rudi49jr

It hasn’t been called the war minister in any Western European country since WWII, but the minister of defense. In Russia, though, it is literally the ministry and minister of war. See the difference?

Looking at all the war crimes Russia is committing in Ukraine, this is arguably one of the more heinous ones: That’s 2,000 kids abducted in just over 10 days. Makes you wonder how many they took last year. Must be in the tens of thousands. Russia really is a terrorist state and needs to be treated and isolated as such.

You can’t compare Vietnam and Ukraine, that’s apples and oranges, two completely different kettles of fish. Vietnam was a war that the USA ventured into knowingly and willingly, they chose to do so. Ukraine is a war started by Russia, nothing to do with the USA or NATO or whatever. No one forced Russia to invade Ukraine, not the USA, not NATO, not the EU. This is Russia’s war by choice, and the West has every right to help Ukraine defend themselves And please spare me the crocodile tears, because if it were up to you, Ukraine would have had to sign a ‘peace treaty’ with Russia long ago, giving up significant parts of its territory to Russia. But as has been repeated many times in this thread: you can not negotiate with a lunatic, and that ‘peace treaty’ would have been worthless. Putin and his clique have made it abundantly clear that they want to restore the old USSR, so it would only be a matter of time before they made a move on the rest of Ukraine, and then the Baltic states, and then Poland, and so on and so forth. The only way to remove that threat is to defeat Russia, and unfortunately for Ukraine they’re going to have to do that. With as much help from the West as is necessary. So please quit your whining about Ukraine not having to pay back for all the aid they’re receiving, because they are doing you and the rest of the world a huge service.

Was just about to post the exact same link. This would be a game changer, especially if other countries followed this example. Like Germany is apparently considering supplying Ukraine with Leopard II tanks. Hopefully Ukraine will get the tanks they need to kick the Russians out.

Go to any holiday town on the coast in Spain and you will see that the vast majority of those drunk out of their skull (and misbehaving as a result of that) are the best and finest of Britain, both men and women. They just drink to get drunk.

It would probably take more than just a couple of missiles. Other than that I totally agree with you.

Freedom comes with a price. But the US and EU are getting their money’s worth: https://www.csis.org/analysis/united-states-aid-ukraine-investment-whose-benefits-greatly-exceed-its-cost

Is that all you got? Like arguing with a six-year-old.

So far there’s zero evidence for Russia’s claim it killed 600 Ukrainian soldiers with a strike in Kramatorsk: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/moscow-ends-self-proclaimed-ceasefire-vows-press-ahead-ukraine-2023-01-08/

You’re going to have to spell it out for me, cause I really don’t know what you mean.

Why does it matter where he was before he went to Washington?

What’s all this talk about blank cheques? If the US government were actually signing blank cheques, we’d be talking seriously different numbers from what the US has done for Ukraine so far.

Not only did he insist that his Secret Service team stay at his expensive hotel; the prices of the rooms were then jacked up to double or triple what they usually went for. His whole presidency was just one big money milking scheme to him.

Vadym Skibitsky, Ukraine’s deputy military intelligence chief, said Russia is preparing to mobilize an extra 500,000 conscripts. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/06/russia-preparing-mobilise-extra-500000-conscripts-claims-ukraine And the little Kremlin gremlin will no doubt gladly sacrifice 10 million more men if necessary, just to save face. And this man said he is willing to ‘negotiate’. Yeah, right.

You got that right, the Trump clown show. Have you seen what he posted (in literally hundreds upon hundreds of posts) on Truth Social over the past few weeks? He just keeps going on and on and on about the election being stolen from him, the radical left destroying the country, the FBI colluding with the US government against him, he keeps insulting and/or threatening everyone who ever said something bad about him. And the MAGA crowd loves it and can’t get enough of their oracle spouting the most ridiculous nonsense and idiotic conspiracy theories. That man really needs to take a chill pill and accept that he’s a has-been, and also that he’s going to be toast soon.

Police: 25 torture chambers discovered in liberated areas of Kharkiv Oblast: https://kyivindependent.com/news-feed/police-25-torture-chambers-discovered-in-liberated-areas-of-kharkiv-oblast Moscow’s systematic war of terror in Ukraine. Expect many more of these torture chambers to be discovered as Ukraine liberates more of its territory. The USA and EU need to step up their military aid to Ukraine and deliver the kind of serious weaponry that will enable Ukraine to kick Russia out of their country and end this nightmare once and for all.

They really don’t care, not one iota . If a Democrat did it, they’d be screaming to lock them up up, but now that their guy did it they’re totally okay with it. It’s called selective outrage. Evangelicals are very religious, or so they say, but tens of millions of them voted for Trump, probably one of the biggest sinners out there. How they justify that is a total mystery to me, but they do, and they’re proud of it. Ignorance and arrogance.

A very large majority of Ukrainians (89% of Ukrainian speaking, 76% of Russian speaking) said they opposed territorial concessions to Russia.

Apparently Putin hires actors for his photo ops. The same people can be seen with him in these pictures, just in different clothes/uniforms.

Russian authorities have announced that soldiers and state employees deployed to fight in Ukraine will be exempt from income tax. Russian forces can also receive ‘gifts and rewards’ for their services in Ukraine, according to new decree. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/12/31/russia-grants-tax-amnesty-to-encourage-troops-fighting-in-ukraine That will surely have Russian men enlist in droves. That really outweighs the risks, not to have to pay income tax and to receive gifts and awards when you get your nuts blown off in Ukraine. Or worse. How desperate can you get?

No response so far. Hopefully Xi will ‘regretfully’ decline.

We can expect a lot of crazy stuff from the Republican majority in the House the next two years, since they have already announced they are launching about 50 investigations. MTG said the most important topic to her was Hunter Biden’s laptop. Think about that for a minute. Not the soaring inflation, not the fact that many people can’t pay their bills anymore, not the price of health care, the gun violence, immigration, minimum wages, the ever increasing polarization in US society, or anything else that would be important to any normal/sane person. It’s all about Hunter Biden’s laptop for the MAGA freaks, nothing else matters at all.

Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov is roasted on social media for doing 40 push-ups on a Russian talk show. Whatever happened to his promise, by the way, of sending his three sons to fight in Ukraine? Just asking.

The whole system is corrupt to the core, but they have to make it look like they are doing something against it. So sometimes they make token arrests, and sometimes even a big fish gets caught. My suspicion is almost always that the guy in question didn’t share enough of his wealth (i.e. bribes) with his equally corrupt colleagues.

Negotiating Russian style: Russian foreign minister Lavrov said Kyiv must accept Moscow’s demands for ending the war or else suffer defeat on the battlefield. ”Accept our demands, otherwise the issue will be decided by the Russian army”. So much to being open to negotiations. https://www.reuters.com/article/ukraine-crisis-idAFKBN2TB01G