Friday, July 7, 2017

The Two and a Half Hour Meeting

Plenty of time for Putin to get Trump up to speed on the history of US Russia relations, including the Wolfowitz Doctrine.  But the most interesting thing today is the way the meeting was reported by the US and Russian television channels: according to RT, the cease-fire in south-western Syria will be monitored by the Russians, with the cooperation of Jordan (Syria’s neighbor in that area) and the US.  MSNBC, however, only reported that there would be a cease fire….
Also on MSNBC, there were two statements by Rex Tillerson on the meeting: the first was quite moderate, the second much less so, almost as if someone had taken him aside and told him he was sounding too positive.  
Martin Jay commented on RT that Israel was probably behind the cease-fire agreement, the area in question being close to the Golan Heights.

Outside Moscow's Scheremetevo Airport at midnight.  Photo by Deena Stryker

2 comments:

  1. My take: "Well played Putin. Trump is a person very easily swayed by advice if you can bring it down to his simplistic level (or make him think he will make money off of it) as long as he doesn’t feel challenged. Your body language was not quite submissive, but certainly not challenging. A man sees a lowered head as conceding power. A wolf sees a lowered head as the calculation of risk it is – and a warning.

    You allowed him to speak first, then reminded him about former conversations, challenging his manhood by saying talking isn’t enough, bilateral “action” must be done united. “A man is only as good as his word” – and Trump thinks his words come out of his mouth like golden edicts.

    You managed a ceasefire in Syria, made him tone down a bit on North Korea, and who knows what other seed you planted in his tiny brain…. that will come out in a tweet soon as “his idea.”

    You are managing the loose cannon better than all the think tanks of the Republican Party that have been losing their shit, trying to rein him in.

    Before all the Putin haters jump in on me? Go fuck yourselves. He is a politician, not a saint. But he has stopped actual terrorists, rather than arming and training them like our country has done through EVERY administration (D or R). He has helped developing nations help their people by no interest loans and temporary on-site development, rather than invade them and give US oil magnates contracts to exploit them.

    His people have free health care, and free college, and were it not for US sanctions and threats to anyone who deals with them, rather than our exploitation class, his people would be thriving economically.

    Coalition is better than the 3rd world war Killary wanted. And you can’t play chess with a psychopath. Better a simpleton, if it works.

    Well done, sir, well done. "

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  2. Thank you Diane. Actually, Russia's growth is higher than ours this year......

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