Re: The Trump foreign policy thread
Posted: Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:16 pm
Soviet Union collapsed almost 30 years ago.
How much longer do you think it will take for them to run out of nuke money?
That is not dead which can eternal lie, and with strange aeons bring us some web forums whereupon we can gather
http://www.octopusoverlords.com/forum/
Soviet Union collapsed almost 30 years ago.
For some reason they make maintaining their nuclear stockpiles a priority (sarcasm alert), but that's all money that's not going back into supporting the regime.
Donald Trump is not having much luck getting his “big, beautiful border wall” off the ground, with his own party refusing to fund the vanity project that would be wildly ineffective and way too expensive. But that hasn’t stopped him from suggesting other countries take a shot at building their own.
Spanish foreign minister Josep Borrell revealed this week that Trump proposed Spain build a wall across the Sahara to stem the flow of migrants into Europe. When diplomats brushed aside the idea and pointed out that the desert is 3,000 miles long, Trump pushed back. “The Sahara border can’t be bigger than our border with Mexico,” he reportedly said. It is, in fact, bigger.
Trump is thought to have made his suggestion to Borrell in June, when the foreign minister visited the U.S. along with Spain’s king and queen. Borrell reportedly made his opposition to the idea clear at the time, but did acknowledge that Spain must do something about the migrants coming to the country.
No they are not. Now they've got a despot and gangster in charge, and he's leading your president around on a leash.
Their influence will be obvious when they turn off the gas to the EU.Sepiche wrote: ↑Wed Sep 19, 2018 4:19 pmI would argue a lot of that influence is smoke and mirrors, but granted they are undoubtedly influencing the world far more than Canada and Mexico. More than anything though it was the inheriting of the KGB, it's institutional knowledge, and assets that have given Russia much of what influence it has today.LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Sep 19, 2018 3:49 pm Their influence far outstrips their nominal GDP. Their off-the-books economy is easily among the top worldwide. Superpower in the traditional sense? Maybe not. But they are a top threat.
Russia is using this incident as pretext for sending advanced missile air defense systems to Syria. IIRC, these are the same systems that China was sanctioned for acquiring.GreenGoo wrote: ↑Tue Sep 18, 2018 9:10 pmExactly. Israel has shown time and time again that they will do what it takes to protect themselves and are damn good at it. I feel for the men who died unnecessarily but then, they're in the middle of an armed conflict and were killed by friendly fire. Spinning it to be Israel's fault is about all Russia can do after the fact.
President Trump declared Tuesday that his administration will reject attempts from other nations to impose constraints on the United States, vowing to take action in world affairs based on his judgment about how it would benefit Americans.
In a speech before world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, Trump issued a sharp warning to the leaders Iran, Syria, Venezuela and China over what he described as their rogue behavior. But the president also made clear that the United States under his leadership would not be bound in its affairs by the consensus among traditional allies and partners.
“The U.S. will always choose independence and cooperation over global governance, control and domination,” Trump said. “I honor the right of every nation in this room to pursue own customs, beliefs and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship. We only ask that you honor our sovereign rights in return.”
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On Venezuela, Trump denounced the socialist government of President Nicolás Maduro, whose oppressive leadership has resulted in a collapse of the nation’s economy and a massive human rights crisis as hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans have fled the country.
Trump announced new U.S. sanctions on Maduro and his inner circle.
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Time and again, Trump returned to the theme of sovereignty. He highlighted decisions of his administration to not support the U.N. Global Compact on migration.
“We will not be governed by an international body that is unaccountable to our own citizens,” Trump declared. He added that the only long-term solution to the migration crisis is to “help people build brighter futures in their own countries — make their countries great again.”
Seriously KY voters - WTF?The amendment, which will be introduced at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting on Wednesday, stipulates that existing U.S. sanctions on members of the Russian Federal Assembly will be lifted if Moscow agrees to lift its own sanctions on certain American members of Congress.
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Paul has made sanctions relief a cause of his since returning from Moscow last month. During that trip, which he took without any of his colleagues, Paul met with Russian officials and delivered a letter from President Donald Trump to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which the White House later said was written at Paul’s request.
I'm hoping there are a few cracks in his ego armour, and the real world has slowly been worrying those cracks, and that the UN managed to wedge one of them open. Nothing is going to influence this guy while he's wearing that armour. It needs to come off. It's never going to with the likes of Haley, who are willing to spin even the most embarrassing moment into a positive for Drumpf, who will gobble it up to save himself from having to face facts.
I kinda hope every enabling, reality denying, ego stroking sycophant chokes on it at some point. I hope it keeps them awake at night, and I hope it gives them stomach problems that drugs can't quite alleviate.Carpet_pissr wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 4:48 pm Also, how embarrassing for you to have to say that shit in front of the world, because your boss is a snowflake.
But only one symbol for flake.LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 2:55 pm These strange, strange Europeans and Africans. Laughing when they wish to show deep respect. But hey, it's a crazy world. Did you know that Eskimos have a thousand words for snow?
Jeff V wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 5:31 pmBut only one pictogram for flake.LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Wed Sep 26, 2018 2:55 pm These strange, strange Europeans and Africans. Laughing when they wish to show deep respect. But hey, it's a crazy world. Did you know that Eskimos have a thousand words for snow?Spoiler:
If so, I'd guess we see an immediate investigation into Democrat/Chinese collusion, replete with chants of "Lock them up!"U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused China of seeking to meddle in the Nov. 6 U.S. congressional elections, saying Beijing did not want his Republican Party to do well because of his pugnacious stance on trade.
“China has been attempting to interfere in our upcoming 2018 election, coming up in November. Against my administration,” Trump told a U.N. Security Council meeting whose ostensible subject was nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction.
Chairing the Council for the first time, Trump made no reference to suspected Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election and provided no evidence for his allegation about China, which Beijing immediately rejected during the same meeting.
"Kay fucked up big time," says Jeffrey Lewis, a nuclear expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and the author of the novel The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States.
"She was trying to say that the U.S. would develop countervailing capabilities –something that started under the Obama administration and that almost no one disagrees with," Lewis told The Daily Beast. "But she's more used to riling up redneck votes in Republican primaries in Texas than international diplomacy, so she laid it on thick with the ol' 'take 'em out’ tough talk."
A few hours after her gaffe, Hutchison had yet to walk back her remarks. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Kremlin, for its part, appeared to take the statement in stride. The Russian government "prefers not to pay extra attention to statements by ambassadors while we have too many uncertainties with the messages on the higher level," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told CNN.
The United Nations’ highest court on Wednesday ordered the United States to lift sanctions on Iran that affect imports of humanitarian goods and products and services linked to civil aviation safety.
The ruling by the International Court of Justice is legally binding, but the Trump administration said the U.S. was terminating a decades-old treaty that Iran used as the basis for its case.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said withdrawing from the 1955 Treaty of Amity was long overdue and followed Iran “groundlessly” bringing the complaint to the U.N. court.
Pompeo said the administration would proceed with sanctions enforcement with existing exceptions for humanitarian and flight safety transactions.
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Meanwhile, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said the administration also was pulling out of an amendment to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations that Iran or others, notably the Palestinians, could use to sue the U.S. at The Hague-based tribunal.
Defiant wrote: ↑Tue Oct 09, 2018 10:15 am Nikki Haley resigned as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday, media reports indicated.
Not finding any reason given for why.
A government watchdog group on Monday called for an investigation into whether U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley violated federal ethics regulations by accepting flights on private planes.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter formally requesting the State Department's inspector general investigate the flights, which Haley acknowledged in her 2017 public financial disclosure report.
Going to guess it's the tip of the iceberg. Resigning with a quickness may reduce the enthusiasm to go deeper.
Timing sure seems suspect.Holman wrote: ↑Tue Oct 09, 2018 10:25 amIn the age of Trump, I can't see an administration official resigning over such a routine scandal.LawBeefaroni wrote: ↑Tue Oct 09, 2018 10:19 amA government watchdog group on Monday called for an investigation into whether U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley violated federal ethics regulations by accepting flights on private planes.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter formally requesting the State Department's inspector general investigate the flights, which Haley acknowledged in her 2017 public financial disclosure report.
Haley has been at the U.N. defending U.S. detention of children. Maybe she finally had all the complicity she could stomach?