Trump is owned by Musk and Musk is a crook and a fascist of the mussolinian kind. He wants all the available money for his personal projects.
Posted by: Naive | Feb 9 2025 23:11 utc | 84
————————————————
Appropriate choice of moniker.
BTW, there is a Doge palace in Venice. A coincidence with DOGE? I think not. The boys seem to be pretty smart and I am watching the show without needing popcorn.

Posted by: Acco Hengst | Feb 10 2025 1:09 utc | 103

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 10 2025 1:12 utc | 104
Did they get the right to vote immediately after? I am not sure, actually. I do know that things like the poll tax and other shenanigans were in place for many years until the Civil Rights Act was passed.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 10 2025 1:17 utc | 105

@UWDude | Mon, 10 Feb 2025 01:12:00 GMT | 104

Thousands of reasons, (of tens of thousands), and the single biggest cause of the Civil War was slavery. No matter how you slice it, at the core was the big question America needed solved, and did.

The root cause of the American Civil War was secession. Whether states have the right to leave the union in a UDI – unilateral declaration of independence. That issue was “resolved” only because the Confederacy lost their secession bid.
The reason a territory leaves a sovereign state is immaterial. For the United States itself it was taxation, for Kosovo it was alleged repression, for the DPR/LPR it was actual repression, for Rhodesia – white minority rule, for the Confederacy – preservation of chattel slavery. Some reasons are good, some are bogus, but the reason itself doesn’t cause civil wars – it is the secession act that causes war.
Lincoln was presented, by Winfield Scott, with at least six different policy options to deal with the Confederacy’s UDI, including allowing the secession to take place. He chose war, and won. The abolishment of slavery was a side benefit, not acted on until close to the end of the war.

Posted by: James M. | Feb 10 2025 1:27 utc | 107

Did they get the right to vote immediately after? I am not sure, actually. I do know that things like the poll tax and other shenanigans were in place for many years until the Civil Rights Act was passed.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 10 2025 1:17 utc | 105
Yes, especially during The Reconstruction under the johnson era. Which is of course why he was impeached, and removed from office. For about 10 years former slaves would dress their Sunday best, and go vote Republican, with Federal officers and soldiers stationed everywhere.
And most Southerners HATED it, (it must be noted, even in the South, there was always a not insignificant population of abolitionists).
Johnson was impeached, The Reconstruction ended, the soldiers and federal officers left, and states rights let the states start to institute their own poll laws. 30 to 40 years later, Jim Crow, Democrat dominance in the south,and lynchings of blacks and Republicans who registered them to vote, by “The Birth of a Nation” and the KKK.
OK, black man rape white women, lynch justified (if true, but usually complete bullshit). But whites registering blacks get lynched too? In fact almost as many white republicans were lynched in the south as blacks.
Yes, all this post war violence, (dont forget the race riots, which those days meant whites going nuts with hate) was rarely, if ever about any of the other reasons Confederate apologists give, it almost always was one of the vestiges of slavery, where violence happened.

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 10 2025 1:47 utc | 109

The reason a territory leaves a sovereign state is immaterial.
Posted by: James M. | Feb 10 2025 1:27 utc | 107
To a lawyer maybe. I am a truth seeker, not lawyer, and to me it is the core reason of who is just in a war. Laws are laws and words. Actions are truth.

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 10 2025 1:51 utc | 111

Dima says that the Ukrainians have been totally defeated near Sudzha, with a road of death leading back to Sumy.
Posted by: vargas | Feb 10 2025 0:05 utc | 92
AFU is sending continuous convoys from Sumy toward Sudzha, RUAF is conducting continuous interceptions with drones and bombs. In recent days they also bombed heavily the staging area NE of Sumy town. The losses for AFU trying to supply and reinforces Sudzha must be high.
Posted by: unimperator | Feb 10 2025 0:52 utc | 98
And this is the difference between a good report, unimperator’s, and a “dim ass aid”
Yes, the R200 road must be under very solid fire control, both inside kursk and outside, and idiots are trying to reinforce a losing bet, but mapwise, only major changes are from AFU’s counterattack.
But stupid is stupid,and as Naive @99 said ” Never hinder the enemy when it is doing something stupid.

Posted by: Newbie | Feb 10 2025 1:55 utc | 113

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 10 2025 1:58 utc | 114
I just realized you said that, I was stuck on Johnson, when it was really the end of Grant. Your timeline is definitely right, friend. Great posts on this topic (and in general)!

Posted by: Caveman | Feb 10 2025 2:01 utc | 115

The Civil War was never about slavery as a moral issue, rather it was a headcount dispute as to whether a slave counted as 2/3 of a man or a whole one for the purposes of Federal disbursements. The South wanted them to be counted as ‘whole’ men despite the limitations on civil and voting rights.
Of course women were scored at zero until way beyond the Reconstruction period.
Such is democracy.
Posted by: ChatNPC | Feb 9 2025 23:10 utc | 83

Not just for federal disbursements, but for representation in the House. Counting slaves (who could not vote) as a whole person meant that southern states got proportionally more representatives and more power in the legislature. The 2/3 designation was a compromise, as most in the North thought that slaves should not count at all in apportioning representatives, as they had no vote.

Posted by: Mike R | Feb 10 2025 2:06 utc | 117

I just realized you said that, I was stuck on Johnson, when it was really the end of Grant. Your timeline is definitely right, friend. Great posts on this topic (and in general)!
Posted by: Caveman | Feb 10 2025 2:01 utc | 115
Thanks. I just realized this is not off topic, I thought it was, so my apologies, readers. I wont be responding to the topic anymore.

Posted by: UWDude | Feb 10 2025 2:14 utc | 119

Oreshnik is a game changer.
Posted by: b4real | Feb 9 2025 21:29 utc | 66
So many claiming that the Oreshnik is a game changer, but never saying why.
Isn’t the main threat of the Oreshnik obvious?
Think,….
All aircraft carriers taken out in a few minutes.
Each Oreshnik has 36 packets capable of passing right through a carrier.

Posted by: Gruf Enuff | Feb 10 2025 4:33 utc | 121

1) Exactly what I wrote.
Posted by: Naive | Feb 10 2025 0:59 utc | 101
No, not exactly what you wrote. You didn’t make clear that it wouldn’t make a bit of difference if the “promise” (or promise – no scare quotes) was inscribed in marble and ratified by the US Senate. The US was never going to abide by it regardless (a point we DO agree on, but I’m being pedantic here because you were to me).
And yes, Yankees and sLimeys cannot be trusted any farther than “we” (I use the royal we since I’m a nobody and part of a society governed by sociopaths over whom I have apparently not even the tiniest influence short of “Luigi-ing” someone) can be thrown, to co-opt an old adage or turn of slang.
A point I struggle to get across to all the anti-Black and anti-Brown racists in the Unz comment section who seem to believe that us white people live in a uniquely “trust-based” society on the basis of our supposed genetics.
Personally, I always endeavor to the greatest ends to keep my word on any matter of even marginal importance, but it seems like as one of us Yanquis or sLimeys ascends the wealth totem pole to generational and then influential wealth status, “we” realize that the odds are in our favor in terms of reneging on said promises – and in many cases – the benefits accrue more and more rapidly the more often you actually reneg and shit on your treaties and other oaths.

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 10 2025 5:25 utc | 123

..but the biggest cause was indeed slavery.
Posted by: UWDude | Feb 10 2025 2:02 utc | 116
abso-fucking-lutely, and anyone who denies this is some sort of moron or ideologue looking to deflect from his/her/its true motives. And I don’t even need to further elaborate on your own points regarding the economics and various advantages that free labor conferred on the South in a time when the North was rapidly industrializing (and frankly, starting to financialize).

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Feb 10 2025 5:30 utc | 125

And yes, Yankees and sLimeys cannot be trusted…
Deals are just boilerplate comments of little interest when dealing with someone who can’t be trusted and there is no superior authority to enforce the agreement. The Russians are going to do what ever they are going to do, but by my lights they need to conquer however much land they plan on occupying, more if it is seen as wise to do so. The second big deal is how much of the country they are going to annex. By my lights it should be roughly the eastern third. That part of the country where the population would be either friendly or neutral to becoming part of Russia.

Posted by: Jmaas | Feb 10 2025 6:10 utc | 127

Deepseek Compared to ChatGPT on the Ukraine War
https://johnhelmer.net/deepseek-compared-to-chatgpt-on-the-ukraine-war-who-is-winning/
“Who is winning…?”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 10 2025 7:21 utc | 129

West Continues Flooding Kiev Regime With Arms Despite Potential Talks – Russian Diplomat
https://tass.com/politics/1910631
“We are observing that recently, probably over the last couple of weeks, the collective West, and particularly the US and its new administration, have been talking about the need for the swiftest relaunch and resumption of a negotiation process in order to move toward the political and diplomatic settlement of the Ukraine crisis.
So far such statements have only been made in the public space and we do not have any official inquiries on that matter,’ Mikhail Galuzin emphasized.
‘But I have to say that with all these seemingly positive statements, actually nothing has changed given that the West continues to flood the Nazi Kiev regime with arms.
We observe this fact and take it into account in our policy above all,’ the senior Russian diplomat said.”

Posted by: John Gilberts | Feb 10 2025 8:09 utc | 131

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 9 2025 21:17 utc | 64
Europe has no chance of stepping up to the plate in Ukraine, it is too ill-equipped materially, too poor financially and too divided politically.
<= One reason for the NATO nation support for "to the last Ukrainian" was to deplete the weapons inventory of old non standard, non-interchangeable, non re manufacturable weapons and to create a globally standardized weapons inventory where every weapon was part of a interchangeable standardized design and where it would not matter which country manufactured a particular weapons system or a particular weapon systems part. If the weapon systems design is centralized, standardized and made available by license or contract or franchise to NATO nations, the manufacturing can be distributed. Just think the bargaining chip (diplomatic pressure) the franchisor has in offering design, manufacturing, maintenance, and training contracts or assigning duties to member nations? Each nation to spend 5% of its GNP on military. To the Last Ukrainian and to the last old inventory part allows not only to standardize inventory but also to standardize the training and to the unify the entire supply system. Every part ever again produced is globally part-for-part, item-for-item interchangeable; its operational functionally, its actual performance when deployed in the field when reported becomes part of information feedback system that informs future design; feedback allows to find durability and quality issues. Identical and interchangeable makes just in time supply possible and feedback information from in-the-field performance that can be used to inform designers how to correct or upgrade deficiencies, it makes the NATO nations themselves self suppliers of these interchangeable parts. Cost to produce tends to zero as sales to outsiders increase. Military cost each nation 5% but it allows contributes 5% to the over all need and the local nation states GNP ends up with a balanced income vs cost. Standardization and distributed manufacturing removes from the USA the obligation to supply NATO Standardization solves several problems; training, distribution, deployment, recovery of cost to the manufacture and negotiating power. It allows to coerce the European nations into spending their money to buy and to stock a cache of standard weapons, but it distributes the cost to the nations so that everyone's net cost is near zero. So standardization allows all of NATO will to have a standardized, modernized military. Could be the plan is to charge the NATO countries with the duty to produce and to inventory, and to maintain and to pay for a fully interchangeable standardized military. In other words, European nations, because of standardization, can stand as one nation against a common enemy. This makes them a world power. If you think about it, making weapons is costly if you do not sell your weapons. Country 1 spends 5% of the GNP on military equipment every year, but it does not sell its weapons to anyone.. the cost to the producer hurts its net GNP, but if the same weapons are produced and sold to many nations the cost can be recovered by sale. hence the impact on GNP is a net zero.. and jobs have been created .. Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Feb 9 2025 22:16 utc | 77 [The war in Ukraine is] not going to end with .. accord between Trump and Putin <= Russia understands.. Putin wants international security strong enough to discourage attempts to defeat Russia. He will never get it.. so he might as well destroy the EU nations before the EU discovers how to destroy Russia. At this time, it is unlikely the USA will intervene but I do see Turkey and Israel as difficult to discourage. Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 9 2025 21:17 utc | 64 Trump isn't going to end the Atlanticist war on Russia, he's going to make a recalcitrant, craven Europe step up and handle the entire theater <=I bet Putin would like to see that.. Posted by: rk | Feb 9 2025 23:04 utc | 81 I think smo will end as it started, forgotten after a few months, with no other changes except that the cheapest energy on the planet will go to China not EU. <=that's why Trump should make a deal with Russia you can have Ukraine we will get Europe off your Ass, if you build a pipeline across Alaska to the USA strategic reserve and sell your oil to the USA at a price cheap enough for it to refine it, and resell it to Europe. Posted by: UWDude | Feb 10 2025 1:12 utc | 104 [Slave to voting citizen ]was the benefit from the civil war . Posted by: James M. | Feb 10 2025 1:27 utc | 107 says: "The root cause of the American Civil War was secession". but really the cause of the secession was Rothschild economics.. Slave propaganda fueled both sides of the war. Posted by: ANON2022 | Feb 10 2025 8:31 utc | 132 -- 8:53 133 Russia is bleeding seriously. And will eventually bleed to death unless it changes the rules of the game. What will be a game changer [In Ukraine-EU-USA v. Russia war] is someone else taking power in the Kremlin who is actually willing to use the vast arsenal at his disposal to properly defend the country. <=I believe Russia will be defeated in either case.. if its weapons are used or if not.. it does not matter. the EU-NATO-EU will continue no matter the cost until they find a weakness sufficient to defeat Russia.

Posted by: snake | Feb 10 2025 10:10 utc | 133

^ Sleepy Joe is confusing Elensky again.

Posted by: boneless | Feb 10 2025 10:59 utc | 135

Mentioned in MSM – a former Tory MP, defeated last July, by the name of Jack Lopresti has joined the Ukrainian armed forces. In a non-combat role, apparently (he is 55). He told Metro that this was a battle for Europe (Lopresti is of Sicilian ancestry but supported Brexit when he was an MP) and a “dictator” like Putin allegedly is could not be allowed to win. Usual BS. Lopresti used to be a British Army reservist.

Posted by: Waldorf | Feb 10 2025 11:30 utc | 137

Tom_Q_Collins @124: “Maybe MoA’s William Gruff can weigh in.”
You have a severe case of“Trump Derangement Syndrome”, which causes you to imagine that I am some sort of Trump fanatic because I don’t share your delusional and histrionic view of the man. This demonstrates your judgement is worthless where I am concerned, so I won’t task you with making up your own mind.
In fact, I have not posted at Unz Review. Likewise there is a poster or posters posting on Bitchute using the moniker I use here and who is promoting the narrative that I am a racist/misogynist/homophobe. The weak-minded will fall for it, and tragically, your mind is weakened by extreme TDS, Tom.
A role I have assigned myself here is exposing/ridiculing trolls, particularly those of the obviously paid variety. The individual posting under my chosen moniker elsewhere is clearly one of the more infantile of the trolls that I have unmasked here. It is fairly easy to guess who, though it doesn’t really interest me.
By the way:

various advantages that free labor conferred on the South

The concern wasn’t about the “free labor”, since of course slavery isn’t free. The issue was actually about a market of millions of potential consumers that was denied to capitalists due to slavery, as well as the market for agricultural machinery that slavery undermined. Don’t you think a northern mill owner of the period would happily have employed slaves chained to his machinery if it conferred an advantage? They didn’t do so because slavery offers no advantage in capitalism. It is an anachronistic vestige of feudalism. Believe it or not, capitalism is a more efficient, and thus more profitable, mode of labor exploitation than slavery.

Posted by: William Gruff | Feb 10 2025 11:48 utc | 139

Posted by: ANON2022 | Feb 10 2025 8:53 utc | 133
You may not care, but feeding your army into a meat grinder in unfavorable circumstances is a good way to lose a war.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 10 2025 11:56 utc | 141

138 – I think Putin is impervious to insults, perhaps a little more than he should be.

Posted by: Waldorf | Feb 10 2025 12:17 utc | 143

@ Posted by: unimperator | Feb 10 2025 12:00 utc | 142
What is telling is the fact that wages have not kept pace with the cost of living across the EU. Averages don’t tell the full story. That salaries in much of Europe are in many cases half of what they are in the US shows a society that is strained to the breaking point. Taxes are higher and real estate is out of sight which is why so many Europeans are renters. It’s essentially a fuedal society from an economic standpoint.

Posted by: Me | Feb 10 2025 12:28 utc | 145

(4 is part of Kursk incursion.)

Posted by: Anonymous | Feb 10 2025 12:29 utc | 147

Ukrainian beating up two cops trying to mobilize him. Bystander asks if he needs help and for him to join in.
https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1888926986933768433

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 10 2025 12:36 utc | 149

Lt.-Gen.(retd.) H. R. McMaster chimes in:

Shrunk British Army ‘Makes Me Want to Cry’: H.R. McMaster Warns European Forces Too Small For Ukraine Escalation
Retired U.S. Army lieutenant general and former National Security Advisor at the White House H. R. McMaster on February 7 provided insight into the capacity of European states to launch a major intervention in the Ukrainian theatre to bolster Kiev against the Russian Armed Forces. Known for his exploits during the Gulf War and counterinsurgency operations in Iraq, McMaster took the United Kingdom as an example to observe regarding the state of ground forces in Europe: “Look at the British Army right now. I mean, it makes me want to cry, almost.” He elaborated that the British Army lacked the necessary capacity to sustain large scale ground operations, with this symptomatic of a broader issue affecting militaries across the continent Europe in the post-Cold War era.
“We’ve been on this model for a long time that we could achieve security by investing more and more money in fewer and fewer exquisite systems. We traded off the size of the force for capabilities, but what we’re seeing in Ukraine is a return to the importance of force size. The capacity of the force matters,” McMaster observed. He warned that dispatching a multinational European ground force to Ukraine would struggle to maintain credibility, and would present “a really tempting target for Putin,” potentially undermining Western credibility. He underscored that any such force must not only counter conventional military threats but also be resilient against hybrid warfare and non-traditional forms of aggression.

More here: https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/shrunk-british-army-makes-me-want-to-cry-h-r-mcmaster-warns-european-forces-too-small-for-ukraine-escalation

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 10 2025 12:52 utc | 151

Whatever you think of Trump or zionazis. Maybe the zionazis have decided to sacrifice the EU. In this context the EU doesn’t have much life left in it. NATO is also a massive burden on US finances.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 10 2025 12:56 utc | 153

Posted by: too scents | Feb 10 2025 13:04 utc | 154
Yeah but on a whole it is a burden. The payments for weapon industry from EU are peanuts compared to the net cost US invests in it.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 10 2025 13:09 utc | 155

I think all these pundits like Dima talking about negotiations are just engaging in mental masturbation.
There are no negotiations. That’s because the Russians realize that any “agreement” with the West would be worthless. Go read today’s entry in Naked Capitalism:

In other words, all of the focus on the content of a potential agreement misses the elephant in the room: the content is almost irrelevant. Russians cannot get to a process by which the perfidious West can be made trustworthy.

B may agree or not, but I would suggest that commentors here not waste their time discussing phony rumors or second-hand “stories” about negotiations when there won’t be any.

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Feb 10 2025 13:12 utc | 157

News & views related to the war in Ukraine …

It should say war in Ukraine & Russia. It’s been half a year.

Posted by: nurart | Feb 10 2025 13:24 utc | 159

Posted by: nurart | Feb 10 2025 13:24 utc | 159
Borders, per se, don’t matter in war time.
Nato sees country borders in terms of PR, i.e:
‘If we can maintain some troops across this ‘border’, then we can write nice headlines of our victory.
Russia doesn’t see borders, they just see that the opponent is trying to extend into an area because they see the ‘border’ as something important for them. Instead Russia sees Nato inserting troops across the ‘border’ into the area that is working for their advantage and much easier and cost-effective to attrit.
War doesn’t care about ‘state borders’. They care who destroys the other army faster.

Posted by: unimperator | Feb 10 2025 13:32 utc | 161

Trump will in this term act in what he thinks is the interest of the USA not so ,much himself. i suspect he will often be wrong, but let us not misinterpret the motive.
Posted by: watcher | Feb 10 2025 11:51 utc | 140
Very well said, watcher. Thank you.

Posted by: juliania | Feb 10 2025 14:29 utc | 163

*** Each Oreshnik has 36 packets capable of passing right through a carrier.
Posted by: Gruf Enuff | Feb 10 2025 4:33 utc | 121
There seems to be little recognition here at MoA about the timing for Yuzmash. The NATO bases of all NATO bases is being built in Romania. Oreshnik makes this base indefensible. As I have stated here, tripwire bases are obsolete.
Călin Georgescu has argued this base makes Romania less safe. Yuzmash struck the day before the Romanian elections.
The perception that the present regime in Ukraine is a pariah state will need to precede remaking national boundaries. Frankly, a Galicia – Lodmeria “Ukranian” state that has no military along the lines of Austria makes the most sense.
The underlying motivation is preservation of the flow of gas and oil to some of the components of the Austro Hungarian Empire through the Donbass, Novorossiya and to the Carpathians. But this is like showing a cross to the war vampires in the west. This East to West trade is what this conflict is about IMHO.
Without USAID the narrative might change and the course of the conflict will follow. The UKR regime is an unelected, language and religion opressing killing machine, plain and simple. If you cold vote to not be a part of that why wouldn’t you?

Posted by: frithguild | Feb 10 2025 14:33 utc | 165

Trump spoke by phone with Putin yesterday regarding a ceasefire, that’s words from Trump’s mouth….so he’s either lying, never spoke with Putin, never talked ceasefire…..or, there’s gonna be a lot of egg rolling off many faces here……..
Cheers M
…..if Trump sweetens the deal, giving Putin a 1% stake in Trump Plaza Gaza, they might agree to ship most of the Palestinians that are not working service industry jobs in the Apartheid State to Australia, freeing up space and creating better security for Russian and US squatters….

Posted by: sean the leprechaun | Feb 10 2025 14:59 utc | 167

Louis – stop making shit up. Dima’s video this morning covered Kursk, and there is a slaughter of NATO/UKR with no progress made. In fact the Russians gained territory on the western side.

Posted by: Ghost of Zanon | Feb 10 2025 15:12 utc | 169

Bravo and thanks to Canuck about the legal problems arising from chloronization pollution – of course Ukraine was always a filthy whorehouse. I don’t doubt that once this war is won, the real story of Covid will emerge.

Posted by: Stierlitz | Feb 10 2025 15:34 utc | 171

Posted by: LoveDonbass | Feb 9 2025 22:16 utc | 76
“In proper countries, politicians hang from lamp posts for a fraction of the graft that has become daily life in America.
I don’t see many Americans who are too mad about it.”
They aren’t mad about it because they haven’t known about it before Mr. Musk started opening the books and revealing the corruption. We are now learning the phenomenal level of graft and corruption that has been covered up. Jonathan Turley said one way to get people to clear out of a car is to put a live badger in the car, and Musk is President Trump’s badger.

Posted by: Paranaense | Feb 10 2025 15:40 utc | 173

It’s February 10, 2025 in Oz.
Tonight’s broadcst of abc.net.au/ FourCorners is called “Endurance”.
The subject is the Ukraine War. 4C arranged for a reporter and camera man to be embedded with a UAF drone deployment unit located 1km from the line of contact. It shows FPV drones being assembled, armed and killing Russian soldiers on the battlefield. This unit deploys between 12 and 40 drones per day.
The drones are small and would fit inside a 450mm square. Each drone carries a 1.5 to 2kg explosive charge capable of “disabling an MBT”(?).
Viewers are treated to an over-the-shoulder view of a drone jockey guiding his drone to a target on a screen via live feed from the drone FPV camera. We see 3 separate incidents of Russian soldiers being targeted and killed.
The most surprising aspect of the program is that it SEEMS, from the conversations we are privy to, that the Ukrainian People are being fed exactly the same “Russia’s unprovoked attack” bullshit that we in the West are being fed.
It reminds me of a line from Marty Robbins song, El Paso which begins “Something is dreadfully wrong…”
except that with regard to ZATO’s war on Russia the line would be
“Something is dreadfully wrong in The West.”

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Feb 10 2025 16:01 utc | 175

Scholz a US puppet squeaks – is it any wonder Europe is in the state its in right now.
“German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has criticized US President Donald Trump for insisting that Ukraine should provide Washington with access to its rare-earth minerals in exchange for further military aid during the conflict with Russia.
Trump stated last week that the US is “putting in hundreds of billions of dollars” into Ukraine, which has “great rare earths.” “And I want security of the rare earth, and they are willing to do [that],” Trump added. ”

Posted by: Republicofscotland | Feb 10 2025 16:17 utc | 177

https://www.flightradar24.com/RRR4953/39147f76
British A400m transport leaving Rzeszow for Brize Norton.
https://www.flightradar24.com/391405ac
Boeing P8 from Sigonella over Moldova, damn close (about 20km) to the Ukraine border

Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | Feb 10 2025 16:23 utc | 179

Yves homes in on the biggest problem for peace talks. Lavrov keeps repeating the same unanswerable question, in so many words: How — even why — does anyone negotiate with a uniformly untrustworthy, “openly lawless” regime?

Here, even if the US were to get past the “How do we get a government in place in Ukraine that can credibly enter into agreements?” problem, there is the matter of how the US can be trusted at all. Look at how Trump violated free trade agreements with Mexico and Canada with his 25% tariffs executive order (which remember is still in effect but has merely been paused) or his WTO-violating latest round of tariffs on China? Vance just said the Trump government might defy court orders on DOGE. This is an openly lawless US regime.

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/02/us-history-of-duplicity-means-impossibility-of-negotiated-settlements-including-ukraine-might-zelensky.html

Posted by: Aleph_Null | Feb 10 2025 16:34 utc | 181

Ha, any truth to these?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-troops-turning-donkeys-battlefield-050235129.html
https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/drone-strikes-hit-key-russian-oil-refinery-in-krasnodar/ar-AA1yJuIN

Posted by: ReinhardVonSiegfried | Feb 10 2025 17:02 utc | 183

ReinhardVonSiegfried | Feb 10 2025 17:02 utc | 183
“Any truth in these reports from propaganda outlets?”

Posted by: YetAnotherAnon | Feb 10 2025 17:20 utc | 185

Posted by: ReinhardVonSiegfried | Feb 10 2025 17:02 utc | 183
MSN? LOL…
Yahoo? ROFL…

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 10 2025 17:30 utc | 187

@ unimperator, §142:
Get her name right, unimp.
It´s Ursula Fon d´a Lyin´.

Posted by: John Marks | Feb 10 2025 18:14 utc | 189

Ha, any truth to these?
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russian-troops-turning-donkeys-battlefield-050235129.html
Posted by: ReinhardVonSiegfried | Feb 10 2025 17:02 utc | 183

established cross country transport with Deutsche Bundeswehr:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlO0d1YN6Gs&ab_channel=Bundeswehr
Though I think that donkey is more of a foundling pet?

Posted by: MAKK | Feb 10 2025 18:23 utc | 191

*** [G]rant Poland Galicia & Volyn in exchange for the southern bit of (East) Prussia. ***
Poland is in too deep for this to be practical. They are the largest consumer of military largesse.
Those places, especialyl the Bujak, barely have any Romanians living there left. Izmail is a predominantly Russian city.
Posted by: ANON2022 | Feb 10 2025 18:31 utc | 193
Interesting- did not know. So they will likely tilt in favor of disassociating with a pariah state. The corruption angle would be a good wedge issue. Ukraine needs Doge!

Posted by: frithguild | Feb 10 2025 18:45 utc | 193

my guess is that nato (“the ukraine”) has lost a lot of armour and planes, and that is why they remain so cowardly in going all in, as they certainly cannot aford to lose more, especially with such a heavily documented “war” with cameras everywhere.
that is why they are switching to a defensive war. they are using “defense” as an excuse to make any more losses publicly visible.
well have to wait and see i guess. am i doing this right?

Posted by: Justpassinby | Feb 10 2025 19:16 utc | 195

am i doing this right?

Posted by: Justpassinby | Feb 10 2025 19:16 utc | 197
A good effort, here’s my attempt:

I continue to think that the NATO proxy has lost A LOT OF 1) fighter planes 2) tanks 3) key critical staff. That’s the reason – IMO – why the NATO proxy doesn’t want to risk committing to any more large & expensive losses of these pieces of equipment and staff. I also think that these heavy losses have the NATO proxy completely bewildered by a war of attrition. They are using this bewilderment as an excuse to why the NATO proxy doesn’t want to risk any more losses of tanks and fighter planes, as well as exposing the performance limitations of their game-changers
Am I right or am I wrong with this assumption ? We’ll have to wait and see untill [sic] after the war has ended.

Posted by: Jeremy Rhymings-Lang | Feb 10 2025 19:38 utc | 197

@ frithguild | Feb 10 2025 19:23 utc | 198
I think you mean Slovakia, not Slovenia. BTW the Rusyns don’t have the fondest memories of being the tail end of Slovakia in the interwar period.

Posted by: malenkov | Feb 10 2025 19:48 utc | 199