uncle W Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 8 hours ago, donsutherland1 said: Savage is not a credible source on Russia or history. He is not a Russia expert, former diplomat, or historian. Russia's history has long been defined by conquests. Indeed, in his seminal work during Russia's Crimean War, Ivan Golovin wrote of Russia, "The history of Russia is the history of its conquests... [O]ffering only a military despotism--the Russian Government is not easy in a state of peace." Golovin continued, "Russia represents a principle, despotism, and she will defend herself against liberty by stifling it in birth." Russia under Vladimir Putin is frozen in the 19th century. Its worldview is stuck in a dangerous combination of imperial ambitions and pathological insecurity. President Putin saw Ukraine's shift to the West, something Russia rejects, and efforts to build a vibrant democracy as posing a mortal threat to its political model. Despotism and democracy are incompatible. Putin chose to try to suffocate Ukraine's nascent democracy. At the same time, Putin seeks to rebuild a Russian empire. He has taken a growing number of increasingly aggressive risks to do so. President Zelensky was nowhere on the political scene when Putin invaded parts of Georgia in 2008. President Zelensky was not on the political scene when Russia invaded parts of Ukraine in 2014 leading to its illegitimate annexation of Crimea. Putin, like despots before him, has an ambition that goes far beyond what the limits of international principles--including long-established principles pertaining to state sovereignty, territorial integrity, and non-aggression--permit. Again, Golovin nailed the dynamic that is present in explaining, "[T]here are no limits to a despot's ambition." Garry Kasparov wrote of Vladimir Putin in his fairly prescient Winter is Coming: Like most dictators, Putin has good animal instincts when it comes to evaluating his rivals, and he knew he would face no real opposition from other world leaders. And, also like all dictators, Putin grew bolder with every successful step. Dictators do not ask why before they take more power; they only ask why not. That is who Putin is. That is why he has pushed ahead with his latest war. Russia's floundering but destructive invasion of Ukraine has little to do with President Zelensky's alleged provocations. It has everything to do with Putin's longstanding designs. Indeed, on February 26th, Kremlin-friendly RIA Novosti accidentally published and then withdrew an essay prematurely celebrating a rapid Russian victory that ultimately did not occur. That essay read, in part: A new world is being born before our eyes. Russia's military operation in Ukraine has ushered in a new era... Russia is restoring its unity - the tragedy of 1991, this terrible catastrophe in our history, its unnatural dislocation, has been overcome. Yes, at a great cost, yes, through the tragic events of a virtual civil war, because now brothers, separated by belonging to the Russian and Ukrainian armies, are still shooting at each other, but there will be no more Ukraine as anti-Russia. Russia is restoring its historical fullness, gathering the Russian world, the Russian people together - in its entirety of Great Russians, Belarusians and Little Russians... Vladimir Putin has assumed, without a drop of exaggeration, a historic responsibility by deciding not to leave the solution of the Ukrainian question to future generations. The U.S., Europe, and any nation that legitimately stands for a rules-based international order against the chaotic alternative where exercises of brute force regularly write and rewrite the rules in their bloody and brutal aftermath, should support Ukraine. Any nation that credibly claims to embrace democratic governance should stand by Ukraine. To again borrow from Golovin who nailed the character and nature of Tsarist Russia, of which Putin's Russia has become a 21st century extension, "If liberty... does not destroy despotism, despotism will destroy it." That's what is actually at stake. Georgia in 2008, Ukraine in 2014, and Ukraine in 2022 are the symptoms of this growing battle between the despotism of Putin's Russia and democracy. If Russia again succeeds, even if by merely being permitted to retain part of its territorial gains from the current war it launched, it almost certainly will look for additional opportunities, both to expand and to undermine democratic governance along its borders. An ever insecure, increasingly ambitious, and aging President Putin, could become even more aggressive in pushing his ambitions in pursuit of building the historical legacy he seeks. The pressure of his biological clock could lead him to pursue dangerous, if not catastrophic short cuts to try to realize that legacy. Putin is a bully who needs a bigger bully to put him in his place...that bully was voted out of office...as far as liberty goes we are loosing it in this country if you are on the wrong side... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnoSki14 Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 15 minutes ago, uncle W said: Putin is a bully who needs a bigger bully to put him in his place...that bully was voted out of office...as far as liberty goes we are loosing it in this country if you are on the wrong side... More like puppet but ok Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle W Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 8 minutes ago, SnoSki14 said: More like puppet but ok our bully was pulling the strings... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
donsutherland1 Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 1 hour ago, uncle W said: Putin is a bully who needs a bigger bully to put him in his place...that bully was voted out of office...as far as liberty goes we are loosing it in this country if you are on the wrong side... Throughout Putin’s tenure, no Western leader or set of leaders tried to constrain him. Despite a dramatic turn in rhetoric against the U.S. and West during the mid-2000s, he was viewed by every President from Bush to Trump as someone with whom one could do business. But such an assumption required Putin’s commitment to rules and norms. By 2008 and, most definitely 2014, that assumption lay in ruins, but driven by hope and intellectual inertia, the policy approach remained essentially unchanged or worse. The 2018 Helsinki Summit was a foreign policy catastrophe. That may have been the moment Putin concluded that the U.S. was unwilling and unable to take measures to check his ambitions. The possibility of deterrence was lost and Putin’s ambitions were scaled up. The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 likely further reinforced Putin’s conclusions. The end result is Putin’s attempted ongoing invasion of Ukraine. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SnoSki14 Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 54 minutes ago, Torch said: Certain people still can’t see the truth. Aka the truth being whatever fits your narrative. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibertyBell Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 On 3/28/2022 at 9:41 AM, uncle W said: The Russians are communists and the Ukrainians are nazi's...I feel for the innocent people over there... Putin's party are actually oligarchs which is an extreme form of unregulated capitalism and only a small segment of Ukrainians are neonazis....granted what was said by some in charge about how their lives were more valuable than the lives of people in the Middle East was highly disappointing and those people deserve to be purged. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibertyBell Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 4 hours ago, WarrenCtyWx said: My allergies have been awful today for some reason. I usually get this in the fall. it's the wind Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle W Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 6 hours ago, LibertyBell said: Putin's party are actually oligarchs which is an extreme form of unregulated capitalism and only a small segment of Ukrainians are neonazis....granted what was said by some in charge about how their lives were more valuable than the lives of people in the Middle East was highly disappointing and those people deserve to be purged. everything is Trumps fault...Putin did not want to f with him...Even the Mafia didn't want or couldn't f with him...just ask that rat Sammy the Bull... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle W Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 7 hours ago, SnoSki14 said: Aka the truth being whatever fits your narrative. what is the truth?... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rjay Posted March 30, 2022 Share Posted March 30, 2022 7 hours ago, LibertyBell said: Putin's party are actually oligarchs which is an extreme form of unregulated capitalism and only a small segment of Ukrainians are neonazis....granted what was said by some in charge about how their lives were more valuable than the lives of people in the Middle East was highly disappointing and those people deserve to be purged. A small segment of every majority white country are neo nazis. This isn't specific to Ukraine. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibertyBell Posted March 31, 2022 Share Posted March 31, 2022 17 hours ago, Rjay said: A small segment of every majority white country are neo nazis. This isn't specific to Ukraine. Sadly a lot of it originated here. Still when we find people in positions of power who espouse these views, they need to be gone. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishRob17 Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 7 hours ago, LibertyBell said: How about a more extreme solution- simply close the highway and set up roadblocks with state troopers? Force people to stop driving until the squall passes, they will just have to sit there in their cars. When human beings are this stupid, they need to lose their rights to make these decisions. When human beings can’t figure out the multi-quote option they need to join the ‘five posts per day’ club too. 2 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rclab Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 4 hours ago, IrishRob17 said: When human beings can’t figure out the multi-quote option they need to join the ‘five posts per day’ club too. Good morning Rob, Bx, Gravity. As usual I’m lost in my own neighborhood. What is the multi-quote option? One of these days, if I can corral a grandchild to help, I’ll figure out how to make an avatar. I’d ask forky, but looking at his and looking at me, I’m afraid of what it would end up looking like. Stay well all. As always … 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishRob17 Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 2 hours ago, rclab said: Good morning Rob, Bx, Gravity. As usual I’m lost in my own neighborhood. What is the multi-quote option? One of these days, if I can corral a grandchild to help, I’ll figure out how to make an avatar. I’d ask forky, but looking at his and looking at me, I’m afraid of what it would end up looking like. Stay well all. As always … Hi there Rich. Please see some of the worst drawing you've ever seen on a screenshot below which will hopefully help in illustrating how its done: 1) Click on the + sign next to the quote button (photo 1) 2) Once you hit the + sign it will change to a checkmark and then down in the right-side corner you'll see a button appear that says "Quote 1 post" For each post you hit the + sign that number will go up. (photo 2) 3) After you have check marked all the posts you want to quote then simply hit that button in the lower right. One thing to also note is that button on the lower right will stay there as you move from thread to thread so you can quote posts from various threads. Whatever thread you are in at the time you hit the button in the lower right is where all the quoted posts will appear. I use it a lot to quote a post from the monthly thread here for example, like I did with Liberty's post this morning. So in addition to quoting multiple posts its way to quote just one post and "move it to banter" as you may have seen Mods post before. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rclab Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 2 hours ago, IrishRob17 said: Hi there Rich. Please see some of the worst drawing you've ever seen on a screenshot below which will hopefully help in illustrating how its done: 1) Click on the + sign next to the quote button (photo 1) 2) Once you hit the + sign it will change to a checkmark and then down in the right-side corner you'll see a button appear that says "Quote 1 post" For each post you hit the + sign that number will go up. (photo 2) 3) After you have check marked all the posts you want to quote then simply hit that button in the lower right. One thing to also note is that button on the lower right will stay there as you move from thread to thread so you can quote posts from various threads. Whatever thread you are in at the time you hit the button in the lower right is where all the quoted posts will appear. I use it a lot to quote a post from the monthly thread here for example, like I did with Liberty's post this morning. So in addition to quoting multiple posts its way to quote just one post and "move it to banter" as you may have seen Mods post before. Thank you Rob. Well explained and easy to follow; you should look into adult Ed. We Gerry members of the atric ward appreciate it. As always … 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CIK62 Posted April 1, 2022 Share Posted April 1, 2022 Check back in 30 days: 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibertyBell Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 On 4/1/2022 at 5:27 AM, IrishRob17 said: When human beings can’t figure out the multi-quote option they need to join the ‘five posts per day’ club too. No, I just love the extra exposure lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibertyBell Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 On 4/1/2022 at 12:16 PM, IrishRob17 said: Hi there Rich. Please see some of the worst drawing you've ever seen on a screenshot below which will hopefully help in illustrating how its done: 1) Click on the + sign next to the quote button (photo 1) 2) Once you hit the + sign it will change to a checkmark and then down in the right-side corner you'll see a button appear that says "Quote 1 post" For each post you hit the + sign that number will go up. (photo 2) 3) After you have check marked all the posts you want to quote then simply hit that button in the lower right. One thing to also note is that button on the lower right will stay there as you move from thread to thread so you can quote posts from various threads. Whatever thread you are in at the time you hit the button in the lower right is where all the quoted posts will appear. I use it a lot to quote a post from the monthly thread here for example, like I did with Liberty's post this morning. So in addition to quoting multiple posts its way to quote just one post and "move it to banter" as you may have seen Mods post before. It's for lazy people who use cellphones Here's my position on it-- if you're too lazy to read 10-20 posts in a row, then you're also too lazy to be on a weather forum. I read 400-500 pages a day on various subjects and I have no sympathy for people who complain about having to read a few extra posts. Maybe if their IQ was higher they'd actually enjoy reading more. People with IQ under 140 need not apply. I have zero interest in limiting myself because of the desire of others. I agreed on a compromise which I'm willing to accept-- which is make 2-3 posts in a row and that's it. I'm way too busy to be around long enough to make a lot of posts anyway, I'm working on Book 3 of a series on quantum mechanics and the multiverse and also working on a science documentary that's now over 80 hours long. So late nights only. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BxEngine Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 4 hours ago, LibertyBell said: It's for lazy people who use cellphones Here's my position on it-- if you're too lazy to read 10-20 posts in a row, then you're also too lazy to be on a weather forum. I read 400-500 pages a day on various subjects and I have no sympathy for people who complain about having to read a few extra posts. Maybe if their IQ was higher they'd actually enjoy reading more. People with IQ under 140 need not apply. I have zero interest in limiting myself because of the desire of others. I agreed on a compromise which I'm willing to accept-- which is make 2-3 posts in a row and that's it. I'm way too busy to be around long enough to make a lot of posts anyway, I'm working on Book 3 of a series on quantum mechanics and the multiverse and also working on a science documentary that's now over 80 hours long. So late nights only. Jesus effing christ. No. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishRob17 Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 51 minutes ago, BxEngine said: Jesus effing christ. No. Surely, he can’t be serious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gravitylover Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 So because we are all annoyed by the refusal to multi quote we get called lazy and stupid. Someone needs to find a new sandbox to play in... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibertyBell Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 3 hours ago, IrishRob17 said: Surely, he can’t be serious. I can. I don't see a problem with making multiple posts because I read from a computer. I don't use (nor have) a cellphone period. So I decided to self limit to 2 or max 3 posts in a row, that's it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IrishRob17 Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 29 minutes ago, LibertyBell said: I can. I don't see a problem with making multiple posts because I read from a computer. I don't use (nor have) a cellphone period. So I decided to self limit to 2 or max 3 posts in a row, that's it. You don’t have a cellphone but you know how your posts look on a cellphone…noted. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibertyBell Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 12 minutes ago, IrishRob17 said: You don’t have a cellphone but you know how your posts look on a cellphone…noted. Actually I don't know how they look but others have posted how they look in screenshots. Which is why I've decided to limit myself. My main problem with the multiquote issue is when talking about different things in the same thread, it has an awkward look when everything is posted on in a single post. I've done that before and read back the post and it's hard to follow a train of thought if let's say half a dozen different things are being talked about in the same post. I have to click back to see what each part of the post was in response to. Single posts can have a similar issue when talking about separate things in the same thread but at least if you're following a single conversation within the thread it's less distracting. But I see when it gets to a lot of consecutive posts it's self-defeating. And to Mr Gravity, I never said he in particular was stupid, I just think it's an odd thing to complain about, if it's just a few posts, but if it's say half a dozen or a dozen posts I understand-- and I lose track of how many I make after awhile. Which is why I think self-limiting to 2-3 is a far better idea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle W Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 this happens when the winter sucks and or it just ended...oh the humanity... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nycwinter Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 another beautiful day in the city where you can wear you"re coat ski cap and gloves... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rjay Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 2 hours ago, LibertyBell said: I can. I don't see a problem with making multiple posts because I read from a computer. I don't use (nor have) a cellphone period. So I decided to self limit to 2 or max 3 posts in a row, that's it. <3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hudsonvalley21 Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 6 hours ago, IrishRob17 said: Surely, he can’t be serious. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uncle W Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 2 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LibertyBell Posted April 3, 2022 Share Posted April 3, 2022 3 hours ago, Rjay said: <3 I've been holding fast to 2-3, and 2 in most cases. Hopefully that's good enough. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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