How this plays out...

Prestonluv

Bendintheriver said:

Throughout history with people like putin you can't apply logic. The only consistency is the desire to rule, own, dominate. Putin is clearly not going to stop at Ukraine. The numbers were clearly not in hitlers favor but he did what all putin and hitler types do, he overplayed his hand. Logic was not a factor.

In modern history the constant is Europe's behavior of doing nothing in the face of obvious danger and cuddling up to evil dictators..

History just keeps on repeating itself over and over and over again. We have seen this movie more than once. The same people types and countries doing the same fucking things. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Putin will have to be stopped but this time there is no strong leader or country to force any change. It certainly isn't the USA, our armed forces have skirt wearing men and an 80 year old commander in chief who was actually in bed with the Russians and got paid for it. A guy who ridiculously boasted that putin was afraid of him. We are now a nation full of woke pussies who hate their country. Anyone over 40 have any confidence in the younger generation signing up to fight evil? Me either.

NATO? name one thing NATO has done that strikes fear into any dictators heart.

Putin is renewing history. The world gets fat and happy. Self centered, lazy and local. A crazy despot clearly sees the opening and takes it only to meet a violent end by the lazy and narcissistic populace who hopefully and finally snap out of it and realize what is happening. They learn their lesson for 50 years and renew investment in armaments and readiness because they remember there are bad guys out there. Slowly the memory dies off and you start getting fat and lazy again and turning your armed forces into a politically woke organization and the whole thing starts all over again.

Someone in Europe is going to have to step up and I have zero clue who that is going to be.

Absolutely have confidence that the younger generation will step up if needed.

The boomers have fucked this country inside and out and the younger generations are infinitely better than them. I believe in them.

RatherBeBrewing

pawz said:

RatherBeBrewing said:

The nicest way I can say this is that the grasp of the situation here is very low. It’s mostly conspiracy theories and or incorrect assumptions. This is borne of looking at it through an American political lens, and just a simple lack of rudimentary knowledge of the region.

I don’t have any ideas with even partial confidence on how this plays out anymore, and I bet no one does. I’m consistently surprised at developments, and I’m more involved in this than 99.99% of the population.

I haven’t been able to reach my 88 year old grandmother for three days now, and she lives in the center of Kyiv. A friend is supposed to check on her when he’s not busy patrolling, but the metro has been shut down to be used exclusively as a bomb shelter, driving is obviously not safe, and the roving bands of civvy dressed Russian various VDV, Alfa, and Vympel units are a really good reason to limit exposure on the streets. Hence the curfew. A big advantage for the locals that it’s very easy to determine who is a local and who isn’t by their inability to speak any Ukrainian. Kind of reminds me of the stories of American GIs asking Germans saboteurs dressed in US gear whether Lou Gehrig or Ted Williams is their favorite Yankee.

If I had to guess on how this plays out the only certainty I have is “not well.” Considering that’s how it’s always been there I think it’s a safe bet. The only other really sure bet is that the US is in absolutely no danger beyond some relatively minor economic boo-boos that are a small fraction of either Dubya boondoggle.

Look forward to hearing more input.

Best of luck to your family. God speed.

Thank you. I don’t have much in the way of family there anymore, but it’s been nice to hear from both strangers and long lost friends wishing the best for them and a city they know I care about. I do have friends and acquaintances I’m worried for. Even some business colleagues that I wouldn’t mind if they survived. People there are tough as fuck, so while thus far the results are surprising the reason for them is not.

My grandmother is one of the few family members I still have in that part of the world. Despite her telling me this is the last time I’m seeing her because she’s in poor health for 30 consecutive years - this trip I had booked for this spring she might finally be right.

This is her second invasion, so she knows the drill. The previous one came in 1941, and her father happened to be the local partisan leader. It was the “Mach schnell mach schnell vee got the partizan leader let’s shoot him with our fine quality Deutschland sub machine gunz in front of the town, Fritz” kind of childhood story time for me. Between her and my great-grandmother from the other parent raising me on Holocaust and Holodomor stories I would check for Bolsheviks, cannibals, and Germans under the bed, while spoiled Western children only had the much less terrifying boogeyman to look out for.

RoadTrip

WestlinnDuck said:

"Putin will have to be stopped but this time there is no strong leader or country to force any change. It certainly isn't the USA, our armed forces have skirt wearing men and an 80 year old commander in chief who was actually in bed with the Russians and got paid for it. A guy who ridiculously boasted that putin was afraid of him. We are now a nation full of woke pussies who hate their country. Anyone over 40 have any confidence in the younger generation signing up to fight evil? Me either."

If we had any leadership, then I do have confidence in the under 40 year old that would volunteer for the military. The problem is that the professional officer class (over 35) is a neutered mess. Think of the traitor Colonel Vindman. He shouldn't be a Scoutmaster, let alone a US colonel.

FTF

trublue

Prestonluv said:

Bendintheriver said:

Throughout history with people like putin you can't apply logic. The only consistency is the desire to rule, own, dominate. Putin is clearly not going to stop at Ukraine. The numbers were clearly not in hitlers favor but he did what all putin and hitler types do, he overplayed his hand. Logic was not a factor.

In modern history the constant is Europe's behavior of doing nothing in the face of obvious danger and cuddling up to evil dictators..

History just keeps on repeating itself over and over and over again. We have seen this movie more than once. The same people types and countries doing the same fucking things. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Putin will have to be stopped but this time there is no strong leader or country to force any change. It certainly isn't the USA, our armed forces have skirt wearing men and an 80 year old commander in chief who was actually in bed with the Russians and got paid for it. A guy who ridiculously boasted that putin was afraid of him. We are now a nation full of woke pussies who hate their country. Anyone over 40 have any confidence in the younger generation signing up to fight evil? Me either.

NATO? name one thing NATO has done that strikes fear into any dictators heart.

Putin is renewing history. The world gets fat and happy. Self centered, lazy and local. A crazy despot clearly sees the opening and takes it only to meet a violent end by the lazy and narcissistic populace who hopefully and finally snap out of it and realize what is happening. They learn their lesson for 50 years and renew investment in armaments and readiness because they remember there are bad guys out there. Slowly the memory dies off and you start getting fat and lazy again and turning your armed forces into a politically woke organization and the whole thing starts all over again.

Someone in Europe is going to have to step up and I have zero clue who that is going to be.

Absolutely have confidence that the younger generation will step up if needed.

The boomers have fucked this country inside and out and the younger generations are infinitely better than them. I believe in them.

I hope you’re joking . . . The younger generation(s) were parented by Boomers.

The Boomers biggest failure was not preparing their children to the realities of work and accountability (adulthood).

trublue

RoadTrip said:

WestlinnDuck said:

"Putin will have to be stopped but this time there is no strong leader or country to force any change. It certainly isn't the USA, our armed forces have skirt wearing men and an 80 year old commander in chief who was actually in bed with the Russians and got paid for it. A guy who ridiculously boasted that putin was afraid of him. We are now a nation full of woke pussies who hate their country. Anyone over 40 have any confidence in the younger generation signing up to fight evil? Me either."

If we had any leadership, then I do have confidence in the under 40 year old that would volunteer for the military. The problem is that the professional officer class (over 35) is a neutered mess. Think of the traitor Colonel Vindman. He shouldn't be a Scoutmaster, let alone a US colonel.

FTF

My personal fave:

Obama shooting a shotgun . . .

https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/white-house-may-have-doctored-photo-of-obama-shooting-a-shotgun/

Bendintheriver

Prestonluv said:

Bendintheriver said:

Throughout history with people like putin you can't apply logic. The only consistency is the desire to rule, own, dominate. Putin is clearly not going to stop at Ukraine. The numbers were clearly not in hitlers favor but he did what all putin and hitler types do, he overplayed his hand. Logic was not a factor.

In modern history the constant is Europe's behavior of doing nothing in the face of obvious danger and cuddling up to evil dictators..

History just keeps on repeating itself over and over and over again. We have seen this movie more than once. The same people types and countries doing the same fucking things. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Putin will have to be stopped but this time there is no strong leader or country to force any change. It certainly isn't the USA, our armed forces have skirt wearing men and an 80 year old commander in chief who was actually in bed with the Russians and got paid for it. A guy who ridiculously boasted that putin was afraid of him. We are now a nation full of woke pussies who hate their country. Anyone over 40 have any confidence in the younger generation signing up to fight evil? Me either.

NATO? name one thing NATO has done that strikes fear into any dictators heart.

Putin is renewing history. The world gets fat and happy. Self centered, lazy and local. A crazy despot clearly sees the opening and takes it only to meet a violent end by the lazy and narcissistic populace who hopefully and finally snap out of it and realize what is happening. They learn their lesson for 50 years and renew investment in armaments and readiness because they remember there are bad guys out there. Slowly the memory dies off and you start getting fat and lazy again and turning your armed forces into a politically woke organization and the whole thing starts all over again.

Someone in Europe is going to have to step up and I have zero clue who that is going to be.

Absolutely have confidence that the younger generation will step up if needed.

The boomers have fucked this country inside and out and the younger generations are infinitely better than them. I believe in them.

I am no defender of baby boomers, many of them are the parents of the younger generation that seem to hate this country so much. Do you believe it will be blm fans or antifa that take time out from their looting, burning, beating and murdering or will it be the tough guys who are in their safe spaces that are going to step forward and volunteer? You might be right though, young liberals strike fear in the hearts of people like putin when they are being offended by the name of Washington or Lincoln on the front of a high school entrance.

Pitchfork51

Swaye said:

Bendintheriver said:

Throughout history with people like putin you can't apply logic. The only consistency is the desire to rule, own, dominate. Putin is clearly not going to stop at Ukraine. The numbers were clearly not in hitlers favor but he did what all putin and hitler types do, he overplayed his hand. Logic was not a factor.

In modern history the constant is Europe's behavior of doing nothing in the face of obvious danger and cuddling up to evil dictators..

History just keeps on repeating itself over and over and over again. We have seen this movie more than once. The same people types and countries doing the same fucking things. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Putin will have to be stopped but this time there is no strong leader or country to force any change. It certainly isn't the USA, our armed forces have skirt wearing men and an 80 year old commander in chief who was actually in bed with the Russians and got paid for it. A guy who ridiculously boasted that putin was afraid of him. We are now a nation full of woke pussies who hate their country. Anyone over 40 have any confidence in the younger generation signing up to fight evil? Me either.

NATO? name one thing NATO has done that strikes fear into any dictators heart.

Putin is renewing history. The world gets fat and happy. Self centered, lazy and local. A crazy despot clearly sees the opening and takes it only to meet a violent end by the lazy and narcissistic populace who hopefully and finally snap out of it and realize what is happening. They learn their lesson for 50 years and renew investment in armaments and readiness because they remember there are bad guys out there. Slowly the memory dies off and you start getting fat and lazy again and turning your armed forces into a politically woke organization and the whole thing starts all over again.

Someone in Europe is going to have to step up and I have zero clue who that is going to be.

It will have to be a Brit or a German. France is France and NOGAF about any of the other countries.

Europe already ceded their countries to muslims. So I guess it's gonna have to be the European Islamic terrorists at the front

Prestonluv

Bendintheriver said:

Prestonluv said:

Bendintheriver said:

Throughout history with people like putin you can't apply logic. The only consistency is the desire to rule, own, dominate. Putin is clearly not going to stop at Ukraine. The numbers were clearly not in hitlers favor but he did what all putin and hitler types do, he overplayed his hand. Logic was not a factor.

In modern history the constant is Europe's behavior of doing nothing in the face of obvious danger and cuddling up to evil dictators..

History just keeps on repeating itself over and over and over again. We have seen this movie more than once. The same people types and countries doing the same fucking things. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Putin will have to be stopped but this time there is no strong leader or country to force any change. It certainly isn't the USA, our armed forces have skirt wearing men and an 80 year old commander in chief who was actually in bed with the Russians and got paid for it. A guy who ridiculously boasted that putin was afraid of him. We are now a nation full of woke pussies who hate their country. Anyone over 40 have any confidence in the younger generation signing up to fight evil? Me either.

NATO? name one thing NATO has done that strikes fear into any dictators heart.

Putin is renewing history. The world gets fat and happy. Self centered, lazy and local. A crazy despot clearly sees the opening and takes it only to meet a violent end by the lazy and narcissistic populace who hopefully and finally snap out of it and realize what is happening. They learn their lesson for 50 years and renew investment in armaments and readiness because they remember there are bad guys out there. Slowly the memory dies off and you start getting fat and lazy again and turning your armed forces into a politically woke organization and the whole thing starts all over again.

Someone in Europe is going to have to step up and I have zero clue who that is going to be.

Absolutely have confidence that the younger generation will step up if needed.

The boomers have fucked this country inside and out and the younger generations are infinitely better than them. I believe in them.

I am no defender of baby boomers, many of them are the parents of the younger generation that seem to hate this country so much. Do you believe it will be blm fans or antifa that take time out from their looting, burning, beating and murdering or will it be the tough guys who are in their safe spaces that are going to step forward and volunteer? You might be right though, young liberals strike fear in the hearts of people like putin when they are being offended by the name of Washington or Lincoln on the front of a high school entrance.

I am around the youth constantly with work and basketball. The ones I’m around know their grandparents are responsibility for much of the mess we are in. They are not America hating at all. We have to get away from believing that the vocal minority represents the majority on both sides.

The boomers were raised by the so called greatest generation and look how they turned up. So using that the logic that the young people were raised by a shitty generation is kind of thrown out the door

They have access to info we never had and are extremely knowledge because of it. They have insight on world affairs we never had.

I fully believe they will make better decisions and choices than their parents and grandparents did.

PurpleThrobber

trublue said:

Prestonluv said:

Bendintheriver said:

Throughout history with people like putin you can't apply logic. The only consistency is the desire to rule, own, dominate. Putin is clearly not going to stop at Ukraine. The numbers were clearly not in hitlers favor but he did what all putin and hitler types do, he overplayed his hand. Logic was not a factor.

In modern history the constant is Europe's behavior of doing nothing in the face of obvious danger and cuddling up to evil dictators..

History just keeps on repeating itself over and over and over again. We have seen this movie more than once. The same people types and countries doing the same fucking things. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Putin will have to be stopped but this time there is no strong leader or country to force any change. It certainly isn't the USA, our armed forces have skirt wearing men and an 80 year old commander in chief who was actually in bed with the Russians and got paid for it. A guy who ridiculously boasted that putin was afraid of him. We are now a nation full of woke pussies who hate their country. Anyone over 40 have any confidence in the younger generation signing up to fight evil? Me either.

NATO? name one thing NATO has done that strikes fear into any dictators heart.

Putin is renewing history. The world gets fat and happy. Self centered, lazy and local. A crazy despot clearly sees the opening and takes it only to meet a violent end by the lazy and narcissistic populace who hopefully and finally snap out of it and realize what is happening. They learn their lesson for 50 years and renew investment in armaments and readiness because they remember there are bad guys out there. Slowly the memory dies off and you start getting fat and lazy again and turning your armed forces into a politically woke organization and the whole thing starts all over again.

Someone in Europe is going to have to step up and I have zero clue who that is going to be.

Absolutely have confidence that the younger generation will step up if needed.

The boomers have fucked this country inside and out and the younger generations are infinitely better than them. I believe in them.

I hope you’re joking . . . The younger generation(s) were parented by Boomers.

The Boomers biggest failure was not preparing their children to the realities of work and accountability (adulthood).

You're a little off with the generational thing.

Boomers aren't the orange slices and juice box generation. That's reserved for a younger crew of parents.

WestlinnDuck

Prestonluv said:

Bendintheriver said:

Prestonluv said:

Bendintheriver said:

Throughout history with people like putin you can't apply logic. The only consistency is the desire to rule, own, dominate. Putin is clearly not going to stop at Ukraine. The numbers were clearly not in hitlers favor but he did what all putin and hitler types do, he overplayed his hand. Logic was not a factor.

In modern history the constant is Europe's behavior of doing nothing in the face of obvious danger and cuddling up to evil dictators..

History just keeps on repeating itself over and over and over again. We have seen this movie more than once. The same people types and countries doing the same fucking things. The more things change the more they stay the same.

Putin will have to be stopped but this time there is no strong leader or country to force any change. It certainly isn't the USA, our armed forces have skirt wearing men and an 80 year old commander in chief who was actually in bed with the Russians and got paid for it. A guy who ridiculously boasted that putin was afraid of him. We are now a nation full of woke pussies who hate their country. Anyone over 40 have any confidence in the younger generation signing up to fight evil? Me either.

NATO? name one thing NATO has done that strikes fear into any dictators heart.

Putin is renewing history. The world gets fat and happy. Self centered, lazy and local. A crazy despot clearly sees the opening and takes it only to meet a violent end by the lazy and narcissistic populace who hopefully and finally snap out of it and realize what is happening. They learn their lesson for 50 years and renew investment in armaments and readiness because they remember there are bad guys out there. Slowly the memory dies off and you start getting fat and lazy again and turning your armed forces into a politically woke organization and the whole thing starts all over again.

Someone in Europe is going to have to step up and I have zero clue who that is going to be.

Absolutely have confidence that the younger generation will step up if needed.

The boomers have fucked this country inside and out and the younger generations are infinitely better than them. I believe in them.

I am no defender of baby boomers, many of them are the parents of the younger generation that seem to hate this country so much. Do you believe it will be blm fans or antifa that take time out from their looting, burning, beating and murdering or will it be the tough guys who are in their safe spaces that are going to step forward and volunteer? You might be right though, young liberals strike fear in the hearts of people like putin when they are being offended by the name of Washington or Lincoln on the front of a high school entrance.

I am around the youth constantly with work and basketball. The ones I’m around know their grandparents are responsibility for much of the mess we are in. They are not America hating at all. We have to get away from believing that the vocal minority represents the majority on both sides.

The boomers were raised by the so called greatest generation and look how they turned up. So using that the logic that the young people were raised by a shitty generation is kind of thrown out the door

They have access to info we never had and are extremely knowledge because of it. They have insight on world affairs we never had.

I fully believe they will make better decisions and choices than their parents and grandparents did.

Actually, they don't have a better insight. Speaking with a broad bruch, but their world view is that the US isn't special and we should have a world government. They are completely insular with their viewpoints and their short attention spans are not spent on learning history and economics. Look who runs Google and Facebook. They are in no way America Firsters. MAGA is viewed as hate speech. Think of the slobberer. One thing is certain, the baby boomers refused to pay their own debts and there is no way that the next generations are going to pay our debts and their debts.