I wouldn’t regard the DPR as legitimate myself, due to reports like these about the “referendum” which established the DPR:

There were a number of irregularities with the count and procedure, and it seems unlikely that the figures announced are an accurate reflection of views in the region, with most of those who disagreed with the proposition staying at home.

CBS News correspondent Clarissa Ward reports from eastern Ukraine there were glaring irregularities with the vote, and that it did not come anywhere near international standards. Booths out in the open, people openly voting twice, and other irregularities raised serious questions about the legitimacy or the operation.

If you have a different view then fair enough.

Arguably a united Europe would be less of a pawn for the US compared to individual European countries. Even Germany, the largest economy in the EU, has nowhere near the power that the US does. But the EU together can have a similar level of power to the US. Which means the EU together has more leverage to say “no” when the US wants Europe to do something.

Forget air fryers, let’s talk about air friars.

I agree with you that trade and security are both good reasons for the UK to get closer to the EU.

At the moment I think some leave voters just don’t want to admit that they might have made a bad choice. And they have a steady stream of “influencers” from YouTube and Facebook telling them that Europe is evil.

Rejoining the common market without EU membership means we have to follow all the rules while having zero say on the creation of those rules. EU membership means we get many seats in the European Parliament; either the 2nd or 3rd highest number of seats (after Germany and perhaps France, due to population sizes). That means the UK would have a big say in the rules which would apply to us.

I’m sure Ukraine’s democracy is flawed but I also just don’t think Russia should be invading Ukraine, or making demands of Ukraine, for example the demand that Ukraine can never join NATO. If Ukraine were to democratically choose to become a strong ally of Russia then fair enough, but that’s not the same as Russia using force and threats to make Ukrainians behave a certain way.

Obviously the war is terrible though since it is causing so much suffering, for both Ukrainians and Russians to be honest.

Yes military intervention is often bad. I guess I do believe in defence though. I wouldn’t want my country, the UK, to be taken over by force, so I think defence makes sense. The UK has a lot of flaws but I think a successful invasion of the UK could make life here much worse.

If the capitol police had stopped guarding the government buildings in Washington and let the Jan 6’ers take full control, and then Congress held a vote in favor of the the Jan 6’ers demands, would that be a legitimate vote?

When Russia murders political opponents, does that make its votes legitimate? I don’t think Ukraine is killing political opponents without even a trial.

There’s also regions in the US that are economically neglected, providing a fertile breeding ground to the far-right, which is, frankly, way more urgent to address than any other concern on the planet. I mean, if the US goes full Nazi, then what does it matter if it maintains it’s influence over the far reaches of Eastern Europe?

Yeah the US has economically neglected parts. I’m not American myself, I’m European, and over here we have Russia waging the largest war on our continent since World War 2. Zelenskyy did win an election in 2019, an election which, as far as I can tell, was more legitimate than Russian “elections” for a long time.

If you want to focus on America then fair enough. Here in Europe I don’t want a future where Russia can invade any part of our continent, whenever they want, and rule it without question. If Ukrainians willingly chose to be close to Russia then that would be fine, but that isn’t what has happened.

I’m not American. I get what you’re saying though. But the quote of Tom Morello in the article, after the bit I quoted with “vote your ass off”, then says:

…but don’t just exercise your right to vote. Exercise your right to fight for, organize for, struggle for, and manifest the kind of world you’d like to really see…

But in any and every contested race, as my mom Mary Morello always said, we have to fight the fascist every which way we can, recognizing that even if there’s but an inch of difference between two candidates, there are a lot of vulnerable people who could be greatly harmed in that inch. So vote your ass off

I think this is reasonable. A “corporate Democrat”, even if bad, can be better than a Republican in many cases. The Democrat might end up being less bad, for lots of disadvantaged people, than a Republican would be. These aren’t ideal choices to make, but you have to deal with reality as it is.

Ukraine’s current government came about because of the Euromaidan uprising, where a bunch of armed men stormed government buildings in the capital in the west, and declared a new, pro-Western government.

What I read is that Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove Yanukovych from the presidency, and hold a new presidential election.

I think it would be good if Ukraine could have new elections, with all regions that are legally part of Ukraine being able to vote. That would include Crimea, the Donbas, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson.

I guess the reason that’s currently impossible is because the Kremlin gave weapons, troops, and assistance to rebels in the Donbas, to help them violently take control of the region. Then Russia increased its invasion in 2022.

Ah. I am sorry to hear it.

I see. Well if Merz is unpopular then I hope Germany finds an alternative to AfD (AfAfD, I suppose…) to rally around, in time for the next election.

I see, thanks for explaining. Maybe his mistake is similar to that of our previous prime minister, Keir Starmer: thinking that emulating right-wing populism will take votes from them. It didn’t work for Starmer and maybe Merz will find the same thing.

I actually think Starmer was a decent man who was trying to do good things in many areas. I think Burnham (our new prime minister - yes it’s hard to keep up with them all) is also good though.

As a Brit, Merz seems sensible when I’ve seen him talk, mostly on the subjects of Ukraine and defence. I know basically nothing about his domestic policies though.

I hope the next German election produces some sort of coalition which prevents an AfD chancellor. Surely Merz is a better chancellor than any AfD chancellor would be.

Excellent billboard.

According to the article I linked to, the ambassador to Germany was challenged in an interview about Bandera’s antisemitic views (apparently academics regard it as undisputed that Bandera did hold antisemitic views). And the ambassador to Germany said:

That is the narrative that the Russians are pushing to this day, and that has support in Germany, in Poland, and also in Israel

I don’t think that’s the same as Holocaust denial. But in any case, Zelenskyy thought the comment wasn’t acceptable, so he fired the ambassador. Anyway, you also said this:

if the right wingers want to kill each other over which great power gets to extract some minerals, I see little reason to take sides

I guess my view is that countries shouldn’t be invaded. Unfortunately sometimes an imperialist power (e.g. Nazi Germany, or Putin’s Russia) decides to invade its neighbours, to gain more land, and sometimes to try to suppress the population of its neighbours, or ethnically cleanse them.

I guess I do take the side of wanting Ukraine to successfully defend itself against Russia’s invasion. Ukrainians should be able to make their own democratic decisions without the boot of Moscow forcing them into making decisions they don’t want to make.

if they used that slogan while throwing up statues of Stepan Bandera everywhere and celebrating him

1. I don’t think Zelenskyy venerates Bandera; as you mentioned yourself, Zelenskyy fired Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany after the ambassador made controversial remarks which were seen as pro-Bandera
2. I find it very revealing that anti-Ukraine people on the internet will endlessly talk about Ukrainian far-right figures while completely ignoring Russian far-right figures (e.g. Dugin) and groups (e.g. Rusich) who are supporting, waging, and enabling the war against Ukraine, the killing of thousands and thousands of Ukrainians, including civilians, and the kidnapping of Ukrainian children, not to also mention the huge loss of life of Russians, who are being coerced and pressured into fighting an imperialist invasion

Surely context matters. For example, one of the flags of where I live, the English flag, has been used to essentially express support for a more restrictive immigration policy

Whereas football fans will use that same flag with a completely different intended meaning - they just want to express support for the England football team

Blah blah blah Kremlin-funded bullshit blah blah blah

You’re an idiot

Just let people vote and respect their decisions. What’s so hard about that?

Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove Yanukovych

The Ukrainian people elected Zelenskyy

You need to let people vote and respect their decisions