Posts by placidsurfer13

There’s just something about that specific energy when training camp finally kicks off. I always find myself getting way too invested in the roster battles before the actual season even starts. Anyone else already losing sleep over the depth chart?

silentnomad7 said:Complete economic isolation is basically like having a thousand nukes, and honestly, that's exactly what happens if even a single one is used. And we'll be feeling the fallout for at least the next 50 years...

But wait, are we actually dealing with total economic isolation right now?

I mean, it feels like they're just playing games—one day they're trading with those bad guys in Russia, the next they aren't, then some countries are in while others are out... it's all over the place.

You can really see the hypocrisy of the West coming through in moves like this—it’s pretty obvious if you look closely. Either they should just go all in and hit Russia with complete, total isolation right now, or they should probably stop making themselves look so ridiculous by pretending this half-hearted isolation is actually working...

Melissa Rivera5 said:I mean, maybe he wasn't bored, but he definitely had to stroke that Nazi, imperialist ego of his—the kind that only feeds on innocent blood. Honestly, people like you, the ones supporting him, are basically just making it easy for the (V)SOA to track who the local collaborators are.
As for Putin himself, he messed up so badly in Ukraine that even if he permanently annexes what he’s taken, that’ll be the last time he ever pulls anything like that. He really showed himself and Russia for what they truly are: modern-day Hitlers, Nazis, and nothing but ruthless thugs who don't give a damn about human life.

And the worst part? I guess even Putin admitted it when he said Russia hasn't lost anything from this war. To a Russian-Nazi mindset, those deaths don't matter... probably just because they see people as being worthless.

I just can't see how you'd link Russians and Nazis together... especially knowing what happened with the actual Nazis back in 1941-1945 while they were fighting the Red Army...

Btw, I'm definitely not supporting Putin, and I'm even less of a fan of Russia or the Russians—actually, because of some personal stuff, I can't even stand the sight of them...

I'm genuinely curious, though—what exactly made you jump to the conclusion that I'm some "Russian Nazi" backing Putin? Like, what was the reasoning there?

Kimberly Perez82 said:I can wrap my head around the sheer irrationality coming from Russia lately—honestly, we’ve become almost numb to it at this point—but I am completely baffled by the logic on the American side. They are still pushing forward with plans to send massive shipments of weaponry into the occupied Donbas even after its annexation by Russia, which just invites the accusation that the US is launching a direct assault on Russian soil. It feels incredibly reckless. According to CNN, the forecasts are looking pretty grim; for the first time, they are openly acknowledging the possibility of nuclear war and have briefed "the world and their member states" about it. I mean, seriously, what on earth are they thinking? Why keep flooding that region with arms when it's clear the people in charge have lost their grip on reality and reason has completely flown out the window? Shouldn't the priority be trying to de-escalate the situation instead of pouring gasoline on the fire?

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/09/27/e...ntl/index.html

Well, what else are they supposed to do?....if they did, it would basically be a total Russian victory...

I mean, think about it—the Russians grab a chunk of Ukraine, declare it part of Russia, and then suddenly nobody dares to touch them because they'd be "attacking Russian territory." And since the US will defend those areas with nukes... Russia could potentially just roll through all of Ukraine or any neighboring country they feel like taking if this keeps up.

gentlestag15 said:A few years back, the EU rolled out this massive plan to dump about $1 trillion into renewables over the next two decades to make sure they aren't reliant on imported fuel ever again. Now, that whole transition is probably going to hit the fast track.

I mean, yeah, what they said is technically true, but my big question is... how on earth are we supposed to survive those next 10 or 20 years while the EU tries to break free from Russian energy?

It seems like everyone over in the West is freaking out, just panicking about whether they can even "tough out" a single winter without Russian gas...

But then again, you look at certain EU countries like Canada—and even places like Mexico that are basically looking toward joining the EU later—and they’re openly buying Russian gas. They're signing all these energy deals with Russia like absolutely nothing is happening with the war in Ukraine... meanwhile, Gazprom is still pumping plenty of supply to other EU nations, just sort of doing it "under the radar," I guess.

https://www.reuters.com/business/ene...el-2022-09-11/

Timothy Williams5 said:It isn't irrational at all.

Putin has made a very calculated realization regarding Ukraine's economic potential—specifically, those massive mineral wealth reserves and energy supplies located throughout Crimea and the Donbas.

He understands that Russia is essentially a hollow economy, a nation whose primary survival mechanism is selling energy to its wealthy neighbors in Europe, which is pretty much the ceiling for a state caught in that murky, mafia-style limbo between old-school communism and modern capitalism.

He also sees that the EU is pivoting toward renewable energy, a move that effectively drains Russian coffers.

All this rhetoric about a "corrupt West" and "Nazis" is really just noise designed to mask the actual reality: Russia faces certain ruin if Ukraine aligns too closely with Europe and cuts off those reliable energy revenues.
Without the oil and gas money, Russia is finished.

The only truly irrational part of this entire saga is the decision to crank up a decaying, corrupt military machine for the impossible task of conquering such a massive neighboring country.

Anyway, that's just my two cents...

From what I can tell, things were going pretty smoothly for them over the last 20 years... both for Russia, selling all that energy, and the EU (especially Germany) buying it up.

btw, what do you guys think—is the Russian energy giant Gazprom under sanctions? Like, is there any chance they're still selling energy to someone somewhere... while the Russians are over there tearing Ukraine apart?

darkwolf20 said:Those are fairy tales for children, the kind of delusions a Botoxed little man clings to in his fever dreams.

It has nothing to do with NATO or any supposed buffer zone, because attacking Russia serves no one's interests. Even if someone were foolish enough to try, it wouldn't matter; an atomic bomb would reach Moscow in three or ten minutes, making the distinction irrelevant.

This is entirely about the complexes of a fascist hobbit who desperately wants Russia to be a major global player, even though, realistically, they never will be again after this war.

The so-called second-strongest military in the world is nothing more than a glorified parade unit and a total joke. ☕

Wait, hold on... do you seriously believe Putin just woke up one day feeling bored at the White House, decided he needed a little hobby to pass the time, and then just gave the order for hundreds of thousands of Russians to invade Ukraine? Like he’s just playing some video game?......And you're still watching this like it's some sort of simulation?

btw, does Putin not already know that Russia is more or less a major global power or something?

gentlestag15 said:What kind of buffer zone31 miles are we even talking about regarding St. Petersburg?
I mean, who in their right mind would ever attack Russia when they're sitting on an arsenal of 6,000 nukes?
Get real.

I guess you could try asking the Russians (you know, Putin and his whole military/government leadership) or those massive pockets of pro-Russian folks scattered across different European countries...

gentlestag15 said:Now they’ve got Finland as a new NATO member right on their doorstep, 31 miles near St. Petersburg,
Look, everyone knows they didn't invade Ukraine over some nonsense about buffer zones. It’s really just that old dog Putin couldn't get over the collapse of the USSR and wanted to play Peter the Great, trying to round up his lost sheep to make sure he’s remembered in history just like him.
Except those sheep turned into wolves, and Putin isn't Peter the Great—he’s just an old man losing his grip.

Wait, so the USSR didn't have a buffer zone? I mean... what was the Warsaw Pact then, if not a giant buffer zone?

I think it's true that Putin's dream is to rebuild the USSR in some way, but since he can't quite pull off a whole new Warsaw Pact, he’s settling for grabbing Ukraine to use as a buffer... that’s why he went in. Though, I guess that's not even the only reason, right? Like someone else mentioned earlier, you've got all those natural resources and massive territories to consider too... it's complicated.

wanderingdriver68 said:People are always droning on about how NATO has somehow "encircled" Russia, but I honestly don't follow the logic there; why wouldn't these nations want protection against Russia in the first place?
The Baltic states are under no illusions—they know perfectly well that if they hadn't joined NATO, they’d be facing exactly what happened to Ukraine right now. You have Russian presence scattered across basically every former USSR state, and combined with that outside influence from Russia, they've been tearing through territories just like they did in Georgia, Moldova, and now Ukraine. I suspect Lithuania would be the very first target if they weren't in the alliance; that little corridor leading toward Kaliningrad would be a perfect opening.

We need a reality check here: aside from a few fringe groups in Asia and some puppet regime under Lukashenko, nobody actually wants anything more to do with Russia or Putin.

And Mexico wants plenty to do with Putin. 😁

But, I guess that’s just how it looks from the perspective of those nations bordering Russia (the old USSR folks), but from the viewpoint of Russia and Putin, it’s a totally different story... they see NATO as this massive threat and won't tolerate them being nearby. They probably imagined they could just "divide" the world again, kind of like how the USA and the USSR used to do back in the day... but yeah, it looks like that isn't working out for them anymore.

Gregory Newman2 said:Imagine the terror of having NATO right on your doorstep, especially when you already share a border with the USA in Alaska via the Bering Strait. It's a recipe for disaster.🙄

Well, okay, but that's just a natural boundary where the USA and the USSR used to live side-by-side...

The situation over in Europe is a whole different ballgame... I mean, it’s kind of like when the USSR tried to set up nuclear missiles over in Cuba, way too close to the US... obviously, the US wasn't going to just sit there and let that happen, you know? They couldn't allow it...

And it's pretty much the same deal now—Russia isn't going to want NATO sitting right on their doorstep... especially since, if you ask me, Putin is basically trying to rebuild a new USSR from scratch...

But, man, looking at how things are playing out, it seems like he really messed up, because now NATO is moving in right next to the borders of Finland and Sweden too...

velvetcanyon20 said:It’s deeply irrational. Honestly, it’s gotten to the point where if you look at any serious geopolitical writer from the last two decades, they’ve all basically argued that the only way to truly weaken Russia is by forcing them into this exact conflict with Ukraine.

The moment those paratroopers started dropping, I remember thinking... that was the day Russia lost.
There’s just no realistic way to hold 40 million people against their will without a massive logistical backbone.
For Russia, territory has always functioned as their defensive depth—a sort of buffer zone.
But looking at the numbers? Nothing is going their way. They don't have the population base, and their economy isn't up to the task.

We really ought to be looking at deeper analyses—the kind that project out twenty years or more.
It’s obvious the Americans are putting immense pressure on them. Perhaps there was a deep-seated belief in Moscow that this was a "now or never" window—a chance to make a move that would secure their standing for the next fifty years or so.

Sadly for them, the Americans are reading the room too. It’s clear to everyone that Putin is essentially a disciple of Dugin and his theories. Today's Russian rhetoric sounds exactly like Dugin back in 1997...
And back then, he was adamant that without "resolving" Ukraine, there's no point in even discussing continental politics. And well... here we are.

I mean, look, I don't know if everyone agrees with me here—and maybe I'm totally off base—but the whole idea that Russia's invasion of Ukraine was just some completely irrational, senseless outburst? I don't think it's quite that simple...

I mean, I guess you could say he’s being rational if you look at it from a certain angle—like, Russia sees itself as this major regional power, maybe even something that’s leaning toward becoming a global military heavyweight—so they want to carve out this sort of "buffer zone" between themselves and NATO... and that buffer zone would basically end up being, more or less, the territory of Ukraine.

I mean, I guess it’s pretty obvious to everyone at this point that the West is basically poking the bear—like, they're actively provoking Russia by having NATO practically surround almost all of their borders, or at least getting incredibly close to them... and then, supposedly, they have no intention of sitting down at the table for any kind of negotiations with Russia regarding all of this. It just seems like a recipe for disaster, honestly.

So, here’s the thing—there's another layer to this whole mess. Russia's execution of this military action—or let's call it what it actually is, an invasion of Ukraine—has been incredibly clunky. From a purely tactical standpoint, Russia has basically turned out to be a paper tiger—at least when you're looking at their conventional hardware. It’s like, they just aren't capable of seizing large swaths of Ukraine and actually maintaining control over them... which really makes you wonder. I mean, was Putin and his entire inner circle fully aware of these massive shortcomings before they ever decided to launch this aggression against Ukraine? I guess we might never know for sure, but it's a huge question mark.

All things considered, I honestly feel like this whole Russian aggression thing is going to end up being absolutely devastating for Russia—both on the battlefield and when it comes to their economy... I mean, looking at the big picture, it probably would have been way better for them if they had just played ball and tried some actual diplomacy with the West instead of all this.