multitotal

If we all agree that a people can experience trauma on a large scale and that trauma can then pass onto the descendants, then the reverse must also be true -- a people who have inflicted trauma on a large scale pass that experience onto the descendants.

People who are descended from people from slave-owning and imperialist nations carry with them the scars of slave ownership, genocide, oppression. It shows in the way they act, speak, think. Their worldview is informed by their history as masters of "lesser people".

And as soon as HTS are done torturing people, I am sure we will hear all abouabout "Assad's torture city".

Meanwhile, the US has an actual torture city in Cuba lol

US officials have said they are monitoring the developing situation. "Our thoughts are with the French people fighting for democracy," said the White House Spokesperson, adding that any attempts by Macron to use violence to stifle the peaceful protests will be met with condemnation and heavy sanctions.

Meanwhile, in Bruxelles Ursula von der Leyen said that it is obvious the French people want change and freedom. "We have been worried by reports coming from France, the EU stands with the people of France and will do anything to help assist a peaceful transition of power", she said.

In cities across Europe people have come out into the street to protest against Macron, holding banners that say "Macron = murderer" and "ICC Trial for Macron now!" Countries bordering France have increased security on their borders and all European airline operators have temporarily suspended flights to and from France.

Many are saying Macron will not go without a fight, describing him as an old, sick man with nothing to lose, desperately clinging to power.

Notice how they write about Syria (a recognised state entity) defending its sovereignty and fighting Tukey-aligned rebels.

I can't wait for the inevitable "All of Russia's men are dead, the soldiers fighting for Russia are Korean. We did it reddit!"

Sunken cost fallacy.

I went through Trump's cabinet picks' stance on Ukraine. Only one person is pro-UA and anti-Russia, the rest are various degrees anti-UA, pro-RU. This leads me to ~~believe~~ hope that the aid to Ukraine from the US will stop soon after Trump becomes president, and soon after the war. HOWEVER !!! this does not mean that these people are "good" or should be supported, it's still a cavalcade of fascists, racists, nationalists, China hawks, bigots, Zionists, etc. !!!

I apologise for the poor formatting, the person's stance is in the spoiler below their name.

CABINET:

• Tulsi Gabbard as Director of National Intelligence (obviously anti-UA, NATO-skeptic, became infamous after her support of Assad)
• Matt Gaetz as Attorney General (anti-UA, he's actually on the myrotvorets list)
• Marco Rubio as Secretary of State
  anti-Ukraine aid

  Rubio's public statements on Ukraine appear to be very much in line with Trump's broad plans for the war — a swift end to it.
  Rubio's statements and actions have been very much geared towards negotiation and an end to the war rather than giving Ukraine what it needs to evict Russian forces from its territory.
  Rubio was among the 15 Republican lawmakers in the Senate who voted against the $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine, which eventually passed in April 2024. Its delay severely hampered Ukraine's fight against Russian forces.
  
• John Ratcliffe for CIA Director
  China hawk

  As director of national intelligence, Ratcliffe focused on space issues and on China, which he labeled as America’s primary threat.
  John Ratcliffe was one of the sharpest critics of former Attorney General Robert Mueller, who led the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
• Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security
  anti-Ukraine aid

  RBC-Ukraine pointed out that Kristi Noem had opposed US assistance to Ukraine in the context of her potential appointment as the next Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.
• Doug Collins as Secretary of Veteran Affairs
  
  anti-Ukraine aid

  Collins balked at the suggestion the military aid would have saved Ukrainian lives and that "this money did not stop that." He later referenced the testimony of under secretary of political affairs David Hale, who in November said the military aid for was "future assistance ... not to keep the army going now."
• Doug Burgum as Secretary of the Interior <-- only pro-UA
  pro-UA aid, anti-RU

  Doug Burgum (R) bluntly stated that the United States is “actually at war with Russia.” What is his take on the House not including military aid funding for Ukraine in the stopgap measure?
  When it comes to sending Ukraine military aid, Burgum points to Ukraine’s ability to have already taken “out a huge chunk of [Russia’s] capability,” adding, “I don’t call that irresponsible spending, I call that a bargain.” The Republican governor did add a caveat, though: “There’s no blank checks — there has to be accountability. We have to track every dollar.”
  
• Lee Zeldin as Head of the Environmental Protection Agency
  all I could find on his stance on UA

  (doesn't think US should send troops to defend Ukraine
• Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as Head of Health and Human Services
  anti-UA, geopolitic realist, blames NATO for war in Ukraine

  "He’s in Ukraine because he warned us he was gonna go in Ukraine if we put NATO in Ukraine, and the Russians, not just Putin, the Russian leadership have been warning us of that since 1992, when we promised we would never do that. ... And James Baker famously said to him, 'We will not move NATO one inch to the East.' Now we’ve moved it 1000 miles to the East, 14 countries. We put nuclear-ready weapons, missile systems, remain in Poland, 12 minutes from Moscow. So we could decapitate the entire soviet leadership in 12 minutes, and we walked away from the two nuclear weapons treaties unilaterally, we had two intermediate weapons treaties with Russia, and we unilaterally walked away from both. So we’re sending a message to Russia, you were the enemy, we are surrounding you and we’re going to put NATO everywhere. Russia has always said this, what you’re doing, is wrong, it is hurting our national security, it is hurting our sovereignty, but the one thing you should never do is go into Ukraine because if you go into Ukraine, we gotta get you out. And they have good reason for that. Russia has been invaded three times through Ukraine, ..."

WHITE HOUSE:

• Susie Wiles as Chief of Staff (she was the head of Trump's campaign)
• Mike Waltz as National Security Adviser
  China hawk, pro-NATO, pro-peace in UA

  Waltz is also on the Republicans' China Task Force and has argued the U.S. military is not as prepared as it needs to be if there is conflict in the Indo-Pacific region.
  Waltz laid out a five-part strategy to preventing war with China, including arming Taiwan faster, re-assuring allies in the Pacific, and modernizing planes and ships.
  On Ukraine, Waltz has said his views have evolved. After Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, he called for the Biden administration to provide more weapons to Kyiv to help them push back Russian forces.
  But during an event last month, Waltz said there had to be a reassessment of the United States' aims in Ukraine.
  "Is it in America's interest, are we going to put in the time, the treasure, the resources that we need in the Pacific right now badly?" Waltz asked.
  Waltz has praised Trump for pushing NATO allies to spend more on defense, but unlike the president-elect has not suggested the United States pull out of the alliance.
  
• Tom Homan as Border Czar (lol what a dumb title)
  can't find anything on Ukraine

  Because he's super into "border security" so probably doesn't have a stance on UA. probably an "against aid to UA until the border is fixed" type. Not pro-UA, probably couldn't find Ukraine on the map tbh and he probably doesn't care about Ukraine.
• Stephen Miller as Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy
  anti-immigration, pro-USA nationalist fascist

  Can't find anything on his stance in Ukraine, probably doesn't think about or give a fuck about Ukraine.
• Dan Scavino as Deputy Chief of Staff (Trump's former Goebbels, moving up in the world)
  Trump sycophant, anti-UA if Trump is

  Scavino was the longest-serving aide in the Trump Administration. He remained as Director of Social Media until the end of Trump's term as president.

AMBASSADORS:

• Steven Witkoff as Special Envoy to the Middle East
  Zionist

  His selection, which requires Senate confirmation, was widely welcomed by Israeli officials who oppose a Palestinian state, a longstanding U.S. goal.
  Steven Witkoff, who was named on Tuesday as the incoming administration’s Middle East envoy, raised a vast amount of money for Mr. Trump’s campaign — including from Jewish voters after the Biden administration stopped shipping some bombs to Israel.
• Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel
  pro-Israel

  the right wing of Israeli politics has welcomed the president-elect’s appointment of Huckabee, seeing it as predicting another term of American policy highly favourable to their longstanding aims of holding on to territory in the West Bank and expanding settlements.
  The appointment was greeted with joy by two far-right ministers in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich messaged his congratulations to “a consistent and loyal friend", while Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, wrote "Mike Huckabee" with heart emojis.
  
• Elise Stefanik as Ambassador to the United Nations
  changed from pro-UA to anti-UA now that Trump picked her

  New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for US ambassador to the United Nations, is now refusing to stand by her previous push for Ukraine’s NATO membership — a stance she once framed as critical to regional stability.
  Her office also declined to say whether she still believes Russia committed genocide in Ukraine, as she said in 2022.

These people are out of their minds.

b's analysis:

I doubt that he will be able to close down the war in 24 hours, as he had promised. I rather think that he will escalate it.

Trump will likely select (neo-conservative) hawks to run his defense and foreign policies. They will take all possible measures, even against Trump's declared will, to keep the war going. For them it is down to the last Ukrainian, then down to the last European - if only to show that the U.S. will never give up.

To cover for this Trump and his acolytes may well offer an immediate ceasefire. But that will not work.

The war will go on. Russia will have to, as Gordon Hahn predicts, cross the Dnieper, retake Odessa and threaten Kiev. Zelenski is unlikely to politically survive such a situation.

Only a direct intervention by NATO, could be able to change that trajectory. That however would likely expand the war into a global contest that not even Trump's hawks will want to pursue.

I am actually hoping Trump follows up on his promise of ending the war quickly, by stopping the weapons deliveries and money, and forces Zelenskyy to negotiate with Russia. Trump is a populist and I am pretty sure his staff is feeding him correct information on the opinions on the war: most Americans are cooling off it with a large number against it, Germany is in chaos, EU is out of equipment/ammo to send. It is obvious that the US needs to continue providing the bulk of the support, which Trump, if he wants to be popular, won't do.

Sounds ridiculous, but Putin just needs to offer Trump something good. lol

War is peace.