Russia/Ukraine?

[gimmethesimplelife]

They are being told Russians were being slaughtered in the Ukraine.

i know Vladimir has many supporters among his people, quite a majority approve of him.

He also seems to have full or close to it control of what the peons hear and judge him by. I still maintain the average Russian living in a small apartment and dealing with sanctions/extreme price increases/fearing severe ruble depreciation does not welcome events since February 24th - if they knew the facts. Rob

[Rogar]

As near as my news following gets, it look like Ukraine may be a major talking point in 2024. Maybe there was a time when most of the GOP was on board with military assistance, but there is a turning tide with some saying it's gone on too long with few signs of advancement and costs too much. A popular solution I've heard is for the Ukraine to cede some territory in exchange for some sort of peace offering . I don't know where their pack leader, Donald stands but he is probably a moving target anyway. My Tumpster sort of friend argues something like 40 billion or more so far to one of the most corrupt governments in Europe.

60 minutes did a feature last night with Lindsey Graham and Liz Warren actually walking side-by-side and both in agreement for U.S. support. As much as a person can trust such things, they interviewed soldiers and government officials who gave a convincing defense on the traceability of US funds and little evidence of someone siphoning off funds for personal benefit. It seems like when the news starts throwing out numbers in the millions or billions it has an emotional impact, but they claim the money going to the Ukraine is only 5% of the total military budget. Lindsey said some thing like, if we don't stop Russia here, they are going to keep going for more.

My concern is when we first became involved it was guns and ammo, then rocket launchers, then F-16's and Bradley fighting vehicles, and now long range missiles. Rumor today was a missile strike may have killed a Russian navel leader. And who knows what Russia and China are cooking up under the table. I don't know if I would change anything, but I could start to feel a little uneasy.

[Rogar]

Krugman's latest substack posted this chart, which I thought was interesting. My closest guess to his dialog and point is that we've basically left the fate of Ukraine up to the EU and that trump is just fine with Putin winning. I'd sort of lost track of the war since we seem to have shifted our Dept of War to Iran or Venezuela.

eu.jpg