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(idiomatic) To engage in a struggle with an opponent that benefits from the struggle even without winning.
I just want to know if it's wrongheaded to oppose Putin's ambitions in Europe, that's all. I'm not getting much of a response to my earlier scenario in which Ukraine, from say perhaps 1998 onward, would have had its fate sealed forever as a Putin colony, is no longer relevant as a possible "Western friendly" European nation, and whether or not Putin would view that fate accompli as permission to advance on other neighboring countries in a series of succesive restoration of the old Soviet style sphere of influence.
By the way, if you really want to argue whether or not Putin has embraced fascism or not, in the end it doesn't matter on the surface once one reaches a certain level of authoritarian power, because at street level, you are told what to do and think regardless. But at the top level, the friends of power are markedly different. And they have PERSONAL and INDIVIDUAL wants and needs that may be markedly different.
The fictional Arthur Jensen in Paddy Chayefsky's "Network" asked Howard Beale:
"What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do."
Well, what do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state today --- Adolf Hitler? No, they talk about leveraging oil hegemony mostly, because petroleum is about ---- what, seventy percent of the Russian economy now? Its industrial structure dramatically shifted away from heavy investment in manufacturing and agriculture toward market services, oil, gas, and mining since the fall of the socialist command economy to a capitalistic market system in 1990.
Russia is desperate for capital investment from the West and the only way they're going to get it is if they soften the ground a lot more as regards attitudes toward Putin's advancement in Eastern Europe. From Wiki:
Lithuania: chemical products and plastics (17.8%), machinery and appliances (15.8%), mineral products (14.7%), wood and furniture (12.5%).
Ukraine: one of the world's largest grain exporters.
Moldova: a well-established wine industry. It has a vineyard area of 147,000 hectares (360,000 acres), of which 102,500 ha (253,000 acres) are used for commercial production. Most of the country's wine production is made for export. Moldova's agricultural products include vegetables, fruits, grapes, wine, and grains.
Estonia: Oil shale energy, telecommunications, textiles, chemical products, banking, services, food and fishing, timber, shipbuilding, electronics, and transportation are key sectors of the economy.
Czech Republic: In 2018 the largest companies by revenue in the Czech Republic were: automobile manufacturer Å koda Auto, utility company ÄŒEZ Group, conglomerate Agrofert, energy trading company EPH, oil processing company Unipetrol, electronics manufacturer Foxconn CZ and steel producer Moravia Steel.
Bulgaria: Extraction of metals and minerals, production of chemicals, machine building, steel, biotechnology, tobacco, food processing and petroleum refining are among the major industrial activities.
----So Putin stands to gain a huge windfall by rejiggering the political fortunes and future of these countries, and of course, adding their output almost directly to Moscow, because when you're an authoritarian at his level, that's what you do, regardless of whether you do it via a network of communist "collectives" or if you do it by stuffing the pockets of your oligarch buddies.
Suddenly the Russian Federation gets a very diverse basket of goods and services to round out and empower their already moribund petro-dominated economy, and that further fuels his peristaltic advance into the Western world.
Seems the above nations already would have jumped into his lap all by themselves a long time ago if he'd offered a better deal than the West, dontcha think?
"The Best of the Leon Russell Festivals" DVD deepfreezefilms.com
(idiomatic) To engage in a struggle with an opponent that benefits from the struggle even without winning.
I just want to know if it's wrongheaded to oppose Putin's ambitions in Europe, that's all. I'm not getting much of a response to my earlier scenario in which Ukraine, from say perhaps 1998 onward, would have had its fate sealed forever as a Putin colony, is no longer relevant as a possible "Western friendly" European nation, and whether or not Putin would view that fate accompli as permission to advance on other neighboring countries in a series of succesive restoration of the old Soviet style sphere of influence.
By the way, if you really want to argue whether or not Putin has embraced fascism or not, in the end it doesn't matter on the surface once one reaches a certain level of authoritarian power, because at street level, you are told what to do and think regardless. But at the top level, the friends of power are markedly different. And they have PERSONAL and INDIVIDUAL wants and needs that may be markedly different.
The fictional Arthur Jensen in Paddy Chayefsky's "Network" asked Howard Beale:
"What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do."
Well, what do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state today --- Adolf Hitler? No, they talk about leveraging oil hegemony mostly, because petroleum is about ---- what, seventy percent of the Russian economy now? Its industrial structure dramatically shifted away from heavy investment in manufacturing and agriculture toward market services, oil, gas, and mining since the fall of the socialist command economy to a capitalistic market system in 1990.
Russia is desperate for capital investment from the West and the only way they're going to get it is if they soften the ground a lot more as regards attitudes toward Putin's advancement in Eastern Europe. From Wiki:
Lithuania: chemical products and plastics (17.8%), machinery and appliances (15.8%), mineral products (14.7%), wood and furniture (12.5%).
Ukraine: one of the world's largest grain exporters.
Moldova: a well-established wine industry. It has a vineyard area of 147,000 hectares (360,000 acres), of which 102,500 ha (253,000 acres) are used for commercial production. Most of the country's wine production is made for export. Moldova's agricultural products include vegetables, fruits, grapes, wine, and grains.
Estonia: Oil shale energy, telecommunications, textiles, chemical products, banking, services, food and fishing, timber, shipbuilding, electronics, and transportation are key sectors of the economy.
Czech Republic: In 2018 the largest companies by revenue in the Czech Republic were: automobile manufacturer Å koda Auto, utility company ÄŒEZ Group, conglomerate Agrofert, energy trading company EPH, oil processing company Unipetrol, electronics manufacturer Foxconn CZ and steel producer Moravia Steel.
Bulgaria: Extraction of metals and minerals, production of chemicals, machine building, steel, biotechnology, tobacco, food processing and petroleum refining are among the major industrial activities.
----So Putin stands to gain a huge windfall by rejiggering the political fortunes and future of these countries, and of course, adding their output almost directly to Moscow, because when you're an authoritarian at his level, that's what you do, regardless of whether you do it via a network of communist "collectives" or if you do it by stuffing the pockets of your oligarch buddies.
Suddenly the Russian Federation gets a very diverse basket of goods and services to round out and empower their already moribund petro-dominated economy, and that further fuels his peristaltic advance into the Western world.
Seems the above nations already would have jumped into his lap all by themselves a long time ago if he'd offered a better deal than the West, dontcha think?
Why would I want to argue with your hypotheticals?
You want to talk in pop cultural references. Go for it.
The Minsk agreement was a real thing negotiated between Moscow, the EU and German chancellor. It was a negotiated peace settlement that all parties agreed to. The Ukraine government has failed to implement the treaty. The paramilitary units have killed 14k in the breakaway.
I’m sorry the mother Goddess of your tribe didn’t make it in 2016. She should have gone to Michigan…
"What does Putin want? His aims go well beyond Ukraine. As the Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum summarizes: He “wants to put so much strain on Western and democratic institutions, especially the European Union and NATO, that they break up. He wants to keep dictators in power wherever he can, in Syria, Venezuela, and Iran. He wants to undermine America, to shrink American influence, to remove the power of the democracy rhetoric that so many people in his part of the world still associate with America. He wants America itself to fail.â€
Trump’s foreign policy sought to do much of what Putin wants to achieve, including intimidating Ukraine by withholding vital defensive weapons. Trump, like his role model in Moscow, favored weakening NATO, elevating dictators (from China to Turkey to North Korea to Hungary to Russia), undermining democratic elections, demonizing the media (the best check against power-hungry politicians) and finding common ground with kleptocratic-style governments.
...Certainly, there is a disconnect on the right, with many Republicans in the Senate trying to find some way to blame President Biden for insufficient resolve in opposing Putin’s invasion scheme. (Republicans in disarray!) But just a couple of years ago, these Republicans were perfectly content supporting a president who extorted Ukraine to get dirt on Biden, tried to welcome Russia back into the Group of Seven, provided cover for Russian interference in the 2016 election and parroted Russian propaganda on Crimea. It takes quite a feat of contortion for these Republicans to remain defenders of Trump and deplore his successor for not doing enough to stand up to Putin."
Yanukovich was removed from office during that time...PHYSICALLY REMOVED, by the Ukrainian people, and the Ukrainian Rada (their parliamentary body) RATIFIED it. I guess that doesn't count for anything unless you believe Trump was behind the scenes in 2013 helping the Ukrainians 😆😆😆
"The Best of the Leon Russell Festivals" DVD deepfreezefilms.com
As I said earlier, how different the Orange Revolution was in composition than Euromaidan.
From BBC, March 2014:
‘ These two images illustrate how complex and contradictory is the subject of the far right in Ukraine's mass protest movement, the Euromaidan. Their role in ousting the president and establishing a new Euromaidan-led government should not be exaggerated. But, as the second image shows, nor should their involvement be played down, especially now they have assumed key ministerial posts.’
A really interesting round table of the elders on the current geopolitical crises. Starts with Mearsheimer and ends after a half dozen speakers give their Hot takes. Usual technical problems in the first few minutes but gets resolved.
A really interesting round table of the elders on the current geopolitical crises. Starts with Mearsheimer and ends after a half dozen speakers give their Hot takes. Usual technical problems in the first few minutes but gets resolved.
You expect everyone to sit down and watch an hour and a half long talking head video?
"The Best of the Leon Russell Festivals" DVD deepfreezefilms.com
