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Originally posted by Bigfella
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Yeah, that is a better characterization. My mind was just focused on "oh no evil is back." Yet then again some of his associations are... -
mic drop.....Originally posted by Bigfella View Post
You are new here, so you might not have met Jar Jar due to his suspension. To say that his logic is....inconsistent....is to dramatically understate the case. So is his issue with Nazis & their fellow travellers.
For context, Jar Jar is a shill for India's current governing party - the BJP. One of the many long term projects of the BJP has been to salvage/alter/elevate/radically change the image of Subhas Chandra Bose, one of the founding fathers of modern India and someone with the rare distinction of associating with Hitler AND Imperial Japan. He sought support from and raised soldiers for both - 3000 for the Nazis & over 40,000 for the Japanese. If this seems like an odd thing to do, it it worth understanding that the BJP was an outgrowth of a group called the RSS (which is stil lextremely influential). During the 20s & 30s senior RSS figures openly admired Hitler & Mussolini and tried to establish links to them. To be fair, the RSS appears to have backed the Allies during the war, but you can see that 'Nazis' and Fascists pop up quite a bit on the right of Indian politics in 20s, 30s & 40s.
So, while Jar Jar is scolding nations like Finland and Ukraine, he has no issue with Nazi-adjacent Indians. In fact, he supports them. This isn't about principle, it is about mindless oppositionalism. It is your time to waste, but I would suggest that every minute you spend arguing with him is a minute of your life utterly wasted. I learned so you wouldn't have to.
“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark TwainComment
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My work here is done.Originally posted by Albany Rifles View Post
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Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C CComment
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Turkey tells U.S. it wants 'concrete steps' from Finland, Sweden for NATO bids
ANKARA/WASHINGTON (Reuters) -A chief adviser to Turkey's president told his U.S. counterpart that Turkey wanted "concrete steps" on the existence of what it calls "terrorist organisations" in Finland and Sweden before it would consider their NATO bids, the Turkish presidency said.
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Ibrahim Kalin, chief foreign policy adviser to President Tayyip Erdogan, spoke on Monday to discuss the NATO bids and the war in Ukraine, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.
Turkey has objected to the two countries' joining the Western defence alliance on the grounds that they harbour people linked to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group and others it deems terrorists, and because Finland and Sweden halted arms exports to Turkey in 2019.
In a statement, the Turkish presidency said Kalin had told Sullivan in a phone call that nations wanting to join NATO must "internalise the alliance's values and principles on security and counter-terrorism."
"It was emphasised that it is imperative for Sweden and Finland to take concrete steps regarding the terrorist organisations that threaten Turkey's national security," it added.
The White House said Sullivan in the call "expressed support for Turkey’s continued direct talks with Sweden and Finland to resolve concerns over their applications for NATO membership, which the U.S. strongly supports."
Sweden and Finland have said they condemn terrorism and are open to dialogue. All 30 NATO members must approve plans to enlarge the alliance.
Erdogan said in comments published in The Economist on Monday that Turkey's commitment to NATO was unchanged, and he called on allies to focus their efforts on "persuading" the candidate countries.
"Sweden's and Finland's uncompromising insistence on joining the alliance has added an unnecessary item to NATO's agenda," he said. "There is no authority in Ankara that can be told what to do by any country that is unwilling to fight terrorism."
Sullivan also "reiterated the importance of refraining from escalation in Syria to preserve existing ceasefire lines and avoid any further destabilization," the White House said.
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Just name your price so we can get on with it, asshole.“He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”Comment
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He know's he's got everyone over a barrel, so he's drawing it out to get as much out of it as possible!Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais NinComment
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While the US was expected to participate in this exercise but GEN Milley arriving in a high visibility manner was definitely sending a message.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...n-nato-milley/
Milley visits Sweden in show of support for NATO bid
By Dan Lamothe
Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meets with Navy Capt. Tom Foster, the commanding officer of the USS Kearsarge, aboard the vessel on June 4.
STOCKHOLM — The United States prepared Saturday to launch a sprawling naval exercise in the Baltic Sea with Sweden, Finland and 13 NATO allies, a visible sign of an expanding partnership as Stockholm and Helsinki apply to join the military alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Baltic Operations exercise involves more than 40 warships and has been held annually for decades, but will shift this year to include more involvement from Finland and Sweden, said Army Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He visited Stockholm on Saturday in a show of support for Sweden’s membership bid, one day after a similar stop in Finland.
The two countries have long partnered with the U.S. military but resisted applying to join NATO until last month out of concerns that it would anger Moscow. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, that changed with significant shifts in public opinion in favor of joining the military alliance in both countries.
The new dynamic was evident as the 843-foot amphibious warship USS Kearsarge sat in a narrow waterway running through Stockholm while packed with attack helicopters and other aircraft and more than 2,000 U.S. Marines and sailors.
The United States has never moved such a large warship into this capital city of nearly 1 million people, Milley said. Doing so created a spectacle for tourists snapping pictures and challenges for U.S. troops and Swedish personnel who squeezed the ship into the city.
“That was a big evolution for us to pull in,” said Tera Geoffrey, a lieutenant junior grade assigned to the ship. “Our depth beneath the keel sometimes was less than 10 feet.”
Milley told reporters aboard the Kearsarge that President Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have asked the Pentagon to develop new options to “modestly increase” American military involvement in Sweden where it is appropriate. Meanwhile, other long-scheduled operations like the naval exercise will continue.
“We’re looking at things we can do on the ground with either the Marines or Army, things we can do with Special Forces, things we can do with the air or maritime forces,” Milley said.
While the NATO alliance is designed to be defensive, Sweden and Finland joining would further enclose the Baltic Sea with NATO countries, something that would be “very problematic” for Russia militarily and “very advantageous” to NATO, Milley said. The Swedish military is not large, Milley said, but it has an excellent navy, modern equipment and well-trained ground forces.
The membership applications come as a NATO ally, Turkey, threatens to block Finland and Sweden from joining the alliance, citing the presence in their countries of militants from the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group that the U.S. and Turkish governments have labeled terrorist organizations.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, appearing alongside Milley, said that the Finnish and Swedish governments will continue to discuss Turkey’s concerns, but that Sweden has taken a “very clear stance against terrorists.”
“There’s no question about Sweden’s position in that respect,” she said.
As Russia threatened and ultimately launched its invasion, the Pentagon expanded its number of forces in Europe from about 80,000 to more than 100,000 — including Marines and sailors at sea. Maj. Gen. Frank Donovan, who oversees personnel from the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit, of Camp Lejeune, N.C., said that the unit has in the past few months visited Iceland, Norway, Estonia, Greece and Turkey.
“We’re able to tailor the force for what the task is, and we’re very maneuverable,” Donovan said.
The Marines have deployed with newly adapted radar initially designed to help fishermen find a potential catch, Donovan said. It has been adapted to be placed on islands or shorelines to track the movement of vessels up to 60 miles away, with data tracked on a tablet device, he said.“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark TwainComment
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Sigh....By
Helene Cooper
The New York Times
ABOARD USS KEARSARGE, Port of Stockholm — If ever there was a potent symbol of how much Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has altered Europe, the sight of this enormous battleship — bristling with 26 warplanes and 2,400 Marines and sailors, and moored among the pleasure craft and tour boats that ply this port — would certainly be it.Comment
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https://www.politico.eu/article/swed...ussia-ukraine/
Talk about a dogs-breakfast!
On top of having to deal with everything having to do with Sweden’s admission to NATO;
including dealing with a shyster shake-down artist who’s trying to derail the admission process!
Now their sitting government has to face a vote of no-confidence!
As a perverse twist of irony the deciding vote in the Swedish parliament is held by Iranian-Kurd Amineh Kakabaveh,
an outspoken critic of Erdogan; and probably high on his hate list!
With such a monumental change of direction that Sweden is facing,
one would think that the politicians in their sandbox had better things to do with their time!!!
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais NinComment
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Yeah...there was a whole Twitter rant on this. I did point out, however, the USS Kearsarge, BB-5, was the only US battleship not named after a state so while it's a stretch....you can be technically correct?!?!Originally posted by tbm3fan View Post
That last phrase was uttered in a Gilbert Godfrey whinny voice.
The original Kearsarge was a steam sloop which ran down the CSS Alabama and sank it off of Cherbourg 19 June 1864. The Kearsarge had much superior gunnery and firepower. It's forward 11 inch gun mounted on a pivot allowed the Kearsarge to continuously engage the Alabama regardless of where off the bow the Bama stood. Within an hour the Alabama was a smoking wreck. The fight is featured in the song Roll Alabama Roll! That is also where the University of Alabama cheer of Roll Tide Roll! comes from.“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark TwainComment
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I looked to see if we already had a Baltics thread running but didn't see it. Since Sweden and Finland are also Baltic states I thought I would add here.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...troop-presence
Scholz Says Germany Prepared to Boost Baltic Troop Presence- Germany supports bolstering units to ‘brigade’ level
- Move would set in motion NATO decision on eastern defense
A Bundeswehr soldier during a NATO training exercise in Lithuania.
Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
By
Michael Nienaber and Milda Seputyte
June 7, 2022, 6:21 AM EDT
Updated on June 7, 2022, 11:05 AM EDT
Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany is ready to deploy more troops to the Baltics as part of a NATO effort to build up its eastern flank in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Baltic leaders had urgently pushed for an increased troop deployment to mount a stronger defense against a Russian threat -- and the German move would set the stage for a decision by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization at a summit later this month to expand its forces there.
“We are prepared to strengthen our engagement toward a robust fighting brigade,” Scholz said on Tuesday in Vilnius after a meeting with leaders from Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
The three leaders, whom Scholz met on his first Baltic visit since taking office in December, have pressed for an increase to brigade-sized units of as much as 5,000 troops. Germany leads the NATO contingent in Lithuania, with currently about 1,000 German soldiers on the ground.
“The Baltic states are in a very sensitive security situation on the very front line of NATO,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said alongside Scholz. “Lithuania is prepared to host more allied forces and to provide the necessary infrastructure.”
At the June 29-30 NATO summit in Madrid, the 30-member alliance is expected to sign off on plans to reset its long-term defense strategy. Along with bolstering its forces, NATO is expected to preposition more equipment and supplies on its eastern flank.
“In the case of an attack, we will defend every centimeter of NATO territory,” Scholz said, reinforcing the alliance’s Article 5 commitment. He also met Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.
Allies are likely to agree to deploy significant numbers of combat ships and more jets, and to strengthen NATO’s air and missile and cyber defenses. Baltic leaders welcomed the decision by Scholz, who has come under enormous pressure from allies to contribute more to Ukraine’s efforts to beat back Russia.
German lawmakers last week paved the way for the creation of a debt-financed special fund worth 100 billion euros ($107 billion) for additional military spending, part of a push by the government to transform the armed forces after years of underfunding.
The new investment vehicle, which is not part of the regular budget and not subject to rules limiting net borrowing, will enable Germany to meet a NATO goal of spending 2% of economic output on defense. It comes on top of annual defense spending of some 50 billion euros.
— With assistance by Aaron Eglitis, Ott Tammik, and Natalia Drozdiak“Loyalty to country ALWAYS. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it.”
Mark TwainComment
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They're basically just forward-deploying a brigade HQ to the EFP battlegroup with some reinforcement troops (1-2 battalions) located in Germany assigned for rapid reinforcement and mutual rotation. There are some rumours the reinforcement units may have equipment prepositioned in Lithuania.
There have been commentators who - among other things - raised the issue that currently the EFP battlegroup is subordinated to a Lithuanian brigade (note: there are no divisions there), i.e. expanding EFP to a brigade on its own would end the current OPCOM cooperation with local forces.Comment
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https://www.thedefensepost.com/2022/...danish-waters/
Every summer there’s a regular 4 day event on the Danish island Bornholm in the southern Baltic,
where political Denmark get together for the speeches, and a general meet-and-greet.
A couple of years ago, the event had an unwanted gate crasher:
a Russian fighter jet violated Danish air space.
This week the gate crasher; again Russian, was a Navy corvette!
It was warned off, and left. But just to prove it was not accidental,
it then returned to Danish waters and had to be warned off again.
It’s an endemic situation in Scandinavia, the rest of the countries here have all have their own version of this story.
My take?
It’s like a mongrel cur mutt coming in to piss on a tree to mark what it considers its territory,
knowing that the owner won't blow its ass off!
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais NinComment
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https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-61960122
Well Erdogan got his pound of flesh!
Vague promises from Finland/Sweden to combat Kurdish extremism in their countries
Together with what his whole dog-and-pony show was all about:
He got the embargo levied against Turkey lifted!
Think of it!
Two countries that fulfill virtually every condition set forth in the NATO charter to be accepted in the alliance.
Having to bend over backwards, and go hat in hand to suck up to a country that violates most of the selfsame.
But there might be one little light down the line.
Both Sweden and Finland are members of the EU, and Turkey has been trying for years to get their application accepted…
What goes around comes around!!!
When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. We cease to grow. - Anais NinComment
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This was always going to happen. Never in doubt.sigpic
Win nervously lose tragically - Reds C CComment
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Two days after Turkey withdraws opposition to Sweden and Finland joining the NATO alliance...
...Originally posted by BloombergToday, 30 June 2022
Biden Supports Selling F-16 Jets to Turkey
(38 sec)
President Joe Biden said he told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he supported the sale of F-16 jets to modernize Turkey's air force. Biden says he thinks Congress will approve of the sale and he says there was no "quid pro quo." Biden spoke at a NATO summit in Madrid..
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