Look, everyone messes up once in a while, right? I honestly didn't even notice the original post was highlighted in blue. I mean, I wasn't exactly scouring this entire thread from the very first message. So, yeah, my bad. But can I at least get a little bit of an explanation here?
So, Microsoft just hit me with a 1,000 point penalty and a permanent ban from the off-topic section over in the sports forum.
I’m honestly sitting here wondering why, because I wasn't out there attacking anyone; I was just laying out my own take on Putin and his reasons for invading Ukraine. Now, let me be crystal clear: I am not defending him, not by a long shot—especially not the aggression against another nation or the horrific destruction of Ukraine and its innocent civilians—but I was simply trying to offer my perspective on what actually drove Russia to plunge into this war in the first place. If expressing an opinion like that is strictly off-limits, then what is the whole point of democracy and having a diversity of thought anyway?
I see I’ve already received a private message warning me that I supposedly violated the site rules. But could someone please give me a straight answer as to which specific rule I actually broke? As far as I understood it, the off-topic thread is meant to be a space where folks from the main sports board can chat about everything under the sun, not just the game itself.
Look, I’ve picked up a ban or a warning here and there for trolling or maybe being a bit too blunt, but I always know when I've crossed the line, and I always try to make sure it doesn't happen again. I know where the limit is.
In my eyes, this permanent ban is just plain unfair. On the sports board, I joke around quite a bit, but it seems like half the people there take everything way too seriously.
So, if it’s possible, I’m asking for an explanation. I truly feel like this punishment is just way too extreme.
He managed to grab all those untapped resources out in Donbas and Crimea. We’re talking billions upon billions of cubic meters of gas, not to mention the ore deposits sitting right there around Donetsk...
How can you people not see that this was literally a matter of survival for him? He isn't about to let NATO missiles parked in his own backyard, so end of story. Period.
The Ukrainians are just too good, really. But they ended up looking like naive fools, much like what happened in Georgia back in 2008.
The US doesn't actually have the guts to go toe-to-toe in a direct conflict with a nuclear superpower. They only seem to have the nerve when it comes to picking on poor folks in places like Libya, Iraq, or Afghanistan...
Just wait, you'll all be crying over Russia and the gas soon enough....
Diesel is already hitting 2.50 euros on the Autobahn in Germany... and word is it could climb as high as 3 euros...
Mercedes owners are putting their orders on hold, and Porsche is doing the exact same thing...
The West is going to feel the sting of this just as much as the Russians... everyone is in for a world of hurt here... it's not just the Russians and the Ukrainians who are going to suffer...
Oh, and by the way, where on earth did that whole COVID religion disappear to????
So much for this mighty NATO alliance. If the USA wasn't standing there holding everything together, the whole thing would have gone completely to hell by now, wouldn't it?
Sure, look, I'll give them this: Turkey has a pretty respectable military force on its own... but then you look at these tiny little member states and it just becomes a total joke.
It's just more proof of how "brilliant" Germany is—or should I say, how incredibly foolish they've been. This whole crisis hitting the German auto industry boils down to one thing: they tried to cut corners to save a few bucks and became totally dependent on everyone else. Now, the bill has finally come due. Those much-talked-about chips? They could have easily been manufactured right there in Germany, but no, they decided to outsource everything to China just to shave off some costs... and now that the supply has dried up, what do they do? Suddenly, they're scrambling to build factories back in Germany.
Just yet another piece of evidence regarding German intelligence—if you can even call it that...
I mean, look at Porsche and Mercedes over in Stuttgart; they're being forced into Kurzarbeit, basically sitting around on government-subsidized downtime. It happened in 2021, and now here we go again...
They claim they want to slap sanctions on Russia, but they can't actually pull it off because they're too addicted to Russian resources... it doesn't work like that, does it? You can't try to sit on two different chairs at once without falling over.
Word on the street is that the big man himself is feeling under the weather, apparently dealing with some nasty side effects after getting his shots. I guess everyone hits a wall eventually, even someone in his position.
I know I saw some report about this somewhere—I can't quite put my finger on where—but it sounds like his health is really taking a hit. It’s a shame, because Erdogan has always been such a powerhouse leader.
So, my husband and I finally made it out to visit Andorra this August, and honestly, I’m just sitting here trying to find the right words because it is absolutely stunning. It’s like a little slice of heaven on earth, truly.
Larry Walker24 said:I bet they don't even have space to store Bio 45 and 91, let alone deal with them.
Even Liechtenstein had its own Nazi party back in the day, complete with their very own local mouthpiece for the movement—just a massive, aggressive push to align themselves directly with Adolf.
Luckily, the people there didn't just swallow that nonsense whole; instead, they stuck to the lead of their protector, Switzerland, and somehow managed to stay neutral and unconstrained through all the chaos.
Now, San Marino was also neutral, but even they weren't completely untouched, catching a few stray bombs from the Allies during that German retreat from the Apennines. 🍿
And yet, miraculously, they survived the absolute madness of WWII.
Then you look at Luxembourg, which tried to play the neutrality card in both World Wars, only to be absolutely steamrolled by the Germans both times. After that disaster, Luxembourg joined NATO as a way to guarantee they’d never again fall victim to such a treacherous strike from the Swabians...
It's a lot like how the Soviet Union swore they would never again suffer twenty million deaths at the hands of the Germans, yet here we are today with Russia sitting on thousands of nuclear warheads, supposedly kept "just in case" to act as a guarantor of peace... 🙏
Anyway, here is some info on the fight over San Marino.
The Battle of San Marino was an engagement on 17–20 September 1944 during The Italian Campaign of The Second World War , in which German Army forces occupied The neutral Republic of San Marino , and were then attacked by Allied forces. It is also sometimes known as the Battle of Monte Pulito.
We can all sit here and make jokes about how they're tiny, acting like size is the only thing that matters in a country. But seriously, just look at Monaco or Liechtenstein.
The people there are loaded. Honestly, most folks are probably thrilled to be living in these little microstates. Sure, Monaco is basically the definition of glamour—it’s easily the place with the highest concentration of millionaires on the planet. But then you take a look at Liechtenstein... talk about a transformation, going from some isolated mountain backwater to one of the wealthiest nations in the entire world.
They’re actually quite decent, too. I find their sense of order absolutely fascinating. The Prince has all this authority because the citizens actually voted for it during a referendum. He’s essentially the reason they’ve become so prosperous...
You really just have to go see it for yourself. I’ve been to Liechtenstein three times now, and every single time I come back completely spellbound by its beauty. Monaco is just as stunning. San Marino was incredible, too... I still need to make it over to Andorra eventually.
Liechtenstein is basically tied up with Switzerland, though back before World War I, they were actually aligned with the Austro-Canadian Empire. Honestly, they don't even need the European Union because their standard of living blows most EU nations out of the water... they’ve got this deep-seated grudge against Germans, and let's be real, even the locals there aren't thrilled since you've got Swabians using this tax haven to run a European dirty money laundry... The ruler, Hans Adam, is actually wealthier than Queen Elizabeth II... he wields almost absolute power over the country. In all honesty, the whole thing is basically a soft dictatorship.
I hit up Monaco and San Marino last year, and before that, I made three trips over to Liechtenstein—actually planning my fourth visit pretty soon.
They’re such cool little microstates.
I’ve gotta say, Liechtenstein is my absolute favorite; Monaco is all fancy and high-end, sure, but it’s just way too crowded, always with all that constant noise and commotion. As for San Marino, that fortress perched on Mount Titano is just stunning.
The founder actually hailed from Rhode Island.
You should definitely go if you ever get the chance. I did get to visit Andorra back in '98 during my high school graduation trip, but let's just say we were all a bit too tipsy at L'ORET del mar to really take it all in.
So you're telling me everything is just pre-planned by these politicians from the jump? Honestly, if that's how the game is being run, we might start seeing death penalties popping up in certain states sooner than anyone expects
steelharbor9 said:If you're looking for bad space movies like Gravity, honestly, if you missed Ad Astra, just let it go.
It might be the worst movie of 2019, maybe even on its own, but man, especially considering all that hype 🙏
Even Zvonimir Maycug wouldn't be caught dead with a script this bad—it was just a total disaster 🙏
I was watching Gravity last night. And why is it considered a bad movie? It walked away with seven Oscars! The effects were top-tier... it isn't some typical, preachy nonsense like Rambo where he takes out half the Russian army and just gets a single scratch on his hand because he's such a powerful American.
I'm not saying Sandra Bullock could have actually died up there, but the film really forces you to contemplate how messed up we are as a species... thinking about how there's absolutely nothing up there but eternal silence...
Germany. For an entire month, all you could hear about was washing your hands and wearing gloves. That was back at the end of month three. Now, here we are in month five—which is basically a month and a half later—and suddenly the only thing anyone mentions is masks, and they’re making them mandatory.
Nobody even brings up gloves anymore.
Something stinks here, and it smells absolutely foul...
Yesterday, there were 4,000 people out in the streets in Germany protesting, demanding their freedom back.
Oh, give me a break. It’s actually wild when you think about it—the US has more counties than all of Germany combined, and Germany has like 80 million people. Meanwhile, our entire country is barely bigger than Berlin. We're talking maybe 4 million people tops...
It's just absolutely fascinating how they choose to structure the administration in this beautiful land of ours.
I’ve been sitting here reading through all these comments, and honestly, I can’t wrap my head around how you guys are letting them mess with your heads like this, stripping away your basic constitutional right to move around freely. Seriously, when are you people going to actually stand up for yourselves? What the hell are you waiting for? They’re out there hosting massive events without any masks or restrictions, yet they try to play cop and tell you that you can't even drive from the Hudson Valley over to Appalachia
Look at what’s happening in Germany—nobody is stopping you there. Sure, you might need a mask on a bus or while you're grabbing groceries, and maybe there's a limit of two people in one spot, but beyond that? You go wherever you want and do whatever the hell you want...
Between Canada and the US, things have become more restrictive than North Korea...
There is absolutely no way tourists are going to want to visit the US under these conditions...
darkseal9 said:Man, Justin owes me like two thousand bucks! Just saying—it’s not like things are just going to wander around on their own! The police are just standing there right in front of the church. Americans don't give a damn about numbers, man! Come on, Justin, if you've got the guts! Man, things are getting absolutely wild over in Norval! Everyone's losing their minds on Reddit right now. Greasy fingers make this iPhone slide right out of my hand! No viruses, no money crisis. Period! Hey Justin, don't let them take ours right now! Coming soon—chill out, man!
Hey there, my fellow football fanatics, wishing you all a very Happy Easter this coming Sunday. really hoping we get back to the beautiful game sooner rather than later...
Man, I was just sitting here watching the 2014 World Cup final on a German TV channel, and it totally sent me down memory lane. Back then, I was living out in Canada and the final kicked off right around 2 in the afternoon. I’ll be honest, I got absolutely hammered. The pub was packed with immigrants, some gorgeous Latina girl was walking around, and then there was this one Argentinian guy crying his eyes out... I remember this one Gaucho so clearly, just sitting there on the steps, sobbing his heart out...
Seriously, just bring football back to us... we had this incredible generation of Americans reaching their peak, and they really should have pushed even further under the leadership of a master like Zlatko Dalić from Livno... but man, everything just ground to a halt...
As for this whole COVID situation, a friend of Rodjakov—he was 42—passed away from it just a few days ago. But he had diabetes, so he was obviously in a high-risk group...
Look, I’m not here to play armchair expert or debate who called what correctly, because frankly, I don't care about being right. But the reality on the ground is that since Monday, my neck of the woods here in Germany has basically been under some kind of strict police curfew...
