Grease Trap: 20 January 2023

Idk where Paul got his info with most supporters of Ukraine in the US not wanting it now, support has barely changed and it still favors the majority of Americans and even a majority of Republicans.

Junigame

The weapons for Ukraine are land weapons which would be useless for Taiwan because it would mainly be an air an sea conflict

Junigame

Aren't you special

Breshan Coburn

That was all very informative. Ya coulda said it without being a CUNT, though. But also. . . . . There ARE a buncha extremist white supremacist / roght-wing factions in Ukraine. We're sending weapons without much accountability to a destabilized country. . . . . . I can't recall a time where the combination of extremist groups, weapons that are unaccounted for, and a de-stabalized region ever being a good thing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . Soooo. . . . . I still agree with Paul on THAT point.

Alex Mac Donald

Oh man... coming from "rat squatch", another stranger on the internet, that's just devastating. It's called feedback, numb nuts. No one asked for yours either, yet here you are.

Hereticked

Why do you guys feel the need to announce when you leave? No one cared or knew you were here in the first place bud.

Rat squatch

how do you keep making these accounts??? lol

Michael Sewell

Wow, Alex, you're really revealing how little you know about the situation. First of all, Ukraine is not some "dump in the woods." It's literally host to some of the most fertile farmland in all of Europe. Why do you think Russia wants it? Why do you think Europe and the US are willing to invest in defending it? It's not just for democracy and weapons deals, it's also because losing "the breadbasket of Europe" would destabilize the continent agriculturally and financially. Now to address your "options": 1. They're not going to be outgunned, specifically because the US and Europe are supplying them what they need. Russia is fighting with rusty AKs and shit tier equipment. Their solution in most wars has been to throw tons of bodies at the problem and their warfare really hasn't evolved much beyond that. They're going to sacrifice tons of their own people in a land grab that's ultimately going to fail. 2. Nuclear war is not in the cards, despite everyone's attempt to hype it up. MAD is still a thing, last I checked. Even if Putin attempted to use short range / tactical nukes, it would piss off the few remaining allies they have. Also, why would you nuke territory you're trying to take? Not to mention having radiated territory on your own border with winds blowing the fallout across your own land. That's fucking stupid for obvious reasons. And they would lose China as an ally completely if they tried anything like that. 3. Putin violated the Minsk accords. Diplomacy has already been tried and Russia wiped their ass with the agreement, then invaded Ukraine a second time (following their seizure of Crimea.) Those saying "more diplomacy" are either ignorant of what went down or Neville Chamberlain level appeasers, which historically, has not been a good strategy. 4. Bleeding Russia dry is exactly what's going to happen, despite your belief that it's unlikely. It could lead to another breakup of the Russian state if Putin continues to dig in his heels and gambles his entire nation's welfare on this stupid boondoggle. Russia essentially lost the war in the first month of the invasion. They tried to take Kyiv and failed utterly. They've been steadily losing territory since their initial blitz and they no longer have air dominance, if they ever did. This IS a fundamentally different war not only because it's about feeding Europe, but because Ukraine is already host to a democracy. We are not trying to build one in a country fundamentally opposed to one, we are defending one that already exists from a right wing autocrat and imperialist aggressor. No one who's solution to this problem is "stop supporting Ukraine" can call themselves an anti-imperialist. Calling for more peace talks is useless when Russia has shown over and over again that they won't engage them in good faith. Allowing them to dominate Ukraine would simply embolden them to go further. That's why a line has been drawn in the sand. Yes, war is hell, and nobody on the left wants more of it, but sometimes it's also unavoidable. Burying your head in the sand and pretending otherwise while offering no realistic solutions is just fucking dumb.

Hereticked

What it do what it do??

Baltran Kennedy

I think you’re overblowing Paul’s Ukraine takes. I agree with some parts and disagree with others, but it’s not like Paul is a Russian shill or some dumb shit. He’s entertained me for a number of years now, and I will continue to support him into the future. I’m not gonna let some personal opinion on a complex issue revoke that.

Codisha

I keep seeing Paul is wrong "because different than Afgh+Iraq". Okay. Perhaps. But given that, what role SHOULD America play in this fiasco? Should we stick our noses in the business of others and send soldiers in on the ground? Should we just keep sending weapons like right now? What SHOULD Ukraine fo besides fighting some assholes invading their dump of the woods? Should THEY get nuclear with it? The way I see it, there are 3 options, MAYBE a 4th. 1 - fight a really long ass war thatll kill a lotta time, money, resources not to mention a lotta people and LOSE anyway because they're out-manned and out-gunned; 2 - NUCLEAR WAR; 3 - sit down and try to come to an agreement. Possible 4th option - option #1, but it goes on long enough to Bleed Russia dry (but I don't really think that's a very likely scenario). I KNOW Putin's a totally crazed cunt and that he should die slowly. Just wanted to throw that out there before some nitwit calls me "tankie".

Alex Mac Donald

I was subbed on patreon for the first two years of DFF. Unsubbed for the last two years or so mainly because of Paul due to his oversimplistic analysis of complex events (like the Ukraine war), his pathological certainty that he's always right and his seething contempt for anyone who disagrees. It's very much not fun to watch someone's mental breakdown in real time. No Paul, you're not always right and people don't always come around to your way of thinking, despite these weird blinders you now wear that convince you otherwise. Nor are you a particularly good representative of the left, in my view. Came back for the JP gauntlet and to give you a guys a fresh try, but I won't be hanging around after this grease trap. I'm not going to pay people to promote foreign policy takes this baby brain.

Hereticked

Europe has been a millstone around Americas neck since the end of ww2. It's time to cut them loose.

Thomas DeRosa

Paul, you completely misunderstand the use of the term “Observer” in quantum mechanics. Observation in quantum mechanics is not your eyeballs or consciousness, it is simply another word for measurement. “Observed” and “measured” are used interchangeably in physics. Your observations can influence your internal reality, but not external reality. In the case of the Double-Slit experiment in which a photon (an unobserved wave) passes through two very thin openings, it is then measured (observed) by a device (the observer) which then disrupts its wave function, causing the wave function to collapse, thus the wave becomes a particle that will end up in any random position within its cloud of probability. After shooting many photons, or electrons - even atoms and molecules that are stable enough to maintain coherence - at the slits an interference pattern will emerge, but it is still impossible to know exactly where the particle will end up next. Chaos determines the outcome. Quantum mechanics is a complicated subject and even the most intelligent minds working in the field are still unsure of its philosophical implications, but one thing is for certain: particles behave according to physical laws, not according to a person’s conscious state generated by their brain - which also obeys the same physical laws.

Dram Elyk

If Paul stepped foot in Europe maybe he could be convinced otherwise, the Russian threat is very real. His perspective is an American one, even if he convinces himself he doesn't believe in countries. Perhaps in a distant future we don't have to care about borders anymore but it's not a feasible scenario in these times precisely because of authoritarian states pressuring its neighbours.

Robert Sandee

Imagine not understanding the fundamental differences between the wars in Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Imagine believing the Russian line about being threatened by NATO. Paul’s entire worldview is colored by the fact that he felt tricked by the Bush administration despite literally everybody who was paying attention knew the Iraq justifications were bullshit. Now, for whatever reason, he seems to think that the United States is the only nation capable of lying about its intentions, and that there is some sort of magical diplomacy button that could stop or even have prevented this war. The reality is that this is a war of Russian conquest justified through Eurasian supremacist ideology at home and fear of NATO abroad. The only real similarity to the Iraq and Afghan wars is the fact that there is a giant nation offering up bullshit justifications to conquer another, that literally everybody except the some of the people of that nation can see through. I’m sorry that “USA bad” isn’t enough when discussing real problems, but the world is just so much more complicated than that.

Miles Hill

He's not. These people were either born in the year 2008 or have severe brain injury

Solid Snake

How is he wrong?

Dylan Brown

Meanwhile in Illinois I have to take a picture and send it out for a foid card with a mandatory background check to buy a gun.

Anthony Mickelson

Same here. I'm skipping this one too because I'm so fucking sick of hearing about it. Get over it and move on.

Velvet Zealot

It is to the point where if I see "Ukraine war" in the caption I will literally just outright skip the episode. I can't listen to TJ or especially Paul talk about it anymore. It's just too exhausting.

CORNMAN

I have listened to Paul for many years and I agree with TJ that Paul is one of the most talented YouTuber ever, but my god, his trauma of the Iraq war has rotted his brain.

It must be so hard for Paul to be so wrong about Ukraine. Pray for him.

Miles Hill

Thing about that is, in these times i kinda want to get a gun that easy i just dont want anyone else get anymore guns :D

Duckling Duckins

Hey guys just wanted to let you know abt the insane gun laws s in ohio . even me as A pro gun person is like goddaaam, went to a shop, I told the cashier I was a 1st timer he handed me a tablet of yes or no answers and I got a gun in abt 15 minutes w/o know shit abt guns and Ohio is now A permit less state which means I can carry concealed wo A CHL. Wow! (This was not the cashiers fault fyi he was fine and answered my questions)

Akephalos