The Goat Pen

read a report that Russia has only sent in 1/4 of the troops into Ukraine that are amassed at the border. It would seem the plan is to exhaust Ukrainians and have them spend much of their ammo/weaponry on a first phase and then send in the bulk after that.

I would assume Putin didn't count on Russia's economy collapsing in the meantime, but he also appears to be undeterred by it.

Joe Manchin was just voted no to have a debate about federal access to legalized abortion, effectively killing any chance of federal intervention to states rights to outlaw abortion.

He was the only democrat to vote no

This is what he has to do to keep a strong republican from running against him in WV.

now from my personal standpoint I am not bothered by that, but I find it interesting that Democrats thought they had a majority in the Senate and Manchin is just fucking up their shit every time they try anything. He won't even let them give away money

He's a DINO...

heh,, yea, really

I guess majority isn't the right term at least in enacting legislation but being able to implement change

Biden and the senate "majority" has quietly done an excellent job at getting district and appellate judges seated, but so did Trump..

eCat wrote: ↑Tue Mar 01, 2022 9:41 am I guess majority isn't the right term at least in enacting legislation but being able to implement change

A Latinx grass roots agency is going to try and unseat my Senator in the next democrat primary



I don't know how to tell Samantha Bee that the "plurality" of Arizona's registered voters (you know the people who play Kingmaker) are pro-abortion rights Republicans, and these people LOVE Sinema. They especially love her after what she did protecting the filibuster.

Yes getting her out in the democrat primary is pretty much the only way to get her out.

Bill Burns, the current director of the CIA is a former ambassador to Russia

and 2 years ago he wrote a book, in it stating that the line in the sand for Russia, not just Putin, but all in on Russian elites was the acceptance of Ukraine into NATO.

Essentially he said that Putin would be willing to risk war as Ukraine entrance into NATO would be in direct conflict with the best interest of the Russian Federation. He wasn't alone.

While the Biden administration claims that Putin bears all the blame for the current Ukraine crisis, Burns makes clear that the US helped lay its foundations. By taking advantage of Russian weakness, he argues, Washington fueled the nationalist resentment that Putin exploits today. Burns calls the Clinton administration’s decision to expand NATO to include Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic “premature at best, and needlessly provocative at worst.” And he describes the appetite for revenge it fostered among many in Moscow during Boris Yeltsin’s final years as Russia’s president. “As Russians stewed in their grievance and sense of disadvantage,” Burns writes, “a gathering storm of ‘stab in the back’ theories slowly swirled, leaving a mark on Russia’s relations with the West that would linger for decades.”

As the Bush administration moved toward opening NATO’s doors to Ukraine, Burns’ warnings about a Russian backlash grew even starker. He told Rice it was “hard to overstate the strategic consequences” of offering NATO membership to Ukraine and predicted that “it will create fertile soil for Russian meddling in Crimea and eastern Ukraine.” Although Burns couldn’t have predicted the specific kind of meddling Putin would employ—either in 2014 when he seized Crimea and fomented a rebellion in Ukraine’s east or today—he warned that the US was helping set in motion the kind of crisis that America faces today. Promise Ukraine membership in NATO, he wrote, and “There could be no doubt that Putin would fight back hard.”

From inside the US government, many officials warned that US policy toward Russia might bring disaster. William Perry, Bill Clinton’s Defense Secretary from 1994 to 1997, almost resigned because of his opposition to NATO expansion. He has since declared that because of its policies in the 1990s, “the United States deserves much of the blame” for the deterioration in relations with Moscow. Steven Pifer, who from 1998 to 2000 served as US ambassador to Ukraine, has called Bush’s 2008 decision to declare that Ukraine would eventually join NATO “a real mistake.” Fiona Hill, who gained fame during the Trump impeachment saga, says that as national intelligence officers for Russia and Eurasia she and her colleagues “warned” Bush that “Putin would view steps to bring Ukraine and Georgia closer to NATO as a provocative move that would likely provoke pre-emptive Russian military action.”

“As Russians stewed in their grievance and sense of disadvantage,” Burns writes, “a gathering storm of ‘stab in the back’ theories slowly swirled, leaving a mark on Russia’s relations with the West that would linger for decades.”

Sounds a lot like republicans these days. No wonder some of them are Putin cheerleaders...

I think the whole Putin cheerleader thing is overblown

I do think some understand Putin's motivations and the constant pushing for NATO in the discussion is part of why we have this mess right now

Think about it - we invaded Iraq with less rationale than Russia has right now, and we decimated that country , did a regime change put in as much of a puppet government as we could afford. Why does Putin not get that option for a border country that would potentially have the backing of the entire European Union / U.S. should they feel threatened in the future?

Interestingly enough, Noam Chomsky is in complete agreement that this is all the US's fault. The subject of Russia is certainly making for strange bedfellows....

eCat wrote: ↑Tue Mar 01, 2022 12:06 pm I think the whole Putin cheerleader thing is overblown

I do think some understand Putin's motivations and the constant pushing for NATO in the discussion is part of why we have this mess right now

Think about it - we invaded Iraq with less rationale than Russia has right now, and we decimated that country , did a regime change put in as much of a puppet government as we could afford. Why does Putin not get that option for a border country that would potentially have the backing of the entire European Union / U.S. should they feel threatened in the future?

Because we're... the.... good guys.

Yes, it is.

https://nypost.com/2022/02/28/strange-l ... for-putin/

I don't know about Geroge Bush's Ukrainian NATO declaration being a threat to U.S. interests. Maybe for Europe, but this war will not effect us much as long as we decide to open more opportunities for oil and gas here in the US.

I don't know what to think of JD Vance at this point but I think I'm going to vote for him

When was the last time you gave a fuck about Russia until this? Not the political Hillary/Trump BS but actual Russia. Yeah. It's our fault Putin is crazy.

Yes. This is real.

Officially, we went to DEFCON 2 yesterday. Last time we were at that, Jan 15th 1991 (first day of Operation Desert Storm.) Prior to that, you go to go back to October of 1962 and the Missile Crisis. So what is this, a once-every-thirty-years bullshit, just to scare the hell out of us?

It been more than thirty years since the fall of the Iron Curtain. With Putin talking about tactical nukes in Ukraine, seriously, we have to worry about this shit again?

The DefCon level is not public information for security reasons, you fucking dolt.

Go watch Steve Guttenberg walk around with a half melted face and stfu.

DooKSucks wrote: ↑Tue Mar 01, 2022 4:56 pm The DefCon level is not public information for security reasons, you fucking dolt.

Go watch Steve Guttenberg walk around with a half melted face and stfu.

Well it was as DEFCON 2 yesterday

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO2202/ ... ealand.htm

I suppose that "Scoop" is lying about the whole thing, but whatever. This is where I found it. They may have dropped back go DEFCON 3 today.

So, you're trusting an unverified website from New Zealand to provide accurate information about something our military keeps hidden?

You are a fucking idiot and a waste of oxygen.