Coffeesforclosers

Ukraine developing and mass producing the 2025 version of a V1, then pummeling Russia's petroleum industry with them was not on my bingo card. It would have been laughable pre-War if opposed by S300, S400 and VKS based air defenses...but it turns out three years of attrition on those systems has real consequences...

Modi didn't ally with Russia, he's just harping on a stable relationship India and Russia have had for decades because our President needlessly pissed him off. First by claiming he ended the border skirmishes with Pakistan, then with tariffs. Modi is kindly telling Trump to shut the hell up about tariffs and Nobel Prizes or wear the consequences.

Entering month 8 of ending the hopeless slaughter and @B-Man from two years ago is still a more perceptive diplomat than the sitting President, now or then.

If players are dinged up, especially week one, sit them and take the lumps. December and January are more important than September. Making guys gut out injuries to play week one is stone aged thinking, especially on a perennial contender.

Makes you wonder if we should bother watching the game!

I'm glad Josh is having fun.

India and China are partners, not rivals, Modi and Xi say To think we were basically India's allies six months ago! That balloon though...just as bad as India and China thawing relations at our expense.

Ha! Since the War on Drugs was so awesome, let's actually declare war on Drugs!

CNN is dumb. Military parades are dumb. Who knew?

If the choice is between a buffoon, and a senile idiot delivering GWB's third term, I guess I'll take the buffoon...

I'll hold my breath waiting for the anti-trust case that breaks up Sinclair.

Turkey is taking real, concrete steps towards supporting peace and security in Europe.

Man you really want to eat a 5 superbowl loss and call that success?

Tell that to the moneychangers in the Temple.

Yes, you're insane, we get it.

Being appalled by loss of life isn't a strategy. The President's job isn't to make lions lay down with lambs or protect foreigners from their own stupidity. It's to shape strategies that shape events to our advantage. So what's in it for America if our strategy is an all-out push for peace on humanitarian grounds?

You'd think it be easy to force Russian concessions somewhere. Like say, the middle east, where Russia's whole geopolitical strategy is collapsing. Where's some good old fashioned America First hardball where they can have Donbas so long as they serve up the Tartus naval base or hang the Iranians out to dry? Or agree to withdraw from and destroy all the Wagner bases in Africa? You know, something tangible for all us hard headed realists besides "Stop the killing!" Which is the same crap line we threw out when we were playing World Cop in the 90s (But only for the Balkans and Somalia, and not Rwanda).

Hopefully. However, Russia has been given chance after chance to negotiate a peace. They have always chosen to negotiate so long as they made no binding commitments and didn't have to submit to a ceasefire. Makes smart people think they want to keep fighting for some reason...

Whatever peace plan gets bandied about, what hasn't been addressed is Russia has the upper hand on the battlefield right now. Russian society also seems ready and willing to eat 120k KIA/year so long as Putin's government keeps the firehose of wartime cash and benefits flowing to them. Putin has the choice of...continuing things as he has since Trump was elected, which has the potential to give him the whole country of Ukraine. So long as North Korea keeps his ammo supplies full and Russian moms and dads keep feeding their boys into the wood chipper for bags of cash, why should he stop? Trump's strategy is all about a negotiated settlement...without providing a concrete reason for Russia to dismiss violence as an option for achieving its aims...