So the fantasy danger was that Putin would double down on his macho image and symbolic greatness in Syria even at the risk of nuclear war.
No. Learn to read. How many times I have to explain to you the difference?
Nonsense. Obama had no such powers.
The Dems after the Obama takeover would have had it. But, I forgot, when it was accepted, all the Reps could have simply refused to vote, it would have passed anyway.
Those globalists regained power when Trump, their fellow Republican and advancer of their policies, won. You supported that. There was no two year break.
There was. The US power decreased, and its soft power deteriorated even quite a lot.
... now you talk as if the immediate and direct consequences of that - the restoration of Bolton and Pompeo to high office, say, and the standard Republican policies in the Americas - were somehow from something else.
They were not immediate at all. And it was always clear that what Trump will do is unpredictable. For example, he announced withdrawal from Syria, even fired that war minister who didn't like it. But nonetheless, he did not withdraw and supports in the occupied Al Tanf zone the IS remains.
As I explained many times: The choice between something unknown and unpredictable, and a known murderous warmonger.
Iceaura has already noted your aptitude for ignoring whatever exists and doesn't fit your narrative.
Who cares about polemic defamations? (Of course, you will predictably support them too, nothing else is expected.)
Nevertheless just to give one example, how do you explain former PM Yulia Tymoshenko getting locked up and beaten in prison on dubious corruption charges and a bogus trial already denounced by European human rights courts, while President Yanukovych was embezzling millions of dollars in public funds to live in a secret private compound filled with tacky art?
First, Timoshenko is as corrupt as all the Ukrainian politicians, her gas deal with Russia was a very good one for Russia, and the suspicion that it based on some dubious deal was very reasonable. So, judging from everything, she deserved prison. I have not seen reliable evidence if she was beaten. That Yanukovych was corrupt too is also no secret. Same for Poroshenko. They are all Ukrainian politicians, that's all you have to know about this.
Not outside Moscow, they're not.
Wrong. Essentially all the big, main roads are today in quite good quality.
As I said, the only positive difference between now and 1990 is that Russia can sell the oil and gas from all the land it's stolen in the last three centuries at much higher prices and in much bigger quantities to markets in Europe and Asia, and has been able to purchase modern technology and education from abroad with some of the profits.
Nonsense too. Nuclear technique as well as almost all of their weapon techniques they have developed themselves, and are in some of these domains world leaders. The education was better than Western already during communist time. And they don't care much about navy, because the aim of their army is not power projection on Third World countries as for the US.
Yes but my question was whether you think that adding the Russian mafia into the Ukrainian picture makes the world a better place.
Russian mafia was an important player during Yeltsin time, today it plays no role. In Ukraine, the mafia oligarchs already rule. Now, a new mafia ruler, Kolomoisky (ok, his puppet) has been elected to rule the game.
This is the typical lamentation of the old school international socialist, and I thought you said you hated those guys.
So what? If Hitler says 2+2=4, I support Hitler.
What would really be relevant is if you could point out something the US does to make a greasy profit which isn't also being done by Russia and just about everyone else on the planet.
The petrodollar.
How many have left Russia in the last 5 years and how many have returned?
Google yourself, I'm too lazy.
And yet they're in the US because expensive education and healthcare are still better than virtually no education and health care.
No. Those who leave have gotten a good education for free.
In Russia they tell elderly patients in the emergency room that they've lived a good long life and it's time to make room for the young'uns...
Heard such horror stories about the US too. Who gives a shit.
Yeah less plane crashes and bridge collapses, US really needs to up its game.
You mean the US has fewer bridge collapses? LOL.
Number of bridge collapses since 2000 according to
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bridge_failures#2000–present
Russia 1 (one), during its construction, 0 dead, 0 injured (with the horrible consequence that a total of 111 freight trains and 104 passenger trains were delayed).
US 24 (twenty four), among them 5 with deads, a sum of 31 dead, and 10 with injuries, a sum of 272 injured.
You yourself were one of the loudest mouth breathers foaming at the mouth over the imminent Russian conquest of Kiev, now you're claiming you never wanted it.
A lie. Quote with link, please, or you have been yet another time identified as a liar.
Just to clarify, there were a lot of Russians in favor of liberating Novorossia from the Ukraine, which would have been a quite natural split. Much less were in favor of going to Kiev. Almost nobody wanted the whole of Ukraine. Putin wanted much less, he essentially stopped the Donbass army two times, forcing them to accept the Minsk I and Minsk II ceasefire agreements.
Your side is the only one in the debate that keeps rambling about this guy Bandera who died 60 years ago, it's like you think they fight for Santa Claus.
No, the Ukrainian fascists ramble about Bandera much more. Of course, you follow here the Western Party line that there is no fascism in Ukraine.
Yet you're willing to kill hundreds of thousands to rule over Chechnya and Crimea which are in even worse shape.
Chechnya is ruled today by a Chechen ruler, and the second Chechen war was one between a coalition of Russians with traditional Sufi Chechens against the SA-imported Wahabi jihadists.
Crimea separated and joined Russia in a peaceful way, numbers of killed I have seen information about: 2 (two).
No you can't have it both ways. Either the Ukrainians elected a clown who rejects the existing system, or they elected a Nazi who continues to propagate a Nazi system. Which position are you sticking to and which one are you walking away from?
Clown Selensky does not reject the existing system at all. There was essentially no big difference at all between the candidates. That Selensky has not used openly fascist rhetorics does not change the fact that the oligarch behind Selensky, Kolomoisky, described himself openly as a Jewish Bandera supporter: