An embarrasing day in US history.
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I know that James Joyner already mentioned this yesterday, but this map via Axios is worth noting, just for the visual of it all.
It is worth noting that China and Iran abstained. It would have been bad enough to have been in the camp, but it is far, far worse to be in the company of Russia, North Korea, Belarus, Hungary, Nicaragua, Syria, and Sudan (let that list sink in for a minute). Israel also voted against and they should be ashamed as well. One suspects this was to placate Trump.
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While joining the Axis of Evil is a moral outrage in itself, the US – to add insult to injury – is the junior partner in that unholy alliance.
Comparing the current situation to the original Axis, the US is not even Germany, it’s Italy doing the bidding of its masters in Berlin Moscow.
The humiliation is unreal.
@Kevin:
They do keep surprising us with just how low they can go.
Yes, it is embarrassing to see our country crawl into bed with the likes of Russia and North Korea, but it is also disgusting to know it has been done at the behest of a (likely mentally ill) ignoramus who is simply unable to grasp the significance of anything he says or does beyond the moment that he says or does it. This is why Trump has installed tools like Elise Stefanik and Pete Hegseth, and the blinded-by-ambition Marco Rubio to foreign policy posts. They are people who don’t have the knowledge or courage to say, “You’re wrong about this. Don’t do it.”
@JohnSF: China thinks long term and strategically, and seems to realize that economic power can be both cheaper and more effective than military power. Hence the rationale, why provoke the “customers?”
And Trump appears to be taking many steps to decouple and isolate America from its Western partners. The end result is a sequestered population that is easier to control and rule. This is the path of dictators, and it is a strategy executed by degree. It is the same path that Putin has taken as well as others.
If our governing checks and balances are disabled and our economic viability comes under control of an autocratic center, a tremendous amount of coercion can be brought to bear on a population.
@JohnSF:
They abstained because they did not need to placate Trump?
Russia is in China’s back pocket, and since President Trump/the U.S is now in Russias pocket we are also in China’s pocket now.
China is the big winner in all of this and they did not have to even do any performative don’t mess with us because we can put the hurt on you saber rattling.
I am still trying to figure out what Trump got out of the deal with Putin, for such a transactional guy he seems to have received nothing in return, we do not need Russias (or China’s) oil and gas, and we are already throwing lots of money at China for their rare earth minerals, so it really begs the question, what did Musk/President Trump get out of the deal?
Also, fools that they are I bet Musk/President Trump did not get any deal in writing and simply took Putin at his word that they can trust him as he would not try and screw them over.
It’s disappointing but not surprising Trump ordered this. It also points out that Israel has become a de facto member of the Republican party. Netanyahu has thrown in entirely with the GOP for years and Israel keeps electing Netanyahu. Even after he sent the troops to the West Bank allowing a horrible catastrophe the Israelis keep him in power.
Steve
Molotov-Ribbentrop out in the open.
I am still trying to figure out what Trump got out of the deal with Putin
The same thing he got out of the summit meetings with Kim: he got played.
Many people say it’s what he’s best at.
I bet Musk/President Trump did not get any deal in writing and simply took Putin at his word that they can trust him as he would not try and screw them over.
Trump does not care if Putin reneged on any agreement over Ukraine, because Trump simply doesn’t care about Ukraine. If Trump can’t pillage Ukraine 2:1 over the mineral resources, he’ll just move on to other things that hold promise of posterity and cash.
Trump will use the full weight of America’s power to extort and self-deal. In this, he is exactly like a crime boss.
The Democrats including the Biden Administration had 3 years to educate the American public why opposing Russia in Ukraine was in all our best interests, why alliance with Europe was important, why staying in NATO was critical. As per usual, too much was taken for granted regarding American engagement with the larger world. This was also the case with the Obama “Russia-doesn’t-make-anything” approach to this looming confrontation.
Where is our national security apparatus in all of this? They’re suppose to be the one’s with long range vision. They had no problem shadowing and harassing leftwing citizens throughout the later half of last century. In the end, we didn’t get our money’s worth out of that trillion dollar investment. Our security has been breached.
Trump believes that if the war in Ukraine ends, on whatever terms, he will be awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace. He can’t get over the fact that both Obama and Al Gore received the prize. Some of his lackeys are already pushing for him to be a Nobel laureate.
As for what Putin may have either promised Trump or what he may hold over him, neither of that is necessary. Putin may have the pee tape or have promised a Trump resort on the Black Sea but all he has to do is stoke his narcissism. Tell Trump what a wonderful president he is you’ll be rewarded with whatever you want, a cabinet post or a victory in the war in Ukraine/
I don’t think the terms of Alfred’s will allow for the creation of more prizes (the economics prize is associated with the Nobel, not a Nobel per se). If it did, or if I’m wrong, they should create Nobel Prize for Clueless Assholery and declare the felon the winner for the next hundred years, along with two other notables as the committee might decide.
The award amount should be one tenth of one hundredth of a Krona, before taxes. As well as a medal made of manure, and a certificate printed in cheap recycled paper.
What’s really sad if if this were to happen, the rapist would boast about it every other second until some months past his physical demise.
@JohnSF:
The Chinese seek the role of neutral party. They would like this war to end and recently stepped up to volunteer themselves to be the troops maintaining the imagined no-fire zone along the border. An interesting idea. The Chinese had been forging a deeper relationship with Ukraine prior to this war, probably still hoping that will pan out.
Iran? Their relationship with Russia is well known. No mystery there.
@dazedandconfused:
My personal view, on reflection, is China would dearly love to exploit a Europe/US split.
I wonder if they might even go so far as to disoblige Putin to achieve it?
I’d be very surprised if thoughts along the same lines were not occurring to governments in Europe.
“What is Xi’s price? If the US is going to abandon us, what is our real advantage from adhering to the US line re China?”
As for Iran, that may be related to the European role in the nuclear/sanctions JCPOA.
Given the rather hard place Iran is stuck in at the moment.
If so, they are probably mistaken.
Europe’s interests are in a quiet Middle East; and that of the Iranian “revolutionary” establishment is quite the opposite.
@JohnSF: Maybe, but it would only be natural for the world’s most populous nation and #2 in terms of economy to seek to fill the roles the US is withdrawing from, at least some of them anyway.
Correction: Seems India overtook China in population just this past July. Make that “…the second most populous (by a nose).”
