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  • in reply to: Rams win #137112
    Avatar photowv
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    Yeah. I just didn’t think this team had It. But down the stretch, they started clicking..

    ==

    You could see them gelling, and straightening some things out,

    and Von and OBJ were integrated — So, i thought they could beat anyone

    they played in any single given game.

     

    What i did NOT think was they could be consistent and bring their ‘A’ game

    over a period of 3 playoff games and 1 super bowl.

     

    And frankly, did they EVER really play their ‘A’ game for

    4 whole quarters, all F’ing year?    I dunno.   I guess the Cardinal game

    in the playoffs.

     

    w

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    in reply to: Ukraine #137109
    Avatar photowv
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    ======== Cant say I understand any of that, BT. w v

    I guess it is a bit long-winded. Will try to boil it down. I’m seeing, especially since 2015/2016, an inordinate amount of energy spent (from some on the left) trying to “understand” Russia’s actions — and by extension, Trump’s. This can take the form of absolute denial that things we know happened ever happened. Or it may just be jumping through endless hoops trying to excuse it, or just saying none of it matters. This all too often lines up perfectly with GOP talking points, Fox News, and Putin’s propaganda, etc. etc. These same people do not spent one iota of time trying to “understand” the actions of people and entities on the other “side(s). I would get it if the same attempt to “understand” was evenly applied, or its opposite: condemnations of all sides without explanations. But I do not get the lopsided nature of the critique, nor do I get why Putin and Trump are the objects being defended in the first place. As mentioned, I would if “leftists” were fighting on behalf of the oppressed, the powerless, the earth, or their champions — as per leftist tradition. But Putin is a far-right dictator, and quite possibly the world’s richest man. Trump is a billionaire too. Both men are in direct opposition to every leftist stance on the books, and Trump and his party, especially, constantly demonize the entire left.

    ===========

    Ok, but you are not talking about Ukraine, or Putin, you are talking about leftist youtubers you dont like.   Dore, etc.

    I cant respond to much of that because i rarely watch them anymore.  So, I dont know what they are saying or who you are talking about besides Dore.

     

    I can say this.  I used to like Dore a lot.   Then you started complaining he sounded like a trumpie.   And I would respond he doesnt like trump, he’s a leftist in favor of M4A and all of Bernie’s policies.

    But then i started noticing Dore NEVER says a word about the rightwingers.  Its all aimed at the Dems.  (and i used to be the same way)

    And it slowly started gnawing at me:  Why doesnt he ‘ever’ slam the Reps?    I mean, maybe even just ONE show every six months or so.   I’d be happy with ‘that’.   But he never ever says a word about Trump/Reps.

    He never says “the Dems AND Reps are the problem”.   Its always Biden this and Clinton that, etc.

    So that made me start wondering about him.   All he’d have to do is every now and then include the Reps.   I mean its a DUOPOLY.  That means both parties are to blame.

    So, because of that (because of you) I got off the Dore train.   I dunno if he’s a Rep Op or being paid by the Reps or if he’s totally legit and just has a ‘thing’ about the Dems.   A LOT of leftists obsess about the Dems and they say “well its just a GIVEN that I hate the Reps”.    I hear that all the time on twitter.  And i get it cause i used to SAY it all the time myself.   And i was never a Rep Op.

    But i changed.   I decided it only takes a millisecond to write the “Dems AND the REPS” are monsters or whatever.   So why doesnt Dore do that?

     

    Now, I do NOT put Aaron Mate, Chris Hedges, Cornell West in the same category as Dore.    I’m not sure about Glenn Greenwald.  He’s a weird one.  Matt Taibbi is on shitlist for reasons i cant even remember  🙂

     

    Anyway, I rarely watch these folks anymore.   I ‘never’ watch Dore.

    I just know the various internet leftS are a complete mess, for all the reasons that have been around for over a century.   The leftS are a complete clusterfuck.   One of the gazillion reasons i am a complete, utter, doomer.

     

    We still disagree on Ukraine.   No big deal for me.   We are leftists.  We dont agree on shit.

     

    w

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    in reply to: Ukraine #137091
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    The fear expansion of Euro-American hegemony, though. .

    Which is only the case because they want their own expanded hegemony. ..

    === I could not disagree more. I see NATO as a terrorist organization seeking hegemony, in service of a capitalist system that has condemned all life on Earth to doom. 🙂 w v

    I agree with you about capitalism’s effects, and want it all gone — via non-violent, democratic change. No remnants. Replaced by an updated, future-proofed version out of Kropotkin and Morris, with a bit of James C. Scott thrown in for good measure. But I think your comment points to my earlier questions. Your condemnation of NATO is absolute and immediate, without any attempt to try to figure out its possible rationales, or any sequence of cause and effect through the decades. It just flat out condemns NATO. When it comes to Russia, however, or some other entity seen as in opposition to the West, ginormous energy is expended by some to “explain” their actions, present rationales, or even dismiss the idea that they’ve done what has been claimed. Again, I would understand this a lot more if the people and entities involved really were “oppositional” to capitalism and its effects. If they were champions of the planet and its people across the globe. But that’s not Russia, and that’s not Trump, obviously. If anything, they’re even more intensely on Team Exploitation/Waste/Pollution, and they share that white supremacy/anti-LGBTQ “base.”

    ========

    Cant say I understand any of that, BT.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Ukraine #137097
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I like Mearsheimer’s talk from 2015, fwiw.

    ===

    “…the West is principally responsible for this mess…”  At the 10:29 mark.

    in reply to: Ukraine #137096
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I agree with Chris Hedges.

    ==

    in reply to: Ukraine #137095
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    You and BT blame Putin, and not Nato, for this invasion. I believe that is accurate, yes? w v

    For the invasion of Ukraine? Speaking just for myself. That’s Putin. NATO wouldn’t even exist if Russia were capabl;e of accepting the collapse of the USSR empire, which was ill-gotten in the first place, and being stabile in the region. To me you sound like you’re saying well yes Putin is bad but then why did NATO dress that way if they weren’t trying to provoke him? No one on the left was saying that Hussein was equally to blame for getting Iraq invaded. And we all knew Hussein was a monster. A minor league one, but still.

    ======

    Yeah, we just disagree on all this, zn.   Miles apart.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Ukraine #137090
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    So it’s ironic that Russia would be opposed to that when they’re more of the same. NATO does not mean “western europe.” NATO is and only is a military alliance meant to contain soviet power in Europe. And then later, Putin power now that he’s the right-wing USSR.

    The critique of western europe and north america (and China) combined in terms of world colonial, economic, and technological effect is of course something you can count on everyone here agreeing with.

    ==

    I dont think of it as ironic.    The fact they are ‘more of the same’ doesnt mean they are ‘the same’.    Al Capone and Machine Gun Kelly were ‘more of the same’ but they still would shoot each other for more territory.

     

    I blame Nato and Putin for this capitalist atrocity.

    You and BT blame Putin, and not Nato, for this invasion.

    I believe that is accurate, yes?

     

    w

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    in reply to: Rams win #137089
    Avatar photowv
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    They just made plays at key turning points. Plays that will actually be immortal as times go along. Like 4th and 1 on their own 30 in the final minutes down by 4 and they give it to Kupp on a jet sweep? 😯 And Kupp is stopped dead to rights but he cuts like a premier RB and gets the yards.

    =======

    Yeah, I have trouble even watching that Kupp play on the hi-lite vids.

    He was dead.  That play was blown up.   It couldnt have worked.

    That cut he made (or whatever it was) was not humanly possible.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Ukraine #137083
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    The fear expansion of Euro-American hegemony, though. .

    Which is only the case because they want their own expanded hegemony. ..

    ===

    I could not disagree more.

     

    I see NATO as a terrorist organization seeking hegemony,

    in service of a capitalist system

    that has condemned all life on Earth to doom.   🙂

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Ukraine #137063
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Saw this.  Usual weirdness in the media:

    ==

    in reply to: Ukraine #137062
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I did explain that stance though. As I see it, no one in their right mind believes that NATO is an aggressive force capable of using military might to acquire territory. NATO is not going to invade anyone. And that’s regardless what you think of NATO. Putin, on the other hand, sees NATO as threatening his own aggressive interests in re-acquiring the lost portions of the old USSR’s eastern European empire. Not that different from Serbia trying to grab what it could from the collapse of Yugoslavia. Russia is not threatened by NATO. Russian imperial expansion is threatened by NATO. I honestly believe that all stands to reason and in fact, to me, it seems like it is completely obvious. Anyway. What Putin “sees as a threat” is of no interest to me, except that it explains his pathologies as a right-wing dictator. To me, it’s like a domestic abuser who believes people calling him on his violence means they are aggressively threatening to harm an innocent person.

    ==========

    I hear ya.  I just disagree.

    I think you are ignoring all the ways NATO/US ‘attacks’ nations,

    other than all-out-war.    Remember Kissinger’s statement about Chile: “We will make them scream” etc.

    I doubt (but who knows) Putin was ever afraid of all out Nato ‘invasion’.

    But I do think its not only ‘rational’ to fear a NATO attack but I think its terribly naive to think NATO is ‘not’ attacking Russia, in all the usual economic/dirty-trick ways that NATO is an expert at.   Its got a long long history of that stuff.    To me thats just as bloody murderous as an ‘invasion’.

    So, yes, I blame the US Oligarchs as well as Putin and his oligarchs.

     

    I blame Capitalism.   The gangster-capitalist-states.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Rams win #137060
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I posted this in the tweets thread but it fits here too.

    Ruan 🇺🇸 Super Bowl LVI Champs@StaffordtoOBJ I saw my team win a Super Bowl before WW3 so I’m good

    ======

    I had my doubts I’d ever see it again.

    I’ve been savoring vids of the 3 game stretch — Bucs, 49ers, Bengals.

    I just cant imagine any other Super Bowl winner came ‘that’ close to

    losing 3 times in a row.   It was uncanny.  Or somethin.  If you watch those games, the tension ‘still’ lingers, they were so razor-close.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Ukraine #137054
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    From what I am piecing together (in between actually trying to get work done for my real-world job)? Putin believes in re-acquring the former Soviet empire. The longer he waits on the Ukraine, the deeper its ties to NATO. Now he can act like he believes NATO is a threat to him, but that’s obviously nonsense–NATO was never going to launch an aggressive war against Russia. But NATO solidarity and membership can limit Russian imperial ambitions in the region. This is not an exact analogy but a proximate one–Ukraine in a lot of ways is to Putin what the Sandinistas were to Reagon. His whole thing about Ukraine not really being a nation gives it away. He’s saying, you stole from us, we’re just taking it back. (Once again my ethnic history is that I am Ukrainian…my grandparents could barely speak English…and this idea that Ukraine has no authentic national history is ludicrous.) Anyway. It is beyond crazy that we have a situation in Europe where a massive global power actually launches a WW2 style invasion of a neighboring state. It happened with Serbia in relation to its neigboring states but that was of course on a smaller scale so isn’t the “wtf” level news that this is. It’s a similar dynamic, though–the break up of Yugoslavia led to aggressive military conflicts. This is the same thing, the break up of the USSR, but just on a bigger scale.

    =========

    Yeah, I’m just trying to figure out what all our differences/positions are on all this.   The way you just laid your view out, NATO/US has zero culpability in the Russian Invasion, and you think its “nonsense” for Putin to think of NATO as a threat.

     

    I think I disagree, because i think its perfectly rational for him to see NATO as a threat and I agree with Noam that no Russian leader would allow NATO to do what its been doing with regard to Ukraine.

     

    Having said that, I’m not gonna spend the time to really get all ‘granular’ about Ukraine or Yemen or the fifty gazillion other chess pieces on the board now.

    I dont have the time or emotional bandwidth anymore for that.  (Plus, I no longer think its possible to know shit anymore, but thats another thread for another day) I did back in the Iraq War days, but I dont anymore, and I’m more interested in the big-picture now, blah blah.

     

    One wonders what effect this will have on the US Pentagon/NSA/CIA/Weapons Manufacturing budget.

     

    w

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    in reply to: Rams win #137053
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    The Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl.

    Its been 14 days now.  Since Feb 13.

    STILL feels goooood.

     

    Biosphere being murdered.  Resource wars breaking out.

    Extinctions snowballing.  Universe apparently looking at Earth, and “running it back.”

     

    …Still feels good.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Ukraine #137045
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Thanks, Zooey. Maps help. Though I think the angle of that one distorts the situation a bit. It makes the surrounding countries look bigger than they really are, relative to Russia. It’s actually, as you know, massive. No nation comes close to it in size. I’m just not buying the legitimacy of their feeling threatened enough to start a war. It’s sheer paranoia, IMO, though it at least has the benefit of actual geographical proximity. US invasions of Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc. . . . can’t claim even that much. (Listening to Country Joe McDonald, among other 1960/70s classics, as I write this . . .) Again, my hobby horse: We can’t let “we do it too” stop us from condemning the indefensible.

    =======

    BT, I dont see ‘anyone’ on ‘this’ board ‘defending’ the invasion.   Some of us are ‘explaining’ why he invaded.  Thats not the same as saying “its ok” or “defending” it.   Its the same as ‘explaining’ why the US invaded Iraq.  We can talk about Oil, and Power and Privatization, and Geo-Capitalist-Politics — but that doesnt mean we are ‘defending’ the invasion of Iraq.

     

    The ‘explanations’ I’ve seen about why Putin invaded seem accurate to me.

    (and they have nothing to do with ‘nazis’ — thats just an obvious cover story, with grains of truth to this or that degree)

     

    Why do YOU think he invaded?

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Ukraine #137017
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    has reported, between December 6, 2021, and January 6, 2022, the New York Times ran 228 articles that refer to Ukraine, but none of them reference the pro-Nazi elements in Ukraine’s politics or government.

    That is quite possibly becase there are no pro-Nazi elements in Ukraine’s government. The idea that there are is a leftover from 2014-15. I quote something I posted earlier:

    Ukraine has a democratically elected centrist government, with a Russian-speaking president of Jewish descent, and cabinet ministers with Armenian, Jewish, Russian, and Ukrainian ancestry.

    In the last parliamentary election in 2019, the far-right parties joined in a bloc, but still couldn’t even get half the five percent of votes required for official party status. They hold a single seat as an independent in the parliament of 450 Ukraine’s far right has some representation in local governments and conducts attention-hungry demonstrations, but has little real political influence.

    Then of course there’s the question whether or not an authoritarian oligarchy king like Putin is the white horse needed to bring democracy to the world. So I am not persuaded by reports that are running the old narrative about 2014/15 and neo-Nazis in the Ukraine, when that is not the current Ukrainian situation. Even if it were true, and the info I see says it’s not, that is no excuse for an invasion anyway.

    =======

    Whether X amount of ‘nazis’ are aiding this or that group, etc, something I dont get bogged down in.    For ‘me’ this is a story about two imperialist nations going playing their murderous games.

     

    This article basically sums up the wv view.   I’m not tryin to persuade.  Just sharing my own take, which is basically this:http://cipoml.net/en/?p=313

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Ukraine #136998
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I rarely ‘study’ the ‘particular’ episodes of capitalist-mass-murder anymore.

    And I dont intend to spend a lot of time researching Ukraine or any of the other capitalist-murderspots.    For me, they are all just examples of capitalist-gangsterism at work.   Russian Oligarchs vs American Oligarch/Corporations.

    Russian capitalism is the medium-sized mass-murderer and the US is the mega-super-sized-capitalist-murderer, and they are ‘competing’.

    Yemen, Ukraine, Bolivia, Venezuela, Syria…etc, etc, etc.   For ‘me’ the differences are insignificant.   Lots of particulars, lots of differences, but for ‘me’ its the same story —

    Big Capitalist-US-murder-machine,

    vs smaller-capitalist-murder-spheres

    vs Some ‘hybrid’ spheres (like China) vs

    some smaller part-socialist-experiments in some places.

     

    Fwiw, I liked this article.  Fwiw.  Though as usual its more about US ‘coverage’ or propaganda, than about the complex, nuanced, multi-layered ‘details’ of the particular facts on the ground in Ukraine.

    FAIR:https://fair.org/home/what-you-should-really-know-about-ukraine/

     

    “…As FAIR (1/15/22) has reported, between December 6, 2021, and January 6, 2022, the New York Times ran 228 articles that refer to Ukraine, but none of them reference the pro-Nazi elements in Ukraine’s politics or government. The same can be said of the Washington Post’s 201 articles on the topic…”

    in reply to: Ukraine #136999
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I posted a Fair article and some comments, but they disappeared  🙂

    Ah well.  I’ll repost the article without comment:https://fair.org/home/what-you-should-really-know-about-ukraine/

    in reply to: Rams win #136996
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Pass/Catch at 13:30 mark.   Look familiar?

    ===

    in reply to: The Rams had lost 3 in a row… #136977
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    woods was injured shortly after the tenn game. rams were integrating obj and miller into the team. miller was also getting healthy. i think miller really changed this defense in the second half.

    =====

    I agree, Von Miller getting healthy and gelling with the D was a major factor.

     

    But the offense also started playing better or differently or somethin.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: teams in search of qbs #136944
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    Wouldnt that be funny if Aaron Rogers and Russell Wilson

    left the NFC.

     

    What a shame that would be.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Cooper Kupp #136943
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    The only issue with Kupp is age, IMO. He’ll be 29 this upcoming season. He was an older rookie, at 24, so the number of peak years left for him isn’t on the high side. .

    ====

    Didnt realize he was that old.   Damn.

    Well, he should be prime-kupp for two more years, anyway.

    Two more triple-crowns, then  🙂

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Cooper Kupp #136940
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    In reading/watching info about Kupp and his mindset, work habits, and study habits, it seems a good bet he will continue to have great years in the next few years.   I do not think this year is going to be an aberration.   Stafford-to-Kupp should continue to be an elite combo — as long as both remain healthy.

     

    It will be interesting to see what the Rams surround Kupp with.   Can Woods rebound from the injury?   OBJ?   Is Higby going to be ok?

    I’m not a fan of Van Jefferson.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Cooper Kupp #136913
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    I use the ‘burst, glide, burst’ technique in the 8 items or less

    check-out lane.

    ==

    Cooper Kupp’s WR Drills to Improve Route Running, Release & Creating Separation

     

    in reply to: teams in search of qbs #136909
    Avatar photowv
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    If the going rate for elite QBs is about 45 million a year (Rogers apparently wants 50 mill), then one wonders what Stafford will want after next year.

    ====

    in reply to: Cooper Kupp #136906
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    If you watch that 8 minute Billy Stephens vid, Stephens goes on about

    Kupps ability to get separation and then he shows an example at about the 3:50 mark or so.   But there aint much separation there at all.   Which shows how much of this is on Stafford.   The throw is what was perfect in that example, not the ‘separation.’

    The Stafford season, and the Kupp season arent really separate-able

    imho.   It was the Stafford-Kupp dynamic.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: Morris interview (after super bowl) #136895
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    Participant

    I dunno.   I dunno about Morris.

    I mean, how could any coach NOT be successful with AD, Floyd, Von, Ramsay, Gaines, A’Shawn…   I dunno.

    Plus, when I watch him talkin, somethin about him just rings false to me.

    Too much pop psychology or somethin.   Somethin doesnt ring ‘authentic’ to me.   But what do i know.

     

    w

    v

    in reply to: annual coaches leave, coaches replaced thread…2022 #136892
    Avatar photowv
    Participant

    yeah. i was also hoping that he would hire a minority for the oc position. if for no other reason than to see if said oc would get hired the following year for a hc position. although in the end i want to see the best candidate get the job of course. supposedly, mcvay will be grooming brown for a coordinator position. whether it’s here or somewhere else i hope he gets the chance and runs with it. unbelievable that flores produces 2 winning seasons in a row and gets fired.

    ======

     

    Yeah.  At this point, I cringe every time a white coach is hired

    for ‘any’ coaching position in the NFL.

     

    I cant watch the tv-talking heads mangle this issue.   I have yet

    to hear ANY of them come out and straight up use the R word: Racism.

    They dance around it, and around it, and around it.

    It infuriates me, but I should be used to it, etc etc.

     

    w

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    in reply to: annual coaches leave, coaches replaced thread…2022 #136889
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    Participant

    I’d be curious as to how many minority coaches McVay has hired over the years and how many he has on staff now.   I’d be curious how his numbers look compared to the NFL in general, etc.

     

    w

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    in reply to: the really big articles & longer vids on the super bowl #136887
    Avatar photowv
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    I am wondering if every team in the NFL will copy the Bengals defensive alignment next year, so as to stuff the rams run game.

Viewing 30 posts - 1,021 through 1,050 (of 11,048 total)