“Kremlin: Obama’s Trump criticism anti-Russian, won’t foster better ties”
Wow, I don’t know quite what to say here but this is an honest to God headline from Reuter’s Kremlin: Obama’s Trump criticism anti-Russian, won’t foster better ties
Now we can take it as given that none of Obama, Trump or even the Russians are responsible for writing Reuter’s headlines. So I leave it to AB commenters to see if THAT is a fair representation of THIS:
The Kremlin said on Wednesday it viewed U.S. President Barack Obama’s recent statements on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump as anti-Russian and said they were unlikely to improve fragile relations between Russia and the United States.
Obama on Tuesday strongly criticized Trump for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin and for appearing on a TV channel, RT, funded by the Russian government.
“Unfortunately, we see continued displays of often hard-core Russophobia,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, commenting on Obama’s intervention, told a conference call with reporters. “We can only express regret in this regard.
“This rhetoric, which is being formulated in electoral campaign style … is unlikely to help fledgling fragile attempts to build at least some sort of mutual trust.”
Seems to me that Donnie’s surrogates have, in the immortal words of Desi to Lucy on “I Love Lucy” : “You got some ‘splaining to do!” Because if we trust the translation we have the Kremlin warning Obama off their boy poodle The Donald. As the kids say: WTF?
Webb – If you like Reuters stories you’ll love this one. Ford to move 100% of its small car production from USA to Mexico. You think that ‘s a good outcome for American workers?
And speaking of Mexico…Guess who is building a wall to keep immigrants out? Mexico, of course. And guess who is paying for this wall? American taxpayers are.
I understand you hate the Donnie. But if you think the status quo in America, with NAFTA and TPP (as soon as HRC takes over) is perfectly fine, then you have no right to complain about low wages and opportunities.
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ford-mexico-idUSKCN11K1W0
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c316294a-7915-11e6-97ae-647294649b28.html#axzz4KFmTMT37
Krasting that same Reuter’s story about Ford said the move had been planned for a couple years and that net hiring was still going up. And if you believe a Republican President and Congress are going to get in the way of a major manufacturer moving a factory then you haven’t been paying attention.
And Mexico is building an actual doable wall that would do something which is mostly to control migrants wanting to cross Mexico and enter the U.S. The problem with Trump’s Wall is that it is STUPID and USELESS. How the fuck you going to build a wall along the Rio Grande River? Build it down the middle of the channel? Cut farmers off from their irrigation pumps? What the hell point is there to fortifying that portion of the New Mexico border that isn’t already walled? You think THAT many people are walking across the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts? I live in New Mexico, that is NOT a major people trafficking route. And where do they get the water for all the cement this would take? Nor do walls or even border controls keep out drugs or immigrants. Both just come by boat. Seen any footage of migrants going from Libya to Italy? Or from Cuba to Florida? Think building walls is going to help THAT. Nixon actually managed to cut down large scale marijauna imports across the Mexican border with Operation Intercept in the 60’s. Guess what this just triggered a crack and powder cocaine epidemic which mostly came by boat (you may remember a show called Miami Vice) and an equal heroin epidemic where the goods came by ship (French Connection) and plane from Turkey and Southeast Asia.
It doesn’t matter that walls and even effective walls are being built in Southern Mexico or various Balkan States. You are talking much shorter distances for one thing. You are not going to be able to build an effective wall across the unfortified portions of the Arizona and New Mexico borders or along the river that marks the border between the U.S. and Texas. Not to mention that net migration from Mexico in recent years has been negative anyway, are you proposing to fence these people IN?
Plus changing the subject is pure troll bullshit. Presidents have a lot of power over foreign relations with historically hostile states. Moreover I am the one asking the question here. And the answer is not “Why aren’t you talking about this thing over there?” Because one, lots of other people are talking about it. And two I want to talk about THIS thing.
Russia is upset that the President of the U.S. is commenting on the proposed foreign policy of a would-be successor. On the grounds that it is not helpful to their future plans. Which suggests they believe that the would-be successor will be useful in facilitating those plans. Which given we are talking about an adversary that has hundreds of nuclear weapons targetting our cities and seems hell bent on reestablishing control over at least parts of the old Soviet Empire (parts of Georgia, the Donblass in Ukraine, Latvia) would be kind of worrying. And if Putin was saying such nice things about a Democrat would be sparking accusations of ‘treason’ and ‘hang the bitch’ by Republicans. At least among those Republicans who aren’t yelling that out ALREADY.
So piss off.
And EMichael I am going to assume you got hacked and am going to trash that Hank Williams concert ad. I’ll try to do it in a way that won’t block legit comments going forward.
Bruce
i had a little trouble understanding the relevance of Krastings comment to your post, but, well, it’s Krasting…. and we have already established that Krasting has a little trouble maintaining synaptic discipline, so why give him the time of day?
on the other hand, i read the Reuters quote as possibly meaning there was something in the WAY Obama criticized Trump that made friendly relations with us more difficult, Not knowing any more about the subject, or the article, i couldn’t say…
The problem with the Wall, other than being stupid, is that it also blocks the normal ranges of all the little critters that live along the border.
Dale as a relatively new (and not so little) critter that lives along the border, it would be easy enough to design the wall in a way that allowed almost all border animals free transit while still blocking humans. Exceptions to this might be the endangered Mexican grey wolf which are larger and need those ranges. But the snakes and lizards and birds and burrowing mammals (and to live in that desert you better be good at digging) should do okay. At least once the wall was built. The devastation needed to bring the wall in in terms of road building and grading and digging and diversion of scarce water being a different story.
As to the “WAY” issue. You have a point. But the way to frame that for the Russians is to leave Trump out of the question and complain about Russia bashing per se. Not as “stop bashing Trump’s efforts to align the U.S. with Russia”. Of course it is quite possible the former is what the Russians were actually doing only to get sabotaged by some clumsy headline writer and story editor.
But man it sure reads like “Stop messing with my boy Don. Signed Vlad.”
speaking as an endangered gray wolf-like creature i have to say i do not share your equanimity about the exceptions to free travel across the Wall.
reminds me of the old song
So high you can’t get over it
So low you can’t get under it
So wide you can’t get around it
You have to come in at de do’.
Well I agree. In fact my nephew who lives in town here (and whose kids I am spoiling at every opportunity) is a gray wolf fanatic along with his other conservationist causes.
My point is that we are not talking the Serengeti. Or even the High Plains of the century before last. The Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan deserts (which make up the unfenced border for the most part) are not crisscrossed by big herds of anything. Most of our beasties are fairly solitary and local. And would suffer more damage by disruption of water resources (such as they are) from the grading and digging than a wall per se.
thanks Bruce.
i understand.
it’s just that “the wall” is an example of how an utterly stupid idea takes hold of the popular imagination and goes on to do damage never contemplated, as well as the damage that was intended.
for those who don’t care about wolves or other creatures who might be harmed by a rabbit proof fence… i suggest they consider what might happen with a “government” who recognizes that what can keep them out can keep them in. it’s funny that they spend so much time yelling about the gummint taking away their rights, and then vote for someone who promises to take away their rights.
by the way
be worried about words like “most.” our friend Mike put himself in the position a few weeks ago of seeming to argue that as long as more than half of the people who are arrested actually did the crime, then everything is just fine.
ecosystems are like that. pull out one not necessarily charismatic megafauna (faunum?) and the whole thing collapses… or at least turns into something uglier and less useful even to us.
Dale you know some other words that can get you in trouble as much or more than ‘most’?
‘If’ ‘and’ ‘but’. And don’t get me started on ‘therefore’. This isn’t a debate on linguistic usage.
Here is a range map of Mexican grey wolves in the U.S. Not currently near the border.
http://fws.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e87092240501466abd4606dcdb50ce98
Seems like they don’t thrive in deep desert, instead preying on larger animals like elk that need woodland.
Like I hinted. There isn’t a lot of charismatic ANYTHING living in the deep desert along the border. We aren’t talking huge herds of scorpions going from winter habitat in the Mexican mountains and migrating north to Colorado in the summer. All the more reason not to bulldoze habitat and divert water to fricking cement plants.
Putin definitely has a dog in this race, and that dog is Trump. I wonder what he is using for leverage or if he even has to bother. I’ve been expecting an October surprise on the Russian front, but Putin knows how that kind of thing can backfire.
I gather there already is a wall along a lot of the US-Mexico border. The NY Times even hard an article on it. One of its big problems is that it runs through the desert, so torrential rains tend to wash crap to the wall where it gets stuck and clogs the drainage leading to local flooding. The wall is designed to let water and small animals through, but the desert is full of dead plants and other stuff.
Bruce
I didn’t think we were having a debate at all. but you are absolutely right about “therefore.”
Bruce,
I did not get hacked.
I posted an article from Reuters in response to Krastings posting of an article from Reuters that had absolutely no relevance to your column other than the fact that it was from Reuters.
It was a shot at Krasting for hijacking a column with the first comment.