Ukraine. Ukraine. Ukraine.

[Polds4OSU]

Kremlin initiates an information war against Moldova mirroring Ukraine pre-assault tactics​

During a commentary about the conflict in the separatist region of Moldova, Transnistria, on February 14, the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, claimed that the Moldovan government is under the control of the United States and the European Union. Furthermore, he added that the West impeded the negotiation procedure about Transnistria.



These talks involved Russia, Ukraine, Transnistria, Moldova, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). The United States and the European Union were observers. Lavrov pledged that Russia will do everything possible to restart this procedure.

Oleg Serebrian, the Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova, announced on January 28 that Moldova wouldn't re-engage in talks unless the relationship between Russia and Ukraine improves and the Ukrainian war ends.

Lavrov also vocalized his concern for the approximately 200,000 Russian citizens living in Transnistria. He affirmed that Russia will not permit these citizens to become victims of yet another Western squabble.

Lavrov accused Moldova of deciding against providing subsidies from the state budget to regions, such as Gagauzia, that oppose its integration with the European Union. He equated this situation to the West's refusal in 2013, to provide Ukraine's former President, Viktor Yanukovych, with ample time to assess the association agreement with the EU. According to Lavrov, the West is imposing a similar ultimatum on Moldova regarding its EU membership.

ISW: Russia aims to validate potential attempts to destabilize Moldova​

The ISW posits that Kremlin representatives are striving to create a narrative that would validate any potential initiatives by Russia to destabilize Moldova and hinder its integration with the West.

Other representatives from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including spokesperson Maria Zakharova, have previously alleged that Moldovan authorities are economically strangling Transnistria to hinder a diplomatic resolution to the conflict in the region.

A military blogger connected to the Kremlin propagates the narrative that Moldova is militarizing itself to integrate Transnistria forcibly and that Russia should be prepared for such an event.

Recently, Moldovan authorities accused Russian "peace forces" stationed in Transnistria of organizing drills and deploying weapons within the Moldovan security zone, an action in violation of OSCE commission protocols.



The ISW projects that although it is uncertain when a potential Russian hybrid operation in Moldova might commence, the Kremlin is systematically setting up conditions to possibly implement it soon.

 

[Polds4OSU]

47 Year Old Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison​

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has died in prison, the country's prison service said Friday, following a yearslong struggle against official corruption and President Vladimir Putin's government that saw him survive several poisoning attempts.

He was 47.

Navalny was poisoned with a military nerve agent while on a business trip in Russia in 2020 — an attempt on his life that he blamed directly on Putin — and spent his final years behind bars as the Russian leader reshaped the country to rally behind his war in Ukraine. News of his death, which comes as the Kremlin is preparing to orchestrate another election victory for Putin in March, drew condemnation from the West.


Navalny was serving a combined 30 ½-year jail sentence when he died. He went missing in Russia's penal system in December, eventually turning up at a high-security penal colony in a remote town above the Arctic Circle.

Russia's Federal Prison Service said in a statement that Navalny had died after feeling unwell following a walk Friday.

“On February 16, 2024, in penal colony No. 3, convict A.A. Navalny felt unwell after a walk, almost immediately losing consciousness,” the prison service for the Yamalo-Nenets region, where Navalny was moved, said in a statement on its website.

“The facility’s medical workers immediately arrived at the scene and an emergency medical team was called in. All necessary resuscitation measures have been carried out, but they did not yield positive results. Emergency medics confirmed the death of the convict,” the statement added.


There was no immediate information about what exactly caused Navalny's death, with the region's investigative committee saying it has launched a "procedural investigation."

Navalny’s wife, Yulia, received a standing ovation at the Munich Security Conference, where Western officials gathered Friday.

“I don’t know whether I should believe the news,” she said, explaining it had come from state sources she said were known for lying.

If it’s true, she said, “I want Putin, all his allies and all his government to know that they will be held responsible for what they have done to my country, my family and to my husband. That day will come very soon.”


Navalny's allies have long raised concerns about his health and poor conditions in jail, where they said he had to spend many days in crammed "punishment cells" for the most minor of conduct violations.

But he appeared healthy as he addressed a court via video link from the penal colony Thursday, laughing and cracking jokes.


Navalny's mother said that her son had also been “healthy and happy” when she last saw him on Monday, according to Russian media.

“I don’t want to hear any condolences. We saw him in prison on the 12, in a meeting. He was alive, healthy and happy," Lyudmila Navalnaya wrote in a Facebook post on Friday according to the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, Reuters reported.

A spokesperson for the opposition leader said on X that they did not have any confirmation or information about his death. "Russian authorities publish a confession that they killed Alexey Navalny in prison," Leonid Volkov, a close ally of many years, said in a post on X. "We do not have any way to confirm it or to prove this isn’t true."

Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled former oligarch-turned-opposition-figure, also said on X: "If this is true, then, regardless of the formal cause, the responsibility for premature death is borne by Vladimir Putin, who first authorized the poisoning of Alexei and then put him in prison."


Reaction to Navalny's death was also swift in the West.

The news "only underscores the weakness and rot at the heart of the system that Putin has built. Russia is responsible for this,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Munich.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said "Russia has serious questions to answer," while European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on X that Navalny's death was a "grim reminder of what Putin and his regime are all about."


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who was also in Munich, said it was “obvious” that Putin was directly behind Navalny's death.

"He was killed by Putin, like thousands of those tortured because of this one being," Zelenskyy said. "He doesn’t care who dies to keep his position," he added. "Putin must lose everything and answer for what he has done."

contd....​

 

[Polds4OSU]

A thorn in the Kremlin's side​

Navalny's death leaves Russia’s opposition, wounded by years of harassment and prosecution, without a clear leader. All of Putin’s most high-profile critics are now either dead, jailed or in exile.

Navalny was, undoubtedly, the biggest thorn in the Kremlin’s side.

For more than a decade, he led nationwide protests against the authorities, ran for office to challenge members of the Russian establishment and set up a network of campaign offices across the country that have since been dismantled.


Born in 1976 in the tiny town of Bytyn, near Moscow, Navalny was educated as a lawyer and economist, but entered politics in 2008, starting his anti-corruption fund, FBK, three years later.

He was known for his oratory skills, as well as his use of the online space to promote the results of his investigations and spread his ideal of what he called the “wonderful Russia of tomorrow.” His digital savvy made him particularly popular among Russia’s more democratically minded teenagers and youth.

Navalny rose to prominence as Russia’s most outspoken Kremlin critic after leading a series of anti-corruption investigations into members of the Russian elite.


His 2017 exposure of the lavish lifestyle of Dmitry Medvedev, a former president and prime minister, led to mass protests. And an investigation into a luxurious “secret palace” on Russia’s Black Sea coast, purportedly owned by Putin, resulted in a wave of indignation across Russia in 2021.


Navalny tried to run against Putin in the 2018 presidential election, but was barred from entering the race because of a 2014 embezzlement conviction, which he categorically denied as fabricated to keep him out of politics. Russian officials made a point of not referring to Navalny by name to avoid raising his profile in public.

While on a business trip in Russia in August 2020, Navalny was poisoned with the military nerve agent in an attempt on his life that he blamed directly on Putin.

Navalny survived his 2020 poisoning, thanks to the insistence of his family that he be airlifted to Germany, where he underwent treatment and a long rehabilitation process.

The Kremlin denied any involvement in his poisoning, which was condemned by Western governments and led to a further straining of relations with Russia.

Navalny nonetheless decided to return to Russia in early 2021 and was arrested upon landing on charges stemming from the 2014 embezzlement case. He was sentenced to 2 ½ years in prison for a parole violation linked to that conviction. The decision came days after more than 5,000 people were detained across Russia in rallies supporting Navalny.


His allies have also been persecuted, and his anti-corruption fund was declared an extremist organization a few months after his sentencing, forcing it to shut down and most of the top staff to flee abroad.

He was tried on new charges of fraud and contempt of court and was sentenced to nine more years in jail. Then in August, he was sentenced to a further 19 years in a maximum security penal colony on charges of extremism, in what his allies and the international community called a Kremlin campaign to keep him incarcerated forever. Navalny has denied all charges against him as politically motivated.

His supporters have raised concerns about his treatment in custody and detention conditions, including access to proper medical care and frequent isolation in a tiny punishment cell.

In an interview with NBC News in 2021, Putin said he could not guarantee that Navalny would get out of prison alive.


But even in jail, Navalny continued to challenge Putin.

In his signature defiant but sarcastic style, Navalny detailed the realities of the Russian penitentiary system and promoted new anti-corruption investigations his team had been working on in exile. He issued anti-Kremlin statements through his lawyers and spoke openly against the Russian government’s actions in Ukraine.


He was designated a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International in 2021, with the U.S. and other governments calling for his release.

A film about his life won an Oscar for best documentary feature last year.

But the win caused controversy in Ukraine, where some critics painted Navalny as a Russian nationalist and pointed to comments in 2014 in which he said he sees no difference between Ukrainians and Russians — a sentiment Putin used as one of the arguments behind his war eight years later. Navalny, however, criticized the Russian-backed insurgency in east Ukraine and later described the full-scale invasion as both unjust and self-defeating.

Navalny leaves behind his wife, a daughter, Daria, and a son, Zahar.

 

[Polds4OSU]

Sen Tommy Tuberville once again blames US for Russia attacking Ukraine.....and FYI Commie Tommy No one in the US EXPECTS Ukraine to win? Why the hell would they??!!! People in the US EXPECT Russia NOT TO INVADE AND ILLEALLY ANNEX ITS NEIGHBORS

But Lord Trump is going to SAVE the day

GOP Sen. Tommy Tuberville at CPAC: “I haven’t voted for any money to go to Ukraine because I know they can’t win.”​

While speaking at CPAC Thursday, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) repeatedly said Ukraine “can’t win” Russia’s war against the country.

“We’re the one that forced this war, because we kept forcing NATO on Ukraine and showing Russia, hey, we’re going to build military bases on your borders. And Putin said, no, no, you’re not going to do that,” Tuberville said at the conservative conference in the D.C. area.


“I haven’t voted for any money to go to Ukraine because I know they can’t win,” the Republican senator continued.

“You hate that they’ve had 300,000 or 400,000 people killed, so — Russians also. You hate that we supported this. We’re pushing them out in front of the guns or out in front of the bus, I guess you’d speak. It’s an atrocity, but they can’t win,” Tuberville added.

Tuberville also later added that “Donald Trump will stop [the war] when he first gets in.”

“He knows there’s no winning for Ukraine. He can work a deal with Putin,” he said.

 

[Llcoolw]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1761456421453844794

Listen to the end

 

[Bowers3]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1761456421453844794

Listen to the end

What's the problem there?

 

[Donnyboy]

What's the problem there?

No matter where you land on Ukraine....that we must fully support to the bitter end or we should have never sent a penny.....this is bad. None of us can act like our politicians aren't for hire. There isn't a defense company that doesn't want this to drag on forever at a price that could easily at this point hit a trillion dollars. This is a dictator invading an incredibly corrupt nation.....not a lot of good outcomes....throw in American defense companies reaping billions in profits and this gets even muddier. I get that missals aren't made by a whole lot of companies and it's better the money go here than elsewhere but we are sending 100's of billions to a nation where we can't track any of it....and the rest to defense companies incentivized by war.

 

[Bowers3]

No matter where you land on Ukraine....that we must fully support to the bitter end or we should have never sent a penny.....this is bad. None of us can act like our politicians aren't for hire. There isn't a defense company that doesn't want this to drag on forever at a price that could easily at this point hit a trillion dollars. This is a dictator invading an incredibly corrupt nation.....not a lot of good outcomes....throw in American defense companies reaping billions in profits and this gets even muddier. I get that missals aren't made by a whole lot of companies and it's better the money go here than elsewhere but we are sending 100's of billions to a nation where we can't track any of it....and the rest to defense companies incentivized by war.

I feel like conservatives/Republicans are overcorrecting for looking like dumbasses when they got all patriotic and "support the troops" 20 years ago during the second Iraq war. To me, this just isn't the conflict to pretend to be virtuous. There's ONE aggressor here. Ol' Vlad. We aren't sending troops. We're sending equipment so a European country can defend itself. And yeah, people are going to make money. I don't know why that makes it automatically a bad thing.

 

[Donnyboy]

I feel like conservatives/Republicans are overcorrecting for looking like dumbasses when they got all patriotic and "support the troops" 20 years ago during the second Iraq war. To me, this just isn't the conflict to pretend to be virtuous. There's ONE aggressor here. Ol' Vlad. We aren't sending troops. We're sending equipment so a European country can defend itself. And yeah, people are going to make money. I don't know why that makes it automatically a bad thing.

I don't disagree with your take....but at the same time the left that has traditionally been opposed to war is in love with this one. This is a whole lot more than sending equipment so a Euro nation can defend itself. I'm also not defending the invasion in any way. But this is also Putin forming BRICS.....buying weapons from Iran....cutting deals that hurt us and help them powerful economies....that ain't good for us. This is JP Morgan already having a rebuild contract.....this is billions to defense contractors.....that's the most powerful bank and defense companies on Earth rooting for war....and the elected officials they own thus having to vote for the outcome they choose. It's a mess....and it's getting way more attention than real problems here and I think that has a lot to do with the preceding sentence. When there is blood in the streets buy land is an adage much older than this conflict so any war will have profiteers but this one is infinitely touchier than the gulf war. We are way way closer to a global conflict with this than anything in the gulf. There has to be other avenues than throwing money at it....and that's all it seems we're doing. I'm more isolationist than most but not so naïve as to think you can just let a Putin run amuck....but it bothers me that a massive chunk of Hawaii burned to ground and we have done little to nothing.....that our border is a mess and we did nothing for 3 years and now both sides are treating it as a chess piece for elections results... You can only juke economic stats so long. We don't have the money we are spending nor the economic climate to be doing so. Putin knows that.

 

[CowboyJD]

There has to be other avenues than throwing money at it....and that's all it seems we're doing. I'm more isolationist than most but not so naïve as to think you can just let a Putin run amuck....but it bothers me that a massive chunk of Hawaii burned to ground and we have done little to nothing.....that our border is a mess and we did nothing for 3 years and now both sides are treating it as a chess piece for elections results... You can only juke economic stats so long. We don't have the money we are spending nor the economic climate to be doing so. Putin knows that.

If there "has to be other avenues that throwing money at it..."

What are those?

Particularly when you say you are not so naive as to think we can just let a Putin run amuck.

I guess we could just give up the Sudentenland that is now Ukraine, call it a day, and hope that satisfies Putin. Maybe quote Neville Chamberlain and declare "peace in our time"

Too many historical parallels for me to seriously consider that a viable option.

 

[Donnyboy]

If there "has to be other avenues that throwing money at it..."

What are those?

Particularly when you say you are not so naive as to think we can just let a Putin run amuck.

I guess we could just give up the Sudentenland that is now Ukraine, call it a day, and hope that satisfies Putin. Maybe quote Neville Chamberlain and declare "peace in our time"

Too many historical parallels for me to seriously consider that a viable option.

I'm not pretending to have all the answers. If I did I would say we have to do X,Y,Z....again this is very messy. I think we can also say no one in Washington has any other ideas than throwing money at it because so far our response has been toothless sanctions, maybe blowing up a pipeline, the discussion of Ukraine into NATO which will worsen the situation (at least near term), and throwing a lot of money that we can't reconcile at it. But we have awarded billions in contracts to those with powerful lobbies pretty much guaranteeing that under our political leadership which is bought and paid for on both sides we are going to spend and spend until this battle of attrition is over. We have been lied to about the Russians status in the war making it sound like they were getting handled when they weren't....and Putin has cards here. Europe needs his energy sources and he is firming up deals around the globe. We are just throwing money at it. The sanctions are going to have to get some real teeth.....like no biz with Russia if you want to do business here at all or come to some kind of compromise because I don't think we are going to out stubborn Russia....too many historical references there too. But this is going to hit a T trillion dollars in the not so distant future and Ukraine isn't winning. Any small victories they have are erased they can't compete with Russia without being 100% supported....and the bill for that is growing not shrinking....moving forward and we can't afford that. And god forbid a NATO member get a wild hair and actively engage on a meaningful scale.

We have committed to more aid in Ukraine than we spend on education.

 

[Bowers3]

I'm not pretending to have all the answers. If I did I would say we have to do X,Y,Z....again this is very messy. I think we can also say no one in Washington has any other ideas than throwing money at it because so far our response has been toothless sanctions, maybe blowing up a pipeline, the discussion of Ukraine into NATO which will worsen the situation (at least near term), and throwing a lot of money that we can't reconcile at it. But we have awarded billions in contracts to those with powerful lobbies pretty much guaranteeing that under our political leadership which is bought and paid for on both sides we are going to spend and spend until this battle of attrition is over. We have been lied to about the Russians status in the war making it sound like they were getting handled when they weren't....and Putin has cards here. Europe needs his energy sources and he is firming up deals around the globe. We are just throwing money at it. The sanctions are going to have to get some real teeth.....like no biz with Russia if you want to do business here at all or come to some kind of compromise because I don't think we are going to out stubborn Russia....too many historical references there too. But this is going to hit a T trillion dollars in the not so distant future and Ukraine isn't winning. Any small victories they have are erased they can't compete with Russia without being 100% supported....and the bill for that is growing not shrinking....moving forward and we can't afford that. And god forbid a NATO member get a wild hair and actively engage on a meaningful scale.

We have committed to more aid in Ukraine than we spend on education.

I think the most important thing is that this is a defensive war. Our government did not start it. So IMO all the talk about defense company and bank contracts just doesn't matter. Good for them. Don't care.
Where did you get that "we have been lied to about Russia's status in the war?" They haven't attained many of their strategic goals. That's widely reported.
I do get your isolationist position for sure. It's not our war. Our government should really stop spending money. I mean the deficit has gotten ridiculous and unsustainable. I just think it's important for nations that can (Europe and the US) to help a country defend itself against invasion and literal ethnic cleansing.
Also, you keep bringing up BRICS. I think that's going to make way less of a splash globally than you think it is and that's if it even gets off the ground.

 

[Vakarian74]

You’ve got to applaud Russia's efforts of misinformation. They have made conservative Americans go from screw Russia/lets out spend them to beat them to either apologists/sympathizers or just people who think Russia can’t be beaten so why try.

 

[Donnyboy]

I think the most important thing is that this is a defensive war. Our government did not start it. So IMO all the talk about defense company and bank contracts just doesn't matter. Good for them. Don't care.
Where did you get that "we have been lied to about Russia's status in the war?" They haven't attained many of their strategic goals. That's widely reported.
I do get your isolationist position for sure. It's not our war. Our government should really stop spending money. I mean the deficit has gotten ridiculous and unsustainable. I just think it's important for nations that can (Europe and the US) to help a country defend itself against invasion and literal ethnic cleansing.
Also, you keep bringing up BRICS. I think that's going to make way less of a splash globally than you think it is and that's if it even gets off the ground.

Again someone is gonna make money....in that sense I agree....but I don't think Mitch McConnell etc etc care one bit for the people of Ukraine or America as much as he cares about the fat checks from Raytheon and JPM and that does worry me.

We are hearing Russia is winning now....that was not the case early on and Ukraine was never winning or even close.

BRICS is 4 of the 11 biggest economies on Earth and a partner in Africa combined they are within a billion of the US economy and is already larger than the European Union.....the C holds enough of our debt to worry.....they have formal invites to 6 more with Japan being the 4th largest economy by GDP.....they have offered Iran a seat at the table and not many folks are doing that these days and they are sitting on a pool of hard to sell oil the world needs because the green stuff ain't gonna work anywhere near term and the developing world will not develop on it.....they will on fossil fuels. They as a collective are paying real attention to Africa and that shouldn't go unnoticed. If Japan or Iran joins BRICS is the larger than the US economy....if they lock up Africa they could surpass NATO as those are shrinking economies and Africa is growing. BRICS isn't running the show yet and I'm not saying they are but it's a bold move to set this up when you are starting a war in NATOs backyard. Every member they add weakens our position globally and there is traction there. It's not an economic juggernaut that can cripple the dollar in a year but it's not something to poo poo either. It's the largest alliance of it's kind since the fall of communism. BRICS offers the world a second option....you don't want to bend the knee to the US go talk to BRICS.

To the spending.....it's more than just an isolationist slant. The Fed is insolvent on paper....like literally....if they were an actual bank they would have to fold. I have posted before about how the economic reports are smoke and mirrors. Most are either out right incorrect to a degree it wasn't a mistake (like one in billions % chance they could be so wrong...especially when you add the previous corrections cumulatively) or juked on things like inflation where indicators are added or omitted to get the answer that reads best. They trot out great news and then correct them two months later on a Friday afternoon when the story will die. The best example of this was the most recent job report....it was total BS....353K new jobs was double what every analysis predicted for even the most ambitious estimates. They aren't all wrong by that magnitude if the street was that bad as a collective the market would swing like a whore house gate month to month and I'm not talking 1000 here or there I'm talking massive swings. There is reputable analysis out there that when you go inside the job report as conducted real full time private jobs may have actually been lost.....I can't get that far breaking it down....but what is easy to see is they are counting stuff like driving Uber or DoorDash (that have no set wage attached) or second jobs needed to fight inflation as new full time jobs entering the work force. The WSJ has reported that the majority of all the full time jobs created in 23 that padded the stats were government positions....that means the private sector is shrinking....that ain't what we are being told. They posted a sharp raise in wages by cutting the work week to 34.1 hours....wages are not up....so they took total payroll and divided it by a smaller number.....a number that hasn't been used since they were lying in belly of the 2008 crisis to try to pump sunshine. The problem here is we don't have the money if you buy the crap that is being sold and sure as heck don't if you look at what is actually going on.

 

[Polds4OSU]

Sri Lanka ends tourist Visa's for 288,000 Russians and 20,000 Ukrainians. Gives them 2 weeks to leave the country.

2 years ago 100's of 1000's o Russians and 10's of 1000's of Ukrainians Fled to Sri Lanka on 30 day Tourist VIsas. Sri Lank had been in the habit of extending these Visa's and allowing Russians and Ukrainians who were running from the war to stay in country.

However, they have announced now they are reversing this practice and notified all Russian and Ukrainians who had been staying on an extended Visas they had 2 weeks to leave the country.

The Presidents office of Sri Lanka said they were ending this practice due to political pressure from other countries and also due to wide spread reports that Russians had begin setting up and running illegal business practices around the country.

One region in Sri Lanka led to a famous Social Media frenzy when several illegal Russian run business's in the South of the country set up a "Whites Only" policy for local bars, restaurants, water sports and taxi services that Russians were running illegally.

 

[Big8+4-2-2+2-2+4+4]

I don't disagree with your take....but at the same time the left that has traditionally been opposed to war is in love with this one. This is a whole lot more than sending equipment so a Euro nation can defend itself. I'm also not defending the invasion in any way. But this is also Putin forming BRICS.....buying weapons from Iran....cutting deals that hurt us and help them powerful economies....that ain't good for us. This is JP Morgan already having a rebuild contract.....this is billions to defense contractors.....that's the most powerful bank and defense companies on Earth rooting for war....and the elected officials they own thus having to vote for the outcome they choose. It's a mess....and it's getting way more attention than real problems here and I think that has a lot to do with the preceding sentence. When there is blood in the streets buy land is an adage much older than this conflict so any war will have profiteers but this one is infinitely touchier than the gulf war. We are way way closer to a global conflict with this than anything in the gulf. There has to be other avenues than throwing money at it....and that's all it seems we're doing. I'm more isolationist than most but not so naïve as to think you can just let a Putin run amuck....but it bothers me that a massive chunk of Hawaii burned to ground and we have done little to nothing.....that our border is a mess and we did nothing for 3 years and now both sides are treating it as a chess piece for elections results... You can only juke economic stats so long. We don't have the money we are spending nor the economic climate to be doing so. Putin knows that.

This whole mess is a microcosm of our geriatric duopoly congress. We were actually on the right side of history with backing a willing defensive combatant. Whether we hide in the sand about this or not Russia is an American adversary. From the end to Clinton’s term to the end of Trump’s term the west was naive to think Russia would want to play the same game as the rest of Europe. Putin picked a perfect time of US weakness for Ukraine support thanks to sympathy from conservative isolationist populism and the Debt crisis we keep inching towards due ongoing terrible fiscal policy. In 2004 we backed a pro west regime in Ukraine (at the will of the Ukraine people) and this is the consequences of that. Ukraine definitely has corruption problems We’ve already destroyed what little diplomacy we had with Russia backing Ukraine from the start of this invasion. Now not backing Ukraine any more opens up further Russian expansion as well as their allies (China with Taiwan, Iran proxy’s with Israel, Venezuela with Guyana). I feel Russia is bleeding out our pockets as well as our diplomatic power with this conflict. If we nope out of Ukraine the rest of the Axis has the green light to blow up the status quo that had the US at the helm of the world. It won’t be pretty when we get knocked off that stage. You can look at this through the lens of a sunk cost fallacy or the future of Europe. The rip chord on this conflict could also lead to dire global consequences for the US and the rest of the world.

 

[Bowers3]

Again someone is gonna make money....in that sense I agree....but I don't think Mitch McConnell etc etc care one bit for the people of Ukraine or America as much as he cares about the fat checks from Raytheon and JPM and that does worry me.

Absolutely. And again, I'd completely agree in other scenarios where we started the war and were the ones who could finish it. That's not the case here.

We are hearing Russia is winning now....that was not the case early on and Ukraine was never winning or even close.

Where are "we" hearing this? And gee I wonder why...

BRICS is 4 of the 11 biggest economies on Earth and a partner in Africa combined they are within a billion of the US economy and is already larger than the European Union.....the C holds enough of our debt to worry.....they have formal invites to 6 more with Japan being the 4th largest economy by GDP.....they have offered Iran a seat at the table and not many folks are doing that these days and they are sitting on a pool of hard to sell oil the world needs because the green stuff ain't gonna work anywhere near term and the developing world will not develop on it.....they will on fossil fuels. They as a collective are paying real attention to Africa and that shouldn't go unnoticed. If Japan or Iran joins BRICS is the larger than the US economy....if they lock up Africa they could surpass NATO as those are shrinking economies and Africa is growing. BRICS isn't running the show yet and I'm not saying they are but it's a bold move to set this up when you are starting a war in NATOs backyard. Every member they add weakens our position globally and there is traction there. It's not an economic juggernaut that can cripple the dollar in a year but it's not something to poo poo either. It's the largest alliance of it's kind since the fall of communism. BRICS offers the world a second option....you don't want to bend the knee to the US go talk to BRICS.

It's an economic/trade alliance with the main purpose of skirting US sanctions. Countries can join or leave as it fits their interests.

To the spending.....it's more than just an isolationist slant. The Fed is insolvent on paper....like literally....if they were an actual bank they would have to fold. I have posted before about how the economic reports are smoke and mirrors. Most are either out right incorrect to a degree it wasn't a mistake (like one in billions % chance they could be so wrong...especially when you add the previous corrections cumulatively) or juked on things like inflation where indicators are added or omitted to get the answer that reads best. They trot out great news and then correct them two months later on a Friday afternoon when the story will die. The best example of this was the most recent job report....it was total BS....353K new jobs was double what every analysis predicted for even the most ambitious estimates. They aren't all wrong by that magnitude if the street was that bad as a collective the market would swing like a whore house gate month to month and I'm not talking 1000 here or there I'm talking massive swings. There is reputable analysis out there that when you go inside the job report as conducted real full time private jobs may have actually been lost.....I can't get that far breaking it down....but what is easy to see is they are counting stuff like driving Uber or DoorDash (that have no set wage attached) or second jobs needed to fight inflation as new full time jobs entering the work force. The WSJ has reported that the majority of all the full time jobs created in 23 that padded the stats were government positions....that means the private sector is shrinking....that ain't what we are being told. They posted a sharp raise in wages by cutting the work week to 34.1 hours....wages are not up....so they took total payroll and divided it by a smaller number.....a number that hasn't been used since they were lying in belly of the 2008 crisis to try to pump sunshine. The problem here is we don't have the money if you buy the crap that is being sold and sure as heck don't if you look at what is actually going on.

You got into one of your rants here! But yeah, spending is a problem we can both agree on. I will say that the US economy, downward revised economic data notwithstanding, is relatively kicking ass and has been for a while. Also some of the revised data was upward in fashion.

 

[Vakarian74]

This whole mess is a microcosm of our geriatric duopoly congress. We were actually on the right side of history with backing a willing defensive combatant. Whether we hide in the sand about this or not Russia is an American adversary. From the end to Clinton’s term to the end of Trump’s term the west was naive to think Russia would want to play the same game as the rest of Europe. Putin picked a perfect time of US weakness for Ukraine support thanks to sympathy from conservative isolationist populism and the Debt crisis we keep inching towards due ongoing terrible fiscal policy. In 2004 we backed a pro west regime in Ukraine (at the will of the Ukraine people) and this is the consequences of that. Ukraine definitely has corruption problems We’ve already destroyed what little diplomacy we had with Russia backing Ukraine from the start of this invasion. Now not backing Ukraine any more opens up further Russian expansion as well as their allies (China with Taiwan, Iran proxy’s with Israel, Venezuela with Guyana). I feel Russia is bleeding out our pockets as well as our diplomatic power with this conflict. If we nope out of Ukraine the rest of the Axis has the green light to blow up the status quo that had the US at the helm of the world. It won’t be pretty when we get knocked off that stage. You can look at this through the lens of a sunk cost fallacy or the future of Europe. The rip chord on this conflict could also lead to dire global consequences for the US and the rest of the world.

Aren’t you a ray of sunshine

 

[Bowers3]

Literally just scrolled past this and gave it a watch @Donnyboy. Bremmer is great and he keeps it non-sensationalist and non-partisan. He even kind of corroborates some of your points. If you have 5 minutes….

https://x.com/ianbremmer/status/1762208159970840658?s=46&t=UorwvrrqmGIJhXb3hdifTA

 

[Donnyboy]

Absolutely. And again, I'd completely agree in other scenarios where we started the war and were the ones who could finish it. That's not the case here.



Where are "we" hearing this? And gee I wonder why...



It's an economic/trade alliance with the main purpose of skirting US sanctions. Countries can join or leave as it fits their interests.



You got into one of your rants here! But yeah, spending is a problem we can both agree on. I will say that the US economy, downward revised economic data notwithstanding, is relatively kicking ass and has been for a while. Also some of the revised data was upward in fashion.

It's not kicking ass.....we are being told it's kicking ass. Those are two different things.