Only delaying the inevitable. It is impossible to get such a stream of migrants under control once it got rolling without either turning children away at the border or paying someone else to prevent them from reaching your border in the first place (Mexico in the case of the U.S., Turkey and Morocco in the case of the EU).

Saying "do not come" will not have any effect as long as those who come in spite of this warning are given what they want (access to the U.S.).

https://asiatimes.com/2021/03/bidens-firing-squad-stands-in-a-circle/

Interesting article on the complete lack of coherency in Biden's foreign policy approach.

In short, the administration is trying to fight a war on 4 fronts (India, Europe, China, Russia) at once, without any hope of success, and is going so far as to drive Russia into the arms of the Chinese, cementing a Sino-Russian alliance.

In retrospect, it appears that Trump's approach was more correct. The Germans have no interest in holding back Russia, and we should not bear those costs for them. They'll need to face the consequences of their actions down the line. Given that Russian interests do not seriously conflict with those of the United States, the United States should turn its attention away from aggravating Russia (to no tangible benefit) and focus instead on separating the Russians from the Chinese.

The Chinese are the only state in existence today that is remotely close to presenting a serious military threat to the United States.

“in retrospect” is the only argument i have against this conclusion because it was clear to anyone during Trump’s administration that this was the correct course of action.

of course, our swamp demons and media’s idea of diplomacy is non-stop nation-building and warmongering, so they decried any tangible efforts at actual diplomacy

NATO is a long running scam on the American and European tax payers to fund the military industrial complex portions of the economy to falsely boost job numbers. The same is true for many military installations nationwide where we have no reason to be there. This has been true since the end of the Cold War, and honestly since long before. Between Gorbachev's no mas and the rise of China we've just pilfered the American pocket and ignored infrastructure, educational, and many other issues that are more complex in favor of printing bullets because it's easy.

It's easy to get ridiculous job growth when you're willing to sacrifice your future. That's been the modern world's mantra for at least 50 years. Stop with long-term spending that only pays dividends in 20 years and pump the fucking bubbles.

That's why in the 70's we were developing solar power and now China is the world leader in green energy of all sorts. It's why our primary and secondary education system sucks and our tertiary education system requires tens of thousands of dollars even if you go to a state school.

Anyway preaching to the choir.

OMG listening to his press conference is aids

what a disaster presser

Apparently

https://twitter.com/mzhemingway/status/1375153451483738116?s=21

https://nypost.com/2021/03/25/president-biden-seems-confused-at-times-during-press-conference/

I largely agree, except for one point: Germany is very much willing to stand up to Russia. Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Germany has been a leading force in Europe for imposing and keeping up hefty economic sanctions against Russia; sanctions which hurt a lot of Germany's business interests and which therefore are under a lot of fire from the German business community.

Germany (corretly!) does not see Russia as a military threat of a magnitude which would necessitate massive military spending. The country is nonetheless recognizing Russia as a geopolitical foe and fighting back against them with suitable measures. The combined military spending of France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Poland and the smaller European countries still far exceeds that of Russia, as does our industrial potential and manpower. As long as this is the case, increased military spending is not necssary to deter Russia from invading Europe.


edit: a good read on the issue of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and its implications:
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/18/how-one-european-pipeline-is-derailing-bidens-america-is-back-promise-476901

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Mar 25 2021 01:42pm

Uh, they absolutely do...what are you talking about? Russia is an adversarial nation and has become more aggressive since the end of the Bush administration. They seek to destabilize several regions that are our interest.

From a military perspective, neither country is a military threat and they both know that. China will use it's economic might, corporate espionage, etc. instead of military power. Russia will use it's world class psyops to force the US to focus on domestic policy instead of foreign policy.

Sanctioning India over the purchase of a Russian air defense system is an empty threat. If we're serious about isolating China, we will sell India superior equipment at a cheaper price and have the taxpayer foot the bill. IMO, that's worth it. As for Germany, we need to spend substantial diplomatic resources to repair our European relationships. This will take time but I understand Germany's desire to walk a fine line between Russia and the US. Germany doesn't see Russia as an adversary but the Germans are losing patience with Russia given their recent shenanigans (poisoning Navalany, aggressive Ukraine policy, etc.)

Trump's approach was complete garbage. Abandoning the TPP and imposing sporadic sanctions with mixed messaging on China was extremely sloppy. The Trump administration also played unnecessary hardball with our European allies. Our credibility with them is damaged and it's going to take substantial effort to repair those relationships. Trump was also extremely weak in terms of retaliating against Russian psyop and hacking campaigns against this country.