I need to clarify that I don’t hate Russia. Europe and Russia has had decent relations after the cold war until 2014 or so. I just know what that vermin named Putin and his ruschist mates have in their mind (which they have made clear several times).
I agree thought, that Russia has not went all in Ukraine, since they could always conscript more people or use nukes. I still need to make clear that 40% of Russias budget is spent to military. That’s insane.
I am too worried about 3ww, and a escalation of Ukraine conflict. And I’m more than happy to see peace. The risk we Europeans see if Russia gets more confident is that there will be more war in the future.
I do understood, that if we don’t see US naively as a beacon of liberty, just as a calculative superpower, the current development makes 100% sense.
So I’m not angry at you, I’m just worried.
PS. Negotiations haven’t even started yet. So maybe US will pull a satisfying compromise for both, or maybe there won’t even be peace. We’ll see.
Have any of us considered that the USA (represented by Trump) might be seeking a way that Putin can save face? To suggest that “leaders” (and I use that word loosely) of countries are not extremely proud individuals would be quite naive.
I didnt accuse anyone of anything, I posited that a more likely scenario than DOGE and the Trump Government actually putting money in peoples pockets via a surplus-funded tax refund would be Trump simply sending out money and claiming thats what happened. I didnt accuse them of doing it though
As for the tone of the post, I hope the crowd here can forgive my attempt at some levity based on the well known idea of arguing with strangers on the internet
There doesnt appear to be any evidence of that, and plenty to the contrary though
Saving face generally means you give up your goal in such a way that allows you to maintain your public image.
Saving face in this case doesnt mean Putin gets to keep what it has invaded and ukraine gets fucked. Thats simply winning the invasion.
Saving face would be allowing Putin to stop his war in Ukraine, head on back to russia with his troops in some way that maintains his public image. Maybe throw some propaganda around about how they successfully ended the “genocide in the Donbas” and “denazified Ukraine” as was one of their main stated goals
Instead of protection as promised, what we have is Trump publicly trashing Zelenski, saying it was actually Zelenksi who “started the war”, and generically just framing the situation in exactly the way a head of state for Russia would
So yes… The idea that Trump is working on some way to end the war in a way that benefits putin is obviously very much in the fore, but its not “saving face”, its just finding some way to get Putin what he wants and Ukraine to give up, which doesnt require Saving Face in service of just ending the war, thats just called Winning The War … And given the way the talks are unfolding it smacks quite heavily of “Peace in Our Time”
To be fair, I dont think Musk/Bannon (or Trump) are on the beginnings of some campaign that will ultimately end in the rounded up of the Jews in ovens and mass graves
My personal opinion is that salutes - and yes they are “nazi salutes” as in the Salutes the nazis did even if they dont mean what the Nazis meant ideologically with them - are completely intentional, an act of trolling to the extreme, and are being used as an “in group signal” to both a segment of their base that is actually rascist/anti-jew/neo-nazi and to show they can basically do whatever they want because the rest of their base doesnt care if they do it. You think any of the people in this thread would peel off from voting R because they admitted it was a hitler salute? I dont.
Although there might be some hints of non-Nazi authoritarianism thrown in there given the current rush to grant Trump as much power as possible and there is even a push at CPAC and beyond for Trump to be president yet again with some fairly ominous imagery (Ceaser was killed by his own senate for trying to become an emperor, not sure if they know that…)
Thats good. I don’t either. I think too many people have completely lost their bearing on what is real, what is hype, and what their friend told them he/they/zhy read about someone else saying.
All of these atomized groups and subgroups of people lacking any real sense of ownership or accomplishment in the US of A has eroded our common goal of a great nation, cuz without Americans, there is no America.
I suspected there had to be more, considering this level of speech is not unheard of.
I fear violence will just increase in the future. US is already much more violent country (amount of crimes or shootings) compared to the most European counterparts. Now the political polarisation is off the charts.
I’m not crazy about the level of violence here either. I always carry a mid sized fixed blade knife for self defense, cuz if someone is close enough to get stabbed, they probably deserve it.
That guy though, he was agitated, and charged up with some good self righteous indignation. In theory, he might have even been right. But in fact, he was wrong. Good intentions don’t justify wrong actions.
There has been several instances, where Trump is referred as a modern Chamberlain.
Some sources do claim that Putin is not even seeking peace, let alone some compromise.
The problem with Putin is that you can’t never know what he really wants from what he says. He has openly lied too many times to have any reliability. If Trump believes he has some good will, he’s a fool.
No, not obvious at all! guns are small and easy to conceal. Knives even more so!
Definitely.
. No idea. I’m sure that a lot of people on different sides are feeling both empowered and incensed lately, and I avoid gatherings like that specifically because they are notorious for getting heated.
How many accords and treaties and agreements has he ripped up already, showing the US is unreliable … and that’s to say nothing of the man himself who can’t be relied on to tell the truth at all
. Russia has nukes of dubious readiness. Maybe they’ve been pilfered of functioning parts, maybe they weren’t.