Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting • Hacker News Board

Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

#841

Post by Findecanor » Sat, Mar 01, 2025, 7:56 AM UTC

Animats wrote: post #387

On the minerals front, the US doesn't need anything from Ukraine. Most of the minerals mentioned, except titanium, are un-mined deposits. Or things the US has plenty of already, such as oil, natural gas, coal, and iron. Here's a rundown: - Rare earths: I've mentioned the MP Minerals, Mountain Pass, CA mine before. The US doesn't have enough rare earth refining capability, and China won't export the technology. So US…

Perhaps this is really about keeping out potential European car battery manufacturers from sourcing their raw materials from Ukraine in the future. Trump is under the influence of Musk after all.

Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

#842

Post by bashback » Sat, Mar 01, 2025, 7:56 AM UTC

temporallobe wrote: post #164

I am an independent and Trump supporter. I generally like his shows of strength, but I didn’t like the confrontational nature of this exchange. It lacked diplomacy and respect. Trump yelling things like “you’re gambling with World War 3” was inappropriate and aggressive, especially considering he was a guest. This caused an unprecedented tension between wrokd leaders on live TV and in my opinion has the potential to…

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Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

#843

Post by bashback » Sat, Mar 01, 2025, 7:57 AM UTC

dwoldrich wrote: post #688

Does _anyone_ in these comments wonder what happened before JD goes off on Zelenskyy? What could have elicited such a scorched earth response from the VP while the administration is still negotiating? That explosive clip, which I'm sure is all 99% of people have watched, happens like 40 minutes into an otherwise really quite friendly presser. https://www.c-span.org/program/white-house-event/president-t... Very disapp…

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Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

#844

Post by bashback » Sat, Mar 01, 2025, 7:58 AM UTC

mjfl wrote: post #661

This place has become a real echo chamber lately. I'm seeing radically unexamined opinions stream past like a firehose and can't respond to all of them. But to the anti-peace "pro-Ukranian" people here: 1. Do you see a path to victory? If so, how many Ukranians have will have to die before Crimea is retaken? Conditioned on your answer - do you really care about Ukrainians? 2. Do you really believe that the West stand…

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Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

#845

Post by whatshisface » Sat, Mar 01, 2025, 8:02 AM UTC

I don't think anyone has made the simplest observation, which is that Zelenskyy is not groveling because the survival of his country now depends on his credibility with other allies. Seriously - why would he want to send submissive signals?

Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

#846

Post by StarterPro » Sat, Mar 01, 2025, 8:03 AM UTC

They're both clearly bought.

Why else would you have the cameras in there for that long, and act that way in front of said cameras. I'd hate to be Rubio or anyone else trying to actually do their job.

It stopped being a Red/Blue issue after the polls closed, this is a issue for the country as a whole.

Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

#847

Post by mdp2021 » Sat, Mar 01, 2025, 8:05 AM UTC

munksbeer wrote: post #67

Christ that is awful. I'm not going to sugar coat it, I think Trump and Vance are disgusting people. Proper bullies, to someone in a much weaker position.

I would have phrased that differently: "lack of morals proposed as a point of vanity".

Incidentally (and for example), the "preacher" quarreled with Niall Ferguson days ago: the latter noted different times, when former conservative administrations condemned invasions, and received a reply starting with «moralistic rubbish» (or very similar words).

Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

#848

Post by rhubarbtree » Sat, Mar 01, 2025, 8:11 AM UTC

yubblegum wrote: post #722

That was a shameful display and a stain on our republic. Is it possible our nation is bankrupt (and we haven't been told) and these theatrics and all this talk about deals is in fact about settling debts? One thing that is certain that such reckless behavior by the US executive will increase geopolitical instability. Nuclear proliferation is very much in the cards. And you can be certain the event was viewed with hor…

I really don’t think you’re going to have a republic very much longer, so it probably doesn’t matter reputation wise.

I’m not sure what will happen, but I think the idea of a free and fair election for the next president is laughable at this point. Perhaps Americans haven’t realised this yet, I don’t know.

Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

#849

Post by benrutter » Sat, Mar 01, 2025, 8:16 AM UTC

GMoromisato wrote: post #270

I would like to know what the alternatives are. None that I can think of are palatable: 1. Support Ukraine enough so that Russia doesn't take too much more territory, but not enough for Russia to feel threatened and escalate the war. This was the Biden plan and it sounds like what Europe wants. I just don't see how this ends the war. Is this just buying time for someone to depose Putin? 2. Support Ukraine enough so i…

I think you're at least a bit wrong in that this is about a lot more thn simply the Ukraine/Russia conflict.

The US has a position as "leader of the free world" which it occupies, at least partly, because it is percieved as committed to supporting democracy and freedom worldwide.

Turning on an ally during wartime doesn't just create problems for Ukraine's ability to defend itself (although it will be interesting to see whether Europe ups spending to compensate) - it removes the US as a percieved ally of liberal democracies worldwide.

So, not that you're wrong on those points, but that they miss the USA's broader commitments. It might make sense to commit to an undesirable outcome, if it fits into a wider strategy.

Re: Zelensky leaves White House after angry meeting

#850

Post by namaria » Sat, Mar 01, 2025, 8:18 AM UTC

jmward01 wrote: post #506

US policy is now one of forcing the world into a zero sum game and it is a shame because the world isn't zero sum. This means the world will loose the gains from friendship and cooperation that increase the overall outcome for everyone. It is like living in a city where crime is expected so everyone puts up iron bars on their windows and the parks are all locked-down nightmares. When there is trust and cooperation yo…

> It is like living in a city where crime is expected so everyone puts up iron bars on their windows and the parks are all locked-down nightmares.

That's life in Brazilian big cities.

Brazil has been very violent for a long time because the government enforces a zero-sum game against the population. The poor half of the population is overwhelmingly colored people and the richer white half would rather burn it all down than share it better. Brazil is one of the most unequal societies on the planet.

If we go that direction globally, security will erode everywhere.

Trust me, we don't want that. You don't want every metropolis to become like a big Brazilian city.

Go find some Brazilian media website and read the news. It's pretty grim. It's what society is like with persistent high inequality, a forced zero-sum game to preserve status quo and the resulting general insecurity.