Where's WYK been, and what trouble is he making?

[wyk]

They’ve gone from a party of principle to a party of consolidated power. Putin looks like a strongman, and definitely not in the Brian Shaw way, so they’ll back him (and consequently Russia) because of it.

I don’t get it, man. I saw it first here in Kentucky with Bevin, then nationally with Trump. But the right-wing nationalism that sort of kicked off 5-10 years ago isn’t just confined to the US & Russia. Marine Le Pen still has strong support in France, the UK left the EU, Hungary has Viktor Orban. I don’t know, man.

The UK is it's own den of snakes. But you have a point; a single right wing party hijacked their thinking with unbridled lies and convinced them that playing well with others was for sheep - not unlike the tactic we see with modern Republicans. They've confused freedom and liberty with racism, jingoism, fear, and nationalism. Many simply can not live with the fact the British Empire died in WWII. They often celebrate their old empire because raping, stealing, murdering, and oppressing is something to be proud of to some. I'm surprised I didn't see MAKE GREAT BRITAIN GREAT AGAIN! hats.

All I know is, this American living in Ireland can't get what he needs from the UK any more if the packet is larger than an envelope. It either gets too much duty, takes too long, or costs too much over all. My main trading partners now are Germany and France, with my last parcel coming from Belgium. Way to go, Britain. Build a lovely tunnel miles under the channel to France for billions of pounds, then plop down a border at the end of it. Sort of the definition of retarded. And don't get me started on the insanity likely to kick off in Northern Ireland now that the Brits there are upset there's no hard border between them and the Republic of Ireland... ugh. Just the supreme stupidity of it all is so stunning.

Hungary and Italy got a raw deal. I'm not saying they are reacting too rationally, but their deal was raw. The UK and the US go in to Iraq and Afghanistan and mess around with the middle east, as they do, creating masses of refugees for decades - and the EU has to manage hundreds of thousands of them headed their way. And how Biden scooted out of the region isn't gonna make things any better in this regard. It's a huge mess the EU has to deal with, and no one is gonna be happy about how anything goes by it whether Hungary or Germany, etc. And when you see masses of immigrants, you will also see right wingers massing to protest. I mean, many in the UK voted for Brexit because of the migrant crisis.
So, they created a problem, blame it on someone else, then take their toys and leave the sand box. Brexit was brilliantly marketed.

 

[copen]

The UK is it's own den of snakes. But you have a point; a single right wing party hijacked their thinking with unbridled lies and convinced them that playing well with others was for sheep - not unlike the tactic we see with modern Republicans. They've confused freedom and liberty with racism, jingoism, fear, and nationalism. Many simply can not live with the fact the British Empire died in WWII. They often celebrate their old empire because raping, stealing, murdering, and oppressing is something to be proud of to some. I'm surprised I didn't see MAKE GREAT BRITAIN GREAT AGAIN! hats.

All I know is, this American living in Ireland can't get what he needs from the UK any more if the packet is larger than an envelope. It either gets too much duty, takes too long, or costs too much over all. My main trading partners now are Germany and France, with my last parcel coming from Belgium. Way to go, Britain. Build a lovely tunnel miles under the channel to France for billions of pounds, then plop down a border at the end of it. Sort of the definition of retarded. And don't get me started on the insanity likely to kick off in Northern Ireland now that the Brits there are upset there's no hard border between them and the Republic of Ireland... ugh. Just the supreme stupidity of it all is so stunning.

Hungary and Italy got a raw deal. I'm not saying they are reacting too rationally, but their deal was raw. The UK and the US go in to Iraq and Afghanistan and mess around with the middle east, as they do, creating masses of refugees for decades - and the EU has to manage hundreds of thousands of them headed their way. And how Biden scooted out of the region isn't gonna make things any better in this regard. It's a huge mess the EU has to deal with, and no one is gonna be happy about how anything goes by it whether Hungary or Germany, etc. And when you see masses of immigrants, you will also see right wingers massing to protest. I mean, many in the UK voted for Brexit because of the migrant crisis.
So, they created a problem, blame it on someone else, then take their toys and leave the sand box. Brexit was brilliantly marketed.

Many Americans care about the USA for any number of reasons. But when you have a dude with the mental capacity of a Gummi worm, who has somehow, someway been put in the Whitehouse, it has a tendency to cause some folks to go a little bonkers.
Modern Republicans, modern Democrats, modern Liberals........much has changed.

 

[sawfun]

I wonder how political leaders would have fared during WWll if they'd have spouted out adoration for Hitler or Tojo? I can more than guess, I guess we are more progressive today? Kinda funny that the "Tough Guys" stay well behind the lines full of self importance. Zelenskiy is definitely following Sun Tzu. Leaders need to feel as much pain, if not more, than the people they govern. Good luck with that here. They just pay someone else to do it for them, and consider themselves smart for gaining the position to do that.

 

[northmanlogging]

The UK is it's own den of snakes. But you have a point; a single right wing party hijacked their thinking with unbridled lies and convinced them that playing well with others was for sheep - not unlike the tactic we see with modern Republicans. They've confused freedom and liberty with racism, jingoism, fear, and nationalism. Many simply can not live with the fact the British Empire died in WWII. They often celebrate their old empire because raping, stealing, murdering, and oppressing is something to be proud of to some. I'm surprised I didn't see MAKE GREAT BRITAIN GREAT AGAIN! hats.

All I know is, this American living in Ireland can't get what he needs from the UK any more if the packet is larger than an envelope. It either gets too much duty, takes too long, or costs too much over all. My main trading partners now are Germany and France, with my last parcel coming from Belgium. Way to go, Britain. Build a lovely tunnel miles under the channel to France for billions of pounds, then plop down a border at the end of it. Sort of the definition of retarded. And don't get me started on the insanity likely to kick off in Northern Ireland now that the Brits there are upset there's no hard border between them and the Republic of Ireland... ugh. Just the supreme stupidity of it all is so stunning.

Hungary and Italy got a raw deal. I'm not saying they are reacting too rationally, but their deal was raw. The UK and the US go in to Iraq and Afghanistan and mess around with the middle east, as they do, creating masses of refugees for decades - and the EU has to manage hundreds of thousands of them headed their way. And how Biden scooted out of the region isn't gonna make things any better in this regard. It's a huge mess the EU has to deal with, and no one is gonna be happy about how anything goes by it whether Hungary or Germany, etc. And when you see masses of immigrants, you will also see right wingers massing to protest. I mean, many in the UK voted for Brexit because of the migrant crisis.
So, they created a problem, blame it on someone else, then take their toys and leave the sand box. Brexit was brilliantly marketed.

As for N Ireland, do they remember how **** it was during the troubles? Do they realize that Sinn Fein is now a legitimate political party, recognized by parliament, and the Irish people? And that now that 9/10's of the population has gotten a little taste of equality... they ain't likely to give it back anytime soon, or that the IRA imported 100's of tons of munitions from Libya (as well as boston) yet they've only destroyed less then 25 tons of it?

Course we are talking about scared unionists who believe they have maternal right to rule and whatnot... Be a whole lot better if they just declared themselves a separatist country and rejoin the EU... I don't think that joining with the Republic is ever going to be an option, but staying with Britain is clearly a bad idea.

Guess Ian Paisley being all dead and moldy didn't change much then?

 

[catbuster]

I commend them. Zelensky has gained a lot of respect on the world stage for his actions.

I get Hungary’s catching a lot of refugees. I understand how reactionary nationalism can be bred by xenophobia and ethnocentrism. I’m still incredulous as to how all of this is still, somehow, going on. We were all told 20 or 25 years ago we were going to enter the information era that would solve the world’s problems and we had learned our lessons from history. There had to be an inflection point somewhere. I remember being young and optimistic about the world back then. Maybe it was September 2001. Maybe it was 2003. Maybe it was earlier. I don’t know, but somewhere something went off the rails and now we find ourselves here.

I find myself listening more and more to John Prine these days. I’m needing something to calm me down and make me think I’m sane.

As an aside, Paradise brought up some memories today. Not directly related to the ongoing, pointless conflict in Ukraine but still takes me back to my anti-MTR days when I spent some time in Frankfort campaigning for Ernie Fletcher to do something about strip mining.

Anyway, back to our regular programming.

 

[northmanlogging]

I commend them. Zelensky has gained a lot of respect on the world stage for his actions.

I get Hungary’s catching a lot of refugees. I understand how reactionary nationalism can be bred by xenophobia and ethnocentrism. I’m still incredulous as to how all of this is still, somehow, going on. We were all told 20 or 25 years ago we were going to enter the information era that would solve the world’s problems and we had learned our lessons from history. There had to be an inflection point somewhere. I remember being young and optimistic about the world back then. Maybe it was September 2001. Maybe it was 2003. Maybe it was earlier. I don’t know, but somewhere something went off the rails and now we find ourselves here.

I find myself listening more and more to John Prine these days. I’m needing something to calm me down and make me think I’m sane.

As an aside, Paradise brought up some memories today. Not directly related to the ongoing, pointless conflict in Ukraine but still takes me back to my anti-MTR days when I spent some time in Frankfort campaigning for Ernie Fletcher to do something about strip mining.

Anyway, back to our regular programming.

its partly generational, "boomers" and older "gen X" lived under constant propaganda about Russian spies, and being warry of anyone new, then Reaganism reared its Alzheimer's liver spotted head and gave everyone someone to blame "drug lords" and "south American's" the older folks didn't have the information available to see the world through the lens of Youtube and chat rooms, and they refuse to do so now... so despite the ability for anyone anywhere to fact check just about any ******** story instantly, most do not...so they live in a world where blaming anyone but themselves for all their troubles in normal.

Anyway, I'm old enough to remember when you just had to rely on the news to not lie to you, but young enough to be able to cross reference their ******** when necessary

 

[catbuster]

its partly generational, "boomers" and older "gen X" lived under constant propaganda about Russian spies, and being warry of anyone new, then Reaganism reared its Alzheimer's liver spotted head and gave everyone someone to blame "drug lords" and "south American's" the older folks didn't have the information available to see the world through the lens of Youtube and chat rooms, and they refuse to do so now... so despite the ability for anyone anywhere to fact check just about any ******** story instantly, most do not...so they live in a world where blaming anyone but themselves for all their troubles in normal.

Anyway, I'm old enough to remember when you just had to rely on the news to not lie to you, but young enough to be able to cross reference their ******** when necessary

I grew up with H.W being the first president I remember. I’m pretty sure we’re in a similar age bracket, or probably within 10 or so years of one another. I feel the same way about media when I was younger. FOX News wasn’t prevalent when I was younger, hell it wasn’t around when I was born. The Weather Channel was, well, weather 24/7, and yeah, CNN was around but there didn’t seem to be as much spin as what picked up in the mid-oughts.

It’s interesting, dad spent a lot of time in South America in the 1980s and then fought in the Gulf War. He is not a believer in drug lords, and is not enthralled with what he described as “the senseless ruination of an entire country” and “the greedy waste of the land’s resources.”

Again, I just want to know exactly where the inflection point occurred. I just know whatever optimism I once had was completely dashed around 2012, albeit I lost most of it around 2008 or 2009. It’s a sad state of affairs. Definitely not bringing a kid into this world now, even if I would be getting what most people might consider a “late” start.

 

[northmanlogging]

I grew up with H.W being the first president I remember. I’m pretty sure we’re in a similar age bracket, or probably within 10 or so years of one another. I feel the same way about media when I was younger. FOX News wasn’t prevalent when I was younger, hell it wasn’t around when I was born. The Weather Channel was, well, weather 24/7, and yeah, CNN was around but there didn’t seem to be as much spin as what picked up in the mid-oughts.

It’s interesting, dad spent a lot of time in South America in the 1980s and then fought in the Gulf War. He is not a believer in drug lords, and is not enthralled with what he described as “the senseless ruination of an entire country” and “the greedy waste of the land’s resources.”

Again, I just want to know exactly where the inflection point occurred. I just know whatever optimism I once had was completely dashed around 2012, albeit I lost most of it around 2008 or 2009. It’s a sad state of affairs. Definitely not bringing a kid into this world now, even if I would be getting what most people might consider a “late” start.

I'm older then I let on... I remember Carter, and the Iran Hostage Crisis... but I also have a pretty good memory.

As for CNN and spin, meh they may highlight certain news stories, but far as I can tell, they at least aren't blatantly making **** up.

I do remember when Fox was the "risque" channel for showing "the Simpson's" and "Married with Children" when they brought in "newz" it was clearly biased from day one.

Raised enough kids that weren't mine, my brothers and sisters have done enough procreation I can take a hard pass on that one. Luckily all the nieces and nephews are old enough to vote and take care of themselves now

Anyway, as far as things going sidewards... either sometime after Clinton got elected, or shortly after 9-11, mostly after 9-11 things took a super weird Uber patriot spin, "you're with us or against us" attitude that's sort of been ongoing ever since, frankly it should of lost its steam when NO WMD's were found in Iraq, except one solitary unmarked sarin gas mortar shell... not a case or a warehouse, one unmarked shell..

 

[wyk]

I watch a lot of DW, well the English version of their channel(by law, they can not have government influenced content, aka propaganda. Which, of course bridges the first amendment in the US. Still, they can be very German at times...):



Yeah news has it's spin, especially the talking head shows. Speaking of propaganda, it is amazing Murdock has sunk to such lowly measures to amass even more wealth. But he could be in the same echo chamber a lot of extremist republicans are. He may actually believe the vitriol FN spews, or maybe he secretly hates America. I suspect a bit of both.

 

[wyk]

There's also Radio Free Europe, which is currently non profit, but it is funded by the US(and has been since just after WWII, where it was heavily CIA controlled). Though they do their own thing now, I do notice a slight American lean on occasion, and they do tend to go a bit biased towards American allies in times like these.

 

[catbuster]

Holy **** (<- Link)

What’s everybody think?

 

[wyk]

Holy **** (<- Link)

What’s everybody think?

Putin is the kind of man that doubles down unless he's given a good way out to save face.
Well, most men are this way, really. Expect 'total war' shortly. And don't expect the war to be short.

 

[northmanlogging]

Putin is the kind of man that doubles down unless he's given a good way out to save face.
Well, most men are this way, really. Expect 'total war' shortly. And don't expect the war to be short.

well, from what I've heard this morning, (unvarified) Putins calling in more troops, troops that are at least a week away, cause like 65% of the russian army wasn't enough for the first week...

this is going to get ugly, but if it breaks russia, I mean fall of Rome breaks... do we get to divide up the pieces? or is it a domino effect sending us into another dark age of democracy? (wait wut? I promise I'm not stoned)

 

[sawfun]

The more troops that are away from Moscow, the fewer there are to control the populace.

 

[wyk]

So this happened today. Some mad man from the north asked me to port an EFCO 5200. This is a plastic saw not unlike a Husqvarna 350, though not quite as well made...

BLIP BLIP!






A bit of chatter from the dullish factory chain with high rakers...

 

[sawfun]

The more troops that are away from Moscow, the fewer there are to control the populace.

I've been thinking more on this and the little weasel would likely go into a bunker, then bomb his own people in Moscow. Russian leaders have a long habit of sacrificing their own.

Ukraine is reported to have a 40 million populace, so say, if 5 million leave, is he gonna kill the other 35 million? That ranks up there with Hitler & Stalin, or bests them. And he will do it in a much shorter time frame with modern weapons.

Putin is basically gonna hold a nuke gun to the west's head saying, give me the USSR back, or I push the button. In the end, this may make the Cuban missile crisis look like the good ole days. Lots of war gaming going on, think tank brains on overtime I suspect.

 

[wyk]

Worth a watch to see what Ukranians have already been through:

 

[wyk]

I've been thinking more on this and the little weasel would likely go into a bunker, then bomb his own people in Moscow. Russian leaders have a long habit of sacrificing their own.

Ukraine is reported to have a 40 million populace, so say, if 5 million leave, is he gonna kill the other 35 million? That ranks up there with Hitler & Stalin, or bests them. And he will do it in a much shorter time frame with modern weapons.

Putin is basically gonna hold a nuke gun to the west's head saying, give me the USSR back, or I push the button. In the end, this may make the Cuban missile crisis look like the good ole days. Lots of war gaming going on, think tank brains on overtime I suspect.

We have friends in Warsaw, Poland. They have already seen NATO troops go through on the way to bolstering the border forces along their border with Ukraine, and to set up aid. Supplies are starting to take a hit from the influx of migrants. There is a feeling of fear and trepidation all around.

 

[sawfun]

Poland certainly has some experience with invasion/occupation. Nazi's, then the USSR. Those folks know what's likely brewing. I'm wondering if Ukraine will end up as some kind of staging ground for a larger conflict, should it go that far.

 

[wyk]

So Paul Manafort used to work for Viktor Yanukovych, Putin's puppet in Ukraine previously before the orange revolution cast him out. The whole Republicans supporting Putin starts to make sense... Well, it doesn't make sense, you can just understand it now. All the harassment of the Ukraine by Trump also makes more sense now. We had traitors in the White House owned by Russian interests from day one.