Gregmal

Classic textbook response. Disagree? Putins puppet. Misinformation. No offense taken, it’s the standard response. Zalensky has done all the things I listed. Like how embarrassing is this? https://www.theguardian.com/film/2023/mar/09/oscars-volodymyr-zelenskiy-appearance-turned-down He’s lobbying constantly for celebrity status and attention. Who TF, let alone someone supposedly in a war, has time to audition for the Oscars people? Attend TV and movie award shows? Hire talent agents to book appearances? Lmfao

Eh for the decade prior Russia was pretty clear joining NATO was a line in the sand. They gambled and lost, egged on by the US, John McCain and the CIA with their “democracy” rhetoric that had little genuine purpose other than provoking Russia.

Do we really need to question whom has an incentive to keep the war going? It couldn't possibly be the guy who's now spent the past few years jet setting around like a celebrity, from Hollywood to DC, you name it, hanging out with celebrities and world leaders, taking in billions in unaudited cash, could it? He's on numerous occasions refused to work towards a resolution. Instead he just keeps demanding more money and more weapons and now that there's finally strings attached he throws a fit?

Britain alienated too many countries getting into too many wars it couldn’t win. But again, we re in the 21st century, you mind your own business, you ll be fine.

The ruling class loves playing Stratego on real boards with real human beings. It’s the ultimate flex for morally void egomaniacs. They always find reasons to keep going, mostly catering to irrationalities and never ending loops of propaganda. “Wanna know why we can’t leave Russia/China alone? Because we need to keep Putin/Xi in check otherwise they’ll never stop looking to expand the empire!”….meanwhile in reality Putin and Xi have been around forever(remember they’re dictators who rig elections) but….the best we can come up with is Hong Kong and Crimea in contextless vacuums lol? I don’t like wars, and I think governments killing their people is reprehensible. US is among the worst at this. We get wars by meddling in others business and by operating with impure motives. It’s how 9/11 happened, it’s how Ukraine happened. It’s the 21st century, the world and nations won’t and don’t just go around randomly starting massive wars with huge casualty numbers for no reason, with no provocation. Tell me the last time Switzerland was at war with anyone? How about Cayman Islands? New Zealand? Problem is our people are brainwashed by our culture. Probably the only thing that unites the country is their warmongering passions.

The US has been “in” Ukraine for decades. It’s not always “physical” like when John McCain went over there in 2014 to undermi.…”promote democracy”….

I know a place where political refugees are thriving…

Like it’s cray how few are even like “why is the United States involved with Ukraine/Taiwan in the first place?”. And even then, those that can ask that, how many get snared in the “because if we don’t stop them, they’ll take over the world!” propaganda.

It’s a question that most Westerners are not intellectually capable of answering. Some are just naive, some are intentionally dishonest, and most I think are what I’d call benevolently dishonest. Their brains hardwired by years and even decades of propaganda. Everything is framed through black and white, good vs evil, us vs themisms. They’re just hardwired to simplify everything down to (insert them) as bad, evil, dictator, imperialist, etc. Then they take us/our side and immediately default to good/insert the storyline. It’s too hard to think, let alone utter anything contrary to the he narrative that has already painted such a stark picture as the puppets fear the noose waiting for them if they don’t go with the program. My favorite example is here. Most evil /dictator/imperialist Putin rhetoric almost immediately jumps to “insert most pro-Western narrative” around Crimea. Most common being it was “seized”, as Russia “invaded a sovereign nation”….well, imagine only telling the Palestinian story starting in November 2023? Oh wow how dishonest and misleading that would be! But some have their agendas, others just don’t know any better. Really what occurred, is for years/decades, Russia and Putin made very clear their lines in the sand with Ukraine/NATO/western meddling. What’s always conveniently left out of the Crimea story is how the US government and politicians consistently meddled in Ukraine, eventually prompting a coup, and helping overthrow a democratically elected government! Whoops! So, with that backdrop, one could argue that at some point Russia is forced to “put their foot down/stand up to the aggressor”. But hey, don’t take my word for it! The same people brainlessly taking “our side” like a bunch of fans on a Liverpool fan club message board, will claim out of the other side of their mouth, that the US needs to “take action” or “send a clear message” quite often! Whether it be with Ukraine or Taiwan, etc. Yes! No one else is able to draw their line in the sand, or use national security as a defense, only us, because WE are good and THEY are evil! So yea, that’s why this thread sucks. It’s the same rooting and fanboying and prescribed narratives and not a whole lot of anything useless or balanced.

Nah. Put China or Russia in Mexico or Canada and spread their influence toward the borders and see how quickly our “talking points” change. In fact, it’s already happened in decades past with outside influences getting a little too close. The “talking points” really just depend upon what media soufflé ones fed.

That’s great but those are issues for those countries, not ours, and certainly not my tax dollars. People and media screaming “evil dictator” within the framework of an “us vs them” storyline won’t sway me on that either. Plenty of our “allies” are characters of similar ilk as “the bad guys” they just get the media scrub with the fancy paint job and wax coating and everyone gets in line behind them in the crusade to save the world.

In the 50s and 60s savvy media operators and politicians would yell “commie!” at crowds, instantly turning human beings into rabid dogs. The tricks haven’t really gotten any more advanced, they just change shape. Meanwhile Putin, after 19 terms as dictator, took some sliver of old Russia back after a decade of US and NATO provocation, and after almost two decades decided he wanted a few more parcels. At this pace, by the time he’s 194, he’ll have 1/8 of the old USSR band back together! Get your nukes ready!

Too busy worrying about old man Putin taking over the world I guess… well placed usage of the word “dictator” in North America has an 83.7% hit rate causing short term disorientation. Highly effective.

Welcome to the club. Housewives have National Enquirer and People. I guess for grown men it’s soap opera-esque War Propaganda.

His MO is be greedy when others are fearful which translated means take advantage when others are hurting and his actions in the past involve “waiting for phone calls” when others are at max desperation and have no other alternatives and then proceeding to extract as much as possible in a totally one sided fashion. He’s a hero though.

In a funny way, it’s interesting we/people idolize Warren Buffett for investing with the same approach. Of course, his marketing of such strategy is many times prettier, and easier to justify, but it’s the same thing.

Think it’s still around. Lot to learn reading the post mortem. Same for Seritage.

lol at least there were lessons learned there. Here it is a bunch of stupid made for television speculation mostly channeling simplistic good guys versus the bad guys storyline and every proclamation about an investment ramification has fallen flat on its face with astounding consistency. Heck even the “obvious” one, oil prices, has proven false. Its just a dumb amalgamation of war theory, history buff recitations, and politics. Put this thing to bed already.

This thread has been the biggest, most pointless waste of space on COBF since it’s inception. Should just close it up rather than open the spigot for more politics.

Eat well, but keep an eye on your waistline. Look good, but don’t be obsessed. Metaphorical words to live by.

Learn to embrace things you don’t like, especially if all it requires is reading and/or listening. You learn more from being challenged and testing your own comfort than you do in an echo chamber. As far as it relates to investing, there are fortunes to be made navigating uncomfortable environments and being able to think clearly when others can’t. Don’t fall for the value books that tell you it’s as simple as sleeping on a Signatory with all your cash under the mattress and then waking up with a big smile and matching boner as blood fills the streets and your neighbors receive foreclosure notices; at which point you waltz thru town joyously buying anything your heart desires at 7-10x trough earnings….world don’t work like that anymore. Even here, amidst the doom, it’s been suggested to just focus on what’s controllable and in the meantime, just own Buffetts Berkshire since he seems a favorite source of quotes, or Fairfax which is well covered here. Both have provided adequate returns throughout the duration of the doom proclamations.

lol nice

At the end of the day the solution will never be perfect or appease everyone. But the route of the evil is that the growth of the cancer never stops because whenever someone tries to stop it, you get obstructionists who want to present every reason why it’s not gonna work while offering no alternative solution. So the answer or action taken often ends up being “nothing gets done” until the next regime change and the beast gets to grow again.

Tribal bigots now? I’d think any American coming to Canada should be viewed favorably given they clearly aren’t hostile to Canada.

Yea, Dalal and especially Dinar have contributed more in a 30 minute window on a random Tuesday than some of these other "concerned citizens" have contributed in years of their membership here. Im all for accessibility and accountability, but at some point, quality over quantity.....