Putin invading Ukraine. CNN just reported that the Russians will soon have over 200K troops on the border and they are not there to wish he Ukrainians a happy holiday. Is Putin using this as a bargaining chip? If he does invade, the allies have to cut ties with Russia and stop purchasing their gas/oil, costing them numerous billions. Easier said than done though. What should Joe/the allies do? Sanctions? What type and how severe? Any ideas?

I don't know what kind of military aid we've been sending Ukraine but we should be flooding them with anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles to make any invasion as painful for them as possible.
Biden is talking to Vlad tomorrow. Vlad wants to lop off a hunk of Eastern Ukraine to connect the Crimea (which he stole in 2014) to the rest of Russia. He also wants to make sure Ukraine never becomes a member of NATO.
That's a concession we can never make, but I don't mind if it's made clear to Putin privately that we oppose that.

Experts are saying there is only another month (or less) of "mud season." That is, once the ground freezes, which will make the attack much easier, the countdown to invasion will be moving rapidly. I just dont think the Ukrainians will be able to thwart those kind of numbers i.e. 200K troops or more. Good point about the back channel overture. I think that is the play here. Good post!

1)  They didn't go along with an infamous incident known as "quid pro quo."

Nobody's invading anything. Putin is applying pressure to get the US out of his hair in relation to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. In that he should succeed I reckon.  
Russians don't care about the US sanctions as long as it doesn't involve SWIFT. As long as China is on the side of Russia in that conflict, and China is, American sanctions are irrelevant because guess where most of the things are still being made nowadays?  

Biden dropped the NS2 sanctions months ago, and that pipleline is a done deal. Nicky pointed out a land bridge to Crimea, and NATO membership for Ukraine as the two key factors in play.

We'll just the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys over there to take care of them..

The fact that Putin "thinks" he can get away with this is BECAUSE Putin knows that Biden is piss his pants scared of him.  When Biden was in Russia in 2011 on behalf of the Obama election Biden traveled to Russia and  Putin personally Punked Biden and Biden did NOTHING about it.  

I just want all the popcorn in the world to pop at the same time without the use of a microwave.

trump divided us and pitted American vs American....Putin has seen how weak we are now with all the infighting we have.
When trump was in office, he was doing Putin's dirty work by weakening NATO, selling us out to the Russians...Putin had his "Yes" man in the White House. So now he see us as not having the stomach for any foreign disputes. And he lost his "Yes" man....But in the whole grand scheme of things, we won't invade.

That’s when Putin first invaded Ukraine. Obama was president.

Will be interesting to read the diplomatic readouts of the call from the perspectives of the Biden administration and the Putin regime.

Let's start on how trump plays so well into Putin's scheme of things. trump kneecapped NATO in favor to Russia. It's something the Biden administration is trying to piece back together, and how trump tried to reverse a lot of the sanctions that congress placed.And the EXXON drilling deal with Russia that trump tried to revive in 2017 but was scrapped in 2018..I could go on but I think you get the ideal...In conclusion, Putin NEEDS trump back at the WH.
But, this buildup on the Ukraine border smells political. It's seems it's design is to muddy the water and become a distraction to the Biden agenda. It's red meat for the Right, like an "I told you so" moment to build into the 2022 midterms and to trump up trump for 2024. Russia can project the invasion is imminent to keep us guessing. All the while the far right loses its shit over this.  
So is it trump's fault.....HELL YES.

You keep guzzling Stump's "election was stolen" Kook-Aid.  In contrast, it doesn't amaze me his fairy tale still sticks, since your side is so delusional & gullible.

You’re so fixated on the Russian collusion hoax, you assign Russian collusion to things that would debunk it.

It's Trump's fault that Biden gave Putin the Pipeline access;
It's Trump's fault that Biden destroyed border security for the US;
It's Trump's fault that Biden got thrown out of Afghanistan by the Taliban, leaving Americans behind for 115 days to die;
It's Trump's fault that Biden has fucked up the economy that was roaring prior to Covid;
It's Trump's fault that inflation is at the highest rate since Carter was prez;
It's Trump's fault that Biden is not mentally fit to continue as President;
It's Trump's fault that Biden's poll numbers continue to tank;
It's Trump's fault that China is harassing Taiwan with military flyovers;
It's Trump's fault that VP Harris is the most despised VP in history;
It's Trump's fault that Biden has not beat Covid, despite access to vaccines that did not exist for Trump;
It's Trump's fault that nuclear talks with Iran are going nowhere;
And its Trump's fault that you keep drinking the Leftie koolaid.  Yes, Trump is the only one responsible, if you're a moron.

Your "What you’re suggesting is that Putin has stationed 200,000 troops on the border to begin saber rattling for the 2022 elections in the US, and will keep them there until 2024?!"...no that's not what I'm suggesting. What I'm saying is to have the imminent threat linger for optics. Then in time they'll be a withdraw of maybe 100k or 150k. By that time the righties will be all over the stench. It'll be your rally cry.

And here's an article you'll find interesting.

It was intentional.  It's called sarcasm.  Everyone here (except maybe Happy, who likes to STILL blame Trump for everything that goes wrong) knows that everything I mentioned is on Biden, not Trump.  I like your way of agreeing with me by making it look like you don't.  Very clever.  LOL

That's alot of typing to be sarcastic...

Russia has zero interest in taking over all of Ukraine. At most they'd like to hack off a corridor to connect their stolen Crimea to the rest of Russia.
And no one here or in DC is wanting to go to war with Russia over it. No one.
Stop huffing glue, Wanker.

In addition to snuggling up to Putin at NATO's expense, how about threatening to leave it?

NATO was stronger and better funded at the end of the Trump administration than it was at the beginning of the Trump administration. That isn’t exactly “knee-capping”.

"Despite Trump's swagger, those increases were the result of efforts by Stoltenberg, who "strategically promoted the view that Trump had prevailed over opposition from other member states," Schuette writes.

And prove him a liar again.

1. NATO was better funded and stronger at the end of his administration than it was in 2016.
2. Trump provided lethal aid to the Ukrainians, unlike his predecessor, President “Please Don’t Seize Crimea” Obama
3. Biden dropped the NS2 sanctions, not Trump.

Yes, NATO was better funded but it was not stronger. Why? Because Trump sowed uncertainly among our allies and was clearly Putin's poodle. Also, while it was better funded, the article points out that most NATO countries were NOT paying their fare share to their own defense budgets. And to the extent they were, it was because of Stoltenberg NOT Trump.
Epic fail by ChicKenShit.

There’s quantifiable evidence that shows Putin did not make any notable gains versus Europe as a result of a “knee-capped NATO. On the contrary, NATO power projection in Eastern Europe increased during the Trump era, as did military aid to Ukraine.

Democracy/Nato being the snake and America being the head. Putin knows the game, long term.So to say "Putin did not make any notable gains versus Europe" isn't correct...he made great gains here, divided us, question our democratic process and to expose us to the world that democracy isn't all that. All this in time would've weaken Europe/Nato.
And of course you sprinkle a Marine Le Pen and a Lukashenko here and there over Europe and the voila....Democracy is weaken before our very eyes...Surprised you don't see it that way but....hey whatcha gonna do.

a black woman, it's because she is a cheap slut-whore who spent her life sucking Democrat dicks to move up the food chain when she didn't have the smarts to do it with accomplishments.  Now she is PRETENDING to be VP when she has no idea what the job entails.  THAT'S why she's despised.