‘The Best Way to Deal With Russia: Wait for It to Implode’

[AdamSmith]

Very interesting.

The Best Way to Deal With Russia: Wait for It to Implode

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/03/russia-separatism-vladimir-putin-227498

[RA1]

On 8/4/2019 at 1:03 PM, AdamSmith said:

Very interesting.

The Best Way to Deal With Russia: Wait for It to Implode

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/08/03/russia-separatism-vladimir-putin-227498

This also seems to be true of various waiting for the implosion of DT.  Politics are certainly interesting.  As a very rank amateur I foresee DT being re-elected.  So quit waiting. 

Best regards,

RA1

[AdamSmith]

7 hours ago, RA1 said:

So quit waiting. 

Best regards,

RA1

And do what instead? 

‘Waiting’ is after all somewhat the same as ‘nothing.’ Is it not? 

[RA1]

12 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

And do what instead? 

‘Waiting’ is after all somewhat the same as ‘nothing.’ Is it not? 

Perhaps I should have said, watchful waiting. 

Best regards,

RA1

[AdamSmith]

26 minutes ago, RA1 said:

Perhaps I should have said, watchful waiting. 

Best regards,

RA1

Much better.

Agree entirely.

China is who to worry about long-term. To them, their recent 300-year stumble on the world stage is a very short-term goof-up. Their notion of the long view starts with 1000-year periods of history.

[tassojunior]

5 minutes ago, AdamSmith said:

Much better.

Agree entirely.

China is who to worry about long-term. To them, their recent 300-year stumble on the world stage is a very short-term goof-up. Their notion of the long view starts with 1000-year periods of history.

YES

And 3 things:

1. Almost all the money we borrow for wars and tax cuts for the rich is borrowed from Chinese. We have no leverage to threaten them.

2. China is becoming number 1 in category after category rapidly. But their natural enemy and buffer, European Russia, is being attacked by the US more and more harshly. Instead of allying with Russia to contain China, we are forcing Russia to ally with China. 

3. Biden scares the bejesus out of me with all the money he's taken from China and what a puppet he is for China. 

[AdamSmith]

7 minutes ago, tassojunior said:

YES

And 3 things:

1. Almost all the money we borrow for wars and tax cuts for the rich is borrowed from Chinese. We have no leverage to threaten them.

2. China is becoming number 1 in category after category rapidly. But their natural enemy and buffer, European Russia, is being attacked by the US more and more harshly. Instead of allying with Russia to contain China, we are forcing Russia to ally with China. 

3. Biden scares the bejesus out of me with all the money he's taken from China and what a puppet he is for China. 

What’s inadvertently hilarious, and almost our only ‘leverage,’ is how much of our sovereign debt they hold.

[RA1]

2 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

What’s inadvertently hilarious, and almost our only ‘leverage,’ is how much of our sovereign debt they hold.

I completely agree that the US holds almost nothing other than dollar diplomacy to offset the Chinese threat.  However, most of my life I have suffered from fear of nuclear war to include hiding under my school desk during defense trials.  Now I am ALMOST of the opinion that if things get too raunchy a nuclear limited strike might cure a few ills.  I admit I have no offspring and few close relatives, so my passing is of little to no importance.  Things change.

Best regards,

RA1

[AdamSmith]

7 hours ago, RA1 said:

Now I am ALMOST of the opinion that if things get too raunchy a nuclear limited strike might cure a few ills.  I admit I have no offspring and few close relatives, so my passing is of little to no importance.  Things change.

Best regards,

RA1

I confess to having had exactly that same mordant thought myself, much more than once.

Only thing is, in today’s hair-trigger-wired world — politically, psychologically, technologically — one is hard-pressed to see how any nuclear strike could not (within a very few seconds) become impossible to be ‘limited’ in terms of response, counter-response, rogue actors throwing their few but lethal illegally acquired devices into the show, etc etc.

 

[tassojunior]

One problem is that many of us who went through the 70's and 80's still think that anti-missle systems work. At one time that may have been true but with the thousands of warheads that system became unreliable and now we have new missles that are immune to anti-missle systems.

Elon Musk says we need to get to Mars quickly.  

[AdamSmith]

55 minutes ago, tassojunior said:

One problem is that many of us who went through the 70's and 80's still think that anti-missle systems work. At one time that may have been true but with the thousands of warheads that system became unreliable and now we have new missles that are immune to anti-missle systems.

Elon Musk says we need to get to Mars quickly.  

They didn’t ever work very well anyway. (The ship-centric Aegis system was a minor exception, and does in fact work fairly well. But it is exception, not rule.)

It is in very large part, as Eisenhower very presciently told us on his way out, that the military-industrial complex is very toxically selling us its profit-driven pixie dust.

[AdamSmith]

 

[AdamSmith]

On 8/7/2019 at 7:52 AM, AdamSmith said:

 

 

[tassojunior]

I worry less about Russia than China. I wish it would implode but afraid the US will go before China. 

[AdamSmith]

33 minutes ago, tassojunior said:

I worry less about Russia than China. I wish it would implode but afraid the US will go before China. 

VERY MUCH LIKEWISE.

Look how Xi with no effort whatever is steering our Drumpf.

[tassojunior]

1 hour ago, AdamSmith said:

VERY MUCH LIKEWISE.

Look how Xi with no effort whatever is steering our Drumpf.

 Not to mention Biden being bought like a crackhead hustler.

[boiworship]

China also has its share of problems that aren’t always reported in the West. I take a Spenglerian view and think that the West is on its last legs. China is already the largest economy based on PPP, purchasing power parity. Our defense budget is so bloated because we probably pay 20x for the same toys that the Chinese and Russians have.

[AdamSmith]

3 hours ago, boiworship said:

China also has its share of problems that aren’t always reported in the West. I take a Spenglerian view and think that the West is on its last legs. China is already the largest economy based on PPP, purchasing power parity. Our defense budget is so bloated because we probably pay 20x for the same toys that the Chinese and Russians have.

Agree with just about all of this. Only exception: don’t quite agree the West are on our ‘last legs.’ But we have indeed  gone pretty deep into a very rough patch from which the exit is far from obvious.

It took China some 3 centuries to right the ship when similar happened to them.

I am a blue-dog Democrat, but it has to be noted that the development & deployment of Democratic neoliberalism is very much one of the many things that led us into this mess.

[AdamSmith]

On 8/13/2019 at 12:18 AM, tassojunior said:

 Not to mention Biden being bought like a crackhead hustler.

Drip, drip, drip...

Donor with deep Ukraine ties lent $500,000 to Biden’s brother

The mortgage came as the vice president was leading the response to Russia’s takeover of Crimea.

https://www.politico.com/story/2019/08/15/james-biden-bungalow-ukraine-donor-1463645

[AdamSmith]

On 8/12/2019 at 9:57 PM, tassojunior said:

I worry less about Russia than China. I wish it would implode but afraid the US will go before China. 

China has also vastly evolved from essentially a thief of Western technology to a world-leading inventor & innovator. Their ‘Silicon Valley’:

While Wuhan has for decades been a traditional base for manufacturing, it has also become one of the areas promoting modern industrial change. Wuhan consists of three national development zones, four scientific and technologic development parks, over 350 research institutes, 1,656 hi-tech enterprises, numerous enterprise incubators, and investments from 230 Fortune Global 500 firms.^[24] It produced GDP of US$ 224 billion in 2018. The Dongfeng Motor Corporation, an automobile manufacturer, is headquartered in Wuhan. Wuhan is home to multiple notable institutes of higher education, including Wuhan University, which was ranked third nationwide in 2017,^[25] and the Huazhong University of Science and Technology....

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan

 

Our Western chauvinism & pridefulness — ‘American exceptionalism’ etc etc — have of course blinded us to the significance of these developments.

[AdamSmith]

Another thing our U.S. chauvinism has blinded us to is the almost infinite development value of the as-yet undeveloped or underdeveloped natural (and a fair deal of human) resources in Africa, as well as Central and South America.

Over the past decade-plus, China has either bought up or optioned a staggering quantity of these.

Yet again, the U.S.’s shortsightedness to opportunities staring us in the eye is just beyond belief.

[lookin]

On 8/15/2019 at 5:45 PM, AdamSmith said:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wuhan

 

 

International House - 1933 (pre-Hayes Code) - Professor Quail descends in a hot-air balloon

 

Hey!  Where am I?

 

Woman: Wu-Hu . . . Woo hoo to you sweetheart.  Hey, Charlie, where am I? . . . Man: Wu-Hu

 

(removes  boutonniere) Don’t let the posey fool you!

Edited August 19, 2019 by lookin

[RA1]

After WWII, Japan, a country that conquered China early in the 1900's was trying to recover from the war.  When I was growing up the word cheap merchandise was synonymous with Japanese goods.  However, they soon began to do much better.  And, of course, now they build fine automobiles and other goods worthy of any nation.  They went from serious foes to serious allies.

One could hope for a similar result from China although the politics there are much different.  

However, the US is seriously behind and needs to do some catching up.

Best regards,

RA1 

[AdamSmith]

6 hours ago, RA1 said:

They went from serious foes to serious allies.

One could hope for a similar result from China although the politics there are much different.  

Agree very much with this. Companies in China and the US and elsewhere will naturally compete with one another. But I think Xi & co. see that free and fair trade is in everyone’s best interest. His government has taken pretty seriously the need to stop manipulating their currency, in particular.

It is Drumpf reopening last-generation trade-war tactics that threatens to upend the boat today. We can’t be rid of him soon enough.

[RA1]

15 hours ago, AdamSmith said:

Agree very much with this. Companies in China and the US and elsewhere will naturally compete with one another. But I think Xi & co. see that free and fair trade is in everyone’s best interest. His government has taken pretty seriously the need to stop manipulating their currency, in particular.

It is Drumpf reopening last-generation trade-war tactics that threatens to upend the boat today. We can’t be rid of him soon enough.

What happens in Hong Kong will likely influence my opinion of your post.

Best regards,

RA1

Edited August 21, 2019 by RA1