quote:

Originally posted by Lefty Sig:
Re: the Nazi thing.

Good post.

^^^^
This is completely accurate. Any time the left takes a dislike to something or someone, they brand it as the boogeyman- and their base takes up the chant, while the MSM makes it gospel to them, thereby validating it and keeping it in a loop that feeds on itself. Classic disinformation.

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
I really don't understand the hype over a single hypersonic missile shot. It's not a nuke - it was likely just a test launch.

Its the new wonder-weapon that the talking heads don't understand, thus they continue to ratchet up the fear-mongering without any context. I really don't think the news media has any idea what they're talking about other than parroting whatever gets put in front of them; hello Ron Burgundy? Not to mention there's enough discussion that not only was the target questionable (chicken coop/barn?) but, it looking more like it wasn't even a hypersonic.

quote:

Anybody remember the 'combat debut' of the F-117 stealth fighter? It wasn't Iraq - it was Panama. They bombed some piddly target that any other aircraft in theater coulda hit. It was done to justify the cost of the program, play it up to the public, and test it under ralistic conditions.

It definitely was a validation mission for the F-117, their target was a field next two barracks at Rio Hato airfield. The idea was to create a distraction tying-up the soldiers there (didn't want to kill them ) , while our Rangers parachuted onto the field. Being next-gen laser guided weapons, the system had issues with fog and humidity (most testing was in desert environs); while the impact wasn't exactly where it was supposed to go, it did the job and gave the USAF and Lockheed something to work on.

It seems CNN is now posting Nazis who claim to be in the Azov battalion:

https://twitter.com/Polk_Azov/...887132224827395?s=19

quote:

Originally posted by chellim1:
Furthermore, the Constitution only guarantees your freedom of speech, not your "right" to be heard.

And OTOH it also does not confer or protect a "right" to not be offended. Too many Snowflakes seem to misunderstand that fact.

flashguy

The vindication of George H W Bush

Events have shown that Bush Sr’s 1991 ‘Chicken Kiev’ speech was right and his critics were wrong

https://asiatimes.com/2022/03/...-of-george-h-w-bush/

On August 1, 1991, US president George Herbert Walker Bush arrived in Kiev with a message not everyone wanted to hear.

Abjuring the temptation toward triumphalism that has since marked the American response to the end of the Cold War, Bush took to the rostrum of the Ukrainian Rada (parliament) and warned that the US would not “not support those who seek independence in order to replace a far-off tyranny with a local despotism. They will not aid those who promote a suicidal nationalism based upon ethnic hatred.”

This was typical of Bush’s, and of his secretary of state James Baker’s, dealings with the Soviets (that is, of course, until the exigencies of the following year’s presidential campaign dictated otherwise). But in Kiev that August, Bush laid out the limits of American involvement in Soviet (and implicitly, post-Soviet) affairs:

“We cannot tell you how to reform your society. We will not try to pick winners and losers in political competitions between Republics or between Republics and the center. That is your business; that’s not the business of the United States of America.”

Yet at the time Bush’s address received a hostile reception. Indeed, at the time the American media and political class found themselves reeling from a triumphalist Cold War hangover that they have yet to climb out of.

Bush’s speech was memorably dubbed the “Chicken Kiev” speech by the neoconservative columnist William Safire. Safire, a Manhattan PR executive turned Nixon-Agnew hatchet man, would then go on to spend the rest of his career cheering needless American wars and from his perch at The New York Times.

Safire’s criticism of Bush was a harbinger of the thinking that marked the “unipolar” moment of the 1990s. Writing on August 29, 1991, Safire took a victory lap while panning Bush’s address.

“Communism is dead,” declared Safire. “The Soviet empire is breaking up. This is a glorious moment for human freedom. We should savor that moment, thanking God, NATO, the heroic dissidents in Russia and the internal empire, and the two-generation sacrifice of the American people to protect themselves and the world from despotic domination.”

Yet events have shown that Bush was right and Safire was wrong.

In light of Ukraine’s tragic trajectory over the past two decades, Bush’s promised hands-off approach looks prescient.

Indeed, given the current crisis, one might be forgiven for wondering how it transpired that subsequent US presidents abandoned Bush’s wise caution in favor of a dogmatic denial of geopolitical realities; specifically, Russia’s national-security interests vis-à-vis the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as well as Moscow’s interests in the well-being of Russian-minority populations within post-Soviet republics.

The specter of a “suicidal nationalism” has for decades haunted Ukrainian politics and in recent years has become its most dominant force, thanks in no small part to the rhetorical financial and military assistance provided by the late Mr Bush’s successors.

At two key moments in the past 20 years, during 2004’s Orange Revolution and, a decade later, during the 2014 Maidan uprising, Kiev was encouraged to indulge in the nationalist temptations that Bush had warned against.

In post-Maidan Ukraine, the votes of the Russophone minority were dismissed; discriminatory language laws were instituted; and an “anti-terror operation” aimed at the Donbas commenced.

In its refusal to implement the Minsk Protocol of 2015, the government in Kiev was succumbing to the kind of “suicidal nationalism” of which Bush Sr had warned. As American economist Branko Milanovic recently commented, “Nationalism in Eastern Europe is the worst possible disease. It was subdued under communism. It was used as a tool to undo communist regimes. It might now blow up the entire world into pieces.”

The consequences of not heeding Bush’s warning are now being played out in tragic fashion. Both the Orange Revolution and the Maidan coup, along with constant, public promises by the US that Ukraine would one day join NATO, helped persuade Moscow to do the unthinkable.

Instead of heeding Bush’s policy of caution and restraint, the US became a full-fledged participant in the politics of Ukraine – with disastrous results.

quote:

It definitely was a validation mission for the F-117, their target was a field next two barracks at Rio Hato airfield. The idea was to create a distraction tying-up the soldiers there (didn't want to kill them ) , while our Rangers parachuted onto the field. Being next-gen laser guided weapons, the system had issues with fog and humidity (most testing was in desert environs); while the impact wasn't exactly where it was supposed to go, it did the job and gave the USAF and Lockheed something to work on.

On the plus side, the crater made an awesome containment berm for my battalion's fuel blivets.

Ukraine sinks Russian ship, hits port supplying the Mariupol siege

https://hotair.com/ed-morrisse...riupol-siege-n457583

Ukraine said it struck the Russian-occupied port facilities in the Azov Sea city of Berdyansk, Thursday, setting off a large fire and destroying a Russian ship as the war entered its second month.

The port has become a major logistics hub for Russian forces. Footage from the area showed smoke billowing from the berthing area and Kyiv said the attack destroyed the Russian navy landing ship Orsk.

The attack in Berdyansk, nearly 100 miles from the main frontline in southern Ukraine outside the besieged Ukrainian port in Mariupol, is a sign Kyiv has retained significant military capabilities as it pursues a large-scale conventional war against Russian forces.

Russian officials didn’t immediately confirm the attack. Footage from Berdyansk shows other Russian vessels fleeing the port after the explosions.


a number of videos at the link

https://hotair.com/allahpundit...ed-to-resign-n457531

Sergei Shoigu is Russia’s defense minister and a general of the army despite having never served professionally as a soldier. He’s not where he is because of his military prowess, he’s where he is because he’s a crafty politician who’s successfully negotiated the currents of power in Russia over decades

No one seems to know where he is lately. There are whispers of “heart problems.” To thicken the plot further, Shoigu has been cracked up as a potential successor to Putin someday because of how adeptly he’s managed to climb the ladder of a business as ruthless as Russian government.

^^^ More:
We can only guess at Putin’s state of mind but odds are good that his baseline level of paranoia has climbed to a state of high fever. He knows Russia’s plutocratic elite would be happy to see him gone if it meant sanctions being lifted and restoring their access to luxury goods. He also knows that he has spies in his midst, possibly high-ranking ones. Russian journalist Andrei Soldatov claims to have sources near the top in Russia telling him that Putin is irate at how transparent his machinations in Ukraine have become to the U.S. Either America is intercepting sensitive Kremlin communications or Putin’s circle is leaking like a sieve.

At this point, I’d love to hear that someone gave Putin a point blank lobotomy, but I’d need irrefutable photographic proof before I believed it. I wouldn’t put it past any of those cretin to fake his death to “end the war with honor intact” and allow Putin to retire with his billions in obscurity.

Putin is losing in Ukraine. If current estimates are near accurate, Russia has already lost as many personnel as they did over 10 years in Afghanistan. Throw in all the hardware and this has been a bust. Of serious concern to me is whether he will touch off tactical nukes to gain back momentum and dare the world to do something about it.

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
Ukraine sinks Russian ship, hits port supplying the Mariupol siege

Fake news and propaganda. Everyone knows that Russia is just "mopping up" now. /sarc

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by sdy:
Ukraine sinks Russian ship, hits port supplying the Mariupol siege

Fake news and propaganda. Everyone knows that Russia is just "mopping up" now. /sarc

That's where a lot of people are missing the big picture. The ship part of the plan; APCs, part of the plan; tanks, part of the plan; near five figures of dead Russian soldiers, part of the plan.

Everything is coming together just as he envisioned it.

Looks like a cargo ship burning and the other two damaged and burning while fleeing

Sutchka blyatt! Those damaged ships aren't "fleeing"; it just took those crafty Ukranian farmers a few weeks to figure out how to make John Deere tractors operate under water.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
That's where a lot of people are missing the big picture. The ship part of the plan; APCs, part of the plan; tanks, part of the plan; near five figures of dead Russian soldiers, part of the plan.

Everything is coming together just as he envisioned it.

All part of the Lizardfolk Illuminati's plan to secretly whittling down Russian military capabilities in anticipation of the forthcoming alien landing in Moscow.

agree -- Putin's 'almost' got them right where he wants them ...

THEN he will unleash the 'A Team' he's been holding back !

==========================

Putin's Gamble.

He basically took a hit after being dealt 2 face cards and the dealer showing a face card.

If Putin intended to invade, posture, expecting the Ukrainian people to stand down while a "regime change took place, he failed.

If Putin intended to invade, posture, expecting the Ukrainian people to stand down while a "regime change took place, and eliminate "weapons of war" and "Nazis", and "Bio Weapons Labs" he failed.

If Putin intended to invade, put down resistance with the intent of softening for the follow-up with his Varsity team, he failed.

If Putin intended to pull off a quick, decisive victory with very little losses to either side, tearful women and children handing flowers to smiling solders as the caissons go rolling along, and the world happy to welcome it all, he failed.

Putin showing 20, can only ask for another card, because he has bet it all.

Unfortunately, his asking for that card will inevitably result in widespread and greater destruction and loss of life. He cannot sustain the losses and hoping to outlast the Ukraine's in attrition. So he must increase the intensity, and that steps well past the line if simply trying to eliminate the fighting capability of the Ukrainian's.

So, when it is all said and done, how can anyone make a stand that Russia was or would ever have suffered anywhere near, equal or more than the Ukraine people? What actions could the Ukraine people have taken (forget the past/present, there is nothing there) in the future, that can remotely justify any of this so far, and where it likely ends up before the dust settles?

Putin lost when the cards were dealt and he failed to stand. He is playing a fool's game.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Putin's Gamble.


Putin lost when the cards were dealt and he failed to stand. He is playing a fool's game.

Yup. History is littered with such fools.

That burning Russian Navy ship is mopping up good...real good.