“I would like Trump’s team to be more truthful,” said Vlodymyr Zelenskyy, today, speaking for all of us.
When I went and looked at what he was responding to I may have (once again) screamed into the void: YOU CANT JUST SAY STUFF AND HAVE IT BE “TRUE”!!!
Except, apparently you can just say stuff and have people think it’s true, if your megaphone is loud and persistent enough.
< grabs megaphone and takes a deep breath >
Important information
- Ukraine did not “start the war”. Russia invaded Crimea (Ukrainian territory) in 2014 and invaded again in 2022. Source
- Elections: because of the state of martial law (imposed because they were, um, invaded), Ukraine’s previously-expected elections will not be happening. This is because, as per Ukraine’s laws, you cannot hold elections while martial law is in place. NB The UK, in the early 1940s did the same: “In 1940, Britain sought to avoid the distraction and potentially divisive impact of elections in order to maintain national resilience and focus all its energy on the war. The Churchill government also recognized the impracticality of holding an election with millions of displaced people across and beyond the nation, and saw that it would be virtually impossible to ensure a fair test of public opinion with Britain under daily attack and engaged in a global war.” Source
- Foreign Funding The US has supported Ukraine but not to the tune that Trump claims (he said, on camera, “we gave them, I believe, $350bn [£278bn], but let’s say it’s something less than that. But it’s a lot, and we have to equalise with Europe because Europe has given a very much smaller percentage than that.
“I think Europe has given $100bn and we’ve given, let’s say, $300-plus,” source). In fact, the US has given €64bn in military aid and €50bn in financial and humanitarian aid (€104bn or $108bn); where “Europe” has given €62bn in military aid and €70bn in financial and humanitarian aid (€132bn or $137bn) as of Dec 2024 source. As a percentage of GDP, 15 countries, including the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands are contributing more than the US (which is contributing 0.3%) with Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia and Estoni contributing over 1% of their GDP to the effort. source
Why fund foreign wars and give aid to the poor in other countries?
- Because helping to defend weaker countries against aggressors is a matter of National Security. One of the most important functions of governments is to ensure national security, (it is literally Words 18-22 of the US Constitution) and because appeasement doesn’t work to stop the kinds of people who go in for nibbling away at neighboring countries’ territories, and, like junk food addicts, they never stop at one bite…
- Because helping the poor is literally one of the things that every spiritual leader holds up as Job 1 for getting into the afterlife or being reincarnated as a something more than a slug, or being judged to have “lived a righteous life” when the Great Prophet Zarquon finally reappears.
- Because viruses do not respect borders and if we allow diseases to flourish or develop antibiotic resistance in one country that is Bad For The Entire Species Regardless Of What Color Your Passport Is (Or Would Be If You Ever Decided To Get One, Chuck).
Borrow anything you like from this, to use with your own megaphone (after, of course checking my source material and ensuring you find it trustworthy.)
Signed, your friendly neighborhood skeptical-optimist (who’s hanging on to that last bit with her fingernails, which are really starting to hurt, by the way),
Julie