Half-baked Alaska
More Trumped up nonsense
Baked Alaska. Yuummy.
The upcoming Putin-Trump meeting in Alaska is the talk of the media – both mainstream and "alternative".
Anchorage
What amazes me is that a lot of people think this is a serious event, rather than just another media production, a kind of trailer for a series that will never happen – America 2.0. which is also known as Trump's America. It is not really different from Biden's America a show for which there are no sponsors, other than Raytheon and Lockheed maybe. Desperate Housewives is more interesting.
It's as if nobody really pays attention to what is happening geopolitically around the world-- or, in the case of the US, not happening. They just switch the channel. Ummm….Desperate Housewives.
What? That’s off the air! Oh, how awful.
Media Planning
Believe me—for years I planned media events, including very large ones in the Middle East and elsewhere. This show in Alaska is a waste of time.
In effective media events, the speeches are not important.
What is important is what has already happened behind the scenes – agreements, arrangements, dollars and cents stuff – if you like, hidden content—in which case the razzmatazz is just the culmination of detailed negotiations and agreements, of substantive policies enacted – so the “show” is celebratory.
In the case of the Trump Show in Alaska, there is nothing to celebrate. No underlying content. In fact, nothing to talk about. The “ideas” he and his “team” have mentioned so far are based on false facts and un-reason and rejected multiple times, vague and unrealistic. .
Therefore, there can be no agreements in Alaska,There have been no negotiations so far—just Trump huffing and puffing— and there won’t be anything like serious discussion this time.
It is not that there is no understanding on the part of the Americans as to what the Russians want and what is necessary to end the conflict – they know – they've been told enough times. But the refuse to accept the harsh reality of their situation because it contradicts a cultural narrative – America as Number One.
Alaska? Just another photo-op for Trump.
The Russians don’t care.
Every day, Russian forces kill more Ukrainian soldiers as they advance in Russian Ukraine, liberating one village or town after another. Demilitarization. Denazification. And, it seems, Depopulation.
The Kremlin has responded to American attempts at nuclear bullying — they are now deploying their forces in Europe, with submarine forces already around the US, so they can respond to provocations very fast – with hypersonic strikes, first conventional, and then nuclear, if necessary. The now have more nuclear submariens at sea than the Americans.
The US is simply out-classed at all levels.
Trump says Alaska is a good meeting place because it's close to Russia and used to belong to Russia Hmmmm…..
Is it also appropriate because the entire West Coast of the US including California, Oregon, Washington and Alaska is within range of Oreshnik missiles?
The silliness of this summit that is not a summit should be obvious.
There is nothing that Trump can say in Alaska that would be meaningful to the Russians or affect the current conflict — unless the US was willing to withdraw all support for Ukraine and NATO countries threatening Russia, and withdraw their forces from Europe completely, tacitly admitting America is a co-belligerent.
Trump is not going to agree to that that because :
it would be un-American
most of the American public don’t “do reality”.
Once Trump craters the US economy, of course, things may change. It needs Russia more than Russia needs it.
"American" may become a term of derision even in the US, as it is in many countries.
Right now, the West (the US and the EU) claims the SVO is damaging the Russian economy and the US can do further damage with tariffs. It has been saying this for a long time. 1
But… (LOL)
Russia is on a roll, having survived thousands of sanctions.
Despite a challenging international landscape, Russia’s GDP has been demonstrating an annual growth rate of over four percent over the past two years, which is above the global average.
Regarding the structure of this growth, let me share a specific indicator with you – the so-called non-oil-and-gas GDP. It excludes sectors related to hydrocarbon production. In 2023, Russia’s non-oil-and-gas GDP increased by 7.2 percent, followed by an additional 4.9 percent, or almost five percent, in 2024. These are solid figures exceeding the overall GDP growth rates.
In other words, commodities no longer play a defining role in Russia’s economic growth patterns. Moreover, the contribution of the commodities sector is even negative currently.
By the way, defence manufacturing was not the only driver of our overall GDP growth, as some may believe. Of course, it did play a role in this regard, but we must keep a close eye on the way this growth has been structured.
Over the past two years, the top performing industries have included agricultural production, manufacturing in general, the construction industry, logistics, services, finance and the IT sector, covering almost all the key, essential segments of the national economy. Vladimir Putin. Plenary session of St Petersburg International Economic Forum
Europe is collapsing fast, and the US will soon follow…. They don’t have a lot of leverage. Nothing much to offer anybody, really - although the fishing is good in Alaska.
To misquote JFK.
”Ask now what Russia can do for you, America, think what you can do for it.”
All Putin is doing in Alaska is demonstrating to the world that he is a negotiator, willing to talk and reason and seek reasonable compromise—even with the most irrational people and when nothing will come of it.
But with Trump, there is no reasonable compromise available so the war must continue until Western Ukraine surrenders unconditionally. At which point, Trump may get his Nobel.
The US will then continue its war on the world until it too must surrender— unconditionally-- or simply collapse. I am not sure which comes first.
Sorry to say, America — the world doesn’t need you anymore. Nobody loves ya’.
Ichi Supervised this article
So please buy him a coffee so he can keep up the good work.
These coffees will also help me finish my now book length special article, which when finished will be about 20,000 words, divided into three sections.
Thanks, that's what I think! Maybe President Putin will just repeat politely, simply, and probably at length (he may realize Trump's attention span is limited - so at lesser length) what the problems with Ukraine actually are, what has already been said. They may even talk about a security umbrella for Eurasia, maybe even talk about restarting talks about nuclear weapons. Maybe they may even go fishing but I don't think Trump does fishing - for fish.
I was fascinated by the diagram showing *projected* reductions in Russia's imports and exports for... 2022.
Do those people know that 2022 is in the past?