zeke5123a
1d ago
I actually think his Panama Canal position is reasonable. There was a dumb contract signed by Carter that gave away the Canal subject to certain conditions. Panama violated those conditions. So why shouldn’t the Canal return to US control?
Greenland should be bought.
zeke5123a
2d ago
If young men invaded your small town destroying its social fabric and causing a bunch of issues, then I think it’s reasonable to call you a cuck if you are against doing something about the invasion.
zeke5123a
2d ago
Yeah could be (and that dad is a cuck). If immigrants don’t obey safety laws at the same rate, can’t read signage, or come from a culture that is just bad at driving, then they easily could increase the odds of fatal accidents.
Notably Springfield residents were noting these issues prior to the incident.
zeke5123a
2d ago
That’s what I find interesting with this topic. The European leaders are frequently given a “pass” but despite appearing “very serious” are deeply lacking in any substance. They are empty suits. Vance sometimes says dumb things but he also sometimes talks in details about real things.
Vance >> Euro leaders
zeke5123a
4d ago
That sorta falls into the “do what you can for self preservation” which is understandable motivation even if not exactly noble
zeke5123a
4d ago
Do you really think that? I’m sure some might make those mouth noises but the argument would be ignored. Whilst the argument for an election is at least not crazy
zeke5123a
4d ago
I took it as sarcasm (ie the love out of your car bit seemed like the giveaway). That is, when you are in a hole cut out the stuff that is easily cut out. Rent is harder to figure out and is a necessity.
You might not solve the budget until you address rent but you’ll slow the bleeding.
zeke5123a
4d ago
This is exactly the point. The west (or at least America) doesn’t trust Z not to try to draw US into the conflict so they came up with the idea of creating some economic benefit for the US that creates some strategic ambiguity. It really was a smart solution and those on the other side either are unwilling to admit Z can’t be trusted or want what Z wants (a war in Ukraine with US boots on the ground).
zeke5123a
4d ago
Except that’s why Trump was so pissed with Z. Trump wanted strategic ambiguity (where the US government had an interest in Ukraine) but Trump determined that Z simply wanted more US support so Z could try to reclaim lost territory.
zeke5123a
4d ago
The flip side is that it has been three years and these things have been discussed regularly. If someone makes a top level post making obviously false claims about a very prominent event that has been on going for three years, the reasonable explanation is they are lying or engaging in such low effort that they should be ignored.
zeke5123a
4d ago
Of course not. Is it not also possible that a country that has engaged in false propaganda to engender support might lie about atrocities that again helps generate support?
That is, one should not believe that Russia is unlikely to commit atrocities (there almost certainly were some as its war) but also one should not believe the Ukrainians that something truly awful beyond the normal cruelty of war occurred.
zeke5123a
4d ago
If you can’t tell the difference between Berenson on Twitter and negotiations between two countries at the WH, then I don’t know what to say.
zeke5123a
4d ago
I don’t know about bigger. The point is those censorship attempts were considered wrong and there is a strong political backlash on one side against them. Do we see that in Europe?
zeke5123a
5d ago
This is silly—no one is stopping Zelensky from saying anything. But using the WH as his forum to say X when he was invited to say not X but sign a document isn’t a free speech issue.
zeke5123a
5d ago
Read what I posted below + what Rubio said. Basically they had already talked about what the deal was and this was perfunctory. Then Zelensky tried to litigate his position (that they basically had agreed to shelve) in front of the media which rightly pissed off the WH.
This isn’t a free speech issue. Zelensky can say whatever he wants. But it isn’t correct to agree to forum X for Y purposes and explicitly not Z and then do Z.
zeke5123a
5d ago
You don’t need to balance the budget. You need to slow down the deficit and increase growth.
A lot of the tax numbers are fake since they are simply keeping existing tax rates from expiring.
zeke5123a
5d ago
Isn’t SV getting pretty heavy into military and doing a great job eg Palantir
zeke5123a
5d ago
Doing things slow means people can org size more effectively to fight back and try to run out clock. When the offense is time barred and the defense isn’t, then delay is winning strategy for the defense. And couching the strategy as “be deliberate” is effectively siding with the defense.
zeke5123a
5d ago
Well it isn’t just about woke for me. It is about the very real and very looming debt spiral. Arresting that means cutting bullshit and sometimes even valuable things. A lot that goes through the academy is bullshit and zero value add—even in STEM.
zeke5123a
5d ago
But wasn’t it also for them? I see the European project dying in Europe. In fifty years do we expect Europe to act anything like Europe of fifty years prior?
zeke5123a
5d ago
Re Zelensky I have a different take. Marco Rubio complained recently that they had what they thought were agreements with Ukraine only for Zelensky to say something totally different to the media a couple of days later.
I think the Trump administration believed they had a framework with Ukraine to end the war — there would be a cease fire, and there would be a soft American guarantee via this rare earth deal but not a hard one.
Zelensky multiple times throughout the process indicated he wanted to with renewed support kick out Russia. When he responded to Vance’s criticism of Biden with saying we can’t do a cease fire with Putin because he will break his word Zelensky was confirming that he wasn’t agreeing with the framework that I think the Trump admin thought Ukraine agreed with hence Vance’s statement re litigating to the media (the same issue Rubio had).
So I think the Trump admin was simply pissed that they felt again Zelensky was welching on a private deal.
I also think the press conference proved to the Trump admin their fears are correct. Namely they are concerned Zelensky will armed with a guarantee try to provoke Russia into an altercation and then demand action by the Americans citing the guarantee in the hopes of regaining their lost territory. If you read Trump’s comments closet this is his concern.
And honestly given the history here, it isn’t unreasonable to believe Zelensky would try to antagonize Russia. The pre war boundaries of Ukraine weren’t natural. It was arbitrary lines drawn on a map with two peoples (more if you include the Hungarians). The Russian minority has faced persecution by the Kiev government and Ukrainian nationalists while at the same time Russia has helped to incite tensions. That is, no one has clean hands here. Zelensky focused on Russia’s untrustworthy actions (true) while ignoring Ukraine’s untrustworthy actions and historic goals re the Donbas and Crimea.
In short, Trump isn’t willing to give a security guarantee because he doesn’t trust either side here. But he was willing to more intertwine Ukrainian and US interests which creates some degree of strategic ambiguity that would help Ukraine without pre committing the US. And Trump realized that Zelensky isn’t really interested in that deal which I think they felt they had hammered out. And that pissed off Trump (who honestly does seem to want to end the war for both humanitarian reasons and economic ones).
They gave material control to PRC
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