U.S. Politics: The Biggest Trade in WNBA History

[SoHowAreYou]

While it would take years, Finland has already trained and worked alongside NATO for a while now, so I think the practical integration would be pretty quick.

Anyways it looks like that Russia has pulled out from around Kyiv, (and committed some atrocities while they were at it), so it seems extremely likely that Ukraine will be independent after the war at minimum.

 

[RileyXY1]

While it would take years, Finland has already trained and worked alongside NATO for a while now, so I think the practical integration would be pretty quick.

Anyways it looks like that Russia has pulled out from around Kyiv, (and committed some atrocities while they were at it), so it seems extremely likely that Ukraine will be independent after the war at minimum.

Yeah, and it's clear that other nations near Russia do not want to be invaded by them, which is why Sweden and Finland are both trying to join NATO.

 

[Sham]

‘It Does Not Justify It’: Peace Corps Guidance for Black Volunteers In Ukraine Causes a Stir After Being Exposed on Twitter

Some corners of social media are in an uproar over the U.S. Peace Corps guidance on handling racism in Ukraine. Peace Corps positions in Ukraine […]

news.yahoo.com

“Some corners of social media are in an uproar over the U.S. Peace Corps guidance on handling racism in Ukraine.”

Peace Corps positions in Ukraine are currently not open, but Black Peace Corps volunteers who applied were warned to be prepared to be called the N-word and face other racist behavior while in Ukraine, according guidance on the Peace Corps website that is currently being discussed on social media.”

Like I said earlier, I feel no ways what’s going on over there. Same as I would feel if this was Asian people.

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

Nato states agree to supply heavy weapons to Ukraine

Russia admits ‘significant losses of troops’ as Donbas region prepares for fresh offensive

www.ft.com

US seems to have finally given up on its de-facto sanction of Ukraine, and is now willing to provide NATO-grade weaponry. This is likely because Kiev is no longer under Russian siege.

Further into the article there is this statement by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, our favourite arch-nemesis:

“There was support for countries to supply new and heavier equipment to Ukraine, so that they can respond to these new threats from Russia,” she said. “And we agreed to help Ukrainian forces move from their Soviet-era equipment to Nato standard equipment, on a bilateral basis.”

This is a fancy way of saying UK wants to return to modernizing Ukrainian equipment as a pre-condition for NATO integration (ignoring the legal issues, since Ukraine's military is stuck with Russian made weaponry, it is physically incompatible with NATO as it is now), as it was the intention before Russian attack.

If this goes through, much like what happened during North Macedonia's accession to NATO, most of this Soviet-era equipment will go to the black market, mostly to Turkish-backed Islamist militias in Syria, Libya, and Iraq, and to lesser extent, to the state-backed organized crime folk in the Balkans.

 

[RileyXY1]

Biden's approval ratings are plummeting even more. I expect this decade to be one of the most Republican-dominated decades in history.

 

[bobjr]

The thing is Biden has had massive drops in support in people under 40, and Hispanic people.

With the former it’s a lot of doing nothing or actively taking away benefits for sure. Honestly at this point you almost have to start forcing votes and make Manchin/Sinema the bad guys if they want to keep talking without any real promises.

 

[RileyXY1]

The thing is Biden has had massive drops in support in people under 40, and Hispanic people.

With the former it’s a lot of doing nothing or actively taking away benefits for sure. Honestly at this point you almost have to start forcing votes and make Manchin/Sinema the bad guys if they want to keep talking without any real promises.

And those are groups that the Dems can't lose, because if they switch over to the GOP democracy is dead.

 

[masdog]

And those are groups that the Dems can't lose, because if they switch over to the GOP democracy is dead.

I don't think the under-40 crowd will switch to the GOP. They just won't show up.

That's worse than switching over to the GOP, though.

 

[RileyXY1]

And the GOP is winning. Their culture war is a winning issue as it helped them flip the Governor's race in Virginia and completely reversed Virginia's blue shift. And the Democrats aren't doing anything to counteract this.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Newsmax, the real news channel for real Americans, puts up an image showing traitorous Black left conservatives.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1516873048997220355

1) They misspelled the Sheriff's name wrong.

2) Herman Cain is dead.

3) Ben Shapiro:

 

[RileyXY1]

Ron DeSantis and the Florida Legislature are planning to push a very racially gerrymandered map that gets rid of a number of majority-minority districts as well as the dissolution of the Reedy Creek Improvement District which allows Disney World to function as its own county with its own emergency and utility services in response to Disney's open opposition to the recently passed Parental Rights in Education Bill, also known as the "Don't Say Gay" Bill.

 

[Litleonid]

Finland takes steps to consider NATO membership

Finnish government to present NATO membership proposal to parliament by mid-April

ca.news.yahoo.com

Looks like Finland is actually considering joining NATO now. If this happens, Bosnian accession will be delayed indefinitely until Sweden also joins, which will only happen after Finland does.

There has been some bold claims about NATO accession from former NATO officials, like how Finland could join overnight, but legally speaking, it would take at least 2 years for 30 members to ratify accession, and integration into NATO system will also take about 2-3 years. So it would take about 5 years after invitation, which can only happen after a year of official application.

It will be interesting how NATO will try to speedrun this.

Let's see how Putin handles this. Putin likes to think he gets to dictate who other nations he has no control over ally themselves with. He's given pretty vocal warnings to Finland and Sweden about joining NATO. Its interesting though because Ukraine wanting to join NATO was one of his justifications for his senseless and cruel invasion. Even more interesting since I think President Zelensky has stated that Ukraine likely will not join now, yet Putin continues this sickening invasion.

 

[SoHowAreYou]

At this point for Sweden and Finland not joining NATO would mean putting faith in Russia not to screw with them, which seems highly unlikely. Also Russia can't carry out their threats with anything other than nuclear weapons, which would be counterproductive. Like the Russian Navy lost a flagship to a country without a Navy, and it says something that this may not be in the top 5 worst moments of Russian naval history. Outside of Ukraine I wouldn't believe that Russia is a credible threat at the moment. 20 years down the line I personally think they'll still be a military disaster, but I can't guarantee it, so joining an alliance would be prudent right now.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Apparently, people close to Putin believe he's losing it for his long self-isolation to keep himself from getting COVID.

 

[Litleonid]

Apparently, people close to Putin believe he's losing it for his long self-isolation to keep himself from getting COVID.

Based on how irrational he's acting, it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Ascended Dialga]

Marjorie Taylor Greene testified under oath on Friday about her involvement with the January 6 Capitol attack in a hearing challenging her re-election eligibility. When asked about things she said, she kept replying with "I don't recall". And she lied multiple times under oath by denying that she said Nancy Pelosi was a traitor to the country and by denying her familiarity with the Proud Boys.

 

[SoHowAreYou]

Marjorie Taylor Greene is a scumbag, frankly the only surprising part is that she didn't proudly admit to everything.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Marjorie Taylor Greene testified under oath on Friday about her involvement with the January 6 Capitol attack in a hearing challenging her re-election eligibility. When asked about things she said, she kept replying with "I don't recall". And she lied multiple times under oath by denying that she said Nancy Pelosi was a traitor to the country and by denying her familiarity with the Proud Boys.

She got a Rittenhouse judge for some reason. I hope he doesn't let her go.

 

[Trainer Yusuf]

Meanwhile in Europe, both Le Pen and Janet Jansa (Slovenian PM, affectionately called the "Slovenian Orban") lost their respective elections.

Edit: Finland and Sweden are expected to announce application to NATO together around May 16-24. This will significantly speed up the bureaucratic process, but it will still take some time.

Bosnia still remains the next possible member, and will go back to being so after these two join, but US will likely force remaining countries like Austria in the meanwhile.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Thank god that crazy far-right lady lost.