American Politics

[Beijing4987]

Can we move on to conspiracy theories about the next medical crisis? I've stocked up on masks that are cheaper now, for the 30 minute visit to grocery stores.

[MarquisdeSade1]

https://dailystormer.in/watch-fauci-...ually-they-do/

[Tiny 12]

And you'll get no e=mc2 from me Tooms. But take a look at the Ro or R0 for COVID versus SARS or MERS. COVID is so much more infectious. It’s more infectious than Ebola.

[Tiny 12]

Exclusive: U.S. slashed CDC staff inside China prior to coronavirus outbreak.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN21C3N5

Updated: Trump Says China Should Have Given Earlier Notice About Coronavirus, Disease Snuck Up On Us.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisette...h=6d13b15d46cf

Trump says China should have told us about coronavirus. He removed the official meant to do that.
A US epidemiologist was embedded with the Chinese CDC. The Trump administration discontinued the position.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...dc-embed-quick

Bob Woodward Was Stunned By What Trump Told Young Son Barron About Coronavirus

https://news.yahoo.com/bob-woodward-...091902598.html

Yes, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE apply one of your E=MC2 formulas to this blatantly obvious reality or perhaps simply connect any two of those giant dots I provided and even you will come to the inarguable conclusion that no single person on Earth was more responsible for converting one of the typically 5-6 serious viral outbreaks per year the world experiences but gains control of enough to prevent a Pandemic into the worldwide economy-destroying and mass-murdering Trump's Pandemic it became than Donald J. Trump.

On a related note, for the first time since Trump laid the foundation for and converted a likely manageable endemic confined to a region of China into Trump's Pandemic, I actually heard pro-Repub Bothsider, Bill Maher, mention Trump defunding and eliminating the teams whose job it was to monitor, report and act to prevent and respond to those earliest cases and how that was connected to why we had Trump's Pandemic in the first place. I believe it was during his interview with Ramaswamy, in his effort to break through that dude's embarrassing ignorance on the facts thanks to his living in a Winger fake news media bubble.

Now, mind you, Maher largely pocketed that kind of important reminder of how Repubs and Trump in particular operate and produce consistently crap results all through two critical election cycles the same as Bob Woodward did. Thereby helping Trump come damn close to winning re-election and that Pink Tinkle House Majority to happen, which will once again put worldwide economies at great risk of being plunged into another Great Repub Depression just as soon as classic Repub Loon Marjorie Taylor Greene figures out how to shut down the USA government for several months in order to achieve that persistent Repub Party goal.

Given the Chinese government's handling of the disease in its early stages, I don't see how a pandemic could have been avoided. Yeah it would have made for a good movie. A USA scientist implanted with the Chinese CDC single-handedly prevents a pandemic. But that's not the real world.

[EihTooms]

I hear what you're saying. And I agree he did unwittingly help Bush in 2000. But that doesn't make him "pro-Repub". Look, I'm not defending Maher, but I used to watch his Politically Incorrect for decades. I only stopped because he started annoying me too much with his narcissism (and because the HBO kept hiking the prices, so fuck them! But he's totally a liberal. Never did I get an impression that he shares any core Republican values, even when he would invite conservatives to demonstrate that he plays fair. That's also a liberal thing -- playing fair.

You do agree that a true liberal doesn't feel obliged to always stick with the party line, right? That's always a problem with liberals, but that's what makes them liberals.

Read or watch Bill Maher in the link below repeat a litany of easily and routinely debunked Repub Party sucker social issues campaign talking points that they run and often win elections on that, even if they were true, which they are not really, offer absolutely nothing to refute the inarguable fact that Repub policies and stewardship overwhemingly result in historic disaster, massive jobs destruction and skyrocketing deficits while Dem policies overwhelmingly result in historic job gains, economic expansion and more balanced budgets.

Sure, Maher does not appear to even realize he is spouting and lending credibility to those classic nothingness Repub campaign talking points for lack of anything of real value for them to run on. So what. The result is he is elevating their nothingness to a level of "real issues" worthy of casting a vote on.

Rush Limbaugh could not have conjured up a more effective way to reach as many Dems and potentially suppress enough of their votes in order to place spectacularly destructive Repub loons like GW Bush and Donald Trump at the helm.

https://deadline.com/2022/01/bill-ma...ed-1234922380/

[EihTooms]

Our YoY CPI inflation isn't out of line with other large developed nations and our largest trading partners. Yes, inflation is higher in the UK and EU, but about the same in Canada and Japan and lower in China and better developed, smaller east Asian and southeast Asian economies.

You wouldn't expect inflation in the USA to be higher now, in the summer of 2023. The huge excess savings that were created by COVID stimulus, most notably Biden's American Rescue Plan (ARP), have mostly been burned off. Higher USA Inflation, compared to other countries, occurred in 2021 after the ARP was passed, and is part of the reason real (inflation adjusted) median wages and salaries are lower now than when Biden took office.

PLEASE. Blaming Trump for the COVID pandemic and thus for the 2020 recession makes "0" sense. Furthermore, characterizing what happened in 2020 as "supply-chain destruction" is ass backwards. A huge amount of stimulus was pumped into the economy.

True, no other nation engaged in the huge amount of stimulus spending (as a % of GDP) that the USA did in 2021 as a result of Biden's American Rescue Plan. And thus you didn't see inflation jumping up in other major economies in the first half of 2021. And no other country passed legislation to hand out $1 trillion of pork to renewable energy companies either. A number of our trading partners are up in arms because of American content requirements of the Inflation Reduction Act by the way. First the Trump tariffs and now the Inflation Reduction Act -- the USA just mocks the WTO rules it agreed to.

Here's a link to Wikipedia's list of GDP growth rate by country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...DP_growth_rate

For the July, 2023 table, the USA, with 1.8% GDP growth, ranked 140 out of 192 countries. For the 2022 table, the USA ranked 152 out of 193 countries with 2.1% GDP growth.

Baloney. We've been through this many times. Biden's stimulus was way over the top and ignited inflation. You seem to have no appreciation for the danger that our national debt poses. We can't spend like there's no tomorrow forever.

Sorry, I don't have time to address your other points right now, but I'm not sure pissing pink urine, sniffing Hunter Biden's feet, and getting foot jobs from Asian hookers merits a reply anyway. Although admittedly that was funny.

Exclusive: U.S. slashed CDC staff inside China prior to coronavirus outbreak.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-h...-idUSKBN21C3N5

Updated: Trump Says China Should Have Given Earlier Notice About Coronavirus, Disease Snuck Up On Us.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisette...h=6d13b15d46cf

Trump says China should have told us about coronavirus. He removed the official meant to do that.
A US epidemiologist was embedded with the Chinese CDC. The Trump administration discontinued the position.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...dc-embed-quick

Bob Woodward Was Stunned By What Trump Told Young Son Barron About Coronavirus

https://news.yahoo.com/bob-woodward-...091902598.html

Talking to Woodward on March 19, 2020, Trump said Barron, then 13, asked what was going on and he answered: I said, it came out of China, Barron. Pure and simple. It came out of China. And it shouldve been stopped. And to be honest with you, Barron, they shouldve let it be known it was a problem two months earlier ... the world wouldnt have a problem. We could have stopped it easily.

Yes, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE apply one of your E=MC2 formulas to this blatantly obvious reality or perhaps simply connect any two of those giant dots I provided and even you will come to the inarguable conclusion that no single person on Earth was more responsible for converting one of the typically 5-6 serious viral outbreaks per year the world experiences but gains control of enough to prevent a Pandemic into the worldwide economy-destroying and mass-murdering Trump's Pandemic it became than Donald J. Trump.

On a related note, for the first time since Trump laid the foundation for and converted a likely manageable endemic confined to a region of China into Trump's Pandemic, I actually heard pro-Repub Bothsider, Bill Maher, mention Trump defunding and eliminating the teams whose job it was to monitor, report and act to prevent and respond to those earliest cases and how that was connected to why we had Trump's Pandemic in the first place. I believe it was during his interview with Ramaswamy, in his effort to break through that dude's embarrassing ignorance on the facts thanks to his living in a Winger fake news media bubble.

Now, mind you, Maher largely pocketed that kind of important reminder of how Repubs and Trump in particular operate and produce consistently crap results all through two critical election cycles the same as Bob Woodward did. Thereby helping Trump come damn close to winning re-election and that Pink Tinkle House Majority to happen, which will once again put worldwide economies at great risk of being plunged into another Great Repub Depression just as soon as classic Repub Loon Marjorie Taylor Greene figures out how to shut down the USA government for several months in order to achieve that persistent Repub Party goal.

[Tiny 12]

Other countries had and still have much higher rates of inflation

Our YoY CPI inflation isn't out of line with other large developed nations and our largest trading partners. Yes, inflation is higher in the UK and EU, but about the same in Canada and Japan and lower in China and better developed, smaller east Asian and southeast Asian economies.

You wouldn't expect inflation in the USA to be higher now, in the summer of 2023. The huge excess savings that were created by COVID stimulus, most notably Biden's American Rescue Plan (ARP), have mostly been burned off. Higher USA Inflation, compared to other countries, occurred in 2021 after the ARP was passed, and is part of the reason real (inflation adjusted) median wages and salaries are lower now than when Biden took office.

as the result of supply-chain destruction caused by Trump's classic horrible Repub economic policies and stewardship laying the foundation for and developing Trump's Pandemic.

PLEASE. Blaming Trump for the COVID pandemic and thus for the 2020 recession makes "0" sense. Furthermore, characterizing what happened in 2020 as "supply-chain destruction" is ass backwards. A huge amount of stimulus was pumped into the economy.

And none of them other than America passed the American Rescue Plan or the Inflation Reduction Act.

True, no other nation engaged in the huge amount of stimulus spending (as a % of GDP) that the USA did in 2021 as a result of Biden's American Rescue Plan. And thus you didn't see inflation jumping up in other major economies in the first half of 2021. And no other country passed legislation to hand out $1 trillion of pork to renewable energy companies either. A number of our trading partners are up in arms because of American content requirements of the Inflation Reduction Act by the way. First the Trump tariffs and now the Inflation Reduction Act -- the USA just mocks the WTO rules it agreed to.

Meanwhile, which major national economy is doing better than America is doing today? Which other country recovered faster, stronger and contributed to other countries recovering from Trump's Pandemic more than America has since Biden took office and began legislating economic stimulus and recovery policies?

Here's a link to Wikipedia's list of GDP growth rate by country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_o...DP_growth_rate

For the July, 2023 table, the USA, with 1.8% GDP growth, ranked 140 out of 192 countries. For the 2022 table, the USA ranked 152 out of 193 countries with 2.1% GDP growth.

Thank God Biden piled on as much stimulus as he could and as fast as he possibly could in the face of a potential worldwide Great Repub Depression Part 2.

Baloney. We've been through this many times. Biden's stimulus was way over the top and ignited inflation. You seem to have no appreciation for the danger that our national debt poses. We can't spend like there's no tomorrow forever.

Sorry, I don't have time to address your other points right now, but I'm not sure pissing pink urine, sniffing Hunter Biden's feet, and getting foot jobs from Asian hookers merits a reply anyway. Although admittedly that was funny.

[Xpartan]

You do know that Maher, just like any virulent pro-Repub Bothsider / Neithersider, doesn't have to KNOW that helping Repubs win elections is the inevitable result of his Bothsider / Neithersiderism, right? They can and still usually do tell themselves they are just being Fair and Balanced, Libertarians, liberal at heart, saying these things for the Greater Good and all that.

I hear what you're saying. And I agree he did unwittingly help Bush in 2000. But that doesn't make him "pro-Repub". Look, I'm not defending Maher, but I used to watch his Politically Incorrect for decades. I only stopped because he started annoying me too much with his narcissism (and because the HBO kept hiking the prices, so fuck them! But he's totally a liberal. Never did I get an impression that he shares any core Republican values, even when he would invite conservatives to demonstrate that he plays fair. That's also a liberal thing -- playing fair.

You do agree that a true liberal doesn't feel obliged to always stick with the party line, right? That's always a problem with liberals, but that's what makes them liberals.

[Xpartan]

I am hopeful that after the Russian Empire breaks up, the archives of the FSB will be opened. We will find that Trump was a carefully cultivated and controlled asset of the Kremlin. We will see what his codename was, who was his controller and what his specific instructions were. I further hope this happens before he dies.

One! Hundred! Percent!

The crisis that awaits the Russian Empire will be of biblical proportions. It'll be worse than 1917. Thousands of Russian defectors will flood the West, and they'll need to earn their keep.

While it's unlikely that there are many FSB agents who have access to Trump's files, some of the bosses will certainly be among the crowd. I expect, they'll be competing with each other in burying the fair-hair POS for good.

And yes, hopefully before he dies.

[Xpartan]

Excellent strategy Brother Sade. Our Mainstream Democrat Friends are never going to see the truth and the light if we just present them with links from sources like National Review and the Wall Street Journal. But maybe they'll take note if it's an article from the New York Times.

LOL, neither you nor Marquise have listened to that podcast or read the transcript beyond the title -- otherwise you wouldn't have been so chirpy about it.

I recommend you do go ahead and read it, then come back to me with what made you so happy.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay...ng-with-russia

In that spirit, I'd like to contribute this excellent piece from the New Yorker. This fellow Charap, who's the central character, is a true Russia expert, who predicted months before when Russia would invade Ukraine. If policy makers had listened to him, there's a good chance there would have never been a war. He believes the USA And our NATO allies should be setting the stage for peace.

Yeah, and that fellow Charap has never been wrong before. Like ever, right? In that spirit I recommend another Charap's article written one month before the war (I also recommend to read it in full, beyond just the title).

I sometimes wonder: if fellows like Charap who's been studying Russia all his life can be so CONSISTENTLY wrong -- what's there to say about everyone else?

Like Marquise and you, LOL?

The West's Weapons Won't Make Any Difference to Ukraine January 21,2022.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/01/21...sion-military/

Also, I'm not sure I understand what media political bias has to do with this. Yes, there are legions of closeted Putin lovers among the Repubs, but there are also plenty of "useful idiots" on the left, with plenty of pro-Russian element anywhere in between. It doesn't matter where yet another "peace initiative" comes from -- the Pope, Breitbart or NYT; these people are either paid Russia's actors, unpaid Russia's actors (useful idiots), or simply confused individuals who seriously believe that Putin's war can be stopped by a negotiation. Sigh!

Here are three articles written in response to Charap by people who know what they're talking about for a change.

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/respo...russia-end-war

I would have put the following in the "Stupid Shit in Kyiv" thread, but Paulie said I couldn't post there anymore. This is an interactive map of areas of Ukraine controlled by Russia.

https://www.nzz.ch/english/ukraine-w...ine-ld.1688087

Open the link in two browser windows. Take one back in time to 15-16 November, 2022 and leave the other at present day. And compare. You'll see virtually no change in the Russian occupied area. The Ukrainians haven't regained significant territory for 9 months. Their counteroffensive has supposedly made some modest gains in the last few weeks, but I'd question how much of that is wishful thinking.

This looks like World War I. Both sides are pummeling each other. Almost five hundred thousand young men have been killed or injured. Hundreds of billions of dollars of damage have been done. Over 10 million people have been displaced. And there's no end in site. It's madness.

This discussion DOES belong to Stupid Shit in Kyiv -- so why indeed didn't you put it there? As far as I know Paulie is not a moderator (is he? You sound, I don't know, meek? LOL.

As to your map, yes, due to our indecisiveness with weapon supplies, the Russians had a lot of time to prepare their defenses including unprecedented network of mine fields. From what I understand, though, their most capable first line of defense has been broken. Hopefully, things will go a little livelier from now on.

[Elvis 2008]

I am hopeful that after the Russian Empire breaks up, the archives of the FSB will be opened. We will find that Trump was a carefully cultivated and controlled asset of the Kremlin. We will see what his codename was, who was his controller and what his specific instructions were. I further hope this happens before he dies.

LOL. Is this what you really think? You and Tooms do not just drink the NYT and MSNBC Kool-Aid you inject it into your veins.

Maybe I cannot convince you of it but a musician can. This is a hit #1 song I have mentioned before, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSA-SY5Hro.

The song is basically a guy bitching about how politicians have ruined his life and the lives of so many.

And I have quoted this before but I will again because it is the typical Democrat's reaction to it, https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/page/4/.

Even though it makes no sense at all. "Rich Men North of Richmond" is a one shot, equivalent to shooting someone, a lot of news, and then nothing.

Hits are irrelevant, it's about careers. Call me next year, or the year after, when Oliver Anthony can sell out arenas. "Richmond" is a phenomenon driven by right wing press.

Buying "Richmond" is akin to texting two dollars to Donald Trump, an emotional effort demonstrating your belief.

And of course, this was all wrong. Oliver Anthony has multiple songs on itunes top 10 chart, and I have listened to Rich men north of Richmond dozens of times.

End of quote. And then Lefetz the leftie starts to get the song a little in his second post on it: https://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2023/0...esponse-video/.

Today the truth is fungible and all Oliver Anthony has is his experience. And he's testifying as to that. And he gets kudos for that. He's a beacon in a sold-out world.

This next line also shows you Lefetz the leftie is getting there: The poor have been screwed. Left behind as their jobs were shipped overseas. And welfare was demonized and cut. Poor is pejorative, it means more than no money, it means you're weak and don't count, that if you had any wherewithal you'the pick yourself up by your bootstraps and make yourself a success, as if birth circumstances and health consequences are irrelevant.

These next two paragraphs show me the same. He is getting there but not quite there: I don't expect Republicans to do any more quoting of Oliver Anthony after this video, I don't expect constant iTunes purchases. There will be no shadow campaign to make him a hero. And maybe "Rich Men North of Richmond" will sustain, but sans controversy, is the average person interested? Like I said, it's not like Anthony has demonstrated the talent of Ed Sheeran, nowhere close.

Anthony does not appear to be eager to capitalize on his success. And we haven't had that spirit here since 1969. And it's quite refreshing to see it. Hollywood says everybody sells out, that you should go for the cash, not to miss your opportunity. But here we have someone who has taken the opposite path and succeeded far beyond those who played the game. As big as little Nas X was, he's nowhere near the league of Oliver Anthony. Everybody knows Oliver Anthony and his song. In a world where that's essentially impossible. That's mind-blowing. We need more Oliver Anthonys.

Lefetz references this video as the reason as to why the right will totally abandon him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv9uMXiY29s.

Lefetz is so clueless that he thinks the right is done with him after this article when Anthony trashes ALL politicians. He lets the Republicans have it for using his lyrics during their debate.

He then says, "I see the right trying to characterize me as one of their own and the left trying to discredit me. That shit has to stop. ".

"I think the response to my song terrorizes the people I sing about in that song, and they have done everything they can to make me look like a fool. ".

And then the money line, "I have to be clear that my message like with any of my songs, it references the inefficiencies in government because of the politicians within it that are engulfed in bribes and extortion. " "We can fuel a proxy war in a foreign land but we cannot take care of our own. ".

Now the thing is Oliver Anthony and Trump are one in the same. The people cheering on Oliver Anthony are cheering on Trump, and you are clueless as to why. With you, it HAS to be Trump being a Putin puppet. Whereas Lefetz the leftie at least partially gets the Trump / Oliver Anthony phenomenon, you show me you are still clueless.

I will explain to you why.

[MarquisdeSade1]

"I am hopeful that after the Russian Empire breaks up, the archives of the FSB will be opened. We will find that Trump was a carefully cultivated and controlled asset of the Kremlin. We will see what his codename was, who was his controller and what his specific instructions were. I further hope this happens before he dies. ".

Take your meds bro.

I understand the purpose of this thread.

Its a magnet for the crazies, try to keep all the nonsense contained LMAO.

Who is it that says the right is full of conspiracy theorists lololol.

The left really owns the genre LMAO. ".

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/OUffLY0LMxc

[EihTooms]

Excellent strategy Brother Sade. Our Mainstream Democrat Friends are never going to see the truth and the light if we just present them with links from sources like National Review and the Wall Street Journal. But maybe they'll take note if it's an article from the New York Times. In that spirit, I'd like to contribute this excellent piece from the New Yorker.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay...ng-with-russia

This fellow Charap, who's the central character, is a true Russia expert, who predicted months before when Russia would invade Ukraine. If policy makers had listened to him, there's a good chance there would have never been a war. He believes the USA And our NATO allies should be setting the stage for peace.

I would have put the following in the "Stupid Shit in Kyiv" thread, but Paulie said I couldn't post there anymore. This is an interactive map of areas of Ukraine controlled by Russia.

https://www.nzz.ch/english/ukraine-w...ine-ld.1688087

Open the link in two browser windows. Take one back in time to 15-16 November, 2022 and leave the other at present day. And compare. You'll see virtually no change in the Russian occupied area. The Ukrainians haven't regained significant territory for 9 months. Their counteroffensive has supposedly made some modest gains in the last few weeks, but I'd question how much of that is wishful thinking.

This looks like World War I. Both sides are pummeling each other. Almost five hundred thousand young men have been killed or injured. Hundreds of billions of dollars of damage have been done. Over 10 million people have been displaced. And there's no end in site. It's madness.

From your New Yorker link:

In 2009, he started working at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in (Washington). Russia had just fought a short, nasty war with Georgia, but the incoming Obama Administration was hoping to "reset" relations and find common ground. Charap supported this effort and wrote papers trying to think through a progressive foreign policy for the USA In the the post-Soviet region. But tensions with Russia continued to increase.

Well, so much for that "kissing Putin's ass in public as Trump did is the way to keep the peace" theory. Your New Yorker pundit and Russia expert learned that from first hand observation.

I can't read much of your Brother Marquis' New York Times' pro-Repub Bothsider pundit's opinion piece because I am not a NYT subscriber. But I'm guessing he is proposing negotiations between Ukraine and Russia now that it has been proven Putin and Trump were dead wrong to have believed Russia's intel over America's when it mattered most.

[EihTooms]

Tiny, when are you going to learn?

His "demands" for NATO were nothing but a veiled attempt to break it. If he won in 2020, we would've been out of NATO already.

You admit that Trump kissed Putin's ass -- but did you ask yourself why? Why did "the leader of free world" kiss the ass of a dictator of the 40th world economy? And why for Christ's sake would've he prevented the war he called "genius"?

Staying firm?

Keeping the peace?

Jesus Tiny!

"Keeping the peace by showing America kissing Putin's ass in public", even shockingly and embarrassingly so as Trump did in Helsinki is exactly the premise Putin used to think he could invade, take over and steal Ukraine's elections from here to eternity while America had his back on that plan without objection. Or at least that every Trump supporter in America, roughly half the country, would be fine and dandy with whatever destruction of democracy and reconstitution of the USSR Putin wanted to implement.

At Helsinki, Trump told Putin and the world Putin's intel was more credible and ought to be believed over America's. No doubt during those secret, undocumented meetings with Putin, Trump knew Putin's Intel was telling him the people of Ukraine would welcome him and his tanks with open arms while America's Intel, the one Biden preferred over Putin's, how dare he, told him they most certainly would not.

Putin's second effort to install Trump in the WH did not work out as well as the first one, no matter how many slathering Deep French Kisses Trump planted on and in his ass in the previous 4 years. But that could not deter Putin's plan already in the works to invade and take over Ukraine.

Besides, Trump would remain a destabilizing force in America even if he lost re-election and the colossal mess of everything he left behind for Biden to clean up meant Biden would at least he a "beleaguered" POTUS for a while. LOL. As is the case with every Dem president who takes over in the midst of the typical colossal Repub mess they've made of everything.

Repubs delight in mischaracterizing that state of being "beleaguered" in the face of the seemingly insurmountable challenge of fixing whatever unprecedented disaster the outgoing Repub has left behind as "weakness" as long as that mischaracterization emboldens our international enemies to do something really foolish and stupid to destroy the peace somewhere or everywhere if possible.

[Tiny 12]

"Tiny, when are you going to learn?

His "demands" for NATO were nothing but a veiled attempt to break it. If he won in 2020, we would've been out of NATO already.

You admit that Trump kissed Putin's ass -- but did you ask yourself why? Why did "the leader of free world" kiss the ass of a dictator of the 40th world economy? And why for Christ's sake would've he prevented the war he called "genius"?

Staying firm?

Keeping the peace?

Jesus Tiny!

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/31/o...prigozhin.html

Excellent strategy Brother Sade. Our Mainstream Democrat Friends are never going to see the truth and the light if we just present them with links from sources like National Review and the Wall Street Journal. But maybe they'll take note if it's an article from the New York Times. In that spirit, I'd like to contribute this excellent piece from the New Yorker.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/essay...ng-with-russia

This fellow Charap, who's the central character, is a true Russia expert, who predicted months before when Russia would invade Ukraine. If policy makers had listened to him, there's a good chance there would have never been a war. He believes the USA And our NATO allies should be setting the stage for peace.

I would have put the following in the "Stupid Shit in Kyiv" thread, but Paulie said I couldn't post there anymore. This is an interactive map of areas of Ukraine controlled by Russia.

https://www.nzz.ch/english/ukraine-w...ine-ld.1688087

Open the link in two browser windows. Take one back in time to 15-16 November, 2022 and leave the other at present day. And compare. You'll see virtually no change in the Russian occupied area. The Ukrainians haven't regained significant territory for 9 months. Their counteroffensive has supposedly made some modest gains in the last few weeks, but I'd question how much of that is wishful thinking.

This looks like World War I. Both sides are pummeling each other. Almost five hundred thousand young men have been killed or injured. Hundreds of billions of dollars of damage have been done. Over 10 million people have been displaced. And there's no end in site. It's madness.