Geez, Patricia, just look at the guests criminal Donald chooses in his glitzy gold office.
Fellow cold-blooded murderers Mohammed bin Salman, Netanyahu, and Bukele. Fellow ultra nationalist and fellow authoritarian Orban.
And Donald's love letters to the little fat North Korean murderer and criminal, his state visits to all the worst Middle Eastern royal dictators and criminals, his pardons for the worst of the crypto criminals, and his literally rolling out the red carpet for the world's worst dictator, mass murderer, and criminal Putin.
The fact that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin thought that they should draw up the peace plan for Putins invasion of Ukraine, just shows you how terribly disturbed they both are . Russia should withdraw from Ukraine. Trump should foster Ukraine in NATO.
And then these two mentally deranged megalomaniacs should mind their own damn business.
Each one of your 'Thinking about' is essential to make the reader aware of the ugliness of this
war in Ukraine...actually any war! Only this one also shows the fickleness and thieving of the US government, members of the cabinet, and their liars. Yes, it is a very sad message...for the horror of the Putin regime is a daily reminder of what the Soviets under Stalin did...not to mention the destruction of lives, property, and the value of liberty.
Awful lot of rules here for 'negotiating' with a mad dog. I'm not a professional negotiator, but I know a thing or two about Russians. They don't care if you like them, they just want you to fear them. If you don't, and if you put yourself in a position so they fear you, you win. That's all there is. All our values count for exactly jack squat. That's why MAD worked so well.
If you mean Mutual Assured Destruction, that would never work with the current US administration which also wants everyone to fear them, and they control American nuclear weapons.
The best and quickest way to end this war is for Ukraine to WIN the war. The United States should immediately begin providing Ukraine with ALL the war materiel the Ukrainians require to drive Russian forces out of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea. All constraints on missile targeting inside Russia should be removed. Consider how much better the situation would be if Trump had taken this approach last January instead of berating Zelensky in the oval office and murdering civilians off the coast of South America. It's high time we drop a few drones on Putin's dinner table.
I am hopeful that the Ukrainians will not only reject the Hitler-Stalin, er, excuse me, Trump-Putin plan, but also refuse to meet with Trump or his emissaries outside Ukraine. The US is demonstrably not an honest broker and thus has no role to play in the matter.
Rumour is that the Trump-Putin agreement is to remove "the cause of the war, i.e. NATO expansion into the former Soviet Block". But even if we abandonned only Ukraine into Moscow's loving embrace...
It was called "Ribbentrop-Molotov" in 1939, "Yalta accords" in 1945 or "Congress of Vienna" in 1814. Large countries dividing Europe into "spheres of influence", smaller countries' dreams be damned.
Even then, those past accords secured possessions of participants. Here the US is negotiating surrender.
There is absolutely NOTHING US is to gain from surrendering to Moscow this way. Even in the most mercantile terms - the US is losing a large weapons export market of Europe. Losing bases (paid by the hosting countries BTW). Losing secure supply chains (sure, depend on Russia with your trade).
Loss of prestige. Loss of trust - sure Taiwan, Japan and Korea will feel secure now. Having to deal with some 10+ more nuclear armed countries. Having to deal with more hot conflict zones (Russia will deliver, in this you CAN count on them).
Americans, last I read, overwhelmingly support Ukraine in its fight against this illegal invasion by Russia. But what Americans hugely support, or what’s in American interests and the interests of our democratic allies matters not a single bit to Trump and his installer-donors. Nor a bit to his corrupt and incompetent cabinet, many of whom are his donors.
As for the MAGAs controlling Congress and who once were least partly responsible for overseeing US foreign policy and expenditure, they can be made to “care” what Americans overwhelmingly want only by massive and sustained uprising by their constituents (calls, letters, town halls, street demonstrations) and the threat of removal from office which looms for many with the 2026 midterms. And about those elections, we must be vigilant.
Sidebar: the next House special election that can help Dems add a seat is December 2, just a couple weeks away. Aftyn Behn in Tennessee’s 7th District, has a chance to flip a red seat to blue. Consider supporting her, if you are able.
I am glad about some recent developments as to justice for the Epstein survivors. I would like Americans to turn some of their massive attention now to stopping Putin’s horrifying atrocities in Ukraine. No deals with Putin, Trump, that don’t include Ukraine and our democratic allies.
Thank you for your admirable clarity. It is difficult to see how anyone other than Presidents Putin and Trump could disagree with your ten principles. We, Ukraine's allies, must ensure that these principles are adhered to.
Trump is an artless dealmaker. The leaders of countries who command murder on the high seas, with no justification, are looked on with disfavor by the Nobel Peace Committee. The Nobel Committee would think little of the violence he uses in his everyday language, too.
I agree with everything you've written. And we must keep an eye trained on how the war started. A ruthless aggressor invaded a country that did not threaten it. Putin's ego was bruised by Ukrainians' rejection of his pressure to join an economic union with Russia and a handful of former Soviet states. Instead they wanted to join the EU for the opportunities it offered.
I hope that more than a few Trump disciples in our diplomatic corps read and take this missive to heart. Surrendering in advance is never a winning strategy. And there's no question that Putin owns this war and the atrocities visited on the Ukrainians by his hubris (and those of his generals). I hope they (the Russian leadership) have their day of reckoning in this world or the next.
This war will not end until Ukraine decides to - they have advanced their own ability to attack inside Russia, which I don’t think Russia counted on when they started this war Ukraine just needs more anti-drone and missile defenses - but they are crippling the Russian economy and infrastructure and with some support from Europe, they could hopefully win the war next year - I like the proposal to give them money from seized Russian foreign accounts - day by day millions of dollars- to motivate Russia to end the war
The list of ten is all correct, especially #5, but omitted is any mention of trusting Putin to stop the aggression. This factor more than any mentioned will determine the end point. The world hasn't witnessed any possibility of trust from Putin.
To depend in any way on Putin and Trump to negotiate a reasonable end to this Russia-created conflict is beyond crazy. Its ludicrous.
These two entities are both known liars with no regard for fairness, or even consideration of people. They don’t care who they destroy. Period.
Geez, Patricia, just look at the guests criminal Donald chooses in his glitzy gold office.
Fellow cold-blooded murderers Mohammed bin Salman, Netanyahu, and Bukele. Fellow ultra nationalist and fellow authoritarian Orban.
And Donald's love letters to the little fat North Korean murderer and criminal, his state visits to all the worst Middle Eastern royal dictators and criminals, his pardons for the worst of the crypto criminals, and his literally rolling out the red carpet for the world's worst dictator, mass murderer, and criminal Putin.
The fact that Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin thought that they should draw up the peace plan for Putins invasion of Ukraine, just shows you how terribly disturbed they both are . Russia should withdraw from Ukraine. Trump should foster Ukraine in NATO.
And then these two mentally deranged megalomaniacs should mind their own damn business.
Thank you, Professor Snyder,
Each one of your 'Thinking about' is essential to make the reader aware of the ugliness of this
war in Ukraine...actually any war! Only this one also shows the fickleness and thieving of the US government, members of the cabinet, and their liars. Yes, it is a very sad message...for the horror of the Putin regime is a daily reminder of what the Soviets under Stalin did...not to mention the destruction of lives, property, and the value of liberty.
Awful lot of rules here for 'negotiating' with a mad dog. I'm not a professional negotiator, but I know a thing or two about Russians. They don't care if you like them, they just want you to fear them. If you don't, and if you put yourself in a position so they fear you, you win. That's all there is. All our values count for exactly jack squat. That's why MAD worked so well.
George you are 100% correct Once Putin invaded Ukraine Biden should have publicly stated to Putin to leave Ukraine or we will destroy your country
He couldn't do that directly. Ukraine was not in NATO.
If you mean Mutual Assured Destruction, that would never work with the current US administration which also wants everyone to fear them, and they control American nuclear weapons.
That's what I meant, and I used past tense.
Trump unchecked and Putin cannot end this war fairly. Period. They will not. Its already decided by Trump that Putin wins any way he wants to.
The best and quickest way to end this war is for Ukraine to WIN the war. The United States should immediately begin providing Ukraine with ALL the war materiel the Ukrainians require to drive Russian forces out of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea. All constraints on missile targeting inside Russia should be removed. Consider how much better the situation would be if Trump had taken this approach last January instead of berating Zelensky in the oval office and murdering civilians off the coast of South America. It's high time we drop a few drones on Putin's dinner table.
I am hopeful that the Ukrainians will not only reject the Hitler-Stalin, er, excuse me, Trump-Putin plan, but also refuse to meet with Trump or his emissaries outside Ukraine. The US is demonstrably not an honest broker and thus has no role to play in the matter.
Rumour is that the Trump-Putin agreement is to remove "the cause of the war, i.e. NATO expansion into the former Soviet Block". But even if we abandonned only Ukraine into Moscow's loving embrace...
It was called "Ribbentrop-Molotov" in 1939, "Yalta accords" in 1945 or "Congress of Vienna" in 1814. Large countries dividing Europe into "spheres of influence", smaller countries' dreams be damned.
Even then, those past accords secured possessions of participants. Here the US is negotiating surrender.
There is absolutely NOTHING US is to gain from surrendering to Moscow this way. Even in the most mercantile terms - the US is losing a large weapons export market of Europe. Losing bases (paid by the hosting countries BTW). Losing secure supply chains (sure, depend on Russia with your trade).
Loss of prestige. Loss of trust - sure Taiwan, Japan and Korea will feel secure now. Having to deal with some 10+ more nuclear armed countries. Having to deal with more hot conflict zones (Russia will deliver, in this you CAN count on them).
WTF???
WTF??? Indeed!!!
Americans, last I read, overwhelmingly support Ukraine in its fight against this illegal invasion by Russia. But what Americans hugely support, or what’s in American interests and the interests of our democratic allies matters not a single bit to Trump and his installer-donors. Nor a bit to his corrupt and incompetent cabinet, many of whom are his donors.
As for the MAGAs controlling Congress and who once were least partly responsible for overseeing US foreign policy and expenditure, they can be made to “care” what Americans overwhelmingly want only by massive and sustained uprising by their constituents (calls, letters, town halls, street demonstrations) and the threat of removal from office which looms for many with the 2026 midterms. And about those elections, we must be vigilant.
Sidebar: the next House special election that can help Dems add a seat is December 2, just a couple weeks away. Aftyn Behn in Tennessee’s 7th District, has a chance to flip a red seat to blue. Consider supporting her, if you are able.
I am glad about some recent developments as to justice for the Epstein survivors. I would like Americans to turn some of their massive attention now to stopping Putin’s horrifying atrocities in Ukraine. No deals with Putin, Trump, that don’t include Ukraine and our democratic allies.
Thank you Professor Synder. You are greatly appreciated.
Yes, yes, yes. You have no idea how much you are appreciated. Thank you for all you do.
Thank you for your admirable clarity. It is difficult to see how anyone other than Presidents Putin and Trump could disagree with your ten principles. We, Ukraine's allies, must ensure that these principles are adhered to.
Trump is an artless dealmaker. The leaders of countries who command murder on the high seas, with no justification, are looked on with disfavor by the Nobel Peace Committee. The Nobel Committee would think little of the violence he uses in his everyday language, too.
Remember yesterday's "Quiet, piggy" by our greatest Pig Face himself, A.?
I agree with everything you've written. And we must keep an eye trained on how the war started. A ruthless aggressor invaded a country that did not threaten it. Putin's ego was bruised by Ukrainians' rejection of his pressure to join an economic union with Russia and a handful of former Soviet states. Instead they wanted to join the EU for the opportunities it offered.
This was naked aggression and has only got worse.
I hope that more than a few Trump disciples in our diplomatic corps read and take this missive to heart. Surrendering in advance is never a winning strategy. And there's no question that Putin owns this war and the atrocities visited on the Ukrainians by his hubris (and those of his generals). I hope they (the Russian leadership) have their day of reckoning in this world or the next.
This war will not end until Ukraine decides to - they have advanced their own ability to attack inside Russia, which I don’t think Russia counted on when they started this war Ukraine just needs more anti-drone and missile defenses - but they are crippling the Russian economy and infrastructure and with some support from Europe, they could hopefully win the war next year - I like the proposal to give them money from seized Russian foreign accounts - day by day millions of dollars- to motivate Russia to end the war
My hope is that one of their drones finds Putin
The list of ten is all correct, especially #5, but omitted is any mention of trusting Putin to stop the aggression. This factor more than any mentioned will determine the end point. The world hasn't witnessed any possibility of trust from Putin.
Thank you Professor
Snyder. These 10 points
are specific and very
important to hold to.
France and Ukraine have
established a military
weapons deal. It's pretty
hefty and after the
bombing in Ukraine
yesterday, I hope it's a
lot faster delivery than
ours was.