"...Tucker Carlson Criticized for Saying 'Russia Poses No Threat to the United States At All'"

"If we're really being honest here, Russia poses no threat to the United States at all."

"Too many careers depend upon keeping our assumptions exactly where they were in the fall of 1977, when fighting the Soviet Menace consumed the lion's share of our federal budget," Carlson said.

"So here in Washington that's what we're doing. Our real fear is that the rest of America will at some point discover that the Soviet Union no longer exists," he continued.

Carlson went on to list things about Russia intended to minimize their power: an economy the size of Italy's, a military budget that is one-tenth of ours and an aircraft carrier "that needs to be towed around the ocean because it's broken."  Newsweek

------------

Yup.  It is true, pilgrims.  The USSR no longer exists.

For years after the fall of that communist monstrosity, Soviet specialist analysts in the IC used to sing at office Christmas parties in Washington that they were dreaming of "A Red Christmas Just Like The Ones They used to Know."  These characters had lived "high on the hog" since WW2.  They got the lion's share of everything, funds, attention, you name it.  Poor sods like me who specialized in regions where people actually fought each other with rusty rifles and machine guns were definitely the poor relatives come to town hat in hand.

And then, all of a sudden, the Soviet specialist people were essentially out of a job.  Or, at least, they were a hell of a lot less important.  The same thing happened to all the Iranian specialists when the Pahlavis went down.  Fortunately for me, my good old Arabs and other assorted ME scoundrels kept right on bashing and backstabbing each other while most of them sat on a great big puddle of oil.  That and the Zionist thing kept me well employed.

The Soviet guys needed a few years to rebound, but as Tucker says, they have done so by merchandising the notion that Russia = the USSR.  The two pomposities (Taylor and Kent) from the Foreign Service who testified yesterday made it very clear that their real bitch against Trump is that 1.  He thinks he can do business overseas without their bureaucratic intervention and 2.  He doesn't really accept the assumption that Russia is an indispensable and inevitable enemy.  Kent rather sadly said that it has been a basic assumption of his entire career that Russia is THE ENEMY.  The whole swamp is infected with group think to that effect.  In the case of the Foreign Service it is remarkable that such a group of soi-disant intellectuals and sophisticated veterans of the FOREIGN SERVICE EXAM should in truth be just another bunch of conformists seeking the approval of their colleagues.  But, then, that is how one gets promoted.

No, pilgrims, China is THE REAL ENEMY.  pl

https://www.newsweek.com/fox-news-tucker-carlson-criticized-saying-russia-poses-no-threat-united-states-all-1471681

Comments

[Herbert Ely]

All those nuclear weapons and missiles pose no threat at all?

[catherine]

China operates as a sovereign nation in its own interest.
The US operates as a International Shopping Bizarre where 30 pieces of silver buys economic, domestic and foreign policy.

China uses business deals to expand, the US use coups and war.

Change or lose is not hard to figure out.

[turcopolier]

Herbert Ely

Possession does not equal intent. The possession of these legacy weapons from the USSR is the biggest reason why we should try to have reasonable relations with Russia.

[turcopolier]

catherine

OK I will put you down as believing that China is a peaceful, benevolent country that is no threat to the US.

[Rick Merlotti]

But, but...some Demming said they are heroic heroes, these brave back-stabbing, careerist turds that do the hard work of sending other's sons and daughters to unnecessary, evil wars. While they climb the bureaucratic ladder. The pinnacle being considered #1 Russia Hater in all the IC land. Wreaths and Garlands for these brave psychopaths!

[catherine]

I don't think China is peaceful or benevolent.
I do think it is a threat as a 'competitor'
But....who is to blame for that?...who de-industrized the US, who turned US companies into multi nationals allowed to offshore and import back into the US with no penalty...who did away with protective quotas .....look right across the river from you, there they are.
So what is the solution? How does the Us get its mo jo back?

[Jim Ticehurst]

There are now around 5 million Chinese immigrants in the United States..Legal and Illegal..Most came in During the Bill and Hillary Clinton Years..and During the Barack Obama/Clinton Administration when they took Soft Noodle Foreign Policys to "Asia"that made Mao Do a Happy Dance...So..Mostof these Chinese Immigrants came to California ..San Francisco.and…..Silicon Valley for a Steath Coup of The Tech Industry...and The Other Majority of Chinese "Immigrants..are In and Around New York..for about 50% of total Chinese Immigration...According to Wiki.."Chinese Americans." most have No religion...and Most Vote DEMOCRAT..From British Columbia..(Cartels) Washington (Cartels) and California..They have Quite the "Import/Export" Business going..including enough Drugs across the Mexican Border..to KILL everyone in the United States...Yes...So Peaceful..They Love the United States..$$$$

[bwilli123]

Raise tariffs across the board. A reversal of the international Free Trade regime that brought us to this point. US allies, partners etc would need to be "encouraged" to do the same.
This would force China (and Asia) to focus more strongly on developing their internal markets.
This would be done by raising local wages (in order that the populace could afford the higher prices) Increase Governmental transfers to the general populace via Medical and Welfare benefits, and by reducing systemic subsidies to Exporters.

[Jim S]

We are still the clear and present danger to Russia. If the President triumphs over the establishment--as seems likely--he'll have room to begin normalizing relations with Russia as he's promised, but that's still an if. If you feel as I do that the establishment's rhetoric against Russia belies deadly intent you must realize that if it succeeds in ousting Trump we will quickly find ourselves overlooking the chasm of war--in fact we are only two steps from hell as it is.

As for China, I'm willing to believe that V. Putin understands that "my enemy's enemy is my friend" is conditional upon knowing well your enemy's enemy (something that some commentators don't seem to grasp), and fostering anti-communism as he does has no illusions about the CCP. Unless China casts an envious eye northwards, however, I would be willing to leave tomorrow's problems for tomorrow too. Perhaps Patrick Armstrong will shed some light on Russian thinking here.

[Jim S]

Oops, "belies" ought to be "accurately conveys". My excuse for my poor English is that I'm an American.

[Phodges]

I believe Catherine's point is that US elites are to blame. And only US elites can fix our problems.

[Seamus Padraig]

But....who is to blame for that?...who de-industrized the US, who turned US companies into multi nationals allowed to offshore and import back into the US with no penalty...who did away with protective quotas .....look right across the river from you, there they are.

So true!

[Guest]

Why does the US believe it has the right to dominate the western Pacific Ocean at the expense of China's trade and military presence? World War II has been over for a long time.

[Vernon C.]

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.” —Upton Sinclair

[Tom Bergbusch]

Kids in the Hall -- Communism

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83tnWFojtcY

[CK]

Whose? Ours?

[prawnik]

The military industrial complex needs a Big Enemy in order to justify its lavish budgets.

The spooks need a Big Enemy in order to justify Big Brother keeping an eye on you, interfering in elections, and so forth.

The 1% need a Big Enemy because otherwise the citizens might start clamoring for reform or asking why they can't have nice things, and paying for those nice things might take money out of rich people's pockets. "We don't have time for that now! Don't you know there's a war on? We have to fight Saddam/Milosevic/Bin Laden/ISIS/Assad/Putin/Xi whatever and then maybe we can talk about education or something..."

China doesn't make a good Big Enemy, because there are too many critical trade ties that might otherwise be disrupted and that would cause all kinds of chaos in rich people's accounts and corporate supply chains and not only. So Russia it is.

[prawnik]

Kolomoiskii was making a threat, but he has no intention of carrying it out.

If he were to do so, expect western prosecutors to take a sudden interest in his activities and start freezing his assets, expect the IMF to hold up the latest aid tranche as a result of its dissatisfaction with Ukraine's anticorruption efforts, expect a Maidan 3.0 or a coup.

Kolomoiskii is simply trying to get come concessions.

[English Outsider]

I have just been watching Steve Bannon on this.  He points out that a "Free Trade" USA up against a Mercantilist China is no contest. He asserts that Trump is attempting to redress the balance, strongly opposed by American interest groups  whose business model depends on cheap labour.

All this was implicit in that supremely important 2016 American Presidential election campaign.  It was then and there that this question was articulated and fought over.   The similar "populist" movements we see in Europe - Brexit or the dissident Continental "populist" movements - largely failed to articulate these problems or even to develop the terms in which these problems can be discussed in the political arena.

That was unfortunate because this is obviously not solely an American problem.  It is the central problem the West faces. Western countries, if they are to be governed in the interests of their peoples rather than in the interests of their elites, cannot compete with cheap labour, whether that cheap labour is obtained by unrestricted immigration or by outsourcing.

Setting aside the ideological stuff (a big ask!) any government is the sum of the pressures exerted on it by interest groups.  A German asparagus farmer will go out of business if he insists on using German labour.  He must use cheap imported labour to survive because his competitors do.  An entire sector thus becomes dependent for its survival on cheap labour.

That sector has far more political clout than the scattered individual German workers - who may not even know why they are priced out of that labour market, or who believe it's an inevitable and therefore unstoppable process.

The same mechanism operates for, say, the fruit industry in the southern USA.  Scaled up, it operates for the steel industry - for just about any industry or sector that is not protected.  And there are few of those.

Automation tightens the screws on the process.  A paint shop that used to employ three hundred now runs on robots and a dozen or so workers.  Trouble is, once home industry has been gutted that paint shop itself is more likely to be located abroad - and, naturally, its equipment and maintenance supply chain.

Our get out from this destructive process used to be comparative advantage.  Western countries could produce goods - and services - that were well beyond the ability of other countries to produce.  But the areas of high tech and IT and even financial services that used to be almost exclusively a Western preserve are no longer so.  Ricardo is dead.  His model depends on each individual country being able to do something better and cheaper than any other.  When we tend to no Western country being able to do that - we're obviously not there yet but it's going that way - then comparative advantage fails to act as a mechanism leading to increased prosperity for all.

It needs no political conspiracy therefore, no behind the scenes machinations of the elites, to set a Western country to auto self destruct.  It happens of itself once the framework is established.  Once the various sectors and therefore interest groups require decay for their survival then that decay is as inevitable as water flowing downhill.

If China is a problem (for a multiplicity of reasons I believe it could become one, to itself as well as to us) then simply by holding to a destructive economic model we are furnishing it with the materials to make it a more severe problem.

I've also been watching the inimitable Ann Coulter.  Her scathing criticisms of President Trump and his administration are no doubt well aimed and justified.  Tell me of any politician or administration that is not similarly open to criticism.  But those criticisms are beside the point.  Unless Trump, alone of all major Western statesmen, manages to hold to the points he articulated so powerfully in that key election in 2016, we can forget about this or that country posing a danger to stability.  The Western countries will be too rotted out themselves to have any say in the matter.

[Jane]

Note that Carlson has the ONLY program in the MSM American media that hosts genuine [and most contrarian] Russia scholar Stephen Cohen. Check out his book that goes through the Russia or dangerous enemy theory and debunks it thoroughly. He speaks the language fluently and spent years of his life over yonder.

Carlson also has the ONLY show that provides a respectful forum for Tulsi Gabbard to explain her ideas and defends her against the Clintonistas shameful charges against her.

[RenoDino]

Russia is the enemy in the sense they can destroy us before we can destroy them. This state of affairs is unacceptable because it calls into question our status as the world's only Super Power. It also makes them impervious to our desire to overthrow their current regime, freezing in place the current stalemate. Our only alternative is to plunge into proxy wars on their border, regardless of the risk or the cost, not only for the sake of our security, but for the international corporations that drive our market-driven foreign policy. Until the world greatest land mass (Russia) and the world's largest population (China) submit to our complete domination of their markets and their resources, we have no alternative but to pursue a policy of their utter destruction. There's a reason self-help books sit at the top of the non-fiction charts. Everyone needs a dogma, and this is ours.

[oldman22]

" what Putin came to power to do was to modernize Russia, and that does not involve a cold war with the West. Period. End of story. That’s his mission. He wants to go down in history as the man who did this. Cold war, not to mention hot war, is spoiling what he sees as his mission."

Stephen F Cohen

more here:
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/13/ukrainegate-impeachment-saga-worsens-us-russia-cold-war/

[Fred]

Guest,

If the meme "China is right about Islam" ever gets traction perhaps the free press would do some investigating and you'll have an opportunity to develop a different perspective.

[Mark Logan]

catherine,

The American consumers, which buys the cheapest whenever possible. There is now, I believe, no turning back. Industry has been off-shored, the horse has left the barn. Unless the American consumers are willing to pay several times the prices they now see on the shelves at WalMart and like-such stores due to taxes. The myth that China is paying the tariffs is not going to hold for long.

The globalists believed this process, the process of the rest of the world "catching up" inevitable, and they also believed that in time the workers in China, Mexico, SE Asia, et al would demand a higher standard of living which would someday make the US competitive again. They even believed that the US would be intrinsically better structured than most to compete on this hoped-for level playing field. It's not utterly void of logic. Better hope not, anyway.

[Fred]

Mark,

The offshoring did not produce price reductions that would need offsetting by "several times" the current prices. The "myth" is that Americans "need" a new version of a durable good just because it is advertised as bigger or better. Individual Americans aren't going to suffer by using last year's tv, washing machine or phone.