NATO needs a similar mechanism as well, but for similar reasons doesn’t have one either.

It’s older than that.

Even so, it’s just an objective fact that blocking traffic hurts the working poor far more than it hurts the wealthy and powerful high-status people who wield real power in society. It also, at least in the US, just further alienates blue collar people from the Democratic party and the political left, a demographic that they should own, but are losing and continuing to lose precisely because they are so tone deaf. The right does not block traffic, at least not as a tactic in itself, because they are smart enough to know that it just pisses people off. This difference is diagnostic of why the Democrats are steadily losing support from non-college-educated working people of all races.

Blocking traffic is pretty shitty though because you’re hurting working people as opposed to the people who have real power and status in society. These are people who depend on hourly wages and often have multiple jobs together with childcare scheduling commitments and the like.

You have to wonder if they’ve ever actually met any Taiwanese people.

Yeah that’s bullshit.

The Intercept? Are you kidding me?! They are openly committed to advocacy journalism. They don’t even make a pretense of trying to be fair-minded, objective or operating in good-faith. Greenwald is an attorney who’s openly said that he approaches journalism the same way he approaches a case as a litigator.

I am a journalist by formal academic training --though I don’t really work in the business anymore-- and I can tell you for a fact that The Intercept is basically a case study in how many different ways a publication can violate SPJ’s code of ethics. They are a fucking disgrace to the profession and it’s galling that people like you take them seriously.

And that in itself was another reason to invade. A free and prosperous western-facing Ukraine might cause the Russian masses to begin wondering why they can’t have that too. Putin cannot abide that.

Every piece of information, even propaganda, is a valuable data point.

Only in conjunction with a suite of other factors. By itself, as we are seeing, it can only get you so far.

No, they’re in big trouble. Putin is gambling that he can hang on long enough for Trump to save him, but Russia is already facing demographic collapse as well as a massive brain drain from the younger generations. Things are pretty dire and there are a lot of powerful people in Russia who know it.

Wrong again. Russia is already facing demographic collapse together with a massive brain drain from the younger generations. Putin has convinced people like yourself that he is strong, but as was true of the USSR immediately before its fall, he is in fact very weak and increasingly desperate. His regime is brittle and only becoming more so as he continues to suck the life out of the country. When he does finally lose power, it’s going to happen very fast, almost overnight, and the Ukrainians will rout the Russian military in a bloodbath of unfortunate though understandable vengeance.

The US may lose interest but Europe won’t. This is their backyard and WW2 is still in living memory and physical evidence across the continent. It’s not some abstract idea like it is for us North Americans. It’s still very present and it’s recognized that Putin cannot and will not be allowed to win, regardless of what the Americans decide to do. Germany, France or the UK alone could easily fund the war if they had to. Together they will ensure that there can be no win for Putin. I am constantly surprised that this is not more widely known.

Again, while I don’t necessarily otherwise disagree with you, you are a little confused on whataboutism.

That’s not whataboutism. Whataboutism is changing the subject to derail the conversation. This is simply addressing a different point of view in the same discussion.

No. The best information is that they’ve been putting a ton of pressure on Netanyahu to back the fuck off, but it hasn’t done any good because he’s a legitimate asshole and always has been. (Remember, this is the same guy who deliberately embarrassed Obama by accepting a GOP invitation to address Congress without consulting the White House or making an official state visit to the president. He’s the scum of the earth and always has been. There’s zero question that he’s hoping for a Trump win.)

They don’t want to go public with demanding restraint or a cease fire because they are afraid it will widen the war by encouraging Iran and its other proxies such as the Houthis and Hezbollah which could further hinder freight traffic through the Red Sea, thus bumping global inflation back up and giving Trump a campaign gift. I think at this point it’s a lost cause and they need to cut their losses and tell Israel to knock it the fuck off, but I expect they will continue to drag their feet and work on back channels.

We also know that every time Iran has been met with real force rather than empty threats, they have backed off. Ultimately it would still be a big gamble to openly threaten them, but it’s something to think about, especially if you don’t fancy another Trump presidency/dictatorship.

Most of what we see on Lemmy is pure amateur hour speculation that has only a very tangential relationship with what’s actually happening.

The presidency was never meant to be as powerful as it has become.

Bullshit. Leaving aside any potential humanitarian concerns, this whole thing is a massive headache for the Biden Administration.

Horseshit. I’ve spent literally decades reporting on land-use issues in the rural west. That, together with the reintroduction of wolves in the intermountain west, is kind of my life’s work as a journalist thus far.

I actually don’t even know where to start with how wrong you are.

That’s what they want us to believe, but there are so many giant caveats in the narrative that it’s rendered pretty meaningless. The only things the Red Army of WW2 has in common with Russia’s current army are the language and a willingness to throw lives into the meat grinder as a tactic in and of itself.