Political Posts

[John Hjorth]

8 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

Yeah, haha - the capitalists go the the Berkshire meeting, the masochists go to the BOC meeting!    I want more pain!

 

Mike [ @cubsfan ] and @gfp, 

 

Thank you for your considerate posts adressed towards me today in this topic,thank you to both of you!

Edited August 21, 2025 by John Hjorth

[dealraker]

5 hours ago, cubsfan said:

 

That's really a wonderful story about your Uncle - and I mean that. And I've ALWAYS enjoyed when you talk about him.

 

I have no idea what the great man was like, but the portrayal in Band of Brothers came off like - "he's a real asshole, but he's our asshole".   As far as I'm concerned, it's the same with Trump. Certainly, minorities see it with 50% of the hispanic and 30% of black male vote. 

 

Unfortunately great men like Uncle Bob and Trump have to break a few eggs in the process of saving their country. No one is perfect.

Cubs read the book (that the series was based on) Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.  It will give you a different view.  My cousin, his daughter, co-published Five-O-Sink (506th) a newsletter following the men until a few years ago and we (the Sink family) met all of the men who lived long, a few occasions for get togethers at Camp Taccoa( and they were the ones who named the newsletter above.  They basically were quite fond of him primarily (despite the river scene crossing where Winters disobeyed his orders) because he apparently valued soldiers lives more than most commanders.

 

Called by most behind the scenes "Burbon Bob" for good reason....he had to retire in his early 60's due to health.  He was a 3 star General, I was only 10 when he died so I remember some things...but most through the stuff we have saved and shared in the family about his life.  In the 1970's I inherited all of Hitler's "Eagles Nest" utensils (in a large bank safe) with the swastika's on them, there's a truck bed size load of the stuff, that I have willed to his great-great grandchildren.  They'll have to figure out what that stuff as all the cousins (a few of us still live) and I haven't figured that out yet.

 

Angela and I will do a couple trips to Austria/Germany/Italy this year and next spring and we'll go to Eagles Nest.  Never been there yet but had planned to get there at some point as we've tried to visit all the other places he was in Europe.

[cubsfan]

19 minutes ago, dealraker said:

Cubs read the book (that the series was based on) Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.  It will give you a different view.  My cousin, his daughter, co-published Five-O-Sink (506th) a newsletter following the men until a few years ago and we (the Sink family) met all of the men who lived long, a few occasions for get togethers at Camp Taccoa( and they were the ones who named the newsletter above.  They basically were quite fond of him primarily (despite the river scene crossing where Winters disobeyed his orders) because he apparently valued soldiers lives more than most commanders.

 

Called by most behind the scenes "Burbon Bob" for good reason....he had to retire in his early 60's due to health.  He was a 3 star General, I was only 10 when he died so I remember some things...but most through the stuff we have saved and shared in the family about his life.  In the 1970's I inherited all of Hitler's "Eagles Nest" utensils (in a large bank safe) with the swastika's on them, there's a truck bed size load of the stuff, that I have willed to his great-great grandchildren.  They'll have to figure out what that stuff as all the cousins (a few of us still live) and I haven't figured that out yet.

 

Angela and I will do a couple trips to Austria/Germany/Italy this year and next spring and we'll go to Eagles Nest.  Never been there yet but had planned to get there at some point as we've tried to visit all the other places he was in Europe.

 

 

It's a wonderful legacy of an American hero. I can only hope younger Americans will understand the sacrifices of men like your Uncle.

 

I have read the book, along with most of the Ambrose WWII books, although it's been long enough, that your uncle's portrayal is shaped by the movie for me.

 

BTW my wife, Evelyne, was raised in Epinal, France - where the American sacrifices are revered. She, her sister and mother used to go this place below and leave flowers every month:

 

 

Before settling in Epinal, her mom lived in Charmes (30 mile north), where there was enough French resistance activity to infuriate the Nazis.  As a result, the Nazis herded the women and children onto the main bridge over the Moselle where they got to watch the Germans burn the town to the ground. They were all going to be blown up on the bridge, but the priest begged the German commander to spar them. The priest, mayor and gov officials were sent to prison camps, and did not survive the war.  Evelyne's father, who was in the French resistance, but not proved, was sent to a work camp Germany for the remainder of the war. The Germans solved the resistance issue in the area, since able bodied men could not join the French resistance but worked as slave labor.

 

I have great respect and affection for people like your uncle and our POTUS.

Those that are willing to take a bullet for the country are a special breed.

 

I know you don't share that sentiment about Trump, but we all have our own reasons.

 

The Eagles Nest is pretty stunning - was there when I went to school in the UK for 6 months.

[dealraker]

16 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

 

 

It's a wonderful legacy of an American hero. I can only hope younger Americans will understand the sacrifices of men like your Uncle.

 

I have read the book, along with most of the Ambrose WWII books, although it's been long enough, that your uncle's portrayal is shaped by the movie for me.

 

BTW my wife, Evelyne, was raised in Epinal, France - where the American sacrifices are revered. She, her sister and mother used to go this place below and leave flowers every month:

 

 

Before settling in Epinal, her mom lived in Charmes (30 mile north), where there was enough French resistance activity to infuriate the Nazis.  As a result, the Nazis herded the women and children onto the main bridge over the Moselle where they got to watch the Germans burn the town to the ground. They were all going to be blown up on the bridge, but the priest begged the German commander to spar them. The priest, mayor and gov officials were sent to prison camps, and did not survive the war.  Evelyne's father, who was in the French resistance, but not proved, was sent to a work camp Germany for the remainder of the war. The Germans solved the resistance issue in the area, since able bodied men could not join the French resistance but worked as slave labor.

 

I have great respect and affection for people like your uncle and our POTUS.

Those that are willing to take a bullet for the country are a special breed.

 

I know you don't share that sentiment about Trump, but we all have our own reasons.

 

The Eagles Nest is pretty stunning - was there when I went to school in the UK for 6 months.

Total disagreement about Trump is just that, nothing more.  

[John Hjorth]

27 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

It's a wonderful legacy of an American hero. I can only hope younger Americans will understand the sacrifices of men like your Uncle.

 

I have read the book, along with most of the Ambrose WWII books, although it's been long enough, that your uncle's portrayal is shaped by the movie for me.

 

BTW my wife, Evelyne, was raised in Epinal, France - where the American sacrifices are revered. She, her sister and mother used to go this place below and leave flowers every month:

 

 

Before settling in Epinal, her mom lived in Charmes (30 mile north), where there was enough French resistance activity to infuriate the Nazis.  As a result, the Nazis herded the women and children onto the main bridge over the Moselle where they got to watch the Germans burn the town to the ground. They were all going to be blown up on the bridge, but the priest begged the German commander to spar them. The priest, mayor and gov officials were sent to prison camps, and did not survive the war.  Evelyne's father, who was in the French resistance, but not proved, was sent to a work camp Germany for the remainder of the war. The Germans solved the resistance issue in the area, since able bodied men could not join the French resistance but worked as slave labor.

 

I have great respect and affection for people like your uncle and our POTUS.

Those that are willing to take a bullet for the country are a special breed.

 

I know you don't share that sentiment about Trump, but we all have our own reasons.

 

The Eagles Nest is pretty stunning - was there when I went to school in the UK for 6 months.

 

What happened back then of total destruction and human straight out madness - not only in Europe, must never, never ever,  be let to happen again, or to be repeated anywhere in the Western, civilized hemisphere. It's our common and shared, for each person involved, personal liability, to prevent it. It's the mere concept and the deeply ingrained inherent in the soul of the concept of humanity. Please don't just take it for a given, because it just isen't.

[Spekulatius]

9 hours ago, dealraker said:

Colonel/General Sink spent a good bit of time in his brief post military life calling attention to non-white male participation in WWII which of course made him about as popular as it would today with MAGA.  His attempts to get recognition for the accurate and hard hitting 333rd Field Artillery Battalion after the war were met with rage from the public.  The 333rd were in the center of the Battle of the Bulge where the Germans over-ran the Allied forces, thus pretty this much wiped out this division, with 11 eventually chased down and tortured/massacred at Wereth.  Bob wanted a memorial and recognition stating they saved his men's lives....but of course that was denied.

 

It took the locals from Wereth to come up with something to honor the massacred 11 from the 333rd.  Tom Hanks pursued making a movie about the 333rd and he requested and evidently used the writings and speeches that Uncle Bob made in his attempts to sell this to investor groups, but for whatever reason it never came about.

 

Sink also profiled the lives of those from the 333rd returning from the war stating in one writing, "What do you do with well-disciplined and accomplished negro men when everyone is threatened by them?"

 

I don't think Uncle Bob would be a Trumper and to be honest with you Cubs given your extreme sensitivity to those not in the power and money grab club I'm surprised that you are.

You can read up the soft here. It’s a shame they never got the recognition they deserved until much  later.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/african-american-333rd-field-artillery-battle-of-bulge

 

I guess as movie material, this was too controversial and Saving Private Ryan was better for the box office,

[Spekulatius]

17 minutes ago, John Hjorth said:

 

What happened back then of total destruction and human straight out madness - not only in Europe, must never, never ever,  be let to happen again, or to be repeated anywhere in the Western, civilized hemisphere. It's our common and shared, for each person involved, personal liability, to prevent it. It's the mere concept and the deeply ingrained inherent in the soul of the concept of humanity. Please don't just take it for a given, because it just isen't.

The Donbas looks the same than cities destroyed in WW2. Putin is just one notch above Hitler and Stalin. Both had an ideology they claimed to fight for, Putin doesn’t even have that.

[dealraker]

22 minutes ago, Spekulatius said:

You can read up the soft here. It’s a shame they never got the recognition they deserved until much  later.

https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/african-american-333rd-field-artillery-battle-of-bulge

 

I guess as movie material, this was too controversial and Saving Private Ryan was better for the box office,

Thanks Ralf, I'd not seen that before and it added some more info..

 

[Spekulatius]

Brand ambassador Lutnick bumbled this one- NVDA needs to negotiate better deal with a lower take rate than 15%:

https://www.engadget.com/ai/china-reportedly-discouraged-purchase-of-nvidia-ai-chips-due-to-insulting-lutnick-statements-123055120.html

[Parsad]

Independence Under Pressure!  Cheers!

 

 

[Spekulatius]

Newsom getting better at trolling too:

 

Edited August 22, 2025 by Spekulatius

[Hektor]

Hi @Parsad, Would it be possible to move the political thread to a new/separate category? This will help create a new stream with all the good stuff minus politics. I am assuming there are others interested in such a stream as well. 

[changegonnacome]

On 8/20/2025 at 11:48 PM, changegonnacome said:

My base case re:Putin and the security guarantees is that they will turn out to be a red herring.

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/22/russia-ukraine-trump-summit-00519353

 

Didnt take long….Russia’s version of a security guarantee is one where they a party to it and have a veto and oh yeah China is involved too There is no way that Trump/Witcoff weren’t told this in Alaska but guess they needed something positive to come out of the summit that would allow them to drop all the ultimatums, cease fires and secondary sanctions talk. 
 

DC Summit was a load of hogwash and political theatre. Trump’s final performative act I suspect before he cuts and runs a million miles from this conflict. I suspect that’s a very smart move politically…only bad news stories are going to emanating out of Ukraine for the next few years as Russia grinds through what few fighting age men Ukraine has left.

 

Anyway - there is no basis for a peace deal here IMO …Russia and Ukraine/EU….are operating in two entirely different universes…and the US is about to check out of the conflict once the trilat happens or indeed if it doesn’t happen…..cause there ain’t peace deal to be had here either way. 
 

Edited August 22, 2025 by changegonnacome

[cubsfan]

Yup, all talk, no action.   When Trump said Zelensky & Putin should sit down and negotiate, I figured - well that will be a shocker if it ever happens. Neither want to give up anything - so if they aren't willing to talk - we're pretty close to done.

 

No one is willing to get involved with Ukraine after all the tough talk.

 

Maybe they will try again in a couple of years, when there are another couple million dead and Putin has 50% of Ukraine by then.

[cubsfan]

Sounds like Carney and Trump are going to be best friends:

 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/canada-drop-many-retaliatory-tariffs-144721808.html

 

It comes a day after Carney and Trump spoke by phone, their first publicly acknowledged conversation in weeks.

 

Good thing Canada dumped the chump Trudeau

[John Hjorth]

21 hours ago, gfp said:

Oh man, John - you gotta ask for the pills next time.  Then you only have to drink water not that nasty stuff.

 

It could be worse, though - Cubs and I are headed to Omaha for Woodstock for masochists -oops- I mean "capitalists"

 

20 hours ago, cubsfan said:

Yeah, haha - the capitalists go the the Berkshire meeting, the masochists go to the BOC meeting!    I want more pain!

 

Haha!  - Very good humor! . I hope that you have a good meeting and also enjoy each others company! 

[changegonnacome]

 

How dare he say the obvious part out loud....prices for no reason other than dumb policy are going up again....suspect Trump has a team of people combing through J-Pow's history looking for any tiny transgressions they can hit him with (ala Cooke but they need to do better than wannabe but never was reno scandal fiasco)....in aggregate your really looking at an assault now on the monetary authority....like lots of things with Trump this is either 4D chess or more likely IMO Trump has managed to take a growing economy with entrenched dis-inflation (2023-2024) and managed to tilt it towards a potential stagflationary one all for a lousy $350-$400bn bucks  that could have been gotten by other less damaging means. Not very bright politics and not very clever management of an economy.

 

[cubsfan]

^^^ Change - dont' forget the flip side of Powell.

 

The longer Powell holds on to Lisa Cook, who is damaged goods, the worse the institutional reputation of the Fed takes a hit.

 

She should be beyond reproach - and so far - no denials of mortage fraud - only calls of racism, etc.   -- quite predictable, don't you think?   Jerome could clear this up in 5 minutes with a very important statement,,, what's up with that?

[changegonnacome]

2 hours ago, cubsfan said:

She should be beyond reproach

 

Shouldn't POTUS be too?

 

Quite ironic that what Cook is being pursued for now for her resignation...is what was proved quite extensively on Trump's part on a much larger credit fraud case.....Cook what a couple of mill, Donald a few hundred mil.....in my world yep they both shouldn't be in office....high standards for high offices....but your guy fails that test too....so people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

[cubsfan]

3 minutes ago, changegonnacome said:

 

Shouldn't POTUS be too?

 

Quite ironic that what Cook is being pursued for now for her resignation...is what was proved quite extensively on Trump's part on a much larger credit fraud case.....Cook what a couple of mill, Donald a few hundred mil.....in my world yep they both shouldn't be in office....high standards for high offices....but your guy fails that test too....so people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

 

Oh please. You are really going to excuse her behavior?

 

Trump already paid his price.

 

Imagine a scenario where every Fed governor betrayed the most trusted institution in America - but you want Powell to sweep it under the rug???

 

The least she could do is say: "Yeah, I did it. Bad judgement. I'll resign and accept my $500M judgement from the court"  instead of allowing the Fed Reserve to be badly tainted.

[changegonnacome]

4 hours ago, cubsfan said:

Maybe they will try again in a couple of years

 

Doubt there's two years left in the Ukrainian front lines......POTUS knows there's some ugly scenes coming down the line fairly soon possibly well before the mid-terms.....he doesn't want his own proxy-Afghanistan moment on TV.....so distance will be his plan while still supplying the Europeans weapons to supply Ukraine.

 

The truly bold move would be to pull American artillery/intelligence support completely to force Ukraine to accelerate their acceptance of the inevitable but you would also twin this with credible threats of secondary sanctions on Russia and resumption of enhanced Ukraine support if they didn't play fair in the negotiations. This move would be humane way to potentially end things but Trump (as any politician would) doesn't want any blame to land at his door his distance strategy while brutal, cause it prolongs the inevitable and has huge human costs, is what any normal US president would do.

 

Edited August 22, 2025 by changegonnacome

[changegonnacome]

7 minutes ago, cubsfan said:

Oh please. You are really going to excuse her behavior?

 

Trump already paid his price.

 

cubs i said this "in my world yep they both shouldn't be in office" 

 

High office, high standards also.

 

The irony i pointed out is the self-righteous accuser (Trump) is also guilty of the exact same crime of mortgage fraud. So lets apply the same standard to Cook as Trump applied to himself.....she should face a civil case and penalties for her mortgage fraud (pay her price) but I guess the standard Trump has set is that high standards are now divorced from high office.

 

 

[cubsfan]

13 minutes ago, changegonnacome said:

 

cubs i said this "in my world yep they both shouldn't be in office" 

 

High office, high standards also.

 

The irony i pointed out is the self-righteous accuser (Trump) is also guilty of the exact same crime of mortgage fraud. So lets apply the same standard to Cook as Trump applied to himself.....she should face a civil case and penalties for her mortgage fraud (pay her price) but I guess the standard Trump has set is that high standards are now divorced from high office.

 

 

 

Apology @changegonnacome Obviously I can't read. I will be more careful.

 

[cubsfan]

23 minutes ago, changegonnacome said:

 

Doubt there's two years left in the Ukrainian front lines......POTUS knows there's some ugly scenes coming down the line fairly soon possibly well before the mid-terms.....he doesn't want his own proxy-Afghanistan moment on TV.....so distance will be his plan while still supplying the Europeans weapons to supply Ukraine.

 

The truly bold move would be to pull American artillery/intelligence support completely to force Ukraine to accelerate their acceptance of the inevitable but you would also twin this with credible threats of secondary sanctions on Russia and resumption of Ukraine support if they didn't play fair in the negotiations. This move would be humane way to potentially end things but Trump (as any politician would) doesn't want any blame to land at his door his distance strategy while brutal, cause it prolongs the inevitable has huge human costs, is what any normal US president would do.

 

A truly great President would have done everything he could to avoid this tragedy from beginning. This President ran on the platform of exiting involvement with Ukraine - one way or another - first and foremost with diplomacy. Exiting at any time is fraught with unanticipated risks - so we will see what happens.

 

But he's doing exactly what his base wants him to do - attempt to negotiate an end to the war - successful or not.

[John Hjorth]

5 hours ago, changegonnacome said:

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/08/22/russia-ukraine-trump-summit-00519353

 

Didnt take long….Russia’s version of a security guarantee is one where they a party to it and have a veto and oh yeah China is involved too There is no way that Trump/Witcoff weren’t told this in Alaska but guess they needed something positive to come out of the summit that would allow them to drop all the ultimatums, cease fires and secondary sanctions talk. 
 

DC Summit was a load of hogwash and political theatre. Trump’s final performative act I suspect before he cuts and runs a million miles from this conflict. I suspect that’s a very smart move politically…only bad news stories are going to emanating out of Ukraine for the next few years as Russia grinds through what few fighting age men Ukraine has left.

 

Anyway - there is no basis for a peace deal here IMO …Russia and Ukraine/EU….are operating in two entirely different universes…and the US is about to check out of the conflict once the trilat happens or indeed if it doesn’t happen…..cause there ain’t peace deal to be had here either way. 

 

Yes, @changegonnacome,

 

Wednesday, on page 578, I posted this :

 

 

The more one try to think about it, the more hilarious and absurd it appears to become! , ... Hey, wait ... Russia forgot that the Little Rocketman should be a security guarantor, too - equipped with VETO rights, too, because he has been providing North Korean troops and likely stuff to the war on the Russian side! -Russian logic, you know!

Edited August 22, 2025 by John Hjorth