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I don’t care what the media or any network talking heads have to say about Ukrainian freedom or democracy (and based on your previous posts I don’t think you do either). Why any adult with critical thinking skills would is largely beyond me. I think most people on this forum would agree that Ukraine is a young democratic state with serious issues regarding corruption and some press/information freedoms; it’s far from a perfect democracy. However imperfect a democracy they are, they are still one. And they’re being invaded/destroyed by a neighbor who is a flat out autocracy ruled by a guy that implicitly rejects the liberal international order, runs his country like a police state, and sees democratic countries on his border as a threat. There are very few (possibly none) democratic countries in the world that haven’t made serious mistakes in their past. The US made serious mistakes as we were developing as a country. My dad grew up on a Native American reservation so I have direct family experience with some of the ones the United States has made. I still made the decision to join the US military and serve our country knowing that we’re imperfect and that we make mistakes. As shitty as some things in America’s history is, we’re still a whole lot better than most places I’ve been in the world. From your posting history I’ve gathered you’ve been in the military a long time. In spite of some of the serious mistakes we as a country have made over the last 20 years, I believe you continue to serve, even though we as a democracy have had some struggles. The Ukrainian government is having to make some extraordinarily difficult decisions as their entire way of life and state is under threat of destruction. Banning political parties that support the destruction of your country may not be completely democratic, but IMO we don’t live in a black and white world. Assuming that Ukraine survives in its current state, history will probably judge whether the steps they took to preserve themselves we’re justifiable or not. I sure as shit am not going to be too critical of anything they’ve done up to this point. Make you a bet, if Zelensky/Ukraine survives, in 5 years (or whatever their election cycle is), if the Ukrainians continue to banish all opposition parties/there’s no or a staged election, and Zelensky basically becomes a dictator, I’ll buy you a bottle of your favorite. If Ukraine continues to work towards being a democracy and a part of the liberal international system, you owe me.

There’s precedent in multiple other democratic states for things like this. For example, the Bund organization/party was outlawed in the US after the start of WWII. There’s multiple open source examples of the Russians kidnapping Ukrainian officials and and installing puppets; the 1st party in the above article is openly sympathetic and colluding with Russia, I’m not sure about the others. There’s only one large autocracy in Europe currently invading its neighbor, slaughtering thousands of civilians with heavy artillery, forcibly deporting thousands of others, and denying the entire thing. If the Ukrainian government has to ban political parties supportive/sympathetic of these actions to ensure they remain free of Russia it may not be in line with some idea of a democratic utopia, but perfectly understandable in a fight for survival.

Should be fixed now.

I will say this about Adam. I have personal knowledge that he was extraordinarily instrumental to the evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies back in August and September. He has my respect for that.

Putin is a very bad dude and clearly an aggressor. And Ukraine is not some bastion of freedom and democracy that the media portrays them to be…even if they are fighting for their survival. Two different things can be true at the same time. But never turn a blind eye to the enemy of your enemy just because.

I created a group chat for the retreads headed to Vance (regardless of class) to share housing/in-processing info. DM me your number if you'd like to be added

It’s impressive how well called Russia/Ukraine. Interested to see if COVID affects timeline so his other predictions.

As much as I’d love to see mass desertions/surrenders on the Russian side, I think it’s important that we temper expectations & acknowledge we may be looking at this through the proverbial Western prism. Russians are stoic, fatalistic people and many of them pride themselves on being willing and able to weather hardship and suffering. There may well be some who refuse to fight, especially amongst younger and/or conscripted troops (there appears to be some evidence of this happening already), but Russians have always been willing to put bodies through the meat grinder & I won’t be surprised if Putin is still bashing his forces against the rocks six months or a year from now, regardless of meaningful progress.

Not really, everything we’ve heard is were so behind on hiring. Some news articles posted in the last day: At the conference, executives of American Airlines and Delta Air Lines said they saw record daily sales last week. In investor updates, Delta said it expected revenue for the quarter to slightly exceed its previous estimates, while United Airlines said corporate travel was improving faster than expected, reaching the highest level since the pandemic began. American said improvement in revenues would “more than offset” the increase in fuel prices, which have spiked since Russia went to war in Ukraine. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/15/business/airlines-travel.html Outgoing American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said Tuesday at the same investor conference that the carrier recorded three of its best ticket-selling days of all time last week. https://www.dallasnews.com/business/airlines/2022/03/15/southwest-airlines-cuts-65000-spring-flights-with-continued-staffing-shortage/ "We're seeing an increase in demand that is really unprecedented," said Delta president Glen Hauenstein. "I have never seen ... demand turn on so quickly as it has after Omicron." https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/03/15/business/rising-airfares-fuel-prices/index.html

Using capital letters really lends credibility to your arguments. You're a huge Paul Harvey fan too, aren't you? Is your Facebook page filled with a bunch of stupid shít that ends with "I bet I can't get 5 followers to share this!" while containing exactly zero percent correct information? How many people out there claim you as their senile uncle who sends them email forwards about Q-Anon? 😂 By whom? Seriously, I'm curious who you think he's running against.

This doesn’t really sound like much of a “democracy” to me. https://www.nationalreview.com/news/zelensky-suspends-opposition-parties-in-ukraine-with-russia-ties/