Why couldn’t trump get a ceasefire, at least for a few days like his last Nobel attempt in Gaza. Putin gave him absolutely nothing to point at as a victory (not sure if they got the mineral deals). The best that has been said is Kiev is glad the dealmaker didn’t give up more of their land.
I think this is Gary Donohugue, though BBC doesn’t give a name:
there’s a link, yet it’s probably him (ETA: credit to Anthony Zurcher) . Sick burn!
ETA: I still don’t see that Putin was “joking” about ‘Next time in Moscow’ and Trump said something like he’d get some heat for that. From where? Moscow is the Capitol. He wanted to build a Hotel there. And since when does he give a shit about “heat”?
ETA2: I think a better joke from Putin would be, “We’ll always have Alaska”
A lot of those families pressured young men to volunteer for service and lambasted conscripts who called home complaining of the conditions they experienced and the lack of support and ammunition. It is difficult to understate how much the typical Russian is in support of Putin because even though he’s a lying autocrat, he’s their lying autocrat who is going to Make Russia (a) Great (Empire) Again. What, you thought MAGA was an original thought that emerged from Trump’s wormy brain? Putin and Trump are two peas in a pod, except Putin is the somewhat smarter and more canny pea who manipulates his way through deals in a way that Trump only imagines in his head that he does.
Well said, Stranger. I left St. Parkersburg shortly after the taking of Crimea and billboards with a big font CRIM (what Russia calls Crimea), and an equally big picture of Putin extolling people to visit there, live there. At the same time the protests against the same increased and the OMON special police in fatigues would bring many buses and haul people away.
There certainly was a feeling that Putin was indeed the guy to restore Russia to its former greatness and he’s the man to do it.
And though it surprised me in 2022 when he invaded Ukraine, there was exactly the sense you described about pressuring people into service. I know this from some friends and my father-in-law about what they saw on TV and some may remember the Z used symbolically - I’ll go there - as a swastika.
I’ll ask the mods to close this, as it did originate as a poll. I really was skeptical that this was going to happen in Alaska, let alone am Aiir Force Base and amount to nothing.
As many of you know, I look in on a right-wing message board from time to time. I had another look in the wake of the Trump-Putin summit, held on Friday in Alaska.
The posters there are not happy with the outcome. They’re not unhappy either; they just don’t know what to make of it. The tone of the thread (179 posts), after the meeting was, “Whaaa?” Before the meeting, some expressed hope that Trump would make some kind of deal that would end the war, but changed their tune after the meeting. A sample reaction from there:
Of course, it wouldn’t be a thread on that right-wing board without a dig at Biden:
They’re not about to stop supporting Trump, but some of them are starting to have doubts about his deal-making ability.
(Quoting @Spoons quoting a post on a right-wing nutjob message board.)
I am. Trump wanted to end the war in Ukraine by giving Putin half the country, and then clamoring for the Nobel Peace Prize. Sadly for Trump, Zelensky wasn’t there, and Zelensky runs the place. Also sadly for Trump, Putin isn’t going to negotiate anything, or to put it in terms that the Orange Dumbass might understand, Putin isn’t going to “make a deal” about the war, ever, except on his own non-negotiable terms.
The Putin-Trump summits are always hilarious. It’s like a master strategist negotiating with a toddler, or – no offense to the canine species intended – like a master strategist negotiating with the toddler’s dog.
Trump is, and has always been, an embarrassment to America, and Putin delights in it.
Nicely said, @wolfpup . Trump wants that Nobel Peace Prize, but so far, he has done nothing to deserve it. He really is a toddler trying to deal with a ravenous pit bull over something the toddler should have no interest in. Putin has been playing him like a fiddle in a bluegrass band. There won’t be a deal of any sort unless and until Russia and Ukraine talk. Trump is not necessary.
Why the United States got itself involved in this mess is beyond me.
It’s part of Obama living rent-free in his head. To him, Obama is the incarnation of someone who’s gained acclaim, power, money, popularity that his kind should not deserve but that Trump does by birthright.
(However, TBF, I mean, in this particular aspect let’s no fool ourselves either, Obama’s Nobel we can still justifiably ask “WTF for??”)
It’s a reasonable question, and I think the answer is that Obama’s Nobel was just a reward for the collective sigh of relief that America had finally acquired a level of sanity not seen since the Kennedy years. Sadly, the euphoria was short-lived.
In that respect, Trump is completely delusional, some of it apparently due to dementia. My dog is more likely to get (and more deserving of) the Nobel Peace Prize than Trump, Because he doesn’t pick fights with cats. He just ignores them.
I was expecting a presser in the cabinet room. Him seated in the center, Bondi on one side with a serious look, nodding, and Nutlick on the other with his shoulders bobbing up and down as he silently laughs. The announcement is that the guy who witnessed the sale of Alaska wasn’t a legitimate notary public, therefore the sale is null and void.
Because it doesn’t look doable to most. Putin’s not giving it back and Ukraine can’t take it. So, stalemate while the war grinds ever on while people steadily get sicker of the costs. It’s how a lot of wars go, really. War exhaustion has probably ended more wars than clear-cut military victories.
Ukraine’s only realistic hope for a complete victory at this point is probably some sort of political implosion in Russia. Which certainly could happen. But it’s a hard thing to bet the farm on. Then again so is giving a quarter of the farm to the aggressor with the high likelihood they’ll be returning in another decade to demand more. So everybody is stuck.
Because, unfortunately, it is not the only acceptable outcome to seven billion of us.
There’s about a billion Chinese who might well think it gives them a green light to take Taiwan.
Another billion-plus in South Asia who would really like a car and are happy to pay low, low prices on the gasoline refined from Russian oil to power it.
A couple billion more in Africa more concerned about putting food on the table than where a boundary line is between a couple of countries near where Europe meets Asia.
A bunch more in South America more concerned about their local caudillo, for good or ill, than something happening on the other side of the world.
Heck, the only reason it’s of salient importance in American politics right now is because Trump thinks he can get a Nobel Peace Prize out of it - if that wasn’t in the offing, I don’t think he’d care one way or the other, and probably most of the electorate would think the same way.
Note to self: Always remember that you’re sharing this planet with people who are quite often wrong about things. This appears to be an example of that.