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Well, Neville Biden has had his say on the new Sudentenland...and did nothing substantial.
We have done nothing much substantial on Russia for six years. We've just seen one party electioneer on the subject and the other play defense. Then, when the Biden admin came in they cut our petroleum production while lifting the Trump Admin. sanctions that had stopped Nordstream II, well, it couldn't have worked out better for old Vlad. He's actually making money off us right now due to oil shooting up to around $100.00 a barrel.
So what could have tough guy Joe have done.
Toughest: Begin a coordinated international campaign to crash the price of oil. It worked against the Soviet Union and would work again; of course the enviro crowd and the other simpatico radicals will never stand for that one and they rule the Democrats right now. If not we could go back to the energy policies of 2000 when we were independent energy wise and in a position to at least mitigate Europe's energy needs at the same time. That's unacceptable to the enviros too. At least we could repudiate our deal with Putin to buy his oil at the rate of 100,000 barels per day. We can't look serious doing that. That would increase the price of retail fuel substantially and I see no way the Democrats, looking at a political wipe out, will pay the political price from that either.
Next Toughest: Actually hurting them in the international banking system. Sanctioning a couple of more Russian banks and several individuals is worthless. Seriously hurting their ability to transfer money internationally would really bite. Cutting them off or severely limiting them from the Swift Banking System would be economically devastating but we can't do that alone and it would take some really serious negotiating/arm twisting to get that done.
Finally and at least symbolic: Get NATO to look serious about defense. The biggest economy in Europe, Germany isn't a serious military player. You can't seriously oppose Russian expansionism with shell militaries.
One other thing. I've heard several people in the media who have delt with Putin the past, who say something has snapped with that guy, and that he has changed substantially in the past five years and not for the better. If nothing else, he's 73 and knows the clock is running on his legacy as the current Autocrat of all the Russians.
My devalued $.02
We have done nothing much substantial on Russia for six years. We've just seen one party electioneer on the subject and the other play defense. Then, when the Biden admin came in they cut our petroleum production while lifting the Trump Admin. sanctions that had stopped Nordstream II, well, it couldn't have worked out better for old Vlad. He's actually making money off us right now due to oil shooting up to around $100.00 a barrel.
So what could have tough guy Joe have done.
Toughest: Begin a coordinated international campaign to crash the price of oil. It worked against the Soviet Union and would work again; of course the enviro crowd and the other simpatico radicals will never stand for that one and they rule the Democrats right now. If not we could go back to the energy policies of 2000 when we were independent energy wise and in a position to at least mitigate Europe's energy needs at the same time. That's unacceptable to the enviros too. At least we could repudiate our deal with Putin to buy his oil at the rate of 100,000 barels per day. We can't look serious doing that. That would increase the price of retail fuel substantially and I see no way the Democrats, looking at a political wipe out, will pay the political price from that either.
Next Toughest: Actually hurting them in the international banking system. Sanctioning a couple of more Russian banks and several individuals is worthless. Seriously hurting their ability to transfer money internationally would really bite. Cutting them off or severely limiting them from the Swift Banking System would be economically devastating but we can't do that alone and it would take some really serious negotiating/arm twisting to get that done.
Finally and at least symbolic: Get NATO to look serious about defense. The biggest economy in Europe, Germany isn't a serious military player. You can't seriously oppose Russian expansionism with shell militaries.
One other thing. I've heard several people in the media who have delt with Putin the past, who say something has snapped with that guy, and that he has changed substantially in the past five years and not for the better. If nothing else, he's 73 and knows the clock is running on his legacy as the current Autocrat of all the Russians.
My devalued $.02
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