David Cotton

@piers_J_morgan @ClarkeMicah That's a fairly cruddy set of points, and inaccurate or outright false, too. Which country are you from, comrade?

@Discjirm @ClarkeMicah x.com/Glenn_Diesen/s…

Why do you tell these falsehoods, .@discjirm? I condemned Putin’s invasion from the start. How could I possibly do so without blaming him? Is this bilge from you the result of stupidity or of ill-will?

@Gaudd @wiley_inc @ClarkeMicah You've 'proven' no such thing. If you cannot see that Putin started this war, and wanted this war, then you are deluding yourself. And if you want neo-Nazis, look no further than Russia itself. BTW, what's your verdict on Assad in Syria?

I've proven that NATO expansion provoked this war, whether through idiocy or deliberately remains open to debate. I've proven the US initiated the war by sponsoring a neo-Nazi led insurrection that toppled a democratically elected president. I've proven that Russia has as much right to security concerns as the UK and US. And a lot more. You have simply put your fingers in your ears and stuck your tongue out. BTW none of what I listed above is difficult to ascertain. The evidence is all out there, but like the evidence that Iraq destroyed all its WMDs at the end of the Gulf War, some just don't want to look for it. And what's this latest drivel about being subsumed into Russia? When this war started Russia's position was to allow the Donbas to vote on it's own future, there was no talk about annexation. That changed when Zelensky allowed Boris Johnson, sent to Kyiv by Washington, to either coerce of persuade him to drop peace talks with Russia. The West wanted the war to drag on to give sanctions a chance to fail. If that meant tens of thousands of Ukrainians died in the meantime, well they were fine with that. If you cannot follow the steps that led to this war, and how so many chances to avoid it were scorned, then you can go on deluding yourself that the same countries that enabled genocide in Gaza are the same ones who bizarrely took a noble, moral stance on Ukraine. You know.. unlike Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya etc.

.@discjirm. 1/2 I don’t ignore it. Some Ukrainians (generally western nationalists) are keen on the war. Many Ukrainians have left the country. Those in the middle bear it because they must but never wanted it and voted for Zelensky because he promised them peace.

@ClarkeMicah @thesoubr For country folk, like some of my family, cars are also incredibly vital. Four-by-fours in Fitrovia; less so. Cars are a tool. For some jobs they are vital and irreplaceable. The problem is we tend to use that particular tool far too much when there are good alternatives.

2/2 .@thesoubr. As for hating them, I think them ugly, smelly and noisy and find them very unpleasant to travel in. And I am keenly aware that, in the last century, road accidents have killed more people in this country than died in WW2. A high price for 'freedom'.

@Gaudd @wiley_inc @ClarkeMicah They may be generalised statements of opinion, but you haven't exactly disproved it! Again, I ask why you do not give Ukrainians agency. Why they should be subsumed into Russia just because Putin wants it? What other countries should he be able to get?

You're not showing anything, your making generalised statements of opinion such as "Russia is evil". That is not countering facts. As for Ukraine. Ukraine did have a choice. It voted for a president that was removed in a US sponsored coup in 2014. It then voted for a president in 2019 who promised peace. A president who then followed that path until oddly conducting a 180 degree turn in March 2020. A president who has not been democratically elected since. Every opinion poll shows that the majority of Ukrainians want negotiations to end the war, yet the West opposes those negotiations and Zelensky does everything he can to avoid them. So when you talk about agency, how about that agency?

@riboid007 @ClarkeMicah Who do you think is pulling their strings?

@Discjirm @ClarkeMicah I dont agree. Zelensky was put in place after the coup. And all of their strings are being pulled, this includes Russia.

@Gaudd @wiley_inc @ClarkeMicah They are not 'facts', as I am showing. They are your opinions, which unsurprisingly align with Russia. Why do you not give Ukrainians agency? Why does only what VVP wants matter to you? He's not going to give you any money, you know.

Yes Ukraine did not join as Russia prevented it. Russia at the time said it had no objection to EU membership, a position which has now hardened. NATO stated it's intention to do so however. Ukrainians were so worried they elected a Russian leaning president in 2010. As for shilling, if you find facts upsetting go cry to someone else about it.

@Gaudd @wiley_inc @ClarkeMicah I do think Russia is special. It's a special evil. And it need not be this way. It is this way because of the choices made by Putin. Russia had so many things going for it, and he has squandered all of them in his quest to recreate the USSR. That's the tragedy of modern Russia

It's not. Would the US allow a hostile military alliance to spread along its borders? How would China react if NATO sought to spread into Asia and started setting up bases in north Vietnam etc? You are the one who thinks Russia is special, for you seem to believe that it should accept everything and anything the West does, even when that is a clear strategic threat to its security.

@Gaudd @wiley_inc @ClarkeMicah They did not 'expand' into Ukraine. Ukraine did not join NATO or the EU. Can you not see why Ukrainians, who wanted to be independent, were worried about the threat from their bully neighbour? I give you zero points for shilling for the evils that are Putin and Russia.

So despite warnings for decades that expansion into Ukraine would lead to conflict, it did so anyway in the belief that no conflict would result? So you're claim is that NATO didn't deliberately provoke the war, is just a collection of idiots who ignored every warning even from its own advisors? Well.. ok then. And I do have to applaud the idea that having provoked a war NATO then having provoked the war points to the resulting war as a justification for provoking the war. BTW you do know that Ukraine had neutrality written into its constitution, but this was changed after the US sponsored coup in 2014 ousted a democratically elected president?

@Gaudd @wiley_inc @ClarkeMicah For you to dismiss Russia's neighbours' security concerns and just resort to the usual 'Russia is the victim' rhetoric is rather pitiful. Why is Russia special, in your eyes?

@Gaudd @wiley_inc @ClarkeMicah No. I don't think NATO 'deliberately provoked' Russia. I think Ukrainians wanted to be independent of Russia (and who could blame them...) and wanted to be safe from their larger neighbour to the east. For, as it turns out, very good reasons.

@SciGuySpace I'm 53. Man has not walked on the Moon whilst I've been alive. This makes me a little sad.

No one born after 1935 has walked on the Moon.

@MykhailoXPIH @ClarkeMicah So Ukrainians have no right to self-determination? Just because some deluded fascist says they belong to him?

@ClarkeMicah @Discjirm Putin wasnt “provoked.” In Dagestan on 17/9/2003 he told his elite “Russia was founded in Kyiv” & was intolerable for it to reside outside Russia. 2 weeks later Russia laid claim to Ukraine’s Tuzla Is, but backed down when Pres Kuchma sent border guards. Imperial revanchism began

.@discjirm . Sigh. 1/2,Putin allowed himself to be provoked, a stupid act which was also wrong. The provocation does not excuse the moral wrong or the stupid mistake. But those who did the provoking plainly bear some responsibility.

@Gaudd @wiley_inc @ClarkeMicah Putin sent troops over the border to invade a sovereign state. He is responsible. How has NATO 'encircled' Russia? Do you think China is likely to join NATO? Kazakhstan? North Korea?

Who is to blame for a war, those who deliberately provoke that war or those who were provoked? Do you think one has a greater share of responsibility? Do you think Ukraine abandoning peace deals and NATO seeking to extend it's encirclement of Russia were justified reasons for war or not?

@Gaudd @wiley_inc @ClarkeMicah No. NATO expansion was not a provocation. Putin acted as though it was, to get useful idiots on his side; to make Russia, the bully, appear to be the victim. But only to fools. If it had not been NATO, it would have been something else. Putin wanted control over Ukraine.

So your argument is that yes the West provoked this war but Putin wanted to be provoked so it's really his fault that the West provoked.. have I got that right? This is despite the fact that Russia presented security guarantees for discussion that were dismissed outright by NATO, and contacted Kyiv to open negotiations on solution that day after the invasion.

@ClarkeMicah Putin was 'provoked' because he wanted war. If it had not been NATO, it would have been something else. See also Georgia in 2008. Do you believe in self-determination? If so, why should Ukrainians not have the right to choose their future, either with the west or east?

@HalBeowa @ClarkeMicah Gorbachev was wrong. Here's something to ponder: politicians say many things, and some may be somewhat untruthful to play to an audience. Can you see why someone might call Putin a fascist, or at least having traits of fascism?

@Discjirm @ClarkeMicah Seen them before But have you examined the source material Interesting you describe Putin as a "Fascist" You might remember this quote by Gorbachev "The EU is the old Soviet Union dressed in Western clothes"

2/2.@discjirm The point about the provocation always has been ‘ Why did the USA do this?’ NATO was bullied and used by a foreign policy faction in DC. The total incuriosity of people like you is astounding.

@BpdLion Some figures since 2006: statista.com/statistics/284…

@BpdLion So lots of people probably did routinely eat out, even then, or even semi-live off fast food (God knows where they got the money...) An interesting metric for this will be how much we as a country spend per capita on eating out, and how that has changed.

I hate this weird British genre of lying about the past, thinking they had some Oliver Twist existence. So sad.

@ArchmagosKiran @noname105736 @HopeNotHate68 @ClarkeMicah Why shouldn't the Ukrainians have the freedom to decide? If Russia wants to be friends with Ukraine, they should have given Ukraine a better offer than NATO/EU/the west did. A punishment beating is not a 'better offer'. Let Ukrainians decide their future, as a whole country.

@noname105736 @HopeNotHate68 @ClarkeMicah @Discjirm Well no - they should threaten the OTHER side by nukes if the latter doesnt fully leave Ukraine outside of its influence. NATO and Russia should confront each other in this DIRECTLY - and Ukraine should get implicit nuclear guarantee from both sides. should have been done in 1994