Posted on 02/02/2024 5:30:46 AM PST by Timber Rattler
Well, this was a bit unexpected, given what Trump supporters have been implying about what Trump’s Ukraine policy would be.
Far from cutting off funds or ending the war (the latter of which Trump has indeed promised), Trump, at a rally, told the audience that the US has been bearing a disproportionate portion of the cost and he would pressure European governments to increase their own contributions to the same level as the United States.
Given that this is Trump, I wouldn’t call this an iron-clad-take-it-to-the-bank promise to keep pouring billions of dollars into Ukraine’s war coffers, but it does suggest that the view that both Trump supporters and his opponents have of him are grossly oversimplified.
The Left keeps talking as if Trump would have handed Ukraine over to Putin, even though Putin invaded Ukraine twice now–under Obama and then Biden. He left the country alone when Trump was president, and Trump was the only president who sent Ukraine arms until the 2nd war began.
Trump’s supporters tend to oppose funding Ukraine, but Trump here suggests that his problem with funding Ukraine is that only the US is doing so, with small token contributions from European states. As with NATO–an organization he criticized but kept funding–he talks very tough to the Europeans but shows no signs of abandoning American commitments.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
Timber Rattler: "We’ve all heard THAT before."
BobL: "Very true, especially considering today’s progress towards peace in Avdeyevka, with the Russians now in the city from 2 directions."
Some of you guys are too, too funny!
Let me suggest some possible tags for you:
What else?
dforest #43: "We sure as hell know your boy is all for the war.
He even flip flopped on it when asked directly."
Golden Eagle #44: "DeSantis didn’t flip flop, THIS is a flip flop."
Naw, there's nothing "flip-floppy" about Trump, it's only that you guys project your ideas onto him.
In fact, Trump has been 100% consistent in supporting Ukraine and believing he can negotiate peace through strength in Ukraine.
Trump is also a fast learner and may have come to realize that mere threats of drastic actions will not be enough to negotiate a peace deal "in 24 hours".
How exactly Trump will end the Russian invasion of Ukraine is anybody's guess, but I trust Trump 100% more than Biden to find the right answers.
Indeed, it may turn out that "the right answer" is to basically turn Ukraine over to the Europeans while Americans and our Indo-Pacific allies focus on Axis of Evil Dictator threats from CCP China, NoKo & Iran.
We'll see.
buwaya #12: "Then you have no political “home” at all.
That is the fate of every one-issue advocate."
EEGator: "You are correct, I have nowhere now.
The country I grew up in is dead."
Sorry, but that's pure nonsense because the USA is a huge country that was always highly diverse and is now a little more so.
But if you ever loved anything about our country, then you can still find whatever you loved before somewhere, indeed in many places.
EEGator "The dollar goes pretty far in Spain and Portugal."
Spain and Portugal are beautiful countries with wonderful people, and their cost of living is roughly half of the USA, including Mississippi.
As an old guy, I would definitely consider moving to Iberia if I didn't have loving family close by to make me feel wanted here.
I mean, for me, Spain's old Roman aqueducts are almost heavenly.
On the other hand, this is heaven on earth, imho:
ROFL
Then you've been drinking the Russian propaganda KoolAid, your brain has become fried with nonsense, and you've lost your capacity for rational thought on this particular subject.
Pete Dovgan: "Further, the Obama administration and State department recycling of tax payer money, with Soros sometimes as a middleman, into trusts for political family members and ‘jobs’ and ‘side jobs’ for US politicians prevented normal relationships between Russia and Ukraine.
That’s not someone’s narrative, it just is."
I'm sorry, but no, that is just 100% fact-free nonsense concocted by denizens of the deep Kremlin's Ministry for Agitation and Propaganda.
So, if you believe it, then that's because you wish to believe it, not because of any inherent validity to the narrative.
So the important question here is, why?
Why would you want to believe such nonsense?
Pete Dovgan: "Does that make it the US and NATO fault that Putin invades everyone trying to rebuild a Soviet Empire?
Putin did the invasion twice in Ukraine and several other neighboring nations.
Putin has to be accountable for that."
Right, those are somewhat rational thoughts, the beginnings of wisdom. Good.
Pete Dovgan: "The incident werein Trump was impeached for asking about Biden (and therefore other US politicians families) profiting from Ukraine was a wake up call for intelligent Americans.
NSA and CIA operatives came out of the woodwork to destroy a POTUS for pointing it out. The intelligence community wielded its sword against the highest elected official in the US, to maintain the money in Ukraine via American Taxpayers backs.
Then, they used taxpayer money to censur, terrorize, marginalize, lie and mislead, and basically influence the 2020 election to give us Joe Biden."
Sure, I somewhat agree with all of that.
But none of it detracts in the slightest from circa 40 million Ukrainians now fighting for their lives and national existence against the literal reincarnation of Old Uncle Joe Stalin, Peter the Great and even Adolf Hitler, rolled into one terrifying monstrosity, that just has to be defeated, or the world will not be a safe place for western democratic-style civilization.
Pete Dovgan: "If you want to see people stop killing each other, then two things need to happen.
First, Russia and Putin need to come to terms with illegal invasions of neighbors.
The second, and equally important, is the United States needs to rethink its policies of destabilizing other nations, especially by those who are profiteering by it."
Your first thing, "come to terms", is barely the beginning of Russian reparations to Ukraine for the ~$1 trillion in havoc wrecked on Ukraine by Vlad the Invader's actions.
But your second thing is total BS, since Ukraine has nothing whatever to do with American "destabilization" any more than it does with "Ukrainian Nazis" -- both are vodka-fueled paranoid fantasies of the Kremlin's Ministry for Agitation and Propaganda.
Those are phantasms with no reality that needs to recognized by serious people.
Pete Dovgan: "I believe that this war didn’t need to happen, that it’s fundamentally about money, and it’s stupid.
Obama, Soros, and Putin are to blame the US intelligence services being the tool of Soros and Obama."
Then, apparently it seems, you are an adicted Russian propaganda KoolAid drinker, divorced from reality and living in your own make-believe world.
Here's the real truth: Ukraine is not "fundamentally about money", it's fundamentally about Vlad the Invader's "special military operations" to conquer Ukraine and mass murder now hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Russia's own troops.
So, all this other talk about the CIA or "globohomo" or "destabilization", it's all pure nonsense compared to the fact of hundreds of thousands being killed by madmen in the Kremlin.
They have to stop, to withdraw 100% from Ukraine's 1991 recognized borders and to make reparations for their insane behaviors.
“Ukraine is not “fundamentally about money”, it’s fundamentally about Vlad the Invader’s “special military operations” to conquer Ukraine and mass murder now hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, not to mention hundreds of thousands of Russia’s own troops”
This is where all logic leaves you. Putin doesn’t do things just to be a mass murderer, he would have never gotten to where he is just to kill people. So what is the motivation? Re-creation of the Soviet Empire....maybe. Why start that at Ukraine and not say one of the ‘....Stans’? This war is absolutely about MONEY. Putin wanted the resources, the pipelines, the titanium and food from Ukraine, as well as strategic ports. That’s what it is about from a Russian Perspective. The American perspective is what I have said, it’s about the intelligence services and money laundering.
It’s still a stupid war, that never needed to happen. Putin thought he could take Ukraine quickly and avoid a prolonged conflict and make trillions in the long run, and he was wrong. People still are fighting and dying every day. How do you stop it now?
Name someone better, and I want an actual name.
You are just not paying attention at all.
he Nation is a progressive American monthly magazine that covers political and cultural news, opinion, and analysis. It was founded on July 6, 1865, as a successor to William Lloyd Garrison's The Liberator, an abolitionist newspaper that closed in 1865, after ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Thereafter, the magazine proceeded to a broader topic, The Nation. An important collaborator of the new magazine was its Literary Editor Wendell Phillips Garrison, son of William. He had at his disposal his father's vast network of contacts.
The lie has always been that Nazi's were far-right individuals.
But the truth is the Nazi Party, political party of the mass movement known as National Socialism.
Hardly the hallmark of people who identify to the right political beliefs.
Hundreds of Ukrainian nationalists march in honor of Nazi collaborator
Now Putin stating his reason was for Nazi's may or may not be true, but there are indeed Nazi's and have been since WWII, it's been well documented. I could see some support, but the support is far more than just some support. The Azov battalion were given legitimacy when they were made part of the National Guard.
The Azov Battalion was founded in May 2014 as a volunteer paramilitary militia to fight pro-Russian forces in the war in Donbas. It was formally incorporated into the National Guard on 11 November 2014 and redesignated Special Operations Detachment "Azov" or Azov Regiment. In February 2023, the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that Azov was to be expanded as a brigade of the new Offensive Guard.
But I guess Zelenskyy, who is supposedly Jewish, doesn't really have an issue with Nazi's.
Azov fighters are Ukraine's greatest weapon and may be its greatest threat
Ron DeSantis, Rand Paul, Josh Hawley, Rob Johnson, Mike Johnson, Tommy Tuvberville, etc etc etc, there’s a long list of actual principled people far and wide I’d trust far more than Trump. And if hot rhetoric is your thing ,even Matt Gaetz is a lot better at it, and much more up on actual policy than Trump. Trump has just built this image up as Teflon Don the untouchable due to his money, but he’s running out of donors so we’ll see how long it lasts. For now I’m stuck on the boat, since the primary got cancelled, and hopefully not the Trumptanic.
Read your posts with interest. All I can say is there are two connected issues at play but one doesn’t explain the other. And that’s the danger. Russian propaganda plays to
1. Biden Derangement Syndrome - it’s so easy for a Russian millblogger to trigger y’all. Bomb a hospital in Ukraine, blame Biden, tell you there were Yankee spooks inside. Watch you explode. Job done.
2. Anti Globohomo confirmation bias (there’s a conspiracy, person A agrees with person B, we like A, we don’t like Globohomo, therefore it’s gotta be true)
3. Cognitive dissonance (if Russia invades countries that aren’t any threat to it at all it’s okay because poor old Putin has a right to feel butthurt and threatened, but when the USA meddles in other countries then no matter what the excuse is, it’s just plain WRONG).
To fall for it you have to be already inclined to dispense with critical thinking.
“Why start that at Ukraine and not say one of the ‘....Stans” - until Putin started the SMO he didn’t have a “loyalty” problem in the ‘Stans. His hold over Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Khazakstan and Armenia has nosedived recently though.
The USA isn’t anywhere near involved in these countries; their slow distancing from Russia is entirely the result of them seeing what Russia did to Chechnya, Georgia and Ukraine.
It’s not good enough for a Russian neighbor to declare peace with Muscovy or sign treaties or even be a good friend; if it’s not led by a boyar bending the knee fully to Putin then according to the mentality of the empire restoration lobby (Dugin, Zhirinovsky, Putin and Medvedev) it’s a threat.
Is CSTO growing or shrinking?
If Putin wins in Ukraine, I’ll lay money that Putin will rinse and repeat.
I’ll go further. If it’s a decisive win that destroys Ukraine completely the next SMO will begin with destabilising the Baltic after invading Moldova.
If it’s not decisive, he’ll give Azerbaijan, Armenia and Tajikistan the Grozny/Mariupol treatment knowing that the West won’t interfere.
Meanwhile, China’s already redrawing maps so that what was once called Russian is now under Chinese protection. A bit like how NATO partnership notionally did the same for Ukraine. Difference is, China can cool Putin’s jets by telling Russia to get over it and just enjoy the benefits of better trade.
We did the opposite by playing “don’t poke the bear” while fiddling with sanctions.
If we were as strong and confident as China we’d be doing the same and Putin wouldn’t have the guts to try anything.
Your own commentary exposes a failure in critical minds.
As you say, Poroshenko incorporated the neonazi battalions - no more than a thousand guys - into the Eastern Ukrainian forces. On top of that there were Nazi sympathizers in the Rada.
But that didn’t poke the bear at all, did it?
Pushilin kept complaining that Moscow had actively reinforced the takeover of Crimea but wasn’t doing it in the Donbas.
So Putin couldn’t have been THAT bothered about Nazis...
So that’s 2014-3015 covered.
Between 2018 and February 2022, Ukraine de-elected the Rada Nazis, elected a Jewish president who ordered the batallions to respect the armistice, the President rolled back on Poroshenko’e constitutional demotion of the Russian language, and the monthly death toll in the Donbas region dropped by 90% (not a western figure - it’s exactly what the DNR Ombudsman estimate in their annual report from the FSB office in Donetsk said.)
And, finally, the West was looking elsewhere, the USA in particular was far more preoccupied with the Middle East.
All Putin needed to do to see even more of Minsk delivered was pull Wagner out of Ukraine. The Rada was delaying the implementation of the agreed constitutional reforms pending ONE show of good faith from Moscow.
But by 2021 he’d committed to invading Ukraine, Shiogu and Zhirinovsky both admitted it was the plan before Russia sent its final demands to NATO.
Put all of that together, and combine with the observation Putin never made a move while President Trump was in office telling Putin to dial his rhetoric back while sending weapons to Ukraine.
Then add the months of mockery and even threats against France and Germany - two countries who kept batting for Russia in the EU because they didn’t want to lose the oil and gas supply from Russia.
Putin respected shows of strength. He demonstrated utter contempt for the appeasement lobby. Orban is playing the game but he’s got no clout so he’s ignored.
3. Cognitive dissonance (if Russia invades countries that aren’t any threat to it at all it’s okay because poor old Putin has a right to feel butthurt and threatened, but when the USA meddles in other countries then no matter what the excuse is, it’s just plain WRONG).
I don’t want the US meddling in other nations. US involvement just about everywhere has tuned into disasters. The US government can’t seem to get it right. Vietnam, being a shinning example. Does the United States have to have Ukraine in NATO for safety and security? The answer to that question 15 years ago would be a resounding NO. Did the US need to get involved in the campaign in the old Yugoslavia? NO. How about Somalia under Clinton? NO. The United States cannot be the world police, and we cannot pick every nations government. That’s not cognitive dissonance, that’s just common sense. Putin has no impact on my opinion about our nation interfering to much.
Putin is a former Soviet KGB, he thinks like that and acts like that, so much of his future moves are predictable. Yes, he won’t stop in Ukraine if it rolls over for him, but it didn’t. It will take Russia a long time economically to recover from this conflict, and Putin will never see the fruits of this invasion. Your correct that the Chinese will benefit greatly from this conflict. To be fair, Ukraine didn’t choose to be invaded. The problem with Russia is that even when Putin is gone, they will find another Putin.
My problem with the US response is simple. They have advocated an unending war in Ukraine. Not enough weapons and AirPower to push Russia out, which should have been the goal last summer. So Russians die, Ukrainians die, China gets more powerful, Russia gets more isolated. Terrible for the little people of Ukraine and Russia. I don’t like half done wars, they just kill people without resolution. Sherman was right about war, it should end quickly.
Mike Johnson has proven that he is an extremely weak leader, and is thus worthless. He squandered what little the Republicans had to be worthwhile actual opposition to the Marxist's Democrats, and instead acted like the all too familiar controlled opposition like the RINOs of the Uni-party have acted for decades. They wouldn't fight them, because they feared them, but made an agreement to let them run roughshod over the nation as long as they realized personal wealth in the process too.
Tommy Tuberville & Matt Gaetz are both respectable candidates, I'll agree, and are fighters , both are products of the Trump 2016 election.
Even with all of the lawfare being waged against Trump, he has proven that he is still a fighter for the people.
It appears that people like yourself seem to think that Trump is a politician, he wasn't before & he still isn't, thus you fail to give him credit for his first term. He expected far more help from the Republicans, but the reality was that the feckless compromised Republicans provided him with just as much abuse as did the Marxist Democrats, because both political parties are as corrupt as can be, and both are in it for themselves & the people be damned is their attitude. They surrounded Trump with people that were against him from the start, but who gave the impression that they were for him. The one person that was for him, General Mike Flynn was targeted & persuaded Trump to eventually get rid of him because the Deep State knew he was an honest patriot.
Trump made mistakes for sure, but the overwhelming evidence supports the claim that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, because it became apparent to the enemies of this nation that Trump had still managed to get enough evidence on the mastermind cabal of crooks who have been fleecing this nation. we cannot walk aways from Trump, because that would absolutely be the death of this nation.
If it had not been for Trump, the whole charade of the US would have never been exposed.
If we all understand this, and solidly stand with Trump, we just might save this nation and get her back on the path that made her great to begin with.
This is bigger than Trump, and even Trump knows this. Time you started seeing that reality. It's not about Trump, it's about the citizens of this nation, and the humanity of the whole world.
He is just providing what is needed to retake this nation. He could have sat on the sidelines and allowed the direction to continue, but he didn't, and you don't even give him the respect he deserves because you are clueless I guess.
Opportunities come by very infrequently, and you either grasp them when they are available and act upon them, or they are ignored and lost, most likely forever more.
Well, first of all, Vlad the Invader has been a mass murderer since his first day in power in 1999, with his Second Chechen War & insurgency -- which killed circa 100,000 total, including two civilian deaths for every one military.
Indeed, arguably, the First Chechnyan War is why Vlad came to power in the first place -- to reverse the results and restore Chechnya to the Russian Empire -- which Vlad did with a maximum of brutality, destruction and deaths.
So, Vlad didn't start with Ukraine in 2014, he started with Chechnya when he came to power in 1999.
Nor was Ukraine even Vlad's second invasion, that was Georgia, in 2008, which killed "only" about 1,000 total, but drove circa 200,000 from their homes.
Nor were those the only places Russia or Vlad threatened or invaded:
Russian invasions or threats to neighbors since 1990:
Pete Dovgan: "This war is absolutely about MONEY.
Putin wanted the resources, the pipelines, the titanium and food from Ukraine, as well as strategic ports.
That’s what it is about from a Russian Perspective. "
Naw... that's just your basic Marxist education-indoctrination at work in your mind.
I'm serious, it's not always "all about the money", indeed, pure money is more often a second or third level consideration.
The "real reasons" in most cases, including here, are vastly more fundamental & basic.
They include: 
How do you not understand that those words are complete nonsense -- utterly fact-free fantasies -- planted in your brain by somebody who does not have America's best interests at heart.
It's a prison you've put your own mind into and seemingly locked the door behind you.
Seriously, you need to free yourself from it.
Pete Dovgan: "It’s still a stupid war, that never needed to happen.
Putin thought he could take Ukraine quickly and avoid a prolonged conflict and make trillions in the long run, and he was wrong.
People still are fighting and dying every day.
How do you stop it now?"
Sure, some of that is more-or-less true, but in Vlad the Invader's mind, the situation today is far from lost or hopeless, he still has every chance to accomplish his necessary goals, which include reestablishing Russia as a major World-Power Bad Boy (WPBB) and himself as HMFWIC, who must be feared and kowtowed to.
That's what really matters to Vlad, and so far, he's doing pretty well at it.
From Ukraine's perspective their war for independence will never end so long as there are any patriotic Ukrainians with even one bullet of ammunition left to fire at Russians.
So, much as Pres. Trump may think he can convince Ukrainians to give up their fight "in 24 hours", I don't think that will happen in 24 months, even without any US aid to Ukraine.
That's why my guess is, the war will stop when Vlad the Invader meets his Maker and Ukraine has won back all they lost since 2013.
Or it might just wind down similar to North and South Korea which now 70+ years later still don't have a formal peace treaty from the Korean War.
This is worth repeating from Poland's Prime Minister:
Robert DeLong: "I'm sorry, this is really what aI wanted you to see from the interview:"
Rest easy that I am not here to defend our Democrats, except that they do at least for now continue to support Ukraine's resistance to Russian Imperialism.
And I believe our Democrats will continue to support Ukraine until they can figure out a way to blame Republicans for Ukraine's defeat.
Then they will flip.
In the meantime, nearly all Republicans at least sympathize with Ukrainians, and would like to see them succeed, but most are more concerned about our own Southern Border and think the two issues are somehow related.
They are not, except in the possibility that Republicans can use Ukraine to leverage a better policy towards our Southern Border -- that was our hope, at least until this week, when it appears those hopes are being dashed.
Anyway, none of this has to do with Covid-19 and all of it can be corrected, imho, with a decisive Trump-led Republican victory on November 5.
This is one 2024 election forecast, consistent with others I've seen except for West Virginia, which almost certainly will vote for Donald Trump:
The real message that I presented to you is the fact that people, even diehard Democrat supporters, are starting to awaken to the fact that the press is worthless, that it is no longer a source for truthful news as a result of the Covid pandemic, because it was all lies. But apparently that went right over your head, especially the second video, which contained that salient blurb, though I thought the first video had it until I listened to the entire part of that video, which was still a subset of a much longer interview of Dr. Drew Pinsky by Dave Rubin (of course you had to add that verbiage in your response as what I had said, because you are so lame that you think that was important).
The Democrats & RINO Republicans (The Uni-Party) support the support Ukraine against Russia because both factions of the Uni-Party are raking in vast amounts of wealth from the military-industrial complex, just like they did from the big pharma during the Covid "plandemic". Just in time for the 2024 election it was announced that Candida, claimed by the press to be, a deadly fungal infection.
Ukraine is also known to be an very effective cog in the laundering money industry that is how criminals clean their money making it seem legally attained.
You just refuse to wake up to reality. You are essentially what I repeatedly call you, because you refuse to see the reality. Instead, you continue to fall for the propaganda that still resonates with you.
None so blind as those who do not see.
Perhaps you can tell me why are we giving money to the Houthis, who are attacking our assets in the Red Sea? Why are we giving money to Iran? Why are we trading with China? These are all actors who have declared their disdain for this nation.
You really have no clue as to what is going on in the geopolitical arena.
One of your better ones - hope you have saved it.
Another outstanding post! I’m quite sorry that your exceptional post from a few days ago was needlessly censored. There was nothing in the post that violated any FR rules. Nothing. And I am a stickler for rules.
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