Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[lineygoblue]

Women tennis players want balls that weigh the same as mens.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/iga-swiatek-calls-out-us-open-over-ball-rules-i-dont-know-why-they-are-different-than-mens-ones

[THE_WIZARD_]

Uhhhh....

...nah...too easy...

[Dr. Strangelove]

Some high comedy going on over at Truth Social yesterday and overnight

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[Dr. Strangelove]

Not very. But PC is the best side in Central Ohio after losing the crown last year to mighty UA. Biles is really good. That said, I think PN is actually pretty good this year, too. If I were you, I wouldn't miss that showdown in a couple weeks.

Unfortunately I'll be at a wedding in California the weekend Pick Central plays North. I'd be shocked if they pulled the upset two years in a row.

[Jeff Buchanan]

A lot of people are asking this question, "Who Can Get Rid of Putin?" This is the title of an opinion piece that appears in Friday's NYTs. It was authored by a Russian journalist that lives in London. Unless you have a subscription to the NYTs, it's paywalled.

The author asks, Why haven't the oligarchs who have lost a lot as a result of sanctions and confiscation of their property confronted Putin? Why haven't his generals or Russia's technocratic elite stepped up to the plate to confront Putin's obvious obsession with the impossible task of making Ukraine a part of Russia by force? Why is the media so enamored with Putin and his plans in Ukraine?

The author offers that Russia's war in Ukraine would end quickly if Putin were removed but he concludes that's not going to happen and presents a number of reasons why. Those in a position to oppose him and or replace him are either in prison or have fled Russia. Putin's kleptocratic oligarchs are so attached to him, waiting for their yachts, villas, luxurious life styles for them and their families to return at some point that it is less painful to "suffer" the temporary inconvenience of the loss of these things than it is to seek his removal and risk upending Putin's complicated corrupt Russian bureaucracy that he has fashioned and has enabled their wealth and power. An interesting conundrum.

Putin has been very careful to arrange, or relieve, his commanders to ensure that general and field grade officers most likely to object to his increasingly fascist, authoritarian behavior in the face of huge personnel and equipment losses battling in Ukraine are far enough removed from power points that he is safe from an uprising by his generals.

Technocrats and intellectuals that have remained in Russia have been effectively silenced. Putin's declarations of laws that criminalize denigrating the Russian armed forces and the brutal enforcement of these laws by the FSB and Rosgovardia (national guard) have been very effective. Fear is a powerful means of preventing organized dissent.

The media is completely state controlled. We've seen the repeated, very public in Russia, harassment with criminal charges, threats of jail and intrusions of her home of the lone wolf, female broadcaster that held up a sign on a live broadcast, "stop the war." What journalists in Russia are going to risk that?

No, Putin isn't going anywhere any time soon. The only thing that is going to change his plans for Ukraine is convincing defeats on the battlefield either symbolic or actual that result in the loss of territory already held. I posted about this yesterday that the west, unwilling to stop Putin's shit militarily, has focused on arming the Ukrainians in such a way that allows them to force Putin to reconsider his plans by "a thousand cuts" instead of a coup de grâce type victory on the ground over the Russian army - that's not going to happen.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/o...orruption.html

[Hannibal]

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[Obi-Jon]

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[CGVT]

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[Mike]

Frog, meet slowly boiling water…

[Dr. Strangelove]

Jeff - You may have run across the name Alexander Dugin in your Russia/Ukraine readings. His daughter was apparently assassinated with a car bomb in Moscow tonight. She was a politician in her own right so unclear if she or her father was the actual target.

[CGVT]

I'm glad that I don't live in that paranoid, delusional world.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Seeing a lot saying Dugin and not his daughter was probably the real target. He changed cars at the last minute.

Dugin's significance is debatable, but this is somewhat akin to an Iraqi slipping into the United States in late 2003 and assassinating David Frum, John Bolton, or Paul Wolfowitz

If Dugin's daughter was killed by someone in Russia's spy agencies or military and not the Ukrainians then that's an even bigger deal for Putin's regime.

[CGVT]

I just want it to be known that Four Roses Single Barrel is now my favorite Bourbon to sip and Wild Turkey 101 makes a fantastic Old Fashioned

[lineygoblue]

You sound like you're about 3 sheets to the wind, so now I understand why ...

[froot loops]

Sick burn