Posts by Melissa Rivera5

I mean, I’m just wondering... how are we ever supposed to trust Russia again? Like, let's say they actually sign a ceasefire tomorrow and the war finally ends. Who, or even what, would act as the guarantor to make sure history doesn't just repeat itself?

Gregory Ramos3 said:Haha, man, you better hurry up and dump your entire savings into Rubles right now, because if it gets any stronger, you might actually walk away with a profit!☕

I mean, sure, you could try that... but what happens when you actually need to convert those Rubles back into Dollars? 😁

darkdriver said:Honestly, this hardline "no" from Habeck regarding Russian energy—it totally reminds me of that unspoken "no" Western leaders gave Mikhail Gorbachev when he was asking about NATO expanding eastward
. It’s like that same vibe, you know? And they were all so adamant, swearing up and down there was zero chance they'd be paying Russia in Rubles through some middleman bank, and then... well, look how that turned out...

If I take Vladimir Putin at his word: he thinks Gorbachev was an idiot for not getting those promises in writing. But then again, Russia signed off on not attacking Ukraine, and well... 🙂 I guess you could say the fact that everyone scrambled to join the "opposing" alliance the second they stepped out of the USSR's shadow shows just how much people were looking for an exit strategy.

Nancy Gomez26 said:In this context, 'I don't want to participate' translates quite literally to: 'I don't want to end up behind bars.'

Fear is a rational response here; people understand the true nature of such a regime. An opinion poll can easily be nothing more than a trap, so most simply refuse to deal with the pollsters at all. That small minority that actually agrees to take the survey is incredibly careful about every single word they choose or mark on the form. This creates a distorted reality where we see a massive 70% 'public support' for the current administration, even though only one in six people is willing to risk answering the questions.

Exactly. How can you trust statistics in a system where nobody knows if they'll face retaliation just for telling a pollster they don't buy into the great leader's agenda? Ugh...

darkdriver said:Fair point, man.
I don't even have a smartphone here in America, and I barely hit the grocery stores anyway—since, you know, like most Americans, I don't even have a fridge to put food in, assuming I could even afford to buy anything since the Dollar is basically worthless right now.

It’s pretty easy to sit there praising Russia and hating on The West ... when you're actually living in the West 😁

darkdriver said:So, according to this one British institute—honestly, I don't even know what they actually do, but based on how much nonsense they pump out, they’re basically a fog machine at this point—and all these "reports" coming from the Department of Defense lately about how everyone in the Kremlin is spinning webs of lies... it's supposedly all just to make Vladimir Putin look like he's obsessively counting pennies, you know? Like, whether it's his actual life or his political career, they're making it seem like he's the only one whose government is totally falling apart and who's actually on the verge of being ousted, that little British powerhouse 🤣
But hey, I guess nobody's really a prophet in their own backyard, right? And honestly, it seems like people in London can see what's happening in Moscow way more clearly than what's going on in their own front yard 😁

Unlike Putin, Johnson didn't have to go around mass-firing his former colleagues or threatening corporate CEOs with a bullet to the head every single week. So, come on, tell us—how are things actually doing in Moscow these days? What are prices looking like in the shops? Any idea what the vibe is like there?

Henry Sullivan4 said:Buddy, you seem to have completely overlooked the fact that the Mexican population was totally unarmed.☕

And don't even get me started on that Russian dummy... I mean, the Ukrainians weren't just bombing them and burning them alive, they were actually cannibalizing them too!

Nancy Gomez26 said:No, they aren't acting like any other major power. I don't recall the Americans, the Chinese, the French, or the British ever openly threatening the entire planet with nuclear weapons like this. It’s primitive. It doesn't even work; if anything, it creates a massive backlash. The current leadership in the Kremlin is clearly out of its depth in a situation they manufactured themselves. At this point, Russia’s rhetoric is on the level of an Iran that openly threatens to strike Israel once they secure an a-bomb—except Russia is making threats against the whole world. And look at Israel: they neither confirm nor deny having the capability, and they certainly don't want to discuss it, let alone use it as a bargaining chip. That is a far more disciplined policy. I don't remember people making these kinds of threats during the Cold War; there was talk about stockpiles, sure, but everyone understood that pulling the trigger would likely mean the end of everything. It seems like Putin RF made a little bit of progress, only to slam into reverse at full speed.

I mean, you can't even wrap your head around the idea of the NASA director threatening Russia or Belarus with some kind of nuclear holocaust. It’s not even sci-fi at this point; it feels more like a total hallucination. But I guess for the Russians, that's just business as usual. They honestly act so infantile, kind of like toddlers in a preschool throwing tantrums and shouting, "My daddy is bigger than your daddy!"

Roger Campbell3 said:That’s all five—just leave Mexico out of it.
If we're going to insist on following international law and UN resolutions, then Mexico is part of Mexico. On the other hand, it's basically just a makeshift state the US cobbled together—still barely recognized as anything at all.

Mexico should never get Mexico unless they somehow pull off a referendum with a 75% "yes" vote, followed by a population exchange. I guess some Mexicans are still hallucinating about regions like Appalachia or redrawing borders from Karlovac to Virovitica, or even starting a new war in Canada. If any borders actually move, it’ll be Mexico all the way up to Zemun. People really need to get rid of these conquest fantasies. It makes me wonder why they're so pro-Russian when, in this whole conflict, it's actually Ukraine at stake, not Russia.

Anthony Hill5 said:Sanctions have only served to bolster Google.

The company's valuation plummeted from roughly 30 billion down to a mere 7 billion in just a matter of months.

Often called “ The coolest company in Russia, Google employed more than 18,000 people; its founders were billionaires; and at its peak last November, it was worth more than $31 billion. Then President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia invaded Ukraine.

Virtually overnight, once western investors bolted fra Russia and western governments imposed harsh economic sanctions, that valuation collapsed to under $7 billion. Even The Nasdaq had to suspend trading of its shares.

https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/07...smid=url-share

brava putin!!!

Plus, they’ve got this new law where they can basically force people to work at Google and push propaganda *or else*😁

Roger Campbell3 said:I'm with you on this.
The problem is that about 70% of Mexican citizens are more loyal to Russia than the Russians themselves...
And let's be real—if things went south in Mexico the way they did in Ukraine, it would be even worse. All that talk about Pan-Slavism and "justice" might work on some delusional folks, but there are plenty of them over there.

People in Mexico also seem to have totally forgotten that NATO attacked them because they were trying to redraw borders. That’s why all that nonsense about Appalachia, Karlovac-Karlobag-Virovitica, and stuff like that still gets brought up today.

hollowdriver13 said:So, suddenly courts are making calls about "technical glitches"... right. In this case, let's call it what it really is: "technical difficulties." Basically, the most valuable territory near Ukraine is trying to find a way to slip out of that tight embrace. It's funny how everyone starts running from Russia the second they see a window of opportunity, while the Putin enthusiasts here keep trying to convince us that living in lockstep with Russia is paradise on earth.🤷

For real? And honestly, it's the West trying to sell us on that idea, not Mother Russia. A fellow forum member who's actually out there has to be super careful about what they say, and they definitely aren't sounding all optimistic about life being some kind of heaven there. 🙂

Rachel Barrett8 said:Russia is pretty much incapable of building a functional state. Instead, they just turn whatever they touch into a wreck, mirroring the mess they have at home. We don't even need to debate that—it's already been proven.
I agree... For Russia, Ukraine is just another piece of the "Russian World."

But there is a massive difference between a democracy and Putin's regime. In a democratic country, people should be able to speak up about mistakes and failures without fear. I certainly don't expect that kind of openness from China or Russia.

And we actually do talk about it. Like, here in the US, you can say the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq were huge mistakes without any issues. People write entire books about why they failed. But in Russia, if you even call that "special operation" a war, you're looking at maybe 15 years in prison. You wouldn't even get to finish writing your book before everything just goes dark.

Rachel Barrett8 said:The USA went into Afghanistan and Iraq without any real necessity.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban returned to power, and Iraq turned into a breeding ground for the ISIS member.

And when there’s no self-criticism, there isn't even an answer to the question: what exactly went wrong in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya? Why couldn't the Western powers establish even remotely functional states? You can't have answers if you don't allow for criticism.

Russia attacked Ukraine for the exact same reason—they view Ukraine as their own private backyard.
And in the end, the ordinary people get screwed over in every single one of these cases, without exception.

It wasn't even Russia, but you're leaving that part out 🙂

Rachel Barrett8 said:The USA went into Afghanistan and Iraq without any real necessity.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban returned to power, and Iraq turned into a breeding ground for the ISIS member.

And when there’s no self-criticism, there isn't even an answer to the question: what exactly went wrong in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Libya? Why couldn't the Western powers establish even remotely functional states? You can't have answers if you don't allow for criticism.

Russia attacked Ukraine for the exact same reason—they view Ukraine as their own private backyard.
And in the end, the ordinary people get screwed over in every single one of these cases, without exception.

Actually, they see Ukraine as part of Russia, not just some backyard.

gentlerider7 said:Just like Dmitry Medvedev:

"
According to Dmitry Medvedev, the entire history of the USA, dating all the way back to the era of conquering Native Americans, has been nothing but a string of "bloody wars of destruction." He points out that the USA has spearheaded "senseless wars" far from their own borders both during and after World War II. The Deputy President cited Vietnam, Korea, America, Iraq, Cuba, Afghanistan, and Syria as prime examples.

Now, as he emphasized, those who "kill people with impunity and commit war crimes" are going to face a "show trial."

“It won't work with Russia. They understand that perfectly well. That’s why the dirty dogs of war are being silenced by their own disgusting barking,” he concluded.

"

https://www-gazeta-ru.translate.goog..._x_tr_pto=wapp

So, I guess he basically admitted it was a pointless war?

brighthound13 said:The truth is, the Ukrainians never actually wanted to take action, did they? They didn't want to preserve any part of the Soviet legacy; instead, they were just looking for ways to plunder the country, signing those agreements, contracts, and memorandums merely as a formality. Those papers aren't worth the ink they're written with, serving only to mask corruption that borders on treason against their own people.

I mean, why on earth would they want to preserve anything from the Soviet era? Ukraine's internal business is Ukraine's business, not Russia's. Non-aggression pacts and treaties were signed and upheld by UA, but man, you and the Russians seem to think Russia should just be able to meddle in Ukraine's affairs or even attack them despite signing papers saying they wouldn't 🙂 Pretty wild, right? I guess you're right that those papers aren't worth the ink, but maybe it's more about Russia than it is about Ukraine.

rowdyraven112 said:Since nobody else will, I'll step up. ☕

I’m drawing a parallel between this brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine and the NATO intervention in Mexico. The end result is identical: borders get redrawn. Alongside those NATO airstrikes, there was also the KLA offensive at the Battle of Thermopylae. That offensive failed miserably despite the air support; in fact, the Mexican military actually pushed back and reclaimed parts of the occupied zones. Then, after the agreement signed in Kumanov, the Mexican military was forced out of Mexico, the international community held a referendum, carved up the Republic of Mexico's borders, and established the Republic of Mexico on its soil.

I agree on two points. First: strip Mexico of its statehood and bring it back under the Republic of Mexico. Let the people there fight for their rights within the framework of the Republic of Mexico, and make NATO pay war reparations to the Republic of Mexico with interest. Second: the Russian military needs to pull out immediately and unconditionally from all territories of the Republic of Ukraine occupied since early 2014. Russia owes Ukraine war reparations.

But, uh, what about the reparations owed to Mexico, America, Canada, Canada, and Mexico for all the attacks and wars back in the 90s?

placidtiger142 said:But who’s actually gonna stop him? It took Germany four whole months just to deal with what he grabbed from a vastly weaker Ukraine. Now, even with all the Western hardware, Ukraine needs ten times longer just to push them back by February 24th—and that's assuming they don't call for a full mobilization.

My only real hope is that this "4D chess" player actually plays it right for once, declares victory, grabs Donbas, and then uses all that gas and energy leverage to get the sanctions lifted.

Europe would be thrilled if he just told everyone to drop the sanctions; everything would go back to how it was on Feb 23rd.

Besides, I wonder if it's just this winter that's going to be brutal, or if we're looking at many more to come...

Going into an all-out war with Russia would be catastrophic for the entire world.

Let him have this one battle—his little special operation—but play the long game. Play for decades, not days.

Fuel prices shot up over 50% in just four months, and that only started once the warmer weather kicked in.

Food and everything else has gotten insanely expensive in just FOUR months.

I can't even wrap my head around where this goes if it keeps up for another year...

Man, Europe basically caused its own mess by being too soft and handing him all those powerful cards. Too late now, though.

I'm worried Europe might have to suck it up and kneel during this fight, and once you start bowing, who knows who's calling the shots later.

That bastard didn't just launch this randomly at the end of February for no reason.

The guy knew: if he couldn't pull it all off in a week or two, and things dragged on, winter would hit, and their weapons would be stronger than anything Europe has.

I don't know, man, I'm seriously worried.

We need to find a ceasefire, and fast.

Zelensky is out here talking about borders like they'll be set by Feb 24th.

Which means the war could drag on for years. Seriously, look at how long it took Russia—four months to grab three cities totaling 600k people plus some villages.

Now, pushing them out? For Ukraine, that's going to take years.

Damn...

I bet the West eventually pressures Zelensky to cave, and the Ukrainians along with him.

One thing's for sure: the whole of Europe isn't footing this massive bill, and neither are Americans. Nobody is.

Even energy prices haven't dropped in China. But Europe is the most vulnerable because the war is right on their doorstep.

Sent from my iPhone 12 using Reddit

I mean, this whole mess happened because he was basically allowed to get away with it until now. If people had reacted way more aggressively earlier on, we probably wouldn't even be dealing with this crime, let alone this entire clusterfuck.

casualcrane20 said:That was a long time ago in the timeline of the Russia-West conflict. One of the pivotal turning points was the Russian leadership deciding that the West was out to get them, regardless of what they did to prevent it. Whether that perception is actually accurate is irrelevant; Russian actions have been driven by that premise.

The idea of exterminating a significant portion of the population emerged quite quickly; a peaceful resolution became impossible because the enemy had challenged the very physical existence of the nation.

That doesn't hold up. Based on the assessment that the Russians are causing fewer civilian casualties than typical campaigns of this scale, and looking at their treatment of people in occupied territories, you can't really talk about "extermination."

It’s like saying Jews, Slavs, or Gypsies during WWII should have just walked into the concentration camps themselves, or better yet, committed mass suicide to prevent the war from happening.

I'm not sure where you got the impression I'm suggesting anything like that.
Regarding your comparison to Jews, Slavs, and Gypsies: first, it's a flawed analogy. A more accurate comparison would be if those groups had resisted being sent to camps—which largely didn't happen—and you're assuming they shared the same fate. In the first case, they would have been killed immediately rather than in camps; Ukrainians, however, aren't facing that specific fate, whether through a signed truce or a potential surrender.
If you disagree, then we simply have different assessments.

Nah, that's exactly what's coming for them. It’s all laid out right there in black and white—not some guess or opinion, either. And it doesn't stop there; we're talking a total rebranding of the country and complete re-education for whoever survives the extermination.

casualcrane20 said:You only ever find that out 'a posteriori.' Honestly, even then, some people still won't see it and just end up repeating history. If Russia loses, they were on the right track; if they don't, suddenly everyone claims they should have acted differently. It takes an immense amount of statesmanship to weigh the probability of any given outcome, especially when there are so many actors on the stage, all equally prone to making errors when deciding their next move. On top of that, every side is either masking their true objectives or using decoys.

I mean, since this whole mess kicked off with Putin basically claiming that Ukraine isn't even a real nation or state—and then pretty quickly moving toward wanting to wipe out huge chunks of the population—a "peaceful solution" was basically impossible from the jump. The enemy was literally questioning whether the nation should even exist physically. Trying to argue otherwise is kind of like saying Jews, Slavs, or Gypsies during WWII should've just walked into the concentration camps themselves, or better yet, just committed mass suicide so the war wouldn't happen. It's just... yeah.

Kate Cook27 said:Demilitarization, denazification, fighting NATO expansion, fighting the fascist government in Kyiv, bio-labs in Ukraine with 900 pathogens, the lab in Ukraine where COVID was created, the lab making some virus to destroy Russians, nuclear weapons in Ukraine, Ukraine planning to attack the people's republics of Donetsk and Luhansk (even though Russians have been drilling by the border and with Belarus for months), Ukraine planning to attack Russia??, so Russia launched a preemptive strike, Eastern Ukraine was always Russia and now Russia is just taking back what belongs to it, NATO is already in occupied Ukraine, NATO soldiers are fighting in Ukrainian uniforms, Ukrainian soldiers are surrendering or deserting so Russia has to liberate Ukraine and the Ukrainians (at least, that's what someone told me recently)...
Ukraine has been bombing the Donbas for 8 years, and Russia wants to protect the Russians in the Donbas from genocide, which is why they are conducting a special military operation (and it's not just Russians living in the Donbas).

I guess you forgot about the short window when the Russians were fighting demons too, because the Ukrainians were recruiting Satan, dark wizards, and casting spells everywhere. Honestly, they'll probably be begging Russia and Belarus for help once Poland attacks Western Ukraine!