To win an election, that's all he cares about

Trump has wedded himself to the oligarchs who are making money from data centers while an overwhelming majority of Americans hate those motherfuckers. Did you see what he did a couple days ago? What in the actual fuck. He's been disconnected from reality for his entire life, but dude is drifting off into space right now

Trucking and farming are far larger, and more important uses of diesel in the US

I cannot think of any head of state who has a worse track record in terms of statecraft, vision, inspiration, or even pure accomplishment. Even if you flatten your moral judgment and only look to how skillfully even the evilest men in history achieved their aims, he's plainly a negative outlier. His only signal achievement is in uniting the sentiment of the entire planet against the US.

Nero was libeled by the christians after the fact. You feed a few of them to lions and they never shut up about it. But that was the custom then.

Rome had a lot of monsters as emporers, Nero didn't even rank.

IE caricalla, and that was before shit got really bad.

Nothing would make me happier than to see US diesel purchased from Russia go to the bottom of the ocean.

And I'm a fucking environmentalist.

They are having diesel shortages and super high prices since the refineries keep getting blown up while simultaneously a lot of the middle east ones are out of commission. So not necessarily a ton for America to vacuum up and feel substantial relief but it does give fat stacks of cash to boost refinery repair efforts by pumping up demand and prices for Russian diesel

Yes. They have banned exports. While sanctions lift is dressed up as diesel for us, its actually all energy sanctions relief to all.

Russia is a very big country with very limited transport infrastructure. There are diesel shortages in Russia, mostly in areas where Ukrainian missiles can reach, but for example the Northern and Siberian districts would be mostly unaffected.

I asked Claude to explain the diesel thing, and I was also surprised to hear that Russia had banned diesel exports and just lifted the ban for this, so this was actually a favor to Trump.

Now why would he do that? Well you know how Trump is about other countries' oil. And he was already telling Ukraine not to hit the factories before. Trump doesn't seem to care or understand how much diesel exactly is coming from Russia. He just knows Zelenskyy's blowing up "his" oil now.

I wonder if they're really that stupid. But why wouldn't they be? If I'm wrong, it's not because I underestimated them. I just must've missed something.

I honestly feel like the only reason to do this is so that when Ukraine inevitably and justifiably hits a Russian tanker that happens to be destined for the US is so that Trump can say “fuck Ukraine, they attacked us”. Over like a few hours of fuel supply demand. Ideas planted by Russians into the minds of US leaders under different pretenses - or hell maybe even explicitly. I can’t help but feel like they’re looking for an excuse to be on Russias side.

The quantity, from who should be an adversary in an active war against who should be an ally, is far too low to be meaningful other than for ulterior motives.

Ukraine already tried that and got their entire coastline blockaded. (Also Russia would probably use the Pacific route for transport to the US.)

I don't think this is about Russian interference. The rich in the USA benefit from war up to a point, but supporting the losing side indefinitely is not to their benefit.

Ukraine can't win this war from the ruling class's perspective since Ukraine warding off Russia wouldn't award them any advantage. There's no resource or strategic asset for Ukraine to gain, they're just defending so every outcome for them is literally a loss. Rebuilding Ukraine isn't going to be worth it even as an extraction racket, and their mining resources have been overstated.

It would have been one thing if weapons sales could have forced Russia to retreat or come to some sort of concession, but that hasn't worked. What Ukraine is missing isn't weapons, it's soldiers, and nobody's ready to send men in any meaningful way.

So they want to cut their losses and normalize with Russia again. Ukraine was a fun little exercise, a spicy little risk to get a foothold in Europe's breadbasket and on Russia's border. It didn't work, but it's fine, they're investing over the long term and you can't win them all. So just be rational, throw Ukraine under the bus and move on to the next debasement of humanity.

I'd be angrier about this deal if I didn't suspect that Trump tweeted this without any planning and when his flunkies try to act on it they'll just get stuck asking Grok 'how do I import russian diesel" and never actually figure out how to do this.

I don't know if this is a hot take, but I don't think Trump's administration knows how international business or oil shipping works. I legit don't think they can figure out how to buy diesel from Russia.

Definitely crooked.

But cooked? Not holding my breath.

Suddenly? The US has been siding with Russia and snubbing Ukraine and its allies for a few years now.

Even from a rightwing standpoint pre 2010, this confirms Russia managed to turn the government and make them their bitch. Which means despite losing in Ukraine like the pathetic genocidal maniacs they are, Putistan won the cold war.

*fuck Trump.

I don't think there's still a "U" in Magastan.

I am convinced the only purpose of this is so Trump can blame Ukraine when diesel prices are still high a month from now.

Russia doesn't have much diesel to export. Putin instituted a ban for a reason

This will help the midterms in that it's an "accomplishment" Trump can point to that will totally fix his fuckups right after the election

Just like he's been claiming the Iran war will end right after the midterms

The surprising part is that he must see Americans as his allies, because he seems quite content with causing us to lose over and over.

Money for blood soaked billionaires.

USA SELL weapons to the EU so they can send them to Ukraine. It makes total sense.

Russia won't stop unless they run out of funding. And Russia is not our friend. They have no qualms interfering with our and other countries elections and have shown they don't respect borders. You don't want Russia to get stronger at this point, if they let off attacking Ukraine then you negotiate. You don't reward a bully when they are being a bully.

oh wow, helping a nation in its fight for literal survival against a totalitarian imperial state which

• now routinely fires ballistic missles into residental areas
• does hunt civilians with drones in "human safaris"
• lets civilians starve in the occupied areas
• and and and... because "you are a made up country, we're both slavs and i'm the master-slav so you do as i tell you or else..."

is now "being enthusiastic about having a proxy war on Russia"

Ukraine can't opt to stop the war... They were invaded. Giving them weapons is a defense against conquest. Reducing Russian sanctions prolongs the war by refilling their coffers so they can keep invading.

Dude, fuck you. Kiev is attacked basically daily. Do you expect Ukrainians to just lay down and take it? Ukraine is doing their damndest to respond in the only language Russia might understand. The fact that they’re still independent is a testament to their solidarity, their fighting force, and their determination to not be a vassal to anyone.