Hi Bazz,

Hungary, Muslim until 1918 ? That would have surprised many Hungarians, including my late step-grandfather who left post-revolutionary Hungary in 1919 in a hurry. History books suggest that the Ottomans ruled Hungary only until 1699, to the relief of the Hungarians.

Try this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Hungary

I'm not so sure about your maxim: sometimes the enemy of my enemy is just another enemy. The world can be full of them sometimes, or so it seems. There's no reason though why it should be A or B, either/or.

In Syria, for example, (and we've been over this many times), the enemies of democracy include ISIS, the Russians, the Iranians, Assad, Sunni tribal reactionaries and their Saudi backers, and god knows who else, all mostly fighting each other too. A snake-pit of enemies, if anything.

Joe

Being generally incompetent is not a criminal offense, otherwise Krudd and Juliar would be languishing in jail.

Hi SM,

No, but it sure as hell knocks the daylights out of the chances of Trump backers getting re-elected in next year's mid-terms. It clearly creates a lot of damage to US's international relations, not to mention security arrangements. And frankly, it is making the US a laughing stock.

I hope that Trump lasts at least until the end of the year, to give his 'policies' time to play out, to give him time to commit yet more outrageous gaffes, to perform yet more flip-flops, and to abandon yet more of his supporters to the wolves [watch what may happen to Reibus].

But it must be crossing a few Republican minds that, "if it is to be done, 'tis better that it be done quickly". Their careers hinge on it.

Interesting times, as the Chinese say.

Cheers,

Joe

Hi Cheerful,

Sorry, I can't let that go: Putin is as imperialist as Lenin and Stalin ever were - in fact, they all see/saw themselves as rightfully controlling the old Tsarist Empire, and continuing its enlargement.

After the October Revolution, Lenin and the Bolsheviks were keen to keep the old Empire intact, and under Russian control. So they fought against Polish and Finnish independence, invading both countries within weeks of the Revolution. And getting their arses kicked by both: freedom is a great motivator.

'Socialist' regimes rarely ever give captive regions independence: witness China's brutal control of Tibet and Sinjiang. Come to think of it, witness their 1962 war against India, for control of slices of north-east Assam and Kashmir (the Aksai Chin). And their war against Vietnam in 1979. Where, again, they got their arses kicked.

Nor do 'socialist' countries love each other madly: apart from China-Vietnam, there have been battles between Soviet and Chinese forces along the Amur, back in about 1969-1972. Stalin tried to wrest control of Sinjiang (Eastern Turkestan) from war-ravaged China in the mid-forties. He also proposed to the Czech president Benes in 1938 that Russian troops could occupy eastern Czechoslovakia to protect it from Nazi invasion, according to the journalist George Geddes, in his 'Fallen Bastions'. Benes knocked I'm back.

So Putin is simply following in Russia's historical footsteps: from the Tsars to the Bolsheviks to the kleptocrats of today, that transition has been almost unavoidable. So Putin will not let up on Ukraine, he might have a go at the Baltics, perhaps even Poland; he (or his successor) will clash with the imperialist dreams of Turkey's Erdogan and Iran's rulers to control Central Asia, and with China too, over the same territory. That might be the War of the 2020s [you heard it here first]. Imperialist notions never seem to die.

Cheers,

Joe

Trump's first budget proposals have been announced, including a cut in the food stamps program. If his health care program gets through the Senate, that will cut services to twenty million poorer Americans.

Jobs will come back to the US, but not in the form in which they 'left': much more robotics, automation and demand for technologically-skilled workers. Not much there for miners and farm labourers. And perhaps more in munitions production than renewed mining, the Saudis want armaments more than they want coal.

Oh well, when Trump expels millions of illegal immigrants out of the fields of green, millions of unemployed Americans can take their places.

And when he eventually imposes those taxes on Chinese imports, and Walmart's customers find they will be paying more for those goods, they may not appreciate fully what he is doing to make America great again.

Then there's tax cuts, proposed for some Americans.

Perhaps Trump and his billionaire colleagues are doing everything they possibly can to help America's poorest and unemployed, according to a cunning plan, a long-term program to lift everybody back into a full-production economy, and towards American prosperity for all. Or perhaps not.

Joe

Ahhh Loudmouth you are right. The end of the war in 1918 freed a
number of countries including Greece. Other Balkan countries were
freed at that time.
Something I was not aware was that at one time the moslems invaded
Poland. The French were lucky they were able to defeat the moslems
at Tours or they may have had hundreds of years of Islam.

I think the British have taken note hence Brexit.
Not for the first time they will bless the Channel.