Even if CIA Director Ratcliffe flew to Moscow to warn Putin against attacking Europe — so what? Then-CIA Director Burns flew to Moscow in Nov 2021 to warn against invading Ukraine. How’d that go?
This changes nothing for Europe. We must deter Russia now — and arm Ukraine to win.
I’m beginning to suspect that wasting years dragging feet on military aid to Ukraine and playing escalation management games, giving an aggressive militaristic Russia the time and resources to ramp up its war machine to full power against the free world, might not have been the brightest idea.
A family is saying goodbye to their father, who was killed by russians.
When I watch this video, I feel an overwhelming sense of pain and injustice. And a deep call for justice. Russia must pay.
The pain russians have inflicted on Ukrainians will be felt for generations. The evil they have unleashed will never be forgotten.
The lives they have taken cannot be returned. The families they have destroyed cannot simply be made whole again.
But the crimes they have committed must not go unpunished.
There must be justice.
A Russian "Shahed" drone struck Romania today and exploded.
One probably shouldn't hold one's breath for a reaction from NATO...
Once again, a Russian drone has exploded in Romania. Such incidents are becoming more frequent—and therein lies the danger.
If Putin can repeatedly violate NATO airspace without facing tangible consequences, the risk grows that Moscow will continue to test the limits of what it can get away with.
⚠️ Deterrence only works if red lines are credible.
Any hesitant response could be interpreted by Moscow as an invitation to go even further next time.
I am always puzzled by people’s view of Putin as a sane person.
He’s irrational, he’s a psychopath, and his logic and knowledge of the world are quite limited. What he’s been saying in recent years, and especially in recent months, is not even borderline – it is simply delusional.
His psyche has been shaped by a KGB agent’s professional paranoia and by the habit of lying to and manipulating the listener. One does not remain completely normal while living like that for decades. (This is why I believe secret service agents should never be allowed anywhere near a presidential office.)
So, when people argue that Putin wouldn’t attack NATO “because Russia doesn’t have the resources” or “because they wouldn’t gain anything from it,” I’d like to remind them that NONE of the decisions Putin has made in recent years have been beneficial for Russia as a country, for the Russian economy, or for the Russian people. None of them.
There is nothing rational about what is going on. Hundreds of thousands of working-age men are being taken out of the economy and killed. Immigrants from Asian countries are being brought in by the tens of thousands to replace them in industry. Russia’s participation in the global economy is shrinking. The budget is being redirected toward a war economy, leaving healthcare, science, education, and business support behind.
Nothing is rational here.
So expect ANYTHING. Do not try to explain it. It will be irrational anyway – rational locally, within the narrow mind of a madman, but irrational globally.
🎯 I'd say Europe is waiting for a mass casualty event before taking the Russian threat seriously, but there has already been one, MH17 in July 2014, and nearly every day in Ukraine. I'm not sure Germany or NATO would respond to another one--and worse, Putin isn't sure either.
Life of Ukrainians under russian occupation:
70 year old Ukrainian from Berdyansk was sentenced to 14 years in prison after she developed "a persistent negative attitude toward representatives of Russian state authorities" and donated 33 dollars to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
70-year-old Ukrainian woman sentenced to 15 years in prison for money transfers to the Ukrainian armed forces – Russian media.
Russian sources claim that the resident of the occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region made 24 transfers to support the Ukrainian armed forces between January and November 2024 using a Ukrainian bank's mobile app (totaling around 33,000 hryvnias, approx. 633 euros).
The world would be a better place without Russia.
"Just give him the Donbas. Then he'll stop."
Chechnya, 1999 — then he stopped? Georgia, 2008 — then he stopped? Crimea, 2014 — then he stopped? Donbas proxies, 2014–2021 — then he stopped? All of Ukraine, 2022 — and the proposal is to pay him for the failure?
Appetite that grows by eating doesn't have a "full." Every concession so far has been metabolized as proof the method works.
You're not proposing peace. You're proposing a feeding schedule — and volunteering someone else as the meal.
Russiagate was real btw. 34 people were charged, most of whom were Russian nationals who fled the country. 8 Americans on Trump’s campaign were convicted or pled guilty and sent to prison.
And then Trump pardoned them.
You just forgot because he did worse stuff
As I've been saying for years, and Bret is on the money as usual. The question today is if the West is losing a war it refuses to acknowledge or if its become so feeble, corrupt, and cowardly that it is simply surrendering.