Posts by boldotter2

Michael Davis9 said:The United States certainly doesn't have issues when it comes to managing borders and refugees.

The whole thing is really only a crisis for those nations that have essentially handcuffed themselves handcuffs with the concept of "human rights."

Secondly:

Russian aggression in Ukraine is effectively creating an "Israel x 15"!
With access to NATO weaponry and direct experience fighting the Russians, Ukrainians are going to end up being some of the most capable soldiers on the planet. They are brilliant engineers and technicians; they'll take the best tech from both sides and integrate it to build world-class hardware...
In my view, Russia is making some massive strategic blunders...

That’s spot on, especially since this militarization of Ukraine has been building steadily since 2014.
That’s exactly why so many people (myself included) were convinced that a full-scale invasion wouldn't actually happen.

Compared to what Putin has stumbled into now, Afghanistan—which was one of the catalysts for the fall of the USSR—looks like a walk in the park. And let's be real, Russia isn't the USSR; it doesn't possess that same level of capacity.

If you ask me, these are the reasons he dove into this "Ukraine 2022" adventure:
1) Things went so smoothly back in 2014 that he became totally convinced of his own genius.
2) The yes-men surrounding him kept feeding him this narrative that Ukraine was in the exact same position as it was in 2014—weak and fractured—and that the government and Zelensky would just flee the moment the invasion started, causing the whole country to collapse like a house of cards.

There’s a clear parallel here with Hitler; he also took over Austria and the Sudetenland so easily (and later Poland and France) that he became intoxicated by the success and felt he simply "had" to keep pushing, further and further.
To him, the USSR looked like a fragile house of cards that just needed one solid hit to fall apart.

Actually, if you look at history, autocratic states were actually the ones dealing with the most trouble regarding migrants, minorities, and refugees. That's why they persecuted them—usually unsuccessfully—only to eventually collapse under all that pressure.

Europe and the whole West wouldn't be what they are today if Rome and Byzantium hadn't known how to handle newcomers at their borders. I guess we’re all literally descendants of refugees.
Democracy, industrialization, Western-style socialism, and capitalism have, for the first time in history, created a functional social model where you can actually turn a profit from minority groups.
The USA was built first on the British misunderstanding of "human rights," and then by directly profiting from migrants.

Michael Davis9 said:The United States certainly doesn't have issues when it comes to managing borders and refugees.

The whole thing is really only a crisis for those nations that have essentially handcuffed themselves handcuffs with the concept of "human rights."

Secondly:

Russian aggression in Ukraine is effectively creating an "Israel x 15"!
With access to NATO weaponry and direct experience fighting the Russians, Ukrainians are going to end up being some of the most capable soldiers on the planet. They are brilliant engineers and technicians; they'll take the best tech from both sides and integrate it to build world-class hardware...
In my view, Russia is making some massive strategic blunders...

That’s spot on, especially since this militarization of Ukraine has been building steadily since 2014.
That’s exactly why so many people (myself included) were convinced that a full-scale invasion wouldn't actually happen.

Compared to what Putin has stumbled into now, Afghanistan—which was one of the catalysts for the fall of the USSR—looks like a walk in the park. And let's be real, Russia isn't the USSR; it doesn't possess that same level of capacity.

If you ask me, these are the reasons he dove into this "Ukraine 2022" adventure:
1) Things went so smoothly back in 2014 that he became totally convinced of his own genius.
2) The yes-men surrounding him kept feeding him this narrative that Ukraine was in the exact same position as it was in 2014—weak and fractured—and that the government and Zelensky would just flee the moment the invasion started, causing the whole country to collapse like a house of cards.

There’s a clear parallel here with Hitler; he also took over Austria and the Sudetenland so easily (and later Poland and France) that he became intoxicated by the success and felt he simply "had" to keep pushing, further and further.
To him, the USSR looked like a fragile house of cards that just needed one solid hit to fall apart.

3) Trump was also sucking up to him, which I bet American intelligence circles used to egg Putin on about being invincible, walking him right onto thin ice.
4) The Chinese person also patted him on the back under the guise of "eternal friendship" while he was stepping out onto that thin ice. It was basically, "Go ahead, we've got your back... well, not really."

Putin is just incredibly stupid.

rowdytiger13 said:And then there are those heavy-hitting geostrategic idiots. Who knows how many more times they’ll manage to embarrass themselves politically.
It’s not that Americans haven't issued warnings, but they keep pushing forward with cooperation with Russia regardless of how this exact strategy fails them perfectly every single time.
Idiots. Even the Baltics don't give them the time of day anymore, and neither does Ukraine.
It seems like they're the only ones who still view Canada as nothing more than a protectorate.

They always have been, I guess. Every single time they try to play these big strategic games, they just end up looking like fools. That’s probably why they need an American manager, guardian, and therapist all rolled into one.

Germany is kind of like a star athlete who gets it into their head that because they're great at sports, they must be amazing businessmen or politicians too. Then they just mess everything up, blow through their cash, and ruin their reputation.

placidtiger142 said:Man, if COVID-19 hadn't already sent prices through the roof, we wouldn't be in this mess. Now, when folks move into areas where everyone’s struggling, those extra costs for gas, water, electricity, and rent—which are already up by thousands of dollars—are gonna spike even more. I wouldn't be surprised if cars become a luxury for the ultra-rich.

Most people didn't even buy into the whole COVID-19 thing anyway.

But this? This is different. A ton of people are gonna have to dig deep into their pockets, assuming they even have any cash left, just to cover the massive jumps in living expenses.

It's a nightmare scenario. Imagine getting hit with a $5,000 surcharge and you've got zero savings, while your car is only worth maybe $10,000. The interest on a $5k loan just eats you alive. Honestly, I think a lot of people are gonna be forced to dump their $10k cars immediately just to keep the lights on. And there won't be any real buyers left. It'll just be those bottom-feeding resellers making offers. I know what I'm talking about—their prices are insulting.

You can't even compare this to COVID-19. This crisis is a direct threat to everyone, and it's the real deal.

COVID-19 was mostly just a political shouting match and a huge debate. But this? This is reality hitting you in the face.

Sent from my iPhone 13 using Reddit

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, half of Germany's economy—and the whole European Union, really—was basically offline for two months. Now, the entire economy is running, and a good chunk of it is geared toward wartime production. That’s just a massive, undeniable difference.

Everything else? We'll get through it. Even the rising oil prices and gas shortages.

I mean, Germans were literally starving ten years after WWII.
And they spent 45 years living with half their country under Soviet occupation, constantly terrified of a conventional or nuclear war.
Even so, they managed to become one of the top economies in the world.

So, compared to all that, one cold winter is nothing. They'll order more coal, turn down the thermostat, and ramp up tank production. And they'll move forward.

That German panic? It's learned. But German discipline? That's built-in. Fatalism and defeatism just don't exist in Germany.

Just watch and learn this coming fall and winter.

Kate Cook27 said:It isn't about what the whole nation is like—sometimes, a small minority is all it takes to change everything.

I guess a minority always ends up changing things. I mean, if you look at history, almost every big social or political shift was either driven by an autocrat making a decree or a tiny group starting a revolution. And honestly, it’s usually a reaction to those autocrats—and it’s almost always pretty violent and bloody.

analogbear5 said:Back in 1917, and during other similar uprisings, the folks standing up didn't have much left to lose [except their chains, obviously].

Things are different now. Nowadays, if you've got even a tiny bit of stability to hold onto, you've suddenly got plenty to lose.

That is, until the draft starts knocking on your door.

Then you're basically left with just one choice—deciding who you're going to point that assigned bullet at. It all comes down to the ROI, I suppose.

It’d be pretty great if they just pulled out of Crimea too. Maybe they could pack up that bridge and take it with them.

Zachary Jackson4 said:That isn't particularly significant.

Not really, at least not until people start missing spare parts for the cars they're driving right now. Then it becomes a problem, I guess.

And honestly, everyone over in Russia is just driving German, French, or Japanese cars. They aren't exactly picking up Chinese or Indian models.

Jeremy Peterson4 said:Yeah, someone on this forum mentioned seeing people in uniforms, but I'm looking at this footage and I don't see a single person in uniform. This is a deliberate strike on civilians, plain and simple, and it should be treated as a war crime.

Maybe those pro-Russia trolls on here should actually watch the clip properly.

The people in the park got lucky. Given how "precise" these missiles supposedly are, it's a miracle they didn't land right in the middle of the park.

It's definitely an intentional strike on civilians—it's broad daylight, middle of a workday, at a shopping mall. Even if there was a weapons cache nearby, you'd hit it at night to minimize collateral damage and make sure air defenses have a better shot.

The whole point of this attack is just to spread fear.

Justin Mendoza16 said:☕man, super sad for Russia... they got even more 808 miles borders touching NATO now. those rich guys are loving it...🙂

Putin remains a master strategist.

hollowdriver13 said:So, here's how they manage to squeeze all that hard currency out of the US economy: they just slap a 3% fee on every transfer for "banking costs," but there’s a catch—it can't be less than $200. So, if someone tries to send you, say, $199, the bank basically just swallows the whole thing as a service fee. Talk about a joke. 🙏

https://twitter.com/tinkoff_bank

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVcTCqQW...g&name=900x900

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FVcTCqIX...jpg&name=large

There's more to it too—for any savings account over $10,000, they hit you with a maintenance fee of 1% of the total balance every single month!
I mean, on $10,000, you're paying $100 just to keep the account open. On $100,000? That's $1,000 a month. I guess that's one way to save money! 🙏

I'm guessing domestic accounts don't have those fees, though. 😁

gentlerider7 said:Man, how on earth would Putin even go about feeding an American retiree like that one...

Gosh, maybe Putin would actually give that retiree a second lease on life by sending him off to fight in Ukraine.

Then our retiree could enjoy being young again while finding all the food he needs—you know, either by looting local shops for free or, I don't know, roasting local dogs on a spit.

Retirement is death. Putin is life!

Kyle Murphy81 said:People know remarkably little about Russia. For instance, the average American has a clear grasp of what life is like there—their economy, school systems, universities, medicine, science, and so on.
We have a general idea of who develops weapons in the USA and how they do it.

Regarding Russia, we don't even know who is actually developing anything; supposedly there are institutes in Moscow, but is everything kept under wraps?
How do Russia and Putin actually acquire their weaponry?
In this day and age, you can't even start a car or run a washing machine without a chip—does Russia possess its own production for chips and CPUs, from the hardware all the way down to the software?

Sure, perhaps they have hardware production in the sense of assembling tanks and machinery... but how do they manage to develop the critical components?

It seems that if Russia is such a massive country, yet cannot independently develop its own weapons—meaning every single component, down to the molecular level including the chips—but instead imports vital parts from China, or heaven forbid, the USA or the West, then it appears Russia is merely a giant proxy, fighting for someone else's interests.

To sustain offensive or ideological wars, one must prove that a specific ideology works by, say, producing the necessary chips and software to support it. Or by developing advanced systems entirely on one's own.

Then again, even Ukraine doesn't handle all its own development.
So, making an assessment here is difficult.

The ideologies that succeed are those capable of motivating people and communities to produce and offer tangible solutions to concrete problems. Think of global challenges like climate, economics, transportation, asteroids, or terraforming other planets...

If Russia were to develop its own chip, CPU, PC, and Smartphone to offer to the world, that would be quite something.

Well, they claim they have it all—chips, software, hardware, the whole nine yards. Theoretically, anyway. It’s kind of like how the Nazis had jet fighters, ballistic missiles, and were working on atomic bombs. But in reality, their army didn't even have decent uniforms or proper boots, let alone real infantry gear.

It’s the same deal with the Russians; they have all that stuff just for parades. They don't have an integrated system. Not even close. I mean, their most advanced fighter-bomber, the Su-34, has been around for what, almost 20 years now? And even today, they still don't have any decent guided munitions for it.

wiredseal7 said:Not even remotely... they make whatever they want from consumer electronics (for themselves and everyone else), plus they’ve got a massive market—roughly the same scale as the US or the European Union.

I didn't even say they lack a market! I just meant their internal market and domestic demand aren't nearly enough to reach what they actually WANT.

China isn't Russia, and their end goal isn't just mindless destruction or apathy. They want to build aircraft carriers, launch space drones, stuff like that. And to do that, they need to be the big player in world trade. Like, globally dominant, multi-polar, whatever. Splitting the world up into different spheres of influence under Chinese control would really shrink their market and mess with the level of growth they WANT.

Global peace is actually in China's best interest, I guess. This whole escapade with Putin is definitely going to cost them. It’s like they haven't even finished learning the lesson from COVID, and now they're already failing the next exam. They'll probably have to take a retake on this one too.

Nathan Evans78 said:Why don't you just shoot an email over to Tim Cook? Explain to him that he can easily just fix up Pegatron and Foxconn and move the entire production line over to Digitron in a small town in Texas instead. Just go nuts. 🤣

Not Texas, but he definitely would, and he actually already has started doing it partially.

The only reason Apple and companies like them stick to China is because labor costs are way lower there. Everything else is basically the same—you can put the machines and the factory floor anywhere.

And you can totally influence those labor costs. For example, through tax regulations and tariff policies. Just look at what happened to the Turkish economy after Americans hiked their tariffs.

analogbear5 said:Chinese people actually managed to hit the 7nm mark in semiconductor manufacturing—you can't just brush that off as easy. Meanwhile, Russia has reached 90nm this year, with a long-term goal of hitting 28nm by 2030.

On this forum, everyone always seems to be viewing China as being about 15 years behind where they actually are.

But I guess you still have to pack those semiconductors into something and sell it. You have to build a market and demand first. Right now, demand in China isn't even close to enough to sustain the economic growth they're hoping for.

Dana Robinson4 said:If there’s a dip of a million car sales in Russia, should we really view that as a setback for the nation itself, or is it simply a blow to the manufacturers?

I guess it’s bad for both! Since General Motors is based right there, they're feeling the hit too. Their revenue actually dropped by 78%!

hiddenhound3 said:The Appalachian Mountains are absolutely saturated with natural gas; you can find drill sites and gas metering stations practically every few hundred yards. About twenty years ago, gas flares were burning steadily in places like a small town in rural America, the Holy Trinity, and another small town in rural America, but then they mysteriously just went out.

Word is, drilling in the Appalachian Mountains isn't even recommended because the geological area is too unstable.

It’s just not worth it. I mean, sure, you could theoretically pull gas out of Mt. Everest if you really wanted to, but then you’d actually have to drill. I guess it's just not practical! 5.0 miles Watch out for those rocks before you hit the starting point where Rus and Arapin kick things off.

Everyone’s just staring at the bottom line lately. And sure, if you look at the numbers, Putin's gas looks cheaper. But I guess people forget that his gas comes with a massive hidden tax—one we're all going to end up paying down the road. Maybe we'll see.

Relying on resources from elsewhere is just bad news. I guess it’s always a bit risky, maybe? It really is.

Dana Robinson4 said:What do you think would happen to those weapons in a scenario where a mob forcibly removes a democratically elected president?

Well, what happened to those Russian bombs during their two coups when tanks were actually firing on the capitol?

analogbear5 said:Putin loves to brag about ushering in a multipolar era—now that China is in the mix.

The whole idea of a demilitarized Russia is pure fiction at this point, honestly more like a sci-fi novel than reality. Even if it happened, a country like that would just be waiting for the slightest hint of weakness from the West to start rearming again—it wouldn't take long. You'd end up with a situation pretty much like interwar Germany.

The proxy war in Ukraine between the West and Russia is eventually going to evolve into a full-blown proxy war for Russia between the West and China.
Ukraine is really just phase one. The actual "war"—hopefully just a figure of speech—over Russia's legacy will probably kick off once Russia suffers a military defeat in Ukraine.

William Gonzalez3 said:It’s a bit like those countries in Africa—everyone assumes they’re doing great just because they don't have a military worth mentioning and mostly just export their natural resources.

And I guess just like those African nations try to boost their quality of life through the occasional genocidal war, it looks like the Russians decided to follow that exact same plan.

Paul Anderson7 said:The boss is whoever actually has the power to make his life miserable, specifically when it comes to the money. In this case, that would be the European Union and the USA.

Even a complete newcomer could make things difficult for him. I guess that’s really why he does what he does—it isn't about some grand vision or "sovereignty." He basically made a deal with the devil, and now he's probably terrified the devil's gonna come looking for him.

Dennis Price said:A win would basically just preserve Russia's current political structure. As for what happens to Russia if they lose this war? Honestly, God only knows.

But really, why act like they're tethered to an "enemy"? That "enemy" is also their best customer.

Well, history teaches us a thing or two, so maybe we don't need to jump straight to the worst-case scenario. But looking back, every single time the USSR or Russia tried to pull off an imperial conquest, they lost. And that always leads to political chaos, more wars, more defeats, and eventually massive shifts in Russian society. Every. Single. Time.

So, I guess only a fool would expect anything different this time around.

There really seem to be just three ways this goes:

1) The conflict spreads—maybe to Moldova, Georgia, Belarus, or Finland, in that order. Maybe even hitting NATO.
2) Unrest and fighting spills over into Russia itself—think civil war or a revolution.
3) The whole Russian political system and leadership just collapse.

And honestly, I think we might see all three happening, to some degree, over the next few years.