Comments by "Louis Giokas" (@louisgiokas2206) on "Glenn Greenwald - Trump May Have Ended Zelenskyy" video.

  1. The minerals in Ukraine are not "critical" to future development. That is clear by the fact that they are not currently being exploited. If they were critical than we would be screwed. Lithium is not rare. We have it in the US and in other friendly countries. Rare earths are not rare, despite the name. The only reason China is such a player in those is that the processing is very environmentally unfriendly (i.e., dirty) and the Chinese don't care. We were doing it before the opening to China. We just exported the pollution abroad. Currently processing plants are being set up in the US that are clean. What Trump was trying to do is to give Ukraine a way to make revenue and to tie them into the American camp, thus giving the US a stake in Ukraine's protection. We hear a lot about the revenue that the US gets, but the last I heard, Ukraine gets to same amount. In other words, the split was 50/50 and is on the royalties. In addition, it would provide jobs and those incomes would be taxed as well, in Ukraine. Another important thing to understand is that Ukraine does not have the money to exploit these minerals. It will take outside capital, and that will not be available while a war is going on. I remember reading that there were actually western oil majors starting to explore in the east of Ukraine. They, of course, had to stop when the hostilities started. These are massive long-term investments. What I am bothered by is the implications that if we don't have this stuff we can't progress. That is totally false.
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