Ukraine

[Phoenixmgs]

 

[Terminal Blue]

Your view of Russia since 2000 is not consistent with what I've read from its critics-- with the article I linked in the previous post; your allegations are oddly exaggerated. And your view of the state of Western politics and media is conspicuously rosy. Oh, it's just a prevailing political orthodoxy. Incredible stuff, Silvanus.

Move to Russia.

You can literally do so any time you want. There is a scheme in place that allows people from countries that "impose destructive neoliberal ideological attitudes that contradict traditional Russian spiritual and moral values" to fast-track the process of applying for a visa. All you have to do is provide a bunch of information about things like your criminal record and HIV status.

You don't have to rely on speculation or Western propaganda to find out what life is like in Russia. You can go and live there and experience it for yourself. For some reason they really want you to do that. Plus, think about it. They have a real communist party in Russia. How based is that. Maybe one day you could vote for it and really make a difference..

The belief that an "unorthodox" position is more credible because it is unorthodox is spectacularly naive and, ironically, extremely vulnerable to state propaganda. Russia is a real place. You can get on a plane and go there, it's incredibly easy. Even if you don't want to do that, you can talk to the many, many people who live or have lived under the Russian political system. The barrier to knowledge here is non-existent. If you are choosing to ignore it, you should probably ask yourself why you are doing that.

 

[Agema]

Trump says Zelenskyy to visit U.S. to sign critical rare minerals deal on Friday

Ukraine and the United States have prepared a draft deal over access to Kyiv's deposits of rare earth minerals, officials said Wednesday.

www.cnbc.com

A deal on security guarantees is supposedly to follow, insofar those still mean anything.

We might suspect that from Trump's previous record, this "deal" could in fact be a big, fat, heap of nothing.

For instance, in Trump 1 his accords with NK went nowhere, his renegotiations with Canada and Mexico were ultimately trivial, his trade war with China strangely low-key. Even in Trump 2, he seems to be dropping a lot of threatened tariffs very quickly and easily.

This too might be a huge amount of noise and very little substance: it allows Trump to claim he's got hundreds of billions of dollars from Ukraine when in fact it will never be delivered. By the time anyone realises this Trump will be gone and potentially dead, that's if anyone realises at all given how far the news cycle will have moved on that many years in the future. Thus Ukraine can easily sign on the dotted line, knowing it's not really signing anything away, and thus not caring whether the US refuses any security commitments in the deal.

 

[Seanchaidh]

Though that line about it being a requirement for all able-bodied inmates is rather out of date; about 6 or 7 states have updated their constitutions in the past 5 years.

Federal law is federal law. State constitutions are state constitutions. Enforcement of federal law can be relaxed at federal discretion, but federal law supersedes state law and state constitutions according to Article 6 of the Constitution of the United States. Also, and more importantly, the federal government is the one with more guns.

Awful convenient, wasn't it? That the President's main political opponent dropped dead in a state-run camp, after lawyers were denied access.

You keep saying 'main political opponent' as if that's a real thing, not something Navalny supporters and western propagandists made up about him.

K. Of course, even public figures are able to make many of the same criticisms, of the military complex, inequality, poverty, Israel etc. In Russia that sort of challenge to the state narrative gets you pretty certainly murdered.

Challenges to the state narrative like this?

The restoration of capitalism inevitably generated exploitation of man by man and caused a deep rift in society. On one pole was the so-called class of “strategic proprietors” whose core was initially made up of bank speculators and exporters of raw materials. It is closely linked with the West economically and has a pronounced comprador character. National capital, in spite of seeking to develop the domestic economy, has not lost his class character. The number of dollar millionaires and billionaires in the country is growing. On the other pole is the huge mass of impoverished people of wage-earners crushed by the threat of unemployment and a sense of insecurity. The antagonistic contradiction between hired labour and capital is back in Russia.

The state machine which underpins this order of things fully expresses the interests and the will of the bourgeoisie and its elite as represented by the oligarchs.

The country is in the grip of a systemic crisis. The restoration of capital entailed a shrinking of industrial and agricultural production, the degradation of science, education and culture. In spite of the flood of petrodollars, not a single sector of the economy has made any substantial progress. The population is shrinking. The citizens are debarred from participating in running the affairs of society. Even the norms of bourgeois democracy are flouted. Elections to government bodies are increasingly turning into a farce.

The gulf between the rich and the poor, between the new tightwads and the majority of the people is widening. Working people have been deprived of most of their social, economic and civil rights. Proletarization of the majority of our fellow countrymen is accompanied by social stratification. The absolute impoverishment of much of the population, veterans and pensioners continues. Millions of children are tramps who do not attend school. Contradictions between regions, between town and countryside are becoming sharper.

The idea that the purpose of NATO died with the Soviets is hard to justify when decades after the fact Russia still wants to invade, own and enslave their European neighbors.

NATO exists to manage the problems caused by the existence of NATO.

he belief that an "unorthodox" position is more credible because it is unorthodox is spectacularly naive

Is this some kind of robotic response to my repetition of Silvanus's phrase 'prevailing political orthodoxy'? What's going on here? Honestly, what the fuck are you talking about? And why do you think I should want to go to Russia when I say, about the matters we're comparing it on, that it is much like the United States?

 

[Hades]

NATO exists to manage the problems caused by the existence of NATO.

As already said NATO cannot be the cause of Russia's behavior when Russian behavior predates it by centuries.

 

[Seanchaidh]

As already said NATO cannot be the cause of Russia's behavior when Russian behavior predates it by centuries.

ludicrous way of thinking about things. just completely nuts.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

ludicrous way of thinking about things. just completely nuts.

Russia must be allowed to invade, subjugate and murder its neighbors to protect itself from its neighbors protecting themselves.

 

[Silvanus]

Federal law is federal law. State constitutions are state constitutions. Enforcement of federal law can be relaxed at federal discretion, but federal law supersedes state law and state constitutions according to Article 6 of the Constitution of the United States. Also, and more importantly, the federal government is the one with more guns.

Yes, I'm aware. But federal law doesn't mandate that all able-bodied prisoners be forced to work. It is a fact that in a half dozen states, they aren't.

In California, as I said, 65% of prisoners are made to work, including at the relevant prison. So I agreed it can fairly be called a slave labour camp! I hope you'll now acknowledge Navalny died in one too.

Challenges to the state narrative like this?

That's the platform of the Communist Party, is it not? The prime example of 'controlled opposition', in that while nominally opposing the government, they end up supporting most major government platforms. A little like considering the Democrats to be a major departure from the Republicans, because their stated platform says some guff about social justice and equity, while in the legislature they slavishly provide support for the same rank right-wing shite.

 

[Hades]

ludicrous way of thinking about things. just completely nuts.

Why? Russia is hardly a situation like Germany where they deeply regret all their crimes. In fact Putin glorifies them and uses said crimes as reasoning why he should still own his neighbors.

If Russia destroyed Poland twice just because it could, and if Putin shows pride in this, as well as dissatisfaction about Russian tyranny having ended, then what reason does Poland have to assume Russia won't destroy them a third time?

 

[Seanchaidh]

Why?

Because the Tsars have nothing whatsoever to do with this.

 

[Hades]

Because the Tsars have nothing whatsoever to do with this.

Then why does Putin keep waxing poetically about the glorious times of when the tsars and soviets still owned and terrorized their unwilling neighbors, and then why does he use this legacy to try and justify going after that very same territory?

The current Russia simply doesn't act different than its predecessor states in regards to their neighbors. Its following a very consistent, very bloody pattern throughout history, which it does both knowingly and proudly. If Russia doesn't even think the tsars have ''nothing'' to do with this, then why should we?

 

[meiam]

So I guess Zelensky pushed for security guarantee in exchange for the mineral deal (cause why the fuck would they do it if not for that?), and Trump and Vance flipped out and are back to brown nosing Putin (or that was always the plan).

Its really starting to sound like Trump will switch to actively harming Ukraine while helping Putin.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

So I guess Zelensky pushed for security guarantee in exchange for the mineral deal (cause why the fuck would they do it if not for that?), and Trump and Vance flipped out and are back to brown nosing Putin (or that was always the plan).

Its really starting to sound like Trump will switch to actively harming Ukraine while helping Putin.

Donald J. Trump: Master deal-maker.

 

[Trunkage]

Because the Tsars have nothing whatsoever to do with this.

That's a ludicrous way of thinking about things. Just completely nuts

 

[Hades]

So the way things are going its clear as day that Trump being America's worst president will be the common opinion in both public and academia. His first term was already a four year long freakshow of corruption, incompetence and misrule but the truly heinous, long lasting damage happened at the tail end with Trump maliciously mismanaging covid and doing a coup.

Already in his first term Trump cycled through all the mistakes of America's worst presidents and added his own unique flaws such as coups and getting impeached twice. As such Trump bungles at the absolute bottom of the rankings with only Buchanan reliably(and not even always) below him.

Trump's second term is different. Now its not ''just'' corruption nor is it ''just'' incompetence. Already in his first month Trump speedran nation crippling decisions like torching all of America's alliances while allowing corrupt oligarchs to gut the American state. Its not incompetence, its malice and disloyalty. The damage of both will be hard to reverse and likely force the US into a deep decline in all areas, be it economically, socially, politically or geopolitically. That Trump already did this much damage to his own state and the world at large in one month means he'll have surpassed Buchanan in sheer damage before long, and certainly before his second term is up.

So yes. Buchanan can rest easy in the knowledge he'll finally no longer be remembered as america's worst president, because now he can be the second worst. Trump being the worst president won't be hyperbole, it won't be depended on people's lack of historical knowledge or partisan opinions. It will just be an objective, verifiable historical fact.

 

[Thaluikhain]

So the way things are going its clear as day that Trump being America's worst president will be the common opinion in both public and academia....It will just be an objective, verifiable historical fact.

While it being a fact is true (though, who knows who'll be after Trump?), that doesn't mean the public or academia will hold that opinion. He still has fanatical supporters, and academics who aren't part of that may not be permitted.

 

[Gergar12]

Why in the living you know what would you want to use a foreign leader as a campaign moment, and fuel for your base.

 

[Chimpzy]

Why in the living you know what would you want to use a foreign leader as a campaign moment, and fuel for your base.

Cuz ego-driven manchild.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Trump says Zelenskyy to visit U.S. to sign critical rare minerals deal on Friday

Ukraine and the United States have prepared a draft deal over access to Kyiv's deposits of rare earth minerals, officials said Wednesday.

www.cnbc.com

A deal on security guarantees is supposedly to follow, insofar those still mean anything.

Ukraine already has a security guarantee with the US, and has since 1994 when they willingly gave up being a nuclear power for that security guarantee.

Fat load of good it's done the country so far, and we know Trump doesn't care to honor contracts or obligations.

 

[Chimpzy]

Ukraine already has a security guarantee with the US, and has since 1994 when they willingly gave up being a nuclear power for that security guarantee.

Fat load of good it's done the country so far, and we know Trump doesn't care to honor contracts or obligations.

Oh, that shouting match last night probably put a lid on that regardless.