"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (2 Viewers)

[gumbyk]

McDonalds is the largest private real estate owner in the World with over 30 billion dollars of land.

Peanuts... What do you reckon Vatican City (Roman Catholic Church) is worth? Not to mention the other 70,000,000 Hectares they own.

Or Gina Reinhart - 12,000,000 Hectares of mines and farmland?

 

[pgeno71]

It seems Putin is micromanaging the war in Ucraine
Diden''t Hitler also used to micromanage his armies?

Russian failures fuelled by Vladimir Putin’s meddling

President Putin is making low-level tactical decisions that would normally be decided by an officer in charge of as few as 700 Russian troops, western military

www.thetimes.co.uk

I believe LBJ meddled in Vietnam planning as well, but to lesser extent.

 

[Jagdflieger]

Without a victory how does Putin explain away the estimated 20,000 dead and the tens of thousands returning wounded?

I guess the same way Hitler did - in the defense of the Father..ah...Motherland

 

[WARSPITER]

Peanuts... What do you reckon Vatican City (Roman Catholic Church) is worth? Not to mention the other 70,000,000 Hectares they own.

Or Gina Reinhart - 12,000,000 Hectares of mines and farmland?

As I posted, real estate in the most expensive parts of cities around the world. Value wise, McDonalds real estate holdings are the highest.

 

[at6]

Still Turkey opposing Finland and Sweden joining NATO. Turkey is not reliable as an ally when they purchased Russian equipment and virtually caters to Pootass. Turkey might consider that if they are dropped from NATO, Sweden and Finland can be admitted by the remaining members.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

Still Turkey opposing Finland and Sweden joining NATO. Turkey is not reliable as an ally when they purchased Russian equipment and virtually caters to Pootass. Turkey might consider that if they are dropped from NATO, Sweden and Finland can be admitted by the remaining members.

There's no formal process for expelling a member nation from NATO. Legal experts -- and I'm not one, so don't shoot me if I'm misunderstanding -- argue that NATO's requirements for commitments to democracy etc mean that a member nation can be shunned for not upholding those stated values, and that that nation may not therefore be able to appeal to Article Five (which, let's face it, is NATO's raison d'etre), which could be de facto expulsion if not de jure.

I've been doing some reading on this the last couple of days but it all seems pretty murky to me.

As I wrote upthread, I'd trade Turkey away for Sweden and Finland any day of the week. Erdogan's commitment to democracy is very questionable in my view, and while we can be (and I am) happy that Turkish drones in Ukrainian service are shooting the shit out of the Russians, that's only a small piece in the geopolitical puzzle. As buffnut453 noted above, diplomacy and foreign relations are a lot more complex that your man in the street might think.

 

[MiTasol]

I read Tintin regularly when I lived in Iran, we got the English version of the comic books usually a couple of months after Euro pub.

I always preferred Asterix

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

I always preferred Asterix

I'm clueless about this.

 

[swampyankee]

Without a victory how does Putin explain away the estimated 20,000 dead and the tens of thousands returning wounded? When the Kursk sank Putin took a lot of unprecedented public criticism for the lost 118 Russian sons on that submarine.

The Kursk tragedy: How Putin’s first public crisis changed Russia

In August 2000, Vladimir Putin was just months into his first term as president of Russia when a crisis arose in the Barents Sea. A Russian submarine — the Kursk — had sunk following an accidental explosion, killing all but 23 soldiers on board and stranding the survivors with no means of...

ca.news.yahoo.com

Kursk submarine disaster - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This is over 150 Kursks.

Explanation? Easy: fake news disseminated by an anti-Russian media. Those family members of the dead? Paid stooges.

 

[Dimlee]

Czech friends will appreciate it.

 

[MiTasol]

I'm clueless about this.

Tintin and Asterix are comics written by French or Belgium (from memory) cartoonists that poke fun at history and mankind in general. To me, the early Asterix were far better than Tintin but I have to admit the later Asterix were not up to the quality of the earlier ones and the films based on the books were, to me, substandard. There are probably wackypedia pages on both

 

[MiTasol]

It appears that Ukraine may have shot a few shells into Russia and killed a civilian.

No doubt the Kremlin and it's toadies will cry foul and say that this is an act of war or illegal or some other such rubbish. The usual dictators and toadies "do as I say not as I do" hypocrisy.

I find it interesting that Russia claims they invaded Ukraine to put a buffer between Russia and NATO but the end result of a successful invasion would have been that Russia's new borders would have been touching NATO countries. Typical political double speak.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

I'd be surprised if any of these defenders survive Russian captivity, given that 1) their existence was cited as a reason for invading Ukraine, 2) their staunch defense was a great embarrassment to Russian arms, and 3) if they return to Ukraine and tell their story it will likely be very inspiring to their nation.

The defenders of Azostahl have done their duty, and far more than anyone could have asked or expected.

They bought time for Ukraine to train and equip a new army that's now entering the field with superior NATO supplied weaponry.

Russia has asked its Supreme Court to designate Ukraine's Azov Regiment as a terrorist organisation.

According to Russia's Interfax news agency, the Justice Ministry in Moscow has said a court case "on recognising the Ukrainian paramilitary nationalist association 'Azov' (other names used: the 'Azov' battalion, 'Azov' regiment) as a terrorist organisation

Deliberate or not, this is a masterful way for Ukraine to dispose of a militarily effective but idealogically and politically troublesome element of their military in a heroic blaze of glory. The Azov vets would likely have been a difficult impediment to the liberalization and westernization of postwar Ukraine, and will probably find Russia a more comfortable fit for their totalitarian tendencies, provided they survive the gulag.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Deliberate or not, this is a masterful way for Ukraine to dispose of a militarily effective but idealogically and politically troublesome element of their military in a heroic blaze of glory.

Agreed. No one wants John Rambo back in town once he's successfully brutalized the enemy.

 

[XBe02Drvr]

Agreed. No one wants John Rambo back in town once he's successfully brutalized the enemy.

Artfully put!

 

[Escuadrilla Azul]

Tintin and Asterix are comics written by French or Belgium (from memory) cartoonists that poke fun at history and mankind in general. To me, the early Asterix were far better than Tintin but I have to admit the later Asterix were not up to the quality of the earlier ones and the films based on the books were, to me, substandard. There are probably wackypedia pages on both

Tintín belgian, Astérix french.

 

[gumbyk]

Still Turkey opposing Finland and Sweden joining NATO. Turkey is not reliable as an ally when they purchased Russian equipment and virtually caters to Pootass. Turkey might consider that if they are dropped from NATO, Sweden and Finland can be admitted by the remaining members.

Some analyses that I've read say that Turkey are posturing for lifting of U.S embargoes. Makes sense now that they've seen the effectiveness of the Russian equipment they've now got.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Some analyses that I've read say that Turkey are posturing for lifting of U.S embargoes. Makes sense now that they've seen the effectiveness of the Russian equipment they've now got.

The British (and allies) should have kept Constantinople and both sides of the Bosphorus strait after 1922. Why did thousands of Imperial troops and sailors die at Gallipoli otherwise? One hundred years later we'd not need Turkey now.

Occupation of Istanbul - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[vikingBerserker]

Regardless of the quality of their coffee and burgers, their fries are the best.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Regardless of the quality of their coffee and burgers, their fries are the best.

Whose? McDs? Not since July 1990

McDonald’s Broke My Heart | Revisionist History

They made the world’s greatest French Fry. Then they threw it away.

www.pushkin.fm