Russia - Ukraine “peace negotiations”

[CFordUNC]

America Joins the Jackals

Ukraine is only the first victim.

www.thebulwark.com

 

[nycfan]

America Joins the Jackals

Ukraine is only the first victim.

www.thebulwark.com

I lie like a whisper​

I lie with the lights out​

And it won′t take me long just to find you​

And it won't take me long just to find you​

​

I′m allied to the winter​

Don't you get clever​

Don't you get clever​

I′m allied to the landslide​

Gonna leave you all severed​

Gonna leave you all severed​

​

I alone am the answer​

I alone will make wrongs right​

But in order to root out the cancer​

It′s got to be kept from the sunlight​

​

I'm allied to the winter​

Don′t you get clever​

Don't you get clever​

I′m allied to the landslide​

Gonna leave you all severed​

Gonna leave you all severed​

​

I was born to a jackal​

I was born in a white house​

Gonna smother you all 'til I choke you​

Gonna smother you all ′til you kick out​

​

I'm allied to the winter​

Don't you get clever​

Don′t you get clever​

I′m allied to the landslide​

Gonna leave you all severed​

Gonna leave you all severed​

 

[CFordUNC]

A Shameful, Appalling Spectacle

In an Oval Office shitshow for the ages, Trump and Vance try to humiliate Ukraine’s wartime leader Zelensky.

www.thebulwark.com

 

[gtyellowjacket]

This is ridiculous. Russia has a massive nuclear arsenal. Germany isn’t marching through the Red Square. Western European countries haven’t invaded a damn thing in 80 years.

So what is everybody spending all that money on? I agree they aren't marching through Red square but if you're Russia, and lost millions of people in world war I and millions in WW2, you might not make the same risk calculation.

 

[05C40]

And let's not lose sight of the fact that a vast majority of the munitions the US is sending Ukraine are munitions whose expiration dates are coming up and if the US wasn't sending them to Ukraine we would be spending money to dispose of them. So, 1) the US saves money on disposal costs by sending these munitions to Ukraine and 2) the US pays domestic producers to replace these munitions. THE MONEY NEVER LEAVES THE US.

The key cost for the US is the transporation cost to get these munitions to Ukraine. And if these munitions are already in Europe, then these transportation costs are probably less than transporting them back to the US for disposal. Ukraine could probably make the argument that the US should be paying for Ukraine's disposal of our munitions into Russian tanks and drones.

And lets not underestimate the value of the knowledge the US has acquired from Ukraine about the use of and defense against drones. The value of lessons learned about drone warfare probably exceeds the costs of what the US has "given" Ukraine.

ETA: Link for example of the costs of weapons disposal -

Rocky Mountain Arsenal - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[CFordUNC]

Call it TDS if you wish, but it will never not shock me how anyone with any semblance of pride in themselves can allow themselves to defend someone as weak as Trump.

 

[CFordUNC]

 

[Machinehead]

Exactly. Zelensky just wasn't putting up with Trump's BS.

 

[lawtig02]

Saudi Arabia dramatically increasing oil production and causing crude oil prices to plummet is likely a Russian fear. It’s doubtful the Saudis will do so; but, they could eff with Russia if they chose to do so.

Good point. I was focusing on militaries, but Russia is highly dependent on Saudi Arabia, India, Brazil, etc. for economic reasons.

 

[CFordUNC]

 

[nycfan]

 

[nycfan]

“… The problem is not just that economic normalization and sanctions relief are some of the most coveted items on the Kremlin’s wishlist, behind only the annihilation of Ukrainian nationhood. Nor is it that sanctions relief and a return to business as usual would only give Moscow the breathing space to rearm and try for Ukraine again, thus intensifying the security burden on a NATO and a Europe that has, in the space of less than two weeks, had to learn to live without a U.S. security umbrella that had been happily unfurled for 75 years.

One big issue is that a U.S. pledge to restore economic relations means a relief in sanctions, just when the United States and the West had finally managed to get Russia to a place where the curbs on energy exports, tech imports, and other money movements were finally paying dividends. Leverage, as Euclid elucidated centuries ago, means not losing sight of the sharp end of the stick.

That aside, the notion of Russia’s economy as an “investment prospect” is itself dubious. This is a place with 21 percent interest rates, inflation that is higher than what hurt former President Joe Biden, and labor and supply chain problems that would vex nimble economies, let alone sclerotic ones.

Couple that with the absolute lack of rule of law—Russia is a place where investments are placeholders, not assets; those who find themselves in favor with the Kremlin end up in resorts such as Sochi, while those who don’t end up in Siberia—and you can see why U.S. businesses have cold feet. That did not dissuade Rubio or Witkoff from dangling economic concessions, but then, this is a new, and seemingly naive, administration.

“Russia is a great first date. They show up looking like a million bucks, and then, of course, they lure you in, hand you to the tough guys and bureaucrats, and then work you over,” said Craig Kennedy, a former investment banker in Russia who is now at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Western companies—from automakers, to IT firms, to fast-food restaurants—have fled Russia for the most part since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, though some, such as Air Serbia, have stayed.

The costs for Russia are huge, while the costs for Western firms of either leaving or staying are even higher: Western firms had to either pay extortionate “exit fees” in the form of taxes on their way out or face the threat of reprisals if they come back.

This is not the commodity-fueled, early 2000s Russian economy with a laptop and lap dance for everyone. …”

 

[OGtruthhurts]

trumps a coward without a doubt. i equate him to faceless online tough guys who try to bully behind a keyboard

 

[CFordUNC]

trumps a coward without a doubt. i equate him to faceless online tough guys who try to bully behind a keyboard

That one struck a nerve with you, huh?

 

[theel4life]

At this point he’s probably tossing that salad.

 

[theel4life]

 

[nycfan]

 

[BlooVooDoo]

This is how the right wing media operates now. For 20 years Fox News took a single nugget of fact, absent context and mitigating details, twisted it with mischief and malice to pluck emotional strings in its viewers. The network of unvetted malign social media accounts (not necessarily even people) has rendered the nugget of fact a vestigial organ. It’s an endless fountain of manufactured rage.

 

[SnoopRob]

“… The problem is not just that economic normalization and sanctions relief are some of the most coveted items on the Kremlin’s wishlist, behind only the annihilation of Ukrainian nationhood. Nor is it that sanctions relief and a return to business as usual would only give Moscow the breathing space to rearm and try for Ukraine again, thus intensifying the security burden on a NATO and a Europe that has, in the space of less than two weeks, had to learn to live without a U.S. security umbrella that had been happily unfurled for 75 years.

One big issue is that a U.S. pledge to restore economic relations means a relief in sanctions, just when the United States and the West had finally managed to get Russia to a place where the curbs on energy exports, tech imports, and other money movements were finally paying dividends. Leverage, as Euclid elucidated centuries ago, means not losing sight of the sharp end of the stick.

That aside, the notion of Russia’s economy as an “investment prospect” is itself dubious. This is a place with 21 percent interest rates, inflation that is higher than what hurt former President Joe Biden, and labor and supply chain problems that would vex nimble economies, let alone sclerotic ones.

Couple that with the absolute lack of rule of law—Russia is a place where investments are placeholders, not assets; those who find themselves in favor with the Kremlin end up in resorts such as Sochi, while those who don’t end up in Siberia—and you can see why U.S. businesses have cold feet. That did not dissuade Rubio or Witkoff from dangling economic concessions, but then, this is a new, and seemingly naive, administration.

“Russia is a great first date. They show up looking like a million bucks, and then, of course, they lure you in, hand you to the tough guys and bureaucrats, and then work you over,” said Craig Kennedy, a former investment banker in Russia who is now at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.

Western companies—from automakers, to IT firms, to fast-food restaurants—have fled Russia for the most part since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, though some, such as Air Serbia, have stayed.

The costs for Russia are huge, while the costs for Western firms of either leaving or staying are even higher: Western firms had to either pay extortionate “exit fees” in the form of taxes on their way out or face the threat of reprisals if they come back.

This is not the commodity-fueled, early 2000s Russian economy with a laptop and lap dance for everyone. …”

The upside is that Putin's bitch pleases his master.

 

[SnoopRob]

This is how the right wing media operates now. For 20 years Fox News took a single nugget of fact, absent context and mitigating details, twisted it with mischief and malice to pluck emotional strings in its viewers. The network of unvetted malign social media accounts (not necessarily even people) has rendered the nugget of fact a vestigial organ. It’s an endless fountain of manufactured rage.

It would have been much shorter to say, "They lie and then they repeat the lie until the brainwashed believe it."