mostly agreed, but instead our "justice" system is handing out sentences for minors all the way up to age 21

yikes

That's one part of the problem, but even the high age limit for juvenile law aside... even for a minor, one year on probation is a far too lenient sentence for rape.

Good. I still don't get what Hawley is smoking to oppose this though. But he's damaged good anyway, politically speaking.

Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy and Finance of my country (France), said today about inflation: "It will continue to rise until the end of 2022. I am hopeful that at the beginning of 2023 we will have a decline in inflation." (say it's actually 6% while when you listen to real economists here, it's more about 8 - 10%)
Few months ago, this clown declared that he was going to bring the Russian economy to its knees with restrictive measures. While the debt was around 115 - 125% of PIB (dunno the english term for Produit Intérieur Brut, maybe GDP ?) and while European Central Bank prints for years. But yeah, ofc, Ukraine current state is the explanation for everything lol.

so are they going to ease off on some sanctions on Russia?

None, they actually imo, went too far on sanctions, and coming back would be an admission of weakness.... it's also impossible in my opinion to stand together on the same line with 25+ countries that changes their own governement every 5 years average.... what's the plan about Poutine who is a real leader for his country versus a bunch of buffoons of senior officials who follow the political wind like weather vanes and think only of their small personal interests.
And since EU voted to stop the production of cars with internal combustion engines (flagship of German industry) by 2035 (if my memory serves me correctly) + less Russian gas since the closure of Nord Stream 2 (on which Germany is completely dependent)...
When Germany collapses, and it collapses, the whole of Europe breaks up imo....

That is really miserable.
Do you think that Europe who have been United States most fervent allies and following USA foreign policy and her lead have some detrimental effect on what you guys are going through ?

Honestly, yes, but with nuances...
"We" (I put quotation marks because we are presented as "Europeans" but no one feels European, the French feel French, the Spanish, Spanish etc etc ...) wanted to copy the United States of America but there is not at the base of "Union", the only common point of Europeans is that they have white skin, there is no common culture etc... we used to fight each others for 2000 years lol. The worm and in the fruit for a long time...
I don't blame USA, "We" decided by "our" own to be their bitches... It's funny to see that in France the Russian media RT was banned from operating for "propaganda", while Macdonald, Burger King and KFC are on every street corner, we use Apple phones and computers, we watch Netflix, the superheroes of the children are those of Marvel, i actually wear Nike shoes, we all have a Facebook and Instagram account etc etc etc etc .... But yes, Russian propaganda and control lol.

That would signal massive weakness to Putin. Why should he let up on things like natural gas if we indirectly admit that it is him who has the leverage on this particular issue? He would demand unacceptable concessions in return, ones designed to further divide our societies. He would demand a complete end of weapon sales to Ukraine in return for a measly 10% more gas, a lift of all economic sanctions for another 10%, and then maybe 30% if we officially recognize the occupied territories as part of Russia. In either case, he would not turn up the gas flow to 100%, he would keep us barely above water so that we continue to have no other choice than do his bidding.

Once we come crawling to him, begging for gas or oil or any of these, we would be his bitch... and he definitely wouldn't bring the lube.



The sad truth is that the West maneuvered into a strategic dead end by imposing these energy sanctions, which were a horrible idea from the start. We should have sanctioned the military industry and certain high-tech products, but not the wider economy and particularly not energy. But now that our fucking useless braindead shitfuck leaders screwed the situation up, there is no feasible way to go back which doesn't make things even worse.

This post was edited by Black XistenZ on Aug 5 2022 10:01am