This is a basic lying tactic he has used his entire life. Just keep repeating a complete and obvious lie, until people’s brains break it down into “yeah that sounds right, I’ve heard that before”. At that point, it’s as useful as actually being true. He is the richest, most successful, winningest winner that ever won. Everyone except him is wrong, corrupt or a loo-zah. There’s nothing magical about this demented toddler’s mindset.
There’s been traitors for as long as there’s been warfare.
Flapping your arms and gums about WHAT he’s done is less important to think about than WHY has he done this. It’s ridiculous and irrational on it’s face.
But - it makes perfect sense if you start from a place that this is a colossal distraction. But why? Well - ultimately, if you accept that Trump works for Putin, then consider that the Russians are unable to defeat Ukraine right now on the battlefield, given the support that they continue to get from Europe. Putin and Trump have collaborated to remove US support - mission accomplished. But - they don’t have direct leverage over Europe to try and erode European support for ukraine as well. So - if you’re starting from a place that you wanted Russia to win and that’s the ONLY thing you care about…what would you do? How can you erode Europe’s ability to support Ukraine?
Initiate a devastating global recession to destroy governments’ ability to focus on supporting Ukraine, and hope that they crawl back to supporting their own economies.
That’s the answer. This is ALL happening
a) because Russia is starting to lose, and will lose very bigly and very quickly…soon b) Trump is 80 years old, and his window of being able to help Putin is closing with every Big Mac and Diet Coke he eats c) Putin himself is in advanced age and probably declining health d) Russia’s equipment reserves are passing replacement rate levels, which leads to a MAJOR degradation in their offensive potential. Things don’t get a little worse - they’re getting EXPONENTIALLY worse e) Since they can’t directly stop European aid, they are trying to do it indirectly by initiating a global recession and trade war.
Just opinions, you’re under no obligation to agree. But - what else makes sense? The only other thing I could reasonably accept if it wasn’t 100% that Trump works for Russia, is that somehow along the tarriffs chain, that he is skimming a percentage, like a classic Mafia casino scam. He may well be doing that as well as aiding Russia. But he’s certainly not doing all of this - and excluding Russia, Belarus and Hungary from tarriffs - for no particular reason at all. The reasons are fairly damn obvious.
This story comes out every year, when russia announces their normal conscription process. These enlistees a) go to basic training - which for Russians is totally insufficient to make a difference on the ukrainian battlefield, b) can’t and haven’t been used for offensive operations, c) Mostly cycle back to civilian life when they’re done. This isn’t special, it isn’t news, and if he were stupid enough to rush these guys from their jobs as delivery drivers, baristas, IT support and tire shop technicians into the battlefields, the entirety of them would be chewed up in about 3 months. This isn’t a story. This is their normal conscription process.
As is usually the case, Trump has badly overplayed his hand without actually having even a fraction of the leverage he assumes he does. The US is rapidly making themselves utterly irrelevant to the process. Ukraine seems to clearly understand that the only way for a lasting peace is to erode Russia’s warmaking capability permanently. They can continue to fight at this intensity with drones and small territorial exchanges for a long, long time yet, even if the US fully withdraws all support.
Trump going further and actively aiding Russia is a) insane b) not implausible and c) would result in American deaths that he would then have to explain a justification for, in a war that is allegedly none of america’s business anyways. No serious minded person expects Russia to abide by ANY peace deal in the long term, so from Ukraine’s perspective, it makes much more sense to keep fighting. It’s fight for your lasting freedom, or wait for another round of attempted enslavement.
The frantic speed run to try and strong arm Ukraine into an unjust peace is failing. It’s very telling that they’re turning the crazy up to 11, because he is nearly 80 years old, morbidly obese, lives on KFC and insane hatred. And if Russia could do any more than they currently are, they would have already done it. It’s a ridiculous bluff, Ukraine and their European backers have called it. For Europe, the degree of danger is not abstract or a partisan issue to score cheap political points off of. They’re going to give Ukraine what it needs to continue bleeding out Russia, at least long enough for Putin, Trump or both to die off.
What hurdles does a peace plan face? The fact that Krasnov will not stop at simply ending US support, or even removing the US from NATO. He will take more and more measures to punish European support of ukraine, in order to try and get a better settlement for his boss in the Kremlin
The reason the crazy has been turned up to 12, is because Russia is stalled and their position gets weaker from here on in. Russia can’t advance, they’ve been smashing their hollow skulls against Pokrovsk and Toretsk for nearly a year. Ukraine is countering their FAB glide bombs now, is beginning slowly to push back in the Donbas, and domestic drone and weapon production is lessening their level of dependency on outside sources like the US. Ukraine hasn’t conscripted anyone under 25, and are getting decent uptake on the volunteer enlistment packages. Russia, on the other hand, has stalled, is sending men into battle on dirtbikes and donkeys, can’t remotely replace their hardware losses in any aspect, and if they wanted more manpower today, they would have had to enact wider conscription 6 months ago. Which they didn’t. Their capacity to make significant gains in Ukraine has essentially stopped, but Ukraine’s ability to erode their current holdings is accelerating.
In short - Russia’ options get worse from here on in. That’s why Trump is, on obvious orders, trying to strong arm a ludicrous deal that ukraine doesn’t need to accept. Trump isn’t going to stop punishing ukraine’s supporters until Russia gets more than it deserves, given the state of things on the ground.
Why would anyone agree to a complete capitulation, and paying reparations, and giving up land and people under the current conditions? Oh, and the US removes it’s forces from the Baltics at the same time, Ukraine gets absolutely nothing except for a temporary ceasefire with no security guarantees.
I mean - it’s just so completely obvious that Trump fully and completely works for the Russians. Full stop. They are coming with the exact same absurd Russian maximalist goals, zero concessions. But - what leverage do they have to tell Ukraine to accept it and that’s that? Fine - pull your support, America. Ukraine still has cards to play. Agreeing to your terms is literally signing your own death warrant, now or later.
He works for the Russians, always has, these jackoff tarriffs which only seem to be against allies is meant to disrupt the focus on Ukraine’s backers and force an immediate settlement where Ukraine only makes any concessions. It’s clear as goddamned mid-day sun that everything he’s doing is to unsettle NATO and get a win for Russia.
That proves several things, including his overall allegiances. It also suggests that Russia is truly desperate, doesn’t think they will get more Ukrainian land than they currently have, and want to freeze the conflict to call it a victory. The current strategy of thrusting small infantry squads anywhere you can fit them isn’t exactly a solid occupation strategy. Ukraine can kill many more of them, eventually, with drones, snipers, artillery, and counter-assaults. There isn’t a baked in guarantee that they’re allowed to keep all the stolen land they’re sitting on right now. Ukraine will kill most of them - eventually - and he’ll be left with nothing but a bleeding wound as his army tries to do the harder piece of warfare - pacification.
It’s in Ukraine’s long term interests to keep killing the Russian army as long as it can sustain it’s own losses.
This crazy old poopy pants manchild is serious in that he wants to blackmail people into giving him something for nothing. Thankfully, he’s so fucking stupid, and has created a cesspool of asskissers around him who are incentivized to suck up rather than actually DO anything.
He talks, says a lot of crazy shit, then backs down, having done damage and not actually gotten anything. Like being in a shortbus with a hormonal chimp with a chainsaw. We’re all just going to have to wait until his inevitable toilet stroke, and then watch the whole thing collapse.
Perhaps the “correct” way to view the collapse of Russia is like the Ottoman empire. The ottomans fell apart in stages over 300 years, gradually losing direct control and influence over the hinterlands, then suddenly in quick, sharp wars against their former vassals in Africa and the Balkans. Eventually, they end up with a relatively small rump state in Turkey. I think that’s possibly the most likely outcome with Moscow/St. Petersburg retaining a much reduced ethnic russian rump state and nearly everything else breaking away. But - the point is - it happens slowly, in stages, and in response to losing wars. Longer than single human lifetimes, so it makes it harder to recognize and comprehend until it’s all over.
The USSR had a shred of philosophical veneer. The kleptocratic petromafia slave “state “ that exists today is literally a nihilist barbarian horde. I like the sentiment and mental picture of your suggestions. Really speaks to the pointlessness of talking to these black hearted ghouls.
There is no hope communicating with these insane barbarians. Empathy, truth. shame and hypocrisy don’t even exist. The entire society is based on brutality and brazen lies, you cannot trust anything they say. The only choice for a lasting peace for Ukraine is to keep fighting until the entire vile project of political russia collapses into something less malignant.
Makes you wonder what a lame duck Biden is apt to do that is different from if he had stayed in the race and had to run on the results. Maybe they’ll be less cautious, especially if you factor in that Russia has literally been invaded, and still done nothing.
They seem to be feasting on Russia’s ham fisted attempts to bring reinforcement columns along main roads. Russia was completely unprepared for this, and Ukraine obviously was. There is almost no mention of Russian air power operating in this area, and reports that Ukraine brought their own substantial AA assets in case they did. So - you have Russian infantry and armor moving along main roads, in slow convoys, being surveilled by Western satellites the entire time, getting slammed by drones and artillery before they can even get to Kursk.
Russia’s traditional war fighting MO has been “keep dying and surrendering in huge numbers until something major happens”.
Crimean War, Russo Japanese War, WW1, Polish-Soviet war, Winter War, WW2, Afghanistan, Chechnya 1.
If not for Lend/Lease giving Russia food, oil, guns, vehicles, bullets, boots and clothing, they would have been rolled back to middle Siberia. For all their hypermacho chest thumping, they’re shit at war.
Per childhood fairy tale monster Lavrov, it is time to acknowledge facts on the ground. The enemy must accept these realities.
Of course. How do you investigate harassment and identify site-killing lunatics without keyword searching.
It’s all stored and anyone who needs to see stuff their site hosts can get it. Plus - you’d be surprised how much criminal activity people are willing to discuss with strangers.
That there is already a good self deprecating joke. Don’t sell yourself short. Unless you ARE short, then may I recommend entering the priesthood
This is ancient, but still objectively correct. It also misses the point. Trump’s appeal to his base is not about being good or any attribute he has. It’s that he’s an avatar of hate that gives them murky permission to be up front with their own prejudice and moronic ideas. He’s made it a political position to be proudly uninformed, unapologetically racist, and irrationally intolerant about the lives of others that have zero actual impact on you. To hate immigrants, brown people, gays, electric cars, any talk of climate change, vaccines, democrats and democracy in general. It’s all white grievance, all the time. Why should we change anything? We’re not changing anything, we’re white america, and we’re the greatest because - reasons - and we don’t need to change anything. We don’t even need to have any ideas - you just have to hate The Other, and that’s enough for 46% of the biggest clueless losers in the country who honestly think government doesn’t do anything for them anyways, and thus vote against their own self interests, literally to their own personal destruction.
Also - for all the noice and bluster of this branding exercise that got WAY out of hand - he remains, ultimately, a fluke. He barely, barely, barely won in 2016 on the faintest of technical victories over a weak candidate with a bad strategy representing a two-term Democratic status quo position for a nation tired of politics as usual.
The same party almost never wins 3 terms in a row. He won not by being a good, virtuous person. He won by not being Hilary Clinton. And that’s ALL he won. Despite his constant claims of greatness, his party and the candidates he endorses have underperformed in every election since 2016. He was, and remains, a one-time fluke. Period. A cautionary tale about what happens with low voter turnout.
This is a great way to call Trump’s bluff and expose his true allegiance. Of course, Trump refuses this out of hand even though it’s completely in-line with his talking points about wanting Europe to buy American arms and invest in their own defense. Yet - it’s a flat no from him. Zelensky could have done this offer behind the scenes, but he does so publicly because he knows what the answer will be, and that it exposes Trump’s true motivations.