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Where Do Things End With Vlad? (h/t romad1)


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Posted
27 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

I was told the Great Orange Negotiator was going to end this war on Day 1. Unfortunately it's starting to look like his last term's Infrastructure Week 

Russia is going to bluster and get their way.  That was what Hitler did to get Austria, the Sudetenland and eventually take the rest of Czeckoslovakia. 

  • Sad 1
Posted
On 5/16/2025 at 10:21 AM, CMRivdogs said:

I was told the Great Orange Negotiator was going to end this war on Day 1. Unfortunately it's starting to look like his last term's Infrastructure Week 

Wasn’t this one of the things he said he was being sarcastic about? It’s so hard to keep the asshattery straight.

Posted
Just now, romad1 said:

given all the Russian sabotage ops in Europe of late, this is kind of refreshing.  I mean killing is bad, mkay but...

 

Quote

The shooting took place outside the gates of the American School of Madrid, one of the most expensive private schools in Spain.

If you've seen Argo...you can see how they got his pattern of life. 

Posted
3 hours ago, romad1 said:

Any ally who still hasn't figured it out...well

The EU needs to take the wheel. 

To be fair to Trump, that's what he's been saying all along.  And while I'd like them to step up, sad that we aren't standing up with them.

Posted
9 minutes ago, ewsieg said:

To be fair to Trump, that's what he's been saying all along.  And while I'd like them to step up, sad that we aren't standing up with them.

He told us exactly what he was going to do, but Kamala's laugh (or something, something, something)

  • Like 2
Posted
On 5/23/2025 at 1:15 PM, ewsieg said:

To be fair to Trump, that's what he's been saying all along.  And while I'd like them to step up, sad that we aren't standing up with them.

I think we need to be honest and admit that Trump's worldview, one where everything is transactional and all about personal gain (ie. how he operates), isn't how every other world leader operates. And that Donald Trump isn't nearly self-aware enough to understand that himself.

He was never going to end this war on day one because he doesn't understand either side of the conflict. He's Harry Ellis trying to talk Hans Gruber out of the whole Nakatomi Plaza affair. And we're all along for the ride.

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Posted (edited)
40 minutes ago, mtutiger said:

I think we need to be honest and admit that Trump's worldview, one where everything is transactional and all about personal gain (ie. how he operates), isn't how every other world leader operates. And that Donald Trump isn't nearly self-aware enough to understand that himself.

He was never going to end this war on day one because he doesn't understand either side of the conflict. He's Harry Ellis trying to talk Hans Gruber out of the whole Nakatomi Plaza affair. And we're all along for the ride.

good point, and what makes the Trump/Putin dance so odd. Like Trump, Putin is also egotistical and self-aggrandizing and reality is something that is meant to be bent the fit the immediate need, but on the wider scope of motivation, the two men are different. Putin is an idealist - all the things that are important to him are fundamentally conceptual, intellectual. On that score Trump is the ultimate realist, if something doesn't have immediate objective utility to him, or he can't monetize it and put in the the bank, it doesn't exist to him.

Edited by gehringer_2
Posted
On 5/23/2025 at 9:16 AM, romad1 said:

Any ally who still hasn't figured it out...well

The EU needs to take the wheel. 

I continue to be dumbfounded by the various supposedly savvy pundits referring to Trump’s actions as “mistakes”. That implies Trump is making an honest effort to maintain the traditional world order but is merely failing short—in this case, that he is trying to end the war while maintaining Ukraine’s dignity and sovereignty. Do these pundits really believe that?

I don’t believe Trump as making mistakes. I believe Trump is doing exactly what he is setting out to, in the service of someone he accepts to be greater than he.

Posted (edited)
On 5/25/2025 at 9:56 PM, mtutiger said:

I think we need to be honest and admit that Trump's worldview, one where everything is transactional and all about personal gain (ie. how he operates), isn't how every other world leader operates. And that Donald Trump isn't nearly self-aware enough to understand that himself.

He was never going to end this war on day one because he doesn't understand either side of the conflict. He's Harry Ellis trying to talk Hans Gruber out of the whole Nakatomi Plaza affair. And we're all along for the ride.

It’s practically irrelevant whether Donald Trump is misjudging the motivations of nearly every other world leader. Those are not the leaders he cares even a little about. He might care about what they think of him specifically as it relates to his place in the world, but he sure doesn’t care what they think about how the world should and should not operate.

The leaders Trump cares about are motivated by the same lust for power and material wealth as he. That’s why he gravitates toward them and disparages the rest.

I do agree he doesn’t understand either side of the conflict to any reasonable level of depth, but I’m pretty sure he does understand what his prime objective is.

Edited by chasfh
Posted

Its probably a good thing for the long-term that Democracy is now in the hands of actual functional electoral systems in the EU and UK.  It hit hard when the UK left over the Russian-engineered Brexit and the Germans and French have had to fight off furious interference efforts from Russia.  The good news is that Russia has also overplayed its hand by murdering people in the streets of these countries and sabotaging munitions plants.  They are now metaphorically no longer able to hide in the shadows. 

The US needs to get rid of the cretin that Putin got put in office here. 

Posted
10 minutes ago, romad1 said:

Its probably a good thing for the long-term that Democracy is now in the hands of actual functional electoral systems in the EU and UK.  It hit hard when the UK left over the Russian-engineered Brexit and the Germans and French have had to fight off furious interference efforts from Russia.  The good news is that Russia has also overplayed its hand by murdering people in the streets of these countries and sabotaging munitions plants.  They are now metaphorically no longer able to hide in the shadows. 

The US needs to get rid of the cretin that Putin got put in office here. 

I don't know if people understand as well as they should how much the interests of Musk and the autocracies are in line.  His support for the AfD was a dangerous transgression though and people now know what he is.  

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Posted
1 hour ago, romad1 said:

I don't know if people understand as well as they should how much the interests of Musk and the autocracies are in line.  His support for the AfD was a dangerous transgression though and people now know what he is.  

I think we can educatedly guess that at least a third of Americans think the idea of the United States becoming a christofascist autocracy of the type the AfD is promulgating is JUST FORKING DANDY.

The trick is alarming the remaining two-thirds of people enough to motivate them to show up on Election Day and overwhelm these end-times fantasy devotees with their votes. Assuming we still have free and fair elections, of course.

Posted
On 5/27/2025 at 7:52 AM, chasfh said:

It’s practically irrelevant whether Donald Trump is misjudging the motivations of nearly every other world leader. Those are not the leaders he cares even a little about. He might care about what they think of him specifically as it relates to his place in the world, but he sure doesn’t care what they think about how the world should and should not operate.

The leaders Trump cares about are motivated by the same lust for power and material wealth as he. That’s why he gravitates toward them and disparages the rest.

And my point is that because of his lust towards these types of leaders and inability to discern what their actual motives are, he gives them free license to take advantage of us (and him) over and over again.

Hence the comparison to Harry Ellis.... he's a moron, there is no strategy here. He's just an idiot that thinks he can talk a guy out of Putin, who actually has an ethos, out of deeply held convictions.

Posted
26 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

we can only hope that title isn't a premature take on "the man Putin hasn't killed yet"

Joni Ernst has a take on that. 

  • Like 1
Posted

Ukraine better be ready because there's no way Putin doesn't order a massive cruise missile strike on Kyiv as a response to the airfields being attacked.  

Posted
5 minutes ago, GalagaGuy said:

Ukraine better be ready because there's no way Putin doesn't order a massive cruise missile strike on Kyiv as a response to the airfields being attacked.  

escalation takes what form?  What is the next level of shock that can be perpetrated before he crosses a line (WMD, more atrocities) the UN has to respond more emphatically about?  

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