How Can The World Stand By While Trump Sucks Up To Putin?

[Nolieinforme]

OK, so this probably isn't an AIBU, but I'm speechless that Trump is behaving like a bully and seems to be getting away with it.

He just lies. "Zelensky is a dictator" "Ukraine started the war" "Putin has done nothing wrong" etc, etc. I can hardly believe what's been said on the news today.

Why are the rest of the world letting this happen? If America want's to align themselves with Russia, then we should be returning the Chagos Islands without the huge sum of money promised, closing all the US airbases in the UK, closing the US embassy, and expelling their diplomats, etc, etc.

Trump is a madman and what is going to happen if no-one stands up to him? If this was anyone else they just wouldn't get away with it.

It’s obviously not a right wing toy, given the failure to invest in the last 14 years.

We can learn a lot from Trump especially as he is giving back taxes that were fraudulently claimed to his people.

This sentence is so garbled as to make virtually no sense, but since I believe I was finally able to glean your meaning, can you cite even one example of this, with sourcing included? Thank you.

Defence is underfunded.
Councils are underfunded.
Social Care is underfunded.
NHS is underfunded.
Education is underfunded.

Where is the money coming from to plug all of these black holes?
Which should be prioritised?
Benefit spending is a piss in the ocean compared to what we need to properly fund services. * *

on the other hand, the public purse is about choices. There is obviously the potential to move money around and decide what you’d rather not spend on vs a weak border/ weak nato or, maybe you won’t have a job to pay taxes with anyone since you’ll be in war.

True, I'd like to think we would have higher taxes & better defences before we got to the stage of no jobs.

Where is the money coming from to plug all of these black holes?
Which should be prioritised?
Benefit spending is a piss in the ocean compared to what we need to properly fund services.

Very difficult questions.

Piss in the ocean? It’s 10% of public spending - it receives more funding than any other area bar the NHS and pensions. Combined they total 40% of public spending. It’s massive. These things are not underfunded - it’s that the demands of the services are increasing far beyond anything we can continue to support.

You’re not wrong but I meant this is how the public see it, not the Tories (sadly)

There is already an established relationship between the Saudis and the UK, and one the UK is looking to strengthen, but the Saudis also have established ties with both the US and Russia that are more profitable for them to maintain if it came down to having to choose between them.

If a country has more to lose than gain by dealing with you then it won’t.

It’s usual not to hold elections during wars. If I was Zelensky I’d call his bluff and be re-elected, though.

Haha, he should! No doubt Trump would call it a rigged election or something 😒

21% of the population is 65 or older.

@FireandRain23 I don't think it was that high but the growth is an issue in economic terms and will obviously impact the proportion of net takers.

The older population in England is getting larger. In the last 40 years, the number of people aged 50 and over has increased by over 6.8 million (a 47% increase), and the number aged 65 and over has increased by over 3.5 million (a 52% increase)."

Oh cool, so having trolls on the thread is fine, but saying there are trolls on the thread is a big NO NO.

and we have a smaller % under 15 which is going to make things worse in years to come.

UK doesn't need to pay much more.

Japan and Australia need to pay more.

NATO countries not meeting the target need to pay a lot more - Spain and Italy for example.

If countries that are otherwise neutral can be persuaded to pay money toward peacekeeping things or aid that would help too.

Or alternatively, since Ukraine has received $90bn from the US and they want $500bn of Ukrainian minerals, they can just give Ukraine another $350bn to win and still be in profit.

Zelensky's popularity was at 90% when he started 5 years ago, no one is going to hold on to that high of a number, it was ridiculously high.

His current approval rating is 57%.
Trump's current approval rating is 44% after one month.

Aside from having to bring all the front line back home to vote and the cost/logistics of working out how hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees living abroad are going to vote and be counted, the fact remains that Russia wants nothing more than Zelensky gone so they can put a pro-Putin puppet back in. So they will rig the election.

Everyone knows it, they just can't accuse Russia of planning to do it.

The average Ukrainian doesn't want an election. Even Zelensky's own political rivals are against the idea of having an election at the moment.

Hitler called Winston Churchill a dictator.

I looked it up yesterday for work:
“Census 2021 results show the population of England and Wales has continued to age since 2011. The number of people aged 65 years and over increased from 9.2 million in 2011 to over 11 million in 2021 and the proportion of people aged 65 years and over rose from 16.4% to 18.6%. So not quite 21% yet, but forecast to be higher.

Totally agree and where would they hold the voting/counts when they don’t know what buildings will be standing tomorrow? It’s like holding an election in the middle of the Blitz.

In his first term I considered Trump to be a Manchurian (Muscovite?) Candidate.

On this second term I've not been convinced I was wrong.

My heart goes out to Zelensky and the Ukrainians ❤️🇺🇦

Lest we forget, pensioners paid tax and National Insurance to qualify for the state pension. It’s not a freebie.

Lest we forget, pensioners paid tax and National Insurance to qualify for the state pension. It’s not a freebie.

Not this again. No one is saying older people shouldn't have a pension but it's paid forward so you need to have a pyramid shape population wise to support it. Even if this mythical pot did in fact exist the majority will not have paid enough in.

@FireandRain23 so you understand why millions more older people means a higher percentage of net takers. I don't even like them term net takers but some love to bandy it about.

Surely what’s terrifying is that jobs do t pay people enough money to live, if in work people didn’t need benefits this would be much less of an issue 🤷‍♀️

A lot of people in this thread appear to have taken their education via the Murdoch press.
I also agree that pro Fascist sentiment is growing on here recently, and I suspect the old style middle class mumsnet has been usurped by the moneyed working class (I have a house now so I can look down on you, just look at my shiny bootstraps, mmm..)

There are decidedly fewer informed/educated posts or discussions. I suspect the bog standard MC have dropped off and the site is now home to the angry tabliod obsessives.

I strongly doubt, also, that the sick and disabled are greedily eating up our defence spending. What a dire and inhunmane conclusion to come to, unless you have had it piped into your ears via the press to such an extent that an original thought left out the back door years ago..

I also suspect that those who disparage the sick and disabled would be jumping to the front of a queue frothing at the mouth to claim 'free money' if their child needed mental health help or assistance with a learning disability - or does the judgement not apply to you?

There are many reasons the UK is sinking, and selling off all of our housing, businesses and manufacture might have something to do with it. Easier to point a finger a the sick, I am sure.
Most people who are claiming benefits are in rough estates, generations of families with countless children from broken homes, addiction issues and illiteracy. Why not address this problem? Why have generations of families in sink hole estates been allowed to 'flounder' on benefits (since they are largely unemployable) whilst the truly sick and disabled are to carry the blame?