War in Ukraine

Next history lesson:

More of an interesting story about Boris Yeltsin visiting a grocery story in Houston in 1989. It was apparently a spur-of-the-moment decision after visiting the Space Center. Yeltsin was astounded at all of the full shelves, and realized that the average American had more food choices than the Politburo. He felt sick to his stomach when he realized that if Russians saw the condition of the supermarkets in America, he would have a revolution on his hands. The visit to Randall's shattered his view of communism.

Why is this story interesting 34 years later? Well, because Russia may be headed towards hard times again. Their economy is once again failing. They are losing the war in Ukraine. Collapse of the system in Russia seems likely, if not inevitable.

When Boris Yeltsin went grocery shopping in Clear Lake

 

Current history lesson: Americans shocked that Russian grocery stores are stocked to the gills …

 

If the provisions of the treaty were so onerous, how did Germany increase their GDP 12% in the years after the war? Or were you not able to comprehend that part?

 

Probably helps when you are stealing food from the neighbor as you invade them and open torture centers. "Tell us where you keep the Doritos, or we will shock you with higher voltage!" Sick bastids.

 

Moscow’s public realm grander than any US city’s. Ten pages of pictures …

https://www.skyscrapercity.com/thre...destrian-zones-public-spaces-upgrade.2047505/

 

Grandest metro system in the world. America’s third world status in comparison …

The Moscow Metro Is Offering Virtual Tours of Its Famously Beautiful Subway Stations (Video)

 

America’s Brobdingnagian $1.3 trillion national security budget thrives on manufactured threats and falsely demonized foes. And nothing could be more demonstrative of that proposition than the utter villainy which emanated from the NATO summit in Vilnius.

NATO Has Become an Enemy of Peace and Security Around the World - LewRockwell

 

Last I checked, you can't eat skyscrapers or metro systems. Access to food is a higher level of importance to most sane people. But nice try.

 

Decidedly not off-topic. Nobody likes a crybaby.

 

Probably a lot cheaper than the average NYC apartment at $5,600 a month. Besides …

 

$10 a week is a lot to spend on groceries?

 

Such idiocy. The purpose of America's military is to defend American interests and allies as much as the American homeland. With two major military superpowers in Russia and China threatening our trading partners, it is expensive to defend against both. The U.S. wants to live in a peaceful (and sustainable) world in the post-colonial era, and not turn over our trading partners to a voracious country like Russia or China. That's why the U.S. supports Rule of Law, while Russia and China support Rule of Might Makes Right and the Rule of We Take What We Want if No One Does Anything to Stop Us.

Putin's red line is a red herring. There was little or no serious talk of making Ukraine a NATO member before Russia's invasion. It is another poor excuse, like his Nazis in Ukraine story was. (And, by the way, which is it? Why can't Putin have one reason for invading Ukraine, and not two? And if there really are two reasons, why did he not mention them at the same time? Smells like weak propaganda to me.) And since NATO is no threat to Russia, it is a pointless argument anyway. No country has attempted to invade Russia in over 75 years. The odds of NATO countries getting together to arrange an unprovoked invasion of Russia is essentially zero. The only thing that Russia would lose by having Ukraine become a NATO member is the "right" to invade Ukraine without direct consequences from NATO countries.

 

We tolerate you as best as we can.

 

Turkey is building corvettes (small ships) for Ukraine. They are working on their second corvette for Ukraine. The two ships are scheduled to be delivered next year.

Turkey begins construction of second corvette for Ukrainian Navy

 

$10 on groceries in Russia goes a lot further than $10 on groceries in the United States, generally speaking. I’m going to refrain from mocking Russian food prices when ours are much higher. If you’re trying to sell us on “sanctions are causing a lot of pain in Russia,” you’re selling a fantasy. They were ready to be cut off by the West and had major players lined up to replace their former European partners.

 

Ukraine breaking through the first line of defenses and taking out the artillery and choppers that have been their nemesis when they ahd to either slow down or channelize to avoid minefields. They just committed one of their most well equipped divisions to advance through the breach