SleafordMod @ SleafordMod @feddit.uk Posts 61Comments 271Joined 5 mo. ago
But tankies told me that Zelenskyy is a dictator?
True the point of this community is to buy European. I'm in Europe (the UK) so I like the idea of buying European.
OP's post talked about boycotting the USA though, so I'm just saying that there are more options as well as European ones if you want to boycott the USA.
Also the countries I mentioned have relatively similar values to Europe.
Yeah true, if Britain joins the EU again the terms will probably be worse, which just makes Britain rejoining even more unlikely for the foreseeable future.
I don't think it's just Putin which is why I mentioned the megalomania of other Russian elites. But Putin surely made the final decision to invade.
I didn't say Russian only lies. I said Russia "has lied about pretty much everything for a long time". That is not the same thing.
assuming the opposite of whatever Russia says
I'm not just assuming the opposite of Russia's statements. I'm drawing a best guess conclusion based on two premises:
- Russia has a history of lying about its true intentions and actions
- Russian oligarchs and elites would absolutely be interested in mineral wealth, given their history of megalomania
I think it's likely that mineral wealth would have been part of the Kremlin's motivation to invade. Along with general megalomania and irredentism.
Maybe the primary cause was Putin's megalomania, or indeed megalomania among quite a few Russian elites.
Occam's razor would dictate that Russia is probably lying if they say they're not interested in Ukrainian minerals, given that the Kremlin has lied about pretty much everything for a long time.
Putin is even saying he wants to sell minerals from Russian-occupied Ukraine to the US. Clearly he wants to profit from minerals in Ukraine.
It's hilarious that you accuse the US and Ukraine of wanting to get rich from mineral rights, but you won't accuse Russia of the same thing. In reality there will be rich people in each of those countries wanting to profit from minerals.
Why do you think that what Russia says is true?
Russia said they didn't poison Alexei Navalny in 2020, but they did. They said they didn't kill Alexander Litvinenko, and they said they didn't poison Sergei Skripal, but they did both of those things.
I didn't follow the Brexit negotiations closely. But since these decisions were difficult, perhaps they could have held a referendum to clarify what type of Brexit people wanted. But maybe the Tories decided they had already been burnt by a referendum at that point.
I think you're right about EU countries pooling their sovereignty, that makes sense. Britain was a participant in the EU decision making processes. We were the joint 3rd biggest segment of the European parliament (tied with Italy, which is a bit odd because their population is a few million fewer than the UK's population, but oh well).
I see, I didn't know that.
I think the 3% target is intended for the next parliament though. The target he wants to hit in this parliament is 2.5% from 2027 onwards.
I guess raising defence spending makes sense so that the UK can better protect itself from threats like Russia.
I wonder if that's true, maybe it is. I wonder if Samsung phones have Chinese parts. I think they use Samsung or Qualcomm CPUs, and they're made in Vietnam and India rather than China. Maybe some parts are Chinese, they could well be.
HMD could be mentioned in electronics, they're Finnish and they make smartphones. The CPUs in some of their phones are from Unisoc who are Chinese; maybe some people would want to know that. In their other phones they use Qualcomm CPUs, and Qualcomm are American.
Also there are more alternatives to American goods/services outside of Europe, e.g. goods/services from places like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, New Zealand.
E.g. South Korean cars (Hyundai and Kia) or Taiwanese electronics (Asus, Acer, MSI).
Fair points. That open letter is interesting. I didn't mean to be annoying with my responses, I was just giving my view.
I do think the oligarchy in the US is pretty worrying. As for encryption, I should probably learn more about it. I guess my understanding at the moment is only pretty basic.
Cameron had already decided to ask the British public how to settle the question of EU membership. Since politicians were bickering about how to implement this referendum result, maybe they could have asked the public to choose a form of Brexit. Whether to stay in the single market and/or the customs union.
Anyway I suppose it's all a moot point since it's in the past. I think EU membership will probably be a possibility for the UK again in the future. It might take a decade or two though.
What's dim is refusing to recognise that this war was started by Russia. Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, then increased their invasion in 2022. Ukraine asked the West for military help so the West provided military help.
Maybe Ukraine should have been allowed to join NATO years ago when they asked, and then they might not have been invaded.
NATO has already been on Russia's borders - the Baltics and Poland were already NATO members that bordered Russia.
I think the invasion of Ukraine was indeed a conquest for land. John McCain over 10 years ago predicted that Putin wanted to grab a "land bridge" between mainland Russia and Crimea:
proxy war
So you think Russia waged this war just to stick it to the West? To me it looks like a war of conquest - Russia invaded so they could take land.