patrick.net

Trump was ranting nonsense and bullshit; Vance is a little twerp, I don't give a shit what he says about anything.

I otherwise support Trump for other things he does, but this time he was a clown and lived up to the media representation of him.

I would gladly send my $5 grand "Doge refund" to Ukraine to buy missiles to blast that maniac Putin to hell.

Is there a good (short) primer on the Ukraine situation that anyone here can recommend?

I am now bumping up the odds to 50-50 that the Zelensky thing was staged.

The Centrality of Ukrainian Oligarch, Ihor Kolomoysky

The real person who was the benefactor to, and the boss of, Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, at the Ukrainian gas-exploration company Burisma Holdings, was not the person that the American press says was, Mykola Zlochevsky, who had been part of the Ukrainian Government until Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in February 2014, but it was instead Ihor Kolomoysky (pictured), who was part of the newly installed Ukrainian Government, which the Obama Administration itself had actually just installed in Ukraine (and that phone-conversation appointing Ukraine’s new leader is explained here), in what the head of the “private CIA” firm Stratfor has correctly called “the most blatant coup in history.” ...

One cannot even begin accurately to understand the impeachment proceedings against America’s current President Donald Trump (“Ukrainegate”) unless one first knows and understands accurately what the relationships were between Trump and the current Government of Ukraine, and the role that the Obama Administration had played in forming that Government (installing it), and the role that Hunter Biden had been hired to perform for his actual boss at Burisma, Kolomoysky, soon after Obama (via Obama’s agent, Victoria Nuland) had installed Ukraine’s new Government.

By Ben Aris in Berlin February 23, 2025
There is currently a lot of confusion over US President Donald Trump’s proposed $500bn deal to gain control over Ukraine’s rare earth metals wealth. The problem is that Ukraine doesn’t have any rare earth minerals; it has a lot of “strategically important metals” like lithium. That is true. But actual rare earth metals? No. Almost none.

At the danger of nitpicking, rare earth metals (REMs) are a group of 17 elements in the periodic table, consisting of the 15 lanthanides (including neodymium, dysprosium, terbium, scandium and yttrium), which are very useful, as they enable the production of sophisticated electronics thanks to the conductivity quirks of their chemical bonds when used in combination with more traditional materials.

But things like lithium and graphite (a form of carbon) – which can be found in abundance in Ukraine – are not included in the REM categorisation. Nevertheless, Ukraine is a treasure trove of these strategically important minerals and metals that are also very important in making modern technology; lithium is crucial to the making of powerful batteries. Ukraine is home to around 20 of the 31 minerals that Europe lists as strategically important, as it doesn’t have significant deposits of its own.

The friend who sent me that link added: "The country will be rebuilt by Blackstone, but rebuilding entire Ukrainian cities wouldn’t go over well with ordinary Americans, so they invented the rare earth minerals scheme."

Patrick says

The friend who sent me that link added: "The country will be rebuilt by Blackstone, but rebuilding entire Ukrainian cities wouldn’t go over well with ordinary Americans, so they invented the rare earth minerals scheme."

There aren't dedicated RE mines. RE metals are in the ore processing byproducts of nickel, copper, platinum, etc. mines. And the elements are not really rare at all. They are called that because to get to the final, refined pure product involves processing and reprocessing 8 - 12 times. It is energy intensive and dirty. That's why 95% of RE laden ores are shipped to China to be refined. They dominate the entire industry.

He repeats the same thing about everything.

lightly with what that guy says.

WookieMan says

He repeats the same thing about everything.

No I don't.WookieMan says

Sorry you "quote" what you already posted. Forgot about that stupid caveat.