TwinkleToes

He works for the Russians, always has, these jackoff tarriffs which only seem to be against allies is meant to disrupt the focus on Ukraine's backers and force an immediate settlement where Ukraine only makes any concessions. It's clear as goddamned mid-day sun that everything he's doing is to unsettle NATO and get a win for Russia.

That proves several things, including his overall allegiances. It also suggests that Russia is truly desperate, doesn't think they will get more Ukrainian land than they currently have, and want to freeze the conflict to call it a victory. The current strategy of thrusting small infantry squads anywhere you can fit them isn't exactly a solid occupation strategy. Ukraine can kill many more of them, eventually, with drones, snipers, artillery, and counter-assaults. There isn't a baked in guarantee that they're allowed to keep all the stolen land they're sitting on right now. Ukraine will kill most of them - eventually - and he'll be left with nothing but a bleeding wound as his army tries to do the harder piece of warfare - pacification.

It's in Ukraine's long term interests to keep killing the Russian army as long as it can sustain it's own losses.

This crazy old poopy pants manchild is serious in that he wants to blackmail people into giving him something for nothing. Thankfully, he's so fucking stupid, and has created a cesspool of asskissers around him who are incentivized to suck up rather than actually DO anything.

He talks, says a lot of crazy shit, then backs down, having done damage and not actually gotten anything. Like being in a shortbus with a hormonal chimp with a chainsaw. We're all just going to have to wait until his inevitable toilet stroke, and then watch the whole thing collapse.

Perhaps the "correct" way to view the collapse of Russia is like the Ottoman empire. The ottomans fell apart in stages over 300 years, gradually losing direct control and influence over the hinterlands, then suddenly in quick, sharp wars against their former vassals in Africa and the Balkans. Eventually, they end up with a relatively small rump state in Turkey. I think that's possibly the most likely outcome with Moscow/St. Petersburg retaining a much reduced ethnic russian rump state and nearly everything else breaking away. But - the point is - it happens slowly, in stages, and in response to losing wars. Longer than single human lifetimes, so it makes it harder to recognize and comprehend until it's all over.

The USSR had a shred of philosophical veneer. The kleptocratic petromafia slave “state “ that exists today is literally a nihilist barbarian horde. I like the sentiment and mental picture of your suggestions. Really speaks to the pointlessness of talking to these black hearted ghouls.

There is no hope communicating with these insane barbarians. Empathy, truth. shame and hypocrisy don't even exist. The entire society is based on brutality and brazen lies, you cannot trust anything they say. The only choice for a lasting peace for Ukraine is to keep fighting until the entire vile project of political russia collapses into something less malignant.

Makes you wonder what a lame duck Biden is apt to do that is different from if he had stayed in the race and had to run on the results. Maybe they'll be less cautious, especially if you factor in that Russia has literally been invaded, and still done nothing.

They seem to be feasting on Russia's ham fisted attempts to bring reinforcement columns along main roads. Russia was completely unprepared for this, and Ukraine obviously was. There is almost no mention of Russian air power operating in this area, and reports that Ukraine brought their own substantial AA assets in case they did. So - you have Russian infantry and armor moving along main roads, in slow convoys, being surveilled by Western satellites the entire time, getting slammed by drones and artillery before they can even get to Kursk.

Russia’s traditional war fighting MO has been “keep dying and surrendering in huge numbers until something major happens”.

Crimean War, Russo Japanese War, WW1, Polish-Soviet war, Winter War, WW2, Afghanistan, Chechnya 1.

If not for Lend/Lease giving Russia food, oil, guns, vehicles, bullets, boots and clothing, they would have been rolled back to middle Siberia. For all their hypermacho chest thumping, they’re shit at war.

Per childhood fairy tale monster Lavrov, it is time to acknowledge facts on the ground. The enemy must accept these realities.

Of course. How do you investigate harassment and identify site-killing lunatics without keyword searching.

It’s all stored and anyone who needs to see stuff their site hosts can get it. Plus - you’d be surprised how much criminal activity people are willing to discuss with strangers.

That there is already a good self deprecating joke. Don’t sell yourself short. Unless you ARE short, then may I recommend entering the priesthood

This is ancient, but still objectively correct. It also misses the point. Trump's appeal to his base is not about being good or any attribute he has. It's that he's an avatar of hate that gives them murky permission to be up front with their own prejudice and moronic ideas. He's made it a political position to be proudly uninformed, unapologetically racist, and irrationally intolerant about the lives of others that have zero actual impact on you. To hate immigrants, brown people, gays, electric cars, any talk of climate change, vaccines, democrats and democracy in general. It's all white grievance, all the time. Why should we change anything? We're not changing anything, we're white america, and we're the greatest because - reasons - and we don't need to change anything. We don't even need to have any ideas - you just have to hate The Other, and that's enough for 46% of the biggest clueless losers in the country who honestly think government doesn't do anything for them anyways, and thus vote against their own self interests, literally to their own personal destruction.

Also - for all the noice and bluster of this branding exercise that got WAY out of hand - he remains, ultimately, a fluke. He barely, barely, barely won in 2016 on the faintest of technical victories over a weak candidate with a bad strategy representing a two-term Democratic status quo position for a nation tired of politics as usual.

The same party almost never wins 3 terms in a row. He won not by being a good, virtuous person. He won by not being Hilary Clinton. And that's ALL he won. Despite his constant claims of greatness, his party and the candidates he endorses have underperformed in every election since 2016. He was, and remains, a one-time fluke. Period. A cautionary tale about what happens with low voter turnout.