Where Do Things End With Vlad? (h/t romad1)

[mtutiger]

6 hours ago, romad1 said:

Both were unlikely choices at the beginning of 2022.  Biden's chief virtue was not being Trump and Zelensky was a well-meaning fool.  Biden is still an elderly man with malapropisms to match but a giant heart and a clear eye as to what bullys are and how they need to be addressed.   And served by some very talented advisors.  

Biden is also the first President during Putin's reign who was willing to call him out for what he is. He is (and has been) truly Putin-skeptical, no doubt colored by his experience in the Obama administration and what may not have worked. And I believe what we are seeing now is why Putin worked so hard to prevent both Clinton and Biden from being elected.

There are no "resets" or "saw into his soul" with this administration... Biden has been flawed as a President, but he has handled this situation about as well as anyone could have under the circumstances.

[mtutiger]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

Seeing this note in my twitter feed about Russia threatening nuclear escalation.   Time to call Vladdie and tell him that we will kill him immediately with fire if he does anything with Nuclear weapons.  

Has Russia followed through on a single threat since this began?

[Jim Cowan]

3 hours ago, romad1 said:

Seeing this note in my twitter feed about Russia threatening nuclear escalation.   Time to call Vladdie and tell him that we will kill him immediately with fire if he does anything with Nuclear weapons.  

The first nuclear missile from NATO should be on Putin's palace in Sochi.

[romad1]

We have crossed a threshold with this

 

[Jim Cowan]

58 minutes ago, romad1 said:

We have crossed a threshold with this

 

Glad to hear it, let's get trainers and advisers from every NATO country in there.  Good show UK.

[chasfh]

This is Bucha.

Seeing this horror represented on a modern-looking map makes it easier to picture how this could happen in a 21st Century city.

 

[gehringer_2]

6 hours ago, romad1 said:

They've turned to China in a big way.  Lets see how that works out for them.  

was reading a piece about China earlier in the day but lost track of where - at any rate the writer was talking about how the Chinese really want to believe that the Euros are just being slaves of US policy in their opposition to Russia and that Chinese efforts to turn them away from the US just need more work. The Euros he quoted were all frustrated with their recent interactions with the Chinese in their unwillingness to understand that their opposition to Russia was home grown and fundamental. I find that another interesting example of a kind of projection. A man like Xi, (or Putin) who can only see the world in a top down paradigm, is going to be prone to serious misjudgments about the motivations/responses of others in any more open cooperative system.

And of course by the same token, we probably continually overestimate the possibility of internally generated Russian or Chinese reform for mirror image reasons.

Edited April 15, 2022 by gehringer_2

[romad1]

31 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

was reading a piece about China earlier in the day but lost track of where - at any rate the writer was talking about how the Chinese really want to believe that the Euros are just being slaves of US policy in their opposition to Russia and that Chinese efforts to turn them away from the US just need more work. The Euros he quoted were all frustrated with their recent interactions with the Chinese in their unwillingness to understand that their opposition to Russia was home grown and fundamental. I find that another interesting example of a kind of projection. A man like Xi, (or Putin) who can only see the world in a top down paradigm, is going to be prone to serious misjudgments about the motivations/responses of others in any more open cooperative system.

And of course by the same token, we probably continually overestimate the possibility of internally generated Russian or Chinese reform for mirror image reasons.

Oh yes on the latter.

[Tigeraholic1]

One more…

 

[Dan Gilmore]

[romad1]

Third thing:  people would criticize the large US IC and DOD budgets for being unnecessary after it was accomplished.

[romad1]

 

[romad1]

This guy is pretty scummy

 

[romad1]

aww gee, Noam Chomsky wasn't on the level?

You can board up your windows.  You can have supplies.   Also, the Russians are not a hurricane unless they use some weapon that is insurmountable like a nuclear weapon.   At present, the Russians are a raging fire.  If you don't fight the fire and you lose your home and livelihood, you are weak.  If you need help to fight the fire, and together can put out the fire so much the better.

[romad1]

 

[ewsieg]

Finland with a show of force.

 

[romad1]

48 minutes ago, ewsieg said:

Finland with a show of force.

 

That is amazing

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, romad1 said:

 

Always nice to see an org with poor, corrupt leadership make itself even more paralyzed with dictatorial purges..

 

Edited April 16, 2022 by gehringer_2

[Jim Cowan]

Noam Chomsky is in the conversation for the Neville Chamberlain Award, but he has plenty of competition.

[romad1]

 

[oblong]

3 hours ago, Jim Cowan said:

Noam Chomsky is in the conversation for the Neville Chamberlain Award, but he has plenty of competition.

He’s still alive?  I had a professor in my first year of college (91-92) make us go to a lecture by him and he looked 100 years old back then. 

[romad1]

 

[1984Echoes]

I have no interest in Noam Chomsky. Never have.

But I have a friend ("acquaintance" actually) who was all into his ideologies.

No thanks.

[romad1]

 

[romad1]

Great courage under fire.