Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Jeff Buchanan]

A war like no other has begun in Eastern Europe.....actually began a while ago. The link is a couple of weeks old but highlights what the constant cyber attacks on Ukrainian life from Russian separatists and the Russians themselves have been like. That anyone doubts Putin's intentions or his ability to realize them is ignoring the realty produced by facts on the ground.

Does anyone here know who Tokyo Rose was? The advances in electronic warfare, disinformation and technical influencing achieved in today's modern warfare were far from being imagined in 1943. The scale of the divisiveness, distrust and fear in the society targeted by an opponent is unprecedented and ultimately more lethal - not in terms of tonnage of munitions but as real impact on the targets ability to fight back - as a military weapon that the fire bombing that rocked London and later Berlin.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazi...raine-00008529

[Jeff Buchanan]

I'm watching the markets pretty closely trying to gauge what the impact will be if Putin actually tries to take down the pro-western, Zelenski government in Kiev. I wrote about this a few days ago and the article (not paywalled) has been updated this evening.

Cliff notes: It's not all that bad and geopolitical turmoil even shooting wars, tend to be less impactful than the various central banks monetary policies are: you can stay invested, not bail and go to sleep now.

Oh, and fuck Putin:

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/wh...=mw_latestnews

[Dr. Strangelove]

Germany halts NordStream 2. Halts, not kills, because I think they're leaving open the possibility of reviving it at some point.

[iam416]

Well, they need energy. And, you know, the EU and, to a lesser extent, the US, are trying to eliminate cheap energy.

[Dr. Strangelove]

For all the talk of Germany being too soft on Putin, the UK announces sanctions on just 5 Russian banks and 3 billionaires that have already been on the US sanction list since 2018.

Truth is billions of illicit Russian wealth gets laundered through London. Everyone knows it, does nothing about it.

[Jeff Buchanan]

Interesting take in the NYT this morning on the West's provocations of Putin's Russia that, according to the author, make the US something more than innocent bystanders. The hypothesis goes that after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990, the US Senate passed a resolution expanding NATO to include the Russian boarder states of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, all of which had been part of the former Soviet Union or its sphere of influence.

There was an argument against this resolution. It was based on the thought that why push the NATO alliance toward Russia when the better option was to encourage nascent democratic reforms in Russia? Here is George Keenan's thoughts (George Kennan was the architect of America’s successful containment of the Soviet Union. Having joined the State Department in 1926 and served as U.S. ambassador to Moscow in 1952,Kennan was arguably America’s greatest expert on Russia).

''I think it is the beginning of a new cold war. 'I think the Russians will gradually react quite adversely and it will affect their policies. I think it is a tragic mistake. There was no reason for this whatsoever. No one was threatening anybody else. This expansion would make the Founding Fathers of this country turn over in their graves. We have signed up to protect a whole series of countries, even though we have neither the resources nor the intention to do so in any serious way. [NATO expansion] was simply a light-hearted action by a Senate that has no real interest in foreign affairs.'

''What bothers me is how superficial and ill informed the whole Senate debate was,'' added Mr. Kennan, who was present at the creation of NATO and whose anonymous 1947 article in the journal Foreign Affairs, signed ''X,'' defined America's cold-war containment policy for 40 years. ''I was particularly bothered by the references to Russia as a country dying to attack Western Europe. Don't people understand? Our differences in the cold war were with the Soviet Communist regime. And now we are turning our backs on the very people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove that Soviet regime.

''And Russia's democracy is as far advanced, if not farther, as any of these countries we've just signed up to defend from Russia,'' said Mr. Kennan, who joined the State Department in 1926 and was U.S. Ambassador to Moscow in 1952. ''It shows so little understanding of Russian history and Soviet history. Of course there is going to be a bad reaction from Russia, and then [the NATO expanders] will say that we always told you that is how the Russians are -- but this is just wrong.''

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/05/02/o...rd-from-x.html

In any event that's water under the bridge and it certainly does not excuse Putin's dismemberment of Ukraine. What it does do is shed some light on Putin's fiery speech yesterday and his defense of Russian's legislative and military activities. What's going on now was, according to this author, seeded by America's chest thumping after the Soviet Union collapsed. Just another example of America's post WWII FP blunders.

[THE_WIZARD_]

Ever heard of Cliff Notes?

[Obi-Jon]

Where have you been? 6 paragraphs IS Jeff's Cliff Notes.

[THE_WIZARD_]

shaddup

[Dr. Strangelove]

The EU is imposing a travel ban on the entire Russian Duma (their Parliament) and freezing all their assets.

Russia evacuating all of its embassy staff from Ukraine. Saying they are victims of "russophobic attacks"

[THE_WIZARD_]

I have decided to not buy any more russian vodka for my bar.

I want to do my part.

[Dr. Strangelove]

I have decided to not buy any more russian vodka for my bar.

I want to do my part.

You were already using cheap rotgut imported from Cambodia, who are you trying to fool?

But it's the thought that counts.

[Hannibal]

The EU is imposing a travel ban on the entire Russian Duma (their Parliament) and freezing all their assets.

Russia evacuating all of its embassy staff from Ukraine. Saying they are victims of "russophobic attacks"

Ahhh -- Russia has learned from observing the Anti Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center!

[THE_WIZARD_]

You were already using cheap rotgut imported from Cambodia, who are you trying to fool?

But it's the thought that counts.

I have some special vodka for you pal

[Dr. Strangelove]

I have some special vodka for you pal

Is it anything like Putin's special blend of Novichok Tea?