Really dark times... Ukraine has been used and abandoned. Praying that something changes, or so much pain and struggle will be in vain.

At the very least, the latest incident has made a TON of world leaders and their populations come out to pledge their support as a response. Gotta grab all those silver linings we can.

I wish both Karintina and their partner the best and a very shit themselves to death to both Trump and Putin 🙏

But the Bowel Disruptor from Transmetropolitan hasn't been invented yet!

Then we should get to work on that. DEATH TO TYRANTS!!! or we could just bring back the guillotine and be done with it.

As a vampire hunter once said, "If you are going to kill someone, kill them. Don't just stand there talking about it." -Princess Anna -Van Helsing 2004

Also, lots of love and hope for those in need. War sucks. Politicians suck ass and swallow, in a bad way.

Slava Ukraini.

I hope they survive and prosper, and that the Russians go home. All the way home.

Heroyam Slava.

Though the Russian asset in Washington is demonstrating his essential narcissism and cowardice, many many of us who have to endure him due to the unbelievable stupidity of our electorate will nonetheless support our Ukrainian brothers and sisters in every way possible.

Indeed.

Ironically a ton of conscripted Russian soldiers want nothing more than exactly that

Of course.

Well, while someone walks around in important suits and tramples others for their wrong attire, simply because they have no other problems in life, we or anyone else in Ukraine are forced to live in complete uncertainty and doom... The very thought is terrible and surreal that just one or two old people decide the fate of a huge number of people, killing all their plans, dreams, lives at the root.

I really preferred living in times where I thought, "Man, kids learning about this period in school are gonna be really bored with this part"

Regrettably, "May you live in interesting times." was a Greek curse IIRC. FURTHERMORE, Slava Ukraini... The entire MAGAt-infested Reich-wing are traitors to this nation and the world at large.

I absolutely stand with Ukraine. :< I have the entire time so I did not need any persuasion, but holy hell the way they spoke to Zalenskyy was atrocious beyond measure. I can't see how anybody with an ounce of compassion could feel good about that meeting.

I looked at Vance in particular and just wanted so bad for him to be dropped right into the war zone. Make him go experience it and dodge bombs. Don't forget to wear your suit, dickweed.

The way they kept telling Zalenskyy that "Americans feel this/Americans feel that/ this offends Americans" like they spoke for us. Disgusting. So out of touch, so entitled, so privileged, so childish, so EVIL.

Just as a side note, I'm unfortunately not living in safety here though, I'm trans. We're just being attacked in a different, more sinister way than direct violence (mostly). I am hoping it does not escalate to that but my confidence in actual atrocity and war events not occurring here in the US is waning daily- especially considering what ICE has already pulled on immigrants, legal immigrants.

Keep your hearts with Ukraine and Gaza, keep your eye over your shoulder.

Well if things ever do escalate to physical violence, just remember that the 2nd amendment is for all US citizens!

Donating what I can to the effort. For family and for principal, I will always stand with Ukraine!

Seriously, it's been a looooong time since there's been a conflict of this scale that was so black and white in terms of ethics and morality. Good on you for helping out, however much it was!

Stand tall. proud and stay safe. You have people around the world wishing for this hell to end sooner rather than later.

Fuck Trump and Fuck Putin from the bottom of my very draconian heart. If I have the power to curse a soul and i could use that power. I place this curse onto them.

May the rest of their lives be cursed. may the rest of what they are get destroyed and may their souls be damned for the damage that they are attempting to do. For they deserve to fall as any dictators should!

Much Love from an extremely poor Canadian that wishes sooo badly. she could do more to support.

Careful, curses from a draconian heart are cast at +4 its normal casting level

Oh hek your right? Ahh well. it's deserved!

Slight pedantic correction: Putin doesn't want the soviet empire back, he hated the USSR. He wants the old tsarist Russian Empire back.

He's not trying to be Stalin, he wants to be Russolini.

Fun fact: One big reason why the USSR lasted as long as it did was that for the first half of the 20th century plenty of people still remembered how much worse Imperial Russia had been for everyone except the people at the very top.

It was such a great exchange, too!

"Hello everyone, I know you're all impoverished oppressed peasants who are angry that all the wealth and power and decision-making authority is held by a few people at the very top of the system, so back me and my revolution and I promise to replace the old tsarist system with... a system where you're all impoverished oppressed peasants and all the wealth and power and decision-making authority is held by a few people at the very top of the system!"

"Yaaaay"

(To be fair it was still a few steps up from the even-worse system they had before)

Russian state has synthesized an outwardly contradictory outlook that gets taught in schools and propagated in media, which ultimately boils down to both Empire and Soviet Union being good because they were powerful and their leaders took "hard decisions" which made them "greater". Putin absolutely uses both Imperial and Soviet stranglehold over now free states as proof they belong to modern day Russia too. This whitewashing of USSR's connection to current day imperialism is awful.

Not the time or the place for that demonstrably incorrect ranting.

Still not the time or place, kid. You're badly misreading a social situation.

I definitely get the angle that's being argued for here! In the short/immediate term, a ceasefire or peace treaty would definitely be the ideal outcome. However, Putin has broken over a dozen peace treaties and ceasefire agreements just in the past decade alone, so any ceasefire or peace treaty that doesn't involve NATO membership, or a significant NATO or EU military presence, boots-on-the-ground defensive force stationed in Ukraine, will just result in a rearmament and re-invasion by Russia in a couple years or so, again and again until Russia devours Ukraine bit by bit, invasion by invasion.

Having US mining contractors stationed in Ukraine as they extract those resources might indeed cause Putin to try and minimize damage to those particular areas during offensive actions, but otherwise really doesn't offer any incentive for Putin to not just invade again and renegotiate with the US for the extraction operations whose territory they've just annexed by force.

So very much of the conversation about the potential ways of ending this conflict would be totally different, if it didn't involve a geopolitical actor that's proven it will use any ceasefire or peace "treaty" as a tool to be strategically discarded the moment it can do so to its advantage. But like Nazi Germany, it's a faction that respects no political agreements for long, and any appeasement will just result in it devouring more and more territory around them over time. So while suggestions like the minerals deal you mentioned would indeed be a solid, sensible method of setting the stage for peace in the great majority of circumstances, I feel like doing so in this particular situation would be a bit like a diplomat showing a formally-written peace agreement to a rabid dog, and expecting it to respect the terms and conditions therein like a good-faith reasonable actor and not just eat the agreement papers and maul them.

That in the end, we're dealing with a geopolitical player that respects, and understands only force, and can only be responded to accordingly.

Mind you, on the US side of things... Mr. Trump has broken as many promises even before politics.

There's no point to trusting EITHER of the two to hold to their word.

I agree, Russia has continuously violated the sovereignty and is a rogue state at best and an active threat to the peace and security of the world at worst.

But while it's easy to say that and a military intervention would certainly be the ideal outcome for Ukraine and, in the long run the world, the problem that cannot be skirted around, and to continue with your rabid dog comparison, is this: "Who is responsible for taking Ol' Yeller behind the shed?"

This is not a complicated question, but it is an unavoidable one. The call is answered, boots are on the ground, whose flag(s) will be flying high above the Kremlin next to Ukraine's, for an invasion of Russia would be the only permanent solution. Who is going to be responsible for routing the oligarchs and rebuilding a truly democratic state? To which the answer, the only answer that can be made without deluding ourselves on who is militarily capable of doing so, is the United States, a nation that can trace every lost soldier, every geopolitical disaster, and a whole shit load of domestic problems directly to the Old World and is now loudly slipping back into isolationism. Western Europe can't because they leaned on the US for half century and expected it to always clean up the mess when they fucked around in the 19th and 20th century and bailed before the finding out part, Central and Eastern Europe are either still recovering from the scars of the Soviet Union or never truly abandoned its ways, and the US won't because after they disaster of Iraq and the still very fresh abandoning of Afghanistan, nobody wants an invasion and likely occupation, but this time the insurgents are not just men with AK-47s in the desert, but the direct heirs to the greatest military threat the United States has ever faced and with a militia and conscription system nearly as robust as the National Guard.

Russia is evil, Europe is incompetent, the US is disillusioned, and Ukraine is caught in the middle of it all fighting for its existence. I am not enjoying these interesting times.

I do agree that we're pressed pretty tightly at home, though I do feel that has a lot more to do with the 1% hoarding all the money we're making for them. Whatever the cause for that financial distress though, I do feel that by itself, it is a very good point! But also much like the last response I made, I feel like it's the circumstances around that point that alters the whole situation.

In this case, it would be like looking at Germany blitzkrieging their way across Poland, and saying "We're strapped for cash at home and it's so far away; it doesn't involve us, Poland would be hard to save at this point, so it's tragic but we really should just let this take its course."

Then, the same argument when they took Denmark. Then Norway. Then Belgium, and so on. By that point, the investment in both money and manpower required to reverse the damage was astronomically higher than it would have been if the western world had refused to appease Hitler in the early stages. And like Nazi Germany, Putin's Russia has demonstrated consistently, repeatedly and in extreme that it is a dangerous cancer intent on spreading itself as far as it possibly can, gobbling up its neighbors, with the intent of adding those neighbors to its own war machine. Even as far as we are away from that region geographically, Russia is attacking all its perceived enemies by subterfuge, online disinformation and disorganization campaigns. So I feel any price is worth confounding any plans that Russia undertakes, even if it doesn't involve us in direct ways.

(Plus there's the general ethical/moral issue of "They're not us, so let's leave those other people to their doom because it's easier for us," which was also a major talking point when Hitler was in his early stages of territorial expansion: https://acampusdivided.umn.edu/wp-c.....d-810x1024.jpg )

That being said, I also feel it's safe to say that Ukraine does indeed have a lot of support, especially after seeing the UN and NATO's pledges to Ukraine following the blowup in the Oval Office, even to the point where France and the UK are pledging their own troops' boots on the ground in Ukraine if Russia continues to advance.

Overall, the point I'm trying to make here is that the stance of "It's far away, they're not us, it would be harder for us to do something, so it's sad but it just needs to happen," has been applied in extremely similar situations before in recent history, and almost every time, inaction has not only led to a need for action later on, but at a far greater cost.

Oh do piss off with your pro-Russian, pro-Trump bullshit.

Fascism wins by stamping out hope. But, in the long arc of history, those wins are short-lived. Hope always returns.

My message to you is the same message I give to everyone these days. If you don't like the way things are, resist. Resistance takes many forms, so choose what way works best for you.

And if you later find your form of resistance puts you against everyday people who are suffering alongside you, it may be time to re-evaluate some things.

You will have your chance to join us.

Okay, I think I understand where you're coming from a bit better now. I did check out the video and channel, and if I based my worldview on content like this, I would definitely feel much the same way you do on these issues.

But also, every single video for the last 6 months on that channel are thumbnailed with pictures of exploding missiles, with taglines like "BEGINNING OF THE END" "EUROPE IS DOOMED" "DESTROYING EUROPE" "RUSSIAN RESILIENCE" "VICTORY IS IMPOSSIBLE."

And while there's plenty of aspects of this conversation that are matters of opinion, there's also a lot of pure numbers involved. Take the argument that the US couldn't fight a war with Mexico. There are plenty of sites that offer just basic numbers of things like weapons, personnel and expenditure. Here's a comparison of Mexico and US military: https://www.nationmaster.com/countr.....tates/Military

0 vs 10 aircraft carriers.
193,000 vs 1.37 million combat personnel.
10.07 billion vs 682 billion in funding.
0 vs 71 nuclear submarines.
$1.79 trillion vs $27.72 trillion in GDP.
Mexico doesn't even currently field any fighter jets.

As of 2022, the United States had 48.3 billion barrels of proven crude oil reserves.
I'm not sure what you mean by "the US has no factories," I drive by plenty all the time, and the majority of military-based manufacturing still is based within the continental USA.
We have absolutely enormous stockpiles of ammo, vehicles and general supplies, most of which are available for public number-checking via many different sites with a quick google.
A very tiny fraction of our equipment was left behind in Afghanistan, and the stuff we've been giving to Ukraine has vastly been old stuff collecting dust in storage, which would actually cost us more in storage, maintenance and refurbishment than it would to just give it away.

Seriously, if one were to assemble their view on these events from sources like the one you posted, it's no surprise that they would feel like Mexico could fight a war with the USA, or that we have no oil or ammo or manufacturing capabilities or anything. It's not only extreme in its opinion, but pushing objective falsehoods about basic numbers like ammo/oil/strategic reserves.

Channels and sources like that tend to get their views by being as alarmist and dramatic as possible, as opposed to having an interest in informative reporting. They're good for getting the blood pumping if one is looking for emotionally engaging content, but also warp one's worldview into completely, demonstrably untrue ways if someone's looking to them for actual information.

I'd highly recommend getting your info from opinion-free, just-the-basics reporting sources free of bias; not just because you can still form your own opinions from the raw info, but also dwelling on doomer gonzo-journalism info sites like that are also terrible for a person's mental wellbeing, whether the bias is from the right or left. And this is a time where we really need to keep our emotions in check and our wits about us, no matter what "side" of things we consider ourselves on.

Oh, willya look at that! It seems as though somehow this coward SEMC has seen fit to block me, even though I've never even noticed him around before. Good planning, boss. Guess he somehow knew that I'd be saying "So, lemme get this straight: You think that we can't muster support for Ukraine because we're all too tired and beaten down?

And the US has used up all of it's weapons so we can't muster those either?

My, that sounds an AWFUL lot like something Putin would say...

Also, notice how much Drumpf and Shady sounded so well planned when they suddenly jumped on Zelenskyy at that TOTALLY unplanned meeting and browbeat him with their "You should be thanking us for pillaging your resources"...

Yeah, right. Being a Putin apologist just puts you on par with Drumpf. It's not a particularly great look, pal."

Careful friend, you're being inconsistent with your messaging. You need to keep trying to appeal to only half-ironic American Exceptionalists like myself, not going all "America is a third world country in a Gucci belt" like some redditor whose source is a vague feeling they have. Rent is highly variable depending on where you live, we are not keeling over in the streets every day from malnutrition and untreated disease, unemployment is no worse than the European average even after racking on an extra percent or two with how DoL tracks unemployment, and while debt is a unique and serious issue but not an impossible one to overcome.

Complex issues don't require complex reasons, and imo it really is as simple as Bush and Obama kinda already cashing in American will for another intervention. Can we do it? Yes. Should we? Also yes. Would it place some impossible burden on this hypothetical American with the rent of a California, wages of a West Virginian, and the job opportunities of a North Dakotan? No. Will we actually do it though? Unfortunately, also no.

Since you wrote a book of several chapters in this upload, let me add a novella.

You chose to slight all Gen-Xers, so let me tell you a little something. Many of us lived through hardship their whole life, including as a kid not knowing it, or even if their family was doing okay, that the Cold War was even a thing that could have turned everything and everyone to ashes. The nuclear threat and MAD is not new. Boomers got to experience it first.

Times being hard now is not new to me, though I have sympathy for those who are experiencing it. I can't afford much, or any medical care, but I DAMN WELL SUPPORT UKRAINE despite that! I won't suffer you telling me how I should feel, nor any other who supports Ukraine instead of cowtowing to the tsar wannabe and his Cadre of useful idiots.

Gen-X usually feels their government
is inept, no matter who's in charge, but we're also pretty "give a fuck," as you put it. We might see some things differently from today's youth, but that's every generation. So don't think you're being cute dissing the prior generations. You're just one generation from it yourself.

I WISH the current resident of the white house would do the "right thing for democracy," as you put it. Thay would show strength of character they and their sycophants don't possess. It's aid to Ukraine cost the US maybe 2% of the gdp, and been the best advertising for older American military hardware. New stock is being made to replace what was donated.

So no, Ukraine fighting for its existence is NOT hugely correlative to the current housing and jobs crisis in America. I'd personally point a finger at the companies being allowed to scoop up single family homes and turn them into overpriced rentals, companies that are publicly traded legally having to put shareholder interests above all else, and modern tycoons who don't realize that maybe they have enough money and can start doing good with it, instead of berating the employees who made them obscenely wealthy. (Looking at you, Elon.)

Just because the average American can't afford to help Ukraine monetarily doesn't mean they don't care about what happens in faraway countries. But taking a chainsaw to diplomatic relations with allies is not what most would say behooves economics at home. Your "no more wars man" sure is starting some with Canada, Greenland/Denmark, the EU, the UK, China... His trade wars will hurt the average American income far more than any assistance to Ukraine. Tearing apart American "soft power" abroad for short term gains will have long term consequences.

To close, if you're not down with supporting Ukraine, in the words of some famous Gen-Xers, "I've got two words for you..."

[If you're a wrestling fan of 25 years ago, you'll get the reference.]

Looks like he’s blocking people now so they cannot criticise him.

Criticise anyway. Drown out the misinformation with messages of hope and support. Slava Ukraini.

Hey, that didn't stop me...

Seems to me like he's forgetting a couple of extremely important details here:
Both Putin and Drumpf have proven over and over that they aren't to be trusted. If you extend either of those people the grace of believing anything they tell you, then you're a fool.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItN73Q4VRUU

This “analysis” states Russian victory as a foregone conclusion. This is misguided, at best.

While Ukraine is in the weaker position, their defeat is by no means assured. One just has to look to Vietnam and Afghanistan. They went up against the world’s most powerful countries and won. It was a long, painful war. However, Ukraine has one powerful advantage over Russia: They are fighting for their survival.

Remember, Putin has stated that he doesn’t believe in the existence of Ukrainians. If Ukraine stops fighting there won’t be a Ukraine any more before long.

In brief: You are repeating Russian propaganda and you should be ashamed of yourself.

Zelenski has continued to push war and demanded that the rest of us be dragged along for the ride, when he had no leverage, and no power.
...
The Ukrainian answer is to spend other people’s money and weapons while sending more conscripts to die.
Parroting Putin's talking points and Trump's arrogant ravings won't get you anywhere. 🤮

Putin could stop this war any time by withdrawing his forces out of Ukrainian territory and stopping the fighting. But nah, you and your fellow Putin apologists / Trump ass-lickers would sooner invoke a 21st century version of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact to have Ukraine carved up between the US and Russia because "might makes right". 🤮

I really like this part of an argument because it implies we are having a choice to sit at home as usuall (just pay taxes to another country) but we are choosing to be suicidal. Or, well, goverment forces us to, somehow. I can't even see this as a real point because Ukrainians are no strangers to going against the goverment.

And the real choice we are having is between fighting and dying or surrender... and dying from tortures, ethnical cleansing or in concentration camps. I'm seeing a lot of people thinking about ruzzia in modern terms, with alll these human rights and such. But even citizens of ruzzia don't have these human rights and I can say so as someone who lived there.

And so, if the choice is between dying all at once and dying while maybe saving future generations, I'm choosing the last. Even for civilians the threat of death is constant, reading about how many people died today in your city is a norm. But we also know just how much worse it can be.

And yeah, we also the center of our world and we will make sure to get any possible support and use any opportunity to stay alive in this war.

I really appreciate you posting about this sort of thing publicly. The level of care you show for your community and the people in it is pretty unrivaled. I've certainly noticed it in everything that you do.

I don't have much of an income nor the needs to offer too much support, but I've given a few dollars to one of the linked charities.

Hey, every little bit counts! Even if it's just a couple bucks, that's still one more name added to the ever-growing list of people they know are supporting them from afar. And morale matters!

I'm praying for a god-sent miracle right now. One that can reveal the identities of the four horseman of the apocalypse and prevent this nightmarish travesty from turning into a terrible grimdark future.

I get the feeling a lot of people would vote for Pestilence or Famine if they ran a flashy enough campaign.

They could really bring in a lot of political engagement from horse enthusiasts

Funny thing that Pestilence is often confused with Conquest. :P

OMG thank you, I needed that XD

I've been speaking with Kari the whole time and frequently been a shoulder for them to lean on whenever they need.

I love the two of them so much and I am grateful to know them. And all I can hope for is for him to make it home and for Kari to make it through all this.
They're both so strong and I am proud of them both.

Fuck Putin

Slava Ukraini

Glad you have! That's a kind of support money can't buy.

(Well actually I guess you could gift someone a half hour with a therapist with some money)

I'm certainly glad to have done that at least. I know how meaningful it can be to just vent your frustrations whenever you need em out

(A little goes a long long way there0

Velveeta Voldemort has been as helpful as urinating on an oil fire.
Best of luck for everyone involved.
I keep them in my thoughts.

Tired of living in uNpReCeDeNtEd TiMeS.

I fear for my friends in Ukraine, and I wish I could help more than words on a screen- I've written my senators, but I'm powerless to simply watch as my country betrays our friends, fellates our enemies, and abandons good people that need help.

I hope Europe can step in and be far better friends than us- Seeing that 'meeting' between Orange Man, Couch Fucker, and an actual hero and statesman has left me more embarrassed to be an American than ever before.

Thank you for using your platform to reaffirm this community's support for the people that need it, Val. If any of you ever come to my neck of the desert, I'll spend my last shiny getting you some clams- And as I breathe, I will do everything I can to support my friends across the world from me. I 'bought' an artillery shell over there last year, may as well do it again.

Slava Ukraini. Glory to the heroes, and love from this weird Ying in Arizona.

Hello! I never imagined such theme like from you!
I'm from Ukriane too! Thank you for your understanding.

So X-based e. musk "1984"-like world became visible.

Thank you, Val, trully. You always was a great support.

And thank you to everyone who showing support, I don't have enough words to say how much it matters to me

i don't know what to do.

but i know what to ask: if we don't stop this, who will?

And I will be until the very last day of this horror.

I really hope that the both of them stay safe through all of this. I absolutely stand with Ukraine, and I've donated what I can to one of the charities.

Thank you for reminding us we in the West live in safely while Ukraine is under invasion and it's sovereignly under threat, which is certainly not helped by the dramatic shift in the position of the United States.

I really hope this will still end with the russian empire falling apart. They definitely made it less likely now that they've got a bunch of "useful idiots" running the US, but I still have hope.
Glad we didn't lose Germany this election. Poland remains european too, we just gotta get rid of the trumpist president.

Slava Ukraini! Heroyam Slava!

Always happy to see people outside Eastern Europe still caring about Ukraine. So much has happened over past three years, really feels like many decided to just move on from feeling even vague concern about this war.

Thank you, Valsalia, for your continued support to those who are fighting for Ukraine's survival.

Thank you to those fighting for Ukraine because by your blood are our lands kept safe. We stand with you.

thanks for standing with decency, with Ukraine <3

I hope they are making a killing dropping drones on packed buhanka's

who ever thought movies and video games where you mow down russians due to their incompetence and lack of skill and training were actually accurate

Can you send a drone or 10 to dc? I heard its filled with russian assets

I love you Val, I love your work. I love Ukraine I wanted to visit at some point before most of what I wanted too see had been destroyed. However I find the sight of a yinglet unironically in a uniform rather distasteful given the current circumstances. Is this how to represent the plight of the living or the morn of the dead? To be posted in the place I visit for self pleasure? I am here to escape my unpleasant really not to be reminded of it.

In this case, this is actually an in-uniform photo of someone I know in Ukraine who met their partner through OOPs, with a yingletified face to preserve anonymity. (The yinglet insignia badge he's wearing is real though!)

So this isn't just a general "Support Ukraine" post, it's also specifically meant to honor a real person that I know (pictured above) who is defending his country.

I totally understand not wanting to be reminded of distressing stuff while you're seeking escapism from the crap in real life! This is really personal to me though, and I think about it pretty much every single day, and was starting to feel like I'd go crazy if I didn't do SOMEthing like this, ya know? And for us, it's just an image and a brief discomforting thought, but it's every second of every day for almost 4 years now for my buddies over there.

I definitely understand where you're coming from! So I hope you understand my reasoning as well.

Oh god

I was so scared that this was some hint at you being one of those racist fucked up mil furs, but I am SO fucking glad this is what it is <3 You do good work, and I am relieved after reading the description!

We feel safe because there's an ocean between us and the rest of the world.

In dark times even the tiniest spark shines bright <3