.
You sound like that Big Red Car. America has needed this kind of leadership for a long time.

A big man on a horse leaning forward in his saddle.

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

I am one of those who missed just how small Russia is. Never realized that without the nukes, they are Italy.

I think that they respectfully adore Trump. They like his strength, style, and in a tribal sort of way, they know who’s boss and who has the real power. Maybe throw in some billionaire, old white guy respect too. Putin probably wishes that he had the cajonies to work a press conference like Trump did. If they are smart, they will bend their knee and really dig for a mutually beneficial relationship.

Trump knows his power. And Putin dam well knows that he knows.

It’s all going to work out, I just know it.

Yup, sounds like the right, short answer.

Why did we ever let Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania into NATO? Nuts.

Gee, I believe I should like Latvia: The janitor at Mom’s Episcopalian church was an immigrant from Latvia. There he had been a successful banker, bright guy, nice guy, terrific socially, knew lots of languages, seemed to know English perfectly.

At the time I was in high school trying to learn French and failing at it. In college, I did well with German from a teacher who taught in order reading, speaking, and writing — worked great for me. In high school the teacher taught French in the order writing, reading, and speaking almost not at all — tough for me then, and now I would again use the order reading, speaking, then writing.

My brother had done well with French from the same high school teacher but didn’t offer to help me. My father had done well with French in college, e.g., read Les Misérables in the original French, but also didn’t offer to help me.

The struggles with French are one reason I did well with math: I wanted to do well at something, and I could, and did, teach myself math enough to be one of the best, maybe the best, in the school, a high end high school, largely ignoring the math teachers.

The guy from Latvia at Mom’s church offered to help me with French, but I was too embarrassed to accept his help. I should have and then learned a LOT more about people, countries, cultures, politics, etc. My parents should have encouraged that, but they didn’t.

My father in law in Indiana sponsored a couple from Latvia. Soon the husband died. The wife did amazing things with dough, onions, pork fat, beef stock, beef and, in various pastries, chocolate. She described my role with my wife as “Spank, spank, kiss, kiss” — wisdom of central Europe!

I can like Lithuania if only because IIRC Elina Garancas as in Camille Saint Saens “Mon coeur s’ouvre à ta voix” from Samson et Dalila.

at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X79OkSayPSw

was raised and trained in Lithuania.

For the point about NATO, sure, the first view is that NATO is to keep Russia from invading Europe.

While I can agree with that view, I also have what is apparently an additional non-standard view of the flip side: NATO keeps the fundamentally unstable Europe of many countries from having one or a few of those countries go wacko and attack more or less single country Russia.

Europe tries to be the United States of Europe, but they fall over their own bureaucratic bloat and hypersensitive, socialistic political correctness and lose it. So, Europe remains fundamentally unstable.

The Baltic Sea looks like maybe a nice place to visit: So, have the Baltic countries to visit. IIRC, early in his career, R. Wagner conducted orchestras there, e.g., in Riga. Then on the NW side of the Baltic Sea are the Scandinavian countries — lots of pretty, blond girls! Also supposedly the Swedish Bikini Team!

Apparently at the NE end of the Baltic Sea is Saint Petersburg with a big art gallery and the Kirov Ballet in the Mariinsky Theatre as in The Nutcracker as at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtLoaMfinbU

Best performance of that I’ve seen — big Christmas present.

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-nearly-800-former-epa-officials-oppose-trump-pick-for-agency-2017-2

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

.
DJT has to get his people in place and have them get control of the apparatus.

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

.
The Force is strong with you, Grasshopper.

Everybody seems to miss that Russia is a very small country. Twice the land mass of the US and half the population but less than ten percent of the GDP and more than half of it is energy.

The relative size of their economy is their Achilles heel.

I bet Pres Trump understands the relative sizes — big hands — and is not afraid to increase the ante. That is exactly what Reagan did to break the bank.

The Russians want a “sphere of influence” and NATO has pushed against that sphere of influence. Why did we ever let Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania into NATO? Nuts. I don’t want to go to war (Article 5, the Atlantic Charter) over a country that has less than 5,000 men under arms.

These are not strategic allies. They offer nothing.

The only thing that makes Russia relevant is their nuclear arsenal. If they didn’t have nukes, they would be Italy.

The G7 (US, UK, Germany, France, Canada, Italy, Japan) has a GDP of $36T while Russia is down in the $1.3T range down from a 2013 GDP of $2.2T.

Russia is in economic and financial peril at a time when they are trying to be a big swinging hammer (cleaned up for he audience). This is why Putin rides around without his shirt on.

BRC
http://www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

That situation is worse and more complicated than I was addressing.

For a fix, first would be to have a chat with the NSA guy, right, the one the head of the big collection of buildings a few long tee shots east from Laurel, MD where my wife and I used to live. In those days, in that area, on the way home from work, going up a long hill, I used to check out my Camaro and its full throttle shift from 2nd to 3rd — right at 100 MPH!

Step 1: Get the NSA guy and make it clear that he will under no circumstances tap the phone of the POTUS without specific, prior, written, signed instructions from the POTUS. Uh, IIRC, the POTUS is the Commander in Chief, and the NSA is in the Executive Branch.

Step 2: The head of the NSA is to mount a leaks effort within the NSA.

For what Snowden did, that showed that the NSA’s computing super experts were drooling fools: Snowden was just a Booz-Allen-Hamilton temporary contract employee, bottom level worker bee, computer systems administrator. That he had such easy access to the crown jewels of the NSA is outrageous. Grotesque incompetence. That he long got away with getting a huge variety of information is worse — the NSA system was designed by idiots, i.e., with poor compartmentalization. That there was no routine checking for such leaks was also brain dead — when I was in DC, any office in any shop with classified information had some special file cabinets, thick steel wall, lined with concrete, a bit too heavy to move, withstand any usual hand tools, etc., and those cabinets were to be used. Each night the office was swept by inspecting trash, desk contents, etc. looking for any classified information. They were thinking paper, but computer systems need at least something similar.

So, the NSA needs to plug leaks in their organization. This leak stopping should include generating a LOT of false information intended to detect leaks.

Step 3: Call in the head of Langley, i.e., the CIA, and read him the riot act to do leak stopping there.

Step 4: You mean to say that there people in the State Department permitted to play with computers, are trusted with information more serious than meatloaf recipes? Looks like Tillison needs to cut that off and let it bleed. What the heck was it, 90+% of the State Department employees contributed to Hillary’s campaign? We have the actual list, right? Okay, now that we have the list, time for a RIF. or in DC terms, reduction in force, and we have just the list we need.

There is the principle need to know, and no way do any desks in Foggy Bottom need to know anything confidential the POTUS said without specific exception.

Generally any rats in DC need to come to understand that anything they touch might be toxic, that is, false information intended to detect leaks, etc.

E.g., for the IRS, send in a lot of applications for tax free status from organizations that look like they are against motherhood and apple pie and for everything seditious and wildly politically incorrect, then string up the relevant person at IRS if the applications are not approved.