General News

[leicsmac]

5 minutes ago, Bilo said:

https://www.lbc.co.uk/politics/us-politics/20000-troops-from-some-random-country-wont-bring-peace-ukraine-jd-vance/

 

I mean, apart from Iraq and Afghanistan where over 600 British troops died in wars that started after the USA issued the only invocation of Article 5 to date, he's spot on.

 

The eyeliner wearing arse clown.

Never let it be said that Vance and his ilk aren't hypocrites, to add to every other negative quality about them.

[leicsmac]

18 minutes ago, foxes1988 said:

I think Europe will turn away from the us towards India and China now.  China are the real winners here.

 

This is just the beginning of the end of Pax Americana

What was it that Sun Tzu said in The Art of War about winning while doing very little/nothing at all?

[FoxesDeb]

28 minutes ago, FoyleFox said:

Contemplating going back to bed and seeing if it's any better when I wake up again. A nightmare has to end at some point?

Not least because I read the post from @davieG and actually though he was on the frontline in Ukraine

You weren’t the only one 

[Sol thewall Bamba]

These farmers take lots of days off for people who claim they can never take days off. 

[Lionator]

37 minutes ago, ian__marshall said:

 

Posted on BBC Live feed at 3.11... 

 

"The vice president tells host Sean Hannity that while Trump has a great relationship with many European allies, they say different things in public and private about the Russia-Ukraine war.

He says: "Here’s the problem with the Europeans … they need to be realistic and the craziest part about this, Sean, is sometimes you have European heads of state who in public will puff up their chest and say, ‘We’re in this with President Zelensky for the next 10 years.’

"And in private they’ll pick up the phone and say, ‘This can’t go on forever, he has to come to the negotiating table.’

"I honestly don’t care what the Europeans say in public, what I care is what they say in private.

"And what they need to be saying to President Zelensky is this can’t go on forever, the bloodshed, the killing, the economic devastation, it’s making everyone worse off."

The leaks from the Biden admin show that Vance is just saying the quiet part out loud. Yes it’s offensive and rude, but it is also true that Europe doesn’t have a credible plan, therefore the only logical thing to do is to stop the fighting and loot Ukranian resources between USA and Russia because there is no credible alternative. 

[st albans fox]

54 minutes ago, foxes1988 said:

I think Europe will turn away from the us towards India and China now.  China are the real winners here.

 

This is just the beginning of the end of Pax Americana

India perhaps 
China - nope

usa is still a democracy and that counts for a lot.  

 

The trump approach to diplomacy is a big problem here - it’s just not how things are done.  all at a hundred miles an hour and in public. if this was all being said behind closed doors as used to be the case then how different would things seem ?  
 

that doesn’t affect the apparent scenario where it seems Moscow is not being asked to make any concessions of note - but again, we wouldn’t know about that until after the event and after the bar had moved back from where it currently sits. (The polish border!) 

 

I reckon trump is wanting everything on the table before negs start. Pretty much nothing is off the table (apart from russian territorial integrity and Ukraine not in nato) cos that affects his ability to move things around to get putin to say yes.  Washington wants to do business in Russia to try and move them away from Beijing - ukraine is in the way of that and the 4 oblasts + crimea will be sacrificed to that end. 
 

about a year ago I posted that zelensky should think about some realpolitik and perhaps make a peace settlement on the basis of losing some of the eastern areas and a small land bridge to crimea (also lost) because no one knew what might happen if trump was to win. did he basically bet on the democrats winning ?  If so that could be one of the biggest losing bets in history. 

 

 

Edited 4 March by st albans fox

[Clogger_]

Interested to hear Lionator's views on Farage/Reform. By my reading his posts seem to align with their worldview?

[st albans fox]

1 minute ago, Clogger_ said:

Interested to hear Lionator's views on Farage/Reform. By my reading his posts seem to align with their worldview?

Observation on what is happening shouldn’t be confused with personal views

[Clogger_]

19 minutes ago, Sol thewall Bamba said:

These farmers take lots of days off for people who claim they can never take days off. 

Their protests seem somewhat parochial at the mo!

[Mike Oxlong]

The world has gone all Brokeback 

 

[Lionator]

6 minutes ago, Clogger_ said:

Interested to hear Lionator's views on Farage/Reform. By my reading his posts seem to align with their worldview?

I’m massively against hollowing of the state and transfer of wealth into the richest people’s hands. Hence why I hate both Trump and Putin too. But I’m genuinely just very interested in Geopolitics. 

[Sampson]

Be interesting how Farage the Patriot reacts to Vance calling Britain and France “nothing countries” - if he still continues to prioritise making excuses for his American and Russian idols over Britain and its European allies and neighbours.

Edited 4 March by Sampson

[Dunge]

3 minutes ago, Sampson said:

Be interesting how Farage the Patriot reacts to Vance calling Britain and France “nothing countries” - if he still continues to prioritise making excuses for his American and Russian idols over Britain and its European allies and neighbours.

He’ll be delighted and use it in his message to Make Britain Great Again.

[Dunge]

While I doubt Trump’s actions over Ukraine will ultimately bother Americans that much, I reckon the tariffs will hurt him.

[leicsmac]

29 minutes ago, st albans fox said:

India perhaps 
China - nope

usa is still a democracy and that counts for a lot.  

 

The trump approach to diplomacy is a big problem here - it’s just not how things are done.  all at a hundred miles an hour and in public. if this was all being said behind closed doors as used to be the case then how different would things seem ?  
 

that doesn’t affect the apparent scenario where it seems Moscow is not being asked to make any concessions of note - but again, we wouldn’t know about that until after the event and after the bar had moved back from where it currently sits. (The polish border!) 

 

I reckon trump is wanting everything on the table before negs start. Pretty much nothing is off the table (apart from russian territorial integrity and Ukraine not in nato) cos that affects his ability to move things around to get putin to say yes.  Washington wants to do business in Russia to try and move them away from Beijing - ukraine is in the way of that and the 4 oblasts + crimea will be sacrificed to that end. 
 

about a year ago I posted that zelensky should think about some realpolitik and perhaps make a peace settlement on the basis of losing some of the eastern areas and a small land bridge to crimea (also lost) because no one knew what might happen if trump was to win. did he basically bet on the democrats winning ?  If so that could be one of the biggest losing bets in history. 

 

 

While idealistically this is true, a dreadful decision that results in dreadful consequences isn't any less dreadful because it's the product of people being convinced to choose it within a democratic system.

 

The bit about democracy being the worst system of government other that all the others that have been tried is still true, but its flaws are being rather sorely exposed at the moment, and they may get even more so in the near future.

 

10 minutes ago, Dunge said:

He’ll be delighted and use it in his message to Make Britain Great Again.

Yeah.

 

"Hey, the tw@t over there says that we're weak. Let's be tw@ts like him so he won't do it, OK?"

[Bilo]

[bovril]

Vance really represents that kind of chauvinism and contempt towards Europe that is latent in American culture. He's basically just a loud Yank complaining he can't get spicy food in Europe on holiday, but unfortunately in the position of VP. Hopefully this American administration further speeds up our process of moving away from them and ending this crap about the 'special relationship'. 

[st albans fox]

8 minutes ago, bovril said:

Vance really represents that kind of chauvinism and contempt towards Europe that is latent in American culture. He's basically just a loud Yank complaining he can't get spicy food in Europe on holiday, but unfortunately in the position of VP. Hopefully this American administration further speeds up our process of moving away from them and ending this crap about the 'special relationship'. 

I wonder what happens to Vance if trump sees a better option to take on his crown - I could see Vance being chucked under the bus at some point. I’m thinking he’s raising his profile as much as he can (where it matters)  to try and make that too tricky for trump to do. 

[Lionator]

12 minutes ago, Bilo said:

But less about the UK, what about America?

[Dahnsouff]

13 minutes ago, Bilo said:

Nice. No day is ever truly wasted  

[Livid]

5 minutes ago, bovril said:

Vance really represents that kind of chauvinism and contempt towards Europe that is latent in American culture. He's basically just a loud Yank complaining he can't get spicy food in Europe on holiday, but unfortunately in the position of VP. Hopefully this American administration further speeds up our process of moving away from them and ending this crap about the 'special relationship'. 

Absolutely, we’re being very diplomatic at the moment and not rising to the bait.
 

If we’re playing the long game, the  midterms in the US and next presidential election are a long way away ( although on their recent behaviour there’s no guarantees they won’t double down anyway.)

 

I see some a lot of high profile democrats and the liberals coming out against him with the usual MAGA freaks and Bots defending him, but many ordinary Americans just seem content to sit back and let the political carnage continue without raising their voice. 
 

They are absolutely nothing like us, it’s obvious we hold different values and we do need to distance ourselves from them. 

[Lionator]

18 minutes ago, Livid said:

Absolutely, we’re being very diplomatic at the moment and not rising to the bait.
 

If we’re playing the long game, the  midterms in the US and next presidential election are a long way away ( although on their recent behaviour there’s no guarantees they won’t double down anyway.)

 

I see some a lot of high profile democrats and the liberals coming out against him with the usual MAGA freaks and Bots defending him, but many ordinary Americans just seem content to sit back and let the political carnage continue without raising their voice. 
 

They are absolutely nothing like us, it’s obvious we hold different values and we do need to distance ourselves from them. 

By the time the next elections come around, the whole geopolitical climate will be reoriented. Simply waiting for 2028 in the hope that the Democrats will win (who themselves will probably be done with Europe and will want to focus on internal matters) is a strategy that will lead to further irrelevancy. 

[Sampson]

Yeah remember Boris being well ahead of the polls in the early stages of the pandemic in 2020? But the world had changed so much by the next election. The world seems to moves way faster now than it did 10 years ago. We have no idea how the world will look in 2028 so i don’t know how we can rely on it anymore. 

[bovril]

22 minutes ago, Livid said:

Absolutely, we’re being very diplomatic at the moment and not rising to the bait.
 

If we’re playing the long game, the  midterms in the US and next presidential election are a long way away ( although on their recent behaviour there’s no guarantees they won’t double down anyway.)

 

I see some a lot of high profile democrats and the liberals coming out against him with the usual MAGA freaks and Bots defending him, but many ordinary Americans just seem content to sit back and let the political carnage continue without raising their voice. 
 

They are absolutely nothing like us, it’s obvious we hold different values and we do need to distance ourselves from them. 

I think we hold some similar values but they don't really like or respect Europe that much. Most Americans in my experience are very friendly on an individual level but are quite hostile towards Europe especially regarding our history, which is manifesting now in the figure of Vance. It is understandable of course when you think of the history of their country but it makes more sense to ally ourselves with countries like France that have had similar historical experiences and face similar challenges. But I am biased. 

[Jon the Hat]

2 hours ago, ian__marshall said:

 

Posted on BBC Live feed at 3.11... 

 

"The vice president tells host Sean Hannity that while Trump has a great relationship with many European allies, they say different things in public and private about the Russia-Ukraine war.

He says: "Here’s the problem with the Europeans … they need to be realistic and the craziest part about this, Sean, is sometimes you have European heads of state who in public will puff up their chest and say, ‘We’re in this with President Zelensky for the next 10 years.’

"And in private they’ll pick up the phone and say, ‘This can’t go on forever, he has to come to the negotiating table.’

"I honestly don’t care what the Europeans say in public, what I care is what they say in private.

"And what they need to be saying to President Zelensky is this can’t go on forever, the bloodshed, the killing, the economic devastation, it’s making everyone worse off."

The fact he thinks this is crazy suggests he is a bit of a ****wit to be honest.