War in Ukraine

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US businesses were largest tax contributors to Russia among international companies in 2022: report

U.S. companies in Russia were the largest tax contributors to the Russian government among corporations based in any other country last year as Moscow’s war in Ukraine progressed, according to a new report.

The report from B4Ukraine, a coalition of civil society groups working to cut off Russia’s ability to continue the war, and the Kyiv School of Economics found American firms paid $712 million in taxes in Russia in 2022, having brought in the largest total revenue of any foreign country.


The report states that the companies that continue to be present in Russia and thus pay taxes are indirectly financing the war in Ukraine and the “severe breaches” of human rights and humanitarian law that have been happening in the conflict.

https://thehill.com/policy/internat...among-international-companies-in-2022-report/
 
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DC_Vol said:
I love this guy. As of right now, he’s got my primary vote.
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I did too till I read this. I’d love to hear him back up his claim on exactly how we’ve met our obligations in the Budapest Agreement since no explicit criteria are defined. I thought he was smarter than playing to populist stuff like this tweet. But hey cudos for even mentioning the agreement
 
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NorthDallas40 said:
I did too till I read this. I’d love to hear him back up his claim on exactly how we’ve met our obligations in the Budapest Agreement since no explicit criteria are defined. I thought he was smarter than playing to populist stuff like this tweet. But hey cudos for even mentioning the agreement
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🤣 you won’t support anyone who questions what’s going on with Ukraine. Blind support for sending billions
 
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volbound1700 said:
As stated, many Democratic nations including US and UK have held elections during war time. Ukraine could find a way. UK was definitely under attack during WW2 and still held elections.
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They had not been invaded nor did their enemy hold significant portions of their nations displacing hundreds of thousands. Again, it's a very important distinction that you and they are completely ignoring.
 
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DC_Vol said:
I love this guy. As of right now, he’s got my primary vote.
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Since I replied to you initially on that tweet I’ll clarify. I am against Ukraine joining NATO right now at least though. This is the complete wrong time for that discussion. You don’t buy insurance after your house has burned down.

But the rest of it was a direct beg to Trump’s base in the same populist manner Trump does. And I thought he was smarter than that and think it will backfire. There is still broad bipartisan support for Ukraine in the US so I think the last half of the tweet was an unforced error.
 
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hog88 said:
With the amount of natural resources they have a competent leader could turn the country around quickly.
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Does Russia has the right intellect and the right structure to do that? You are talking a country that went from serfdom to communism and never really developed or understood capitalism after the USSR collapsed. It's a country seeming dominated by the remnants of the wealthy Soviet regime, mafias, and oligarchs ... with all those overlapping. I'm not sure that even with an abundance of natural resources you can do anything with that kind of corruption and centralized greed. An honest entrepreneur isn't going to have much chance to start anything, and the people in position to build something will only exploit the resources (natural and people) for themselves. An industrial revolution built on what more or less amounts to slavery with the wealth never distributed is never going to equal an industrial revolution where the workers benefit and become real consumers.

Russia can import foreign companies like Shell to do something with the resources, but the profits don't profit the country ... only the ultra rich. You can bet even the land with the resources won't be owned by anyone not already rich and with connections or by the crooked government. It's our version of the Robber Barons only they own the government and organized crime, too. You'd need a revolution by the very people who never knew what freedom is ... hard to imagine and work for something you know nothing about. They would have to overthrow the very people that handle all the power and control all the resources, and it's not like our revolution where we defeated a power from across the sea in the days of sail.
 
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BreatheUT said:
Corruption and the cheerleading for military industrial complex makes for strange bedfellows. We should all be for peace. The thing about negotiation or mediation is finding a solution when neither side wants to back down. Instead the Biden regime is enjoying the conflict. They get to infuse their propaganda on it.
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Peace isn't cheap, and somehow it seems that "peace" always includes war to get there.
 
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Rasputin_Vol said:
That comment was in response to the whataboutism @Burhead threw out there about Mariupol and Artemovsk (Bakhmut) when I was talking about cluster munitions. It wasn't a conversation me and you were having. So mind your business.


I'll say 2 things:
1. Even with precision weapons, mistakes can happen. Lets not pretend this hasn't happened with the US
2. Maybe the missiles hit their targets as intended for a legitimate military reason. I've shown plenty of examples of the Kyiv regime using civilian buildings for military purposes
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So ban cluster weapons because mistakes happen, but precision weapons are good even though mistakes happen? If you really wanted to be serious about tragedies in wartime (conventional weapons type), then you'd have to start with minefields and chemical weapons - both of which Russia generally likes. Both rank right up there with huge bombing raids of cities targeting civilians except they supposedly target combatants. The fact is war kills and kills by design; there is no "humane" killing ... just killing, and the best you can hope for is innocents aren't harmed. It's like the old Chad Mitchell Trio song about a draft dodger "And if you ever get a war without any gore, well, I'll be the first to go".

It's been my understanding that cluster munitions were developed to target dispersed targets. A big bomb gets a building, but it's not always the weapon of choice for many applications. Like close air support - cluster weapons and napalm (another golden oldie) when dropped properly can really do wonders on an enemy when a large bomb would jeopardize friendly troops in close proximity. Hog and a couple of other guys probably have more knowledge about that. Cluster weapons fill a need where a large bomb can be too concentrated when a dispersed blast is needed.
 
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WBO said:
DMZ during Vietnam was basically the NVA staging area.
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A DMZ always seems to be sanctuary/staging/recovery area for one side, and a nightmare for the side that treats the DMZ as a neutral zone.
 
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NorthDallas40 said:
The USSR/Russia was our biggest threat. That didn’t end immediately in 1991 it persisted for a bit. But today China is clearly our largest geopolitical foe. I’ve never said otherwise.
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That was actually clear before the idiot globalists decided to pump money into China to build a real military and infrastructure to support it ... including the "infrastructure" that has electronic roots in our computer networks and plants in research universities and facilities. For a country that is relatively successful, we sure are competent at being our own worst enemy.
 
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Burhead said:
Turkey just released the Azov commanders captured at Mariupol they were supposed to stay in Turkey for the duration of the war.
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Turkey is a huge boil on the butt of the world. Probably isn't going to get better, and one day it's going to erupt. Hard to believe that a reasonably sane structure like NATO would accept countries like Turkey and some in Eastern Europe when they require consensus agreement on some decisions.
 
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AM64 said:
Turkey is a huge boil on the butt of the world. Probably isn't going to get better, and one day it's going to erupt. Hard to believe that a reasonably sane structure like NATO would accept countries like Turkey and some in Eastern Europe when they require consensus agreement on some decisions.
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I don't think its Turkey as much as Erdogan. It is a crying shame that the Turkish military and civil society has basically given up on Kemalism.
 
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Burhead said:
I don't think its Turkey as much as Erdogan. It is a crying shame that the Turkish military and civil society has basically given up on Kemalism.
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I absolutely agree, but he manages to keep being elected, so something isn't right if the country seems to support him.
 
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Hunerwadel said:
You got any predictions? Having a little skin in the game will make it more fun.
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My prediction:

A lot of people will die.

A few people will get richer

The US taxpayers will get poorer

The US will send Trillions of taxpayers money to Ukraine.

Move on to the next taxpayers funded endeavor (Iraq, Afghanistan, Covid, Ukraine) it’s a never ending cycle.
 
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tnmarktx said:
We absolutely should, but it’s more complicated than that TSMC is a private company and semiconductor mfg. is very expensive add quite frankly they just do it better than anyone else. On a good note, the opened a fab in the US in Arizona. However, can’t let our real greatest threat control the majority of semiconductors. Semiconductor shortage demonstrated that.
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We shipped our semiconductor mfg ti Taiwan starting in the mid 1980s/early 1990s, so my point is that we did this to ourselves. So now our justification for going to war with China is a result of our own foolishness?
 
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