Leaderboard

During Trump's first term 37 individuals were successfully prosecuted following an investigation into Russian influence/cooperation with Trump's 2016 campaign. Yes Trump is a narcissist and craves attention but those are no reason to dismiss the very real possibility that Trump is a Russian asset. No public figure in America has been of greater utility to Putin over the last 10yrs than Trump. in 2016 U.S. intelligence briefed then candidate Trump that Russia has hacked the DNC and was trying to manipulate the election. Trump responded by publicly insinuating that China might be responsible. This was years before JD Vance was involved in politics and before Elon Musk was publicly active in politics. Trump stood next to Putin in Helsinki, in his formal capacity as POTUS, and said he accepted Putin's word over that of U.S. Intelligence. As POTUS Trump attempt to extort Ukraine. Trump threatened to hold up weapons shipments unless Ukraine gave Trump propaganda against a political rival. That led to Trump's first impeachment. Now Trump has met with Putin to "negotiate" Ukraine's fate and Zelensky wasn't even invited. Trump brought Zelensky to DC with the expectation Zelensky would sign away mineral rights in trade for nothing. Just sign over Ukraine's domestic resources without any security assurance. Trump winked at the reporter who criticized Zelensky's attire and say by while his VP demanded Zelensky personally thank Trump. Trump calls it "The Russia Hoax" but I honestly cannot imagine what more a U.S. official could possibly do to appease Putin. Trump publicly discusses leaving NATO, praises Putin's strength, and is antagonistic to Putin's enemies. I think it is pretty clear that Trump is compromised to Putin. Trump isn't just some old man that likes to be flattered so he goes along with Musk & Vance. Trump has loyalty to Putin and is prepared to undermine U.S. interests for Putin.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) is the largest company in Taiwan, and the most valuable semiconductor company in the world. Taiwan’s worldwide exports of integrated circuits amounted to $184 billion in 2022, and accounted for 25% of Taiwan’s GDP. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TSMC The status of TSMC as a world leader in Fabless manufacturing, operating as a ‘pure play’ company specialising in the semiconductor foundry industry, has in the past given Taiwan what some critics call a “Silicon Shield” against the threat of invasion or blockade by China. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20250225-trump-s-chip-tariff-threats-raise-stakes-for-taiwan As Taiwan produces more than half the world’s chips, and most of the really advanced ones too, there has always been strong bi-partisan support in the US Congress for Taiwan - to protect it as a critical part of the global IC supply chain, and to prevent those resources from being expropriated by China. A week ago Trump announced tariff plans that would include a 25% levy on imported chips which are used in everything from smart phones to missiles. The problem here is that TSMC don’t ship that large a proportion of their output directly to the USA. They are a semiconductor foundry business who supply chips in bulk to other manufacturers in every part of the world - including Apple who actually do much of their product assembly in China. A key factor would be whether levies are applied only to chips being shipped to the United States, or also on chips in finished products. Trump’s tariff plans are predicated on “redressing trade imbalances” and “encouraging companies to move manufacturing back to the United States”. As it happens TSMC has been opening up new semiconductor foundries around the world - including one in Arizona in 2024. But it’s a slow process that takes years to accomplish. The real dilemma that TSMC faces however, is that moving their semiconductor foundries out of Taiwan and into other countries dilutes the value of the “Silicon Shield” that has helped to discourage China from invading Taiwan in recent years. Moving their foundries to the USA could simply encourage Donald Trump to throw Taiwan under the bus by allowing China to invade it. The other part of Trump’s plans for Taiwan seem to involve the usual gangster-style grift of demanding that the Taiwanese “pay” for the “protection” they receive from the United States.

As a simple stochastic strategy it would just make logical sense: throw money and praise at as many Western elites as possible, and hope some of them rise to positions of political power. For someone with an ego and intellect as vulnerable to praise and manipulation as Trump, coupled with his need for financial backing due to lackluster business performance, it would be a slam dunk. The book, American Kompromat is seeming all the more believable in light of his recent actions. "This is going to be great television. I will say that.” - Donald Trump, after his meeting with Zelensky on February 28th. It was clearly and obviously a preplanned ambush, a stunt for his base. Trump knows his base don't read, they don't understand the history of Ukraine or geopolitics - all they will pay attention to is emotional based reality TV. Hence why Zelensky was provoked by Vance. They just needed a reason to go for the jugular, and apparently Zelensky daring to challenge his majesty and speak up for basic facts was enough. Through all the sound and the fury (signifying nothing), Zelensky was only trying to warn America, nothing more.

Yes. They order specific accounts to be investigated, but when the UK government spokesman, might have been Starmer, was questioned about bulk accessing data, he said words to the effect that they don't discuss operational matters in public. I think, the responsibility now lies with the user to securely encrypt before uploading to the cloud. The order given to Apple was secret and they are barred from talking about it at all. It was leaked.

If Zelensky has no, or few, cards to play that is solely because Trump has chosen to betray him and side with the aggressor in this war. So it is pretty rich for Trump to tell Zelensky he has no cards, when it is Trump who has taken them away! I actually think this dust-up in the Oval Orifice was a manufactured publicity stunt by Vance and Trump to try to weaken Zelensky personally, in the hope he will stand aside and allow a more Russia-friendly leader to replace him. That has always been Putin's desire. Putin wants Ukraine to hold an election (preposterously, in the middle of a war with parts of the country under enemy occupation) which he can interfere with and cast doubt on. This can provide a pretext for a further invasion later on if the new leader is insufficiently subservient to Russia. The row was televised and no doubt carefully selected clips will now be circulated to depict Zelensky as ungrateful and unreasonable, when he has been fighting for the life of his country for the last three years, against a massively powerful foe. Trump has furthermore overturned the entire military posture of the USA since WW2 in the European theatre. He has wrecked the deterrent value of NATO, which has been the centrepiece of military strategy ever since WW2. This leaves Europe exposed to military conquest by Putin's revanchist Russia. It is absolutely plain now that Trump and Vance are Russian stooges, wanting to carve the world up into spheres of influence without regard to borders or law. It is also plain that they hate the EU deeply and want it to fail. What better way of achieving that than to neuter NATO and thereby encourage Russia to nibble off bits its eastern frontier, sapping its energy and resources? Meanwhile Vance and Musk try to destabilise it on the political front by encouraging far-right authoritarian movements. The USA is now, suddenly, the adversary of Europe, not its ally. "The West" is now dead. What we have now is the free democracies vs. the rest. Those comprise the EU, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and a few others. The USA is not a member of this group.

Trump has been trying to shake down Ukraine, and this was not the first time. It’s ludicrous to think there was anything Zelenskyy could do that would garner Trump’s support, since Trump is a Russian stooge.

They are both together. I have an idea, that Russia usually overcame Europe, because Russia is placed geographically at the East related to Europe. And all countries which are placed at the East always win the wars with those which are placed to the West. The Mongols overcame Russia in 13th century, and so on. USA won the war with Japan in 1945, because USA is placed at the East for Japan.

I don’t think the exchange matters much. How many times in your life were you in a disagreement and changed your mind or approach? Trump is right Zelensky has no cards to play. There needs to be a strategy. I have stated on previous posts that I do not like this war. I feel for Ukraine, but we give them weapons when there is no chance for them to win. A military operation will not solve this war. It will start a war. Zelensky will have to concede. I don’t know what Russia wants. But diplomacy is more powerful than war.