Malazan Empire: Mentalist - Viewing Profile - Malazan Empire

It doesn't sound like anyone in White House is 100% sure what their boss really means.

I've spent all day thinking back to Nero and Kaligula.
What kind of animal will this guy bring into the Senate?

Cause, on 02 April 2025 - 06:18 PM, said:

Didn't their last Continuation Resolution thing have an amendment where the Congress basically gave up their power to check tariffs?
I'm pretty sure that's what the uproar aimed at Schumer was for.

EDIT: weeeeelp

RIP, Globalization.
You had a good run, I guess.

pp needs to pull a constructive campaign program out of his ass that isn't just populist tripe of "make food cheaper" and "build the homes", which is stuff he has no means to deliver

That and, y'know, cuss out Fox News for the 51st state BS.

Otherwise they'll keep circling the drain. And deservedly so.

The one bright spot is, Timothy Snyder will be teaching at UfT now. I may get a chance to hear him lecture live.

3 days left until "liberate-Americans-from-money" day.

Gwynn ap Nudd, on 30 March 2025 - 06:31 PM, said:

The US is currently still sending out the aid that's been promised by Biden.

The EU continues to operate under the assumption they need to keep the US onboard in European security as long as possible, despite Musk and co sending non-stop signals they DGAF about NATO and US's security "obligations"

Because of this, and because UA cannot continue waging this war effectively without European support, Kyiv can't burn all bridges with US just yet. Because that would make EU angry and panicky, and we can't have that until Europeans are ready to put on their big boy pants and stop hiding in America's skirt.

Once the White House says "we've sent all the aid that was authorized in 2024, and we aren't giving any more", they lose roughly two-thirds of the leverage they have on Kyiv. The remainder being intel sharing (which UAF is trying to replace right now, launching satellites with the Czechs and making intel-sharing arrangements with UK and France), and the existing US sanctions on Moscow (which aren't as important as EU's in raw numbers, but have potential to hurt more, if the US imposes secondary sanctions on those states and companies that violate their 1st order sanctions). But until that point, UA has to play nice.

And, again, if structured fairly, the investment agreement isn't inherently a bad thing. A lot of people back home hope that this will have to cause internal reforms and legislative changes that make for better, more open and less corrupt business practices, which are necessary for Western investment, but the added transparency enforced by the US will also make it better for local businesses. So the idea itself isn't terrible; though its current incarnation obviously is, which is why we haven't heard anythign from Kyiv for a while about what they think about it.