The Trump presidency.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 02 Mar 2017, 04:07

Little John wrote:You are a man of surprises VT

Why thank you. I do try.

woodburner · Post by **woodburner** » 02 Mar 2017, 19:37

Thanks for the explanation, though you could have left out the sarcasm.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 02 Mar 2017, 23:52

woodburner wrote:Thanks for the explanation, though you could have left out the sarcasm.

I'm in a bit of confusion here. Just who explained something to you and was sarcastic while doing it?

Snail · Post by **Snail** » 12 Mar 2017, 20:27

The flow of illegal immigration from Mexico has declined by 40% since January.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/u-says-illeg ... 36969.html

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 25 Mar 2017, 07:56

So Trump said to the Republicans 'Back my health care reforms or we stick with Obamacare'.

They refused to back him.

He blames the democrats.

3 months in and already a lame duck with Republican majorities in the House and the Senate. Putin must really be laughing.

johnhemming2 · Post by **johnhemming2** » 25 Mar 2017, 08:12

I don't think Putin cares about Obamacare.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 25 Mar 2017, 11:31

johnhemming2 wrote:I don't think Putin cares about Obamacare.

Care about it? No. But he is very competitive and anything that weakens the USA is good from his point of view. Having healthcare be 16 percent of the US economy and huge chunks of it financed by tax dollars reduces the funds available for out military.
The national Health service has sunk the British navy and a few more years of Medicare, Medicaid and Obama care or whatever replaces it will have the American Navy tied up as rusting hulks at the docks.

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 25 Mar 2017, 14:42

vtsnowedin wrote:
johnhemming2 wrote:I don't think Putin cares about Obamacare.
Care about it? No. But he is very competitive and anything that weakens the USA is good from his point of view. Having healthcare be 16 percent of the US economy and huge chunks of it financed by tax dollars reduces the funds available for out military.
The national Health service has sunk the British navy and a few more years of Medicare, Medicaid and Obama care or whatever replaces it will have the American Navy tied up as rusting hulks at the docks.

Why is anything that weakens the USA good from Putin's point of view? Or, at least, good form Putin's point of view any more than it may be good from any other country's point of view. what is it that you are implying that is particular and special about Putin's attitude to America. In short, can you point to a specific, unambiguous example of where this attitude has been demonstrated by Russia over and above what one might expect of any other country.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 25 Mar 2017, 19:52

Little John wrote:
vtsnowedin wrote:
johnhemming2 wrote:I don't think Putin cares about Obamacare.
Care about it? No. But he is very competitive and anything that weakens the USA is good from his point of view. Having healthcare be 16 percent of the US economy and huge chunks of it financed by tax dollars reduces the funds available for out military.
The national Health service has sunk the British navy and a few more years of Medicare, Medicaid and Obama care or whatever replaces it will have the American Navy tied up as rusting hulks at the docks.
Why is anything that weakens the USA good from Putin's point of view? Or, at least, good form Putin's point of view any more than it may be good from any other country's point of view. what is it that you are implying that is particular and special about Putin's attitude to America. In short, can you point to a specific, unambiguous example of where this attitude has been demonstrated by Russia over and above what one might expect of any other country.

The USA is the one country with the military sufficient to counter Russia's military and nuclear capability. Take the USA out of NATO or render them helpless to act when needed and all of the other members will fall faster then the Maginot line. You can be sure the Putin takes every opportunity to weaken the USA's abilities hoping to regain the empire that was once the USSR.

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 25 Mar 2017, 20:21

The USSR was not an "empire". It was, primarily, an Eastern European buffer zone set up by the Russians following the end of the 2nd world war where it became abundantly clear to them that an American run NATO was not going to stop at Germany.

Furthermore, America, NATO and Western Europe have broken just about every treaty made over the last 60 years with Russia via vis the setting up of military bases all around Russia's borders. In short Russia was completely correct in its analysis of American aggressive expansionism.

Snail · Post by **Snail** » 25 Mar 2017, 20:44

Russia sits between the West and East, keeping each eye on both. A too weakening USA might result in a too strengthening China, which could be problematic for Russia also. With america finally taking Kissinger's advice via trump, it wouldn't surprise me to see both Russia and usa pivoting against China. The rest of asia, which views China with suspicion, also interests russia. Russia is culturally closer to the West than China too.

What a badly written comment! But I don't think it's an automatic assumption that Russia and the West will, in he future, be at loggerheads all the time.

vtsnowedin · Post by **vtsnowedin** » 25 Mar 2017, 22:50

Little John wrote:The USSR was not an "empire". It was, primarily, an Eastern European buffer zone set up by the Russians following the end of the 2nd world war where it became abundantly clear to them that an American run NATO was not going to stop at Germany.

Furthermore, America, NATO and Western Europe have broken just about every treaty made over the last 60 years with Russia via vis the setting up of military bases all around Russia's borders. In short Russia was completely correct in its analysis of American aggressive expansionism.

OK so East Germany, Poland and Hungary were just buffer zones. Did anyone bother to tell the resident populations that they were just "buffers"and could go about their daily business as usual?
Your view of post WW2 history is extremely slanted to say the least.
Not trying to say that the west was always correct and the deliverance of goodness and light but in comparison they were always the better option for anyone that had a choice about which way to walk.

johnhemming2 · Post by **johnhemming2** » 26 Mar 2017, 07:34

A good test as to the merits of the ussr was whether they had a wall to keep people in or a wall to keep people out.

Little John · Post by **Little John** » 26 Mar 2017, 08:57

So what. No doubt, everyone wanted to get into Rome. That didn't stop it being the resource-plundering empire it was. Or, rather, it was precisely because that was where all the ill-gotten resources where concentrated, that people wanted to get in. Furthermore, I also have no doubt if you anchored a ship off the Hull Estuary and informed Hull people that whoever made it first to the ship would get a green card for the USA, the harbor would be full of people swimming desperately out to sea in five minutes.

Your point is meaningless.

johnhemming2 · Post by **johnhemming2** » 26 Mar 2017, 10:47

My point is that the people forced to live in the USSR were not that happy about it. I am pretty certain that if you wanted to live in a Communist State and gave that reason that North Korea would accept an application to go and live there.