Putin is NOT crazy and the Russian invasion is NOT failing

[US&THEM]

And the USA was 100% successful in getting rid of the Taliban in Afghanistan - right?

BTW, you do know that the Russians were asked to assist the legal government of Afghanistan in putting down a rebellion that was being fostered by the government of the United States of America, don't you?

Does that change what I previously stated?

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Well, not everybody....



Do you think Putin ever saw The Sound of Music or heard of the Von Trapp Family Singers? I'm guessing not.

Did you know that the "arduous escape" that the von Trapp family made from Austria involved leaving the back gate of their garden, crossing to the railway station, and riding the train from Austria to Switzerland?

Mind you that would make for a really dull movie, so Hollywood "enhanced" the story slightly.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Does that change what I previously stated?

It puts it into a bit of historical perspective.

Hell, even the Brits (arguably the most successful builders of colonial empires in history) knew that the way to deal with Afghanistan was to assemble a large force, march through the country burning everything you found while posting signs to the effect "You have pissed us off.", then reverse course and march out again (burning anything you missed or that had been rebuilt) while posting signs to the effect "And we'll come back if you do it again.". That generally reduced the problems for a generation.

 

[Ahlevah]

Putin can fight until the Russian oligarchs decide to remove him. They will spend whatever he wants to fight the war, money, resources, lives. How long are we going to foot the bill? How much are we willing to spend without getting a win?

The idea that oligarchs are pulling the political strings in Russia and Putin is just their puppet is erroneous. It’s Putin, supported by a close cadre of trusted former KGB buddies. Yes, oligarchs supported him in his rise to power, but he left them alone just as long as they supported him. In the two decades since he first assumed the presidency, he’s been adept at consolidating power and accumulating his own vast wealth as any successful mafia kingpin is akin to do. At the same time, he’s navigated Russia once again on a path towards totalitarianism. How many oligarchs who crossed him or whom he deemed to be a threat has Putin imprisoned, exiled, or had assassinated? Many seem to have a habit of killing themselves and their families lately, or jumping from hotel balconies. Don’t you think at least some of them sleep with their lights on? Some of the wealth presumed to be owned by these guys is a fiction, with them actually serving as fronts for Dear Leader.

Make no mistake: the reins of power are firmly in the hands of Vladimir Putin, at least until someone with a bigger set of balls says they’re not.

 

[Ahlevah]

Did you know that the "arduous escape" that the von Trapp family made from Austria involved leaving the back gate of their garden, crossing to the railway station, and riding the train from Austria to Switzerland?

Mind you that would make for a really dull movie, so Hollywood "enhanced" the story slightly.

Yeah, I know. And “Edelweiss” wasn’t an Austrian folk song that he sang along with hundreds of patriotic Austrians, but just another Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune. But they got the basics right: Georg von Trapp really was a naval officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy and a "von" with numerous military awards and decorations for having sunk over 60,000 gross tons of allied shipping as a submarine commander during WWI. In fact, he was the most successful submariner in the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the First World War. So it was kind of a big deal when he essentially told Hitler and Germany to take the commission they offered him and stick it up their collective ass before trading in his estate in Salzburg for a new home in Stowe, Vermont. It's safe to say he didn't think much of Nazis and their "Anschluss."

 

[EnigmaO01]

Yes. Most people probably still know her by that name, although I’m sure when she was still living she hoped they had short memories, since that was the one linked to scandal. But I’ll bump your grade up a notch, from a C+ to a B-.

Oh thank you thank you! I'm still in the retarded olympics though.

 

[EnigmaO01]

The idea that oligarchs are pulling the political strings in Russia and Putin is just their puppet is erroneous. It’s Putin, supported by a close cadre of trusted former KGB buddies. Yes, oligarchs supported him in his rise to power, but he left them alone just as long as they supported him. In the two decades since he first assumed the presidency, he’s been adept at consolidating power and accumulating his own vast wealth as any successful mafia kingpin is akin to do. At the same time, he’s navigated Russia once again on a path towards totalitarianism. How many oligarchs who crossed him or whom he deemed to be a threat has Putin imprisoned, exiled, or had assassinated? Many seem to have a habit of killing themselves and their families lately, or jumping from hotel balconies. Don’t you think at least some of them sleep with their lights on? Some of the wealth presumed to be owned by these guys is a fiction, with them actually serving as fronts for Dear Leader.

Make no mistake: the reins of power are firmly in the hands of Vladimir Putin, at least until someone with a bigger set of balls says they’re not.

That is exactly what another poster on another forum said that lives in Canada and is originally from Russia. He loathes Putin.

 

[EnigmaO01]

SNL was parodying a line that was just as ridiculous. "I can see Russia from my house" was merely the summary of it.

I guess SNOPES doesn't agree with your completely.

 

[Cardinal]

I guess SNOPES doesn't agree with your completely.

What is it they disagree with, exactly? Is it a fair parody of her true statement or not? Did they mischaracterize her statement, and if so, how?

 

[upsideguy]

I guess SNOPES doesn't agree with your completely.

The Snopes article deals with the specific statement "I can see Russia from my house"..... Palin never made that statement, but the SNL parody was not really off the mark. Palin was trying to tell people that she had all of this great foreign policy experience because of Alaska being between Canada and Russia. It was pretty weak.





She was a trip. A complete imbecile, but a lovable imbecile.... not like the imbeciles that followed her (like TFG, Jim Jordan, MTG, Boebert and others) that I doubt even a mother could love.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

As long as we're correcting people: Her name is Tina Fey.

And she's my girlfriend.
Sssshhh, don't tell Karen.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

The Oligarchs are losing money due to international sanctions.
They've already lost billions of dollars, their toys & real estate property to overseas asset seizures.


We are getting our money's worth...believe me.

Not only are we seeing Russia defanged, but we are also showing the world what some of our latest military toys can do, which is profitable for defense companies, which Uncle Sam gets back in corporate taxes.

We're also doing what NATO was created for in the first place. NATO was created to halt Russian encroachment into Europe.
The invasion of Ukraine is Russian encroachment into Europe.

 

[EnigmaO01]

What is it they disagree with, exactly? Is it a fair parody of her true statement or not? Did they mischaracterize her statement, and if so, how?

Like I said I am not defending her. I thought she was way out of her league and I didn't agree with any of her viewpoints. But when she said she could see Russian from an island off of Alaska vs. Fey saying she could see it from her home in -- at the time Wasilla -- is not the same thing.

If we criticize folks for believing something that is not accurate on the right we can not make an exception for the left. It's double standard and it's hypocritical. It's like THE garbage statement on the right that claims Al Gore said he invented the Internet. He never said that either. But just like the line from Fey it's been accepted into the mainstream as true.

 

[EnigmaO01]

And she's my girlfriend.
Sssshhh, don't tell Karen.

Dude your girlfriend is hot!

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Dude your girlfriend is hot!

And she doesn't know I exist

 

[Ahlevah]

That is exactly what another poster on another forum said that lives in Canada and is originally from Russia. He loathes Putin.

People like Garry Kasparov and Alexei Navalny said it, too. Of course, one’s been living in exile, and the other’s in prison. Neither has a high opinion of Putin, to put it nicely.

 

[Ug make hammer]

The Snopes article deals with the specific statement "I can see Russia from my house"..... Palin never made that statement, but the SNL parody was not really off the mark. Palin was trying to tell people that she had all of this great foreign policy experience because of Alaska being between Canada and Russia. It was pretty weak.





She was a trip. A complete imbecile, but a lovable imbecile.... not like the imbeciles that followed her (like TFG, Jim Jordan, MTG, Boebert and others) that I doubt even a mother could love.

Not that lovable. She managed to lose the Alaska-at-large district to a Democrat, just last year.

 

[Ug make hammer]

View attachment 67436548

Man, I just noticed an odd resemblance in the lower-right corner of my YouTube window:

View attachment 67436549

(Whispers: I think there might be closet Nazis at Google. Maybe it's time to "de-nazify" the place. )

I know this is kind of trivial, but Sound of Music is a chick flick, while Nazi hardware appeals mostly to men. Google/Youtube could just be offering a gender alternative and we shouldn't mock that. It's actually a good thing if men/boys are indulging their feminine side, and women/girls are indulging their masculine side.

And maybe not a new thing. Personally I found The Sound of Music intolerable, but it's because I hate musicals. Opera should be unintelligible (eg in Italian) or what's the point?

 

[Surrealistik]

I've interacted with Bill Roggio online, back when he was chronicling the War on Terror in Afghanistan, through his publication, The Long War Journal.

He says the Russian invasion of Ukraine is working according to plan. The Russians aren't amateurs. The West is simply deluding themselves, and by doing so, they're squandering their chances to influence the situation favorably.

Putin is NOT crazy, the Russian invasion is NOT failing: BILL ROGGIO

ROGGIO: Believing Russia's assault is going poorly may make us feel better but is at odds with the facts. We cannot help Ukraine if we cannot be honest about its predicament.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Aged like milk; but of course anyone who was paying attention knew it would.

Also not sure why you thought Bill Roggio was an authority worth listening to, especially since he's had issues with reporting accuracy in the past, and, so far as military expertise is concerned, never held a position of command in his life, whether non-commissioned or otherwise.

 

[TU Curmudgeon]

Yeah, I know. And “Edelweiss” wasn’t an Austrian folk song that he sang along with hundreds of patriotic Austrians, but just another Rodgers and Hammerstein show tune.

Correct.

But they got the basics right: Georg von Trapp really was a naval officer in the Austro-Hungarian Navy and a "von" with numerous military awards and decorations for having sunk over 60,000 gross tons of allied shipping as a submarine commander during WWI. In fact, he was the most successful submariner in the Austro-Hungarian Empire during the First World War. So it was kind of a big deal when he essentially told Hitler and Germany to take the commission they offered him and stick it up their collective ass before trading in his estate in Salzburg for a new home in Stowe, Vermont.

Yep, but "Social climbing, bankrupt, former enemy submarine captain with seven children who left Austria for Italy, but ended up in Holland, as the guest of a rich banker, before going to England, then the US, then Scandinavia, then back to the US before becoming a singing act" that would still have made a crappy movie.

It's safe to say he didn't think much of Nazis and their "Anschluss."

I sure won't bet against it.

 

[Ahlevah]

Correct.

Yep, but "Social climbing, bankrupt, former enemy submarine captain with seven children who left Austria for Italy, but ended up in Holland, as the guest of a rich banker, before going to England, then the US, then Scandinavia, then back to the US before becoming a singing act" that would still have made a crappy movie.

I sure won't bet against it.

Correction. Ten children. And they were singing together publicly as early as 1936. Still, having a successful WWI submarine captain snub Hitler would have made a great comedy.