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27-25

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Posts posted by 27-25

  1. 1 hour ago, South Austin said:

    I don't make all of my purchasing decisions with an entirely clear conscience.  But several years ago after my best friend was one of the few people I knew who owned a Tesla, I entertained the idea of eventually getting one, because I like to get behind decreasing our dependence on fossil fuels, he rarely had any maintenance issues, and it seemed like a pretty cool car.  

    Now?  No fucking way I buy a Tesla.  But I'm skeptical that there are enough people like me who will make an appreciable dent in Tesla sales.  I still see them all over the place.

    Whether it's "enough" is up for debate.  But you are hardly alone.  European EV sales surge and Tesla's cut almost in half.  Sweet!

     

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  2. 5 hours ago, FartingMonk said:

    If the European nations had any balls.  They would make a resolution to dissolve NATO.  Form a new coalition with all the same rules.  Exclude the US.  And then let Ukraine into this new group.  Poland is pretty confident they can take on Putin by themselves.  That's leaves Trump on the sidelines and the European leaders driving a peace agreement.

    While they're at it, they had best give Hungary the boot as well.  Slovakia too maybe, but even they voted with the sane countries recently about who's at fault in all of this.

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  3. 1 hour ago, Brisketexan said:


    So, I’m not familiar enough with German parliamentary math. Can’t the CDU and the Greens and SPD build a coalition that doesn’t need AfD?

    We have friends there who are already texting a lot with us today, very nervous.

    Until recently, none of the other parties would have anything to do with AfD.  CDU accepting AfD help on a recent immigration bill was somewhat scandalous.

    Often you'd see the #1 and #2 party work something out.  But I doubt that happens here.  The Greens would team up with CDU before the Greens would let AfD in the door I think.  If they had any sense at all, the SPD, Greens and FDP should just accept some small slice of power and freeze out the Nazis.  We don't need another von Papen thinking they'll let AfD in just a little bit and then control them.  That didn't work out so well the last time.

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  4. 43 minutes ago, Ted Lange said:

     

    If you watch and listen he actually starts off saying, "I am the federal law", but stops himself before he stating we are the federal law.

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  5. 33 minutes ago, Texasborn91 said:

    I’m not stupid enough to bitch about the price of eggs in the middle of a bird flu outbreak. 

    And yet, that was a MAGA campaign point during the election.  Post election, now nothing can be done.  So much bullshit.

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  6. 3 hours ago, Captainant said:

    back on topic, apologies to anyone senstive:

    https://www.euronews.com/2025/02/19/zelenskyys-approval-rating-grows-to-57-debunking-trumps-4-support-claim

    President and authorities deemed legitimate

    The latest KIIS poll, showing Zelenskyy's approval rating at 57%, was conducted even before Trump had his first phone call with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, which paved the way for the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia. 

    Moreover, Zelenskyy support improved from 52% in December 2024 to 57% in early February.

    Commenting on the latest ratings, KIIS Deputy Director Anton Hrushetskyi said Zelenskyy retains a fairly high level of trust in society and, even more so, retains legitimacy. 

    "If some international partners and allies are worried about the legitimacy of the President in the context of possible peace negotiations and consider it appropriate to insist on elections, then from the point of view of Ukrainian citizens themselves, there are no problems with this," Hrushetskyi said.

    "The current president and the authorities are quite legitimate to conduct complex negotiations, and elections should be held after the war ends and at least Ukraine receives reliable security guarantees," he added.

    Ukraine was scheduled to hold a presidential election in March or April 2024, concluding Zelenskyy's first five-year term. The vote was postponed as the country's constitution does not permit elections under martial law, which was declared on 24 February 2022, the day when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

    The Kremlin repeatedly sought to use the delay to portray Zelenskyy as "illegitimate," a claim rejected by Kyiv as a distortion of the constitution.

    Is this the origin of TFG's 5% approval rating came from?  He saw an article that said his support gained 5% points and he thought that meant a 5% approval rating?

  7. 1 hour ago, Bevo said:

    Sorry about the mess above. It has been reported. Both rich text and plain text were a mess.

     

    Revealed: Trump’s confidential plan to put Ukraine in a stranglehold
    Panic in Kyiv as US president demands higher share of GDP than Germany’s First World War reparations

    Ambrose Evans-Pritchard
    17 February 2025 4:00pm GMT

    Donald Trump’s demand for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine goes far beyond US control over the country’s critical minerals. It covers everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, and the larger resource base of the country.


    The terms of the contract that landed at Volodymyr Zelensky’s office a week ago amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity. It implies a burden of reparations that cannot possibly be achieved. The document has caused consternation and panic in Kyiv.
    The Telegraph has obtained a draft of the pre-decisional contract, marked “Privileged & Confidential’ and dated Feb 7 2025. It states that the US and Ukraine should form a joint investment fund to ensure that “hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine”.

    TERMS AND CONDITIONS AGREEMENT
    DRAFT AS OF FEBRUARY 7, 2025
    WHEREAS the United States of America has provided significant financial and material support to Ukraine since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022;

    WHEREAS the American people desire to invest alongside Ukraine in a free and secure Ukraine;

    WHEREAS the United States of America and Ukraine wish to ensure that hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine following a durable peace;


    NOW, THEREFORE, the United States of America and Ukraine intend to enter into an agreement on the establishment of a Reconstruction Investment Fund herein to deepen the partnership between the United States of America and Ukraine.
    Parties: United States of America (USG) and Ukraine (GOU)

    The agreement covers the “economic value associated with resources of Ukraine”, including “mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports, other infrastructure (as agreed)”, leaving it unclear what else might be encompassed. “This agreement shall be governed by New York law, without regard to conflict of laws principles,” it states.

    The US will take 50pc of recurring revenues received by Ukraine from extraction of resources, and 50pc of the financial value of “all new licences issued to third parties” for the future monetisation of resources. There will be “a lien on such revenues” in favour of the US. “That clause means ‘pay us first, and then feed your children’,” said one source close to the negotiations.


    It states that “for all future licences, the US will have a right of first refusal for the purchase of exportable minerals”. Washington will have sovereign immunity and acquire near total control over most of Ukraine’s commodity and resource economy. The fund “shall have the exclusive right to establish the method, selection criteria, terms, and conditions” of all future licences and projects. And so forth, in this vein. It seems to have been written by private lawyers, not the US departments of state or commerce.


    President Zelensky himself proposed the idea of giving the US a direct stake in Ukraine’s rare earth elements and critical minerals on a visit to Trump Tower in September, hoping to smooth the way for continued arms deliveries.


    He calculated that it would lead to US companies setting operations on the ground, creating a political tripwire that would deter Vladimir Putin from attacking again.

    Some mineral basins are near the front line in eastern Ukraine, or in Russian-occupied areas. He has played up the dangers of letting strategic reserves of titanium, tungsten, uranium, graphite and rare earths fall into Russian hands. “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” he said.

    He probably did not expect to be confronted with terms normally imposed on aggressor states defeated in war. They are worse than the financial penalties imposed on Germany and Japan after their defeat in 1945. Both countries were ultimately net recipients of funds from the victorious allies.


    A new Versailles
    If this draft were accepted, Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty, later whittled down at the London Conference in 1921, and by the Dawes Plan in 1924. At the same time, he seems willing to let Russia off the hook entirely.


    Donald Trump told Fox News that Ukraine had “essentially agreed” to hand over $500bn. “They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earths, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things,” he said.


    He warned that Ukraine would be handed to Putin on a plate if it rejected the terms. “They may make a deal. They may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. But I want this money back,” he said.


    Trump said the US had spent $300bn on the war so far, adding that it would be “stupid” to hand over any more. In fact the five packages agreed by Congress total $175bn, of which $70bn was spent in the US on weapons production. Some of it is in the form of humanitarian grants, but much of it is lend-lease money that must be repaid.


    Sen Graham told the Europeans to root hard for the idea because it locks Washington into defending a future settlement. “If we sign this minerals agreement, Putin is screwed, because Trump will defend the deal,” he said.


    Ukrainian officials had to tiptoe though this minefield at the Munich forum, trying to smile gamely and talking up hopes of a resource deal while at the same pleading that the current text breaches Ukrainian law and needs redrafting. Well, indeed.


    Other Terms and Conditions
    Offtake: For all future licenses, the USG will have a right of first refusal to purchase exportable mineral, which purchase right can be assigned.
    Governance of Reconstruction Investment Fund: The Reconstruction Investment Fund shall have the exclusive right to establish the method, selection criteria, terms, and conditions to be used by GOU in awarding and documenting future licenses to extract or otherwise monetize natural resources of Ukraine subject to this Agreement.


    Governing Law: This Agreement shall be governed by New York law, without regard to conflict of laws principles.
    Dispute Settlement: International Chamber of Commerce rules; 3 arbitrators (one selected by each disputing party with a presiding arbitrator selected by consent). Seat of arbitration to be New York and conducted in English.


    Duration: Indefinite


    Waiver of Sovereign Immunity: GOU to waive sovereign immunity with respect to its liability; also, acknowledge that this arrangement constitutes commercial activity within the meaning of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act; also waive immunity with respect to attachment of and execution against assets as necessary to satisfy any claim the USG (or any USG assignee) may have against GOU.
    Expand

    Talk of Ukraine’s resource wealth has become surreal. A figure of $26 trillion is being cast around for combined mineral reserves and hydrocarbons reserves. The sums are make-believe.


    Ukraine probably has the largest lithium basin in Europe. But lithium prices have crashed by 88pc since the bubble burst in 2022. Large reserves are being discovered all over the world. The McDermitt Caldera in Nevada is thought to be the biggest lithium deposit on the planet with 40m metric tonnes, alone enough to catapult the US ahead of China.


    The Thacker Pass project will be operational by next year. The value of lithium is in the processing and the downstream industries. Unprocessed rock deposits sitting in Ukraine are all but useless to the US.


    The lithium bubble has long since burst
    It is a similar story for rare earths. They are not rare. Mining companies in the US abandoned the business in the 1990s because profit margins were then too low. The US government was asleep at the wheel and let this happen, waking up to discover that China has acquired a strategic stranglehold over supplies of critical elements needed for hi-tech and advanced weapons. That problem is being resolved.


    Ukraine has cobalt but most EV batteries now use lithium ferrous phosphate and no longer need cobalt. Furthermore, sodium-ion and sulphur-based batteries will limit the future demand growth for lithium. So will recycling. One could go on. The mineral scarcity story is wildly exaggerated.


    As for Ukraine’s shale gas, a) some of the Yuzivska field lies under Putin control, and b) the western Carpathian reserves are in complex geology with high drilling costs, causing Chevron to pull out, just as it did in Poland. Ukraine has more potential as an exporter of electricity to Europe from renewables and nuclear expansion, but that is not what is on Donald Trump’s mind.


    Ukraine shale gas is too expensive to extract
    Oil and gas before Russian annexation of Crimea

    The second violation of Ukraine
    Ukraine cannot possibly meet his $500bn demand in any meaningful timeframe, leaving aside the larger matter of whether it is honourable to treat a victim nation in this fashion after it has held the battle line for the liberal democracies at enormous sacrifice for three years. Who really has a debt to whom, may one ask?


    “My style of dealmaking is quite simple and straightforward,” says Trump in his book The Art of the Deal. “I aim very high, and then I just keep pushing and pushing and pushing to get what I’m after.”

    In genuine commerce the other side can usually walk away. Trump’s demand is iron-fist coercion by a neo-imperial power against a weaker nation with its back to the wall, and all for a commodity bonanza that exists chiefly in Trump’s head.


    “Often-times the best deal you make is the deal you don’t make,” said Trump, offering another of his pearls.


    Zelensky does not have that luxury. He has to pick between the military violation of Ukraine by Putin, and the economic violation of Ukraine by his own ally.

    The only thing in that document that isn't crap, assuming it's true, is the following segment, "since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022".  And yet, this is all still somehow Ukraine's fault.

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  8. Ukraine will reject this "deal" and rightfully so.  He tried to bring peace.  But Ukraine wants to keep fighting.  TFG will then declare Ukraine is being unreasonable and stop all assistance.  That's where this is heading, right?

  9. 35 minutes ago, Longhorn_Fan68 said:

    well, yeah, when you let an algorithm decide rather than a person, this is what you get. they probably didn't even "look" at it - it was probably caught up in a search for charged terms and added to the list automatically. collateral damage be damned. oh well, this is what "we" voted for

    DELETE FROM Programs WHERE Name LIKE '%trans%'

    or some simple shit like that.  That's the level of contemplation that seems to be at work here.

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  10. I wondered the same thing.  The relative silence, at least in terms of physical protests, is remarkable.

    One of these days society will figure out how to recognize and expose anonymous Internet actors and neutralize this toxin to public discourse.  Or, it won't and we at least get to say we lived at humankind's apex moment, whenever that was exactly.  2006 Rose Bowl perhaps?

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  11. 40 minutes ago, Biff Tannen said:

    So, um, if the national parks start seeing some really bad things happen, I may not be around for a while. That is my reddest of lines. Monkey Wrench Gang is a great book. 

    Been there, done that.  During a government shutdown during his first term, Trump forced Joshua Tree National Park to remain open with reduced staff.  This resulted in lots of damage to the fragile trees in the park.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/28/joshua-tree-national-park-damage-government-shutdown

    According to a former park superintendent, "What’s happened to our park in the last 34 days is irreparable for the next 200 to 300 years".

    😡

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  12. 41 minutes ago, mdmost said:

    Man, if this angers those who voted for Trump because Biden and Kamala wasn't doing anything for Gaza then they should really take to the streets and let their opinions be heard. I'm sure nothing bad at all will happen, especially if they are not full citizens. 

    This has me pondering something.  If there are no widespread demonstrations against Trump for his current actions with regard to Gaza, which are demonstrably more damaging to the Palestinian cause than anything Biden/Harris promoted, then why not?  It's almost as if the real driving force behind those earlier Palestinian protests might not have actually be Palestinian.  I wonder who that might be?

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  13. 57 minutes ago, tokamak said:

    So we’ve agreed to deport American citizens to El Salvador. Totally cool, totally normal.

    Wait, so we're exporting our correctional officer jobs to a foreign country now?  I'm so confused!

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