Inscrutable, enigmatic and as the Cambridge dictionary puts it: “not showing emotions or thoughts and therefore very difficult to understand or get to know.”
Upon reading the tea leaves left from the recent Sino-Russian tête-à-tête, Secretary Anthony Blinken said: “They have a marriage of convenience – I’m not sure if it’s conviction. Russia is very much a junior partner in this relationship.”
good conversation lastnight on the trail from 6:04 thru 7:26 and what inspired today’s thread topic. sample:
BB
I actually look for China to say never mind on Taiwan and to start thinking about greater Manchuria , how ever far west they define it. China is interested in locking up raw materials for their manufacturing sector and Siberia is just one big place waiting to be exploited.
Jack
Blinken played that well, with the “junior partner” line. Hits Putie where it hurts, his psychotic ego. Speaking of which, sure hope today is indictment day for our own would-be dictator.
Jack – China is very protective of Manchuria, especially after Japan invaded it in 1931. Sort of how Russia claims Ukraine as its own, except China was defeated by Japan. Any move by Russia into Manchuria would be met with a lot of response by China. Right now Russia is weakened by the Ukraine invasion so anything by puttie would be met with a very strong response. Although not reported in the West media much, puttie has been trying to fight Japan for northern territories, which if it came to a military battle would do more damage to Russia.
craig, for a while there this morning I thought I’d really messed up the blog. I couldn’t edit mistakes nor give notice of a new thread after initially posting the topic. stuff was frozen and my screen was flashing off and on. so to be safe I immediately closed down before correcting/editing/adding necessary attributions and waited. any idea what happened? hope no nasty virus is lurking to taint the trail.
i agree with bink’s observation that “Xi cozying-up to Putin make both look weaker” unless Xi actually does pull off a real peace by convincing (let’s say threatening if he doesn’t) putie to pull out of ukraine. he’d most likely be praised around the world and get a Nobel to boot.
PatD, my best guess is it might have been our server company doing some maintenance. But they usually do that in the wee hours closer to 3am. Seems ok now, no signs of trouble.
thanks for checking, craig, glad not to have damaged the trail.
for those al franken fans, click here for some of last night’s which covered
Al Franken tackles the latest news including a Minnesota senator arguing against free school lunches, Idaho voting to bring back execution by firing squad, updates from the possible Trump arrest, and Jordan Klepper taking to the streets of New York to witness the chaos.
but here’s the night before which among other things touches upon today’s thread topic
Al Franken tackles the biggest stories of the day, including New York’s new slogan, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping shaking hands, France’s older retirement age, the Tucker Carlson producer who’s suing Fox News, and the U.N.’s latest catastrophic climate change report.
BTW, the reason I didn’t directly link last night’s franken routine was to avoid uglying up the trail with one more pic of you-know-who, the maga (Make Attorneys Get Attorneys) guy.
And then there was this version of the above cartoon with Trump being the really low man on the totem pole.
Wondering if there is a subtle calendaring going on with sfb legal cases, lining up which ones power to trial first. Instead of NYC Porn bribe, say it is federal stealing secrets. With a few pundits going off about how paying off a porn lady is just political and not a crime (it is a crime), why not hit with something really juicy like being a traitor? Why fight in a purple state, Georgia, when you can have a sure hit with like rape?
Many of these are about as ready for trial as any other case now that the judges are telling sfb “NO” to the delay tactics that used to work. A few weeks and a couple could be active. That would be interesting to have multiple trials going on, and even better with gag orders.
BB,
what would be really interesting is if more than one is announced the same day and they are mixed jurisdictions (fed and state) and one rises to level of immediate arrest (possible in the mal an ego if charge has to do with very serious nat’l security info). my guess is fed would prevail.
something to consider from this quote in Why China’s Xi is trying to play peacemaker in Ukraine | The Hill:
Pat, we do want pictures but only if they’re mugshots. With multiple jurisdictions might there be a gallery of them?
Tucker’s Face Coach–secrets revealed.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson-facial-expressions_n_641c067ee4b0a3902d35019a?d_id=5623954&ref=bffbhuffpost&ncid_tag=fcbklnkushpmg00000063&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&utm_campaign=us_main
Judge Bragg sent a nice letter to Jim Jordan (r-dunce) and others telling them to shove their requests up the remote hole and go to Hell in a honey wagon. I am trying to find a copy of the letter, only a few have it so far this morning. Here is a twit.
BB
When I was referring to greater Manchuria I was thinking of the pieces that Russia and Japan carved off in the late 19th century that after WWII ended up as Soviet territory. I was also somewhat tongue in cheek referencing how far China may define what is Greater Manchuria. But China does believe that Russia has illegitimate control of parts of China. As Russia is weak they may try to expand their influence in central Asia. Even if it is only on the order of what we have done in central America. Which is send in the Marines to protect our business interests. Central Asia may get very interesting in the rest of this century.
Jack
Jack – I agree that the northern areas of China are possibly under the sights of puttie. What would not surprise me is that he brings in troops of African countries to do the fighting. People like puttie are quite racist and would have no issue with doing that. The areas of North Japan under “dispute” by russia are an issue that puttie was going after years ago. One reason that Japan is rearming for the first time since the 1920’s is the possibility of N Korea actually doing something stupid and the north islands. The regeneration of the Soviet Union has been the priority of puttie, no matter what happens.
BB
What the Ukraine war has told us is that Russia doesn’t have the ability to move aggressively in the East, or at this time, anywhere.
But China does and might be willing to test Russia a bit.
Jack
“Russia doesn’t have the ability to move aggressively”
Oh, they have the ability to move aggressively, they just didn’t count on Ukrainian resolve
Slava 💪 🇺🇦
The point is: these authoritarians could possibly bring historically affiliated regions under central control with the promise of sound policy and improved quality of life, but they can’t offer that, so they feel the need to resort to force, just like all bullies do
Let’s do a quick rundown on the Chinese military. The ground forces have been fighting off and on with India and Pakistan. That gives a small number of the units combat experience. Other ground forces have been doing the round up and execution of many non-Chinese peoples giving them hardening for battle, although they have not had to fight, just blood. The units that control the Chinese population are more like police than military. The equipment used by the military seems to be modern and useful. The issue will be in operations against either a third world country, Russia or Africa. Next will be the navy. They seem to be all over the world but are not. Limited capabilities due to lack of ships. A subsitute are the manmade islands they are building. That is a deference to the air force. Again, lack of actual combat operations may be the downfall. They are similar to the Russian air force in that they try to be testing U.S. air operations. Not good. Overall, the Chinese are in better shape than the Russians were February 1, 2022. How would they do against the Russians, quite well from the overview. How would they do against the U.S. and allies, such as the Australians? I think they would not do so well.
Seeing what modern arms can do in Ukraine has to have China wondering about the cost of taking Taiwan by force.
In addition, what they have done in Hong Kong has started to cost them as foreign companies have started moving manufacturing to other countries, so they won’t get caught behind a trade war barrier. An independent Taiwan is an important link in their world trade. They just need that brought to their attention.
I don’t know what the Chinese army could do, I assume they have the capability to field an adequate army. I have looked a bit at what they are doing with their navy. There are a bunch of chicken little type who will go around shouting about how the Chinese navy is larger than ours, so I did a little googling and yes, they have more ships. But they tend to be the small coastal ships. ex. they only have 3 aircraft carriers to our 10 and they are much smaller ships than any of ours.So they are primarily going for coastal defense.
Being retired allows me to have fun, such as writing real checks for utilities and vehicle registrations, saving me several dollars on each transaction.
Jack – you are right about the Chinese navy strength. In contrast the Russian navy burned up their new aircraft carrier on first sailing. That was the only aircraft carrier. All other vessels are high risk for burning and sinking. There are many contrasts of the U.S. military budget v all other countries. The U.S. has had the policy to sustain operations in a two ocean war. Atlantic and Pacific, along with other operations. The price is high, but it can be paid. Not discussing the pros and cons of this. The gqp has during the sfb takover talked about reducing policy for responding to a single threat. I do not support that concept. All three countries have operations in Africa too. For the U.S. it is not as costly as what Russia and China are doing. China is doing the Silk Road thing to suck countries into owing China for the improvements they have done to the infrastructure.
The reporting on the meeting between Xi and Putin was not correctly represented by American media. There was never any chance that Xi was going to tell Putin anything about the situation in Ukraine.
If you just read the NY Times you would think Xi was going as a favor to Biden.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/23/opinions/france-pension-reform-protests-macron-poisson/index.html
“The ongoing protests are also seen as a pushback against Macron’s imperious governing style. Years ago, he earned the nickname “Jupiter” — after the king of the Roman gods — as he was derided by some for his highhanded approach to governing — imposing his will, in the eyes of his critics, as if he were a sovereign rather than elected.”
“His administration’s use last week of a constitutional maneuver to bypass a vote in the National Assembly and raise the retirement age is an example of his imperial style.”
“For starters, Macron might reverse his move to abolish the wealth tax. He might also reconsider corporate tax breaks that have benefited big business handsomely.”
“The president has failed to see politics as the art of persuasion and is instead ruling by fiat. The brutal police crackdown on demonstrators protesting pension reforms led to hundreds of arrests in recent days, another sign that he lacks political deftness. The unions meanwhile show no sign of backing down, and are continuing to organize massive protests urging workers to stand firm and remain off the job.”
Macron seems to be just another little, piss-ant politician, who cares more about the 1% than he does about regular folks.
Hello, BiD, was wondering where you were
Macron campaigned on raising the retirement age, the alternative to him was a Putin apologist and an assortment of socialists of varying degree 🤷♂️
NEW THREAD