The Left is so deranged these days, there will probably be new calls to remove Trump from office over this. There is no doubt that many Leftists think that the specter of hundreds of Russians being murdered in a jihad massacre is not as bad as Trump aiding Putin, except insofar as that aid can be used as grist for their impeachment mill. But in reality, an international counter-jihad alliance is much needed. Which is by no means to say that it’s forthcoming.
“Putin thanks Trump in call for anti-terrorism help, Kremlin says,” by Laura Davison, Bloomberg News, December 29, 2019:
WASHINGTON Russian President Vladimir Putin called U.S. President Donald Trump to thank him for intelligence that helped prevent terrorist acts in Russia, the Kremlin said in a statement.
The two leaders discussed further cooperation to combat terrorism and “other issues of mutual interest,” according to a Kremlin statement issued Sunday. The White House hasn’t confirmed the call.
Trump and Putin have had an unusually warm relationship, despite warnings from Republicans and Democrats that Russia is looking to meddle in U.S. affairs. Putin defended Trump by dismissing his impeachment by the House earlier this month….
Trump has spoken about his interactions with Putin in glowing terms. Putin in the past has repeated [sic] referred to Trump as “Donald,” while discussing their relations….
abad says
God forbid the United States has a healthy relationship with Russia, I am sure the Democrat leaders would rather us have a positive relationship with Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, and Syria. Because you know, Islam is the cat’s meow for the Democrat leaders.
mortimer says
Yes, “God forbid” that a US president should make international deals that benefit both countries.
It would be the Second Coming if Obama had done the things Trump has accomplished. They would have given a Dem president five Nobel Peace Prizes.
The Left has undisguised DOUBLE STANDARDS.
infidel says
So true.. I hope DT comes back for a rightly deserved 2nd term.. it’ll be a resounding slap on the DEMS and their Islamist enablers..
underbed cat says
Don’t iinsult cats….they know better.
gravenimage says
Putin calls Trump to thank him for help to stop jihad massacre plot
…………………..
*Good*.
barbaracvm1 says
We have common enemy, who wants to destroy all non muslims.
gravenimage says
True.
Thomas Richard says
The saving of innocent lives…..a blessed task……
CogitoErgoSum says
For over half my life I saw Russia (aka the Soviet Union) as being the greatest threat to the security of the United States. Now, with the end of the Soviet Union, what do I see as the the greatest threat? While Islam comes in a close second, I do believe I have to award the top spot to the Democratic Party.
Lynn Miller says
I agree. China is up there in the big three.
Wellington says
Sadly but still resolutely seconded, CES.
underbed cat says
I am afraid to write, but aware to be cautious that reading comments of Putin, or listening to him on “you tube”, I found him intelligent, thoughtful and of course it seems he has not attacked the United States, or pulled of an 9/11, although the dems would disagree, but a little less totalistarian, Is that the influence Dems worry about? Many countries who are considered allies, are at the United Nations and 56+ are Islamic are to me more concerning, have a language usage to decieve, seditous, are aggressive and dangerous. They deny it but read their sharia constitution, yet they present as victims. China and North Korea that share borders I assume they are partners in nuclear aquisition one with technology the other can use to make it extremely dangerous. Russia has a considerable population that have caused terrorist problems in Russia, but I think Putin gets it, considering it’s history. He appears to affirm life….not the opposite and opened Christian Churches a life affirming move, a more peaceful doctrine. The changes in Russia are more positive. But not according to our leftist democrats that is frightening and they make laws. It is strange.
gravenimage says
Alas, Putin also engages in a great deal of pandering to Islam–including allowing a Shari’ah state on Russian soil in Chechnya.
Infidel says
I don’t see Russia as a threat at all. Unlike the Soviets during the Cold War, they are an isolated country, w/ an economy the size of Italy, and a one trick pony – oil. Essentially, they are a huge version of Saudi Arabia w/o the islam or the deserts, and they don’t have anything beyond regional ambitions. They are a potential ally if we treat the issue seriously, instead of resorting to Reagan era slogans.
Normally, I’d say that the biggest threat to the US is Islam, except that they’re incapable of creating a major cohesive opposition, never mind the fact that they have the bulk of the world’s energy, never mind the fact that they have 1.5 billion people at their command (not including Muslims of non-Muslim countries like India, Guyana, Nigeria, Surinam, Mozambique, et al), and never mind the fact that they have a huge empire stretching from Pakistan to Gambia, and including countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei and so on. Technologically, they remain backward, despite being rich enough to buy all the intellectual property that they’re interested in, and economically, they remain stagnant, despite sitting on the bulk of the world’s oil and gas reserves.
So I’d put the biggest threat to the US as China, as it threatens every country around it from Japan to India, and potentially even the stans and Russia. Thanks to the last 2 decades, they’ve come up w/ the only model where Communism can be economically viable, and have an economy second only to the US. Thanks to the tariffs and the other measures to counter China, they’ve been stopped in their tracks, but it will take something like what Reagan did to the Soviet Union. Maybe Hong Kong will inspire the Chinese to revolt against Beijing.
Islam does come next, but treated properly, it can become a 3-way civil war b/w Turkic, Arab and Iranian blocs. And destroy itself in the Middle East before it comes even close to the US. But Europe does need to turn off Muslim migration, and reverse pandering policies towards them. Whether they do it w/ their current governments, or w/ insurrection parties like AfD, Marine Le Pen, Salvini, Sebastian Kurz and others remains to be seen
Oh, and next in the list of threats to the US is the EU, but I think the 20s will be the decade that the EU comes apart
Giacomo Latta says
Grimly true. (I hope that phrase has not been copyrighted.)
gravenimage says
Not at all. It is all too apt given what we deal with here.
Happy New Year to you!
Wellington says
As an American, I’m skeptical to be sure of Russia, but (and this is a huge BUT) I have no choice except to be even more skeptical of the Democratic Party of the USA.
Yes, it has become this awful and fully due to the transformation of the Democratic Party of the USA into a collective idiot and, effectively, a mortal enemy of America.
There is no longer any defense of the Democratic Party of America. It needs to go the way of the Whig Party (with all due respect to the Whig Party which was never as bad as the Democratic Party has become). We truly have one of the two major political parties of the most powerful country on Earth as, de facto, an enemy of said country.
By now, and I am so tired of so many who should get this but still don’t, if the modern Democratic Party gets its way on most or all matters, it will be the end of America as we know it—and this would include the single greatest thing about America, liberty, and I mean true liberty, which the modern Democratic Party has become an enemy of. Yep, it’s this awful and I challenge anyone to refute me on this “point” and all the while I am quite conscious that the Republican Party leaves much to be desired (especially in the “guts” area) but it is not an enemy of America.
The Democratic Party is. Yes indeed, this terrible.
Infidel says
The Democrat Party is right now downright anti-American, and evil. Like on abortion, they are silent on Gov Ralph Northam saying that if an abortion fails and a fetus is delivered live, the mother can be consulted on whether she wants to keep it alive or not. They’ve endorsed Islamic Jihad just b’cos Trump was against it in San Bernardino. They’ve weaponized social media companies to achieve online what they failed to do constitutionally in the public square. They’ve embraced the global cancel culture, and every wacko idea thought up by Leftists – from pick your own pronouns to safe spaces.
That’s the only reason the GOP is alive. But in DC and K-Street, they too are happy to work w/ companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook even as those companies actively work to censor their base supporters. There needs to be a revolution in the GOP as well to purge those establishment types who’ve been willing to turn their backs on their voters completely in return for cash from the social media companies
Infidel says
Was looking for this link, finally found it – the explanation of how conservative groups collude w/ tech companies that totally hate conservative voters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH0_WemZmt8
James Lincoln says
Excellent exchange between Wellington and Infidel. Factual and evidence-based, my compliments.
Very sad – but very true.
The Democratic Party has been moving left exponentially since the years of Pres. Barack Obama. Reasonable “centrists” in the Democratic Party – like Jim Webb – stand NO chance in today’s Democratic party.
Perhaps the “far left” of the Democratic Party should split off and form an “isolated” socialist party, leaving a more “centrist” Democratic Party.
Or perhaps a new very robust party of Independents, I’m not sure.
All I know is that we are only one election away from disaster – on the very slim chance that a Democrat wins the US presidential election in 2020…
mortimer says
BLIND STUPIDITY OF THE LEFT
Spot on! Robert Spencer writes: ‘The Left is so deranged these days …’ They are deranged by their own illogical, theoretical narratives which contradict observable facts and everyday reality. They have made themselves ‘stupid’.
This is not new. Bertrand Russell said, “the fundamental cause of the trouble (stupidity of the Left) is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
David Krakauer, the President of the Santa Fe Institute, said that stupidity is not simply the opposite of intelligence.
“Stupidity is using a rule where adding more data doesn’t improve your chances of getting [a problem] right,” Krakauer said. “In fact, it makes it more likely you’ll get it wrong.”
Leftists have a guiding rule of VICTIMOLOGY which skews all results, because you don’t simply find victims merely by looking harder for them.
Donald Trump is not LOOKING for enemies ideologically. He is looking for GOOD DEALS or BAD DEALS. If it’s a BAD deal, then he asks the other side to try harder until both sides benefit.
Leftists don’t understand the ART OF THE DEAL, because they are so determinedly and willfully blind because they reject anything that contradicts their PREORDAINED BAD LOGIC of VICTIMOLOGY.
If there actually are not VICTIMS, then the Left must INVENT victims to fit their narrative … just like Jussie Smollett did.
The Left today is profoundly dishonest with itself. That is REAL stupidity to be dishonest with yourself.
And they are so conceited, they think they are INFALLIBLE in their doctrinaire intransigence.
Infidel says
The US and Russia should be friends, at least, if not allies, and Trump should purge all the Reagan era republicans who think that Vladimir Putin is Yuri Andropov. In 2016, Russia did not interfere in the elections: remember when Trump put out an ad showing Hillary barking like a dog and Putin chuckling in response? The Russians actually objected to being used in that way, which could mean one of 2 things – either that they were neutral in who won this, or pro-Hillary, given how emboldened they were during the Obama administration. Also, a packet analysis of hacks of the DNC server and others showed that the attacks did not come from Russia. Robert Mueller can say anything, assuming that he even read what was ostensibly ‘his’ report, but this is the same man who saw a whole bunch of innocent people from Martha Stewart to Roger Stone to jail. Essentially, this country’s Lavrenty Beria.
No, I don’t want the US to sell Eastern Europe down the Dnieper, but there are a lot of areas that the US and Russia could work together on. One thing that the US can do is break the relationship b/w Russia and China, which is currently totally one-sided in favor of China, by having tactical alliances w/ Moscow against China, Chechens, Turkey, and Russia’s Muslim adversaries, as well as cooperating in the International Space Station. Also, as in this case, co-operating in combating terrorism, and maybe making trade deals to export plenty of US products to Russia. The other upside of a friendship w/ Moscow is that Russia could be allowed to join NATO, and make it relevant again, and all countries, including the US, could spend less than 2% of their GDP on defense.
gravenimage says
Unfortunately, Moscow does not oppose Islamic Chechnya–instead, they allow Shari’ah on Russian soil there.
eduardo odraude says
The thing that makes Russia less dangerous than it was under communism is the absence of a coherent totalitarian ideology. Russia currently is an authoritarian nation whose ambitions are not camouflaged by some set of supposedly noble ideals. Its current ambitions appear more or less as naked nationalist self-interest. Islam is far more dangerous in part because Islam, in terms of the information/ideology battle space, is a totalitarian superpower with a fanatical religious ideology grounded in hundreds of volumes of sacred and quasi-sacred texts that work to capture and seduce minds and to hold them hostage. Communist Russia was dangerous for the same reason. Putin’s Russia, by contrast, cannot convert even a small part of the world to the impotent or barely known ideology that Putin and his government spins.
Infidel says
This is very true. Russia is an authoritarian regime, but not totalitarian. China, otoh, has morphed from an authoritarian regime that it was b/w Deng Xiaoping to Hu Jintao, to a totalitarian one under Xi Jinping. The removal of term limits for CPC General Secretaries to the leader for life is telling, and unlike Mao, Chairman Xi has weapons like Social Credits, a surveillance state, and a huge military-industrial infrastructure that makes the Pentagon’s Military-Industrial Complex look like a Silicon Valley Startup of the 90s.
As far as Islam goes, as noted, there’s now a 3-way race for the leadership of Islam. Iran is a totalitarian regime, but has little support outside the country: even Arab Shias are turning on them. Saudi Arabia is a totalitarian regime as well, but they do a good job playing both sides: on one hand, via the Muslim World League and the OIC, they push the right buttons on issues like ‘islamophobia’, while on a bilateral basis, they ally against groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, CAIR and others, making themselves look ‘moderate’. Turkey, in the meantime, is an authoritarian state but inching towards totalitarianism, which will be achieved whenever Erdogan follows in the footsteps of President Xi and makes himself president for life. And of the 3 blocs within Islam, the Turkish led one is the most dangerous, b’cos even historically, the Turks were the most aggressive Islamizing force in Asia, Europe and Africa – even more than the Arabs
gravenimage says
Good analysis, Eduardo and Infidel.
Infidel says
The best counter jihad alliance would be US, Russia, Israel and India, for starters. Other countries at the periphery of Islam, like Greece, Serbia, South Sudan, Thailand, Burma, Philippines, et al can join on to that.
tgusa says
Democrats loved the soviet union and later Putin, until Putin. I served during the cold war. In those days Americans were running around the world trying to counter the soviets at every turn. Review the list of cold war soviet vs us allies and then compare that to where we are today. Pretty weird. Back in the day Americans were patrolling for soviet ballistic missile submarines off the California coast to keep them at a distance in case of a soviet first strike. The timeline from launch to detonation, it wouldn’t have mattered for most Americans but they didn’t know that. I don’t see contemporary Russia in the same light.
The world has changed but statesmen have not yet adapted to the new world.
James says
As I remember, the Russian KGB warned Obama’s government about the Boston Marathan bombers. But the warning was ignored. If the Dems had cooperated with the Russians, we could have mutually fought against the jihadis and other terrorist groups. It would be impeachable not to use every offer of help and to not reciprocate. What do the Dems think? They always like Russia, at least when it was the Soviet Union in the Cold War. Obama said he would have more flexibility after the election, why did he not extend the cooperation into fighting the enemies of a a stable, peaceful world?
gravenimage says
+1
underbed cat says
Yes, I remember reading a letter that was posted in the opinion column of either the NYT’s or WSJ to the Obama administration about the Chechen brothers who visited Chechnya and returned to Boston. They were interviewed by the FBI and apparently were not considered a threat they were muslim, maybe it was their youth, didn’t appear dangerous, so they passed their interview. The letter may have been sent after the Benghazi attack as it had a smeared looking print of the palm of a hand. He wanted the U.S. to join Russia in fighting terrorists which under the CVE combination of extremists including the warnings of the KKK, or other white supremacists groups apparently they denied,if they were even asked, if they were interested in jihad. I think Putin knew it was a place of terrorism and wanted to warn the U.S.. and by the way there is a large population in St, Petersburg Russia, they have been occupying streets for prayer, until they forced Russia to allow a mosque in the city. Mosques are plentiful and surround oil centers of Texas as of 2000, and around Washington now I am sure there are more in every major city and remote rural towns. Misinformation campaigns work well, reality denied and unseen.
infidel says
Putin has almost eliminated the evil pest Jehaadis of Chechnya….Completely and silently destroyed them in KGB style all these years..
Infidel says
He just eliminated the separatists, but as gravenimage pointed out above, he’s allowed Chechnya to become a shariah republic within Russia’s borders.
Don’t get me wrong – I do want better relations w/ Russia, but they need to stop doing all those pro-Islamic things, like helping Iran evade sanctions, selling S-400 aircraft to Turkey (I want neither the West nor Moscow doing this) and disrupting their one sided relationship w/ China – which is more in favor of Beijing than Moscow
gravenimage says
Agreed, Infidel.
infidel says
As I have repeatedly said on this forum.. it is the Islamists who have Trojaned into the power structures of the USA, now completely hijacked the think tank of the DEMS,,, just like how they control the Labor party in the UK, and the Congress in India…. These parties are now dancing to the evil tunes of Jehaad….
WPM says
True both the UK labor and American Democrats have pushed a appease Moslems living in their countries also push for more Moslem to be brought .They see them as future voters for their appeasing Islam parties, remember the democratic party in America was once a top supporter the Jim Crow laws of the south to get votes back then at the turn of the century. To back enforce and make Sharia law make it the law of the land (when Islam becomes a big enough voting block) Democrats would sell their future grand kids future to stay in office today.