The New Coffee Room

@Horace said in John Bolton on Trump and Putin:

@xenon said in John Bolton on Trump and Putin:

I just don’t get how you expect a people who have been paying in blood to accept falsehoods about themselves to get to peace.

It’s asinine. These people have already gone to war for their rights and dignity. They’re not gonna give it up for Donald Trump of all people. This isn’t a bank loan application.

And the non-asinine perspective is embracing a forever war of attrition that Ukraine cannot win, because losing face by accepting a peace deal penned by a guy who said mean words about them, would be unthinkable. Interesting priorities, but they have a faint whiff of armchair principles.

I don’t think the option set is war of attrition or peace. There’s zero guarantee that Putin holds up his side of any bargain that’s struck here. I don’t think they’re afraid of losing face, they’re afraid of being oppressed (or worse).

I just don’t get how you expect a people who have been paying in blood to accept falsehoods about themselves to get to peace.

It’s asinine. These people have already gone to war for their rights and dignity. They’re not gonna give it up for Donald Trump of all people. This isn’t a bank loan application.

I liked VDH when he first came on the scene. A smart counter-narrative voice. Now he’s become just as predictable as the rest on what his position on any given subject is going to be.

Audience capture is a hell of a thing.

@Jolly said in Gifts for Putin, Demands for Zelensky:

Why are we pushing Europe to 5%? Because 5% will probably supply enough combat power that they can defend themselves.

Follow the current German/French consortium on a new MBT? They've just about got it finalized and Rheinmetal has chucked a monkey wrench into the whole thing.

They can't help themselves and I think Americans are getting tired of carrying their load.

Who do the Europeans need to defend themselves from?

If it’s mostly the Russians, doesn’t depleting their military lower the spend you need in the long run?

Watching the Canada US game up in Canada today.

The Anti-American sentiment is thick.

The issue is that the “negotiated” settlement still results Ukrainians being “pacified” by the Russians. Pretty much same result as a prolonged war of attrition - except maybe the fighters just get blindfolded and executed.

The irony here is that if Zelensky really was a dictator, Trump would like him more.

Could you blow up the yards?

@jon-nyc said in Elon discovers the constitution:

Wait 3 years. The average maturity of our debt is 6 years. Interest rates started climbing three years ago. Half the debt will need to be refinanced at today’s rates.

And the house is planning to add 4T more debt in the next 2+ years too.

It’s pretty scary.

This is the annoying part. Spend all the time talking about the <1% line item of federal personnel, while cranking the debt up to 11.

Nonsense. We’ve become an unserious people and deserve whatever is coming.

@xenon said in Trump says the USA will takeover Gaza:

I think he’s just gonna pretend he didn’t say this tomorrow.

Right on cue:
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/02/05/world/israel-gaza-netanyahu-trump?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20250205&instance_id=146749&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=89229062&segment_id=190231&user_id=07ae106f897c7aaf0dfd7067da1ba613

I’m surprised that more indigenous people haven’t taken them up on the land acknowledgment and try to take back buildings.

“But you just said…”

I think he’s just gonna pretend he didn’t say this tomorrow.

America First?

I was gonna say something similar. This guy takes up too much time. Not worth it.

How about we pay our credit cards off first. While we’re at it, I thought we were supposed to be cutting government departments.

@Jolly said in Canadian Tariff situation gets its own thread:

Now, what is actually going to happen?

Canada tightens up the border and tariff goes away. Mexico is going to be more interesting...By declaring the cartels terrorist organizations, it means we can drop a SEAL team into the country, if we choose.

What about the part where no business leader would plan for an integrated supply chain anymore?

And what’s actually happening at the Canadian border that’s causing such a mess in the US? That’s still not very clear to people. Hard to address a problem without knowing what it is.

This is the tweet. A charitable reading could be that Trump just needs a few strokes under (or I guess above) the table and this would be over:

This will be interesting.

Complete destruction of trust for long term economic cooperation.

Trump saw it work with China, with the decoupling after tariffs and Covid supply chain issues.

Interesting that he’s using the same playbook on his “allies”

@Jolly said in Canadian Tariff situation gets its own thread:

Lumber.

Canadian lumber just killed one of the largest sawmills in Northern Florida.

Autos.

How many vehicles do we still import from Canada? I don't know.

I agree that oil makes up most if the deficit, but the deficit is higher than it's been in awhile. I suspect this latest tariff is just the opening shot in further trade negotiations.

This sounds like an arguement for no trade.

Canadians are generally pretty pissed about this. Conservatives in Canada have been saying for a long time that they should be refining their own energy and selling it to a more diverse base of countries. US has been getting a pretty sweet deal on that. And until yesterday the name of the game was energy independence wrt to the ME.

If you think the trade between Canadian and the US is unfair, I don’t think any sort of trade would be to your liking.

We’ve dialed it in over the years - we only buy a specific set of items now: eggs, milk, oil, TP, coffee, Parmesan cheese, etc.

90% of our basket is the same stuff. We’ve learned what we consistently use and what piles up in the pantry. We don’t experiment there anymore.