You cannot trust them "Ruskies" | Eastern North Carolina Now

    'You cannot trust them Ruskies' is not breaking news. Give me a frigging break, we have a long history of working with the Russians on some matters and opposing them in other matters. There is a huge difference between offending a country and obliterating them. I sometimes wonder why the Liberals equate the two on one hand and then lecture us about 'agreeing to disagree' on the other hand. There is a continuum between outright enemy through opponent to ally. While there may have been a time when we were in mortal fear of the Communist threat, we have learned to neutralize the threat to some extent.

Alan Arkin, the Russians are Coming video link
   In 1962 when the world was on the BRINK OF NUCLEAR WAR over the Cuban missile crisis, we had backdoor channels to the Russian government. The crisis was de-escalated because of private negotiations with contacts who had access to Russian leadership. JFK was hailed as a great leader for avoiding war by secretly negotiating with the Russians. There was a movie in 1966 which made fun of the paranoia surrounding the Russian threat. Facts are one thing but paranoia is entirely another matter. Anyone or group that hypes fear and paranoia without facts is not helpful to the international community.


1966 The Russians are Coming Movie
    It is not a secret that both the Russians and USA often advise each other of maneuvers so there is no misunderstanding on the military movements of both governments. I have a friend in the submarine service who has told me unclassified stories of the cat and mouse games that each fleet of nuclear submarines play against one another.

    So if you cannot trust them Russians as we are now being told why are we putting astronauts lives on the line at the International Space Station in full co-operation with the Russians. There is probably no more complicated relationship than the mutual teamwork required by thousands of people in the space arena.    NASA International Space Station

   Three Russians, two Americans and one French astronauts currently share the space station.


    Here are the NASA links to the Bio of the current crew: Andrey Borisenko- Russian
Shane Kimbrough - American
Sergey Ryzhikov - Russian
Thomas Pesquet- French
Peggy Whitson - American
Oleg Novitskiy - Russian
    While we are demonizing the Russians in the press, we are at the same time cooperating with them in space. Perhaps this is a tempest in a teapot. If we intend to make Putin an enemy, perhaps someone needs to tell President Obama that so he can get our astronauts back down to earth before the war starts. He will have to get the Russians to bring them back because we no longer have the capability to do it since the Shuttle has been retired.

    All nations spy on each other, friend, and foe alike, as we should. Secrets are secrets because they are secret. Anyone who has a secret should be smart enough to prevent others from finding out their secrets. Even the United States has spied on allies and enemies alike. Grow up people. Back when we actually had adults running the country there was a prase used to set the tone. "TRUST BUT VERIFY."

    With all the hubbub about the Fake News, why won't someone tell us what specific details were fake and what was real. We celebrated Woodward and Bernstein for publishing leaked information on the front pages of the Washington Post. They kept Deep Throat's identity secrete until he died. It brought down a sitting president. When Wikileaks did the same thing on the internet, it brought down a candidate for presidential office. We know who published the leaks and where they came from. What we do not know is how Julian Assange got the information. We can be pretty sure he did not get it in a parking lot in Washington DC in the middle of the night. Is there a difference between these two scenarios?

    One thing you can say about the Russians is that they are predictable and responsible with their control of the WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, which they possess. That is a damn site better than us playing footsie with the Iranians who are anything but predictable or responsible.

    If he is wrong about everything else he has said and done, Donald Trump is at least right about one thing. We should put AMERICA FIRST in our dealings with the world. Every other country in the world does that with their own interest. I guess one of the news channels hit on a nerve with me. This latest brouhaha about hacking is nothing more than politics. Both sides play these games and we should expect it and make provisions accordingly. I am in favor of a full investigation into the hacking and if we can find out who and how it was done, there should be grave consequences both for individuals and countries that participated in the hacking. If for no other reason we should try to find out how to prevent the hacking in the future. That is separate matter from the information disclosed from someone or group that is too damn dumb to insure the privacy and security of emails when communicating over commercial networks.

I feel better now, Class dismissed.