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Bevo

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  1. Blaine is an obvious Michael Taaffe replacement.
  2. 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.
  3. As long as he’s not Krempin around my house.
  4. Yeah, just put your email address in the “To” area and hit send. I’m not sure what you wish to accomplish with that, though. It is a little like hearing whispers in your head.
  5. I shouldn’t single out attorneys - but it seems to happen a lot. I guess it is easier for them to fight cities, states, HOAs, and individuals. Somehow an attorney in my neighborhood got a sports court addition approved by the HOA architectural committee and then doubled the size and blocked their neighbors’ views of the Balcones hills so they could only see the addition. I couldn’t even imagine what it would take to win a fight against Goodwin Management but the attorney was able to do it. Anyway, it seems to me that attorneys will be the first to be able to navigate the purchases, development and construction in the wildfire-prone areas. And they will probably be the first to get their claims settled with the insurance companies. For most people, the hassle and expense of dealing with the regulations, government, and insurance will cause them to end up late to the game.
  6. Just curious about how scary certain situations are: I was flying out of Newark on a DC10 in one of the storms of the century - JFK and LaGuardia were already closed. And just after takeoff and the wheels had just left the ground, the tail moved violently to the side. Supposedly they closed the airport right after us. It happened so quick, there wasn’t even time to react or worry. another time when I was just a young kid, we were flying Delta from Florida to Atlanta and we hit crazy turbulence which I thought was fun because I would lose my stomach each time the plane dropped drastically. I remember the stewardess crying and a few of the overhead luggage compartments opening and stuff flying out of them. The oxygen masks never came down, though. It seems like these days, planes don’t hit that kind of turbulence much anymore where people get hurt. I was also on a prop jet float plant that seated around 20 when the engines went out. That didn’t scare me much as I figured we could glide into a lake. It was eerie though as prop jets are loud and then everything went silent for what seemed like a very long time. My dad seemed scared shitless.
  7. cafe beat me to it. 10.97 100 as an eighth-grader
  8. He will be but he is bigger than Turntine and is also very athletic.
  9. Terrible editorial in Al Jazeera: It is not Trump that betrayed Ukraine Those who set it on a path to full-scale war with Russia did. Leonid Ragozin Former President Donald Trump meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower, on September 27, 2024 in New York [File: AP/Julia Demaree Nikhinson] Those who set it on a path to full-scale war with Russia did. United States President Donald Trump did not stop the war in Ukraine within 24 hours of his inauguration, as he promised during the election campaign last year. But three weeks into his presidency, things got moving in that direction at a breakneck speed. On February 12, Trump called Russian President Vladimir Putin and then posted on Truth Socialthat they agreed to work together in order to stop “millions of deaths taking place” in the Ukraine-Russia war. This was followed by the announcement of a possible summit between the two in Saudi Arabia. On February 13, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth laid out some of the specifics of the US proposal to end the war during a speech at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. In an abrupt departure from the key talking points of the previous US administration, he said Ukraine cannot hope to restore sovereignty over its entire territory and that its NATO membership should be off the table to get the talks going. With these statements, the Trump administration effectively struck down the US-Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership which laid out mutual commitment to territorial integrity and inviolability of borders and identified Ukraine’s integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions (NATO and the European Union) as a priority policy goal. Some Western media outlets were quick to declare “Ukraine’s betrayal” following the statements of Trump and Hegseth. Washington is indeed abandoning Kyiv, but this is not a surprise development. The abandonment has always been a likely outcome of the US approach to relations with Ukraine. And Trump is not to blame for setting it up. Kyiv was betrayed by those who promised it NATO and EU membership so it fights Russia and rejects any compromise in a war it cannot win. In the past three years, the West reached the upper limit of what it could feasibly do in terms of supplying weapons and imposing economic sanctions without triggering World War III or badly damaging the world economy. Continuing this costly backing longer would not have changed the reality that Russia is bigger and richer than Ukraine and is able to sustain an army that has adapted to modern warfare and cannot be defeated by large quantities of state-of-the-art Western military technology. Above all, Russia would always have the final word in any regional war as a major nuclear power – a factor that restricts Western involvement in the conflict. Sooner or later a US administration was going to cut support for Ukraine because it was unsustainable. It just so happened that the decision was made by a Republican administration. The Democrats are lucky that they did not have to do it and now get to use it in their domestic battle against the GOP. Meanwhile, despite a few angry escapades in recent days, Ukraine’s European partners may begin to fall in line with the US on Ukrainian membership. On February 14, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said there was never a guarantee that Ukraine would join the alliance as part of a peace deal with Russia. This statement contradicted some of his earlier pledges. In December 2024, the newly appointed Rutte said at a joint news conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Ukraine’s “path to membership is irreversible” and that it was “closer to NATO than ever”. While NATO membership now seems completely off the table for Ukraine, the Trump administration does not appear to be completely ignoring Ukraine. In a nod to Ukrainian demands for Western security guarantees, Hegseth mentioned the possibility of deploying European and non-European peacekeepers to observe and enforce a ceasefire. He did rule out the deployment of American troops and said peacekeepers from NATO countries should not be covered by NATO’s Article 5 which allows for a joint response against an attack on any alliance member. This proposition will hardly reassure Ukrainians. Zelenskyy has repeatedly said that Western security guarantees are of little value without US involvement. At the same time, the Kremlin will likely see any NATO troops on Ukrainian territory as a Trojan horse, so the idea is unlikely to take off when the talks begin in earnest. Non-NATO European troops should not be an issue for Moscow, but non-NATO European states like Austria and Serbia can likely supply just a few thousand troops. The main contingents will, therefore, have to come from the Global South. That said, the whole peacekeeper issue is overblown. The only way to guarantee stable peace is to establish Ukraine’s genuine non-alignment and advance rapprochement between Russia and the West. Does this mean a win for the Kremlin? Yes, it does, but this has been the only realistic outcome since Ukraine got thrown under Putin’s bulldozer by Western hawks. Contrary to various Western predictions that the Russian economy will collapse and the regime will crumble under war pressure, Russia has managed to fare relatively well throughout this conflict. Its economy has been booming thanks to lavish defence spending and – unlike Ukrainians – the Russian population has been effectively shielded from the war becoming a major factor in their lives. Putin clearly cannot be defeated on the battlefield. He can only be brought down if the Russian people are on board. But the West and Ukraine have done everything to alienate even the most staunchly pro-Ukrainian anti-Putin Russians through xenophobic rhetoric and discriminative policies. It seemed that the hawkish crowd always wanted war, not a better Ukraine and Russia. The choices Ukraine is left with are all grim. This was apparent in Zelenskyy’s speech at the Munich Security Conference, which was meant to show defiance but smacked of desperation. He turned to the EU proposing that the Ukrainian army become the core of a new European military force. This is also unlikely to work because it brings the EU into direct confrontation with Russia. The Ukrainian president also tried to interest Trump in Ukraine’s mineral riches only to receive an ultimatum from his administration tantamount to an imperialist confiscation of Ukrainian resources. But all of this is intended for his domestic audience. Zelenskyy needs to show that he has tried every avenue, even the most improbable ones, and that the West still betrayed him. With that, he can then succumb to the inevitable. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.
  10. Yeah, it is crazy cold there. I was in shorts today in Austin and it felt nice. Unfortunately, I’m catching a flight back to Montana now.
  11. I bet 50% of the people you are describing are attorneys.
  12. Yeah, his wiki page is pretty messed up. I know he is known as a recruiter, but then they pretty much only mention guys and girls he recruited while at SFA.
  13. Sounds like my recent flight from Billings to Denver. It was around -15 with high winds and ice on the runway. United Embraer ERJ 145. AC was stuck on full blast with duct tape on some of the overheads. POS plane with AC going full blast on a plane that was already below zero when boarding. Freaking torture for a stupid expensive flight (Billings is always expensive to fly out of ).
  14. And some of the prominent players Luper has helped develop include Dantrell Savage, Derrick Blaylock, DonTrell Moore, Terrance Shaw, Jeremiah Trotter, and Katie Hnida. when Katie Hnida is one of your few notable recruits, your resume isn’t so great.
  15. a deaf, dumb and blind kid.
  16. Leave the noodles out of this.
  17. Did Skip McGee go to Memorial or Kinkaid? I know he was involved with the Houston Racket Club.
  18. Oh no, William and Mary won’t do.
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