© Paul Ellis/Pool/Getty ImagesUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shakes hands Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda
NATO Summit โข July 12, 2023 โข Vilnius, Lithuania
Biden's anxieties over the Ukraine War and the election in 2024 come into view...
Let's start with a silly fear but one that does signal the Democratic Party's growing sense of panic about the 2024 Presidential election. It was expressed to me by someone with excellent party credentials:
that Trump could be the Republican nominee and will select Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his running mate. The strange duo will then sweep to a huge victory over a stumbling Joe Biden, and also take down many of the party's House and Senate candidates.
As for real signs of acute Democratic anxiety: Joe Biden got what he needed before the NATO summit this week by somehow turning Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inside out and getting him to rebuff Vladimir Putin by announcing that he would support NATO membership for Sweden. The
public story for Biden's face-saving coup was talk about agreeing to sell American F-16 fighter bombers to Turkey.
I have been told a different, secret story about Erdogan's turnabout: Biden promised that a
much-needed $11-13 billion line of credit would be extended to Turkey by the International Monetary Fund. "Biden had to have a victory and Turkey is in acute financial stress," an official with direct knowledge of the transaction told me. Turkey lost 100,000 people in the earthquake last February, and has four million buildings to rebuild.
"What could be better than Erdogan" โ under Biden's tutelage, the official asked, "finally having seen the light and realizing he is better off with NATO and Western Europe?"
Reporters were told, according to the
New York Times, that Biden called Erdogan while flying to Europe on Sunday. Biden's coup, the
Times reported, would enable him to say that Putin got "exactly what he did not want: an expanded, more direct NATO alliance." There was no mention of bribery.
A June
analysis by Brad W. Setser of the Council on Foreign Relations, "Turkey's Increasing Balance Sheet Risks," said it all in the first two sentences โ
Erdogan won re-election and "now has to find a way to avoid what appears to be an imminent financial crisis." The critical fact, Setser writes, is that Turkey "is on the edge of truly running out of usable foreign exchange reserves โ and facing
a choice between selling its gold, an avoidable default, or swallowing the bitter pill of a complete policy reversal and possibly an IMF program." Another key element of the complicated economic issues facing Turkey is that Turkey's banks have lent so much money to the nation's central bank that
"they cannot honor their domestic dollar deposits, should Turks ever ask for the funds back."
The irony for Russia, and a reason for much anger in the Kremlin, Setser notes, is the rumor that
Putin has been providing Russian gas to Erdogan on credit, and not demanding that the state gas importer pay up.
Putin's largesse has been flowing as Ergodan has been selling drones to Ukraine for use in its war against Russia. Turkey has also permitted Ukraine to ship its crops through the Black Sea.All of this European political and economic double dealing was done openly and in plain sight. Duplicity comes much differently in the United States.
Reader Comments
The president of the United States called himself artificial intelligence
US President Biden joked that he was an artificial intelligence
July 22, 2023, 00:10 796JOE BIDEN USA ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
It should be noted that the American president made a relevant statement before the event on artificial intelligence.
"I'm an artificial intelligence," he joked.
media news2Biden's words made the journalists present laugh.
The White White House: The Biden family found themselves in an unpleasant story againSomeone forgot the cocaine in the CapitolThe day before, Biden had been unable to walk off stage on his own after speaking at an event in Philadelphia. The American leader, after finishing his speech, thanked the gathered, and then turned to one of his adjutants with a surprised face and spread his hands. Turning left, Biden abruptly stopped and, after receiving instructions from an employee, turned around and walked in the opposite direction.
On July 13, it was reported that the American president had a new controversial incident when he greeted US embassy employees and their families before boarding a plane at Helsinki Vantaa Airport. There was a woman with a baby in her arms. After trying to communicate with the little girl, Biden tried to lightly bite her shoulder. Stunned and terrified, the child looked at Biden and her mother, then turned away, trying to get away from the strange contact.
Biden got lost on stage during his speech on July 5, which coincided with American Independence Day at the White House.
On June 22, Biden mistook the position of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an official meeting with him at the White House, referring to him as president. At the same meeting, he mistook the US anthem for the Indian one and put his hand over his heart after playing the Indian anthem.
Earlier on June 16, Biden had confounded the audience at the University of Hartford's National Security Communities Summit by ending his speech with "God save the Queen".
80-year-old Joe Biden is the oldest president in US history, his health regularly becomes the subject of discussion and concern among citizens. His odd behavior and frequent mistakes lead many Americans to question his sanity. The politician repeatedly confused the names of countries and stumbled while boarding the plane.
[Link]