Politics

[mdwest]

 

[jpr9954]

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Interesting, short video by Ward Carroll on the recent F-16 scramble. Carroll is a Navy Academy grad and former F-14 RIO (backseater). He has an interesting Youtube channel where he analyze and discusses various topics such as military aviation, Russia, China, etc.

 

[BSO Dave]

You do - You have made no argument how he could have played those cards - whatever they were - differently. I simply do not believe he had them to play. We should leave it at that.

They could have pushed the threat of default much, much farther.. Being informed as you are, I assume you realize that surpassing the "deadline" would not have resulted in real default. The possibility of entitlement checks being delayed and other temporary inconveniences aside, there was plenty of room to leverage that threat without putting us into actual default.

Both groups can count votes as well as anyone, and as soon as they were safe from being attached to a default, were free to vote or pontificate their constituents about how they aren't playing along with business as usual.

Another major difference between our perspectives is that you seem to believe that no member of the Freedom caucus, or any other MAGA republican representatives who have taken radical positions are actually sincere in commitment to their constituents... You suggest that these dissenters felt emboldened to safely maintain a guise of opposition because they counted the votes... I disagree, and the fact that the assumed 40 or so republican dissenters turned into 70 by the time of the vote suggests otherwise... McCarthy's need to endure 15 House votes to secure a heavily compromised Speakership also suggests otherwise...

Finally, and this is where I agree with Rand Paul, until we are willing to address the entitlement side of expenditures (depending how it is counted, over 80% of our debt) playing with discretionary spending is just playing with the edges and harmful to defense. However, as of right now, the two leading candidates have promised that Medicare and Medicaid are sacrosanct. From a debt perspective, I am not sure it matters who is elected as President if the choice is Biden or Trump.

On this we do agree... However, there are still plenty of entitlements outside of SS and Medicare that could be eliminated to facilitate meaningful spending reductions... Several of these include concessions that the republicans made like backing off the student loan forgiveness and capitulating to less strict rules in regard to welfare and specifically SNAP entitlements which are both perfect examples of what could have been retained with a firmer stance by republicans.

You are correct that neither Trump nor Biden would touch SS and Medicare. This shouldn't be a surprise to anyone as Trump never claimed to be a fiscal conservative which his base is willing to overlook for his strong convictions to the more popular America First policies... At least Trump would spend what was necessary on defense.

 

[Dragan N.]

Russian Volunteer Corps

Who are the anti-Putin groups behind the dramatic raid into Russia?

Two militant groups with neo-Nazi ties have emerged from relative obscurity to claim responsibility for the Belgorod attack, taunt the Kremlin and promise more to come.

www.nbcnews.com

The flag of this unit consists of a stylized life rune. A life rune is a symbol that is frequently used by neo- nazis. https://reportingradicalism.org/en/hate-symbols/movements/nazi-symbols/life-rune

Also the man standing on the right is wearing a black sun badge. The black sun is another common neo-nazi symbol.

But hey at least Kapustin doesn't fly swastika flags and give Nazi salutes. That's "definitive proof" that he is not a neo-Nazi

 

[Ray B]

The blame for the current state of the world, from the Russia-Ukraine problem to China's militarization can be placed on Biden and his advisors response to the Climate Change agenda.

 

[steve white]

The blame for the current state of the world, from the Russia-Ukraine problem to China's militarization can be placed on Biden and his advisors response to the Climate Change agenda.

Anytime oil has gone past $50 or so a barrel, it has funded a Putin land grab somewhere--we paid for this misery! Not looking for the current admin to open the Keystone anytime soon, however bad things get.

 

[NE 7x57]

Russian Volunteer Corps

Who are the anti-Putin groups behind the dramatic raid into Russia?

Two militant groups with neo-Nazi ties have emerged from relative obscurity to claim responsibility for the Belgorod attack, taunt the Kremlin and promise more to come.

www.nbcnews.com

The flag of this unit consists of a stylized life rune. A life rune is a symbol that is frequently used by neo- nazis. https://reportingradicalism.org/en/hate-symbols/movements/nazi-symbols/life-rune

Also the man standing on the right is wearing a black sun badge. The black sun is another common neo-nazi symbol.

But hey at least Kapustin doesn't fly swastika flags and give Nazi salutes. That's "definitive proof" that he is not a neo-Nazi

You want an example of nazi's in Russia you need look no further than Wagner, named after Hitler's favorite composer and Dmitry Ufkin, a founder of the mercenary group who allegedly signs his correspondence with a double lightning bolt.

Russia by it's actions, is more in line with Nazi ideals than anyone of prominence in Ukraine.

 

[geoff rath]

View attachment 537682

Crude oil prices going below $70 per barrel. Saudi is mad at Russia for selling more oil at lower prices than agreed to. Hard to imagine Putin not sticking to an agreement.

This should get interesting.

Hasn't affected the prices here down Under...

 

[geoff rath]

Ca

It was sounding to me like they were going to run Hillary again!

Can she actually run? be near as doddery as the present incumbent ...

 

[geoff rath]

You’ll be surprised. People are sick of the left.

NOT here, sadly

 

[gballard137]

NOT here, sadly

Doesn’t matter what party or who is elected they are just as bad as each other nearly

 

[geoff rath]

Doesn’t matter what party or who is elected they are just as bad as each other nearly

Sadly, it is so. "My" local state member (laborite) has a "meet and greet" table set up in a major supermarket today; wonder what he's trying to achieve?

 

[spike.t]

More woke PC bullshit...but affecting the security of the nation...unbelievable....I have been told about this a while ago.....

Applicants seeking to join RAF described as 'useless white male pilots' in bid to hit 'impossible' diversity targets

White men seeking to join the Royal Air Force were described as "useless white male pilots" in leaked emails that expose the pressure placed on recruitment officers to improve diversity.

ground.news

 

[VertigoBE]

Hope this gives Kenyan’s the right ideas about searching for alternative financing schemes to compensate farmers for loss of live stock.

In Kenya, lions are speared to death as human-wildlife conflict worsens amid drought

Parkeru Ntereka lost almost half of his goat herd to hungry lions that wandered into his pen located near Kenya’s iconic Amboseli national park. The 56-year-old’s loss made headlines in the east African country as it led to the spearing to death of six lions in retaliation by the Maasai people...

apnews.com

 

[HookMeUpII]

The blame for the current state of the world, from the Russia-Ukraine problem to China's militarization can be placed on Biden and his advisors response to the Climate Change agenda.

Ukraine/Russia conflict goes way farther back than that. All the way to the fall of the USSR. NATO, US, UK, etc have been poking the bear for the last 30 years. Putin saw the perfect opportunity with an unbelievably weak US administration. All he needed to see was the results from the Afghanistan withdrawal. It's not entirely his fault. He just gave them all he needed to see for a good opportunity to advance. A lot of GOP-aligned NGO's have their interests being pushed.

China, yes.

 

[Brent in Az]

 

[spike.t]

Hope this gives Kenyan’s the right ideas about searching for alternative financing schemes to compensate farmers for loss of live stock.

In Kenya, lions are speared to death as human-wildlife conflict worsens amid drought

Parkeru Ntereka lost almost half of his goat herd to hungry lions that wandered into his pen located near Kenya’s iconic Amboseli national park. The 56-year-old’s loss made headlines in the east African country as it led to the spearing to death of six lions in retaliation by the Maasai people...

apnews.com

If you are hoping for hunting forget it....Will never happen in kenya

 

[VertigoBE]

If you are hoping for hunting forget it....Will never happen in kenya

A guy can hope! At a certain point they'll have so many old lions running around, they will have no choice but to regulate the population. It will take time.

 

[Dragan N.]

You want an example of nazi's in Russia you need look no further than Wagner, named after Hitler's favorite composer and Dmitry Ufkin, a founder of the mercenary group who allegedly signs his correspondence with a double lightning bolt.

Russia by it's actions, is more in line with Nazi ideals than anyone of prominence in Ukraine.

Utkin has not been seen since 2016- i am not even sure if he's still alive even. Prigozhin is the leader of Wagner. He is an oligarch/kleptocrat. His fighters consist mainly of convicted murderers, rapists and such. There is certainly nothing "rosy" or glamorous about them. However, I see no evidence that Prigozhin is a Nazi or that he has aims to create a "white revolution" in Russia, let alone in the rest of Europe.

Kapustin, on the other hand is an actual Nazi, as are most members of the Russian Volunteer Corps. Most members of the RVC are Russian Nazis who moved to Ukraine in 2014 to join the Azov Battalion. If Putin and Prigozhin are Nazis then why have actual Russian nazis been moving to Ukraine since 2014 and are actively fighting against the Russia regime??

Russian Volunteer Corps: Who are these Russian neo-Nazis? - EJP

By Henry St George After a recent attack on the Bryansk region in southern Russian by a group of gunmen, public attention is focused on Russian nationalists. The “Russian Volunteer Corps” that carried out this intervention is headed by 38-year-old Denis Nikitin. Who is it? The Financial Times...

ejpress.org

I would also add that those people launching attacks within Russia are likely Russian Nazis. As these groups have been training for years to engage in such activities- i.e. attacking state infrastructure. American Nazis do similar things- in that they attack or sabotage power stations within America.

Its also interesting that Kapustin is a persona non-grata in both the EU and Russia for his neo-nazi activities. However he was welcomed by Ukraine and has been living there since 2017.

So you are ok with Ukraine giving NATO weaponry to actual Russian Nazis ??