Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Foreign Policy & News The long and winding road to Dumbass

I’ve enjoyed the usual problem solving strategy session with you too logs. Good luck with your battle with reality. Thanks for your link. Helps me understand you too now.

You have any evidence that Russia committed those crimes?

I’d like any details of any forensic investigation that is looking into this war crime if you have any.

India’s UN Security Council rep has asked for an independent investigation. Maybe you can save them the trouble Jeff and send your Twitter post. You seem convinced.

“ A senior Biden administration official recently admitted that prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States made no effort to address one of Vladimir Putin’s most often stated top security concerns — the possibility of Ukraine’s membership into NATO. ”

US refused to address Ukraine and NATO before Russian invasion

Well yeah… anyone paying attention saw this unfolding in real time. Hence the start of the thread

Portentous. Thirty pages into this topic and I’m still unclear about the arguments. Lots of assertions, suppositions, accusations, and ad hominem attacks - pardon the insensitive incongruity of the comparison, but it’s a little bit like the residents of Kyiv must feel when being indiscriminately bombed and shelled and killed for no apparent rhyme or reason.

The only explanation that makes any sense to me is that Putin is a delusional madman on a mission of dark fantasy - one that is orders of magnitude worse than what we humans normally indulge in.

So, blaming the victim?

“ The European Union and Russia are at risk of triggering a de facto embargo on Russian gas after the bloc’s lawyers drafted a preliminary finding that the mechanism President Vladimir Putin is demanding for payment in rubles would violate the bloc’s sanctions.…

…. If Russia follows through on its threat to cut off gas supplies to buyers that don’t comply, it poses a serious threat for the EU, which gets 40% of its gas from Russia. The bloc is scrambling to find alternative energy sources as it comes to terms with the outsize leverage Moscow has over its security, but the transition will take time. The EU is working on its sixth sanctions package, but moves to target Russian energy have been fraught given the bloc’s dependence.”

Putin’s Ruble Standoff With Europe Risks De Facto Gas Embargo

Economist Michael Hudson has been saying the true target of provoking this war was Europe and Germany in particular. While I have some reservations about that, it looks like Europe will be hitting a recession of unknown depth as sanctions continue.

As I look back at the last twenty years, the neocons have certainly left a trail of destruction in their wake.

On the other side of such a recession a variety of scenarios may emerge.
But expanded and future further dependence on Russian sources of energy is unlikely to be the top contender no matter how the present day circumstances are playing out.

In fact, should Russia decide to tilt to full scale war footing, they will have chosen to ultimately declare war on the entire free world.
Neither you or anyone can ever convince sane people of any political leaning that such a move is going to enhance the attractiveness of Russian energy sources for
any country in the world, even Russia's closest circle of friends.

Well… India and China are laying pipe for Russian gas. Last I looked, they represent a significant portion of the world.

But please, continue to moralize over the realities.

Reread the first post of this thread your blundering around in. It’s an admission that we weren’t taking Russia’s security concerns seriously and refused to negotiate.

The immediately victims are the combatants and civilians caught in the cross fire. The collateral damage will be the victims of these economic sanctions.

I prefer diplomacy myself, neocons prefer subjugation, empire and war from what I can tell. Off we go then.

Yes I am aware that those are the current circumstances.
I think I headed the preceding post with some careful utterances of

"On the OTHER SIDE OF such a recession"

Who knows, maybe Putin just decides to "declare the future sovereignty of Luhansk, Donetsk, Donbass now secure" and walks away.
Best case scenario? Acceptable to Zelenskyy? Acceptable to the rest of the world? That's anybody's guess, but even with such a relatively "benign" end game,
I cannot imagine investors in the West clamoring for a bright future association with a proven unstable partner.

Coming out of a full scale hissy fit, even if it were to remain "conventional" (as in NO NUKES) I imagine investors even more soured on the notion.
At some point, it's going to become so unattractive to deal with The World's Biggest Cootie that even if he face plants in a bowl of borscht this morning,
investors in most of the free world aren't even going to calm down until YEARS after they hear his final submerged death gurgle.

In fact, Putin going fully tits up with posies in a casket stirs morbid curiosity about what may arrive in his wake.
As far as the rest of the free world is concerned, we might as well be looking at Russia in the era of Leonid Breshnev as far as trade is concerned...

...for the foreseeable next seventy years.