THE ERA OF TRUMP

[DBTrek]

My final thoughts as I stare into the flash...

I wouldn't be too worried about a nuclear exchange, because the Russians are not going to take Howdy Doody seriously, but he is giving them an opening to call his bluff and take a poke at you, nothing you would go to nuclear war about, but enough to make you look weak having overplayed the card and then failed to do much about it after.

Maybe.
Keep it in perspective though ... the last president drove NATO to the doorstep of the USSR and then stood there with his hands in his pockets as Russia seized the Crimea.

Putin gonna embarrass Trump worse than that?
It’ll take some doing.

[Fife]

Not at all, I like American Swagger, I'm all for it, but like, Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson, something like that, not Howdy Doody.

Charlie would have already sent Volodya Vladimirovich packing with his tail tucked; and would have been home in time to splash on some Mandom and smoke a bowl in one of his pipes before his old lady arrived to cook his dinner and take care of business.




Clint would have just killed Vlad and then killed all his friends.

[Smitty-48]

Might be he’s bluffing.
Probably bluffing.
Probably just showing his ass, and tweeting nonsense.

Yet ..........

... if we had to draw a circle around every country that dropped nukes on another nation ... there’d only be one circle.

Guy might be cray.

Kim Jong Un isn’t as sure as you are.

Meh, America is far more intimidating when she is solemn and serious and invoking the providence of the Lord, like JFK's Cuban Missile Crisis address. . .

"My fellow citizens, let no one doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous effort on which we have set out. No one can foresee precisely what course it will take or what costs or casualties will be incurred. Many months of sacrifice and self-discipline lie ahead -- months in which both our patience and our will will be tested, months in which many threats and denunciations will keep us aware of our dangers. But the greatest danger of all would be to do nothing.

The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are; but it is the one most consistent with our character and courage as a nation and our commitments around the world. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender or submission.

Our goal is not the victory of might, but the vindication of right; not peace at the expense of freedom, but both peace and freedom, here in this hemisphere, and, we hope, around the world. God willing, that goal will be achieved.

Thank you and good night."

I mean, when America starts talking like that, that's when you can go ahead and start digging the bomb shelter.

[Fife]

My final thoughts as I stare into the flash...

I wouldn't be too worried about a nuclear exchange, because the Russians are not going to take Howdy Doody seriously, but he is giving them an opening to call his bluff and take a poke at you, nothing you would go to nuclear war about, but enough to make you look weak having overplayed the card and then failed to do much about it after.

Maybe.
Keep it in perspective though ... the last president drove NATO to the doorstep of the USSR and then stood there with his hands in his pockets as Russia seized the Crimea.

Putin gonna embarrass Trump worse than that?
It’ll take some doing.

If we thought Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya were bad, just wait to see what kind of shit-show Syria is going to be.

Remember that old Twilight Zone episode where the ex-nazi camp guard made a trip back to Dachau, only to find himself transported back to 1945, and the prisoners turned the tables on him? I'd like to see a new episode where Bolton and Ms. Nelson think they are walking into their swanky oak-paneled club in D.C., only to find they are walking out into some back street in Damascus in the middle of their mission to take out the "gas killer."

There's nothing much worse than a chicken-shit draft dodger getting rich through murder.

[DBTrek]

We’re not sending troops to Syria, man.
We’re sending magic missiles.
No saving throw.
Pow!

Then back to biz, you know?
/shrug

[Smitty-48]

Maybe.
Keep it in perspective though ... the last president drove NATO to the doorstep of the USSR and then stood there with his hands in his pockets as Russia seized the Crimea.

Putin gonna embarrass Trump worse than that?
It’ll take some doing.

Except, Crimea was not of any critical interest to America, there was no reason for America to take a stand over Crimea, I don't think that embarrassed America, I didn't see it that way, that's the Russian Near Abroad, they took Crimea not Puerto Rico, and the Ukrainians didn't even put up a fight, so it's not America's place to throw itself in front of the Ukrainians, and America did not "march" NATO to the doorstep of Russia, the Russians drove the Warsaw Pact into the arms of NATO, after they disavowed it as not their problem anymore.

But in terms of sending Mr. Ivan a message to BTFO? The perspective is Ronald Reagan in 1981, where he sailed right into the Barents and flew F-14's right over their Murmansk Peninsula strategic fortress, I mean, if you're going to call Mr. Ivan's bluff, do it right the first time.

[Speaker to Animals]

We’re not sending troops to Syria, man.
We’re sending magic missiles.
No saving throw.
Pow!

Then back to biz, you know?
/shrug

1d4 damage, though.

[DBTrek]

I’m sure the president’s antics NEXT week will relegate the dire interpretations and pronouncements of this week’s antics to the dustbin of history.

Same for the week after that.

Etc.

[Speaker to Animals]

Next week is prismatic spray.

[Smitty-48]

Just sayun, if you're gonna get into BTFO with the Rooskies, don't talk, just do, Ronald Reagan didn't telegraph it, he didn't say shit beforehand, all that happened, is that an American carrier battle group suddenly went radio silent in the mid Atlantic, and crossed the G-I-UK Gap without further ado, the Soviets started searching for it furiously, sea, air, and satellites, everything they had was up, but the next time they saw that battle group, it had appeared on the horizon at their doorstep; good morning, Mr. Ivan, just thought we'd stop by to let you know, we can take you anytime, and there's not a fuckin' thing you can do about it, and you'll never even see us coming,