Trump has actually had some progressive things to say, particularly with regard to pulling back from NATO which he assesses correctly as a tremendously expensive way to posture in front of Russia and accomplishes nothing useful for America.
Update: here's yer link for validation: CNN: 5 candidates make closing arguments on CNN ahead of Western Tuesday. The statement is a brief soundbite but it's not the first time I have heard him say it.
Don't look for any fanboy scribes here. His wall is an absurdity and his estimates of the expense of building it are low-bid rubbish. A casual estimate comes to twenty-five billion dollars for his wall and it's from a casual source but you will appreciate the accuracy of the references. (Blog: Once The Wall Was About Pink Floyd But Now John Oliver Speaks (video))
Sanders has implied pulling back from NATO insofar as he will pull back from Syria and stop engaging in regime change but he has not said anything, to my knowledge, about NATO directly so hearing those two in debate could be a most interesting thing.
For supreme absurdity, consider GOP Trump arguing against the value of NATO while Democrat Clinton tries to defend it. That would be so ludicrous as to almost be worth watching ... if that pairing were not such a travesty to start.
The most telling judgment of NATO may well be the way Euro democracy disintegrates in the face of attacks with high publicity and relatively low impact. Crash a bus into a river in India and easily kill far more people but no-one even blinks much about that. Maybe some idiot will say thank God the baby on the bus didn't die (i.e. screw all the other floaters).
NATO can't do one damn thing about what happens right now except insofar as it can lobby hard against continuing to exacerbate the problem in the Middle East. There is no possible way to defeat an opponent who is willing to die for the cause. As we saw, France reacted just as Pavlov would predict and, whammo, lots more dead people in Syria and now lots more dead people in Brussels.
Almost sixteen years of this now and the West keeps doing the same thing expecting something different to happen.
Update: here's yer link for validation: CNN: 5 candidates make closing arguments on CNN ahead of Western Tuesday. The statement is a brief soundbite but it's not the first time I have heard him say it.
Don't look for any fanboy scribes here. His wall is an absurdity and his estimates of the expense of building it are low-bid rubbish. A casual estimate comes to twenty-five billion dollars for his wall and it's from a casual source but you will appreciate the accuracy of the references. (Blog: Once The Wall Was About Pink Floyd But Now John Oliver Speaks (video))
Sanders has implied pulling back from NATO insofar as he will pull back from Syria and stop engaging in regime change but he has not said anything, to my knowledge, about NATO directly so hearing those two in debate could be a most interesting thing.
For supreme absurdity, consider GOP Trump arguing against the value of NATO while Democrat Clinton tries to defend it. That would be so ludicrous as to almost be worth watching ... if that pairing were not such a travesty to start.
The most telling judgment of NATO may well be the way Euro democracy disintegrates in the face of attacks with high publicity and relatively low impact. Crash a bus into a river in India and easily kill far more people but no-one even blinks much about that. Maybe some idiot will say thank God the baby on the bus didn't die (i.e. screw all the other floaters).
NATO can't do one damn thing about what happens right now except insofar as it can lobby hard against continuing to exacerbate the problem in the Middle East. There is no possible way to defeat an opponent who is willing to die for the cause. As we saw, France reacted just as Pavlov would predict and, whammo, lots more dead people in Syria and now lots more dead people in Brussels.
Almost sixteen years of this now and the West keeps doing the same thing expecting something different to happen.
So, Lotho, there's one for you: what say we scram NATO, save a bunch of money, put the emphasis back on START to offload more nukes, and move toward reason in the world, away from feudal posturing.
The deal with Russia has been clear at least since World War II. Don't screw with Mother Russia and we probably won't screw with you.
Yah, sure Russia was supporting insurgent, emergent cadres in multiple countries in the world but how is that one iota in difference from America providing military support to the resistance.
At the root of it has been don't screw with Mother Russia because no Hitler is ever again going to cross the Steppes. In the face of that, America has pushed NATO right up to Moscow's doorstep after promising it would not move one inch closer than the original NATO countries.
In the view here, Putin has shown incredible restraint. Maybe it's about time America showed some and got on with the future rather than endlessly repeating the past.
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