18 minutes ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

 

They really are trying to give Adolph & Co. a run for their money.

Speaking of which, "Adolph & Co." sounds like the name of some trendy clothing boutique.

I need coffee.

There is a really, really dark joke in there that even I won’t touch

Just now, paco said:

There is a really, really dark joke in there that even I won’t touch

 

Damn...PM? Lol.

22 minutes ago, paco said:

There is a really, really dark joke in there that even I won’t touch

Don't do it.

7 hours ago, Procus said:

62% of voters agree that Russia would never have invaded Ukraine if Trump were president.  The radical left posters here are in the clear minority - so they try and scream loud to get their voices heard.

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/597419-voters-believe-putin-wouldnt-have-invaded-ukraine-under-trump-logic

Voters believe Putin wouldn't have invaded Ukraine under Trump. Logic agrees

It's not a "radical left" thing. It's a "do you have a fully functioning brain" thing. And, yes, more and more every day I believe those people are in the minority.

2 minutes ago, mayanh8 said:

It's not a "radical left" thing. It's a "do you have a fully functioning brain" thing. And, yes, more and more every day I believe those people are in the minority.

No - the majority of the posters in this forum lean very far to the left. 

2 minutes ago, Procus said:

No - the majority of the posters in this forum lean very far to the left. 

... 

5 minutes ago, Procus said:

No - the majority of the posters in this forum lean very far to the left. 

really ? who ? point them out please and also, provide examples of the "far left" ideology they push. 

 

 

1 minute ago, Alpha_TATEr said:

really ? who ? point them out please and also, provide examples of the "far left" ideology they push. 

 

 

Obviously if you're not choking on Trump's deek like procus you're far left.

Need to keep the world simple for these Trumplicans. Us and them.

1 minute ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

Obviously if you're not choking on Trump's deek like procus you're far left.

Need to keep the world simple for these Trumplicans. Us and them.

i mean, i am not denying there are some here, but have any really pushed the bernie manifesto, here on this MB ? 

meh, what's a rino like me know. 

1 minute ago, Alpha_TATEr said:

i mean, i am not denying there are some here, but have any really pushed the bernie manifesto, here on this MB ? 

meh, what's a rino like me know. 

That is not how you spell dirty, stinking liberal. You Vikas, TJ, all y'all.

19 minutes ago, Alpha_TATEr said:

really ? who ? point them out please and also, provide examples of the "far left" ideology they push. 

 

I take it that free and fair elections is "far left" ideology.

59 minutes ago, Alpha_TATEr said:

really ? who ? point them out please and also, provide examples of the "far left" ideology they push. 

 

 

As soon as he finishes writing out those checks to stopthesteal.com, he will get right back to you with links to those examples.

1 hour ago, Alpha_TATEr said:

really ? who ? point them out please and also, provide examples of the "far left" ideology they push. 

 

 

Well, when you sit right...........

L<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<C>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>here>R

Everybody looks like Bernie to you.

2 hours ago, EaglesRocker97 said:

 

They really are trying to give Adolph & Co. a run for their money.

Speaking of which, "Adolph & Co." sounds like the name of some trendy clothing boutique.

I need coffee.

Damn I can totally see that.  $125 belts.

 

 

 

Quote

 

ISTANBUL — Russia and Ukraine achieved their most significant progress yet in peace negotiations on Tuesday, with Moscow promising to reduce "by multiples” the intensity of its military activity around Kyiv and to its north.

Ukrainian officials for the first time outlined potential concessions over territory occupied by Russia, proposing that negotiations about the status of Crimea — the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow seized and annexed in 2014 — be conducted over a period of 15 years, with Ukraine refraining from trying to retake the peninsula by force.

The issue of the eastern Ukrainian region known as the Donbas, which Russia no longer recognizes as part of Ukraine, could be discussed in negotiations between President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, an aide to Mr. Zelensky said after Tuesday’s talks.

Mr. Zelensky has for months sought a meeting with Mr. Putin to resolve their differences, efforts the Kremlin has deflected, saying that it was too early to talk. On Tuesday, Russia said it was now ready to accelerate preparations for such a meeting, and that it could be held as soon as a draft peace agreement with Ukraine was ready.

"If the treaty is worked out quickly and the required compromise is found, the possibility of making peace will be much closer,” Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, told reporters after the talks, which were conducted in Istanbul and hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.

While Ukraine and Russia still appeared to be a long way from making peace, both sides sounded more conciliatory on Tuesday than at any other point since Mr. Putin’s invasion began on Feb. 24. Mr. Medinsky said that Russia viewed Ukraine’s proposals "a constructive step in the search for a compromise.”

The key to a peace agreement appeared to be Ukraine’s willingness to adopt a neutral status — including not joining the NATO alliance or hosting Western troops — in exchange for international "security guarantees.” The head of the Ukrainian delegation, David Arakhamia, said Ukraine was already discussing such guarantees with other countries in order to create a "working security mechanism” that would assure Ukraine’s sovereignty.

"We have discussed all contentious issues, more or less,” Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to Mr. Zelensky, said in Istanbul. He told Turkish reporters later that Ukraine was ready to "take a pause of 15 years” on the issue of Crimea. Mr. Putin had warned in the run-up to the invasion of Ukraine that if Ukraine were to join the Western military alliance and seek to retake Crimea, there could be a war between Russia and NATO.

"The Russian delegation is constructive,” Mr. Podolyak said. "This doesn’t mean that the negotiations are easy. They are difficult.”

A deputy Russian defense minister who joined the talks in Istanbul, Aleksandr Fomin, said that Russia was prepared to reduce its military activity in parts of Ukraine because the two sides had moved the talks "into the practical plane” on key issues like the neutrality and non-nuclear status of Ukraine, as well as the security guarantees Ukraine is seeking.

"In order to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations and achieve the ultimate goal of agreeing and signing the above agreement, a decision was made to drastically, by multiples, reduce military activity in the Kyiv and Chernihiv direction,” Mr. Fomin said.

Russia recently escalated heavy artillery attacks in the city of Chernihiv, in an apparent attempt to consolidate a band of control north of the capital. But Russian forces appear to have stood down, for the moment, from the attempt to seize Kyiv itself, and Russia’s defense minister said on Tuesday that Russia was focusing on seizing more territory in eastern Ukraine.

Safak Timur contributed reporting from Istanbul.

 

 

You know what would also go a long way to "increase mutal trust for future negotiations to agree and sign a peace deal with Ukraine".  

 

Not poisoning their diplomats

I remain hopeful for peace, but I’m positive that this is just a smokescreen. 
 

Russia has nothing to gain from peace talks. In Syria they did this all the time with a bunch of cease fires and allowed them to reinforce. 
 

Pretty sure you’re going to see another offensive in two weeks. 

3 minutes ago, Bill said:

I remain hopeful for peace, but I’m positive that this is just a smokescreen. 
 

Russia has nothing to gain from peace talks. In Syria they did this all the time with a bunch of cease fires and allowed them to reinforce. 
 

Pretty sure you’re going to see another offensive in two weeks. 

I hope you are wrong, but suspect you are right. 

I will say the difference here seems to be the level of losses being suffered by Russia both on the battlefield and at home. The sanctions really have been crippling.

1 hour ago, Alpha_TATEr said:

i mean, i am not denying there are some here, but have any really pushed the bernie manifesto, here on this MB ? 

meh, what's a rino like me know. 

I went through it before, but the only poster I could think of that's truly expressed radical beliefs is jsdarkstar.

Moss is pretty left, but milquetoast college professor left. He could probably defend #defundthepolice but his heart wouldn't be in it. 

EaglesRocker97 is another who's a pretty committed lefty, but I wouldn't call him radical.

I don't really think anyone here was on the refund the police bandwagon. Some are probably a bit more Bernie than Biden, and think there's some good things in the green new deal but fall short of endorsing it wholly. 

I'm not sure that makes one a radical any more than someone who claims to want small limited government and low taxes is a radical Republican. 

Radical to me isn't being committed to left or right ideologies but acquiescing to a compromise position while still advocating for your preferred view, which is where most people are. Radical is demonstrating a complete unwillingness to compromise, and embracing alternate views of reality because you can't accept actual reality.

Such as believing an election was stolen without any evidence surviving cursory scrutiny in a court of law and supporting the theft of a presidential election, all whole projecting all the sins you're engaging with on "the other side." That's some Soviet authoritarian style radicalism that some here still seem to embrace.

11 minutes ago, paco said:

You know what would also go a long way to "increase mutal trust for future negotiations to agree and sign a peace deal with Ukraine".  

 

Not poisoning their diplomats

Russians... sometimes they just cant help themselves. They see people not being poisoned and they just have to get in a little lite poisoning. Won't happen again.

 

 

14 minutes ago, Bill said:

I remain hopeful for peace, but I’m positive that this is just a smokescreen. 
 

Russia has nothing to gain from peace talks. In Syria they did this all the time with a bunch of cease fires and allowed them to reinforce. 
 

Pretty sure you’re going to see another offensive in two weeks. 

The cynic in me says head fake. They're artificially inflating the value of the ruble, giving themselves a chance to either abandon or further dig in on the Kyiv front where they have no hope of success other than to occupy UA forces, and buying time to regroup in the Eastern part of Ukraine.

But I hope it's legit.

1 minute ago, JohnSnowsHair said:

I went through it before, but the only poster I could think of that's truly expressed radical beliefs is jsdarkstar.

Moss is pretty left, but milquetoast college professor left. He could probably defend #defundthepolice but his heart wouldn't be in it. 

EaglesRocker97 is another who's a pretty committed lefty, but I wouldn't call him radical.

I don't really think anyone here was on the refund the police bandwagon. Some are probably a bit more Bernie than Biden, and think there's some good things in the green new deal but fall short of endorsing it wholly. 

I'm not sure that makes one a radical any more than someone who claims to want small limited government and low taxes is a radical Republican. 

Radical to me isn't being committed to left or right ideologies but acquiescing to a compromise position while still advocating for your preferred view, which is where most people are. Radical is demonstrating a complete unwillingness to compromise, and embracing alternate views of reality because you can't accept actual reality.

Such as believing an election was stolen without any evidence surviving cursory scrutiny in a court of law and supporting the theft of a presidential election, all whole projecting all the sins you're engaging with on "the other side." That's some Soviet authoritarian style radicalism that some here still seem to embrace.

Prior to the Trump years, you had real discussion among people on the left and those on the right mainly over things related to fiscal policy and the role of government. But once Trump took over the GOP, the section realigned into pro and anti Trump. Most of the anti-Trump posters here (myself included) would be called either Libertarians or Republicans in a normal world, but are labeled liberals by the Trump folks.

14 minutes ago, Bill said:

I remain hopeful for peace, but I’m positive that this is just a smokescreen. 
 

Russia has nothing to gain from peace talks. In Syria they did this all the time with a bunch of cease fires and allowed them to reinforce. 
 

Pretty sure you’re going to see another offensive in two weeks. 

 

 

8 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Prior to the Trump years, you had real discussion among people on the left and those on the right mainly over things related to fiscal policy and the role of government. But once Trump took over the GOP, the section realigned into pro and anti Trump. Most of the anti-Trump posters here (myself included) would be called either Libertarians or Republicans in a normal world, but are labeled liberals by the Trump folks.

Yup. I tend to be socially liberal, but on the fiscal side these are my priorities:

1. Fiscal responsibility - deficit management primarily, but beyond that keeping regulations minimal and sane whole being more aggressive than currently on antitrust. Government should work towards ensuring a healthy competitive market in all areas that allow small and large to compete, and being careful in areas where unnatural monopolies can persist due to government intervention. Responsibility also means if you want to increase spending, you have to raise taxes accordingly - and accept the political realities that it may present. Deficit management can be had with relatively high tax revenues coupled with spending, or relatively low tax burdens with reduced publicly funded services. But right now we have low taxes and high spending, the worst of which having been under Republican - not Democratic - administrations.

2. Fiscal conservatism - my preference in general is for low taxation and smallish government. There are essential functions a government needs to perform, and in the modern world federal governments have to be a certain size to be relevant globally. But a lot is now filtering through the federal government, and that increases division because you have large areas of the country that inevitably try to enforce their views on the rest. This cuts both ways, and goes against the original ideas of federalism which are relevant to this day. If California wants to tax and spend, great - but that approach doesn't need to be replicated for the whole nation at the federal level.

 

Mainly, I can accept a federal govt that maybe is bigger than I'd like as long as it's being responsible on terms of revenue vs spending. But I worry much about a government that increasingly refuses to tax its citizens at a level necessary to maintain its services, which is catching up with us. QE has covered it up, but now we're facing inflation (inflation that goes back a ways, including the 15% of total currency printed in response to the pandemic BEFORE Biden took office).