snafu

What Obama did to Biden is actually not too cool.

They've caught on in NYC and have a few places that sell it now.

That's not true in my experience. deBlasio ended stop & frisk 8 years ago. Until COVID, there was no problem. I think maybe people who don't like the City tend to see it as one giant, unmanageable mess. If they take the City and break it up into neighborhoods, or boroughs, or any smaller segment, then it is easier to deal with. That's pretty much what the locals do.

I met a fellow Bills fan on the subway just this morning. We had a great talk about the Bills and the Sabres as we rode to wherever we were going. Left each other with a fist bump and a “go Bills”. Big city, small world. That’s what I call it. It was very bad during the worst of the pandemic. It is much more “normal” now, but not what it was in early 2020. Not yet.

Slime, or Smart. I suggested that to make it more difficult, my wife and I choose each other’s starting words. My idea was rejected.

I was with you on the steak fries, but you lost me here.

A whole industry of people with way too much time on their hands and way too much self-importance.

Until this thread, I never knew she cheated on him.

I'd hate to be an insurance adjuster in Russia covering anything going on in Ukraine. Putin won't let anyone call it a war. It is a "special military operation". If you claim otherwise, then you go to jail. Tough spot to be in.

Hoax, Stime.

Nope, I’ll just let your post lay there as a prime example of how you are an irreparably broken whack job. You should switch to heavy duty tinfoil for your hat. That thin, cheap stuff it still letting the signals through. Putin loves you for your anger and divisiveness. You support him so much by being petty, shallow, and angry.

Holy crap ^^^^^^^^^ loon alert!!!! 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪 ^^^^^^^^^

Don't talk with food in your mouth.

Page 9. In 2004 it was $5Trillion/day. Not a typo. https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/Appendix_D.pdf

I’ve been on this line for 8 freaking hours. Someone gave me a bottle of water, it that still okay or is my vote invalidated? 1) no moderator 2) oldmanfan 3) b-man 4) Irv

I don't think the US has a problem cutting off Russian oil imports. I think our country should do that. But NATO is comprised of 30 countries. I'm sure that there are a majority of member nations who can't realistically cut off Russian energy. When you sanction, you generally don't want to hurt yourself (too much), and until the alternatives to Russian energy are put in place, there will be a lot of self-harm to European countries. I have heard that the Germans, as part of their about-face, have authorized two Liquid Natural Gas processing facilities to take in imports of replacement energy. I'd wager that until those are online (and probably other measures) the Germans can't really make a change. About your last sentence: I think the Russian economy is being hurt -- just not as much as it CAN be hurt. Putin is afraid to open up the Russian stock market, and the currency has lost 30% of its value. There will always be countries to buy Russian oil (China) and wheat (China), and other Russian exports (Brazil).

Don’t forget idiot.

His first name is Doug. Is he Canadian? Edit: nope.

It sank. https://apple.news/AEVsQB0hKS26xhZH2sK-peQ

Yes on Biden's intel. Thank you for the clarification. And yes on the Putin miscalculation. He's painted into a corner and the only thing he's considering seems to be more bloodshed. They say that the first Russian units into battle are poorly trained kids from factories, etc. I wonder how right that is. I think Putin's held back the quality troops and materiel. Stupid.

For a month, Biden said there was going to be an invasion. Turns out, he was right, even though Putin couldn't even come up with a good reason to invade. He's protecting Ukraine from Russians? He's protecting Russians from Ukraine? He hates NATO, even though NATO never threatened Russian borders once in their history? But Putin went into Ukraine and actually made a case for why NATO exists in the first place. Not smart. Maybe before that, NATO could have gotten their **** together and come up with an actual deterrent. The only real deterrent from Russia going into an unprepared Ukraine was to threaten Article 5 defense. Only, that isn't a credible threat because Article 5 doesn't apply to Ukraine. Hell, it may not be a deterrent at all, because it sure doesn't look like anyone wants to take on the Russians -- except poor Ukraine. All I know is that threatening sanctions after the fact was lame, and it isn't going to get Russia to do an about-face. Even Biden said "let's see what happens in 30 days". 30 days!?!? He should have added: "after Ukraine has been crushed". So instead, after-the-fact, NATO and the EU countries make Ukraine their proxy, doing everything except committing forces. It is a loser play against Putin and yet it isn't too far removed from fighting directly. Talk about throwing money down a toilet. At this point, if Putin wanted to make this into WWIII, then all he has to do is claim that providing arms to Ukraine, and sanctioning Russia on behalf of Ukraine, and stopping Russian air flights and shipping are all acts of aggression against Russia. What's going to happen when Putin ratchets this conflict up to that next level? People will say that NATO lost its chance to stop Putin with strength, and an entire country was destroyed -- because maybe that's pretty much the only thing he responds to. Maybe the play now is to say that NATO will admit Ukraine in 5 days unless the Russians leave the country. I've said it from the beginning that Putin is making a mistake. But that doesn't mean the mistake had to have been made in the first place.

I don't care what they say. I'm not a teenage girl.

Just spitballin'. What could have been done was make Ukraine a "provisional" member of NATO. Ukraine's GDP is $155Billion, so 2% of that is $311Million. The U.S could have paid Ukraine's dues for 2 years with the money we already threw at this problem. Russia wouldn't have invaded with Rule 5 on the table.

Putin screwed himself. His bluff got called. It is messy and people are losing their lives. I’m sure this is exactly what Putin didn’t want. Especially since it seems that he miscalculated the amount of opposition Ukraine would put up. He’s going to have to escalate a lot and it will just have the opposite effect of what he was looking for. Or he’s going to have to settle for E. Ukraine and a more resolute NATO (at best). And if he thinks Europe isn’t already considering energy alternatives, he’s a fool. Bad move, Putin. Too bad the people of Ukraine have to suffer for it.