stevenkesslar

Okay. I had to get the logical part out of my system. Now that I have, let's go with the emotional part. Donald Trump is the smartest man alive, who knows more than anyone else, and was the best President ever. That much is self-evident. How else can we explain his overwhelming re-election in 2020, and the stunning string of Republican victories ever since?

Sweet! Go ahead and laugh. It will make it even more satisfying for me when Biden wins. You can have two theories about Americans, @EmmetK. 1. Americans are essentially stupid. They see a dumb Trump ad and say, "Yes. I am sheep. Feed me 30 seconds of dumb and I am yours." or 2. Americans are essentially smart. They care about the economy, war and peace, social order, and important things. That's what determines who wins. You are the poster child for the first theory. You are deeply committed to stupid. Even when your own cult leader says, "Good call, professor" after he predicts your cult leader will win in 2016, you have to process out of your brain that your own cult leader is smart enough to acknowledge intelligence sometimes. That is how deeply committed to stupid you are. Lichtman is committed to intelligence. He's got a good explanation for why people vote the way they do. He's been right in 1984. And 1988. And 1992. And 1996. And 2000. And 2004. And 2008. And 2012. And 2016. And 2020. But this is completely irrelevant to you. You are that completely dedicated to stupid. Your brain is so wired to cult that you will take that 30 second ad and say that's all it takes. But Lichtman says the ads don't predict who wins. Lichtman just did it again a few days ago. That headline is inaccurate. Lichtman did not say Biden will defeat Trump. He said it is a fluid situation. Things can change. 2020 is a perfect example. Lichtman has as much as said that if the election were in January 2020, Trump would have won based on his Keys. But the economy tanked, changing two of his keys. The social chaos of Summer 2020 turned his social order key against an incumbent for the first time since 1968. You can say Lichtman is a flaming asshole. But when he predicted in September 2016 that Trump would win, people thought he was nuts. He was correct. He was correct again in 2020. So his point is clear. A lot would have to change for him to predict Biden is going to lose. A recession would do it. A sudden and stunning defeat in Ukraine would do it. But, while he didn't spell it out, neither might do it alone. He's saying "a lot" would have to change. Several things would have to suddenly turn against the incumbent, just like they did in 2020. If it happened in 2020, it can certainly happen again in 2024. But, right now, Lichtman is saying Biden is on track to win. If you want to be even more of a fool than your criminal cult leader, and say, "You're stupid, professor. Bad call," go ahead. It's what smart people expect of people who are deeply committed to stupid.

Damn! Once again. We agree. This isn't even a debate. You keep making my arguments for me Americans Remain Committed to NATO Two-thirds want to see U.S. increase or maintain commitment to NATO That poll is less than a month old. So, yes. Trump wants to bow down to Putin. Trump is okay with Putin's genocide. Trump wants to weaken if not destroy NATO. These are all among the many reasons this weak, corrupt, law-breaking, cop-bone breaking wannabe fascist will lose. You're just deeply fucked, @Moses. You keep saying outrageous shit. If you think Americans will elect Trump so he can bow down to Putin and destroy NATO, you are clueless in your denial. At no point have you rebutted my main point. You condone genocide. You think genocide works. You actually want MORE genocide. Now you want to argue that we can kill as many children as we want. We can kill as many women as we want. We can kill as many men as we want. See? Genocide works. We did it is Grozny. You just have to kill as many children, women, and men as it takes, dump them in mass graves, and pave them over in concrete and put new buildings on top of their bodies. Ain't it swell? Doesn't it look pretty? I'd say there's probably a 30 to 50 % chance that in a decade Chechnya will be an independent state, after the Russian Federation breaks up. That's a very hard one to call. What's easier to call, because it's inevitable, is that your genocide in Ukraine will weaken Russia - politically, economically, and militarily. It's happening right now. You can't deny it. Interest rates are soaring. Inflation is soaring. Bankruptcies are soaring. The US stock market keeps making new highs, and the average American's net worth is up 30 % since 2019. Vlad needs an inflationary pretend budget, and he needs to process hundreds of thousands of Russians into fertilizer, just to TRY to keep this genocide going. You think you are on a sustainable or winning path? Give me a fucking break. Yes. The Jew is a Nazi. Got it. Makes perfect sense. You're so far out there, @Moses, that I would not stop at the Pope. Let's bring in the master of fantasy, Walt Disney. You'll need it. Let's have happy talk about genocide. That's what you want, and what you actually need. Happy talk about the genocide, to try to think it is not just pure evil. When you wish for genocide Makes no difference where you die All the hate your heart desires Will come to you. As you build your war machine No cruelty is too extreme When you wish for genocide As Russians do Kill their babies rape their Moms Shell their cities with your bombs When you wish for genocide You always lose. Here's the thing @Moses. Thanks to your genocide, 90 % of Ukrainians love Vlad even more than Walt Disney. They just can't wait for Russian soldiers to kill their men, rape their women, and blow up their babies. It is sowing love and respect for Russians, which will build 100 years of peace. If that's the fantasy you want to believe, enjoy it while it lasts.

Yup. You deserve the Petraeus Propaganda Award. You are proving it with every post. This is exactly why 90 % of Ukrainians don't want to make peace with your genocidal sadist. Putin is a man of genocide, not honor. He has made that very clear. At the end of 20 Days of Mariupol, it says, "An estimated 25,000 people are known to have died in the siege of Mariupol. The true toll is probably much higher." Can you show us the pictures where you rebuilt the 25,000 dead people? The film showed us the dead mothers your genocidal sadist kjiled. The film showed us the dead babies your genocidal sadist killed. Show us the pictures of how you rebuilt the dead. This is why 90 % of Ukraine does not want to make peace with your genocidal sadist. Ain't gonna happen, @Moses. Believe and dish out all the propaganda you want. But the hell will continue, thanks to what your genocidal sadist did. Can you estimate for us how many more Russians need to be processed into fertilizer? How high does inflation in Russia need to go? How high do interest rates need to go in Russia? How many bankruptcies? Educate us, please! This is not happening because of NATO. Not because of the US. Not because of Europe. It is happening because Ukrainians see Putin as the genocidal sadist he is, and Russians soldiers as the torturers and rapists and mass murderers that they are. How could they not? Everything you are saying confirms my points, and often restates them. I'll restate that I'm okay with saying the US committed genocide in Iraq. I opposed it. Most Democrats opposed it. Nancy Pelosi opposed it. How did it end? Very badly for the US. Even though we are far more powerful than Russia, and we had a world of allies. And yet somehow you want to believe the propaganda that it will end differently in Ukraine. Even though Ukraine is stronger, has way more allies, and probably hates you more. And already has demonstrated that they know how to kick your ass. What Ukraine proved in 2023 is that they don't have superpowers. They couldn't just walk through horrific killing fields of defense set up by Russia like heroes in a Marvel movie. But you are not winning a war that is a quagmire. And will continue to be a horror that drains Russia of blood and treasure. Just like our invasion of Iraq (or Afghanistan, or Viet Nam) did to the US. Grozny and Chechnya makes my point. It was an internal civil war, not an occupation of another country. And even then, it took about a decade to quell the war. The key verb is "destroy". That is correct. Russia destroys. Russia kills. Russia rapes. Russia tortures. Again, you are making my point. And yet you can't simply connect the dots of blood of how genocide works. Even though you are pointing to the US and describing, quite accurately, how it worked in Iraq. And how it will end for Russia in Ukraine. You condone the genocide, and deny the genocide. You condone mass murder. You just won't admit that this is precisely why 90 % of Ukrainians don't trust the genocidal sadist, and his rapist soldiers, who have done this to them. They found something like 800 Chechen bodies in mass graves from the 1995 Chechen war. They found something like 5000 bodies in mass graves from the second Chechen war. Did you restore them? Can you show us the pictures? Your point is this: "GENOCIDE WORKS." We committed genocide in Chechnya and it worked. We were willing to destroy everything, and kill everyone. We killed the men. We killed the women. We killed the children. Our strategy was to destroy, and commit genocide. And it worked! Woo hoo! If you think that will work in Ukraine, this is why I gave you the Petraeus Propaganda Award. Everything about Chechnya tells us precisely why Russia will lose in Ukraine. Chechnya has a bit more than 1 million people. In Ukraine, there are maybe 10 times as many WHO LEFT UKRAINE because of the genocide, and are absolutely determined to return from Poland or wherever they are. Then there's the maybe 37 million people still in Ukraine. You think this is like Chechnya? You think you can just destroy and destroy and destroy and keep on with the genocide and win that way? Show me one example in history where that actually worked. Every recent example - Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Viet Nam - shows why genocide and mass destruction doesn't work. It just dooms millions of Russians to suffering and being processed into fertilizer. This is not for me or you to decide. Personally, I hope that 90 % of Ukrainians get tired of the war. I hope they shift and maybe decide they can live without Crimea. And maybe just build a huge fucking wall and join NATO. But even that will take a very long time. The only other alternative is what happened to the USSR in Afghanistan. It ground Russia down (with only 10 % of the dead Russians we already have in Ukraine) and it ground the Russian economy and morale down. And that took many years. So it took 10 years of hell, mass murder, rape, torture, and genocide in Chechnya, which has 1 million people and is part of the Russian Federation. If you think it will ONLY take 10 years in Ukraine for Russia to win, you are deluding yourself, Gen. Petraeus. You are explaining why you will lose to us. And you don't even get it. You also don't get that the US does rebuild. The appropriate example, especially in Europe, is what happened after World War II. The US did occupy. The US and our allies came up with the Marshall Plan. We did rebuild Germany. It became a vibrant economy. It has been a strong ally to America. In my view, Germany was a good ally when Schröder opposed the Iraq War. We should have listened. I agreed with him. Germany is a strong ally now in welcoming Ukrainian refugees and opposing your genocidal sadist. Have you noticed that Ukrainians hate Russians, and the idea of being part of Russia? Have you noticed how they can't wait to be part of the EU and NATO, and build a wall between them and your genocidal sadist and his raping and mass murdering soldiers? So, again, all your points explain the details of why and how Russia will lose. The US is probably one of the best examples in all of world history of how you win a war and occupy the country of the loser. And rebuild it in a way that, 80 years later, it is one your strongest allies. Japan is another example. Although, as you like to point out, the US nuked Japan. Did you notice whose side Japan is on now? Do you understand why the Japanese people feel the way they do? We did nuke them, after they bombed the shit out of us and started the war. It is a great example of how you go from being enemies to being allies, based on mutual self-interest. Where did the Soviet Union or Russia ever do that? Poland? East Germany? Estonia? Lithuania? Afghanistan? Ukraine now? Give me a fucking break! All you have proven so far is that in a small part of your failing federation, genocide can be made to work. For now. If and when the Federation collapses, Chechnya will be an independent country. Thanks for pointing out how hollow all your propaganda is.

Congratulations, @Moses. I am proud to bestow on you the esteemed Gen. David Petraeus Award For Military Propaganda And Bullshit. Petraeus had a knack for explaining how the Afghan surge was going to work beautifully. And then how the Iraqi surge was going to work beautifully. Needless to say, by the time he started cheerleading for Ukraine's 2023 offensive, hearing Petraeus on TV talking about how successful it was going to be sounded like ................. well, bullshit. Sounds like you're reciting the bullshit and propaganda you hear and read from Vlad's war planners. I'm not good at military strategy. Which is why I'm good at saying there are some very common sense things that aren't that complicated that anyone can understand. The rhetoric about taking back Crimea always seemed particularly overconfident. After Russia had months to set up defenses in the areas they occupied, it seemed predictable that it would be a huge challenge to get through them. And - what a complete surprise! - it was. That's why I give Gen. Milley credit for not spouting bullshit. And instead advocating negotiating for peace while your enemy is weak. Problem, as @reader noted, is who actually believes Putin is honorable, or keeps his word? What also seems common sense is that all the rules of occupying wars apply here. It's their country, not yours. They hate you, they want to get rid of you, they want to kill you, and they will gradually and incrementally do that. If Russians want to keep fighting and turning millions of yourselves into fertilizer, maybe that will work. But the history of this is that you're in for years and years and years of hell. Just like in Viet Nam, Afghanistan, and Iraq, to name the most obvious quagmires. It's already fucking up Russia's economy badly, and that will just continue and escalate. You don't want to believe it. Fine, Gen. Petraeus. Cheerlead and bullshit all you want. I don't see Vlad stopping. And I think Milley was right. He can't win militarily, and neither can Ukraine. My guess is the most likely thing that will change is Ukraine may eventually decide that they were overconfident. And that some of this territory - especially Crimea - will never be part of Ukraine again. But that is a long way off. 90 % of them don't want to make peace with Russia on Russian terms. Again, because Putin is a man of genocide, not honor. So I think you're stuck with a future of trying to keep an economy based on genocide and turning Russians into fertilize going. Best of luck. And congratulations on you new honor, @Moses. Too bad I can't give you an Oscar, as well. That went to the people who documented Vlad's genocide., The global effort to document the genocide and the horror of Putin's Russia is just getting started.

We agree. The stuff about how Boris Johnson kept Ukraine from making a peace deal with Kind And Loving Vlad is laughable bullshit. We know that. We don't know what would have happened if Ukraine had listened to Milley. Who certainly had a good point. If there was a deal to be made, it would have been simple at core. Putin gets out of Ukraine. Ukraine stays out of NATO. Somehow they try to get along. Kissinger's idea that somehow Ukraine could be a bridge between Russia and the West was a good idea. Vlad's invasion killed that idea. I can see two huge problems with Milley's idea. By 2022, Putin had bet his power and his place in history on his special military operation. So clearing out of Ukraine, even if he got a commitment on NATO, is something that would have looked like a loss. You know better than me how that might have played in Russia. It certainly would have been good news for all the Russians being processed into fertilizer. The other problem is how Ukrainians feel. That's simple, too. They hate you. They want to kill you. I know my language is over the top. But 90 % of them say they don't trust Putin, because of his genocide, and won't agree to give away land for peace. So the idea that they will make peace with Russia anytime soon seems extremely unlikely. They'd much rather kill you. Harsh, and blunt. But true. It's bad news for both Ukraine, and Russia. Which is why I guess you want to blame Biden, or whoever. I guess this is why Russians might hope the Pope performs some miracle or something. But Milley seemed correct in 2022 and just as correct in 2024 that a military victory is impossible for either side. More likely this is a long and horrific and bloody slog that ends like Afghanistan did, for both the USSR and US. You're fucked. You can't say you were not warned.

So I stumbled upon something else that predicts a Biden victory in November. Before I state it, let me summarize what I like about Lichtman. Other than he has been right every time since 1984. Even Trump sent him a personal note in 2016 saying, "Good call, professor." What I like about his system is that it is based on objective pattern recognition, which he developed with a Russian who was good at predicting earthquakes. When the economy is growing, when there is no recession, when there is an incumbent and no party conflict, when there is no scandal. etc ... then the incumbent party is likely to win. So this is another thing about patterns. To be clear, that chart is not meant to make predictions, or explain causal relationships. I just went looking for a chart about average patterns of the stock market during presidential election years. Usually it's just one line: here's what happens, on average, in a year someone is running for President. I've never seen one like this before. Where it basically says, "Tell me who wins, and then I can tell you how the stock market does on average." Of course, we have no idea who will win. What we do know is the S & P is up 8 % year to date. Which is better than the S & P usually does in a year when the incumbent party wins. In a year when the incumbent loses, the S & P is usually down up to 5 % around now. So historical patterns suggest the stock market's bullishness is also bullish for Biden. While this is not meant to explain a causal relationship, it does make sense that if the stock market is weak, it probably reflects a weak economy. A strong stock market probably reflects a strong economy. But don't tell any Trump supporters. It may spoil the fun they are having thinking we are in a recession, things are awful, and Trump will win. That bullish chart above makes perfect sense to me. That's an amazing chart, which is bullish for Biden, too. What it's saying is if you bought $1,000 worth of NVDA in January 1, 2019, it would have been worth about $14,500 on January 15, 2024 when that chart was made. The article asks where NVDA will be in five years, It's now about seven weeks later. As of March 8, 2024 the same $1,000 would be worth $26,800. NVDA has almost doubled this year. i don't own it. I own SOXL, a tech/chips ETF of which NVDA is a major component. The shares I bought last Fall have tripled. The shares my nephew bought in Fall 2022 have gone up 7x. Young people like him are having a hard time buying homes. Now he and his wife can buy one for cash, if they choose. Not everybody owns tech stocks, or stocks. But average net worth is up 30 % since 2019. The main reason why is 2 in 3 Americans own homes. Biden has something to do with this, good and bad. He's getting the rap for high inflation and high interest rates. That's fair. He's not getting much credit for the economic growth, even though the CHIPs Act and the infrastructure bill and all the technology investments they triggered have a lot to do with both of those charts above. I do have to bet on this one, and that chart above makes perfect sense to me. As that chart suggests, there probably will be a stock market correction soon. And these stocks like NVDA that are flying straight up like space ships will calm down for a few months and correct. But I'll also bet that the rally will continue at least through the election, as happens in a typical Presidential election year when the incumbent wins. This is all bullish for Biden. And he does deserve credit for getting infrastructure and technology investments made that Trump completely failed at. Just like Trump failed at taking people's health care away. When that debate happens, which is just starting, it's going to help Biden and hurt Trump.

Call me Gay. And I have had sex with more than a few priests. But when it comes to fashion, sorry. I've always had a thing for a man in uniform. Beyond his good fashion sense, Milley's negotiating insight was right in Fall 2022. What he said makes more sense than what the Pope just said, with all due respect. I'm not saying Ukraine should have listened to him. But I agree with what Milley said. A military victory does not seem possible for either side. And I'm glad he said it. If only to show the US military is not against peace. It makes way more sense to me than what felt like yet another dose of Petraeus and his gaga military overconfidence. @Moses is teaching us that Putin is now setting up Russians with the same overconfidence both Ukrainians and Americans had in 2022. That's the percentage of Ukrainians who want to join NATO. It is an amazing, but understandable, reversal.

Both of your posts just continue to make my argument. Thanks for making my case. Plus, every time I fact check your propaganda I learn some new and interesting things about why and how Russia is losing. At no point have you denied that you want Ukrainian genocide. You want as many Ukrainians to die as it takes so Russia can win. You said it. Not me. implicitly, that also means you want as many Russians turned into fertilizer as it takes. If you do NOT advocate the genocide of Ukrainians, please clarify. You keep trying to dance around it by blaming Putin's sadism and genocide on Biden. Now you want to drag the Pope into it. You haven't disputed or disproven that Russia is stagnating under Putin, and has been for 15 years. Interest rates and inflation in your country are going through the roof and out of control. Your rebuttal is that Russia has survived, and grown as much as the US. Great. It means we are way more powerful, and you can never catch up. And every year your economy, with is a fraction of the US economy, actually becomes smaller to ours in absolute terms. But instead of addressing facts and reality, you want to say Joe Biden is the cause of Putin's genocide. And the Pope wants Ukraine to bow down to Putin. I've used your charts and your facts to confirm my argument. Again, let's stipulate that Putin won more than he lost in 2023. Although it's far more ambiguous than that. Putin's not really winning when inflation and interest rates in Russia are out of control, misery is rising, business bankruptcies are out of control, and hundreds of thousands of Russians are being processed into fertilizer. Which is probably why you all want to believe these delusions about how Ukraine or the US or Europe or NATO are going to bow down to Putin. But let's stipulate all this is a win for your genocidal sadist. You still have not rebutted one argument I have made using your charts and your facts. You're fucked. You just keep changing the subject. Now you want to talk about Germany. Great. I did live there for a year. So I understand a little better how Vlad fucked that up, too. How did Vlad manage to be so genocidal that a nation that mostly trusted the US less than Russia now sees Russia as a global threat to peace? And the US as a partner in protecting the peace from your genocidal sadist? As recently as 2017 28 % of Germans saw Russia as a reliable partner, compared to 25 % who saw the US as a reliable partner. Meaning, most Germans don't particularly trust either Russia or the US. That was what I understood when I spoke with most Germans. Now Germany has turned dramatically against Russia. And to some extent China, since they see how Master Xi manipulates his murderous pit bull. 86 % of Germans now call Russia a global threat. 63 % of Germans now say that about China. Master Xi can't be happy that, in addition to being unreliable at genocide, his murderous pit bull is now fucking up China's relationship with Germany. If you think Master Xi will choose his murderous old pit bull over Europe and the US, think again. Now only 10 % of Germans say they can trust the Russian Federation. See what watching Russian genocide does to people in Europe? And you call this winning? Ostpolitik was a big thing in Germany when I lived there. Arguably, it worked. Germany is whole again. Vlad nailed that coffin shut for decades to come. By fucking up their economy and their gas. Again, you are making my point. Putin's stupidity and cruelty was a huge win for the US LNG industry. It's yet another one of unlimited examples of how the US and China win, and Russia loses. China wins because they get Vlad's cheap gas. The US wins because it opened up new markets for us. But I have agreed with you that the Russian economy is growing as much as the US economy, in part because Vlad is selling whatever he can for cheap. Including Russian life. That's not a win for Russia, or a long term economic plan. But go ahead and delude yourself. You'll never catch up to the US, or China. Every year Russia grows at the same rate as the US means Vlad is the weak, aging, and sadistic cripple who is falling further and further behind the US in absolute terms. But, I know. You have no choice. Your chart comparing Germany and Russia just repeats my points about how Russia is losing, and the points we agree on. Vlad did catch up to Germany between 2000 and 2010. I have said repeatedly now that in his first decade, Russia outgrew the US. And Germany. You'll never get close to the economic power of the US. But you were bigger than Germany's GDP in 2014, as your chart shows. Since then, stagnation. Or, to be generous, you have been able to keep up with Germany. And in a year where you were hoping to make them bow down because they needed your gas, and you were making money turning yourselves into fertilizer, you got ahead of them for one year. Woo hoo! If you want to call it a victory that you nailed the coffin of economic ties with Germany shut, and now few of them trust you, and it fucked their economy for a year or two, go ahead. But you lose. You have not responded to, let alone rebutted, the picture of an out of control, genocidal, stagnating Russia. Because you can't. When I say the US and China are winning, and Russia is losing, that chart below is what I mean. Some Americans would say this shows the US is losing. I don't believe that. The whole global pie is growing. For the US. For China. For Nigeria. For most people. Capitalism lifted billions out of poverty. That is good for humanity. Most Americans I know think that way. Russia is being left behind. And now you have given everyone on the planet a reason to be glad you are failing. If Russia grew as much as the US this year, and got a little ahead of Germany for a year by destroying their trust in you, and you managed to survive while committing genocide, that's not a win. That's why you're fucked. You can't see that. I get why it's hard to see. If there is any possible way that you think Russia is actually becoming more powerful, or richer, or more respected, please show us. All you have shown us so far is that your genocidal pit bull, who is aging and crippled, has managed to survive by committing genocide and turning his people into fertilizer. In New Poll, 89% of Ukrainians Reject Ceding Land to Reach Peace With Russia I think you, me, and Pope Francis would agree that's a problem. Generally, I oppose most wars. So I agree it's a problem that Ukrainians hate you so much for your genocide and rape and torture and stealing their children and destroying their cities and lives that they would rather kill you than make peace with you. If you want to say Iraq was a genocide that the US started, I'm fine with that. The only place we disagree is that it is a fact that American men and women in uniform did not systematically rape, torture, and kill innocent civilians in Iraq. Many sectarian Iraqis did that to each other, after the US opened Pandora's box. In Ukraine, Russian men in uniform are systematically raping, torturing, and killing innocent women and children. So there's a real problem, beyond Putin, with the misogyny and cruelty of so many Russian men who find it so easy to rape, torture, and kill Ukrainian women and children. I heard they don't like gays much, either. What values! The reason I bring that up is they hate you. The Ukrainians who have lived through the rape, torture, and mass murder by so many Russian men hate you. They want to kill you, @Moses They would love to kill you right now, wherever you are. And piss on you, and shit on you, and laugh at your pathetic dead Russian body. They hate you. And, yeah, Americans have been in that position. They burned some Americans alive in Iraq just to make a point about how much they hated us. I'm not saying this to be cruel. I'm saying this to be clear. I'm not the Pope. I can say they'd rather slit your throat and shit on you than make peace with you. There is this bullshit argument about how Ukrainians could have had peace with Generous and Loving and Kind Vlad, other than for Boris Johnson. Or something like that. It makes about as much sense as the idea that Ukraine needs to be liberated from their Jewish Nazi leader. it just shows how stupid and desperate Vlad is, to say things that no child who some Russian soldier raped or tortured would believe. But that's the problem. I think they hate you. I'm not Ukrainian. Never been there. But I read the polls, and watch the interviews. I think they would rather slit your throat, piss on you, and shit on you, than make peace with you. Sorry if that offends you, or The Pope. It's a problem for the US, and for me as a pro-Ukraine Democrat. Because there is no evidence they have the ability to win back Crimea, for example. Even if we sent them every bomb we own. So now, thanks to Genocidal Vlad, you have a country that used to be "brothers" with Russians. And now hates you. This is why you are fucked, and it can not possibly end well for you. You can build pretty new buildings in Mariupol, for sure. But that doesn't buy you love from everyone who loved all the people Vlad killed in his genocide. Including the ones that survived, and were raped or tortured. Here's another problem, which I'd guess we mostly agree on. The US military advisers are at best a mixed blessing. At worst, they suck. I'll single out David Petraeus. I listened to him cheerlead for how the US would win in Afghanistan. He was wrong. I listened to him cheerlead for how the US would win in Iraq, which I opposed from Day One. He was wrong. So forgive me for never believing him when he was a cheerleader for Ukraine's noble 2023 offensive. He was wrong, again. That's a problem. I'm no military expert. But it's not hard to guess that Ukraine will learn from Russia's 2023 playbook, and do what is easy for them in their own country. Play defense. Dig in. Be kind to every Russian you see. Except the ones that breathe, or move. Kill them when they breathe, or move. That way Vlad has to keep sending over more fertilizer. I'd rather give Ukraine the weapons they want and let them kill Russians as they choose. With guardrails set to prevent World War III. Let them decide when they are tired of it, and want to make a deal. Pop quiz. Viet Nam. Afghanistan. Iraq. Libya. What do they all have in common? They were all invaded by the US, or the USSR, or both. They all spent years just grinding the invader down. By every measure, Ukraine is bigger and more powerful than any of them. And they have better and richer allies. So if you don't see that they are going to do the same thing, and grind you down, you are really blind. They have no other choice. I will give Vlad this. He was able to get Chechnya to submit. They are in Russia. They are a fraction of the size of Ukraine. And they had little power or money and few allies. Ukraine is not the same ball game. You're going to have to keep sending lots of Russians to be processed into fertilizer in Ukraine, I'm afraid. Lots of them. For a long time. Watch out for that out of control inflation and interest rates. And that unsustainable budget. It will get worse. And don't blame it on Biden, or the Pope. Blame it on your genocidal sadist. And the Russian soldiers who rape, torture, and kill. One last thing about Germany. 70 % of Germans think the war won't end in 2024. They are almost certainly right. That says two things. One, Germans are realists who are braced for this to go on for a long time. Whether they like it or not. Second, you are fucked. Germany has turned against Russia in a way they never have in my lifetime. And Vlad is playing for time. He's hoping Trump wins and Europe bows down to him. Ain't gonna happen. But you can hope. And deny reality.

Jesus Fucking Christ. Can you just stop with the negativity. Focus on what could possibly go right/ 1. Lara Trump adds style, grace, and elegance. Why would Gay men be against Trump supporters decked out in pink? 2. Lara writes books that don't have to be burned or banned. No Gay stuff. 3. Lara, following in the footsteps of President Trump and Melania, inspires us to be our best. None of that Toni Morrison garbage. No stories about slavery that psychologically oppress White children. Just us, trying to be our best. Like President Trump.

Thank you! Again, you are doing a great job of making my arguments for me. This isn't even a debate. I am using YOUR facts, and YOUR charts. So if I am reaching propagandistic conclusions based on zero facts, it means you have no facts. You are just spewing propaganda. Which is true. You're just doing your best impression of Tucker sucking Putin's cock. It's not a pretty image. It has nothing to do with reality. If you want to make the point that Russia grew in 2023, we agree. There is no debate. Russia did grow. I made that point before you did. If you want to make the point that Russia survived, despite sanctions, we agree. What your own chart above shows is that Russia is stagnating under Putin, and has been since the GFC. Those numbers make it incredibly clear. Based on the numbers you posted, when you go back to 1989, the average Chinese is maybe 1,500 % better off. 15 times better off. The average Russian is maybe 10 % better off? 20 % better off? Again, this is your chart, not mine. But it completely supports my point. China is definitely growing, and winning. Russia is stagnating. In your defense, comparing Russia and China - which was my point = is of course going to overstate just how fucked Russia is. If you take China out of that chart and just compare Russia to Russia, things do not look quite as bad. But my point is correct, and you have confirmed it. Long term, China is clearly winning and growing by leaps and bounds. Russia is stagnating long term. Especially the last decade. If you want to say, "Yes, but Russia has grown," good for you. If a billionaire's income goes up 10 %, and a poor person's income goes up 10 %, both incomes grew at the same rate. One is still a billionaire. And the other is still poor. My point is about the long term. Which you absolutely can't acknowledge, or probably see. Because Russia is fucked. I completely agree that Putin kind of won 2023. He's building a war economy that requires turnings hundreds of thousands of Russians into fertilizer. And that requires committing genocide by killing and raping and torturing Ukrainians. And stealing their children. And making them hate you and want to kill you because you are Russian. If that's your long term economic plan, go for it. You're still fucked. You did not deny that you are personally advocating the genocide of Ukrainians. You want to kill as many of them as you can so Russia can win. It's sick and wrong. But if that is your economic and military plan, good luck. Again, all I have to do is turn to your charts to make my points. If your point is Russia is growing, great. I agree. If your point is that Russia is growing at about the same rate as the US, great. I agree. That is precisely why Russia is fucked. You can't acknowledge that. Probably because you can't see it. Or you have to be willfully ignorant. China has become America's great competitor or rival - and sometimes still partner - because they have grown way more than the US for decades. You have to if you are very small and very poor, like China was, and you want to catch up. Before COVID, and before master Xi, everyone thought China would actually surpass the US economically. Now it's not clear that will ever happen. Why? because their growth has slowed down. Suddenly Master Xi wants to go to San Francisco and meet with US capitalists. Wonder why? Maybe he needs the US and Europe and Asia's vibrant capitalist democracies more than he thought. Your own chart proves that Russia is at best stuck and stagnating. As I said above, Putin's "good years" were in the Naughts. Back then Americans and Europeans thought maybe Russia is now a partner. Maybe we all invest and grow together. That's part of why Russia grew significantly faster than the US in almost every year of Putin's first decade, up until the global financial crisis. Your own chart confirms that. I agree. Since 2012 or so, as your chart shows, the US has grown either faster or at the same rate as Russia every year. And that is AFTER Putin decided in order to grow your country had to create an economic growth plan based on genocide and turning Russians into fertilizer. You are fucked. You can't outgrow us. Even if I assume every Russian agrees that the best way to grow is to kill and rape and torture and be a global pariah and turn yourselves into fertilizer, that is self-evidently not a good growth plan. You might try electric cars. But that's China. You might try AI. But that's the US. Russians have genocide and becoming fertilizer. You haven't tried to deny any of my facts, because you can't. That World Bank chart I'll post again is consistent with your point: that the US and Russia have been growing at roughly the same pace since about 2017. You do realize that's why you're fucked, right? Or are you just bad at math? One, unlike China, you can never catch up. Because, at best, if you all turn yourselves into fertilizer and are very good at genocide, maybe you can grow as fast as the US. China has grown faster than the US, which that chart obscures. Russia is not growing faster than the US, and can't. Second, even if you can grow as fast as the US by turning yourselves into fertilizer, every single year the US still becomes way more bigger and powerful than Russia. Because we grew a lot more in absolute terms. This is why Murderous Vlad had to put together a wartime budget that is unstainable. He has to pray that Trump wins and Europe bows down. Because that budget is unsustainable. That's what the RUSSIAN media says. But that's the money it takes to make all those weapons for Vlad's genocide. Vlad is doing everything he can to try to make or buy enough weapons to dominate Ukraine. And he can't. Right now, the best he can do is a stalemate. Of a much smaller and weaker country. The US could send 5 or 10 times as much military aid as we will likely eventually send this year. The problem for the US is internal politics (Trump wanting to bow down to Putin) and Biden and Europe not wanting to start a nuclear war with a genocidal sadist. You really don't get that this dooms you, economically and militarily and technologically. Even if you can grow as much as the US by genocide and turning yourselves into fertilizer, you're still becoming smaller and weaker compared to the US in absolute terms every year. That's why the US won the Cold War with the USSR, as I said above. Compared to the Cold War and the USSR, this is not even a fair fight. You are fucked. Unless Master Xi for some reason decides he loves his murderous pit bull more than he loves being part of a thriving global economy. I would not bet on that, if I were you. is that even serious? Really? Or have you now turned to comedy because you have no facts and no argument? Yes, Vlad is a desperate genocidal sadist who is manipulating currency and interest rates. And basically bribing people with money he doesn't have to try to get them to accept genocide and turning poor Russians into fertilizer. And you are telling us, in your own words, that you accept genocide. You hope that Vlad's genocide works and you can kill as many Ukrainians as it takes. Are you also good with Russian soldiers raping women and children? The torture? The stealing of children? Or just the genocide? Some economy! Russia is a sorry failing mess compared to the US. People here are bitching and moaning about 3 % inflation. That chart above is the most recent I could find. But the most recent number I got is 7.5 % inflation in Russia in November 2023. It's gong up, not down. Investors and banks and corporations in the US can't wait for the 5.5 % federal funds rate to start going down. But everyone agrees it has peaked. In Russia the most recent benchmark rate is now 16 %, I believe And growing. Oh. Business bankruptcies are growing very rapidly, too. Murderous Vlad could not keep a bankruptcy moratorium in place forever. When you destroy your economic base, other than your genocide economy, and turn your own people into fertilizer, at some point that catches up with you. You think this is a winning economic plan? This is a fucking nightmare. This is why your best and brightest young people are going any fucking place in the world to live - other than Russia. If Russia breaks up, like many experts think it will in the next decade, this is why. You are fucked. And you deserve to be, because you are supporting genocide.

I want to address that alone, and make it personal. You do realize you are advocating genocide, @Moses, right? This is sick, @Moses. You are advocating genocide. It won't work, of course. More important, it is sick. And wrong. You do realize that, don't you? This is exactly why I don't view Russians as victims of Putin. At the very least, you are being willfully ignorant and just going along for the ride. You confirm it in every post. But especially this one. You don't see genocide. You don't hear genocide. You don't speak genocide. Neither does Vlad. And yet, genocide exists. And you are condoning it. In writing above. You're saying let's just kill as many Ukrainians as it takes. Which is, as you correctly point out, what Bibi Netanyahu is doing right now in Gaza. And the numbers of civilians are roughly the same. Your genocidal sadist has killed far more Ukrainian men who are soldiers than Bibi has killed Hamas. But you've probably killed roughly the same number of innocent women and children. Tens of thousands and counting. I think "genocide" is the right word for it. Vlad is doing it in Ukraine. Bibi is doing it in Gaza. They are both genocidal sadists who are leading us toward war and away from peace. And have been as long as they are in power. So now I'll say this as American, about not advocating genocide. Israel is a huge moral and political mess. As a nation, it is on its way to being a hated pariah. including by my party, the Democratic Party. Young Americans of every race will increasingly say Israelis are those White people who like apartheid, and like genocide. They are saying it now. It saddens me. But I understand it. Israel was different when I was their age. Maybe this will actually be why Biden loses Michigan, and the election. But everyone knows it's complicated. Hamas did attack innocent Israelis and burn Jewish babies alive. Israel, like Russia and Ukraine, has the right to defend itself from from the most brutal and sadistic attack. Electing Trump won't be good news for Palestinians. It will be good news for Bibi The Butcher. Like I said, it is a huge moral and political mess. But one thing most Americans agree on is that genocide is not the answer. This is why genocide promoters like you, @Moses, have to be willfully ignorant. Hamas actually is Hitler. They are advocating the genocide of an entire nation and people. I imagine many Russians have to believe Ukraine is a Nazi nation run by a democratically elected Jew. It makes no fucking sense. It would be comic, if it were not tragic. It is ironic that a Jewish comedian is now the leader of the tragic nation that has to deal with Russia's genocidal monster. But there is no question who started this war, and why. Vlad started the war. Ukraine did not burn Russian babies alive. Vlad is a genocidal sadist. He said, in writing, that Ukraine is mine. And I will take it by force, if needed. No matter how many men, women, and children I need to kill. That's genocide. You just said, in writing, you support it. We'll just kill as many Ukrainians as it takes. That is sick. I know about this personally. There were plenty of Americans who wanted to go as far as nuking Iraq. Somehow, in their sick minds, they could even argue that for the sake of helping Iraq we have to nuke Iraqi men, women, and children. It's really for their own good. It's just sick. But I assure you I had conversations with those Americans, and told them it was sick. So I don't feel at all like a hypocrite telling you that you are sick. There's a good reason the US did not nuke Iraq. It would have made America a pariah. And it would not have worked. One of my Republican friends at the same said that he supported going to war in Iraq, but not what W. was going to do. I asked him what he meant. He said W. would put US boots on the ground, and it would eventually fail. He was right. I said what do you think we should do instead? He said, "Bomb the fuck out of Iraq." I asked, "What if we bomb the fuck out of Iraq, and something even worse rises from the ashes?" He said, "That's easy. We bomb the fuck out of Iraq again." There's a word for this. GENOCIDE. I was also right, by the way. What rose out of the ashes of the US military quagmire in Iraq was ISIS. Which was worse. I repeat that conversation a lot. Because my Republican friend and I, in a five minute conversation, accurately predicted over a decade of tragedy and genocide. The US was the midwife of ISIS in Iraq. It was a disaster for the US, and still is. It also helped birth Trump's isolationism. I'll give that much to Trump. He wants to ignore the rest of the world, and be selfish. Which is better than invading and bombing the world. Now Russia is having its global genocide moment. The happy news, to me, is that Russia's genocide is not birthing a new ISIS. Although, it kind of is. If every Ukrainian could slit the throat of every man, woman, and child in Russia, and get away with it, they probably would. That is what genocide does to people. They hate you. Every poll says Ukrainians are more united than ever in wanting to beat Russia. So is every Pole. And every Swede. You are fucked. Millions of Ukrainians would love nothing more than to tie you up and slit your throat, @Moses. I'm being brutal. But brutally honest. What did you expect? You are advocating genocide. Why should every man, woman, and child in Ukraine not want to tie you up and slit your throat? That is what Vlad has created. That is what you are advocating. You call this winning? You are wrong. This is sickness. This is evil. I am 1000 % aware of what my country did in Iraq. I was passionately opposed. Over half the Democrats elected in the US House voted against it. Nancy Pelosi, my US Rep at the time, voted against it. I knew several US Senators personally at the time. They voted against it. Here's one: It was a surprisingly understated speech. But, at the time, to be against the Iraq War was to be unpatriotic, and un-American, to many. And he was running for re-election. The key line, "this could be a very costly mistake," looks like a massive understatement in retrospect. That's the guy who, as a college professor, set my moral compass more than any other single human being. He could have given a passionate speech about genocide, as a Jew who had relatives die in the death camps. What he focused on instead was pragmatic. How many Americans will die? Are we making a big mistake? Google says there were 4,431 American deaths in Iraq. That's nothing compared to how many Russians are now fertilizer. You are easily headed to 100x that number, if Putin wants to keep turning Russians into fertilizer to try to win something he can call a victory. More genocide, and more dead Russians. You call this winning? The number of dead Russians in Ukraine is staggering compared to the number of dead Russians when the USSR invaded Afghanistan, a much weaker nation than Ukraine. With fewer allies than Ukraine. 15,000 Russians died in Afghanistan. Add a "0" and maybe that's how many Russians have died in Ukraine, to date. You call this winning? You think this won't end up like Afghanistan did? In some ways I hope you are right, for the sake of global peace. If it ends up like Afghanistan did, this will gradually destroy Russia, like it ended the Soviet Union. THAT would be a threat to world peace. You should stop advocating genocide. It is sick. It is wrong. But if you can't understand that, at least you should be able to look at what the US did in Iraq, in our great unipolar moment, when we were the most powerful military in the world, and understand that what you are advocating simply will not work. Happily, Ukraine will not birth a new ISIS. Ukraine will end up a democracy, and part of NATO. Russia is going to be the loser. If you can't see that, I genuinely feel sorry for you. Russia is a much weaker nation than the US was when we invaded Iraq, with lots of powerful allies. If you think you can get away with genocide, it is sick and wrong.

Absolutely! Thank you! You made all my points, @Moses. Russia is stagnating under Putin. There is no real growth. Look at your own chart. In 1989, using whatever "constant 2017 international $" are, it looks like the average person in China was at about $1,000 per capita. There was massive poverty. It was a poor country. The average Russian was at about $22,000 per capita, it looks like. Let's say, based on this measure, the average Russian was 20 times better off than the average Chinese. Between then and now, the average Chinese went from something like $1,000 to something like $16,000. We all know the story. Amazing growth. Something like 1 billion people in Asia - mostly Chinese - were lifted out of poverty and malnutrition. It's been a big part of the global success story. It's because of capitalism. And while it is primarily a Chinese success story, all the capital and investment from the US and Europe helped make it happen. A lot of disgruntled Trump voters in factory towns that are a shadow of their former selves would argue it worked out better for China than the US. I disagree. I think both nations won. I think the world won. Now let's talk about Russia, based on your chart. While China was growing by leaps and bounds, thanks to state capitalism, Russia went nowhere. Thanks to Vlad's state sadism. Which has now morphed into state genocide, and a state program of turning poor Russians into fertilizer while talented Russians get the fuck out of the mess and go anywhere else in the world they can. GDP per capita, based on your chart, went from maybe $22,000 to maybe $27,000. And the only way you can keep that now is through murder, rape, torture, genocide, and keeping your mouths shut and obeying while Vlad turns more and more Russians into fertilizer. And you think that is winning? Poor thing! On your chart, in 1989 the average Russian was maybe 20x better off than the average Chinese. Now they are maybe 25 % better off? 50 % better off? It shows China is making tremendous progress for its people. Vlad failed. His consolation prize is he gets to be Master Xi's pit bull. As long as he can competently bite, and kill. Which is questionable given all Vlad's failures - even at genocide. That's the first of the four charts I posted above. I did it, as I said above, to agree with your point. Our two charts are slightly different, but they mostly measure and say the same thing. On an individual level, there is no question the average Russian is better off economically than the day Putin came to power. I like your chart better. Because it leaves the US out and covers a longer term period. My chart focuses on Vlad's "good" years, the Naughts. Yours shows that there was a big decline in GDP per capita in the 90's. So there was a huge amount of growth in Russia from 2000 to the global financial crisis in 2008. Most of that, as your chart shows, was simply getting back to where you were before the USSR fell apart. But let's credit Vlad for that. Progress is progress. Even if it is just getting back to where you were. Since the GFC, Russia has stagnated. Your own chart shows it. The average Chinese, according to your chart, looks to be maybe 16x better off. The average Russian is no better off in the last 15 years or so. Again, based on YOUR chart. What you are really saying is that Russia survived. And at least things aren't getting worse, like in the 90's. Maybe. But that really depends. If you are the Russian being turned into fertilizer in Ukraine, or their wife or kids, things ain't so great. Maybe things are better if you are the Russian who gets to rape, torture, and kill Ukrainians so Russia can survive. I won't even try to debate about whether this is a political or military victory for Vlad. Because I think it clearly proved Vlad is weak. Russia is weak. And the Russian military are like Keystone Kops. One thing that is almost self-evident is that the supposedly great Russian army that failed miserably in Ukraine and has to turn its people into fertilizer to avoid losing is not about to roll their shitty tanks and raping and torturing Russian soldiers into Poland or Germany. But the other lesson that this once again shows is why both the US and USSR failed when they started military quagmires in Afghanistan. Ukraine is more powerful and bigger than Afghanistan. So if you are deluding yourself into thinking you're winning, go ahead. As this goes on Ukraine will be the one that kills you and wears you down. Vlad has scored some tactical wins. You'll probably keep Crimea in a decade. Or maybe Russia will fall apart in a decade, since Vlad is turning it into a global economic pariah. Either way, you are in denial of history. It always ends badly. It will in Ukraine. Check back with me in a decade. If Russia even exists then, in its current form. Vlad has won some battles this year. He gained whole kilometers of territory in Ukraine that are now a devastated mess. How? By turning lots of Russians into fertilizer. Again, that is what Russia is today. Russians rape. Russians torture. Russians kill. Russians commit genocide. Russians make weapons to kill themselves and kill Ukrainians, under your genocidal sadist. That is what Russia is. That is what Russians do. You have to do it, to survive. And to just keep things from getting worse economically. That's victory? What a fucking joke! Vlad's biggest victory, such as it is, is that both the US and Europe have deep political divisions. Which Vlad helped create, at the margin, and is trying to manipulate however he can. If America and Germany and Sweden (NATO's newest member) were run by dictators, we could just do shit like Vlad does. We can't. Trump seems to want dictatorship as much as democracy. So that helps Vlad. America will spend 2024 having a very deep and important debate about that. But I don't think Vlad is smart enough to win in Ukraine. Much less destroy global democracy. But he's trying. Now I'll add the US back in economically. That's the only chart I could find that compared the US, Russia, and China up to close to 2024, on an individual per capita basis Either the green or black line is Russia. The other is Kazakhstan. If we are talking about how well off individuals are, there is no question that America keeps growing at a level the average Russian or Chinese is nowhere near. Once you add in the US, it obscures the fact that the growth for individual Chinese has been amazing. Again, 1 billion people were lifted out of poverty and malnutrition. Whole metropolises and whole new industries that fuel the global economy came out of nowhere. Russia does have its gas, and its bombs. But the great global achievement of Russia right now is rape, torture, mass murder, and genocide. That is how you manage to survive and keep things from getting worse economically, while the rest of the world thrives. The US won the Cold War for lots of reasons. Some people like to emphasize a type of moral victory. Democracy always wins in the end. We had a better and freer system. Maybe. But in a colder and by the numbers way, the US had a bigger economy. We built more weapons. And - critically - the US was increasingly better at technology. The US is getting better and better still at many of the world's leading technological innovations. Vlad is getting better and better at figuring out how to kill Ukrainians, and turn Russians into fertilizer while his economy stagnates long term. If you can't project that out in terms of what it means for who wins militarily, you are in deep denial. Vlad obviously knows this. He is spending as much as he can on technologies of mass murder, in his desperate effort to make a sadistic and corrupt system work. He now has to threaten that he will nuke Europe or nuke the US if we resist him. Even the USSR was better than that. He's a sick fuck. If I were Russian I'd be worried what the sick fuck would do. (My job now is to worry about what Trump will do.) Vlad, not Trump and not Biden and not Xi, is the most likely person in the world to start a nuclear war today. He's practically bragging about how he could do it. He is a genocidal sadist. And you own him. And all the misery and death he creates. You are NOT winning.

Politico gave the shoes a big push today. I actually think it is a good way to bring America together. Fashion is always more fun thsn politics. Trump Released a Sneaker Line. Here’s How to Wear Them. Donald Trump is the least racist man in America. Just ask any Black (well, maybe not those Central Park Five guys), and they will tell you he has done more to promote racial healing than MLK, John Lewis, and for sure Kamala Harris. Everyone says he does the best racial healing. The media gives him the best grades for racial healing. So, yeah. MAGA folk as 80's rapper. I love it. And the MAGA base, which is mostly working class Blacks, obviously will too. Even has a touch of Ronald Reagan from the 1980s. It just screams to me, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Then again, a lot of the MAGA folk are snobs. High end sort of this people. Let's take Tim Scott, if he's Veep. So this adds some class: That whole hair thing may be a problem for Tim. But he's a cutie. It would work with his distinguished bald look. Now, there is that small minority of the MAGA base that is White. And as open-minded and multi-cultural as they are, this may work better for them: it even has that whole prison rape chic thing going on. It would be perfect!

Shame on you. I think they make a lovely couple. One is a cocksucker, and another is an asshole. The sex should be awesome.

Good point. The history of leaders who served their nation into their 70's, 80's and even 90's is a trail of disaster. Queen of England until age 96 Konrad Adenauer. German Chancellor. Served 14 years until 87. Died at 91. Shimon Peres, President of Israel for 7 years, until aged 91. Died age 93. Yuri Andropov. General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. Died while serving for 15 months until his death at 69. Konstantin Chernenko, Succeeded Andropov as General Secretary of the Soviet Union. Died while serving for about a year at age 73. I dunno @Moses. Maybe Russian leaders are just unlucky. England loved their Queen, and misses her. She never missed a beat. (Or, if she did, it was when Di died when the Queen was in her early 70's.) Adenauer cheated fate. But he did have to take naps in the afternoon by the end of his long run. He was always going to be the model for how it worked for Biden. Or not. So far, Biden has held up better than Andropov. Or Chernenko. But, given your experience, I can see why you would say 69 is too old to lead Russia. Or 73. How old is Vlad, by the way? 😉 Granted. Joe Biden is no Ronald Reagan, when it comes to public speaking. I think Joe Biden is Ronald Reagan, when it comes to standing up to the USSR or Russia. I don't think "I will not bow down" to Putin will work out badly for Biden. Americans agree with Biden. Bowing down to Putin is unacceptable. Btw, I kept thinking watching the speech how young and vibrant Kamala looks. And there is something about the idea of having a First Gentleman that I really like. Doug is classy. However it plays out for Biden's health, I won't be unhappy if she is the next US leader to stand behind that podium.

Four charts that tell the same story from two different perspectives: That one supports your argument. There is clearly economic improvement since Vlad took over. I'd argue it's the opposite of what you said. It's not that individuals give something up for the collective nation to be better. It's that individuals are okay with Russia becoming a mess and a pariah. Because at least their own lives are a little better. Not sure the families of all the Russians being turned into fertilizer in Ukraine feel that way, though. Let's have a Russian TV show where they get to speak honestly. You keep wanting to bring up 1945. If the US fucked up, I think the big fuck up was the 1990's. I don't blame Russians for associating the 1990's with chaos, and democracy with bad times. Whether the 1990's in Russia was really democracy is a huge debate. Russians have told me that even if there had been a global Marshall Plan for Russia in the 1990s, it never would have worked under Yeltsin or Putin and the current corrupt system. I don't know. But the US and Europe didn't even try. We took the victory lap, extended the borders of NATO, and then invaded Iraq. That was our big fuck up, in my mind. And we have paid a huge price for it. But, again, once Putin took over, Russians I have spoken with say this course was set. Historians will debate that forever. But whatever price the US paid for our fuck ups, it is not anything like the price Russians have paid. Trends in Chinese and Russian GDP growth since 1989 (in constant $US million) That last chart is the share of the global economy each country has. Translation: Russia doesn't matter. In the global economy, you're an afterthought. If India and China can get cheap gas from you, and if you can buy bullets and drones from Krazy Kim and Iran so you can kill and rape Ukrainians, and if Ukraine can get cheap fertilizer from you by turning your people into grass, that is just what Russia is in the world today. Thank Putin for that. Some leader! What an economy! Now everybody thinks of him as the guy who will nuke us if he gets pissed off at us stopping his rape and genocide. What a guy! Of course, those bottom three images are distortions, based on population. China has so many more people than either Russia or the US. But that's the whole point. All those US and European corporations that wanted into China for its cheap labor and markets were not wrong. It is the ultimate story of how global capitalism won. It lifted a billion people out of poverty and hunger. Even if it didn't work out quite as the US hoped, in terms of democracy, I am proud of what the US and China did. (The Americans who live in factory towns and lost their jobs are not.) This is not a not a bad outcome for China, or the US, or the nations of Asia. As long as we can keep the peace, and stay in guard rails as we compete. Russia is the geopolitical loser. You used to be #2. Never economically. But you were a rival superpower. Now you're an afterthought. The only good thing about Russia invading Ukraine is it almost certainly has made it clear to China that invading Taiwan would be an economic, political, and military disaster. Which is pretty much what the US proved to itself by invading Iraq. The US had its unipolar moment, and totally fucked it up in Iraq. Lesson: it's probably better for peace to have a multipolar world. I'd rather have China than Russia as a global competitor (or partner) any day of the week. They have proven, as those charts show, they can grow an economy. They can build electric cars and solar panels and innovative new technologies. Putin proves every day he can steal money. And start wars. And murder opponents. And let his soldiers kill and rape and torture and depopulate countries before they are turned into fertilizer. No one in the world wants more of that. There used to be a good argument (in the US, John Mearsheimer still makes it, Henry Kissinger used to) that we should be aligning with Russia to balance against China. Ukraine ended that idea for the rest of Putin's reign. And probably the rest of our lifetimes. Americans want nothing to do with Russia. The ones who support Trump aren't pro-Russia. They are pro-isolation. And that has never won, for long at least, in US history. It's a reason Biden will likely win. When Americans are reminded of Ronald Reagan's doctrine of defending allies (no surprise Crazy Biden quoted Reagan last night, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall"), 2 in 3 want to send weapons to Ukraine. Even many of the Republicans blocking the aid want to send it, and know it is really a short term political fight in the US. So it's a good year for Vlad. He'll win his fake election. He killed Navalny for good. Tucker came all the way to Russia to suck his cock and fawn over him. His economy grew a little. There are plenty of Russians, so far, to send to Ukraine to become fertilizer. And people don't care that the rest of the world looks down on you. You can call that a tactical victory if you want. Woo hoo! But if you are not clear the Putin lost the economic, political, and military war a long time ago, and Ukraine is one of the results of that loss, you're just not clear about history. China won. The US won. Sorry. I don't think Russia won. Vlad just gets to be Master Xi's pit bull. If he can actually manage to bite and kill. Vlad's getting up there in years, too. Desperate genocidal sadists do desperate things That's the chapter we are in now. We really don't know how it ends. But I think we do know however it ends, it won't be good for Russia. It's not really good for Russia right now. I suspect most Russians know that, in addition to all the Russians who fled. But they tolerate it since they have no choice in the matter.

We completely agree on this one. Putin doesn't speak about genocide. Or mass murder. Or sadism. Or cruelty. Or putting a bullet in your head. Or poisoning you. Or turning you into fertilizer. He just does it.

Granted, Biden is a mental catastrophe. But when I looked up the Atlantic Council's most recent projection of what the world looks like ten years out, here is what "experts" said about whether the US will be the dominant power in each of these areas in 2034: US is world's dominant military power in a decade: 81 % say yes in 2023, up from 71 % in 2022. US is world's dominant power in technological innovation in a decade: 63 % say yes in 2023, up from 54 % in 2022. US is world's dominant economic power in a decade: 52 % say yes, up from 33 % in 2022. US is world's dominant diplomatic power in a decade: 32 % say yes, up from 31 % in 2022. I'm so sorry. Nobody thinks Russia will be the world's dominant military, economic, diplomatic, or technological power in a decade. Many think Russia will break up by then. So sorry. But look on the bright side. You'll still be the best at turning your people into fertilizer. So we know for sure Biden will not be POTUS, or even alive, in a decade. So maybe this has nothing to do with Biden. Seeing as how he is a mental catastrophe. But it is interesting that we call out Vlad for genocide, and back Ukraine, and revitalize a global coalition with a good purpose. And suddenly people think the US will be even stronger militarily long term. We start building out cutting edge new technologies with federal subsidies. And suddenly people think the US may actually still be the world's economic and technological leader in a decade. But that has NOTHING to do with Biden, right? Of course, most of those people making projections are US or European experts. So you could argue they are biased. But they made the same less optimistic (about the US) projections in 2022. Maybe Biden isn't such a catastrophe after all. Please ask Vlad and Tucker for us. They are always right about everything.

Thank you for being so kind, @Moses. But obviously it's not my glasses. It's my dementia. 🤪 Oh, and by the way. Your English is great, as a second language. But it's "your" glasses.

Again, please try to stay in the 21st century. And let's focus on the mass murder and genocide happening right now. If you want to call out Israel, good for you. Would you like to be fertilizer, @Moses? Or maybe shot in the head? Or fall out a window? Or fly in an airplane that happens to explode? Because if you don't mind taking one for the anti-genocide team, I have a great idea. Go on Russian TV and pretend you are Michael Moore. You of course know Russia better than me. But I'm guessing you would not be allowed on Russian TV to say things like that. And, if you somehow did, prison time would be the kindest way Vlad dealt with it. Or maybe he just has your brains blown out in some alleyway or bridge. But that's exactly the point. We do fight about these things in the US. we had huge fights about Iraq. One nice thing about Trump is he has moved many Americans, especially Republicans, away from the idea of invading a country just because it is there. US soldiers did not rape Iraqi women and children. They did torture some terrorists. The public outcry against it, which helped Obama defeat W in 2008, is well documented. But before we even get there, we have to talk about the mass public opposition to starting the Iraq War in the first place. I know that one well. I was emphatically opposed. My college professor and community organizing mentor, Paul Wellstone, a Jew and later a US Senator, was the only incumbent US Senator running for re-election in 2002 to vote against the war. Way too many Democrats, in Biden, lined up behind W in supporting that war. But there was a very strong opposition to the Iraq war. The US House approved it 2 to 1. But as a Democrat at least I can say that Democrats voted AGAINST that war 126 to 81. Had Democrats been in charge, the Iraq War never would have happened. We didn't know that when W. won the election in 2000 by a hanging chad! We lost. We lost both the fight to prevent the war, and the war itself. So, yeah, the US fucked up. That was then. This is now. Are you gonna go on Russian TV and tell Putin to stop the current genocide? Can you tell us about all the things happening in Russia from opponents of the genocide in Ukraine? Other than the fact that they are getting the fuck out of Russia, before Vlad jails them or turns them into fertilizer? Come on, @Moses. Have some balls, like Michael Moore and Paul Wellstone. Go on Russian TV and call out your genocidal monster leader for the genocide, rape, torture, and mass murder of Ukrainian men, women, and children. And tell him to stop turning hundreds of thousands of his own people into fertilizer. Again, have to point out a very important difference. The US invasion of Iraq was an unprovoked attack, in my mind. But the US did not kill "hundreds of thousands" of Iraqis. One of many reasons that war was a predictable disaster is that it would = and did - unleash a religious and sectarian bloodbath between Iraqis, who tortured and killed each other. You can blame the US for starting that. But it was Iraqis killing each other. That's not happening in Ukraine. All those dead Ukrainian men, women, and children were killed, raped, and/or tortured by Russian soldiers. But you keep confirming my point. You keep bringing up what the US did in 1945 or 1968 or 2022 to avoid the genocidal mass murder your genocidal sadist is conducting right now. The polls suggest most Russians think exactly like you. They are in denial about the truth. Thanks to Vlad's propaganda. Or worse. You support and respect Putin and his sadism and genocide.

Actually, yes! For sure. Bibi Netanyahu fits the bill as a genocidal sadist. There you have it. Two mass murdering genocidal sadists. Soul mates. If you count soldiers, Murderous Vlad has been a much more efficient genocidal sadist than Bibi The Butcher. I'll use Zelenskyy's numbers, which I have no way to verify. He claims 180,000 dead Russian soldiers, as opposed to 30,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers. Whatever number you want to use, Bibi The Butcher just doesn't measure up to the sheer sadism and mass murder of your genocidal sadist. Is it actually GENOCIDE when Vlad turns hundreds of thousands of Russians into fertilizer? Probably not. That's just mass murder and cruelty. And a sadistic kleptocrat who wants his power and money. When we get to women and children, I'd just say Murderous Vlad and Bibi The Butcher are deeply evil and sadistic men. They deserve to be chained together and burn in hell forever. The UN said last year that over 10,000 civilians were killed by Russians in Ukraine. Many were tortured and raped. But those are based on verified numbers that everyone using them keeps saying is lowball. In Gaza the number is now well over 30,000, of which about 2 in 3 are women and children. Although those come from Hamas, and you can make an argument that Hamas inflates them. Either way, it is a vicious sadistic bloodbath. And we can thank Murderous Vlad and Bibi The Butcher for it. I can say this without being shot in the head or turned into fertilizer. Russians can't. The other difference is that I never read a story about how Ukrainians invaded Russia and killed 1200 or so of you. Including whole families where they burned babies alive. All the evil and sick sadism is being conducted by Vlad's Russian soldiers. Who rape and torture women and children. So Israel, like the US after 9/11, at least has the legitimate argument of self defense. Vlad's argument is he unleashed genocide in Ukraine to protect a country with a Jewish President from Nazis. Whatever! He's an evil, sick man. As far as "Genocide Joe" goes, a few points. First, in the US you can call Biden "Genocide Joe" and not end up being shot in the head, or poisoned, or fertilizer. You can't do that in Russia. You can pretend you are Rashida Tlaib and go organize a protest against Murderous Vlad and you'll go to prison. Or be turned into grass that cows shit on. Second, most of the world agrees that Israel has a right to defend itself from a terrorist group that wants Israel, and Jews, to no longer exist. And they just proved it with a vicious attack. Third, regardless, I'm one of the apparent majority among Democrats who feel Bibi the Butcher has gone way too far. Israel is quickly becoming Apartheid World in the eyes of many Democrats. And Jews, or Israeli Jews, are now The Genocide People in the eyes of a relatively small minority of left wing progressives. We can have an honest debate about it in the US. You can't in Russia. If Biden loses in 2024, all the evidence and polls are that the most likely reason is that he is seen as "Genocide Joe". And some relatively small number of do gooders and peaceniks he desperately needs to win just won't vote for him, on principle. I don't think it will happen. In part because everybody with a brain knows Trump would be far more tolerant of Bibi The Butcher slaughtering hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Palestinians. But I totally agree with you this is a big problem for the US, and the world. But you don't have that problem. Vlad will win. He just assassinated his main opponent. And Vlad won't even let people go to a funeral. He's an evil, sick man. There is no equivalent debate, or honesty, in Russia. @unicorn made a good case that there can't be, because all or most Russians are victims. I am a bit less sympathetic. What you express here is what a majority of Russians say in polls. You support Putin, and his sadism and mass murder and genocide. You confirm your support every time you post.

No. Buildings are not propaganda. Your genocidal sadist killed tens of thousands of Ukrainians. The UN and Human Rights groups around the world decry the mass murder, torture, rape, cruelty, and sadism that your genocidal monster unleashed. Is any of THAT not clear to you? It has nothing to do with buildings. Either you understand sadism and mass murder, or you don't. You don't. That is the propaganda. Again, I don't blame you. No one wants a bullet in their head. Or poison in their body. Or to be turned into fertilizer. Which is Vlad's way of shutting people up and conducting genocide. Saying there are now new buildings where there was mass murder, genocide, rape, torture, cruelty and sadism, and so therefore nothing ever happened, would be like saying, "Look! We had a Black US President, who was a Democrat. Look! Trump may choose a Black Republican US Senator as his Veep. Therefore, the US does not have a race problem and never did. Slavery never existed. There is no racism." And there are deniers in the US who push it that far. You want to deny Vlad's genocide, mass murder, rape, torture, cruelty, and sadism. I get it.

Exactly. Vlad's propaganda about his genocide and mass murder.

Proves my point. Your genocidal sadist has you brainwashed. Btw, 9 out of 10 doctors surveyed saying being brainwashed is better than being turned into fertilizer. You made a good choice. UN rights chief deplores Ukraine death toll one year after Russian invasion Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer. Genocidal. Sadist. Mass murderer.