Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[THE_WIZARD_]

Biden backs out of Afghanistan and leaves everything behind in a mad rush yet he now wants to get Involved with another far away country. Why?

uhhhhh...do you really not know why?

[Mike]

Your next president and all around good guy, Gov. DeSantis, signed HB 9B into law today thus dissolving the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

https://www.clickorlando.com/news/politics/2023/02/27/gov-desantis-holds-news-conference-at-reedy-creek-fire-station/

[THE_WIZARD_]

Ron DeSanctimonious?

[Mike]

Actually, the district wasn't "dissolved" it was renamed and put under state control so instead of Disney hand-picking all the board that oversees it, the governor of Florida does. Disney is still on the hook for the $700M debt they've run up.

[THE_WIZARD_]

So is Mickey or Goofy in charge now?

[Mike]

No, they have been removed.

[THE_WIZARD_]

...so it's Rapunzel...I knew it...

[Da Geezer]

Barely. It was quite time -- when everything associated with a viral outbreak was massively politicized. Today it's hard imagine that sort of politicization of every conceivable thing in public life.

I see what you did there.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Sneaky lil bastage...

[Jeff Buchanan]

Perspective: According to Pew polls, something like 26% of Americans polled, think the US is giving too much aid to Ukraine. That means a clear majority support US aid to Ukraine at current levels. That majority would appear to be fine with the degree of US support. That would indicate that the majority of Americans have a clear understanding of the downsides should Putin be able to obtain his objectives in Ukraine.

I’m also pretty sure that the quarter of Americans that oppose economic and military aid to Ukraine don’t know the background and history that brought Russia to invade Ukraine. Can they dismiss Putin’s clearly articulated views of why he did so and why he will keep trying to subvert the governments of former Soviet satellite states? That’s foolish. He’ll keep pursing his objectives of the restoration of Russian empire unless he is confronted with political and military opposition. He'll continue to try and replace Pax American and the rules based order that has prevailed since 1945 with a chaotic multi-polar world of unfettered nuclear powers playing the game of Risk.

How did we get to where we are today? For an extended period dating back to 2004/2005, liberal democracies, especially within the EU, embarked on a deluded, liberally minded path to foster friendly trade and diplomacy with Russia. Meanwhile, Putin was going about subverting the governments of former Soviet satellite states – the “Russian Frontier” as Putin calls it now - to increase Moscow’s control within them. He placed his trusted agents and cronies in Ukraine, Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Georgia, among others. Without the use of force, he was restoring Russian empire, at the expense of emerging liberal democracies. Meanwhile the US and Europe sat on their hands. The west is paying the price for that accommodation now.

The Orange Revolution in Ukraine that ultimately led to the overthrow of Moscow installed leadership and the emergence of freedom movements in Ukraine resulted in Putin blatantly supporting Ukrainian separatists, supporting declarations of independence of these “republics” from Ukraine and annexing Crimea. He was unopposed by the west. The establishment of proxy military governments by “police” action in the Ukrainian Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts went off without a hitch and little interest in those events within the EU or NATO. The Zelensky government in Kiev was the first to challenge Russia’s expansionism by undertaking military operations against Putin’s proxy “police” actions in the self-proclaimed DNR and LNR. Putin used Ukraine’s resistance to separatists in the DNR and LNR as his Casus Belli to invade Ukraine. If people don’t hold the view that freedom and democracy are the normal conditions of humanity, if people hold isolationist views for America, I can see why they might see this as a European problem.

The 1930s saw the same American isolationism and views that Nazi Germany’s militarization was a European problem. Nearly a decade of not calling out Adolph Hitler, trying to negotiate with him instead of confronting him diplomatically and at a low level, resulted in his invasion of Poland in 1939, the spark that ignited the horrors of WWII. Similarities in Ukraine abound. Putin can be stopped at a low level without engagement by NATO forces, widening of the conflict or fear of nuclear retaliation by Putin but only by equipping the Ukrainian armed forces to successfully halt his advances. The goal is to ultimately force Putin to tally his losses, minimize them and reconsider his objectives in Ukraine. That’s underway and should not be abandoned with wishful thinking.

[klondike]

"The goal is to ultimately force Putin to tally his losses"

If only it was that easy. I agree Putin is a bad man but to think you could reign him in and get an angle on Putin is another thing. You poke the bear and you will get bitch slapped like you never thought possible. Its the unknown factor I worry about. We know Russia has an outdated almost incompetent military. In fact if it was just about conventional warfare, Russia doesn't worry me in the least. They've proven it on the battlefields. The X factor is 1500 nuclear bombs that could make the U.S.and most of the world a sheet of glass. Thats all I care about. And Putin is old himself and reported to be not in the best shape physically and mentally. Sad fact is he has full support of his people in the party and the country for the most part. The more this war goes on the more support he gets.

once again, this is about transparency in the goals of the U.S. What are they. To keep supplying the Ukraine with just enough provisions for a long term war or to actually stragetize to beat Russia. The end game in both scenarios is grim for the U.S. sake. I see another Iraq at best. Another Afghanistan at worst(minus nuclearannihilation). While kids in America struggle to get free lunches in schools we can throw another trillion around for wars...

I wouldn't compare Putin to Hitler. It's been a historical tendency for Russia to invade and conquer countries near them to expand their fatherland. This is just another. Funny thing about Ukraine as you mention WWII. They welcomed the Nazis as they invaded their country. They were the victims of mass genocide by Stalin. Starving over 50,000. There are videos and pics of the citizens heiling them and quickly capitulating in hopes to become part of their empire. Goering visited the Ukraine and nixed that idea and basically told the SS to exploit them as long as possible then exterminate the country. To this day there is a strong anti Russian sentiment and pro nazi segments.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Dominion had another big filing, this time detailing Rupert Murdoch’s deposition. An irrelevant but interesting detail is that Murdoch apparently admitted to leaking information about Biden’s tv ads to Jared Kushner. Jared knew what the ads would say before they even aired. I don’t know how he got Biden’s debate strategy but apparently leaked it all to Kushner too.

[Mike]

Riveting stuff.

[iam416]

Like a good episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman

[Jeff Buchanan]

ISW, one of the sources I follow to keep abreast of the war in UKraine, did an interesting piece yesterday evening about how Putin is framing Russia's military activities in Ukraine via the now heavily state controlled Russian media. It's not a new effort but rather one that is more sharply focused on the threat by the west to render Russia weak by "tearing apart" the Russian Federation. Of course, using the term "tearing apart" refers to Russia's unrecognized seizures, occupation and subsequent declarations that three Ukrainian Oblasts and Crimea are part of the Russian Federation.

While it's obvious to us those territories are not legally recognized parts of Russia, most Russian citizens and a decent portion of the rest of the world's people believe they are. Clearly, Putin wants to prepare his people and those outside of Russia who support his policies for a long war to obtain his territorial objectives in Ukraine. Putin adds, to protect Russia from being attacked by long range weapons, his need to push his territorial objectives westward and beyond those Ukrainian territories he already claims as Russian will depend on what kind of weapons the west decides to provide to the Ukrainians. Interestingly, he connects Russia's participation in SALT negotiations to NATO's expansion and the nuclear capabilities of NATO members, including the US.

In any event, it's an information campaign to vastly enlarge the scope of Russia's war in Ukraine making it a much larger thing, much more strategically important, than doubters who would like to see this all end see it.