Dear Foxy,

Of course Trump wants to invite Putin to the White House, after all he was the person responsible for Trump gaining the presidency.

Dear Hasbeen,

You wrote;

“Foxy if you could just shed your left colours glasses for a moment, you might be able to see what a brilliant job Trump is doing for the average working class yank, as distinct from the elites.”

Bulldust and you know it.

Luckily for us you seem to be a superb judge of character. Scott Pruitt, the man you so lovingly shined the shoes of has been caught with his nose so deep in the trough, racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in first class travel, paying peppercorn rent for luxury living in a home owned by a prominent fossil fuel lobbyist, that he has redefined the meaning of the word 'swamp'.

You also wrote;

“Trump & Putin getting together is great. They are both very smart hard working people, who might find they, & their countries, have more in common than they have differences.”

I certainly agree with the last part but for the rest it is tripe. By Trump's own measure he is hardly hard working. He told the masses he was going to be “working for you, I'm not going to have time to go play golf”.

What a load of bollocks. Here is the real story;

http://trumpgolfcount.com/

Geez mate, you do have a bad case of the Cult of Trump don't you.

I agree with all of that Albie. The obsession with sport (mainly as spectators) is the one that irritates me. The buggers only spectate on life, too.

I suppose considering my ancestry - (parents fleeing
from communists, their family members being sent to
Siberia, and my uncle being murdered by the Red Army - he
was a high school kid and not involved in politics). So,
it's no wonder that - I am rather dubious
about anything to do with Mr Putin - whose recent
election was supposedly rigged. Of course it would be
lovely if world peace was to come about because of the
meeting of these two people - but deep down there's an uneasy
feeling of mistrust. I feel
the event will be used to Mr Putin's favour. Giving him a
shroud of respectability that he does not deserve.

George Bernard Shaw said, "I learned long ago never
wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig
likes it."

Nicolas Werth, French historian and one of the authors of
"Livre noir du communinisme" ("The Black Book of Communism"),
says the communists killed at least 100 million people in the
world. During his lecture at Vilnius University, he said
communism was born in Russia because this country had no
democratic experience. During many decades, one-third of the
planet's population lived under communist regimes. "The closer
the country was to the center of repression (Moscow), the more
the models of reression were similar to the Soviet ones:
public trials, tortures, killings, deportations," he said.

Virtually no one has been called to account for what was done.
The West has chosen to forget these horrors. Nothing of these
horrors is taught at schools there. There is no grand museum
in Washington, D.C., dedicated to those whose lives were
destroyed by the communists.

No Communist Party bosses in Russia have ever been made to pay
for their transgressions. Not one Labour camp commandant has
been forced to answer for his inhumanity. There is no talk of
reparations. The Kremlin objects whenever anyone raises
questions about the injustice of the past.

Can Mr Putin, an ex KGB officer really be trusted?
Perhaps Mr Trump should listen to his advisers.

cont'd ...

Before anyone praises Putin - they should read the book,

"The Man Without A Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir
Putin," by Masha Gessen. It's a chilling account of a
ruthless man.

Dear Foxy,

I loved that: "George Bernard Shaw said, "I learned long ago never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."

The puzzle is: in relation to Trump and Putin, which one is which ? I would revise that quote, replacing "pig" with "snake".

Yes, you're right about the constant Russian/Tsarist/Bolshevik/Putinesque grasp for power and empire. Every political change in Russia has been merely an overlay on that underlying obsession. Ivan, Piotr, Lenin, Stalin, Putin - variations on a common theme.

Russia is economically as relatively powerless now as it was maybe four hundred years ago: its economy is roughly no bigger than Italy's or even Australia's. Yet, I think, Putin will run rings around Trump: he will schmooze him, suck up to him, but wrap the infantile Trump around his little finger. So the leader of a piss-ant economy and society will shove it up the leader of 'the free world', who will love it.

Meanwhile, Xi's empire in China steams ahead, titting Trump's tariffs with tats of its own, or at least the threat of them, with Xi knowing that the US under Trump presents an easy mark. I wouldn't be surprised if, in a couple of years, most countries around the world will learn how to go around both Putin and Trump, who will be like dog-turds in a flooded gutter. Trump will drive the US into irrelevance. As for what Putin does to Russia, who cares ?

Love,

Joe

Dear Joe (Loudmouth),

Welcome back. I've missed your postings.

As for Russia's future? Don't get me wrong.
I'm not for one minute anti-Russian. It's the
regime.

And I do care about Russia's future.
I care very much. My gran (on my mother's side)
was Russian (from St. Petersburg). And one of
my daughter-in-laws, her background is Russian.
She was born in Australia. So you see there is
a family connection. A very strong one.

I hope that Mr Trump will be encouraged to listen
to his advisers this time (and not sack them).
And fingers-crossed that sanity will prevail.