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34
DnD Central / Re: What's going on in Scandinavia, North Atlantic, Baltic States and Scotland?
Last post by ersi -
Putin wants Estonia's PM. I wonder how much he is willing to pay for her. Prigozhin was valued by various US services from $100,000 up to $8m. But there's no Prigozhin anymore available for bounty hunters. What's KGB's preiskurant?

Another question is that maybe Putin feels like not paying out anything out to the bounty hunter who delivers. Or maybe he will pay AND send the bounty hunter to the Ukraine front.
35
DnD Central / Re: Everything Trump…
Last post by ersi -
Of course, another fundamental issue is that "pay bills" is not how Nato membership works. The fact that Trump thinks that USA functions in Nato like the mafia don who collects tribute is yet another disqualification of his. Naturally, he cannot think any other way, because mafia don is his mode of operation, for which he should have been locked up in late 80's already, or in late 00's at the latest.

Instead Trump was rewarded with the presidency and this only made him think of himself as an untouchable mafia don. Probably the elites reasoned along the lines, "We are all corrupt, so let's have the most brazenly corruptest of us have the most visible post, so the rest of us will look less corrupt." Hopefully they have realised their mistake now and want to take the country out of the third world dump failed state status. I still entertain some hope that Trump will be taken off the ballot as justice and law and order and due process required a long time ago.
36
DnD Central / Re: Everything Trump…
Last post by jax -
He was persuaded to leave NATO alone the first time. It probably won't work the second time.

A Russia with the US president in their pocket is, to put it mildly, a dangerous place. It dramatically increases the risk that Kremlin will do something irreversible.

This could easily become the most disastrous election since 1933.
37
DnD Central / Re: Everything Trump…
Last post by ersi -
Trump Encourages Putin to Attack NATO Members

Quote from: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/trump-rally-nato/677426/
[Trump said in a campaign speech:] One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, “Well, sir, if we don't pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?” I said, “You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent?” He said, “Yes, let’s say that happened.” “No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. You gotta pay. You gotta pay your bills.”
Of course, this is not about paying bills. It's about defuncting Nato altogether.

Those who don't pay bills are far away from Russia, so Russia is no threat to them. Russia is a threat to those Nato members who always paid the bills. What Trump is actually saying here is that Putin is free to attack without any repercussions. All incursions by Putin have been net positives anyway for Putin, but Trump promises better than that.

I did not notice Putin mentioning Trump in his exchange with Tucker, but apparently Trump got this message out of it.
38
DnD Central / Re: What's Going on in Business?
Last post by jax -
Quote from: ersi on
In addition to bursting into flames, Tesla cars seem to have a tendency to plunge into fjords.
Quote from: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/01/floating-sauna-rescues-motorists-whose-tesla-plunged-into-oslo-fjord
Two motorists whose car plunged into a freezing Oslo fjord escaped unharmed when a floating sauna came to their rescue, Norwegian police have said. [...] The owner of the car, who was not identified by name, said he had thought the car was in park mode when he hit the accelerator pedal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTTND6daGWI

Passengers of a sinking Tesla picked up by a sauna boat has been described as "Peak Bjørvika" (a district in Oslo). 

I used to live in Bjørvika back when it was a port/industrial/motorway ringroad. Not that anymore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9DxB0SgOq4
39
DnD Central / Re: Putin the Magnificent: Series 2 - Putin's Russia
Last post by ersi -
The contents of the Tucker-Putin exchange properly belong to this thread.

In contrast to Tucker, who was completely unprepared for Putin, Putin was somewhat prepared for Tucker. In the beginning of the so-called interview, Putin asks if Tucker's "basic education" is in history. That's a yes. And then Putin goes into his "30 seconds or a minute" tirade into history for over 20 minutes. The tirade includes a gift to Tucker from Putin.

The gift is Khmelnitsky's letter and treaty with the Muscovite czar. Why exactly this gift? According to Muscovite interpretation of history, this was the point in history when Ukraine (in the person of its first liberator and unifier Khmelnitsky) signed itself off to Muscovy. Putin does not say it, but he means it: Ukraine belongs to Russia because of those historical artifacts between Khmelnitsky and the czar. This is also how this historical event was taught in Soviet schools. It was called reunification of Russia.

In actual history, there was a bit more to it. Khmelnitsky was more familiar with dealing with the Poles, and when he signed treaties with the Poles, these were equal treaties and both sides swore an oath to each other. Khmelnitsky expected the same from the czar. But the czar's envoys did not pronounce an oath after signing, so Khmelnitsky cursed them and said that the treaty was not valid. In practice, the treaty provided Muscovite protection to Ukraine and Ukraine's allegiance to Muscovy, until the next generation of czars began abolishing any autonomy from Cossacks and Cossacks rebelled, this time against Muscovy, not against Poland any longer.

Moreover, Khmelnitsky and the czar needed translators to communicate with each other. So they were not the same Russians as Putinite historiography would have everyone believe. The entity that Khmelnitsky established is called by most historians the Cossack Hetmanate, whereas Khmelnitsky called himself the autocrat of Rus and saw himself as a descendant of Kievan Rus. Russian czars of the time, on the other hand, called themselves the czars of "Great, Little, and White Russia", which roughly correspond to modern "Russian heartland", Ukraine and Belarus respectively, whereof the czars had no possession of Ukraine and Belarus, just a claim to them. This is why already political commentators of the the time saw Muscovy as full of hubris. But many modern commentators swallow Putinite historianism line, hook and sinker.

Tucker got very uncomfortable during Putin's historical discourse. Apparently Putin's intelligence-gathering had not found out that Tucker actually hates history. Tucker's takeaway from the historical discourse was that Putin's claim to Ukraine was historically motivated, and Tucker said repeatedly, "But why did you make this claim only two years ago? Why not earlier during your 20-year reign?" Thus Tucker demonstrated his complete lack of preparation. Of course Putin has made these historical claims for decades, for anyone who has been paying attention.

Those who have been paying attention, have been doing so differently. For example John Mearsheimer hears what Putin says and concludes, "Oh, Putin says that he wants Ukraine and Baltics etc. We should give him all that and a bit more, lest he starts a war and bombs us." EU biggies also heard what Putin was saying and replied, "Okay, let's build another pipeline so you can amass more castles and yachts. This should cool you down." And Russia's immediate neighbours have been watching in horror the growing threat from the East and the insane hypocrisy from the West closing in.

This is my take on just the first 25 minutes of the interview. It is so repulsive that I can listen to it only in small bits.