Keyrock

Oh I agree, I get why many former Eastern Bloc nations wanted to join NATO. But at the same time I can see the Russian perspective and why Ukraine is a red line for Putin. Again, this was no secret, this was known by NATO, they knew damn well that this would trigger a war. Putin made pleas before he invaded trying to prevent this from happening. His demands were a written agreement that Ukraine would never join NATO and the removal of missile bases from his borders, namely in Poland. I always try to see things from both sides (or all sides if there's more than 2). I can see why NATO rejected this, but I can also see it as a reasonable demand from Russia's point of view.

First off, let's start with any "expert" that say this was an unprovoked attack by a madman is either ignorant or lying, my money is on lying. This was absolutely provoked by NATO, and knowingly. I'm not absolving Russia of responsibility, I think this invasion is horrible, but from the Russian point of view it's necessary. Russia bad and NATO bad are not mutually exclusive, they can both be true, and in this case they are. Russia is bad for invading a sovereign nation and NATO is bad for knowingly pushing them into it. NATO has been pushing toward and encircling Russia for years, decades, and putting missile bases near its border. How do you think the US would react if Russian-allied missile bases started showing up near its borders, say in Canada and/or Mexico? Ukraine holds a special strategic place. Not only could (and would) NATO place more missile bases next to a big chunk of Russia's border, but this is also where the Eurasian Steppe crosses into Russia. This is a vast, open plain where an enemy, like NATO, can line up column after column after column of its tanks and troops and roll into Russia. From the Russian perspective this is unacceptable, they can't let that happen.

Diplomacy. It would be one thing if I could see any scenario where Ukraine could take back the Donbas, let alone Crimea, but I don't. I understand fighting for freedom and one's homeland, but there comes a point where one needs to recognize an unwinnable situation and make a plea for the best diplomatic deal they can get. Unfortunately, I fear, the time when Ukraine was in the best position to get a deal was nearly a year ago and I can't see them getting back enough territory to put themselves in that position again. The thing is, there's no scenario where Russia just leaves the Donbas, this isn't like Afghanistan. I'm not going to spend several paragraphs explaining the geopolitical situation, nor the many times Russia has been invaded via the very strip of land they are currently occupying, nor the geography of the Eurasian Steppe and why it's so important. Suffice to say that Russia considers NATO in Ukraine an existential threat, and rightfully so. There is no giving up the Donbas for Russia, it's not happening. I'm Polish, us Poles are all too well acquainted with Russians. We have a very long history with them, a lot of it not exactly friendly. Russians are no strangers to wars of attrition, which is exactly what they're in currently. They excel at this type of war because they have the mentality and the manpower. The Russians will send as many men as it will take for as long as it takes. Even if Ukrainians are prepared to do the same they are facing an overwhelming manpower deficit and Russia has the defender's advantage. In this situation the best the Ukrainians can reasonably hope for is to trade even, but trading even is nowhere near good enough when you are staring at a 3 to 1 or 4 to 1 manpower disadvantage, not to mention that Russia has an order of magnitude larger a population from which to replenish their troops.

It's talk like this from the Anti-Laser Grid Lobby that's going to have us looking on in envy in a few years at the laser grid the CCP puts around Chinese Taipei.

That's why we should go with a laser grid. The kids love aRGBs and we can have the laser grid cycle colors, breathe, all the stuff they love.

After giving it some thought, I've concluded that we should forget about walls and barriers. I mean, are we barbarians? Shouldn't we be evolved past this? I have the solution. You're going to love this! Laser grids. Heh? Heh? I've got your attention now, don't I? Sure, New York City has their digidogs and K5 surveillance drones, but that's just parroting the CCP. That's old news. Plus, laser grids are way more badass than surveillance drones. You know China will have laser grids soon. Are we going to let them get to them first or are we going to beat them to the punch? Are we followers or leaders? And think about it, there's legitimate risk of injury to immigrants trying to scale physical walls. They could twist an ankle, blow out a quad, break an arm, the list goes on and on. With a laser grid, if they try to cross, they get cut into neat little meat squares. That's way more compassionate and humanitarian. Also... This just keeps getting better. We can set up the lasers so that we can change the color whenever we want. Breast cancer awareness? BAM! Pink laser grid. We'd be the envy of the world! As a final added bonus, think about how much that would piss off Trump. Sure, publicly he'd denounce the laser grid, but you know that it would eat him up inside. He would think "That should have been me. I should have been the one to build the laser grid. It would have been THE BEST laser grid." It's a win win win win proposition. This might be my best idea ever!

It's his administration. Right or wrong, the leader gets the credit and the blame, even if in this case the leader is effectively Bernie from Weekend at Bernie's.

Remember the border wall that Trump started building in southern Texas? You know, the wall he was labeled a racist and white supremacist by the legacy media for? The wall Joe Biden publicly said he would not build one more inch. That wall. Guess what Biden is building in southern Texas now that the flood of immigrants is no longer just affecting podunk towns inhabited by lowly, dirty, deplorable peasants, it's now affecting big cities like New York and Chicago, where the aristocrats live, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence, the two things are in no way, shape, or form related. Wait... What's that? It's not a wall, it's a barrier? Oh, I'm sorry, that's completely different. My mistake.

Great football player and an all-time great name for producing childish chuckles.

Scooped up some French flour as part of my continuing mission to eat better. My sister has gluten allergy yet she can eat bread, pasta, pizza, and so on all day with no problems when it's made with flour from outside the US. I have no such allergy, but it's still probably a good idea to cease consuming flour enriched by the fine folks *snicker* at Monsanto.

Patch 2.01 is out.

Happy Birthday LC

If the sea levels keep rising my future home in the mountains would eventually be waterfront property. Any suggestions on how I can increase my greenhouse gas emissions? I suppose I could buy up a bunch of coal and just burn it for the hell of it.

Welp, it's time for muh Boys to get their asses handed to them by the Niners. Again.

Good riddance. As an extra bonus this really pissed off Newt Gingrich and caused him to go on a tirade. Delicious schadenfreude!

Kikori whisky It tastes like junmai sake. It's much stronger than sake and it burns some, though not excessively, but it's no harsher going down than junmai sake. It's quite pleasant to drink, though it won't replace Nikka From The Barrel as my favorite Japanese whisky.

Moroccan chicken with a side of taters I was a bit worried about how green olives would fare with apricots and raisins but it works surprisingly well. The robust flavor profile of ras el hanout brings it all together.

Not that I'm aware of.

That's just my video card.

If it were up to me they'd remake Persona 2, but that ain't gonna happen so I'll take what I can get.

Lucky for me, muh Boys don't play the Chiefs this season, so I get to completely dodge America's collective orgasm any time she's at a football game.

And to think, this whole thing could have been avoided with a 10 minute cursory background check. Too much work, I guess, couldn't be bothered. I mean, even without a background check, if they were fighting the soviets in WW2 that puts them on the Axis side. As much as western media would like to rewrite history and as much as Stalin was a horrific monster, the soviets were on the Allies side in WW2. They're so desperate to portray Ukranians as pure hearted heroic people that never did anything bad in their entire history and Russians as cartoon villains that they're willing to overlook The Holocaust. I mean, what's a little ethnic cleansing?

Oops, wrong thread.