Russia-Ukraine conflict

[Carborendum]

59 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

Wow.  I had a hard time believing that was written by a liberal.  But I realized that it was an old school liberal who had not bowed to the woke mob.

A lot of people have not changed their positions.  But the parties have moved the needle.

[NeuroTypical]

18 hours ago, LDSGator said:

Our side doesn’t do that either.

Totally agree.  My point is, NPR is on one "side", while the chart has it looking nice and centerist.

It needs to be a big handful of pixles to the left, in order to have this chart accurately display NPR's bias.  You don't get to be thought of as "Middle" when you:

- Suppress stories that could impact an election and bias voters against the Democratic incumbent

- Suppress stories from reliable science and news sources that jeopardize a nonconservative COVID narrative

- Push shaky and groundless stories about the Republican candidate being a Russian schill

- Refuse to admit any wrongdoing or apologize after the general public eventually catches up and catches on to the truth.

 

Doncha think?

Edited April 25 by NeuroTypical

[Traveler]

I believe the proper term for NPR (or any political commentary) – political activists (specific political party alignment) is narcissistic personality disorder.  Though Trump is often called out for being narcissistic (for very good reason) it is a label that fits 99.9999% of those seeking elected political office.   Explanation from the Mayo Clinic:

Quote

Symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder and how severe they are can vary. People with the disorder can:

·       Have an unreasonably high sense of self-importance and require constant, excessive admiration.

·       Feel that they deserve privileges and special treatment.

·       Expect to be recognized as superior even without achievements.

·       Make achievements and talents seem bigger than they are.

·       Be preoccupied with fantasies about success, power, brilliance, beauty or the perfect mate.

·       Believe they are superior to others and can only spend time with or be understood by equally special people.

·       Be critical of and look down on people they feel are not important.

·       Expect special favors and expect other people to do what they want without questioning them.

·       Take advantage of others to get what they want.

·       Have an inability or unwillingness to recognize the needs and feelings of others.

·       Be envious of others and believe others envy them.

·       Behave in an arrogant way, brag a lot and come across as conceited.

·       Insist on having the best of everything — for instance, the best car or office.

At the same time, people with narcissistic personality disorder have trouble handling anything they view as criticism. They can:

·       Become impatient or angry when they don't receive special recognition or treatment.

·       Have major problems interacting with others and easily feel slighted.

·       React with rage or contempt and try to belittle other people to make themselves appear superior.

·       Have difficulty managing their emotions and behavior.

·       Experience major problems dealing with stress and adapting to change.

·       Withdraw from or avoid situations in which they might fail.

·       Feel depressed and moody because they fall short of perfection.

·       Have secret feelings of insecurity, shame, humiliation and fear of being exposed as a failure.

 

The Traveler

[LDSGator]

1 hour ago, NeuroTypical said:

Doncha think?

It’s complicated. Much more so than both sides want to admit. 

NPR knows who their audience is, and so does Fox. Neither side is going to go out of their way to show stories their audience doesn’t want to hear. NPR has a liberal bias in their reporting, but since we have 10,000 news sources, their power is virtually nil. So it’s not worth getting fussy over.

Bernard Goldberg, himself no leftist, said it best. “Some conservatives think Al Roker is out to get them if he forecasts rain on the 4th of July.”  If you are way far right wing (and yes, way far leftwing) you’ll make things up in your head or misread them to satisfy your own confirmation bias and reassure yourself that you are correct.  It saves you from having to think or ask uncomfortable questions.  

Edited April 25 by LDSGator

[LDSGator]

@NeuroTypical

[Traveler]

There are lots of reports coming out of the Russian Ukraine conflict that are themselves somewhat in conflict.  Perhaps the two most significant reports surround a general and a critical supply train for Russian troops.   The two reports in conflict do have a common thread – that common thread is that Putin is in great trouble.   One side of these reports gives credit to Ukraine and the engine behind the capture of the Russian General.  The other side claims that the Russian General rebelled against Putin and has with most of his command – willingly joined with Ukraine to oppose Putin.  The same line follows with the capture of a critical supply train.  One report is about cleaver Ukraine troops the other about rebel Russian troops.

It does appear that the Russian general in question is himself Ukrainian and that his wife and family currently live in Kiev.  The other common thread is that Putin has been using mostly non-Russian soldiers from territories held by Russia.  That the vast majority of rebel soldiers are Chechen and are Muslim.   There is a likely connection between the terror attack in Moscow and the Chechen Muslims.

Something else that we should know is about the second most powerful person in Russia next to Putin.  The name to be aware of hers is Nikolai Patrushev.  Like many things in politics – if the second or number two guy gets into the number one slot – things will likely get worse.  Nikolai is from a strong heroic military family.  His parents lived through the Nazi blockade of Leningrad (St. Petersburg) with strong influences of suppression from Russia’s scandalous imperial past.  In other words, he has a military background and hates the West.

I am not a fan that defeating Putin will be a good thing – especially if it bring to power in Russia someone potentially worse.  When events are more about certain agendas (in particular political agendas) rather that the realities of circumstances – the truth of the matter will suffer the most.

 

The Traveler

[JohnsonJones]

The news I have heard is that Ukraine is currently in trouble.  Even with material coming from others, it takes time to separate out.  This week Russia had a break through and is rushing reinforcements to the line to try to take advantage of that breakthrough to try to make it a break out and make Ukraine's lines collapse.

Thoughts on why Russia had a breakthrough are multiple (and the reason is probably a combination of them) from where Ukrainian troops were having to conserve ammunition to the point that they were not being as effective, to the idea that they had just swapped out armored divisions and it was the new armored division that got pulverized.

I wish we had the Republicans from Reagan's era and before.  I'd even take the Republicans from Bush's era.  The Republicans in office today that influence things (like MTG) seem more like the Far LEFT ANTI-WAR LIBERALS that we've had in the past.  If we just had the old Republican party Ukraine would be swimming in supplies, the political democratic negotiations would have Ukraine flooded with troops from...somewhere...and Russia would be probably sucking a very sore thumb at this point.

Instead we have a few very far left liberal tree hugging anti-war Republicans (In Name ONLY...which is what I think trump ultimately is...) who delayed so long it has hurt our friends in the conflict and helped the enemy (and have no doubts, Russia is NOT our friend, and when they finish with Ukraine they have eyes on bigger fish...which WILL bring us into a conflict which could make us lose our young men and cost us MUCH more dearly than it would have if we had simply supported Ukraine from the start...of course, that started way back with Obama...but when you have Obama and these looney anti-war Republicans in the same boat...you KNOW something is definitely WRONG with what has happened to the Republican party these days).

The funny thing, back when Reagan was president I was pretty much a straight up Republican down the line as far as my voting goes, but these days with how the Republicans have acted...I can't vote for a group that blows up the federal budget because they can't do basic math (if you reduce taxes enough then OBVIOUSLY you will not have enough income to pay for the bills you used to which obviously will blow up the deficit...which is EXACTLY what these Trump Republicans have done much to my chagrin...and instead of taking responsibility for what they have done they try to point fingers at everyone else) or stand with our enemies and against the spread of democracy in other nations (not that Democrats are entirely innocent either, there's a bunch of them that do not seem to realize that the biggest democracy in the Middle East is actually Israel).

[LDSGator]

4 hours ago, JohnsonJones said:

The funny thing, back when Reagan was president I was pretty much a straight up Republican down the line as far as my voting goes,

Greatest president in my lifetime. 

[LDSGator]

@JohnsonJones-Reagan could not get nominated in the GOP of 2024. He was conservative but not a flamethrower.   

[prisonchaplain]

1 hour ago, LDSGator said:

@JohnsonJones-Reagan could not get nominated in the GOP of 2024. He was conservative but not a flamethrower.   

I nominate Ronald Wilson Reagan to the 2024 GOP Presidential Candidacy.

He's dead? Oh.

I still nominate him. 😉

Edited April 30 by prisonchaplain

[LDSGator]

1 hour ago, prisonchaplain said:

I nominate Ronald Wilson Reagan to the 2024 GOP Presidential Candidacy.

He's dead? Oh.

I still nominate him. 😉

Wit. You either have it or you don’t. 

[Carborendum]

19 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

He's dead? Oh.

That didn't prevent Joe Biden from being elected.