Zelensky can’t be trusted - Tom Friedman, NYT

[Anonymous]

Can't stand Friedman, but good. Seeing the excuses made for and the willful inability to call dysfunction for what it is as it relates to Ukraine's power elite has been tiresome. They're renowned for venality to the point that I consider it to be an aspect of their national character. Russia is in heel with them on that aspect of their political life... but LOL at any idea that Ukraine doesn't have massive internal structural problems. Hauling in NGO's to shoehorn "democracy" into their public life isn't going to fix these corrupt impulses and attitudes, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't stand Friedman, but good. Seeing the excuses made for and the willful inability to call dysfunction for what it is as it relates to Ukraine's power elite has been tiresome. They're renowned for venality to the point that I consider it to be an aspect of their national character. Russia is in heel with them on that aspect of their political life... but LOL at any idea that Ukraine doesn't have massive internal structural problems. Hauling in NGO's to shoehorn "democracy" into their public life isn't going to fix these corrupt impulses and attitudes, either.

We've supported worse in proxy wars. As long as they're killing Russians, there is no reason not to arm them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't stand Friedman, but good. Seeing the excuses made for and the willful inability to call dysfunction for what it is as it relates to Ukraine's power elite has been tiresome. They're renowned for venality to the point that I consider it to be an aspect of their national character. Russia is in heel with them on that aspect of their political life... but LOL at any idea that Ukraine doesn't have massive internal structural problems. Hauling in NGO's to shoehorn "democracy" into their public life isn't going to fix these corrupt impulses and attitudes, either.

Totally ignoring the fact that Zelenskyy ran as a political outsider on an anti-corruption platform sticking his thumb in the eye of the power elite, and was making many changes to fix these problems before Ukraine was attacked by Russia. And I believe part of why Russia attacked was because they saw their remaining influence with the power elite waning due to those changes.

[Anonymous]

Friedman who? Is that the same Friedman that in 2016 has predicted the economic and financial collapse under Trump?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't stand Friedman, but good. Seeing the excuses made for and the willful inability to call dysfunction for what it is as it relates to Ukraine's power elite has been tiresome. They're renowned for venality to the point that I consider it to be an aspect of their national character. Russia is in heel with them on that aspect of their political life... but LOL at any idea that Ukraine doesn't have massive internal structural problems. Hauling in NGO's to shoehorn "democracy" into their public life isn't going to fix these corrupt impulses and attitudes, either.

We've supported worse in proxy wars. As long as they're killing Russians, there is no reason not to arm them

This all damn day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“ There is deep mistrust between the White House and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky — considerably more than has been reported.”

- nyt , Tom Friedman

Ukrani-philes, defend yer man.

TF has a direct line to the oval, so this was def authorized.

My guess - Whitehouse knows how bad the winter is gonna get for Europe and is sooner rather than later going to try to lean on VZ to get a ceasefire with Russia.

Whitehouse fears that europe won’t last in unity through the winter and populist fervor will reach a fever pitch as Russia throttles LNG

Thank you Comrade.

[Anonymous]

The same guy who argued "the world is flat"? As if it was some profound idea?

Friedman needs to join Fukuyama in the time-out corner. They can wear Ass-Hats of History together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't stand Friedman, but good. Seeing the excuses made for and the willful inability to call dysfunction for what it is as it relates to Ukraine's power elite has been tiresome. They're renowned for venality to the point that I consider it to be an aspect of their national character. Russia is in heel with them on that aspect of their political life... but LOL at any idea that Ukraine doesn't have massive internal structural problems. Hauling in NGO's to shoehorn "democracy" into their public life isn't going to fix these corrupt impulses and attitudes, either.

UltraMAGA says hold my beer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't stand Friedman, but good. Seeing the excuses made for and the willful inability to call dysfunction for what it is as it relates to Ukraine's power elite has been tiresome. They're renowned for venality to the point that I consider it to be an aspect of their national character. Russia is in heel with them on that aspect of their political life... but LOL at any idea that Ukraine doesn't have massive internal structural problems. Hauling in NGO's to shoehorn "democracy" into their public life isn't going to fix these corrupt impulses and attitudes, either.

We've supported worse in proxy wars. As long as they're killing Russians, there is no reason not to arm them

This all damn day.

Us policy makers are concerned that the eu could fracture over this.

Let’s revisit in feb 2023.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't stand Friedman, but good. Seeing the excuses made for and the willful inability to call dysfunction for what it is as it relates to Ukraine's power elite has been tiresome. They're renowned for venality to the point that I consider it to be an aspect of their national character. Russia is in heel with them on that aspect of their political life... but LOL at any idea that Ukraine doesn't have massive internal structural problems. Hauling in NGO's to shoehorn "democracy" into their public life isn't going to fix these corrupt impulses and attitudes, either.

Totally ignoring the fact that Zelenskyy ran as a political outsider on an anti-corruption platform sticking his thumb in the eye of the power elite, and was making many changes to fix these problems before Ukraine was attacked by Russia. And I believe part of why Russia attacked was because they saw their remaining influence with the power elite waning due to those changes.

The republicans are worst.

[Anonymous]

As a squeaky little cheerleader for the Bush/Cheney cabal’s illegal war in Iraq he’s lost all credibility. He’s just desperate to regain relevancy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't stand Friedman, but good. Seeing the excuses made for and the willful inability to call dysfunction for what it is as it relates to Ukraine's power elite has been tiresome. They're renowned for venality to the point that I consider it to be an aspect of their national character. Russia is in heel with them on that aspect of their political life... but LOL at any idea that Ukraine doesn't have massive internal structural problems. Hauling in NGO's to shoehorn "democracy" into their public life isn't going to fix these corrupt impulses and attitudes, either.

We've supported worse in proxy wars. As long as they're killing Russians, there is no reason not to arm them

This all damn day.

Us policy makers are concerned that the eu could fracture over this.

Let’s revisit in feb 2023.

Plenty of time to bring more pain to Russia before it get that far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't stand Friedman, but good. Seeing the excuses made for and the willful inability to call dysfunction for what it is as it relates to Ukraine's power elite has been tiresome. They're renowned for venality to the point that I consider it to be an aspect of their national character. Russia is in heel with them on that aspect of their political life... but LOL at any idea that Ukraine doesn't have massive internal structural problems. Hauling in NGO's to shoehorn "democracy" into their public life isn't going to fix these corrupt impulses and attitudes, either.

We've supported worse in proxy wars. As long as they're killing Russians, there is no reason not to arm them

This all damn day.

Us policy makers are concerned that the eu could fracture over this.

Let’s revisit in feb 2023.

EU has itself to blame, for continuing its dependence on Russian gas. Putin is like a mobster running a protection racket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can't stand Friedman, but good. Seeing the excuses made for and the willful inability to call dysfunction for what it is as it relates to Ukraine's power elite has been tiresome. They're renowned for venality to the point that I consider it to be an aspect of their national character. Russia is in heel with them on that aspect of their political life... but LOL at any idea that Ukraine doesn't have massive internal structural problems. Hauling in NGO's to shoehorn "democracy" into their public life isn't going to fix these corrupt impulses and attitudes, either.

We've supported worse in proxy wars. As long as they're killing Russians, there is no reason not to arm them

This all damn day.

Us policy makers are concerned that the eu could fracture over this.

Let’s revisit in feb 2023.

EU has itself to blame, for continuing its dependence on Russian gas. Putin is like a mobster running a protection racket.

Yes - they do. Eu is to blame.

American policy makers though do not want to see massive EU unrest.

It affects American interests even if you don’t care about the Europeans

There is a credible argument to be made to give Ukraine up to preserve western European political economy but open up a covert war against Russian spies and diplomats across the the world.

I would lift all sanctions on Russia, tell VZ to make a new country around Kyiv/Lviv, then break the church committee laws and authorize cia program to tactically kill 50-100 Russian spies/oligarch families over the next 24 months.

Better to open up a covert war and pay a smaller price (I know some of our spies and diplomats would get hit in return) in the grand scheme of things.

I don’t think people understand how close western Europe is to melt down.

Mi6/cia can get into a kinetic tit-4-tat which lets Russians and anglos fight without major countries breaking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Despite massive western aid, Ukraine has failed to recapture significant territory this summer. It’s a stalemate.

Uh, Russia was supposed to take the whole country in three days.

A quagmire is never good for the "superpower"