Since the end of WW1, the inviolability of sovereign borders has been the number one rule of geopolitics, so it’s perfectly appropriate to talk about countries having rights, ie the right not to be invaded by a more powerful neighbour, unless you agree with the likes of Trump, Putin and Xi (which you appear to do) that might makes right, and bigger countries should be allowed to do whatever they want. Both of the examples you give were also breaches of that number one rule, hope that helps.
The Trump Presidency - Part 2
- Thread starter The Boy
- Start date
My nephew just moved there. He said it was pretty straight forward because he's trained in a specific trade. He's an electrician and his GF a travelling nurse.
Good post.
If these statements are being said by these people because they are in actual fact admirers of Putin, or pro-Russia or pro-Kremlin etc, then it is outlandish.
To claim however that any such critique of this war must involve such beliefs is even more outlandish.
You and I can talk about countries having Rights until the cows come home. If these Rights aren’t enforced however then what do they amount to?…as Ukraine is finding out now.
I don’t. Trump’s a sometimes comical and entirely transactional person with an autocratic bent. Putin’s a sinister tyrant and Xi’s probably likewise.
Such rules are and should be continually cultivated and cared for. They shouldn’t be just be assumed and taken for granted. They don’t just exist out there in the ether you know!
You and I can talk about countries having Rights until the cows come home. If these Rights aren’t enforced however then what do they amount to?…as Ukraine is finding out now.
I don’t. Trump’s a sometimes comical and entirely transactional person with an autocratic bent. Putin’s a sinister tyrant and Xi’s probably likewise.
Such rules are and should be continually cultivated and cared for. They shouldn’t be just be assumed and taken for granted. They don’t just exist out there in the ether you know!
What you fail to understand is that you're allowed to be critical of the West, you're allowed to be critical of Ukraine and you will find a lot of my posts are hugely critical of both Zelensky and Ukrainian leadership, as well as certain Western nations actions in this conflict.
What you do is criticize from a point of propaganda and untruths that have no semblance to reality, and you also only ever seem to post these untruths, which makes it very hard for people to think you're anything other than pro-Russian.
Here's a football analogy for you. You can criticize the way the Premier League is run. You can criticize that they are somewhat nefarious and are dodgy and haven't taken the actions it could have done to prevent things like Chelsea and City. This is fair.
What you cannot claim however is that the Premier league is secretly in cahoots with Man city to undermine Man Utd, because they are all ABU. The former is fair criticism, the latter is just conspiratorial nonsense.
You have posted the latter.
How long, realistically, can we expect the insanity to go on? Serious question for those who really study these things.
My lay person take on this is that we have two years of Trump going bananas, with the only real handbrake on him being his own discombobulation and disorganisation. I.e. endlessly flip flopping between policies and getting distracted by shiny objects.
Then we have mid-terms, which presumably, hopefully, will deliver some sort of a swing back to the left as the country reacts to two mental years (this usually seems to happen in mid-terms anyway to whatever sitting president there is). And assuming the House then goes democrat, are we left with a lame duck president for the final two years, a president who can’t re-run and who can’t push any bills through?
Is this a fair prediction of what will probably happen? Or is it just wishful thinking? This is what I keep telling my wife to try and calm her down.
My lay person take on this is that we have two years of Trump going bananas, with the only real handbrake on him being his own discombobulation and disorganisation. I.e. endlessly flip flopping between policies and getting distracted by shiny objects.
Then we have mid-terms, which presumably, hopefully, will deliver some sort of a swing back to the left as the country reacts to two mental years (this usually seems to happen in mid-terms anyway to whatever sitting president there is). And assuming the House then goes democrat, are we left with a lame duck president for the final two years, a president who can’t re-run and who can’t push any bills through?
Is this a fair prediction of what will probably happen? Or is it just wishful thinking? This is what I keep telling my wife to try and calm her down.
Spot on
Do you think the more theoretically competent guys on Trump's cabinets (Rubio, Lutnick, Bessent, Wright) etc are sitting there in their offices with their aides after every meeting with Trump going,
"Great work guys! Another agenda item pushed! We got this!"
or
"feck this guy man, what a buffoon, can't believe we have to go through with this."
"Great work guys! Another agenda item pushed! We got this!"
or
"feck this guy man, what a buffoon, can't believe we have to go through with this."
For someone like Rubio it’s definitely closer to the latter. Trump pretty openly said that he will be the scapegoat when something goes wrong with foreign policy.
Rubio knows better. He took the position out of pure ambition and maybe the naive idea that he could steer the ship in the right direction. I bet he hates it.
I think it very much depends on how free and fair those elections will be coupled to how closely the media has been brought to heel by then. Also, it has to be said that a lot of these policies Trump is pursuing are pretty popular and if they result in negative outcomes those outcomes might take a while to percolate through to rank and file voters.
I'm pessimistic.
I see they have the CDC investigating vaccines and autism fecking hell what a time to be alive Alex Jones is basically in government in America
Yeah, he was the one Trump cabinet pick I was actually happy about the one I'm most disappointed with because he actually does know his shit both geopolitically and in defense matters.
He was actually probably the most qualified pick too, serving on practically every meaningful committee for foreign affairs and defense matters.
Shame he basically has sold out.
He stands out as a pick that fits better in Trumps first administration, where his cabinet had more profiles like him - meaning fairly competent neocons. It’s almost kind of weird that Trump didn’t pick a nutjob loyalist for the position.
Except that I’m not critical of Ukraine. It’s entirely reasonable that Ukraine would want to align itself with the EU and seek membership for example.
It’s my view however that Ukraine has been led down a kind of primrose path. It has lost tens of thousands of its people, lost territory, and has now lost full control over its natural resources.
If people think I’m pro-Russian, particularly after reading the last couple of pages of the thread, then that says infinitely more about them…not me.
Unsurprisingly, I reject your analogy.
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New DOGE Staffer Has Ties to a Sanctioned Russian Oligarch
https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...corcos-wife-ties-russian-oligarch-1235291673/
And yet Rubio immediately kneels down (on social media) before his king every time.
Yup. The 2026 and 2028 elections won’t be free and fair. I’ve said this numerous times before.
This is a fecking kakistocracy. It’s a conspiratocracy. It’s a fecking trainwreck of an administration.
The same Rubio who went on a TV interview with a cross smeared on his forehead doubling down in everything Trump was doing? You guys are thinking too much of him, he's behind his boss 100 and will do whatever it takes to stay in the job, he has no morals.
Can you expand on this? What do you mean by a primrose path? Who led them down it? And what does any of this have to do with a justification or explanation for Russian aggression?
Yeah, because he’s spineless and ambitious. He wants to keep the job and knows what Trump wants.
But he also knows what’s right and wrong on Ukraine, for example.
It's a direct quote from Mearsheimer: Basically The West/Nato/the EU had been promising Ukraine things which were antagonistic to Russia but which they never had any realistic intention of following through with should the going get tough. EU and NATO membership etc.
Silly Ukraine, not managing the invasion and murder of its people better.
Also your constant deflection of any push back on your consistently right wing talking points and views, as other people's perception issues is tedious. As is your habit of starting fires and leaving the thread until they forgotten.
It’s more or less what’s been outlined by Ekkie Thump above.
There is no justification. That word involves a kind of moral righteousness. Explanation is the word I’d use.
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It's an insane talking point too because Ukrainian parliament voted 380-0 to begin the process of ascension to the EU, Russian immediately sanctions Ukraine, and then Yanukoych flies off to Moscow to "ease tensions", only to come back and revoke all EU membership plans.
Obviously when the President unconstitutionally decides to override parliament, people are unhappy, Euromaidan happens and next thing you know Russian invades Crimea and the Donbass.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/memo_13_1146
Of course, it's somehow the EU's fault and USA's fault for taking Ukraine down this path when, you know, the EU signed the Association agreement and all that was needed was for Ukraine to ratify before Russia intervened.
Somehow, this is NATO's fault too.
The same shitty untrue talking points is so tiring.
@Kinsella explain what the EU/US should have done differently up until the point Russia invades Crimea and Donbass?
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Who's behind Trump's Canada obsession? Or does it come from him? I cannot remember him being that focused on Canada in his first term. He was all about Mexico the first time around.
Canada, Greenland, Ukraine. There's shades of Mussolini and Ethiopia. All the other big mean boys are doing it, so I should too.
Ethiopia's leader had a famous speech at the League of Nations: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haile_Selassie's_speech_to_the_League_of_Nations_(1936)
Trump questioning the border agreement between canada and USA is so worrying, I assume he's just doing it as a negotiation tactic but you never know with this cnut
As an ardent anti fascist and reggae fan I'm a big Haile Selassie fan.
"«[…] It is my duty to inform the Governments assembled in Geneva, responsible as they are for the lives of millions of men, women and children, of the deadly peril which threatens them, by describing to them the fate which has been suffered by Ethiopia. It is not only upon warriors that the Italian Government has made war. It has above all attacked populations far removed from hostilities, in order to terrorize and exterminate them..."
Err…where’s the criticism of Ukraine there?
‘Right wing talking points’
.That’s just tedious ad hominem nonsense. Is the likes of Jeffrey Sachs a ‘Right-winger’?…with all the nefariousness that that term no doubt involves for you. Though perhaps I should start to mimic yourself and see the good in the Russian system, like it’s your default to do so with the Soviet system? (that’s a rhetorical question btw)
Someone created that in his first term, AI would have ruined it!
This AP news article hows just how fecked up some of the American people are
Err…where’s the criticism of Ukraine there?
‘Right wing talking points’
That’s just tedious ad hominem nonsense. Is the likes of Jeffrey Sachs a ‘Right-winger’?…with all the nefariousness that that term no doubt involves for you. Though perhaps I should start to mimic yourself and see the good in the Russian system, like it’s your default to do so with the Soviet system? (that’s a rhetorical question btw)
Case in point.
Followed up by a "attack" on me based on an incorrect assumption.
Odd comparison with me there. For one I have no issue nailing my colours to the mast. Which is rarely the case with you. You're just asking questions.
And, to deal with your analogy, I'm not an advocate of the failed Soviet system, just the theory it was based on. Are you really saying you're a fan of the theory behind present day Russia? It would explain a lot to be fair.
There should be a last one ....
What I'm really doing >>> Making $$$ billions for me and my mates on the Stock Market
In case anyone else is thinking Trump is somehow unpredictable.
Foreign policy: Whatever putin wants.
Domestic policy: The best project25 tracker is here, they are currently 38% through... https://www.project2025.observer/
Foreign policy: Whatever putin wants.
Domestic policy: The best project25 tracker is here, they are currently 38% through... https://www.project2025.observer/
He's not that unpredictable. The fact he was elected is also not entirely unpredictable. We've been slowly moving this direction for a while. He has certainly accelerated aspects of it.
It's messed up. Journalist Tim Alberta if I recall correctly talked about his experiences with evangelical Christians and how they've increasingly radicalized.
He had his "holy shit" moment when at his fathers funeral he was lectured by a church elder on how Trump is great and how criticizing Trump is tantamount to treason.
It seems like dark times ahead for the US.