoming increasingly God-like (universal) through universal conditional love and guided by reason.
According to perennial wisdom, the purpose of life is to come to know experientially what terms like "God" and "love" really signify, although those particular terms are not necessary. While religions contain this at their core, religion is not necessary either.
Becoming engrossed in materialism leads in the opposite direction, that, toward making own's own limited self one's idol, which necessarily has feet of clay.
I'm not a military man, but the Admiral who claimed that the US could reduce China to rubble without barely receiving a scratch in return should be demoted to Ensign or Seaman because the man is a goddamn idiot.
Jus' sayin' that how these people think.
Gen Breedlove is shooting off tank cannons from newly arrived US tanks in Poland that are aimed at Russia "to send a message." He stated that this was not just a training exercise.
These are the people "protecting" you.
Tom agree about cognitive dissonance. The danger is the build up of rage and resentment that it creates because of its self righteous hypocritical nature. This resentment is building both at home, and abroad. Was reading something today where Bannon is quoted as saying war with China is inevitable. I can't help but think Trumps role is to destroy America so the rest of humanity can begin to learn how to live in peace.
These are the people "protecting" you.
Tom, not sure if you saw this from reuters:
U.S. military probing more possible civilian deaths in Yemen raid
U.S. military officials told Reuters that Trump approved his first covert counterterrorism operation without sufficient intelligence, ground support or adequate backup preparations.
As a result, three officials said, the attacking SEAL team found itself dropping onto a reinforced al Qaeda base defended by landmines, snipers, and a larger than expected contingent of heavily armed Islamist extremists.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-commando-idUSKBN15G5RX
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