"The 1980's are calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

Thread

nice

Trump would have sent US troops to help Russia, and Paladin would have been tripping over his erect dick to praise the move.

We're what, 4 days in? One needs to guard against wishful thinking but things seem to be going badly for Putin in Ukraine, internationally and domestically. Zelensky is emerging as a hero. Let us hope that this doesn't drive the Russians towards even more barbaric tactics.

Also, the SWIFT expulsion is very significant. There could be bank runs on Monday in Russia and a general financial collapse. It is would be surprising if gas supplies to Europe were maintained in that scenario.

I am really hoping that all this blundering by Putin is not just cherry picked misinformation. Maybe if Putin actually fucks up big time the world might evolve a little more?

Dare to hope Putin is really all image.

OMG, could you imagine if the trucker convoy tried to bully these people.

I'm noticing a strange thing.

As the days go by my feelings on this are shifting in a direction they rarely go.

Rationally I maintain our best approach is to maintain the NATO border and provide humanitarian support.

Emotionally, however, there's a totally different feeling emerge, one of wanting to be more pro active. It's incredibly hard to watch events and feel at a remove when you see people scared but defiant.
When you see people like Zelensky in an era of joke politicians.

I'm unsure whether this is a positive thing, whether this is a legitimate desire to do good or a response not completely removed from that induced by populism.
It could be compassion, it could be anger, it could be simply how people get caught up in events.

All I know for sure is every time I make a comment irl or a post online there's a greater and greater disparity between objective and subjective and sometimes there's a very bitter taste.

Yep.

I don't think it's there enough yet, but countries like China coming again against Putin is a good sign because it raises the possibility of a true international coalition.

Practically I don't think things will align positively enough for it to happen, but while a direct NATO response could quickly escalate into WW3, a UN response involving basically every power other than Russia would likely force Putin back without further escalation.

That's kind of what I'm wondering. Russian troops are closing on Kyiv; do the scattered stories of tanks running out of gas help paper over what they're actually doing?

It reminds me a little of Trump being dismissed in 2015 because he's a bumbling moron, his stupidity making it possible to ignore the amount of harm he might be able to do,

My concern with that is that they just made themselves a legitimate military target. How many civilians will die when Russia sends cruise missiles at the place?

Do it, but don’t post it on social media.

In one way, in another many in Ukraine are publicly showing off these things as it let's their fellow citizens know how many others are staying and planning to fight.

If the whole civilian population is fighting back then it gets a lot harder to class them all as legitimate military targets.

That's fair. Historically, the Russians have demonstrated that they really don't care about the "laws of war." They made a calculated decision and hopefully the propaganda value outweighs the civilian deaths.

Well, we had a good run.

I still maintain that Putin is many things, but he's not suicidal. Even the Great and Anointed Orange knows nukes are suicide.

Using even a "tactical nuke" (I hate that word) in Ukraine would unify the entire planet against him and then it would be time for military intervention.

It shows that he's fairly desperate and it doesn't mean that he'll use them. But he's clearly putting the west on notice. And we should probably listen, particularly those advocating that NATO intervenes.

Ugh.

The Moscow Stock Exchange website is down, as well as many of its media mouthpieces. Not really a big deal in the big picture, but very symbolic.

Graffiti in St Petersburg. The head of the Russian mission to the Climate Change council at the UN has apologized on behalf of all the Russian who had no idea this was coming. Oligarchs can't fly to Europe and are having their wealth seized.