George W. Bush was in the news last week thanks to a major gaffe where he referred to “the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. I mean of Ukraine.”
Unfortunately for the gaffe-prone former president, he can’t catch a break. Footage has now emerged of him being prank-called by two notorious Russian pranksters: Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov. (Some of their previous antics are covered in this 2016 Guardian article.)
In the phone call, someone posing as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky asks Bush, “You know that the narrative, in the early 90s, Secretary of State Baker promised Gorbachev not to expand NATO, but this would be completely wrong, especially with the threats that Russia poses now.”
Bush responds, “Yeah, that’s right. Listen, times change. Baker, you know, he was the Secretary of State for my dad – which was years ago. And so the United States must be flexible, adjusting to the times, and that’s why you’re finding such strong support for your country now.”
Many commentators have interpreted this as an admission by Bush that Baker did promise Gorbachev that NATO would not expand. And it certainly looks that way.
However, it’s not an open and shut case. For example, “that’s right” could mean “it’s right that not expanding NATO would have been wrong, given the threats now posed by Russia”. And “times change” could mean “the threats posed by Russia have changed”.
When Bush says, “Baker, you know, he was the Secretary of State for my dad – which was years ago”, he could be implying that the relevant events happened so long ago that it’s hard to know what really happened. Of course, the other interpretation is that the promise was made “years ago” but “times change”.
Why does it matter? Putin has claimed that Russia was misled by the West about NATO expansion, which he sees as a threat to Russian interests. In his February 22nd speech, the Russian leader said “they have deceived us, or, to put it simply, they have played us”, citing “promises not to expand NATO eastwards even by an inch”.
This refers to an assurance Baker gave Gorbachev in 1990 that “there will be no extension of NATO’s jurisdiction or NATO’s forces one inch to the East” if German reunification takes place. Interestingly, however, Baker subsequently denied that he ever “intended to rule out the admission of new NATO members”.
Scholars disagree about exactly what Russia was promised during the negotiations over German reunification. Yet a strong case can be made that the US “did indeed offer the Soviets informal non-expansion assurances”, as the political scientist Joshua Shifrinson argued in a prize-winning 2016 article.
Shifrinson summarised his arguments in an op-ed for the LA Times, writing: “The West has vigorously protested that no such deal was ever struck. However, hundreds of memos, meeting minutes and transcripts from U.S. archives indicate otherwise.”
According to a PolitiFact article from February, Shifrinson still holds the same view, and in fact recently discovered additional supporting evidence: a document in the British National Archives that quotes a German official as saying, “We had made it clear during the 2+4 negotiations that we would not extend NATO beyond the Elbe”.
The fact that Western countries broke these “informal assurances” does not justify Putin’s invasion, Shifrinson notes. However, “Russia’s leaders may be telling the truth when they claim that Russian actions are driven by mistrust.”
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Imagine calling a multibillionaire “courageous”. Get some sense. Musk is a shyster, and so is Marc Benioff, his fellow billionaire who owns Time.
Courageous downvoters – here’s an explainer for you about the world of the Daily Mail, including Mail Plus etc.:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eBT6OSr1TI
You know what they say, if you’re getting flak, you’re over the target. Musk is a grifter, clearly some people want to emulate the twat, drooling over his money.
A grifter? You mean like so many politicians who earn their money with backhanders all day long? I think Mr.Musk is a tad brighter and grifter is not a word I would use to describe him.
Billionaire. Bad ? There are bad one’s of course. There’s some bad people in my local estate so I hear.
Sorry I gave up all msm for Lent
I would highly recommend everyone do the same. Msm serves no purpose.
I gave up TV completely as well in May 2021 ……and cancelled my TV licence. Uplifting!
I don’t have a problem with Musk’s selection; I just have to wonder why billionaires all have such weird hair.
Maybe there’s something of the Peaky Blinders about them.
He certainly comes across as a somewhat eccentric person.
There it is again. So people who have been baying for pay back for the last two years now get a global billionaire on the books so to speak and do I hear a round of applause ? No we get “he’s eccentric”. Face palm.
Looks like good old Ellen has been throwing his money at troll service. Personally, I just think he’s a dickhead, nothing to do with his money.
Musk says he will allow his son to choose his own gender.
Where are social services when we need them? They should make his son a ward of court, foster him, and require Musk to take re-education classes if he wishes to apply to get him back.
Musk is a bit of a touchstone. Some people realise what’s happening when a drug-addled billionaire talks up garbage such as self-driving cars, is allowed by the real rulers (who aren’t in the limelight) to become what in most people’s terms is extremely rich, pulls a few cryptocurrency scams because he’s bought a section of the “cool youth” market, and ostentiously masturbates with large vehicles into space. Others fall for him because they’re too stupid to realise any of the above for what it is, even when it’s right in front of their faces. Seriously your life has to be very sad if you think it’s exciting to watch a billionaire disgrace himself and have a J Arthur.
“talks up garbage such as self-driving cars”
You know those already exist? Bloody handy too when you need to take a slurp of coffee on the motorway….I know it’s against the grain on here but I love my Tesla.
As for Musk, he’s the least offensive of the elite i can think of, but i’m no fan of any of them.
It is hard to find role models these days, Boris, Biden, Fauci, whitty, Gove, Hancock,harris. So many to choose from. You know what I mean.
I am a big fan of Mr Musk and very grateful for his presence.
Yes you are right. I would rather sit and watch the current UK and USA gov’ts make fools of themselves. Mr. musk just gets on with his ideas and work. He fights for his and his employees rights. Don’t you just hate when people do that.
Déjà vu.
Personally, I can’t get sycophantic over a billionaire. There should be no billionaires, it gives them to much power & privilege, ironically whether musk is a lockdown sceptic or not, he clearly has no influence on this matter, so I can’t see we’ve suffered 2 articles about him.
Because he gave Toby a tiny scrap of fleeting attention, is why. There’s no other reason needed.
So he must just be a “victim” just baying for attention ? Derogatory to say the least.
But this has been the issue all along. An “elite” of billionaires, medical experts and pharma bods clearly gained too much power and influence. That does not translate to “everything bad”. I do not live in the Manichean world that seems to exist exclusively in the comment sections of this site but almost never in the actual articles.
The introductory paragraph to this article is cringemakingly embarrassing.
The title is too.
If I ever write anything so bad, please can everyone (especially friends) line up and shout “Stop embarrassing yourself, you fucking wally!” at me. Thanks!
Maybe not so anti-socialist after all then
I don’t understand your logic?
It’s not the wealth I object to, it’s the power over fawning idiots like you that directly affects my freedom that I object to.
Perhaps you have ambitions? Mine is to be free, not rule others.
Why is he “eccentric” ? That used to describe moth eaten millionaires in old stately homes who go around wearing deer antlers on the head all day, lol.
Well, when someone points out that he can’t use your mini submarine to rescue some cavers who’ve been trapped underground by water and your response is to call that person a ‘paedo’, that qualifies as a bit eccentric, surely?
Where did he say this ?
https://news.sky.com/story/elon-musk-apologises-for-calling-british-cave-diver-a-paedo-11440370
The facts weren’t disputed in court. Musk claimed in court that it had been a “JDart”, where an intended jokey tweet had been misinterpreted by the recipient, and he had immediately deleted it. The US jury took the view that that Musk’s Tweet had been a spontaneous response to the previous Twitter exchanges, and that its immediate deletion had limited the reputational damage that it had done.
Oh he qualifies alright. As a Tesla owner I’ve followed his Twitter feed for a while and he’s a proper nut job.
Yeah – fuck that shit.
https://elonmuskneuralink.com/the-neuralink-brain-chip-elon-musk-neuralink/
So this automatically makes Elon “bad” ? In fact is this tech inherently bad ? Like any tech it depends on whose using it. I’ve seen all the Technocracy and “reset” conspiracy theories. They do a good job in their own way but they are so inherently DARK. Sometimes I wonder if they’re Luddites. They never posit a world where this tech is in the hands of the good guys.
Why are you exerting so much energy defending him?
Elon is unstable. Much like Oswald Mosley. He could flip in any direction and any time. As such he is a potentially dangerous buffoon.
“rare”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-10321397/Christian-Eriksens-Inter-Milan-contract-terminated-mutual-consent.html
I might be more inclined to agree if his opposition to lockdowns had actually had some sort of noticeable effect in changing policy.
As it stands, unless I’m missing something, he has accomplished nothing of substance and so I’m not quite sure whether his “courage” is any greater, any more consequential or any more inspiring to others than the courage of, say, the lady who was convicted this week for protesting in London.
I think going against the law/rules in your country as a business is a little brave. He took a risk that his business would suffer through his personal exploits. He kept his staff in work whilst others risked closing their businesses not knowing if there would be a business to come back to. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a big fan or anything, but anyone with his worldwide image making a stand is better than no one doing it, regardless as to his reasons.
He accomplished nothing. He did nothing significant to protest or lobby the state of California, where he was based, against lockdowns and mandates. Instead he packed up his company and buggered off to Texas, purely out of his business’ interest and bottom line. He’s not wrong to want to do so, but don’t sugar coat it as “standing up to tyranny” like another previous article did.
Isn’t this one of those WGAS articles?
Too many people think these characters and these magazines are important. They’re not outside the Bubble.
Over on YouTube, Thunderf00t (with 1M Subscribers) has utterly debunked Musk’s crazy projects – https://www.youtube.com/c/Thunderf00t/search?query=musk
While he might have been against lockdowns, I feel he is still a potentially dangerous buffoon, who would make men into robots.
The same Musk who pushes Universal Basic Income?
The same Musk who wants to send millions of satellites into space for the global surveillance grid? (In co operation with Bill Gates)
The same Musk who is developing brain implants to connect people’s physical bodies (and minds?) to IoT?
The same Musk whose cars and tunnel boring company is building the “smart cities”?
His lockdown skepticism is just theatre. At his core he is one of the oligarchs building the totalitarian hell in this world.
We desperately needed Mr Musk’s support. He recently was interviewed by a WSJ jounalist and his responses to her questions were a breath of fresh air. Musk is highly intelligent, but wisely knows his limits and admits that.
A Musk/DeSantis ticket in 2024 would be amazing. We can hope.