655 Comments

  1. AlexinCT

    Ukraine death toll hits 137 with 316 wounded as Russian assault intensifies

    Gonna get much uglier too..

    • Loveconstitution1789

      Ukrainian soldiers inspect a bullet-riddled vehicle, that they said was being driven by Russian saboteurs dressed in Ukrainian army uniforms, who were exposed and then shot dead

      ” Ukrainian military medic approaches the bodies of Russian servicemen wearing a Ukrainian service uniform lying beside and inside a vehicle after they were shot during a skirmish in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv”

      Clear violation of international law for Russians to do that but hey, those dead Russian Commies dont need the Geneva Convention now.

      • Ted S.

        If they’re not in their own uniform, aren’t they spies subject to summary execution?

      • Lackadaisical

        Correct.

      • UnCivilServant

        Are we sure it wasn’t just being driven by Ukrainian soldiers and the checkpoint was being panicky and trigger-happy?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        It appears Ukrainians soldiers are doing well and highlighting Russian incompetence.

        The Russian plan to helo in Spetnaz or other special forces to seize airports near Kiev and capture Jewish President Zelensky have failed.

        The Belarus border to Kiev is only about 293 km apart. The fact that murdering Russians and Belarus troops havent seized Kiev by Day 2+ is hilarious.

      • Not Adahn

        I heard some bridges got blow’d up.

      • robodruid

        Can you expound on what is so hilarious about this?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Russia is a paper tiger and the Russians are having trouble against Ukrainians. That is hilarious.

        Anyone else not see Putin on state TV yesterday? He did not seem confident anymore but a bit worried. He was mumbling.

        Turns out Russia just gave Ukraine their greatest President. Ukrainian President Zelensky appears to be avoiding capture by Russia special forces and is leading Ukrainians well under the circumstances.

      • robodruid

        “trouble”

        I admit that while i have played hearts of iron, i have never invaded a country.
        Historically they are not attacking like they did to Germany in WWII.

        Are you suggesting that the paper tiger of Ukraine is better than the paper tiger of Russia?
        I still dont see the hilarity, can you explain the joke better?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I did above. Evidently the Russian plan to seize airports Kiev and capture Zelensky failed. That kind of “trouble”.

        Nobody ever said Ukraine was some great military. Do I need to explain what paper tiger means? Ukraine military would never be described as a paper tiger or tiger for that matter. Hence the hilarity of Russian supposedly being some first World army and not doing as they planned.

      • Not Adahn

        Russia, by definition, is second world. That’s what “second world” means.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Is that what Russia is? You poor triggered “libertarians”.

        TOS is thattaway ——>

      • Lackadaisical

        I don’t think the Ukrainians holding out for two days is very impressive, should they last beyond 2 months it will begin to be impressive. How long did it take the US to capture all of Iraq? When did we find Saddam?

      • Mustang

        Russia is literally the second world. That’s where the terms first and third world countries come from, or did you never bother to ask where the second world is?

        First world = the US and its allies during the Cold War.
        Second world = Russia and its allies.
        Third world = everyone else.

        The meaning has changed over the years to erroneously describe standard of living.

        Please stop insulting people if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        The Russian Army has been classified by some as the 3rd most powerful Army in the World.

        Zelensky aint in a spider hole. He’s rallying Ukrainians which is good.

        The US plan in Iraq was not a giant pincher movement with airborne landing to kidnap Saddam.

        I guess 2 months is the time to beat.

      • juris imprudent

        has been classified by some

        Now that is some authoritative talk right there folks. You can stop beclowning yourself whenever you want to dude.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Mustang: Second World was a Cold War term which described the USSR. That country does not exist anymore.

        Please stop insulting people if you don’t know what you’re talking about.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor ji. I get rent free space from him.

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        I still contend that Russia is easily the second most powerful military in the world… even if they are a paper tiger as you say, they are still more formidable than every other military on earth save the U.S…

        This will be the last time I will respond to your obtuse attempts at doing…. whatever it is the fuck you’re doing…

      • Lackadaisical

        @LC, agreed about zelensky, not sure how long they hold out though. Did the Russian attempt at the airfield really end in disaster for them?

        Seems they’re late in reacting to Russian aggression. Only now ordering a general mobilization? Russia had been building up forces on your border for a month dude.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        So the “easily the second most powerful military in the world” cannot defeat Ukraine easily? China doesnt have a more powerful army than Russia? Youre light on citations or its an unsupported opinion. I think Russia is a paper tiger for not being able to defeat Chechyans and Ukrainians in a manner they planned for.

        Im countering nonsense posts and attempting insults. Should I simplify it for you?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        @lackadaisical: The Russian attempt and final capture at the airport was definitely not a disaster for Russians. Ukrainians didnt need the airfield since Russians likely control the air. Russians not being able to land more troops at the airfield was a huge win for Ukraine. Russians have the means to repair the airfield and can land helos. It appears that the Russian plan to grab Zelensky and get him to surrender Ukraine hasnt worked like they hoped. The Russians are not bombing every building, so it appears they want a semi intact Ukraine to puppet.

      • juris imprudent

        Clear violation of international law… the walls are closing in on Putin now!

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor ji. He is having trouble understanding things unless you simplify things for him,

      • juris imprudent

        I know this might be too difficult for you, but you are treating Putin as the morons of the left think about Trump.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Do I need to simply my comment against for you?

        I noticed the other day, you were having trouble with sentence comprehension.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor ji. He had sad.

      • juris imprudent

        Yes, I’m sad that you’ve decided to be a troll. You have in the past had useful commentary. But know you’re doing the Bro shtick (but without breaking from it like he does). Either figure out that doesn’t really fly here or go play in a mud puddle more to your liking. Zerohedge might be about your speed.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor ji. He cant keep up, so troll label gets dropped.

        original.

      • Mustang

        LC you are not gaining any friends here. Maybe take a break.

      • Brochettaward

        Woh woh woh woh…The Bro Firsts to redeem his chosen people. I’m like Jesus. Do not compare me to a guy ranting about the importance of defending a country where half the population doesn’t even want to defend itself.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Mustang: so what. Why would I want to be “friends” with Russian apologists and bandwagoners who ad hominem attacks those with dissenting opinions and citations? If y’all want to bandwagon Russian apologists. fine. Thats on YOU not me.

        Its always very telling how many bandwagon in a “libertarian” community.

      • Swiss Servator

        “I’m like Jesus.”

        *readies catbutt*

      • Not Adahn

        That’s what’s inspiring you to to go through the catass files?

      • MikeS

        “I’m like Jesus.”

        *readies catbutt*

        You can’t be serious right now

      • Not Adahn

        Occasionally Switzy reveals he’s only human too.

      • MikeS

        “I said, ‘This is genius.’ Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine of Ukraine. Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful. So Putin is now saying it’s independent, a large section of Ukraine. I said, ‘How smart is that?’ And he’s going to go in and be a peacekeeper.”

        -Russian Apologist

      • Loveconstitution1789

        How can President 45 and 47 be a Russian apologist. Inquiring minds want to know.

      • Swiss Servator

        Not Adahn on February 25, 2022 at 10:13 am (Edit)
        That’s what’s inspiring you to to go through the catass files?

        Oh, I know what is in them thar files!

        MikeS on February 25, 2022 at 10:47 am (Edit)
        “I’m like Jesus.”

        *readies catbutt*

        You can’t be serious right now

        Every bit as serious as that comment…

      • MikeS

        I wholeheartedly agree that Bro went to far comparing himself to Christ. I’ve defended him and his schtick, but that’s too far and in any other context I wouldn’t have commented (maybe). But in this context, surrounded by all this nonsense, that’s what made your cat butt trigger finger itch?

      • MikeS

        Inquiring minds want to know.

        If criticizing Zelenskyy is being a Russian apologist, why wouldn’t praising Putin be the same?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Actually being on Zelensky’s side makes you a Nazi.

        You know those Jewish Nazis, stick together.

      • MikeS

        OK. I’ll try one more time:

        If criticizing Zelenskyy is being a Russian apologist, why wouldn’t praising Putin be the same?

      • Swiss Servator

        I wholeheartedly agree that Bro went to far comparing himself to Christ. I’ve defended him and his schtick, but that’s too far and in any other context I wouldn’t have commented (maybe). But in this context, surrounded by all this nonsense, that’s what made your cat butt trigger finger itch?

        I guess my “Every bit as serious as that comment…” was too vague – that is on me.

        I wasn’t serious. Trying to lighten the place up a bit…gettin’ hostile in here!

      • MikeS

        Oh, duh. My bad! Yes. I read your reply wrong. He wasn’t serious (presumably) and neither were you. Gotcha.

        Time to abandon this dead thread.

      • Swiss Servator

        Maybe the NY AG can subpoena him!

  2. AlexinCT

    Race-Obsessed Liberals Somehow Find A Way To Make Russia Invading Ukraine About Race

    I already saw them desperately trying to lay the blame at Trump’s feet, but the real kicker was Putin telling everyone that he had to get rid of that Jewish Nazi in Kiev…

    • WTF

      I already saw them desperately trying to lay the blame at Trump’s feet

      Me too, and I can’t even imagine how deranged or dishonest you have to be to even consider making that argument.

      • limey

        BBC had on some Obama admin State Dept apparatchiks being so very sober and judicious in their explanations of how “we must” be patient and wait for sanctions to work, and also, presumably, how this is all Trump’s fault somehow.

      • Nephilium

        It was all 7-D chess that was played by that master strategist… TRUMP!

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        All I know is that this is bad for climate change.

      • TARDis

        Aww, is some of poor Kerry’s grift lucre getting diverted? He should have a double pity party with Gore.

    • juris imprudent

      The Republicans that elected a black Lt Gov and hispanic AG in Virginia – got it. Reid is stretching the Alex Jones boundary on reality.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        AJ’s accuracy rate seems to be improving daily. Reid’s headed the other way.

    • Loveconstitution1789

      You should see a few Russian apologists on here. Russia murdering innocent Ukrainians is Ukraine and America’s fault.

      Ukrainians President Zelenskyy is Jewish but the Azov Battalion and NAZis in Ukraine was the highlight of someone’s articlet yesterday. Cited from a wikipedia page which has a Russian administrator.

      • WTF

        Good God, give it a rest.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Funny that you dont say that to the Russian apologists on here.

      • WTF

        Because I have seen little in the way of actual apologia for Russia’s invasion, despite your hysterics and your penchant to perceive it behind every comment, and your constant obsessive hysterics are getting really tiresome.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        HAHA. whatever dude.

        You people make me laugh.

        Russian apologists are getting tiresome.

        Maybe glibfit will save everything here.

      • WTF

        Hi. This is Wilford Brimley. Welcome to Retardation: A Celebration. Now, hopefully with this book, I’m gonna dispel a few myths, a few rumors. First off, the retarded don’t rule the night. They don’t rule it. Nobody does. And they don’t run in packs. And while they may not be as strong as apes, don’t lock eyes with ’em, don’t do it. Puts ’em on edge. They might go into berzerker mode; come at you like a whirling dervish, all fists and elbows. You might be screaming “No, no, no” and all they hear is “Who wants cake?” Let me tell you something: They all do. They all want cake.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor WTF. Bandwagon called for you.

      • Contrarian P

        I agree with WTF. You’re spamming up every thread with this stuff. You’ve made your point repeatedly and it’s getting out of hand. You don’t get a prize for winning arguments on the internet.

        You have your opinion. Clearly people disagree with you. Let’s give it a rest.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Yea, Im the problem. The bandwagon spamming is fine.

        Im responding to each attempted insult and sad comment by ji.

      • Contrarian P

        You made your point. Clearly the two of you have an intractable disagreement. It’s time to move on.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        SO I HAVE TO GO DARK to fix this? classic.

        Notice no posts like Contrarian in reply to certain bandwagoners.

        Im citing dailymail.co.uk articles about Ukraine and Im the problem. Seems backwards to me.

      • Ted S.

        As I said at the end of the overnight thread, I’m getting a strong vibe from certain posters that the Ukraine deserves what it’s getting because the evil CIA approved of the Maidan protests.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Poor triggered “libertarians”

        Citing dailymail.co.uk means I work for the MIC. HAHA

        Look at them come out of the wood work.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Let’s be clear, the Ukrainians do not deserve what they’re getting.

        If we are to evaluate foreign policy on the results, then the USA’s policies towards the Ukraine have been entirely self-serving with no regard for the realities of the situation. The goal should be to avoid war, but at every step the USA’s actions have been provocative and oftentimes contrary to our own stated morals (such as colluding with Nazis in an overthrow of a foreign government).

        The West’s attitude towards the Ukraine and Russia has been simplistic and ignorant of the existing and historical situations there. We have refused to acknowledge that the other side even has an argument and by doing so, helped ratchet the tensions up to the point that the Russians chose war to resolve the dispute.

        Recognizing that your competitor has grievances that need to be addressed is not apologia, it’s a realist and pragmatic approach that seeks to avoid the outcome of death and destruction.

        Recognizing that your own government is not telling the truth is not validating the propaganda of the other side. All governments present a false choice in times of war in order to validate their own decisions and solidify popular support.

        What we’re seeing is a travesty and it was avoidable. We should be holding our own leadership accountable for that failure.

      • juris imprudent

        Hear, hear Scruffy.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Poor scruffy. Trying to save face. Congrats.

        You said Russia violence in Ukraine was Ukraine and America’s fault. That is 100% wrong because Russia attacked Ukraine.

        As I pointed out to you TWO DAYS AGO, you not wanting America to be involved in Ukraine is a fine opinion. I am fine with America being involved in Ukraine in almost every way except US troops. Because we gave Ukraine defense assurances when they gave up nukes. Its important for America to keep promises and assurances. Otherwise, it emboldens tyrants like Putin.

        But see, you still dont blame Russia as the problem. This is America’s failure according to you.

      • WTF

        Unfortunately, Scruffy is trying to reason with a shit-flinging monkey.

      • juris imprudent

        the Russians chose war

        See LC – I pulled that part out for you.

        Four words that say this is what Putin did. It was his choice. Can that possibly penetrate your skull?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor WTF as he shit-flings.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        My point from the beginning was that the situation was more complex and that the US bears a lot of blame for the escalation. That our actions in the Ukraine were not high-minded at all. I never made the claim that the Russians were the good guys. There are none here except the ordinary Ukrainians who are going to suffer for the actions of two major powers and their own corrupt government.

        Maybe you’re fine with the US nomenklatura getting rich off the Ukrainian situation until it blows up and then it’s just the Russian’s fault, maybe not.

        But you’ve made one thing clear, that you cannot empathize with the other side of an argument, whether it be legitimate Russian security interests along their border or an internet commenter.

        Instead of arguing in good faith, you immediately resort to ad hominem and raise tensions. In fact, you sound a lot like the idiots in our State Department.

        Feel free to thrash about in the comments until you get yourself banhammered, I doubt you’ve got the restraint to choose otherwise.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Scruffy told me to fuck off, so he has been hit and running little passive aggressive insults.

        But now hes “trying to reason”. hilarious bandwagoners at their finest.

        Then the shit-flingers say that Im shit-flinging. Good luck with that boyz.

      • Brochettaward

        When you see the Biden administration openly admit that our European allies are opposed to kicking Russia out of Swift and that our sanctions have basically ignored Russia’s oil and gas sectors, it’s pretty obvious to me that nothing about our actions was ever high-minded. It aint about defending the corrupt so-called democracy of Ukraine here.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Getting “banhammered” by wagoners just says more about those people than anything. If thats how people want to run things, so be it.

        Im replying to attempted insults and people who want to discuss Ukraine or whatever. wagoneer comments on here are a joke.

        Feel free to run around and drop passive aggressive comments just like this.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        our sanctions have basically ignored Russia’s oil and gas sectors

        Italy just announced that they do not want sanctions on Russian luxury goods.

        That’s how committed the EU is to the Ukraine.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        @brochettaward: I even think that us troops in Poland to help with Ukraine was a ploy to get NATO to act as if “America got this”. Then el commandente’s handlers pull the rug out by moving us troops from anywhere they might help or deter Russia.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Scruffy: Im just not going to let you say Russia murdering Ukrainians is America and Ukraine’s fault without a challenge.

        Of course the EU is corrupt. I lived in Italy and trash would pile up a mile high when the mafia didnt get what they wanted.
        EU countries forced people to wear masks.

      • The Last American Hero

        Well, Iron Maiden breaking out a frickin Piano was controversial. Some thought it added a new twist to their very impressive catalog, some took to the streets to voice their discontent.

      • Trigger Hippie

        Remember kids: Any criticism of the the State Department, MIC and DoD is an endorsement of Russian political ambition.

        It’s a black and white world.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Remember children: Advocacy against murdering Russians makes you a tool of the state.

        Advocacy against Russian apologists upsets some “libertarians”.

      • Ted S.

        That’s not why you’re a tool.

      • Not Adahn

        He’s on the same arc as John and Eddie.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor “libertarians”. sad.

      • Bob Boberson

        Hihn from what I’m seeing; to include the sneering and antogonizing

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Truth hurts more for some.

        Accusations of being Hihn. You know you decimated their insults when they call you Hihn.

      • Bob Boberson

        That’s a Hihn comment if I’ve ever read one. Now call everyone goobers….

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Poor triggered “libertarians”

      • Swiss Servator

        “He’s on the same arc as John and Eddie.”

        Not Eddie….that was a bit scary.

      • Trigger Hippie

        You’re so cute. I just want to pinch your cheeks, pat you on the head then herd you into the back yard to play with the new puppy.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Its funny the triggered folks coming out of the wood work.

      • Trigger Hippie

        What’s even funnier is a right wing hack using leftist post modern ad hominems.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Its okay. You will get better at what you do with practice. I can simplify the difference between me and right wing hacks.

        I dont know you well, so which kind of hack are you?

      • Not Adahn

        TOS is thattaway ——>

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Of course. Dont like the dissent.. TERMS OF SERVICE!

        You people crack me up.

      • UnCivilServant

        TOS stands for “The Old Site” not Terms of Service.

        The issue is not dissent, but behaviour. You can disagree without being disagreeable.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Im the trouble maker? HAHA.

        Didnt know about TOS being “The old site”. Seems some of same unlibertarian garbage here too.

        Its fine. Im used to having to cite stuff while Russian apologists and Lefties do their thing. The more attempts at insulting, the more it shows no arguments in good faith.

      • Bob Boberson

        BULLY!

      • UnCivilServant

        I haven’t been here for a few days. But from today’s commentary, I see one person jumping up and down flinging the same accusation around without formulating an argument or making citations, and then asserting any response to be the result of them having triggered those responding.

        Was there an attempt at civil discourse, or did it start as shit-stirring?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Bullying by y’all requires good stuff.

        Hackish is more like it. I called it too.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Uncivilservant: Im not reciting all the stuff from two days ago. These hacks are not citing anything. Just having sads.

        *as uncivilservant jumps on bandwagon and shit-stirs.

      • Not Adahn

        When he first showed up here, he was a lot better than he is at TOS.

        Don’t know if he finally got banned from there or his meds need adjusting or what.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’m thinking he finds this amusing and thinks he’s actually riling people up.

        Sad.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I started by challenging Scruffy’s various claim that Russian violence was the same as Cuba Missile crisis and its America and Ukraines fault. Also some people wanted to discuss the dailymail.co.uk reports from Ukraine I posted.

        Then the bandwagoneers like yourself entered the fray, so I defended against them. Sprinkle in some lame insult attempts and presto…Im the problem.

        Even funnier are literal trolls who dont post anything but insult attempts then passively aggressively trying to troll. Its hilarious.

      • EvilSheldon

        You literally haven’t cited a single thing.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Its okay evilsheldon. The internet works like this….you go back to original discussion and look at citations.

        Anything else I can help with?

      • Not Adahn

        lurk moar newfag.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Better than whiny oldfags

      • Cy Esquire

        I’m gonna tell him! Should we tell him? No. We’d better not tell him.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Secrets wagonnering is fun. Reminds me of unreason.

      • juris imprudent

        Thank you Winston.

      • Plisade

        When I first started commenting on TOS many moons ago, I engaged with one of the trolls, Tony, I think. Someone here was kind enough to reply to me with some quote about not engaging them, looking them in the eye, they all want cake, or something. That quote would be appropriate for LC1789 and his/her daddy issues.

      • juris imprudent

        Trump is his daddy.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I get it. The trolls calling the only person citing anything a troll. sad.

        “libertarians” triggered by the dozens today.

      • EvilSheldon

        At least Winston can string together an occasional complete sentence…

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor evilsheldon: At least Hihn could compose decent diatribes occasionally.

      • Grumbletarian

        You still haven’t refuted their assertions. Your argument is basically “REEEEE!”

        Maybe do better.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        They havent refuted my assertions.

        Its okay. The “libertarians” have been triggered and backing each other up. Its hilarious.

        Maybe glibfit can save this place.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Assuming that I haven’t bothered to go back and read all the conversations from the past few days (Narrator: Trashy hasn’t bothered to read any of those conversations), can you give me your cliff notes version of your assertions? I don’t really want to bother reading through 25 comments of ad hom to get to your point.

      • slumbrew

        BTW, Trashy – ‘Nuke’ seems not to be functioning (on Brave, anyway).

        You can guess why I was trying it out.

        Mute is working nicely.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I changed the behavior of Nuke a while back to only kill those threads that the nuked person started. The original functionality (where it killed any thread at the point that the nuked person responded) was a bit too aggressive to be useful, except maybe in this particular situation. We simply haven’t had a “bad faith commenter” problem in such a long time that I haven’t needed to re-enable the original nuke function.

        I’ll see if i can find some time later today to push an update with the original nuke function on top of the mute and current nuke.

      • slumbrew

        “Mute”, “Nuke”, “Tsar Bomba”

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Scruffy asserts that Russian invading Ukraine in all eastern regions and now all of Ukraine was America’s and Ukraine fault.

        He told me to fuck off when I called him on it and said that he is regurgitating Russian propaganda.

        The he switched gears that the Azov battalion was justification for Russia murdering Ukrainians. Nazis! Turns out Ukrainaian President Zelenskyy is Jewish and had multiple family members die in the Holocaust. Zelensky is not giving any support to the Azov battalion 10-20% Nazi claim or other Russia claims like that.

        It was fun to point out that the America military is kicking out “Nazis” by the hundreds.

        Wagoneers pile on to attack dissent which challenges Russian talking points. I defend reply against those amateurs.

        >We are here<

      • EvilSheldon

        Saying that military action was an easily predictable reaction to NATO and US influence operations in the Ukraine, is not ‘blaming the Ukraine and America.’

        ‘Fuck with the bull, get the horns’, is not saying that the bull is right.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Thats NOT what he said evilsheldon.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Me: can you give me your cliff notes version of your assertions?

        You: Scruffy asserts that Russian invading Ukraine in all eastern regions and now all of Ukraine was America’s and Ukraine fault.

        Note that you haven’t bothered to put forth any assertions of your own in your first paragraph. You’ve pointed at Scruffy’s assertions solely. Let’s move on to the next paragraph.

        He told me to fuck off when I called him on it and said that he is regurgitating Russian propaganda.

        Okay, well this isn’t really a direct explanation of your assertions either. Indirectly, I can make a few deductions about what your beliefs are. You clearly disagree with Scruffy’s assertion, but it’s not clear why or to what extent, or what you assert as an alternative. The rest of the para is just ad hom bullshit. Onto the next paragraph…

        The he switched gears that the Azov battalion was justification for Russia murdering Ukrainians. Nazis! Turns out Ukrainaian President Zelenskyy is Jewish and had multiple family members die in the Holocaust. Zelensky is not giving any support to the Azov battalion 10-20% Nazi claim or other Russia claims like that.

        Ok, so Scruffy made another assertion that you interpreted as justifying the Russian invasion, but you have put forth a fact that appears to discredit that assertion or at least your interpretation of that assertion. Again, I get that you disagree with your characterization of what Scruffy said, but I see no attempt at putting forth your own assertion as an alternative. Still not finding anything responsive to the good-faith question I asked. What are your assertions? Onto the next para…

        It was fun to point out that the America military is kicking out “Nazis” by the hundreds.

        Non-sequitur. Onto the next para….

        Wagoneers pile on to attack dissent which challenges Russian talking points. I defend reply against those amateurs.

        Again, we get posturing rather than any summation of your assertions. What is the alternative assertion that you put forth to challenge the Russian talking points? All I’m getting from you is ad hominem, posturing, and runaround.

        I’ll try again, in case I was not clear enough in my first request. In bullet point form, please present 3-5 truths about the Ukraine situation that are not being properly understood by everybody else here.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I have already said multiple times, It is bullshit and wrong that America and Ukraine are at fault for Russia invading Ukraine and murdering Ukrainians. Thats my position.

        Its nice of you to try to frame your concern trolling so I have to do all scruffy’s work. My challenge to Scruffy is above. The posts are from two days ago.

        Im used to it on unreason and Lefty websites. They do the same thing. Just more yelling and insult attempts that Im a horrible Libertarian challenging the narrative. Just funny that there are so many wagoneers here who criticize wrongthink attacks and then do it.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        *bullshit and wrong to say that America and Ukraine are at fault…

      • juris imprudent

        You have a funny idea of “libertarian” when you refuse to see what gov’ts do as having anything to do with what other gov’ts do. None of this about people, it’s all about one corrupt gov’t or another – the prime dispute being over which gov’t is most corrupt.

        It’s almost like you are a Biden supporter.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor ji. I guess I should explain what a Libertarian is to him.

        The guy he hired to be his intelligence man missed the thing about Liberty, property rights, and free market.

      • Not Adahn

        The posts are from two days ago.

        And you’re here still picking fights about it after two days. Norms, how do they work?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Yeah sure> Im picking fights. I dont pick fights. I discuss things and defend against trolls and wagoneers.

        Notice its 10+ vs me. Im used to it. Lefty websites do the same thing. You dissent against a Narrative and the tribe swarms in their wagons.

      • juris imprudent

        LC is being quite normal, about being butthurt.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Its more sad how 10+ folks on here troll and act like they arent. Attempt to insult and act like they arent.

        Lefty websites do the same thing. Amateur hour there too.

        The discussion was about Americans and Ukraine being at fault for Russia murdering Ukrainians by invading Ukraine.

      • Brochettaward

        You aren’t being ganged up on by 10 people. 10 people don’t even care that you disagree with them on this issue. You are going to every topic thread that is even remotely related to your initial argument with Scruffy and flinging shit around provoking responses.

        People disagree all the time on here. Most simply don’t carry it with them to every thread within every article to point out that they had a disagreement.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        And Scruffy and ji and …. were passively aggressively running around here flinging shit?

        Same thing happens on Lefty websites.

      • Not Adahn

        You’re the poor widdle victim speaking TROOF! to POWAH!

        Let me guess, you think that your idea of social interactions are correct and anyone who disagrees with you wrong and a big meanie.

        Do you not understand that different places on the internet have different convention? And that it’s not your place to go into one and try to change those conventions?

        This is NOT HyR. Stop acting like it is, and you won’t get “ganged up on”

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        It is bullshit and wrong that America and Ukraine are at fault for Russia invading Ukraine and murdering Ukrainians. Thats my position.

        Thank you. I’ll go ahead and ignore the rest of your comment where you’re being a bitch.

        I don’t necessarily disagree with your position. I’ll fully admit that I’m not following the developments very closely. However, while Russia clearly has culpability for starting the war, and I don’t think they’re justified in starting the war, I also don’t think the US or Ukraine have entirely clean hands.

        When we found out that the soviets were meddling in a corrupt nation 90 miles off our border, we almost lit off a nuclear war. I can see how the russkies could interpret Biden’s long-standing meddling in Ukraine as an affront of similar gravity. There are some obvious differences in dynamic between the two situations, but the general principle is the same. Respect spheres of influence or expect friction. Still doesn’t justify invasion, but it does justify the level of tension that existed for years prior to this dustup.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I know some of you want to be different so you say things that are incorrect like Brochettaward here. You know or should know youre trolling. Im going to keep defending myself and not allowing people to say Russia murdering Ukrainians is America and Ukraine’s fault

        I get the same troll attacks on lefty websites and unreason.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        And theres the trshmnster insult. Im the bitch for defending myself against 10+ trolls? who have yet to discuss anything about Ukraine under my posts. I though insults were frowned upon here.

        Its okay. You guys exposed yourselves. Its amateur hour. I still will try to avoid personally insulting the wagoneers.

      • Not Adahn

        Im going to keep defending myself and not allowing people to say

        “I’m going to keep disregarding the norms of a place I neither pay for nor support otherwise, and pretend that anyone who notices this is the asshole not me.”

        And “not allowing people to say” things is totes libertarian.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Not allowing people to say ridiculous things without challenge. But you knew that. Well maybe not.

        You dont nuance, brah?

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Im the bitch for defending myself against 10+ trolls?

        Nah, you’re the bitch because you have to generate drama even as multiple people have tried to deescalate. You’ve had multiple opportunities to calm the fuck down and discuss like an adult, and you’ve decided to coat everything in a heaping layer of social media style adhom sewage. Discuss like an adult or be ignored. You had plenty of chances and you chose the latter. Buh-bye.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Its okay trshmnster. The lies come from some of you come like they do on Lefty websites. At least they admit it.

        Your concern trolling is not deescalating except in your own mind.

        Im sure you amateurs think that Im forcing you to troll. You guys cant ignore me because you get owned. So you ad hominem attack and attempt to insult but your horrible at it.

        I see why some of you want a bubble here too. Too scary against people who are smarter and have supported arguments.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Its the same “why are you hitting yourself” argument but with tyrants hiding as “Libertarians”.

      • juris imprudent

        Too scary against people who are smarter and have supported arguments.

        You really don’t realize just how sad and pathetic that is, do you?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor ji. He demands bending the knee or he keeps trolling.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Pathetic is the wagoneers. They got owned and got exposed for what they are.

        Trump is famous for exposing frauds too.

      • Grumbletarian

        “They havent refuted my assertions.”

        That doesn’t mean you’ve refuted theirs.

        Maybe you can’t do better than “REEEE!” Oh well.

      • Grumbletarian

        Also, nobody needs to refute your assertions when you seem do it yourself.

        Loveconstitution1789 on February 25, 2022 at 7:51 am
        Russia is a paper tiger and the Russians are having trouble against Ukrainians. That is hilarious.

        And later…

        Loveconstitution1789 on February 25, 2022 at 8:27 am
        The Russian Army has been classified by some as the 3rd most powerful Army in the World.

        Is Russia a paper tiger and so Zelensky being able to avoid capture thus far not a great feat, or is Russia a significant military threat and Zelensky still managing to lead is significant?

      • juris imprudent

        Any intelligent person, caught in that kind of contradiction, would consider some act of contrition.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor ji. he just follow me around like a puppy. Maybe I should feed him?

        Quick! Someone feed ji.

      • juris imprudent

        I did say intelligent.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        ji, did you hire someone to be intelligent for you? You should get your money back.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Poor grumbletarian. The assertion was that Russian murdering of Ukrainians was America and Ukraine fault.

        Refuted by common sense and logic.

      • Grumbletarian

        Refuted by common sense and logic.

        Yet notably lacking in evidence.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor grumbltarian. I can explain what common sense means for you, if you want.

        It means that the evidence is self-evident. It is self-evident that America and Ukraine are able to control Russia from murdering Ukrainians. Otherwise, Ukraine most certainly would stop Russia from murdering Ukrainians.

        com·mon sense
        /ˌkämən ˈsens/
        noun
        good sense and sound judgment in practical matters.

        Common sense is sound, practical judgment concerning everyday matters, or a basic ability to perceive, understand, and judge in a manner that is shared by nearly all people. The everyday understanding of common sense derives from historical philosophical discussion involving several European languages

        Anything else?

      • juris imprudent

        It is self-evident that America and Ukraine are able to control Russia from murdering Ukrainians.

        Sounds like something straight out of the Biden administration.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor ji. His intelligence man handed the reigns back to ji.

      • Grumbletarian

        It means that the evidence is self-evident.

        Oh. LC hath spoken, and thus, it is so.

        Is it ‘self evident’ that ‘the third most powerful Army in the world’ is really just ‘a paper tiger’?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Just my opinion and clearly Russia is not doing well in Ukraine. Someone mentioned armistice talks between Ukraine and Russia. If thats true, Russia really bit off more than they can chew. I dont think Russia’s plan was to force an armistice.

        If Russia cannot defeat Ukraine, then the paper tiger label implies that they are weaker than they appear on paper. Russia has a bunch of tanks and armored vehicles on paper.

      • Brawndo

        Pointing out that the hysteria and lies from the media about Russia as being lies and hysteria is not being pro Russia, but you seem to not be capable or willing to understand nuance.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Advocating that Russia’s murdering of Ukrainians and blaming America and Ukraine for said violence is being pro Russia. Its literally Russia’s talking points.

        Plus, its retarded. America and Ukraine cannot possibly control Russia’s desire to murder innocent Ukrainians.

        poor Brawndo. Youre late to the amateur hour of wagoneers.

      • Brawndo

        Thanks for proving my point

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Thanks for proving MY point. Do you need me to explain my single sentence more simply for you?

        Circle those wagons!

  3. AlexinCT

    This dude almost was a President.

    If you doubt why Putin felt he could get away with what he is doing, just look at shit like this. With idiots like this calling the shots and setting priorities, he figured he had nothing to really lose giving war a chance.

    • AlexinCT

      They must be hoping Washington D.C. sends them pallets of cash for this act of serious diplomacy…

    • Tonio

      Meh. It costs them nothing, it makes them look reasonable.

      • juris imprudent

        And they get the LULZ.

      • robc

        From their perspective, they haven’t invaded a foreign country, so that gives them moral high ground. There are reasons they are wrong, but I get it.

    • Cy Esquire

      If a world war kicks off, the gloves are going to be off for the 3rd world. Organizations like the Taliban will no longer be handled with kid gloves.

      • The Last American Hero

        Why would you say that? The major powers would be going after each other, dragging along a gaggle of minor powers behind them. Places like Afghanistan become flyover countries, only useful if their proximity to a battle front becomes a thing.

      • EvilSheldon

        All the more reason for the Taliban to take a diplomatic tone. They’re trying to get a seat at the grown-ups table.

    • The Last American Hero

      It’s a mostly peaceful invasion.

  4. The Late P Brooks

    The Russians have captured the world’s supply of radioactive spiders.

    • slumbrew

      I have been bemused by the somewhat breathless reporting around Chernobyl.

      “Russians capture toxic waste site” doesn’t seem like a Russian win.

      • UnCivilServant

        It’s a place they figure most people have heard of.

        Not that most people could place it on the map. Or even find the Ukraine on a map.

      • AlexinCT

        They did that to prevent Ukrainians from getting their hands on radioactive materials and using it as a weapon.

      • Fourscore

        Yeah, it’s like capturing a teenager’s bedroom, only safer. The “Do Not Enter” sign on a the bedroom door had a serious meaning.

      • Cy Esquire

        DO NOT touch that sock.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Chernobyl is still in operation and provides a significant amount of power.

        In classic Russian fashion, they basically threw some dirt on the nuclear pile and went on about their business.

      • Lackadaisical

        That is called efficiency.

      • Brawndo

        Like eating on the shitter

      • MikeS

        That made me laugh probably more than an appropriate amount.

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        It’s just more nuclear fear mongering… The number of outlets that signaled this might be a sign of escalation to nuclear war was staggering.

    • Nephilium

      So we need to close the Spider-Man gap?

      • limey

        Close the multi-verse gimmick. I’m willing to bet the rumour of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine appearing in the next Dr. Strange movie is real.

    • limey

      Soviet Spider-Man vs Italian Spider-Man. I’d buy that for a ruble.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        +2 bella melones

  5. Fourscore

    Russian leaders don’t understand racial equity. Nor do the Ukrainians apparently. Why no POC in their administrations?

    • TARDis

      Racists like Joy Reid should be overjoyed white people are killing other white people. I guess there’s just not enough white on white crime here.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It’s just another demonstration of our foreign policy being a reflection of our (very) stupid domestic politics. Projection is all they know.

        See also: Kerry, John

  6. trshmnstr the terrible

    Have we reached Peak Office?

    There is exactly zero reason for a lot of roles to go back to office. The work doesn’t get done any better sitting in some cubicle or hotelled open office, and the downsides are many. Any push for back to office for those roles is either due to inertia or people managers’ insecurities.

    • Certified Public Asshat

      Even HR has figured out how to keep torturing everyone with mandatory diversity trainings on zoom.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Yeah, those get deleted the instant they hit my inbox. So far, I haven’t felt any repercussions.

      • Fourscore

        Working from home isn’t for everyone, Jimbo

      • Pope Jimbo

        HR hasn’t figured out how to handle my wife’s repeated complaints of sexual harassment in the workplace.

      • SDF-7

        Ok, pack it up folks — the Pope just won the Internet for today.

      • AlexinCT

        That’s cause all they really are concerned with your holiness is avoiding a lawsuit that costs the company money. HR is not your friend. when you go to HR, even if you di so for a totes legit reason, you are far more likely to land on their shit list than get any kind of action.

    • Swiss Servator

      Our CEO, being Swiss, is grinding his teeth about this. He wants everyone dressed nicely and in the office, and we wear jeans and stay home, mostly.

      • Not Adahn

        A zoom suit and tie filter would be much more useful than a cat one.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I love getting on zoom calls with certain law firms these days. They’re all in suit and tie and sitting in their expensive offices overlooking the nicest parts of the most elite cities. I’m sitting in my home office wearing a Dr. Pepper tee shirt. Going in-house has its perks.

    • rhywun

      Like I’ve said before, I won’t even consider going back until Biden reverses the stupid mask theater on public transportation. Or he buys me a car and an EZ-Pass.

      Oh, and I get a nice fat raise to cover the extra expense of hauling myself back and forth.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I actually just sent our HR department a note about their policy and when it will change. I only live a mile from work and like going to the office.

        Right now I’m stuck at home because they switched back to mandatory masks in common areas (you can go maskless in your cube/office) as part of the panic over OmicRona. I am tempted to just go and flout the rules because I don’t think anyone is there, but am pretty sure I’d get busted and I really don’t need that.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, there’s also the matter of I don’t what the RULES currently are in New Jersey.

        I won’t go in if I have to wear a mask in the office, either.

      • CPRM

        I finally have days I don’t have to wear a mask most of the time I’m at work! 🙂
        But that’s only because we’re so short staffed that some days I work alone.

      • TARDis

        I still think it’s funny our mask mandate ended at midnight on the 15th. Just like that, Covid left the building. Our GM was distraught the day before because people were unmasked already.

        I’m still reflexively reaching into my pocket to grab my mask when I leave my temporary office.

    • The Last American Hero

      I disagree. My profession has used what some call an “apprenticeship” model, where jr staff learn by working alongside senior staff for years, taking on more responsibility each year. A lot of this training is thru osmosis, just being around and seeing/overhearing what the senior staff is doing/how they are approaching problems. A lot is by senior staff being able to jump in and shoot down questions as they arise.

      As we’ve gone remote, the learning pace has slowed down, the work ethic is in the toilet, and there is a real lack of engagement among the team members, leading to huge turnover for anyone willing to make a few more dollars.

      The people that have been around for a few years can be productive, but then they aren’t there to train the newbies.

      We will feel the effects of this in a few years, when bloated payrolls result in poorer product and low productivity. Then we will be peppered with thinkpieces on how may a return to the office is a good idea.

      That being said, no we don’t need to go back to 100% “the way it was”.

      • rhywun

        Fair enough. I agree there is value in working “together”.

        OTOH… my junior staff is in Russia, Poland, and Belarus. The people above me are spread all over the US.

        The model of “everyone in the same office” has been broken for a long time.

    • Homple

      Many jobs that can be done from home in the USA can be done from home in Mumbai, much cheaper.

      • slumbrew

        Having worked with overseas IT for many, many years now, it is not as nearly straightforward as you might imagine.

        Cheap, sure. But you get what you pay for, even there. Top-flight people are not much of a bargain.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Cheap, sure. But you get what you pay for, even there. Top-flight people are not much of a bargain.

        Can confirm, and that’s not even taking into account the administrative nightmares of managing offshore assets.

      • Homple

        I heard the same stuff said about factories.

      • UnCivilServant

        *looks at cratering quality control from offshore factories*

        Yeah, that didn’t work out too well either.

      • AlexinCT

        ^^^THIS^^^

        Management types love to delude themselves that worker widgets are replaceable and quality isn’t a real thing so they can claim they saved the company money sending work to sweatshops, but indubitably the company will find itself holding a giant bag of shit quality products when they choose not to pay for the talent to do the work.

        My company is now moving away from 3 decades of offshoring because they estimate their technical debt is in the high hundreds of millions. That means they will never be able to afford to fix it all. At least they are trying to produce quality products going forward and that means paying for talent and not cutting corners (especially when it comes to automation).

      • Homple

        Once upon a time, stuff made in Japan was cheap junk, then suddenly it wasn’t. So it would not be a surprise if offshored remote work didn’t improve in quality as well.

      • Swiss Servator

        We have been “onshoring” our services OUT of India. Doesn’t matter how cheap something is, when done poorly, slowly and ineffectively. When the Swiss start spending money…you know it is bad!

      • TARDis

        I think my company has done the same. We can’t do too much though, because it looks bad.

      • slumbrew

        That’s not even touching on the cultural issues. Having worked with Indian co-workers across several companies now, there’s a real lack of initiative; if something doesn’t happen _exactly_ the way it was described, it’s full-stop and wait to escalate it back up.

        AFAICT, it comes from the top-down & those with initiative get punished and end up leaving/getting pushed out. I suspect those people end up being too expensive for us.

        And let’s not even start on the empire building – there’s new headcount every time I look.

        Krakow had more EU-related legal issues related to hours worked, etc. We had guys who were happy to keep working on some issue but had to lie about whether they were still working.

        Our Costa Rican experience has been the most pleasant so far. They’re good eggs & sharp.

        YMMV

      • UnCivilServant

        Speaking only from those people I’ve had to work with or supervise, I have noticed a direct correlation between the longer an employee from India has lived in the US and the amount of initiative shown. I don’t know how much of this comes from acculturation and how much from simple work experience. I do see a lot of unwillingness to make a decision, but that is not exclusive to the Indian employees.

      • rhywun

        I have a guy in Belarus who is whip-smart and works crazy hard.

        Most of the rest of the offshore team are as Slum described.

        And yeah, the best Indians were the ones who lived here, but I can’t really explain why since I knew next to nothing about the ones in India – their experience etc. They were always there kind of by design to just hand them something and they do it.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I can’t really explain why since I knew next to nothing about the ones in India

        An Indian expat coworker said it’s a relic of the caste system. Anybody with any level of wealth/power gets their kids over to the US or into positions of power and authority in IN. They look down on the masses who end up in call centers and sweatshop tech offices as being almost subhuman. I’ve never seen so much disgust in somebody’s eye when talking about their own countrymen.

      • rhywun

        Also can confirm.

        I honestly don’t know if it’s even cost-effective, or if it ever was. The fact that everyone is still doing it doesn’t mean anything, either.

      • CPRM

        Unhappy are you with quality of my working? Unhelpful have I been? Then please, if you are to be giving me your electronic mailing address, I have a short survey to for you fill out.

      • Ghostpatzer

        I have a short survey to for you fill out.

        “Please do the needful.”

      • AlexinCT

        It works for the manager that sells the offshoring idea to senior leadership: on paper. They can show a saving, often a big one, bag a big bonus and a promotion, and leave some other idiot with the bag of angry dicks. that idiot will then also look for a way to cut cost even more (since that is what senior leadership always rewards), fucks things over even worse, but makes it look good on paper, moves on to his new job with a big bonus, and we get to rinse and repeat. Eventually the whole thing starts falling apart because there are not enough bandaids to keep it running. Then that poor idiot will have to point out to senior leadership that their clever cost cutting by offshoring strategy has left them with a mountain of technical debt which will need to be rewritten from scratch, because there is no way to save it from the crap it is.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Thissssssssssssssss.

        I will point out that it’s not a monolith. However the SNR for Indian hires is abysmally low, and there are some cultural, erm, peculiarities that make even some of the better ones hard to work with.

        We hired in a number (7 or so) of folks from India a few years back. We flat out fired 2 for underperformance, but it took two years to get that done. 3 more are woefully underperforming, but not to the level that they’ve been fired yet. The last 2 are at a level I would expect of a new hire who had never been exposed to the industry before.

  7. Ted S.

    Oil pounces!

  8. Certified Public Asshat

    The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur, meanwhile, said Republicans love Putin because he is white in a Thursday morning tweet.

    I don’t get how the young turks are a thing.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      There’s always a burgeoning market for outraged stupidity.

    • WTF

      Republicans love Putin

      Maybe he has evidence for that assertion, but I haven’t seen any.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        My own GOP congresscritter has been not quite full on warhawk.

      • The Last American Hero

        Ah, a tumescent war-hawk – enough to hold promise and look more impressive, but not quite ready to ahead and stick it in.

      • rhywun

        ?

    • UnCivilServant

      Well, when a political activist and money love each other very much…

    • Cy Esquire

      It’s all they have left. Don’t get mad, just pity them. I think they know they’re not going to be able to fortify their way out of the coming elections.

      • WTF

        they know they’re not going to be able to fortify their way out of the coming elections

        Well, that remains to be seen. I wouldn’t be so sure.

      • UnCivilServant

        “Election results are in. Republican House Candidates pulled in a combined paltry Seventy-Seven Million votes, while Democrat candidates pulled a combined three hundred and forty-seven million votes to sweep the House of Representatives.”

        /Newsanchor.

      • WTF

        “Meanwhile, Republicans are falsely claiming election fraud.”

      • Lackadaisical

        Without evidence even.

  9. Scruffy Nerfherder

    26% of Americans appear to be lunatics.

    • Lackadaisical

      Only 26%?

      Seems a little low.

  10. Tres Cool

    whaddup doh’

    • Nephilium

      Some real dumb headlines up here in the area with the most Ukrainians in Ohio:

      Ukrainians are afraid and disappointed by Russian invasion, says Case Western Reserve University Professor who lives there

      But I did get to participate in a real honest mosh pit again for the first time in years. Only three masked idiots in there, and we found someone to dislike more, punk-rock Karen. Punk-rock Karen called down the bouncers on a guy in the pit who had the gall to take his shirt off in a mosh pit.

      • Ghostpatzer

        LOL. WTF would a Karen be doing in a mosh pit?

      • juris imprudent

        She was making it safe!

      • Lackadaisical

        Look, if she can’t take her shirt off, neither can you.

      • Ted S.

        Maybe she didn’t want to see your moobs. :-p

      • Nephilium

        I did leave my jacket in the car (it was only a block away), but my rugby jersey stayed on the whole show.

  11. Fourscore

    “Defending freedom will have costs for us as well, here at home,” Biden said Tuesday. “We need to be honest about that.”

    That means an end to the TSA et al? Fauci gets fired? The list is endless. I’m all in for freedom, even if it isn’t free.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      You’re a funny guy 4X20.

    • Pope Jimbo

      Nope. They are going to raise taxes to pay for freedom.

      *They should have raised taxes to pay for the Iraq/Afghan wars. See how much people really want to be there if they have to pay for it now instead of letting their kids pay for it later.

  12. Not Adahn

    NPR had some admiral on who always referred to the people of Ukraine as “Ukraines.” Is this a thing, or is there some navy reg against having more than three syllables?

  13. The Late P Brooks

    During the early height of the pandemic in New York City, subway ridership dropped more than 90% as lockdown orders kept people at home.

    I’d say that’s mostly bullshit. My suspicion is the drop in ridership had a lot to do with a not-irrational reluctance to enter into crowded enclosed poorly ventilated spaces.

    • UnCivilServant

      Before, I wanted to avoid the NYC Subway because of the people.

      Now, I want to avoid the NYC Subway because of the people.

      • Cy Esquire

        Here I’ve just been avoiding NYC entirely.

      • limey

        #metoo but it’s quite easy from this distance

      • Nephilium

        It’s not that hard even if you’re closer.

      • Not Adahn

        Hell, I don’t think I’ve been there since I moved to NY (unless you count connecting flights).

      • slumbrew

        I haven’t been to the city since around 2010.

        Not opposed to going but if I’m in the area, I’m seeing family. Seeing them, then traveling an hour each way to the city always seems like a bad use of my time.

      • UnCivilServant

        I’ve lived in New York my whole live. I’ve been to NYC twice for the sake of a destination in the city – once as a tourist where I was underwhelmed, and once for an interview I thankfully bombed. I was there three times simply because flights to and from the UK came through there. (Hurricane Sandy redirected my one flight to the UK to route via DC instead)

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Every station smells like piss. I assume New Yorkers think this is charming.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Ah, double post!

      • Certified Public Asshat

        Every station smells like piss. I assume New Yorkers think this is charming.

      • Cy Esquire

        I think it triggers something in their heads that they’re in a ‘dangerous’ part of town or some shit. Maybe it’s why it’s become the fragrance o San Francisco, the elites treat it like some kind of penance for their wealth.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        They’re nose blind to it. The olfactory experience from my last visit to NYC still sticks with me a decade later.

      • db

        I get that in most cities I visit. I first noticed it in NYC back in high school, but any time I visit a city, the miasma of odors of sewage, garbage, sweat, general body odor, and decay turns my stomach. It’ll be relatively fine for a while, and then I’ll walk past a building vent, or something will come up out of a sewer cover, or whatever, but it’s just another of many reasons I can’t live in a city.

      • Swiss Servator

        “something will come up out of a sewer cover”

        Philly. One block form City Hall/ Court of Common Pleas.

        Third most horrible thing I have ever smelled.

    • Ghostpatzer

      I’m not sure about this, either:

      As of today, those figures have recovered somewhat but according to recent figures from MTA, they are still at only about 60% of pre-COVID levels

      I wonder if the MTA figures are taking this into account?

      Nearly 30% of New York City bus riders and 8% of subway users aren’t paying their fare — costing the city millions of dollars a year, according to new data released by the state-operated Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

    • rhywun

      There was a lockdown for a couple weeks, but yeah ridership remained down 90% for many months after that.

  14. Rat on a train

    Race-Obsessed Liberals Somehow Find A Way To Make Russia Invading Ukraine About Race
    Troops invaded from White Russia?

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      The Dude cannot abide that.

      • db

        Careful, man, there’s a beverage here!

    • Ghostpatzer

      There are no Black Russians, Ukraine has the Kahlua market cornered.

      • Rat on a train

        There is only Russia, White Russia, and South Russia.

      • juris imprudent

        Shouldn’t a vodka and Kahlua really be called a Trotsky?

      • Rat on a train

        vodka and tequila?

      • juris imprudent

        Did you pick that ice?

      • juris imprudent

        Oh crap, it really should’ve been, did you ax for ice?

      • pistoffnick the refusnik

        a Trotsky

        No, I think that is wodka mixed with a laxative.

      • Swiss Servator

        Isn’t that a “Tankie”?

      • mindyourbusiness

        I was thinking bad borscht…

  15. Festus

    How on earth did you obtain footage from my work place? Well, former work place. Mornin’ Banjos!

  16. Certified Public Asshat

    The past 24 hours are a reminder that consumers in an era of YouTube and TikTok still gravitate to trusted, established news outlets during emergencies. They "know where to go," so to speak. And television coverage is essential. https://t.co/qRDt82p4S0— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) February 25, 2022

    Can war save CNN? Stelter thinks so.

    • WTF

      He thinks CNN is “trusted”.

    • Not Adahn

      What’s the story behind Tater? I have a fraternity brother in the TV News biz, and by standard metrics, fat, bald and ugly doesn’t get put in front of the camera.

      • juris imprudent

        Anyone ever compared his knees to Harris’?

      • Not Adahn

        How far down the management hierarchy do you have to be to resort to using Tater instead of the actually attractive camera whores?

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        He’s physically repulsive, has a nails on a chalkboard voice, and his takes aren’t particularly scintillating. He’s got to have some exec’s internet history downloaded or something.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I think it is his willingness to debase himself by saying anything that is demanded by the Narrative. He doesn’t care how preposterous it is or how much of a hack he looks like, he’ll say it on TV.

        Those hot anchorettes have other options and want to preserve some dignity.

      • Fourscore

        Those hot anchorettes are busy putting together a Fox resume

    • juris imprudent

      And television coverage is essential.

      Assumes facts not in evidence.

      • Certified Public Asshat

        No one in Ukraine has a cell phone.

      • UnCivilServant

        People still have televisions?

    • The Other Kevin

      CNN made their name during Desert Storm. They’re definitely getting a ratings bump out of this.

      • Not Adahn

        A war correspondent named “Wolf Blitzer?” They’re not getting that kind of luck again.

        Plus that was in the pre-home broadband days.

      • The Last American Hero

        It was in the pre-internet days, and only about half the country had cable.

  17. Shpip

    Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calculated intentional attack on the sovereign nation of the Ukraine has sent the Russian stock market tumbling by more than 35% in today’s trading.

    Time to buy the dip on MICEX-RTC, or wait a few more days?

    • Lackadaisical

      Been thinking that myself ?

    • db

      Kid took a fall for a payout

    • Not Adahn

      That seems like one of the happier puppy mills.

    • Sean

      Sure, but they’re still dead and didn’t even fire at the ships. 🙁

      • Lackadaisical

        Opening fire is a much better way to say Fu.

        Did they realize they were at war?

    • db

      You’re part of a 13-man guard left on an island that has been hotly contested by Russia and Ukraine in the past. You know you’re dead from the moment hostilities begin.

      Also, evidently Ukraine didn’t care all that much about the island because they assigned a guard of 13 men to the island and left them there alone.

      Warfare just seems so fucked up to me. Suddenly it’s OK to kill a bunch of people with overwhelming force because sovereign nations say it’s OK.

      • Fatty Bolger

        You know you’re dead from the moment hostilities begin.

        Not really, they could have surrendered instead.

      • The Last American Hero

        To be fair, they just got done watching a pirated copy of 300 the night before after a few too many vodkas.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        WWII is fill of example of small rear guard units getting decimated.

        Ukraine’s strategy appears to be picking defense battles rather than guarding everything. Chances are those 13 guys needed to be there to make sure Russia cant get one of the few Ukrainian islands for free, they got could not been gotten to, or they were an observation post and got isolated by Russian Navy.

        Its sad but their determined Ukrainian fighting spirit is bad for Russia.

    • R C Dean

      I have my doubts that story is true. If you were going to write a propaganda piece of defiance in the face of the hated invader, what would be different?

      • UnCivilServant

        Well, the could have gone into hiding* and abushed the Russians when they set foot on the island, giving a valiant battle to the end that cost more Russians than Ukranians.

        But making a futile noise and getting blown up makes the same impact, right?

        *doesn’t matter if the rock has nowhere to hide, we’re talking propaganda, there’s no need to mention inconvenient facts.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Dailymail.co.uk is getting some good stories about Russian spetznaz or special forces operating in Kiev being found and eliminated.

        BTW, it would appear Ukrainians are fighting back better than expected and standing up to superior numbers. Lots of true warrior stories come out of that kind of defense.

        Even the Nazis and Commie Russians usually included an element of truth in propaganda.

      • Sean
      • Loveconstitution1789

        Good for them. I was surprised to see able bodied men with their women at train stations and subway instead of learning to defend Ukraine. Good to see many are in fact defending themselves.

  18. The Late P Brooks

    Scathing

    Andrew Bates, the White House deputy press secretary, responded with a scathing tweet.

    “Two nauseating, fearful pigs who hate what America stands for and whose every action is driven by their their own weakness and insecurity, rubbing their snouts together and celebrating as innocent people lose their lives,” Bates tweeted.

    Nice talk, coming from the administration Hell bent on destroying what made this the richest and freest nation on the planet.

    • Surly Knott

      He’s just jealous that no one will rub his snout.

    • The Last American Hero

      But enough about the Saudi’s and US in Yemen….

  19. Cy Esquire

    https://nypost.com/2022/02/23/russia-ukraine-conflict-live-updates-and-latest-news-coverage/

    14 hours ago
    ‘We’re not cowboys,’ WH aide scoffs at criticism that Biden’s sanctions are too soft
    By Steven Nelson
    White House deputy national security adviser Daleep Singh on Thursday evening brushed off criticism of President Biden’s sanctions against Russia as insufficient to punish the invasion of Ukraine — declaring “we’re not cowboys and cowgirls.”

    Biden faced bipartisan criticism for not targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vast personal wealth or blocking Russian access to SWIFT — the international payment system that is used to assist transactions by global banks.

    “I understand a lot of questions about SWIFT and about sanctioning President Putin and lots of other measures that could be mentioned,” Singh said at a White House press briefing. “But let me say this: I think today was a demonstration that we mean what we say. We delivered on what we said we would do in terms of imposing costs.”

    White House press secretary Jen Psaki looks on as Deputy National Security Advisor for international economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Daleep Singh speaks during a news conference
    Jen Psaki looks on as Deputy National Security Advisor for international economics and Deputy Director of the National Economic Council Daleep Singh speaks during a news conference.
    EPA
    “So when we say all options are on the table and that we’re prepared to continue to ratchet costs higher, it would be a mistake to doubt that resolve,” Singh continued.

    He added: “Let me also step back and say that when we consider which sanctions to apply, we’re not cowboys and cowgirls pressing a button to impose costs. We follow a set of principles.”

    Singh said those guiding principles include avoiding “unwanted spillovers back to the US or the global economy” and ensuring that “we move in lockstep with our allies and partners.”

    Biden said hours earlier that sanctioning Putin’s personal wealth remains “on the table” and that Russia isn’t being booted from the SWIFT network because “that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take.”

    Members of both political parties said they were unsatisfied with Biden’s sanctions against major Russian banks and certain influential Russians in response to the large-scale invasion.

    Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Menendez (D-NJ) said in a statement that “there is more that we can and should do.”

    “Congress and the Biden administration must not shy away from any options—including sanctioning the Russian Central Bank, removing Russian banks from the SWIFT payment system, crippling Russia’s key industries, sanctioning Putin personally, and taking all steps to deprive Putin and his inner circle of their assets,” Menendez said.

    Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) said in a Fox News interview, “The sanctions that President Biden announced a couple days ago were no more than quarter measures… Finally, today, we got half measures, but it took an invasion of Ukraine for that.”

    Cotton added, “The president needs to bring our European partners along to ban Russia from the international banking payment system known as SWIFT. We need to sanction their oil and gas sector. We need to sanction their minerals and mining sector.”

    • Not Adahn

      There was an Obama State dept hack on with exactly that kind of doublespeak: We did punish Russia! You can’t expect sanctions to actually change Putin’s behavior!

      • gbob

        The past week has made me nostalgic for Obama’s foreign policy. Our response in 2014, last time Russia invaded and annexed a Ukranian province, was probably correct. Stern talking to behind closed doors, a public expression of disappointment, then we go about our business. Although not without it’s problems, it absolutely beats fighting the Crimerian War 2.0 with us as the declining Ottoman empire.

      • Lackadaisical

        I don’t think we’re at any risk of that, and we’re no where in as bad a decline as the ottomans… Yet.

        Also, no chance that France and Britain come help us beat up Russia.

      • The Last American Hero

        and if they did, they aren’t the France and Russia of 100+ years ago, or even 50 years ago.

    • db

      Maybe this is Switzerland’s opportunity to fix their reputation–a truly neutral country that respects financial privacy would continue to do business with all parties.

      • Swiss Servator

        *squints suspiciously*

        “You wearin’ a wire?”

    • The Other Kevin

      If you want to freeze Putin’s bank accounts, just start a rumor he bought a cup of coffee for a Canadian trucker.

  20. robodruid

    From up thread..

    Loveconstitution1789 on February 25, 2022 at 7:59 am
    I did above. Evidently the Russian plan to seize airports Kiev and capture Zelensky failed. That kind of “trouble”.

    Nobody ever said Ukraine was some great military. Do I need to explain what paper tiger means? Ukraine military would never be described as a paper tiger or tiger for that matter. Hence the hilarity of Russian supposedly being some first World army and not doing as they planned.

    I really don’t understand the humor from LC1789.
    Here is another opportunity to explain it in detail. What is so funny about an invasion? Or am i missing something.
    Explain the joke…

    • Not Adahn

      Please don’t.

      • db

        seconded

      • Surly Knott

        Thirded.

      • db

        To be honest, if LC1789 has a coherent argument about what if anything should be done/not done about Ukraine, he should have a chance to expound upon it. But all I see is him thrashing about, insulting commenters, making no policy or strategic suggestions, and only beating strawmen.

        LC1789, please, if you read this, take a step back and lay out what you want to see the US / NATO / Europe / The World do about this and why you think that’s justified.

        The Constitution is a document crafted by logical and reasoning men, who knew the importance of goals and means to achieve them. If you love the Constitution, respect their example.

      • R C Dean

        I’ll second db on this one.

      • juris imprudent

        More bandwagoners! [I keed, I keed]

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I already gave my position days ago and intermittent between trolling insult attempts.

        My challenge from a few days ago was to the claim (from Scruffy) that Russia invading Ukraine was America and Ukraines fault. I challenge people when they blame tyrant military action on America causing the tyrant to have to invade. Im a historian and there are clear historical examples from the likes of Hitler and Stalin, trying the same bullshit justifications for their aggression. Russia is the only nation at fault for invading Ukraine is my position. Additionally, casus belli for war is not usually recognized when a country invades another because of whom they might ally with by defense treaty.

        My comments from almost a week ago was that US troops should NOT be used to fight Russia about Ukraine but nearly everything else is okay for America to help fuck Russia up for violating international law and murdering Ukrainians. Evidently America gave Ukraine last minute military troop movements and other intel that maybe helped. As an American, I say GOOD. Weapons sold to Ukraine, I say GOOD. Seizing Russian assets, I say good.

        Ukraine is NOT part of NATO, so unfortunately NATO has no casus belli of defense to militarily fight Russia. I dont want this to escalate into an actual WWIII or nuclear war but there needs to be lines drawn. Russia start a war in Europe that hasnt happened since Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Helping Ukraine defend itself short of NATO military action is what I advocate for. Russia invading Ukraine and murdering Ukrainians is bad for business. Americans have had success with non-militarily keeping the peace. Quite a few errors too. I dont think there are easy solutions to tyranny. Its a constant battle, as we know from Democrats trying to destroy America.

        Sanctions, seizing Russia assets in their respective countries and give those assets to Ukrainians, selling weapons to Ukraine, helping Ukrainian refugees are all acceptable things to do in this situation.

        Also be prepared for Russia to start war with other nations because they are aggressive assholes who violate international law.

        I dont need condescension on the Constitution. I purposely chose it for my username. If people dont want to look back a few days for the discussion, too bad for them. Glib’s format creates dead threads. Some people choose trolling over discussions and its sad to see it on Glib. Im used to it at unreason and Lefty websites.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, except that wasn’t Scruffy or anyone else’s position – the Ukraine and the U.S. caused the Russian aggression. Putin chose to do it; Russia is the aggressor. You’ve been told that but you insist on a strawman and that’s why you get treated like an ill-mannered child.

        You seem to insist on that because you can’t accept any reality except where America can do no wrong at all (or at least while Trump was president). That is childish too.

        Don’t want to be treated that way? Don’t act that way.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Its okay ji. He said it. You keep trying to peddle what you peddle and following me around.

        I know you guys get owned and its hard to take. Same thing happens on unreason and Lefty websites.

        ITS YOUR FAULT IM ATTACK YOU WITH AD HOMINEMS! haha. classic.

      • juris imprudent

        You can stop any time you want, right?

      • Loveconstitution1789

        I know, its my fault you have to troll me. I will have to feed you later.

      • juris imprudent

        Hope you find some greener pastures.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        This pasture is fine. I will just continue to call out the people like you for what you are.

        Its fun owning y’all.

      • UnCivilServant

        We’ll let you know if you ever actually own anyone.

        Toodles.

      • juris imprudent

        I doubt you’ll be around that long. Disagreements are perfectly tolerable, juvenile behavior less so. “Owner”.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        poor uncvilservant doesnt even know when he gets owned. It was fun to see people wagoneer and then circle the wagons.

        I mean poor ji just follows me around, hoping I feed him.

    • UnCivilServant

      The joke is the part where he thinks he’s triggering anybody while not reading replies.

    • Grumbletarian

      Allow me to translate for you.

      Loveconstitution1789 “REEEEE!”

    • Loveconstitution1789

      Grumbletariand and uncvilservant cant help themselves. BUT THEY ARE NOT TROLLING, because reasons….

      I see the same triggered behavior on unreason and Lefty websites.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        straight up amateur hour.

    • Loveconstitution1789

      @robodruid: I guess its military humor. Its making fun of tinpot lunacy. Its funny that Putin sat in his bubble of yes men and they formulated a plan to take over Ukraine. Its clearly not going according to plan. We dont know what the plan exactly is but from history militaries tend to save infrastructure if they want to use it. I would deduce that Russia wants Ukraine to surrender so Russia can install a puppet. Russia doesnt want to pay for new buildings.

      Its funny that Putin is that unaware of the Ukrainian reality and he is clearly upset things are not going according to plan.

      I just have a dark sense of humor for the defense of the underdog. Ukraine being the underdog.

  21. Lackadaisical

    “Ukraine death toll hits 137 with 316 wounded as Russian assault intensifies”

    This baffles my mind. When the Germans invaded Poland there had to be thousands of deaths and casualties in the first few days. Why are recent wars so relatively bloodless? I guess militaries are just that much smaller, for one reason.

    • Plisade

      “War, however, is no longer the desperate, annihilating struggle that it was in the early decades of the twentieth century. It is a warfare of limited aims between combatants who are unable to destroy one another, have no material cause for fighting and are not divided by any genuine ideological difference.”

      –Orwell, 1984

    • juris imprudent

      Apparently the Russians are being more precise than usual with their targeting? My understanding is they typically saturate a grid rather than hitting something relatively pinpoint.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        It does seem like a low number.

      • Swiss Servator

        We just don’t have an accurate count. It is a lot higher than what has been stated. Also, the Russians will never give a casualty figure that is not completely dishonest.

      • R C Dean

        Ding ding. To the extent they have numbers, the Ukrainians are going to understate them at this early stage.

    • Claypoolsreservoir

      Machiavelli detailed many reasons why not to roll unabashed into a country containing possible future subjects.

      I still contend he’s using Ukraine as a bargaining chip. We’ll see where that assumption lands in the coming months.

      • UnCivilServant

        I think it all depends on how successful the war is, and whether Vlad expects to have to placate bleating western powers, or if he believes he can tell them to pound sand and not have to deal with more fighting than already planned for.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I think everybody knows, but is too scared to admit, that China is the lynch pin here. If Russia and China have any kind of understanding at all, the West’s troubles in the Pacific will be directly proportional to their response against Russia.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I’d say the odds of China making a move on Taiwan just went substantially.

      • db

        I was talking with friends last night at dinner–we’re all pretty much convinced that Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea probably can assemble nukes from parts in less that 3 months, and they’d be stupid not to.

        Nonproliferation is dead.

      • Swiss Servator

        Start now. Time is a wastin’!

      • Name's BEAM. James BEAM.

        I assume that Japan does not have nuclear weapons in the same way that it does not have a navy or an air force.
        winkwinknudgenudgeknowwhatImean?

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        If china, does make a move against Taiwan, does that worsen the situation in Ukraine for Russia? Could that embolden the world to step up?

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        How does the world step up? Serious question.

        The US aside, who would actually militarily engage a Russia-China alliance, along with the countries who support them (BRIC alliance, Middle East, Africa, etc). If the US engages, we’re looking at nuclear desolation and the whole question is moot.

        Russian and China would have half the world on their side, including most of the manufacturing. I don’t see how sanctions from the US and EU would have any kind of significant bite. It might end up hurting us worse.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        Nobody is going to step up for Taiwan.

        The only thing they can do is arm Taiwan to the teeth. Other than that, Taiwan’s going to be on their own.

      • UnCivilServant

        RC – What portion of those manufacturing processes are dependent upon inputs from the other side of the divide?

      • Lackadaisical

        @ssd, BRIC is not an alliance, India is extremely hostile to China and Brazil is basically neutral, as far as I can tell. Middle East and Africa seems split on a country by country basis on who they’d side with. Most would want nothing to do with it unless it meant cash in their pockets.

      • R C Dean

        What portion of those manufacturing processes are dependent upon inputs from the other side of the divide?

        Probably all of them to a significant degree. China included. Crushing export economies will crash the world economy, no question. But in a no-kidding all-out war, that’s just part of the deal.

      • UnCivilServant

        @Lack, I’m pretty sure most African countries are just plain split.

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        Middle East and Africa seems split on a country by country basis on who they’d side with. Most would want nothing to do with it unless it meant cash in their pockets

        China’s been dumping money into Africa. I don’t know how much help Africa would be in a conflict, but my point is the US and EU would largely stand alone. The world as a whole is not allied against China and Russia.

      • Lackadaisical

        SSD, if anything had been made clear by this debacle, even EU and the USA are not entirely allied against Russia. Good forbid they have to give up the Champaign and caviar for a few days to put three screws to a dictatorship invading sovereign nations on their doorstep.

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        @ssd. I’d say in this context stepping up is making a concerted effort to isolate Russia and China in terms of international trade, as well as NATO pulling a Gulf war/Kosovo type military maneuver in Ukraine.

        Agreed that Taiwan is probably lost, However, the US may/should proceed to destroy every yellow sea false island in existence.

        Perhaps bad ideas all around, but, nonetheless, does the world say, “enough is enough, live within your borders and stop fucking about?”

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        I don’t think the benefits outweigh the negatives here. Occupying a sovereign European nation will be a giant pain in the ass for Putin… and like it or not, I think he’s actually a very shrewd head of state. Not the most capable, but still far more capable than anyone else in the fray at the moment. So there’s got to be something more than just taking some land back to bring about the glory days.

      • Lackadaisical

        I still think it’s all about Russian security interests. Ensuring NATO doesn’t expand any further and control over the black sea ports.

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        That’s easily the most plausible alternative to my assumption, as it’s the only real gain I can see for Russia.

      • Lackadaisical

        Sure, that makes sense, it just seems that there ought to be more deaths among the fighting men, on both sides. Underreporting seems likely at this stage, as pointed out above.

        As far as bargaining goes, I wouldn’t want to take all of Ukraine, as that puts NATO directly on my doorstep, the whole reason why Russia is so agitated in the first place. I think they’ll rip off the strategically important areas of Ukraine and leave a rump state as a buffer between them and the West. Preferably one controlled by Russia.

    • Loveconstitution1789

      We know about German casualties because historians have compiled that info within the last 83 years. At the time, little was known about German casualties in Poland. Additionally, cities were smaller than many are now. Dumb bombs from German planes would kill more indiscriminately.

      Fog of war and Russia lying a lot will forever hide the real price of this war.

  22. The Late P Brooks

    Evil genius

    It has been a long time since the threat of using nuclear weapons has been brandished so openly by a world leader, but Vladimir Putin has just done it, warning in a speech that he has the weapons available if anyone dares to use military means to try to stop Russia’s takeover of Ukraine.

    The threat may have been empty, a mere baring of fangs by the Russian president, but it was noticed. It kindled visions of a nightmarish outcome in which Putin’s ambitions in Ukraine could lead to a nuclear war through accident or miscalculation.

    “As for military affairs, even after the dissolution of the USSR and losing a considerable part of its capabilities, today’s Russia remains one of the most powerful nuclear states,” Putin said, in his pre-invasion address early Thursday.

    “Moreover, it has a certain advantage in several cutting-edge weapons. In this context, there should be no doubt for anyone that any potential aggressor will face defeat and ominous consequences should it directly attack our country.”

    We must defend DEMOCRACY! Let the chips fall where they may.

  23. Shpip

    DeSantis setting the stage for his ’24 run.

    “We refused to let this state descend into some kind of Faucian dystopia where people’s freedoms are curtailed and their livelihoods are destroyed.”

    Florida rejected the “biomedical security state” and the temptation to defer to “health bureaucrats” during the apex of the Covid crisis, even when that approach was politically unpopular at first.

    “My job is to stand up and protect the freedoms and the jobs of the people I represent and if that puts me in political jeopardy then so be it,” he said as the audience erupted into applause.

    • Not Adahn

      “Faucian” evokes “Faustian.” Well done.

      • juris imprudent

        Yeah, that is very nice.

      • slumbrew

        It’s a great line.

      • UnCivilServant

        In text, it took me a while to realize that’s what it actually said because my prain filled in Faustian. At least it wasn’t Fustian.

      • Ted S.

        I hate when my prain fills things in.

      • Not Adahn

        Mainly on the plain in Spain?

    • Lackadaisical

      Yeah, hoping we get someone decent once he steps down.

      Any Floridians savvy to who might be in the wings for republicans here?

  24. The Late P Brooks

    By merely suggesting a nuclear response, Putin put into play the disturbing possibility that the current fighting in Ukraine might eventually veer into an atomic confrontation between Russia and the United States.

    And it came out of nowhere!

    • Contrarian P

      That’s the thing that baffles me. It’s like nobody for the last six or seven years of bellicose rhetoric around Putin as a bogeyman bothered to think for a minute about who exactly they were talking about, what their military capabilities are, or how their tone might be received by him or his people.

      Russia is still a major world power. No, they aren’t on the level of the United States, but with the U.S. also having to keep an eye on China they are considerably stronger than one might think. We don’t have the capability or the appetite for real war to engage Russia head on and defend Taiwan from a major assault at the same time. Also, Russia has nukes. A huge amount of nukes. And they can target them anywhere on the globe. This is not a country to talk shit on idly. But that’s exactly what we did.

      Now we’re shocked to discover that Russia isn’t Iraq or Afghanistan. They have the capability to inflict massive casualties not only within but also outside of their immediate sphere of influence and certainly could, if pressed. It’s amazing we seem to have just realized that.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        ?

        Our foreign policy has been an utter disaster. Unless, of course, this is the outcome they desired.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Nuclear Winter does seem to check all the Climate Change and Great Reset boxes at the same time.

      • juris imprudent

        I don’t think they’d find Davos as lovely, so not quite.

      • Surly Knott
      • R C Dean

        Russia is still a major world power.

        They are a regional power. They lack the economic heft and force projection to be a world power. But they are certainly a major pain in their region’s ass. Sure, they have nukes. So does Israel, and France, and England, and etc., and nobody says any of them are a major world power.

        They have the capability to inflict massive casualties not only within but also outside of their immediate sphere of influence

        Ukraine is their immediate sphere of influence. They haven’t inflicted massive casualties outside that sphere since they were run out of Afghanistan. I don’t want to understate their capability, but let’s not overstate it either. I seriously doubt the Russian army could get much beyond Poland. And Eastern Europeans have a special grudge against Russians – the occupation will be . . . difficult, and ultimately unsustainable.

        Could we fight Russia and China, by ourselves, simultaneously? Not very well, but considering that both are export-dependent economies, both have a strategic Achilles heel. Take out their export facilities, and economically they are basket cases in fairly short order.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Take out their export facilities, and economically they are basket cases in fairly short order.

        At least for China, we become an economic basket case, too. I’ve sat in on a few supply chain panic sessions because of chip shortages. It’s not pretty, and this is caused by a hiccup, not a heart attack.

      • Swiss Servator

        We’d have another Great Depression…they would starve.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        +1000

  25. Not Adahn

    The conventional wisdom seems to be “Putin takes Keev, installs puppet government.”

    How exactly is that supposed to work? Without being completely occupied by Russian forces, how could there be any pro-Russia government? And with an overt occupation, how could you pretend there is a Ukrainian government?

    • Rat on a train

      Did you learn nothing from Jan 6? If the Russian occupy government buildings, they become the government. It is in the rules.

      • Pope Jimbo

        Where are Russians going to get a magic Buffalo Hat to Rule Them All?

      • Swiss Servator

        They can use a bearskin shako?

      • Shpip

        It’s Russia. They’d have a guy in a musk ox hat. Which would be pretty badass, when you think about it.

      • Pope Jimbo

        musk ox hat

        Say what you will about his Teslas being a semi-govt grift, Elon seems to have a finger in just about everything. Do the SpaceX crews wear the ox hats in space?

    • LJW

      I’ve heard the Ukranians are pushing for a cease fire and talks and Putin is open. Maybe Putin bit off more than he could chew?

      • juris imprudent

        Or maybe he withdraws from the parts of Ukraine he didn’t want as his gesture of “goodwill”?

      • db

        “You guys can have Pripyat.”

      • db

        Chernobyl is actually still pretty valuable as an energy production/distribution center.

      • Plisade

        That’s my guess. And Biden gets credit for negotiating that.

      • Pine_Tree

        I’m thinking part of the deal will be “you’re gonna admit to the world exactly how much you’ve been paying the Bidens etc.”.

        I think Putin wants Russia to come out looking like the adult in the room – stomping corrupt (“nazi”) neighbors, being surprisingly merciful and magnanimous (by Russian invasion standards), and then stepping back after installing a puppet government, and getting the Euros even more addicted to Russian energy.

    • SDF-7

      Manchuko, Vichy France and various other puppet regimes have their hand up.

      It doesn’t really matter if folks buy into it — if it becomes the status du jour and they have the troops to keep it in effect, eventually it will settle into a new normal for everyone but whatever insurgency might sprout up there. Especially for the “don’t rock the boat” diplomatic core in the EU, UN and PPP administration, I expect.

      • Not Adahn

        My news sources may not be completely accurate, but I’m getting the impression that a stupidly large proportion of the male population is armed, trained, and wanting to kill rooskies.

    • Brochettaward

      America has done it in Iraq and Afghanistan, and we didn’t have the support of a large swathe of the public in either country. Granted, it hasn’t worked out all that great in either instance longterm, but…

      • Swiss Servator

        We had tons of support in Afghanistan…we were a source of all sorts of easy pickings! Much easier to extract $ out of than the Russians!

    • R C Dean

      how could there be any pro-Russia government

      There was one not very long ago.

  26. Q Continuum

    “the GOP, the last SecState, some of the party’s most vocal members & a major US TV network all are actively taking Russia’s side in a conflict with America & the West”

    This guys lives in a parallel universe. I have not heard one single pro-Russia voice anywhere from anyone, including on interviews with Pompeo.

    • Not Adahn

      RELIABLE SOURCES said it, which mean you can put it in Wikipedia, which makes it true. Why do you deny science?

      • Rat on a train

        Anonymous sources that must be protected from retaliation.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      He may be referring to Bannon’s interview with Erik Prince.

      They both acknowledged that the US and EU policy towards Russia seemed designed to spark a conflict.

    • LJW

      Reddit is full of it. These people live in tightly controlled propaganda bubbles.

    • SDF-7

      Yeah, I’m not getting it either. The Trump tweet the whole “pigs” response to linked above read to me as “He’s being competent, unlike our gang of morons on our side” which is a far cry from “I like what he’s doing”. And one could (strongly) argue that not recognizing competence in their enemy (“paper and string” Japanese aviation industry before meeting the Zero come to mind anyone?) is an excellent way to get your butt handed to you in diplomacy or military actions.

      If there are idiots out there (ok, beyond Reddit which we know has a bunch of trolling idiots and shouldn’t be taken seriously) that are actually rooting for Russia here, they should be quoted, their arguments trashed and hopefully they’ll lose whatever influence they have. Because certainly the GOP has what seems like more than its share of idiots, so that’s not impossible. I just haven’t seen the quotes.

      Wish we had an administration and allies with enough gumption to say “No, we’re not going to get into a land war with a nuclear power — but what we *will* do is embargo all Russian commerce and build up our own energy economies to make Russia irrelevant since that’s how they’re funding their military.” See if China and probably Africa is enough of a market to sustain them (I suspect that losing the gas sales to Western Europe would seriously mess them up).

      But there’s no way Germany can do that given the corner they painted themselves into post-Fukushima, and there’s certainly no way the current crop of weak willed “Only like to drone those who can’t actually do anything about it” globalists would support disrupting the global economy for any principle — so I’ll just put that thought away beside my unicorn breeding ranch plans.

      • Brochettaward

        The modern progressive is incapable of recognizing anything redeemable in his ideological opponent. It’s all black and white. I think modern Hollywood movies are a good example of this. You rarely if ever see competent villains anymore with nuance. They often times debase and mock the supposed threat in their entertainment because it’s reassuring to their delicate egos. These villains are caricatures of who they perceive to the villains in real life – straight white men.

      • juris imprudent

        Our enemies can’t be competent – they didn’t get credentials like we did! /our establishment

      • Swiss Servator

        Those Mafioso and plutocrats pay big $!

  27. Pope Jimbo

    The Floydettes are all convicted of violating George Floyd’s civil rights

    Three former Minneapolis police officers were convicted by a federal jury Thursday of depriving George Floyd of his constitutional rights by failing to stop a fellow officer from using the excessive force that killed him on the street outside Cup Foods nearly two years ago.

    J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were found guilty on all counts. They showed little reaction as the judge read the verdicts, with Lane slightly shaking his head and shrugging as he looked at his attorney.

    13 hours of deliberation. Now they are going to stand trial in state criminal court.

    • Rat on a train

      Remember officers, don’t respond to calls. If you do, do crowd control or something similar so you can say you were busy with other activities and didn’t see nothing.

    • db

      Is one of those the guy who actually did try to get Chauvin to stop?

    • Mustang

      This is definitely how you reform policing in America and most certainly won’t discourage cops from responding. It definitely won’t make them more on edge. Nope.

    • Semi-Spartan Dad

      Good. It’s not as if a non-LEO can intervene without being ventilated or thrown in a rape cell.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I have some problems with it.

        1) I’m still not sure Floyd died directly because of Chauvin. I think there is decent evidence that he ate his stash when the cops rolled up and he OD’ed from that. But this is quibbling now.

        2) I suspect that they did the civil rights trial first because it was easier to get a conviction. This conviction will be used to color the jury’s opinion in the criminal trial.

        3) The two rookies I feel really bad for. Maybe give the other veteran cop some time in the clink, but two of those cops hadn’t even been on the force for very long.

        4) I am sick of the Floyd family running around making grand pronouncements and bemoaning that they will never get to see George again. I almost wish there was some technology that could bring him back just so I could see the rest of his family keep the settlement money for themselves and tell George that they still never want to see his thug/addict ass anymore. There was a reason George moved to MN. Because his family was done with him in Texas.

      • Grumbletarian

        1) I don’t care if Floyd was filled to the teeth with Fentanyl when Chauvin was on him. If Floyd had instead been hit by a car at the same moment he died under Chauvin’s knee nobody would be suggesting the driver of the car wasn’t responsible for Floyd’s death. Sure, the drugs might have killed him before sundown, but that doesn’t absolve the people who helped his die when he did.

        It’s noteworthy (at least to me) that one of Floyd’s early drug arrests was at the hands of Gerald Goines, who framed fuckloads of people for drug crimes and was responsible for the two people getting shot in a drug raid in Houston a couple of years ago. I wonder if that early arrest was legitimate, and what affect that may have had on the course of Floyd’s life.

      • R C Dean

        If Floyd had instead been hit by a car at the same moment he died under Chauvin’s knee nobody would be suggesting the driver of the car wasn’t responsible for Floyd’s death.

        Depends on the injuries suffered in the car crash. Just as it depends on whether a healthy person would have died while being restrained by Chauvin. Personally, I think there is reasonable doubt that Chauvin’s restraint caused Floyd’s death, and he was wrongfully convicted. But I wasn’t on the jury, so grain of salt.

      • Pope Jimbo

        I’m pretty sure a dirty cop isn’t slick enough to plant a pregnant woman in a house and get Floyd to point a gun at her belly. Even if you want to toss Floyd’s drug arrests there are other crimes on his sheet. I don’t think you can explain away is family’s writing him off as a lost cause on a dirty cop either.

        I’m going to embrace the power of “AND” here. Floyd was a meathead who might have actually killed himself. Can’t say for certain, but it isn’t a wild conspiracy theory to ask if he might not have OD’ed because of his own actions. That said, Chauvin was a complete asshole who did not do his duty. He could have let Floyd up earlier. He could have gotten medical attention there earlier. Yes, he deserves to be punished. I’m don’t agree with the Narrative: “Chauvin killed Floyd because he is a racist who did it on purpose.”

      • Semi-Spartan Dad

        I might still be a minority view on this, but I’m no longer under any illusion that cops are the side of freedom or liberty. The response to the Jan 6th protestors shattered the illusion and watching the Canadian cops fire rubber bullets at peaceful old women and and children waving Canadian flags while chanting freedom pissed on the ashes. The LEO response wouldn’t be any different in Minneapolis’s or any other city in the United States. The those two rookies would be right alongside the veteran cops shooting tear gas at your children and wife protesting for freedom. Law enforcement around the country has been purging wrong-thinker from their ranks. I live out the bumfuck middle of nowhere and a nearby county deputy was fired just for being in DC on Jan 6th… not even at the Capitol.

        If government is organized crime, then cops are their street-level thugs shaking people down and breaking knee caps to those who speak up. Hold them accountable by any means necessary. Use it as a warning to others. Though, in the end, I don’t think it will change anything.

      • TARDis

        Narrator: “Government is organized crime.”

      • Not Adahn

        “It’s not crime when the government does it. “

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        I might still be a minority view on this, but I’m no longer under any illusion that cops are the side of freedom or liberty.

        I’m not in the “treat cops as dangerous animals at all times” camp, but I’m also not in the “cops are heroes” camp. It’s very situational to me. Need a report after a fender bender? Yeah, I trust the cops to do that. Reporting low value stolen property? Depends on the jurisdiction. Trusting them to respect my right to vociferously protest? Nah, they’ll gladly bash my head in.

      • R C Dean

        More or less where I am.

        I do think the idea that cops and the military won’t side with the state in a conflict between the state and its subjects is dangerously naive.

      • Gustave Lytton ????

        Illustrated again yesterday.

        Saw several police cars from distant agencies all traveling hundred plus miles away from their jurisdictions. All marked K9 so probably coming from some training or event. Many thoughts.

        1) if it was legitimate training, and not some competition bullshit, it could be staged well closer to where those officers work

        2) public displays of FYTW. Speeding (20+ over the speed limit) and left lane hogging even when the road was wide open. Zero justification for either and zero professionalism of modeling the behaviors that they supposedly demand from the public or write tickets

        3) zero reason why they should be driving police cars to wherever instead of ordinary county/city cars or at least having out of service placards like the mechanics have to use. They aren’t on the job.

        4) continuing trend of undermarked vehicles. If traffic accidents are a threat, if misunderstandings are a threat, normal people and agencies would be moving to distinctive, easy to identify reflective markings. Instead it’s gotcha livery.

        Small potatoes, but reveals a lot about their mentality.

  28. The Late P Brooks

    So horrific, the details may not even be mentioned in polite company

    Sen. Rick Scott’s (R-Fla.) surprising decision to release his own GOP agenda has opened a new front for criticism from Democrats and even drawn some fire from fellow Republicans going into the midterm campaign season.

    The Florida senator, who is also chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), released a 31-page memo on Tuesday laying out what he thinks the GOP agenda should be if the party regains control of the Senate.

    They spill a lot of ink without mentioning any specifics other than the part about making it clear to people that government costs money.

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Shield your children and avert your eyes! To gaze upon the works of the Devil is to lose one’s soul!

    • The Other Kevin

      This is just the reverse of what happened when they announced the Green New Deal.

  29. Sensei

    Subway is not going to get any better any time soon.

    The NYPD does not have the authority to remove everyone sleeping in publicly accessible areas of subway stations, but the MTA officials said the agency relays locations of encampments to police and the Bowery Residents Committee, which is contracted by the city to do homeless outreach in the subway.

    MTA found 29 ‘homeless encampments’ in NYC subway tunnels earlier this month, officials say

    Transit crews and homeless outreach workers found 29 “homeless encampments” in subway tunnels and another 89 in stations when they surveyed the city’s more than 650 miles of subway tracks and 472 stations over 12 hours from Feb. 2 to Feb. 3, officials said.

    In all, more than 350 people were living in the encampments, Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief development officer Jamie Torres-Springer said during the agency’s monthly board meeting.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Well, the subterranean homeless do beat CHUDs so at least there’s that.

      • Sensei

        I was thinking more along the lines of “Escape from New York”.

        Speaking of Adrienne Barbeau from last night’s post…

      • Rat on a train

        Barbeaubots have D-Cups of Justice

      • db

        And Chainsaw Hands! BZZZZZZZZZZ!!

      • pistoffnick the refusnik

        The pump don’t work cuz the Vandals took the handle

      • gbob

        The CHUDs are the city’s first line of defense against sewer alligators.

      • Swiss Servator

        We better hope they do not ally!

      • CPRM

        If they mate you get Killer Croc!

    • Not Adahn

      Do you want Morlocks? ‘Cause this is how you get Morlocks.

    • Rat on a train

      I don’t recall the outrage term for making spaces unfriendly to unintended use (like updating benches to be seats so you can’t lay down on them).

      • slumbrew

        Hostile architecture, perhaps?

      • Rat on a train

        Exclusionary architecture/design is the one I was thinking of.

    • Gender Traitor

      Subway is not going to get better any time soon

      Maybe start putting tuna in their tuna salad?

      • UnCivilServant

        While I don’t normally defend the sandwich chain, the claims that they use something other than tuna were all not proven, and the evidence presented was flimsy when the additional context is added.

        Fun fact, heat destroys DNA strands, making it more difficult to test cooked meats to determine their original species.

      • Gender Traitor

        Full disclosure/confession: I like Subway’s tuna salad. ::hangs head in shame, braces for howls of derisive laughter::

      • UnCivilServant

        I haven’t had that particular offering.

      • Count Potato

        I like Subway. Never had the tuna.

      • Not Adahn

        “It’s not a toonah.”

  30. Brawndo

    Who are these republicans that support Putin and what were their words, exactly? So far, I’ve seen only accusations.

    • The Hyperbole

      Tucker Carlson said something about Putin not trying to cancel him so he’s better than the libs in America
      Steve Bannon and his guest/cohost? were speaking admiringly of how Russia doesn’t put up with woke LGBT bullshit
      Some blond GOP wanna be praised Russia for being a Christian Nationalist country and trotted out the old gem “Putin truly care’s about his people” with she respects

      Al least that’s what I’ve seen on the twitters.

      • juris imprudent

        …what I’ve seen on the twitters.

        I am amazed that you found shit in the sewer.

      • Ghostpatzer

        Yo, Hype – great Glibcrostic yesterday and thanks for putting those together, it’s a whale of an effort. I may have failed to mention this, but my “offer” to be a proofreader is subject to provision of adequate compensation. 20 quatloos should be sufficient.

      • The Hyperbole

        Thanks. I think you and GT are the only ones who actually work them but I enjoy making them.

      • Brawndo

        Thanks

    • Raven Nation

      I suspect a lot of this is, “we condemn Putin’s actions. Republicans are opposed to everything we do. Therefore, Republicans must be supporting Putin.”

      Kind of like, “we think America needs a robust defense policy. Democrats are opposed to everything we do. Therefore Democrats don’t want to defend America.”

  31. Sensei

    Ugh…

    GM plans 50 new digital features, services by 2026 -executive

    “We have 50-some value-added products and services that we’ll be rolling out over the next 36 to 48 months,” Steve Carlisle, president of GM North America, said at an investor conference.

    Carlysle said GM’s OnStar unit, which now offers insurance in addition to concierge services to drivers, generates about $32 a month per customer, and its enhanced Super Cruise driver assist feature will further bolster that.

    • db

      I will not pay a subscription to use services in my car.

    • pistoffnick the refusnik

      DO.NOT.WANT!

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      Does it include a remote kill switch?

    • juris imprudent

      No doubt to be offered in bundles like cable TV.

    • Lackadaisical

      County employee? That makes a lot of sense.

  32. The Late P Brooks

    Who are these republicans that support Putin and what were their words, exactly? So far, I’ve seen only accusations.

    Anybody not obsequiously praising Biden’s masterful statesmanship is a Rooshun Stoooooge!

  33. Sensei

    If you are looking for a car during the current crazy pricing I suggest getting an Alfa Romeo. Or perhaps not…

    Car Sales Madness Continues: Dealer Markups Highest for Cadillacs, Land Rovers, Kias

    A jaw-dropping 82% of new–car buyers paid more than MSRP in January 2022.
    According to an Edmunds sales analysis, Cadillacs, Land Rovers and Kias are the most highly marked-up vehicles on the market.
    Multiple Alfa Romeo, Volvo and Lincoln products are selling for less than MSRP.

  34. The Late P Brooks

    “We have 50-some value-added products and services that we’ll be rolling out over the next 36 to 48 months,” Steve Carlisle, president of GM North America, said at an investor conference.

    Your definition of value and mine are radically different.

    • Gustave Lytton ????

      Typical investment relations bullshit. ‘Hey, get all excited about some nebulous goals in 3-4 years that will probably not come to fruition. You can’t judge our results in the short term. We’re making excellent progress in a non-measurable or negative manner. Trust us.’

  35. Tundra

    Thanks, Banjos!

    A Tsunami of Cope Approaches After Criminal Case Against Donald Trump Implodes

    That is a hell of a story. I would love to learn the real reason they resigned – I’m sure it’s pretty gnarly.

    Have a great Friday, y’all!

    • R C Dean

      #metoo. For a NY prosecutor to resign, it would have to be something they thought was going to cost them their licenses.

      • juris imprudent

        And that the political cover couldn’t cover.

      • slumbrew

        The competition for those jobs is intense, AFAIK. As you say, for them to walk away from that job it points to something seriously wonky.

  36. UnCivilServant

    I really hate the city’s response to heavy snow. They switch to even-odd parking. Mind you, there’s not enough space for parking when both sides of the street are available, but I can never remember which side is even or odd on one of the two streets near me. (The other has my front door on it, so I can figure it out fast)

    At least the snow was light (relatively) and I was able to dislodge my car. Of course, there was less traction on the plowed section of road than on the snow, so I had a heck of a time actually getting into the traffic lane.

    • Grumbletarian

      Back in NH the even/odd parking was based on the calendar month. Odd month (Nov, Jan), odd parking, even month (Dec, Feb), even parking.

      • UnCivilServant

        We only have even odd parking when there’s a significant snowfall in a short period of time. And it switches daily for the duration. The justification is that it allows for plowing on the unparked side. Not that they ever plow the unparked side.

    • Hyperion

      Best response to heavy snow is move to someplace that doesn’t happen or just stay inside until it’s over.

      Can’t you forge soome type of snow disappearing device?

      • Swiss Servator

        Hans, fetch the flammenwefer!

      • Ghostpatzer

        Hunter, fetch the straw!

      • Fourscore

        I have a nice snowblower but I still can’t get my wife to clean the driveway. Women, I still can’t figure them out. I even gas it up for her.

    • Not Adahn

      I noted a distinct lack of plows out and about this morning. I can only assume they’ve been assigned to more important streets. Or were perhaps seized by the Ottawa government.

  37. CPRM

    Looks like Loveconstitution1789 is trying to order some Banh Mi and he has a hearty appetite.

    • Loveconstitution1789

      Does Glib normally remove folks for defending against trolls and wagoneers? Seems like what Lefty websites do.

      Nice try though.

    • Hyperion

      No one with a hyphenated name should be considered for anything above public restroom attendant. So let it be written, so let it be done.

      • Fourscore

        Jackson Brown for SCOTUS, oh my, let the good times roll!

    • CPRM

      Xem is a Black and identifies as a Woman. Nothing more to discuss, she is qualified because those are the qualifications.

    • R C Dean

      I’m trying really hard to maintain an open mind on this. Sadly, I have to try. Really. Fucking. Hard.

    • Lackadaisical

      Yeah, it’s exactly who everyone said it would be, and she is terrible.

  38. Count Potato

    “Country music star John Rich likened teachers and librarians to pedophiles trying to kidnap kids in vans at a hearing with the Tennessee House of Representatives legislative committee to discuss a controversial bill banning ‘obscene books.’

    ‘What’s the difference between a teacher, educator or librarian putting one of these books like you have on the desk of a student,’ Rich asked lawmakers at the hearing in Nashville. ‘Or a guy in a white van pulling up at the edge of school when school lets out and saying, ”Come on around kids, let me read you this book and show you these pictures?”’

    He continued: ‘What’s the difference in those two scenarios? There is a difference, by the way. They can run away from the guy in the white van.’ ”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10549851/Country-music-star-John-Rich-compares-teachers-librarians-PEDOPHILES.html

    • Hyperion

      He ain’t wrong.

      • Hyperion

        Although I did hear that 97% of parents strongly approve of trans queer drag queen story book hour.

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I started reading it and was thinking “eh, this is overstated” but by the end I was “yeah, pretty much”

    • juris imprudent

      a guy in a white van

      Oddly specific.

      • Hyperion

        Yeah, it’s like strangely familiar.

      • Swiss Servator

        LEAVE OMWC ALONE!!!!

      • Count Potato

        Not really, most Ford Econolines were Oxford White.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      I HATE the way the Brit newsies use outrage capitalization.

  39. Hyperion

    I got a question. Because here they go again. Just exactly how ‘democratic’ is Ukraine? I’m having a really hard time believing anything in that part of the world is some bastion of democracy. But here they go again ‘Oh, we have to save democracy by saving Ukraine!’. I hate these people and want them all to die horrific deaths.

    • CPRM

      So democratic they unconstitutionally ousted a government because they weren’t democratic enough?

      • juris imprudent

        Well how can we have our own corrupt regime if we don’t defend theirs?

      • EvilSheldon

        I gotta wonder if State’s war drumming isn’t about getting someone in there who can burn the books…

      • Drake

        Our bastions of “demicracy” – McCain, Clintons, Bidens – helped that little revolution along and it’s a coincidence how much they profited from it.

        Since then, everything has been really great there.

      • Urthona

        It seems uncool for them not to help out the puppet government they installed.

      • Homple

        Don’t forget Victoria Nuland’s meddling in the Obama years.

      • Swiss Servator

        Dioxin soup, anyone?

      • CPRM

        It’s Organic!

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      They’re a terminally corrupt nation run by an a kleptocratic oligarchy with a democratic facade, kind of like their cousins to the east in fact.

      • Hyperion

        So, sort of like the current admin of the USA? Hunter must have some business going on in Ukraine.

      • slumbrew

        That $83,333/month board seat is no longer his. Poor baby.

      • Swiss Servator

        Poor guy had to turn to China.

      • Stinky Wizzleteats

        Sure but it’s all a matter of degree.

    • Swiss Servator

      Not to worry, Putin said he will De-Nazify the place! All will be well under the benevolent hand of Mother Russia!

    • Loveconstitution1789

      Same kind of democracy as most of Europe.

      Mass corruption to get the most Socialist party possible.

  40. Festus

    I mentioned it on the dead thread. The world is imploding and I just lost my job last night. Who the fuck hires a 57 year old? My cow-worker might have it right, “Go for the Disability!” It’ll be great, drinking myself to death just like Mother did. Mind you, I did actually just wipe out again so maybe there might be some merit to this.

    • CPRM

      I thought you just got a promotion?

    • slumbrew

      That sucks, Festus.

      If you’re legitimately hurt, no shame in taking the disability.

      • Drake

        This – talk to a professional.

      • UnCivilServant

        Though I do understand his concerns about the crash and burn of inactivity. A lot of people who no longer have any reason to get up and do something just burn out or fade away if they don’t fill the void with something suitable. Inactivity has a high mortality rate among recent retirees (voluntary or not)

      • Fourscore

        That’s why I’m here. I have too much work left undone, too many fish left to catch, Too many HH left to enjoy.
        Too many stories from Animal, JI and the others left to read.

      • Festus

        There is no “If”. I can’t keep atop my pins and it’s been getting worserer and worserer. I don’t want free shit. That’s dirty money.

      • slumbrew

        It’s not free – the government has had their hand in your pocket for decades. No shame in taking a bit of that back if it’s needed.

        That aside, I’ll echo what other’s have said – you’re not out of the game at 57.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Agreed SB, and at 58 I’m interviewing for a handyman position Monday as well as my car wash job,
        Take the money Festus! you aren’t out of the game yet.

    • juris imprudent

      Damn, sorry to hear that Festus, hang in there.

      • Festus

        Balance issues. I go down the stairs like Biden climbs them. Falling or at least losing my balance is a daily concern. Most of the time I can grab a wall but not always. Happens when I’m sober. Fuck it, I just want out. I was an athlete. I don’t want to be an invalid.

      • R C Dean

        We’d be perfect. 90% of the hospital has no stairs.

        You wouldn’t want to be on the surgical tower crew anyway.

    • Count Potato

      Sorry 🙁

      But it sounds like you’ll be OK 🙂

    • R C Dean

      Who the fuck hires a 57 year old?

      *raises hand*

      Move to Tucson. I suspect we would hire you toot sweet.

      • Yusef drives a Kia

        Really?
        /Raises hand

    • Sensei

      Sorry Festus.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      Give it a week or two before you decide on your long term plan. You just got the news and your decision making is going to suck. A guy in his late 50s on disability unless absolutely needed probably isn’t the healthiest way to go (as you state).

    • Sean

      Sorry Festus.

    • DEG

      Sorry Festus

    • TARDis

      Sorry Festus. Please don’t drink yourself to death.There are people that care about you.

    • Brochettaward

      You are a Firster you will be fine.

      • Lackadaisical

        That’s probably the nicest thing bro has ever said to someone.

        Hang in there festus, get well.

    • Ghostpatzer

      Oh, hell, missed the morning thread. Sorry, Festus.

      Who the fuck hires a 57 year old?

      Well, when I got canned by a megabank in spring of 2017 at age 64, I was thinking along those lines myself. Six months later I found myself working as a developer for a startup (though I had not been a developer for 25 years) and am still at that outfit today. You’d be surprised, there are still places out there that value experience.

      • Festus

        Thanks all! I need some time and many more beers to let this sink in. Ghostpatzer, I would be in agreement but I have always worked with my back and ability to read the team, not analytics.

      • Ghostpatzer

        You have knowledge and experience. Those are valuable things.

      • Tundra

        100%

        My 60yo buddy got a nice job recently and the new place loves him. A lot of smart companies understand that experience and work ethic are pretty powerful assets.

    • Gustave Lytton ????

      That sucks, but do know you. I wouldn’t write off being hired at 57. You know how to do a job, which goes a long way when a no-drama get it done employee is needed. May have to supervise whipper snappers or train the young pups. How’s your coffee mug holding and walking skills?

      • Festus

        I’m right up to snuff on my clip-boarding!

      • Fourscore

        Employers wouldn’t leave me alone when I retired.

        “Look, it’s only for a few days, I need someone that can do …” Fill in the blank

        “I’m opening a store in Orange County and your name came up and I was wondering…”

        I did take a couple “help out an old friend jobs” for a few days but didn’t want to get in the habit of it.

      • Swiss Servator

        Pen behind the ear, right?!

      • Bones

        I went from the floor to a cubicle. The adjustment to the time freeze is real, but I don’t feel like I lost a wrestling match every time I get home from work. As everyone else has pointed out, you are far from done, sir. I’d wish you luck, but I won’t waste that on something that will happen otherwise.

      • Festus

        It’s a beautiful day. The sun is shining bright, the pets are fat and happy, 3/4s of Judi’s children are fat and happy. Things could be worse.

  41. Drake

    What do you do after rigging a primary, then a general election to get rid of bad orange-man only to realize you may have installed the worst President in history?

    You stop watching or reading the news.

    • Stinky Wizzleteats

      “They’ve quit reading the news”
      You know they might actually be on to something there.

      • R C Dean

        Its an unalloyed good, regardless of your partisan or ideological leanings.

    • Hyperion

      You work hard on doing it again?

    • Brochettaward

      Eh…the article says for the first time in 4 years. Trump was a spectacle to everyone, good or bad.

      Getting the people who pull the levers for the Dems to admit they are wrong is like pulling teeth, particularly when it comes to individuals they’ve supported. They have the benefit of having almost the entire media establishment feed into their delusions. It would be fun to think that they are forced to look away because cognitive dissonance is setting in as they get exposed to the propaganda, but I think it was just that they were hyperfocused on Trump and they can’t even quit him now that he’s out of office.

      • Hyperion

        Well, it’s exactly this, their response till be to stick their fingers in their ears and scream at you or whatever else they can to just not see it.

      • EvilSheldon

        I think that it was the president of NBC who said, “Trump might not be good for America, but he’s great for NBC.”

      • Scruffy Nerfherder

        I’ll openly admit that voting for Bush in 2000 was a massive mistake on my part.

        That was before I started voting third party.

  42. DEG

    Working from home is appealing to a lot of white collar workers and to the companies that could save money by leasing less office space. That seems to be where things are headed, but the impact those changes will have on cities built around high-volume public transportation could be pretty dramatic.

    I like working from home. I intend to continue it. I really don’t care about the effect on big cities’ downtowns.

    • Hyperion

      I plan on continuing and one of the best perks, besides zero commute and all the other goodness, is FUCK BIG CITIES.

    • R C Dean

      Some people can work effectively from home. Some can’t. Unfortunately, companies make the decision based on job, not person, so I predict a continuing shitshow around WFH v office.

      • Not Adahn

        I cannot. My home is too optimized for my personal enjoyment and entertainment.

      • pistoffnick the refusnik

        I did not enjoy working from home nor was I very productive.

      • robc

        My only problem is sometimes I like talking out issues face to face. But the upsides more than make up for that one downside.

      • robc

        My new home (7 days!), I specifically designed a basement office for WFH. Isolation from rest of house. The room will double as the bar, so, ummm, yeah, beer-thirty will be convenient.

      • Gustave Lytton ????

        As long as it doesn’t become nine-beerty.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        We specifically looked for a house to rent with a good home office space. It’s important to have that boundary. Once I step out of the office, I’m off work. Actually, that’s not 100% true. Sometimes I go take a call on the back patio. Never got to do that at the office.

      • robc

        That is the way I work it. I have an office, I am at work when there. I don’t go out to the rest of the house and get distracted (other than snacks and etc). And when I leave, I am home.

      • Tundra

        I need to be better about that. I tend to move around the house (right now I’m at the dining room table).

        Boundaries are good.

      • Drake

        Wait… You didn’t buy my house in NJ did you? I move out in 7 days.

      • robc

        Are they rebuilding your house in NJ in CO?

        It is supposed to be a new build, they better not be repurposing a Jersey home.

        Walk-thru is this afternoon, and close next Friday.

        Went by last Saturday, Appliances arrived while I was there and they were putting gutters on the house.

      • R C Dean

        Same here. Plus, I have decades of ingrained conditioning that Work. Does. Not. Come. Home.

      • kinnath

        I resisted every effort the company made to make it easier for people to work from home. It was clear to me that it was just a way to expand my work day.

        But, after two years of force work-from-home, I don’t want to go back to the office.

        It was very, very easy for me to turn off the work computer at the end of the day and never look at it again.

      • rhywun

        Yeah, it hasn’t meant expanded work days at all, at my company.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        From my observation, there are a few kinds of office preferred workers. There are the ones with a legitimate need to be in the office for one reason or another. There are the ones who don’t have a productive home office setup and/or have a hard time setting work/life boundaries when working from home. There are the goof-offs who can’t be counted on to work when they don’t have somebody looking over their shoulder. On the other side of that coin, there are people managers who want to be looking over their team’s shoulders all day because they’re micromanagers. Finally, there are those who want to socialize with their coworkers.

      • rhywun

        I think anyone who can do so comfortably, would be crazy not to.

        It’s just SO much more convenient.

        OTOH I am one of those weirdos who likes the big city so I guess I’ll miss that a little. Not that I’ve missed it much over the last two years.

      • CPRM

        The thing is, with all the pandemic shit, people running things are shocked that not everyone can work from home. Some jobs need to be on site. But yet, those same people assume the guy working for Door Dash will show up on time with food prepared elsewhere, and if he doesn’t it’s because he’s lazy.

      • Ted S.

        They’re not shocked; they just don’t give a shit. The Zoom Class hates that other class of people.

    • robc

      I work in Memphis, which I have no intention of ever living anywhere near. And I like it that way.

      My company is going back to office next week. Many are doing a hybrid plan. I may be the only fully remote worker in the company.

    • kinnath

      I am officially a hybrid worker. But the only time I go into the “office” is when I have to test things and touch real equipment.

    • banginglc1

      I currently WFH at a startup. I have one employee who was essentially already trained when I hired her. What I worry about is if we grow. We plan on our offices staying virtual. People I would be hiring would mostly be unskilled and need trained completely (there is no “school” for what I need them to do). I don’t know how I would train people some things if not in person. Maybe it would just involve a couple weeks of travel or something. But if we grow, I struggle to figure out the best method to be a trainer and manger to those people.

    • Mustang

      I’ve learned that I can’t work at home or an office. Looking for other jobs now and taking a significant pay cut to get the fuck out of a building.

      • trshmnstr the terrible

        Horses usually aren’t potty trained, and that puts a big damper on the prospects of working indoors.

    • Hyperion

      Over/Under on Oshkosh man == FBI?

    • Count Potato

      We could end racism just by getting rid of federal law enforcement.

      • TARDis

        “Nah, there’s too much money in it.”

    • Scruffy Nerfherder

      I fail to see how attacking the power grid advances the cause of white supremacy.

      Do minorities all have batteries they need to recharge at night?

      • CPRM

        I think it’s just some stupid Trigger Effect logic.

      • Brochettaward

        You don’t get the special electricity only reserved for white people? The kind that works better and faster than normal electricity?

  43. Sean

    Who had Poroshenko on their bingo card?

    • trshmnstr the terrible

      Can’t tell if he’s stupid or lying about what he has.

    • Drake

      My guess is that the Russians will do a reenactment of the Franco-Prussian war. Surround Kiev (fuck the new spellings and pronunciations), and make the government negotiate a settlement. His 2 machine guns and some AKs aren’t going to do much.

      The buffer “republics” on the Russian border will get recognized, the Ukrainians will vow to never join NATO, and the Russians will leave what’s left of the Ukraine.

      • Not Adahn

        And Biden gets a Nobel Peace Prize.

      • CPRM

        And a Nobel in Science, for returning Global Warming Climate Change to its rightful place of Concern.

      • TARDis

        The fact this is a real possibility depresses me.

      • Homple

        When you realize that the Nobel prizes are trending toward becoming jokes, there is less reason for depression.

      • Loveconstitution1789

        Putin is getting the peace prize before this is done with.

      • UnCivilServant

        Kiev is the proper English name for the city. I will continue to use it.

      • Claypoolsreservoir

        Correct. However, you’ve forgotten what he wants most; off the petrodollar. He will try his best to negotiate for European energy trade on a Ruble-Euro basis. The U.S. financial monopoly has always been his target… He’s said as much himself in the last few weeks.

    • Tundra

      Perfect.

  44. CPRM

    Some people just don’t get sarcasm.

    On an unrelated note, if I remember that clip maybe Donald will make an appearance in the next cartoon, depending on how long this goes on. I actually haven’t had him speak since he left office, because my cartoon world is a fantasy world.

    • Dr. Fronkensteen

      I took it less as sarcasm and more as admiring Putin’s handiwork without supporting it. Kind of like if an opposing football team makes a great play against your team. (yes, with greater consequences.) You don’t have to like it to appreciate the skill.

      • CPRM

        Well, the part about the US border and then, ‘They’re gonna keep peace all right.’ comes across to me as sarcasm. Yes, the first part does come come across as like a ‘Holy shit, that’s a brilliant bit of politicking!’

      • Homple

        However bad Putin is, that is a brilliant bit of politicking. Trump operates in the real world and is able to notice the fact.