heybruce

Very poor understanding of history. The question should be "Who fought against the USSR under Stalin?" Stalin was so hated in Ukraine, with good reason, that many Ukrainians supported Germany when it first liberated them from the USSR. After they learned that Hitler was as bad as Stalin they wisely chose to maintain a low profile until they could determine which side was likely to win then make the best of the situation.

Not an official condition, but some members think that way. Of course requiring these countries to be stable and at peace gives Putin a huge incentive to destabilize and invade them, which he does.

Rather than attempt to refute what I posted, which you can't, you bury your head in the sand.

Trump continued wars, negotiated the most disastrous peace deal in memory (an Afghan peace deal negotiated without participation of the Afghan government--totally idiotic and doomed to failure) retreated when confronted by autocrats and alienated allies. Trump was a dangerous fool. Then there's that thing about election denial and complementing people rampaging through the Capitol, while doing nothing to call them off.

Ukraine will be admitted when all other NATO countries agree that it has met the required conditions. What does that have to do with Ukraine and other countries being threatened or actively invaded by Russia wanting to join NATO?

Irrational people making anti-Trump rants? Condemning Trump for his actions leading to Jan 6 and, equally bad, his failure to do anything to restrain the mob for hours while he watched its rampage on television is not irrational. It's patriotic. That is probably the number one reason for Trump's worst ever ranking.

Are you now conceding that Trump didn't do much for the economy?

NATO expansion brought on by Russia under Putin threatening its neighbors, leading these neighboring countries to lobby very hard to join NATO.

I plan on going to Pai in a few days. Any better now?

How does Trump score on respect for election outcomes and defense of democracy?

Seriously? That's your idea of a meaningful response? Why not just post "Nuh uh!"?

Correct on both points. However, would you want to have a very substantial sum of money tied up until such time as the Trump empire/house-of-cards is resolved in bankruptcy court?

Read the post that immediately precedes yours. A link to the text article was provided. If you didn't read that, that's on you.

IMHO you have no concept about how the modern economy works.

You can see how Covid hurt the US economy under Trump, cut can't see how Obama inherited an economy in free-fall that many feared could lead to another great depression. You're living down to expectations.

No, that doesn't work. I don't recall RFK junior being called far right. A whacko vaccine conspiracy theorist perhaps...

That's silly. They should be worried about collecting from Trump regardless of the outcome of the election.

You are correct about the period, I posted in haste. Sorry. However the point of Candide's post was that Putin had the people, resources and opportunity to make Russia into a prosperous first world economy, and instead made it into a commodities dependent kleptocracy. It remains to be seen how long the current China dependent war economy can last, or what China intends do seek in return for its support.

No, we do it out of patriotism and concern for the world's future.

Right. Trump is a populist who scapegoats minorities, ignores established institutions, procedures, checks and balances, and has no respect for democracy, but that doesn't make him a fascist. Oh wait, it kind of does.

Thank you. One of the many interesting points from the article: ""The Putin I met with, did good business with, established a Nato-Russia Council with, is very, very different from this almost megalomaniac at the present moment," former Nato chief Lord Robertson told me recently when we met in London. "The man who stood beside me in May of 2002, right beside me, and said Ukraine is a sovereign and independent nation state which will make its own decisions about security, is now the man who says that [Ukraine] is not a nation state.""

From the BBC. A good overview that briefly covers twenty plus years of Russian devolution under Putin and debunks a lot of misinformation. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0hdbxnm There is a text only version on today's BBC news app that I prefer, but I can't find a link to it. Sorry.

If you are going to take a portion of a post out of context (and add a period so it looks like the sentence fragment quoted was a complete sentence) you shouldn't do so immediately after the post you are misrepresenting. It's too easy to spot the BS.

The left, as you call them, are the ones securing and stabilizing alliances to contain Russian and Chinese aggression and expansion. How does that make the United State weaker?

Talk about rubbish. Look at the state of the economy the Republicans left for Obama to fix then look at the state of the economy Obama left for Trump.