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

A palace coup in the offing?

I don't think there is any real chance NATO intervenes unless the conflict spills outside of Ukraine. For one thing, it's going poorly for Russia. And the weapons platforms from the West are just beginning to arrive.

It's like Spot said above - everyone wants to do something due to sympathy, especially when the Ukrainians have such a charismatic leader with immense credibility.

But it's not the smart play, and the smart people are calling the shots this time. Hell, even Boris Johnson, as shitty as he is, has struck the exact right tone in this one. At least from what I've seen.

It would particularly be stupid because that's the one thing that could change world opinion, and might even get China to start actively helping Russia.

Tone, maybe. But many actions are lacking. His party is up to it's neck in Russian money.

Man, I wish. We aren't there yet would be my guess, but every day this goes on we get a little closer. Putin's definitely coming out of this weakened - honestly this is the most hopeful I've been since 2016 that we might see liberalism start to rise again. The autocrats have been kicking our ass for 6 years. Watching the world rally, smart people with ideals doing the right thing. Fuck yeah.

Will Putin go down? If I had to lay a bet on it today I'd say no, but it's definitely within the realm of possibility for the first time in ages. Some analysts are suggesting he will, as Kremlin politics have long been analogous to being a shark - you have to keep swimming, or in this case keep winning, or you drown. But from what I've seen that's not the prevailing opinion.

That's the problem with the history of Napoleon at Elba. Sure, we'd all love it if Putin got wise and fucked off to his own private island somewhere. But he probably thinks he'd eventually be taken out. It's what he would do, after all.

Sorry I can't be more equivocal. But probably not is better than no fucking way, which is where we've been for 15 years.

Sadly true.

Interesting, I'm not as well versed there as I could be. I've seen the UK be pretty aggressive - among the first to back SWIFT exit, closed their air space to Russia before the EU, they are forcing BP to divest its 20% share of Rosneft. I took at as Johnson trying to pivot from the fact Putin almost certainly helped finance the Tories and Brexit, and it seemed pretty politically astute to me. Even if I want him gone. Am I missing something?

London is renowned as a haven for money laundering and historically it's been a lot of Russians doing it. A lot of real estate in London is Russian-owned and interesting today to see talk from some Tories of seizing those properties. But the bulk of it is allowing shell companies with little financial oversight...

Much of that is allowed due to lobbying cash.

So do you think this reuters article is incorrect, or is it just insufficient? https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/lo...in-slaps-tougher-sanctions-russia-2022-02-24/

It talks about asset freezes, limiting individual Russian bank accounts to 50,000 pounds, banning Russia from capital markets, and banning sovereign debt sales.

It's worth bearing in mind also that the lack of regulation in the financial sector is also very much a bread and butter tory philosophy. Start clamping down in those hedge funds, ETFs, penny stocks and CFD trading and watch Johnson lose friends in very short order.

Fun fact for those of a free market bent, CFDs can't be traded in the US (or many other places), but regulations here are in many ways loose to the point of non existent.

Sweden steps up.

This is the big fucking news, though:

When the folks who laundered Nazi gold after the war think you've got too far...

Gee, I wonder why?

Cluster munitions like landmines are seriously fucked up and should be banned.

Good thing the US is on the right side of these issues.

So unconfirmed but word on the street is that the Biden Admin has been hitting the pavement and working the phone for weeks putting this to together. Even going so far as to declassify intel against the wishes of the IC in order to ensure no one could feign surprise or try and go alone with the Russian narrative. Supposedly even shared with the Chinese.

Super fucking long but worth it.

Known far left communist sympathizer:

So:

Formerly Neutral countries Sweden and Finland looking at joining NATO.

Western European NATO countries boosting defense spending.

Western European countries paying Eastern European NATO countries to send their old Soviet weapons to Ukraine (the money which will be used to buy modern Western weapons systems).

Is this 4D chess?