To be honest I didn't even know Portugal had an Air Force. Seems like the only violence they see are soccer matches. But for sure I get your point. The underlying consequences
Come on Kemah, I know you like to play that you are in the middle but there is no one in the middle that can watch what Trump is doing and say anything reasonably positive about creating trade wars with our alleys. He is hurting this country with his stupidity..... DD
I don't think that at all. The last two sentences were the seminal point. Portugal is on my retire to list. But wife being Irish I will die there.
My fate has already been negotiated. We own half a house in Tralee. County Kerry. UP THE KINGDOM. I was stationed at Howard AFB for 6 months. Ireland has no mosquitos or snakes.
Portugal is a beautiful country! They have extremely low violence and a very tolerant society. Hot women and amazing food! One of the most underrated countries in the world! Very scenic and very low cost of living.
We have a house in Sante Fe for winter and probably end up in Sun City with all the other old retirees in a couple of years assuming SS is still around. DD
This is what is totally how the Kremlin operates politically. Putin will never outright reject the deal, but he's going to come up with a million changes and a million new conditions and The Donald is still going to be hopeful Putie-Poot will sign up for that ceasefire any day now 4 years from now. [Politico]Why Putin will seek to sink Trump’s Ukraine ceasefire plan Former Kremlin diplomat trashes idea that Russian leader will sign up to U.S.-brokered truce in Ukraine. Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin is highly unlikely to embrace a United States-brokered ceasefire proposal that Ukraine has already endorsed, a former Russian diplomat warned Thursday. The Russian leader won’t see it as in his interest to accept and he will seek to bog down discussions by raising a never-ending series of modifications in order to sink it, said Boris Bondarev, who worked for the Russian permanent mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva until he resigned in opposition to Putin’s war on Ukraine. “Putin has no interest in a ceasefire,” Bondarev told POLITICO. “He thinks he can achieve his goals through fighting. I think he feels quite confident.” The former Russian diplomat was speaking as U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Moscow for discussions on the proposed 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine — a truce the White House hopes will pave the way to a larger and comprehensive peace settlement to end Russia’s three-year-old full-scale invasion of its neighbor. Kremlin officials have already cast doubt on the proposal. A Putin foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov — who participated last month in a meeting with U.S. negotiators in Saudi Arabia — described the proposed ceasefire as “a hasty document.” Trump has warned Moscow against stalling on the Ukraine ceasefire and on Wednesday threatened Russia with significant financial consequences if it fails to sign on to the agreement, brokered during negotiations earlier this week between American and Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed Thursday that American negotiators were arriving to explain the ceasefire proposal. “Contacts are planned,” Peskov told reporters in the Russian capital. “We will not prejudge,” Peskov added. He didn’t say whether Witkoff would meet with Putin himself, nor if the Kremlin has already produced a list of its own demands. Bondarev said he doesn’t think Putin is afraid of Trump. “He’s not afraid of irritating him but maybe he will tell him, ‘OK, it’s a great idea. I’d love to stop fighting. But I need some minor questions to be solved prior to the ceasefire. If you, Donald, want this deal, if you do want it, well, let’s do some minor arrangements before we start talking,’” he said. Overall, Putin is likely to reckon that “Trump is much more concerned about a peace deal than about Ukraine,” Bondarev added. Trump prides himself on his skill to strike deals, and he attacked Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy late last month when he viewed him as an obstacle to a peace settlement. Trump subsequently cut military aid to Kyiv and fumed that Ukrainians did not want peace, but resumed weapons supply once Ukraine had agreed to the ceasefire proposal. Ukrainian officials hope now that Putin will become the target of Trump’s wrath. But Bondarev warned that Putin will seek to play Trump and to deflect the U.S. leader’s anger back onto Zelenskyy. “There will be always a scapegoat in Zelenskyy and Moscow will blame him for any troubles with Russia. ‘Who is to blame? Zelenskyy, of course,’” said Bondarev. Shortly before Witkoff landed in Moscow, Putin adviser Ushakov said: “It should be worked on, and our position should also be considered and taken into account.” He told journalists: “For now, only the Ukrainian approach is outlined there.” He suggested ceasefire steps were “unnecessary” and that negotiations should immediately commence on a broader peace deal rather than a temporary truce. Ushakov, who on Wednesday talked by phone with U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz, said a 30-day pause in fighting would just be an opportunity for Ukrainian forces to regroup and to be refurnished by its Western allies. That could indicate that one of the Russian counterproposals will be that all Western military aid — whether from America or Europe — be stopped during any pause in fighting. Another possible tack the Kremlin may take is to maintain that nothing can be agreed until Trump and Putin have the opportunity themselves to meet and talk. The English-language Moscow Times reported Thursday that the Kremlin is exploring options for a potential meeting between the two leaders next month or in May. According to Russian officials the newspaper spoke to, the Kremlin would prefer to delay a summit for as long as possible to squeeze out the maximum concessions it can from Washington, in exchange for Russia halting military actions in Ukraine. “Time is on the Kremlin’s side,” an official said. According to Bondarev, the Kremlin will push the line that all it wants is a “long, steady peace and of course, a deal strictly on Russian conditions” that will include a commitment that Ukraine never joins NATO and remains neutral, that there will be no Western peacekeepers deployed to Ukraine and that all Western rearmament of Ukraine ends. For Putin a temporary ceasefire risks turning into a longer truce, Bondarev said, and “in PR terms it will be more difficult to break a ceasefire than to decline one.
Sanctions - going back to the Obama era sanctions, have crippled Russia. Their economy and quality of life have taken a massive hit, so has Russia in the international community. Right now places like parts of Vietnam are crawling with Russian males trying to avoid service in the military. The ability to invade Ukraine in a low barrier to cross. Putin made the unilateral decision to invade Ukraine multiple times - and he is the one responsible for the sanctions put on Russia.
Like a drug dealer. "Here's a free little taste". Then you get hooked and the dealer gets paid. Musk is not giving Starlink away for free.
This is why it can be very foolish to claim as a 3rd party that you are going to end wars overseas. In the case of ending the war with regards to Israel it is a bit different, they are ultimately very dependent on the USA and they also know that we will give them what they want, and they already turned Gaza into a future Burning Man site. I suspect that Trump hoped he would be able to get Ukraine and Russia to agree to a stalemate - that Russia keeps the areas it controls right now - that Ukraine keeps the lands that they still have and that US heavy investment and involvement in the production and export of minerals would keep Russia from invading in the future because it would result in US boots on the ground. There is a certain level of extreme ego involved in all of this. Russia under Putin has this very dated 19th century belief that land accumulation is the end all-be all. Rather than looking at situations like Taiwan, and Hong Kong and others - that commerce, and productivity and cultivation are FAR more important when it comes to wealth and power. Someone like Israel can take Gaza and rebuild because of the small size and foreign investment. That isn't the case with Crimea or Donbas - which they are largely destroying and lack the capitol to invest - as they cannot even keep their own rotting infrastructure up. From the US perspective - Trump has already said he is afraid of WWIII, that he will not put troops on the ground, that he believes that Ukraine has to compromise further. the arrogance is palpable, what pressure is there on Putin now to agree to a deal he knows he can already get from Trump? Why should Putin believe that there will be any further pressure exerted on him to continue the invasion and try and carve off more land.
You would make my exiled Grandmother proud speaking highly of Portugal. Having said that, Portugal is a great place to visit but I would not raise my family in Portugal or Spain.
@Astrodome Two things: 1- That was signed on 1/10/25 by the Biden administration. You can see the full PDF and the signed date on it here. It was also reported on - see here. Marc knows all of this, so I marked this as intentional disinformation from him. 2- Putin didn't agree to any ceasefire. This is a typical Putin tactic - claiming he is for peace, but (and this has been an ongoing "BUT" for over a decade).
