Politics

[Kevin Peacocke]

Can anyone explain to me why Russia is allowed to possess Koenigsberg? (Kaliningrad)

I heard 3-4 months ago that their over land supplies were being restricted and could easily be cut off. It's the strategic naval yards for the Russians, its isolated 1000 miles West of Moscow. It borders Poland and Lithuania, and without it the Russian fleet cannot have sustainable presence in the Baltic and North Seas.

It just seems a logical piece of dirt to deny the Russians, truly crippling their naval capabilities against NATO.

Obviously this would be an escalation since it doesn't border Ukraine, but wouldn't that be the target to seize to cut off Belarus supplying much of Russia's Navy?

 

[Red Leg]

I’m sure this will be hailed as a genius move by the same people that lamented Trump’s criticism of Kemp last month.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/4843315-trump-kemp-georgia-feud/

I am not sure I would describe bowing to political necessity as a stroke of genius.

 

[rookhawk]

Regarding "woke" Harley-Davidson and other corporations, you need to understand that there presently isn't much downside to woke in general from a profit perspective.

It comes down to what the left calls racism, and what the sane people call "in group bias". People prefer their own groups. If we call this racist, we can actually measure it. Whites in the USA are the least prone to in-group bias. That is why we really didn't change our buying habits when every commercial excludes whites, replacing them with DEI-focused characters. White's thick-skin and general acceptance of others has been leveraged by all corporations for the past 30 years.

So if you ignore the white population, they still buy your products. The opposite is not true whatsoever, hispanics and blacks have strong in-group preferences and that is why nearly 100% of McDonald's advertisements have featured their ethnicities for the past 30 years.

So, back to woke. Woke is an attempt to placate a market segment that is typically unwilling to buy your products. Whitey is going to buy his chopper, but in HD's situation the average demographic of the 55 year old white-hetero-male is dying out. Thus, HD has nothing to lose by shifting to woke hoping to pick up new customers. They got away with it for the past 15 years without as much as a sneer from their typical customers, because again, whites typically have the least amount of in-group bias. HD's desperate plans included a commitment to electric bikes which is just laughable when you consider their core strengths, but their customers just ignored and avoided that product line. Not a single Hell's Angels chapter complained when HD was doing LGBTQI+ recruitment, supplier outreach, or other "woke" gestures for the past 15 years.

The problem is eventually an activist casts sunshine on a corporation and the gig is up. HD's malfeasance has gone on for decades unchecked by their core customers that were too busy having fun on the open roads. But now we are doing an audit of their practices for the first time in the 21st century and its going to do them in.

Most companies "want it all" and they are willing to disrespect their loyal/core clients in an attempt to get market hegemony. In HD's case, they didn't market to new demographics that "they too can pretend to be outlaws, own big iron, and have freedom on the open roads". Instead, they tried to make gay bikes for gay people and eco bikes for eco people...all while forgetting to onboard the son's and daughter's of the market that supported them the past 100+ years.

 

[Lone Star Bluegrass]

I am not sure I would describe bowing to political necessity as a stroke of genius.

It’s a tongue in cheek comment about Never Trump pearl clutching, not an amazement over political masterpiece.

 

[Brent in Az]

RFK jr. Suspends campaign, endorsing Trump, and blasting the Democrats.
I want to listen to him, but damn, he sounds like someone who gargles with broken glass. Painful to listen to him speak