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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 1, 2022 12:34:36 GMT -5
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Post by wickedmountain on Mar 1, 2022 15:47:39 GMT -5
Thanks friends for the kind words
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Post by berkley on Mar 2, 2022 1:02:30 GMT -5
Just do it Two Tribes style, mano a nano like Reagan and Chernenko in the Frankie Goes To Hollywood video, except without the Earth exploding. But yeah, i've been checking the news at least once an hour, even down at the warehouse. It's an appalling situation and I don't get how Putin thinks he can get away with this (*Putting on my armchair general hat... or is it a private second class beret? Whatever.*) I would suspect it will be quite easy, actually. Little by little, Putin has accrued power in his own country until he could just ignore what people in the street said; any serious political opponent ends up in jail. Internationally, he has both sowed dissension among his enemies and established his credibility when it comes to military intervention. No one can doubt his ruthlessness or political acumen, now, while we in the west are busy tearing each other apart over nonsensical issues. Putin's one competent autocrat, not a gambler. I'm convinced he wouldn't have dared invading Ukraine if he didn't know he had a pretty good chance of pulling it off.
I dunno ... that's more or less how I saw him up to now but I think he might have miscalculated big-time on this one, because it looks to me like he's put himself and Russia in a lose-lose situation: IOW, the best possible scenario for him is still worse than the previous status quo, as much as that was not to his liking. Even if Russia wins the easiest of victories and manages to install a friendly regime in Ukraine, pretty much every other state on their border is going to want to join NATO, and now with every reason in the world. Until this invasion, Russia could claim, with justice, that the US had reneged on their promise, after the collapse of the USSR, not to expand NATO into eastern Europe.
So I think there's a big risk they'll end up with exactly what they didn't want, being hemmed in on their European borders by enemies rather than allies or even neutrals. There's also the strong probablitity that this will accelerate Europe's shift to renewable energy which would impact Russia's oil and natural gas sales, a huge part of their economy. So he might win the battle for Ukraine, for now, but I thnk it might turn out to be a very bad strategic decision in the long run.
Speaking strictly from the geo-political standpoint, of course. In the larger view, it's one of the worst things that could have happened to the world - for everybody, including whoever ends up in the stronger geo-political position after all this (I think the USA, eventually). The risk of nuclear war has risen dramatically, and even without that, it'll still be a more dangerous, hostile world once the dust settles.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2022 12:37:05 GMT -5
A sad, sad lesson that the Ukraine situation teaches us is "don't give up your nukes. No treaty will protect you if you do". We should be better than this. For crying out loud, we sent machines to Pluto and beyond... why is it we're still acting like savages down here? The Russian Rep at the UN looks like Blofeld and I'm waiting for them to kick him out.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,789
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Post by shaxper on Mar 2, 2022 13:08:03 GMT -5
A little bit of good news to counteract all of the bad going on right now: Today, Owen was the first patient in the entire Cleveland area to receive EVUShield, a treatment that works like a covid vaccine for immuno-compromised patients who cannot get vaccinated. In two weeks, he will be more immune to it than we are, and life will start t feel a little more normal for us. He will even attempt going back to in-person school for half days.
Life is still hard for Owen. He still has constant pain, fatigue, and other symptoms, but this is HUGE.
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 2, 2022 13:57:23 GMT -5
A little bit of good news to counteract all of the bad going on right now: Today, Owen was the first patient in the entire Cleveland area to receive EVUShield, a treatment that works like a covid vaccine for immuno-compromised patients who cannot get vaccinated. In two weeks, he will be more immune to it than we are, and life will start t feel a little more normal for us. He will even attempt going back to in-person school for half days. Life is still hard for Owen. He still has constant pain, fatigue, and other symptoms, but this is HUGE. Such good news, shax. Give Owen a high-five from all of us.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,789
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Post by shaxper on Mar 2, 2022 14:22:55 GMT -5
A little bit of good news to counteract all of the bad going on right now: Today, Owen was the first patient in the entire Cleveland area to receive EVUShield, a treatment that works like a covid vaccine for immuno-compromised patients who cannot get vaccinated. In two weeks, he will be more immune to it than we are, and life will start t feel a little more normal for us. He will even attempt going back to in-person school for half days. Life is still hard for Owen. He still has constant pain, fatigue, and other symptoms, but this is HUGE. Such good news, shax. Give Owen a high-five from all of us. Will do! Btw, he is still making his way through your care-package and having the time of his life. I was particularly surprised to see him take such an interest in the Westerns!
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Post by Prince Hal on Mar 2, 2022 14:54:06 GMT -5
Such good news, shax. Give Owen a high-five from all of us. Will do! Btw, he is still making his way through your care-package and having the time of his life. I was particularly surprised to see him take such an interest in the Westerns! PMing you.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2022 15:10:51 GMT -5
Glad he's doing better, Shax!
great news
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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 2, 2022 15:13:18 GMT -5
Promising news, Shax. Keep your chin up.
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Post by thwhtguardian on Mar 2, 2022 18:21:23 GMT -5
That's awesome news, hope things continue to improve
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Post by Deleted on Mar 3, 2022 15:23:13 GMT -5
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Post by tartanphantom on Mar 3, 2022 16:42:58 GMT -5
Open a free acct at Imgur. I've used it extensively since Photobucket went south a few years back, and never ever had a bandwith or upload limit. You can even re-size and crop pics after you've uploaded them.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Mar 3, 2022 17:49:30 GMT -5
Imgur is pretty good, and I also like Photobucket.
@bert, that seems to have been a lot of fun! The strangest thing for me was to see people without masks... I look forward to our sanitary measures being lifted.
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Post by Icctrombone on Mar 3, 2022 19:13:37 GMT -5
Looks like a great trip, @bert !
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