Evil Russian Empire invades defenseless Ukraine.

[CITIZEN_2015]

1 hour ago, eyeball said:

Perhaps they were afraid doing this would have only provided oxygen to Putin's justification that he invaded Ukraine to defend against NATO aggression.

What I don't understand is why more people couldn't see, decades ago, that when the west squandered it's moral capital on supporting ambitious dictators it would only inspire more ambitious dictators. If instead the west had used that moral capital to snuff them out of existence...Russia would also likely be a part of NATO today.

Yes good political analysis. It makes sense.

Yes the West especially US did support military dictatorships in South and central America, Middle East and Asia in the past however, Russians (a major part of Soviet Union) did as bad if not worse. While the West supporting those corrupt dictatorships the Russian virtually colonized half of Europe, and supported military dictatorships in Africa like Sudan, Ethiopia and Afghanistan. The difference is that the West has stopped doing so but the Russians still do supporting murderous regimes in Iran, Syria.

[eyeball]

3 minutes ago, CITIZEN_2015 said:

The difference is that the West has stopped doing so but the Russians still do supporting murderous regimes in Iran, Syria.

We should start with these two then.

[OftenWrong]

54 minutes ago, DogOnPorch said:

Choose your side:

The fascist globalist cabal or the fascist militaristic oligarchy.

Oddly neither have virtue. 

Dig a hole, civilians. 

Get ready for your country( or nation) to be "disintegrated".

[OftenWrong]

11 hours ago, eyeball said:

If instead the west had used that moral capital to snuff them out of existence

Snuff 'em out. Disintegrate the nation... Now THAT is what I call a morel.

[Queenmandy85]

On June 26, 1963, US President John F. Kennedy spoke in Berlin: Two thousand years ago, the proudest boast was civis romanus sum ["I am a Roman citizen"]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "Ich bin ein Berliner!"... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Berlin, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "Ich bin ein Berliner!"

Sixty years ago, the proudest boast was Ich bine in Berliner ["I am a citizen of Berlin"]. Today, in the world of freedom, the proudest boast is "ya ukrayinets!"( I am Ukrainian)... All free men, wherever they may live, are citizens of Ukraine, and therefore, as a free man, I take pride in the words "ya ukrayinets!"

[CITIZEN_2015]

Latest update:

Ukrainian army and citizens of this proud country are putting stiff resistance to murderous invading Russian forces. I have seen many abandoned Russian tanks and armored vehicles  and all major Ukrainian cities are still in Ukrainian control in the 4th day of this aggression. Many civilians in Ukraine have been deliberately targeted and killed by Russians and close to half a million Ukrainian women and children have so far become refugees in neighboring countries but resistance by brave Ukrainian army and citizens will continue until the last dirty Russian soldier is pushed and kicked out of Ukraine,

[-TSS-]

I think that as a big country with vast resources Russia could stand even a long period of international isolation and boycott and the Russian people have resilience to stand hard times if need be but all that requires that there is some worthy cause to go through such hard times and I doubt it very much that Putin's obsession with Ukraine would be seen as such.

[eyeball]

2 hours ago, OftenWrong said:

Snuff 'em out. Disintegrate the nation... Now THAT is what I call a morel.

Dictators.  It's unethical to change what I said to suit your purpose.

And a morel is mushroom.

[OftenWrong]

24 minutes ago, eyeball said:

Dictators.  It's unethical to change what I said to suit your purpose.

And a morel is mushroom.

All spelling was verified...

[DogOnPorch]

Is it true that Zelenskyy was funded by Soros in order to have a political career?

[CITIZEN_2015]

Putin regime has long supported the most barbaric regimes like Bashire Assad of Syria and islamic republic of Iran causing millions of deaths and destructions caused by these murderous regimes in these countries. It is another evidence against the barbaric nature of the regime of Vladimir Putin.

[DogOnPorch]

7 minutes ago, CITIZEN_2015 said:

Putin regime has long supported the most barbaric regimes like Bashire Assad of Syria and islamic republic of Iran causing millions of deaths and destructions caused by these murderous regimes in these countries. It is another evidence against the barbaric nature of the regime of Vladimir Putin.

 

You'd better do something, then.

But you won't.

Edited February 27, 2022 by DogOnPorch

[eyeball]

12 minutes ago, CITIZEN_2015 said:

Putin regime has long supported the most barbaric regimes like Bashire Assad of Syria and islamic republic of Iran causing millions of deaths and destructions caused by these murderous regimes in these countries. It is another evidence against the barbaric nature of the regime of Vladimir Putin.

It's also evidence of the sort of vision that some have for the future but Putin's days are numbered and when he's gone I suspect Russia's oligarchs will start toning things down.  They're just to integrated into the world's wealthiest 1% to not have a better appreciation for what is and isn't good for business.  And egregiousness such as we've seen these last few decades should abate.

That said, I think the biggest most dangerous things that might keep the world on the same path is how western democracies settle or don't settle the ideological issues cleaving our societies and of course the exacerbating issue of the global economy's impact on environmental sustainability is still hanging over all.

[Aristides]

2 hours ago, DogOnPorch said:

 

You'd better do something, then.

But you won't.

The rest of the world is doing something and there is a great deal of opposition in Russia itself. Putin is now panicking.

[DogOnPorch]

2 minutes ago, Aristides said:

The rest of the world is doing something and there is a great deal of opposition in Russia itself. Putin is now panicking.

 

Excellent. 

[eyeball]

2 minutes ago, Aristides said:

The rest of the world is doing something and there is a great deal of opposition in Russia itself. Putin is now panicking.

Well, if he behaves the way most conservatives who are cornered behave...all I can say is that I hope whoever stands between Putin and his football loves his children and shoots Putin on the spot.

[DogOnPorch]

2 hours ago, eyeball said:

Well, if he behaves the way most conservatives who are cornered behave...all I can say is that I hope whoever stands between Putin and his football loves his children and shoots Putin on the spot.

 

Russians don't use a 'football'. Which makes them that much more of a loose cannon. Those mobile launchers you might notice at their May Day parades are independent solid fuel ICBMs. Some use MIRVs + decoys. Some use large yield single warheads + decoys. They still have silo launched ICBMs, but they don't rely on them except for second strike ability...along with their ballistic missile sub fleet. Aircraft also carry standoff nuclear armed cruise missiles. Tactical nukes abound: the little Hiroshima sized ones. Small mobile launchers handle those...reloadable in the field.

If the leaders were wise, they'd have gone with North American gas/energy. But something prevented that...and you know that. But why? Because it was a conscious choice by some group or someone to shut down energy here and buy it from Russia. You can pretend it was Trump if it makes you sleep better.

Ukraine & Russia both are incredible people with rich cultures. It is a travesty for these two to fight. They ultimately worked together to rid the Soviet Union of the evil Wehrmacht. Stormed Berlin together. Stood toe to toe against NATO for decades. Not easy seeing the Soviet Union's rotten corrupt economy. Breadlines can we say?

Khrushchev, I'll point out, was Ukrainian. These folks used to be one & the same for decades...either by guess or by guile. Soviets. We're the ones that tended to term them all as 'Russians'.

I blame the leaders all around for the situation and of course Putin for now putting the entire planet in danger. But man...don't fall for the theater portion. This war is literally brought to you by Applebee's as our media goes nutty over a real live war. They're practically yelling 'Moscow by Christmas'.

Beware the media...as a Canadian...I say. 

Edited February 27, 2022 by DogOnPorch

[eyeball]

2 hours ago, DogOnPorch said:

Russians don't use a 'football'. Which makes them that much more of a loose cannon. Those mobile launchers you might notice at their May Day parades are independent solid fuel ICBMs. Some use MIRVs + decoys. Some use large yield single warheads + decoys. They still have silo launched ICBMs, but they don't rely on them except for second strike ability...along with their ballistic missile sub fleet. Aircraft also carry standoff nuclear armed cruise missiles. Tactical nukes abound: the little Hiroshima sized ones. Small mobile launchers handle those...reloadable in the field.

Yep, dictators are extremely dangerous alright, been saying so for years and that truckin' and tradin' with them would bring us precisely to the point we're at today.

Quote

If the leaders were wise, they'd have gone with North American gas/energy. But something prevented that...and you know that. But why? Because it was a conscious choice by some group or someone to shut down energy here and buy it from Russia. You can pretend it was Trump if it makes you sleep better.

We needed to start acting on climate change, if leaders had been wise they wouldn't have paid heed to all the denial that something needed to be done 25 years ago.  You should be cheering how seriously action has been set back on its ass.  If I was a conspiratorial sort I'd probably be wondering if all this hasn't been orchestrated to do just that.  I mean look at how far you're willing to entertain the notion that the entire COVID crisis was simply government's carrying out their duty to make Big Pharma rich. Sure let's start a war to drive oil profits up.  Is it ridiculous or just a coincidence? Is it a plot of master puppeteers or just schools of piranha following their nature? The latter I think, maybe with a little nod and a wink to one another on the side, but they'll happily take a chunk out of one another too.

Quote

 

Ukraine & Russia both are incredible people with rich cultures. It is a travesty for these two to fight. They ultimately worked together to rid the Soviet Union of the evil Wehrmacht. Stormed Berlin together. Stood toe to toe against NATO for decades. Not easy seeing the Soviet Union's rotten corrupt economy. Breadlines can we say?

Khrushchev, I'll point out, was Ukrainian. These folks used to be one & the same for decades...either by guess or by guile. Soviets. We're the ones that tended to term them all as 'Russians'.

 

Sure it's a travesty for these to fight and I can't help but wonder how much of their travesty is due to the travesty of our own society's divisiveness.  It's a little (/sarcasm on) ironic that so much of our divisiveness involves our tendency to term ourselves as being either commies or Nazis.  The real travesty however is how we've allowed the sheer pettiness of our divisiveness to grow so deep that our society actually appears to be taking sides in the war over there. 

Quote

I blame the leaders all around for the situation and of course Putin for now putting the entire planet in danger. 

Putin is no different than Trump in the sense both are more of an effect of leaders from the not-so-distant-past who put the entire planet on this course for danger while following their own short-term  peculiarities.

Quote

 

But man...don't fall for the theater portion. This war is literally brought to you by Applebee's as our media goes nutty over a real live war. They're practically yelling 'Moscow by Christmas'.

Beware the media...as a Canadian...I say.

 

I can't help but think about this in light of the hard-on for military action and all the military porn you were posting around these parts 20 years ago.

Whenever you inject the issues you have with the media into your comments I feel like Lionel Mandrake trying to digest General Ripper's comments about his nation's precious bodily fluids.

You mention Animal Farm without seeming to appreciate that the dystopian reality you're in doesn't even begin to hold a candle to the dystopian fiction you refer to.  

Edited February 27, 2022 by eyeball

[Aristides]

Trump couldn't get Germany to increase defence spending but Putin just did.

Too funny.

Germany announces one time defence spending increase of 100 billion Euros on top of increasing spending from 1.4% GDP to over 2%.  Expect other NATO countries to follow, but maybe not Canada.

 

[Aristides]

3 hours ago, eyeball said:

Well, if he behaves the way most conservatives who are cornered behave...all I can say is that I hope whoever stands between Putin and his football loves his children and shoots Putin on the spot.

It could be the FSB  that does him in if internal resistance gets too much. 

[eyeball]

2 minutes ago, Aristides said:

It could be the FSB  that does him in if internal resistance gets too much. 

Hope so, I've sworn up and down since Trump was elected that his assassination would be the result of an inside job by Republicans but...nada.

I hate being wrong, especially around here.

[Dougie93]

Turkey has closed the Bosporus Strait to the Russian navy

at the request of Ukraine

we have reached uncharted waters now

Hegemony is predictable

for the last 75 years we could predict that the Pax Americana could contain it, whatever it was

once you can't predict where things are going anymore

the American Hegemony has fallen

[DogOnPorch]

And Biden halts all oil and gas leases in the USA.

 

[Aristides]

14 minutes ago, Dougie93 said:

Turkey has closed the Bosporus Strait to the Russian navy

at the request of Ukraine

we have reached uncharted waters now

Hegemony is predictable

for the last 75 years we could predict that the Pax Americana could contain it, whatever it was

once you can't predict where things are going anymore

the American Hegemony has fallen

Turkey is a NATO member. I doubt this was done without consultation with other NATO members.

[Dougie93]

Just now, Aristides said:

Turkey is a NATO member. I doubt this was done without consultation with other NATO members.

as if NATO is in control of anything here

America is not in control, so NATO is not in control

but Turkey has a separate role, which predates NATO and even the Second World War

it's called the Montreux Convention of 1936