One response we can make is to send a beautiful sympathy card to the Russian embassy, to express our sorrow at the needless loss of life for both Russian and Ukrainian soldiers as well as civilians. The Russian ambassador may privately agree with us. Having a huge bag of lovely cards to pass back to Putin may be a way that he or she can express reservations about this awful action.
I think that an international action should be made, which consists in giving the Russian side an ultimatum, selling gas and coal for 10 years at lowered prices (lower than today) then the embargo will be reduced by a few years. An international decision will declare Russia a threat to the world and is officially classified as such by the international community. If Russia is stubborn about it, let the embargo last decades until this country weakens, becomes a third world country like Africa, and that's what it's all about. Because the "tyrant" must be set in the right place. I will mention an additional embargo that we will sit down to talks if the Russian side first rebuilds the post-war damage in Ukraine and pays compensation for the families of the murdered, especially those who were civilians, because they were the aggressors.
Don’t let Vladimir Putin fool you: Russia’s war in Ukraine is only about one thing.
If you walk the streets of Moscow, you will eventually smell the faint odor of gasoline.
Any crimp on Russia’s ability to access the European market is a threat to its economic security.
To get it there, Russia relies mostly on two aging pipeline networks, one of which runs through Belarus and the other through Ukraine. For this, Russia pays Ukraine around $2 billion a year in transit fees.
Russia is a petrostate and relies on oil and natural-gas sales for about 60% of its export revenue and 40% of its total budget expenditures. Any crimp on Russia’s ability to access the European market is a threat to its economic security. As Ukrainians looked to rising living standards in places like Poland and Latvia that had joined NATO and the European Union, many wondered why they couldn’t have the same for themselves.
This is where Putin’s nationalistic impulses kick in. He views the fall of the Soviet Union as the “greatest geopolitical tragedy” of the past century and the rush of former Eastern bloc countries into the embrace of the European Union, and even NATO, as a great humiliation.
He has drawn a line in the sand with countries that border Russia, invading Georgia in 2008 when it hinted at joining NATO, and moving to destabilize Ukraine when it moved to establish closer economic ties with Europe. Domestically, Putin has sold the incursions into Ukraine on purely nationalistic grounds even going so far this weekend as to dismiss Ukraine’s history as an independent country as a falsehood.
It's chilling how similar it feels to 1939 and later years. Everyone knew AH was deluded in the later stages, yet no one actually opposed him. West threatened the Germany, yet failed to respond quickly. I just hope we have all learned from those mistakes and do not let single idiot ruin millions of people again.
The problem with that is an authoritarian, a dictator, gets to do what he wants. And others will take note.
Sadly, war with Russia may not mean war, it may mean global extinction. In conventional means, if the British join in, Europe DOES have the strength to repel the Russians. But in the context of a continent-spanning war against someone so unreliable, the risk he'll go down but take tge world with him is too great.
Fortunately there are other, less direct (or satisfying) ways of toppling leaders. If the sanctions cripple Russia, it may be game over for Putin.
I understand reluctance to go to war with a nuclear power. Sadly, that's the time we live in. But perhaps, if we'd been willing to show more teeth, we would be in a better situation.
Don't forget the US marvelled at the Nazi scientists like Nazi rocket engineer Von Braun who invented the V-2 rockets that were launched on England. 1,400 of his rockets struck London alone and was responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent civilians. That same guy was adored and praised by the US and he helped the Americans develop the Saturn V rocket that propelled man to the moon. The US loved the Nazi scientists and engineers so much that they took 1,600 back home and gave them US citizenship so that they could continue doing the same work for the US. Scary aint it.
Not only 1,600 scientists but also many bureaucrats, administrators, engineers, SS and army brass. Many Ukrainian Nazi collaborators were also given asylum in Canada and other western countries to escape retribution for their war crimes. Alberta, Canada has a significant pop of the descendants of former Ukrainian Nazis.
Apart from the US, which already delivers energy, there's the Middle East. Yes, those people are bad too (the leaders, of course), but in crisis, you do what you need to do. We're also looking at African countries that are able to export energy. In wartime, that would be stepped up and rushed. Obviously, we're not going to war, but losing Russian gas and oil is already on the table and we are looking at alternatives, and it looks like we're finding them.
Obviously, the long term solution would be to get the Green Deal off the ground and actually have our own sustainable energy, but that's not something you can just do in a month, unfortunately.
Russia has already calculated that to achieve global economic control on a level they desire and see as able to protect their national interest they must have a nation that occupies the territories of the USSR. Those lands, ports, resources are a very calculated grouping of particular needs for ascending to a powerful global player. Everyone who plays risk knows you have to have whole territories to get the extra soldiers on the map each round. This was not just an arbitrary rule. It’s because when you own whole territories you can control EVERYTHING that goes on within those regions and see greater returns each cycle.
Russia has accepted the sanctions as a necessary evil his people must endure for them to reach their desired ascendant position. They see this as the woes of growing pains. These sanctions, in effect, insulate the Russian people from the outside world making them more dependent on their own nation and existing ties with China.
These further sanctions will only cause Russia to initiate their planned strategic national economic regroup. Forcing his markets and industry to seek internal solutions for their economic issues will only bolster up and constructively and serendipitously interfere with their overarching goal of becoming the global leaders in the full form that was very carefully and strategically “gerrymandered” for resources, ports, territory, etc. More than likely they don’t even want all of Ukraine. Just enough to get away with taking what they take but more than they need to secure their newly insulated economies’ financial interests.
This is why all the anti American propaganda from Russia is about globalists who want to take control of the world. It’s EXACTLY what Russia is actually doing. It’s the “double speak” Russian propagandists always claim we are guilty of. It’s the classic Don the Con move, everything bad you are doing just be the first to claim your opposition is actually doing it so no one will believe them when they say you are doing it, and/or your supporters will believe “it’s only fair that you get to do it because the other guy is already getting away with it.”
This is all basic propaganda techniques strait out of Mein Kampf…. And watch all the Russian bot accounts (And/or newly activated Russian impelled North American separatists working on behalf of Russia to push their propaganda within our borders) flood this with comments their nonsense comments of “commie”, “leftist”, etc. they are like clock work how pedestrian they are.
Not to mention, how is no one talking about how trumps Truth social media platform being launched at the same time is clearly an attempt for kremlin propaganda to be injected into the American airwaves….. a social media platform that allows ANYTHING to be propagated in there that’s not “censored”… (anything being only what they want)…. yeah that’s like an open bar and buffet for Russian propaganda trolls to slather the air waves with Vlad and kremlin sympathies.
Clearly Russia is escalating now that their puppet Trump is out of office and can’t run blocks for Russia to go babytown frolic all over Eastern Europe. This is why trump was destroying all our nato ally ties. This is why Trump was meddling around with Ukraine and his corruption schemes. How does no one else see these clear cut paths and connections.
The Kremlin is doing their damndest to create a “North American separatist movement” here on the States with all their propaganda to keep the US toiling and busy and out of Russia’s way. Again, this is textbook Mein Kampf propaganda tactics….
This is text book Mein Kampf “early propaganda blitzkrieg” strategy before any other measures are taken. Strike up sympathetic sentiment amongst even a minute but loud sector of the opposing populace and it will pave the path for an easy military instillation. And these Russian sympathizers/traitors will drape themselves in our flag like a faux patriotic shield, crying bloody murder that Russia is “the way” because they are willing to defend the zealots in our own land that they created… Then the newly added strategy is to follow up with a cyber blitzkrieg attack as well to cripple government, financial, infrastructure, data transmission institutions….
Russia just declared that they recognize the “sovereignty” of the separatists in Ukraine that they “spun up” with their own propaganda machines and using this as impetus to move into those territories with impunity. Next they are going to claim to declare this “trumplican North American separatist movement” in the Americas, that they “spun up” with their propaganda machines, has sovereignty… Then use that as an excuse to put boots on our land. Mark my words…
Spread on the bacon bits of how the Republican Party/GQP is now run by people who boastfully guzzle down fake Russian propaganda because “they read it on the internet doing their own research”…..
I’m not mad that Russia is doing it. Russia has always been trying this. I’m mad that it’s working on our people. Republicans have been defunding public education for the last 75 years while crying bloody murder the Dems want to defund “police/boarder patrol/whatever this weeks fearbait buzz scare tactic Fox is airing right now”. And they are trying to put the final nail in the coffin to be able to take all the public school funds and use them at their private school institutions with their fake culture war on CRT. They don’t even care about CRT.
They want to get their base to think the “goberment” is wasting tax dollars teaching things they aren’t actually teaching so their already undereducated base starts screaming to take their taxes away from public schools. The war on crt is one big red herring for these republicans to finally be able to cripple the public education system. Their number one enemy because it’s poised to create free thinkers who get taught basic logic and critical thinking skills (like what a red herring fallacy is in the first place.) it’s textbook authoritarian Mein Kampf propaganda control tactics. Wax on wax off basic level.
The IOC should not only condemn Russia, but impose a Lifetime Ban over the continuing Doping scandals and the invasion of Ukraine.
This Ban Should Not be lifted until:
1. Putin is out of office, and
2. All territories and democracy are restored to Ukraine
Whether they will actually do it or not remains to be seen.
Calling an attempt at peace "pathetic" sent me over the edge. Blind loyalty is pathetic. Making excuses for war criminals is pathetic. Spending your life peddling lies for money is pathetic. That man is probably going to be killed standing in solidarity with his people, and if you think that's pathetic, there's really no hope for you as a person.
The situation is so desperate that all men aged 18-60 have been conscripted to fight, this includes all those with disabilities, and the defiance of the brave Ukrainian people shows as even single mothers are signing up to fight for their kids. The way Zelensky speaks, carries himself and leads from the front lines, makes me want to fight for Ukraine and I'm British.
While I’m typically a relative “conservative”, sometimes for the sake of sanity and empathy one has to stop and examine his/her viewpoint(s) and attitudes. Well for me that “line in the sand” has just been crossed with these comments. Yep, ole Donald once again shows his “true stripes”. Once again we’re witnessing an alarming act of "aid and comfort” to an enemy. I would remind the former “president” that he took an oath to “Serve and protect the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign or domestic”-the same oath taken by every member of our military? However, with his support of Putin during Trump’s time office (and apparently still today), I would ask why should any of us be surprised? He rarely, if ever, keeps his word UNLESS it’s personally enriching to him and/or his cronies. And for those radical groups who are supposedly worried about “safe guarding the U.S. against various threats” it would seem to me that your hero is actually working against this country’s future. Kinda hard to justify your alleged “guardianship” status. Then again why would that be surprising; while all along your hate- filled messages have been total “bunk” to begin with.
Zelensky's message to the world was heartfelt and stirring, an earnest appeal to humanity. To dismiss it as "pathetic" is to demonstrate a lack of it.
SO TRUE. How disgusting of her to criticize this guy trying hard to appeal to the PEOPLE of Russia if/since Putin wasn't going to waver in moving forward with invading Ukraine The poor man is doing what he can think of to try to save thousands or even millions of lives in his country. And why is it bad he was speaking in Russian? Many Ukrainians speak Russian, and if he knows the language, why wouldn't he speak it to Russians? He was making a humble appeal, which is totally lost on someone like Ingraham.
Not only was it a really good message. He had no choice, but to speak to the Russian ppl, coz as he has previously said, he wanted to solve this with diplomacy (which was diplomatic in itself, since there's only something to "solve" thanks to Putin), but the Russians refused to speak with the Ukrainians.
Also, Russian is actually his first language. Zelensky himself is from Eastern Ukraine from a Russian Jewish family and grew up speaking Russian.
Zelensky is currently risking his life by remaining in Kyiv, watching the Russian troops get closer and closer to the city, fully knowing that if they catch him, he's dead. The ex-president hid in a bunker and had his goons violently disperse a peaceful manifestation. Republicans know nothing of bravery.
Technically, it is a genius move. Ukraine Crisis is a game of chicken between NATO and Russia, the one blinks first loses. NATO knew that Ukraine joining them would be treading on Russia’s bottom line, yet they did so anyway. Russia’s response with the Ukraine attack went beyond NATO’s expectations. Judging by how NATO troops are staying out of the fight, they blinked and are now backing down. The cost of all this for NATO is the message that NATO will not really come to a non-NATO member’s aid despite all the big promises they made, so poke the bear at your own risks.
Therefore, Trump for once in his life, is right. Ukraine assault is a genius move, it will make other countries think twice before joining the NATO’s political offensive.
I know it's not the most important f* up in Laura Ingram's pitiful show, but Zelensky speaks fluent Russian and is perfectly comfortable addressing Putin and the citizens of Russia in their native language, he was an immensely popular comedian there as well as in Ukraine before becoming president. There was nothing pathetic about his appeal - THAT was the display of smart leadership in this situation: using his career popularity to appeal to an enemy nation, compared to Putin's sweaty erratic address that same night trying to convince his own country that he's justified to wage an illegal, expensive, and unpopular war after his own deranged aims.
Imagine wars are stated by leaders that just don't agree or can't work together and so one or both leaders send or force civilians or citizens of their own country to fight and die in a war they might not all believe in, just because of 2 leaders or governments. Pitting civilians against each other that had nothing to do with the origin or the war - nonsense
Calling Putin smart for invading Ukraine because it has very good natural resources is not the same as agreeing with his actions and is certainly much better to try to understand his motives than to dismiss him or try to belittle him with insults. To read Trump as agreeing with Putins actions is either lacking understanding of English or is wilfully being ignorant to manipulate this into an opportunity to attack the speaker.
No comments:
Post a Comment