Show me where I ever said Putin was the good guy. The fact is Russia has been and will always be a significant power house. You cant hang onto self righteousness and pretend your view is superior so therefore Russia should simply roll over and do whatever your teams propaganda demands. You still have to respect Russias position. You have lived in a world for far too long believing you are part of the elite and you should get whatever you want. That might work for awhile, but eventually it breaks down.
The topic breaks down at the word commitment. We have no commitment. We lost close to 200k Americans to the European theature. Itd Europe who owes us. Its been 80 years. Europe's biggest problem is themselves. Maybe instead of bragging about 32 hour work weeks and long vacations, maybe they should build their own militaries in full force and stop relying on the United States to do the heavy lifting. Like a spoiled child, they won't adult and own the problem. Conservatives/Republicans are correct about our problems being ignored to tend to the global elitist problems. Once the USD hegemony falls, we will be forced to deal with our issues and we will not be able to effectively allow the rest of the world to feast on the USD tit.
That was mostly by our design from Cold War policies and using NATO to circumvent UN vetoes. I'm all for Europe spending more on their own defense, but they have spent more post-Ukraine invasion. The reality is that it takes time to rebuild their "military industrial complex" and cutting them off cold turkey isn't going to speed up that mythical man-month. OTOH, we're spending ~5% of our GDP in defense and defense related items like VA support, DOE nuclear energy, and NASA. It's far lower % than post- Gulf War 1 before Clinton and Congress made massive cuts to the DoD as the peace dividend. Trump's policies are rationalizing betrayal with heavy handed mandates. This will not end well, and we're mostly spiting ourselves and our historical allies to make a political point or worse, a bought point from an oligarchical petro-state. Also, I don't think you elaborated on what you would think is the better solution regarding your fears of NATO dissolution, just feelings that justify means towards what you see as a greater end. Bullshit. I have no love for establishment Dems who cozy up to Wall St or Silicon Valley. "global elitist problems" is a convenient shorthand where if you dig deeper, it's really about corporate profits and race to the bottom riches through tighter extraction of cheaper foreign labor or goods. Trump bases his legitimacy on the stock market, yet somehow he gets a Global Elitist pass if corporate profits are better than ever? I think your order of operations is mixed up. The USD hegemony hasn't fallen. Despite the best crypto-bro sloganeering by verified-Xitter Paypal Mafia member David Sucks, screwing Ukraine and our allies doesn't reduce chances of dedollarization (stronger BRICS OH NOESSSS), it accelerates it. Not only does it legitimize Russia and loosens the vice we currently have on their sick economy, it incentivizes another attack because this is already Russia's second invasion. It also destabilizes the Western financial system because our shitty do-nothing allies are more likely to opt-out in retaliation for mentioned unforced betrayals. Telling Europe to sack up or pay up neither sparks fear nor deterrence to the Russian psyche. Russians belittle weakness and disdain flowery words. It's 100% delusional to believe peace through capitulation will guarantee lasting peace. You harbor deep enough feelings over the issue to care. If there is another Russian invasion, whether in Ukraine or its neighbors in the next 5-10 years, would you feel any remorse for your current positions?
Interesting stat. So sad that the only persons benefitting from those billions. The poor Ukrainian have taken about 1 million dead and wounded and the loss of their territory just because Biden and Boris Johnson and others convinced them to mak e neutrality (no entrance into NATO) non-negotable which worked so well for countries like Finland, Sweden, Austria etc. The increase in Elon's wealth is obscene. Tax the mofu at at least at 91% the highest rate in the golden years of ordinary Americans in the 1960's. Righties never explain why just giving massive tax breaks to the rich never trickles down. No !!-- blaming immigrants and trans folks etc for no trickling down is moronic.
Musk is getting paid 8m a day while he is doing this from the US Government and just got another billion in US contracts. This is a joke, a grifting joke. They say they are cutting then say we are going to give everyone a $5k check....lol how is that cutting???? While we will all take the money - it won't buy what they want it too..... DD
Why do you never give Putin and Russia any agency ever? Your “poor Ukrainians… NATO/Democrats bad!!” Arguments are always made devoid of any mention of maybe just maybe Russia acting on motives that aren’t pure of heart. Putin did not have to invade Ukraine. He did not have to annex Crimea in 2014. He could have instead of turning Russia into a corrupt mob rink he could have you know… invested in technology, science, manufacturing… anything that could have given the surrounding Baltic States a reason to maintain a position relationship with them. Instead Putin chose corruption and violence. The Baltics, Ukraine, etc. chose to opt for the EU as their ticket to economic growth and NATO was what they wanted for their security to protect against a Neignbor who had no economy, had a violent dictator, a sh$t ton of nuclear weapons… and never shut up about reforming the Soviet Union by force if needed. The root of the problem that started all of this is Putin choosing to rule as a violent gangster all the while being a sh$t economic producer on his watch. The Soviet Union used to the world leader in science, aerospace, space exploration, and engineering. All of that went away when Russia become a petro state only with a dictator who only cared about money, and absolute power. The fact that you completely ignore this fact every time you talk about Ukraine is insane… unless you literally are Russian or read a sh$t ton of Karl Marx and Lenin back in the day. I hate to break the news to you but this isn’t Lenin or Marx’s Russia anymore dude.
Let this also be a warning for allowing the US to become a corrupt autocracy. Like the Baltics, if Canada, Mexico, etc. see the US as unstable, economically not that viable, and threatening (hello… Canada 51st state talk) they could absolutely turn to another alliance at some point like let’s say China… China could have more of a presence in Canada and Mexico as a result, and then the US violent dictator cry’s about the China threat and uses that as an excuse to invade Mexico. Would Glynch and SpaceGhost then not mention the US at all as having agency in the process at all?? The fact of the matter is Russias economy is like 14th or 15th in the world. Italy has a larger economy and like 1/100th of the landmass and way less people. That’s on Putin and a huge warning flag for allowing your country to become a corrupt autocrat. Nobody trusts you, nobody wants to do business with you, you end up stealing so much from the working class that your workforce can’t produce, and your sphere of influence fades.
We literally signed an agreement to protect the Ukraine if they gave up their Nukes,,,,,, now they want us to honor it.....we should. DD
No the reason why we have Trump are the braindead filth who line up behind his incoherent stream of Putinist effluent. idiots like you turning into red army gang rape cheerleaders are why we have the President of the US repeating disgusting Putinist trash pretending that Russia was the victim of its 3 day year long invasion I have bad news because even if your beloved US neo Nazi regime abandons Ukraine, the resi of Europe will nod Slava Ukraine. Eat more poop MAGA trash baby.
Don't let @glynch off the hook by letting him pretend like he's sitting around a dorm room with a tie dyed shirt and a poster of Che Guevara His behavior has nothing to do with socialism or communism or ideology The guy is simply, and has always been - a pure Putinist lickspittle - even before it was cool for late adopters like the MAGA trashcans started filling themselves up it Russian sewage. This jackass was spreading Putinist disinformation for years, telling us all we were morons and there was "no chance" Putin would ever invade Ukraine Call him what he is. A Putin Piss baby. Probably the stupidest one of all.
Dave Schuler comments: Did everyone actually know Russia’s war against Ukraine would “end on unsatisfying terms”? I see very little evidence of that. Quite to the contrary what I have seen is persistence in holding overly optimistic views no one knew how to make into reality. Those few hardy souls who understood it would end on unsatisfying terms from the very outset have been castigated as either victims of or promoting Russian propaganda.
But we should roll over and do whatever Russia wants - including destroying our CIA and FBI, handing over our intelligence to them, and capitulating all over the world. And why we're at it, let's get rid of our scientific programs to let other countries take the lead. Real smart. I wonder who gains from that?
Wow so you're a Putinist b**** too but you're affecting the manner of "hard eyed realist" so you can simp for MAGA Just another Trumpist loser BORING - enjoy your budget cuts
Just going back to look at comments in the earlier stages of this conflict. Interesting how viewpoints evolved.
I know he's obviously pro Putin, I'm just very curious as to why? I've got my theories that he is a diehard Noam Chomsky follower (and oldschool RT media diehard) because it feels like more of a loyalty to more of an oldschool Soviet Leninist worldview, but I kind of wonder if he actually is Russian, and the propaganda he's exposed to is just too much to overcome. Either way there's obviously a lack of objectivity on this subject when on nearly every other subject he is pretty rational. When it comes to Russia/Putin & Eastern European politics a switch gets turned on where that lack of objectivity gets flipped.
What specifically did he say that sounds irrational to you? It’s a long thread so I haven’t followed it all.
Conditions changed and the Ukraine fraud was exposed. A sign of a wise and mature person is their ability to change positions when conditions change. Biden did in fact provoke the war with his Strategic Cooperation Agreement in Nov 2021, which paved the way for Ukraine to join NATO in the future. Anyone who has followed US-Russia-Ukraine foreign relations in the last 30 years will admit this. That Agreement, in combination with Biden's weakness, opened the door wide for Putin to move on Ukraine. And he did. Then we wasted $200 billion of USA taxpayer dollars, $100B of which is unaccounted for... Zelensky played Biden and Democrats for fools. Once that happened, I could no longer support the funding effort. GOOD DAY
It's just a consistent parrot of Kremlin talking points. The whole NATO expansion talking point, etc. The framing of every topic too always excludes any agency to Russia, and Putin. He will NEVER include agency to them, and paints a picture of them as just protecting themselves. It's pretty mind boggling, and just blows his objectivity out of the water. With someone like SpaceGhost its obvious that he is just simply anti-democratic with a personal axe to grind with anyone or anything he perceives as liberal, and will always rush to the defense of anyone at odds with a "small d" democratic entity. So there's no need to overthink it.... but with Glynch this is someone who consistently on other topics related to Western politics is pro-democratic, and anti-fascistic right wing. However the switch gets flipped as soon as it has to do with Russia & Eastern European politics so it's just very confusing. -Just to clarify though I actually like Glynch's posts though most of the time, and I do realize we are all human, and there are things we all are non always objective on because of our background and experience. For example I am certainly not objective on the argument of whether or not the Rockets would have beat Jordan's Bulls had they met in the finals those two years. I'm not objective about that because of my loyalty, and my experience growing up in Houston as a diehard fan. But those experiences, and background I think are important for us to hear from someone like Glynch who obviously has a different experience with Russia/Soviet politics. I just wish we could get the full story, and a little more understanding as to why he swerves on this topic consistently.
What specifically sounds irrational about the guy who had spent 10 years fluffing Putin & telling us he was no threat to anybody & the last 3 years blaming Ukraine for the war crimes that Russia has committed & repeating virulent Putin trash about having no choice but to invade Give me a break man - stop being such a total dope
