Russia launches attacks on Ukraine

So here's something nobody is talking much about.... Russia is losing sporting events right and left since the invasion, but what should happen to Belarus on that front? And sanctions? We all know Russian troops staged from there with full government support.

Should they get the same international pariah status as Russia here? Or something slightly less?

SNIP
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) urged international sports federations to either move or cancel sports events currently planned in Russia or Belarus.

Russian troops entered Ukraine through Belarus when the invasion began on Thursday. The IOC added the two countries' flags should not be displayed at sports events.
ENDSNIP

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-being-stripped-major-sporting-200107001.html

 

If you're referring to the safe 3rd country rule it specifically applied to the US/Mexico border and Brandon ended it his first week in office.

 

Word is PornHub has denied Russians access to the site. They are greeted with a Ukrainian flag. That will demoralize the entire masturbating Russian populace and cause unrest. Brilliant. Maybe Google, Twitter, Instagram, etc. should do the same thing.

 

Now this is the kind of thing our world leaders should be thinking of.... hit em where they live...

 

The same brutal forces building pipelines across American Indian land are trying to shut them down in the Ukriane, and in regard to PornHub....

The horror...the horror....

​

 

The point is just because a country isn't a NATO doesn't mean the US shouldn't send troops to fight. The US has many times gone to war with countries whose democracy is being threatened. There are NATO countries who are more than willing to fight Russia in Ukraine and the US should lead them, not as NATO countries but as allies against Russian aggression against a western ally and a democracy.

 

Again, we have helped other countries like Libya when we knew that it would not cost us too much, but we have never, considered going against a nuclear nation with a military as large and well equipped as Russia's. The price is too high, and gains are very low, so its a no-brainer that we don't do it just to defend someone else's democracy.

 

US is asserting...???

Bide is still compromised by the Koch-Glitsch Italia scandal.

Italy wants no part of cutting Russia off from SWIFT. Any wonder since Putin used Italy as a conduit to get we he wanted to be able to finish his Crimean pipeline.

And Natalia Cherenkova, the CEO of Koch-Glitsch Italia, when Obama and Biden pulled their US aide package kickback, was given a FREE green card as soon as Biden took office.

So Natty, when will Biden stop the flow of over 400,000 barrels of dirty Russian oil into the US on a daily basis?

So the media is again playing the tried and true depiction of Trump being aligned with Putin while the exact opposite is true.

Biden is simply Putin's slave.

 

Let's not kid ourselves - the only way the U.S. can lead the countries willing to fight Russia in Ukraine is from the front.

Do you know why Georgia isn't a Russian puppet state?

Because Bush had the stones to park American C-17s and troops on the tarmac of Tblisi International Airport. That is the only thing that stopped the Russian 58th Army from taking the Georgian capital - forcing Putin to choose between Georgia and WWIII, and Putin blinked.

The U.S. (and its allies) had this option at its disposal and it might have prevented Russia from invading Ukraine, but Biden blinked.

Look at Georgia and Ukraine and you'll see the difference leadership, or the absence of leadership will make. Of course, we saw that last year in Afghanistan, too....

 

Much of what you say is true, of course, but the historical record shows that America has been willing to confront major military powers and pay an enormous price to defend someone else's democracy.

 

Rightists are now saying, "Biden is weak; just sent 3,000 troops to Germany; sanctions don't work; that's why Putin invaded." Of course if Biden had said, "this is not acceptable; we're sending troops to Ukraine to help them fight off the Russian invasion" the very same people would then say "Biden is a warmonger; that's not our fight; America can't be the police of the world."

The point is, whatever Biden does now or in the future the rightists will say is wrong.

Of course the same point applies the other way around. If Trump were in power, leftists would call his actions wrong regardless of the actions themselves; would advocate for the opposite, and if he did the opposite, they'd criticize that, too.

In the state of divided American politics, one side will ALWAYS criticize the other, regardless of what the other side does.

THAT's the weakness. The weakness is not related to who is in the Oval Office. Putin knows that America is divided and no longer responds with one unified voice to external dangers. In the past, domestic differences were confined to the space inside our borders, and we all responded as Americans first to external threats. Today, it's no longer the case, and that's EXACTLY why a dictator like Putin finds it easy to expand and invade a neighbor (watch out, Taiwan is the next domino to fall) because he knows that there will be no unified American response.

In division there is weakness. In unity there is strength.

The same applies to Europe. The UK pulled out of the European Union. Countries like Hungary, Italy, Turkey and Austria have had governments that are not aligned with the larger consensus in Europe. Separatist movements have acquired force in places like Catalonia and Veneto. Europe went from a very unified force for democracy and Western values to a hodge-podge of conflicting ideologies, to Putin's delight. A previously secular and essential ally and NATO member, Turkey, strategically positioned in a place that controls the access to the Black Sea, applied repeatedly for European Union membership and was turned down (thanks to racism and religious intolerance, BIG mistake!) fostering frustration and the rise of an authoritarian religious-minded government that can now be called NINO (NATO in name only). The United States in the previous administration sent signs that weakened NATO.

Well, duh, Putin figures, "there's no way a distracted and divided United States and a weakened NATO will stop me, so I'll expand at will."

China must be very encouraged by what they see. Mark my words, they will start expansionist moves too.

The World Order has been profoundly damaged and dictators everywhere will take advantage of it. There is no vacuum in nature. If a power gets divided and weak, another power will fill the vacuum.

Over here, the problem is not if the Left is right or wrong, or if the Right is right or wrong. The problem is that Left and Right in the past were political adversaries that had different visions for what was right for the country, but dealt with their differences via a normal and respectful political process, at times even cooperating with each other with bipartisan actions; no longer. These days, the abysm and intolerance are such that words like collaboration and coalition became foul words and political paralysis is the norm, with one administration always undoing what the previous one did so that we don't move forward. We are no longer a unified geopolitical force, and the entire world is paying a price for it, since we used to be the major stabilizing force for the world.

I know that Pax Americana wasn't perfect, but it was better than what we see now. We're entering some dark times, and it's largely our own fault.

 

Any by "helping" Libya, we sent them back to the stone age. Taking down Gaddafi was every bit as morally defensible as Putin invading the Ukraine. In a decent civilization, Hillary and Obama would have been executed for this crime against humanity. The American elite are simple bullies who target those who are weak, kill them and extract their wealth. In no meaningful way are they different from Putin.

I wish the Ukrainians the best. They are learning the hard way about the results of being friends with the West. Perhaps they shouldn't have listened to our assurances when told them to give their nuclear weapons back to Russia. America's policy is apparently to empower our existential enemies, plunder the weak and not protect those who trust us.

https://tribunemag.co.uk/2021/03/natos-libya-disaster-10-years-on

 

Any US president that doesn't cut off dirty oil imports from a naked aggressor like Putin is a POS traitor.

 

Joe Biden

" The Occupier in Chief "

 

I just saw a video on TV where Ukrainians were protesting Russia. Funny thing is that all their Protest signs were almost ALL in ENGLISH instead of their Native language.

 

Biden is restoring America's leadership of a coalition of democratic nations and coordinating with them after the Cry Baby Loser had tried to destroy NATO/. Obviously, irresponsibly damaging our allies without any concern for their well-being would be woefully irresponsible and divisive. Statesmanship demands such a broad and inclusive perspective.

Yes, the Cry Baby Loser had withheld vitally-needed military funding that had been voted on and allocated for Ukraine, but, at the time, he was pressuring President Zelenskyy to contrive fake criminal charges against his political opponent, and Zelenskyy's refusal to kowtow to the Cry Baby Loser triggered yet another of his petty vendetta.

One would hope that the Loser would, at the very least, express concern for the innocent Ukrainians whom the Loser's "savvy genius" is now massacring.

Is he again sitting back, watching the mayhem, and pleasuring himself?

 

I understand the principles of freedom. But nuclear armed countries have other principles to consider regarding escalation. This isn't easy; we need to draw red lines and show strength at the same time as considering the escalatory factor.

I'm not for sending troops; Russia didn't send its troops to oppose us in Iraq or Afghanistan.

I was for arming Ukraine prior to the invasion. But funneling in stingers and javelins now can escalate. Again, Russia didn't do that to us, and if they did, we would have definitely pushed back against them.

 

I've been posting here for 13 years, CF, and that is one of the finest and most thoughtful posts I've read.

I've contemplated this matter at great length myself, and while I agree with virtually everything you said, I will point out that it does matter who is in the White House because leadership matters.

Our divisiveness can be a lamentable thing and it can weaken us, but on the other hand, it is part of who and what we and our democracy are, and it is one of our strengths. One might say it's a double-edged sword, but again, this is where leadership matters. Our country has faced far more difficult times and it has been far more bitterly divided than it is today, and the difference between success and failure has been leadership. That is why we erect monuments to great men and leaders like Abraham Lincoln and why there will be none for the aforementioned Trump and Biden.

As for geo-strategic matters, we are struggling to adapt to the new power dynamics of the multipolar post-WWII/Cold War era, and Americans are struggling to figure out our role in the uncharted territory we find ourselves in. However, despite all the problems we're facing and the ugly prospect of the resumption of the Cold War, we do have History to guide us and I am optimistic about the future. I believe, as William Faulkner did when he delivered his acceptance speech for the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature "that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance"...

William Faulkner
Banquet speech
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/1949/faulkner/speech/

Thanks again for your fine post.

 

PORNHUB RULES--
(for their political stances!)

 

NAME THEM

 

I understand your point, but I think you need to update your thinking, for a number of reasons.

One is that Americans don't want to fight everyone's wars for them. But also, if you think about it, the more the U.S.always steps in, it reaffirms that expectation, that we will. This would lead to nations ignoring their own defense, if they're democracies, because, "that's the job of the U.S." thereby making our job, ever- larger, & more arduous.

A second reason is that, going forward, there are going to be other forms of attack, which will not involve troops: cyber warfare. The most effective way to combat this, already at our disposal, is international economic pressure. But to get that mechanism working proficiently, will require a learning curve; and it will be much easier to get nations to participate in actions which would only entail the risk of (a relatively small amount of) economic hardship or belt- tightening, rather than to convince nations to try something that is not all that well precedented-- with an uneven or unproven track record-- against a nation, which may respond by targeting the participants, for their own cyber attack.




What I'm suggesting is the opportunity to turn a challenge, into something beneficial (even though there is a cost, in Ukranian lives).
So when life hands you, a fiery Putin-- make Puttinesca!

 

In what way were Libya helped!

 

Well, if you hated Qaddafi, love anarchy, and don't mind a genocidal takfirist blood cult setting up shop in your country you got all the "help" you could have asked for....

 

Screwed-Up Market Priorities and the Covid-19 Pandemic​

Wow, the news media is reporting serious consequences for the Ukrainians resulting from the Russia's invasion. This is simple Empires fighting over markets.

Wouldn't it have been nice if Trump and the same screaming mainstream media took the Covid-19 pandemic just as seriously?

Now the media is saying that "Putin is starting WWIII," but in the pandemic said, "It's just the flu,"; or when the media says "Don't surrender to Putin!" but of the pandemic reports "The Covid task force is dissolved," ; or "We need to protect Ukrainians against Putin," but of the pandemic cheerlead "Herd immunity!"; now its "We must intervene now to stop Putin!" but with Covid said, "Let the market decide the price of Covid protection!"; "500 Ukrainians died by Putin's army!" but Trump Jr. said, "100,000 deaths is NOTHING!"

 

Post of the month right here.

Extremely well said, and I'm not sure we can fix it. I get called for being both a Trump lover and Biden lover, often in the same day. It's maddening. For some, they can't even remember that someone may be in the middle. I've had posters accuse me for being on team other, one day, and praising me for being on the right team, the next. The whole country needs a lesson on nuance and context. It's lost.

The fringe is creeping up on the middle. We need it to go the other direction.