Gregory Mitrovich, Ph.D

The most horrifying thing about this post is that I thought it was totally real. OMG this is far worse than I ever thought it could possibly get.

Unfortunately, these aren’t serious negotiations just a Russian info op.
Give Ukraine 500 tomahawks and you’ll have serious talks.

It never we ceases to amaze me just how amazingly innovative Ukrainian’s are.

It’s like we created over the years an overlord system for our democracy, where a group of 9 unelected officials, indeed only appointed by the Pres and confirmed by the Senate, can overrule any govt action someone sues over. Not the founders fault as there was no judicial review until 1803.

This is what commentators miss when they focus almost exclusively on the tariffs implications on the US. The backwash of US economic instability is like a tidal wave flooding the entire world.To what markets are export driven econ like China or Germany going to export their goods if not the US?

How gleeful are they going to be when they realize that they will be competing with other export driven economies on the few consuming regions of the world now that Trump is closing the US market. Gonna be a knife, we’re talking Mad Max level competition.

It’s called “bending the knee.”

When it comes to the presidential elections CA votes do count as much given CA’s electoral dominance (though it should be even more). The problem is that WY has 2 Senators as does CA. That’s ridiculous but that was the compromise NY and VA had to make with the smaller states to 1st create the union.

Well, America is so enormous its “fall” will mean the collapse of modern civilization. Nothing for anyone else to cheer on.

It’s the single stupidest thing. . . Until the next stupidest thing.

The headline should read “appetite for destruction.” Maybe that Guns and Roses song should be the administration theme song.

It won’t matter, the death threats they regularly receive from maga nut jobs will mean a lot more.

Russia needs to be defeated so decisively that it will not be able to launch another attack for 20 years, that is until the current generation of Russian imperialists have died out and a new generation emerged that understands Russia’s true status as a middle sized power in an EU dominated Europe.

Actually, the septuagenarians and octogenarians who lead the party can’t walk and chew gum. They need to go.

Because if Trump did they might actually fret about it for a few days.

Yeah, pretty much.

It was patently obvious this was an ambush, just a disgraceful display on Trump’s part. Even more disgraceful were the comments from the Koch-funded think tanks, the so-called “restrainers”who blamed Zelensky for angering Trump and undermining the “opportunities for peace.”

We’ll give Bernie a pass!

Reminder: when we refer to DOGE doing this or that, it is merely carrying out the plan hatched by the Heritage Foundation. They are the real culprit behind the govts destruction.

If we can get over this disastrous dark age, every one of those DOGE operatives needs to be brought to justice. Their only authority comes from Elon who has no authority given to him by Congress to do any of the things he is doing. And the Pres can’t pretend to give him that power. This is illegal.

Thank you for your VERY informative responses, I’ve learned a lot from them.

I am writing a book on this issue and Mearsheimer is hallucinating here (to use the AI term). Europe never ceded the Western Hemisphere to the US (different thread). But again, Putin wants outright empire and we need to be clear about that.

This normalization is what people like Mearsheimer do when they contend that war is due to the West’s failure to respect Russia’s legitimate sphere. They contrast this by arguing that the European powers respected American dominance in the Western Hemisphere following the Monroe Doctrine.

My objection to the use of Sphere of Influence is that it normalizes what Putin is doing. Putin has no interest in “influence”—he wants to impose a government in the Baltics that will do his bidding unquestionably, like Belarus today. That is not a sphere of influence.

These are all very difficult questions. However, they are questions that NATO has had to answer since the alliance’s creation, even with unabashed American support.

NATO needs to communicate that any invasion of a member would lead to massive strikes on military targets in Russia itself. Perhaps Sweden, Finland, and Poland could station forces in the Baltics now.

Putin never believed Ukraine would fight back, and thought it could deter Western aid with its nuclear threats combined with a quick victory. It’s on the Europeans to make sure that there is no doubt in a response to a Russian attack.

It is absolutely vital that any future European security arrangement include Ukraine. They now have the best army in Europe, one that has already demonstrated its ability to defeat the Russians when properly supplied. But, as you have said, it resulted in horrendous levels of destruction.

This is especially important as the US now only maintains around 70k, 1/5th its CW total. The US has already largely withdrawn from European security.

There are no easy solutions. But, I think it is critically important that Sweden and Finland joined NATO. They have very powerful armies and combined with Poland need to take the lead in defense along the border with RU.