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Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/26/22 in Posts

  1. It is driven by a few things. First, Germany has a long standing, codified govt policy of not delivering arms to conflict zones unless it has a formal security agreement with such a country, mainly through NATO. This, of course, arises out of German post-WW2 pacifism. Secondly, there are historical complexities within the German identity of doing anything that can be seen as fomenting/contributing to war in that particular stretch of land. The German psyche simply does not want to be involved in this, as in the German mind, the area between the Dnieper and Stalingrad WAS World War 2. That is what the German mind immediately goes to when that conflict is brought up…it isn’t D-Day, it isn’t the Western Front, it isn’t the fall of Berlin, it isn’t the Nazi occupation of Western Europe…it is fighting Russians within the space between those two geographic points that is where the complete trajectory of the German existence changed. So even on top of a relatively “peacenik” culture, the geographic history there is one of high significance. Thirdly, the Germans do not view the Ukrainians as allies. This is a misconception in the US. They view Ukraine as a source of massive corruption, immeasurable chaos, unpredictable, and essentially merely a “friend-of-a-friend”, with the common friend being the US. I am being quite literal when I say that literally every single summit, supportive statement, transfer of billions of Euros from the Germans to the Ukrainians is done out of one, single consideration and that is as a nod to the relationship with the US, which the Germans do value. The average German citizen, the German state, and German industry want nothing to do with Ukraine in any way whatsoever. Germany will kill any effort whatsoever to integrate the Ukrainians into either EU or NATO. Fourthly, it would go a long way in pushing Germany into an actively adverse camp from Russia, which is not want Germany wants. German sees this event as fleeting and that good, productive, profitable relations with Russia will pick up where they left off once this dies down. By actively arming Ukraine, that becomes much more difficult from a PR perspective. And finally - and this is a very, very sensitive point both within Germany - the images of German weaponry in the hands of certain Ukrainian front-line troops will be a public relations disaster here that no government here will be able to withstand. The background here is simple…a significant percentage (but by no means a majority) of the most effective fighting forces on the Ukrainian side are open neo-nazis. This fact is massively overstated and exploited in propaganda by the Russians, but it is also significantly downplayed by the Americans and Brits and in related English-language media coverage. Specifically re the Azov Battalion, although there are others, which is a very large conglomeration of very effective troops numbers estimated now to be the size of two brigades, is one of the most effective fighting forces in Ukraine, and many of its members are openly Neo-nazi. A couple of years ago they were officially absorbed as a distinct unit within the larger Ukrainian military, but they have a high degree of continued autonomy and even with all their ideological transgressions, the Ukrainian military would be at a huge disadvantage without them. They are particularly effective military units. But, that said, Azov fights officially under the Banner of the Wolfsangel, which is a nazi symbol that is illegal in Germany. They march annually commemorating the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, they are adorned with Nazi regalia, they venerate Nazi-Collaborator Stepan Bandera, and they are vocal in their affinity for many tenets of National Socialism. Their ex-leader/political head, Andriy Biletsky, who was actually the former Deputy of the Ukrainian parliament AFTER the war which made him famous as a neo-nazi, and still commands significant influence in the Ukrainian Right has even talked about their duty being “to lead the White races of the world against a final crusade against the Semite-led untermenschen.” So basically, this is a very effective fighting group made up of some very, very bad people. The Guardian had an article just after the war in 2014 about how much of a connundrum this is for the Ukrainians: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/azov-far-right-fighters-ukraine-neo-nazis In fact, the German Ambassador to Ukraine even had to issue a formal statement last April condemning the Ukrainians for continuing to allow marches commemorating the SS Galicia, particularly since those marches had reached Kiev (they used to just occur in the west of Ukraine, such as Lviv). The highly influential German public broadcaster, ZDF, ran stories on primetime here about how significant Neo-Nazism was in Azov Battalion and a few other special forces units, and they posted pictures of these battalions wearing SS regalia, adorning their military gear with the Swastika, Totenkopf, SS runes, Wolfangel, etc. The Canadians are dealing with their own scandal relating to this right now, in fact, and as you can see in the Ottowa Post, the scandal is not ONLY that NATO advisors were knowingly training Neo-nazis, it is that THEY KNEW about it over a year before meeting with them and were actively trying to find ways to keep it from the press as part of their plans in lead-up to the meeting. You will also see images in both articles that come from some of the TV programs put out by German public broadcaster, ZDF. I don't want to post them myself, as that shit can get dicey here. https://nationalpost.com/news/national/10-3-podcast-canadian-officials-under-fire-after-meeting-with-ukrainian-battalion-unit-linked-to-neo-nazis https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canadian-officials-who-met-with-ukrainian-unit-linked-to-neo-nazis-feared-exposure-by-news-media-documents Even American politicians like the late John Conyers and current rep Ro Khanna have raised serious concerns about this. The truth is that probably no more than 15% of the overall Ukrainian army are Neo-nazis, but a significant percentage of the most effective elements of the Ukrainian forces are. The JPost article I posted below gets into this in depth, and addresses the Simon Wiesenthal Center's deep concerns over this. I do want to note that I am somewhat uncomfortable getting into this, as it is frequently exploited by Russians to broadly condemn the entirety of the Ukrainian military as Neo-nazis, so I will leave some reputable, familiar American links below to explain some of this in better detail. And I am not saying that the Russians are correct here by any means in asserting that this is all of the Ukrainian’s viewpoint…but it is certainly there and it is known by the Germans. The Nation article is very well-sourced and particularly damning. Ukraine's Neo-Nazi Problem: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cohen-ukraine-commentary-idUSKBN1GV2TY https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/US-lifts-ban-on-funding-neo-Nazi-Ukrainian-militia-441884 https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/neo-nazis-far-right-ukraine/ https://www.jta.org/2018/04/29/global/nazi-symbols-salutes-display-ukrainian-nationalist-march There are endless reports of this. You can take from it what you like, and I am not going to argue about how widespread this ideology really is, but in all honesty, the Germans are very, very uncomfortable with this. Not only because of the geo-strategic issues relating to Russia that I touched on above, but because anyone who actually follows this understands that it is not just a possibility, but a probability, that Ukraine collapses internally in the very near future given the external pressures, resulting in some kind of civil war...and what will the Germans be seen to have done? Armed Neo-Nazis who turn weapons on other Ukrainians. To the Germans, this is a powder keg where they can easily envision news stories of civil war in Ukraine, with neo-nazis holding freshly produced German weapons. Not good, Bob. Not good. I mentioned in an earlier post that I frequently visit the cemetery of my wife's family to tend to traditional, German customary duties towards dead relatives' graves. Well, one side of the family is buried about 50 yards from the above referenced Nazi-Collaborator Stepan Bandera in one of the most idyllic well-known cemeteries in town. The grave is CONSTANTLY adorned by Ukrainian nationalists with imagery that is illegal under the German Strafgesetzbuch (prohibition on Nazi imagery) and the cemetery authorities have to come out weekly to clean it all up. Every, single, week. It is awful. But my point in saying that is that the correlation between the Ukrainians and that ideology is not a huge stretch for the Germans, because, frankly, they see it themselves in graffiti and news stories. In fact, you will sometimes hear, "and what when this falls into the hands of the Banderites?"...it is a real consideration here. And, in my opinion, if the US starts to push too hard on this the Germans will start to run english-language stories in the media pointing this out to take the heat off. The only reason they haven’t specifically mentioned this is out of deference to the US, but the groundwork is already laid domestically. The Germans know that this element is significant in certain pockets of the Ukrainian forces.
    27 points
  2. Lawyer, but been in an in-house govt relations role for quite a while now. I help formulate and manage government relations strategy for a large German multinational in a highly regulated industry. Basically get paid to read political/regulatory tea leaves in Germany and Europe in an industry that is very exposed to this fallout from this conflict. Not in one of the immediately identifiable industries like Energy or Defense, but in one very exposed nevertheless. I have direct reports scattered around European capitals with a few in Moscow, so I get a lot of local, informed insight from very capable former ex-govt people as part of the job. Happy to contribute in a small way to the interesting content on this site...God knows I have a karmic duty to do so given how much entertainment Surly and TOS provided me over the last decade or so. Plus, I don't get a chance to interact with other Americans on this subject very often, so it is nice to be able to do that.
    24 points
  3. I always laugh when we have to wait for the deer to clear out before we back out of the driveway so we can drive 100 miles to wait in freezing cold in a blind some drunk moron built (me) and get nothin.
    16 points
  4. Look, you fucking snowflake, you turned this discussion into CR with your bullshit, because you're too big of a pussy to actually discuss it in CR. So fuck off.
    15 points
  5. Well it's tough to improve a system when you're dealing with bad faith actors that just want to siphon off public tax funds for their private charter/religious schools so your crotch goblins won't have to deal with inconvenient topics and undesirable people. Our education doesn't need fixing so much as it needs to stop getting strangled by a political movement that is opposed to higher order thinking skills and critical thinking.
    13 points
  6. My go-to guitar. It had fret buzz on two strings (?A and D) up around 10-12th frets. It was otherwise very nicely set-up and stable. I took it to Danny Shoemaker at Straight Frets. He put it on his bench and we looked at it together for 10 or 15 minutes. He thought the neck had either twisted or swollen a little unevenly over time (I can't remember his exact theory). Long story short: I decided to just get it PLEK'd, and left it with him to PLEK and put on a new nut (the machine can also cut the nut with perfect precision as it levels the frets). Before I left it with him, he let me look at the machine and showed me how it works. Once you lock a guitar in place, the machine will measure out everything very precisely and print out an incredibly detailed before-and-after schematic of how "off" the frets are, how much metal is going to be shaved to get to the ideal configuration... like down to the tiniest amount of metal along every single fret. Then you can pull the guitar down and tweak the truss rod (and maybe also tweak the bridge). Then lock it back into the machine and let it measure everything again. I think the idea is to get it set up by hand as perfectly as possible so as to shave off the least amount of metal. I picked it up a week or so later, and he confessed that his theory for why I had a little buzz in one spot wasn't exactly correct. It made me respect him more that he would readily say that. I've got to say, if it was world's best luthier vs a really good luthier and a PLEK... I'd take the PLEK all day long. They're incredible machines. Y'all have seen it more than once on this thread... it's a 91 Custom Shop. It looks a little red in this photo... it's actually orange. It also got relic'ed the old fashioned way - by playing the shit out of it for 30 years.
    13 points
  7. This is the entitled Rodgers selfish me first thinking of why we haven't moved on from this. People don't adhere the social contract anymore. Public health. Civic duty. Social responsibility. It's me me me.
    12 points
  8. This. Look, I'm an old fart. I remember when absolutely batshit insane, irrational, and detached-from-reality-and truth "pamphlets" were how people indulged in this shit. I went to gun shows and similar events 30-40 years ago, and occasionally, there were some "fringe-y" types around, or some guy's table also had a stack of "newsletters" about how the illuminati were hiding proof of aliens and having perverse sex with them along with JFK who was actually still alive and tag-teaming the still-alive Marilyn with Elvis (I'm not saying I picked up a newsletter to read that particular story, but I'm also not saying I didn't). But their distribution was......limited. The nutbars reached.....dozens of people. Now, through the magic of internet first, and then the amplification of such things as the approach got picked up by "celebrity" types, the same inane, utterly batshit crap I once saw on hand-printed newsletters at a SE TX gun show in 1986 now get an audience of 11 million people. I didn't worry about these ideas when they were only communicated among a few dozen gullible morons. Now that the gullible morons have a common source, and have become the largest single "information consuming" audience in the country....yeah, it's fucking troubling. Listen to some of that batshit crap he's selling. Fucking listen to it. You're not "black" unless your skin is midnight black? Ignoring (just for starters) the continuing legacy of treatment of people of even fractional african descent in this country for centuries? The treatment of such people by the law and law enforcement? How your dad would have felt if your daughter brought home one of those lighter-skinned black guys? Jesus fucknuts, what the fucking fuck? You're goddammed right the problem is that idiotic shit like that has an audience of 11 million people. It should make everyone concerned.
    11 points
  9. Trust me on this: there are times where it's worth a 5 second pause before hitting "send".
    10 points
  10. They aren’t coming for your guns. They have had opportunity after opportunity. The GOP have come after womens rights, gay rights, removing books, fucking up education, letting people freeze to death because they ignored fixing the grid… but by all means, keep you precious gun. [emoji849]
    10 points
  11. Say what you will about Antonio Cromartie, but he produced everywhere he went.
    10 points
  12. I mean Arkansas copied this EXACT model from THIS school. Level 1 source
    9 points
  13. Well the problem is Donkey / Monkey / Turkey starts out good enough but always goes off the rails at some point. He begins with shit a lot of us don't agree with but presents it in good faith, makes his points, etc and all is fine. Then he'll get bored and find some stupid ass issue to go full regard over and dig his heels in. As the negs start flying he'll start whining about how he's on his last legs in the forum because the cabal is out to get him. Eventually he gets run, disappears for a bit then reincarnates himself and the cycle starts over. In sum, we are still in phase one but probably pushing towards phase two within a couple of weeks. Within six weeks from now Honkey Vape will be posting his brilliance and we can have some more laughs.
    9 points
  14. Dude, what is with this Musk shit? We have RN money in Austin: I've seen the pay stubs.
    8 points
  15. Thank you for highlighting the difference between subtle humor versus network sitcom writer.
    8 points
  16. I understand how you can FEEL that way, but that's pretty ridiculous. I mean I can kind of understand a case for reparations in the case of slavery, but reparations due to policy changes? How about I get compensated for all those years of high interest rates and taxes that I paid, since nobody has to deal with those now? Or the mortgage forgiveness thing around 2008, after I did the responsible thing and paid all my shit on time while others got a handout/freebie? Just comfort yourself knowing that you were responsible and did the right thing, and stop worrying so much about someone maybe getting a few more crumbs of pie than you did.
    8 points
  17. Well that's one way to make The Book of Boba Fett better. Just have Mando take over the rest of the season.
    7 points
  18. I would like to point out that the last 400 years produced Nickelback.
    7 points
  19. 7 points
  20. Pull this guy out of retirement and he'll put this BS to bed.
    7 points
  21. I FINALLY paid off the last of my loans in 2021 from a school I graduated from in 2009 from a degree I don't even use directly anymore and no longer have anything to do with the field of study. It took forever because I initially put off paying it seriously for a long time, plus after getting divorced with a lot of debt there was some struggle and deferments/forbearances along the way. I was fortunate enough to also have some help from my parents. But it was finally all paid off in 2021. I give zero shits if the government comes in and helps other people with these burdensome school loans even though I've now paid my own off. I just don't get the mindset of "well, I suffered through it so everyone else has to suffer, too." The only thing I really have against the blanket forgiveness of loans is that it does nothing to address why school is so expensive now in the first place. There's no good reason school needs to cost as much as it does today compared to three, four, five decades ago. I think the potential downside is that banks and schools might be emboldened to increase prices and give out even bigger loans if they know the government will just come in and write a blank check to pay off debts. I'd like to see legislation tied to school loan forgiveness that aims at reducing the cost of college whether it's by allowing loans to be written off through normal bankruptcy, price caps on what schools can charge, or whatever it takes. We don't need to be having the conversation again every 10 years.
    7 points
  22. I don't think I'll ever get used to that.
    7 points
  23. Stop being a pussy that was a joke. @fattyflattie I appreciate your conversation here honestly. Not a UT grad but got some loans. Grew up poor on food stamps and section 8, not sure I would be where I'm at without my parents having that assistance but I'm doing alright. Looking back I had some friends that took advantage of those programs but they are not in the norm. Those programs really matter and help a kid growing up. Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk
    7 points
  24. Danish defense minister looks like she’s about to deploy titties, and I’m 100% behind her on that.
    6 points
  25. At least everyone has been very hospitable.
    6 points
  26. News flash: they stole all 3
    6 points
  27. Can Biden nominate a 28 year old with a family history of everyone living until 95?
    6 points
  28. conversation i had with an african american colleauge about hiking the wilderness. him: what, so you just walk around in the woods doing what? me: hiking him: yea, but what are you doing? me: hiking him: for what? me: it's cool. it's being in nature. beautiful scenery. him: can't you just drive through there? caleb williams aint hiking no appalachian trail.
    6 points
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