This is copied and pasted from the C-SPAN transcript of VP Kamala Harris taking questions from reporters outside the Munich Security Conference today. Putin must be cowering in terror
Let's go to Jennifer Jacobs from Bloomberg.
Q
Thank you. Would you be willing to talk a little bit about how the U.S. would get out of this potential conflict with Russia? What is the endgame? How does the U.S. - after imposing some of these sanctions and possible military action, how does the U.S. disentangle from this?
Kamala D. Harris
I would characterize it differently. I don't - we don't consider ourselves to be entangled. But we're very clear of our principles and our purpose, which is to be aligned with our Allies, understanding that - I mean, listen, guys, we're talking about the potential for war in Europe.I mean, let's really take a moment to understand the significance of what we're talking about. It's been over 70 years. And through those 70 years, as I mentioned yesterday, there has been peace and security. We are talking about the real possibility of war in Europe.So our position is, for us, very clear, which is as a leader - which we have been, bringing together the Allies, working together around our collective and unified position - that we would all not just prefer, we desire, we believe it is in the best interest of all that there is a diplomatic end to this moment. And so where do we want this to end? That is where we want it to end.
Let's go to Eli at the Los Angeles Times.
Q
Thank you, Madam Vice President. A question about something else that President Zelenskyy said yesterday relating to NATO. He seemed to question the sincerity of Allies, including the U.S., I think, in terms of a desire to admit Ukraine to NATO. Is there any - is there any reaction to those pretty pointed comments from the President? And was that something that was discussed with Chancellor Scholz and other leaders?
Kamala D. Harris
Let me start by saying I appreciate and admire President Zelenskyy's desire to join NATO. And one of, again, the founding principles of NATO is that each country must have the ability - unimpaired, unimpeded - to determine their own future, both in terms of their form of government and, in this case, whether they desire to be a member of NATO.And I'll put that in context, because the obvious is also the point, which is that: and therefore no other country can tell anyone whether they should or should not join NATO. That should be their independent choice. That is the point of sovereignty. So I respect President Zelenskyy's desire to be a member of NATO.NATO is a membership. It is about nations coming together as a group, making decisions collectively around, again, principles and what will be, then, the conditions and - and the standards of membership. And so that is the process.It doesn't happen overnight. No one country can say "I want to be, and therefore I will be." And no one country can say "You can't be." And isn't that at the heart of the very issue we're presented with in terms of Russia's aggression, or stated aggression, toward Ukraine?
What happens if Putin declares Russia is a member of NATO? According to the person separated from the most powerful office in that organization by only the functional capacity of a visibly mentally declining 79 year old, "no one country can say 'You can't be (a member)'"
More constructively:
Why don't we just come to an agreement with Putin? We can strategically encircle China, get on the same page in the Middle East (not to mention becoming independent of them for oil), and tell the EU where to head in. With the UK being our bitch in a "special relationship" of more than a century, a partnership with Russia essentially has the EU encircled as well. Plus, with global warming, that will render tons and tons of subarctic land in Russia habitable, along with Alaska and then it's just a matter of ending the farcical fiction of "Canada" a peacekeeping mission to secure civil rights against the tyrannical Trudeau regime. Then reorganize the newly liberated land into "East Alaska," "South Alaska", "Northern Montana", Northern Minnesota" "North Seattle", "Greater South Detroit," "West France" and "North New England" file the rest under "The Parts No One Cares About", clear our figurative throats while glancing meaningfully from Greenland to Denmark, and dispose of our new triple alliance's obsolete nuclear weapons in northern Chihuahua and Sonora to create an anti-wetback radioactive zone. Also, with this REAL North Atlantic Organization, we can corral Ireland and turn it into a St Patrick's Theme Park & Brewery.
To keep Putin's britches from getting too big, we can recreate the historical boundaries of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the current Polish leadership and an Austro-Hungarian Republic with the old Hapsburg boundaries, under Orban. We'll probably need them in the future as a bulwark against the Islamic State of Western Europe (for military specifics, recreate the Winged Hussars as a combined arms airmobile/armored division).
At this point, we either congratulate Vlad for raising the cross over Constantinople and laugh at Chancellor Sholz's need to wear brown pants to work every day, or else laugh at Putin for failing to score against basically an empty net and laugh at everyone else who scare-mongered this guy.
For completion's sake, refer Australia and New Zealand to the fates of Canada and Ireland, recognize only a government staffed by people freed from the COVID concentration camps, and make them the centerpiece of a Philipines, South Korea, Japan and Republic of China entente. Pressure China to give Hong Kong to the latter, by using the Navy and Space Force to deny them any such assets in those spheres and keep them from getting uppity.
- Cannoli solves the world's problems (hey, it's more coherent than the First Non-White Pitcher of Warm Piss & Former Counsel for the Prison-Industrial Complex was able to articulate)
"Sometimes unhinged, sometimes unfair, always entertaining"
- The Crownless
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Deus Vult!
