Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[CGVT]

You should take the test, Wiz.

Person, woman, man, camera, TV

[THE_WIZARD_]

I rest my case.

[lineygoblue]

When the current Veep makes Dan Quayle look like a Rhodes scholar, we're in trouble.

[CGVT]

I miss Pence. While he was praying the ghey away he could pray Putin out of Ukraine.

[THE_WIZARD_]

You make little sense. Par for the course though.

[iam416]

It takes a lot....I mean A LOT....of audacity to defend Harris. If this particular quote were just some sort of one-off bit of nonsense, fine. But her word soup nonsense quotes are numerous. She's an appallingly bad politician. As I've said before, she may be smart at some things (I have my doubts, but let's assume that), but, she's a fucking idiot when it comes to politics and being a politician. She's horrible.

[lineygoblue]

There are good reasons why she was one of the first ones out of the primaries. Even Iowans saw thru her. I mean, come on now. If a politician can't fool Iowans, they need to go back to basket weaving.

[CGVT]

It takes a lack....I mean A LACK....of awareness to see that nobody here is defending Harris.

You dumbasses are so wrapped up in your "Chairman Poopy pants, Heals up Harris" circle jerk that couldn't see a sarcastic or tongue in cheek post if it bit you square in the ass.

[iam416]

Fair enough. I didn't read the entire exchange. If the intent was to say that The Wizard is an idiot on par with Kamala and they're both talking idiot-ese, then that's hard to dispute.

[Obi-Jon]

They just can't handle the fact that their POTUS is a fucking dolt.....

It's still better to have Bozo the Clown as President than the previous administration of John Wayne Gacy.

When the current Veep makes Dan Quayle look like a Rhodes scholar, we're in trouble.

Despite all the mockery heaped on Quayle as VP, he's actually quite an intelligent man. Insightful, gentle and thoughtful. But he was cartoonist fodder. The lampoons were far more breezy and tame compared to what his boss was subjected to. I remember that one of the last political cartoons at the close of the Bush admin was one of a room full of cartoonists sobbing and wailing since Quayle was leaving. There even was a publication called "The Quayle Quarterly" that followed his (mis)adventures, (I have a few issues in my library). Quayle was the subject of fun being poked, not political daggers, and to his credit he took it in stride with a smile.

When it was crunch time, the evening before the Electoral College vote was counted, Mike Pence called Quayle for advice because of the enormous pressure Pence was facing from Trump and his goons. Quayle reiterated what the Constitution stated, told him to stand tall, and disregard the pressure. Pence listened. Thank Dan Quayle for his clarity in a time of national crisis, don't belittle him.

[CGVT]

It's still better to have Bozo the Clown as President than the previous administration of John Wayne Gacy.






Despite all the mockery heaped on Quayle as VP, he's actually quite an intelligent man. Insightful, gentle and thoughtful. But he was cartoonist fodder. The lampoons were far more breezy and tame compared to what his boss was subjected to. I remember that one of the last political cartoons at the close of the Bush admin was one of a room full of cartoonists sobbing and wailing since Quayle was leaving. There even was a publication called "The Quayle Quarterly" that followed his (mis)adventures, (I have a few issues in my library). Quayle was the subject of fun being poked, not political daggers, and to his credit he took it in stride with a smile.

When it was crunch time, the evening before the Electoral College vote was counted, Mike Pence called Quayle for advice because of the enormous pressure Pence was facing from Trump and his goons. Quayle reiterated what the Constitution stated, told him to stand tall, and disregard the pressure. Pence listened. Thank Dan Quayle for his clarity in a time of national crisis, don't belittle him.

I don't remember any VP that was not the subject of lampoon or full on ridicule. Maybe GHW Bush?

[Jeff Buchanan]

Yesterday, I posted that the primary goal of countries opposing the Russian invasion of Ukraine should be to remove Vladimir Putin. Experts on strategies to deal with Russia going forward believe this is wishful thinking. The reason for that is it is difficult to understand the kind of support or lack of it among people surrounding Putin because even though they allegedly are among his "inner circle," Putin is essentially operating almost completely on is own. The decades long post Soviet era thinking of Russia's leaders, Putin among them, and who, inside Russia, influences that thinking has always been impossible to fully understand. Unlike the Soviet era's predictability, Russia, under Putin, is not predictable at all and global instability arises from that.

Instead, the thrust of organized opposition to what appears to be Russia's objective to absorb Ukraine, making it fully a part of Russia and fully under it's control, should be to isolate Russia from the economic and political world. Going back to what Hannibal first posted a week ago, "Putin wouldn't be doing this if oil was at $50pb," is precisely what should be the goal - get it there. Here's how to do that: impose sanctions on Russia's energy sector, heretofore off limits because of the potential costs to Europe, complete the Iran nuclear deal and lift sanction of Iranian oil production - they'll pump it and sell it. Lift sanctions on Venezuela - they too will pump it and sell it. Declare a national emergency and remove all barriers to production of LNG and petroleum products in the US - the US has enormous energy resources in the ground which, if steps are taken to optimize it for the purpose of flooding the market with oil and LNG, the price of a barrel of oil will drop quickly.

Opposition countries need to continue to wage economic war designed to cripple the Russian economy by squeezing Russia's energy sector and preventing Putin's ability to finance his invasion. Keep dialogue between key players and Putin open. We should continue to arm and support the Zelenski government in Ukraine making it as costly as possible in terms of loss of men and equipment for Russia to achieve its objectives there. Through dialogue, there is potential here to force Putin to seek a negotiated settlement. The settlement cannot be punitive as has so often marked peace treaties in the past where victory was gained by one side and the vanquished harshly punished. Instead, create an honorable off-ramp for Putin to take that allows Russia to repair its broken economy and recognize that some of his concerns about Russian security were legitimate wrt NATO's expansion.

I'm already onboard with recognizing Putin's grand strategy is to over-turn the rules based order that has been present since 1945 with the US the enforcer and enabler of Pax Americana. I'm onboard with recognizing that Putin seeks to limit the eastward expansion of democratic ideology that he sees as threatening him and the Russian way of life. This is a world war being fought on a limited military basis geographically at the moment with a global economic battle already underway. It's a battle between continuing a rules based global order of stability and democratic ideology and the creation of a multi-polar world of autocratic ideology and the instability that entails. Recognize it as such and mount a full scale response to it in defense of democratic ideology and the rules based order.

The reality is that strategically, the world remains a bi-polar one, the two major powers being China and the US. Although Putin would like to think this is not the case, Russia is not among the world's great powers - only in one sphere is it close and that is militarily. The great powers, China and the US, have the economies to claim that place. Russia can't do that and Putin's foray into an attempt to create a multi-polar world with Russia at the table along with a number of emerging autocratic nuclear powers is doomed. The invasion of Ukraine, if an appropriate response as outlined above is mounted against it, will ultimately cause the collapse of the Russian economy and force Putin onto a face saving off-ramp.

[Obi-Jon]

John McCain observed that Russia is a gas station with nukes. Still true today. However, with China now agreeing to buy all the oil/gas and wheat that Russia can produce, I don't know if the in place sanctions will produce the desired results in a timely manner. Can the west wait literally years before economic effects are enough to move Putin? Its not like Russia's people haven't suffered economically for long stretches before.

Banning fuel imports from Russia is window dressing with China picking up the slack. Good that US dollars aren't going to Russia yet pushing Russia into China's orbit gives China another proxy to use in their stead.

[AlabamAlum]

I feel certain that China brokered a deal with Russia for support when the ChiComs make their obvious move for countries and territories in and around the South China Sea. They have been in shipping-lane disputes with every major country in the world, have been building manmade islands, and basically have adopted a Manifest Destiny policy for that entire region.

[THE_WIZARD_]

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