Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

"Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely," Lord Acton

[froot loops]

He is free to do as he pleases. Turning it into parler seems like an unwise decision. He is a thin skinned guy who has fallen into the Right Wing ragetrap

[AlabamAlum]

I have always been a Musk fan boy. I support the vast majority of his Twitter decisions, but banning journalists if they mentioned the flight tracker programs even on other platforms is just a horrible decision. Hell, banning the Twitter account that posted his flight tracker info is beyond stupid especially after he bragged about his free speech tenets and specifically mentioned that he wouldn’t ban him. All along, there have been other solutions to not having his specific travel plans posted.

But it’s his. He can do what he wants. I also thought Twitter before (under Dorsey) was free to run it as he pleased even if his decisions made me leave the site.

[Hannibal]

FWIW, my views on Twitter being a monopoly that can and should be regulated like the cartels and monopolies of the late 19th Century hasn't changed. Social media has way too much power and influence on politics to allow monopolies to control all of our discourse. But the hypocritical tempertantrums being thrown by the Left are hilarious. The reporters who were banned yesterday at least violated the platform's rules, albeit petty ones. Libs of Tiktok was banned without ever violating any rules.

[Hannibal]

DSL, froot -- are you ready to pay your reparations bill? Gavin Newsome is probably running for President in 2024 and making reparations a nationwide policy is likely going to be part of his agenda. Do you agree with your fellow Democrats on this issue?

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[Jeff Buchanan]

News from Ukraine is bleak. It's winter, a large portion of the entire country is without electricity or heat. Russia bombards major Ukrainian cities several time a week mostly sending barrages of drones and cruise missiles. The targets are not military ones but rather civilian infrastructure, housing and shelter. As I've posted previously, since Ukraine's victory in Kherson City, the situation on the battle field has changed little. Both sides are fighting a war of attrition trying to kill each other's soldiers and destroy war fighting equipment and ammunition storage areas. Several front lines resemble WWI trench warfare with continuous artillery duels between the two opposing sides. It's brutally inhumane on the battlefield and in cities being subjected to Putin's murderous undertaking in Ukraine.

News this week includes the US sending Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine. As one military analyst observed shooting million dollar missiles at thousand dollar drones is a loosing proposition. The news makes this out to be some big game changing event. It's not for a lot of reasons involving what the Patriot system is designed to do - shoot down nuclear capable ballistic missiles - and can actually do.

The short term key for Ukraine in obtaining a favorable negotiating position is to force a Russian withdrawal back to the boarders that existed prior to February 28th when Putin ordered the invasion. It does not matter if the withdrawal occurs while being chased by Ukrainian forces or a purposeful tactical retreat. I'd add reclaiming administrative control of Donetsk and Luhansk through military successes of forcing the collapse of the DNR and LNR as an adjunct military/political goal. I believe the Ukrainian armed forces, well supplied with tanks, fighting vehicles, artillery and ammunition on a much larger scale than is tricking in now, is capable of achieving these two goals.

The position that Zelenski has articulated - the return of all Ukrainian territory captured by the Russians since 2014 and a return to the pre-2014 boarders isn't going to happen short term with or without western aid and assistance and maybe ever. It could if NATO were unleashed to confront the Russian aggression and force a full-scale retreat and negotiations on the west's terms. The likelihood of that happening, for now, seems to me to be pretty remote for reasons, not the least of which, is this question: Is Ukraine and forcefully confronting the brazen inhumanity of Putin's bare knuckle aggression be worth WWIII? I can see both sides of an argument over questions like that with the scal tipped towards no NATO involvement, yet.

Latest military analysis suggests the Russians are planning a major offensive in the coming months. Ukrainian generals think Putin will make another try at Kiev and it might include an invasion across the Ukrainian Belarus boarder toward Kiev by a coalition of Russian and Belarussian forces. Alternatively, the Russians may try to recover lost territory in Kharkiv Oblast or conduct an all-out offensive in the Zaphorizia Oblast. There are intel takes supporting any of these three COAs and the art of deceptive warfare is in play. While there is some political objectives that involve "stark warnings to the west of the impending fall of Ukraine" to Russia by members of the Ukrainian Forces Intelligence Directorate and General Staff, the objective being more military and economic aid, the scenarios these spokespersons laid out during an interview with the Economist on Thursday are nevertheless awfully frank. My view is if Russia chooses to invade Ukraine across the Belarussian/Ukrainian boarder to seize Kiev in the coming months, NATO will get involved and the consequences of that are certain. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

[Dr. Strangelove]

FWIW, my views on Twitter being a monopoly that can and should be regulated like the cartels and monopolies of the late 19th Century hasn't changed. Social media has way too much power and influence on politics to allow monopolies to control all of our discourse. But the hypocritical tempertantrums being thrown by the Left are hilarious. The reporters who were banned yesterday at least violated the platform's rules, albeit petty ones. Libs of Tiktok was banned without ever violating any rules.

FWIW he started banning people for breaking a rule that hadn't even been written yet. The ElonJet account was first banned Wednesday and the rule against "real-time information" didn't appear until a day later. What rule did any of those reporters break, btw? None of them shared Elon's real-time info. They may have posted a ink to fight-tracker sites, but is THAT against the rules now too?

Also flight tracking isn't the same thing as doxxing and Elon's being an ass acting like they're one and the same.

[lineygoblue]

And "flight tracker" isn't really that accurate. I picked up my brother at Metro a few years ago, and the 'flight tracker' showed his plane had not landed yet, but here he was, sitting in my car already.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Anyhoo that Elon is kind of a piece of shit and has a brutally fragile ego should have been made clear when he went after that guy who rescued all the kids from that cave in Thailand.

Elon Musk calls British diver in Thai cave rescue 'pedo' in baseless attack | Elon Musk | The Guardian

[THE_WIZARD_]

Great to see the looney left go nuts when a lib/prog bastion goes to the other side...kinda like their reaction to Fox News...

Hilarious.

[Dr. Strangelove]

And "flight tracker" isn't really that accurate. I picked up my brother at Metro a few years ago, and the 'flight tracker' showed his plane had not landed yet, but here he was, sitting in my car already.

It may depend on which site you use or if you have a "professional" account that you pay for. I'm not super knowledgeable about it. But like you, I've had people call me that they were walking to baggage claim when the tracker still showed them in the air.

[Jeff Buchanan]

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[foxhopper]

I just hope the Elon digital trading cards are as fantastic as Trumps!

[Jeff Buchanan]

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[Dr. Strangelove]

Great to see the looney left go nuts when a lib/prog bastion goes to the other side...kinda like their reaction to Fox News...

Hilarious.

Will you be buying a Tesla now to show your appreciation for Elon winning this important Culture War victory or did you already blow your retirement savings on Trump NFTs?