I've seen the polls but I'm not bothered by them at this stage, it's far too early in the election cycle to panic over them, besides that, I've also seen and read a lot over the years that polls in America have been fairly unreliable, in recent polls, they've been heavily called out as not making any sense and when it actually mattered, in recent elections, Democrats have been overperforming.

Not sure what the cause is, if the sampling needs updating or if Democrats simply aren't bothering to answer polls anymore.

Some of these polls are simply not making any sense and to be clear, I'm speaking mostly about the Biden vs Trump polls but even if they were accurate, it's still too early to panic over the Biden vs Trump national polls, we still have a long way to go and there's still a lot of undecided or not bothering to answer at this stage.

The Prime Minister of Finland: Russia is preparing for a long war with the West

According to Antti Petteri Orpo, Russia is "obviously preparing for a prolonged conflict with the West and poses a constant and existential military threat to Europe."

"Imagine what will happen next if Russia succeeds in Ukraine," the Finnish prime minister told MEPs. He noted, however, that Russia's military capabilities are limited, and every euro in support of Ukraine is "a low price compared to the alternative costs if Russia wins."

Regarding the American polls, maybe the republicans are trying to replicate Austrian's ÖVP (conservatives) strategy of the late 2010s. By paying for more favorable polls in major newspapers, you can influence public perception by suggesting in which direction the wind is blowing currently, so there's a chance that real polls will eventually match the manipulated ones, because a lot of humans are easy prey for herd mentality. So if it is being suggested that a certain demographic favors Trump or shows increasing support for Trump, other people of this same demographic might be inclined to vote for Trump now despite the absence of reasonable reasons to do so.

In Austria this came to light a few years after Sebastian Kurz (ÖVP leader) had won in the national election and become chancellor, and it eventually ended with him stepping down and ultimately quitting as a politician altogether. Of course this is not going to happen in the USA, because the difference between conservatives and the far-right (which Trump belongs to) is that conservatives still have at least a slice of decency and conscience left.

The New York Times already has a history of running pro-Russia propaganda pieces, so would they publish manipulated polls that favor Trump who is known to be endorsed by Putin? Why yes, absolutely.

It shouldn't be just the profits on the frozen assets, it should be the entire lot of the frozen assets but also shut up Malta, Luxembourg and Hungary. Will we just hold onto the frozen assets of a country that wants us dead and destroyed, for how long exactly...? Just give it to Ukraine or take it for ourselves to fund our supplies to Ukraine, Russia is our enemy. 

Are we just going to give it back to them after they pull out and say "my bad bro, it was just a prank"

Blah Blah Blah.

Then why the fuck did you sell Taurus to South Korea? You think they won't use them on North Korea if they attacked? They just putting all 267 of them in a museum? How are South Koreans operating Taurus without German soldiers? Someone is lying because others have said that German soldiers would not be required to be inside of Ukraine.

But whatever, be a coward, if you're that terrified of Russia then why aren't you sending Taurus to UK so that we can send more Storm Shadows? Actually, why can't the UK buy Taurus and then the UK send Taurus and operate Taurus? Or do you not trust us either? Your hands are clean, if South Korea is allowed Taurus then why wouldn't UK be allowed Taurus.

The intel argument is nonsense too unless Germany expects me to believe that there's a difference between NATO intel being provided to Ukraine including operational advice, data and satellite data, which Germany would be a part of and some Germans sitting inside of Germany helping Ukraine to operate Taurus, or Germany sending tanks! Then repairing tanks! So they can go kill Russian soldiers!

It's clear Germany simply doesn't trust Ukraine, they don't trust that Ukraine won't use Taurus on Russia or Kerch Bridge.

As pressure mounts on Germany to provide Taurus long-range precision missiles to Ukraine, analysts told Breaking Defense that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s most recent argument against giving the weapon to Kyiv — namely the suggestion that German soldiers in Ukraine would be required to operate it — doesn’t fly.

“His [Scholz] argument that you would need German personnel on the ground, I don’t buy at all,” said Fabian Hoffmann, a missile expert at the University of Oslo in Norway. “I think there are many reasons to believe this is stupid. Taurus is a weapon system that was partially built for export purposes, so of course you need to enable other countries to use the system independently, they cannot rely on German soldiers.”

“There’s no technical argument why you would need German soldiers” to operate Taurus in Ukraine, said Hoffmann. “It’s simply because the chancellor doesn’t want to give up final targeting authority … and does not trust the Ukrainians not to break any promises that might be attached in terms of political restraints or targeting restrictions, attached to deliveries. That’s why he would insist that German personnel are on the ground, which he believes would be a step too far.”

Tim Lawrenson, a European defense expert, agreed that there are “probably workarounds” to avoid German troops being deployed to support Taurus operations in Ukraine, such as first pre-programming the weapons outside of the country.

Breaking Defense

Whatever Germany uses for Taurus isn't some magical technology that only works with people born in Germany, the Ukrainians can be taught how to operate it independent of Germany, the crutch of the issue here is that Scholz doesn't trust Ukraine to operate it independently without German oversight though, they don't trust Ukraine won't use it on Russia/Kerch Bridge without German oversight.

Solution? The UK has soldiers in Ukraine, tell the UK to have oversight over how Ukraine uses Taurus if you don't trust Ukrainians. In fact, this was suggested by Germany's very own Lt. Gen in the leaked call, the exact quote being "Once they [Ukrainian’s] have been trained [on Taurus], we’ll ask the Brits if they would take over at that stage" "I believe this would be the right course of action."

But Scholz likely doesn't trust UK either.

Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda says he supports the debate on sending troops to Ukraine to train local forces and urges the West to stop drawing red lines.

"I welcomed the idea of sending missions to Ukrainian territory as an idea, and I still believe that we should discuss this idea. Of course, the best thing would be for all of us to agree unanimously on the need for this and to assess very well the intelligence and other information that we have," Nausėda emphasized.