Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[CGVT]

You obviously have me confused with former poster here, Optimus Prime. Now OP had some cash and he actually had multiple homes and a a very nice 40' yacht. He and his brother, both lawyers, ran a law firm that did mergers. On visiting him several years ago and taking a trip to his boat while we waited for the crew to get it ready to depart the marina, OP bought Ann and I a drink at the adjoining Marina bar. He tipped the bartender a $100 bill. Ann asked, "Todd, did you know you just gave her a hundred bucks?" He replied, yep I get benefits.

So, no, your characterization of me is incorrect ....... I'm living on a fixed income that your SS taxes are providing. Thanks, I appreciate it. I know you'll be happy to know, I got an 8.7$ pay raise the cost of which will be coming out of your pile for retirement, if anything is left of it by then.

Fucking socialist

[THE_WIZARD_]

Have you not yet caught on that I love to taunt you with your Grand Island upbringing?

Just kidding. I know you're from the city of love, Valentine.

It's nice to know I have made you waste your time researching small Nebraska towns...heh...

:::in your head:::

[Dr. Strangelove]

STFU

[THE_WIZARD_]

Now you are plagiarizing THE_WIZARD_...

::::imitation as they say...:::

[Jeff Buchanan]

In case you haven't noticed. MSN reporting of the war in Ukraine is scant. That's because stuff that's happening there on the front lines is granular, boring back and forth incremental gains and losses - a road here and intersection there. We do get news when the Russians bombard a market place, school or hospital and kill more that one person. It's only then that we get the hand waving and cries of "oh, the inhumanity." The feed I follow, ISW, in place of detailed oreder of battle analysis has been doing a lot of reporting on the political situation in the Kremlin and how Putin and his people are shaping the information space.

Putin addressed the Russian Human Rights Commission yesterday in a televised speech. Know that within the last month, Putin has sacked all the commissions activists there who have been critical of mobilization and the war in general. The critics, if you call them that, have been replaced on the Commission by Putin supporters. Obviously criticism coming from any quarter has been muted by Putin's decrees intended to silence dissent inside Russia. The HRC has been neutered so, strange place for Putin to address the public on his "special operation" in Ukraine when his undertaking is massively contrary to established HR norms, the Geneva Conventions and Pax Americana established after WWII and by the current world order that flowed forth from there. It is clearly the most inhumane conduct carried out by a world power as we've seen since the 30s and 40s.

In his speech to the Russian HCR, Putin laid out the territorial gains his operation has already made in southern and eastern Ukraine (Crimea, the parts of the Donbas and what's remining of what the Russians control in the Kherson Oblast). He compared himself to Peter the Great and his successes in gaining significant territorial and strategic gains for Russia during his rule. Putin is laying the ground work for a protracted imperialistic war having been unable to achieve his objectives for a quick fall of Ukraine when he invaded on February 28th. Milbloggers responded in a supportive fashion by noting that Russian military victories didn't start to happen in Syria for years ..... never mind that the country is a wasteland with the government of Bashar Hafez al-Assad incapable of supporting a dwindling population continuing to shrivel even more as those with means and many without flee the country to Europe and other countries in the ME. His remarks in totality indicate he has zero interest in negotiating some kind of off-ramp in the near term, is prepared to wage an extended war until he wins or is defeated by the Ukrainians fighting for thier survival as a state with copious western support.

IMO, Putin has a shit sandwich on his hands in Ukraine. Besides attacking the electrical grid, Putin has waged a war of attrition that has seemingly spared important infrastructure so that upon the fall of the Ukrainian government, it does not become a wasteland like Syria, and Russian technocrats can come in and run the place. While it seems pretty clear that the Ukrainians have resolved to stick this thing out, meanwhile, Putin is not having a lot of luck gaining military and administrative control of the important parts of Ukraine that would lead to the defeat and surrender of the Zelensi government. Buckle your seat belts. This is going to be a long and dirty war given that the west appears to be satisfied with a proxy military force, a fifth the size of the Russian military, bleeding and dying for political principles the west believes in upholding. I have a problem with that because there is a good chance Putin can carry on with his shit for a really long time.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Supposedly, supposedly, this is the trade the Russians are demanding in exchange for Paul Whelan. His name is Vadim Krasikov and while he is a "former" FSB Colonel he was also an active FSB assassin at the time of his arrest. In 2019 he put three bullets into the back of a Chechen dissident's head in broad daylight in the middle of Berlin. He was given a life sentence in Germany

CNN Exclusive: Russian officials requested adding convicted murderer to Griner/Whelan prisoner swap | CNN Politics

Russian man convicted of brazen daylight killing in Germany that judge says was ordered by Moscow - CBS News

[crashcourse]

whalen for the assassin--sounds about right

i dont have that much of an issue griner for arms guy

hell our country puts most arms guys to shame just ask ukraine--in 2019 we manufactured 7 million firarms--that went up to 11 million in 2020. guncontrol for thee but not for all my buddies selling it to the rest of the world

lol at cgvt

[THE_WIZARD_]

Dude for a dude...killer for a carpet muncher...assassin for an America hater...

[iam416]

Supposedly, supposedly, this is the trade the Russians are demanding in exchange for Paul Whelan. His name is Vadim Krasikov and while he is a "former" FSB Colonel he was also an active FSB assassin at the time of his arrest. In 2019 he put three bullets into the back of a Chechen dissident's head in broad daylight in the middle of Berlin. He was given a life sentence in Germany

CNN Exclusive: Russian officials requested adding convicted murderer to Griner/Whelan prisoner swap | CNN Politics

Russian man convicted of brazen daylight killing in Germany that judge says was ordered by Moscow - CBS News

Yeah, so what? I mean, we just gave them a dude who sells serious ass weapons to literal enemy combatants. And Greiner was only jail for like 10 months. Whelan has been assfucked since 2018.

I mean, once you get to a certain point they're all really, really, really bad guys. You can try to sort them out as only "really bad" vs "really, REALLY! bad" -- but that seems nonsensical to me.

In a sort of "there but for the grace of god go I" analysis, I'd be for both trades. In a purely "what's in the national interest" analysis, it's obvious both trades are terrible.

But, sadly, I lean toward being more of a human being so I begrudgingly think the US should eat the shit sandwiches.

[crashcourse]

micah parsons for the cowboys being excoriated for saying outloud what many think--now having to delete before he gets cancelled, cut by the cowboys and blackballed by the NFL for not supporting the anthem kneeling carpetmunchingdopesmoking likley to now woman of the year over the marine dying in jail for the last 5 years

[THE_WIZARD_]

...

[CGVT]

318957958_545864910889905_6276586232223155627_n.jpg

[Jeff Buchanan]

Yes, it looks bad but this:

https://www.detroitlionsforum.com/fo...34#post1820134

I get the equivalency thing, i.e., we get Griner out of the gulag and leave a Marine there. Just seems not right as wounded or dead American Marines shall never be left on the battlefield. OTH (facts from Reuters) .......

Born in Ottawa, Canada, to British parents of Irish origin, Whelan later moved to Novi, Michigan, and is a national of all four countries.

- Whelan served with the Marine Corps Reserve from 2003-2008, much of the time as an administrative clerk in Iraq. At the end of that period, he was dishonourably discharged for larceny and other lesser offences, after being found to have tried to steal $10,000.

- At the time of his arrest, Whelan was head of global security for BorgWarner, a Michigan car parts supplier.

- Last November, a Russian court rejected his request to be allowed to serve his sentence in the United States.

The dude the Russians want back for Whelen, Vadim Krasikov, IS a proven assassin that the Kremlin sent to off a nationalist Chechen who lived in Germany. Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, the guy that was a victim of a head shot in broad daylight in a Berlin park, was an outspoken nationalist that had opposed the Russian take over of Chechnya in 2000. He had been editing a pro-Chechnya blog from Berlin. I just can't muster thoughts of humanitarianism for, really, either of these guys but especially Krasikov and fuck him. He can rot in jail.

We've forgotten the two wars in Chechnya that ultimately resulted in the installation of a pro-Russian puppet government in Chechnya. It took 6 years of fighting in two wars for Putin to grab Chechnya. Probably the early stages of Putin's expanding his Russian Empire. It was a long and devastating take-over of that country with many Chechnyans, even today, still fighting the Russians asymmetrically (they bombed a Moscow subway a few years ago).

The Kremlin has named Chechnyans, trying to make it as hard as possible for the Russians to govern Chechnya, terrorists. Sound familiar? We can look to Chechnya and Syria for lessens to be learned in Ukraine. The west stood on the sidelines in both of those Russian operations. Worse, stood without action as Putin armed a proxy force in the DNR and LNR and introduced Russian units (soldiers not uniformed or equipment marked as Russian) into those territories in 2014 to fight Ukrainians and seize Crimea in 2017. WTF?I guess we don't have any strategic interests wrt this shit Putin is pulling. He's going to succeed in Ukraine just like he has in Syria and Chechnya unless the west fully commits to stopping Czar Putin.

[THE_WIZARD_]

...

[CGVT]

Why didn't Trump make a deal for Whelan?