BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) - France’s president warned fellow European countries on Thursday that NATO was dying, citing a lack of coordination and U.S. unpredictability under President Donald Trump, comments quickly rejected as "drastic" by the German chancellor.
In an interview with British weekly The Economist, Emmanuel Macron expressed doubt about U.S.-led NATO’s security maxim that an attack on one ally is an attack on all, which has underpinned transatlantic ties since the alliance’s 1949 foundation.
"What we are currently experiencing is the brain death of NATO," Macron said. Asked whether he still believed in the Article Five collective defense guarantee of NATO’s treaty, Macron answered: "I don’t know," although he said the United States would remain an ally.
Macron has said there is a lack of strategic coordination between European allies on the one hand and the United States and Turkey, with NATO’s second largest military, on the other.
#6
But why? European industry is competing with American industry. How would recommitting to NATO benefit the US? IMO this only benefits Europe, not the US. People say "oh no, the US is not the world leader anymore, they cannot be relied upon". Quite frankly as an American I'm glad this is happening. I'm tired of trillions of tax dollars on nation rebuilding, endless ME wars/Proxy wars. The US is now the worlds largest Oil producer. The US also has Mexico and Canada, two friendly neighbors to buy energy from as well. The smartest thing to do is get out of the ME, since we won't need Arabian Oil anymore. Also pull forces out of Europe, or realign them to Poland, where they actually want us there. There's no reason to have a huge Airbase in Germany if they're buying LNG from an enemy and they don't want us there anyways. Also since EU is competing with US it makes no sense to reengage Brussels. We can work better trade deals with the UK, once they leave. IMO the way things are now, there's really no financial benefit to the US when it comes to NATO and the ME anymore.
It's strange how neither the threat of Soviet annihilation nor potential Chinese autocratic hegemony gets Europe to think about upping its military defense.
No, it's when a US president says some mean things about pulling your own weight and paying your fair share. THAT'S the bridge too far.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/08/2019 8:52 Comments ||
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#9
Remember Jacques Chirac's temper tantrum about the East European's supporting the USA in GW1:
[CNN.com]Chirac said: "These countries have been not very well behaved and rather reckless of the danger of aligning themselves too rapidly with the American position."
"It is not really responsible behavior. It is not well brought-up behavior. They missed a good opportunity to keep quiet."
"I felt they acted frivolously because entry into the European Union implies a minimum of understanding for the others," Chirac said.
Chirac called the letters "infantile" and "dangerous," adding: "They missed a great opportunity to shut up."
European leaders get upset when peasants and colonials, but I repeat myself, talk back to their betters. Both in the past and the present.
#10
Chiraq wasn't wrong. Invasion of Iraq was based on a lie that WMD existed. France was right to sit it out.
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/08/2019 18:39 Comments ||
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#11
Gee, Herb they found a lot of chemical weapons that for some reason hadn't been destroyed in the intervening years since the first Gulf War. Them's WMDs.
Nord Stream 2, the controversial Russian natural-gas pipeline project, has received the last permission it needs to close the distance between the Leningrad Region and the Baltic coast of Germany. It’s now probably too late for the U.S. to prevent Russia from finishing the project by the end of this year.
Nord Stream 2 is part of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s plan to send natural gas to Europe without needing to go through Ukraine. The new pipeline will be able to carry 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas, more than half of what Russia now pumps through the Ukrainian system, and would mean for Ukraine a loss of $3 billion a year in gas transit revenues. The U.S. would like to prevent this, and also keep relatively cheap Russian gas from becoming an obstacle to increasing exports of U.S. liquefied natural gas to Europe. President Donald Trump has argued that Germany is too dependent on Russian gas, and has repeatedly threatened European companies involved in the project with sanctions.
Meanwhile, Russia has rushed to lay the pipe. On Oct. 1, Gazprom, the Russian gas export champion, said construction was 83% finished, with 2,042 kilometers (1,270 miles) laid across the bottom of the Baltic Sea. There had been a snag, though: For two years, Denmark put off granting permission for the section that was to pass through its territorial waters. On Wednesday, Denmark finally granted it, allowing the pipeline to take the shortest possible route, and Gazprom says that section can be built in five weeks. Obviously they don't see Russia as a threat, and view economic engagement as the best way to avoid war. And if they're not worried about it, why should we be worried about it?
Posted by: Herb McCoy ||
11/08/2019 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Obviously, they are not sure that Trump revolution (and it is a revolution) will continue.
And dealing with Putin, or his successors, is (a lot) better than dealing with any current Dems.
#3
Russia has legitimate interests in western and Northern Europe. These interests will continue to exist, and will continue to be pursued by Russia's government, regardless of whether it's headed by Putin or a future pro-Western liberal Russian leader.
We need an accommodation with Russia. Time to get realistic and stop this absurd swinging from reckless provocation to "kick me please" Obama-style incompetence.
Get our policy on a stable, sensible above all realist track vis a vis Russia. We need their help to contain the real threat to our survival, which is CHINA.
#6
"Relations between states are not built in the same manner as they are between people..."
Well, yes. Putin's remarks in that clip are 100% sensible, clear, consistent and comprehensible.
He is speaking like a normal leader of a normal country who sees his job as the promotion of his country's national interests. It's not his job, or our role, to deny obvious reality and pretend that these are not valid Russian interests.
The task for Russia's leadership and our leaders is to get to a mutual understanding of those interests, articulate which of those conflict with vital interests of our own, and work it out.
As opposed to flogging hysterical tall tales, bullshit and outright lies for 3+ years, drawing nonexistent "red lines" in places where we have no clear interests and no real friends, and waxing apoplectic about a tiny peninsula in Russia's backyard that has for over 200 years been considered and considered itself not only Russian in nature but solidly, ineradicably inside Russia's sphere of interest.
#8
Hunter Biden was supposed to prevent this, I suppose, so I am for it!
Posted by: Bobby ||
11/08/2019 10:57 Comments ||
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#9
On no other issue do the Shitshow's anti-Trump clowns demonstrate so much stupidity, bad faith and sheer incoherence as our policy toward Russia.
These are the same people who ignored Russia's legitimate interests in the Clinton era, breeding the almost-universal resentment and hatred of the US across Russian society.
Then Zero his Pajama Boy foreign policy adviser-- the dude fresh out of his mom's basement and his MFA in Creative Writing program-- this ignorant crew went to the other extreme and promised Putin and Medvdev they would reverse Bush and not sell Patriot missiles to our ally Poland.
Then, barely three years after these fools heaped scorn on Romney for calling Russia a threat, they told us that Putin was ... the biggest threat to all human health 'n' holiness since Genghis Hitler Mussolini.
In the process these idiots are pushing us toward a war footing with Russia. If their incoherence were not so dangerous, it would merit only scorn.
But their stupidity and hysterics aren't funny. They're deadly.
These Shitshow Clowns are pushing us into a war with a nation that should be a partner for us against China and jihadist Islam.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/08/2019 17:29 Comments ||
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#11
^
Keeping the white christians divided. Necessary for the global assimilation and homogenization of races, and creating the ultimate 'Open Society'.
[Jpost] The writer is heartfelt, scarred by generations of Joo-hatred back in the olde country, but it’s a bit off the mark to accuse those who vilify Col. Vindman as having dual loyalties to Ukraine of being Joo haters when nobody, including me, had any idea he was Jewish until a fuss was made about the fussers. The usual accusation is that Jews are loyal to Israel, which nobody is claiming in this case.
Vindman is a citizen and as such he and his partisans will need to be big boys and girls, and accept the fact that when he chose to descend into the political arena, he would as a political figure be exposed to political attacks. End of story.
His faith or ethnicity has nothing to do with this matter.
#2
Lt Col Vindman is a serving, active duty officer. He disobeyed an order not to appear before Congress. On his own initiative, and against that order, he appeared, because he FELT that it was important to do so. Unfortunately for Lt Col Vindman, his opinion and feelings are NOT justification for disobeying a legal order.
He really should be court martialed.
I don't care if he is Jewish, Catholic, Buddhist or Zoroastrian. He disobeyed a legal order.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/08/2019 14:37 Comments ||
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#5
I don't care if you're a jew, christian, whatever... if you're in a uniform you're going to be treated like an officer first. That is the very meaning of a uniform. Being an officer is way easier than maintaining loyalty to any religion, community, or political factions - it's a life liberated from such conceits. This Vindbag just failed even that. I don't think any community can trust him.
#6
I like this guy but, sheesh, he's such a drama queen. His OC seems to be Petersburg, not Bumfuzz, Belarus. His prize-winning sour cherries? Great-uncle topped out at colonel. Father suffered arbitrary indignities (in Stalin's Russia, even!), weathering them better than tens of millions of less lucky compatriots. And author himself... noticed noses in cartoons. Oh, the hook-nosed humanity: "Nostrils ripped my flesh!"
All of which sucked, I'm sure.... but my own family history, bland and benign by 20th century standards, would be rendered nightmarish by his "method." I guess [pockets nickel from counter] I'd be touchy, too. Survivor's guilt, maybe? Whoops, time's up, Dr. M. I think we made some progress today. ;-)
#7
Eh... by way of excuse for being obnoxious, I was just last night reading Der St watching Hilberg in the wonderful timetable bit. Not much patience for bullshit today. Sorry.
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.---Much ink has been spilled over the possible identity of the whistleblower, but there seems to have been a breakthrough in the case.
The sudden revelation of the whistleblower occurred after a review of recent White House hires uncovered discrepancies in the paperwork of one Hillarita Clintonez.
Sources claim the janitor was seen wiping down a bust of Abraham Lincoln as President Trump made his controversial phone call to Ukraine.
"Excuse me, sir. I need to wipe down the receiver," she reportedly said to Trump after he made the call before slipping an electronic device into her pocket.
Trump confronted "Clintonez" in the halls of the West Wing this afternoon. "Stop right there!" he yelled. Realizing she'd been caught, the mysterious woman pushed her cleaning cart into Trump's path and dived into a ventilation duct. He chased after her.
Navigating the corridors in a wacky chase sequence, the two emerged on top of the White House roof.
"You're trapped. Like a dog!" Trump shouted.
"You'll always remember this as the day when you almost caught Señora Hillarita Clintonez!" she cried out as she jumped off the roof to a waiting helicopter.
"Curse you, whistleblowing scuuum!!!" Trump cried as she made her escape.
BLUF:
[The Federalist] Yet, the mainstream media still prop up these failed candidates because the Democratic party is so desperate for fresh faces in their out-of-touch party. If Abrams vice presidential run is anything like O’Rourke’s presidential bid, the potential campaign is already doomed.
While reportedly not a member of the LGBTQ community, she is a staunch supporter.
#4
A black woman was cheated out of a governorship she won, just as a white woman was cheated out of presidency. And all you can do is make lookist jokes? :-)
[AmericanThinker] Be afraid, be very afraid. Barring some serious event in her life, Hillary Clinton likely will be nominated for President of the United States by the Democrat party in mid-July next year. ... [assuming no one emerges from the early primaries with lots of momentum]
Hillary may not enter the convention with a majority of delegates pledged to her, but she doesn't have to in order to win. If no one wins a majority on the first ballot, the superdelegates, roughly 16% of the total delegates and almost a third of a majority, become eligible to vote on the nomination in the second ballot and beyond, while the delegates pledged to nominees become free to change their support.
So one could expect lots of Arkancide at the convention?
Last time she lost badly in the Electoral College when many conservatives stayed home in protest. My prediction: if she is the Democratic Party candidate, many who stayed home last time will come out to reward the Donald for keeping his promises, while the Bernie lovers will stay home. And while I don’t wish it, she might permanently destroy what remains of her health in the attempt.
#1
This entire democratic nomination process is little more than a Kabuki dance. Soetoro and the Deep State will enthusiastically endorse her candidacy.
#2
Well, you gotta admit - compared to the current crop, she looks almost human (we know better of course, she's a lot more extreme than the lot of them, but - what part of the American population people who understand represent?).
#7
BP - as in corruption, morbidity, diseases and contagions The Lord of Disease, delight in decay and physical corruption.?
Yikes!!
Scarier than Stay-Puff! Ima run 'n' hide
#10
Well, in 2016 I said that I would crawl the two miles to my polling place over broken glass if necessary to vote against Hillary. If she runs again, I will do that again if I need to.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/08/2019 10:37 Comments ||
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#11
I'm with Raj. I mean, she's obviously ill.
Mentally frail as well-- look at her unhinged attack on Gabbard.
No way she'll run.
Raj, when you find your betting counterparties, pls point them my way so I too can pick these deluded supporters' pockets.
[Jpost] The crowd at J Street conference in Washington stood on his legs and gave a long standing ovation to Senator Bernie Sanders as he entered the stage last week during the progressive group's annual conference. The very first question he was asked was about his view on military aid to Israel. The Vermont Senator laid out a controversial plan, suggesting he would use the military assistance to Israel to pressure the government to change its policy.
"I would use the leverage of $3.8 billion ‐ it is a lot of money [...] we have a right to demand respect for human rights and democracy," he said. "Some of that $3.8b. should go right now into humanitarian aid in Gaza." Since that moment, the debate about military aid to Israel became a campaign issue in the Democratic primaries. "Hello, Vlad? Did you know, Syria is not the only one who has Mediterranean ports?"
[American Thinker, and Pokey-haunt-us own Twitter thread] I am not certain when pandering to transgender people became necessary for any Democrat running for president. Nor do I know what percentage of Democrats are totally convinced that saying you are of the opposite gender means that you are of the opposite gender.
But Elizabeth Warren, reacting to an endorsement from a group calling itself "Black Womxn For" spread the pandering on thick:
"Thank you, @BlackWomxnFor! Black trans and cis women, gender-nonconforming, and nonbinary people are the backbone of our democracy and I don’t take this endorsement lightly. I'm committed to fighting alongside you for the big, structural change our country needs. https://twitter.com/BlackWomxnFor/status/1192457539541225472 ..."
Could anyone 20 years ago have predicted that a major political party's likely presidential nominee would speak utter gibberish like this and not be called insane or laughed out of the race?
#7
What makes our Republic work are the everyday people who see the world as it is, not the lunatics who can't even figure out that which genitals they have.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
11/08/2019 19:56 Comments ||
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#8
^ Amen to that, Rob. But we need these good people to GET OUT AND VOTE next November.
Turnout is what determines most elections in this country.
Turnout by "everyday people who see the world as it is" will determine whether or not we avoid a President Friend-of-Cis-Gender-Womyn & TravestyTrannyGranny Chick-With-Dick next November.
[Hot Air] Andrei Serban is a world-renowned theater and opera director and was until recently a professor at Columbia University. After 27 years at the school, he resigned his position because he felt the political correctness at Columbia had reached a point of absurdity. Serban, who was born in Romania and fled communism for the United States, told a Romanian TV show that he felt he was "living under communism again" at Columbia. A video of Serban’s appearance on the show with English subtitles appeared on YouTube earlier this week in which he describes the reasons he resigned.
"What’s happening in the Trump era, the right is radicalized and the left is very radicalized," Serban said. He continued, "Universities in America are usually left. Columbia is some sort of socialist left on its way to full blown communism, a new strain of communism."
It is about University politics. Serban was being pressured to do more work using minority and LGBT authors and accepting minority and LGBT assistants he considered unqualified.
Posted by: lord garth ||
11/08/2019 8:11 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Thank you for that update your Lordship. He should very obviously be tried, hung, and quartered.
#7
Well it is the Theater Dept. The East Europeans who come here don't realize that their experience of the arts -- in Romania, Russia, Czech, Serbia, Poland etc -- has been the way the arts used to be in this country and the West generally: a serious profession, heavily dominated by straight alpha males making serious creative productions. That's how E. Europe produced a generation that included Kundera, Havel, Bondarchuk, Shostakovich et al.
That ceased to be the case at least two generations ago. I pity the East European directors, playwrights, novelists etc. They're really better off in their home countries than here.
Over the past three decades far too many Republicans and Establishment Conservatives have acquiesced to the conventional wisdom that the American Left (i.e. the Democratic Party), are superior tacticians in the arena of political warfare. This hypothesis took hold as spineless Republicans and the Washington-based conservative intelligentsia were willingly intimidated by the Left and their allies in the mainstream media. But is this cabal nonpareil political tacticians or just the overconfident beneficiary of decades of feckless and near non-existent opposition?
The election of Donald Trump in 2016, the subsequent reaction and the repeated failed attempts to intimidate, remove or effectively castrate him by the Democrats and the mainstream media graphically illustrates that this cabal may well be the Keystone Kops of political warfare. That's, IMO, an insult to Keystone Kops
...the cabal that is the American Left, the Democratic Party, and the mainstream media are a hodge podge of dedicated Marxists, bureaucrats, academics, pundits, politicians and elite wannabes who have but one thing in common: a crippling and overweening self-absorption. The majority do not favor outright Socialism or radical environmentalism but cynically ally with those that do as means to an end: their permanent control and individual involvement in operating levers of ever-expanding governmental power.
Thus, there is no coherent and consistent philosophy or guiding political principles undergirding this army of egotists. They do not now nor have they ever known who they are. Thus, if they ever succeeded in achieving their goal of permanent control of the levers of power, this nation would descend into unbridled and violent chaos.
Over the past 30 years the Left and the Democratic Party have utilized a dog-eared playbook whose only entry encompasses the personal destruction of any opponent by any means possible as their singular strategy. Just the threat of or the opening salvo of this tactic has been successful as innumerable Republican and conservative leaders surrendered virtually without a fight. The Left knew its enemy but its enemy did not know the Left. Accordingly, the Left calmly and unemotionally went about forcing Republicans out of office or dramatically changing their positions on an issue.
That is until Donald Trump burst upon the scene and vengeance for being Donald Trump and defeating the crown princess, Hillary Clinton, became the overriding emotion of the anti-Trump cabal. However, they still relied on the same 30-year old dog-eared playbook as they stumbled and fumbled amid the pratfalls of "getting" Trump.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
BERLIN/PARIS (Reuters) - France’s president warned fellow European countries on Thursday that NATO was dying, citing a lack of coordination and U.S. unpredictability under President Donald Trump, comments quickly rejected as "drastic" by the German chancellor.
[Babylon Bee] WASHINGTON, D.C.---Much ink has been spilled over the possible identity of the whistleblower, but there seems to have been a breakthrough in the case.
[Hot Air] Andrei Serban is a world-renowned theater and opera director and was until recently a professor at Columbia University. After 27 years at the school, he resigned his position because he felt the political correctness at Columbia had reached a point of absurdity. Serban, who was born in Romania and fled communism for the United States, told a Romanian TV show that he felt he was "living under communism again" at Columbia. A video of Serban’s appearance on the show with English subtitles appeared on YouTube earlier this week in which he describes the reasons he resigned.
