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Everything posted by Viper
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was that the guy who when asked if he thinks he can win he said something like "no way, do you think I'm crazy?"
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Good comments from Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib. I can understand how depressing it is to hope other governments will care about you (his family) more than your own government does. I cut out the political parts, but there is some hope with the Israelis looking to build a displacement/refugee centers and safe zone in the Hamas free parts of the north for the people in the south. (Although maybe it's just to ethnically cleanse them later, you know how bad the Israelis are at that)
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US Coast Guard intercepted Iranian weapons heading for the Houthis CENTCOM Intercepts Iranian Weapons Shipment Intended for Houthis TAMPA, Fla. – A U.S. Coast Guard cutter, forward deployed to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility, seized advanced conventional weapons and other lethal aid originating in Iran and bound to Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen from a vessel in the Arabian Sea on Jan. 28. The U.S. Coast Guard Sentinel-class fast-response cutter USCGC Clarence Sutphin Jr (WPC 1147), assigned to U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, located the vessel and boarded it in the Arabian Sea. The boarding team discovered over 200 packages that contained medium-range ballistic missile components, explosives, unmanned underwater/surface vehicle (UUV/USV) components, military-grade communication and network equipment, anti-tank guided missile launcher assemblies, and other military components. The direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of such aid violates U.N. Security Council Resolution 2216 (as extended and renewed by resolutions 2675 and 2707). “This is yet another example of Iran’s malign activity in the region, ” said Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, CENTCOM commander. “Their continued supply of advanced conventional weapons to the Houthis is in direct violation of international law and continues to undermine the safety of international shipping and the free flow of commerce.” CENTCOM is committed to working with our allies and partners to counter the flow of Iranian lethal aid in the region by all lawful means including U.S. and U.N. sanctions and through interdictions.
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Possibly related
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CDC retweeted
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So this doesn't seem good. Wonder if it's the gps jamming in Königsberg that's been going on for the last few months or something more to do with online hacking and/disinformation campaigns or maybe new nuclear testing going on?
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Good interview of the Russian ambassador. Anyone find the whole thing?
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Not to Europe as a whole, but for the small Baltic states, Russia can do a lot of damage to them in the short term with sheer numbers and artillery and drones, but that's only if they can get a ceasefire with Ukraine and rebuild their supplies.
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I guess @Brisketexan and Putin do have something in common afterall https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/13/russia-puts-estonian-prime-minister-kaja-kallas-on-wanted-list
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TVA is in it, but there's been no Mobius nor Loki in any trailers so far. It almost looks like they're setting up the void at the end of time to be like a Secret Wars Battle World
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Not sure what the solution is here. They're obviously buying them through third parties in other countries, much like Ukraine does in Germany and other EU countries. They're already geofenced to only work at the frontline (which is why they stopped working for Ukraine when they advanced too quickly). There's probably too many and distribution too decentralized to be able to whitelist them. Reports are that the Russians are using up all the bandwidth to prevent the Ukrainians from using them for drone video feeds
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Tom Holland also touched on it. Wonder if he'll put out a long video on it
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A serious analysis of Putin's interview from a GWU ph.D professor. He has a good theory that Putin is an increasingly history obsessed boomer who doesn't understand why the rest of the world doesn't see everything the way he does. A few thoughts on the Tucker-Putin interview: Having watched the interview last night, I've been very interested in seeing the reaction here on this site. A lot of people have focused on 'Putin as an autistic history nerd' (good memes here), while others have stuck to variations on 'look how his history is a lie and bizarre and strange' or 'he whiffed the PR opportunity and didn't give MAGA anything.' Ok. The former is funny, the middle is standard signaling and positioning, and the latter is US politics brain. Fine! But there's really tremendous data in here if we want to look seriously. Some points below. First, the most important thing is indeed the half-hour history lesson. Not only did Putin start with this, and refuse to be interrupted, he even made a big show of gifting documents supporting his arguments to Tucker. What this tells us is that the history component to the Russo-Ukrainian War is not just a point of legitimation or a general casus belli, but the motivating factor for VVP personally. That's really big! I've argued for a year now that we should understand the proximate cause of the war to be Vladimir Putin's deepening historical obsessions, his sense of personal grievance, and the unique isolation that allowed this to fester in the runup to 2022. You can find an article making that case here: ridl.io/putin-s-agency…. If you've taken my undergraduate course on Russian Politics, it's there as well. This interview is strong supporting data for that framing. Note how often Putin dismisses NATO expansion as the reason for action, as well as how much he does not care about Ukrainian democracy qua democracy. He doesn't even think it is a democracy (note the coup discussions). Rather, he's clearly motivated - then and now - by historical concerns most of all. And this is important, which some observers may not quite get. He was not always like this! That is, the long rants about history that justify political action have become more and more common in the last ten years, and especially the last four or five. Which fits a model of growing obsession - which, incidentally, also aligns well with Putin's post-2012 sense that only he can stably rule Russia, and that he wants to bequeath a legacy. Tucker wasn't able to get an answer to the core question - why 2022 and not earlier - but this is good material for a obsession interpretation. Second, another element that came out strongly was Putin's sense of personal insult and snubbing. He is butthurt by his world leader colleagues. We have dozens of minutes of him talking about the Bushes, about documents signed by the French and Germans, about negotiations generally - all of which end with Russia not getting what was promised or it expected. That could be read simply as justification for Russia's actions (i.e., the hypocrisy of the West) but what is mostly communicated, verbally and through body language, is that Putin himself feels slighted, and that he does not understand why others do not see the world, and the consequences of events, as clearly as he does. This is also quite interesting. There is very little reason to believe this interview is anything less than the sincere views of Putin himself, as a smarter-than-average Russian boomer who is trying to explain why he's right, why he's been aggrieved, and why the other sides are just so stupid and shortsighted. He's booming really hard, it's very evident. He's not sharing everything, but he's telling you that he's not sharing everything with a knowing, paternalistic smile while he says it. And he really wants to get it through your thick skull what actually matters. Rurik, Yaroslav the Wise, 1654, Bohdan Khmelnitsky, the Soviet Union and the border changes, leaders just not being reasonable, etc etc. Third, I don't think we can understand this interview as some sort of functionalist strategic communication exercise at all. VVP clearly did not care to talk about US political issues, he did not "throw red meat to MAGA" or whatever, he did not rise to the bait several times to get on a cleaner messaging narrative that would sell with an international audience of illiberal or West-skeptical types. At all! It was the above, which means this interview was about what Vladimir Putin himself thought rather than what he thought would sell best. That's incredibly unusual for an interview like this. We didn't get anything about cancel culture, or gender ideology, or Biden being senile, or the US being this evil tentacled hegemon that threatens global peace. He was actually incredibly circumspect on that sort of thing. Much more so than in other venues in the recent past. This was Putin as pedagogue-in-chief, trying to educate Tucker not only about history, but also about how the world actually works. Look to the wandering discussion on the Orange Revolution, Yanukovych, the various negotiations, for that. The personal resentment comes out here in a distinct way, as disappointment and confusion as to why other international partners just don't get it the way VVP does. Truly, the most framed or set-up part of this interview was the point about the spring 2022 negotiations (note his arg that instead of the Battle of Kyiv being lost, it was a part of a negotiation that got cut short by Johnson's intervention - an interesting assertion). And Tucker got him to talk about future potential negotiations as well. That was also enlightening, as it reiterated Putin's world-weary points that the other side doesn't get it and is stubborn, and that there is a 'reasonable' way out if only leaders would be clear-eyed. This is important to keep in mind, especially as Putin seems quite confident the war is going well enough that he can just wait for negotiations to inevitably appear. Also note his regular recourse to proceduralism - negotiations are detailed, complicated, have many moving parts. The bureaucratic KGB and legal background always shines through with Putin at the end of the day. Finally, as I've noted, this interview was pretty strange. Tucker tried to move things in a way that fit his own views (NATO expansion, the 'who runs the US' question, demonic forces on earth (?)), which was pretty cringe. But he actually did a decent job overall (sorry!). He asked about Gershkovich and pushed fairly hard all things considered, he got steamrolled by VVP but managed to barely hold on given the very meandering discussion (Putin's framing of 2004 and 2013-14 is genuinely difficult to understand if you don't already know the events quite well), he didn't crash the interview so bad that it ended early, he figured out he had a unique opportunity to let Putin talk, and in doing so he provided us a unique window into VVP. It turns out that Putin says the same thing to Tucker as he does to Ru journos, with even more Putinsplaining. Which is illuminating! The history thing is the real deal, as is his belief that negotiations (in Russia's favor and in accordance with Putin's own sense of what is reasonable) are possible. Both of these things are really important for us to get at analytically. I'm still thinking about this, but those are some topline takeaways as I process it this morning.
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the insanity of Putin and the dunking thereon continue
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thought that was a good question to ask at the end and push for a better explanation. there's also some funny reactions and/or memes going around about his 30 minute 9th century history lecture to the why did you invade Ukraine when you did? question.
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2024 Texas Football Coaching and Support Staff Thread
Viper replied to RaysBoomBoomRoom's topic in 🤫$9.95🤫
TCU should have thought about that before hiring a Briles. -
Is this the kind of stuff the NCAA is going after Tennessee for? I assume based on these quotes that there will be more investigations. I guess it's just a question of if the govt allows the rules (and how soon the BIG10 and SEC leave the NCAA)
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Given the flags he's either Russian or an aggy.
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Yeah this is our ambassador throwing some serious diplomatic shade at Orban and his party
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Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Chris Stapleton, and Other Good Stuff
Viper replied to Seasick Sailor's topic in Music
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good point, but I would think it's important to counter misinformation that gets spread around so fast, especially given how uninformed people are on both sides. In actual news it sounds like Hamas is denying they've turned down the ceasefire deal and seem to still be negociating https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-785095
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Knife attack in what I assume is a west bank border (warning somewhat graphic)
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It's just an anecdote, but I would be very interested in an actual study on this
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