If the free world fails in our efforts to support Ukraine’s self-defense & enforce this agreement signed by the United States, future prospects for peace in the world will be significantly diminished
Thanks for reminding us of the Budapest Accords. We saw the liberation of Eastern Europe countries 1992=94 coming years earlier when working with the Russians on joint environmental science projects...internal signs that the Wall would come down, and it did. Yet chronically short-term memory seems to be common to nations and people. History really matters and has to be continually remembered, restated, honored and enlarged with truth, not lies.
Thank you Thom for this very pertinent information . No wonder Putins lie about Ukraine attacking Russia first has been put forth .
Vladimir Putin is a treacherously manipulative individual, who appears to have no conscience at all .
No wonder he and trump have been so easily familiar .
Im disappointed that no action was taken in 2014 by President Obama. It may have been different if the line was drawn then . So for all Russias posturing as victim ...everyone knows otherwise.
As far as authoritarian moves go , it applies across the board even with the budding authoritarian Trump,
America’s commitments to its treaties hasn’t changed one iota since we made the first treaty with the Native Americans. We sign them, then forget them.
Excellent analysis of Budepest memorandum and its importance in maintaining a free and independent Ukraine 🇺🇦 .
Every member of Congress should have to read this article and the details of the memorandum, especially the radical insurrectionists who are clamoring to cut off any type of aid to Ukraine 🇺🇦 in the future. It would be well worth the Democratic leadership to be more acquainted with this article 👍 in order to combat the seditious activities under the current clown 🤡 show in the House
Thanks Thom; now I understand why the U.S. and U.K. are so involved in this conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Future generations will see Putin, not as the restorer of Russian greatness, but as a madman. And Trump & the GOP as traitors for siding with him.
We should not lose sight of China. Xi Jinping, who looks more like some mild backroom accountant wearing a visor, is a technical (detailed) totalitarian who has digital mechanisms to control populations beyond the technical means of any totalitarians before. And he means to carry out total control, regardless. Make no mistake, mild-looking Xi is a predator.
I do not doubt for a second that Xi will hesitate to go full in to take Taiwan. That may be his takeaway from Ukraine. Like any predator, similar to a boxer at the start of a fight, Xi is simply bouncing around until he thinks he has his opening figured out. And it will not just be a security loss, as in chips made in Taiwan. It will mean the subjugation of an independent country. This will also mean a loss of information independence we have not seen here yet, despite some alarms and genuine message control, propaganda and censorship.
Here, I decided to look up Xi Jinping Thought and the app for it (from Alibaba). I hadn’t heard anything recently and sure enough most of the articles I found on Google were from 2019, a couple in 2021 and 2022. Other than that, nada to speak of. This is the “educational” application designed to be used to train people in Xi’s thoughts, with quizzes and pressure to sign up for the app and to make regular good scores on tests.
The seemingly innocent and fun TikTok is a Trojan horse. I still remember near 24-hours days for almost a week in early 2002 when, at a company I was working for in IT, was hit by malware carried via an infected Napster. One of the secretaries had installed Napster on her machine so she could enjoy music (harmless, surely) on earphones while typing. It wiped out our servers. We had backups, good ones, but couldn’t trust the machines, so, we had to overnight server machines and routers (we were our own ISP) and reconfigure them with replacement database software, server software and then copy in the backup. The IP addresses in the logs on the infected machines indicated China. It was not the first time Chinese viruses had wiped out servers for ISPs I was using, but the earlier ones had been ISPs for my own personal website. They were knocked out of business (1997-2001).
We are already seeing China controlling content on social media in China but maybe less seen elsewhere. And, the ideological control is addressed in this October 2022 article: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/terminology-10202022103107.html - (Note: check the side links and the app links in the article).
"We must ... root out any elements that would harm the party’s advanced nature and purity and any viruses that would erode its health," Xi warned.
He also once more asserted the CCP's direct control over the administrations of Hong Kong and Macau, as well as claiming "unshakable commitment" to the annexation of democratic Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China, and which, at the time of the CCP's founding, was ruled by Japan.
"No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Xi said.
Anyway, this is faaarrrr longer than I intended, my apologies. Maybe you have more recent information on the app or maybe on why we aren’t seeing much about it.
Uh, I hate to bust your bubbles but, those nukes never went anywhere. Ukraine was a highly corrupt state and was still joined at the hip with Russia through its oligarchs. I doubt that those missiles ever left Ukraine and even if they did go to Russia, the firing infrastructure was left in place and maintained. Ukraine also happens to be quite rich in uranium as a natural resource. Ha! So, here's how this really went down, Clinton and the U.K. knew the nukes would stay and Russia would have control of them. Russia must have some serious 'compromat' on both countries - I never thought Clinton stopped at serially raping young women.... We forget that Ukraine was governed by the most corrupt, Putin puppets right up until Zelensky got elected. Putin just wants his nukes and his uranium back. Why all this over Ukraine? Trump is all up in it, too. Don't you think that Trump was puppeted by Putin, as well? Trump tipped off Putin that we were sending special forces into Yemen. The Yemenis were back by Russia and our guys went into a slaughter. A Navy Seal was killed. Compromat, again.
Good reminder of the Budapest Memorandum, but Ukraine was not the only former Soviet republic to give up nuclear weapons on its territory. Belarus and Kazakhstan also ended up possessing Soviet weapons after the USSR broke up, and like Ukraine, they also turned them over to Russia. The Russian military had the launch codes and operational command & control of these weapons, so it’s unlikely that Ukraine, Belarus, or Kazakhstan could have actually launched or retargeted them.
South Africa is another country that relinquished nuclear weapons in its possession, having built six devices before dismantling their program in anticipation of transitioning from apartheid to democracy.
They kept The Budapest Memorandum simple, but enter a psychopath like Putin and it's out the window.
People truly need to understand there is no why. There is no logical way to deal with Putin's mental condition. We are doing the right thing by sticking together, building-up NATO, and squeezing the Russians with sanctions.
People that think we ever will be or ever were secure concerning nuclear weapons are delusional---they don't know the statistics. People who expect the Ukrainians to negotiate with or capitulate to the psychopath next door have lost their moral compass. Those decisions are for the Ukrainians to work out. Asking them to save the rest of the world from annihilation is adding insult to injury.
Freedom and sovereignty for Ukraine and all nations!
It is scary to contemplate history repeating itself in this context. The model looks a lot like pre-WWII, with a broad isolationist sentiment in the US population, and a lot of out-and-out admirers of a foreign tyrant thriving on demonization of The Usual Scapegoats. (T.Carlson fawning over Orban rings too much of a bell, not to mention Putin.) The movie "Darkest Hour" was the last one I saw in a theater, very good; portraying Churchill's pleading for more support from Roosevelt, sympathetic but politically stymied domestically. The scary thing is, what did it take, long after Hitler invaded Poland (analagous to the time frame from Crimea to now) for America to suddenly realize, wow, this is a "world" war? Only now, anything that happens will make Pearl Harbor look like a mosquito bite.
I do not see how your cousin could have gotten hold of government issue firearms.. Being discharged early, means he was separated under Other than Honorable conditions, or discharged because of a physical disability. in that case he certainly would not have been able to lay his mitts on weapons. They are kept under lock and key
As team leader of a spec ops unit, I was responsible for safeguarding all equipment from rifles and pistols to parachutes, radios, ammo and smoke grenades. Ammo and smoke grenades were kept in an concrete ammo bunker. The military doesn't play around with that stuff. If something is stolen, it is ripped off in the supply chain, and that results in a massive searchand investigation. All weapons have serial numbers and they are routinely checked when they change hands.
There has recently been thefts at Camp Pendleton, but they happened in transport. Highly unusual.
Given that you were young and impressionable, you cousin obviously spun a tall tale.
BTW I served in Vietnam from 67-68, have an interesting war story about the night of the tet offensive. I was living in a Vietnamese sergeants house in Ap Chien Luoc khom nam, (Strategic Hamlet roof or number 5). I already had 9 years service when I was stationed in Nam.
By the way Vietnam is not what they call their country. When I was there, the locals called it Nam Viet or South Viet), the north was Bach Viet (North Viet).
Marines and infantry didn't carry service revolvers. any who carried a side arm, carried the 1911 Colt. 45 semi automatic pistol.
Thanks for reminding us of the Budapest Accords. We saw the liberation of Eastern Europe countries 1992=94 coming years earlier when working with the Russians on joint environmental science projects...internal signs that the Wall would come down, and it did. Yet chronically short-term memory seems to be common to nations and people. History really matters and has to be continually remembered, restated, honored and enlarged with truth, not lies.
Thank you Thom for this very pertinent information . No wonder Putins lie about Ukraine attacking Russia first has been put forth .
Vladimir Putin is a treacherously manipulative individual, who appears to have no conscience at all .
No wonder he and trump have been so easily familiar .
Im disappointed that no action was taken in 2014 by President Obama. It may have been different if the line was drawn then . So for all Russias posturing as victim ...everyone knows otherwise.
As far as authoritarian moves go , it applies across the board even with the budding authoritarian Trump,
He too is a victim. Allegedly.
America’s commitments to its treaties hasn’t changed one iota since we made the first treaty with the Native Americans. We sign them, then forget them.
Excellent analysis of Budepest memorandum and its importance in maintaining a free and independent Ukraine 🇺🇦 .
Every member of Congress should have to read this article and the details of the memorandum, especially the radical insurrectionists who are clamoring to cut off any type of aid to Ukraine 🇺🇦 in the future. It would be well worth the Democratic leadership to be more acquainted with this article 👍 in order to combat the seditious activities under the current clown 🤡 show in the House
Slavi Ukraine 🇺🇦 ♥️
Thom --
Respectfully, South Africa also " gave up their nukes"; they even "offered Saddam help to rid himself of 'his' nuclear weapons."
Dr. Randall Speer
Wilson, NC
Thanks Thom; now I understand why the U.S. and U.K. are so involved in this conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Future generations will see Putin, not as the restorer of Russian greatness, but as a madman. And Trump & the GOP as traitors for siding with him.
We should not lose sight of China. Xi Jinping, who looks more like some mild backroom accountant wearing a visor, is a technical (detailed) totalitarian who has digital mechanisms to control populations beyond the technical means of any totalitarians before. And he means to carry out total control, regardless. Make no mistake, mild-looking Xi is a predator.
I do not doubt for a second that Xi will hesitate to go full in to take Taiwan. That may be his takeaway from Ukraine. Like any predator, similar to a boxer at the start of a fight, Xi is simply bouncing around until he thinks he has his opening figured out. And it will not just be a security loss, as in chips made in Taiwan. It will mean the subjugation of an independent country. This will also mean a loss of information independence we have not seen here yet, despite some alarms and genuine message control, propaganda and censorship.
Here, I decided to look up Xi Jinping Thought and the app for it (from Alibaba). I hadn’t heard anything recently and sure enough most of the articles I found on Google were from 2019, a couple in 2021 and 2022. Other than that, nada to speak of. This is the “educational” application designed to be used to train people in Xi’s thoughts, with quizzes and pressure to sign up for the app and to make regular good scores on tests.
URL on Wikipedia on the thoughts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xi_Jinping_Thought
URL on Wikipedia on the app: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xuexi_Qiangguo
The Guardian (2019) on the app: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/15/chinas-most-popular-app-brings-xi-jinping-to-your-pocket
The seemingly innocent and fun TikTok is a Trojan horse. I still remember near 24-hours days for almost a week in early 2002 when, at a company I was working for in IT, was hit by malware carried via an infected Napster. One of the secretaries had installed Napster on her machine so she could enjoy music (harmless, surely) on earphones while typing. It wiped out our servers. We had backups, good ones, but couldn’t trust the machines, so, we had to overnight server machines and routers (we were our own ISP) and reconfigure them with replacement database software, server software and then copy in the backup. The IP addresses in the logs on the infected machines indicated China. It was not the first time Chinese viruses had wiped out servers for ISPs I was using, but the earlier ones had been ISPs for my own personal website. They were knocked out of business (1997-2001).
We are already seeing China controlling content on social media in China but maybe less seen elsewhere. And, the ideological control is addressed in this October 2022 article: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/terminology-10202022103107.html - (Note: check the side links and the app links in the article).
In a July 2021 speech ( https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/ccp-100th-xi-07012021100119.html ) Xi is quoted as:
"We must ... root out any elements that would harm the party’s advanced nature and purity and any viruses that would erode its health," Xi warned.
He also once more asserted the CCP's direct control over the administrations of Hong Kong and Macau, as well as claiming "unshakable commitment" to the annexation of democratic Taiwan, which has never been ruled by the CCP, nor formed part of the People's Republic of China, and which, at the time of the CCP's founding, was ruled by Japan.
"No one should underestimate the resolve, the will, and the ability of the Chinese people to defend their national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Xi said.
Anyway, this is faaarrrr longer than I intended, my apologies. Maybe you have more recent information on the app or maybe on why we aren’t seeing much about it.
Uh, I hate to bust your bubbles but, those nukes never went anywhere. Ukraine was a highly corrupt state and was still joined at the hip with Russia through its oligarchs. I doubt that those missiles ever left Ukraine and even if they did go to Russia, the firing infrastructure was left in place and maintained. Ukraine also happens to be quite rich in uranium as a natural resource. Ha! So, here's how this really went down, Clinton and the U.K. knew the nukes would stay and Russia would have control of them. Russia must have some serious 'compromat' on both countries - I never thought Clinton stopped at serially raping young women.... We forget that Ukraine was governed by the most corrupt, Putin puppets right up until Zelensky got elected. Putin just wants his nukes and his uranium back. Why all this over Ukraine? Trump is all up in it, too. Don't you think that Trump was puppeted by Putin, as well? Trump tipped off Putin that we were sending special forces into Yemen. The Yemenis were back by Russia and our guys went into a slaughter. A Navy Seal was killed. Compromat, again.
Good reminder of the Budapest Memorandum, but Ukraine was not the only former Soviet republic to give up nuclear weapons on its territory. Belarus and Kazakhstan also ended up possessing Soviet weapons after the USSR broke up, and like Ukraine, they also turned them over to Russia. The Russian military had the launch codes and operational command & control of these weapons, so it’s unlikely that Ukraine, Belarus, or Kazakhstan could have actually launched or retargeted them.
South Africa is another country that relinquished nuclear weapons in its possession, having built six devices before dismantling their program in anticipation of transitioning from apartheid to democracy.
They kept The Budapest Memorandum simple, but enter a psychopath like Putin and it's out the window.
People truly need to understand there is no why. There is no logical way to deal with Putin's mental condition. We are doing the right thing by sticking together, building-up NATO, and squeezing the Russians with sanctions.
People that think we ever will be or ever were secure concerning nuclear weapons are delusional---they don't know the statistics. People who expect the Ukrainians to negotiate with or capitulate to the psychopath next door have lost their moral compass. Those decisions are for the Ukrainians to work out. Asking them to save the rest of the world from annihilation is adding insult to injury.
Freedom and sovereignty for Ukraine and all nations!
It is scary to contemplate history repeating itself in this context. The model looks a lot like pre-WWII, with a broad isolationist sentiment in the US population, and a lot of out-and-out admirers of a foreign tyrant thriving on demonization of The Usual Scapegoats. (T.Carlson fawning over Orban rings too much of a bell, not to mention Putin.) The movie "Darkest Hour" was the last one I saw in a theater, very good; portraying Churchill's pleading for more support from Roosevelt, sympathetic but politically stymied domestically. The scary thing is, what did it take, long after Hitler invaded Poland (analagous to the time frame from Crimea to now) for America to suddenly realize, wow, this is a "world" war? Only now, anything that happens will make Pearl Harbor look like a mosquito bite.
I do not see how your cousin could have gotten hold of government issue firearms.. Being discharged early, means he was separated under Other than Honorable conditions, or discharged because of a physical disability. in that case he certainly would not have been able to lay his mitts on weapons. They are kept under lock and key
As team leader of a spec ops unit, I was responsible for safeguarding all equipment from rifles and pistols to parachutes, radios, ammo and smoke grenades. Ammo and smoke grenades were kept in an concrete ammo bunker. The military doesn't play around with that stuff. If something is stolen, it is ripped off in the supply chain, and that results in a massive searchand investigation. All weapons have serial numbers and they are routinely checked when they change hands.
There has recently been thefts at Camp Pendleton, but they happened in transport. Highly unusual.
Given that you were young and impressionable, you cousin obviously spun a tall tale.
BTW I served in Vietnam from 67-68, have an interesting war story about the night of the tet offensive. I was living in a Vietnamese sergeants house in Ap Chien Luoc khom nam, (Strategic Hamlet roof or number 5). I already had 9 years service when I was stationed in Nam.
By the way Vietnam is not what they call their country. When I was there, the locals called it Nam Viet or South Viet), the north was Bach Viet (North Viet).
Marines and infantry didn't carry service revolvers. any who carried a side arm, carried the 1911 Colt. 45 semi automatic pistol.