Lionator

I fully understand the worry but I don’t think Putin has ever explicitly threatened the Baltics, but of course they are vulnerable if the calculus changes. The problem is that the biggest economies in the world frankly don’t give a crap. China and India have only increased economic ties with Russia since 2022, then developing countries like Indonesia, Brazil, Vietnam, Gulf States are absolutely and massively investing in Russian resources. The EU is a huge economic bloc but even putting the maximum pressure on them now is not going to make much difference. The only thing will be how quickly they rearm, sanctions and pressure may hinder that. We’ve been promised imminent Russian economic collapse for three years, and to say the least Elvira Nabiullina is extremely competent at her job. We’re in snookers required territory yet the way the story is being told is that Ukraine still have some chance/leverage.

A lot of Ukrainians will accept anything provided it’s not missiles and air alerts. They were in the USSR for decades.

Trust is nothing in geopolitics. Assad trusted Putin would come to his rescue and look how that ended. If you just let it play out as Russia v Ukraine with no American support but continual European support, Ukraine would slowly and then gradually get pushed back further, which then their negotiating position would be even worse. Nothing Trump said today about Russia holding the cards is betrayal, it’s the cold hard truth that Ukranians and (most of) their supporters refuse to believe.

The problem is the pre-requisite for negotiations, Ukraine wants security guarantees from the US BEFORE they negotiate which Trump is unwilling to do. Therefore it’s led to where we are now. Russia don’t really have any pre-requisites as things are going their way to an extent. It looks like Ukraine are about to lose Kursk too. It’s likely that Trump might just say to Ukraine ‘sod it’ and let nature take its course which would be disastrous. They need to negotiate. You can always walk away if it doesn’t work out.

As long as the big dipper and Joyland snails escape any drama then it’s fine.

I think peace is always worth a go. It’s peace, continual death or an attempt at peace with a continuation of death if it doesn’t hold.

Aged well.

“We must force Russia to peace” is not a viable strategy anymore. Trump will just keep turning the screw with those sorts of statements.

https://archive.ph/hsu0J Another example why, if it descends into chaos and we don’t have US support, it’s over.

The UK and France can be bullied with nukes. They have 5000 we have combined about 300, so they could inflict a lot more damage than we could if it was truly a race to the end. Also Poland have categorically said no to troops. Where are we getting the 30k troops from, that’s about 25% of what we have? At that point, Argentina or maybe even China might be eyeing up the Falkland Islands. Then what? All this big talk is pointless and is simply posturing. We don’t have the resources or the stomach for it without US backing. We sold ourselves out to the Yanks over the past decades and now we have very few cards to play with, it’s embarrassing.

This would be a cracking conversation over a pint by the way

Fair enough and elements of the Russian leadership is definitely fascist, I wouldn’t argue against that and if it wasn’t for the oligarchs who act as a brake force, I dread to think where we’d be at from a security situation.

But by nihilism I mean the sense of nothingness about everything. People are obviously scared to speak out but they’ve never been given opportunity to believe anything. If we think Russia is fascist then surely the USSR was too?

I wouldn’t call it fascist but I’d definitely call it nihilist. It’s proper bleak over there and a lot of people believe in nothing.

Don’t think the club can be blamed here as long as we get a good fee. It’s an awful reflection on what the sport has become though.

Russia is a Christian country but Putin hardly follows the oath of Jesus does he? Trump wants Ukraine and Europe to come up with a credible pathway to peace, Zelenskyy just keeps shouting “give me weapons to get peace” and Europeans just keep shouting “coalition of the willing”. Neither are credible, and Trump will just keep negating until they actually come up with something workable.

The current status quo is hardly working now though?

Finance ultimately. The inequality gap is ever expanding and they blame the ‘establishment’. Now obviously you’d think that electing a hyper capitalist billionaires like Trump and Musk would be insane, and you’d be correct. But the system is not working and when you only have two options, it’s easy to see why Trump won. You also have to consider, the average American does not give a crap about what’s going on in Luhansk or the West Bank. It has no material impact on their lives.

New Zealand has a choice though, keep America onside or become a Chinese vassal state. It’s not that difficult and I’m certain the NZ PM doesn’t want to be getting the mandarin language book out quite yet.

That’s why they’re the best team in Europe!

Wow

Kneecap straight in the head. First shot Darwin’s got on target all season.

Mental that Arsenal had 12 shots last night and scored 7. These have had 20 and not a single goal. Been a quality performance too.

I preferred when Ally McCoist used to nerd out over Vikings, now he’s just screaming down the mic.

PSG look quality. Konate exceptionally lucky not to be sent off.