I could definitely see Putin “trading” Ukraine for part (or even all) of Alaska, then Trump spearheading a massive campaign against the Democrats for opposing the illegal deal.
It’d be interesting to see if such a move would be the mythical “final straw” that would turn MAGA against Trump. I wonder how many of them would move to Alaska to enjoy living under the woke free Russian government?
Has Zelensky in any way publicly come to terms that Russia will always have a land corridor (and not just that crummy bridge to Crimea)?
I reckon if he wanted he could get into Alaska but even wearing a suit won’t get past the bouncers and the velvet rope.
I will make a lesser prediction that Trump will assure the world Putin has promised fair and open elections for all the occupied territories.
I say we never won the first Cold War. The US danced on the 20 yard line and spiked the ball. It has never been over from Putin’s point of view and he’s got the ball and the momentum.
Yes and no. The First Cold War was between Communism and Capitalism. The new one is between single-party authoritarianism and democracy.
The standard bearers haven’t changed much but the advantage has shifted. Capitalism is, fundamentally, a better system.
Democracy can lean towards populism or it can lean towards republicanism. The authoritarians are betting that populism is fundamentally weaker than their brand of authoritarianism, and they’re using a variety of means to put their thumb on the scale to encourage Western societies in that direction as one part of the overall war strategy.
Personally, I’m inclined to think that they’re correct. Minus a concerted effort for republicanism, I think we’re liable to lose the countries with a weaker election and political system.
United States and its Russian allies versus the free world?
In general, the populists seems to lean towards either:
- Single-party authoritarianism, similar to China and Russia.
- Ultra-consensus building, playing it inordinately safe, and otherwise being very timid.
Either way, we lose since with option 1, as you say, we flip sides. Under option 2, we’re insufficiently dynamic to respond and authoritarian countries can point to things like homeless encampments, an inability to accomplish basic tasks like large infrastructure projects, inability to figure out reforms for health care, inability to reform immigration, etc. all leading us towards appearing demonstrably worse in the eyes of most visitors.
We lose both on the geo-political level and on the public support level.
To be sure, I think that the authoritarian systems have simply been lucky to have established two clever leaders, who have been able to restrain their impulses and keep their focus on the fight rather than, say, using their power to build giant palaces with massive gold plated bull testicles hanging from the portcullis. But, over the course of generations, I’d expect things to trend towards nepotism and vanity and that will slowly degrade their performance and shrink them back to nothing.
A long enough fight may favor the “free world” side of things. But I’m not seeing death by old age in the cards for either Xi or Putin, anytime in the next decade or two. It could happen, but I’d not bet on it. And nor is there any signal that they’re going to try and establish a feudal line or anything, which might quickly crack their systems after their deaths. They’re liable to let the party cronies find and elevate a potent successor.
Free market nations may win through in the course of a few centuries. That doesn’t do much good for all of us who are alive now.
I wonder if there’s a landscaping outfit somewhere in Anchorage….
WTF was the convicted felon blathering about yesteray (maybe the day before) about a conversation he had with Putin about Iraq? I saw the clip on one of the news channels last night and he clearly said Iraq a number of times.
Trump and his toadies keep saying DC is more dangerous than Iraq, in trying to justify taking over the city.
MSN: Stephen Miller ‘absurdly’ claims DC ‘more violent than Baghdad’ after Trump bombshell
The Republican president, who said he was formally declaring a public safety emergency, compared crime in the American capital with that in other major cities, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, among others.
I assume that’s what you heard, and it might have been adjacent to a story about the proposed meeting with Putin and bled together.
He was talking about Putin being smart. I don’t recall anything in that particular short snippet where the jerk mentioned DC..
Wiley V. Putin. Genius.
If Trump had any good advice/PR, he’d find a reason to have to rush back to DC, Iraq. Instead I fear we’re going to hear in a post-conference press Q&A, Alaska is “Russian America” and Trump will exhibit speaking the words and opinions of Putin, as he so often does with the last person he spoke to.
Oh Lordy. Another renaming? Gulf of America, Mount McKinley, and now “Russian America”? Assuming that’s fictional, as I hope that it is, what would Alaskans have to say about that?
BBC just used the term, saying “some refer to it as …”
Other than far-right Russian Nationalists saying “We should take back …” I discovered apparently there’s an online meme;
Alaska is cold Crimea
&
Putin’s Lost Colony
If trump is told any of these things by Putin, he will repeat them
And it’s near the airport. Maybe they’ll both land at the AFB? 10,000 foot runway.
Though that would be bad optics (in Russia) for Putin to be photographed reviewing the world’s best fighter.
He must always maintain that “cat who just ate the mouse” grin.
Trump probably doesn’t know what an F-22 is. He seemed to like his B-2 model, so maybe he has a spare model F-22 to give Putin in exchange for a Matryoshka (Russian Nested Doll) which trump wouldn’t know how to take apart and put back together.
I assumed they would land on the AB runway.
from BBC:
Putin makes pit stop in Magadan ahead of Alaska summit
So that aide who said it makes sense - just cross the Bering Strait was right! That pit-stop was because they wasted a shit-ton of fuel to fly across Russia instead of just south of the North Pole.
There are things below the surface of the Arctic Sea that can shoot your plane down. Putin took the long way for sure!
ETA: I reckon they also sent another plane to fly the Great Circle route. I hadn’t thought assassination was in the cards, yet Putin certainly did. I hope the other crew made it.
Pity they couldn’t meet in Las Vegas. “The Appeaser at Caesar’s”
Getting vibes of Hitler and Stalin reaching an agreement to divide Poland.
Or if Trump flew over to Russia it could be “The MAGA Don at Magadan”.