Remember Trump griping about immigrants (legal or not) from ‘sh*thole countries? He meant of course brown and black immigrants. He lamented the lack of ‘European’ (white ones at least) and in particular from ‘Scandinavia.’ White, blonde hair and blue eyed folks who looked like what he though Americans should look like. He almost begged them to come here and they laughed. After their statement about obtaining a just end to the war Putin started in Ukraine I rather doubt Trumpty will be wanting his precious white Europeans any more.
It seems that while Trump thinks the fate of Ukraine is for him and his pal Pootie to decide there is more than one fly in the snake-oil ointment they want to rub on this Russian created problem. Obviously the two of them deciding to hold a summit to work out some kind of deal to end Putin’s illegal invasion and takeover of Ukraine without Ukrainian Zelensky having even been invited is a problem. I’ve heard some suggestions Zelensky might get worked in as an afterthought but that remains to be seen. What matters most is Zelensky is clear – his country won’t accept Trumpty giving away big chunks of Ukraine’s sovereign territory for some ‘peace deal.’
Of course NATO and other U.S. allies don’t want Putin’s aggression rewarded either. And while Trump has managed to soften U.S. support for Ukraine with Americans plenty still exists, including with some GOPers in Congress. According to Newsweek a subgroup (for lack of a better term) of NATO has gone on record with a diplomatically worded statement that says ‘Hang on there dude. It’s great you want there to be peace but not at the expense of giving in to Putin and rewarding him!”
In effect that’s what a statement put out by the Nordic-Baltic Eight says. If you aren’t familiar with this group you’ve got plenty of company which is why I included the link to their Wikipedia page. The short version is a group of Nordic countries had developed a cooperative agreement. Later they reached out to some Baltic ones seeking alliance with Europe and disassociation with Russia/the former USSR. I found it interesting to learn these countries are rated near the top of the LEAST corrupt countries in the world. They are also among the highest rated in freedom.
These are happy people. Because their countries are nice places to live and the crime and poverty we see all over the place here isn’t anywhere near our levels in those countries. No, they don’t have as many super-rich people but the typical person in those countries is better off than here (oh, and they have quality govt. guaranteed health care) and even most of the truly well off in those countries are ok with the high taxes. Because people in general live nice lives. They get good educations and become productive workers. Their jobs pay enough to live on without working insane hours and they get good benefits including sick and vacation time. As the saying goes, they get to “work to live” instead of having to “live to work.” No wonder they smirked, if not downright laughed when Trump tried to convince them to immigrate here!
Still, all of these countries have lived with a historical threat next door. Some were even stuck in the old USSR. But with the breakup of that oppressive regime all of these counties either aligned with or strengthened ties to Europe/NATO and the west. That of course infuriated Putin who saw the breakup of the USSR as the world’s biggest tragedy. His elders who survived WWII would skin his punk ass alive over that one!
However let’s get back to the Nordic-Baltic Eight and the significance of who they are and what they’ve just done. What the link doesn’t make note of is that two of them, Sweden and Finland quite pointedly flipped Putin a “double-bird” by joining NATO after his illegal invasion of Ukraine. Putin figured he’d scare them not only from avoiding joining NATO (despite lots of existing cooperation and joint training) but maybe even distancing themselves. Perhaps even pulling away some from the European Union lest they risk the same fate from ‘Pootie the Powerful’ sitting in ‘Mighty Moscow.’ Instead they did the exact thing he thought he’d scare them from doing. Oops.
Unlike Trump and Americans, Trump has been convinced to see things his way THESE are countries who are all too familiar with the old USSR and see Putin’s actions since taking over Russia as an attempt to recreate it. More importantly unlike Trump (and way too much of America) these are educated people who know history. They see Trump for what he is – – a dumbass, greedy and corrupt version of Neville Chamberlin and his FAILED (or as Trump would put it LOSER!) attempt to appease Hitler.
That’s what Trump has tried to do with Putin even before getting back into office. Appease him by letting him have his way in one place thinking he’d stop there. The problem of course is that there’s no appeasing people like Hitler or Putin. Give them an inch and they will take a helluva lot more than a mile! So they’re speaking up in nice diplomatic language that is of course way to sophisticated for Trumpty to fully grasp. He has people around him that do however, and THEY know everyone else understand what’s being said in the Nordic-Baltic Eight’s statemen:
The Nordic-Baltic Eight issued a statement on Sunday marking its take on the upcoming summit on Friday between Trump and Putin.
It welcomed Trump’s moves to end the war and “lay the foundations for a just and enduring peace” for Ukraine and Europe as well as reaffirming the principle that international borders must not be changed by force.
Translated to wording Trump can understand that basically says ‘Putin is a thug who won’t stop with Ukraine. DON’T go rewarding him for illegally invading a sovereign nation so he can rebuild the USSR.’Â Newsweek’s take is more polite and says the statement is a message – that Putin only responds to pressure, and Trump shouldn’t on the behalf of the U.S. “bow to any Russian demands that will hand Moscow an advantage in Friday’s summit.”
The linked article is kind of jumbled, at least to me but it boils down to this:
The statement by the Nordic-Baltic Eight whose members are allies of Kyiv, welcomed the U.S. President’s moves to end the war ahead of his summit with Putin in Alaska Friday and said they would continue to impose restrictive measures against Russia while continuing to support Ukraine.
“Peace will only come through a combination of determined diplomacy, unwavering support for Ukraine, and consistent pressure on the Russian Federation,” said the statement by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, and Sweden.
Again, translated to wording even Trump and MAGAs can understand that says: ‘Now is NOT the time to ease up. Instead keep the pressure on. Hell, INCREASE it!’ I keep thinking Trump needs to repeatedly get hammered with the question of what gives HIM the right to negotiate away chunks of someone else’s country, especially when that country and it’s leader have said NO to his doing so? NATO and other allies are aghast at what Trump is up to. And it’s past time for the U.N. and some specific world leaders to, as I said stand up publicly who the hell does Trump think he is to be handing over parts of Ukraine to a murderous dictator?
I’m sure some of Trump’s supporters will look to the aid we’ve sent to Ukraine since the war started. Some of it is humanitarian but the bulk of it has been weapons and ammo. And yes some logistics support and training. But the big money has been weapons and ammo. Here’s the thing that’s never been adequately explained to Americans in general and for damned sure not to Trump supporters. In the long run it doesn’t really cost us! Every weapon, missile, artillery round, bullets and even stuff like battlefield gear (body armor, literal boots, cold weather gear etc.) we have to replace.
We make all that stuff in factories across this country. American workers have been getting good paychecks making ALL of that stuff to replenish American stockpiles. They pay taxes on the money that they earn but more importantly SPEND it, mostly in their communities. THAT supports all kinds of other jobs. In economics it’s called the multiplier effect in Keynesian economic theory. Think of it as a government investment in “seeds”, in this case money to produce things. Those seeds turn into plants/crops that can even create seeds themselves!  Or, to put it the way Tom Clancy of all people put it in one of his books what makes an economy healthy is not people having wealth but the USE of wealth. But I digress.
Europe, and now these eight countries in particular basically is telling Trump not to go giving away the store to Putin. Instead they are suggesting Trump tell Putin to get the hell of out the store. The issue of paying for the damage and stolen goods is I guess an issue to be worked out. But the people, the countries who’ve had to live with the specter of the USSR and now Russia eyeing THEM and seeking a chance to take THEM over are united in telling Trump (and the United States) to ratchet UP the pressure on Putin instead of dialing it down.
Who knows what Trump will do on Friday? Russia is sore about not having Alaska even though the purchase price when they sold it to us caused the transaction to be derided as “Seward’s Folly.” They thought they got one over on us but given the natural resources and our ability to develop better means of turning them into big money it turned out the joke was on them. They made a bad deal. Ordinarily Trump would laugh his fat ass off over it but his pal Pootie is pissed and wants Alaska back. Who the hell knows? In addition to giving away Ukraine or at least vital parts of it Trump might give away Alaska or vital parts of IT!
As for Zelensky, since he’s made it clear the demands Russia has already stated are demands his country will never agree to it’s unlikely he’ll even be part of the summit. As bad as things are they could get worse. If you pay attention to overseas news Russia is still attacking Ukrainian cities (civilians) with drones but their TROOPS keep getting their asses kicked on the battlefield. Had Trump not convinced Republicans to start trying to choke off aid even before the election Ukraine might have had the support it needed to drive Russia out. From Crimea even. But we are where we are which is a bloody stalemate of fairly established lines, much like WWI.
Trump wants to throw in the towel on Ukraine’s behalf and they are saying no effing way. However I bet he’s going to try. I just hope Zelensky catches it and uses it to snap Trump’s ass like a teenage boy in a locker room to another boy. Stay tuned because we are headed into heavy, uncertain seas.
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they may dangle the Nobel in front of him
Ah, the Nobel Peace Prize. Obama has one and Trump is jealous that he doesn’t.
Hes fooking delusional. He assumed that (cough cough) his striking a peace deal by giving Putin much of Ukaine, basically rewarding Russia/Putin for WAR CRIMES will get him his goddamned prize. That it’s actual gold instead of the fake gold he has all over the place makes him want it even more. Anyway Trump is sadly mistaken if the thinks the kind of appalling peace deal he wants to stamp his name on will get him the Nobel he’s sadly mistaken.
Not for nothing, but Putin and Trump can make all the declarations they want about the war in Ukraine being over. It won’t be. Most Ukrainians have a visceral hatred of Russia in their DNA. For a century Russia has brutalized that country starting with post Revolution Russia through the decades of the USSR to Russia post USSR. There will be resistance and Ukraine has too many people with too much knowledge of how to mount one that Putin can dream of in his worst nightmares. Putin doesn’t have the ability to commit a massive genocide of Ukrainians in just a few days absent nuking the whole country or a massive biological attack which wouldn’t be contained to Ukraine. It would spread all directions including into Russia. Plus the fallout from a large nuclear attack would be carried by winds well into Russia!
I simply don’t see Ukrainians rolling over. They drove Russia mostly out through mostly peaceful means when they forced Putin’s puppet government to flee. Yes, some stayed behind, at least for a while and tried to cripple building a free government by engaging in corruption. Over time Ukraine began to gain a handle on that. I’m sure some of them have been laying low hoping Russia would again dominate and they could get back to doing what they did before. However I suspect most of them are well-known to Ukrainians and their lives won’t be worth spit if Russia “wins” because Europe and NATO see something Trump does and throws in the towel.
And that’s Trump’s other problem. They’ve had trouble doing so but the European nations have mostly ramped up efforts to fill the hole in military and humanitarian aid Trump created. THEY don’t want Ukraine to fall because if it does it’s a short step from there back to the bad old days of the USSR. And the mindset has already set in that they have to be prepared to collectively look out for their own interests with little help from the U.S. Because for the foreseeable future U.S. support is up for grabs every four years. We will never hold the status in the free world we had again. At least in our lifetimes and at least one or two generations. Even then if we prove we can get and keep our shit together at most we can have a seat at the table and our voice will be heard and given respect. But we won’t be the unquestioned leader at that table. THAT truly is gone forever.
Hardly likely, ever, But, also, certainly not as it is presented in Sweden by the king
It would be so sweet, to see someone put tRump in his place! I noticed he had the nerve to say “Zelensky, get ready to sign something” when he announced the meeting. AS IF Zelensky would simply sign whatever tRump came up with. SMH
There was a revealing philosophical difference revealed between Northern European and Southern USA republican thinking, when BMW and Mercedes Benz were opening their factories in South Carolina and Alabama. A local politician asked the senior German executive how he coped with ‘Europe’s high tax rates’.
The businessman replied, it was the price to pay for civilization, he wanted to be a rich man in a rich country, not a rich man in a poor one.
This obviously still applies.