The problem here is that the US doesn’t need Ukraine for any of those things. They have their own deposits. The problem is that the US or Ukraine and everyone else does not have any significant capacity to process these minerals – China does. You’re not building a rare-earths refinery in Ukraine during a war or occupation – too easy of a target. So unless the US builds such a beast at home, it’s entirely irrelevant what Ukraine has or otherwise.
Furthermore, as a nervous Canadian, I worry about the same stupid rhetoric being used on us. We don’t produce rare earths, because we don’t process rare earths. But damn do we have a lot of potential deposits. Trump only sees the value of the potential deposit and not the actual produced products. It’s boneheaded but they don’t care.
The problem here is that the US doesn’t need Ukraine for any of those things. They have their own deposits.
Trump doesn’t actually care. That’s just a cover for his real goal, which, just like his idol Putin, is a purely megalomaniacal/narcissistic desire to be remembered in history as “[Trump|Putin] the Great” for expanding the size of their respective empires.
Trump couldn’t care less which of Ukraine, or Gaza, or Greenland, or the Panama Canal Zone, or Canada that he gets a piece of, as long as he gets something. And if he fails at all of those, expect him to make up even more bullshit excuses to send the US on even more imperialist adventures.
My degree is in geophysics, so I’m somewhat professionally connected to the world of resources. So that’s where I get that angle.
Physics, as a degree, is somewhat of the universal bullshit detector, since you learn to take what people say and run back-of-napkin math to figure out what is or isn’t realistic. “Now hang on, that doesn’t sound right… let me check…”
Aside from that, I’m also a fan of historical fiction, geopolitical games (EU4, etc.), and my spare time pursuits tend to send me down research rabbit holes, disentangling the fiction from reality. Largely for my own amusement. But it comes in handy on trivia night if the topic is the Teutonic Knights or something.
In grad school I’d hang out with the philosophers, geographers, and others that were asking large questions with beer in hand. “I’ll buy you a beer if you can convince me the electron is real.” was not a pickup line, but the start to several hours of liquored debate.
I’ve been known to be mildly politically active, and sort of on top of the pulse. But never an activist or anything. Observing and predicting is fun.
Today I was in Google Earth just looking at the continent of North America, looking at it as though I were the US playing a strategy game. The major areas of contention right now for the US are: Greenland, Panama, Mexico, and Canada. It’s like he is establishing future boundaries at the edges of the continent – like it is an affront that borders exist on it. Upon further contemplation, Canada is fucked if this is what they’re doing. So I created !mapleresistance@lemmy.ca to start organizing – maybe the space will grow organically.
But, no, I don’t subscribe to higher end geopolitical info sources. That doesn’t mean I eschew them either (ISW was particularly interesting at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine). I just integrate or search for info when questions are interesting.
Not a bad take.
The problem here is that the US doesn’t need Ukraine for any of those things. They have their own deposits. The problem is that the US or Ukraine and everyone else does not have any significant capacity to process these minerals – China does. You’re not building a rare-earths refinery in Ukraine during a war or occupation – too easy of a target. So unless the US builds such a beast at home, it’s entirely irrelevant what Ukraine has or otherwise.
Furthermore, as a nervous Canadian, I worry about the same stupid rhetoric being used on us. We don’t produce rare earths, because we don’t process rare earths. But damn do we have a lot of potential deposits. Trump only sees the value of the potential deposit and not the actual produced products. It’s boneheaded but they don’t care.
Trump doesn’t actually care. That’s just a cover for his real goal, which, just like his idol Putin, is a purely megalomaniacal/narcissistic desire to be remembered in history as “[Trump|Putin] the Great” for expanding the size of their respective empires.
Trump couldn’t care less which of Ukraine, or Gaza, or Greenland, or the Panama Canal Zone, or Canada that he gets a piece of, as long as he gets something. And if he fails at all of those, expect him to make up even more bullshit excuses to send the US on even more imperialist adventures.
You’re not wrong. I just like to point out the actual logical folly now and again so that people in the middle (if any are left) can see the folly.
May I ask: where do you and @shoulderoforion@fedia.io learn yourselves up?
Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Economist, MIT International Security Journal…? Would love a lil digest of all
Long lazy meandering answer.
My degree is in geophysics, so I’m somewhat professionally connected to the world of resources. So that’s where I get that angle.
Physics, as a degree, is somewhat of the universal bullshit detector, since you learn to take what people say and run back-of-napkin math to figure out what is or isn’t realistic. “Now hang on, that doesn’t sound right… let me check…”
Aside from that, I’m also a fan of historical fiction, geopolitical games (EU4, etc.), and my spare time pursuits tend to send me down research rabbit holes, disentangling the fiction from reality. Largely for my own amusement. But it comes in handy on trivia night if the topic is the Teutonic Knights or something.
In grad school I’d hang out with the philosophers, geographers, and others that were asking large questions with beer in hand. “I’ll buy you a beer if you can convince me the electron is real.” was not a pickup line, but the start to several hours of liquored debate.
I’ve been known to be mildly politically active, and sort of on top of the pulse. But never an activist or anything. Observing and predicting is fun.
Today I was in Google Earth just looking at the continent of North America, looking at it as though I were the US playing a strategy game. The major areas of contention right now for the US are: Greenland, Panama, Mexico, and Canada. It’s like he is establishing future boundaries at the edges of the continent – like it is an affront that borders exist on it. Upon further contemplation, Canada is fucked if this is what they’re doing. So I created !mapleresistance@lemmy.ca to start organizing – maybe the space will grow organically.
But, no, I don’t subscribe to higher end geopolitical info sources. That doesn’t mean I eschew them either (ISW was particularly interesting at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine). I just integrate or search for info when questions are interesting.