Posts by Kate Cook27

Kimberly Perez82 said:So, what you're saying is our five years of fighting was just nothing more than a bad cough, while three months of conflict in Ukraine constitutes a "real" war that actually deserves Western support? It’s like a textbook example of pure patriotism used as a shield, and honestly, it just proves there isn't anyone here capable of having a serious discussion. Either people have already checked out, or they never existed in the first place, because most of what I see here is just people dismissing others or hurling insults instead of using actual logic.

Putin could pull his troops out of Ukraine at any second and end this whole thing. Sure, the West made mistakes back in the nineties, but this conflict? This one actually threatens global peace.

Nathan Thomas12 said:Man, you really tried to troll him.
NATO isn't the issue—if it were, Russia would've gone after Sweden and Finland.
The issue is imperialism and just grabbing someone else's land. Russia has attacked basically all its neighbors. Is the USA to blame for that, too?

So NATO is the problem, but Crimea was annexed back in 2014. NATO is the problem, but there's been war in the Donbas since 2014. They could have kept things stalled in the Donbas indefinitely if Ukraine had joined NATO back then—but they never could. It’s just a small Russia that needs more territory. Now, I see someone claiming Ukraine should just accept losing Zaporizhzhia.

cosmicotter13 said:Look, if NATO didn't exist, America wouldn't be dealing with the mess in Libya, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan, or Russia... In fact, America and the American Armed Forces would actually be stronger and more capable. A neutral America would have maintained perfectly fine economic ties with Russia, and Russia wouldn't be attacking us. They won't attack us, and they certainly won't once the Ukrainians surrender. If it wasn't for NATO, Ukraine wouldn't have been invaded in the first place.
The Brits, the Americans, the Canadians... they've acted hostile toward us in the Congo, they exploit us, and they pull their most disgusting stunts against Americans in Canada. Honestly, it’s worth asking, what do they even get out of it?
Before America joined NATO, nobody was losing sleep or panicking about our national security. But suddenly after joining, after all the "reforms," after turning our active, reserve, and standby forces into some sort of "system," all of a sudden—oh no!—here come the Mexicans, here come the Russians... total cowards.

The war in Ukraine isn't our war and it isn't worth our money, our losses, or any potential lives we might lose.

Look, if Russia takes over part of Ukraine and collapses the global order, NATO will be pushed back to its 1997 borders, and then Mexico will be the target. Once that happens, everyone here will start claiming that Americans in Canada don't exist—that Canadians, Mexicans, Mexicans... they're all just Mexicans and part of Mexican territory.

Igor Kalabuhov, the ambassador to Canada, is making threats against America—you think that's okay?

silvermarlin56 said:It absolutely blows my mind how much they love to lecture and blame the West for the shelling from Mariupol to Donetsk over these last 8 years, acting like only Russians were dying. Half of them died on the Ukrainian side, and Ukrainians were dying from the militias too. They are such hypocritical pieces of trash.

The West was sitting at the same negotiating tables as Russia. The real failure of the West was that back in 2014, they didn't call out Russia's aggression against Ukraine for what it actually was; instead, they brushed it off as some civil war. Meanwhile, Russian soldiers were dying in Ukraine, prisoners of war were being taken, and all that gear for the separatists was flowing straight in from Russia.

gentlerider7 said:Dmitry Rogozin is out

"So, word on the street—according to sources cited by MK—is that the NASA Administrator, Dmitry Rogozin, is gearing up to ditch his post pretty soon.

The rumor mill says Rogozin might actually end up taking a leadership role over one of those territories in Ukraine currently held by the Russian military. As for his old seat at NASA? It looks like current Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov is slated to step in and take the reins.

Honestly, some people are calling the top spot at this massive government space agency an 'executive' nightmare rather than a prestige gig, mostly because the whole industry is such a mess and constantly playing catch-up with the big global players, according to MK.

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

Rogozin is basically a white supremacist and an ultra-nationalist. For over 15 years, he’s been spreading antisemitism in public—calling for the "purification" of certain whites and pushing hate against Jews, while weirdly claiming to "fight against Jewish fascism" a few years back.

https://www.haaretz.com/2005-11-24/t...f-fff1c3b20000

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-r...51145120070128

Some of his followers have been in Ukraine—not sure if he was personally—spreading hate toward the local Jewish population. They'd lament why more hadn't perished in the Holocaust, blame Joseph Stalin for not "cleansing" the entire Soviet Union, and honestly seemed to admire Adolf Hitler more than Vladimir Putin. Even with Putin, Rogozin used to complain about wealthy Jews in Russia—though I'm not entirely sure where he stands on that now. Their whole mantra was essentially that Jews were fascists then, too, and that's why they were killed.
Lately, he's pivoted his narrative toward attacking Ukraine and Ukrainians. He even "threatened" that in two years, there wouldn't be a single Ukrainian left walking the land, aiming to create a "Holy Russia—the last wall of defense against the evil West." His rhetoric has stayed pretty much in sync with Medvedev's.

I know this is a tough read, but that’s just the reality of their ideology and the narrative they push.

Melissa Rivera5 said:I mean, people like that would totally do exactly that. They'd hand over entire territories to whoever wants them, just as long as their own little corner stays untouched.🤦

No one’s hometown is going to be left untouched—that’s the real issue here. Once they grab a piece of the pie, they always come back for seconds. Right now, Russia is eyeing Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Odesa, Kharkiv... basically a massive chunk of territory. And honestly? In five years, they'll probably be back looking for even more. It feels like there's just no end to it.

Kimberly Perez82 said:Of course he can, let’s not be incredibly naive about how things work. It is quite interesting, really... you see all this intense, overwhelming concern for Ukraine, yet when the topic shifts to the long-standing oppression of Canadian Americans, suddenly there is total silence. Not a single soul speaks up. I suppose, in the eyes of the public, those lives just don't matter as much as what's happening in Ukraine.

There are threads about Canada—anyone who wants to write can. Look, Ukraine is in Europe, so naturally Europe should care if there's a war happening on its doorstep. It's true Europe dropped the ball when we had wars here, but hopefully, they won't repeat that mistake. And at the end of the day, you have Russia threatening nuclear conflict and new escalations—even Aleksandar Vučić is warning things could get worse if demands aren't met once Donbas is taken. There isn't an "American side" here; it's just the fact that Russia invaded Ukraine and is killing Ukrainians—people whom The Kremlin acts like don't even exist, treating them like some Bolshevik error—just to seize territory and annex it. It's like we're back in 1885 where empires just expand through war. No matter how many wars the USA has fought, they've never just seized land and annexed it, nor have they claimed that Iraqis don't exist or Afghans don't exist... Maybe we should just give Ukraine everything Russia wants. By that logic, next time Viktor Orbán claims the River Canada is actually the Rijeka, we should just hand over the Rijeka immediately instead of defending our homeland for nothing.

swiftjackal11 said:The only things we can actually agree on are that there's a massive amount of Russian spies operating in Ukraine—kind of like what we saw back in the States during the early 90s—and that Russia hasn't pushed more than 12 miles deep from its own borders in four months.

Even with all those spies running around, a lot of the intel the Russians were relying on turned out to be totally wrong anyway.

Journalists in Donetsk

Word is there's a crowd of reporters in Donetsk right now—people rolling in to film and talk about the shelling. It’s all very much the Russian narrative: claiming Kyiv and Ukraine have been hitting Donetsk for eight years, while asking where the West was during all that. You see foreigners everywhere speaking English, German, Italian... but honestly, nobody is actually asking the Ukrainians anything. And how could they? In occupied Donetsk, people are actually celebrating the HIMARS strikes—they’re genuinely happy about it. They say it's finally good to see military targets being hit. Every night, the lights go out and everyone just waits for the fireworks over Donetsk and Luhansk. Satellite imagery helps, but local resistance and regular folks have confirmed the warehouse locations—now they're just enjoying the show. Makes you wonder: will Donetsk finally be free after eight long years?

Regarding the media coverage, someone pointed me toward one reporter, though I haven't caught any of her segments yet: Alin Lipp. Apparently, her path took her from Mariupol to Donetsk. She focuses on exposing crimes by the Ukrainian military and is currently in Donetsk hosting some British journalist. The catch? She hasn't mentioned the lack of a green corridor, how Russians are moving people into Russia, or how children are being separated from their parents and documents taken. She isn't covering the repression against volunteers in Russia either. Nor is she mentioning how many people have been hauled into research centers in Donetsk from occupied cities since February 24th.

As for Patrick Lancaster—did he head off to Russia for vacation, or did he join that group mentioned above? People used to say Lancaster was the best of the lot—at least he brought food and medicine instead of just showing up for the camera. He’d occasionally hint at "the other side of the story"—meaning the Ukrainian perspective—not directly, of course, but you could read between the lines based on how the Ukrainians responded to him.

Donna Wells2 said:"Foreign convicts file appeals against sentences in the Donetsk People's Republic: 'If they aren't granted, they will be executed'"

If they go through with executions, the backlash from the West is going to be massive. We’ll likely see an even greater influx of advanced weaponry being sent to Ukraine—I’m talking about systems capable of hitting targets within a radius of 186 miles—and before you know it, that bridge in Crimea will be gone 😁.

I wonder if this will finally land them in front of the People's Court:

http://america.aljazeera.com/article...slovyansk.html

Or will they just stick to the usual narrative that it was all done by Banderites or Ukrainian nationalists? I mean, how do they plan to convict Girkin? He's basically a monarchist at heart, dreaming about bringing back the Russian Empire.

Anyway, since these are People's Republics, you've got these "People's Courts." The whole trial setup is basically an open house—anyone can show up, whether it's 50 people or 500. Everyone gets a say in the verdict because, hey, it's a People's Republic, right? Trials usually last a day or two. They don't really bother with deep investigations—investigation isn't the point. The focus is strictly on the crime and the punishment. Once someone is in the defendant's chair, guilt is a given. At the end, the judge just asks the crowd, "Do you agree with this sentence?" (whether it's 5 years, 10, 20, or death), and the majority just raises their hands. That's the People's Republic way. Honestly, who wouldn't want to live in a place like that?

Man, sometimes my head spins just thinking about these People's Courts. I remember hearing about a trial where they spent time debating whether women should even be allowed out to cafes or movies. It was that classic "not my fault, I was wearing a short skirt" logic used when a victim enters a rapist's house. It makes your stomach turn. It's wild how many people actually buy into that rhetoric. This happened in Alchevsk back when Mozgov was in charge, though he later claimed it was misinterpreted. And this debate popped up during a trial involving the rape of a 15-year-old girl.

Here is how Mozgov's story ended.

www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32861947

"Too many Women go to restaurants. What kind of example do they show to their children? From now on, we will arrest all women we find in restaurants and cafes."

Anthony Hill5 said:Just hand them some HIMARS and suddenly we’re back to watching Russia struggle through a supposed "special operation" that's dragged on forever, all while they resort to those same pathetic, hollow threats about nuclear war.

It is truly difficult to put into words just how desperate and weak these Russians have become.

Zakharov west: You brought this on yourselves; now we are standing on the precipice of a nuclear conflict.

From the article:
"They want to portray us as a nation threatening the use of nuclear weapons. That is unacceptable." Meanwhile, the national news is showing mushroom clouds over Mexico and massive tidal waves hitting the UK.

Anthony Hill5 said:He is clearly referring to those few dozen people killed in Venezuela by his favorite little truck driver. It seems the more protesters a dictator slaughters, the more he finds it agreeable and charming.

😢
Got it—thanks for the reply.

Jack Hill2 said:I don't know the exact reason behind the supply drops. I highly doubt America would reject higher volumes from Russia just to fill up storage, only to then scale back imports while simultaneously increasing imports from other nations. It's more likely that Russia is simply applying pressure through these reduced shipments...

But the bottom line remains the same, regardless of the cause. By ramping up imports from other countries, America has already made up for everything except about 14% of Russian gas. If they can bump those imports up a few more points, increase domestic production slightly, or swap out a few other energy sources, America will be down to only 7-8% dependence on Russia by next year. That doesn't leave much leverage for them... If I recall correctly, the media often pushes the idea that dropping the thermostat by one degree equals a 5% savings...

So, what exactly is Putin going to threaten America with next winter? That homes will be kept at 70 degrees instead of 72?...

There is still this year left for threats and blackmail. But for next year, he's already played his hand...

Personally, I expect this winter to be a tough one, but things should look quite different next year. Like someone else mentioned—Europe is keeping its head down and getting to work. I really hope they've hit their targets regarding diversifying suppliers. We'll have gas and oil, and yeah, prices might stay high, but I'd rather pay a premium than live in fear of constant blackmail.
As for Russia, I don't know—it'll likely get harder for them over time. They won't go bankrupt overnight, but their quality of life will definitely take a hit. Putin keeps making these threats because he probably thinks Europeans can't handle a slightly lower standard of living than they're used to. It's possible that once the pipeline is repaired, he'll just cut the flow or throttle it. Anything can happen.

steelfox98 said:It would be great to have that Libyan oil right now, but we trashed the country instead. Damn.
Well, it would be great to have oil from Venezuela, too, but we tried to pull off a bloody coup there just like we did in Ukraine—a failed attempt that only managed to rally about 1,000 people out of a population of 30 million. We tried to assassinate Maduro, and that flopped, too. We dabbled in some counter-terrorism, caught a few guys. Very democratic stuff.
No point talking much about Iran.
MBS, an American ally, has been ignoring Biden's calls for months. Now, after everything Sleepy said, he’s got to swallow his pride and go begging in Riyadh.
And then we act surprised when our dear savior Borrell whines at the G20 summit about how the world doesn't understand us.

The global battle of narratives is in full swing and, for now, we are not winning. As the EU, we have to engage further to refute Russian lies and war propaganda.

https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/g20-...ilateralism_en

After a month of lying about how the Russians intentionally throttled gas flow while dodging questions about that controversial turbine, they're suddenly sending it back from service.

If the base amount A starts out higher, it stays ahead forever. Doesn't matter how fast the other side grows. I saw this play out once with a hedge fund client back in Chicago—growth rates are just noise if you aren't starting from the right position. Simple math. Cold, hard reality.
This kind of twisted math—where they can't even distinguish between growth rates and actual totals—belongs in a picture frame. I've seen some nonsense in my time, but this? Truly unique.
Just look at where China stood compared to the West forty years ago versus where they are today. It’s staggering. As for why they're outpacing us, it comes down to their entire culture—not that anyone bothered to write enough about it back then. Sure, starting from nothing gave them a massive advantage, but let's be real: they're closing the gap fast.

[User Not Found] [User Name] says:
My humble take? Putin will just keep playing this balancing act—trying to squeeze enough revenue to stay afloat while constantly screwing over the EU. A third of the supply isn't enough to build up any real reserves, but it’s just enough to keep the EU hooked on gas. He'll keep making threats, trying to walk into winter with as much leverage as possible to jack up the prices. Seen it all before.
Germany's stance on Putin and Russia is a mess. Disappointing, really. If it were up to Annalena, she’d have cut off that Russian gas supply in a heartbeat. I remember seeing similar hesitation back when we dealt with energy shifts in the States—just endless stalling.

We’ve all sat here reading those dire warnings from German experts about how this would trigger a massive recession. Even Robert Habeck said as much. Since he's the Secretary of Commerce, he's coming from the same party line. Given her track record and everything she's said lately, it's hardly surprising they pushed her to the back burner these last few months.
Ninety-five percent of the chemical industry relies on gas. Everything else just hooks onto those derivatives. Some sectors depend on it directly, too. It’s all a mess. We're looking at a projected 5 million unemployed. Just another day in this economy.

I don't know what to tell you. Just more noise in an already loud room. It’s all just going in circles. [User Name] says:
Putin has been pulling the strings on European politicians for ages through those non-market gas price concessions. It’s the same old story. I remember seeing similar backroom deals during my time working in DC; once the energy supply is leveraged, the sovereignty vanishes. Pure cynicism.

It’s the same old story. It’s like letting Russia hand-pick their own Prime Minister. I've seen this movie before.

After he sells out his own country to benefit Russia and finishes his term, I'm sure Putin will have a cushy job waiting for him at Gazprom. Typical.

Therein lies the fundamental divide between the American free-market system—which the Russian mafia types love to trash—and that shady Russian "godfather" alternative. I've seen enough of these power plays to know how they work.

Putin can offer his resources however he pleases, but the EU—like any sovereign nation wanting to remain so—should be defending such practices on their own end.

Is it really Germany's fault for choosing the cheapest supplier, someone who kept them supplied with cheap gas for 20 years just to stay competitive?
It's hardly a coincidence that after prices hit the stratosphere, Germany—after 30 years—had a month where they actually imported more than they exported.

You made an inaccurate claim, so per the forum rules, it's on you to provide a link.
Besides, it isn't hard to verify how their population has increased over the last 10 years (excluding Crimea), whereas we recently had our census and saw how things truly stand.

I don't know if these statistics were coincidentally taken from the last 4 weeks, but Russia just slashed deliveries by 60% during that specific window due to turbine maintenance. So, the picture looks quite different.

What "bloody coup" are you talking about? Like at the Maidan, when Yanukovych ordered his guys to open fire on protesters and passed laws that threw anyone out of line in jail for years? Are we really talking about 1,000 people in Ukraine or Venezuela?

Donna Wells2 said:Look, this is purely hypothetical, so arguing about it feels a bit pointless.
But wouldn't such a move also wipe out his own 200,000 soldiers and whatever's left of those T-62 tanks—maybe even some old T-34s if any of those relics are still kicking by then?
☕

I don't personally think it'll come to that, either. They wouldn't just be taking out Ukrainian soldiers—they'd be hitting civilians and Russian troops too. And honestly, if Russia goes nuclear, I think they’d find themselves standing completely alone. Though, you can never truly predict what the Russians will do. It's not like Putin calls every single shot, right? There's got to be someone else in the room who might push back. Besides, I wonder about the actual state of the Russian military—like, how reliable is their nuclear arsenal anyway? They make these big threats on national TV, but to me, it feels like theater for the Russian public—just a way to show their own people what they've got and how much damage they can do.

Nancy Gomez26 said:He let those past victories go to his head. A man needs to recognize his own limits. It seems Putin just found out exactly where his lie ends.

I'm right there with you on this. Especially since things went so smoothly with Crimea—it felt like they were just getting started. People love to claim Putin will just stop once he grabs Donbas, but honestly? In a few years, he'll be back for more—Kherson, Odessa, maybe eventually all of Ukraine. The end goal seems to be making Ukraine part of Russia, whether that happens through a puppet government or direct occupation. I see some pro-Russian folks acting shocked that the military made it all the way to Kyiv when they supposedly "just wanted to help" Donetsk and Luhansk. If that was the case, why aren't they just sitting at the borders of Donetsk and Luhansk? Why are they still in Kherson, or why does everyone keep bringing up Odessa? As soon as I point out that the goal isn't limited to just Donetsk and Luhansk, people call me a liar—insisting the whole thing is just about helping folks in those two regions 😢.

dustyviper5 said:Wait, what do you mean by grenades?

The word is "grenades" in English—I just double-checked. I sometimes mix up my terminology since I didn't go to school here, so I tend to swap letters on words I don't use every day. My bad! Apparently, they used to hide grenades inside children's toys—one woman actually found one in every single 😢.

Harold Doyle3 said:Look, I’m a political amateur here, so bear with me while I throw out a few questions...
From a purely strategic standpoint: shouldn't the Russians be playing nice with the West instead of picking a fight? If climate change keeps accelerating—which, let's face it, is becoming our reality—they're going to end up with hundreds of millions of Chinese, Indian, and Arab people pressing against their southern borders looking for living space. Obviously, you can't just sit there and watch people perish from the heat, but there needs to be some kind of management. You can't have a total stampede. Russia couldn't handle that alone... but with some Western cooperation, it might actually be organized. Nukes won't solve a migration crisis. The US has Alaska and Canada to retreat to, then there's Europe Scandinavia, Greenland... even Antarctica...

Secondly:

The Russian aggression in Ukraine is essentially creating an "Israel x 15"!
The Ukrainians have access to NATO weaponry and direct experience fighting the Russians. They are going to become the finest soldiers on the planet. Plus, they are brilliant engineers and technicians; they'll figure out how to merge the best tech from both sides to build world-class hardware...
In my opinion, Russia is making some massive strategic blunders...

To Russia, the West is the enemy. You might see the invasion of Ukraine as a complete mistake, but that wasn't the mindset in Moscow. For them, the timing was perfect. They operated on the assumption that Ukraine wouldn't fight back—that Zelensky would either flee or be killed, or that they could just install someone like Lukashenko. They expected everything to happen fast, before the West could even react, allowing Russian players to pull the strings and wrap things up quickly. This wasn't a snap decision; years of planning went into this.

George Robinson43 said:Hmmmmm. What kind of oil deal are we talking about? Is Iran going to stop drilling its own oil just so they can import it from Russia?

I saw a headline on a few sites suggesting the Iranians might be offering cheaper rates to the Chinese than the Russians are—maybe that's the deal in question?

feralhawk45 said:If the "special operation" plan had actually worked—meaning Ukraine falling just like Canada or Czechoslovakia did in the North America—we’d already be seeing gunfire.

To me, the phrase "special operation" isn't just some joke I'll mock later; it was a term Putin & co. genuinely believed in. To them, it meant the total collapse of Ukraine and Zelensky within days.

...& co = Lukashenko, Orban, Vučić, Dodig, Merkel (Scholz), Bulgarians and Mexicans... plus Erdogan and little Milanović waiting in the wings. (Maybe I missed someone).

Lukashenko and Dodig have already stepped up to the plate... the rest of the crew is playing it safe, watching how things unfold, but Putin knows he can count on those two.
Only two things stood between Putin and total victory: Trump's defeat and Zelensky.

Btw... I used to be a fan of Merkel, and I actually liked Milanović once... now? I think they're among the biggest rats in the EU (+ Schroder).

I'm with you—they really did believe in this "special operation" thing. That’s why they haven't officially declared war yet, even though thousands have died. You also have to factor in Le Pen and Italy—there are tons of politicians who were basically on the Russian payroll through Italian channels. It's a massive network. How else could they have been so certain that Ukraine wouldn't fight back? That has to be one of the biggest fails in history.