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Tuco

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Everything posted by Tuco

  1. Tuco

    The Supremes

    Biden, Trump, Pence, Harris Rate them based on intelligence.
  2. Yeah, that’s how the Romanovs consolidated their power. Silly me. Out of curiosity, what do you all think the purpose of the sanctions are?
  3. I have no idea if the average Russian civilian is against the war. I do know is that if Russians start lining up for bread again, they’ll start paying attention and be forced to make a decision if they’re going to do something about it. Every government derives its power from the public. Their government is killing thousands of innocent people. I haven’t seen mass demonstrations or strikes. Fuck them.
  4. Tuco

    The Supremes

    Sasse will confirm, unless he was harping on some interpretation of the Constitution. He’s bulletproof in Nebraska, and his superficial tifs with Trump makes him untenable in a national contest.
  5. As Putin gets further from any reasonable version of victory, I can definitely the goal to shift more to breaking the country rather than taking it. If nothing else, to serve as a warning to others.
  6. Related, I think dictators miss the crucial role the free press has in Quality Assurance. Remember how the Bradley fighting vehicle? Generals and defense contractors can cover that up. But one fucking journalism major can expose the flaws and improve the military. Despots might hate that, but the alternative is the tragic joke that is the Russian military with their 20 year old MREs.
  7. {Meant to quote thatguys “intensive purposes”, but fucked it up. } It’s “intents and purposes”, which is more than just grammar-smack. There is no way he will achieve his intent or purpose of this invasion. Putin will never fully control Ukraine and his paper tiger military has been exposed.
  8. Saddle matches the cop’s. It was likely the equestrian version of a ride-along.
  9. I’m more worried about DeSantis as a candidate than I am Trump.
  10. Thankyou. Reading through the comments was like watching the disinformation machine play out in real time. Fucking idiotvibes posts about the dollar crashing and how it's tied to Ukraine sanctions. People react to the sanctions part, without challenging the basis, which, of course, is just utter fucking nonsense. It's how disinformation becomes commonly accepted.
  11. Do you believe direct engagement with Russian forces would be "actual peace keeping."
  12. Tuco

    The Supremes

    I know it's off-topic from the SC, but I am going to follow it anyway. First of all, a recent Pew Study indicated that 56% of US Catholics believe there should be legal in all or most cases. (Pew, 2020). So, if you are defining a liberal Catholic as someone who believes abortion should be legal, then "liberal" Catholics are massively underrepresented on the SC. I know that's not the perception because pro-life Catholics use their religion to bolster their position, while pro-choice Catholic politicians do not, but the fact is most actual, real life Catholics support abortion rights. And there are plenty who vote Democrat, with Gallup estimating that 52% voted Dem in 2020. (Gallup). Secondly, regarding the purge, you're not entirely wrong (if you replace "Catholic" with "pro-lifer"), but it misses the main story. Local politics have become national. Because of that, it is harder for local candidates to follow regional preferences if they conflict with national party preferences. Case in point, I volunteered for a mayoral candidate (Mello) in Omaha who had some pretty moderate views on abortion. He got some press. National pro-choice organizations raised a stink and Tom Perez backed off him. Whether that cost him the election, I don't know. His campaign wasn't great and he was going against an incumbent. So, sure, there is that dynamic. But you could say the same about the influence Grover Norquist or the NRA has on local Republican candidates. And a thirdly, you shouldn't just attribute changes in the last 30 years to the Democrats. The Church changed. I graduated from a Benedictine high school in 1990. I certainly knew liberal priests. I remember activist nuns who visited to talk about protesting nukes. Certainly there were conservative priests, including ones that protested abortion clinics. I remember paging through a liberal Catholic trade magazine (for the lack of a better term) that a priest had left out. My impression was that it was a cross section of politics. I don't get the impression it's that way now. My impression is that Conference of Catholic Bishops has been effective in pushing their bullshit down to the high school level. Hopefully I am wrong.
  13. Just as a reality check, in this kind of situation, the goal is probably more like only losing 5 defenders to kill one invader. What the Ukrainians are signing up for is a very likely possibility that they will be killed before they are ever in rifle range of a Russian soldier. It is breathtakingly selfless.
  14. Ok. So what? Does that really change the point about the cremation trucks?
  15. The Eastern Orthodox Church does not approve of cremation. So, either that is meant for Ukrainians (to avoid mass grave sites of civilians) or Putin is risking pissing off families who lost their loved ones in battle.
  16. Unfortunately the main effect will be an uptick in Putin’s approval rating. Think I’m joking? Hell, Republicans became the pro-Covid party.
  17. The one I was always come back to was the Sharpie on the hurricane map. It's just fucking obvious that he is a terrible liar. It's not some deep mystery. You don't need to understand math or history or even weather. It's simply a refusal to acknowledge reality, both from Trump (about the hurricane) and from his supporters (about Trump.)
  18. It's a violation. The Ukrainians shouldn't be doing it. The Russian seems sincere, so it's an effective video. Undoubtedly it will result in motivation for the Ukrainians to get similar videos. It's a scenario that is ripe for fuckery, which is why it is a violation. And if I were in a similar situation as the Ukrainians, I would probably do the same.
  19. Nope. Putin doesn't get rewarded for invasion. Foreign powers can't just divvy up the country into voting blocks they think are favorable to them and then call it democracy. In the end, it's Ukraine's decision, but that's a candy coated bullshit offer.
  20. I think it is more likely we’d just tie an aid package to the donation of tanks. But my guess is there is all sorts of analysis of how much aid we could give without an escalation. Tanks may cross a line. No, Russia hasn’t been good about avoiding civilian casualties, but if he starts carpet bombing Kiev, it’s a different level of crisis.
  21. My guess is that it would be unlikely to provide any meaningfully hints to the Russians. But, one, there may be some lucky hint, like they recognize the background and correlate it to some past video he made, and were able to get a good guess on his location. Who knows. But also, two, who gives a fuck. The guy who will most likely die, or be imprisoned, in the next six months just asked you not to. Because he is fighting a proxy war against your enemy without your support. So do what he fucking asks. It’s his life he’s risking, so respect the precautions he wants.
  22. Seems random, until you look at FoxNews. It seems like part of the formula for delivering right wing bullshittery is to always have some showgirls in the camera shot.
  23. Certainly. No disagreement there. But the oversimplification as the war drums beat concerns me. It’s the basic structure as other pro war propaganda: “our problems are because of them” and “they’ve already attacked us.” When you see that, it’s good to pause.
  24. My cousin was a tank commander in the first gulf war. He said the two biggest surprises of the war was how well our stuff worked and how poorly the Russian stuff did. Granted, that was 30 years ago, and the Iraqis didn’t have the latest and greatest, but the Russian tanks were garbage.
  25. I think the article is filtering for what supports its thesis. Two major issues I have with it: 1. If you’re counting propaganda/destabilization as WW3, then the Cold War should count. The tools are different in the 21st century, but efforts are not. 2. It is ridiculous to blame the rise of global right wing nationalism wholly on Putin. The article doesn’t mention 911. Consider what followed: the normalization of Islamophobia, the invasion of two countries with brown people, the (added) destabilization of the middle east leading to mass immigration (major effects in Europe), 20 years of war and its glorification of the military. I think people underestimate that last one.
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