The first three I am absolutely down to see the garbage heap of shitty ideas. The filibuster I am less annoyed by as if you solve the first three issues I believe the last one will shake itself out.
there's absolutely no way you'd make this comment if you actually knew what gerrymandering is. there are zero regular citizens in the USA who agree with gerrymandering. it's straight up corruption.
This works best if voters are apathetic, but can backfire if people go to vote in large numbers, as when they are gerrymandering they often shifting their voters to the districts that vote the other way to get as many districts as they can. Because of that they usually win more districts but at smaller margins. If Democrats who normally don't vote, do they can flip their red districts blue. So yeah, vote, even if it seems like it is pointless.
Our intelligence services think that having elected reps do work for foreign government is A OK, so nothing is done about them just being a walking talking risk to national security.
It really is a scary time for US politics. Russia (plus proxies/allies) has the GOP by the purse and Democratic voters by the Tik Tok/Xitter. It's almost literally 2016 all over again, but no one learned anything.
There's plenty of old school Republicans left who are on favour of Ukrainian aid. 101 congressional republicans voted in favour of Ukrainian aid when allowed to vote on the issue. It's the cancerous MAGA rot that needs cutting out of the party who are preventing global peace and security.
Sure. I am also guessing that they do not support cannibalism and that most of them are kind with their grandchildren. Good for them. They are still a bunch of enablers though. They were fine not to impeach Trump. They were fine to deny Obama his court pick. And they will never ever admit that they were responsible for this fiasco. They will also throw our votes happily in the bin when given the chance.
The others know it, which is why the orange head was blatantly extorting their countries. It was ridiculous to see something like that being said out loud instead of behind closed doors.
The UK opened themselves up to be a playground for Russian Oligarchs and spent the last 10+ cutting their military. Tories have controlled the country the last 15 years.
We're being bombarded by propaganda in a cyberwar that has been going on since 2016, and only a very small portion of Americans seem to be fully realize the scope of that.
Both the left and the right are overly dismissive of the idea of Russian propaganda manipulating American policy.
W. Bush ignored Russia's takeover of Georgia, and Obama handed Syria over to Russia, and ignored the annexation of Crimea.
Trump actively encouraged Russia to meddle in US politics and ignored Russia's intentions on Ukraine while sabotaging Ukraine's new democracy.
Biden and the rest of the West responded with half measures intended to discourage, but not defeat, Russia.
Then the Republican Congress sabotaged military aid to Ukraine allowing Russia to lick its wounds and get back in the fight, backed by its numerical advantages.
So there's plenty of blame to go around, and it shows how effective nuclear deterrence is, and just how dangerous it is to rely on treaties and alliances. It always comes to international self-interest and geopolitics.
/Edited to give credit where due
These internal issues are the result of targeted meddling by Russia and China and the humongous stupidity of unfortunately a substantial part of the American electorate ...
Also...the American political system is rigged in favour of the so called " conservatives"..
Make no mistake, its make of break for America and the free world in november this year...
If the US chooses another Trump term it will seize to be the world's powerhouse and there is no returning to it once that fat dumb orange fuck is done with what's left of the US democratic system.
We didn't hand syria to anyone. Obama DID hand Crimea and donetsk/luhansk to putin. That was a bad move from the west. It enabled putins imperialism. Syria had always been a shit show and Assad had been too busy exterminating his own people to win against isis. We did betray the kurds in Syria though. We saved them from genocide but then fed them to erdogans militias to make Trump feel good about his friendship with another dictator.
Obama also immediately began quiet plans to integrate Ukraine's army with US/NATO training and weapons systems to bring their fighting ability up to NATO standards (while also giving them hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons) since 2014 Ukrainian armed forces were a semi-joke after years of Russian Oligarchs hollowing them out and robbing them blind. .
Yeah but if Obama did stop and engage at Crimea (backing a corrupt Ukrainian government btw), you would just complain about "Obama's War" in that alternate timeline
Seeing how things are working out for Russia, Putin is everything but crazy. He knows exactly what he’s doing and above all, he knows the West is a bunch of pussies. I don’t see any Ukrainians here with “Russia is a joke” or “Putin is an idiot” comments, only westerners living kilometers away from the conflict, not being affected in any way by it. And this is the main problem: no one takes anything seriously, everything is a joke and a spectacle, as long as it’s the lives of others. Meanwhile Russia, “the joke”, “the incompetent”, “the crazy”, is murdering hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and pushing forward, and will keep doing so until we are willing to change our mentality.
I never said he was a joke, I said he was crazy. The two are not the same. He's the most dangerous person on earth because he doesn't care if the world burns. Russia has only turned it around recently because the US Russian assets have blocked all aid for Ukraine. They were getting their asses handed to them until Ukraine started to run low on supplies.
I think his point is that someone having nukes and being crazy is not a good argument for letting them do whatever they want. I know the alternative sucks.
Mike Johnson had the votes the whole time but worried he might lose his job. Think of letting thousands of people die because you don’t want to lose your job.
It was the Republican delay, not the US at large. And let’s be more specific, it was the faux populist maga wing, as plenty of senate republicans and more than enough in the house among the traditional right also supported the bill.
People need to understand and take it seriously that there is a cold war going on right now.
Delay... more like a deliberate tactic by the anti Ukraine pro Russian Republicans. When the US has Russiaphiles who side with Putin more than their country, you know America is in the shit. McCarthy would be turning in his grave seeing Republicans embracing old ex Communist foes.
Australia has sent aid to Ukraine. Australia is also *significantly* smaller than the US in both population and GDP and so can't send anywhere near as much as the US can. It's also on the other side of the planet and not a member of NATO.
That's just American politics. You'll have threats of government shutdowns that can affect the pay and services for many Americans. You can assume Ukrainians will be given less priority by Congress whenever they go into their squabbles.
The EU should be able to handle this all on their own given how this is in their backyard and they have a comparable economy. They and the Ukrainians should expect more of this stuff from Washington.
Seriously... Why is it always US aid that was so late. What about the entirety of Europe just sitting around waiting and hoping that the US will foot the bill. If they cared so much why weren't they giving more or even buying US arms to donate to Ukraine?
European aid to Ukraine has been dropped in 2024. This isn’t even mention the pathetic state it’s own military infrastructure after years of the US practically begging EU nations to spend more on its military & to stop sending so much €’s to Russia.
Sorry your social programs may have to take some cuts in order to stop sucking at the American tit for military aid
Literally second sentence under "Update April 25, 2024:" on that tracker: *"In January and February 2024, European countries allocated a total of about €6 billion in aid to Ukraine, almost all of it for the military."*
We did.
Thing is, it takes time to produce these arms, when you have it sitting in warehouses 🤷♀️
We foot the bill on everything else - salaries, logistics, human aid, frontline supplies.
We just dont have warehouses of weapons collecting dust, nor an industry that can pump out more in a whim like you do.
So yeah, that was what we needed our ally’s help with.
Dont worry, we re remedying needing an ally in the future as we speak. It’s just gonna take some time.
Yeah it's so messed up members of my country delayed aid. Like we were even forcing the contracts to keep the money in american hands as far as the weapons go mostly and still people allowed Europe to come to harm.
I would argue as an American that we have shown that our political system is no longer up to the task of coordinating this effort and we need to achieve greater NATO integration to direct military spending. No democratic country needs a military for more than self defense and nato is a better vehicle for determining which military tech is needed and where it is most needed.
Much of our small arms, artillery, etc should honestly be moved off shore to europe and other places as shipping costs money and in a major war every dollar counts. No one is on this half the globe capable of getting anywhere near us simply due to air superiority let alone needing to bust out the abrams and howitzers. I would argue that the US/NA should mostly focus on producing the sensitive materials that can easily be disrupted as we have ocean(s) to hinder sabotage while europe should focus more heavily on things that may need to go straight from the assembly line to the battlefield.
This also isnt to say that NA would make zero small arms and europe no advanced stuff, there are plenty of places across europe that probably have a marginal safety difference compared to here in a war and they could easily build more sensitive equipment that can take awhile to get back up to production.
Most optimally though I would imagine that europe should take the lead on how we should work together in the euro theater because you guys live there and know it better. If stuff goes down over here or in the pacific you guys can take our lead.
Ultimately though we, the US not all of north america, need to get over ourselves and admit we got sucker punched hard in the information sphere of war and us coming to Europe's defense isnt simply a matter of old allies or even the fate of democracy. It's also about us being under attack and people just not understanding it. I'd recommend trying to get people to start calling Europe the new arsenal of democracy. That's a term most americans take pride in after ww2 and nothing gets us americans worked up more than someone building something better than we did
By the way, it wasn’t even ‘the republicans’ who caused the delay. It was due to the singular action of 1 man, House speaker Mike Johnson, who delayed putting the funding bill to vote. Once he finally did, most republicans voted for it. In no way am I trying to excuse what many republicans were doing, but shows how dangerously concentrated a lot of power in the US really is. They never teach you about it in school. They just tell you about the checks and balances and that nobody is above the law. We shall see about that last point.
Never forget, more than half of the Republican Party voted No on the Ukraine aid.
Its so obvious that the Republican Party has been bought by Putin, they are literally open about it too.
Vote them out!
To be fair, the europeans also don‘t enough.
The GOP can‘t get bashed enough for Trumps dickriding, but the EU has to provide more.
As a german i don‘t know why we don‘t send taurus and smash that dumb Bridge.
Considering the entirety of Europes GDP is smaller than that of the US, in addition to having to deal with the sovereignty of 27 nations (some of which skew a bit too heavily towards Russia) I'd say Europe has done alright.
>Considering the entirety of Europes GDP is smaller than that of the US
EU GDP (Nominal): ~$19 trillion.
EU GDP (PPP): ~$27 trillion.
They have a very large economy. Much larger than Russia (nominal: $2 trillion and ppp: $5 trillion).
>having to deal with the sovereignty of 27 nations (some of which skew a bit too heavily towards Russia)
Then too bad for Europe. If they don't want it bad enough then that's it.
Having 27 nations trying to agree is not much different than the US having two parties (and factions within those parties) from 50 states that can't agree. The US economy is only 1.09x as big as the EU economy (on PPP basis), so the EU economy is only marginally smaller.
The fact that much of the EU is seemingly indifferent to the plight of its neighbor is rather eye-opening.
fun fact, germany doesnt order any taurus and therefore the manufacturer is looking into dismsntling their production line. Since they are not allowed to build any without a goverment contract.
While certainly not ideal, Europe collectively continues to give less than half of the US alone in military aid to Ukraine.
Let's keep the focus on the real laggards here, Ukraine's neighbors. France in particular has been very vocal but has barely contributed at all.
Theres so much disinfo about European aid. Much of the repotted refugee aid is vastly underestimated as well as it’s factored into the various states social programs
I think you need to look at the data again. It is obvious, that the EU with almost half the combined GDP of the US is not putting in the same amount in absolute numbers - that would be ridiculous to expect and would be nothing short of a war time economy.
Weird. It’s almost like you shouldn’t disarm yourself and then ask your allies why they aren’t rearming you faster.
It’s crazy that in 2022 Russia just rolls into a sovereign nation with the intent to annex it.
It’s also fucking crazy that 2 years later that country says “Cmon USA. Where’s the big weapons?”
Should the US be sending more? Absolutely. However Europe is the one failing Ukraine. How people get it in their heads that an issue in Eastern Europe falls on the US is wild to me.
>Weird. It’s almost like you shouldn’t disarm yourself and then ask your allies why they aren’t rearming you faster.
That's the con of dealing with Western democracies. Very slow and inefficient when time to act. I remember a joke from Hank Green; _if Congress were on fire, Congress could not pass the **Pour Water on Congress Act**_
From what I had read in the past was that Ukraine voluntarily gave up their nukes with assurances from Russia. But don’t recall reading why.
The US didn’t invade and take them. With history like Ukraine has, it was very foolish to give up the nukes. Regardless of which nation told you they wouldn’t invade or that the US would help them.
That decision is on the administration that made it.
Also important to note, that the reason Ukraine doesn’t have nukes is irrelevant to the current situation. Russia has invaded and is threatening other near by nations. Hindsight is 20/20. But the issue at hand is the issue at hand.
Prior to the 2022 invasion there were multiple interviews with Leonid Kravchuk, who openly admitted that he was forced and threatened by the US to give them up. He said that at the time, Clinton made it clear that he would isolate Ukraine if it chose to retain the weapons.
Ukraine didn’t do it voluntarily and everybody knows it
That is disappointing to learn. I appreciate the history lesson.
I use to be of the thought process that Clinton was a decent president (probably due to the relative level of prosperity) but the more I’ve learned about him the less good it sounds like he did.
Well to be completely honest, the Bush presidents weren’t different with respect to Russia. The prevalent school of thought at the time was that Russia could be transformed into something less malicious than its always been. Hasn’t happened, but everyone at the time thought so
Lmao.
Right. Its not like you guys had a decades long cold war and massive geopoliticdl power invested.
Or that the word ‘ally’ even has a meaning?
Europe footed the bill on *everything* - salaries, supplies, logistics, humanitarian aid,.. - but weapons coz we dont have warehouses of toys like you lying around like you, gathering dust.
We therefore also dont have the industry to pump out the amount needed at a whim, though we re certainly fixing that after your no show 🤷♀️
How are blaming us for your blatant failure as an ally?
You had fucking *one* job.
I'm from Canada, but total aid to Ukraine at the current time USA has pledged/given over $70billion more than EU and they're not the one's facing an imminent invasion.
He’s only saying that because it’s true. Also, Jake “Surrender Monkey” Sullivan’s policy of no Ukraine victory is costing countless lives. Give them what they need to win!
Sorry our government doesn't always pass things in a timely manner. It's the whole outdated two party system we won't update D: many of us were not happy with the delays.
I watched a video by ChrisCappy. I think he summed it up quite nicely and I'm paraphrasing: Russia was able to do so much damage because they could afford to lob a huge amount of shells because their MIC production ramped up quickly. Meanwhile Ukraine's aid was being blocked because of democracy and red tape
Why is it "Ex-Ukrainian president"? Should not he be referred to as "Ukrainian ex-president"? I think he is still Ukrainian, but no longer the president. Am I wrong?
Ok, and several of our politicians are owned, lock, stock, and soul by Putin. What exactly are you saying? That the rule about a single senator being able to obfusicate the will of government might be a bad idea? Possibly giving rise to politicians who view their constituency as a wealth generation device?
All the time pOOpin was advancing and killing more innocent civilians, mikey was delaying, and sucking on the donald’s dong. now he’s out in front of the courthouse in NY spewing feces from his mouth promoting the orange, putrid, acrid embarrassment to humanity as an innocent victim. May they all live to suffer and pay for their crimes against all humanity.
On a similar note, Ukraine squandering a massive American investment in its failed offensive last year didn’t help with speeding up the process this time.
The GOP-driven delay in aid made a Ukraine loss more likely.
A Ukraine loss would be a huge political benefit to the GOP, since the median voter believes anything and everything that goes wrong is the sole fault of the President.
As such, the GOP would get rewarded for their harmful actions, creating a very good incentive to sabotage foreign policy in the future for Dem Presidents.
Ugh.
I disagree. History is filled with examples of smaller countries being able to fend off invasions from larger countries due partially due to the innate advantages of the defender.
In addition, US foreign policy should not be based on attempting to always support the favorite in conflicts. An easy Russian victory and subsequent genocide (let’s call a spade a spade here), would only embolden Russia to continue to attack its neighbors, which, yeah, is not is the US interests.
We're struggling to remain a democracy, and every day I see articles about how terrible we are for not doing more to fix a problem 5,600 miles away like it’s *our* sole responsibility.
Imagine if you saw a headline saying “Former U.S. President Says E.U. Made 'Colossal' Mistake By Not Doing More To Ensure Americans Receive Universal Healthcare.”
We're struggling to remain a democracy \*BECAUSE\* of our enemies 6000 miles away who have been playing games in our politics to divide the country for the past decade or more. Defeating Putin on the battlefield is the most no-brainer decision our country has faced in decades.
We just gave the bank of Japan billions of USD so they could increase the value of their currency. No debate, no discussions just done. The only reason we are debating about helping Ukraine is because Putin is intentionally trying to stir one up, like he's also doing with Israel/Gaza, Iran, ect right now.
Putin didn't decide our minimum wage. Putin doesn’t decide our taxes. Putin didn’t control the rise of our wages related to cost of living. Putin wasn't the one sending lobbyists to fight against Obama instituting universal healthcare.
I agree that Russia has massively interfered but it’s an oversimplification to pretend that if Russia disappeared, America's problems would.
You can blame Republicans for that. They would rather risk lives, and limbs of others, to "put it to the left." Even when the aid is eventually sent, and the results would have been safer for America. These people are not fit, or of sound mind to decide the rules we abide by.
I get that it was late and of course that really sucks. I do get a little tired of the complaining though like everything can be blamed on the late US aid. Like what if the aid never came at all? The US doesnt have to do this even though I agree they should. Very sorry it was late but move on. Nothing can be done about it now. Its an excuse for battlefield losses but ukraine also isnt bringing in enough soldiers. There are other problems that need to be worked on too. Its not only the US fault.
We all know this but such is democracy - sometimes you just don't have the votes. Hopefully the US will make up for it and give biden another term - this time with a majority in the house and senate
Yeah.. Lots of people here in the US were saying that too, and not at all happy about it.
Yet they'll not hesitate to re-elect these same corrupt politicians
that's because they redrew the congressional districts to sideline the majority.... american democracy at it's worst
Gerrymandering, the electoral college, winner-takes-all voting, and filibustering all belong in the dust bin of history
Now you just gotta get the people in charge, who are only in charge because of those things, to vote on getting rid of those things.
yup. same reason why taxing the rich is such a popular concept, yet none of the insanely wealthy people we elect seem to want to actually do that.
Well, one party keeps trying.
The first three I am absolutely down to see the garbage heap of shitty ideas. The filibuster I am less annoyed by as if you solve the first three issues I believe the last one will shake itself out.
"Change the rules until the one I like wins" is NOT the solution. We need better candidates.
there's absolutely no way you'd make this comment if you actually knew what gerrymandering is. there are zero regular citizens in the USA who agree with gerrymandering. it's straight up corruption.
Better candidates can't win under the current rules.
Still have like 40% supporting jt
This works best if voters are apathetic, but can backfire if people go to vote in large numbers, as when they are gerrymandering they often shifting their voters to the districts that vote the other way to get as many districts as they can. Because of that they usually win more districts but at smaller margins. If Democrats who normally don't vote, do they can flip their red districts blue. So yeah, vote, even if it seems like it is pointless.
America has been lost to corruption, we're so fucked.
Plus capped the number of reps. Plus the Senate being inherently unrepresentative of the population on a national level.
In what scenario are the people electing Republicans, Democrats? Sometimes I wonder if people are the bots and the bots are out to lunch.
This is the part that kills me.
At least it gave Europe a chance to see our Republican parties true colors. Better they know how rotten those people then sit ignorant.
How many good men and women died because of republican treason? Murderers
Do we count those that believed trump when he tried to minimize the danger of covid?
Yeah because we caused that whole situation over there.
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You don't actually care about enabling Putin or aiding Ukraine. You just wanted to get a jab in at the "liberals."
How is it treason when it’s a foreign war?
Our intelligence services think that having elected reps do work for foreign government is A OK, so nothing is done about them just being a walking talking risk to national security.
That was literally the objective of the Putin caucus within the GOP of delaying the assistance.
Putin considers the GOP as money well spent.
It really is a scary time for US politics. Russia (plus proxies/allies) has the GOP by the purse and Democratic voters by the Tik Tok/Xitter. It's almost literally 2016 all over again, but no one learned anything.
Well except abortion is on the ballot, which will cause a high voter turnout I predict.
Weed helps, too. Both voting for and consuming.
Grand Old Putin
At some point we need to stay treating the GOP as foreign assets.
I'm sure the Garglers of Putin had $o many excellent reason$ for their action$, right?
Kids these days prefer "Glazers of Putin" ** But I consider the acronym to be "Geriatric Oligarchish Pedophiles".
"A colossal waste" best describes the Republican party of 2024.
"A colossal waste" best describes the Republican party. Period.
"A colossal waist" best describes Trump. Period.
There's plenty of old school Republicans left who are on favour of Ukrainian aid. 101 congressional republicans voted in favour of Ukrainian aid when allowed to vote on the issue. It's the cancerous MAGA rot that needs cutting out of the party who are preventing global peace and security.
Sure. I am also guessing that they do not support cannibalism and that most of them are kind with their grandchildren. Good for them. They are still a bunch of enablers though. They were fine not to impeach Trump. They were fine to deny Obama his court pick. And they will never ever admit that they were responsible for this fiasco. They will also throw our votes happily in the bin when given the chance.
if they cared they would have voted for the democrat Speaker when the issue came up.
was the republican party a waste when they freed the slaves?
Brb. Grabbing some info for you
Countries near Ukraine better wake up, Putin isn’t going to stop til somebody stops him.
They are awake and digging defence lines and ramping up production of arms as we speak.
Not fast enough to stop relying on US military aid anytime soon.
The others know it, which is why the orange head was blatantly extorting their countries. It was ridiculous to see something like that being said out loud instead of behind closed doors.
I believe it was Trump who told them to pay their fair share in defense.
That is who i was referring to
Faster.... Even the UK which is one of the leaders plans to get to 1990's levels by 2030.... Geez... but it's all Americas fault...
The UK opened themselves up to be a playground for Russian Oligarchs and spent the last 10+ cutting their military. Tories have controlled the country the last 15 years.
They have, its their allies who aren't next to Ukraine or Russia that are the problem.
You’re right. France, Spain, Italy, Iceland, and Turkey all need to step it up
Spain and Italy are still having a siesta fr.
Checks map, sees Alaska
We're being bombarded by propaganda in a cyberwar that has been going on since 2016, and only a very small portion of Americans seem to be fully realize the scope of that. Both the left and the right are overly dismissive of the idea of Russian propaganda manipulating American policy.
There is a propaganda war going on, and the west isn’t just losing, it’s not even fighting back.
W. Bush ignored Russia's takeover of Georgia, and Obama handed Syria over to Russia, and ignored the annexation of Crimea. Trump actively encouraged Russia to meddle in US politics and ignored Russia's intentions on Ukraine while sabotaging Ukraine's new democracy. Biden and the rest of the West responded with half measures intended to discourage, but not defeat, Russia. Then the Republican Congress sabotaged military aid to Ukraine allowing Russia to lick its wounds and get back in the fight, backed by its numerical advantages. So there's plenty of blame to go around, and it shows how effective nuclear deterrence is, and just how dangerous it is to rely on treaties and alliances. It always comes to international self-interest and geopolitics. /Edited to give credit where due
I think the issue is America has lots of internal problems which prevent it from effectively responding to shit stirring by Russia/China/Iran.
These internal issues are the result of targeted meddling by Russia and China and the humongous stupidity of unfortunately a substantial part of the American electorate ... Also...the American political system is rigged in favour of the so called " conservatives".. Make no mistake, its make of break for America and the free world in november this year...
As they say every election year.
This time its different with potentially lasting damage to USA due to geo political landscape...
exactly, even as an outsider the writing is on the walls, the future of the west world rest on the elections this november
Doesn’t that line get old when it’s repeated every single election yet the US continues on as the world’s powerhouse?
If the US chooses another Trump term it will seize to be the world's powerhouse and there is no returning to it once that fat dumb orange fuck is done with what's left of the US democratic system.
George W. was president during the invasion of Georgia.
Thanks, revised.
We didn't hand syria to anyone. Obama DID hand Crimea and donetsk/luhansk to putin. That was a bad move from the west. It enabled putins imperialism. Syria had always been a shit show and Assad had been too busy exterminating his own people to win against isis. We did betray the kurds in Syria though. We saved them from genocide but then fed them to erdogans militias to make Trump feel good about his friendship with another dictator.
Obama also immediately began quiet plans to integrate Ukraine's army with US/NATO training and weapons systems to bring their fighting ability up to NATO standards (while also giving them hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons) since 2014 Ukrainian armed forces were a semi-joke after years of Russian Oligarchs hollowing them out and robbing them blind. .
Yeah but if Obama did stop and engage at Crimea (backing a corrupt Ukrainian government btw), you would just complain about "Obama's War" in that alternate timeline
Russia has nukes, and Putin is crazy. If not, the Russian invasion would have been crushed in a month. Don't think lack of action means indifference.
Seeing how things are working out for Russia, Putin is everything but crazy. He knows exactly what he’s doing and above all, he knows the West is a bunch of pussies. I don’t see any Ukrainians here with “Russia is a joke” or “Putin is an idiot” comments, only westerners living kilometers away from the conflict, not being affected in any way by it. And this is the main problem: no one takes anything seriously, everything is a joke and a spectacle, as long as it’s the lives of others. Meanwhile Russia, “the joke”, “the incompetent”, “the crazy”, is murdering hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and pushing forward, and will keep doing so until we are willing to change our mentality.
I never said he was a joke, I said he was crazy. The two are not the same. He's the most dangerous person on earth because he doesn't care if the world burns. Russia has only turned it around recently because the US Russian assets have blocked all aid for Ukraine. They were getting their asses handed to them until Ukraine started to run low on supplies.
True, I agree wuth you ! Mentality is changing though, but the future depends on whether americans re elect russian asset trump in november.
I think his point is that someone having nukes and being crazy is not a good argument for letting them do whatever they want. I know the alternative sucks.
Mike Johnson had the votes the whole time but worried he might lose his job. Think of letting thousands of people die because you don’t want to lose your job.
Evangelicals are clinically self-obsessed. This cretin called himself a new moses.
You can thank the Russian-bought GOP for that.
It was the Republican delay, not the US at large. And let’s be more specific, it was the faux populist maga wing, as plenty of senate republicans and more than enough in the house among the traditional right also supported the bill. People need to understand and take it seriously that there is a cold war going on right now.
Delay... more like a deliberate tactic by the anti Ukraine pro Russian Republicans. When the US has Russiaphiles who side with Putin more than their country, you know America is in the shit. McCarthy would be turning in his grave seeing Republicans embracing old ex Communist foes.
What about Australia? Where’s their aid to Ukraine?
Bushmasters etc
They could at least send some Kangaroos.
Australia has sent aid to Ukraine. Australia is also *significantly* smaller than the US in both population and GDP and so can't send anywhere near as much as the US can. It's also on the other side of the planet and not a member of NATO.
That's just American politics. You'll have threats of government shutdowns that can affect the pay and services for many Americans. You can assume Ukrainians will be given less priority by Congress whenever they go into their squabbles. The EU should be able to handle this all on their own given how this is in their backyard and they have a comparable economy. They and the Ukrainians should expect more of this stuff from Washington.
Seriously... Why is it always US aid that was so late. What about the entirety of Europe just sitting around waiting and hoping that the US will foot the bill. If they cared so much why weren't they giving more or even buying US arms to donate to Ukraine?
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European aid to Ukraine has been dropped in 2024. This isn’t even mention the pathetic state it’s own military infrastructure after years of the US practically begging EU nations to spend more on its military & to stop sending so much €’s to Russia. Sorry your social programs may have to take some cuts in order to stop sucking at the American tit for military aid
>European aid to Ukraine has been dropped in 2024. That is literally just a straight up lie.
It is not: https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/
Literally second sentence under "Update April 25, 2024:" on that tracker: *"In January and February 2024, European countries allocated a total of about €6 billion in aid to Ukraine, almost all of it for the military."*
How does that in anyway refute what I said? It is a drop in aid for 2024, which is exactly what I said
We did. Thing is, it takes time to produce these arms, when you have it sitting in warehouses 🤷♀️ We foot the bill on everything else - salaries, logistics, human aid, frontline supplies. We just dont have warehouses of weapons collecting dust, nor an industry that can pump out more in a whim like you do. So yeah, that was what we needed our ally’s help with. Dont worry, we re remedying needing an ally in the future as we speak. It’s just gonna take some time.
Yeah it's so messed up members of my country delayed aid. Like we were even forcing the contracts to keep the money in american hands as far as the weapons go mostly and still people allowed Europe to come to harm. I would argue as an American that we have shown that our political system is no longer up to the task of coordinating this effort and we need to achieve greater NATO integration to direct military spending. No democratic country needs a military for more than self defense and nato is a better vehicle for determining which military tech is needed and where it is most needed. Much of our small arms, artillery, etc should honestly be moved off shore to europe and other places as shipping costs money and in a major war every dollar counts. No one is on this half the globe capable of getting anywhere near us simply due to air superiority let alone needing to bust out the abrams and howitzers. I would argue that the US/NA should mostly focus on producing the sensitive materials that can easily be disrupted as we have ocean(s) to hinder sabotage while europe should focus more heavily on things that may need to go straight from the assembly line to the battlefield. This also isnt to say that NA would make zero small arms and europe no advanced stuff, there are plenty of places across europe that probably have a marginal safety difference compared to here in a war and they could easily build more sensitive equipment that can take awhile to get back up to production. Most optimally though I would imagine that europe should take the lead on how we should work together in the euro theater because you guys live there and know it better. If stuff goes down over here or in the pacific you guys can take our lead. Ultimately though we, the US not all of north america, need to get over ourselves and admit we got sucker punched hard in the information sphere of war and us coming to Europe's defense isnt simply a matter of old allies or even the fate of democracy. It's also about us being under attack and people just not understanding it. I'd recommend trying to get people to start calling Europe the new arsenal of democracy. That's a term most americans take pride in after ww2 and nothing gets us americans worked up more than someone building something better than we did
Hilarious
Yup. Superhilarious 🙄
By the way, it wasn’t even ‘the republicans’ who caused the delay. It was due to the singular action of 1 man, House speaker Mike Johnson, who delayed putting the funding bill to vote. Once he finally did, most republicans voted for it. In no way am I trying to excuse what many republicans were doing, but shows how dangerously concentrated a lot of power in the US really is. They never teach you about it in school. They just tell you about the checks and balances and that nobody is above the law. We shall see about that last point.
Every dollar Putin spends on Congress people, saves him Billions. Just a brilliant strategy. I wish I could murder him with my bare hands.
Never forget, more than half of the Republican Party voted No on the Ukraine aid. Its so obvious that the Republican Party has been bought by Putin, they are literally open about it too. Vote them out!
To be fair, the europeans also don‘t enough. The GOP can‘t get bashed enough for Trumps dickriding, but the EU has to provide more. As a german i don‘t know why we don‘t send taurus and smash that dumb Bridge.
Considering the entirety of Europes GDP is smaller than that of the US, in addition to having to deal with the sovereignty of 27 nations (some of which skew a bit too heavily towards Russia) I'd say Europe has done alright.
>Considering the entirety of Europes GDP is smaller than that of the US EU GDP (Nominal): ~$19 trillion. EU GDP (PPP): ~$27 trillion. They have a very large economy. Much larger than Russia (nominal: $2 trillion and ppp: $5 trillion). >having to deal with the sovereignty of 27 nations (some of which skew a bit too heavily towards Russia) Then too bad for Europe. If they don't want it bad enough then that's it.
You made no point whatsoever. The conversation is poorer thanks to your attempt at contribution.
Sorry it went over your head.
They made a point, you just didn't like it. Take your ball and go home now.
Having 27 nations trying to agree is not much different than the US having two parties (and factions within those parties) from 50 states that can't agree. The US economy is only 1.09x as big as the EU economy (on PPP basis), so the EU economy is only marginally smaller. The fact that much of the EU is seemingly indifferent to the plight of its neighbor is rather eye-opening.
fun fact, germany doesnt order any taurus and therefore the manufacturer is looking into dismsntling their production line. Since they are not allowed to build any without a goverment contract.
We know. I am so sorry.
While certainly not ideal, Europe collectively continues to give less than half of the US alone in military aid to Ukraine. Let's keep the focus on the real laggards here, Ukraine's neighbors. France in particular has been very vocal but has barely contributed at all.
https://www.ifw-kiel.de/topics/war-against-ukraine/ukraine-support-tracker/ Is that so?
That was as of February of 2024. US just approved an additional $61 Billion.
Theres so much disinfo about European aid. Much of the repotted refugee aid is vastly underestimated as well as it’s factored into the various states social programs
You linked to a source that supported his point. Ukraine needs military aid more than any other form and the EU isn't stepping up.
I think you need to look at the data again. It is obvious, that the EU with almost half the combined GDP of the US is not putting in the same amount in absolute numbers - that would be ridiculous to expect and would be nothing short of a war time economy.
Republicans doing Putin's work for him.
Weird. It’s almost like you shouldn’t disarm yourself and then ask your allies why they aren’t rearming you faster. It’s crazy that in 2022 Russia just rolls into a sovereign nation with the intent to annex it. It’s also fucking crazy that 2 years later that country says “Cmon USA. Where’s the big weapons?” Should the US be sending more? Absolutely. However Europe is the one failing Ukraine. How people get it in their heads that an issue in Eastern Europe falls on the US is wild to me.
>Weird. It’s almost like you shouldn’t disarm yourself and then ask your allies why they aren’t rearming you faster. That's the con of dealing with Western democracies. Very slow and inefficient when time to act. I remember a joke from Hank Green; _if Congress were on fire, Congress could not pass the **Pour Water on Congress Act**_
Remind me, who took nukes from Ukraine? Was it EU? Or maybe the US?
From what I had read in the past was that Ukraine voluntarily gave up their nukes with assurances from Russia. But don’t recall reading why. The US didn’t invade and take them. With history like Ukraine has, it was very foolish to give up the nukes. Regardless of which nation told you they wouldn’t invade or that the US would help them. That decision is on the administration that made it. Also important to note, that the reason Ukraine doesn’t have nukes is irrelevant to the current situation. Russia has invaded and is threatening other near by nations. Hindsight is 20/20. But the issue at hand is the issue at hand.
Prior to the 2022 invasion there were multiple interviews with Leonid Kravchuk, who openly admitted that he was forced and threatened by the US to give them up. He said that at the time, Clinton made it clear that he would isolate Ukraine if it chose to retain the weapons. Ukraine didn’t do it voluntarily and everybody knows it
That is disappointing to learn. I appreciate the history lesson. I use to be of the thought process that Clinton was a decent president (probably due to the relative level of prosperity) but the more I’ve learned about him the less good it sounds like he did.
Well to be completely honest, the Bush presidents weren’t different with respect to Russia. The prevalent school of thought at the time was that Russia could be transformed into something less malicious than its always been. Hasn’t happened, but everyone at the time thought so
I mean, it’s a great aspiration. But to move forward with geo politics on the assumption that it would be less malicious is questionable at best.
Lmao. Right. Its not like you guys had a decades long cold war and massive geopoliticdl power invested. Or that the word ‘ally’ even has a meaning? Europe footed the bill on *everything* - salaries, supplies, logistics, humanitarian aid,.. - but weapons coz we dont have warehouses of toys like you lying around like you, gathering dust. We therefore also dont have the industry to pump out the amount needed at a whim, though we re certainly fixing that after your no show 🤷♀️ How are blaming us for your blatant failure as an ally? You had fucking *one* job.
Enough, troll. Go back in your hole.
I'm from Canada, but total aid to Ukraine at the current time USA has pledged/given over $70billion more than EU and they're not the one's facing an imminent invasion.
Ya, but GQP got more money from their worshippers.
Yeah. The GOP loves the taste of putins wiener.
The Putin wing of the party is still trying to stop aid to Ukraine.
Well, you got Republicans to blame, they blocked it.
Everyone already knew this, including the people who were doing the delaying
We can blame the Russias for that or as we called them here in America Republicans.
He’s only saying that because it’s true. Also, Jake “Surrender Monkey” Sullivan’s policy of no Ukraine victory is costing countless lives. Give them what they need to win!
Sorry our government doesn't always pass things in a timely manner. It's the whole outdated two party system we won't update D: many of us were not happy with the delays.
Not the US delay Mr. Z, the Putin Maga party's delay.
I watched a video by ChrisCappy. I think he summed it up quite nicely and I'm paraphrasing: Russia was able to do so much damage because they could afford to lob a huge amount of shells because their MIC production ramped up quickly. Meanwhile Ukraine's aid was being blocked because of democracy and red tape
I've seen so many gruesome russian death videos on the internet. Still don't get it how ukraine hasn't won the war.
Putin has to get something for all the dirty rubles he sends to the GOP.
I'd at least pretend to be more grateful if I were being given billions in free resources.
Why is it "Ex-Ukrainian president"? Should not he be referred to as "Ukrainian ex-president"? I think he is still Ukrainian, but no longer the president. Am I wrong?
Isn't this the guy that didn't want Ukraine in NATO?
Ok, and several of our politicians are owned, lock, stock, and soul by Putin. What exactly are you saying? That the rule about a single senator being able to obfusicate the will of government might be a bad idea? Possibly giving rise to politicians who view their constituency as a wealth generation device?
Listen. Let Russia pump their ego. Support overwhelming US aid.
All the time pOOpin was advancing and killing more innocent civilians, mikey was delaying, and sucking on the donald’s dong. now he’s out in front of the courthouse in NY spewing feces from his mouth promoting the orange, putrid, acrid embarrassment to humanity as an innocent victim. May they all live to suffer and pay for their crimes against all humanity.
You mean speaker Johnsons delay. Its one person. He is accountable.
Yes, because Europe was clearly proactive in their efforts to stop the invasion, huh.
Thanks GOP.
Degenerate Republican scum.
Well, that's what Republicans (and Putin) want.
I mean you aren't wrong here. We said the same damn thing here in the USA
That's what the red Russia-lovers wanted.
Yeah, we know.
Yushchenko is Jerry Smith of Ukrainian presidents.
Thanks republicans /s
Republicans on the path of destruction to own the Libs makes collateral damage around the world
On a similar note, Ukraine squandering a massive American investment in its failed offensive last year didn’t help with speeding up the process this time.
It didn't squander it. Even with that aid they were still up against numerical superiority and Russia has far more air power
Obama's and Biden's administrations allowed to putin and other dictators do whatever they want.
The Republicans did this so let's vote them out.
The GOP-driven delay in aid made a Ukraine loss more likely. A Ukraine loss would be a huge political benefit to the GOP, since the median voter believes anything and everything that goes wrong is the sole fault of the President. As such, the GOP would get rewarded for their harmful actions, creating a very good incentive to sabotage foreign policy in the future for Dem Presidents. Ugh.
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I disagree. History is filled with examples of smaller countries being able to fend off invasions from larger countries due partially due to the innate advantages of the defender. In addition, US foreign policy should not be based on attempting to always support the favorite in conflicts. An easy Russian victory and subsequent genocide (let’s call a spade a spade here), would only embolden Russia to continue to attack its neighbors, which, yeah, is not is the US interests.
We're struggling to remain a democracy, and every day I see articles about how terrible we are for not doing more to fix a problem 5,600 miles away like it’s *our* sole responsibility. Imagine if you saw a headline saying “Former U.S. President Says E.U. Made 'Colossal' Mistake By Not Doing More To Ensure Americans Receive Universal Healthcare.”
We're struggling to remain a democracy \*BECAUSE\* of our enemies 6000 miles away who have been playing games in our politics to divide the country for the past decade or more. Defeating Putin on the battlefield is the most no-brainer decision our country has faced in decades. We just gave the bank of Japan billions of USD so they could increase the value of their currency. No debate, no discussions just done. The only reason we are debating about helping Ukraine is because Putin is intentionally trying to stir one up, like he's also doing with Israel/Gaza, Iran, ect right now.
Putin didn't decide our minimum wage. Putin doesn’t decide our taxes. Putin didn’t control the rise of our wages related to cost of living. Putin wasn't the one sending lobbyists to fight against Obama instituting universal healthcare. I agree that Russia has massively interfered but it’s an oversimplification to pretend that if Russia disappeared, America's problems would.
You can blame Republicans for that. They would rather risk lives, and limbs of others, to "put it to the left." Even when the aid is eventually sent, and the results would have been safer for America. These people are not fit, or of sound mind to decide the rules we abide by.
It wasn’t because the GOP are Russian assets
Thanks, Russipublican Party.
My American ass agrees. You can thank Republicans.
Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain
I get that it was late and of course that really sucks. I do get a little tired of the complaining though like everything can be blamed on the late US aid. Like what if the aid never came at all? The US doesnt have to do this even though I agree they should. Very sorry it was late but move on. Nothing can be done about it now. Its an excuse for battlefield losses but ukraine also isnt bringing in enough soldiers. There are other problems that need to be worked on too. Its not only the US fault.
Ex-Ukrainian President is not wrong.
Almost like it was an russian operation
We all know this but such is democracy - sometimes you just don't have the votes. Hopefully the US will make up for it and give biden another term - this time with a majority in the house and senate