NYT- President Biden considering sending thousands of troops to Eastern Europe and Baltics

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/Noahpinion/status/1485564510861594624

Clearly not someone familiar with the Cuban missile crisis.

Comparing arming Ukraine against an unprovoked invasion to the Soviets sticking nukes in Ukraine is in no way comparable.

This seems like an appropriate time to remind everyone that Russia is a signatory to the Budapest Memorandum, guaranteeing Ukraine's territorial integrity and providing security assurances against the use of force or threats of force against Ukraine, in return for Ukraine joining the the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Russia has, of course, breached the accord an is acting in violation of it.

[vitoNova]

NATO

N ot
A fter
T wo
O clock


Yes.  As someone who actually served in NATO, this was the running chuckles. (I was military police, so the above did not apply to me, but its still funny)

Which is why it's absolutely surreal 10 year later reading and watching all this stuff on the news how NATO are the saviors of Western Civilization.

[StateBoiler]

"You talked about Russia. The 1980s called and want their foreign policy back."

Almost 10 years ago now. Sure aged well. And that was post-Georgian conflict by the way.

There's not much more to say than Romney was right and Obama was wrong. This should be a huge "spike the football" moment for Republicans, but most of the party is so far off the deep end with Trumpism that they don't dare do it.

Is it really worth "spiking the football" over a cheap throwaway comment made in a debate ten years ago?

Romney said plenty of idiotic things that aged very poorly during that contest, as did Obama.  Nobody wastes time bringing them up anymore because relitigating the 2012 election seems like the most pointless thing imaginable.

It's not relitigating the 2012 election considering a main reason we're on the precipice of a major guns shooting war in Ukraine now is the complete non-reaction said country from 1980s foreign policy received hostilely annexing territory from Ukraine in 2014. That was a failure of all the West and Europe, not just Obama, although most of the rest of them look to the U.S. to be the leader due to their lack of military and civilian power.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/JuliaDavisNews/status/1486012859897331715

[Pres Mike]

Jesus

Ya'll are so wrong

No, WW3 isn't happening

No, there isn't going to be a shooting war

Putin is desperate to maintain power. He trying his best to make a failing country remain a global power. For years, he could  with the US because of whatever blackmail he had on Trump. Now he needs something else to distract the Russian people.

Him forcing the US to not let Ukraine in NATO is that distraction. I don't even think Putin wants to invade, the sanctions will destroy the Russian economy further.

If Putin does invade, how does he expect to occupy a nation of 40 million? He'll just invade the south eastern part to connect with Crimeria

[Frodo]

It is exactly the sending of weapons to Ukraine and movement of U.S. troops to the eastern frontier as well as threats of devastating sanctions that so many here decry as 'escalations' that will limit Putin's actions and ambitions not just in Ukraine but for Finland, the Baltic states, and Poland.  By deterring (or at least limiting) Putin's freedom of action in Ukraine, we will ensure the security of our eastern-most NATO allies who occupy the front-line vis-a-vis Russia. The worst thing is to be timid -it will only encourage Putin.  

[StateBoiler]

Putin is desperate to maintain power. He trying his best to make a failing country remain a global power.

It's impossible to treat you or what your post seriously when you advance this argument. He's seriously screwed over the West in 2008, 2014, and 2015 when it comes to major events in international affairs and has actively increased Russia's power on the world stage in multiple arenas in the past 20 years to the West's detriment. He's on the verge of carrying out an offensive war in another country that has not happened in Europe for more than 75 years and no one is coming to the state's active defense and are only just now sending military equipment when this buildup has been known for the past 2 months.

And second, even if you think that, never underestimate your opponent. Always prepare for the worst and hope for the best, because if you don't prepare for the worst, you'll be surprised how often it occurs.

[Badger]

NATO

N ot
A fter
T wo
O clock


Yes.  As someone who actually served in NATO, this was the running chuckles. (I was military police, so the above did not apply to me, but its still funny)

Which is why it's absolutely surreal 10 year later reading and watching all this stuff on the news how NATO are the saviors of Western Civilization.

 Sorry, but what's The Joke here? Nato troops were all drunk out of their skulls after 2 AM?

[vitoNova]

NATO

N ot
A fter
T wo
O clock


Yes.  As someone who actually served in NATO, this was the running chuckles. (I was military police, so the above did not apply to me, but its still funny)

Which is why it's absolutely surreal 10 year later reading and watching all this stuff on the news how NATO are the saviors of Western Civilization.

 Sorry, but what's The Joke here? Nato troops were all drunk out of their skulls after 2 AM?

Kinda....yeah.   But there's not really much of a joke here.  

With the sole exception of the Americans, the Dutch, and the Greeks, the rest of the NATO troops are really really really really....like really goddamn old.  They needed their nap time and Geritol. 

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

[Person Man]

Jesus

Ya'll are so wrong

No, WW3 isn't happening

No, there isn't going to be a shooting war

Putin is desperate to maintain power. He trying his best to make a failing country remain a global power. For years, he could  with the US because of whatever blackmail he had on Trump. Now he needs something else to distract the Russian people.

Him forcing the US to not let Ukraine in NATO is that distraction. I don't even think Putin wants to invade, the sanctions will destroy the Russian economy further.

If Putin does invade, how does he expect to occupy a nation of 40 million? He'll just invade the south eastern part to connect with Crimeria

And then we can still make it hell for him to do so. If he does something that exposes himself at all, it should be chomped at immediately.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

LOL, Calling him Putinist is as brain-dead as calling him Khomeinist.

He has been consistently anti-war/anti-interventionist, regardless who is in the WH, which is great.

[Person Man]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

LOL, Calling him Putinist is as brain-dead as calling him Khomeinist.

He has been consistently anti-war/anti-interventionist, regardless who is in the WH, which is great.

It's called Chicken Dovery. Especially when you go and defend the ideology of the enemy like he did in Budapest the other day.

[Vaccinated Russian Bear]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

LOL, Calling him Putinist is as brain-dead as calling him Khomeinist.

He has been consistently anti-war/anti-interventionist, regardless who is in the WH, which is great.

It's called Chicken Dovery. Especially when you go and defend the ideology of the enemy like he did in Budapest the other day.

Do you mean, Hungary is the enemy of US

[Person Man]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

LOL, Calling him Putinist is as brain-dead as calling him Khomeinist.

He has been consistently anti-war/anti-interventionist, regardless who is in the WH, which is great.

It's called Chicken Dovery. Especially when you go and defend the ideology of the enemy like he did in Budapest the other day.

Do you mean, Hungary is the enemy of US

No but Putinism is.

[StateBoiler]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

LOL, Calling him Putinist is as brain-dead as calling him Khomeinist.

He has been consistently anti-war/anti-interventionist, regardless who is in the WH, which is great.

It's called Chicken Dovery. Especially when you go and defend the ideology of the enemy like he did in Budapest the other day.

Do you mean, Hungary is the enemy of US

No but Putinism is.

Putinism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putinism

Putin’s personality cult,[13] through glorification in the media, the image of a "national hero",[14]

Obama, Trump. Biden is more restrained and unlike his 2 predecessors does not go out in public and have his supporters praise him as though he were God.

strong presidential power,[15] strengthened even in comparison with Yeltsin times,[16]

pretty much every president post-Clinton

strong state control over property,[15]

that's a Democratic Party central belief amongst major wings of the party, Trump probably as well

elements of nepotism (cooperative “Ozero”),

Kennedys, Bushes, Clintons, Trump

reliance on siloviki (people from several dozen security agencies, many of whom worked with Putin before he came to power),

Well that's at least Russia only. So one point.

selective application of justice,[17][18] subjectively selective application of the law (“Everything is for the friends, the law is for the enemies”),[19]

Application of justice in the U.S. is politically influenced. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans believe in applying the law equally to everyone. And if you're a third party group they will join up to quash and destroy you disallowing you from being on the ballot, which closely matches what happens in Russia as well.

relatively liberal but non-transparent financial and tax policies,[2]

On financial policies being incredibly opaque, us and all of the West have been there for 15 years.

“manual control” mode:[20][21][22] a weak technical government that does not have any political weight, with real control of the country from Presidential Administration,[20]

Holy sh**t I could not think of a better description of how weak modern-day Congress is and both parties tell their party's presidents "use executive orders".

utmost secrecy of power and backstage making of key decisions,[20]

"The White House has told all their agencies to look into their concerns with cryptocurrencies for purposes of regulation, but will not comment publicly." Not a crypto guy, just calling them out.

the authorities' dislike of freedom to express their opinion, censorship,[23]

Trump, and Biden as well.

strategic relations with The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, they say, the property interests of the church[24] and a policy of promoting clericalization of society.[25][26]

Not really done here at least. So yay, we're now 2 bullet points better!

In the international arena, Putinism is characterized by nostalgia for Soviet times and a desire to regain the situation before 1989 when the Soviet Union competed on a strong footing with United States in international affairs. Energy is used as an instrument of international politics (so-called “pipeline diplomacy”).[27]

that's pretty much every president on from Bush Jr. has done this nostalgia thing

Make America Great Again, and then Build Back Better:

Build = Make
Back = Again
Better = Great

frankly I wish we had someone as president strong at international affairs, the last good foreign policy president was George H.W. Bush, Clinton was at best passable, and Bush Jr., Obama, Trump, and Biden so far have been varying degrees of incompetent to absolute moron

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

LOL, Calling him Putinist is as brain-dead as calling him Khomeinist.

He has been consistently anti-war/anti-interventionist, regardless who is in the WH, which is great.

He was just fine with wars started by a Republican president. And that was even before he was on Fox News!

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/02/20/cf.opinion.antiwar.hollywood/

CARLSON: The L.A. Times ... says that the United States government has credible information that Saddam Hussein has dispatched agents around the world to commit terrorist attacks against this country if we go to war. Isn't that information reason enough? Here's a terrorist setting out to kill Americans. What more do we need to know?

CARLSON: ... moreover we know right from the lips of the Secretary of State Colin Powell that Saddam Hussein trained members of al Qaeda in chemical and biological weapons. We know he tried to assassinate a United States president. I can go on and on. We know he was behind the assassination of an American diplomat in Jordan last year.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/02/20/cf.opinion.antiwar.hollywood/

CARLSON: Now Janeane, you often hear opponents of a war against Iraq, particularly opponents who live in Los Angeles, say something along the lines of, "What has Iraq done to us?"

And I guess, just a very quick, off the top of the head list is: attempted to assassinate an American president, allowed terrorists harbored in Iraq to kill an American diplomat just late last year in Jordan, apparently signed an agreement with al Qaeda, trained al Qaeda members in the use of chemical and perhaps biological weapons.

I mean, what other evidence do we need?

[Pericles]

Alliances like NATO are more than just empty words, but serious commitments. America needs to act with integrity and make sure its allies are protected, and also do its best to prevent wars of conquest being normal and acceptable.

[Person Man]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

LOL, Calling him Putinist is as brain-dead as calling him Khomeinist.

He has been consistently anti-war/anti-interventionist, regardless who is in the WH, which is great.

It's called Chicken Dovery. Especially when you go and defend the ideology of the enemy like he did in Budapest the other day.

Do you mean, Hungary is the enemy of US

No but Putinism is.

Putinism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putinism

Putin’s personality cult,[13] through glorification in the media, the image of a "national hero",[14]

Obama, Trump. Biden is more restrained and unlike his 2 predecessors does not go out in public and have his supporters praise him as though he were God.

strong presidential power,[15] strengthened even in comparison with Yeltsin times,[16]

pretty much every president post-Clinton

strong state control over property,[15]

that's a Democratic Party central belief amongst major wings of the party, Trump probably as well

elements of nepotism (cooperative “Ozero”),

Kennedys, Bushes, Clintons, Trump

reliance on siloviki (people from several dozen security agencies, many of whom worked with Putin before he came to power),

Well that's at least Russia only. So one point.

selective application of justice,[17][18] subjectively selective application of the law (“Everything is for the friends, the law is for the enemies”),[19]

Application of justice in the U.S. is politically influenced. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans believe in applying the law equally to everyone. And if you're a third party group they will join up to quash and destroy you disallowing you from being on the ballot, which closely matches what happens in Russia as well.

relatively liberal but non-transparent financial and tax policies,[2]

On financial policies being incredibly opaque, us and all of the West have been there for 15 years.

“manual control” mode:[20][21][22] a weak technical government that does not have any political weight, with real control of the country from Presidential Administration,[20]

Holy sh**t I could not think of a better description of how weak modern-day Congress is and both parties tell their party's presidents "use executive orders".

utmost secrecy of power and backstage making of key decisions,[20]

"The White House has told all their agencies to look into their concerns with cryptocurrencies for purposes of regulation, but will not comment publicly." Not a crypto guy, just calling them out.

the authorities' dislike of freedom to express their opinion, censorship,[23]

Trump, and Biden as well.

strategic relations with The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, they say, the property interests of the church[24] and a policy of promoting clericalization of society.[25][26]

Not really done here at least. So yay, we're now 2 bullet points better!

In the international arena, Putinism is characterized by nostalgia for Soviet times and a desire to regain the situation before 1989 when the Soviet Union competed on a strong footing with United States in international affairs. Energy is used as an instrument of international politics (so-called “pipeline diplomacy”).[27]

that's pretty much every president on from Bush Jr. has done this nostalgia thing

Make America Great Again, and then Build Back Better:

Build = Make
Back = Again
Better = Great

frankly I wish we had someone as president strong at international affairs, the last good foreign policy president was George H.W. Bush, Clinton was at best passable, and Bush Jr., Obama, Trump, and Biden so far have been varying degrees of incompetent to absolute moron

This sounds a lot more like Trump. You could argue that Biden is the least Putinist president in modern times with your criteria.

[StateBoiler]

Alliances like NATO are more than just empty words, but serious commitments. America needs to act with integrity and make sure its allies are protected, and also do its best to prevent wars of conquest being normal and acceptable.

If alliances like NATO are more than just empty words, but serious commitments, I would say that every NATO member needs to act with integrity and make sure its allies are protected, and also do its best to prevent wars of conquest being normal and acceptable.

[StateBoiler]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

LOL, Calling him Putinist is as brain-dead as calling him Khomeinist.

He has been consistently anti-war/anti-interventionist, regardless who is in the WH, which is great.

It's called Chicken Dovery. Especially when you go and defend the ideology of the enemy like he did in Budapest the other day.

Do you mean, Hungary is the enemy of US

No but Putinism is.

Putinism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Putinism

Putin’s personality cult,[13] through glorification in the media, the image of a "national hero",[14]

Obama, Trump. Biden is more restrained and unlike his 2 predecessors does not go out in public and have his supporters praise him as though he were God.

strong presidential power,[15] strengthened even in comparison with Yeltsin times,[16]

pretty much every president post-Clinton

strong state control over property,[15]

that's a Democratic Party central belief amongst major wings of the party, Trump probably as well

elements of nepotism (cooperative “Ozero”),

Kennedys, Bushes, Clintons, Trump

reliance on siloviki (people from several dozen security agencies, many of whom worked with Putin before he came to power),

Well that's at least Russia only. So one point.

selective application of justice,[17][18] subjectively selective application of the law (“Everything is for the friends, the law is for the enemies”),[19]

Application of justice in the U.S. is politically influenced. Neither the Democrats nor the Republicans believe in applying the law equally to everyone. And if you're a third party group they will join up to quash and destroy you disallowing you from being on the ballot, which closely matches what happens in Russia as well.

relatively liberal but non-transparent financial and tax policies,[2]

On financial policies being incredibly opaque, us and all of the West have been there for 15 years.

“manual control” mode:[20][21][22] a weak technical government that does not have any political weight, with real control of the country from Presidential Administration,[20]

Holy sh**t I could not think of a better description of how weak modern-day Congress is and both parties tell their party's presidents "use executive orders".

utmost secrecy of power and backstage making of key decisions,[20]

"The White House has told all their agencies to look into their concerns with cryptocurrencies for purposes of regulation, but will not comment publicly." Not a crypto guy, just calling them out.

the authorities' dislike of freedom to express their opinion, censorship,[23]

Trump, and Biden as well.

strategic relations with The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, they say, the property interests of the church[24] and a policy of promoting clericalization of society.[25][26]

Not really done here at least. So yay, we're now 2 bullet points better!

In the international arena, Putinism is characterized by nostalgia for Soviet times and a desire to regain the situation before 1989 when the Soviet Union competed on a strong footing with United States in international affairs. Energy is used as an instrument of international politics (so-called “pipeline diplomacy”).[27]

that's pretty much every president on from Bush Jr. has done this nostalgia thing

Make America Great Again, and then Build Back Better:

Build = Make
Back = Again
Better = Great

frankly I wish we had someone as president strong at international affairs, the last good foreign policy president was George H.W. Bush, Clinton was at best passable, and Bush Jr., Obama, Trump, and Biden so far have been varying degrees of incompetent to absolute moron

This sounds a lot more like Trump.

It sounds like a lot of presidents because the raw application of power and circumventing law and tradition to achieve your goals is not something that only exists inside one country's borders, just some are worse than others. If Putinism is evil than you need to define what Putinism is - which I provided a list that tried to do so - and then apply that standard to all of our nation's leaders. I applied my reasoning to who that applied to of our recent times. Biden's a less Putinesque president than Obama per your own post yet his administration pushed a law to force employers nationally to fire their workers conditionally that they knew would most likely be ruled unconstitutional. That sounds like something Putin would do. The difference would be Putin would arm-twist the Supreme Court to vote a certain way, or he might've considered expanding the Court to pack it. Glad to know we have presidents that would never consider doing that.

Your post is why I consider Democrats and Republicans now though to largely be idiots incapable of respectable political discourse. I literally went through bullet point by bullet point, listed all the presidents those applied to in my opinion, Trump featured probably more than anyone, and your comment is "yeah, but Trump". You're so colored by your partisanship you've lost the ability to determine truth because before you tackle any argument you first look at it through the lens of "if I take side X, does this help or hurt my side?", and 99% of the time frame the question to "let's help my side". Politics is not a sport you f#cking morons. I'm almost literally at the point of I'll only listen to Democratic posters if they say something "pro-Republican, anti-Democrat" and I'll only listen to Republican posters if they say something "pro-Democrat, anti-Republican". So go off and acknowledge your intellectual failings, and once you have, if you want to have a real conversation about Putinism, let's frame it as what does it say that so many states in the world, not just Russia, not just the U.S., have centralized power into the executive/leader of government this century and what does that say for the future of what democracy is going to look like as we continue through the 21st century.

[BlueSwan]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

He has been consistently anti-war/anti-interventionist, regardless who is in the WH, which is great.

He was for the war in Iraq before he was against it.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1486732233830326291

He has been consistently anti-war/anti-interventionist, regardless who is in the WH, which is great.

He was for the war in Iraq before he was against it.

He was against it because his racism won out over his imperialism.


Unearthed audio shows Tucker Carlson using white nationalist rhetoric and making racist remarks

Between 2006 and 2011, Fox News host Tucker Carlson spent approximately an hour a week calling in to the Bubba the Love Sponge Show, a popular shock jock radio program where he spoke with the hosts about a variety of cultural and political topics in often-vulgar terms. In addition to making many misogynistic remarks and sexual comments about underage girls, Carlson, who was hired by Fox in 2009, also repeatedly made racist remarks.

TUCKER CARLSON: I totally disagree. If I didn't like Canada, I wouldn’t consider it worth invading. I mean, Iraq is a crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semiliterate primitive monkeys -- that’s why it wasn't worth invading.

That headline really undersells it.  Anyone defending Carlson, ever, is just damning themselves (as grossly ignorant, at best).