Posts by gentlerider7

So, Vladimir Putin was out there saying there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the whole socialist idea, at least when you're looking strictly at the economic side of things.

"The real kicker is how you actually fund it—what exactly are you going to use to fill those coffers, especially from an economic standpoint?" he went on, basically posing this big question during a meeting with lawmakers.

According to Putin, in certain parts of the world, "filling up" that socialist framework involves leaning on market-based regulations. And get this—he actually pointed out that this approach seems to work "pretty damn effectively."

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Brenda Murphy3 said:😁

I haven't hung out in these Ukraine threads for a while, but man, I come back and see that the amount of pro-Russia and pro-Putin garbage and bottom-of-the-barrel trolls hasn't changed one bit...

Yeah, they're just sitting there dreaming about the Ruble... you know, that "world-class powerhouse" currency that'll magically turn into pure gold overnight, right?

Amy Rogers6 said:Since you’re clearly such a genius, why don't you explain how Russia managed to stay on its feet despite all those sanctions and massive pressure? They were supposed to have completely imploded within three months, right? At least that's what the big-shot Anglo think tanks were preaching at the start of the war. Honestly, looking at the sheer scale of the sanctions, I personally figured the Russians would be neck-deep in it—maybe even triple-dipping in crap—by now.

It’s like you guys all collectively lost the few brain cells you had left to pure fanaticism. There’s zero substance here—just mindless cheering. You sound exactly like the Russian agenda, just on the flip side of the coin. Honestly, that’s why I stayed away from this thread; you can’t find three smart people in here. It’s nothing but blind hype that completely ignores geopolitical reality.

I'm out. I'll leave you guys to your cheering and shouting. See ya this winter—assuming this war doesn't drag on forever. I'm actually pretty curious to see what you'll have to say about the global geopolitical situation once we're deep in it.☕

Look, nobody was actually out here claiming Russia was just gonna "fall apart in three months" or whatever

Amy Rogers6 said:No doubt—but when you stack that against the Russo-Finnish war and look at the force ratios on paper, they look like they're piloting Star Destroyers right now...

So what, we've got Putin playing Captain Jean Luc Picard while Medvedev acts as his first officer?

crimsoncyclist71 said:They entered this war prepared?!? 🤦
If going up against a nation of 40 million people counts as being "prepared," then an unprepared invasion would have been an absolute disaster...

I can already hear some guy jumping in to point out how they managed to grab territory "larger than the old America" using "only 200,000 troops"...

Christian Torres3 said:

Russia wasn't getting ready for this kind of scenario. From your very first sentence, your premise is totally wrong. This isn't "reality," it's just a bunch of wishful thinking from a movie you aren't even watching.
Russia wasn't getting ready for this kind of scenario. From your very first sentence, your premise is totally wrong. This isn't "reality," it's just a bunch of wishful thinking from a movie you aren't even watching.
Look, it was obvious from everything Putin was blathering about at the start of the war, and honestly, you can see it in how jittery and unhinged the Russian leadership has been acting lately. If the Russ were actually playing this cool, calculated game with a master plan and clear intentions, wouldn't we be seeing that? It would be obvious, right? Instead, it's just chaos.

I mean, let's be real, on a forum like this, all you have to do is drop some pseudo-intellectual nonsense, throw in a phrase like "that's just the reality of the situation," and maybe toss in a coffee emoji, and suddenly everyone thinks you're some kind of high-level geopolitical expert...

Melissa Rivera5 said:I mean, I’m just wondering... how are we ever supposed to trust Russia again? Like, let's say they actually sign a ceasefire tomorrow and the war finally ends. Who, or even what, would act as the guarantor to make sure history doesn't just repeat itself?

Honestly, seeing a total overhaul of the entire Russian leadership would be a massive signal that things might actually change.

Russia is out here spinning these wild tales about how Poland is just itching to grab a slice of Ukraine

"The head of Russia's foreign intelligence service, Sergey Naryshkin, is claiming that Poland's plans to reclaim influence over western Ukraine are basically a disaster waiting to happen for all of Europe, according to Reuters.

“It’s definitely dangerous. Dangerous for Ukraine, and dangerous for the whole of Europe. The reality is, there are plenty of spots across the European continent where neighbors are quietly eyeing up territory from other countries... So, if Poland decides to open this Pandora's box, nobody is going to be happy about it,” Naryshkin summed up.

According to his logic, these Polish maneuvers could shake up the entire European landscape and seriously mess with international security levels.

Naryshkin previously suggested that the leadership in Poland is actually cooking up a scenario to carve up Ukraine piece by piece.”

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darkdriver said:So, according to this one British institute—honestly, I don't even know what they actually do, but based on how much nonsense they pump out, they’re basically a fog machine at this point—and all these "reports" coming from the Department of Defense lately about how everyone in the Kremlin is spinning webs of lies... it's supposedly all just to make Vladimir Putin look like he's obsessively counting pennies, you know? Like, whether it's his actual life or his political career, they're making it seem like he's the only one whose government is totally falling apart and who's actually on the verge of being ousted, that little British powerhouse 🤣
But hey, I guess nobody's really a prophet in their own backyard, right? And honestly, it seems like people in London can see what's happening in Moscow way more clearly than what's going on in their own front yard 😁

Man, it's just not like Russia where one guy can hog the throne for twenty years straight and the only way anyone actually gets him out is through old age or a bullet to the head...

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.

The thing about 1917 and stuff like that is that those revolutions are usually pulled off by a small group of highly trained revolutionaries, which was basically Lenin's whole playbook anyway.

Melissa Rivera5 said:And don't even get me started on that Russian dummy... I mean, the Ukrainians weren't just bombing them and burning them alive, they were actually cannibalizing them too!

I mean, you can't even wrap your head around the idea of the NASA director threatening Russia or Belarus with some kind of nuclear holocaust. It’s not even sci-fi at this point; it feels more like a total hallucination. But I guess for the Russians, that's just business as usual. They honestly act so infantile, kind of like toddlers in a preschool throwing tantrums and shouting, "My daddy is bigger than your daddy!"

And honestly, isn't that exactly how they keep the whole country revved up and ready for war?

hollowdriver13 said:The real issue is how Russia screams about international law and people trampling on it whenever they feel like pointing fingers at the West, yet they turn around and commit some of the worst violations of those exact laws since World War II.

I mean, are we really going to pretend the USA hasn't crossed borders too? Is Iraq a new federal state now? What about Afghanistan?

And besides, has anyone actually sanctioned Russia for meddling in the Central African Republic, Syria, or Libya?
She knows perfectly well what major powers are "allowed" to get away with—military conquest of foreign soil has been a massive nono since World War II.

The biggest mistake was letting things slide with Georgia in 2008 and Crimea 2014. If the reaction back then hadn't been so lukewarm, we wouldn't be dealing with this mess today. Instead, they probably thought they could just pull this off again with nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

Just like Dmitry Medvedev:

"
According to Dmitry Medvedev, the entire history of the USA, dating all the way back to the era of conquering Native Americans, has been nothing but a string of "bloody wars of destruction." He points out that the USA has spearheaded "senseless wars" far from their own borders both during and after World War II. The Deputy President cited Vietnam, Korea, America, Iraq, Cuba, Afghanistan, and Syria as prime examples.

Now, as he emphasized, those who "kill people with impunity and commit war crimes" are going to face a "show trial."

“It won't work with Russia. They understand that perfectly well. That’s why the dirty dogs of war are being silenced by their own disgusting barking,” he concluded.

"

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Sean Reed3 said:Hard to see a 92-year-old playing a teenager's dad, let alone a great-grandfather... 😁

Honestly, though, you could totally see Sylvester Stallone pulling off the role of a pissed-off grandpa...

silverpuma82 said:But the bolded part is true. I don't get why you'd mix this up with the conflict between the US and its rivals; it makes no sense.

So what, are we just supposed to believe Ukrainians don't even exist now?

Jesse Sanchez4 said:I was browsing through some automotive forums on PDF, where you'll find people obsessing over gas prices, and honestly, even those seemingly reasonable folks are swallowing Russian propaganda whole. You can't get through to them that this isn't some sudden shift, but rather a coordinated campaign that's been running for twenty years, with the KGB—or more accurately, the FSB—constantly planting disinformation wherever they can find an opening; it’s the same kind of psychological subversion that fueled much of the anti-vax movement during the pandemic.

It’s these people who genuinely believe gas prices are going to plummet to $3.25 just because the Ukrainians finally take down Putin.

Joshua Bishop3 said:Man, that's like showing up to a homeowners association meeting and telling everyone that if anyone even *thinks* about hooking up with your neighbor, you're going to take it as a personal insult—and then when someone actually does go home with her, you go over there and break her teeth just because you felt disrespected.

It’s basically that old "you're either mine or you're nobody's" logic, right?

George Robinson43 said:Mearsheimer has always been a cheerleader for redrawing borders and accepting the outcomes of ethnic cleansing, essentially advocating for a world where the strongest bullies can impose their will on the weak.
Don't forget that he was once a major proponent of a Greater Mexico stretching across the Drina in exchange for giving 4/5 of Mexico to the Albanians. He also backed the idea of a Greater Albania and even a Greater Herzegovina within the US, seemingly having no issues with a Muslim enclave sitting right in the heart of America following such a partition.
His take on our conflict is incredibly reductive—he views it merely as an inter-ethnic struggle, ignoring the origins and actual causes, concluding that it simply ended with the ethnic cleansing of Mexicans "at gunpoint."
He was at his most blunt when discussing Greater Albania: Let the Albanians have their independence; give the Mexicans some part of Mexico, maybe the northeastern fifth. And then if the Albanians want to become a part of a greater Albania, so be it. Who cares? The notion that a Greater Albania poses any threat is just ridiculous.

Just wanted to provide some clarity on the kind of mindset we're dealing with here.

That’s what we call the "school of political realism."

Sandra Harris2 said:It’s not all self-explanatory, though.
I have a friend who could write an entire manifesto on why Putin is right and why Ukrainians should just take out Zelensky themselves.
He happens to be Italian, but I guarantee you there are plenty of people like him right here in the States.

Those are the types of people who pretty much exclusively get their news from those weird "alternative" conspiracy sites.

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So, get this—some 62-year-old guy over in Volgograd just got slapped with an administrative fine for "discrediting" the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Apparently, that's what the Telegram channel for the Joint Press Service of the Volgograd Region Court is reporting.

The whole thing went down back in May 2022. This older gentleman was cruising around the Traktorozavodsky District in a Kamaz truck, shouting anti-Russian slogans right at the military commissioner for the Traktorozavodsky and Krasnooktyabrsky Region. Can you imagine? Just driving around yelling at officials while behind the wheel of a heavy truck.

According to the regional court's press release, the guy basically "publicly undermined trust and discredited" the use of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and its citizens—who are supposedly out there "maintaining international peace and security," if you believe the official line regarding the special military operation in Ukraine as authorized by that February 22, 2022, decree from the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation. Yeah, sounds about right, doesn't it?

When he finally sat down for his hearing, the retiree actually admitted he did it and said he was sorry. The court weighed the "social danger" of his actions against his age and how much money he actually has to his name. In the end, they decided to let him off with a $15,000 ruble fine. Not exactly a life sentence, but hey, I guess it's enough to sting a little.

wearyheron5 said:A strategic retreat beats an embarrassing defeat any day of the week. 😁 (powered by Alan Ford)

How is Goldman Sachs going to spin this one? Some kind of "special goodwill mission"? 😬

The New York Times is already out there claiming they pulled back because they "achieved all their objectives" or some other nonsense like that.

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So, according to Putin's latest spiel, Russia supposedly doesn't have the "same problems" with Sweden or Finland that they're having with Ukraine. He’s basically claiming there aren't any territorial disputes or beef with those Scandinavian countries that would give Moscow any real pause, even if Finland or Sweden decide to join NATO.

“Well, if they want to join NATO, fine by me,” the president warned, though he didn't sound particularly thrilled about it. He went on to say they need to get one thing straight: there weren't threats against them before, but if military units and infrastructure start getting deployed over there, we’re going to have to mirror that move and create identical threats against the territories used to threaten us.

He also added that things are about to get pretty tense between Russia, Finland, and Sweden. From Moscow's perspective, he claims that Finland and Sweden joining NATO isn't even in the same ballpark as Ukraine joining.

And as for that whole idea that Russia was fighting against NATO expansion only to end up with nothing to show for it? He thinks that's total nonsense. In his mind, people are just trying to pin this on him to make it look like Russia failed to get the results it wanted.