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Putin Plays Poker with President Brandon
Townhall.com ^ | February 27, 2022 | Gil Gutknecht

Posted on 02/27/2022 6:18:46 AM PST by Kaslin

You may have heard that if you’re four hands into a high stakes poker game with a card shark and you haven’t figured out who the mark is, it’s probably you. Our guy Brandon is still sitting at the poker table. It’s not at all clear that he realizes that the game is over. Vladimir won.

President Putin picked up his chips, completely cleaning our President out. Vladimir got everything he really wanted. He went all in. Consider what he has accomplished. Putin had already absorbed Georgia and Crimea back into Mother Russia. Soon he will complete the annexation of those Russian-leaning eastern provinces and maybe the whole of Ukraine. On top of that, he has nearly doubled the price of crude oil. That alone is worth many billions of rubles to the cash-starved Russian economy. He has tested the metal of the band of munchkins who now lead the Western Alliance, proving just how malleable that metal is. Finally, he has accomplished his major objective. Ukraine will never be welcomed into NATO.

Putin fully understands that there will be a price for this naked aggression. It may be much greater than he assumed.

Whatever we may think of Vladimir, you have to admire his poker face and skills as a player. Some must have thought he was bluffing. He knew he had been dealt a strong hand after the last elections. resident Brandon was weak and his party (as well as most of Europe) was headed off the cliff with their green agenda. The Left could ignore the consequences of their folly. Vladimir Putin did not. He recognized how much we need hydrocarbon fuels. Europe’s economy would collapse without them. In truth, we need hydrocarbons even to power our electric vehicles.

Putin has never made a secret that Ukraine was a critical piece in his plan to reunite the greater Russian empire and keep them out of NATO. Brandon’s war on domestic energy was the whole card he was looking for to make his next play. He saw the Germans refusing to ante up their share for defense. He also could see that Germany needed his gas and oil. With the Left’s foolhardy energy policies, the U.S. was quickly becoming a net importer again. Certainly not a dependable supplier. Germany determined that they couldn’t count on us for their needs so they made a deal with the Russian bear.

Putin had his ace in the hole. He now had a full house.

As the deal played out the Germans grumbled but quickly folded. Brandon with a pair of deuces, tried to bluff. He never had a poker face anyway. Worse, he showed his cards with his now famous “Well, it depends” remarks. The game was over right then and there. Putin had the cards and knew it. He had only to play out the hand.

Vladimir has been right in his calculations so far. Going forward he believes Germany will cluck and protest like an angry hen. They will delay the final approval of the Nord Stream Pipeline. But their need for energy will overcome their apprehensions and sooner or later things will go back to a degree of normalcy permitting gas and euros will flow freely again. The brutality in Ukraine will be largely forgotten. Russia will once again be feared. NATO will be weaker. The pressure will build on everyday Ukrainians to return to the Russian orbit.

Putin’s poker play may yet prove to have been a huge, expensive miscalculation.

The greater danger to stability and world peace lies in the potential for future miscalculations. Will the weakness in the West be seen as opportunities for future adventurism by other ambitious despots? Might they misinterpret our ugly withdrawal from Afghanistan and our capitulation over Ukraine? Will we truly back up our commitments to Taiwan, Korea, or even Japan? Or have we totally abandoned the mantra of peace through strength for the new Leftist belief in peace through appeasement?

Vladimir Putin isn’t the only great poker player in the world. Others are waiting for their turn at the table. They have been watching. And right now they like their odds.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: russia; ukraine; ukrainecrisis; vladimirputin
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1 posted on 02/27/2022 6:18:46 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
I don't know that I would call pootie's play "Poker", but dopey Joe is playing "Rock a Stack" and losing badly.


2 posted on 02/27/2022 6:23:54 AM PST by Sirius Lee (They intend to murder us. Prep if you want to live and live like you are prepping for eternal life)
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To: Kaslin

Does Brandon know Putin invaded Ukraine? Or is Jill keeping it from him so he doesn’t get upset.


3 posted on 02/27/2022 6:24:50 AM PST by 1Old Pro
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To: All

I heard drJill went looking for Joe’s gonads the other night
.......for a bit of sex foreplay......and couldn’t find them.

Then Hunter stopped by with the bad news........Vlads got ‘em.


4 posted on 02/27/2022 6:25:30 AM PST by Liz ("Our side has 8 trillion bullets; the other side doesn't know which bathroom to use.)
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To: Kaslin

The problem is President Brandon doesn’t realize he’s in a game of poker and thinks he’s playing Old Maid....


5 posted on 02/27/2022 6:25:51 AM PST by apillar
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To: Kaslin
As the deal played out the Germans grumbled but quickly folded

Putin miscalculated Ukrainian resistance. Now, the whole West, including Germany, is sending tons of military equipment to Ukraine.

Germany's Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has announced that Germany will deliver weapons directly to Ukraine.

He said Germany would be sending 1,000 anti-tank weapons and 500 Stinger missiles.

6 posted on 02/27/2022 6:28:00 AM PST by tlozo
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To: Kaslin

One rule in chess is start with all your pieces on the table.

Readers do know that Brandon does not even have an ambassador in Ukraine. After the Lesbian Rainbow Flag one came back nearly 3 years ago (May 20, 2019) to impeach the President of the United States, Donald Trum.

No Ambassador. To a country being invaded by Russia. After more than a year in office as “President”. What does that say to you?


7 posted on 02/27/2022 6:28:32 AM PST by FlyingEagle
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To: 1Old Pro

Brandon knows we are a nation at war. Any day now he will order the rounding up and internment of all Japanese-Americans.


8 posted on 02/27/2022 6:28:33 AM PST by Joe 6-pack
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To: Kaslin

9 posted on 02/27/2022 6:29:01 AM PST by ASA Vet (Stolen Elections Have Consequences.)
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To: Kaslin

Bkmk


10 posted on 02/27/2022 6:31:52 AM PST by sauropod (Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. Life is risk, your highness.)
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To: ASA Vet

I believe that Putin is BLACKMAILING Biden. It is the only explanation I can think of for Biden’s war on oil.


11 posted on 02/27/2022 6:35:19 AM PST by CMailBag
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To: Kaslin

“...whole card...”

Some Rooskie term?


12 posted on 02/27/2022 6:36:08 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: Kaslin

So it’s a Green New Deal for Pootie-Poot, Xi, and Little Rocket Man with a stacked deck.


13 posted on 02/27/2022 6:40:46 AM PST by Paladin2
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To: apillar

Biden has two-pair, and Putin knows that and has gone all in with his three of a kind.

The problem is Putin ignored the third player, Zelensky, and to everyone’s surprise he is holding a Full House.


14 posted on 02/27/2022 6:41:30 AM PST by Renfrew
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To: Renfrew

If Brandon had e pair of you know what this whole fiasco would never be happening.


15 posted on 02/27/2022 6:44:48 AM PST by hflynn ( )
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To: Renfrew

I think we’re doing a decent job of leading from behind. It’s Europe after all. Our oil production is where we come up short.


16 posted on 02/27/2022 6:46:07 AM PST by DIRTYSECRET (S)
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To: Paladin2

It appears the writer’s command of the English language is lacking since he references “whole card” and “tested the metal”. In the second case, it appears he was attempting to create a metaphor since he writes of finding “how malleable that metal is”. The correct usage would have been “mettle” with a definition of “a person’s ability to cope well with difficulties or to face a demanding situation in a spirited and resilient way.”

The writer was attempting to be too smart by half and showed his ignorance instead. It irritates me to no end how these writers get paid to pound out such incompetent drivel while exposing their ignorance of a basic tool of their craft.


17 posted on 02/27/2022 6:51:46 AM PST by T-Bird45 (It feels like the seventies, and it shouldn't. )
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To: CMailBag

Biden is a target of blackmail from every corrupt entity that exists. Russia, CCP, NWO elites, anyone he or Hunter has ever cut a deal with. Biden is owned, even if he can’t remember by whom.


18 posted on 02/27/2022 6:53:15 AM PST by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic...)
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To: Paladin2

Like “metal” for “mettle” and compounding the malapropism by referencing the maleability of that metal, lol.


19 posted on 02/27/2022 6:57:06 AM PST by skepsel ("A cat is more intelligent than people believe, and can be taught any crime", Mark Twain.)
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To: Magnum44

True, along with a good part of our Congress.


20 posted on 02/27/2022 6:57:56 AM PST by Eagles6 (Welcome to the Matrix . Orwell's "1984" was a warning, not an instruction manual.)
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