The thing is that power always strives to increase itself, and increasing power always gets bent toward oppression eventually. So any large and powerful country, or any large and powerful institution, will have plenty of examples of bad stuff. This is where whataboutism thrives if you reduce analysis to rhetorical repartee.
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Crypto works. Most of the exchanges have said it’s against their ethos to limit Russia. Coverting to cash might be hard with th sanctions though.
I mean, do any of these companies have contracts with the Russian army? Frankly, I don’t really give a shit if a Russian franchise owner makes a ruble off of some random Russian citizen buying a McRib. It’s the rich and powerful, and the military, that need the punishment, not some rando who wants a Coke. Never not a good time to boycott Nestlé, though.
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Tucker is just playing the same old conservative song.
It’s not so much about the random Russian franchise owner making a buck. Every business that pulls out increases the pain by making life for Russians shittier, which in theory should increase the pressure on Putin to end this.
There are reasons why it may not neatly work out this way, but there is a logic to it.
No leaks, alright? This is how we know we’re a real family here.
Those comments will be used against them. At most they probably marginally affect their approval while hardening core support.
I posted earlier about Anne Applebaum commenting on Tucker’s possible Russia connections and someone else mentioned a specific Tucker-Trump-Foxnews-Russia association. Tucker might be just going with the flow as Victor suggests. Or he could be another influencer parroting Putin’s talking points. Or he might be something else. I mean in addition to being an asshole.
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Russia already having plans to roll out their own internet is scary. They really are planning to go back to the Iron Curtain days. The top power guys probably want it, and are happy this war is giving them the excuse to kill off the last vestiges of Glasnost.
I’d assume following the North Korea playbook. Of course North Korea’s big asset is a (relatively) small border.
Russia can never be as closed off as N. Korea. People know too much. And only maybe 50-60% of Russians are pro-Putin. But it will be interesting to see how much the people tolerate.
https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1500667531643994113
Here we go. FoxNews loving this shit. $8 gas!!!
Even prior to the Sino-Soviet split there was a lot of bitterness from Chinese leadership towards the Soviets.
Even if the Chinese public–at least the vocal nationalist elements–are pro-Russia it wouldn’t surprise me if party leadership (mostly sons of early PRC party leaders because China is the ultimate meritocracy ldo) sees the situation as a chance at revenge as much as just a chance to exploit a huge country.
Obviously it’s way early in all of this but if Putin survives and things go continue down the path they appear to be on, when leadership changes do come to Russia it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if China is their new big enemy.
I guess, but I also doubt the ethics that we should place restrictions on the ordinary people that are so strict that their only choice is to rebel and overthrow the government. That has, I think, never worked out? If I remember the list of times sanctions worked that was posted earlier, almost all of them were from the rich and powerful not wanting to face them and then backing down early. Hoping Iraqis oust Sadam by starving them was a bad plan. I get companies not wanting to be seen doing business in Russia (mine called off a deal there), but when it comes to food in particular, even junk food, it is harder to justify something that impacts poorer Russians the most in an essential fashion
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Should be $12-$15 a gallon if we ever want to wean off of fossil fuels anyways. The sooner the better.
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https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1500637752710209536
https://twitter.com/WarintheFuture/status/1500637764747886596
I want the entire russian economy to go into the toilet.
That means every worker that works for McDonalds get laid off and becomes a potential rioter, same with every other franchise that has workers. Lay off all their Russian workers and leave the country.
Same with the oil. I’ll pay double the gas prices if I know we are actively bankrupting the Russian economy with absolute certainty.
https://twitter.com/shakirov2036/status/1500584933491982341
Yeah completely disconnecting from the internet seems like it would be next to impossible and not a good idea. So maybe the West should block all Russian IPs and do it for them?
Yeah, this is just prejudice and spite directed at innocent people. It didn’t work in Iraq, and it won’t work in Russia.
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https://twitter.com/alexbward/status/1500670477580255234
They better be thinking what to do if Putin attacks a NATO country, because that could be one of his desperation moves. Then NATO will retaliate and he can institute a draft and maybe motivate Belarus more.