Explosions in Kiev

[jesmu84]

Of course not.  I was just thinking out loud.  But I don't think establishing a  no-fly zone and other things would lead to a full scale war. Especially if he waa dead. According to him we are already at war with each other.

Most of your suggested actions are declarations of war

[StillAWarrior]

Most of your suggested actions are declarations of war

I'm not sure establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be a declaration of war. Actually enforcing it, on the other hand...

[Jockey]

I'm not sure establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be a declaration of war. Actually enforcing it, on the other hand...

Of course. Enforcing it would mean American planes shooting russian planes out of the sky.

How could that possibly lead to something bad?

[StillAWarrior]

Of course. Enforcing it would mean American planes shooting russian planes out of the sky.

How could that possibly lead to something bad?

Perhaps if our pilots communicated with them, while inverted above them at a range of a couple meters, they would leave.

[MuggsyB]

Do you think the stability of Europe is more or less vulnerable if there are 10 million Ukrainian refugees and countless deaths?  Europe is at war right now.   The lunatic was shooting at a Nuclear plant last night.  He is capable of using Nukes right now in Ukraine.  There are no easy or good decisions.  If he takes and subjugates Ukraine will he feel more or less emboldened to attempt to take over the Baltics or Poland?  Personally I think he needs to be taken out.  Ideally within Russia. 

[jesmu84]

Do you think the stability of Europe is more or less vulnerable if there are 10 million Ukrainian refugees and countless deaths?  Europe is at war right now.   The lunatic was shooting at a Nuclear plant last night.  He is capable of using Nukes right now in Ukraine.  There are no easy or good decisions.  If he takes and subjugates Ukraine will he feel more or less emboldened to attempt to take over the Baltics or Poland?  Personally I think he needs to be taken out.  Ideally within Russia.

There are choices that assure war spreads beyond the borders of Ukraine/Russia. You keep wanting those.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Perhaps if our pilots communicated with them, while inverted above them at a range of a couple meters, they would leave.

Communicating.

[StillAWarrior]

Communicating.

Yeah. Keeping up foreign relations.

[Jockey]

Do you think the stability of Europe is more or less vulnerable if there are 10 million Ukrainian refugees and countless deaths?  Europe is at war right now.   The lunatic was shooting at a Nuclear plant last night.  He is capable of using Nukes right now in Ukraine.  There are no easy or good decisions.  If he takes and subjugates Ukraine will he feel more or less emboldened to attempt to take over the Baltics or Poland?  Personally I think he needs to be taken out.  Ideally within Russia.

Volunteer for the job. Show your patriotism.

[rocket surgeon]

i think we can all agree that putin is certifiably "unstable", but i really believe he has upped his consumption of stoly and/or any number of other illicit substances.  he looks quite a bit more puffy than he has in the past

[source?]

https://news.sky.com/story/sky-news-teams-harrowing-account-of-their-violent-ambush-in-ukraine-this-week-12557585

Shooting at journalists now.

[Hards Alumni]

I'm not sure establishing a no-fly zone over Ukraine would be a declaration of war. Actually enforcing it, on the other hand...

Same energy as no fly zone declarations that 74% of Americans want.

Too bad Putin already is on gool so he can't be "it".

[JWags85]

Stumbled upon Russian sympathizer Twitter today and it's...something.  It's not the "Putin savvy genius" bent but more millennial communist/uber socialist Twitter saying NATO is the real devil here and somehow wanting to treat Russia with a rosy lens cause they were communists 30 years ago.  Some of my fav arguments

"NATO continues to break promises by expanding East, Russia is just protecting itself."

"Only 30 of the world's 200 countries are in NATO, it's a Western Capitalist cartel.  They won't even let Mexico join!"

"People only care about Ukraine cause it's white people"

Full threads covering how there are far right Neo Nazi militia groups in Ukraine so Putin totally has a point and he's in the right.

Oh and "American billionaires are just as bad, probably worse, as Russian oligarchs, we just call them entrepreneurs.  Bezos and Gates and Ellison should also have their assets seized for funding and supporting the vast war crimes of the US military"

It's SPECIAL

[jesmu84]

Stumbled upon Russian sympathizer Twitter today and it's...something.  It's not the "Putin savvy genius" bent but more millennial communist/uber socialist Twitter saying NATO is the real devil here and somehow wanting to treat Russia with a rosy lens cause they were communists 30 years ago.  Some of my fav arguments

"NATO continues to break promises by expanding East, Russia is just protecting itself."

"Only 30 of the world's 200 countries are in NATO, it's a Western Capitalist cartel.  They won't even let Mexico join!"

"People only care about Ukraine cause it's white people"

Full threads covering how there are far right Neo Nazi militia groups in Ukraine so Putin totally has a point and he's in the right.

Oh and "American billionaires are just as bad, probably worse, as Russian oligarchs, we just call them entrepreneurs.  Bezos and Gates and Ellison should also have their assets seized for funding and supporting the vast war crimes of the US military"

It's SPECIAL

The crazy left and maga right have a surprising amount in common

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Stumbled upon Russian sympathizer Twitter today and it's...something.  It's not the "Putin savvy genius" bent but more millennial communist/uber socialist Twitter saying NATO is the real devil here and somehow wanting to treat Russia with a rosy lens cause they were communists 30 years ago.  Some of my fav arguments

"NATO continues to break promises by expanding East, Russia is just protecting itself."

"Only 30 of the world's 200 countries are in NATO, it's a Western Capitalist cartel.  They won't even let Mexico join!"

"People only care about Ukraine cause it's white people"

Full threads covering how there are far right Neo Nazi militia groups in Ukraine so Putin totally has a point and he's in the right.

Oh and "American billionaires are just as bad, probably worse, as Russian oligarchs, we just call them entrepreneurs.  Bezos and Gates and Ellison should also have their assets seized for funding and supporting the vast war crimes of the US military"

It's SPECIAL

Who else besides jesmu's Twitter did you rabbit hole?

[NCMUFan]

Careful, Mods may lock.
No personal attacks.

[MuggsyB]

Stumbled upon Russian sympathizer Twitter today and it's...something.  It's not the "Putin savvy genius" bent but more millennial communist/uber socialist Twitter saying NATO is the real devil here and somehow wanting to treat Russia with a rosy lens cause they were communists 30 years ago.  Some of my fav arguments

"NATO continues to break promises by expanding East, Russia is just protecting itself."

"Only 30 of the world's 200 countries are in NATO, it's a Western Capitalist cartel.  They won't even let Mexico join!"

"People only care about Ukraine cause it's white people"

Full threads covering how there are far right Neo Nazi militia groups in Ukraine so Putin totally has a point and he's in the right.

Oh and "American billionaires are just as bad, probably worse, as Russian oligarchs, we just call them entrepreneurs.  Bezos and Gates and Ellison should also have their assets seized for funding and supporting the vast war crimes of the US military"

It's SPECIAL

Good grief.  Boy do we have problems. 

[MU82]

I thought this was interesting regarding the "economic war" being fought as part of all this. It's from Andrew Serwer, the editor at Yahoo Finance. He starts with a long description of what's going on, and concludes with this ...

Bottom line though, the list of companies standing up to Putin is long and getting longer by the hour. Check out this ever-updating story from the ever-present Sozzi and Alexandra Semenova. It's a huge diverse group; American Express, Apple, Nike, Goldman Sachs, DirectTV, GM, Disney, Harley-Davidson, Boeing, Mastercard, Visa, BlackRock, Warner Media, Dell, the NYSE and Nasdaq. And that's just a handful of big American names.

‌Fact is, I can't recall ever seeing the private sector so aligned.

I spoke about this with Bill Browder, a super-interesting guy, who's CEO of Hermitage Capital Management and head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign. To say he and Putin have history is an understatement.

‌Quick backstory: In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Browder's firm delivered stellar returns by exposing corruption at major Russian companies, bringing about company shake-ups, and boosting share prices. In 2005, Browder was denied reentry to Russia and later became the victim of a Russian government scheme to undermine his firm, he says. Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer hired by Browder to investigate Russian corruption, was arrested and died in Russian custody.

‌Here's what Browder told me about the private sector going up against Putin:

"If every Western company stops doing business with the Russians, it's really dramatic. When I started my whole campaign for justice for Sergei Magnitsky, one of the first people I met with was a woman in South Africa named Helen Zille, one of the people involved in the anti-apartheid movement. We talked about how they ended apartheid. She said it was all about the U.S. and Western Europe disinvesting from South Africa. When they became financially isolated, it became too much."

"And so I think this is really, really important. When we watch these atrocities unfold in Ukraine, I think it's just to pressure every single Western business, to divest, to stop doing business, to stop supplying goods, to stop supplying services to Russia."

Thanks in part to a financial war back then, the private sector helped end apartheid. Let's hope it can somehow do the same to end Putin.

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

I've seen a few stories on the Russian AI bots being shut down and how different Facebook & Twitter is without them

[Hards Alumni]

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/05/sports/basketball/russia-brittney-griner.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur

[MU82]

You're right. It's being led by the current president of the United States (who is either part of the crazy left or so afraid of them he won't cross them), several members of Congress and bigly popular talking heads on crazy left and solidly left TV networks.

Surprised by the ridiculousness of this post, Tony, when you know exactly what's going on.

Meanwhile ... I'm quite certain we'll agree that this is very bad ...

Brittney Griner Detained in Russia

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/05/sports/basketball/russia-brittney-griner.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20220305&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=headline&regi_id=108420427&segment_id=84764&user_id=d36dcf821462fdd16ec3636710a855fa

The Russian Federal Customs Service said that its officials had detained an American basketball player after finding vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in her luggage at the Sheremetyevo airport near Moscow.

The Customs Service said in a statement that the player had won two Olympic gold medals with the United States, but it did not release the player's name. The Russian news agency TASS, citing a law enforcement source, identified the player as Brittney Griner, a seven-time W.N.B.A. All-Star center for the Phoenix Mercury. Griner won gold medals with the U.S. women's national basketball team in 2021 and 2016.

The Customs Service released a video of a traveler at the airport that appeared to be the 31-year-old Griner, wearing a mask and black sweatshirt, going through security. The video showed an individual removing a package from the traveler's bag.

According to the statement, a criminal case has been opened into the large-scale transportation of drugs, which can carry a sentence of up to 10 years behind bars in Russia. The basketball player was taken into custody while the investigation is ongoing, the officials said.

[rocky_warrior]

Gents, keep your personal politics out of this.  And Wags, I kept your post, but you have to have known that was going to stir up politics, right?

[forgetful]

Meanwhile ... I'm quite certain we'll agree that this is very bad ...

Brittney Griner Detained in Russia

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/05/sports/basketball/russia-brittney-griner.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20220305&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=headline&regi_id=108420427&segment_id=84764&user_id=d36dcf821462fdd16ec3636710a855fa

The Russian Federal Customs Service said that its officials had detained an American basketball player after finding vape cartridges that contained hashish oil in her luggage at the Sheremetyevo airport near Moscow.

The Customs Service said in a statement that the player had won two Olympic gold medals with the United States, but it did not release the player's name. The Russian news agency TASS, citing a law enforcement source, identified the player as Brittney Griner, a seven-time W.N.B.A. All-Star center for the Phoenix Mercury. Griner won gold medals with the U.S. women's national basketball team in 2021 and 2016.

The Customs Service released a video of a traveler at the airport that appeared to be the 31-year-old Griner, wearing a mask and black sweatshirt, going through security. The video showed an individual removing a package from the traveler's bag.

According to the statement, a criminal case has been opened into the large-scale transportation of drugs, which can carry a sentence of up to 10 years behind bars in Russia. The basketball player was taken into custody while the investigation is ongoing, the officials said.

I agree that this is very bad. But man, what was she thinking, carrying Hashish oil in an airport during a major international crisis on the tipping point of a major altercation between Russia and the West.

[Hards Alumni]

I've seen a few stories on the Russian AI bots being shut down and how different Facebook & Twitter is without them

read the replies.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

Stumbled upon Russian sympathizer Twitter today and it's...something.  It's not the "Putin savvy genius" bent but more millennial communist/uber socialist Twitter saying NATO is the real devil here and somehow wanting to treat Russia with a rosy lens cause they were communists 30 years ago.  Some of my fav arguments

"NATO continues to break promises by expanding East, Russia is just protecting itself."

"Only 30 of the world's 200 countries are in NATO, it's a Western Capitalist cartel.  They won't even let Mexico join!"

"People only care about Ukraine cause it's white people"

Full threads covering how there are far right Neo Nazi militia groups in Ukraine so Putin totally has a point and he's in the right.

Oh and "American billionaires are just as bad, probably worse, as Russian oligarchs, we just call them entrepreneurs.  Bezos and Gates and Ellison should also have their assets seized for funding and supporting the vast war crimes of the US military"

It's SPECIAL

While I have absolutely zero doubt there is a small but significant number of nutters that think this way in the U.S., it seems just as likely that this is just a post from a Russian troll farm.