gehringer_2 Posted March 27 Posted March 27 (edited) The thing Putin needs to be careful of is that no-one should ever trust or rely on Trump holding to any position. On some whim he is just as likely to reverse course throw *Puitn* under the bus and support Ukraine as keep on his current course. He is utterly untrustworthy, from any direction. It is the natural consequence of being a totally transactional person. Since he believes in nothing, since nothing outside himself is of any importance to him, he simply doesn't have any actually loyalties, commitments, or any of the normal character properties you expect a normal person to have. Putin may think he has a long term ally, for Trump such a term doesn't even have meaning. Edited March 27 by gehringer_2 Quote
chasfh Posted March 27 Author Posted March 27 10 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said: The thing Putin needs to be careful of is that no-one should ever trust or rely on Trump holding to any position. On some whim he is just as likely to reverse course throw *Puitn* under the bus and support Ukraine as keep on his current course. He is utterly untrustworthy, from any direction. It is the natural consequence of being a totally transactional person. Since he believes in nothing, since nothing outside himself is of any importance to him, he simply doesn't have any actually loyalties, commitments, or any of the normal character properties you expect a normal person to have. Putin may think he has a long term ally, for Trump such a term doesn't even have meaning. I don't Putin regards Trump as an ally so much as he regards him as a supplicant. Quote
Tigerbomb13 Posted April 23 Posted April 23 Medvedev threatening to murder Dominik Hasek https://apnews.com/article/czech-hasek-russia-medvedev-threats-1acc8ff9ca0f473b13932219475d72b4 Quote
romad1 Posted April 25 Posted April 25 This plus the number of Russian motorcycle gang members in south Florida is sus https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/24/neo-nazi-group-the-base-leader-russian-spy-allegations Quote
romad1 Posted April 25 Posted April 25 Ukraine is feeling unbound by the United States because of the US support for Putin's positions and is taking the war to the heartland of Russia. Quote
chasfh Posted April 25 Author Posted April 25 I wonder how much taxpayer money is being funneled under the table to the Kremlin right now? Presumably for the purpose of annexing Ukraine and eventually the other ex-Respubliks, but maybe for other things, too, who knows. Quote
gehringer_2 Posted April 25 Posted April 25 8 hours ago, romad1 said: Ukraine is feeling unbound by the United States because of the US support for Putin's positions and is taking the war to the heartland of Russia. law of unintended consequences. Quote
CMRivdogs Posted April 26 Posted April 26 Trump starting to "sour" on Putin, or just part of the "script" I'm leaning toward option two at the moment Quote
gehringer_2 Posted April 26 Posted April 26 (edited) 7 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said: Trump starting to "sour" on Putin, or just part of the "script" I'm leaning toward option two at the moment trump has someone new writing for him. You can tell because: a) this is too long to be a normal Trump post b) the vocabulary is several steps above the normal Trump post c) it's too logical to be a normal Trump post. d) and the slam dunk: there is actual concern expressed for people other than Trump. Edited April 26 by gehringer_2 4 Quote
1984Echoes Posted Friday at 09:35 PM Posted Friday at 09:35 PM With the mineral deal signed (excellent negotiating on Ukraine's part to get a fair deal instead of Trump's "ream them up the ass" deal he first proposed...); Trump needs to take a hard line with Russia. I know he doesn't want to... but he now needs to declare a "No-Fly Zone" west of the Dnieper and put American troops and Air Defenses in the western part of Ukraine in order to shoot down Russian missiles... and their launch capabilities if necessary. 1 Quote
Tiger337 Posted Friday at 09:48 PM Posted Friday at 09:48 PM 10 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said: With the mineral deal signed (excellent negotiating on Ukraine's part to get a fair deal instead of Trump's "ream them up the ass" deal he first proposed...); Trump needs to take a hard line with Russia. I know he doesn't want to... but he now needs to declare a "No-Fly Zone" west of the Dnieper and put American troops and Air Defenses in the western part of Ukraine in order to shoot down Russian missiles... and their launch capabilities if necessary. There is no such thing as a fair deal with Trump. He won't honor it. He has never honored any deal in his life. He just wants the minerals. 1 Quote
1984Echoes Posted Friday at 09:52 PM Posted Friday at 09:52 PM 3 minutes ago, Tiger337 said: There is no such thing as a fair deal with Trump. He won't honor it. He has never honored any deal in his life. He just wants the minerals. If he wants the minerals... Then he knows what he has to do. Quote
Tiger337 Posted Friday at 10:07 PM Posted Friday at 10:07 PM 14 minutes ago, 1984Echoes said: If he wants the minerals... Then he knows what he has to do. He doesn't even do what he's supposed to do in his own county, never mind Ukraine. Quote
1984Echoes Posted Friday at 10:24 PM Posted Friday at 10:24 PM Well in the US, he wants to corrupt everything and reap all the money into his own pockets as a lifetime dictator. Like Putin. There's no "supposed to", only "he wants". That's it. In other words, he's doing what he's "supposed to" in order to try and achieve those ends. Primarily benefitting himself. He's not going to do what he's "supposed to" according to any of our definitions. Only according to... "he wants to benefit himself." In Ukraine, he wants minerals. This also isn't about "supposed to". If he wants those minerals, and he does... then he knows what he NEEDS to do... Stand up to Putin. I'm not certain if he will or won't do that. But I'm not going to look at it with only cynicism. In fact, nothing at all. He either does what's required, or doesn't. I don't need to agonize over cynicism... it's simply wait and see what happens. I know what he needs to do. Quote
ewsieg Posted Friday at 10:58 PM Posted Friday at 10:58 PM I will say, about the only way to get Trump to care about Ukraine not falling to Russia is to ensure that he gets something out of it. I really don't know what precious minerals Ukraine has, but do they match up with the needs of Trumps favorite oligarchs though? That's the ultimate question. If it's just potash and none of the tech bros care about that and Trump can't find someone to ensure he gets a piece of the profit, then the deal is worthless. If Trump can profit though, he'll have no problem using the military to ensure he gets it. 1 Quote
1984Echoes Posted Friday at 11:23 PM Posted Friday at 11:23 PM 19 minutes ago, ewsieg said: I will say, about the only way to get Trump to care about Ukraine not falling to Russia is to ensure that he gets something out of it. I really don't know what precious minerals Ukraine has, but do they match up with the needs of Trumps favorite oligarchs though? That's the ultimate question. If it's just potash and none of the tech bros care about that and Trump can't find someone to ensure he gets a piece of the profit, then the deal is worthless. If Trump can profit though, he'll have no problem using the military to ensure he gets it. This. They have 22 of the 51 critical minerals/ metals (simple like graphite or lithium, but also complex rare earth metals with a bunch of names I won't even attempt to pronounce... Oh, ALSO gas and oil fields newly developed... so HIGHLY lucrative...) required for current specialized manufacturing (military, solar, satellite, EV battery, modern electronics, etc...). In order to be a manufacturing country now, and into the future, these minerals are required. Ukraine has lots of them. Trump will find SOME way to benefit himself from this... So... Yes. It's why he wants Greenland and Canada so badly as well. Rare Earth metals. And other resources. He wants them. Any way he can get them. It's not wrong from a National Security POV. His methods, however... Quote
gehringer_2 Posted Friday at 11:53 PM Posted Friday at 11:53 PM (edited) Trumps mind is so 19th century though. The last 150 yrs pretty prove you do way better to utilize resources commercially by having peer economic alliances with free independent nations than by 18th century Napoleonic resource warfare. Edited Friday at 11:54 PM by gehringer_2 1 Quote
chasfh Posted Saturday at 03:11 AM Author Posted Saturday at 03:11 AM 3 hours ago, gehringer_2 said: Trumps mind is so 19th century though. The last 150 yrs pretty prove you do way better to utilize resources commercially by having peer economic alliances with free independent nations than by 18th century Napoleonic resource warfare. Yeah, but he doesn’t personally get good and paid that way. 2 Quote
CMRivdogs Posted Saturday at 01:08 PM Posted Saturday at 01:08 PM Remember in the end Napoleon was exiled and basically was forced to sell the Louisiana Territory to the US. I'm afraid who King Donald the Dunce would sell us to for a pittance Quote
chasfh Posted Saturday at 05:57 PM Author Posted Saturday at 05:57 PM (edited) 4 hours ago, CMRivdogs said: Remember in the end Napoleon was exiled and basically was forced to sell the Louisiana Territory to the US. I'm afraid who King Donald the Dunce would sell us to for a pittance It’s a really short list. Two, tops. Edited Saturday at 05:57 PM by chasfh Quote
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