First Blog

Hate to sound pessimistic, but... Whenever anyone thinks they have a solution to the MIddle East, they are wrong. The biggest problem are a religion and leaders that seem willing to sacrifice its people en masse . It has leaders who simply wish arbitrary power with religious sanction. The USA and Europe are essentially unequipped to manage such conflicting desiderata. Europe has simply given up, but the USA continues to try. Expect little and you will not be disappointed. Trump is absolutely magnificent at commercial deals, but Middle East war is different. It is a place where power is everything, and religion is placed in its service. Or is it vise-versa? China, at least, views the world in terms of profit and power. This is not easy but easier. Human rights? Redistribution? Freedom of speech? Come on, already. Not there; never was; never will be. What the West does not realize is these modern Middle East leaders view themselves in historical terms.  At various

So let Angela Merkel make natural gas deals with Russia, personified by Vladimir Putin. Long term, it can only help the USA.  If she can pull the EU toward deals with Russia, then her own and the fundamental EU distrust of Russia can and will likely grow. Poor Angela, with her big pinkish balloon of a globalist world popped, must remain relevant. Historically, Russia has always had an imperial attitude toward every other country, but who cared. For the West, they were too far east to matter; for the East they were too far west.  Sure, they were cozy with France more than a century ago, mostly because the rich needed a cool place to shop. For a few decades in the last century, they enjoyed the power to exert power, their only emotion. Russia, in fact, does not know how to be a friend; even their “friends” don’t like them and certainly don’t trust them. With a Russia-Germany gas deal in place, the Russians, communist or imperialist, will eventually squeeze the busy, mostly har