Should the US shed blood for Ukraine

Should the USA along with NATO defend Ukraine with troops.

  • Yes

    Votes: 40 40.4%
  • No

    Votes: 59 59.6%

  • Total voters
    99

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
I thought France wasn’t in NATO. I learned something.
Interesting you thought that. I had to go look it up. You aren't alone in thinking it.


THAT FRANCE DID NOT LEAVE NATO IN 1966 BUT CONTINUED TO PLAY A VERY ACTIVE ROLE IN THE ALLIANCE?



Many people think that French President Charles de Gaulle took his country out of NATO in 1966 when he demanded that all military headquarters and installations not under French command depart French territory by 1967, but this is not the case.

What France did was withdraw from NATO's integrated military command structure – thus French personnel were no longer assigned to the staffs of headquarters in the NATO command structure and French units were not placed under NATO command, but France remained an active member of the Alliance itself and French personnel continued to serve at NATO's political headquarters in Brussels as well as in liaison offices at the other military headquarters.

 

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
The clean money too else it‘s like mopping with the tap running. Gas Russia wouldn’t be able to sell to europe they can redirect through new lines to China, who will be a great fossile fuel customer for decades to come. China also acts like a loan shark while Russia has a relatively very low national debt.

The EU and US each pump ~400billion per year in China by buying goods. That combined is the same as the US military budget. We should drastically find ways to send much of that money to each other instead of enriching and empowering China.
Economic sanctions. Putin isn't going to be affected by them. The people of Russia will be affected, especially the poor and especially elderly whose pensions are a pittance after inflation. Economic sanctions are a nuclear option that hits civilians the hardest. Putin and his oligarchs will be fine.

Side story: I worked for a short while at a company that was growing very fast and growth was capped by availability of emissions licenses for some particularly nasty air polluting equipment. In order to meet bonus requirements, the division manager started violating the law by using the equipment despite them exceeding emissions limits in our licensing. The company faced fines on the order of $10,000/day. He only stopped when, during a conference call with lawyers and the company's compliance officer, he was told by the lawyers -- now that he was officially warned in front of lawyers -- not only was the company liable for those fines, HE was also liable for the same fines and would be jailed. The equipment went off line immediately.

This is all to say that people like Putin and that sociopath manager don't care unless they are personally affected. We can put economic sanctions up and it will hurt people had nothing to do with the crisis in Ukraine. We need to hurt Putin and hurt him badly. Hurt the politically powerful around him too. He's using that money to fund psy ops and that same money created Trump in all his orange presidential glory. I'd like to see sanctions invoked on dirty Russian money immediately. We can sort our the economic sanctions later.

Regarding gas pipeline sanctions. That sword cuts both ways.
 

smokinrav

Well-Known Member
Dunno, and this is just a guess....think Putin's next move....will be in the elections in Ukraine, prop up a canidate that's friendly to the homeland, in the presidency and in there congress.......

i could be wrong, usually am
He's still using the Georgia playbook. Just today he declared two parts of Ukraine as home to native Russian separatists. This is what he did in 2014 with Georgia, and he holds those lands even today.
 

BudmanTX

Well-Known Member
He's still using the Georgia playbook. Just today he declared two parts of Ukraine as home to native Russian separatists. This is what he did in 2014 with Georgia, and he holds those lands even today.
actually russian parliament did it bout a week ago, it was on ABC news excerp i caught, now it's brought to Putin and he hear arguement to weither he should or shouldn't, if he does accept them, that right there kills the Minsk Agreement of which he signed both of them, and i would think that sanctions will be set if he does. Well see..

Ukraine was already wanted and willing to accept them as a Automous region within Ukraine anyways, just like Creimea....sorry for the spelling, but nooooooo......

very similar play book over all.....yes

See during the SSR days, the USSR went in these country teach the Russian language to every as well as they're native language, when everything fell apart most of the people spoke Russian as well as they're counter part.....now ol putin bag is saying these are orginal russians which is a load of BS, they just speak it cause it's the norm in the area and is what they know...or at least i think so anyways.....
 

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
This is all about Borsch. The Ukrainians say it's their dish but Russia wants it for themselves.

lulz. The Borscht wars.

I have a fondness for good Borscht. My mother made such a good version. I've never been able to match it.

Who really owns food? Food is art that is consumed, then gone. All that remains is our memory of it.

So, you've shared your culinary arts with us. How does your borscht measure up?
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
lulz. The Borscht wars.

I have a fondness for good Borscht. My mother made such a good version. I've never been able to match it.

Who really owns food? Food is art that is consumed, then gone. All that remains is our memory of it.

So, you've shared your culinary arts with us. How does your borscht measure up?
I can make an edible representation but nothing like my grandmother used to make when I was just a youngster.
 

smokinrav

Well-Known Member
actually russian parliament did it bout a week ago, it was on ABC news excerp i caught, now it's brought to Putin and he hear arguement to weither he should or shouldn't, if he does accept them, that right there kills the Minsk Agreement of which he signed both of them, and i would think that sanctions will be set if he does. Well see..

Ukraine was already wanted and willing to accept them as a Automous region within Ukraine anyways, just like Creimea....sorry for the spelling, but nooooooo......

very similar play book over all.....yes

See during the SSR days, the USSR went in these country teach the Russian language to every as well as they're native language, when everything fell apart most of the people spoke Russian as well as they're counter part.....now ol putin bag is saying these are orginal russians which is a load of BS, they just speak it cause it's the norm in the area and is what they know...or at least i think so anyways.....
Yeah I don't doubt it, but here's the story I saw earlier


Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday formally recognized the independence of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine where Russia has been supporting armed separatists in an eight-year conflict.

The move by Putin was seen by the United States and its European allies as a dramatic provocation and possibly part of a pretext to invade Ukraine. The U.S. and European Union both swiftly announced sanctions.


 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
China, who will be a great fossile fuel customer for decades to come.
wonder how long it will be before we're at war to make people stop using the poisons they're killing the entire world with?
what good does it do if America goes totally green (which is a long time coming) if china and India and w/e else just continues to pump
millions of tons of toxins and green house gases into the atmosphere we all share?
 

xtsho

Well-Known Member
wonder how long it will be before we're at war to make people stop using the poisons they're killing the entire world with?
what good does it do if America goes totally green (which is a long time coming) if china and India and w/e else just continues to pump
millions of tons of toxins and green house gases into the atmosphere we all share?
America might have gotten greener but that's due to our production moving overseas. Some things are just messy to produce. A big portion of the pollution from many countries comes from the production of products for American consumers. If Americans were not such a throw away society we could probably cut our imports in half. That would reduce the pollution in other countries and the amount of stuff we put in our landfills.
 

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
America might have gotten greener but that's due to our production moving overseas. Some things are just messy to produce. A big portion of the pollution from many countries comes from the production of products for American consumers. If Americans were not such a throw away society we could probably cut our imports in half. That would reduce the pollution in other countries and the amount of stuff we put in our landfills.
i'm with you...i didn't mind at all when milk came in waxed paper cartons...or even glass bottles.
why is everything in a plastic bubble inside a plastic clam shell glued to a piece of cardboard?
we should start demanding environmentally friendly packaging, and just quit buying over packaged shit.
milk, water and juice in waxed paper containers, soda in glass bottles with a deposit...meat in butchers paper, with waxed cardboard trays under it...vegetables in paper bags...and no more fucking plastic bags at the store, they charge more than enough to be able to afford paper bags
 

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
Yeah I don't doubt it, but here's the story I saw earlier


Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday formally recognized the independence of two Moscow-backed breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine where Russia has been supporting armed separatists in an eight-year conflict.

The move by Putin was seen by the United States and its European allies as a dramatic provocation and possibly part of a pretext to invade Ukraine. The U.S. and European Union both swiftly announced sanctions.


That bit about Ukraine "taken away from Russia" was lie spoken to people who knew he is lying. The dictator swaggers. It's only true if one goes back to Soviet and Imperial Russia. Ukraine became independent in 1991 in the aftermath of the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
 

Fogdog

Well-Known Member
Sanctions again. Against the richest man on Earth (no, not you, Elon) and his billionaire cronies. This sucks, but I don't know what to do
Fincen is where to start for finding and tracing US dirty money. It's a toothless regulatory organ requiring banks to report transactions that trip red flags listed in the legislation. It has been adjusted over the years, such as in 2003 to address transactions from the US to terrorist groups (back then, we thought terrorists were foreign, we were so naive). There are few enforcement or investigatory levers in the law, other than it has penalties if banks don't report. When they report, it's as if they can just go on with the work of laundering criminal gains while collecting healthy fees. A get out of jail free card, if you will.

Other than carrying cash into this country, dirty money is registered on Fincen when it arrives in the US. There are plenty of shell corporations based in places like British Honduras or Panama where the Russian Mafia or oligarchs place their stash. Then when a deal is struck in the US, such as a loan to build Trump Towers (not making this up), the cash is moved in under the cover of one or more shell corporation. The effects are tangible. This is how we got Billionaire Trump and eventually, President Trump. Outside of NYC, we wouldn't have even heard of his name if he hadn't made big money washing Russian mafia money. So much dirty money is sloshing about in the form of real estate and shell corporations it has become a threat to democracy in the US. But Fincen is just a reporting instrument with almost no teeth.

That said, the system has been around for 20 years and no doubt the DOJ has been poring over the records to find out where and how Putin and his oligarchs have been stashing their loot in the West. About half of all dirty money in the world ends up in the US. I don't know specifically what those "personal sanctions" are. I just know that Putin got rattled and made mistakes the day Biden announced plans to take the extraordinary action of placing personal sanctions on a world leader.

For example, this weak bit of rhetoric from Putin, reported in India Times:

Russia hit back Wednesday at US threats of direct sanctions against President Vladimir Putin, saying moves against the Russian leader would be ineffective and hurt efforts to lower tensions over Ukraine.

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/russia-warns-against-destructive-sanctions-on-putin/articleshow/89137769.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst


 
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