Seattle has never offended me. Not even close.
I have a t-shirt I wear with a picture of Marvin Gaye and the words, "War is not the answer." I always have strangers come up to me and tell me they like my t-shirt. Of course, I live in Austin. It's my assumption people are more receptive here than in other areas of the country. It's an interesting thing to wear those words out in public. I wasn't sure how people would take it. Would they think I was an appeaser or some white guy appropriating a black man's words? I over-think things quite a bit but at the moment I think people just like to see someone who is not beating the drum for militarism. The thing is, I'm not a pacifist per se. I get there are times when we have to step up. It's a bad world out there. The basic question on that score is this: Would it be worse in the absence of the American hegemony? My Father (as I've said before) was a Cuban immigrant and a PH.D. in Political Science. He would always talk about the influence of the US in the world and he felt only China or Russia could effectively replace us in terms of world dominance. His Machiavellian point of view was that the United States absolutely mattered when it came to countering what he saw as totalitarian and truly corrupt nations. He did not buy into any notion that Russia and China were the blow-back from our own actions. And even if they were, their resulting form of government and interaction with the rest of the world was not to be emulated.
So what about Trump? Is he incoherent? Maybe. He says a lot of things. He's a show-off and a blow-hard. But is he being soft on Putin? Well I guess he was publicly. But what about some of these things (I pulled this from a friends Facebook page; I apologize if any of it is fake):
-Trump upheld Russian sanctions in January of 2017.
-Trump administration imposed new sanctions on Russia — including strict sanctions on seven of Russia’s richest individuals and 17 top government officials for their interference in our elections.
-Expelled 60 Russian "diplomats".
-Closed a Russian consulate.
-Trump ordered the closure of Russian diplomatic properties in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., and New York City that appeared to be a threat to American security.
-In August 2017, Trump signed a bill slapping even more sanctions on Russia, this time specifically aimed at the country’s energy and defense industries. Congress made the legislation Trump-proof, meaning that no executive order could ever undo such sanctions; yet Trump signed it anyway.
-Cancelled the Iran deal. Hurts Russia.
-Trump military actions killed 100-300 Russian forces in Syria.
-Trump publicly and openly supports Ukraine and sent arms and munitions to military forces engaged w Russians.
-Trump reinstituted missile defense systems in Poland and Eastern Europe, which Obama withdrew from as a pre-emptive olive branch to Putin in 2009 (an olive branch that then beat Obama over the head for seven years).
-Obama said in 2012 that his red line with the Assad regime would be the use of chemical weapons. Later that year, Assad's forces killed nearly 1,500 people in a chemical-weapons attack. Obama did nothing...
-Trump bombed Syria for using chemical weapons as he promised. Russia is propping up Syria.
-In his speech in Poland, Trump lambasted Russia for using oil to hold NATO’s Eastern European countries hostage.
-Trump called out Germany for getting 70%+ of its gas from Russia while relying on US to defend them from Russia. Clearly not something Russia would want.
To me, a public speech in the middle of negotiations standing next to your adversary is a made for TV event and doesn't say much to me. If all the above is true what is so wrong about backing off a bit after you've already proven you're willing to stand up to someone?
The interesting thing out of all of this is similar to the meme I saw about Michael Moore: Since when did the Left become so patriotic about the CIA or our intelligence community?
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Last edited: Jul 18, 2018