Russia invades Ukraine
- Thread starter Perun
- Start date
Dr. Eddies Wingman
Brighter than thousand_suns
Again, US are suggesting that Ukraine accept a peace about as solid as the Munich treaty of 1938 proved to be for Czechoslovakia.
Giving Putler all he could hope for. And following his tail-wagging for MBS, Trump is again showing that the only leaders he respects are dictators.
Giving Putler all he could hope for. And following his tail-wagging for MBS, Trump is again showing that the only leaders he respects are dictators.
Black Abyss Babe
Slava Ukraini!
Trump seems to have conveniently forgotten that his White House ambush of Zelensky was actually an unmitigated diplomatic embarrassment.
I don't want to hear his horrible voice ever again.
I really hope that Starmer and his "coalition of the willing" have something up their collective sleeve ...
I don't want to hear his horrible voice ever again.
I really hope that Starmer and his "coalition of the willing" have something up their collective sleeve ...
Azas
Seasons End
Here’s a message from a politician who belongs to the party I vote for, expressing how we see the whole “business first” approach the U.S. takes toward russia’s invasion of Ukraine. If the U.S. is now led by a mogul who doesn’t understand the concepts of value-based politics, then Europe must quickly grow some balls and start acting. We have to start speaking to Trump in his own language, because there are simply no other options left if Europe wants to keep prospering and avoid war. As a Union, we matter.
Author: Matas Maldeikis (post on facebook)
"The nonsense being called a “peace plan for Ukraine” should serve as a solid kick in the backside for all of us in Europe. The chief military commander of our main ally within NATO does not understand what the war in Ukraine is about, and dreams of cutting deals with Putin as soon as possible. That is our reality. The brainless far-right—embodied by Trump, Putin, AfD, the Orbáns, and other such characters—is carving up Europe. Many surprises await them. Europeans await them.
Good manners now demand that we pin the EU to the wall. And for good reason.
First of all: after so many years, we still haven’t done our homework. And the Union, afraid of losing votes to that same radical right, also failed to do its homework—even on something as basic as adopting majority voting in foreign policy. We are paying the price now. Which means every reform will need to be done today, only at a much higher cost. There simply will be no alternative.
One myth spread by our enemies is that Europe means nothing. It does. Our goodwill, our lack of willpower, and our foolishness are mistaken elsewhere in the world for insignificance. The fact that we give away our powers does not mean we are powerless. A few examples.
Trump is already choking on his knees before China—what kind of “fight against China” can the U.S. even dream of if we are not their allies in that fight?
What will the U.S. do without our data? Without us, they would lose the AI race against China within a few years. You are reading this text on Facebook, which means at this moment you are earning money for the U.S. and providing them with the oil of the 21st century—data.
Dollar dominance? If the EU merely blinked at the BRICS countries about settling payments in currencies other than the dollar—hallelujah, because suddenly the true meaning of servicing 40 trillion in debt would be understood. Would this be bad for us too? And is the direction the U.S. is proposing to drag us now any better? In real terms, it would cost no less. Why, for example, are Europeans’ pension funds parked in the U.S.? Even now, the so-called Ferguson rule in the U.S. states: if a country spends more on servicing its debt than on its security, that empire always collapses quickly.
What kind of “dominance” in the most important region of the near future—the Arctic—can the U.S. dream of without our Scandinavian factor? Russia will eat them alive there.
It would take surprisingly few signals on decisions like these for the U.S. to regain a sense of reality. The EU matters. We just need a normal center-right (and center-left).
I read Gabrielius’s words about “the end.” I disagree. Not even close. I wrote about this “end” we are in now five years ago in my History of the End of the World. The centrifugal processes are only beginning. The U.S. is only starting to drift away from us, and that is why all of this will cost us far more later if we don’t start acting yesterday. But I would not call my book that now. Because this is not the end.
What is happening is the collapse of an old paradigm and the formation of a new one.
A new zeitgeist is emerging—a new paradigm of our consciousness, worldview, politics, and economics. Which people, for some reason, will call “reality.” And if Europe does not destroy itself with the empty-headed logic of far-right clowns—“my house is all that matters, and everyone owes me something”—we will be fine. Because each EU country alone is a joke. But together, we are an actor. That is why China, Trump, Moscow, and others work so hard to bypass the Union—they want to eat us one by one.
Europe needs more self-respect. Show me another region this successful. We created Western civilization (yes, we had to steal Jesus’s teachings from the Jews and adapt them to ourselves to do it). We created the borders of modern states and even the very notion that states have sovereignty. We created the ideologies by which the world lives—no one has invented better ones. We created the fashions and culture others imitate.
I’ll write the plan for what Europe needs to change in the near future. I ask just one thing: don’t become radical*—live like human beings. Don’t listen to the infantile far right, who try to compensate for their complexes by meddling in your life and everyone else’s."
**
I’ll just add this: don’t become like the radical left, who are wet-dreaming about some miraculous version of socialism and don’t understand that, in Europe — more or less — we’re already living through our golden years.
Author: Matas Maldeikis (post on facebook)
"The nonsense being called a “peace plan for Ukraine” should serve as a solid kick in the backside for all of us in Europe. The chief military commander of our main ally within NATO does not understand what the war in Ukraine is about, and dreams of cutting deals with Putin as soon as possible. That is our reality. The brainless far-right—embodied by Trump, Putin, AfD, the Orbáns, and other such characters—is carving up Europe. Many surprises await them. Europeans await them.
Good manners now demand that we pin the EU to the wall. And for good reason.
First of all: after so many years, we still haven’t done our homework. And the Union, afraid of losing votes to that same radical right, also failed to do its homework—even on something as basic as adopting majority voting in foreign policy. We are paying the price now. Which means every reform will need to be done today, only at a much higher cost. There simply will be no alternative.
One myth spread by our enemies is that Europe means nothing. It does. Our goodwill, our lack of willpower, and our foolishness are mistaken elsewhere in the world for insignificance. The fact that we give away our powers does not mean we are powerless. A few examples.
Trump is already choking on his knees before China—what kind of “fight against China” can the U.S. even dream of if we are not their allies in that fight?
What will the U.S. do without our data? Without us, they would lose the AI race against China within a few years. You are reading this text on Facebook, which means at this moment you are earning money for the U.S. and providing them with the oil of the 21st century—data.
Dollar dominance? If the EU merely blinked at the BRICS countries about settling payments in currencies other than the dollar—hallelujah, because suddenly the true meaning of servicing 40 trillion in debt would be understood. Would this be bad for us too? And is the direction the U.S. is proposing to drag us now any better? In real terms, it would cost no less. Why, for example, are Europeans’ pension funds parked in the U.S.? Even now, the so-called Ferguson rule in the U.S. states: if a country spends more on servicing its debt than on its security, that empire always collapses quickly.
What kind of “dominance” in the most important region of the near future—the Arctic—can the U.S. dream of without our Scandinavian factor? Russia will eat them alive there.
It would take surprisingly few signals on decisions like these for the U.S. to regain a sense of reality. The EU matters. We just need a normal center-right (and center-left).
I read Gabrielius’s words about “the end.” I disagree. Not even close. I wrote about this “end” we are in now five years ago in my History of the End of the World. The centrifugal processes are only beginning. The U.S. is only starting to drift away from us, and that is why all of this will cost us far more later if we don’t start acting yesterday. But I would not call my book that now. Because this is not the end.
What is happening is the collapse of an old paradigm and the formation of a new one.
A new zeitgeist is emerging—a new paradigm of our consciousness, worldview, politics, and economics. Which people, for some reason, will call “reality.” And if Europe does not destroy itself with the empty-headed logic of far-right clowns—“my house is all that matters, and everyone owes me something”—we will be fine. Because each EU country alone is a joke. But together, we are an actor. That is why China, Trump, Moscow, and others work so hard to bypass the Union—they want to eat us one by one.
Europe needs more self-respect. Show me another region this successful. We created Western civilization (yes, we had to steal Jesus’s teachings from the Jews and adapt them to ourselves to do it). We created the borders of modern states and even the very notion that states have sovereignty. We created the ideologies by which the world lives—no one has invented better ones. We created the fashions and culture others imitate.
I’ll write the plan for what Europe needs to change in the near future. I ask just one thing: don’t become radical*—live like human beings. Don’t listen to the infantile far right, who try to compensate for their complexes by meddling in your life and everyone else’s."
**
I’ll just add this: don’t become like the radical left, who are wet-dreaming about some miraculous version of socialism and don’t understand that, in Europe — more or less — we’re already living through our golden years.
Azas
Seasons End
Specific note to @____no5. When we used to argue a year or so ago, you often brought up names like Sachs and Chomsky as your level-headed and reliable sources—people you trusted. Well, there’s now a photo of Sachs having a discussion with Soloviev, an ardent russian TV and radio propagandist. At this point it’s clear that Sachs preaches what he does not because he truly believes it, but because he’s a russian mouthpiece—fully paid by the regime. It was obvious to me from the moment I glanced at what he was saying: anyone who supports russia in this conflict is rotten. And this is an axiom—a statement regarded as established, accepted, or self-evidently true by definition. I can only hope your position has changed and that you now see all of this in a different light.
Azas
Seasons End
Also, to all of you who’ve been preaching a non-escalatory stance toward russia: it’s clear that this approach has failed miserably. Everything is only getting worse. It’s infuriating for us in Eastern Europe to watch the old, ‘enlightened’ Europe turning into something like King Théoden. Yes, a few countries are trying to wake up, but will it be too late? That’s the question.
At the beginning of the war, there was a real chance to kick russia in its teeth, but now—with money-hungry Trump at the helm in the US and China backing russia—the outlook is not promising at all.
‘Good old Europe dreaming as Eastern Europe dies screaming…’
At the beginning of the war, there was a real chance to kick russia in its teeth, but now—with money-hungry Trump at the helm in the US and China backing russia—the outlook is not promising at all.
‘Good old Europe dreaming as Eastern Europe dies screaming…’
Azas
Seasons End
I didn’t mean that Rutte is wrong. I used his words to illustrate that the situation is only getting worse four years into the conflict. After all of Europe’s half-measures—and Biden’s. Even now, most of us would still prefer Biden’s approach to Ukraine, but at the same time it’s pretty clear that his drop-by-drop strategy was deeply flawed. He promised ‘as long as it takes,’ but—hello—where is Biden now, and where is that approach?
I mean, Europe still can’t act decisively or firmly toward russia. The stance of the Belgian prime minister is sickening—he refuses to use frozen russian assets for Ukraine because he fears legal consequences. Europe is still trying to play chess with russia while russia is playing murder roulette with them. In other words, Europe continues to treat a terrorist, invading state within the paradigm of laws and legal norms. I say: fuck that. If you’re an invader and a murderer, you’re expelled from normal society and its norms. In that case, you should be treated like a mad dog. But Europe keeps meddling, keeps ignoring the mad dog. And you know, if you don’t put a mad dog to sleep, sooner or later it will bite you.
I mean, Europe still can’t act decisively or firmly toward russia. The stance of the Belgian prime minister is sickening—he refuses to use frozen russian assets for Ukraine because he fears legal consequences. Europe is still trying to play chess with russia while russia is playing murder roulette with them. In other words, Europe continues to treat a terrorist, invading state within the paradigm of laws and legal norms. I say: fuck that. If you’re an invader and a murderer, you’re expelled from normal society and its norms. In that case, you should be treated like a mad dog. But Europe keeps meddling, keeps ignoring the mad dog. And you know, if you don’t put a mad dog to sleep, sooner or later it will bite you.
Jer
'Til Tomorrow
Sorry, I wasn’t trying to imply that — I was just agreeing with Rutte.
____no5
Free Man
She is using his name, to make a point; precisely because Jeffrey Sachs is a widely respected figure. Otherwise she wouldn't bother.