Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Obi-Jon]

The "problem" is this. The Ds have been ginormous fucking pussies since I've been alive. That's not going to change. They want no part of any war. So be it. The Rs used to be the party that wasn't afraid to use the big stick. However, GWB burned through our patience on that front and DJT's populist isolationism is what is more in vogue with the Rs now. The only group of people who want the US to stand strong in real ways are the #NeverTrumpers who, literally, have no party and no sway.

Pretty hard to argue with that.

But the notion that The Chairman or Obama would handle Putin any differently than DJT is laughably stupid.

R-r-r-r-r-ight. Obama and The Chairman were saying “Yes Massa” to Putin with the same frequency, effect and doe eyed admiration as DJT. Got it.

They're all gonna talk bigly and carry a tiny ass stick. That's our foreign policy at the moment. And Putin and Xi and everyone know it.

Sadly true.

[Jeff Buchanan]

The only group of people who want the US to stand strong in real ways are the #NeverTrumpers who, literally, have no party and no sway.

I'd be in that group but I'd offer that non-government entities writing documents and position papers that make it to the NSC do have input. The NSC would be calling the shots here. I don't give a shit about whatever stupid stuff is going on in a COVID paralyzed Pentagon. The Pentagon is an administrative clown show. There is no operational decision making going on inside that place.

It is the NSC that manages to cut across all federal agencies that might have something to say wrt doing something about Putin and Ukraine. The involved CINC - Commander U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe has direct input to SECDEF and it is SECDEF with Chairman JCS in tow that provide military options to respond to untoward events- in this case to Russian moves in Ukraine and Belarus. Crimea was one thing. The whole of Ukraine taken in the context of what I posted earlier with regard to what's at stake is quite another.

Those of you guffawing about US FP are grossly underestimating the military power that can be brought to bear in Europe and in conjunction with NATO forces. After all, military options are a means by which US FP and NATO political objectives can be achieved. This is a perfect opportunity to do that. My view is it won't be missed.

I also think those in the crowd of "do nothing" are failing to see the importance of the evolving clash of world views. This is a pay a little now or pay a shit-ton later situation. To be brutally honest, what we need right now is a good fucking war to break the world out of it's pandemic funk and let Putin feel the sting of a battle that he can lose. He's pushing all his chips onto the table where the chances that he's betting on a losing hand are pretty damn high.

[Hannibal]

The only group of people who want the US to stand strong in real ways are the #NeverTrumpers who, literally, have no party and no sway.

That might be true, but they are some of the most incredibly tone deaf people on the planet.

[Jeff Buchanan]

We've had this discussion, Hanni ...... and it has been you that has been vocal about the presence of the conservative right that has stood strongly against the defund the police bull-shit and guys like Kyle Rittenhouse that acted on his beliefs that the lawlessness characterized by BLM protestors ought to be stopped by citizens who give a shit about that sort of thing. They're out there and it's incorrect to characterize the lot of them as tone deaf.

[Hannibal]

The old school interventionist neocon cucks like Romney, Kristol, and Liz Cheney are still vastly overrepresented in the party’s elected leadership.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Liz Cheney and her "neocon cuckism" might just come in handy for this one.

[THE_WIZARD_]

STFU

[Dr. Strangelove]

Stocks are doing well today

[Jeff Buchanan]

....... which brings into focus the drift the US has experienced toward isolationism after the disasters in the ME fostered by NEOCON political influence and thought. The better history lesson though is the pre-WWII period that encompasses the 1930's. A reluctant America along with the rest of the world stood by with their heads up their collective asses while authoritarians in Europe and Japan had their way in Poland, France, the Netherlands, China and swaths of Asia. The parallels in the current circumstance are striking.

Like I said, pay a little now or a shit ton later. Chamberlain didn't understand that with Hitler or Tojo and there's a risk that neither will whoever or whatever bends over and takes it in the ass with Putin won't understand it either.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Stocks are doing well today

Yeah, buy the dips has turned into sell the highs.

[Dr. Strangelove]

....... which brings into focus the drift the US has experienced toward isolationism after the disasters in the ME fostered by NEOCON political influence and thought. The better history lesson though is the pre-WWII period that encompasses the 1930's. A reluctant America along with the rest of the world stood by with their heads up their collective asses while authoritarians in Europe and Japan had their way in Poland, France, the Netherlands, China and swaths of Asia. The parallels in the current circumstance are striking.

Like I said, pay a little now or a shit ton later. Chamberlain didn't understand that with Hitler or Tojo and there's a risk that neither will whoever or whatever bends over and takes it in the ass with Putin won't understand it either.

To be fair, isolationism is more the norm throughout American history and NOT interventionism.

And whatever else he is, Putin ain't Hitler.

[Obi-Jon]

Ukraine/Crimea are Russia's Sudetenland invasion. Ignore it at peril, as seen in the past.

[Hannibal]

You'd think that with the Goat Fuck we just got out of in Afghanistan, people wouldn't be so quick to rush off to fight a war on the other side of the world.

[Mike]

I'm not in favor of American troops but dropping a few hundred thousand pounds of ordinance never hurt anybody.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Did someone seriously just compare Putin to Hitler?

JFC...