Xerxes

I am guessing the % that is being quoted here by folks is the equity home equity / (home equity + all investments net of any leverage) I am 30% or so as well.

Go for it. It is there to serve you. That said, you can always liquidate a bit to get a cushion even at depressed value. You do need to sleep at night.

The left wants a cease fire in Gaza. But a continuation of war in Ukraine no matter what. The right wants destruction of Gaza and revenge, but ceasefire in Ukraine with Russia. Both sides believe they are in the right. Go figure.

True. but geopolitics has far more to do with national interests, than the “blame” game.

Unfortunately, they are going to make him crawl and beg for it. Not good. On security guarantees, here are the list of entities with which U.S. has security guarantees. https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/l/treaty/collectivedefense/ Almost all of the bilateral and multilateral security guaranties in the link above originated from and during the Cold War. Why did Zelenskyy thought he would have that by virtue just wanting it. If the lack of it, is a non-starter for him why even show up in DC for open-media Oval Office meeting. I also do know that we have no statement from Zelenskyy remotely stating that he is ready to give up territory. As far as optics goes, that sounds like a man who wants to keep fighting. Putin is winning the war of optics just by keeping his mouth shut.

Europe, Australia, NZ and Canada supported U.S. (maybe not on the American continent) but supported U.S. global hegemony in the Korean War, less so in the Vietnam War, in the Gulf War and much of the Cold War. U.S. chose to enter the contest of great power post-1945 and chose to enforce that hegemony for decades on. A by-product of that was also helping Europe and Japan (weakened by world wars) not to succumb to the communism. But you cannot now, just decide that none of that happened, and we (U.S.) did all that for others. Nope. Nothing is wrong with examining the past and questioning the path forward, but let's us also not re-write history.

I am guessing this is the documentary on Prime For those who like me cannot see the YouTube Video Prime Video: Becoming Katharine Graham Warren Buffett on legendary Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham - CBS News

oh Jesus. Elon is reading books.

My condolences to the family

Just saw these on DailyMail:

Macron is a former Rothschild investment banker. He is smooth as a silk. There is also language barrier for Zelenskyy.

I agree with @Spekulatius on the attire. If this former AQ bro could go from revolutionary to stateman, (and he still does not have control over half of his country) so can Zelenskyy. It is called being pragmatic. Zelenskyy is great leader. Ukraine is lucky to have him. But he is too knee deep in the trenches. The world has changed. He needs to change and adapt.

I prefer the story when Xerxes went to Athens … and he didn’t use “little green men” like Putin did with Crimea

As an objective observer your initial observation is incorrect. I reposted my answer of someone else on the same topic below. And yet people keep saying that. ex: If there are substantial nuclear weapons based in Alaska and if it were to declare independence from U.S., those nukes do not become the property of newly created Alaska nation. They remain the property of Federal government and are no different than U.S. nukes based in Turkey. If the federal government itself is on its way out to be replace with a new government, ownership still does not get transfer to Alaska. ———-/-//———- Those ICBMs were not Ukraine’ to give or not to give, nor they had command and control. They belonged to the Soviet Union, and then Russia as the surviving state. That said I agree that they could have “taken” them and through their ingenuity found a way to control them. They are after all resourceful people. Had they done that, they would have become a pariah state. You cannot change one parameter in the past assume everything else would have remain the same.

I don’t know this chap (Keane) very well but he seems to be on the right wavelength.

A+

From 8 years ago. Republican U.S. senators (Graham and McCain) in eastern Ukraine, promising the moon. At least McCain (RIP) was a man integrity. Geopolitics ain’t suppose to be pretty nor romantic. It bites. Nothing personal. Everybody gets used.

More details before and after https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/01/politics/inside-trump-zelensky-meeting?

thanks for the video. looks like Zelenskyy is having a “win” today. He is seeing the King before Trump. Not a State visit, but still

I rewatch the last 10-15 min: this was not a trap. But Vance was clearly ready to pounce should Zelenskyy stepped out line, ….. knowing the resistance from Zelenskyy and steady flow of leaks. Trump goes with his instinct. As some point he just realized it won’t happen so he put him down. anyhow done for today on this topic

Great thread. I consume minimum 1x latte with a double espresso every morning. Sometimes twice that everyday. Rarely do I buy coffee at work. (Low quality)

A+

Bibi already crossed Trump once, when congratulated Biden in 2021. Trump hasn’t forgotten that. U.S. support to Israel is as large as the one to Ukraine. But unlike Zelenskyy, Bibi knows when to bow. And in Trump’ mind the real estate in Riviera will pay for all that. All Bibi needs to do is to nod politely and keep his disagreement in private. As far as Musk-Trump danger that the article alludes to, I don’t know, I think Bibi made the relationship with past US Government challenging, by going after specific presidents behind their back. When you disrespect the office of president (doesn’t matter who is that person), and when you bet all on one person and try to influence the internal politics of your ally, … you are kind of asking for it.