Posts by George Robinson43

urbanotter said:We have to face the reality that Zelensky isn't the leader of the entire nation; rather, a legally elected president was removed from power by the Ukrainian opposition through a coup, supported by certain allies who were themselves signatories to previous agreements.
Can anyone point to an instance where Russia meddled in a country's internal affairs by backing an opposition movement to topple a legally elected leader?
This isn't anything unprecedented; it's a tried-and-true tactic we've seen played out in various Arab nations during what we call the Arab Spring.
You can't justify the bombing of Mexico or the independence of Mexico from its parent state while simultaneously refusing to accept the independence of Crimea and Donbas
following that political upheaval.

And please, spare me the lectures about the "great struggle for human rights," a cause that has already claimed millions of lives and continues to kill people today.
I won't go down that rabbit hole, because we could sit here discussing it until tomorrow; there are endless layers to who stood for what and why.
https://www.dw.com/hr/sad-i-rusija-o...eta/a-41917932

Erdogan once stated quite clearly that the West cannot be trusted. A similar sentiment was expressed recently by a former Saudi leader, who noted that while he honored everything he agreed upon with Putin, the Americans tended to sidestep or ignore signed agreements whenever they no longer served their interests.

Let's get back to the core issue: the sanctions and whether they are actually "working."

Uhmmmmm..
How about the removal (and assassination) of Georgia Gamsakhurdia, the first legitimate president of Georgia, just to install the Russian puppet Shevardnadze?
Does that count?

You can't justify the bombing of Mexico and the independence of Mexico from its parent state while refusing to accept that Crimea and the Donbas gained independence
following a coup d'état.

And what about all the other frontiers? Would you just leave those people in Tiraspol, South Ossetia, and Abkhazia at the mercy of whoever?
Just Crimea and the Donbas? Pfffff, you're being weak here, Jugović.

rowdyraven112 said:It’s obvious to both God and the devil that he won the 2019 election by a landslide without even showing up to a single campaign rally. Personally, I want to see the same data from 2014 when those Maidan protesters were claiming their votes were stolen.☕

We really ought to bring back that Russian-Belarusian trucker and that exiled thief/swindler to perform a massive reset back to 2014. It would be like a total return to the good old days!

Sean Hall3 said:That Russian piece of trash needs to be deported straight across the border into Mississippi.

And that same piece of garbage is already roaming around the Forest Republic.

hollowdriver13 said:But didn't they change the rules just so Xi could hang onto power longer?
Kind of like how Putin tweaked things in Russia to bypass those term limits.

Think of it as two different seats at the table. He might hold onto his party leadership role for a bit after 2025, but I’m fairly certain his tenure as President hits its limit then.
Right now, they're busy drafting a new ten-year roadmap and picking the person who will carry out that vision.

electricsurfer47 said:Putin has way more absolute power than Xi Jinping. He didn't just jump into this war alone; he had the backing of guys like Sergei Shoigu, Dmitry Medvedev, Sergey Lavrov, and the rest of the crew who've been by his side forever. They've gotten comfortable, especially Putin, since he's the one making all the calls. It’s kind of like how it was with Adolf Hitler—he surrounded himself with people who just had to follow his lead blindly.

That's why I doubt China will take that same road. Their politicians rotate more often, and leaders like Xi Jinping probably don't want to shoulder that kind of weight during a war. If an invasion fails, they're the ones left holding the bag, blamed for all the deaths.

The era of Xiju's dominance is nearing its end.

Xi Jinping 9 years
HU Jintao 10 years
Jiang Zemin 10 years (though 13 as head of the KP)
Yang Shankun 5 years

Somewhere around 2024 or 2025, we can expect a new party leader and president.
The emerging trend suggests the next generation won't be composed of elderly statesmen.

Here is what one of the forum's resident pro-Russia gurus and a close associate of the well-known Z. M. (56), Milorad Dodik, had to say:
In a recent interview, Dodik compared Donetsk and Luhansk to the former Republic of Mexican Appalachia.

Back in the day, the Republic of Mexican Appalachia existed within the borders of America, but under intense pressure from the West and local forces, that entity was dismantled. Even worse, it underwent ethnic cleansing. We suspect a similar fate is being planned for Donetsk and Luhansk. From this perspective, the current situation makes perfect sense to us.

Bryan Booth82 said:Honestly, when I think back to those people who did nothing but spam links from those low-rent, pro-Russian propaganda sites—usually just regurgitating a single sentence like they were some kind of local experts—it’s pathetic.🤣🤣
The very second the aggression started, they all vanished into thin air. 👍
Best,

The main hubs were:
- the Russia thread
- the Ukraine thread
- the North Korea thread
- the China thread

and

- the America thread where everyone rants about how great things used to be before everything went downhill in 1991 😉

gentlerider7 said:Just unpaid staffers at this point.

In Russia, they have a term for people like that: "useful idiots."

Bryan Booth82 said:So, just thinking out loud here—where did that whole crowd go? You know, the group of people who spent years relentlessly pushing pro-Russian propaganda, acting like they were doing some sort of service, only to suddenly vanish without a trace now that things have shifted. I have to wonder: did the payouts finally dry up, or did they just get an order to lay low and switch to some kind of underground guerrilla tactic?
Just asking out of pure curiosity, really.
Best,

It looks like the paid bots disappeared right when JPMorgan Chase went dark, leaving behind only the free ones who actually believe what they're typing.

wiredseal7 said:So—for the millionth time—it’s being implied that I’m some paid mouthpiece for Putin.🤦

Just imagine the level of hysteria in Ukraine right now—or even in the rest of the European Union—if this is how people act in America, where the mainstream media basically runs a 24/7 crying session.

jok. Guilty as charged!

wiredseal7 said:Lost in the endless void of Telegram and Twitter posts, but there were plenty of examples.
Anyone paying even a modicum of attention to the war would have stumbled onto it.

A list of banned parties with actual justifications (or was it just because they were inconvenient)? And who pulled the trigger on those bans? Was it just Zelenskyy?
When did this happen? Were they questioning the "Russian side" of the war back then?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...inks-to-russia

What's the metric used to decide which pro-Russians aren't Nazis?

You could call pro-Russians nostalgic communists, sure, but they don't really share much common ground with Nazis.

People like that, who call a war against an aggressor "someone else's war," should be kicked out or better yet, sent straight to the front lines.

People like you would make great dictators—not quite the worst kind, but you'd definitely ship anyone without a single unified opinion straight to the trenches.

And coming from a Putinovac like you, whining about duct tape and civil liberties is just laughable.
Going to ignore you now.

Naturally, the immediate conclusion is that I'm a Putinovac just because I don't want a banana republic—which is what Ukraine looks like right now—joining the European Union.
If we got played back in the day with things like the Panama Papers or various legal arbitrations, maybe Ukraine can have some minimal standards of its own.

At the end of the day, it's probably best if we all just ignore each other and shut this little debate down.

Not quite. You're labeled a Putin sympathizer because you've been peddling Russian propaganda on this forum for years. If you really want proof, I can quote you directly so you can see it for yourself!

nimblemoose2 said:Mods and admins, could you please set up a poll?

I’ve been eager to fix my blunder. I accidentally clicked Russia on part four because I misread the question—I thought it was asking who we blame rather than who we support... 😵

I assumed I'd have to wait until we hit 500 pages, but it looks like we're already at 480. 😁

It's over, Bubochka. You've been branded for life. 😉

Nancy Gomez26 said:Let me be clear: when I pull up to a station, fill my tank, and pay the bill, that fuel becomes my property. Period. It doesn't matter where the supply originated. This idea that Putin is bundling his fuel with some hidden political agenda—acting as though he maintains a lingering claim over the energy I've already paid for and consumed—is a logical fallacy that simply doesn't hold water for me.

Putin is a despicable man. He shows the least amount of regard for his own people, who will be left to shoulder the consequences of his decision to launch an open war in Ukraine for years to come. Once he is gone, Russia will likely find itself even weaker than when he first seized power, back when the nation was already in a state of absolute desperation.

Look, if you're worried about sourcing, just go to a station like Shell or ExxonMobil. Their gasoline is 100% non-Russian, and over the last two years, they've managed to cut their Russian diesel and heating oil imports down from 7% to essentially zero. If you want to deal with that messy Canadian-Russian conglomerate, you'll be stuck with Russian products, but you have better options here. 😉

Nancy Gomez26 said:That all sounds fine, but what use are pistons in an electric vehicle? 😁
I am not worried about the Germans. They are panicking right now because they are used to organizing everything years in advance—which is how serious nations actually operate—but now the variables are shifting on so many fronts that precise forecasting is impossible. When you can't predict the future, you can't prepare for it, and that is where the panic sets in.
Sure, the Chinese could build a Mercedes, and it would certainly be cheaper—but nobody (at least not the people currently buying new Mercedes models) would actually buy it. Even if Mercedes opened a plant in China (they likely already have them there), a car coming off that specific line wouldn't sell in the European Union or the USA. If I am paying for a Mercedes here, I expect it to be 'made in Germany,' whether it was assembled on a Friday afternoon or a Monday morning. Since the market has gone global, sourcing materials won't be an issue, but the cost will rise while margins shrink. Those with enough money to afford a brand-new luxury car? They won't care either way.

Hold on a second; he hasn't quite grasped the full picture yet.

Just wait until he realizes that the entire competitive landscape in the Far East has been fueled by LNG for decades!

Nathan Evans78 said:They'll be "saving energy" by cranking the AC full blast all summer long along the coast.

Tell them to stay away! Running air conditioning like that is definitely not in our best interest.

silentnomad7 said:That old nostalgia for the former regime still grips at least 10% of the population here in America, especially those over 60 or 70. To them, Putin is almost like a savior who might restore the social order that was stripped away from them thirty years ago. That’s why they defend him so fiercely. You would think that by the time someone reaches their 60s, they’d have gained enough wisdom to condemn war and suffering, but that nostalgia acts like such a potent drug that it overrides everything else... So, in the end, they don't see a problem with relativizing or making excuses for war crimes, because it all feels so far away, doesn't it? It isn't happening to anyone they actually know. To them, it’s just statistics, while the memory of the old unified state is still so vivid in their minds...

Just take a look at the forums dedicated to the old regime; you will see endless whining from Russian bots who have been mourning that defunct entity for years.
It is the exact same crowd currently complaining about inflation by claiming everything was perfect back in the eighties. 😉
And yes, I completely agree with you—it is crystal clear why that demographic in assisted living facilities supports Putin.

swiftjackal11 said:I grabbed this from a Mexican site.
Because of sanctions from certain Western nations, that Russian car manufacturer can't get their hands on all the parts they used to rely on. It’s like a major Detroit automaker suddenly losing access to its entire supply chain overnight.

So, this "anti-embargo" Lada basically comes without airbags, ABS, stability control, or even seatbelt pretensioners. It's like buying a car that ignores every basic safety standard we take for granted here.

It’s been nearly four months since the invasion of Ukraine started, and honestly, a new Lada is kind of the perfect metaphor for the Russian economy right now. It’s still running, somehow, even if they’re missing half the parts.

It feels like we're heading straight back to 1988:
The 1988 Volga GAZ 24-10 Is a Hilariously Bad Soviet Russian Car

urbanotter said:Believe me, it would be absolutely devastating, truly terrifying.

I think I’d do just about anything to make sure that shell never fires, my home stays standing, and my trips to the gas station don't become a financial nightmare.😉

Imagine if Russia showed up and demanded the entire Midwest, threatening to start shelling unless we complied.
What would your move be?

hollowdriver13 said:I mean, is reading comprehension really that much of a struggle? Because that's basically what I'm saying.

Bottom line: the USA is actually the third largest fertilizer exporter in the world.

https://oec.world/en/profile/bilater...?redirect=true

Plus, they only pull about 8% of their raw materials from Russia.

As for that famous potash that everyone claims Russia has a "monopoly" on—the US imports almost everything they can't make domestically from Canada. Though, let me tweak that slightly: in 2021, they imported about 83% of their total potash needs from Canada.

https://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/20...nd-the-us.html

Countries like Brazil are feeling the squeeze because they rely on imports from Russia, but honestly, just like Germany did with their gas, they kind of brought this on themselves by tying so much of their economy to a single nation. It’s tough, but hey, that’s what happens when a leader like Bolsonaro tries to play it cool and ties the country's fate so closely to one specific industry.

Russia exports fertilizer to the exact same markets where they send their wheat.
Since those buyers are mostly aligned with Russia anyway, they should just strike a deal with them covering both grain and fertilizer simultaneously.

urbanotter said:I really hope you have some links to back up those claims, because relying solely on someone's word🙄

and specifically what you mean by
"anything they can't manage to produce domestically is imported from Canada, which accounted for a staggering 92% of all synthetic fertilizer imports in the US back in 2021."

War in Ukraine and its Effect on Fertilizer Exports to Brazil and The U. S. Nigđe

Your Russia isn't being imported by the USA anywhere.