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I think U.S. officials should shut their fucking mouths.

Let's be real clear about the "separatists'" notion. What happened in 2014 wasn't some popular uprising with a grassroots element that felt like the rightful president had to flee in a coup. The popular uprising occurred in Kyiv. It was massive, ongoing, and lengthy, through Ukraine's bitterest cold. Eventually, after massacring his people didn't make it stop, Yanukovych was faced with prosecuting the kind of national annihilism Assad did in Syria to retain control of the country. He chose to flee instead. Afterwards was a time of tumult. It wasn't clear who was in charge. No one had any popular mandate to rule. The military had been purposefully gutted by Yanukovych in favor of his security forces. Corruption was rife (always has been, and frankly, almost certainly exists now even if muted). In this turmoil Putin's first concern was Sevastopol, the historical Russian naval base, home of the Black Sea Fleet, and inarguably the single biggest military asset in all of Ukraine. He wanted to make sure he secured that in the face of a Western dominated Ukraine. So the green men (unmarked Russian soldiers) took over Crimea without a shot being fired, including several Ukrainian warships. The commanders on those vessels complained of no chain of command, no instructions on how to handle the current situation. The sailors on those ships were offered Russian citizenship, or were sent back to Ukraine in humiliation. The referendum to annex Crimea wasn't as much of a joke as the recent one involving the four regions of Ukraine, but it was close. Same armed troops at the ballot box. They intimidated the local Tartars to stay away from the ballot box. This is in addition to Crimea being primarily Russian, mostly because Stalin round up the native Tartars and sent them to Siberia while migrating huge numbers of Russians to the area. After that was secured in good order, Putin expanded into the Donbas, a region that has been a historical manufacturing base for Russia, including military vehicles in modern times. The green men systematically took over law enforcement, judicial buildings, and political centers of control practically overnight throughout the area. They were repelled in some places, but in town after town most civilians woke up with someone else in charge and a feeling that there wasn't much that could be done about it. New Russian appointed leaders announced their control of the regions. The political leadership in Kyiv was a complete clusterfuck trying to respond to any of this. Eventually they did send the hollowed shell of a military they did possess down to recapture the regions, including thousands of volunteers, most notably what became known as the Azov battalion. Many of these volunteers were the foundational source of what Putin has described as the "Nazification" of Ukraine. It's important to note, and I've done it on this thread before, but I wouldn't expect anyone to remember, and I sure wouldn't expect anyone to go back and read about it, but when Russians call elements of Ukraine Nazis, they don't mean it in the way westerners think about it. That's why it's idiotic to bring up Zelensky as a Jew as part of the response. Russians don't primarily associate the Nazis with the Holocaust the way westerners do. Heck, Russians have their own ambivalent historic relationship with Jews. Russians associate Nazis with Operation Barbarossa, and the whole sale massacre of Russians, the vast destruction wrought, the rapes, the terror campaigns, both incoming and in retreat. Regarding Ukraine itself, Stephen Bandera is the central polarizing figure. For Ukrainians who associate with the west, he's a national hero, a wanna be liberator. For Russians he was a Nazi collaborator, who was responsible for atrocities against the Russian people. It was under Bandera's banner that many of the volunteers headed east with the Ukrainian army to recapture the Donbas region, many of them part of the so called Azov Battalion. And, frankly, they were wiping the floor with the rag tag groups Russia had pulled together to take over the Donbas regions. Until the Russian army crossed the border and virtually wiped them out. Russia wasn't willing to openly invade Ukraine at that point (they probably should have given what has happened to them in the last 8 months). They took out the Ukrainian forces, and after that the front line stabilized, and would remain that way for the most part for 8 years. But while there was always a more pro Russian sentiment in eastern Russia (Zelensky himself is a native Russian speaker, and favored a softer approach to Kremlin than his predecessor, Poroshenko), it was Russian machinations which created the breakaway Donbas region in the first place. Not some separatist movement. That part was fictional.

@Slacks more for you ya big grumpy ass.

Ok assholes.. @UncleBuck @Slacks

I get it, I've been there. But this isn't Mack with Case McCoy, or Strong with Sean Watson & Jerrod Heard, or even Herman with Sam & it definitely ain't the OU defense of old on the other side. This year we begin the process of pulling the momentum of the rivalry back to Austin. We're hanging 60 on the MFs (if Ewers is playing) this year & next year & there's nothing they can do about it but sit there & experience the same depression we felt in the early 00s. They'll be emptying out in the middle of the 3rd & all anyone will be able to hear is "TEXAS FIGHT" chants & Smokey firing again & again & again. It's time.

Besides the Vikings?

He also invented the question mark and occasionally accuses chestnuts of being lazy.

this is as good as anywhere I gues

Somebody is running with the tapestry thing. @RDCanecutter can appreciate it https://twitter.com/mr_gh0stly

Was he rear-ended?

I have to buy a new microwave. Mrs. Mudcat killed it. I didn't know that was possible. Turns out, it is. The Mrs. was going to heat up something for 1 minute. She wrapped it in a paper towel and started the microwave, walked away and started watching TV. A few minutes later, from my office, I think "hmmm....I smell something burning. She's probably burning the toast and will figure it out." A few minutes after that, I'm thinking "something's on FIRE!" I walk out of my office, and smoke is pouring out of the microwave. Smell is overwhelming. I go to stop the microwave and see that there are 11 minutes and 53 seconds left in the cooking time. Uh oh. Open the microwave, and the PAPER TOWEL IS FULLY ON FIRE. Substance in which it is wrapped is no longer identifiable. She never smelled a thing. The microwave still stinks and part of the ceramic coating (?) on the inside is flaking off. It's done.

Netflix probably paid this guy so they'd have more content.

For context, the 2022 Defense Dept Budget is $752.9 Billion. $16.8 Billion is 2.2% of the annual defense budget. Let's look at just some of what we got for that 2.2% of the annual defense budget. 1) Save a fledgling democracy, giving us a chance to stick up for our principles. This has united most Americans across the aisle, at a time when that has become incredibly rare. 2) Restores credibility of US intel agencies that had suffered badly since 2003. 3) Shows why NATO is critical. Until Russia invaded, the necessity of NATO was openly questioned publicly and frequently. Open Russian aggression reveals that NATO is absolutely critical to US and European stability. 4) Strengthens NATO. NATO gains Sweden and Finland and soon will be able to add Ukraine. That gives NATO 2 new bordering countries with Russia plus the ability to hinder the Russian Black Sea Fleet and completely bottle up the Russian Baltic Sea Fleet in port. 4) Destroys the bulk of the professional Russian army, along with their equipment. Also destroys the ability for Russia to replenish and rebuild that equipment, rendering Russia impotent for at least the next decade or so. 5) Shows that US equipment is utterly dominant versus Russian tech, which almost certainly also applies to Chinese tech. You want shit that works and works well? Buy USA. 6) Makes it much less likely China tries to take Taiwan by force. Even not even considering military aspects, their economy would be destroyed instantly by sanctions. All that for 2.2% of the annual defense budget, $16.8 Billion. That's one of the best returns on investment in history. Anyone criticizing the US sending aid to Ukraine does not have US strategic interests in mind.

I did a little paint work too:

That’s a terrible comparison. As I read him on this thread, Twice is just explaining the process and why courts seem so hesitant to rush to the same conclusions we in the general public do. On balance, that’s a good thing. You don’t want a rash judiciary. He’s not running interference for Trump and the ilk the way Bothsides Annie does. And he’s certainly not saying that Democrats do the same shit or that this judge is as good as any other. He’s just explaining that it would be foolhardy to implode our whole judicial process just because one high-profile defendant is delaying justice.

doing God's work ....

Brutal, and brilliant.

If I believed in abortion, how come I got kids?

Anyone that thinks we wouldn’t get a street fight from even a winless ou team is fucking clueless.

Plenty of legit shit to rag on aggy about but Dat was a pretty bad ass college LB and spent a handful of years with the Cowboys. Dat's OK in my book.

OU has a culture problem. The players are not locked in like previous teams. I may or may not have a kid at ou and I may or may not have attended the ksu game two weeks ago and I may or may not stayed out really really late at an unnamed ou frat party with said kid where a shitload of ou players showed up at the party trying to chase tail after getting the ever living shit beat out of them by that mexican ksu qb. Saw the same shit in the 80s at Texas over and over. Ou has no real pipe hitting leaders that say ‘get your ass to the field at 7 am Sunday morning to work this shit out’. Instead they’re out partying till 2 am after an embarrassing loss. Hard to believe but I think our culture is far superior to ou at this point with roschon and crew. I will be shocked if we don’t beat the shit of those fools this weekend. free money if you have the appetite.

Yes. Also pretty good at getting worn the fuck out by Ricky Williams.

Ok can we get Al Franken back in the senate now? This is ridiculous.

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lol who goes to a frat party with their kid?

…and that is why you will never teach again you deviant.

^This guy gets it

This thread is hilarious and an excellent example of why an increasing number of Americans want nothing to do with this religion.

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L O L the excitement is palpable