ewsieg

There is truth to this point. Once it failed the MI GOP made it clear to Snyder that had no choice, similar to Biden and buying Russian oil he just went with it. I feel most political issues are on a pendulum. Unions are of course political. There was a time where they were perfect for the time, a time when they were too powerful, and now, a time where they are too weak. Stronger unions, combined with some national security related push to produce more goods here, could bring back some of the glory that did exist in the 50's, and due to our progress since then, benefit a more diverse segment of the population.

To me, sounds like just more excuses, which i'm sure Trump and many others are just tired of hearing. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-44717074 Germany agreed to 2% by 2024, and every other NATO country knew that they were asking Germany to increase spending, just as they were asking themselves that. This wasn't something sprung on Germany. As of 2019, they were saying they wouldn't be up to 2% until 2031. For your second paragraph, Germany holding off on spending, just as you say, put pressure on other countries not to meet the goal too.

Looking back at the fifties through today's lenses definitely shows the progress our society has made. While I think we often get mired in the issues we see with today's society, objectively looking back shows us areas where we have moved forward. I've mentioned this before, so sorry if you've already heard it. My dad was told to hire an AA women back in the 70's when he was at Phillip Morris. That shrunk his pool of candidates from hundreds to just a few. He picked who he thought was the best of the bunch, but felt bad as he felt he was setting her up to fail. He said she tried, but really sucked at the job. 1-2 years later, she leap frogged him and became his boss. One of the best bosses he ever had. My dad was very conservative, but he always pushed back on anyone that outright rejected affirmative action.

Numerous reports like this surfaced. He was very outspoken on member NATO countries (most of them) that weren't paying their commited rate on defense spending. It was a valid complaint. I don't think he would have been so anti-NATO if it wasn't for that. With that though, Putin saw his move and i'm sure some of those private conversations he had with Trump he pointed out just how 'unfair' that was.

The FSB has no issues going after anyone, anywhere. If someone with enough clout says it's time and convinces the right people, it's done. Obviously, those in charge are pro-Putin for the most part and even those that disagree, are certainly not at a level of disagreement we are at.

So lots of (possibly) conflicting thoughts on this. 1) is this Ukraine's intelligence, or ours? 2) If it's legit intelligence, why leak it? make him feel uneasy? 3) if it's not legit, seems more likely it's to make him feel uneasy.

Do you mind enlightening me with any evidence, outside Zimmerman’s words in regard to Trayvon? OJ isn’t guilty either, amirite?

interesting thread

I can't honestly say if either of them were bad kids. Good kids do dumb things sometimes. And yes, they weren't 5 ft 2 and 100 pounds, still they were kids. The vast differences I care about is what happened leading up to a fight that left each one dead and only one of them did something clearly stupid. I'm actually on your side in terms of how the media portrayed Brown. For every Oblong posted tweet that claims racial bias, there are examples like Michael Brown where the media goes out of their way to paint a different story. Brown got into a fight with an officer because he didn't like being asked to not walk in the middle of the street and then decided to charge at the officer again. Multiple witnesses backed up the officers claim and the autopsy did as well. For Trayvon, we don't know the details of what happened when they encountered each other. We only have Zimmerman's account, and frankly time has shown him to be the only one I can definitively say is a 'bad guy'. He was even told by a dispatcher not to approach, but he did anyway. He was adamant that he was going to get in this kids way and for all we know, Trayvon defended himself, until he started winning, at which point Zimmerman shot him.

Dude, comparing Brown to Trayvon? Seriously? You obviously don't know the whole story for at least one of these situations.

This is as the most recent news I saw said China is attempting to show they are being neutral. Absolutely agree with this analysts views. Additionally, I would say Biden should put Saudi Arabia on blast for their snub of him. We do need them, but not as much as they need us. You don't want to help out with oil? I think it's time you get the hell out of Yemen and we're sending the same arms package we gave to Ukraine to Yemen, how do you like me now?

Amanda Gorman needs to watch her back, this guy will be doing the inaugurations from here on out.

Why should Zelensky cede anything if NATO agrees to go to war with Russia? Minds well march in there without the backdoor reasoning and take all of Ukraine, including Crimea back.

No complaints, just was throwing out some concerns/worries. At times, in my gut, I want to be a little more hawkish, but overall I think Biden has handled this very well. There is a lot of focus on what currently appears to be the long term harm of Russia by Putin and matching that up with reports that talks have become more substantive hopefully signals that Putin realizes this and is looking for an exit strategy. I guess I'm just saying I hope that if a legitimate deal can be done, no one tries to derail it under the guise of inflicting more pain on Russia at the expense of further damage to Ukraine.

Ultimately I'd hope they have the most say. They seem all to willing to fight at all costs. My above worries come down to the US feeding enough weapons just enough to them to keep them fighting, rather than enough to help force Russia to sit at the table for a resolution.

I absolutely agree with you. My only concern is if the calculus required for change, gets morphed into a 'we need to do this for the greater good' rather than an honest assessment of what is going on the ground. Go back to Johnson's "What is Aleppo?" moment. Johnson, on MSNBC, gave a good response about the issues with these forever wars US foreign policy has gotten us into over the last 20 years. A network you would think would be sympathetic to his response. The "war machine" was so well greased that he gets hammered over being caught off guard with the question and being honest about it rather than any focus on his response or the US response. I just hope Kyiz doesn't look like Aleppo by the time the West believes Russia has experienced enough pain (this is all assuming the west has the upper hand right now and in the future).

Note, this is not a defense of Gabbard, but I still get her point on Syria and there is something in the back of my mind praying we don't fall into the same way of thinking here in Ukraine. Now looking at Ukraine and while things can change, I think it's becoming clear that the longer this goes on, the more dire the long-term consequences for Russia. As such, I'm sure there is someone within government making an argument that if we embolden Ukraine and turn this into a long term proxy war, the longer the better. That's assuming a view from the standpoint that a weakened Russia for the entire world is worth a destroyed Ukraine.

https://www.the-sun.com/news/4890360/nato-masses-troops-warships-war-games-border/ NATO putting a little more stress on Russian defense without direct involvement.

Russia certainly expected some sanctions and i'm confident they did have some agreements with China to help overcome hardships with those. I wholeheartedly don't believe Russia nor China expected the severity, nor the backlash from a united Western coalition. As such, i'm guessing Russia is asking for much more than China initially agreed to. As for Taiwan, i'm thinking Xi is livid with Putin over how much they got wrong over Ukraine. If Russia marches in, seizes control, and then just waits for the heat to die down on the geo-political stage, China absolutely would be using that to craft their ideas on how to take Taiwan. I'm not saying China has removed taking Taiwan off of the table, but i'm guessing they are rethinking everything they have planned in regards to that now.

I'm not saying anyone should be for lynching, i'm saying it was a waste of time to put that bill through. Just as it's a waste of time to put the GOP bill through. Just as Chuck's proposed law of outlawing orgies in Church. I was only questioning why the opposition on some of these and not others.

To play the pfife card, don't tell me how you think it may get interrupted, tell me what specific to that language from above erases gay people from existence? As for the law about lynching, I guess i'll go to Chuck's response to Archie. At least there are laws on the books that resulted in the murderers of Arbery to go to jail even if they didn't go to jail for lynching. Yet no one on this board has joined Chuck and is outraged that today, 2022, kids can have orgies in Church and there is nothing anyone can do to stop this. Even if we don't have any reports of this ever happening, it absolutely must be addressed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-russias-state-tv-admits-ukraine-disaster-has-putin-in-trouble Could be a sign that Russia is setting up an exit strategy.

I suspect that while not zero, both lynchings and teachers teaching sexual orientation/gender identify to kids under 8/9 years old is effectively zero. You want to use Auhmad Arbery as an example of a lynching, fine. The issues with getting them convicted, that was a real issue that should be addressed. But still, rare and illegal. So i'm not really arguing anything, just pointing out and questioning, why is this lynching law have bi-partisan support, when it solves absolutely nothing, and why is this Florida law being criticized, when your own side says the only part they don't like in the bill isn't happening anyway?

Jussie Smollet gets 150 days in county and informs everyone in the courtroom that he is not suicidal and to make sure they remember that in case he dies and they claim he did this to himself. He than puts up a black power fist as he's led out. The DA should bring him up on perjury charges although i'm guessing Chicago just wants to be done with this.

That was a very sad outcome for him. I guess now that Biden signs this law something can be done about what happened to him. Oh wait