President Trump 2.0

[Mr K]

I'm not sure who's worse, Trump or Putin. Think Trump edges it. Confirmation of what we all knew, they are best buddies and will split Ukraines goodies between them.

Originally Posted by Mr K

I'm not sure who's worse, Trump or Putin. Think Trump edges it. Confirmation of what we all knew, they are best buddies and will split Ukraines goodies between them.

Well they will certainly try, but I think Donny’s ego is so big it won’t have occurred to him that anyone might say no. There are definitely circumstances in which he could have sold this to Europe, if not Ukraine, but his problem is he has rather given the game away in the last 24 hours. Waffling on about how Ukraine shouldn’t have started it has left his apologists with nowhere to hide - he’s parroting Putin’s talking points without any gloss or evasion.

From the White House Instagram account

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/p...-through-2030/

White House eyes annual 8% cut to defense budget through 2030

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered senior military officials to develop a five-year budget plan that would slash defense spending by 8% annually, a dramatic cut which could reshape military end-strength and readiness for decades.

In a memo first obtained by the Washington Post, Hegseth ordered the proposed cuts to be compiled by Feb. 24. Seventeen categories would be exempt from the budget reductions, including military operations at the southern U.S. border, nuclear weapons and missile defense programs, and acquisition of certain drones and munitions…

… Past Defense Department projections put military spending plans at close to $900 billion by fiscal 2030. Under Hegseth’s reduction proposals, that mark would be closer to $560 billion, the lowest defense budget since fiscal 2006.

Earlier this year, Trump publicly suggested that all NATO countries spend at least 5% of their gross domestic product on defense, a figure that would mandate a nearly $1 trillion military budget for the United States.

[1andrew1]

Looks like Elon Musk is going to add censorship to his toolbox as well as his existing tools of spreading misinformation, if this report in the Telegraph is correct.

Elon Musk vows to ‘fix’ X after users correct Trump’s Ukraine claims

Elon Musk has vowed to crack down on X users who have tried to correct false claims by Donald Trump that Volodymyr Zelensky’s approval ratings have collapsed.

The billionaire said he planned to “fix” the social network’s system of community notes, which allows users to label fake news and add fact-checks or further context. Mr Musk claimed the system was being “increasingly gamed by governments [and] legacy media” and said he was “working to fix this”.

On X, users have pushed back on the US president’s claims that the Ukraine president’s approval rating has collapsed to 4pc. One widely shared poll from the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology suggested his popularity was closer to 57pc.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...b829b47d&ei=10

[Hom3r]

The crazy thing is that Ukraine's constitution allows for elections to be suspended in a war.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

The crazy thing is that Ukraine's constitution allows for elections to be suspended in a war.

Allows it, but does it mandate it?

Zelenskyy could run elections, and perhaps he should.

[Mr K]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Allows it, but does it mandate it?

Zelenskyy could run elections, and perhaps he should.

I think they have better things to do atm. Like surviving.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Allows it, but does it mandate it?

Zelenskyy could run elections, and perhaps he should.

The relevant law does indeed mandate the suspension of all elections. This was discussed on BBC QT’s Ukraine special last night, which had a Ukrainian opposition MP on the panel. Elections are banned while the country is under martial law. So while Z could technically lift martial law and hold an election, why in the merry heck should he do so just because Donny and Elmo are jumping up and down in the playground calling him chicken? The country is invaded, 20% occupied and under daily bombardment. Even if Z had some legitimate choice about holding elections it would be daft to do so.

Elections is a Kremlin talking point, and if Trump has done one good thing this week it has been to allow himself to be goaded into showing his hand consists entirely of Kremlin talking points.

[Pierre]

Difficult to know what the country wants though isn’t it? If the population are unhappy with the way the war is being prosecuted they have no way of expressing it.

And none can offer an alternative.

Just an observation.

I'm sure Putin will declare a ceasefire while all the soldiers vote, and civilians are gathering in the voting booths.

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Difficult to know what the country wants though isn’t it? If the population are unhappy with the way the war is being prosecuted they have no way of expressing it.

And none can offer an alternative.

Just an observation.

There's opinion polls and still a Parliament with Opposition MPs.

It's just a bit hard for some of those MPs from the Donbas and Crimea to get to Parliament.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Difficult to know what the country wants though isn’t it? If the population are unhappy with the way the war is being prosecuted they have no way of expressing it.

And none can offer an alternative.

Just an observation.

It’s not just an observation though, is it. It’s another Kremlin line - one of the ones that seeks to normalise the idea that an election in a country under occupation and bombardment is reasonable. If you genuinely can’t see that your “just a reasonable guy making observations” routine is just a laundering operation for Russian propaganda, you might want to have a careful think about which wells you’re drinking at. Because the FSB is doing a proper number on you.

No European government - except for the one or two which are openly Russia-orientated - has suggested this would be a good idea. Neither did the US, until it elected a man known to admire Putin and who has spent a lot of time trying to do business in Russia.

Suspending elections in wartime didn’t do the UK any harm and it isn’t doing Ukraine any harm either. Holding them, however, while the free parts of the country is being bombed, and a fifth of it is under Russian occupation, would certainly do so.

As has been pointed out the UK didn't hold elections during WW2 and we didn't even have the complicated of being partly occupied. How do you hold elections when a lot of your people are at war, fled abroad, under occupation or being bombed? Even if they held elections the next thing would be 'millions of postal votes! rigged!'

It's complete nonsense.

[1andrew1]

I'm not concerned by anonymous forum posters repeating Putin's talking points, but I am a little concerned when the President of the USA does.