Heh. [survivor in Assembly digging atop mountain of coal] Saw a good one the other day, though. Passing of generational torch, importance of simple things... and a dog. No Americans. Could've done without the cheesy synth and brief ballet folklorico, but on the plus side, found myself addressing my long dead dad aloud a couple of times. Postmen in the Mountains (1999)
[Aljazeera] On Thursday, apartheid’s last leader, Frederik Willem de Klerk, died, sparking a national conversation among South Africans about his life and legacy.
Praise and support for De Klerk — who was South Africa’s president during its transition from white minority rule to democracy — has been muted in the country, not simply because of his association with apartheid, but because of his many shortcomings as a statesman.
In the words of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, "Mr De Klerk could have gone down in history as a truly great South African statesman, but he eroded his stature and became a small man, lacking magnanimity and generosity of spirit."
During his presidency (1989-1994) and his time as deputy-president to Nelson Mandela (1994-1996), De Klerk had an opportunity to shape the views of his white compatriots, elevate the voices of Black South Africans, and play a leading role in building a democratic South Africa. Instead, he repeatedly chose to equivocate and lie during his time in political power. Instead of reckoning with the past, De Klerk and the white politicians he led, tried to dodge it. As a result, De Klerk became a historical footnote.
Although he released Mandela and other political prisoners and unbanned the liberation movements and their affiliates in 1990, De Klerk was a reluctant reformer. After he lost the election to Mandela in 1994, he became a deputy-president in his government of national unity. Although he held a senior position in the government led by Mandela, De Klerk was unable to admit to his role in apartheid-era violence against Black South Africans.
Instead of coming clean, he lied to the country’s Truth
[NYPost] Give Russian President Vladimir Putin an Oscar for his histrionics over Ukraine.
Vlad seemed to loose his cool at his annual year-end press conference Thursday when a Sky News reporter asked if Moscow could promise not to invade its neighbor.
"You are demanding guarantees from us? It’s you who should give us guarantees. Immediately. Right now. And not talk it over for decades," Putin railed.
Nice faux outrage. He, after all, is the architect of this crisis: Ukraine can’t even take back the large areas Vlad’s already stolen from him, and the West has zero interest doing more than fending off his aggression.
That’s rich, particularly as Ukraine just released satellite images it said showed more Russian forces building up at its border; Putin already has roughly 175,000 troops assembled there on Russia’s western border.
But, as Walter Russell Mead noted for The Wall Street Journal, this flap has served Putin well: "At minimal cost, the Russian president’s Ukraine moves have increased his political standing and promoted his agenda at home," because most Russians think the independent nation should still be part of the Kremlin’s empire.
So it’s pretty rich that Putin’s making security-guarantee demands, telling NATO to swear off ever admitting Ukraine. He also insisted Washington’s to blame for enflaming tensions in Eastern Europe and bringing the region closer to war. Right.
But, as Vlad tells it, Russia’s under threat. Ignoring questions about what he’s doing on his own borders, he erupted: "How would the Americans respond if we put our missiles on the US borders with Canada or Mexico? What is unclear here? Are we putting missiles next to the United States’ borders? No, it is the United States that has come to us with their missiles, they are already on our doorstep."
Never mind that they’re defensive "missiles," emplaced to intercept nukes from, say, Iran (or, yes, Russia).
He pretends Washington is trying to create an alliance with Ukraine that would threaten Russia, when America just finished bugging out of Afghanistan and has zero desire for any war. Indeed, the West won’t even do more than talk about how Putin’s puppet state in eastern Ukraine is an abomination.
But the Russian autocrat claims he’s just defending that "republic," thundering, "We are warned in advance, ’Don’t get involved, don’t meddle, don’t defend these people.’ If you defend, these sanctions will follow." No, President Joe Biden’s warning is about "severe consequences" if Putin sends his troops into the part of Ukraine that’s still free.
And those threats (at least), are absolutely necessary: Putin will grab whatever he thinks he can get away with, as he did with eastern Ukraine and much of Georgia before that.
He plays "protector of the Russian people" because it helps him stay in power, so he and his cronies can continue to loot the country. In truth, his leadership has the Russian population in such steep decline that the nation he pretends to guard will barely exist by the end of the century.
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2021 07:55 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11125 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Wishful fantasy - it’s like they want to be blind sided
#2
Wrongfooted again. Sneer at Putin all you like -- yes, he's a bastard -- but he's completely outwitted our sadsack leaders at least half a dozen times since 2008.
#6
These are the same sh!theads who promoted the idiotic Russia Hoax for four years and then told us Hunter Crackhead's laptop wasn't his -- it was those Wascally Wusskies again. Elmer F.U.D. forever
#7
Most of the videos from Russia see show people getting through their day. As they always have. I really doubt many of them lay awake at night thinking "How will Putin make me proud of my country?"
But the dimwits at WAPO HQ and Langley are all in on such fairie tales...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/26/2021 12:15 Comments ||
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#8
videos I see
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/26/2021 12:16 Comments ||
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#9
Ref #7: But the dimwits at WAPO HQ and Langley are all in on such fairie tales...
The marketing of fear and dread. It's always worked in the past.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/26/2021 12:30 Comments ||
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#12
Gallup poll from 2018 showed even then, "78% of Democrats believe Russians interfered in the 2016 campaign and that it changed the outcome of the election presumably by helping Trump defeat Hillary Clinton."
Whether due to Trump Derangement or Hillary's disinformation or some other mass psychosis, Democrats have lost their minds.
We can't possibly have an intelligent policy toward a country when almost half the country is in the grip of a ridiculous, retarded hoax.
#17
BTW - I posted without comment, because I don't know really WTF is the bottom line. I think there's elements of troofs on both sides, but this wouldn't be happening under Preznit Trump 2nd term. My 2 cents
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/26/2021 19:46 Comments ||
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#18
Russian love to fuck with their friends and foes alike.
#1
Actually, though the defense of St Vith was important and the Fifth Panzer Army which attacked it was there to provide flanking cover to the Sixth Panzer Army, which was tasked with breaking through to the West of St. Vith and moving northwest to the plains of Belgium, destroying allied supplies to the Netherlands, and even capturing Antwerp and trapping our armies there.
Sixth Panzer army tasked three infantry divisions and a Panzer Deivision with the job of breaking through American lines facing them . These were held by the 99th Infantry which had arrived in Europe in November, and some unites of the Second Infantry.
Amazingly the Germans were never able to break through. Eventually the Sixth Panzer Army gave up and enwent through St Vith an effort to get around the seemingly unbeatable 99th Infantry.
The defense of Elsenborn Ridge put up by the 99th meant that the Fifth Panzer Army was trying to protect the flank of an attack that failed. Bastogne was in exactly the opposite direction from Hitler's goal, which was Antwerp. Our control of it denied use of roads running West from it that could lead toward Antwerp, Abandonment of St. Vith was not the smartest move, of the war.
The proximity fuse played an important role the success of the 99th, It was made available to our troops and first deployed on Dec 15. Unfortunately the Germans captured a supply dump containing that weapon which was used against our troops attacking down from the Eiffel.
The Germans rated the forces it faced, and considered the 99th Infantry to be the strongest dividion in the American Army.
#3
^Ditto that TW. I had the privilege to speak to those; a few, there at the time. The weather was extreme. Huge lighting storms, cold, snow a harrowing experience. Vivid memories lasting a lifetime. I couldn't tell in the video but I was told no rubber on caterpillar tracks. So a very great fear of being hit by lightning. An Officer afterward would always tremble when a lighting storm occurred for the rest of his life. Black Forest area as I recall.
#5
LIEGE by Christmas, Brussels by New Year's" was Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt's promise to his soldiers. But his operation backfired. Battle Babies—the men of the 99th Infantry Division—know why. For two days, Dec. 16 and 17, 1944, the 99th stood alone at a hot corner of the Battle of the Bulge—in front of Elsenborn, Krinkelt, Wirtzfeld, Bullingen—while the Wehrmacht's best troops lowered the boom against their thinly-held line.
Spread over a 20-mile front and without reserves, the green troops under Maj. Gen. Walter E. Lauer battled six divisions—the 12th, 246th, 277th and 326th Volksgrenadier, the 3rd Panzer and the 12th SS Panzer Divs., plus elements of paratroop outfits. This display of power called for a show of guts to face it, much less to beat it off.
#6
Lauer was promoted to Major General on January 15, 1944 and trained his division for deployment overseas. He led the 99th through major battles and campaigns in Belgium and Germany until VE Day.After the war he took command of the 66th Infantry Division from August to October 1945; the 80th Infantry Division from October to December, 1945; and the 66th Infantry Division. Lauer retired from military service on 31 March 1946, but remained in Europe to work for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration until early 1947.
Lauer returned to the United States and moved to Monterey, California near Fort Ord, the successor to Gigling Reservation, which he helped found and build in 1941 and 1942. Lauer died of cancer on 13 October 1966, at the Fort Ord Army Hospital. He was inurned at the Golden Gate National Cemetery near San Francisco on 15 October 1966.
#7
my father-in-law jumped into Normandy with the 82nd Airborne. He was there. Awarded the Silver Star and Purple Heart. He never talked about it.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
12/26/2021 10:50 Comments ||
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#8
The people who talk the best ballgame never pitched an inning. Keep your eye on the quiet guy.
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
12/26/2021 10:53 Comments ||
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#9
My uncle Bob was in the 443 and was captured when the two regiments of the 106ID were surrendered. He spent the rest of the war in a German POW camp, and weighed less than 100 pounds when liberated. His pocket bible was filled with scribbled descriptions of food they talked about constantly. He never missed a meal for the rest of his life and hated all things German. They kept the galley on the troop ship coming home open 24/7 for the POWs but Mom said he was still a scarecrow whn she first saw him at Walter Reed.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[NYPost] Give Russian President Vladimir Putin an Oscar for his histrionics over Ukraine.
