xylophone

Sad man, so very sad.

Whatever......the word of the US means nothing and trump and co are SOBs for abandoning Ukraine in their time of need. That the US did not live up to their promise to protect Ukraine back then was bad enough, but they have a chance now to stand up to Putin, but the orange dough boy is not strong enough, nor are his weak acolytes. JFK stood up to Russia and they backed down.......trump has not the spine to do so. In January 1994, the U.S., Russia and Ukraine issued an historic Trilateral Statement that promised security assurances to Ukraine once the START I Treaty entered into force and Ukraine became a non-nuclear weapons state and a party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

Too much time on the golf courses and not enough studying economics and common sense!!

I have posted it before so here it is again........what value is the word of the US??

Is this the same Marco Rubio who promised the US would protect Ukraine if they gave up their nuclear weapons?? Two-faced SOB and that goes for his orange leader as well and neither of them can be trusted, so why should this deal be any different without some guarantees in place.

And demand for US made orange makeup has also slumped!!

The signs are not good............... For two years, US stocks went virtually straight up. In a matter of weeks, that’s been turned upside down, and as the equities selloff intensifies Wall Street is wondering where it stops. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 Index plunged 3% on Monday, now on pace for its worst quarter since 2022. The S&P 500 Index sank 2%, teetering closer to a correction after tumbling roughly 8% since its February 19 peak. The index is on track to close below its 200-day moving average for the first time since November 2023, snapping a streak of 336 sessions above its long-term support line. Tesla shares plunged more than 15% on Monday (Tuesday NZT), hitting their lowest point since before Election Day as investors registered the impact of falling sales and increasing protests over the high-profile political role that Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, has taken on. In afternoon trading, the electric-car maker’s shares were down more than 15% for the day, and more than 50% from a mid-December peak. The day’s loss far outstripped the 2.5% drop in the S&P 500. The mask is coming off...

On that subject I thought Timothee's rendition of the songs was better than the originals!! Also I thought that Monica Barbero who played Joan Baez was excellent and she also sang JB's songs.

And dangerous when you look at this..........very popular with Putin!!! Trump naïve or plain stupid? In the fiery spat between Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, it was a sentence that went largely unnoticed, but said quite a lot about the closeness the US leader thinks he has with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. “Let me tell you, Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump said on February 28 in the unprecedented and very public Oval Office clash. “He went through a phony witch hunt,” Trump added, referring to an investigation during his first term into whether his 2016 election campaign colluded with Moscow. Even though that allegation was repeatedly denied by the Kremlin, the Republican President seems now to be saying the incident forged a sense of solidarity between the leaders.

I finally got round to watching, "A Complete Unknown" and thought it was very good and Timothee Chalamet was really great in it and he sang the songs in the movie, as did the woman playing Joan Baez. I was never really into any of Bob Dylan's songs, although it was my era, however listening to the songs from this movie has given me a real appreciation of him, his songs and the messages he was trying to put across – – although I will add that according to the movie he seems to be a bit of an r/sole!!!

Just to add................. The deep state conspiracy theory in the United States is an American political conspiracy theory that posits the existence of the deep state, a clandestine network of members of the federal government (especially within the FBI and CIA). The theory argues that there exist networks of collaborators within the leadership of the high-level financial and industrial entities, which exercise power alongside or within the elected United States government. Political commentator and former presidential adviser David Gergen said that the term had been appropriated by Steve Bannon, Breitbart News, and other supporters of the Trump administration in order to delegitimize the critics of the Trump presidency. Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, argued that there is no deep state and that "to the extent that there is a bipartisan foreign-policy elite, it is hiding in plain sight"

As soon as I saw the reference to "Deep State" I moved away from this post, because although it seems to be a favourite of some folk, it really is a conspiracy theory which is often floated by those who don't know what they're talking about, but need to pin the blame on "XYZ" and once you see it is a favoured quote of Steve Bannon and Breitbart News, then you know you are well and truly down the rabbit hole and in cloud cuckoo land.

That explains a lot!!

Well you've already proven yourself to be a liar by virtue of your post regarding Trump's last speech and the lies he told, saying that all of the fact checkers findings were false, when you must know that they weren't......easily proven by researching the facts (anathema to you trumpies, I know) but try to open your mind just a little. That you are prepared to believe the lies and also recycle them, despite facts to the contrary, in turn labels you as a liar. You therefore go onto my list of undesirables, and furthermore your avatar name is exactly how I feel when I read your posts and also when I listen to trump rattling off his lies. Sorted.

There's none so blind as those who will not see.....you find them unreliable and untrustworthy because that suits your narrative/bias. However if you did a bit of research you would find out the truth, but you don't want to know the truth, because the truth hurts, even more so if you are a MAGA trumpie!

Look at any of the "Fact Checker" websites and they will all mirror the lies/untruths/misleading information that I highlighted in my post and if you think they are all "false" then you need to take a good look at yourself because "there's none so blind as those who will not see" (as the saying goes). Live in your alternate universe if that's what you want, but if you do, expect others to laugh at you......you poor soul.

To support that, one only has to look at the lies/falsehoods and inaccuracies in trumps last long and rambling speech.....absolutely unbelievable and for sure the MAGA/trumpies will lap up the speech and the lies, becauset hey are either naive, simple, gullible or desperate........ Fact check: Are millions of people older than 100 — including some older than 160 — collecting Social Security? Trump said: “We’re also identifying shocking levels of incompetence and probable fraud in the Social Security program for our seniors.” This is false. Fact check: Trump says car plants are "opening up all over the place" This is mostly false. No automaker has announced a new plant since Trump took office and began instituting new tariffs. Reuters reported that Honda planned to produce 210,000 Civics in Indiana instead of Mexico, but the company hasn’t made a public announcement. Fact check: Trump claims illegal immigration "destroyed" Aurora, Colo., and Springfield, Ohio This is false. Springfield and Aurora have long been some of Trump’s favorite targets when it comes to examples of American cities he likes to nod to as being overrun by migrants, though he often misrepresents the situations there. Fact check: Is Canada, along with Mexico, to blame for the fentanyl crisis? Trump said of Canada and Mexico: “They’ve allowed fentanyl to come into our country at levels never seen before, killing hundreds of thousands of our citizens and many very young, beautiful people, destroying families. Nobody has ever seen anything like it.” This is partly false. While fentanyl comes across the border from Mexico in significant numbers, Canada is hardly to blame for the crisis. In the 2024 fiscal year, fentanyl seizures at the northern border were just 43 pounds, according to Customs and Border Protection data. Health Fact check: Trump says more children are being diagnosed with autism Trump said: “As an example, not long ago, and you can’t even believe these numbers, 1 in 10,000 children had autism. One in 10,000, and now it’s 1 in 36. There’s something wrong. One in 36, think of that, so we’re going to find out what it is.” This needs context. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pointed to vaccines to explain the substantial rise in autism diagnoses in recent decades, which have ballooned from an estimated 1 in 150 children in 2000 to 1 in 36 today. But the science is clear that vaccines don’t cause autism. International Fact check: Trump claims U.S. is spending much more on Ukraine than Europe Trump said: “Europe has sadly spent more money buying Russian oil and gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine by far. Think of that. They’ve spent more buying Russian oil and gas than they have defending. And we’ve spent perhaps $350 billion, and they’ve spent $100 billion. And we have an ocean separating us, and they don’t. And Biden has authorized more money in this fight than Europe has spent.” This is mostly false. From Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 to last December, the United States had allocated $114.2 billion in aid to Ukraine, according to the Kiel Institute, which is tracking aid to Ukraine. That’s not more than Europe spent: Those nations allocated more than $132.3 billion, with plans to allocate more. Polling Fact check: Is the share of Americans who think the country is on "right" track at a record high? Trump said: “For the first time in modern history, more Americans believe that our country is headed in the right direction than the wrong direction.” This is false. While he doesn’t cite his source, it seems likely he’s pointing to a recent Rasmussen Reports poll showing that 47% say America’s on the “right track.” Rasmussen is a right-wing poll that regularly partners with conservative authors and outlets to sponsor its polling. And it’s controversial — the polling aggregation site FiveThirtyEight removed the poll from its averages last year over concerns about its partisanship and its methodology. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/fact-checking-trumps-speech-congress-rcna194819

A great post which mirrors my thoughts and the thoughts of others I know......you have got this post "spot on" as the saying goes. Well thought through and laid out.....my compliments to you sir.

Who has given the most aid to Ukraine? European countries have provided €132 billion in aid (military, financial and humanitarian) as of December 2024, and the United States has provided €114 billion. Most of the US funding supports American industries who produce weapons and military equipment.

I wish you all the best in your recovery.

I believe he was angling for some security guarantees from the USA in relation to a ceasefire or an agreement with Russia, however Zelinski was trying to point out to Vance that without these any agreement with Russia would be pointless judging by what Russia did in relation to Crimea, but the clown and his assistant jumped on the bandwagon and basically ambushed the poor guy. It was a disgusting display by a couple of mindless bullies.