As these ET debate goalposts tend to always drift, a reminder of my original premise: I continue to stand by that premise. As to the subsequent contentions: I agree that the U.S. and a few other nations are not bound by The U.N.--a feature. I disagree that the U.S. doesn't hold itself accountable in foreign matters. We have convicted military personnel etc., and Oliver North comes to mind. I agree that there should be greater U.S. accountability; but until the public decides to make that a voting priority, they can't really point the finger.
Heh, one of the things that I get a kick out of is Sullivan finally saying that Russia "could attack before the end of the Olympics. For chrisesake we have heard pundit after pundit and administration officials say for weeks that Putin is unlikely to attack until after the Olympics. Any thinking person had to wonder "gee, I wonder when Putin would think he could attack when it was least expected. Good gawd. Not saying he will, but please, finally they are getting down off of that ruse. The other thing is that the winter continues to be warm and he is not gaining much advantage there over time so he has probably accepted that he has to go in somewhat sloppy if at all. Yeh. I know. "That's what she said when the bed broke."
Is there a possibility it might a political move by the Administration? Why did they release that news when the market was open? They could have sat on it a bit. Now Bloomberg is saying Biden and Putin will talk tomorrow. Why would Putin talk? If he's gonna do this that makes no sense. I'm gonna play contrarian here and say this gets iced over and Biden knows it. Spook the public, arrive at "a resolution", and look like a hero.
Oh I dunno. Putin is trying to divide the coalition/Nato by insisting that he wants a direct reply from each country individually. Macron and Boris have done it by going to kiss Putin's ring. Now Biden is lining up to do so from afar. Then, like clockwork, all of the leaders give hopeful interpretations of their meeting to the press, and then, like clockwork, Putin humiliates them by saying that is bullshiite. "I agreed to no such thing." That is not to agree or disagree with whether it can be settled this way or that way. I just think Putin is playing game by making each leader jump through hoops to see if he can find cracks. Without regard to what the market or the Biden administration timing of anything might be. He is just being Putin. About eight countries more or less just a joint virtual-type meeting. You can be sure the Ruskies tapped in to it and know all sorts of things. Hopefully Joe kept his countries straight in the discussions. Not his strong point.
For the record, I don’t know that the claim that Biden administration was claiming Putin wouldn’t invade until after the Olympics is true. I pretty sure they giving updates based on troop levels.